I'm In A Pickle, People!!!

The lowly pickle. Whether it's the commonly pickled cucumber or other garden excess, anything can be pickled.  My grandmother pickled everything, even fruit. We always had Pickled Peaches and they were my favorite growing up.  Other than that I was never overly excited about pickled food.  I never liked the harsh tang of vinegar so that's probably why. A year ago I got an email that Amazon was offering a free ebook on fermenting so I ordered it. I figured it was on making adult beverages and I was loving that idea but turns out, it was about fermenting food.  When I think "fermented food" I think of episodes of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern where these Asian folks are eating food so rotten...er....fermented that it looks like grey mush and has dead flies on top of it.  That's what I pictured.  I read it anyway and realized that my grandmother had indeed fermented a portion of her pickles, so maybe it wasn't so foreign after all. I read on and realized that sauerkraut was fermented and I liked sauerkraut...a lot...so off I went, on a new food experience.

For the last 3 years I've been learning how to produce my own food.  Not just grow vegetables or raise meat, but to really make the foods I like to eat but have only ever bought in the store.  Like cheese and wine.  I mean, how dull would life be without cheese and wine?? I knew if the SHTF then basic foodstuffs would be hard to find and that meant the luxuries like cheese, wine and tobacco (for those that smoke) would be impossible to come by so I needed to know how to make them. What do those 3 things have in common?? They are all products of fermentation.  Know what else is fermented that we would be hard pressed to live without?

• Coffee
• Tea
• Chocolate

Yep. Without fermentation you don't have them, as least not the way you are accustomed to them. 

The first evidence of fermentation as a way of preserving food was found to have originated in the Caucasus region over 10,000 years ago and has evolved into what we have today.  There's so much information on fermentation than I can't give you here and so many reasons why you should ferment your own products - not purchase them from big box stores.  I found a great book entitled Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz that explains why this is important and also explains the health benefits of a diet rich in fermented foods.  [[[Now, I want to preface this book with my own warnings about it and why I only read it for the information and that I do not condone his lifestyle, religious affiliation, political views or personal life choices.  If you read the book you'll see what I mean.]]]

Aside from his strange life choices, this book is very informative from a medical and historical standpoint and has quite an extensive recipe collection.  All in all, I like this book very much. It makes the mysterious process of fermentation seem simple and doable.

Yogurt is fermented milk and you know the benefits yogurt has to offer: digestive and immune health because it contains probiotics.  Probiotics are good bacteria that have taken up residence in the milk and have caused the conversion from sugars to lactic acid and the end product is the thick, creamy yogurt we all recognize. If you make small batches and eat them regularly, fermented foods need no refrigeration, only a cool area to store them.  

How does fermentation preserve foods? The naturally occurring and ever-present bacteria all around us are what is used to ferment food and lower the pH so that harmful bacteria cannot exist.  Instead, the bacteria that thrive in this acidic environment and are beneficial to humans take up residence and create the high acidity that keeps the spoilage from happening. Great news - all fermented foods offer the same probiotic benefits that yogurt does!  Fermented foods look different than vinegar pickled foods do, but don't let that put you off.  The cloudiness of fermented foods is just because of the beneficial bacteria-rich brine and that's a good thing!

                                                   vinegar pickled  vs fermented                                                                             

Still, you may ask "why should I take the time and make the effort to preserve foods by fermenting them when I can just quickly pickle them with vinegar?"

Y'all know I am a survivalist and homesteader and I believe in being prepared for bad situations. Here's why I think vinegar pickling, solely, is not the best solution.  A few reasons actually:

1) Vinegar has to be stored and that takes space.  You can make your own but you'll need an Acid Titration Kit to check that the pH is at least 4.5 to insure it's acidic enough to preserve foods.

2) Pickled and canned foods take up shelf space and require a surplus of supplies such as lids, jars and a canner or big pots. Fermentation can be done on a smaller scale and made on an as-needed basis so you always have freshness and more variety.

3) Pickled items can be heat canned but they lack the nutritional benefit that fermented foods provide

4) Most importantly to me, if you heat can your pickled foods for long term storage, that requires energy in the form of gas, electricity or wood to create the heat.  What if there isn't any? Fermentation is passive (on your part anyway) preservation.  The bacteria do all the work, no heat processing required.  After all, this is how our ancestors did it eons ago when there was no refrigeration.

