Mouse Melons

Can you imagine a little mouse picnic?  This would be on their table.  some know them as wild cucumber... and that is why I am going to pop these in my pickle jar.  They grow wild at my house and I let them because I think they are so cute.  They also remind me of Christmas tree decorations as each one hangs on its little thread which is connected to a longer thread with a bunch of other little melons hanging from them.  Little green balls everywhere.

Pickin' up pawpaws... puttin' 'em in my pocket....

we ran into some pawpaws while walking in the woods the other day.  What a find!  If you have never had one, you certainly won't find one in any store... you will either have to plant a couple ( great idea!) or find a friend who has a tree.  They have a very short shelf life so you will never find one in the grocery.  They are delish!  kind of like a mango and banana with the texture of pudding.  You wait till they fall off the tree and are nice and squishy.  We ate several just as they were and then decided they might make a great pudding so we ran the rest through a sieve and used some in the pudding and froze the rest into cubes using a couple of ice trays so that we can use in the future in a smoothie or two.

pickled unripe peach slaw

I don't know about you guys but since I am a very very low maintenance gardener, I don't spray my fruit trees and just use the ole 'cross your fingers' method of hoping for a harvest. We rarely, if ever eat a peach off our loaded peach tree ( squirrels ) and our apples have brown spots on them.... so our friends, Nathan Pickard and Kristen Piccard brought over this jar of pickled unripe plums the other night and they were delish! Anyways it got me thinking about other unripe fruit that I could certainly find on my fruit trees and get to them before the bugs and squirrels. I am experimenting today with a recipe for unripe peach slaw. We'll give it a try tonight after it marinates for the day. I am excited. this way you can actually get two different kinds of harvest off the same tree with totally different uses. Google some recipes.

I julianned my peaches and apples, added a little unflavored yogart, ground ginger and turmeric, lemon juice, honey and hot pepper.
Tasty!

Mulberries

We have a towering old mulberry tree at our house.  When we first moved in around 25 years ago all the mulberries were blue and about 10 years ago the ripe ones are all white.  Very strange.  Anyways this year we had a bumper crop and I just hate to see them go to waste and I don't much care for them so here is what I did. 
1.  Spread out old curtains under the trees to catch all the berries.  Made that job of separating them so much easier.  We did this several days a week. 
2.  gather up the good ones and freeze some of them for pies ( I always use them with other berries, never alone ) and freeze the bad ones for my mother in law's parrots.  they love them!  Took some across the street for the neighborhood chickens too.
3.  My new favorite thing.... throw them in the dehydrator and dry them.  They come out crispy/crunchy and slightly sweet.  A perfect topping for my morning yogart!  I love it.

Dandelion Root Tincture

This is made by chopping up after washing the dandelion root and putting it in 100% proof vodka. You need to kind of check it once a day and let it just sit for six weeks. You’re supposed to take one or two drops a day. It has anti-inflammatory properties, a diuretic, blood cleanser, and detoxifier for gallbladder spleen and liver. It helps to regulate blood sugar, and treat some skin conditions. I have never used it before so hard to say it’s effectiveness other than what I’ve read on the Internet. I have eaten dandelion greens however for many years, as my mother used to make wilted dandelion greens salad. She used to use Bacon and bacon grease, vinegar, a little sugar. We do all of that except lose the bacon grease.

Dandelion Green Pesto

Oddly enough this was actually delicious. This was my take on dandelion green pesto. We’re not using much oil in our house so it has very little oil in it. It’s basically dandelion greens that have the center stem removed. A lot of lemon juice a lot of fresh garlic, some Parmesan cheese, a lot of lemon juice, a good amount of walnuts and some olives and a little bit of salt

Maple seeds .... It's whats for dinner!

I knew you could eat these seeds, and I have eaten them raw before but knew if I took a little time with them I could find a better way to eat them.  We went out to eat last night and my husband ordered edamame and I thought, : yes! that is what I need to do"  I am all about less work, more fun, so it was perfect.  I boiled them for a moment or two in salted water, threw them in a little cup, added some soy sauce to the bottom of the cup to dip each one in and then just suck the seed out of the case.  It was so good!

New use for old VHS boxes

As both a dumpster diver and a seed saver, I found a great use for these blockbuster castaways a few years ago. A perfect way to organize your seeds. Even if you are someone who purchases spring seeds in the spring and wants to save them for planting in the fall as well this is a great way to have a relatively tidy system for doing so.