Foraged

After a bit of a writing hiatus in which I keep telling myself I need to utilize my blog, I am back writing about one of my favorite subjects. Foraging! I have been a forager since childhood. In case you do not know the story, my older sister when we were toddlers, used to pick random things out of the yard and try to get me to eat them…. Mom usually followed it up with Ipecac and thus I hate vomiting. Needless to say, the foraging for safe edibles continued and developed over the years much to my family’s amusement.

Now that I have thrown a bunch of tasty pictures at you, why am I inspired to write again. Well, it’s because of a hand mixer. My sister, same one who delighted in trying to off me eons ago, handed down a Kitchen Aid hand mixer. It was perhaps after the new sweet stand ones came out and the hand mixer was taking up valuable cabinet space. This mixer has been with me for over 20 years now. It traveled from station to station with me in the Coast Guard and back to civilian life. It does not get used often, but I cannot part with it (since I do not have a sweet stand mixer).

In prepping for a talk on medicinal and wild edible plants at a local botanical garden, I was making some herbed-up shortbreads. In mixing the softened butter, sugar, and herbs, the mixer “broke” and was stuck at max speed. Unplugging was the only solution…and major small appliance surgery. Now here is another fun factoid, I enjoyed taking small appliances and things apart as an older kid and making them work again. I had that little mixer working like a proper champ in about 5 minutes.

The simple truth is I need to put up the recipes with their stories and pictures. I have lots of pictures of foraged food creations from over the years to put to use. From the mountains to coastal regions, the dry side vs wet side of the state, the meadows vs forests, feral garden plants to native plants, there are lots of edible plants, fungi, and seaweeds to learn about and broaden your palate with!

The next installment will be on Sweet and Savory Shortbreads to kick off the recipes!