The high country huckleberry season (Vaccinium species) is winding down now, but it was such a success at its peak that I feel obliged to write about it. This is because not only did we find the berries plentiful (and literally in our very own back yard at 11,000 feet in the … [Read more...]
Holy Puffballs, Batman!
All this rain is making the mushrooms come out—a connection I never made before since I’m pretty much a beginner with edible fungi. So, when Gregg and I took a long, off trail hike above our house to an isolated beaver pond at 12,000 feet, crossing an above tree-line meadow to … [Read more...]
Roseroot is Edible, Who Knew?
I first noticed roseroot on a high-country hike above Fairplay, Colorado as Gregg and I were scrambling up a rock face, off-trail as usual. The plant is distinctive and attractive—tiny, blood-red flowers atop a fleshy stalk with spirally overlapping (Peterson, 1977) succulent, … [Read more...]
Weird Clover Flower Soup
The come-down from my huge purslane processing of the other day has been harder than I imagined it would be, such that I have been remiss in processing the bag of plantain that Jim gifted me from Denver. I’ve been afraid to look but I fear it is decomposing in the refrigerator. I … [Read more...]
Purslane Rescue Mission
We went to the east coast for two weeks in July, and my sister met me in Maine with a small bag of New Hampshire purslane—that low branching succulent that many gardeners throw in the yard trimmings without a second thought. I promptly boiled it up and served it with butter and … [Read more...]