Passing on traditional skills like foraging, cooking from scratch and living well on less
If you’re gluten free, you know the bread you buy in the stores tends to be hard, tasteless, overpriced and basically awful. The good news is that you can easily bake gluten free bread that is soft, tasty and easy — and it’s much healthier than the stuff you buy in stores! Here’s one of […]
Here’s an easy way to dramatically lower your grocery costs and still eat well. At the start of each week (or whenever your local stores change their sales), check out the sales flyers for any grocery stores near you. Only check for grocery items that you either use regularly or would use if they were […]
Sure, you can go buy those orange cans of pumpkin puree at the grocery store, but making homemade pumpkin puree is so much more satisfying! It’s also much easier than you might think. Best of all, this time of year it’s incredibly cheap, even if you didn’t grow your own pumpkins. My kitchen table is […]
Here’s a wonderful free booklet to help you use permaculture principles to harvest rainwater and put it to use in your yard and gardens. The wonderfully-illustrated 8-page primer was created by by Joe Linton (of LA Creek Freak) to accompany a workshop he did in 2008. The guide draws heavily from Brad […]
I have some recipes that are requested so often that I put them online somewhere for when friends or family message me and ask again for them. This is one of the recipes I decided to put up to save me the trouble of emailing it so much. 🙂 There are a lot of hush […]
Samuel Thayer’s foraging books Nature’s Garden and The Forager’s Harvest are well loved by foragers, and his upcoming book, Incredible Wild Edibles, promises to be another great resource. Thayer doesn’t cover the same wild edible foods in any of his books. Each book goes into great detail about a few dozen wild foods to forage, […]
I thought I’d share another acorn recipe from my acorn book, in case anybody else has a stash of newly foraged acorns waiting to be put to good use. This is an ice cream recipe I developed, and like the acorn drop biscuit recipe it is also vegan. There is a traditional acorn ice cream […]
I was able to read an advanced reader copy of the upcoming book, How to Instant Pot, recently and thought I’d share my review here in case it helps any readers. How to Instant Pot might be better named “The Meat Lover’s Instant Pot Cookbook,” as meat features quite predominantly. As someone who cooks vegetarian, […]
As many readers know, I have been writing an acorn foraging guide and cookbook. My research led to a fascinating bit of history this week when I stumbled upon a reference to Racahout des Arabes, which was apparently once a very popular hot drink or hot cereal (depending on how much hot milk you used) made […]
It’s acorn season, and anybody who follows my Instagram knows that our family has been foraging, processing and cooking with acorns all month. Acorn processing #fallforaging #forageandharvest #wildedibles #foraging #foragingfamily #septemberforaging #fallflavors #acorns A post shared by Alicia Bayer (@magicandmayhem) on Sep 4, 2017 at 11:04am PDT I made up a batch of acorn drop […]
Our family has been busy lately with one of our favorite wild edible foods of fall — acorns. Acorn processing #fallforaging #forageandharvest #wildedibles #foraging #foragingfamily #septemberforaging #fallflavors #acorns A post shared by Alicia Bayer (@magicandmayhem) on Sep 4, 2017 at 11:04am PDT Yes, you can eat them, and they are absolutely delicious. They’re also nutritious […]
Daryl and I have been faithfully checking our elder patches for the past few weeks and he brought home a bag of our first elderberry bounty for the year this week. This particular clump of elders is bordering a nursing home that has given us permission to pick their pears and elderberries. He harvested them […]
If you don’t have access to affordable organic suppliers like Bountiful Baskets or a good local CSA, Azure Standard is one option to get a monthly box of assorted organic fruits and vegetables. The box costs $33 (as of August 2017), plus a small delivery fee (generally about $10 for my order of about $120 […]
If you want to extend your back yard bounty of fresh veggies, now is the time to start your fall garden. There are many garden crops that can handle some frost and some that can tolerate temperatures well below freezing. Root veggies such as carrots, beets, kohlrabi and turnips actually taste better after some […]
I’ll mostly be focusing on 10 main ways to save money on healthy and organic foods in the FYFO-100 series (Feed Your Family Organic for $100 (or less!)). Everybody has different circumstances, so different strategies will be better for different families. You do not need to do all or even most of these to save […]
We’ve been having a weekly night for our kids with some friends and this popcorn has become a favorite sweet snack at our gatherings — with kids and parents alike. The kids love getting to help pick the flavors each week, and it couldn’t be easier to make. This makes a large amount, but it […]
Yes, you can feed your family healthy, organic, non-GMO food and not go bankrupt doing it! Welcome to FYFO-100, where I’ll share how we feed our family of 7 for around $100 a week. Every few days, I’ll share more tips for how we make it work. You can go all-in and learn skills like […]
My elderberry book is now available in a paperback edition! We heard from many people who wanted a physical copy of the book, especially to make use of it while foraging and for the cookbook section. I worked over the past couple of months to create the best possible paperback version, with black and […]
