It was strange to go trick-or-treating and not being able to eat anything. Although my mom made me some honey and rosehip candies as a special halloween treat.
I have been having surprisingly tasty food. Especially with mom helping me with the recipes. Today I had cream of chickweed soup, made with chickweed that I harvested outside today, and wild onions. I am still eating my biscuit/pancakes and I am liking these as well. For lunch I had salmon and apple.
Tomorrow doe season starts, and I am REALLY hoping to get a deer. I would like to make jerky and add some variety to my diet. Wish me luck
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
the weekend
The weekend was pretty easy. I had all my food already harvested, all I did was thresh amaranth seed and go fishing a couple of times. I also did a load of dried apples and a rose-hip leather. I caught a trout on Friday afternoon, and I had it for breakfast on Saturday with a fresh apple.
I didn't blog yesterday, because I went to a friend's halloween party. I was dressed up as a Hillbilly, complete with mustache, dirty tank top and beer can. It was a bit of a challenge to only eat wild foods at the party, instead of eating the chili, I brought my own soup. I thought their roasted pumpkin seeds were wild enough, and I ate those as well.
Eating has been easier, since I have flour ready and a big pot of soup. I haven't had to think very much about what I was going to eat. It is a bit hard sometimes, like today when I smelled the smell of fried chicken. I wondered what we were going to have for dinner, until I remembered there was no 'we'. There was just 'what am I going to have for dinner'. Which was a little boring, since I have been having the same soup for a couple of days. But it was filling and I was grateful for the food.
I didn't blog yesterday, because I went to a friend's halloween party. I was dressed up as a Hillbilly, complete with mustache, dirty tank top and beer can. It was a bit of a challenge to only eat wild foods at the party, instead of eating the chili, I brought my own soup. I thought their roasted pumpkin seeds were wild enough, and I ate those as well.
Eating has been easier, since I have flour ready and a big pot of soup. I haven't had to think very much about what I was going to eat. It is a bit hard sometimes, like today when I smelled the smell of fried chicken. I wondered what we were going to have for dinner, until I remembered there was no 'we'. There was just 'what am I going to have for dinner'. Which was a little boring, since I have been having the same soup for a couple of days. But it was filling and I was grateful for the food.
Friday, October 28, 2011
In remembrance of Zack, the chicken
Last night I got carried away listing all the foods, and I forgot to mention who was in the soup. Zack was the second in command in the chicken flock, the beta male, always battling for first with Jake. He always got second choice, after Jake and Alex (his hench-chicken) were done picking the compost for worms.
I raised five roosters in my backyard. In order of status: Jake, Zack, Alex, Itsy and Bitsy. I butchered them when mom told me they were getting too big and loud, and that they were ruining the back yard. I brought them to my friend and mentor Tim van Valen, who showed me how to butcher them.
Butchering them was easier than I thought it would be. I killed them by chopping their heads off. It wasn't very hard to kill them, I always told myself I couldn't get attached, since I was going to eat them. Everyone knows what dead chickens do after you chop their heads off, and these were no exception. I still can't quite believe how they landed some of the flips they did. After they stopped bleeding, I dunked them in a pot with boiling water and plucked all the feathers off. This was surprisingly easy. After plucking all five chickens, all I had to do is take the insides out and freeze them.
And just so everyone knows, Zack made a delicious soup.
I raised five roosters in my backyard. In order of status: Jake, Zack, Alex, Itsy and Bitsy. I butchered them when mom told me they were getting too big and loud, and that they were ruining the back yard. I brought them to my friend and mentor Tim van Valen, who showed me how to butcher them.
Butchering them was easier than I thought it would be. I killed them by chopping their heads off. It wasn't very hard to kill them, I always told myself I couldn't get attached, since I was going to eat them. Everyone knows what dead chickens do after you chop their heads off, and these were no exception. I still can't quite believe how they landed some of the flips they did. After they stopped bleeding, I dunked them in a pot with boiling water and plucked all the feathers off. This was surprisingly easy. After plucking all five chickens, all I had to do is take the insides out and freeze them.
And just so everyone knows, Zack made a delicious soup.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Apple day!
Today was a lot easier because my mom was home. She helped me out with meals and meal ideas. I am actually FULL right now, and I ate really good food!
In the morning I worked on my flour supply by threshing and grinding up dock seeds and lamb's quarter seeds. I added red clover flowers and some dried service berries. I already had a healthy supply of cattail root flour that I prepared a week ago. In the afternoon I picked two bags of wild apples, and I am very excited about making dried apples and applesauce.
