Category Archives: food

That Awesome Rainy Day

21 Monday Aug 2023

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Hail Brave Hearts

It’s a stormy day with the thunder crackling.  Lightning lights up the sky and the torrents of rain fall heavily.  Lucky us.  The rain with it’s magical nutrition, watering all of the earth.   A day when we can pass on watering the outdoor flowers and lawn and let nature take control and provide the much needed moisture.  Fabulous rain, taking that chore off our hands and providing a day of indoor retreat instead.

It’s a delightful day of inside pleasure.  The canning, pickling and jam making is on the list.  Pies, muffins, breads and cookies all come to mind.    It’s a wonderful day of baking and cooking, sewing and playing board games.  Inside goodness awaits us, while the rain falls and takes the stifling heat from the air, bringing cooler weather for different activities.  Run like the wind, cycle the roads and trails, the cool will only last for a few days, before the summertime heat sends us back to the beach to play.

Meanwhile, the house fills with the smells of fresh baked pies.  These rainy days are filled with blessings.  No more need to run to the beach to catch that last swim in the lake before dark.  Today is the rainy day of thunderstorm pleasure, when we reach for the recipe books and head to the larder.  These are the fabulous days, when there’s no place like home.

The berry patch has been abundant this year and the freezer has been filling with a variety of garden choices.  The delectable treats oozing with goodness, waiting to be consumed.  The baking tins come out of hiding, being prepared for the best of the best in garden baking.  Raspberry, white chocolate comes to mind.  These are the days of the happy chef and the smiling participants in the joy of cooking.  Lovely. It’s always clever to keep a supply of garden goodness for those rainy days.

Stinging Nettle Cake – Skovkær (nordicforestfoods.com)

Let it pour.  Let the rains come down in buckets.  Let the Earth take care of the watering and let the plants soak up the goodness of the water.  Let it rain, so that puddles form and the water splashes on our rain boots.  The thunder rolls in, lightning lights up the sky.  The heavens display a crackling of light and sound.  There’s an awesome display of power in thunder and lightning that sends a communication of awe in the uncontrolled weather.  Dark clouds billowing, rain descending.

🔴 Heavy Rain and Thunder Sounds 24/7 – Deep Sleep | Thunderstorm for Sleeping – Pure Relaxing Vibes – YouTube

Lucky are we to have a fine shelter, with garden delights to occupy our days.  There’s so much indoor goodness to attend to.  These chores are not chores.  These are a special gift of time.  A time when being forced to flee the inclement weather is a fine gift of welcome time.  Time to spend on the pantry.  Tine to fill up the cookie jar and prepare the fine feast.  Time to sew that garment and make gifts for our friends and loved ones.

That welcome storm.  The Earth needs the nutrients of the water and we need to rest and refresh ourselves.  Baking, sewing, spa.  It’s a rainy day.   A day for a treat.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

August 20, 2023

Those Divine Weeds

22 Sunday Aug 2021

Posted by in agriculture, alternative lifestyles, edible flowers, family farm, farm, flowers, food, food production, gardening, gardens, health, health and wellness, homesteading, horticulture, lifestyle, organic medicine, starvation, the sustainability plan for food, vegetables, world hunger

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Still exploring, still living that awesome adventure, still looking forward to the next great day.  Still working those muscles, still struggling with pain.  Not so!  Your diet could save you.

On and on the canoe is paddled, on and on, those muscles work.  Through rapids, portages, endless days on the water, trap the fur, bring it home, make a fortune for that clever, illustrious businessman.  Be the vehicle to their desires.  Work your body, your mind, your spirit to the bone.  Leave your loved ones, travel with courage, bring home that cherished dime.

The difficult life of the courier de bois, the homesteaders that followed them and the settling of Canada.  The price that was paid in life and livelihood, as the courageous Canadians make their way into the great wild.  Survive you must.

The land takes it’s toil and exhausts us.  The strain and stress of this life is full of great challenges.  There are dreams of gold but hardship is plenty.  Tell us your secrets.  How did you survive?

In the great wild, there is plenty, if you know what to look for.  There was game to catch, fish in the streams, fruit, berries and edible plants along the way.  Some of this is medicinal and works to cure that obvious.  Vitamin C for scurvy, vitamin A for your eyes.  The long days of sunshine gleaming off the water, the eyesore from reflections from the water without sunglasses, the sunburn, the pain of it.

