Foraging for Wild Food

ForageSF was conceived of by Iso Rabins in early 2008, with the mission to connect Bay Area dwellers with the wild food that is all around them. Through a monthly box of all wild foraged foods, which we call a CSF, we deliver fresh, sustainably harvest wild food to city dwellers. From wild mushrooms to acorn flour, there is a wealth of edible forage just outside our doors that few people know about, and still fewer ever consume. Our goal is to push people out of the supermarket, to get them trying new foods harvested sustainably and fairly by their neighbors. As part of our community focused philosophy, 50% of the profit from the sale of any product we purchase from a forager goes straight to that individual . That is, to the person who collected it.

Living in a Wooden Globe Up a Tree

I sometimes wish for a place of my own. Nothing fancy or expensive or particularly flashy. I like seeing unusual small places, like this globe home in the woods. I found this on Something Just to Start. The company that makes it is Free Spirit Spheres.

Abandoned Bed and Breakfast Photo

This is one of my favourite photos from this place. I also took a lot of photos of pebbles and rocks with grass growing through the cracks. I love rocks, pebbles and stones. I thought I would try out one of those photos as a blog background.

Ode to the Goldfish

The last floating goldfish is still in the pond, making me feel bad. I did my best by them, tried to find out what we would need to do for keeping them alive in the pond over winter. The nice young man at the garden centre was very sure the pond was deep enough and as long as I could dig a hole through the ice and snow once the Spring thaw started, the goldfish would be fine. Well, something went wrong. Maybe it was the long winter and all the tons of snow we had this season past. Everyone is saying it was a very long and cold winter. The taxi driver who gave me a ride from the grocery store today said he hasn't seen a winter this cold and snowy since 2001. It's really unfair of those goldfish to die this way.

Before the winter I made sure to keep them fed. I was even getting to know them a bit, on an individual basis. I never did quite manage to count them all. They just didn't stay in place long enough and then there always seemed to be a few hiding down deeper in the pond. I was feeling kind of sad for that one guy that always seemed to be alone, the left over one, the guy no one else would play with. But, really, the more I watched the more it seemed to be all his own fault. He just kept swimming out from the group, didn't give any of the other fish a chance to be friendly and get to know him.

Now they are all gone. All just floating bodies, buried in the garden now. My brother used a shovel to flip them all out on a day when there was still ice in the pond. He missed three. Or they were just stuck somehow. I tried to get them with the shovel but they kept slipping off the end. Plus, the pond really stinks. More than just stinky, it's gut wrenchingly gross. Not so bad now that time has passed, the ice has melted and the water has been exposed to the elements a few weeks.

Here's Laughing at You

Garden gnome I noticed while on a road trip yesterday.

Rustic Bentwood Chair

It's a mini chair but I liked the idea of using old fence slats as part of the chair back. Those rustic chairs are great anyway, this was just that touch of something old and recycled.

Crocuses in Newmarket

 

Of course, I took this photo the day before Winter came back. We've had snow falling, not enough to really stick around just enough to make everyone want to hibernate.

Getting Organized and Spring Cleaning

It's not quite Spring yet it seems every magazine I pick up is talking about clutter and getting organized. Just too early for Spring cleaning. Or do they think we are a bunch of slobs?

The best way to make yourself organize stuff is to have a major life change and move. Once you start packing it all into boxes and hauling it around you get to see just how much stuff you really have. Plus, a change in your life makes a lot of stuff you were keeping suddenly not as interesting or useful to keep. Think divorce. After a divorce there are all kinds of resorting of your priorities.

I've got the new bed set up but need to move the furniture around again. Decide where things will go now that I have the futon to be a sofa/ couch sort of creature. I've been wishing I had one. Nice to watch TV at night and not be sitting in front of the computer cause it's either that or the kitchen table and chairs which aren't comfortable for sitting very long either. You need a boneless place to sit, where you can sink down and get comfortable instead of sitting straight and not having anywhere cozy to put your feet.

I'm giving myself the deadline of this weekend, Sunday, to get all the organizing done. Good luck to me. Happy Spring!

The New Bed is Here!

The delivery guys were supposed to bring it in and assemble it but they left without doing any assembling. I worked on it. Took me a second try to get the frame for the right size. They have some new design than the last time I had a new bed. Of course, that was over ten years ago, easily ten years ago. So nice to have a bed and not be sleeping on the floor. I moved it around the room deciding where to put it but settled on the corner, vertically so I wouldn't be walking around it each time I go through the door.

I included a photo of the bed garbage and the old futon standly forlornly along the wall ready for take out. I'm going to use it as a couch, somehow. I just need to figure out how it can do anything other than lie flat. I think there are at least two of the screws missing.

Wedding Gift Registry Person

The job was for a gift registery consultant. Part time hours but somehow a consultant. I think it has to do with the hours they pay and how they don't need to include benefits and much of anything else. But, it does pay better than I was making as a cashier, $10.25 an hour.

These photos are from the display gallery showing off all the flatware, china and other expensive goodies every bride should have people buying for her. They made pretty pictures.

Blog with Food

Espresso Lab

The Domestic Goddess

These are both Canadian. Food blogs are getting popular.

Ginger with Ginger

A recipe I came across this morning from A Spoonful of Sugar

Ginger Crunch

Base:
200g plain flour
100g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger (organic is particularly pungent)
125g softened butter (unsalted)
40g crystallised ginger chunks, roughly chopped

Icing:
150g unsalted butter
4 tbsp golden syrup
270g icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp ground ginger

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 9" square tin with baking parchment. (I don't do anything fancy here. Just squish it into the tin and the base will push into the corners nicely. No need for scissors!)

