Foraging and Wildcrafting

Recently I went on a wonderful Plant Walk with my father hosted by Amber of The Wild Garden. It was a fantastic experience. We toured a very small section of wild growth around the Ottawa Canal. I took lots of pictures and wrote down tons of info. And instead of writing it down numerous times for myself and others I shall write it here. Please note I am in no way a Botanist or experienced forager, this information is for the Ottawa region and should you wish to use it please cross-reference with at least 2 field guides.

Sumac - deer horn sumac, has fuzzy stem like antlers. The berries are edible and can be dried and used as spice or made into a lemonade style drink.

Wild Grape - Wild grape is on the left, Virginia Creeper is on the right. They are often confused but Virginia Creeper is not edible. Wild grape leaves and berries are edible. Can make stuffed grape leaves. The grapes are good for juice but are high in tartaric acid so the juice should be allowed to sit for 24 hours, the tartaric acid will settle to the bottom. The tip of the young vine can be made into a tincture that is good for varicose veins.

Thimbleberry - has an edible berry that looks similar to a raspberry but is about the size of a thimble.

Milkweed -(love this plant!!) The new shoot of the plant is tasty and can be cooked like asparagus. The milky latex is toxic (to us but not Monarchs!) so it can't be eaten raw but once cooked it is fine. The unopened flower buds are delicious in a stir fry or cooked as a fritter. The pods can be eaten whole when very small or you can stuff and the larger pods. The white fluff is also edible before the seed starts to form, you can eat it straight from the plant or add it to casseroles.

Garlic Mustard - young leaves are edible. Invasive plant!

Yellow Wood Sorrel - leaves have a lovely lemony sour flavour.

Catnip - in the mint family, has a square stem. Stimulating to cats but calming to people. Great for a sleepy tea. Cooling which makes it good for fevers. Soothing to tummy. Essential oil makes a great bug repellent.

Amaranth - nutritious leaves similar to spinach.

Daisy - Pretty much everything is edible. The yellow bit can upset tummies but is fine in a tea once dried. Leaves are good raw or cooked, the flower bud is good pickled or frittered.

Yarrow - Is a wonderful styptic, stops blood flow. Crush leaves or make a spit poultice. Can be made into a tea to wash wounds. Is an anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic.

Lambs quarter - Another excellent nutritional leaf similar to spinach. It is in the same family as quinoa. The graininess on the leaves is a normal part of the plant.

Elderberry - very revered in uk. Prevents and treats flu. The flowers are edible cooked or dried but not raw. Good as tea, frittered flower buds, syrup. The rest of the plant is toxic.

I've already noticed many of these plants in my regular walks and even my front yard. Cant wait to use this info more.

I miss my internet

Not having internet sucks! And makes blogging kinda difficult. So I'm at the mall making use of their free wifi before I head to work. There have been a ton of projects lately. Some of which have been a disaster and some which worked out quite well. Pinterest certainly fuels the creativity, even if reality is sometimes very different than those pretty picture people post. So here's what I've been working on.

Garden - I failed. I know, so sad :( It has been a rainy rainy spring here and it has not done my garden good. I spent hours clearing the bed of the damn gout weed. And then planted my little veggie sprouts. They are all dead. Every last plant. tear.

The Birdbath - I dont know if I didnt use strong enough rebar but it was not effective. After trying a few times I gave up. I had painted all my terracotta pots in lavender and blue. I had secured my little bird statue to the bowl. And thats as far as it got because those pots all stacked were not sturdy enough for the wind let alone the birds. So the bowl is on the end of a bench near the raspberry bush. Not what I wanted but still cute.

Pickles - I made pickles! Who knew pickles were so easy? Cucumbers, salt water, dill, coriander, garlic. done. Delicious, not super crispy though so I might add some raspberry leaves next time. They apparently release tannins that will crisp up the pickles.

Personal Oatmeal - My boyfriend calls these his Breakfast Poop Muffins. lol. And they are effective! Simple whole ingredients make for a nutritious and easy breakfast. Also all the fibre makes ya poop. I do plan on posting a recipe for these as they are staples at our house.