Somewhere in the wilds of Canada is medicine for all of this.  Salves, ointments, tinctures, treatments for cuts, bruises, scrapes and burns.  Somewhere there are treatments for pain, vision loss, inflamed joints, sore muscles, pulls and sprains.  Somewhere there is treatment for disease and mental impairment.  Our healing is abundant and our forefathers prove it.  Somewhere in the great wild nutrition is abundant and the natural world gives us relief from aches and pain, from disease and keeps us well.  Somewhere in the wild, there is food that will save us, if you know what to look for.

Lambs Quarters:Why was Lamb’s quarters used as an herbal remedy?The plant was used traditionally as an herbal remedy for eczema, rheumatic pains, gout, colic, insect stings and bites. Also a decoction made from the herb was used to treat tooth decay. The sap extracted from the plant stems was used to reduce freckles and treat sunburns.

Lamb’s Quarters Uses in Cooking and Benefits

Why is it important to eat lambsquarter leaves? Lambsquarter is an important source of food that can be considered a key staple, while at the same time it is also an extremely valuable medicine. When the leaves are chewed into a green paste and applied to the body, it makes a great poultice for insect bites, minor scrapes, injuries, inflammation, and sunburn.

  • https://www.joyfulbelly.com/Ayurveda/ingredient/Lambs-Quarters/267Lamb’s quarters contains more protein, calcium, and vitamins B1 and B2 than cabbage or spinach, making it a wild edible fit for Pop-Eye, our favorite green vegetable hero. It is also rich in iron, phosphorus, and vitamins B1, B2, C, and A. Lamb’s Quarters warms your mouth, is slightly salty, sour, and mildly spicy.
  • Lambs Quarter – Wild & Edible www.thegypsythread.orghttps://www.thegypsythread.org/lambs-quarter-wild-edible2021-07-27 · Internal uses range from treating diarrhea, relieving stomach aches, and for scurvy (due to the high Vitamin C content.) Lamb’s quarter tea is also known for decreasing inflammation and increasing circulation. Lamb’s quarter poultices are said to relieve itching, swelling, and relieve burn pain.
  • Yarrow
  • In short, Yarrow has the following medicinal uses:
    • wound treatment
    • stops bleeding
    • digestive herb
    • diuretic
    • anti-inflammatory
    • anti-spasmodic
    • anti-catarrhal (removes excess mucous from the body)
    • diaphoretic (reduces fever)
    • lowers blood pressure
    • stimulates blood flow in the pelvic area (especially the uterus)
    • antimicrobial
    • used for hemorrhage
    • used for treatment in pneumonia
    • used for treatment in rheumatic pain
  • Purple Aster
    • Principally used in the cure of rheumatism in the form of infusion or tincture; recommended, however, in hysteria, chorea, epilepsy, spasms, irregular menstruation, etc., internally; and used both externally and internally in many cutaneous diseases, the eruption occasioned by the poison rhus, and in the bites of venomous snakes.Wild Asters medicinal uses | V I FarmsAre there any medicinal uses for wild asters?Wild Asters medicinal uses. The warm infusion may be used freely in colds, rheumatism, nervous debility, headache, pains in the stomach, dizziness, and menstrual irregularities. This, together with A. cordifolius, has been compared in value with valerian. Aster aestivus …is recommended as an antispasmodic and alterative.
  • 2020-08-30 · The flowers and leaves can be eaten fresh or dried when eating aster plants. The Native American people harvested wild aster for a multitude of uses. The roots of the plant were used in soups and young leaves were cooked lightly and used as greens. 

  • Daisies

The Medicinal Herb Daisy The herb may be used for loss of appetite as it has stimulating effect on the digestion system and it has been used as a treatment for many ailments of the digestive tract, such as gastritis, diarrhea, liver and gallbladder complaints and mild constipation.

Wild daisy is a plant. The parts that grow above the ground are used to make medicinal tea. People take wild daisy tea for coughs, bronchitis, disorders of the liver and kidneys, and swelling ( inflammation ). They also use it as a drying agent (astringent) and as a ” blood purifier.”

