Dandelions are edible and medicinal, and easy (so easy!) to find. Their uses range from wine to salads to medicinal tonics, and they are perfect to harvest this time of year.
Oh, the humble dandelion. Dandelions are so under-appreciated in our age of pristine grass lawns! I'll save the lawn rant for another day - for now, let's appreciate the glory of this well-known 'weed'. Dandelions are edible and medicinal, and easy (so easy!) to find. Their uses range from wine to salads to medicinal tonics, and they are perfect to harvest this time of year. Spotlight on Dandelion Common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), gets its name from the French 'dent-de-lion' or 'lion's tooth', and is related to chicory and wild lettuce. Dandelion leaves, flowers, and root are all edible, and are also useful to make herbal remedies, especially tonics for liver and your overall health.
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There's Bessie! It's finally happened. I caught the raw milk bug. Yep... I'm into it. Ask anyone who knows me - I can be stubborn. Alternative health and food trends often leave me skeptical at all the hype. It took me 3 years to start drinking kombucha, and another 4 months after that to even research its health benefits. Now, I'm so 'into' it that I make my own kombucha. So how did I become a raw milk convert? This morning I got an email from a local dairy owner, offering a (raw) milk share from her soon-to-be lactating cow, Bessie. Shares are about $3.50/gallon, 50 cents more than the local organic milk I've been getting from the grocery store. Usually the cost (and having to drive 30 miles pick the milk up) would be enough to tip the balance towards store-bought. But... I looked at the pros and cons between store-bought and farm share, and raw milk won out: Wellness is physical and mental. All things cycle, and we all go through natural emotional lows. Sometimes, though, these lows can make it hard to even function, let alone be proactive about feeling better. At times like these, we just need to take care of the basics. The Icarus Project, a radical mental health network, published a wonderful poster by Sophie Crumb - "Taking Care of the Basics". I reference this gem often, especially when my mental/emotional wellness is starting to tip off balance. It's a great reminder of basics that are too easy to forget.
Thick, creamy, a lil' tangy... yogurt cheese is incredibly versatile. You can use it simply as a thickened 'Greek' yogurt, as labneh, as a spread for crackers & bagels, with fresh fruit, as a substitute for cream cheese, a base for sour cream dips, and even as whipped cream, cheese cake, & cake frosting (or so I hear). Plus, it's probiotic! Yogurt cheese is, undeniably, one of life's finer pleasures. Personally, I like it with garlic, cracked black pepper, and sea salt. I use this spiced yogurt cheese (yog-eese? chees-urt?) as a spread on crackers - delicious! Best of all, yogurt cheese is extremely easy to make. Let's give it a shot, shall we? I just came back from the Florida Gulf, visiting my partner Morgan. It was an exotic tropical vacation for me, since I'm used to the dry climate of the Rocky Mountain foothills. The Gulf is a very different world! In a lot of ways, the Florida landscape felt very alien to me - lizards clinging to the curtains, Spanish moss hanging from telephone lines, and the scent of saltwater forever on the air. The feel and flavor of the Gulf is so very different from my landlocked Rockies home, and the local food was a deliciously exotic treat. One word: Seafood. Oh my... peel n' eat shrimp, mango tuna tartare, oyster shooters, fried shrimp with hot sauce, raw oysters on the half shell, triggerfish tacos, spicy ginger shrimp ka-bobs, seared tuna with cilantro... It's making me drool a little just thinking about all the seafood. A month or so ago, my mom gifted me a giant bag of rolled oats. I've been waiting for a reason to use them, since oatmeal really isn't my thing. Well, yesterday it happened - I finally ran out of granola. I adapted this granola recipe from one by the ladies at the Hell's Backbone Grill (a women-owned, Buddhist, local and organic restaurant in Boulder, UT). 'Brown Betty' granola is hearty and subtly maple-flavored, with lots of almonds. And yes, I have had Ram Jam's "Oh Black Betty (bam-a-lam)" running through my head for the last few days. Here in the Rocky Mountain foothills, spring pulled a sneak attack. All sorts of growth erupted from the earth, which means I can get back to foraging for wild edible and medicinal plants. In December, Morgan gifted me with a trio of useful books: The Forager's Harvest: Edible Wild Plants, Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants, and a homemade native plant observation journal. Awww... so sweet. But I've been waiting all winter for our native plants to revive so I could actually use her gifts! So, without further ado: Today's spotlight is on mullein! Spotlight on Mullein Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) - also called Golden Rod, Shepherd's Staff, Cowboy Toilet Paper (awesome) and about a million other names - is from the Snapdragon family and is best known as a medicinal herb that aids coughs.
Lately, it's been kind of hard for me to fall asleep. Since I need 8 hours of sleep to be a happy, sane human, actually falling asleep is kind of important... Time to open the herbal medicine cabinet! I based this tea recipe on a blend by a wonderful herbal apothecary in my area, and used what I had around the house. It makes a warm, relaxing sleep aid tea you can drink before bedtime. Ingredients: ~ 2 parts lemon balm leaf ~ 2 parts catnip flower/leaf ~ 2 parts skullcap leaf ~ 1 part lavender flowers ~ 1 part passionflower flower/leaf + 2 parts oatstraw (I didn't have any, but if you do use it!) Sexy bad-ass Lauri Newman, my new inspiration photo by Hannah Combs Alright folks, I have a confession: I stretched the truth on my farm hand job application. I believe my exact words were, "I know how to lift properly - 50 pounds shouldn't be a problem for me." Well... lifting 50 pounds shouldn't be a problem for me. But it is. In reality, I am a lightweight, petite woman with low upper body strength. As a dancer, my core strength and flexibility is great, but my upper body is... 'delicately' muscled. So, in an effort to be a valuable member of the farm crew, I made a plan: Farm Girl Bootcamp. Those are some sexy loaves... I live approximately 5,760 feet above sea level. Now, baking bread from scratch is tricky enough, but add all sorts of wacky pressure changes from high altitude? Yep, we're in trouble. But never fear! High altitude baking can be done. I've been using this homemade bread recipe for months now, and it just keeps getting better. The recipe yields two loaves of whole-wheat bread that rest between sandwich-grade fluffy and moistly dense. For those of you at sea-level, I'll include some alternate ingredient measurements. |
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