Tag: Wild Craft

Condiments, Recipes

Black Currant, Blueberry & Wild Bergamot Syrup

Kristine

Updated May 20, 2022

Summer is in full swing in Michigan, which means fresh berries and herbs are available in abundance. I love to make various preserves throughout the season so that I have a few jars to give as gifts to friends & family and some wonderful treats to enjoy myself during the long winter months.

This delicious, unique simple syrup combines some of my favorite flavors of these lovely summer months. Blueberries are a familiar favorite and the addition of black currants and wild bergamot gives this syrup a tasty twist.

Black currants are not extremely popular, at least in this area, and can be a bit tricky to find. If you’re lucky, you might be able to get them at a farmer’s market or find a fruit farm that will let you pick them yourself. We are fortunate enough to have a great orchard nearby where we can pick these tasty berries. If possible, growing your own is a great option. If you can’t find black currants and still want to make this recipe, just substitute an equal amount of blueberries. The currants add a unique flavor, but blueberry-bergamot syrup is also lovely.

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Herb Profiles

Delightful Dandelion

Kristine

Updated May 14, 2022

Dandelion (Taraxacum officiale) has a bad reputation with lawn lovers, who often obsessively attempt to eradicate it from their well-groomed grassy patches. But, for herbalists, foragers, and plant lovers, this common weed is a delight as it is edible, medicinal, and a valuable source of food for insects.

Dandelions are truly one of my favorite plants and I get so excited when I see them starting to come up each year. I love our dandelion packed yard and can’t help but cringe when I see people mowing down or spraying pesticides over big patches of them. Aside from being so cheerful and adorable, they are incredibly useful. In fact, all parts of the plant can be utilized in making food and medicine.

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Herb Profiles

Purple Dead Nettle: More than an Invasive Plant

Kristine

Updated May 20, 2022

Purple Dead Nettle (Lamium Purpureum) is a lovely and useful herbaceous plant. It grows abundantly around our site in Southwest, Michigan and I see it popping up all over this area. It can be found throughout the US, Canada, and many other parts of the world. This hardy weed thrives in lawns, roadsides, and can grow in a variety of conditions. It is also frost tolerant. It is most commonly found growing in loamy or sandy soils, but will also do well in clay soils. It is an self-seeding annual. Each plant produces lots of seeds (it’s estimated to be several hundred to several thousand) and those seeds can germinate year round.

Purple dead nettle is considered to be an “invasive species” due to its ability to thrive and reproduce in many environments. In fact, much of the literature available on this plant is geared towards methods of eradication, including pulling up the herb to control its population. It is interesting to note that purple dead nettle seeds germinate better when the soil is disturbed. “Invasive” plants like purple dead nettle often grow in places where humans have disrupted the natural balance.  These plants are simply trying to restore equilibrium to their environment. When we pull and spray these plants we are further disturbing the areas where they grow and actually increasing their ability to return and spread.

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Herb Profiles

Violet (Viola odorata)

Kristine

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Updated April 24, 2022

Violets are one of the first plants to come up in the spring, bringing a pop of cheery color to the forest floor as it wakes from its winter slumber. In addition to being incredibly beautiful, these lovely little plants have a variety of uses in food, medicine, and skin care.

There are over 200 species in the Violaceae family that can be found growing abundantly in temperate and tropical areas all across the world. In North America, the violets start appearing in late February and generally bloom by the end of April.

In this post, I’ll be discussing, Viola odorata, which grows in the Midwest region of the United States, where I currently reside.

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Wild Craft

Foraging Spring Edibles

Kristine

Spring is my favorite time for a walk in the woods. I love seeing everything come back to life and explode into green again. One of the very best things about spring though is the great opportunity it provides for foraging and wild crafting some fantastic wild foods. Finding and harvesting wild food is a great way to get outside, learn more about nearby the forests and fields,  and to enjoy unique, fresh foods.

Though foraging for your own food may seem daunting, it’s actually really easy to do. Many of the woods, fields, and riversides by your home will be full of plants that you never realized were edible. When I go anywhere where wild plants are allowed to grow, I am on the lookout for wild edibles (even if I won’t have the chance to forage them). You would be surprised to see the many places that food grows. You probably have some food growing in your front yard right now.

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Main Dish, Recipes

Spicy Nettle & Tofu Soup

Kristine
Updated February 26, 2022

This past winter was long and cold — as Midwest winters often are. To cope, I cooked a lot of soup for about five months straight. Now that the weather has been warmer, I have been taking a break from this comforting dish. But, some chillier temps and cool spring rains have had me craving a warm bowl of soup again.

This light, spicy soup utilizes one of my favorite foraged springtime greens, nettle. Fresh nettle greens are quite delicious and extremely nutritious. But, if you don’t have any or don’t know where to get them, you can substitute any other spring greens you have on hand, like spinach, chard, collards or kale.

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