The young flower heads or buds can be added to salads, soups or sandwiches; or the flower heads used to decorate salad dishes. The leaves can be eaten raw despite their bitter aftertaste, but are better mixed in salads or cooked and might be used as a potherb. The buds can be preserved in vinegar and used in cooking as a substitute for capers.

Nutritional profile

It is both an anti-inflammatory herb and a vulnerary (improves circulation) herb. Drink daisy tea for the plant’s health-giving and restorative properties. A modern study of wild edibles used during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–95) showed that daisies contain 34 mg of vitamin C per 100 g.

Common Thistle

The roots have been used as a poultice and a decoction of the plant used as a poultice on sore jaws. A hot infusion of the whole plant has been used as a herbal steam for treating rheumatic joints. A decoction of the whole plant has been used both internally and externally to treat bleeding piles.

Save yourself, with the delicious, nutritious weeds of the wild!  Our great ancestors had nothing else to eat.  The knowledge  of the food value and medicinal value of these weeds offered to us by the aboriginal people of Canada, saved us then and could help us now.  Eat, drink and be well.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

August 22, 2021

Pasturization

06 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by in agriculture, animal husbandry, family farm, farm, farm animals, food, food production, health, homesteading

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Good Day. Brave hearts
This day is a day of adventure. Follow your pursuits. A grand day of living, of joy, of praises to you, almighty human for your gifts and treasures, for the great gift of spirit and mind. Praises to you for dedication, for curiosity, for belief and daring. To never stop, to accept the challenge and to use the mind for the purpose that it was intended. To use that intellect for the greater good of mankind and of the great planet. What benefits that one persistent intellect will benefit us all.
Praises, brave hearts, to the heroes among us. We live longer, we live better, we are healthier and more prosperous. Praises to you for that great gift, the gift of a great mind.
In Canada, the food industry protects the consumer from the ravages of disease caused by unhealthy food sources. Unsuspecting victims of contaminants in food products, strains of bacteria that cause disease. The work of thinkers and doers, of persistent curiosity and well educated intellect. The work of determination, of perseverance, of never accepting defeat. The work of years of dedication to task. The thought process of I will, I can, I must. This is the thinking that brings about revolutionary ideas, discovery and cure. Brilliant mankind, who lives forever, for genius never dies.
From the lowly life of a pauper rises the aptitude of a shining star. A brilliant mind from an obscure family. A mind of inspiration, of imagination, of toil, of diligence, of perspective. An unusual twist of an average student to rise to the fame of a doctorate in science. A brilliant doctorate of science and microbiology.
Hail, Louis Pasteur for the gift of your aptitude that brings cure to us all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur

The work is the constant diligence that resolved the problem of bacterial contaminants in milk. Bacterial contaminants that cause disease and spoil the product.
Hail, Louis Pasteur for the invention of pasteurization. Nearly two hundred years ago when a brilliant mind focused on the need for a cure to a deadly disease that spread throughout Europe. Milk is a widely consumed whole food that was the cause of this disease. Pasteur invented a method of bringing milk to a high degree then cooling it quickly to kill off the contaminating bacteria. This was also done with alcohol, since it had also become contaminated.
An astute observation brought about an immediate cure. A simple process, easily done, but not so easily conceived.
Pasteurization is still used today, to eliminate deadly bacteria in foods such as milk and other beverages. Pasteurization is required in Canada to prevent the milk from spoiling and becoming a deadly food.
Milk is labelled according to the fat content of the product, such as Whole, Skim, or Partly skimmed 1% or 2% milk, never as raw milk. It is also labelled as pasteurized and homogenized.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasteurization

Pasteur also invented a cure for rabies, anthrax, chicken cholera and a disease that was killing silk worms and ruining the silk industry. He also invented vaccines.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes
December 20, 2013