You don't have to stop vinegar pickling, just try adding some fermented versions to your repertoire and see how it works for you.  You can use quart jars, crocks, plastic buckets and most anything non metallic to ferment in.  I tried it in a crock but I didn't like the gnat swarms so I ordered a fermenter from Amazon to fix that problem.  Here's the one I have and I love it:

Here's the link, it's reasonably priced, quart sized and that's a good size for me for most things. There are much bigger ones available but if you're new to fermenting this is a great starting point.  Plus it has an airlock and that's the most awesome feature about this one:

The first thing I ever tried fermenting was okra because I had gallons of whole frozen okra in the freezer and was out of ideas of how to eat more of it. I love okra and don"t mind the slime of hot, buttered boiled okra but I don't want a slimy, chilled pickle.  I found that most vinegar pickled okra was still a tad slimy so I had no reason to expect fermented okra to be any different...but it was! It ended up being not in the least slimy! They're Indian spiced and they're spicy and crunchy and it is the best pickled okra I've ever eaten. The writer said she found them slimy but I didn't experience that at all.  I found the recipe online (www.picklemetoo.com) and tweaked it a bit to fit the supplies I could find locally and my personal tastes and I want to share that recipe with y'all.

Masala Okra

1/2 t turmeric powder

3-5 dried red chiles or 1 t crushed red pepper flakes (this is spicy, so use less if you like less heat)

1 T cumin powder

1T coriander seeds or powder

1/2 t mustard seed

2-3 lbs fresh or frozen okra

1 qt water with 5 t non-iodized salt dissolved in it

Place all spices in crock, add okra.  Pour brine (the salt water) on top and cover with airlock.  Make sure all okra are under the brine or they might mold.  Let sit at room temp for 1 week, burping it occasionally. Taste the okra after 1 week to see if you like the degree of fermentation you have achieved.  If you want it tangier or sharper, ferment it longer. When it's to your taste, place okra and brining liquid in jars, cover with wax paper and then screw on lid.  Store in a cool place or in the refrigerator. The longer it sits the more the flavors develop.

If you'd rather try for something even simpler, here's a recipe for sauerkraut:

Basic Sauerkraut

1 medium head cabbage, shredded or sliced thinly

2 T non-iodized salt, to be used in divided amounts

In your Korean fermenter, pack a 1/2" layer of cabbage in the bottom, sprinkle with some of the salt. Pack more cabbage on top of that and sprinkle with more salt.  Repeat this layering until both cabbage and salt are gone. Place your airlock on top to maintain pressure.  Check it daily to make sure the airlock is sitting on top of the cabbage.  Soon you'll see liquid appear as the salt draws the liquid out of the cabbage.  Make sure the airlock stays on the surface of the cabbage and the cabbage stays submerged under the liquid.  After a week, taste the kraut to determine if it's ready.  Let it ferment until you like the taste then place it in jars with the liquid and store in a cool place or in the refrigerator.

I will add that you can heat process fermented foods for long term storage but in doing so, you kill the probiotic properties.  That's why you make small batches that you can consume in a reasonable amount of time.

Okay, so there ya go, fermenting basics.  Give it a try and see what you think.  Happy fermenting!

The Good Stuff

Are ya feelin' a might sluggish and poorly? I know what you need....Poke Salad! It's that time of year again and time for poke and all the other wild greens out there.  People ate wild spring greens because after a winter of eating dried beans, tack and jerky, they needed the vitamins and minerals the fresh greens provided - not to mention the digestive boost from the fiber.  Since we have vitamin pills and ready access to fresh produce in the supermarkets, nutrition from wild greens isn't as important today as it was a hundred years ago.  Unfortunately, it's a time honored tradition that has fallen by the wayside. I don't remember picking greens because of how nutritious they were, it's memorable because I did it with my family.  I want to make memories like that with my granddaughter, that's the good stuff.

No matter what part of the United States you live in, there are wild greens available.  Some are better than others but they are all wonderful and FREE for the picking!!
Here are a few of the easiest to identify:

 Curly Dock (Rumex crispus) aka Sour Dock is a tender green, has a wonderful tangy taste and cooks as quickly as spinach. Just a few seconds in boiling water or a quick saute and it's done.  Pick the leaves that are just unrolled so they are nice and tender. In the fall the Dock produces seed heads that make a great bran substitute.

