Things to do with baby black walnuts
I have a thing. A colour thing. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before. It’s a visceral reaction to all things pigmented. Much like when around someone you love you want to shower them with hugs and pet their hair (if I’ve ever petted your hair absent-mindedly now you know why), with colours I want to [...]
Pickled Watermelon Rinds
I like watching people test for good watermelons, because it makes them look crazy. I know this, because I do it, and people look at me like I’m crazy. I learned the knocking technique from an Israeli woman who claimed to be the ‘queen of vegetables’, who would bustle around the grocery store, knocking on [...]
Yucca syrup
I was out wandering in the hills at sunset the other night. The clouds were rolling in from the Pacific below me, blotting out most of the signs of civilisation. And I climbed- up to the area that I call the dragon’s back, though it has another name that is much more boring. I much [...]
Prickly Pear Jelly
Prickly pear cactus grows all over the Southwestern US. It’s a big, beautiful plant, and the whole thing is edible, once you remove the thorns. In Mexico it’s as common to eat as eggs, but here it’s a relatively unknown food item, except in Mexican communities. In Mexico it’s called ‘nopales’, and the fruits are [...]
Sweet Chili Sauce
Let me tell you a little bit about the man I married. Or one specific thing about him: his love for anything spicy. I’m not just talking spicy, because I can handle a chilli pepper or two, I’m talking ‘are you effing insane’ spicy. The kind of spiciness that makes your tongue feel like [...]
Beet Kvass– nicer than it sounds
The first time I ever tried beet kvass, I drank it for the health benefits alone. My mind couldn’t get around the salty beet flavour, and, as it turned out, my gut couldn’t either. My digestion wasn’t that great at the time, and so after a couple of pints, I was doubled over in pain. [...]
Beet and Tomato Relish
I planted beets, and then forgot about them. This is why I don’t have a blooming vegetable garden– I get sidetracked by things, forget about them, they wither and die, or else turn into bitter monsters, either way, I render many things inedible. I don’t know what happened with these beets. Or what turned them [...]
Preserved lemon salad
To see my post on the medicinal properties of lemon, click HERE. When my family moved to California 12 years ago, we planted a lemon tree in the garden outside my bedroom. It must have been the perfect spot (or on top of radioactive waste), because this tree grew bigger, stronger and faster than any [...]
Feelin’ Peachy
Today, I had the most fantastic stroke of luck ever: our friends who were going out of town gave us their CSA box for the week, and in it were mostly nectarines. All of this the day after I had picked up about 5 lb of peaches at the farmers’ market. Peach jackpot!! We [...]
Berry yumm
I’ve already told you about jam. How my whole family used to go to a pick-your-own farm, and gather bucket loads of strawberries and raspberries, and go back to my grandma’s house, where she and my mum would make jam. I’d sit on her kitchen floor and listen to them potter around and chat, and [...]