Put flour, sugar, baking powder and ginger into the bowl of a food processor and pulse briefly in lieu of sifting. Tip in the butter and pulse. When half-mixed, add the ginger pieces and continue pulsing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. If it clumps together claggily, you've gone too far. It'll still taste fine, though.

Press crumbs evenly over base of the tin. Bake for approximately 30 minutes until puffed up and golden brown. Do not remove from tin. Put tin on a wire rack.

Before the end of the cooking time, prepare the icing. Melt the butter and golden syrup together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Tip in the sifted icing sugar and ginger and stir well. Cook for another minute or two--this prevents the butter from "leaking" out of the icing--then quickly pour the icing over the still piping hot base. Shake the tin gently--with oven glove on!--to even it out and ensure icing gets all the way to the corners, then leave to set.

When set cut into squares or bars. Store in an airtight tin or plastic tub. It makes rather a lot!!

Canadian Living: Green Velvet Soup

Green Velvet Soup
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 leeks (white and light green parts only), sliced
1 large onion, diced
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
4 cups diced zucchini (about 1 1/4 lbs)
1 potato, peeled and diced
1/3 cup 10% cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
Garnish :
4 thin slices lemon
2 tbsp. finely chopped fresh chives

In large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat; fry leeks, onion, salt and pepper, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add zucchini, potato and 4 cups water; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

In batches, transfer to blender or with immersion blender, puree until smooth. Return to pan. Stir in cream and lemon juice, adding more lemon juice, if desired. (Make ahead: Let cool for 30 minutes. Transfer to an air tight container; refrigerate, uncovered, until cold. Cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours; reheat over medium heat without boiling).

Garnish: Top each serving wtih lemon slice; sprinkle with chives.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

I typed this one from Canadian Living magazine. It was one of the recipes they had last month, to help use up all that zucchini growing in so many gardens. I like soups and this one sounds really good.

Flower Power and Garden Therapy

This morning while trying to avoid that whole hacking up a lung thing, I found the Canadian Horticultural Therapy Association

It's for seniors, disabled people and likely anyone sicker than just the common cold to get together and feel better through gardening. It's a great idea. Puttering around in the garden does make you feel better. They key is puttering rather than taking on the whole care and maintenace for all of it. That's a job. We're just looking at garden therapy, that's a hobby.

There is a job posted for a garden therapist. I'm sending that one to my sister. Maybe she'll consider that as another career option since she isn't really keen on being a "mouth janitor" any more.

The Small House Society

I always wanted a small house with a nice yard, maybe a really large yard so I could have an orchard or just let a few acres run riot with trees and wildflowers. I wasn't looking for small houses today but I found The Small House Society and Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. Could you live in a really tiny place? How much stuff would you have to get rid of before you could even think of moving in? It's only when you're moving that you realize how much you really have.

The house in the picture here is from the Tumbleweed site, the Rockport style. I think that's the one I'd pick.

Living Stones Furniture

Livingstone. Sleep like a stone takes on a different slant.

This is furniture and pillows created to look like rocks. I think they're pretty good. I wonder if they are really built to last.

Salt Rising Bread Project

Susan Ray Brown's Salt Rising Bread Project

I know you can use different means to make bread starter, without yeast. Sourdough is the only one I've tried so far. This was an interesting site to find.

Do It Yourself

Do It Yourself

There's always something to do here. You'd need several homes to fit all the different projects you like into them.

Goldfish in a Rain Barrel

My nephew, Zack, brought some goldfish here which he and Grandma had bought after the Potato Festival. He had tried to win some goldfish at the Festival but couldn't get his money to land in the glasses. Likely you've all tried that game at least once and know it's a lot harder than it appears. Anyway, Grandma told him he could buy goldfish for a lot less than another round of playing the game. Zack couldn't believe fish were so cheap. :) So they went to a pet store and bought a couple of feeders for a mere 37 cents each. Zack was impressed.

For a couple of days the fish were on the kitchen table in a glass jar with the original water they came in. Pretty limited space and likely would have led to a short life. But, once Zack went back home we poured them into the rain barrel in the backyard. I wasn't sure how they would do but my Mom (Grandma) was sure they would be fine and really like it. I could see how it would be much better than their current home.

Anyway, I poured them in myself. I watched them slowly sink down to the depths of the barrel to disappear. I waited quite a while but they never came back up. We went away for the weekend and I thought about them now and then. Thinking that the metal barrel might not be good for them or that racoons might knock over the wire grate and get at them. But, when I checked on them both were fine, swimming around near the top and quite healthy looking. Plus, I could no longer see any sign of all the mosquito and other insect larva floating around on the surface of the water. Nice bonus!

Sadly, when I checked on them today (about 3 weeks later) one is belly up in the barrel. The other is fine, I noticed him under a tiny leaf which had dropped into the water. The second fish was actually not a feeder. I wonder if those goldfish (one step up from feeders) are a bit stronger or healthier to start with. It's likely as the feeder fish are only expected to live long enough to make it home and become lunch for some other creature. Anyway, I think I will buy another goldfish so the other guy/ gal isn't alone in there. Plenty of space to be alone in.

I didn't find much online about keeping goldfish in a rain barrel though I just started looking this afternoon. Here is a discussion about rain barrels and preventing mosquito larva. Goldfish were offered as one option. Likely the best one I think fish would be the most natural and have the plus of being compost when they die. Some argue that's cruel. But I think keeping them in aquariums is an unnatural and more cruel life for them. People tend to go overboard on the whole pets thing. They are still animals. A free life is better than being tanked up and gawked at.