Learn how to make delicious autumn olive jelly! The flavor is unique and hard to describe, but we think it tastes somewhat like peach or apricot, with a hint of cherry. Around here, we have acres of invasive plants, including autumn olive, kudzu, Japanese knotweed, oriental bittersweet, and more. It’s a constant effort to keep…
You know that little bottle of paprika powder sitting in your spice cabinet right now? You can grow paprika peppers right in your own garden, and make your own! Growing Paprika Peppers First, you’ll need to grow some peppers. You will want to buy actual paprika pepper seeds to grow for this – look for…
Learn how to identify and forage for jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), then how to use it to make a soothing poison ivy salve, and a jewelweed itch remedy with apple cider vinegar. Jewelweed’s always a fun plant to go hunting for! Loved by children for the explosion of seeds that burst forth at the gentlest contact…
This oven roasted tomato sauce is so flavorful and super simple to make! It’s pretty much the easiest homemade tomato sauce you’ll ever make! No boiling, peeling, or canning involved! You can use any type of tomato, from cherry, to roma, to beefsteak, or a mixture of all kinds. We’ve been enjoying this sauce using…
Make good use of invasive kudzu & turn the blossoms into jelly. Kudzu flower jelly tastes lightly of grape and is delicious! This is a small half-batch recipe. Feel free to double amounts for a regular sized batch, but don’t triple or above since that will affect outcome. Get Ready To make everything easier for…
Learn how to grow, harvest, and dry bee balm (wild bergamot), plus 8 creative ways to use it, including recipes for bee balm salve, tea, infused honey, and more! Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa, M. spp.) also called wild bergamot, is an excellent plant to put in a pollinator garden! Beloved by bumblebees, butterflies, and hummingbirds,…
Yarrow and Queen Anne’s Lace have overlapping bloom times so it can be easy to mix them up, but these tips about their differences will help you tell them apart! What’s Yarrow? Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a perennial flowering plant with feathery leaves. You’ll often find it growing in sunny meadows, at the edges of…
This delicious freezer jam features fresh strawberries and rose petals. It’s quick and easy to make – no canning required! Ingredients: Preparing the Roses: Collect your rose petals off of unsprayed roses, packing them fairly tightly into the measuring cup as you go. Give them a quick rinse and pat them gently dry once back…
Use some foraged early spring greens to make a lovely little lip balm! Violet leaves, purple deadnettle, and chickweed combine with sweet almond, tamanu, and castor oil to create a soothing balm for chapped lips. Infused Oil First, you’ll want to make an infused oil to use in the lip balm. You will need: 1…
Learn how to make naturally pink lemonade using redbud flowers, lemons, and your sweetener of choice. It’s that time of year around here where the sweet pink mist of redbud flowers is visible around the edge of the woods, and it won’t be too much longer until they’re gone! So while they’re still here, why…
Learn how to make your own celery salt – it’s super easy! Do you need some things to do with extra celery? Here’s a way to use up a lot of it- celery shrinks pretty dramatically when it’s dried, and even more when it’s rendered into a fine powder, so you can fit a lot…
Learn how to make beautiful redbud jelly using foraged redbud flowers, reduced sugar pectin, sugar, and lemon juice! Redbud flowers bloom for a very short time each year in early spring, so if you want to make redbud jelly, you’ve got a narrow little window to do it! Collecting & Preparing Redbuds This recipe uses…