Homogenization

06 Sunday Sep 2020

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Good morning Brave hearts
Happy new year to all of you.
As the issues present themselves, knowledge is key. The understanding of past reasoning and past achievement which protects us is vital to the common sense that surrounds our lives. All of us benefit from a sound minded, qualified source which examines the evidence and presents high quality product to the consumer. An educated public is a consumer consious public who demand the safety in all products for all of us.
Food!
Our healthy food products can’t be tampered with. The processes that are required to keep food producst contaminant free and consequently prevent the outbreak of disease cannot be undermined. Milk as a whole food source is regulated to protect the public.
Pasteurization kills bacteria in milk that would cause disease.
Homogenization processes the milk to make it the same consistency. As a food source, milk is a highly nutritious food product. Pasteurization has prevented dangerous bacteria from causing disease in beverages for 150 years. 150 years of a safe food product that is wholesome and healthy and highly nutritious and that is safe to consume.
Tampering with the product could result in a product that is no longer safe, healthy and a benefit to consume.
Homogenization processes the beverage to ensure uniformity in taste, texture and food content. It does not interfere with the nutritional value of the food and does not change the product, it only makes the product consistent from one drink to another. A homogenized product will always taste the same. Homogenization is used in the processing of milk, but also drinks such as colas and alcohols.

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/healthy-eating/is-homogenized-milk-bad-for-you

The process that milk goes through to present a safe and healthy food source to the public is a process to protect the public and does not interfere with the wholesome beneficial food source.

written by Louise Hayes
January 5, 2014

Losing the Pollinator

06 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by in agriculture, alternative lifestyles, edible flowers, family farm, famine, farm, flowers, food, food production, gardens, health, homesteading, horticulture, starvation, the sustainability plan for food, Uncategorized, vegetables, world hunger

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Hail Oh Brilliant Ones

The food source is in decline. The world warms itself and global warming presents the hazards of Arctic melting and increased glacial melting. The great glaciers recede and the moraine increases. Rubble and rock to replace glacial icecap that melts and sends torrents of fresh drinking water into our rivers and streams. Drinking water for the nation, rivers and lakes, a necessary life giving force. Pure water, from a source that is vanishing at an increasing rate. Global warming. A hazard to us, as weather patterns change and become more unusual. Increasing storms and rising temperatures and decline.

Over hunting and over fishing are signs that we are not protecting the mighty planet as we should. Over harvesting of natural elements changes the face of the earth forever and is the need really there? Our bees are dying by the millions and our food source will become more and more scarce. Pesticides intended to increase crop yields fail as the pollinators die and with the death of these insects, food production declines and variety decreases. A small necessary insect, with enormous impact on the food chain. Bees alone pollinate so many varieties of food that without them, we have scarcity and loss of production.
The planet groans under the weight of so many humans, as they strive to fill their bellies. Plunder and loss, greed and resentment. How to feed the starving.
An age old question, of need and provide, as governments tackle the same questions that have presented themselves throughout history. How to provide for the hungry. Habitat loss and over farming plunders the earth. Natural forces are lost as bees die at an alarming rate. Plant your seeds, oh dear hearts, tend to your plants, nurture and care. But without the pollinator, your efforts are in vain, as the beautiful flower withers and dies without fruit to bear. Our efforts to feed ourselves diminishes as even the weather becomes unpredictable. A crisis at a momentous level.
Pesticides are becoming so poisonous that they are killing the life force that we need for food production. The bee. With the loss of bees, we loose our food supply and hunger increases. As hunger increases, so does plunder and the great planet and the great wild loose to the ravages of so many hungry people that can’t be fed. The food chain is interrupted and food declines.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-and-extinction-of-the-bees/5375684 the dying bees

Hail, great planet, cries the needs of so many. Replenish our plates and fill our mouths. Give us sustenance and plenty and nourish us. Provide for us, oh great planet, as we demand that only our stomachs be filled.
Another tree is toppled to make room for the farm. Another seed is planted to raise hopes for that poor, undernourished family. More hope for sustenance and perhaps income for a poor starving family. Not so. As bees die by the millions, the hope and dream of prosperity for those willing to try, diminishes and dies with the pollinator. Hail, almighty human. Use your powers wisely. Save us.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
January 21, 2015

Food! Glorious Food!