Cat's Ear (Hypochaeris radicata) aka False Dandelion is a mild cousin to the regular dandelion.  It lacks the bitterness found in traditional dandelion so you can add it to any other greens mix. It's a hardier green and takes a while to cook tender, much like collards in regard to the cooking times.

Chickweed (Stellaria media) is a nice little green to add to salads or in with cooked greens.  It takes a few minutes to cook, about 5 minutes or so.  It's a neutral tasting green and can be added to most anything.  Stems and all can be eaten!

Poke Salad (Phytolacca americana) aka Poke, Inkberry is my all time favorite wild green. It's recommended that the leaves be parboiled 3 times before being eaten, but I only pick leaves that are less than 5" long and still have the tender, sticky feel to them.  I parboil those twice then cook.  The stems (as long as they are not red) can be eaten steamed or battered and fried like asparagus. When I was little we'd head out to the country to a friends property and my mother, grandmother and I would pick big sacks of poke salad to take home for supper.  I know most young people are scared to eat it because of all the scary info on the Internet but I eat it anyway. I've eaten it for 53 years and my ancestors ate it for thousands of years before me, so I reckon it's alright to eat.  Just pick it young and prepare it correctly and you'll be fine.

Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosella) aka Sour Weed is much like Sorrel in that it's super quick cooking and also has a tangy taste - even more so than Dock.  I love it so much.  Ya'll know I do if you read my blog lol.

Southern Mixed Wild Greens in Pot Liquor
If you want a big pot of cooked wild mixed greens just cook them in this order and they'll come out perfect:
In boiling water, add 1 slice bacon and salt to taste. Add Cat's Ear (cook till almost tender) then add Poke (pre-parboiled), cook for 1 minute, add Chickweed and cook another minute. Add Sorrel, cook 1 minute then add Dock, just cook for a few seconds then it's all done.  Make some Hot Water Cornbread and serve it with big pats of butter and you're set.  That's the good stuff, too.

Late Winter-Early Spring Meditations

I love John Denver, always have. Even before, and certainly ever since, I was 14 and my parents took me to The Hirsch Memorial Coliseum in Shreveport, I have loved John Denver. Not in that infatuated way teenage girls like celebrities (like I love Mike Rowe now lol) but in an ethereal way.  He was just so soothing and calming to me during all my teenage angst, and I had a big dose of angst!  This is a great acoustical version of this song and it just sounds like a chilly late winter day where you can feel the faintest wisps of a spring breeze mixed in with the fading winters breath.  Hope you enjoy it....



Now that you're relaxed and in the proper frame of mind, let's talk about this in between season that is Late Winter, Early Spring.  I'm sure you've all heard the saying "March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb" and that certainly seems to be true.  Already this month we've had nearly 10 inches of rain.  There's another old saying that whatever rain falls in March will also fall in June.  Let's hope that's true!

With all this rain and warmer than usual temps, I have already started planting a few things in the garden. In January I set out Onions and on March 1st the Kale, Spinach, Cabbage, Lettuce and Collards went in.  Now, I'm really feeling brave because Tuesday I planted corn.  We always have a cold snap in March or early April but for some reason I'm feeling safe this year. Even if there ends up an unexpected freeze, I can just cover everything.

Courtesy Old Farmers Almanac

Have you ever heard of the Three Sisters Planting Method? It's a traditional Indian planting technique and I find that it's a pretty effective way to grow a lot of food in a smallish space.  The technique is to plant 6 corn seed in a 2' circle and when the corn is 5" tall, you plant 4 bean seed (half-runner type beans only!) around the corn. A week later plant 6 squash seed around the beans.  The idea is to have the corn provide a trellis for the beans, which provide the nitrogen for the corn and squash, and in turn the squash provides shade to hold moisture and prevent weeds by providing shade with its large leaves. Since I have raised beds I did this on a smaller scale and it still worked well.  Give that a try and see what you think.

