Bella Rosa

Rose Petal JamIn a food processor pulse together:
2 cups fragrant rose petals
3/4 cup rosewater or water
juice of one lemon and 1 tsp lemon zest
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Add 2 cups fine sugar to the food processor and pulse a few times until it is blended with the rose petals. Let sit. In a small saucepan, mix together 3/4 cup rosewater or water and a box of sure-jell. Whisk continuously until well blended while bringing the mixture to a full rolling boil. Keep whisking for one minute, then quickly pour into the rose petal mixture in the food processor. Pulse a few times. This will set up very quickly!! So be sure to have your jam jars sterilized and ready to fill. Seal with new lids. I put the sealed jars back in the canner for about 5 minutes to get a good seal so that I don't have to keep it all in the refrigerator. Recipe fills approx . 6 small jam jars.

Rosewater is simply made by packing a very clean jar with perfect petals early on a hot day. Cover petals with distilled water and close the lid tightly. Let the jar sit in the sun for one day. Strain the petals out in the evening and add a few splashes of vodka to your strained rosewater to prevent it from fermenting. Store in the refrigerator. Can be used for recipes and adding to the bath...or putting into pretty spray bottles to use on HOT days (like today) ....

Refreshing Rosehip and Spearmint Sparkler sweetened with Rose petal syrup and lotsa ice...ahhhhhhh!

Cute honeybees swarming the sun kissed roses

Twas a lovely rose filled day from the start...and it will end on a rosey note, as well. Rose water and milk mixed with rose petals for the bath, some more of that cool Rosehip sparkler and a few strawberries drizzled with rose petal syrup. Rose soap and cream...goes without saying.

Stir it Up

Chris's Bay Rum Recipe (well, she shared it with me so I'll call it hers but it's probably a traditional bay rum recipe and everyone in CA probably knows it and puts their own twist to it)*Pack jar with fresh bay leaves, add dried orange peel and whole cloves (I used a heaping half cup of each) Then, when I finished eating my orange, I stripped it of it's peel and threw that in too. Cover everything with dark Jamaican rum and shake the whole jar to "Stir it Up" by Bob Marley. Let stand for a few weeks and strain. Chris adds a little rosemary essential oil and sandalwood essential oil. oh my....it smells so great already.

In a Jam....

This is a small post about the violet jam and the tweaking of the recipe.... The jam on the left was made yesterday. A few points of note: The initial recipe called for the juice of one lemon. In my opinion, this jam tasted way too lemony, even with 2 1/2 cups of sugar. In addition, the lemon juice makes the natural violet color turn more pink than purple. Another point: the recipe asked that the violets be added at the start with the water/lemon juice. I felt this processed them down to something that was unrecognizable as a violet. The jam on the right was made today, with the recipe I listed on the last post...new tweaks included. I only used the juice of half a large lemon (seriously reamed, however, because you do need the lemon juice) and I only added the violets and pulsed them at the very end. The difference is obvious. One more point. I used raw organic sugar in both recipes. Had I used fine white sugar, it may have been a little less muddy and more crystal clear looking. But if I'm going to ingest sugar, I want to try and use the best. (Okay, this is probably an issue of blind denial on my part, but we won't go there today because we're making jam, for Pete's sake!) I really like the texture of the jam on the right...there are recognizable violet flowers in it and the color is spot on. I am going to process them in a hot water bath, too so I can store them in the pantry instead of my fridge. My fridge....yeah,that's a whole other post. The experiments and projects an herbalist keeps in her fridge are probably post worthy...another day.Oh, I forgot to mention that the recipe makes six sweet 4 ounce jars of jam.

