Summer is the season of potlucks and picnics, and this quinoa salad is my ace in the hole. This recipe makes enough for a party, but my little family of two can polish off the whole batch in about a week. It can be a meal in itself, but it also makes an excellent side dish. It’s high in protein and low in carbohydrates, gluten free, vegan, nut-free, whole-food, and grain free*. This fresh lemony dish sparkles with the light of summer. Some of the ingredients might be growing in your garden right now!
In this foraged recipe, wild greens make the base for raw, vegan, paleo tortilla wraps that are as delicious as they are healthful. These dehydrated wraps are an excellent vehicle for your creativity. Substitute any extra vegetables you have on hand to create vibrant healthful wraps to contain all your favorite fillings!
The Common Blue Violet is a beautiful, edible, native “weed” that can be found in most unsprayed lawns in the Eastern United States. In this article, I show you how to use violet flower petals to make beautiful culinary creations, including Violet Salt, Violet Sugar, Violet-Rimmed Mocktails, and Violet Sugar Cookies. These recipes carry the joy of spring forward into the whole year. It is my hope that by raising awareness of the benefits of this native plant we can encourage more people to ditch the chemicals. Let’s let lawns go wild: for the violets, for the people, and for the pollinators.
The American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) is an almost mythical native tree. Legend has it that prior to the 1900s, a squirrel could travel from Georgia to Maine just by hopping from chestnut branch to chestnut branch, without ever touching the ground. Now the American Chestnut Tree is blighted, but thanks to hybrid chestnut trees we can still enjoy chestnut harvests in our home orchards. Read the full article to learn more about the American Chestnut and for chestnut storage techniques and recipes!
Nut butter is a staple in my house. It makes a quick snack when spread on fruit, blended into smoothies, or spooned straight out of the jar. It lends richness to soups and stews and contributes to sweet and savory sandwiches. Although you can buy nut butter in almost any grocery store, the homemade version is more affordable, fresher, and tastier.
Nut milks are delicious, nutritious, dairy-free beverages that have myriad uses. They can stand in for dairy milk in baking recipes, in smoothies and coffee drinks, on cereal, and as a standalone beverage. Nut milks are easy to make at home, and the fresh homemade version is so much more delicious than store bought! Try this easy, flavorful, nutritious recipe made from raw hazelnuts.
The American Hazelnut (Corylus americana), also known as American Filbert, is a small tree or shrub in the Birch family. Although our native hazelnut is a different species than most hazelnuts available commercially, it is widely reported that the nuts produced by our native tree taste very similar to the more widely available European species. Read the full article to learn more about this amazing native food plant!
One of my favorite microgreens is the sunflower. I can’t get enough of the nutty, buttery, slightly piney taste of sunflower microgreens, and they’re a
Shortly after I left the big city, I realized that fresh salad ingredients were a little harder to come by in my new rural home.
After a perfect sunny Saturday at the farmers market, Sunday is a day for cooking up all the veggies we brought home. For me, that