Pecans, pounds and pounds of pecans! The chestnuts are safely stored in the fridge, waiting on cooler weather and a peeling party. I’m trying to decide if I have the ambition to do anything with the black walnuts themselves this year. Last year I made a decent batch of walnut husk tincture on the advice of my herbalist friend, for radiation poisoning, and I pray that it is never needed.
50 quarts of wild grape juice canned, two quarts became jelly. Going to use your grape jam recipe when I get time. Finally processed fermented new growth, green, pine cone syrup{ Mugolio Recipe from Forager Chef}. Planted three raised beds, 4' by 25', soft and hard neck garlic. Making three more 4' by 6' raised beds for spring onions. Dug out the potatoes growing in my front yard residential neighborhood raised garden. Finally got my two, 275 gallon food grade totes up on 2' high platforms hooked to roof rain gutters for better gravity flow of stored rain water. And last, I keep debating, weekly with my sweetheart to let me use the rest of the front yard for more potatoes, or tomatoes, or pumpkins, maybe a yard full of sunflowers. So far that request of mine seems to be a bridge too far for her.
There are some really attractive edible plants that she might like, things that you wouldn't realize is a food garden. Jerusalem artichokes, for example, look like a really lovely sunflower border...but they're incredibly productive and produce potato like tubers. Hostas are delicious and edible. (And honestly, I think potato plants are beautiful, especially in flower). Maybe try "landscaping" the front yard with things that just happen to be edible? That might get over that bridge, or maybe not. Who knows, but best of luck.
Either way, it seems like you've got a LOT going on and you're already really killing it in terms of food production and preservation. Well done!
English Walnuts! Found a ginormous tree, told of 2 more trees...We have lots of Black Walnuts here too, they are the prevalent walnut tree, but boy the English nuts are much thinner and can be easily opened. Even the squirrels and the crows only gather the English walnuts, I don't think they can break the Black walnuts open either...The flavor on the Black Walnuts is unique but boy they are almost impossible to open. Bonus funny story, in college I collected a bunch of Black Walnuts (ann arbor michigan) and in cleaning them I accidentally dyed the crap out of my hands...they were brown as brown could be for a month....it was one of the best 'lessons' of my college years...the power of plant dyes...best from Oregon
Oh my goodness, yes! The autumn hand dyes are intense...my hands are so many colors this time of year. If it's not the black walnuts or the butternuts, it's the aronia making them purple =)
Oh, I don't know much about butternut...interesting. There is also a super prickly chestnut tree that has a few big chestnuts I have gathered...just a dozen but I may roast some today...also, found out that you can make a coffee ish beverage from Bay Laurel nuts, which I hope to try to do now that I know...I guess some folks add it to coffee, adds a peppery flavor. Who knew....! best
True! Some people have a reaction to the high iodine content though, or so I've heard. Good in some cases, as many people are short on iodine and you can absorb it through your skin by handling walnut husks...but sometimes too much of a good thing will get you.
I'm thinking that topically, the juglones might get people's attention faster than the iodine, (which has been smeared in various forms on surgical patients since forever-ago.) And maybe those with tree nut allergies might cause issues with people handling the powder to make dye. But it's true there are people who report iodine sensitivities, which has caused much confusion in therapy decisions among medical professionals.
The walnut husks and hulls have varied commercial usage. Might have to dig into them, since we have some of those trees, but I've never been a huge fan of their strong tasting walnuts.
My Dad had to take iodine, so maybe I have a similar deficiency...and I would have just thought 'tannins'....now I will look up iodine levels in walnuts...maybe thats part of why they are such dense food...I feel so lucky to be able to gather them, truly...
I used to live in the middle of an English walnut orchard, and we had a ginormous black walnut in front of the house. We would gather the nuts before mowing the lawn (wearing latex gloves) and when we had several buckets of them, Dad would lay them out on a piece of plywood, put another plywood sheet on top, and use the pickup truck to roll back and forth on them. MUCH easier to pick the meat out. Fantastic and fragrant for holiday candies and baking. Also making homemade walnut oil.
Hi and thank you for all the great things you share! I am in Michigan and we just got hit with a very cold blast ie 26 degrees and snow last night. I did get the potatoes in but not the kale and collard to process. I eat them through out the late fall but can I still blanch and freeze them now? thanks!
The link of links is back to the cool 10/13 mushroom article :-D
At weedom the cilantro and salad greenery are up and ready to carry us at least through December.
We have lots of herbs drying, a lots of roots to dig, and for the 1st time, New England aster blooms to play with. It's tincture time for some of those.
Oh nice! We have so much Aster, but I've never used it (other than watching the bees go for it this time of year). What part do you tincture and what are you hoping to use it for?
I'm after the flowers. There's little to no formal research on the old time use of this flower, but some well known herbalists are following jim mcdonald's (he doesn't capitalize) lead, harkening back to the traditional literature, and using it fresh or tinctured for cough and asthma. A smooth muscle relaxing effect is observed, and some people are reporting decreased need for the inhalers. A slightly sedating effect is also noted, empirically.
