Spotted bee balm (Monarda punctata) is a stellar pollinator plant in the mint family which attracts all kinds of native bees and butterflies to your garden. As a bonus, the plant has use as an edible herbal too! At a Glance: How to Grow Like other bee balms, spotted bee balm is super easy to…
Learn how to turn black pansy flowers into a beautiful jelly. The flavor is light and mildly grape-like! (You can also use this same recipe with any other kind and color of pansy flowers!) Black pansy flowers are just like other pansies, only they’re a very dark purple – so dark that they can appear…
Learn how to make and can honeysuckle jelly. It tastes like the scent of honeysuckle, combined with a light floral sweetness! Picking & Preparation Before you can make jelly, first you’ll need to head out and pick flowers for this recipe! Picking Honeysuckle Flowers For this recipe, you need 2 1/2 cups of honeysuckle blossoms,…
Learn how to identify, safely harvest, prepare, and preserve stinging nettle, plus ways to use it for food, natural medicine, and more! Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) is delicious and nutritious wild edible that may already be growing near you. (If not, you can also grow it as an outdoors potted plant.) Not only is it…
Learn how to turn edible black locust flowers into this delicious jelly that reminds us of the taste of peach! Preparation Flower jellies are fairly straightforward to make. First, you make an infusion, or tea, of the chosen flower and hot water, then cook that flower tea with sugar, lemon juice, and pectin to create…
Learn how to turn violet flowers from your backyard into a delicious homemade jelly that tastes like grape! Picking Violets Violets are often found in gardens and around the edges of houses, forming gorgeous huge patches when left unchecked. Below is a photo of a small part of the large patch growing happily all along…
Learn how to identify and use chickweed – a common backyard weed that’s nutritious and delicious, and can also be turned into salves for itchy skin, and more! Where & When to Look for Chickweed While common chickweed (Stellaria media) isn’t a native plant, it has naturalized and spread all over North America, and is…
Learn how to grow your own peanuts at home – it’s fun and easy! This guide covers the basics of growing peanuts from start to finish: preparing the soil, planting, caring for, harvesting, and curing. About Peanuts Peanuts! Lovely, lovely peanuts. Where would we be without peanut butter, or peanut brittle, or all those other…
After you’ve grown your own peanuts, try turning them into homemade peanut butter! Our version is naturally sweetened with a touch of maple syrup, with a pinch of sea salt added for flavor. Don’t have homegrown peanuts? No problem – you can make this recipe with store-bought too. Preparing Homegrown Peanuts Start by shelling your…
Make a delicious jam using fresh or frozen maypop fruit! It tastes light, tangy, and tropical, and can be stored in your freezer. (No canning required!) Identifying Maypops Maypops are the green, egg-shaped fruits produced by our native passionflower (passiflora incarnata). Be sure to check out our article: Growing & Foraging Passionflower & Maypops to…
This spicy pain salve recipe features pain-blocking cayenne, warming ginger, plus herbs to help your aches and pains. Spicy Salve is pretty much the most popular and oft-reached-for salve in our house. We especially love using it on sore muscles and back aches, leg aches from working at a computer for too long, or any…
Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata), sometimes called Autumnberry, is an invasive shrub that produces loads of tangy but tasty berries each fall. When perfectly ripe, we like to eat them right off of the bush (you can chew the seeds or spit them out) and turn them into a delicious seasonal jelly. In this article, we’ll…