More Splendor in the Grass

Speaking of grass, the lawn has been growing incredibly fast in the last week. It's so lush, tall and ultra green...I really like it. All sorts of interesting things pop in the lawn when it's allowed to grow wild. As much as I enjoy the look and the smell of a tidy, freshly mowed lawn, I am also pretty partial to the wild look before the first cutting. Just when I am happiest, grazing gifts from the yard and admiring the abundant diversity of my wild plant neighbors, at the same time, a small feeling of dread begins to fall over me. When that happens, I realize that the fella who mows my grass is probably looking at my lawn in a much different way than I am. Don't get me wrong...he has been incredibly accommodating over the years. That is, if I'm here to walk him around, point things out, or ask him to change his regular routine and start on the other side of the property so that I can finish my wild harvesting. He always says 'cool' with a smile. However, if I happen not to be home when he arrives (and I never do know when he's coming-can you say 'free spirit'?) I will come home to a neatly manicured lawn, wildflowers beheaded and a sinking feeling in my stomach. Ugh, if I had only had a few more hours or another day...if I had only known. Coulda, shoulda, woulda done things differently. Well, today was the day that annual feeling of intuitive dread arrived. When I am blissed out, sitting in the above-the-ankle cool green lawn dappled with thousands of dandelions and violets and others are noticing the chicken's heads peeping out of the tall grass and asking when the lawn will be mowed, I know it won't be long. He is bound to be on his way tomorrow or the next day. When the dreadful feeling hits, I feel compelled get out and harvest with urgency. Today was the day. The violets in rice vinegar should turn a nice shade of lavender in a few days. The violet tincture will eventually be blended with some of the violet syrup I made yesterday. The sweet syrup will mellow the sharpness of the alcohol in the tincture and the alcohol will preserve the syrup just a little while longer. It is an experiment that I haven't tried before but I am anxious to try the result. I also found my recipe for violet jam. It's pretty easy so don't be afraid!. The photos of it will come tomorrow when the light is just right....Enjoy!

Violet Jam

2 heaping cups of violet blossoms
1 1/2 cups water (divided into 2 -3/4 cup servings)
Juice of half a lemon
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 package pectin
Place 3/4 cup water and lemon juice in a blender or food processor. Then add the sugar and blend until it dissolves.
Heat remaining 3/4 cup of water in a small pan, stir in pectin and boil hard for 1 minute. Pour this mixture into the blender and blend for one minute, add violets and pulse a few times to chop. Immediately pour into hot sterile jars and seal. Keep in the fridge if you're not going to can it in a boiling water bath. Gosh, I just love violets....who couldn't, I ask you?

Guilty Pleasure...

...I have to admit to loving bitter greens. It started years ago as a forced effort which then evolved into an acquired taste, but now I can say with confidence that I actually crave them quite often. Especially at times when they are at my feet for the picking. Like Pavlov's dog, my salivary glands start their ritual even as I bend to pick the garlic mustard flowers. I love dandy greens, chard, kale and the like...but give me a bitter green with a little extra zip, like arugula or mustard greens, my whole body rejoices. Today I made some mustard (the condiment) using yellow and brown mustard seeds and garlic mustard leaves. A sincere thank you to Rose Barlow at Prodigal Gardens in Wisconsin. She has, unknowingly, held my hand, encouraged and inspired me with her quiet dedication to wild eating. Rose unselfishly shares many wild foods recipes on her website, which is where I discovered her mustard recipe awhile back. I have waited, impatiently, for the profusion of garlic mustard around the farm and made the mustard yesterday.Rose recommends letting the mustard mellow for a few days but I couldn't help but dig in and slather it on a hunk of cheddar and sourdough....WOW!! It's got kick! Here is Rose's recipe: My only addition is the name!! I simply cannot improve upon this recipe...except I did use a food processor to blend it all together. Thanks, again, Rose! This mustard rocks.

KickAssMapleMustard

1 cup whole mustard seeds (yellow/brown)

1 cup white wine vinegar or Garlic Mustard vinegar

1 cup Garlic Mustard, minced

½ tsp salt

¼ cup Maple Syrup

1. Soak the mustard seeds in the Garlic Mustard vinegar overnight.

2. Put into a food processor and add the rest of the ingredients. Pulse to blend well

3. Let it all sit together in a covered container for several days to mellow.

4. Put in small jars (1/4 pints work nicely).

Note: Mustard keeps well in the fridge for many months or you can can it in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes to seal.