Since the weather is so warm right now, I decided to go on a little hike through my woods today.  I decided to venture off the beaten path and cut through the woods.  Now, I've lived here 3 years and have never walked out this direction and was amazed.  There's always so much greenbriar (which is 100% edible by the way) that I usually don't trail blaze but today I felt adventurous.  I found a creek and on the bank of this little creek were 2 fruit trees.  I'm not sure what they were but from the leaves it was obvious they were fruit trees.  Possibly a crab apple or wild pear of some sort, not a plum because they haven't leafed out yet.  I've heard stories of wild pears in these woods but have never seen one.  I tried to mark the location on Google Earth but I'm apparently not savvy enough because I couldn't figure it out.  I'll go back in a few days and find it again and just flag it I guess.  Near by the creek I found a couple of holes about a foot in diameter and probably 100' apart and they were lined on the surface with flat rocks and I never did touch the bottom of them with the long stick I poked them with<  It's a mystery alright!  The oddest thing is the area I was walking in was the top of a hill and all cleared of underbrush and there were these holes, too small for a well I think.  Just bum fuddles me.

I found Wild Violets, in which a tea made from the leaves and flowers is reputed to sweeten a sour temperament...

And as I was finishing up my walk I stopped to pick sorrel and ended up with about a pound of it. Just enough to make a pot of rich French Sorrel Soup...

I'm headed to a friends house Sunday to gather some Cottonwood buds to make some Balm of Gilead Oil.  If I'm not too late to get some, my next blog will be instructions on making it!

Enjoy this wonderful mid season while you can, soon it'll be too hot to breathe!

Back to Basics: Backyard Gardening

It's time for doing some planting in Texas! I'm always so excited when it gets warm enough to at least plant some lettuce, greens and onions.  I did a blog on my new Hugelkultur garden a couple of years ago but figured I might go back to basics and talk about gardening from zero.  Some people are new to gardening and might be intimidated by it so here's a little help for them.

I saw a post about an east Texas planting schedule and it made me think about planning my 2016 garden. If you've never gardened, you might not know that the US is organized into USDA Zone Maps. In order for you to be successful you need to determine your zone and know which seeds to plant and when and which plants will or will not grow in your zone - here's a link to that. I like to buy heirloom seeds and I found a nice link to an educational guide on planting timetables.

Now that you have info on determining your Zone and planting timetables, you need seeds.  I used to think a seed was a seed and they were all the same and off I'd go to Walmart and buy seeds until I learned the difference between GMO, hybrid and heirloom seeds.  It's a lengthy and involved explanation and not one I feel qualified to explain so here's an excellent link to a discussion on the subject of the fundamental difference and why it's VERY important to know the difference!!! http://www.foodrenegade.com/hybrid-seeds-vs-gmos/

I don't mind using hybrid seeds if I don't care if I save the seeds from year to year. In fact, I always buy hybrid corn seeds because I have never found an heirloom corn that is as nice as the hybridized ones are. But I prefer heirloom seeds (except corn) because once you buy them you never have to buy them again.  They are healthy and hardy strains that you can save them from year to year for centuries - just like your ancestors did.  As for GMO's, in my opinion they are just evil and unnatural and I NEVER buy them.

I've only bought from a small number of heirloom seed companies but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of them out there. Be selective though because there are many companies jumping on the prepper/survivalist bandwagon and they are often overpriced and have inferior quality seeds. I've also randomly ordered seeds from Amazon if I wanted something specific that I couldn't locate anywhere else and had good luck with that. I got a flashy catalog from Johnny's Seeds a couple of weeks ago but they don't have many heirloom seeds so I didn't bother looking at the catalog (sorry Johnny).

My list in no particular order::
Victory Seeds Company - very good selection, great results, large amount of seeds per order too
Bakers Rare Seeds Company - excellent selection, has rare seeds, very good results
Heirloom Seed Company - great selection, less than good results

Now you need to determine where and how you are going to build your garden.  Are you going to till it directly into your soil or build raised beds? How big do you want it to be? How much time do you have to dedicate to your garden? How will you water it? What about animals in your area? Do you need a fence to keep them out? What are your favorite vegetables? How will you preserve the surplus?

