My husband and I are serious about cutting down on food bills, and we have found a couple of ways that are easy and fun~ SPROUTING, GARDENING and FORAGING. You all know how to sprout and grow food for pennies right on your counter tops, right?
It’s so easy-peasy there is no excuse not to try it. I love to grow delicious broccoli/garlic/lentil/alfalfa micro greens. I used to grow ‘sunnies’ and buckwheat greens and wheatgrass with the trays of soil, but my smaller house doesn’t permit the space required, so we buy those now. Also, simple and nutritious sprouts that I regularly grow are buckwheat and oat groats that make beautiful raw porridges with fresh berries, and cinnamon. Also, I do sunflower seeds and almonds to germinate them and make them more digestible. We also have a garden for our greens and tomatoes and herbs and garlic. I’m no expert, but every year we are learning a little more, and it’s a great way to supplement our grocery budget for all the salads and green smoothies that we consume.
But the most fun of all is foraging for wild edibles. Reading about the Boutenko’s hiking adventures 7 years ago really inspired me. Igor would bravely test out new found plants along the trail before his family would eat any. But I didn’t know how to get started with 2 very little ones on our short hiking expeditions (my hubs wasn’t into raw much then and was away at work while I was with the kids)…
I really couldn’t just experiment on myself…Over the years I have gone on many wild walks with herbalists and dear friends like Shantree Kacera and David Wolfe, reading and studying their works along with Susun Weed and taking courses here and there, plus buying some helpful books and field guides…so I am feeling more confident.
My husband travels in his work (he builds massive waterfall systems on large estates and pieces of land) and is always outdoors, so he hunts around for wild edible flowers, roots, leaves, grasses and berries and brings them home. We enjoy making teas and soups and smoothies and salads from all his harvests. A favourite has to be wild Day Lillies which are those big orange flowers that taste like plums with a spicy after taste- very exotic. We used to always forage for wild asparagus because they are so easy to spot and we knew they weren’t toxic. But now we have ventured into things like sumac, golden rod, St John’s Wort (David Wolfe calls these ‘happy flowers’ because they are a proven antidote to depression) mullen, burdock, and many other local weeds. My husband recently brought home some hardened spruce tree resin that when you sucked it and softened it, it turned bright purple and became like a chewing gum that lasted all day!
You can see more great photos if you find me on Facebook and click on my album FORAGING FOR WILD EDIBLES.
The other day our youngest got stung in the face on the lip. It quickly swelled up 4x its size. Fortunately, I knew about a handy common weed called PLANTAIN which is fantastic for bites and stings. I found some not even 6′ away, immediately chewed it up into a paste and applied it to the area. Within minutes the pain subsided. When Liam didn’t stop crying I asked what was wrong and he said with big eyes full of tears “the poor bee lost its life and there is nothing we can do about it”…well, plantain is a miracle, but not that good!
Next post: COLLECTING YOUR OWN NATURAL SPRING WATER
Xo Raw Mom Shannon