Elderflower season is coming to an end and that means elderberry season is coming soon! Make sure you use some of this year’s elderberry crop to make some elderberry jam and elderberry pie filling, because they’re so wonderful in recipes like elderberry cream cheese cupcakes (and elderberry thumbprint cookies, and elderberry fluff, and elderberry frosting….). […]
If you have soil that’s been contaminated by lead, you know that it’s probably not safe for vegetable gardening and it can also be a hazard to children and pets who play on your property. Lead can be a serious problem in gardens, ponds and wetlands, in addition to posing health risks for growing kids. […]
It’s starting to get to sunburn season! Wearing hats and staying in the shade isn’t really cutting it the way it does the rest of the year, especially if you spend a day at the beach or out in the hot sun. With that said, there are some pretty scary ingredients in even “natural” sunscreens. […]
Houseplants offer lots of benefits to homeowners. They can bring a little green to snowy winter months, they add some cheer and they also are just pretty. One of their best uses, however, is in cleaning indoor air. With our modern, energy-efficient homes and the prevalence of toxins in our manufacturing processes, indoor air […]
Have you heard of elderflower soda? This is a traditional elderflower delicacy that is so popular in Romania that it inspired Coca-Cola to release their own version, Fanta Shokata (though theirs contains no real elderflowers). It is also known as Socată or Suc de Soc. Here’s the recipe to make your own, which is another […]
I’m a big fan of square foot gardening and I use it in my own gardens quite a lot so I was excited to read the recently released Square Foot Gardening: Growing Perfect Vegetables (affiliate link). There are lots of things I liked about this book but also some major drawbacks. PROS: The book […]
Banana peels are some of the best food sources you can give your houseplants and your garden. Yes, you can just toss them in the compost pile, but you can put them to even better use in other ways. Banana peels are full of nutrients that plants need. The Micro Gardener says these include: […]
Think June is too late to start seeds in your garden this year? No way! There are still lots of veggies you can direct seed in your garden. Indeed, many garden plants grow much more happily in June when the soil has warmed up. Some bean varieties mature in as little as 35 days, […]
The recent hot, dry weather has brought a small plague of grasshoppers to my garden for the first time in years, and I’ve been working hard to defeat them. We garden organically and I didn’t want to douse our family’s food sources with pesticides and poisons. Also, they’re just not terribly effective. Timing […]
Store-bought gluten free buns are expensive and generally taste something like dish sponges. The good news is you can easily make your own. This recipe is my go-to recipe for quick gluten-free buns. It’s also egg-free, dairy-free and soy-free (and vegan!), so it’s great for folks with multiple allergies. I tend to make these at […]
I have been making homemade birthday cakes and cupcakes for my kids for almost 20 years now, and they’ve been gluten free for the past 6 years. With five kids, that means that I have baked a lot of birthday cakes and cupcakes! I tried recipe after recipe, with none of them giving me the […]
Few wild edibles are as satisfying to forage as wild asparagus. It’s tasty, prolific, nutritious, and you can gather a huge bounty of it in just the few weeks of its season. Indeed, it grows so fast (many inches per day) that you can sometimes visit the same foraging spots twice a day and still […]
There are so many fantastic wild edibles to forage in May! Many of the best wild foods can only be found this time of year, such as wild asparagus and morels. Greens are still mild and delicious, and more and more favorites are starting to show themselves. Here are 31 wild edible foods to look […]
Here’s another easy recipe from my new book, Elderberries: The Beginner’s Guide to Foraging, Preserving and Using Elderberries for Health Remedies, Recipes, Drinks and More (available now on Kindle and in paperback). This is a beautiful, deep purple schnapps that is so simple to make with either fresh or frozen elderberries. See the directions at […]
Here’s a quick, easy and delicious recipe to make use of elderberry jam that you may have put up. I featured it in my new book, Elderberries: The Beginner’s Guide to Foraging, Preserving and Using Elderberries for Health Remedies, Recipes, Drinks and More, which went live on Amazon at the Kindle store on Friday and […]
I was excited to hear about Rosalee De La Foret’s new book, Alchemy of Herbs*, as the author is part of the Learning Herbs site that I have followed for years. I highly enjoy their blog posts and newsletter for kids about the benefits of plants that you can find in the wild. Our family […]
April is a fantastic time for foraging wild edible foods. The weather is generally beautiful, and it’s great to get back out in the outdoors after a long winter. Greens like dandelions and nettles are tender, mild and at their peak for cooking, teas, salads and medicinal uses. Many of the best wild edibles can […]
Our 9 year-old, Alex, asked last night if we could make mini donuts together for breakfast for everybody today. I said yes, and dug out this recipe that I came up with a few years ago. This is a really easy but delicious recipe that also includes lots of fruit and/or veggies, since each batch […]