Wild Food - Foraging

Rosemary Apple Sauce – Paleo – Instant Pot

October 4, 2016

I gotta give my Instant Pot credit for renewing my love for homemade apple sauce. It’s sooooo easy to make apple sauce in the Instant Pot that it becomes a crime not to take advantage of all the free apples I have growing in our little orchard! We get hundreds of pounds of apples from our trees each year, and each year we do our best to harvest bushels of them which end up being made into hard apple cider, fresh apple juice, apple pies, applesauce, and add them to cheese & cracker snack plates. Of all the things we do with the apples, making apple sauce and fresh juice are the easiest!

There is something so magical about eating food you’ve watched develop from a delicate blossom to a delicious fruit, picked the fruit with your own hands, and used to create delicious recipes you and your family can enjoy! Being apart of the cycle of growing and enjoying nutrient dense organic foods is one of my favorite ways to celebrate life!!…

GingerRoot Rendezvous – A Wild Food Adventure

August 5, 2016

One of the most magical & informative wild food foraging adventures I have ever experienced was in June when I attended the Ginger Root Rendezvous Wild Food Adventure 4 day camp-out and workshop taught by Dr. John Kallas. This event takes place every summer in Silverton, Oregon. The extended weekend event is dedicated to being out in the field, learning how to correctly identify and prepare wild foods, and celebrating how tasty wild foods can be with a shared dinner each night. In this post I am going to share a little snippet of the highlights of the weekend, including some of the wild plants we learned about, but you will have to get yourselves out to Silverton, Oregon next summer if you want to know EVERYTHING this intensive wild food weekend entails!
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Blackberry Balsamic Pizza Sauce and Garden Veggie Pizza

July 27, 2016

It’s late July, and here in Oregon, the blackberries are ripe, juicy and ready for picking! Blackberries are well know for making a delightful pie, but did you also know they make a fabulous base for a nightshade-free pizza pie sauce! The pairing of blackberries + balsamic + basil + goat cheese = quite a divine tasty pizza! My recipe for blackberry balsamic pizza sauce topped with fresh garden veggies is currently being featured over at SoFabFood.com. And be sure to check out my favorite low carb pizza crust recipe which makes the perfect thin and crispy, yet slightly soft and chewy pizza crust.

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Serviceberry – Saskatoon Berry – “Wild Blueberry” Pie

July 26, 2016

Wild Serviceberry Pie is one of my most favorite pies, EVER. Serviceberries, also called Saskatoon Berries, and June Berries, taste like a blueberry mixed with wild huckleberry. And the flavors really come out and dance when these berries are heated up. Once slice of this wild berry pie, and you will see why I consider serviceberry pie to be the ultimate rustic wild fruit pie! Bonus – I believe the serviceberries have a high pectin content as the pie filling thickens up so nicely without needing to added thickeners or starches. …

Edible Wildflower Salad

July 8, 2016

There is something so magical about collecting and eating wildflowers that just makes me happy!! How can you not be happy on a cool early summer morning spent outdoors in a field of wildflowers!! And the best thing about the flowers being featured in this edible wildflower salad is the are very likely already growing in your yard! In our yard we’ve got wild pea flowers, Oxeye Daisies, golden California Poppies in bloom right now, and if you don’t have a large yard, you can just as easily collect these flowers in a park or alongside a country road. Just wander in off the road a bit to avoid picking next to the road where they might have sprayed pesticides….

