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Wild Soda for the Autumn Equinox

The leaves are falling and the last of the summer fruits are hanging heavy. The autumn equinox is fast approaching. This is my favourite time of year. More than spring, this is when I feel energized. This turning inward time lifts my spirits and my thoughts grow clearer. And while it’s perhaps a bit too…

Wild Green Custard & Chanterelle Tart: Savory, Seasonal Nourishment

It may still be as hot as blazes out there but soon cooler weather and increasing rain will yield a nutrient rich bounty of returning greens and mushrooms! This creamy & cheesy dish will help you take delicious advantage of both, plus it’s so packed with vitamins, minerals, and critical nutrients, it could be considered a…

Lavender & Lovage Seed Digestive Biscuits: Non-Gluten, Vegan and Good For The Tummy

It’s no wonder the digestive biscuit is a long standing tradition. Its simple, gentle nature doesn’t make overt demands on the palate or the stomach, yet it is sweet and satisfying as an afternoon or evening snack. In fact, Brits love their digestive biscuits so much they consumed 420,000 tonnes of them in 2016! So for my Herbal…

Pineapple Weed Comfort Cookies: A Wildly Loving Treat

Everyone knows comfort foods are a great coping mechanism for soothing negative feelings – which is why these Pineapple Cookies will be served at my Herbal Yoga Workshop for Anxiety & Depression. Their sweet gentle aroma and flavour (a cross between zingy pineapple and soothing chamomile) make a perfect treat for when we’re feeling down…

Herbalicious Lammas Loaf Biscuits: Celebrating The Tradition of Common Ground

This herbaceous and cheesy biscuit loaf is my tribute to the traditional start of the harvest calendar, Lammas Day or Lughnasa. And it features the cornucopia of savoury and aromatic herbs growing right now in the heart of Victoria’s neighbourhood “common ground” gardens.

Nettle Seed & Dandelion Blossom Energy Bars: Wild Superfood Goodness

My sister-in-law Gloria is an avid rower who races frequently with her Dragon Boat Team. Last year as a special request, she asked for a wildcrafted energy bar. I knew I wanted to make something with nettle seeds (tell you why shortly) but I could never find enough seeds on hand without decimating entire nettle…

The “Herstory” of Food: Gone Missing

“When we learned to cook is when we became truly human, but we’ve lost touch with how that food got to our plates.” Michael Pollan in Cooked. As is so often the case with history, the “herstory” tends to get left out – and food is no exception. While there are as many books on…

Reclaiming The Radical Legacy of The Witch

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about witches. Not just because top ten lists of hot tv witches and sexy Halloween selfies currently swamp my social media feeds, but because my tables and shelves are currently so laden with herbs, plants, berries, phials and bottles that if an inquisitor of old were to enter,…

Fudgey Burdock & Rose Brownie Cake

Last spring, I tested out a batch of Burdock & Rose Brownies at Gather’s “Botanical Sweet Treat” bar. And they were the first to go. Their dark fudgey icing drew peoples eyes like a magnet – and no one cared a whit about warnings that these brownies were a little more “earthy” in flavour than…

Beautiful Venus Vinegar: Autumn Medicine & Magic

Behold the fruit of my autumn equinox harvest! A magical Venus Vinegar composed of the most vitalizing wild foods, herbs and medicines offered by mother nature this season. And it is no ordinary herbal vinegar, but a nutrient rich, beautifying, fortifying tonic that is fruity, tangy, spicy and earthy all in one. And a splash…

Harvest Magic: Invoking The Horn of Plenty

This season of harvest, take a page from your ancestors and craft a little old-fashioned cornucopia magic. Because if “gratitude attitude” is the key to prosperity nothing says it better than the ole’ horn of plenty. Spilling with fruits, grains, gourds and flowers, this beloved emblem of earthly abundance, pleasure, healing and good fortune has been presiding…

Boozy Preserves: Wildcrafted Berry Compote

Yes, the cold snowy nights of winter may seem a long way off, but you can be sure, they’re coming. But if you get picking now – I guarantee this boozy, dark, thick wild berry compote will bring the heady luscious flavours of high summer back to your winter table. Using alcohol and sugar to…

