just dandy

Holy buckets, what a busy couple of weeks.  Work has been swamped, I taught a felting class (which was so much fun and came with blackberry basil jam!!), I visited the Walker Art Center to see the Edward Hopper exhibit, I sang communally at an event with Tefsa Wondemagegnehu, and I picked dandies until my hands turned yellow.

I decided to infuse some good quality white wine vinegar with dandelions so I can eventually make a dandelion vinaigrette.  It's steeping away in the dark recesses of my pantry.  I can't wait to try it.

I also made dandelion "honey" which is a thick syrup that tastes deceptively like honey.  So good on ice cream, especially when you eat it while sitting in the grass where the kids can't find you.

With all of this I've had very little time to create.  My goal this weekend is to make a little time for just that.  

Have a wonderful weekend, all.

sending the sniffles packing

The sniffles have found me.  I've been trying to outrun them but alas, they were faster than me.  I'm employing the healing power of my foraged teas, some raw local honey, a warm blanket, and a handmade mug and hopefully those sniffles will be sent packing in no time.

Moments like these make me very happy that I spend the time gathering and drying all those helpful herbs (commonly referred to as weeds) from the yard.  Stinging nettle, mullein, yarrow, dandelion root, pineapple weed, raspberry leaf, blackberry leaf, strawberry leaf... they're all here to help heal in one way or another, even if only in their ability to get one close to nature.  I personally think that sort of medicine is incredibly powerful.

Wishing you all a warm and healthy weekend.

harvested

Well look at that.  In the span of 24 hours those sulphur shelf mushrooms I was watching went from nubbins to somethin's.  Enough to warrant cutting a few off for a side with dinner.

I just sauteed them up in some olive oil with some sage from the garden and put them on pasta.  This is a step up for me, normally I have no restraint and eat them straight from the pan.

I should be able to harvest more in a day or two and I'll likely put them away for winter.  It's such a treat to have good mushroom soup when the snow flies.

It's the little things.

Have a great weekend, all.

start of the season mushroom feast

 

Fall mushrooming is upon us.  From the woods you can hear me cooing "hello beautiful, oh hello lovely" each time I place a mushroom in my basket.  I love this time of year.

 

Yesterday's haul consisted of just a few black trumpets, a few chanterelles, and a few lobster mushrooms.  I did find a few more past-prime lobsters which are heading to the dye pot to create more of that pretty pink.  The rest headed to my belly.

 

I wasn't in the mood for pasta, and I thought it would be rude to stand with the fry pan in my hand eating them all myself (though tempting) so I made a quick tart of sorts.  I had a puff pastry sheet in the fridge so I rolled it out and baked it, then covered it with cheese and my mushrooms and onions that I had sautee'd in butter and garlic.  I sprinkled it with Maldon salt (a gift from Julie) and oh... so good.

A good start-of-the-season feast.

I hope the rest of my week starts off as well.  And yours too.

Happy Monday!

dyeing with bedstraw - galium boreale

While reading through some posts in a foraging group I belong to on fb, I noticed a plant that looked familiar.  The group was referring to it at "Cleaver" an edible plant, and I felt sure that I had seen it somewhere in the yard.  I did a little reading and found that the Cleavers, or Catchweed, or Bedstraw, (and many other names attached to it) have many different species and are in the Rubiaceae family...the madder family...MADDER!  Now I was excited, as I knew madder roots to be a good dyestuff but one I hadn't tried before.

Out to the yard I went and I immediately spotted clumps of Bedstraw, mostly Galium boreale or northern Bedstraw.  The more I looked, the more I saw.  They were everywhere.

I gathered up a pile of them in my basket and sat down to extract just the roots.

After all of my processing I was left with a small tangle of roots.  I felt like this dye experiment would be akin to dyeing with saffron threads.  A lot of effort for very little dye material.

I tried to be tricky and leave some of the reddish stalk on the root but after rinsing and drying briefly, it was clear they would be of no help.  The tiny roots came off too.  If you look closely you can see an orangish color to the root part that is good for dyeing. 

I had read that madder is sensitive to heat so I didn't put this on the stove, rather I tucked all of my washed and (briefly) dried roots into a dye jar, covered them with water, and allowed them to sit.  Within an hour there was color in the water, which caused me to squeal excitedly, to no one in particular.  (it happens a lot)

After letting the roots stew in the dye jar for a few days I got a little anxious for results and decided to simmer some down.  I put the whole batch in the dye pot and let it simmer for about an hour.  After straining out the dye stuffs I added my wool and cotton that I had mordanted with alum, brought the temp just up to a simmer then turned it off and let it sit overnight.

From left to right on the photo above - alum, an overdye on dandelion flower (pale yellow), an overdye on black walnut (cocoa brown), and an exhaust bath.