06 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by in agriculture, alternative lifestyles, edible flowers, family farm, famine, farm, flowers, food, food production, fruit, gardening, gardens, health, homesteading, horticulture, lifestyle, recipes, starvation, the sustainability plan for food, Uncategorized, vegetables, world hunger

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Good Day, Brave hearts

The plentiful gifts from the planet are oozing with goodness for your health.  Baskets of ripe fruit, fresh, organic produce, berries and vegetables.  The farm.  That country lifestyle of wholesome goodness.  The peace, the quiet, the endless fields of  food.  Take out your recipe books, oh delectable gourmet, this is where your hunger ends and your imagination starts.

The variety of carrots, yellow, purple, orange.  The variety of potatoes, peas, beans and corn.  Grains for baking, soups and bread.  This is your gourmet delight.  The fabulous farm, or even your own slice of garden in your own back yard.  The wholesome goodness of fresh country produce, organically grown.  Your own little world of a vegetable garden, saves dollars at the grocery store, but also has more nutritional value.  Fresh picked tastes better and has a higher nutritional value than produce that has been picked earlier and trucked to stores.

Your larder is overflowing as the berry bushes bow, heavy laden with fruit.  It’s a bumper crop this year, early springtime sunshine and hot, dry weather followed by day after day of rain and  now a non stop supply of early ripening produce.  The canning and processing is in full production and this is early for us.  The summertime fruit cordials are a delicious addition to the pantry.  Pin cherry, black currant, red currant and rhubarb.  The freezer is filling and the bushes are overflowing.   The fruit trees are ripening and the vegetable garden is ready for picking. The great Canadian summer is with us with all of the goodness that if brings.

www/thesustainabilityplanforfood.com

The glorious days of summer!  Dreamy days of endless health.  The wild lands burst with blue bushes of berries, tiny ground growing red and higher crops of ripening purple.  Look up!  Is that berries in those trees?  The birds fill their bellies and the wandering bears lick the bushes clean.  A plentiful crop for the wildlife brings healthy newborns next spring. The forest floor is still a bit dry, but the thundershowers keep blowing in and soon the underbrush will be damp from the persistent rain.  Rain and warmth, sunshine and heat, longer days and warmer nights.  This year has worked it’s magic for us, with our backyard gardens filling our baskets with non stop fruit.  The daily toil, for backyard farmers like us, is the constant delight of filling our bowls with fruit or vegies and trying new recipes. This year it’s fruit cordials, which are an absolute delight.  Elixers and liqueurs, jams and pie.  The fabulous luxury of home grown and homemade.  A superb combination to fill the spare time hours of long summer days.

The wild brings its own delight.  Blueberries for your healthy basket.  Eat and enjoy, this summer won’t last.

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

August 15, 2016

Let Them Eat Pie

06 Sunday Sep 2020

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Hail almighty ones

Let them eat pie.  These almost famous words evoke memories of lives past.  What could possibly be wrong with pie?  The nutritious blend of wheat, to help you with your daily fibre.  The addition of fruit, full of vitamins, topped with your favorite antioxidants, like blueberry or raspberry.  Pie for breakfast.  The perfect way to start your day.  Granola with berries, farm fresh and organic, vitamins, vitamins, vitamins.

The great planet has given us a full larder this year, a bumper crop of berries, fruit from the trees and a delicious side line of rose hips for jam.  The nutritional value of the backyard larder is immense.  Add to this the buckets of blueberries, offered wild by the roadside and you’ve scored your nutritional elements for the winter.  The buzz word this year is anti-oxidant.  Cancer fighting gems of gold, to keep your body healthy and fit.  Keep your body disease free.  Those minuscule plantings of organic berries, hold the key to keeping your body in top form, for fighting the ravages of some serious disease.

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/10-super-foods#1

And this was yester world, in a time long past, before those deadly diseases were born.  In a time of the homesteader, before trucking and before pesticides, before genetically engineered product, before big business farming and before the mass marketing and mass advertising.  A time of the corner grocery store, the marketplace, the roadside fruit stand.  There was a time, when entire nations fed themselves and the word organic, was taken for granted.  All food was organic.  No pesticides, no preservatives, no artificial sweeteners or coloring.  A time before plastic, when food was packed in cardboard boxes and wrapped in paper, a time when farm fresh goodness was common place.  Dangerous illnesses like cancer, were not as commonplace.