Pecans, pounds and pounds of pecans! The chestnuts are safely stored in the fridge, waiting on cooler weather and a peeling party. I’m trying to decide if I have the ambition to do anything with the black walnuts themselves this year. Last year I made a decent batch of walnut husk tincture on the advice of my herbalist friend, for radiation poisoning, and I pray that it is never needed.
Yeah, that's one you really hope never gets cracked into =)
50 quarts of wild grape juice canned, two quarts became jelly. Going to use your grape jam recipe when I get time. Finally processed fermented new growth, green, pine cone syrup{ Mugolio Recipe from Forager Chef}. Planted three raised beds, 4' by 25', soft and hard neck garlic. Making three more 4' by 6' raised beds for spring onions. Dug out the potatoes growing in my front yard residential neighborhood raised garden. Finally got my two, 275 gallon food grade totes up on 2' high platforms hooked to roof rain gutters for better gravity flow of stored rain water. And last, I keep debating, weekly with my sweetheart to let me use the rest of the front yard for more potatoes, or tomatoes, or pumpkins, maybe a yard full of sunflowers. So far that request of mine seems to be a bridge too far for her.
There are some really attractive edible plants that she might like, things that you wouldn't realize is a food garden. Jerusalem artichokes, for example, look like a really lovely sunflower border...but they're incredibly productive and produce potato like tubers. Hostas are delicious and edible. (And honestly, I think potato plants are beautiful, especially in flower). Maybe try "landscaping" the front yard with things that just happen to be edible? That might get over that bridge, or maybe not. Who knows, but best of luck.
Either way, it seems like you've got a LOT going on and you're already really killing it in terms of food production and preservation. Well done!
So appreciate your knowledge and thank for for sharing it with us. I love mushrooms 🤩
Thanks Faith!
English Walnuts! Found a ginormous tree, told of 2 more trees...We have lots of Black Walnuts here too, they are the prevalent walnut tree, but boy the English nuts are much thinner and can be easily opened. Even the squirrels and the crows only gather the English walnuts, I don't think they can break the Black walnuts open either...The flavor on the Black Walnuts is unique but boy they are almost impossible to open. Bonus funny story, in college I collected a bunch of Black Walnuts (ann arbor michigan) and in cleaning them I accidentally dyed the crap out of my hands...they were brown as brown could be for a month....it was one of the best 'lessons' of my college years...the power of plant dyes...best from Oregon
Oh my goodness, yes! The autumn hand dyes are intense...my hands are so many colors this time of year. If it's not the black walnuts or the butternuts, it's the aronia making them purple =)
Oh, I don't know much about butternut...interesting. There is also a super prickly chestnut tree that has a few big chestnuts I have gathered...just a dozen but I may roast some today...also, found out that you can make a coffee ish beverage from Bay Laurel nuts, which I hope to try to do now that I know...I guess some folks add it to coffee, adds a peppery flavor. Who knew....! best
faster and easier than henna ;-)
True! Some people have a reaction to the high iodine content though, or so I've heard. Good in some cases, as many people are short on iodine and you can absorb it through your skin by handling walnut husks...but sometimes too much of a good thing will get you.
I'm thinking that topically, the juglones might get people's attention faster than the iodine, (which has been smeared in various forms on surgical patients since forever-ago.) And maybe those with tree nut allergies might cause issues with people handling the powder to make dye. But it's true there are people who report iodine sensitivities, which has caused much confusion in therapy decisions among medical professionals.
The walnut husks and hulls have varied commercial usage. Might have to dig into them, since we have some of those trees, but I've never been a huge fan of their strong tasting walnuts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt9ux-Fx6Js fun video re walnuts and iodine harvesting
My Dad had to take iodine, so maybe I have a similar deficiency...and I would have just thought 'tannins'....now I will look up iodine levels in walnuts...maybe thats part of why they are such dense food...I feel so lucky to be able to gather them, truly...
I used to live in the middle of an English walnut orchard, and we had a ginormous black walnut in front of the house. We would gather the nuts before mowing the lawn (wearing latex gloves) and when we had several buckets of them, Dad would lay them out on a piece of plywood, put another plywood sheet on top, and use the pickup truck to roll back and forth on them. MUCH easier to pick the meat out. Fantastic and fragrant for holiday candies and baking. Also making homemade walnut oil.
Hi and thank you for all the great things you share! I am in Michigan and we just got hit with a very cold blast ie 26 degrees and snow last night. I did get the potatoes in but not the kale and collard to process. I eat them through out the late fall but can I still blanch and freeze them now? thanks!
The link of links is back to the cool 10/13 mushroom article :-D
At weedom the cilantro and salad greenery are up and ready to carry us at least through December.
We have lots of herbs drying, a lots of roots to dig, and for the 1st time, New England aster blooms to play with. It's tincture time for some of those.
Oh nice! We have so much Aster, but I've never used it (other than watching the bees go for it this time of year). What part do you tincture and what are you hoping to use it for?
I'm after the flowers. There's little to no formal research on the old time use of this flower, but some well known herbalists are following jim mcdonald's (he doesn't capitalize) lead, harkening back to the traditional literature, and using it fresh or tinctured for cough and asthma. A smooth muscle relaxing effect is observed, and some people are reporting decreased need for the inhalers. A slightly sedating effect is also noted, empirically.