traditional remedies from the garden: stinging nettle infusion with mint & clover

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Stinging nettle infusion spiked with mint and red clover found its way to my kitchen counter by chance this summer where its deep green, inky hue is now desperately loved. Yes, like most of you real food lovers, I’m a fan of the legendary herbalist Susun Weed.  And though her Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year  sits [...]

don’t waste garden thinnings: a recipe for braised whole baby beets

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I always feel a little lost, a little wasteful when it’s time to thin my garden as though all those little plants, doing their best to grow in our very rocky mountain soil, are being plucked early with no chance of reaching their potential.  It’s a curious thought, but I’m known for being particularly sentimental when [...]

Weeds on the Kitchen Table: Wilted Dandelion Greens with Toasted Mustard Seed

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Dandelion greens, like all greens, love fat.  Their robust bitterness and peppery undertones are muted, to some degree, by the liquid smoothness of unrefined olive oil or – even better – the smokiness of a good quality bacon fat, free of added nitrates and nitrites and produced from hogs raised outdoors and under a vibrant [...]

Unexpected Gardens and the Charm of a Quiet Revolution

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Unexpected gardens, quiet and unassuming, are sprouting from patches and beds, abandoned lots and school yards across the country, and it seems a revolution is underway – a charming revolution, one that gives purpose to small children and the elderly and enriches the live of rich and poor alike.  The sowing of a seed in [...]

Five Spring-weather Crops that Do Great in Containers

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It may be officially spring, but here in the heart of ski country, we woke to six inches of fluffy white powder and my heart has begun to ache for bees, for the sweat of the summer sun and, undoubtedly, for something green.  I itch for the view from our plot in the community garden, [...]

A Recipe: Fresh Fig & Yogurt Tart with Almond Crust

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A fresh fig tart, earthy and mildly sweet, is a hard thing to resist.  And when fresh figs are paired with honeyed yogurt and almond meal, it’s even harder to resist, especially for four-year-old fingers.   So when we made this fresh fig tart, filling an almond flour tart shell with honey-sweetened strained yogurt and slices [...]

Recipe: Roast Lamb with Olives, Lemon & Fresh Oregano

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Roast lamb is, without a doubt, one of our very favorite dishes.  In the spring we serve it with young vegetables: carrots, English peas, parsnips and fennel, but we’ve recently started serving it with Greek-inspired ingredients: olives, lemon, garlic and oregano.  And it is heavenly.  There is nothing quite light the vibrant perfume and flavor [...]

10 Culinary Herbs & Their Medicinal Uses

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Over the past few weekends, the snow has cleared from the high country (yes … it takes that long for winter to recede up here), and what time I’ve had that hasn’t been occupied by the online cooking class (there’s still time to register, you stragglers …), I’ve spent planting my new herb garden. My porch is littered with fragrant terra cotta and glazed ceramic pots, bursting with charming herbs: rosemary, rose geranium, sweet bay, peppermint, spearmint, curly parsley, flat leaf parsley, dill, sweet basil and violetta basil, thyme and chives and nasturtiums. I think wistfully about finding French tarragon, stevia for teas, marjoram and sweet cicely (for its charming name alone).

Video: Pestos and Fruit & Nut Snack Bars

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In this bonus lesson for How to Cook Real Food, the online cooking class hosted at Nourished Kitchen, you’ll receive a quick, sneak-peak into the cooking class through this brief video covering how to properly prepare nuts and seeds including recipes for a basic pesto sauce and a basic fruit and nut snack bar. Please [...]

Soaking Grains: Top 5 Reader Questions Answered

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Soaking grains, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds is a traditional practice that can positively impact the nutritional qualities of these foods for those who consume them. Grains, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds can all add great value and variety to the diet, yet they contain antinutrients – particularly phytates and enzyme inhibitors – which detract [...]