Passing on traditional skills like foraging, cooking from scratch and living well on less
This article was originally published in Daryl’s Cooking with Kids column at examiner.com in September, 2013. Some links are affiliate links, meaning we get a small commission on purchases made through our links. Making fresh applesauce is something every kid should get to do. We are lucky enough to know several people with apple trees, […]
Here’s one of my favorite ways to use wild ramps, and you can use it to enjoy the wonderful flavor of ramps all year long. Dry the leaves and grind them with coarse sea salt for a simple but delicious wild ramp salt. Simply dry wild ramp leaves until crisp and then put them in […]
Since next to nothing is fresh in the garden or the wild in winter in this part of the country, this is the time we rely on the root cellar and pantry. Canned, dried, frozen and root cellar foods are all staples for winter cooking for our family, including lots of wild foods we foraged […]
This past year was a pretty good year for foraging for our family. We foraged several hundred pounds of wild foods total, including some that were new to us. We also foraged quite a nice variety of wild foods and medicinal plants — 35 different kinds! We foraged in our own back yard, in parks, […]
I have experience with pressure canning but I’m always happy to find new recipes and learn more. When I got an opportunity to read a temporary digital Advanced Reader Copy of the new book, Modern Pressure Canning by Amelia Jeanroy, I was happy to check it out. While this book has basic information to get […]
It’s mulberry season! Whether you have a mulberry tree in your back yard or local park or you have generous friends or neighbors, these sweet treats are all over right now. There are so many reasons to gather mulberries. First of all, they’re incredibly healthy. Mulberries are loaded with nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals and […]
We were thrilled when Daryl brought home two big bags of chicken of the woods mushrooms yesterday. While we harvest lots of pheasant back (dryad’s saddle) mushrooms and morels, this is our first time finding chicken of the woods and I was so excited as I’ve heard for years how much they taste like chicken […]
Whether you have buckets of wild mulberries or an excess of peaches that you can’t possibly eat in time, fruit leather is a fabulous way to make use of it. Fruit leather is wonderfully simple and you can customize each batch with whatever fruits you have and flavors you’re craving. Not only is fruit […]
Lots of fruits and vegetables are in season in February, and it’s still also possible to eat local foods with a little bit of creativity. Why eat foods that are in season? It pays to eat foods that are in season — to help save money, to help the environment, to get the freshest […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Mint is one of those workhorses of the garden. Once you plant it, your hardest job is keeping it from overtaking everything else in the yard and figuring out what to do with it all. It grows easily in most of the country and robustly returns to even the coldest gardens every spring, where it […]
(Note: This post was originally published many years ago in my green living column on examiner. I’ve since published a book with lots more information on finding and processing acorns via hot water processing and cold water processing, tips and tricks, and with 70+ recipes to use acorn flour. You can read more about the […]
Spruce tips are wonderful spring edibles that are not only tasty and unique, but also great for us. They are rich in Vitamin C and have been used traditionally for years to soothe coughs and sore throats, as well as to alleviate lung congestion and to treat lung and kidney infections. Best of all, they’re […]
Mulberries are some of the greatest wild edibles to forage. They’re nutritious, delicious and easy to gather. Most kids find them irresistible too. Mulberry trees can be found in parks, woods and neighborhoods all over the U.S. and the berries and trees are easy to identify. When you find one tree, you’ll start seeing them […]
Fall is hitting early and with a vengeance (we’ve had frost warnings the past two nights) and we’re picking a lot of tomatoes right away that we’d otherwise harvest in waves. Some will still be not-quite-ripe or even green (it’s been a strange growing season), but that’s okay. If they’re close to ripe, just leave […]
Have you ever walked through a park in the fall and stumbled over what looks like green tennis balls? Are you ready to make use of the black walnuts you see scattered all over your neighborhood? Gathering them is easy, and you’ll have a stash of delicious and nutritious treats when you’re finished. Finding the […]
It’s August, and farmer’s markets and roadside stands are full of fresh sweet corn. It’s delicious, of course, but it also can be very expensive if you want enough to put some away in the freezer. Fortunately there’s a simple solution. Ask. Quite often, the corn they have for sale there is the freshest corn […]