New recipe on the blog, meant to take in the flavours of the season. Fermented Gazpacho, with flavour spikes from fused olive oil from Blue Door in Calgary, and flavoured vinegar from my wee garden patch. A nourishing probiotic-rich cold soup for the dog days of summer!
Read moreMONDAY BASICS: put up the harvest.
It's that time of the year, my dear. The time where the apples start to fall from the tree, where the abundance in your garden is gaining speed and you just can't keep up. It's the time when the price of produce is at its best, and local or BC-grown produce is within reach! The blog post today is meant to inspire you to take full advantage of Mother Nature's bounty and gifts, and to celebrate this most wonderful time of the year. Friends, it's time to put up the harvest. (In small batches. Do-able things. Easy things. Delicious things. One good thing at a time. Your future-winter-self will thank you.)
Read moreMONDAY BASICS: Add Nettle to Meals
Welcome to Monday. This week is St. Patrick's Day, and as I have some Irish roots, I did indeed aim to think green for this week's #mondayhealthbasics blog post. My week got off to a roaring start with a thoughtful gift from one of my sisters, a book from boreal herbalist wunderkind Beverley Gray called The Boreal Herbal: Wild Food and Medicine Plants of the North – a Guide to Harvesting, Preserving and Preparing. Oh the joy. Oh the possibilities!
Leafing through the book last night, I zoned in on the Stinging Nettle, or Urtica dioica. Yes yes yes, the same plant that gives you the very intense zing-like needling you would experience were you to chance upon a patch without knowing it. This perennial plant runs wild in almost every nook and cranny of this planet where there are wetter areas or where the soil has been disturbed. It loves rich damp soil. And seeing as spring seems to be just around the corner, it will be one of the first wild plants that will pop up for early harvesting.
SUPER CHARGED HOT CHOCOLATE BECAUSE... snow. and pumpkins.
Not sure what it's like where you are today, but the snow showed up this morning here in our part of the world. At school drop off this morning, had a chance for a quick visit and chat with a few parents and we got to talking hot chocolate. And coffee. And tea. And all things warming. And I thought well it's high time we figure out a way to make some yummy hot chocolate that can impart some superpowers in the process. (*not documented nor measured superpowers yet. The lab results haven't come in yet...) Enter: THE SUPER CHARGED HOT CHOCOLATE.
Read moreA MONTH OF PUTTING UP THE HARVEST - A Compendium
Here, for you my harvest-loving friend, is a compendium of how I managed to stash the summer treats for winter eats. May you eat like a queen or king all fall and winter long, what with this bounty within arms reach here in Alberta. And continue on with your Putting Up the Harvest Efforts! The season has only just begun. Go deal hunting at your favourite local farmers market; pick up a few bags of locally grown produce while out at the grocery store; by supporting local and stashing for the winter months, you are contributing to the local economy, packing in the local bounty, vitamins and minerals, and supporting a smaller scale producer and inadvertently upping the nutritional ante of your meals, nutrients-wise. Bon appetit! And share this page with ones you think may need some harvesting-kick-in-the-pants. Now, GO PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD!
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