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LearningAndYearning

Bacon Wrapped Hosta Shoots

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Yes, hosta is edible, and a delicious way to enjoy them is bacon wrapped hosta shoots. They're in your yard, go harvest them now!

Hosta is Edible

I get that everyone wants to forage the trendy plants – ramps, morels, fiddleheads, etc. And why not? They are delicious. But my passion is to use, and teach others to use the common weeds and landscaping plants that are right in our own back yards.

It’s mid-spring and our quarter acre is just full of good eating – wood sorrel and dandelion, creeping charlie and garlic mustard, day lily shoots, and hosta. And so much more.

Yes, hosta is edible and the rolled up leaves, as they emerge in the spring, are a great alternative to asparagus. Continue Reading

Make Your Own Fermented Sauerkraut

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Making fermented sauerkraut is not just a great way to preserve cabbage; it's a great way improve your digestion and add probiotics to your diet!

Why Fermentation?

When you think of preserving the harvest do canning, freezing, and dehydrating come to mind? Have you wondered how our ancestors preserved food before the days of modern refrigeration and canning? One method they used was to preserve vegetables through lacto-fermentation in stoneware crocks.

When canning was found to be more shelf stable and easily shipped, lacto-fermentation fell by the wayside. So why would we even consider fermenting vegetables today? Canning preserves food by destroying bacteria that causes spoilage. In the process, many nutrients are also destroyed. Lacto-fermentation, on the other hand, preserves food by growing the good bacteria present on all vegetables–lactobacillus.Continue Reading

Poppy Seed Cake (for My 60th Birthday!!!)

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Perfect for celebrations - whip cream smothered poppy seed cake. Make it with pastured eggs, cream and butter and it can be a part of your real food diet!

How do you celebrate your birthday? For me, it varies from year to year, but there’s never been a year without dessert. I’ve always been a pie over cake kinda’ girl and have often asked for pie for my birthday. But when I was a child, first my grandmother and then my mom would make the most amazing cake I’ve ever had – Poppy Seed Cake.Continue Reading

Hunter’s Pie with Jerusalem Artichoke

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A perfect meal for the forager and hunter - Hunter's Pie with Jerusalem artichoke. It's a hearty meal that will satisfy your hunger after a day in the woods!

Back in the day when we were first married (guys, that was 40 years ago!), we lived in a run down house in the country without running water and only a wood stove for heat. The road we lived on was used so infrequently that grass grew down the middle of the road in spots.

The woman who delivered our mail was one of the few vehicles that we saw in a day, and this wonderful woman was worried about us – we were just kids. She would leave presents in our mailbox from her garden. One of the things she would leave were Jerusalem artichokes, which I had never before experienced.Continue Reading

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