This is what I ate:
Breakfast:
Fried bass fillets with roasted dandelion root tea
Lunch:
Flour biscuit / pancake with the flour that I made earlier. I ate this with a little wild plum jam. The first pancake I made had a combination of all the flours and it was really good. The second one I made with just cattail flour and service berries. This one was a bit too rich and I couldn't eat it all. I liked the first one better so I think I'll make it for breakfast tomorrow.
Dinner:
I made chicken soup with sea salt, wild onion bulbs and flowers, wild turnips, wild carrots, stinging nettle, mustard greens, bull kelp and oregano. I am hoping that this will keep me going for a couple of days.
Dessert:
Applesauce, made from the apples I got earlier, with huckleberries and service berries.
In the morning I worked on my flour supply by threshing and grinding up dock seeds and lamb's quarter seeds. I added red clover flowers and some dried service berries. I already had a healthy supply of cattail root flour that I prepared a week ago. In the afternoon I picked two bags of wild apples, and I am very excited about making dried apples and applesauce.
This is what I ate:
Breakfast:
Fried bass fillets with roasted dandelion root tea
Lunch:
Flour biscuit / pancake with the flour that I made earlier. I ate this with a little wild plum jam. The first pancake I made had a combination of all the flours and it was really good. The second one I made with just cattail flour and service berries. This one was a bit too rich and I couldn't eat it all. I liked the first one better so I think I'll make it for breakfast tomorrow.
Dinner:
I made chicken soup with sea salt, wild onion bulbs and flowers, wild turnips, wild carrots, stinging nettle, mustard greens, bull kelp and oregano. I am hoping that this will keep me going for a couple of days.
Dessert:
Applesauce, made from the apples I got earlier, with huckleberries and service berries.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Day 1, Start Off
Even though this was a hard day, there was a good omen that happened to me today. While I was looking for mushrooms and mullein, I saw a long tailed weasel. The first one I have ever seen behind our house. I stood there, watching it, and it slowly came closer and closer, to within a foot of me. Then it ran off to a nearby log where it stood on its hind legs, and I saw that it had a vole in its mouth. It just stood there for a while and looked at me, and than it ran into the bushes.
It is way harder than I expected. I have been continuously hungry all day, I am not sure if I am making it up, or if I am really hungry. All I can think about is how good regular food would taste right now. I am especially missing granola bars, granola and peanut butter. What a surprise, I don't even eat that much granola and peanut butter. It just seems so easy to pull out a bowl and fill it with granola.
Here is what I ate instead:
Breakfast: Trout with sea salt (that I harvested by evaporating sea water)
Mid morning I went outside and ate mountain ash berries (which were supposed to improve in flavor after frost. It did, which made them ALMOST edible), yarrow leaves, dandelion leaves, plantain leaves and a little bit of chickweed. It left me far from being full.
Lunch: Salmon with plum sauce which was actually very good. I was so hungry that I gobbled it up really fast.
Dinner: Salmon again, just with salt. I ate that with a wild greens salad that had some salmon and huckleberries. I also had mullein tea.
Right now it is 8:30 and I still have a tiny gnawing edge of hunger in the pit of my stomach. I was a little lost today and didn't do enough planning. Tomorrow is looking brighter, I am going to make chicken soup and try some cattail flour pancakes.
It is way harder than I expected. I have been continuously hungry all day, I am not sure if I am making it up, or if I am really hungry. All I can think about is how good regular food would taste right now. I am especially missing granola bars, granola and peanut butter. What a surprise, I don't even eat that much granola and peanut butter. It just seems so easy to pull out a bowl and fill it with granola.
Here is what I ate instead:
Breakfast: Trout with sea salt (that I harvested by evaporating sea water)
Mid morning I went outside and ate mountain ash berries (which were supposed to improve in flavor after frost. It did, which made them ALMOST edible), yarrow leaves, dandelion leaves, plantain leaves and a little bit of chickweed. It left me far from being full.
Lunch: Salmon with plum sauce which was actually very good. I was so hungry that I gobbled it up really fast.
Dinner: Salmon again, just with salt. I ate that with a wild greens salad that had some salmon and huckleberries. I also had mullein tea.
Right now it is 8:30 and I still have a tiny gnawing edge of hunger in the pit of my stomach. I was a little lost today and didn't do enough planning. Tomorrow is looking brighter, I am going to make chicken soup and try some cattail flour pancakes.
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