(Bruce Lambsbaugh)

There are more than a few things to think about but, thank goodness, it's not rocket science.  If you're 100% brand new to gardening, you might build a few small raised beds to start with or if you have some flower bed space you can dedicate to vegetables, plant there.  Just start somewhere and the rest will fall into place on its own. As for me.... I do raised bed gardening because it's just easier than tilling and weeding a big area and much easier to water.  My beds are made of 2x6 untreated lumber and are about 2 years old.  They were great that first year but last year the gophers found it and I lost most all of my plants.  This year I dug up the beds and put 1/2" hardware cloth down and refilled the beds.  Hopefully that will keep the buggers out. I have my entire garden fenced in so deer and rabbits don't eat it all and that has been the best decision ever!  Also the wood has begun to rot this year so I plan to use treated lumber (yes, yes I know but there are varying opinions on the chemical issue) with the inside covered with heavy plastic sheeting. I implemented the Hugelkultur method to reduce the amount of watering I had to do but found it's just too stinkin' hot here in the summer for that to be completely effective. Since starting the raised bed garden, I have used heirloom seeds (except corn) with excellent results. I save many seeds each year but find that I never have to plant tomatoes or arugula because they readily reseed themselves. Heirloom seeds WANT to live so badly they just reseed themselves lol.  I look for heirloom seeds everywhere I go. Last July I went to France and since their government does not allow GMO's (unlike the United States) and the farmers don"t use hybridized seeds (I asked), I saved the seeds from a couple of varieties of tomatoes and plan on planting them this year!!

How much to plant?  I live alone but my grown children and their families live nearby so I plant enough to feed us all if that should become necessary and the picture at the very top is my actual garden. I have 5 raised beds and I stagger my plants. By that I mean I plant tallest in the middle (like corn or okra) and then shorter plants next to that (like peppers, peas or tomatoes) then the very smallest (like lettuce or greens) on the outer edges.  I fringe every bed with onions, as well.  Herbs are grown in separate beds against the front fence and melons are grown along the back fence.  Since the photo was taken in 2014, I have added 2 fig trees and a loquat tree in the garden too.  They'll give some much needed afternoon shade for the veggies.

Now you have the tools you need to start.  Get your seeds ordered, decide on your spot and whether it's going to be soil or raised bed and get started.  There's nothing like eating fresh green peas in early May or biting into a red tomato still warm from the sun and knowing you did that yourself.  Go out there and make a life you can nourish yourself with.

A Grandmother's Gift...Lye Soap Making and Chicken Killing

When I was very young - probably not more than 4 - I used to look forward to the days of the mass chicken killings. My grandmother had this black woman named Essie that would come work for her for a day or two and they'd cull the flock and stock our freezer with fresh chicken.  I remember they'd snare the chickens around the feet and hang them upside down from the clothesline then go down the line dispatching them one by one then start processing them. I remember seeing them gutting the hens and finding unshelled egg yolks in the reproductive organs and how fascinating I found that to be.  When I grew tired of the yolk discoveries I played with the chicken feet, making them move by pulling on the tendons then peeling the scaly, yellow skin off and marveling at the paper thinness of it. If I tell most people about those memories they get squeamish and start telling me how morbid I am and what a perverted taste of entertainment I had but I don't see it that way at all.  I grew up with a love of the sciences and especially biology and that, combined with my knowledge of the body processes via chicken A&P, helped me excel in nursing school.  Little did I know that 25 years later I'd be retired from nursing and enjoying a life of homesteading and survivalism. If it hadn't been for my grandmother letting me help in the chicken killing, I wouldn't be able to raise an animal and process it and be able to put food on the table.  That wasn't gross, that was a gift from my grandmother.

Whenever she and Essie would break for lunch, my grandmother and I would eat in the kitchen and Essie ate outside at the picnic table, with us watching her. I used to ask my grandmother why she didn't come inside and she answered "She's welcome to come in but she won't because she wasn't raised that way".  Even then, I understood that.  Essie wasn't a slave but her parents and grandparents probably were and they raised her to be respectful.  Don't get offended about that statement because even back in the early 1960's in small towns, whether you want to believe it or agree with it or not, that's how it was. Nobody was offended or slighted by it, it's just the way things were.  Then, at then of a long day of processing, we drove Essie home, paid her and gave her some of the chickens.