Cotton fabric and floss took on an earthy pink.

I wanted to see how well the wool would hold its color once felted so I wet-felted a stone with it.  It retained its carrot-orange color.  I haven't gotten a true orange before with natural dyeing so this was pretty exciting.  I'm going to try thoroughly drying the roots next time to see if it changes the color.

I found two other species of Bedstraw that day too, galium triflorum, which smells like a weaker version of sweetgrass (which I love), and galium aparine which is fuzzy and the aptly named "catchweed".  The northern bedstraw was by far more abundant, which is why I chose to use it for dyeing.  It's believed that bedstraw used to be dried and, you guessed it, used to stuff mattresses.  The catchweed can be used as a sieve with its tiny hairs acting as a strainer.

Pretty cool stuff, and abundant here.  Though, as with all of my foraging, I only take a few from each spot so as not to deplete any one area.

Amazing what you can find in your own backyard.

eating common lambsquarters - chenopodium album

I've been on a salad kick lately.  In the winter months it's all hearty soups and bread, but when the weather warms, you know how it is, you crave food that is fresh and light.  I had noticed some plants in the yard that I was pretty certain were lambsquarters (or lamb's quarters or goosefoot...some people call this pig weed too, a name assigned to several weeds...let's just call them chenopodium), and knew them to be edible.

I compared them to my field guides and checked them on Wildman Steve Brill's website, and it seemed I did indeed have myself some chenopodium.  You can see by the shape of the leaves why it's also called goosefoot. 

The youngest leaves have a waxy powder on them that is easily wiped off, and the plant has no discernible scent when crushed.  Epazote, a look-alike, smells resinous.

Chances are, you've seen these because they seem to grow everywhere...even in my potted plants.  (by the way, those are the onions I re-grew a few months ago)

As for taste, they're really good!  They're mild and green and perfect in salads.  You can use them like spinach either fresh or cooked.  I like them well enough that I added a row of them to my garden.  Adding weeds to my garden?  Of course!  Any nutritious and free wild edible as tasty as this can hang out in my garden.  Even though there isn't exactly a shortage of it in my yard...

When I pick, I take a few younger leaves from this plant then that plant...never pick all the leaves from only one plant if you want to keep them growing in your yard.

We were in the mood for a sweeter salad last night so we tossed our chenopodium with some lettuce from our greenhouse, a handful of wood sorrel, wild rose petals, one whole apple, a handful of nuts, and dried cherries.  Delish.

Have any of you tried chenopodium?  If you haven't, do you think you will?  It's amazing to me just how many "weeds" out there are so useful once one starts to identify them.

p.s. We gather only wild plants that we can positively identify and only from areas that we trust to be free of pesticides, run-off, and other ickiness.   The occasional bug or clod of dirt is okay with us, but chemicals are not. blech. 

jelly beans and false morels

On the way to feed the chickens this morning I saw a Chipping Sparrow's nest with little speckled blue eggs, no bigger than jelly beans.

I saw momma sparrow too, but only for a second.  I dare not linger too long, lest her eggs get too cool.

I saw that the Pineapple Weed is starting to grow.  Soon the wee ones and I will be picking.  I'd like to dry much more this year for tea since last year's "lemonade" was so tasty.

I saw a couple of False Morels but never the tasty true morels here.  Though I've read it can be done if properly prepared, the false morel is not one I'll try to eat.  Rocket fuel, anyone?

I also saw a big Cecropia moth but he fluttered off before I could fetch my camera.

After a sleepless night, I'm fluttering a little today too.  Another cup of coffee and let the day begin.

Happy halfway day, all.

a wet pant legs kind of woods-wander

I love a rainy Sunday morning.  Especially when I can sneak off to the woods for a little quiet time.

Nibble on some columbine.

Smile each time I find more bedstraw. (you'll see why in a few days)

Marvel at the carpet of trilliums beneath the trees, knowing they'll soon be gone for the season.

Squeal at the tiniest red mushroom in the moss.

Wonder at the bellwort with their twisted beauty.

Stretch with the worms.

Get lost in a forest of sporophytes.

Finally see some of those plants in flower that I've been wondering about.

Starflower

Wild Geranium

Bring home a little appetizer for dinner time.

Anticipate tea in my future (wild sarsaparilla),

and grains (culry dock seeds).

Think about the abundance of "weeds" we're so lucky to have here.(absinth wormwood, I think)

And think about how useful this haphazard yard of ours is.(mullein)

Catch the aroma of chokecherry blossoms.

Spot the beginnings of plums on the little trees we brought in from the woods.

And revisit the photos of my walk over a hot cuppa and a rhubarb shortbread bar.  (recipe here) (mine are orange because my girls' egg color overpowered the rhubarb) (lastly, oh so tasty)

Have a wonderful end to the weekend, all.