Wild Elderflower Fritters

June 17, 2016

There is something so magical about being able to take a leisurely morning hike in the woods to pick your breakfast!! It’s mid June here in the Oregon Coast Range and the blue elderberry plants are in full bloom! And so are the “wild” feral pie cherries growing along the countryside, one of my most favorite fruits, which I also picked for this meal! But the true star of this recipe is the blossoms of the wild blue elderberry plant. So yes, when you eat the blossoms you are eating potential fruit, but where I live elderberries grow in such abundance, it’s hardly noticed that I’ve made breakfast from a few of the blossoms. I use the “blue elderberry” blossoms, which are actually white, as the red elderberries are said to be somewhat toxic to humans (this info varies based on which source you check). And the red elderberries are also said to be less palatable for this reason too. I should also note that it I’ve read there is some cyanide-inducing glycoside in the blue elderberry stems and leaves, but the berries and blossoms are edible, and as you surf the web you will find endless testimonies of people enjoying elderflower fritters with no ill effect. Most seem to also consider the tiny stem fragments that hold the blossoms together harmless, so I just cut off or eat around the larger stems.

I first learned about making wild edible elderflower fritters and pancakes from my most favorite wild food adventure book, “Foraging the Mountain West” I highly recommend this wild food guide whether foraging in your own neighborhood or for taking along on summer camping trips. We take this book on every outdoor adventure we go on! And from this book I have learned tons of neat tricks and tips on how to enjoy the bounty of wild foods that are growing all around us everyday!

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Natural Cold Remedy: Douglas Fir Tip Tea (or spruce tip tea)

May 18, 2016

One of my favorite remedies for a spring cold is a hot mug of wild picked Douglas fir tip tea. You can also pick the spring tips (new growth) off of pine, spruce, and hemlock trees for your tea. I use Doug fir since we have so many Douglas fir trees on our property. We even have one within reach from our back deck, and that is the one I made this tea from when I was recently hit with a nasty little spring cold. I am pretty lucky when it comes to avoiding most cold and flues that are going around, but I was not so lucky this spring!

To make a cup of fir tip tea all you need is a small handful of tips, hot water, and I like to add in a cinnamon stick and a little honey. As both cinnamon and honey are said to be helpful in fighting a cold too. And the honey can help soothe a sore throat, and cinnamon is credited with being an expectorant.

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Foraging Wild Greens for Miners Lettuce Salad

May 15, 2016

I am sharing some photos one of my most favorite places on earth. I feel so incredibly blessed every time I step foot into this little oasis, that it just happens to be right outside out back door. Our dogs also love to explore our woodsy backyard with me any chance they get. This hidden away natural habitat on the backside of our property has oak, cedar and Douglas fir trees, wild edible greens (including Miners Lettuce as featured in the recipe below), wild strawberries, Indian plums, wild flowers, and is a popular haven for the local wildlife including elk, deer, coyote, bobcat, and a wide variety of birds.

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Low Carb Breakfast Hash Browns – paleo

April 28, 2016

When you first go Paleo, SCD, GAPS, Starch-free and/or Low Carb, I think potatoes are one of the first things that you really notice missing from your dinner plate. At least for me I was feeling pretty potato deprived when I first started SCD six years ago, but I gottta say, I have been pretty darn successful at living without them over the years! They don’t even tempt me even more. Now potatoes just look like a tasteless blob of starch compared to all the other flavorful nutrient dense veggies I have learned to replace them with. Meet my new flavorful low carb breakfast hash coming to a plate near you!

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Dandelion and Lemon Paleo Cupcakes

April 7, 2016

Have you been wondering what to do with all of those bright and cheerful dandelions growing in your yard this spring? Why not turn them into these delicious gluten-free, dandelion and lemon paleo cupcakes!! These light and delicious cupcakes remind me a bit of a moist banana bread, but with more of a wild side!

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Wild Nettle Pesto over Paleo Pasta

March 25, 2016

We are enjoying the first few days of spring here in Oregon and you know what that means, Nettles!! The young tender stinging nettle leaves are ready for picking. We are pretty lucky to have a stream running through our property where the nettles love to thrive. If you go out looking for stinging nettles your best bet is to look in healthy ecosystems near creeks and ravines, where they are often growing within a short distance, as they do like being near water. Early spring is prime picking time to pick the plants for the optimum nutrient benefits, and if using for food it is said you want to harvest the leaves before the plant goes to seed. I always do my best to pick lightly in an area to leave enough of whatever I am picking for the wildlife to also enjoy and to assure future generations of the plants and seeds with thrive. With nettles I pick from the tender top leaves, leaving behind the bottom leaves and remainder of the plant.