Summer Heat: Nasturtium & Sumac Hot Sauce

Every summer I fall in love with the flavour, aroma and healing properties of a particular plant. Last year I swooned for the anise scented lacy blossoms of wild fennel and put them in everything from crackers, cookies and cakes, infused honey, ice-cream and vodka. But this year I’ve fallen hard for the spirited peppery bite of…

Sweet Magic: Summer Solstice Honey Cookies

Then followed that beautiful season… Summer… Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape Lay as if newly created in all the freshness of childhood. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Looking for a festive way to celebrate the upcoming summer solstice? Well, these aromatic sunny cookies may be just the ticket. Made with…

Wildcrafting the Shrub: Osoberry Delight

Originally posted on gather:
This year our warm and early summer not only brought us an abundance of Osoberry but unusually luscious ones. Trailing branches over every roadside, every forest path, and every park trail, were hung so fat with plump blue-black clusters that they practically begged to be picked. But the big question –…

Yarrow: On Love & Marriage & Ale

Medicine, magic & marriage. Why yarrow is such an important wedding herb.

Springtime in a Bottle: Plum Blossom Cordial

Sweet and fair, she craves not Spring for herself alone, To be the harbinger of Spring she is content. When the mountain flowers are in full bloom She will smile mingling in their midst. Mao Zedong As a prairie ex-pat, the early spring blossoms of the Pacific Northwest never fail to amaze me. Flowers in February?…

Naked Pasta: Wild Garlic Gnudi

Love gnocchi? Then try Wild Garlic Gnudi! This oh so simple to make, lesser known “naked pasta” is just bursting with flavour, not to mention protein, vitamins, minerals and healing properties. And if you love the green, oniony taste of chives, scallions, and leeks like I do, then Allium vineale, paired with a salty cheesy…

Eating Wild: The Missing Link to Optimum Health

I love that wild foods are the most nutritious, natural and sustainable of all foods – which is why they are a daily part of my diet. But because I still have to pay for the bulk of my sustenance, I’m ever so grateful to food journalist Jo Robinson and her wonderful book “Eating on the…

Ending the Toxic, Costly and Unnecessary War on Invasive Plants. Now.

This investigative series follows my personal exploration into a big question – is the toxic chemical war we are waging on invasive plants doing more harm than good? I’ve had it. On a recent dog walk into Uplands Park, I was horrified to discover the landscape literally dotted with notices of herbicide applications of Glyphosate…

Nature Spirits: How to Wildcraft Vermouth In Three Easy Steps

Recently Gather had the great pleasure of presenting a wildcrafted aperitif for Moonrise Creative’s first Eat Together Dinner. And it was such a magical occasion! Seeing the guests laughing and chatting together in the beautiful setting of field and forest—while sipping our sparkling summer elixir—nearly brought a tear to my eye. Really. After all, this…

Herbal Honey: Ancient, Magical & Medicinal

Healing herbal honey. Recipes for cold and warm infused honeys.

Oregon Grape Lavender Lemon Tart

Oregon grape (Mahonia nervosa) berries steal the show in this silky summery tart recipe

White Clover Pudding: A Recipe for Comfort & Healing

Little did I know when I first came across an old pioneer recipe for “White Clover Snow” that it would be my solace during dark and hungry times. But after a recent dental pummeling that left me aching and unable to chew, it was this sweet unassuming little ‘pudding’ that rode to my rescue. Spooning its…

Rewilding & Ecofeminism & The Reclamation of Magic

Okay so let’s start by going back to the very beginning – women and wild food. Because once upon a time all food was wild – and it was the women who gathered it. But what we’ve forgotten today was that no aspect of food, from harvest to preparation to consumption, was left untouched by…

Sweet & Savoury Dandelion Rosemary Shortbread

Growing up with Scottish grandparents, shortbread featured heavily in our family celebrations—Christmas, mainly. Each aunt made a version of my grandmother’s standard recipe, while my mother (a defiant non-Celt) makes a light whipped cookie with neon green and red cherry centres. I like my shortbread dense, crazy buttery and undecorated. Not quite like my grandmother’s,…

Women’s Magic & Wild Herb Yogurt Cheese: A Modern Milkmaid’s Tale (and recipe)

Transforming dollops of rich yogurt, colourful blossoms and wild herbs into beautiful rounds of fresh cheese is more magic than food science. The process is as old as the hills and requires nothing more than yogurt, cloth, gravity and time. According to Andrew Curry’s Archaeology: The milk revolution: During the most recent ice age, milk…

Wild Bewitching Pesto: Conjuring Culinary Magic

Fresh, vibrant, tangy, zesty, spicy and garlicky are only some of the adjectives used to describe wildcrafted pesto. But how about spell-binding? From dandelion, garlic mustard, sorrel, and lemon balm, these “weeds” and herbs not only have a long magical history, they can be transformed into tasty and nutritious sauces, dips and condiments—and served with…

Going Wild With Kimchi!

