Yes, pesto is delightful, but what if you have your basil is overly bountiful? Our solution (pardon the pun) is to drink our basil! Stay Hydrated in the Summer Yep, I don’t like to drink plain water. It is boring – but worse, since it […]
Horehound is not native to the Southwest, it is an Old World plant, but it has made the desert margins its home. It’s not invasive here in the Southwest* by any means, rather you can find a few rare scattered clumps of it here or […]
February 27 is National Kahlúa Day, so time to share how to make some of this tasty liqueur on your own. It’s easy, and given the cost of the store-bought kind, this homesteader likes to make my own that is far less expensive. Uses of Kahlúa […]
Uncle Smokey here this week to share our old family favorite beverage for hay season, and no, it isn’t beer. It was something my Grandma made all summer long. She called it switchel, and summertime was switchel time. Switchel time because it’s haying time folks! […]
Flower season is starting! Spring is slowly approaching, and plants are beginning to bloom. The flowers are lovely to look at – but as it happens many of them can also be used for culinary purposes. The list is at the bottom of this article, […]
Many of our holiday offerings include cinnamon. Cinnamon is traditionally used in winter cooking, like pumpkin pie, snicker-doodles, and gingerbread. Why cinnamon? A Natural Preservative Recent scientific research has proven that cinnamon has antioxidant properties. Antioxidants protect your body from oxidative damage caused by free […]
The tea industry has declared June to be “National Iced Tea Month.” I’m not going to debate the “sweet tea/ not sweet tea” issue. Instead I am going to look at one herbal tea that you might be able to forage right out of your […]
I enjoy atole – a warm drink popular throughout Mexico, Central America, and the American Southwest. Atole Has Many Variations Atole (pronounced a-tole-ee) is generally based on corn, frequently sweetened somehow, and often prepared with cinnamon as well. There are countless various recipes for preparation, […]
Forage some wormwood (Artemisia) while you forage your acorns for OAKtober. Indeed, you can forage leaves of the wormwood plants at virtually any time of year. Best flavor is when plants are not in bloom tho. Wormwood?! This plant was once commonly used to treat […]
The tea industry has declared June “National Iced Tea Month.” So today we will look at seven common regional plants that make tasty tea. Many of these can be grown as landscape plants – so foraging could be as close as your own yard. Let’s […]
