Wild Foragers Society

I found these guys on Facebook and am hoping to join them in a forage soon!
https://www.facebook.com/WildForagersSociety

Nothing quite like learning about new wild edibles....

Self-Care Hiatus Update and Plum Crumble

In continuing my work, I have decided that the only way I can keep this up sustainably is in occasional posts. I have burnt out for the second time in a year and it doesn't make sense to destroy myself over this.  To share stories of mindfulness and sustainability, I need to ensure I am living a mindful and sustainable life first. Otherwise, what am I sharing?
To illustrate my thought, here's a deliciously simple crumble I worked on a few weeks ago with gorgeous Ontario plums:
1/8th the plums and mix them with some sugar and lemon juice in a pie dish
Crumble softened butter with organic oats, sugar, cinnamon, and ginger in a bowl
Top the plums with the crumble and bake on 350C until you see fruit gurgling out the sides (I think around 40mins)

 This is what happens when you rush to try to plate and photograph a beautiful dessert.

Mindfulness. I'm slowing down. Thanks universe.

Slef-Care Hiatus

This is difficult for me to do but I need to give myself a self-care hiatus on my daily posts.  I have being doing the work, reading, and preserving but the time needed to post about it is too much for me at the moment.  There is a lot of family stuff happening for me right now and something has to give.  A lot of my mindfulness work this year has been about taking care, learning patience for myself, not saying should.  And so I am letting myself say it's ok to take a break on a self-decided project. And yet there are so there are so many alarms going off in my head about how I won't continue, how I'm a bad person for stopping, even momentarily, and any others you could probably think of.  But I need to take care.  I'm sorry to everyone but I'm thinking I will be on a month hiatus from the project. See you all soon.

Banned Food

Well, how terrifying is this.  You know you're eating nutritious food when it's banned in other places...
http://www.themindunleashed.org/2013/08/10-american-foods-that-are-banned-in.html

Bean and Squash Seed Saving

So I know this isn't really the way you're supposed to do it, but I had picked some overgrown beans from my community plot the other day and they didn't taste very good so I shelled them and left them to dry. Who knows if they'll grow next year but I figure, it's worth trying! I have some tendergreen and some royal burgundy. I don't really have a mesh type thing so I'll just turn them every once in a while.  It's how I dried my chamomile flowers and it worked pretty well.  I also saved some seeds from my overgrown pattypan squash and am drying them in the same way.  Again, big experiment! But one worth doing when the alternative is the compost bin! Crossing my fingers!

Saved Red Clover Seed

Beautiful red clover flowers saved after being dried in my kitchen.

 I picked one of the stems at night and didn't realize that it had already dried out.  Luckily, I discovered how clover goes to seed!  Each of those beautiful little red petals dries out and turns into a seed pod!

In the way that I'm assuming grains need to be processed, I pulled off all the little petals (seed pods?), crushed them between my fingers and lightly blew into the bowl to let the light stuff blow away.  The seeds look like little kale seeds.  So cool! I'm going to plant this wonderful perennial to harvest next year and for many years to come!

What to Do with Stems from Greens

I made a delicious recipe one day and it's my new favourite for getting rid of stems from kale, chard, spinach etc. Don't throw them away!!  People throw them out, did you know? It's crazy! Don't waste perfectly good food!

Steam the stems until partway cooked.

Blend fresh tomatoes into a sauce or use a can/bottle of passata.

Blend the two together in a casserole dish, top with cornmeal (my gluten free version) or breadcrumbs and grate cheese on top.

Bake until cheese in melty delicious and enjoy!