Since our move to Vermont, I’ve been dreaming of maple syrup, and thinking ahead to what we need to get ready for backyard sugaring season. Back in Missouri, we tapped the trees available to us: black walnuts. Black walnut tree sap makes a delicious syrup with a woodsy, earthy, nutty flavor, but I really prefer the clean, bright sweetness of maple syrup for baking and cooking. Fortunately, we are renting a property that has a small sugarbush of mature sugar maples. Right now, we’re preparing the supplies we’ll need to tap our backyard trees. In this post, I teamed up with Vermont Evaporator Company to help you get ready now so you can head into sugaring season ready to make syrup! What … [Read more...]
How to Blanche and Freeze Fresh Green Beans
One of the simplest ways to store food is in the freezer. You can freeze just about anything - fruits, veggies, herbs, meat, jelly, baked goods - with little equipment save a freezer and some plastic bags or other containers. This week I had the opportunity to buy 20# of fresh green beans from a local farmer. While I saved some for fresh eating, and made a small batch of lactofermented dilly beans, the rest of the green beans were frozen. This post will show you how to blanche and freeze green beans so you can enjoy them all winter long! Should I Blanche Green Beans Before Freezing? Almost all vegetables should be blanched before freezing. Blanching stops enzymatic activity which can … [Read more...]
Canning Equipment for Beginners – Your No-Frills Equipment Checklist!
If you are new to canning, this beginner's canning equipment guide from Jenny at The Domestic Wildflower will help you get started canning in a way that is easy, fun, and safe! Jenny is going to walk you through her essential list of canning equipment and supplies so you can finish out the harvest season with a collection of home-preserved goods! (But don't worry - you don't have to spend a fortune - many of these items can be found at thrift stores or yard sales!). Welcome, Jenny! Your homestead is likely producing all kinds of bounty, and preserving that harvest is such a satisfying, fun, and important step. I’m Jenny and I teach beginners how to can over on my blog, The … [Read more...]
Elderflower Kombucha Recipe :: Wildcrafted, Fizzy, and Delicious!
Elderflower season is a glorious time in the Midwest. Everywhere you look - along roadsides, wood edges, and creek bottoms - you see elderberry bushes in full bloom. In addition to the delicious elderflower kombucha recipe that I'm going to share with you today, the range of recipes you can create with the simple elderflower is vast - check out my collection of elderflower recipes to get inspired! And don't forget that the elderberry itself is immune-boosting and tasty. I like to enjoy it as an elderberry syrup. Yum. Elderflower kombucha is very simply a combination of an elderflower simple syrup and your homebrewed kombucha. In the secondary ferment, the elderflower syrup's sugar content … [Read more...]
How to Make Kombucha in 3 Simple Steps!
Kombucha is a tasty, easy to make fermented beverage that delivers a probiotic kick. If you've ever purchased kombucha at the grocery store, you know it is delicious, but expensive! I'm going to show you how to make kombucha at home - for pennies a serving - and in just three simple steps. If you want to take the kombucha love up a notch, you can continue the process with a secondary ferment. I'll give you some suggestions for flavor combinations below, and also check out my super delicious wild-foraged elderflower kombucha recipe! What is Kombucha Anyways? If you haven’t yet experienced kombucha, it is a fermented beverage made from tea, sugar, and a culture called a SCOBY, or a Symbiotic … [Read more...]
20+ Elderflower Recipes for a Summertime Treat
Driving around rural Missouri in mid-June, it's impossible to miss the glorious clusters of white flowers that crown large bushes on the sides of roads, in pastures, and along creeks: Elderflowers. On our homestead, in addition to the wild bushes on our land, we also planted 20+ Sambucus canadensis, the American elder, so we have abundant berries for canning and making elderberry syrup, and also plenty of flowers to use in these creative elderflower recipes. Of course, when foraging any wild foods, it is important to make sure you are safely and ethically harvesting wild foods. In particular, because elderflowers do resemble some other common wild plants (some of which are inedible, and … [Read more...]
Foraged Food :: How to Safely Enjoy Wild Edibles
Foraging is the act and art of searching for, finding, and harvesting wild foods. Perhaps the most common foraged foods are mushrooms gathered in the woods, but foragers also enjoy wild greens, aquatic and marine plants, nuts, berries, seeds, sap, and more. The beauty of foraging is that edibles can be found almost everywhere, even in urban and suburban areas. Some of the most prolific plants - the most ubiquitous dandelion, for instance - have parts that are edible, once you know how to identify them safely. I’m a huge fan of foraging for a few reasons. First, foraging gets our family outdoors in all seasons, connecting to the natural world and its bounty. Second, foraging fills our … [Read more...]
Dandelion Soda Recipe :: Naturally Fermented with a Ginger Bug!
When dandelion season comes around, it hits with full force! Looking around my garden, it's hard to believe that only a few years ago there wasn't a single dandelion on our property! Now we have ample dandelions to leave some for the pollinators, and still have enough dandelion flowers and roots to make into recipes. This dandelion soda recipe requires a bit of effort in stripping the petals from the plant, but you will be deliciously rewarded! Whenever harvesting any wild edible, you want to pay attention to where and how you harvest. Is there any chance that herbicide may have been sprayed on or near the dandelions? If so, move on! Once you've found a chemical-free source of dandelion … [Read more...]
How to Make a Ginger Bug for Homemade Soda
A ginger bug is a really cool ferment with a fun name. It is essentially a starter culture, much like a sourdough starter is to bread, or a SCOBY is to kombucha. With a ginger bug, you can naturally ferment homemade soda, healthy ginger ale, root beer, and other healthy soda alternatives. Using three simple ingredients—organic ginger root, sugar, and water—a ginger bug will “capture” wild yeasts and bacteria that will eat the sugar and emit carbon dioxide as a “waste” product; hence the ability to give sodas a natural fizz of bubbles. A ginger bug has natural kid-appeal because of its name, and because the process requires “feeding” your ginger bug each day, much like a pet! And because … [Read more...]
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