Spirit Of Nature – Wild Food Foraging

This spring (and most springs) I do my best to use the local, fresh wild foods growing around me – it’s one of the main reasons I choose to live in the country. There is an abundance of clean water as well as lots to harvest at any time of the year.

This weekend is the May Day holiday – for me it has been celebrated already with a fire ceremony on Wednesday – but the weekend will be nice too. The way I am choosing to honour the spirit of this month of Bealtaine this year is to….

Bring more of the Spirit of Nature back into our bodies – and I plan on doing this by completely wild foraging our greens for the next few days. I actually have next to no vegetables in the house right now and will not be buying anything…..

They are over-rated anyway!!! LOL But, I am quite serious here….

So….as you may have guessed, I have been foraging quite a bit already this spring. Finding nearly anything and everything that is edible around me (nettle, dandelion, wild garlic, sorrel) – both in my garden as well as growing wild.

I am now hoping to take this a little bit further afield so to speak – and see what else I can find close by that will fit nicely with our meat or fish over these coming days.

Basically the challenge is to find enough greens (wild) to accompany meals for 4 people, 2 dogs and one ‘I’ll try anything once’ (just once) cat. The rest of the animals are already great at foraging out in the back garden…

Besides, the birds do it – and they manage. You can even raise a fully grown horse on grass and pasture…so at the very least, we should be able to find enough for a few days to supplement our meals, and make a tasty diversion!

Either way… eating like this has got me thinking (once again!) about this entire vegetable growing/eating, get your 5-a-day mentality. If we were eating wild harvest, even some of the time – you don’t need 5-a-day….

These plants are so rich and abundant in minerals, vitamins, phytonutrients, energy and spirit – we hardly need anything else. It’s no wonder we are all so depleted – eating vegetables and fruits grown in hot houses, under plastic, and devoid of nature is not, well, natural.

Our guts are not designed for that kind of lifeless food (it’s not really living is it?) and our tissues are waiting in hope for something real, natural and wild. This leaves a whole lot to consider with regards to this supermarket lifestyle we are encouraged to follow…

April

Does she look like she is smiling to you?? Me too!!

Homemade Shampoo – Lavender & Nettle

For years I have made my own shampoo – however I haven’t really thought to talk about it on this blog because, well, it’s a foodie focus and I didn't really put shampoo into the same category. Then this week as I was making up a fresh batch for us to use, it occurred to me as I poured nettle into the mix, shampoo IS also a foodie thing.

Sort of.

By now I hope you can see (I have certainly changed my mind about a few points when it comes to food!) how pretty well everything can be made at home, it’s generally better then something bought in a shop and for far less money.

Of course, my first comment on this is to also mention – you can also make it your own way. And that to me is always the greatest satisfaction. I love it when I can put my own spin, taste or scents into something.

It’s kind of a signature thing - just like your own energy field. 

Shampoo for me is no different and such a simple item to make at home. It really is just a few ingredients – blend them together and give it a shake when ever you want to use it (no binders or preservatives to make it all neat and uniform).

Yet, that is precisely what I love about it – life is not neat and tidy nor should it be uniform. And your own shampoo should not contain toxins which sit on your head soaking into your skin (brain?) all day long.

So – I make my own. To do this I grate down castile soap into flakes while heating pure spring water in the kettle. Then I pour boiling water over top of the flakes to melt them.

Next I decide what kind of shampoo I would like and I prepare the extract from some herbs such as nettle and lavender this time around. But I also like rose, chamomile, mint and rosemary as well.

These extracts go into the mixture which is by now in a ceramic bowl and I then add a few drops of pure oil or herbal essence from a plant. To make this shampoo today, I put in a few drops of lavender oil along with the nettle infusion.

I let the mixture cool down, pour it into a bottle and then give it a good shake. It makes a low suds lather and leaves your hair feeling refreshed and nice. But you know what is even better?

You feel great because there is not one thing going into your skin or energy field that is toxic or harmful in any way.

April

Stewed Apple & Nettle Soup

These past few days have been great for our annual ritual gathering weeds or more specifically these glorious nettles and dandelions. They are sprouting everywhere and just asking to become part of our journey each spring.

We have collected pots of them usually early in the morning when they are at their best (and so are we!), not only for us to eat in our food but also for the animals. They are great for our laying geese and ducks as well as for our milking goats.

Nettles and dandelions are also chocked full of all the minerals and vitamins needed at the moment for us to gently surge ahead in better health. And when they are young such as this time of year – they taste a little like spinach.

Usually I just make soups and stews with nettles while I add dandelion raw to salads but also stir fry it with onions, garlic and anything else I have on hand here. However like any other vegetables, nettles can be quite versatile and I plan on making a few different dishes with them in the coming days.

Today I made a pot of nettle tea with some fresh nettles – but instead of throwing out the greens afterwards (or giving them to the geese) I added them to my already cooking soup. Nothing need be wasted when it comes to great herbs!