Sometimes Essie would bring us some lye soap she had made.  I was always so excited about it, especially the way it smelled of lard and heritage.  It always did remind me of old timey-ness and I could imagine Essie standing at a cast iron pot stirring the soap with a wooden spoon behind that old wooden house she lived in.  I never saw my grandmother make lye soap but I've heard her tell about helping on soap making day with Mama Bell (her mother-in-law) so many times that I felt like I had been there too and felt like I knew just how to make it.  After I retired and moved out to the country I made my first batch of soap.  I know you can buy soap for .50 to $1 a bar at the store but it's so much more rewarding to make your own and it's easy -  I haven't purchased soap in 3 years.

Homemade soap is quite simple to make and pretty much fool proof.  If you do make a mistake and it doesn't harden, you just use the liquid as hand soap or shampoo so there's no such thing as a waste. It does require Lye and that can be bought in small cans at local hardware stores or you can do like I did for a while and buy it in 1 lb bags from Amazon until I came across an article on how to make your own lye from wood ashes.  I thought, when the SHTF I won't be able to buy lye so I need to know how to make it.  Turns out it takes a few days but it's simple.

Homemade Lye Water From Hardwood Ash

1 Five gallon plastic bucket with a few small drain holes in the bottom
Old cotton tea towel
Hay
Hardwood ashes to fill a 5 gallon bucket halfway
1 smaller plastic bucket for the 5 gallon drain bucket to rest in
Soft water (distilled or rain)
Cover the bottom of the 5 gal bucket (with drain holes) with the towel then a 1" thick layer of hay, scoop ashes into the bucket atop the hay until the bucket is about 2/3 to 3/4 full.  Nest the 5 gallon bucket into the smaller bucket.  (The goal is to have the bottom of the larger bucket fit just inside the top of the smaller one.  You want space inside the smaller bucket to hold the lye drippings.) Gently add water to the top of the ashes. Let this sit and drain overnight or until it is no longer dripping through.

The amber to brown liquid collected in the bottom bucket is the lye water.  The lye has to be the proper strength to cause the saponification process so you'll need to check it.  The easiest way is to use a fresh egg in the shell or a potato and place it in the lye water and it needs to float high enough on top of the liquid to have a quarter sized piece of the object completely unsubmerged, this is the correct strength for soap making.  If the lye water is too strong the egg will float much higher, you can add a little water until the egg floats correctly. If the egg or potato sinks, it's too weak: add some fresh ashes to the old ones and pour the weak lye water back through, let it drain and recheck. You may have to do this 2 or 3 times. Be careful when handling lye because it can burn your skin.   Once the egg floats correctly, you are ready to make soap. Prepare a soap mold too...I use a straight-sided 12x16 pan as well as a purchased loaf soap mold.  If you don't have one of those, you can use a small cat litter pan.

Mama Bell's Lye Soap
6 oz homemade lye water
13 oz soft water
2 lb fat (lard, fat or bacon grease)
Essential oils or fragrances, if desired
in a stainless steel or glass bowl, pour the water into the lye water (never lye water into water), check temp and allow to reach 85 degrees. In a stainless steel pot, heat fat to 85 degrees and very slowly drizzle lye water into fat in pot and over low heat, cook and whisk until it becomes thick like sour cream and the soap leaves trails on the surface. If you want to add essential oils or fragrances, do that at this point, Pour into soap molds and cover with a towel.  It can take anywhere from 24 hrs to 1 month for soap to harden enough to handle.  Be patient, each batch is different. Once it has hardened, cut it into pieces and arrange in a single layer on a large sheet pan, uncovered and allow to age for 1 month.  This allows any excess lye to neutralize so you avoid skin irritation.

If you master this basic recipe you can go on to more exotic soaps like Goats Milk, Castile, Olive Oil and other specialty soaps.  I add chamomile blossoms, herbs or oatmeal and honey to my soaps but the sky's the limit. Give this a try and learn an important survival skill, you'll be glad you did someday!

Winter Foraging Pt 3, Sheep Sorrel and Rosehips

I'm so excited about this blog. I get to share my absolute favorite winter soup recipe and a recipe for a delicious jelly and healthy herbal tea.  Let's get started!

Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosella) is such a wonderful treat to find in the winter as you're poking around the yard or in your dormant garden.  It is a hardy herb that is drought resistant and will produce almost all year long and thrives on neglect.  Doesn't get much better than that does it? The leaves are what you're after and they're easy to spot because of the unique shape - it's somewhat like an elongated arrowhead. Once you've spotted some, taste a leaf...it's pleasantly tart but not acidic like lemons.  To harvest, cut the tender leaves off just above the base...get a few fat handfuls so you can make a generous pot of soup. you'll want leftovers. Before I share the recipe, let me tell you the health benefits of sorrel.  You already know if it's growing on God's green earth it's going to be healthy and natural and full of nutrients but it also has some medicinal uses.  The leaves are high in Vitamin C and antioxidants and are useful as a diuretic and an immune booster and have shown promise as an anti-cancer therapy. The plant is used in Essiac Tea which some cancer patients swear by. It is said to relieve sinusitis pain and congestion as well. The roots can be dried and powdered and applied to a bleeding wound to staunch the flow - that would be invaluable in a shtf situation.

You can make sorrel soup two ways: with egg yolks or without,  I've made it both ways and trust me, the egg yolk version is the way to go. It's silky and decadent and, as my grandmother would say, it has that "morish taste" - in that, you want more.

French Sorrel Soup
4 T butter, divided
1/2 c green onion, chopped
4-6 C packed, chopped sorrel
Salt to taste
3 T flour
1 qt unsalted chicken or vegetable stock
2 egg yolks
1/2 C cream
Melt 3 T butter on medium low in soup pot, add green onions. cover and cook 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in another pan, bring broth to simmer and keep handy.  Add sorrel to pot with green onions and a generous pinch of salt, cook till sorrel is wilted. Stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add broth a ladle at a time, whisking in well after each addition, until all the broth is incorporated.  Bring to simmer. Whisk cream and yolks together and in a very thin stream, drizzle yolk-cream mixture into sorrel mixture, whisking vigorously all the time so the eggs don't scramble. Add remaining butter and gently cook 5 minutes at a bare simmer. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some crusty bread.

The next wild food is Rose Hips, the seed capsule of the rose. We've all seen the swollen base of a rose after its petals have fallen but did you know they are edible? While not all commercial roses have the best rose hips, the wild roses are known for them.  Rose hips are astonishingly rich in Vitamin C and essential fatty acids, they must be prepared properly.  Inside the seed pod there are tiny "hairs" that must be removed as they cannot be digested. This is easy enough, just cut the hips in half and scoop out the seeds and hairs and either eat or use the outer part.  I then recommend drying them super dry (either in a low oven or in a food dehydrator) then grinding them in a spice grinder to use as an ingredient in tea or as the main ingredient in Rose Hip Jelly.

Rose Hip Tea
1 rounded teaspoon powdered rose hips
Mint or dried citrus peel
Boiling water
Honey to taste
Place rose hips and mint or citrus peel in cup, pour boiling water over that, let steep a few minutes and add honey to taste.

Rose Hip Jelly
(Make this fresh as needed)
3 T powdered rose hips
Apple juice or apple cider
Mix a small amount of the juice in with the hip powder until you have a jam-like consistency, add more juice if needed to maintain consistency, serve. Refrigerate leftovers and use soon.

I hope you love these recipes as much as I do. Enjoy!

Let It Snow....Winter Foraging Pt 2, Chickweed, Bittercress and a few other things

It's a most unusual winter this year. It's actually colder here in Texas than it is in parts of Alaska. While the east coast is enjoying spring-like weather, the western US is having record cold temperatures and blizzards.  In the south, it's been a record year of rainfall and tornadoes.  In east Texas, we usually have between 34-45 inches annually and already in 2015 we've gotten 67.77 inches as of yesterday. Here in the south we are in the process of hiring a construction company to construct an ark for us because it seems there's more water than dry land.  I try to remember as I slog through the mud and watch the horses and chickens do the same, that I should give thanks in everything.  I can tell you one thing, all that rain and mild temps are great for winter foraging. Now is a great time to watch the ground for tender, tasty greens and grab them while you can.

I was at the feed store yesterday getting hay and saw vast amounts of dandelions growing along the sides of the building and up against the steps going into the store and got to thinking about a wild salad or a wild stir fry and knew that's what I wanted to tell you about today.

