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...]
Spring Pesto with Chickweed and Green Garlic
When you're craving the fresh, tangy flavors of spring, but are still waiting for almost everything in the garden to start growing, the solution is a spring pesto made with chickweed and green garlic. This spring pesto recipe is easy to make, packed with flavor, and the perfect topping for pizza, pasta, and more! Chickweed (Stellaria media) is an edible and medicinal plant, often thought of as a weed because it is so common! Here in Northeast Missouri, we often find it near creek bottoms in the deciduous forest. After a few years, it made its way into our garden, likely via purchased hay. It is recognizable by its white, star-shaped flowers (hence the Latin name Stellaria) and thin line … [Read more...]
Nettle Beer Recipe
Nettles, also known as Stinging Nettles, are delicious and versatile wild plants. Their signature sting disappears when the nettles are cooked, so they can be harvested as greens, drunk as a mineral-rich tea, or even used to make this delicious nettle beer recipe. Although nettles are so widely distributed that they are easy to wild harvest, when we arrived on our homestead, we could not find any stinging nettle, although we were wildly successful in foraging for wood nettles. I started some stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) by seed and planted them in a few moist and shady spots. When I received a copy of Wild Drinks and Cocktails, by Emily Han, I was immediately drawn to the nettle … [Read more...]
Lacto-Fermented Radishes Recipe
Each spring I sow radish seeds amongst my beets and carrots. Because radishes are such a fast-growing crop, I'm able to harvest them when the beets and carrots are still young, allowing plenty of space for the root vegetables to continue their growth. And while radishes are a treat to eat fresh in salads, or to dip in Zacusca or hummus, after a while, I find myself getting a bit radished-out. That's when I reach for a quart jar and make a batch of lacto-fermented radishes. Lacto-fermented radishes are made with the same basic technique as lacto-fermented pickles and garlic scapes: The vegetables culture in a salt brine with spices or herbs for several days until your desired level of … [Read more...]
Persimmon Cake Recipe
One of my favorite Autumn fruits is the American Persimmon, Diospyros virginiana. This native persimmon grows across much of the Southeast and lower Midwest, and produces small orange globes of fruit on stately trees. We have planted a few trees on our property and have access to a few mature trees, each with hundreds of ripening fruit for gleaning. We pick the ripest persimmons, mostly freshly fallen from the ground, process them into a pulp for freezing, and reserve a few cups of pulp to experiment with recipes, such as this persimmon cake. The most well-known persimmon recipe is the classic Persimmon Pudding, a baked or steamed pudding with the consistency of a dense custard. We … [Read more...]
How to Make Shrubs, or Drinking Vinegar
During a recent heat wave, Brian and I found that water was not replenishing our bodies or quenching our thirst. We did not have any of our homemade sodas on hand, so we searched through cookbooks to find a simple, refreshing drink that we could make with ingredients we had on hand. We found shrubs. Shrubs, or drinking vinegar, were popular during the 17th and 18th centuries, and have enjoyed a revival in recent years, not only in home kitchens but also in cocktails. A shrub can refer to a type of fruit liqueur, or a non-alcoholic beverage made from a sweetened, vinegar-based syrup. The addition of vinegar preserves the fruit syrup, and also adds a tangy and thirst-quenching quality. A … [Read more...]
How to Make Homemade Soda :: Three Herbal Recipes
When it's hot and we've been working in the garden or barn, the most thirst quenching drink we can imagine is something cold, sweet, and fizzy. A soda. Occasionally we find organic, all-natural sodas at the Amish bent and dent store and enjoy them as a treat, but in general we find them to be too sweet. Recently we've gotten in the routine of creating something even better: homemade sodas infused with herbs and flowers. They are among the most delicious beverages I've ever tasted, so today I'm going to share how to make your own homemade soda from herbs and edible flowers you might already have in your garden. How to Make Homemade Soda First off: there are naturally fermented sodas … [Read more...]
Cilantro Pesto Recipe
Cilantro is one of those love it or hate it foods. You rarely come across someone who does not have a passionate response - either positive or negative - toward cilantro. Perhaps it's the soapy flavor that some people experience, or perhaps it's just that cilantro has a strong odor that really sticks with you. Personally, I love cilantro, and it's a staple in my garden, from spring through fall. The past few years I've been working hard to successively sow cilantro so we have it through the entire salsa season. This year, volunteer plants have popped up all over the garden, making cilantro growing effortless at last. I had to pull a few larger plants last weekend to make room for … [Read more...]