UPDATE: As Rose promised, this mustard mellowed beautifully in two days! Much less bite, so don't be timid. It is scrumptious!

Freidaag* = Baking Day

The idea behind baking on Friday is that the inevitable weekend visitors get the freshest selection of fine baked goods. The Deitsch like their sweets, so Friday means baking plenty of desserts and bread to last for the entire week. No wonder they created the 'pie safe'...to keep the flies (and tempted fingers) off the pies all week long. I know this isn't an herbal recipe, but it's one of my favorites, so please indulge me...it's Friday and I have a few guests coming tomorrow!
Old Fashioned Coconut Custard Pie
Have ready a single crust for a 9" pie
Filling:
2 cups milk (my tweak: 1 cup raw milk-1 cup coconut milk)
3/4 cup organic sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 Farm Fresh eggs (no problem)
1 cup unsweetened coconut (with a little extra to sprinkle on top)

Scald the milk until bubbles appear around the edge of the pan. Add sugar and vanilla stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add 4 beaten eggs. Keep stirring! Add 1 cup of coconut and stir again. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. The last 15 minutes, sprinkle the reserved coconut on top of pie . It should toast nicely in the final 15 minutes.

*Friday

Dandelion Discovery

I was happy to find this nice clump of dandelion greens on the sunny side of the springhouse yesterday afternoon. The leaves are just the right size to harvest for eating. Dandelion is a bitter green (Bittreselaat*) but it is 'perfectly' bitter at this stage. Waiting until the familiar yellow flowers appear or worse, when the flowers turn to seed and float away, will produce greens so bitter, eating them will contort the face of even it's biggest fan. This is what I plan to do with mine:
HOT BACON DRESSING
1 egg, well beaten
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup of cider vinegar
3/4 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
4 strips of bacon, cut into 1" pieces
1 Tablespoon of water
Beat the sugar into the egg.Add the vinegar, water and salt and beat well. Meanwhile, brown the bacon in a small saucepan. When crispy, stir the flour into the bacon and drippings until smooth. Add the vinegar water to the bacon mixture and cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Serve hot over clean dandelion leaves or endive.
*Bitter Salad

Snow Babies...

I was out rustling around in the greenhouse this morning and came across a few things that stirred up my spring fever... again! This morning, the bright sunshine reflecting off the snow caused the temperature in the greenhouse to reach over 60 degrees! The temperature shift has helped the potted elderberry bushes inside the greenhouse to come out of hibernation. This was quite unexpected considering the greenhouse has a layer of ice and snow over it. A few steps away from the greenhouse I inspected a few more southern facing 'warm spots' and discovered some vigorous nettles forcing themselves throw the snow. Oh Boy, it won't be long now! By March 15, the class may just be having their first taste of Spring Tonic Soup. I sure am craving it today!

SUE'S SPRING TONIC SOUP
1 bunch of leeks, cleaned and chopped (dark green leaves removed)
2 carrots, grated
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
2-3 Tb butter
2 quarts good chicken stock (or water)
1 cup oat flakes
salt and pepper to taste
large colander full of spring nettle tops (rinsed)
large handful of dandelion greens (rinsed)
(you may add other assorted wild greens: a few small violet leaves, chickweed, garlic grass, small
garlic mustard greens, dock greens, etc.)
Saute' leeks, carrots and garlic in butter over low heat until soft.
Cover with chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Add oat flakes, stir and cover.
While broth is simmering, grab a pair of scissors and a colander and go harvest your greens.
To avoid the inevitable nettles sting, snip off the young tops with the scissors and allow them to drop right into the strategically placed colander. Then use the scissors again to snip the tops into smaller pieces while they are still in the colander. You never have to touch them this way.
Rinse to remove any soil and add to the simmering stock. Rinse, chop and add any other spring green you have collected. Let the greens and soup simmer until all the greens are wilted completely but still vibrant in color (15 minutes). Just before serving add a splash (or three) of heavy cream.
oh so yummy!