I’d been eating a lot of quinoa while staring longingly at the seeds of its relative, the ubiquitous weed, goosefoot. In fact I kept a jar of the black seeds in my pantry for more than two years before attempting to eat them. Truth be told, I was stumped by them. I eat … [Read more...]
Seaweeding the Eastern Shoreline
My parents shot me quizzical looks last summer when I announced my plan to gather seaweed in Long Island Sound, off the Connecticut coast. Not only would I collect, but also dry the seaweed at their house so I could take it back to Colorado with me for cooking experiments. I … [Read more...]
A fall for rosehips
Legions of soft, plump, frost-kissed rosehips hang heavy upon their slender, prickly stems. Many are perfectly ripe, slipping off the ends of their branches with a soft, orange gush, leaving a sticky paste to be licked off the fingers. First I made rosehip sauce by cooking the … [Read more...]
Fruiting forward
We went for wild plums in the cold, misty morning, gathering them with fingers freezing and lethargic, my feet squishing in icy, wet boots. It was worth enduring the thorny thicket, the musky scent of catnip tall around us, to come home with 20 lbs or so of plums, without making … [Read more...]
Leaves of three, strawberry!
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...]
