As part of this fast, I want to start not just eating healthier, but more sustainably. Both Toby and I have talked about wanting to harvest as much as possible from our land. So, I got this fantastic book “From Crabgrass Muffins to Pine Needle Tea” by Linda Runyon. She lived in the Adirondack Mountains for 13 years without electricity or running water. She learned how to feed her family by harvesting, cooking, and preserving the wild foods that grew on her land. The book talks about lots of great plants, how to find them, along with recipes and nutritional values of the plants. (She’s coming out with a revision in a few weeks, so hold your horses if you want one.)
So, I’ve been inspired to harvest some of the foods on our land right now. Below are Lambs Quarters and Aster hanging up to dry.
The top bag is Yellow Dock seed, and the bottom is Bull Thistle leaves. All of this stuff is going to be dried and ground into flour.
Here are some steamed Bull Thistle Flowers. These I tossed in the freezer until I’m eating again.
It’s interesting how I’m fasting to try to make food less of an issue in my life, yet all I think about when I’m fasting is food! Today (day 4) has been good. Yesterday I was sneezing my head off and very snotty. Today, my lymph is a little swollen and my head feels heavy. There’s lots of processing going on. 10 days to go…
is the aster daisy fleabane? are you grinding them for flour too? i’m curious to know how this turns out!
Yes… it’s daisy fleabane. In the book, she talks about Aster nemoralis, but mentions that many aster are edible (not the cultivated varieties, though). So, I did some research on the variety we have and found it is edible also. I tried the fresh flowers and they are pretty tasty. When they are dry, I’m gonna strip the leaves/flowers and grind them to flour, and try grinding up the stems too.
Man, I can hardly wait ’til we have a big kitchen to do more wild food processing in!!