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 [...]
traditional remedies from the garden: stinging nettle infusion with mint & clover
August 31, 2011 By 1 Comment
Roots, Berries, Bark & Flowers: An Old-fashioned Recipe for Root Beer
August 2, 2011 By 15 Comments
There’s an old-fashioned charm to homemade root beer with its odd array of roots and bark, flowers, leaves and berries. It, like many other fermented beverages, once enjoyed position as a staple of American cookery. Water, as you know, was not always potable and raw milk, small beers, cider, perry and other fermented beverages were [...]
don’t waste garden thinnings: a recipe for braised whole baby beets
July 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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
June 7, 2011 By 1 Comment
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 [...]
plant a salsa garden
May 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Salsa gardens have been popping up in four-feet by four-feet plots and raised beds in the yards of salsa lovers across the country. Striking in their visual appeal, large plants heavy with tomatoes and brightly colored hot peppers stand tall while cilantro, shallots, garlic and onion nestle into the soil among them, and in one plot [...]
a recipe: triple beet salad with basil and olive oil
October 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Beet salad with fresh basil and olive oil, sweet and fresh and earthy, becomes the center of our supper tables in late summer and early autumn when both beets and basil appear at market in abundance. Farmers sell half-pound bags of fragrant Genovese and Violetta basil for as little as four dollars, and you can [...]
A Recipe: Homemade Horseradish
July 6, 2010 By 15 Comments
Homemade horseradish found its way to our table this week, and it’s hot – painfully hot, pleasurably hot, perfectly hot. When fresh horseradish root appears at market, which is rarely, I fight my way to it – elbowing into the stand before the other Weston A Price Foundation and fermentation enthusiasts in my community can [...]
10 Culinary Herbs & Their Medicinal Uses
June 6, 2010 By 20 Comments
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).
Maple-glazed Root Vegetables
December 18, 2009 By 8 Comments
Maple-glazed root vegetables, slightly sweet, and a charming accompaniment to winter time suppers, satisfy and nourish. In our home we love to combine fresh, crisp and local carrots and parsnips with clarified butter and organic, grade B maple syrup for a nourishing side. Well-suited to lamb and pork, this side dish is easily prepared and [...]
Lovage Soup for Spring
Moroccan Preserved Lemons
campfire roast chicken with flowering onion and dill
Our Daily Bread: No-knead Sourdough
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