What is the key?  What is the factor that changes this?  Is it just our lives and our lifestyle?  The stress level or the pollution index.  Factors out of our control, or something more significant, some thing that we can control and that only we, ourselves can take charge of.  In those bygone years of yesterday, the family diet was quite different.  Granola with berries, easy to make. Full of freshness and packed with nutrients.  The larder was full, the canning season taken seriously, put your crops down, fill the pantry, make your preserves.  Diet is crucial to maintaining a healthy body.  Your diet can save you. It can boost your immune system and fight the diseases.  It can help you maintain body weight and skin tone, muscle firmness and shiny hair.  Your diet can make your eyes sparkle and your body spring with life.  Your diet helps you to live long and to live well.  Your perfect body, your perfect diet, a blend of common sense and lifestyle.

Eat your way to your good health and plant your garden with seeds of goodness and the love of living.  This is where your heart is, body and soul, literally.

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

October 3, 2016

A Garden of Earthly Delights

06 Sunday Sep 2020

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Hail Bravehearts

Joy to you and to your garden too.  The blessings of spring turn to summertime things, as the fruit sets on the vine.  Welcome to summer and to a harvest of plenty, as fruit and vegetables and flowers grow.   Smell the aroma, the scent of your haven, a garden is paradise on earth, if it’s  laden.  Bees and butterflies, birds of a feather, pollinate the flowers of trees and heather.  Your garden of earthly delight.  A recipe to try something new, a dandelion ripens its head, just for you.  The colorful, showy, large yellow flower, is filled with nectar for pollinators to swallow.  Lovely and fresh, it’s springtime bouquet, fills our pantry on many a day.  Weeds begone, they belong in the past, harvest this flower, they might not last.

18 Dandelion Recipes

18 Dandelion Recipes

Now, in the garden, my roses bloom,  a new source of food, has just found room.  Flowers and scent, the aroma is perfume,  my cooking has escalated to aromatherapy blooms.  The delicious petals, the fragrance and color, I dine with delight at my new found wonder.  Taste the petals and taste the blooms, flowers are delicious and filled with perfume.  Soaps and lotions, smell their scent, we dine in splendor with what the earth sends.  Herbs which were weeds, fill our bowls, and flowery syrups delight our souls.  Needy and hungry we scrounge for more, as the delectable bites, need time to mature.

Another flower fills the garden quickly.  Lilac is a source of food for our pantry.  Brilliant and purple it’s showy head, casts spells of flavor upon our heads.  Heady and delightful, the flowers of the pantry, change our world from dowdy to fancy.  Look at us, look what we dine on!  The sumptuous garden of flowers to thrive on.  Gourmet for us all, as we ponder our dinner.  Calorie count?  We’re really not thinner.  Jams and syrups, wine and souffle, a delight from the garden, will always make our day. Recipes to share, summer is here, as we wait for the berries to ripen each year.  But this year is different, it has a new taste, as flowers and petals garnish our plates.  Fragrance and cordials, liqueurs and jams, petals and soaps and aromatic plans.  The earth with abundance spreads joy to us.  Gather and enjoy, the new harvest is a must.

The tender shoots of weeds to pull, become the salad, we all know.  Herbs and flowers with syrupy dressings, are a feast of plants which were pulled as a menace. Come and enjoy, the new harvest is here.  Brilliant and colorful, it speaks to our ears.  Listen to that sound, from great mother Earth.  Eat and be joyous, quench your thirst.  A tasty drink, a scone, a tart, will all  change our world right from the start.

Eat and be healthy, enjoy the new view, flowers for consumption has just made the news.  Carefully selected, a bright sight to behold, in comes the new, to replace the old.  Caution to the wind, eat your garden, but be cautious to indulge in only the good ones.  Don’t poison yourselves on inedible plants.  Eat only what’s good for you, not the bugs and the ants.  Eaten correctly and enjoyed wisely, the new bountiful garden will savor your meals.  Live wisely.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

June 27, 2017

A Rose is a Rose

06 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by in agriculture, alternative lifestyles, flowers, food, food production, gardening, gardens, homesteading, the sustainability plan for food

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Hail Bravehearts

Ah, the goodness, the welcome delight, a fresh backyard garden to enjoy and delight.  Flowers with fragrance fill the air, with sweet summer scents, to draw you back there.  A rose is a dainty, admired for it’s beauty, but beneath that colorful coat, lies a secret kept neatly.  It’s worth in it’s petals fill the air, with  a scent so aromatic we gather it with care.  Brilliant on it’s stem, it holds it’s head brightly, filling it’s container with blossoms, so sprightly.  Gathering the petals, so soft to the touch, for a dainty delicacy, there’s not very much.

