Wild violets are one of the first signs of spring in our woods. Once they open up, the daffodils are not far behind and winter is on the way out. We have a patch of them right at the edge of the yard, and as we've fought back the blackberries, the violets have flourished and spread out. I found all these great violet recipes last year after the violets were done, so I was excited for them to ...
Wild Food Recipes
Winter Conifer Tonic Syrup
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, ...
Indian Plum Harvest and Shrub Recipe
The Indian Plum (osoberry, bear berry) has ripened and gone in our woods, but I managed to pick some this year before the birds got them all! Normally, the birds and bears get to them before I realize they're ripe, so I was very pleased with myself. I wrote about the shrub a couple of years ago, Indian Plum: The Herald of Spring, while I was appreciating the flowers, but now I can say from ...
Nettle Cake from the Good Green Earth
In case I haven't made it clear how much I love nettles, I wanted to share this amazing recipe. While visiting my home town and home ground on the Olympic Peninsula, my amazing herbalist friend Ellen made this fantastic nettle cake. Since cake, nettles and good friends are some of my favorite things, this was a very exciting occasion. I had heard about Ellen making this cake last year, and felt ...
Dandelion Fritters
When the dandelions start popping up in our yard in the spring, it's time to make a batch of dandelion fritters. I first got this delicious idea from the Doula who helped with my twins' birth, and it became a favorite seasonal tradition in our house. I don't usually make a lot of fried food, but this treat is well worth it. You simply go out in the yard and pop the ...
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 ...
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 ...
I Eat Bears for Breakfast: A Bear Bratwurst Recipe
Last year, some homesteader friends of mine who live out in the coast range gifted me with many pounds of frozen bear meat. It was so delicious, that it was very hard for me to ration it out. There were bear steaks, the bear ribs that went into a mouth watering Ethiopian dish at Thanksgiving, bear lard for pie crusts, and then there were some 20 pounds of random bits of bear meat. I had big ...
Oak Smoked Raccoon: A Traditional Take on Eating Local
It all began with a phone call one evening from the permaculture farm down the road where I resided this past Fall. There had been a showdown in the chicken yard, and they had shot a raccoon. Now, being the omnivore that I am, and having grown up in a family where annual elk hunting and fishing provided the bulk of our meat, we had an understanding that I was serious about local, wild ...
Have a Heart: A Wild Mountain Recipe
When my dad came back from his annual Idaho elk hunting trip this year, he said he had a surprise for me. What, I wondered, could be a better surprise than coolers filled with packages of ground wild elk, steaks, sausage, roasts and summer sausage? Well, my dear old dad saved me the heart. Feeling honored to eat such a vital part of this wild creature, I decided to save it for a special ...