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.

today's dye pot... whatever

I was kind of in a mood yesterday.  Or rather, wasn't in the mood... for any manner of nonsense.  You know those days?  I think it's the pull of the moon or something.  Anyway, on top of normal daily nonsense, my dyepot was giving me fits too.  I had lopped off some nettles to use for dyeing and instead of the green I had hoped for, the water turned a tepid pink that my fibers didn't want to pick up at all. 

I tried a handful of my usual tricks, to no avail.  I pulled up some nettle roots and added more plants, nothing.  At which point I said... channeling my inner 13 year old... whatever.

Rather than ditch the whole dye pot, I went outside and found some curly dock growing amongst the nettles, and added the roots to the dye water.  Not much going on there either.  Whatever.  In went the tops.  Hmm...a little more color.  Enough color to convince me to throw the fiber back in the pot.

I let it to stew overnight and this morning we have shades of yellow with just a hint of green.  Kind of like limp celery tops.  It's really not a bad color.

I'm pretty sure, given all of the different things going on in this dye pot, that I could never reproduce this.  But you know, whatever.

Happy Friday everyone!  May your day be sunny and nonsense-free.

stinging nettle for supper

Some of you eagle-eyes knew right away that yesterday's wordless Wednesday post were stinging nettles, didn't you?  I'm considering myself an eagle eye for having found them in the first place.  After 5 years of living here without ever finding a patch, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would have to venture off my land to find some.  But lo and behold, there they were.

  They had snuck a ride in with a load of fill dirt we had delivered last fall.  I'm so happy to have them that I'm going to try transplanting them to another area of the yard, away from the house.

There are a ton of ways to prepare stinging nettles, and they are quite common in many societies, but this was my first time sampling them.  I decided to go with a nettle pesto and it was absolutely delicious.  But then, what isn't when mashed with garlic, cheese, and pine nuts?

For those of you that aren't familiar, stinging nettles are aptly named.  They have tiny hairs on them that inject histamine and other chemicals when touched.  And it hurts.  My arms and calves can still conjure up the feeling of stinging welts on them from my childhood.  The chemicals are neutralized when you briefly cook them.  The sting is gone and the tasty begins.

I'm thinking nettle gnocchi next...

(oh, and Annie... you're right there are some in the dye pot too)

Happy Thursday, all.