Harvest What You Have - 5/30/23

Hello!  If you have been to our website (www.preppedliving.com), you already know that I try to incorporate the "harvest what you have" idea into our lives.  You may ask what there is available to harvest in North Idaho in May. Well, here is a peek at what we have done this past week:

Tarragon - We planted tarragon last year and it was one of the first things to come up this year in our garden.  It grew so much that we already harvested our first cutting. One batch went into the dehydrator and another batch is hanging to dry in the attic.  This is an herb I never really used until about 2.5 years ago.  I since discovered that I really enjoy the flavor of tarragon in beef soup. It adds just a touch of sweetness and depth of flavor. I have since been wondering what other culinary uses tarragon has. Do you have a favorite use for this herb?  If so, feel free to share in the comments below. I would love to add more ideas to my repertoire.

Lilacs - Our lilac bush was in bloom last week, so I picked blossoms, washed them, and made an infusion to turn into lilac jelly.  I didn't have time to actually make the jelly on the day that I picked the blossoms, so I put the infusion into the refrigerator until I was ready.  The scent of lilac it gave off while cooking was so lovely! Since our bush is rather small and the blossoms were beginning to fade, I only harvested enough for one batch.

Currant Jelly - We didn't actually harvest currants (it isn't the right season yet). Rather, we were given a jar of currant juice a family member canned earlier, so I made currant jelly out of it as well. Sometimes harvesting what you have means using the harvest others share!

Plantain, Chamomile, Mullein, Wild Rose Petals - Each of these have come up around our yard, and since we do not spray or use chemical fertilizers, I have been collecting them to dry.  They will eventually become a tea, a tincture, or an infused oil to use in salve.

Sheep sorrel - I mostly ate what I found since it is a favorite of mine, but I did collect a few leaves to throw into the salad we ate for dinner that night.

Here are some other things I look out for this time of year: dandelion, violas, oxeye daisies.

What do you harvest this time of year?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Water Glassed Eggs & Homemade Butter

Image
I love to experiment with new recipes, different methods of preservation, and ways to avoid waste.  Here are last week's efforts: Water Glassing Eggs  I finally tried water glassing eggs this past week.  I read about this method of preserving eggs a long time ago, but I needed to get unwashed farm fresh eggs in order to try it AND I needed to have enough eggs on hand to not cut us short in our weekly egg usage (we eat a lot of eggs throughout the week). Last week was finally the week. I got the pickling lime I had been saving for this purpose out of storage, picked out the cleanest unwashed eggs I had purchased from some friends down the road, and preserved 18 eggs in a gallon sized glass jar.  I followed the instructions from The Prairie Homestead, which can be found here . Why preserve eggs in this manner? Since we do not have our own chickens, we rely upon a couple of friends having extra eggs to sell. I wanted to preserve some eggs for those times when we cannot ...
Read more

The Best Homemade Chai Spice Mix

Image
Making your own chai tea mix gives you a healthy and frugal drink option. It mixes well with whatever black tea you happen to have on hand.  This mix is good enough to give away as a gift. Simply put the mix in an attractive jar, attach a bow, and include a card with written instructions. You can even add a mug and some black tea to make it a gift set. The chai spice mix is popular at our house - this batch is almost gone Chai Spice Mix for Tea   Ingredients 1 c. organic sugar ½ t. cloves ½ t. ginger ¾ t. Ceylon cinnamon   Mix Directions: Mix the ingredients well. Store in a glass container with a lid.   To Make Chai Tea or a Chai Latte: 1.      Steep black tea in hot water. 2.      Add 2 t. of mix. 3.       Add milk to taste for a Chai Latte. Notes: 1)     We like to use raw cane sugar. 2)     This tastes wonderful with mixed in Earl Grey tea in p...
Read more

The Best Homemade Granola Recipe

Image
  My mom has been making homemade granola since I was a kid. When we started a family of our own, we began making it, too. In fact, we have used the recipe so often that the recipe card my mom wrote out for me has vanilla stains, has turned a bit yellow with age, and the ink is fading.  This is a great recipe for several reasons: 1. It is a great prepper recipe - most of the ingredients are ones you will have in your food storage. 2. It beats store-bought granola hands down. 3. It has healthy ingredients (with, perhaps, the exception of the sugar) 4. It can be snacked on as-is, served as a cold cereal, or soaked in warm milk to make it more like oatmeal. Everyone has different preferences when it comes to what they believe makes the best homemade granola, but my mom's recipe is by far our family favorite, so that is the recipe we are sharing today. Homemade Granola Ingredients 1 c. whole wheat flour 7 c. quick oats 1 c. brown sugar 1 c. coconut 1 c. sliced almonds, walnuts, or...
Read more