An added abundance to fill the larder, flowers are growing, but the work is much harder.  Smaller and precious, they fill their space, with fragrance, color, and beauty in their place.  Dainty and delightful, smelling so divine, I pluck the petals that grow on the vine.  The air in the house is sweet perfume, and extracting the essential oils clutters the room.

The recipes prove, there are plenty of us, gathering flowers, for their values is a must.  We eat the good ones, gathered with care, to try a dish of culinary rare.  Some salads, some biscuits, some chocolate too, a craving of harvesting a plant or two.  This sweet tart taste is the treat of the day, we sit and enjoy rose petal sorbet.

http://invitadoinviernoeng.blogspot.ca/2010/06/rose-petal-sorbet.html

The gathering of flowers, even the dead headed ones, is as fragrant and blissful as these moments become.  A headful of perfume, as the passing rose, still lingers its fragrance in my nose.  The smell lingers in the air, aromatherapy is here, I wake each morning to it’s presence so dear.  Lovely to look at, delightful to hold, there’s something special about the rose.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

August 18, 2017

Pemican

06 Sunday Sep 2020

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Hail Brave hearts.

The season’s change and so do I.  Cast off your winter garment, it is spring.  The receding snows and baking sun, take the blanket of white away, leaving behind the winter’s dead brown world.  A cool, late spring, with slow growth, keeps the winter hanging on.  It’s time for spring, the great wild calls, as the migrating birds arrive and the hibernating animals emerge.  It’s time for spring, call the adventurers as they pull out their bikes for a ride in the woods.  The ski hill closes, the equipment is stored, coats and boots hang in closets.  Birds gather in warm pools, waiting for the ice to melt.  Come on spring, it’s your show now!

Slowly the warming sun, encourages the grass to become green, tiny buds on trees begin to emerge and the promise of a new world becomes real.  Mating pairs can’t wait to start their families and the tiny offspring need to be warm.  Winter has withdrawn reluctantly this year.  An inspection of the garden reveals some winter kill.  Not all of the plants can survive the winter all of the time, but lets wait, it’s still early.  Don’t be discouraged yet.

Rhubarb has popped it’s head up out of the soil.   In a few weeks the harvest will start.  The berry patch is looking good and weeding is on the “to do” list.  Little sparrows look for good nesting sites and the chorus of their song, welcomes spring.  Finally!  The Earth awakens from her slumber and with this, the grey days pass.

“Come out!”  calls the brilliant sunshine. ” Come to play in the warm sunshine!  Come to see the beautiful new world.  Come to investigate the returning wild.  Come out!  Come out!  Don’t stay inside.  You’ll miss this glorious day!”

Spring brings with it a new array of activity.  The garden, with it’s earthly delights, fragrance, bird songs, color, delectable food.  This spells work in the garden, choose your seeds, get ready to plant.  The fruit trees are blooming, food is on its way.

After a long winter of rations, eating last years harvest, the fresh rhubarb looks so good.  A few more weeks and this can be eaten.  Perhaps a new recipe this year.  The dandelions are starting to flower and the fresh new shoots are a perfect salad.  I won’t weed these this year.  Instead, I’ll let the flowers grow and harvest them for my dinner.  Bread and muffins, salad and tea and survival.  This is the gift of the harvest, straight from the great planet.   Eat and enjoy, for this is sustenance and we gather it.

http://www.grouprecipes.com/68395/pemican.html  Pemican

In years gone by, when the country was new, survival was the key to colonialism.  Like hibernating wildlife, overwintering and surviving in the great white north, was the most imperative topic of the day.  How do we survive?  Adaptation and skills, training and education.  As humans, we can’t curl up in a warm, winters den and sleep the cold away.  Preparation and planning,  storage, cut wood.  A humble cabin, an oasis in the wilderness.  Warm, small,dry.  It’s yours!

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

May 13, 2018