Because nettles have little hairs on them that contain formic acid, and truly do sting, I wear gloves when I pick them. I also pick in a way where I grab the top of the leave and fold it over itself to help reduce contact with the stingy hairs under the leaves and along the stem. That said, I do always allow myself to get a few little stings on purpose on the back of my hand just to make a connection with the plant and the earth, and it makes me that much more alive. It has also been noted through history that the stinging nettle can be helpful in the treatment of arthritis when used topically in raw stringing form, or ingested after being cooked or taking extractions. A quick blanching of 60 seconds in hot water will remove all the ouchy stinging parts and make them safe to eat. I have read that drying nettles will do the same. In the photo below you can see those tiny yet potent little stinging hairs long the stalk and stem. Wild nettle has a nutty taste and is a bit like spinach, and I actually prefer the taste of cooked nettles over spinach.

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Celery Root Puree with Truffle and Leek

February 3, 2016

Hello Comfort Food. This celery root puree with truffle and leek is quickly becoming a winter comfort food favorite at my house.

Below is a photo I took just steps from our front door, in a neighboring forest of 20 to 40 year old Doug Fir trees where wild truffles come to life here in the Oregon coast range. I was lucky enough to have a professional truffle hunter, Goose the black lab, and his owner Kelly, lead us to find wild truffles in this forest a few winters ago. Since then, I have been working on training our black lab, Jack, to hunt for truffles too.

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Summer Salad with Toasted Wild Plum Pit Nuts

August 27, 2015

How to harvest Wild Plum Pit “Nuts” and feature them in a delicious summer salad!

This salad reminds me of mountain range. It starts off with a peak of fresh summer lettuce greens tossed in a a floral vinaigrette made from cherry pits and white wine vinegar that seriously tastes like cherry blossoms, mix in sliced wild plums, crisp cucumber, radishes, wild huckleberries, toasted wild plum pit “nuts”, finally crumble on a little goat cheese to cascade down like snow. This is my theme salad for this summer. We eat variations of this salad many times a week….

Plum Ketchup

August 26, 2015

I love using other fruits to replace tomatoes as it eliminates the need for adding extra sugars. When you read the label on a bottle of ketchup you will find: tomato paste, corn syrup or sugar, water, vinegar, dried onion, allspice, cloves. So I just cut out the tomatoes and added sugars and use plums in their place. The additional flavors of allspice and cloves bring it all home. I love using this ketchup as a dipping sauce for my kohlrabi fritters and cream puffs, and for my sesame chicken recipe. It also goes great over my bison meatloaf recipe.

I had to quit tomatoes 5 years ago while on the SCD intro diet when I experienced a ton of inflammation after having cut them out for a few weeks and later re-introducing them. Since then, I have been looking for the perfect ketchup replacement. Over the years I have come up with tomato-free Cherry BBQ Sauce, Huckleberry BBQ Sauce, and Strawberry Balsamic Pizza Sauce (all of these recipes are in my cookbook), and finally I can say I have a Ketchup that is just as good, and I think even better than the real thing! If you are looking for homemade mustard, mayo, and bbq sauces that are SCD, starch-free, and night-shade free, check out my cookbook.

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Wild Mushroom Pizza – Grain Free – Low Carb

August 21, 2015

Pizza!! With Goat Cheese and Wild Mushrooms!! And Herb Pesto. Need I say anything else!!?? Seriously, this pizza rocks. It has killer flavor, authentic pizza texture, and it’s loaded with goat cheese. Hello to the return of weekend pizza nights with this Grain-free, Low-Carb, Nut-free PIZZA!! …

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