Before I do that, I have a few other things I wanted to share with you. Occasionally I come across something that I find so wonderful and share worthy that I cannot keep it to myself.  I have 3 things I wanted to quickly tell you about:
1)  One Second After by William Fortschen and One Year After also by Mr Fortschen.  I had a friend tell me about these books that tell the story of the aftermath of an EMP and that they were so interesting he literally stayed up all night reading them,  I ordered them from Amazon and read half of One Second After last night before bed and he was right, it's hard to put down. It's equally hard to read as well. though.  It makes you reevaluate your habits and dependencies.  I was busy making notes as I read, of things I needed to do to be better prepared for any type of devastation that could come.  If you practice any kind of prepping, you probably have read it, but if not...you have to read these books.
2) Golden Milk. I came across the recipe as I was searching for a detox tea and it looked good in the picture and sounded good, so I made some.  It was good!  It has turmeric and ginger which are both good for detoxing but also have anti inflammatory properties. I'm a retired runner and my knees hurt much of the time so I decided to try this to see if it could help the pain.  I've only been drinking the concoction for 2 days so I can't testify to the pain relief but I can tell you it tastes so good, I'd drink it even if it didn't do anything at all. I tried a few recipes and the link above is the best.  I used fresh turmeric and grated it but the recipe here uses powdered turmeric and that's much more common to find than turmeric root. Doesn't stain your hands yellow either.

3) War Room. While I do enjoy a good, wholesome movie, this one isn't exactly what I would pick but because it is so powerful and so important, I'm overlooking some of my preferences and recommending it.  If you are soon to be married or are married, this could be a boon to you.  I gave it to my family members this Christmas. I encourage you to just buy the movie because you'll want to watch it over and over again.

Okay, now to the foraging part.  Let's talk about Chickweed and Bittercress.  These two tender greens L-O-V-E the winter. It can be 10 below and they will still thrive.  Both are so abundant that they are invasive, you'll do your lawn and your body a favor by eating them!  I usually share a medicinal plant as well as a strictly edible plant but this week these are both pretty much just edibles.  They both have mild medicinal properties but none that have been verified by me so we're just going to enjoy these as a nice, green winter treat.

Chickweed (stellaria media)...

,,, is found in virtually every corner of the world and its appearance doesn't vary from one place to another so it's super easy to ID and safe to eat.  When I was in my teens and first learning about foraging, this was the very first wild edible I tried.  I gathered a mess of it and made a bechamel sauce and wilted the chickweed into it - much like a creamed spinach.  It was tasty, but then, what isn't good in  gravy?  Now days, I prefer it in a salad over cooked because it's so delicate that I like to keep it as unadulterated as possible.  You'll find Chickweed growing beside buildings and in flower bed and sometimes around the base of trees.  In the spring it will have tiny, white  flowers with many petaled heads and vibrant green, somewhat heart shaped leaves.  The plant dies off as summer heat sets in but as soon as cool fall weather comes around, they come up en masse and will stay all winter long until they die off again in early summer. Locate a patch of it and just pull up the entire plant.  The stems are thin and spindly so it's easy to do so.  Wash them, pick off any yellowed or dead leaves and give them a quick chop.  You can pick each individual leaf off if you want but it's tedious to say the least so I just leave the stems in.  They are tender and mild, much like spinach.

Bittercress (cardamine hirsuta)...

...Bittercress (hairy bittercress) is a member of the Brassica family which also includes cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and broccoli and, like it's relatives, is pungent and flavorful.  the roots of the Bittercress can be harvested and mashed with a mortar and pestle and mixed with sour cream to make a sauce that is similar to mild horseradish.  The leaves are spicy and peppery and certainly liven up an ordinary salad. Like Chickweed, it can be eaten raw or sauteed lightly. It also has a long pagan history and is mentioned in the 10th century Germanic poem Woden and The Nine Herbs Charm as being one of the folklore herbs in the charm that is used to cure snakebite and poisoning. If you don't know if you have Bittercress growing near you, just look at the picture below, of the Bittercress seed pod and I bet you'll know then.

They stick to everything.  Eat them now so you'll have less to deal with later!

If you've ever wanted to forage but have been a little scared you'd get the wrong thing. these are the plants to start with.  Enjoy!