Nourish and Thrive
Making homemade soap is one of my new favorite skills. I especially love soaps that are made with foraged and wildcrafted ingredients. My friend Jan Berry, blogger at The Nerdy Farm Wife and author of 101 Easy Homemade Products for Your Skin, Health & Home and the Natural Soapmaking eBook, has a great recipe for…
I love herbal medicine, and when I first got really into it I was surprised and pleased to learn that so many common herbs and spices are medicinal. Many herbs and spices that most of us already have in our spice racks do double duty as powerful healers. I’m going to go over five of…
I love cooking with foraged ingredients, but I especially love it when I can do something fun with wildflowers (wildflower mead, anyone?) While the season for fresh wildflowers is generally pretty short, they are easy to dry on a drying screen and store for use throughout the year. Dried edible flowers are perfect for using…
Fermenting foods is one of my favorite pastimes, and I’ve been especially fond of naturally fermented sodas recently. This fermented turmeric soda I made recently really got me hooked! They are so easy to make and can be flavored any way you like, plus they are actually good for you. I had heard of sweet…
Summer is the time for bugs, and not always the good kind! There’s nothing worse than going on a relaxing camping trip near a beautiful river or lake, only to get eaten alive by mosquitoes the whole time. The only problem with commercial bug spray is that there is often toxic chemicals in them that…
Many people know about stinging nettles, but they are much more well known for their painful sting than their edible and medicinal qualities. If prepared the right way, stinging nettles are delicious and nutritious! So many edible wild “weeds” are brushed off as being a nuisance, when they are actually quite tasty, and often have…
Homemade herbal products are some of my favorite things to make. It’s so satisfying to make an all natural salve, lip balm, or herbal remedy with real ingredients from scratch. It’s usually easier than you would think, too! One of my most popular items in my Coco’s Herbals Etsy shop is my Vanilla Lavender Lip…
Rhubarb is an interesting vegetable that is most commonly eaten as a fruit. It is tart and delicious with an old time flavor that grows on you over time. I love it, and was very excited to discover a rhubarb plant growing in our backyard when we moved into this house last year. Rhubarb is…
Asparagus is one of my very favorite spring vegetables. I love when I start seeing them at the farmers market, as that’s a sure sign that warm weather is near! Plus it’s just a tasty vegetable that can make any meal feel fancy. Making fermented asparagus with garlic is one of the best ways to…
Violas are one of my favorite flowers, not necessarily because of their beauty, but because of their hardiness and multiple uses. They are an edible flower, which are my favorite kind, like calendula, lavender, and nasturtiums. They also have some medicinal uses. Viola is actually a genus composed of many different species, including pansies, wild…
Spring is a wonderful time of year, especially after the cold, dark, and dreary weather of winter. I don’t know about you, but I’m always so excited to see the first dandelions pop up, as that means that warmer weather is on its way! Foraging for dandelions isn’t difficult, as they are one of the…
Ever since I’ve been a wild food forager, I’ve always known about chickweed, but haven’t really come in contact with it all that much. This is strange, because chickweed is really quite a common and abundant plant! It’s not that I had never seen it, I know that I’ve pointed it out on a few…
Please welcome guest poster, Devon Young, herbalist and blogger at Nitty Gitty Life. Devon recently completed a degree in Complementary and Alternative Medicine with the American College of Healthcare Sciences. When not writing, practicing herbal medicine, or tending to her farm and family, Devon enjoys foraging for wild edibles and medicinals. Enjoy her recipe for…
I have an exciting foraged food recipe to share with you today! I’ve wanted to make dandelion pesto for a long time, but have recently been inspired by a brand new book by Rosalee de la Forêt, Alchemy of Herbs. This book is full of amazing herbal recipes, I really want to try them all! …
I think the thing that I love most about wild violets is that they are usually the first flower to show their face in early spring. Actually, where we live in Southern Oregon they come up in mid-February! These little purple flowers give us a nice little foreshadowing of spring when we’re still in the…
I’ve always wanted to make my own homemade bitters. If I had known that it was as simple as making an infusion I probably would have done it a long time ago! Recently, though, I’ve been taking the Intermediate Herbal Course with the Herbal Academy, and there is a lot covered about bitter herbs. This…