Sometimes life gets busy. Busier than you ever thought possible, where you suddenly find that you're putting all of your energy into just keeping up. The consensus of advice seems to always involve giving yourself small breaks, but it can be hard to figure out what that actually looks like for you as an individual. My greatest success with this as of late has been what I would call ...
Wildcrafting
Lilac Cream Cake
With all the flowers in bloom during the month of May, it's an inspiring time for some foraged flower recipes. Last year I brewed a French Lilac Wine, and this year I decided there was probably only so much lilac wine I'd be able to drink, so I focused my efforts on baking. Gather Victoria had posted this tantalizing Lilac Cream Tart recipe that I just had to try, and when I was left with some ...
Wild Violet Syrup
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 ...
Rosehips in Winter
Winter decided to really show up and linger this year, and since we're not really used to that in this part of Oregon, I've found myself gravitating toward things that are bright and cheerful. I noticed some flaming red rosehips peeking out of the briars along our driveway, and went out one morning with pruners and a basket to investigate. I may have gotten a little carried away, and ended up ...
Homebrewing Elderberry Wine
I have enjoyed plenty of other people's homebrewed elderberry wines, but never made my own, so last weekend we went for it. I had picked dozens of gallons of elderberries in October with a friend, who suggested we pick while we could, freeze the berries, and subsequently brew when we could. I meant to brew that wine many a time throughout the fall, but life was just so darn busy. The final ...
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, ...
Homebrewing Sparkling Rose Petal Wine
I don't know what it was about this spring, but it was all about the flowers. A friend mentioned to me that she was wanting everything flowery and colorful in her culinary endeavors, and I was right there with her on that. From lavender syrups, to rose petal jelly, to lilac wine, to calendula petals in my salad every day, I just wanted to infuse my life with flowers. After trying out a rose petal ...
Homebrewing French Lilac Wine
In the continuing saga of my wild botanical homebrewing endeavors, I was enjoying the lilac flowers a while back, and decided to brew something with them. I looked through a few lilac cordial recipes before finding this French lilac wine recipe from Leslieland that was exactly what I was looking for: http://leslieland.com/2009/05/lilac-wine/ Her description was impressive, especially following ...
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 ...
Homebrewing Nettle Beer
Something I have learned along the way in life is that a sense of adventure makes everything more fun. This is true for many things, including homebrewing and wildcrafting. Combine the two and you can end up brewing some pretty wild things while having fun along the way. I have wanted to brew nettle beer for a long time now, and just hadn't felt like I could pick enough quantity for a decent sized ...