Most people (and all gardeners) consider Japanese knotweed to be an aggressive, invasive weed, that crowds out many less vigorous plants. You might wonder what’s wrong with that, survival of the fittest and all, but the truth is that monocultures in nature can be unfortunate things, especially when wildlife depends on diversity in the landscape for food and shelter.
Spring Greens Gratin: Recipe
It’s clean out the freezer time here in Santa Fe! Gotta make room before I can store all the new greens I hope to be harvesting over the next few months. Last night I pulled out two vacuum sealed packets of blanched greens (nettles and garlic mustard) and threw together this spring greens gratin. It was a huge hit, and…
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Foraged Nocino: a Delicious Liqueur Made from Unripe Nuts
While most people think of nocino as a traditional Italian digestif, the recipe actually originated in Britain. The Picts (a Celtic tribe from Scotland) were known to become euphoric after drinking it, and I get that. They harvested green walnuts at the summer solstice, and at the same time celebrated the new green walnut harvest by drinking the previous year’s brew….
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Rumex hymenosepalus and a Wild Rhubarb Jello Recipe
My husband builds model rockets. It’s a perfect hobby for him, one that combines art and science and also lets him get outdoors. I’ve been wanting to go to one of the monthly launches, so last weekend we got in the car at the ungodly hour of 6 am (ungodly because it was Saturday) and headed out to the launch…
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Foraged Filé Gumbo: Recipe
Although I’ve used sassafras twigs and roots for years, I’ve only recently started using the dried, ground leaves of sassafras, better known as filé. Yup, the filé in filé gumbo is dried, ground sassafras leaves. You can buy it in good spice stores, but if you’ve got access to sassafras trees, there’s no reason not to make your own foraged…
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