Claire Goes Foraging: January 2016

Friday, January 22, 2016

Dinner from the garden and beyond

I started making dinner tonight and realized that everything had come from my garden, either because I had frozen it or freshly picked from a protected winter garden. I created pesto earlier in the year in the usual way but then added an extra ingredient from the wild, poke greens. From the winter garden I picked leaves from both cabbage and broccoli. I still had tomatoes from the summer garden that had been picked green and allowed to ripen. What you don't see are mushrooms that were found in the woods, dehydrated and rehydrated for this meal. For me it is always so satisfying to create a meal from both found and grown food. Also pictured below are the flowers from the broccoli plant which are also both pretty, and edible!

Monday, January 11, 2016

A Plant that should NEVER be eaten... Jimson Weed

A beautiful but dangerous plant, Jimson Weed or Moon Flower.

I have a friend who is a luthier . He thought it would be fun to paint on a blank violin and I agreed! This is one of my favorite painting which just happens to not be on a stretched canvas. I just reduced the price of this masterpiece on my ebay site. :-) To visit my ebay gallery and possibly bid on this painting/instrument click here My pal will totally dress this out to a playable violin for you too! To visit my artist blog where you can purchase one of my books on painting either the still life or landscape in oil, click here These books are full color, step by step, and written in a very easy to understand way.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Making ginger beer

Did you know that you can make your own carbonated, non alcoholic, ginger beer? It is very easy. I just pulled a recipe off of the internet earlier this year and have been making it ever since. This time I am experimenting with these balloons so that I don't have to worry about the carbonation blowing up my glass jars. It seems to be working and they look very festive for the New Years Day Calendar, don't you think?

Author book event next week

Both Scott and I will be hawking our wares at this book event at the Tulsa Public Library next week. It is an annual event and we are happy that we get to participate this year with both of our books. If you are in Tulsa or the area... please stop in and introduce yourselves.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1687979241438395/

Why a Book?

Ever since I was a little girl I enjoyed exploring the woods and fields, picking wild mint by the creek, gathering dandelions for cooked greens and dandelion wine, and tasting the sweet drops that fell from the honey suckle flower. I learned the names of many wild things and because we had a very large garden that we children helped our mother tend, I also learned how to grow and identify common vegetable garden plants. I liked gathering the vegetables and planting but never quite warmed up to weeding. Weeding always felt like work to me.

Maybe that is why I got interested in finding a good excuse for allowing the weeds to grow. You can let them grow if they are food.

Fast forward many years and now I am an artist and still an avid forager. I am part of a foraging group in my town and continue to learn about the bounty that surrounds us.

I have been disturbed to know that many adults and children in our country go to bed hungry every night while this bounty is right outside their door. My hope is that those children and their parents will have their eyes open to available food even in an urban area and never have to go hungry again.

The food that I talk about in the book is highly nutritious and when properly prepared, delicious. I only mention a few common 'weeds.' There are many others. I encourage children and parents to do like Claire and research on their own using their computer or by visiting the local library.

Never eat a wild plant that you don't know. Learn first and then eat!

Claire Goes Foraging

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