Yarrow Greens, Cottonwood Buds, Redbud Flowers & Chickweed
April 9-20
9 I enjoyed the young greens of Yarrow today, chopped finely and added raw to other spring greens. They are slightly bitter, but still tasty.
Oak Nut Marzipan
10 Oak nut marzipan (keep this frozen as a favorite dessert to surprise your guests).
11 Eye wash: I had an eye infection and tested boiling Oregon Grape root and Dogwood twigs for 20 minutes, straining, and using a dropper to place a few drops in my eye, every few hours. Both are reportedly good for eye infections and it definitely helped. I also soaked a cloth in the external tea and then pressed it against the eye (like a poultice).
12 I boiled cottonwood buds for 20 minutes and drank the tea internally as support in fighting my eye infection. It is antimicrobial and actually has a delicious taste as a tea.
13 More Manzanita Cider! This is currently my favorite beverage of choice. Simmer 4 cups leftover seeds/skin from making Manzanita sugar to 12 cups water for 20 minutes.
Cottonwood Buds
14 Cottonwood Buds These are also supposed to be an amazing dye plant to make a yellow dye. We are starting a dye project in cooperation with artists to keep testing native plants useful for dyes and paints. More to come on this soon.; My family enjoyed Wild Granola for breakfast with Oak Nut flour and Manzanita Sugar.
15 Wild Celery I’m still finding the stalks which I love adding to salad or munching on while hiking.
Redbud Flowers
16 Redbud flowers! The trees are finally blossoming at our elevation of about 2200’. They are so beautiful and so delicious on salads. I also love them for cornbread.
17 Bill McKibben event. Bill McKibben, introduced by local poet Gary Snyder, gave us the reality and the inspiration to keep “connecting the dots” on changes in our climate and positive actions we can each take to make a difference. For me, eating and growing wild foods offers a specific action that reduces carbon and minimizes water-use since many of the plants are drought-tolerant and designed to thrive in this landscape. Wild foods provide food security and bring us closer to a sustainable relationship with the earth. We served about 200 people– the largest wild food catering that I’ve done thus far. The menu included Manzanita Cider, Manzanita Muffins with dried Elderberries (prepared by Flour Garden, Grass Valley), Oak Nut Marzipan and California Bay Ice Cream (prepared by Treats, Nevada City).
18 Manzanita Muffins(yummy leftovers from last night!)