The next project on the list is JAM. We have a giant loganberry tree in our yard  The loganberry is a hybrid of blackberry and raspberry. I'm a fan but there are way to many to just eat. Even with the ones I cant reach and the ones the birds eat I will have so many berries it isnt funny. So jam it is. Im a bit nervous so wish me luck!

Rain Rain Go Away, Come Again When I'm Done the Garden

This week has not been cooperative weather wise. It goes from sunny to rainy to hailing to windy and back to sunny again multiple times per day. This is really not conducive to planting my garden. Ya, ya, I know. Whats a little rain to a gardener? Well it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to completely dig out the bed. This bed has been completely ignored and allowed to run free. And therefore is full of Goutweed. ARG! So in order to plant my veggies I have to overhaul that bed. And its cold out! 5 degrees today. Somehow I don't think my little sprouts would appreciate that. Though the beans I started are huge and need to be planted asap. Go figure eh? Some are too small and delicate to put outside yet and some are huge and need to be planted now. My hope is that Monday or Tuesday I can dig out that bed and get started! I also have a birdbath half constructed in my living room because I need to finish it outside. I don't want to be outside in this weather. Its yucky. So I have been doing laundry. Oh Joy.

But soon, soon I will have a lovely vegetable garden. The cardinal family will have a bath. And the garden will look much better.

Cutting the Pink Ribbon

This marks the inaugural voyage of Making Life Sweet. My clean eating, clean living blog. And I suppose all good blogs, like all good houses, need a good foundation. So lets start at the beginning shall we?


The Beginning ...
Ballet. That sums up the first oh 15 years of my life. I was obsessed, passionate, and driven. I grew up originally in a very old farmhouse surrounded by fields. We grew our own vegetables and were avid outdoorsy people. We later moved to the city and our clean eating fell by the wayside as ease and convenience became more important. Time was taken up with school and dance, so while there was still an emphasis on family meals and vegetables, things like kraft dinner and ramen noodles made their way into the cupboards. I was always dubbed 'the skinny kid.' I come from a family of small but mighty women and followed suit. Dancing so much helped build strong muscles on that skinny frame. Fast forward to the end of high school and we come to the end of my dancing career. Over the next several years amid life's ups and downs I gained roughly 30 lbs. And yes I know that isn't a lot, yes that still makes me a thin person, however; that is a huge difference for a tiny person. A big difference for my once very fit and healthy body. And that brings us to ...

The Present
Or almost the present. Upon moving in with my boyfriend I mostly adopted his gluten free lifestyle. Its a heck of a lot easier to make one gluten free meal than two meals and hope to hell you didn't cross-contaminate and inadvertently poison your significant other. At first this meant simply adopting his way of eating, and that meant big portions heavy on the meat and potatoes. I just wasn't confident enough in the kitchen to experiment. While I have always been health conscious and aware I often chose to ignore what I knew and eat the yummy crap anyway. Well let me tell you, that has changed!

February 1st 2013 marked the first day of 'Race to Abs.' We co-created a challenge to get abs in 4 months as we were all feeling the bulge. Step number one was to clean up the diet! We cut out the junk food and boy was that hard! No more pop and chips and chocolate with our movies? Yikes! Next was cut out the simple carbs. Sorry baby no more white potatoes or rice. That was hard but not anywhere as hard as the pop! As the months have progressed and more research has been done we have made a huge effort to get rid of all artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and chemicals from our diets. We eat plenty of fresh and frozen vegetables, lots of lean protein, complex carbs, and natural sugars. But as anyone trying out a clean lifestyle will know, it is a constant battle. Gone are the days of just picking something up off the grocery store shelf and firing it in the cart. Now every label must be read and re-read. Don't know that ingredient or can't pronounce it? Back on the shelf it goes. Kitchen experimentation has gone up ten-fold. And I love it! Turning regular recipes into gluten free, healthy meals my whole family enjoys makes me happy. I love forcing baked goods on people. Spread the love by spreading the goodies! And if I can sneak good whole nutrients into something so yummy my sugar addicted friends will eat it then I am in heaven. Giddy, slightly maniacal heaven. Now add in the working out and we are making lean, mean, healthy machines.

And thus begins our journey into making a good, clean, simple, sweet life.