A natural living site where you'll learn about organic gardening, foraging, home medicine and more.
In northern climates, gardeners grow what is called hardneck garlic because it thrives in cold temperatures. In late spring, hardneck garlic produces a leafless, curly, flowering stem called a scape. The scape itself is delicious, and can be used in many ways. Garlic scape powder is one of many ways I use garlic scapes, and while I love garlic powder and make my own, making scape powder is a much easier process.
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Water bath canning is a great skill to have when it comes to preserving the harvest. Choose water bath canning to preserve high acid foods like jams, jellies, fruit, most tomatoes and sauces, pickles, relishes and vinegar based condiments.
Even if you live in a small apartment, this is a skill you can learn and practice now before you are able to move to your dream homestead. Fruits and vegetables can be purchased at Farmer’s Markets even if you don’t yet have your own garden.
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Low Carb Zuppa Toscana is an amazingly delicious soup. Since I love all things foraged, I created this soup with stinging nettle instead of spinach or kale. But yes, you can use either of those if you can’t find nettle.
I highly recommend using sausage from pastured pork, grass-fed butter, and organic vegetables in the recipe. With the wild foraged stinging nettle, it will certainly be a nutrient dense meal.
This sweet and spicy purslane refrigerator relish is made with foraged purslane (a delicious common weed), sweet and hot peppers, and onions in an apple cider vinegar brine; it is lightly sweetened with coconut sugar.
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I was passionate about wild violets as a child and would collect them until my hands could hold no more. When we moved 20 years ago, I didn’t find any violets on our new property so I transplanted some from our old home. It wouldn’t have been home without them. Violets have many uses including making a beautiful violet jelly.
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We grow everbearing raspberries, and the way we manage them, they produce a heavy crop of berries from mid-August through September. And it just so happens that our jalapeño peppers ripen during that time as well. Thus, the perfect combination for an amazing treat – low sugar raspberry jalapeño jam!
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