This weekend while we were cleaning all the elderberry harvest out of the freezer to brew elderberry wine, I decided to make this conifer and wild berry tonic syrup recipe from my wildcrafting heroes at Gather Victoria. While the elderberries were boiling on a burner outside for the wine, I filled a pot on our stove with elderberries, Douglas-fir needles, grand fir needles, spruce tips, ...
Farmhouse Recipes
Everyday Ways to Detox Your Life
Health is one of the most valuable things we have, and taking good care of it is something many of us strive for. Things like a eating a healthy diet, buying organic, avoiding processed foods and getting regular exercise all make a big difference, but still, none of us are perfect all the time, and we are constantly exposed to things in our environment we can't control. In spite of all our healthy ...
Turnip the Beet Burgers
Sometimes, you end up with a lot of root vegetables. Usually this is good news, but any food can get boring after a while. When roasting, raw grated salads and soups are not appealing, it's time to turnip the beet and make something different! Turnip the Beet Burgers 3 cups mixed grated beets and turnips 1 1/2 cups oats (or 1 cup oats and 1/2 cup wheat germ) 1 onion 8 oz. feta ...
Quiche. It’s What’s for Dinner.
Spring is a time of new growth, longer days working out in the garden, and for those of us who keep chickens, many eggs. Sometimes it takes a lot of creativity to come up with more egg recipes to keep up with the girls' production, but my tried and true go-to is quiche. Quiche is for breakfast, quiche is for lunch, and quiche is for dinner. It's a creative food. You can put just about whatever you ...
Garlic Scape Ganouj
Garlic scapes, also called garlic whistles, are one of the most useful and delicious secondary products of growing a crop that I can think of. I had never heard of them until I grew my first garlic, and began noticing them at our local food co-op that summer. At the time, I was living near Moscow, Idaho, the home of one of my homesteading heroes, MaryJane Butters of MaryJane's Farm, and got this ...
Wild Mushroom Gravy
It is panning out to be such a good mushroom year, that we are faced with the good problem of having more chanterelles than we know what to do with. We are eating them in everything possible, making large batches of things to freeze, like Cream of Chanterelle Soup, trading for important things like wild salmon fillets, and I have been enjoying playing mushroom fairy and leaving paper bags of ...
Homemade Soy Sausage
Why, you may be asking yourselves, is this wild, omnivorous mountain woman who eats smoked raccoon and bear brats for breakfast posting a recipe for soy sausage? Well, dear readers, I will tell you that it is because this soy sausage is REALLY good, and because I fell in love with a vegetarian mountain man. Wanting to impress him and make the best mountain man breakfasts possible, I naturally ...
Cream of Chanterelle Soup
It has turned out to be a most abundant mushroom season so far, and we have been faced with the very good problem of asking ourselves daily, "What to do with all these Chanterelles?" Last week we received some culinary inspiration from a friend who was making large batches of cream of mushroom soup to freeze for her recipes throughout the year. Since we can't get enough of cream of Chanterelle ...
Took my Tart to the Potluck
With so much delicious fruit growing all around me this Summer, I have had tarts on my mind. Maybe it's my French roots showing, but there is something about a nice, rustic crust topped with baked fruit that makes my mouth water. I have been playing around with gluten-free options so my son can partake in this culinary adventure I've launched off on, and there have been some good learning ...
Spiced Butter and Berberi Sauce: The Cornerstones of Home-Cooked Ethiopian Food
On of the most delightful ethnic food experiences I can recall is discovering my first Ethiopian restaurant on a visit to Portland. All these lovely, spicy dishes were presented so colorfully on a plate with lovely flatbread that you tore off and used for scooping in lieu of utensils. Even better than this visually stunning display of textural variety was that they wanted me to eat with my hands! ...