I bolted upright at 2 a.m., awakened by loud, forceful hail pounding down on the roof. It was June 28, just a week into summer. I got up and walked across the dark living room to peek out the sliding glass doors. Despite the cold, hard nature of those icy pellets, the hail meant … [Read more...]
Purslane chilaquiles
Chilaquiles are a favorite way to use leftover tortilla chips in my house, and the wild vegetable purslane (Portulaca oleracea), or "verdolagas" in Spanish, have long been used in Mexican cuisine to accent them. If you don’t know purslane already, you should. This garden weed … [Read more...]
Mint madness
There’s nothing like accompanying your boyfriend to a work meeting expecting to sit idly by and instead being invited to forage the back yard. “I’ll weed your garden while I wait,” I offered to his new web client, glancing hungrily at the carpet of young goosefoot (Chenopodium … [Read more...]
High country angelica
How many times have I hiked the same route never to discover angelica? Probably more than a hundred. Of course, this is very much in keeping with what I have come to expect from wild plants—I almost always find something good when I’m out foraging, but it’s often not what I set … [Read more...]
Thistle flower artichokes
I've been experimenting with the various parts of thistles lately and I just couldn’t help myself--I had to take it a step further, having recently discovered the relationship between thistles and commercially-grown artichokes, which I love and miss from my years in California … [Read more...]