“A bomb of flavour. Pungent, piquant and powerful all at once.” – Hunter Angler Gardener Cook We’ve been eating kimchi (fermented vegetables) in our family forever. Derived from the Korean word “shimchae” which means “salting of vegetables “ it most commonly features napa cabbage, radish, scallion (or cucumber) garlic, ginger and fiery red-hot pepper as starring…

Wild Green Greek Pies: Oh So Savoury!

Picture a patch of grass three feet by three feet beneath you. Then imagine you are a Greek Granny with basket in hand, who is foraging for the over eighty kinds of wild greens that appear in the hillsides and fields each spring. You fill your basket with the young leaves of dandelions, dock, mallow,…

Recipe: Mason Jar Grand Fir Pots de Creme

Grand fir (Abies grandis) has more Vitamin C (among other things) than you can shake a stick at AND it smells like oranges and Christmas. Combine that with farm fresh eggs, heavy cream and sugar and you have yourself heaven by the spoonful. We experimented with this recipe at our first Urban Wild Foods Walk and…

Spicy & Sweet Hawthorn Ketchup: Reviving a Traditional Recipe

Thick and robustly tangy, my all-time favorite condiment is good old fashioned “Haws Ketchup”. Made from the bright crimson berries of the Hawthorn tree (which you can find a stone’s throw away from where ever you stand in Victoria) it compliments roasted meats, scrambled eggs and a big basket of steaming homemade fries equally. A…

Stewards or Profiteers: Selling The Wild

I’ve been foraging for about a decade now, but lately, I’ve noticed a growing number of newly enthused “wildcrafting” entrepreneurs (with considerably less experience) selling their wares. So imagine my surprise when a local wildcrafter recently insinuated I had succumbed to forager’s greed because I had picked a pound of salal berries (I wanted to…

Calming, Cleansing And Rejuvenating Herbal Treats For Yoga (or just anytime!)

Behold the Lemon Balm & Wild Rose Tea and Chocolate Rose & Dandelion Root Energy Bites I’ll be serving for Restorative Herbal Yoga For Spring – the very first session of The Yoga Apothecary. Because I’m so grateful that this very first class is full (and that so many others of you have wanted to…

Lavender Tea Milk Punch: A Libation to Toast the Returning Light

For my ancient ancestors, February was a time of great anticipation for the coming growing season. To ensure bountiful crops, productive livestock and healthy mothers and babes, they practiced fertility and purification rites—many of them featuring milk. Recreate some of this intention for your own feast day with a creamy, decadent libation fit for dairy-loving fairies, goddesses and the rest of us. Cheers!

Rosemary & Lavender Lemon Curd “Tassies”: Here Comes The Sun!

Nothing says Imbolc better that the bright yellows of lemon, butter and egg yolks. So what happens when you infuse a sweet, zesty, creamy, lemon curd with the aromatic herbs of the sun? Glorious food magic is what! Lemon Tassies are old-fashioned dessert tarts filled with easy to make citrusy curd. And while no one…

Infused Wassail Cider: A Recipe For Blessing The Earth (and Ourselves)

Yes, the sun has begun her official return. But as I write this, frost shimmers, the ground is frozen and every footstep crunches. And it’s easy to understand why our ancestors, as the pantry grew lean, wanted to give mother nature just a little loving nudge in waking up. So to me, in the barren starkness of…

Tea & Bourbon Barmbrack for a Midwinter Festival of Light

I’m relatively new to Imbolc. In fact, I’m not even 100% comfortable calling this ancient February festival by it’s Gaelic name despite my Scots/Irish heritage. Gaelic blood hardly makes me privy to old customs. The geography of my foremothers aside, I am drawn to this midwinter festival of light with it’s irresistible magic, food and lore. For my…