So now I have a pot of vegetable soup that turned into nettle soup….

To make any kind of soup or stew with nettles – pick some first (the tops are enough) wash and cut the leaves off if you want. Add the leaves to your hot water or even a soup already cooked – just boil it a little longer to soften and blanch the nettles.

Once my soup was ready – with vegetables and loads of nettle – I decided to add some flavour for my taste tester with some stewed apples stirred in at the end. The nettles and apples are a perfect combination or sweet and earthy flavours.

Milk, cheese or yogurt works very well here too. No time to get a picture of the soup - it was gone too fast....!

April 

Goats feta cheese hanging to drip out the whey

Spring Nettle & Vegetable Detox Soup - Strengthen Body & Energy Field

This is the time of year when the baby nettles are in full growth – but not yet gone into flower. These lovely herbs are one of natures gifts to us during our spring time detox to cleanse the blood, boost our iron and minerals as well as strengthen the energy field.

I have long used this herb in conjunction with a few others to help myself and clients bring back a damaged or broken energy field as well as to enable energy blocks and stuck areas to move up to re-pattern.

Nettle is a versatile, healthy, natural and energetic marvel of the Universe when it comes to healing herbs. I use it for everything from feeding my goats their mash, in soups and stews, herbal teas, vegetarian rennet for cheese making, herbal medicine – have I left anything out?

The growing tips and stems can easily be harvested by simply taking a pair of scissors and cutting about 10 cm off the top of each plant in a nettle patch. This way, they will regrow quickly and you get the best leaves for cooking and eating.

I like my nettle mixed in with vegetables when I make a light detox soup – I usually only have a few ingredients in this type of meal but it also depends on what I have on hand to be used up. So, you can be very creative here....

Most vegetables are healthy and healing so throw in what you have! LOL

Today I started out by washing my nettles, removing any leaves that had brown or black edges on them and then letting them sit in water to clear out any bugs or dirt. These are to be added to the soup only for the final 10 minutes of cooking.

Then I sautéd some onions, fresh baby leeks from the garden, garlic and spices (I used ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, salt and pepper) in a little water and olive oil. I like the flavour they give to any soup or stew.

Next I chopped, sliced and diced a few vegetables I had on hand – today I had pumpkin, fennel and carrots – these were all added into a small pot with some water and a few pieces of seaweed.

I let the vegetables cook until softened and then added the sautéd onion mixture (top up a little more water if needed). This cooked for another 10 minutes and then the nettles were added.

I like to leave the soup to cook only long enough to soften and take away the sting from the nettles. Cooking too long would also destroy some of their health benefits –so 7 to 10 minutes more is long enough.

Once the soup was done – I turned it off and let cool for a while - I blended it a little for our taste tester. This soup is nice on it’s own or with something light like couscous and a piece of crusty bread.

April

Nettle tops from the garden

Homemade Goat's Cheese - Vegetarian Rennet and Lemon Juice

On to a new chapter in living foods (and increasing healthy gut bacteria) here with some exploration in cheese making, vegetarian rennet and all things to do with working my tiny bit of goat’s milk that I am getting each day.

Right now we have one goat that is milking – she has 3 kids on her, so we don’t take (or get) very much. And another goat who is a maiden milker but is due to have her kids at the beginning of May or so.

Not much milk at the moment – but hopefully more to come soon enough. The bit I do get goes mostly to my children, however I have been saving some over the past few days to try my hand at a little farmhouse cheese.

I have gone to a couple cheese making classes and read/studied lots about this wonderful art – so this week I decided to give it a try with my precious goat’s milk. However, my plan was to started out easy and simple either way.

To begin with I decided to make my own rennet – I don’t like the thought of using rennet from another species (animal rennet usually comes from calf stomach) and goat’s are vegetarians, so I thought – make some vegetarian rennet.

There are several plants apparently that are able to provide the necessary enzymes to get cheese making off to a good start. One of them is nettle – today I boiled some nettle (it was dried from last year) for 30 minutes and allowed it to steep, then added a little salt.

I then took 1 liter of raw goat’s milk and warmed it to about 25C, added a tablespoon or so of the nettle rennet and about 3 tablespoons lemon juice and stirred for a few minutes. Then I let it sit in the stainless steel pot for about an hour or so to see what might happen.

When I checked it – I could see the separation of curds and whey – so I poured it out into a strainer covered with layers of muslin cloth and placed the strainer over a large pot to catch the dripping whey.

This sat and drained down for another hour or so – and then I scooped the solid cheese out of the cloth and placed it into a bowl. This was salted with sea salt, sprinkled with homegrown garlic chives and promptly eaten!

Yum! And it was that easy….Now onwards and upwards!

April

Homemade goat's cheese - with sea salt and garlic chives