Fast Food Fix the Slow Food Way: Curly Fries

I stopped eating fast food 20 years ago (that's right, drive thru's are not a part of my life), but I still get a hankerin' for some Curly Fries, so what's a gal to do?

I make them at home!  But using all organic materials, healthy fat:  extra-virgin olive oil, Himalayan sea salt, and this spice blend (all powders):

Cayenne 1 part
Onion 1 part
Garlic 1 part
Salt 2 parts
Turmeric 2 parts
Paprika 8 parts
Starch 24 parts

By parts, I mean any unit of measurement you choose.  If you choose teaspoons, you will have a total of 39 teaspoons of spice blend, or 13 Tablespoons since there are 3 teaspoons in a Tablespoon.  If you'd like more finished product than this, then enlarge your part, maybe a Tablespoon, or if you want to make a whole lot, maybe a 1/4 c.  You choose.  And you can eyeball the measuring if you wish, or add another spice you'd like to include...no rules.  This is kitchen alchemy not rocket science.  ;)

I like to make up more than I will use at once and keep it in a jar so it's ready to go for the next time.  Being an Herbalist I buy my spices by the pound as many I also utilize medicinally, and I simply use them often and in large quantities in my cooking.  :)

The starch can be any type, I have used Tapioca or a non-GMO corn starch.  This acts as a carrier and also provides a "coating" like "crust" on the fries.

I use a Spiralizer (also works great for all those Zucchini - I make Zucchini pasta - anyone who grows them knows what I mean), but you could just cut strips by hand.  Coat the cut potatoes and the baking sheet with olive oil (I just pour some on and use my hands to mix it all up), sprinkle with salt and the spice blend to taste and bake 400 degrees for about 40 minutes, turning at least once to get them evenly crispy.

Enjoy this healthy snack!  or even make it a meal - top with avocado and mix with some steamed Kale. 

I like to make a lot at a time and have leftovers; they're great on soup or in an omelette for instance...

Spring Splendor - A Photo Journal of Beltane's Delight

Helleborus

Wild and feral edibles picked for an omelette, clockwise spiral to center starting from white flower:  Garlic Mustard,  Dandelion, Plantain, Arugula, Sarsaparilla, Violets, Cleavers, Japanese Knotweed, Mustard flowers, Monarda, Trout Lily, Quince flower, Purple Dead Nettle, Clover.

 

True Superfoods - local and fresh!

  

Corvid with a new batch of bees in orientation flight.

 Coming in for a landing:

Pollen-laden

The bees have been loving this Arugula that over-winterd in a cold frame and burst into bloom some weeks ago.  In the background is L'Atelier, the art studio, and where Mathieu makes guitars, overseen by two of my hives:  Stella and Ariadne.  To the right is a Fig in a pot that gets brought in over winter, and a Grape on trellis.  THIS has my Heart.  <3

 

The Mason bees have been very active; I love watching them, so docile and yet judicious.

At work:  Mathieu and I with the fragrant native Woodland Phlox at a landscape client's.

And Luck of Luck!  Found some tasty dinner when I wasn't even purposefully hunting!  My friend Abby and I were just taking a jaunt in the woods...and lo and behold.

Then we lay in the grass in the sun for a different type of nourishment.

 Make a wish!

 

 

 Yesterday's and Today's on the forest floor

 Can you say Dazzle?

Breaking Fast with Some of Spring's Edible Wild Flowers

I took a walk this morning and gathered some wild edibles from the yard for a breakfast omelette.  I made some art while walking in the rain-wet wild, or should I say soothed my soul...

In this mandala, you will find mostly wild plants, one feral (Arugula flower), one horticultural (Forsythia flower).  The wildflowers are Ground Ivy, Purple Dead Nettle, 2 types of Violets, Dandelion, and Redbud.  The wildleaves are Cleavers, Dandelion, and Trout Lily with the spirals of fern fronds just beginning. 

Can you recognize them all?  If not, time to get out the field guides and go into the field, learn a plant a week...or a month and in a few years you will have a repertoire.   Make sure that part of your learning includes learning about the habitat and ecosystem you find the plants in and their role including whether they are invasive, rare, slow-growing, endangered, native, common, tenacious, etc.  You want to know *if* you should harvest and *how* to harvest if you do.  You'll want to know if there are poisonous look-alikes and how to tell them apart.  You'll want to know if you can only eat certain parts of the plant, or only eat it in certain seasons.  You'll want to know if the plant is an annual, biennial, or perennial as this affects harvesting guidelines.  You'll want to know if it has medicinal qualities and what they are, and so on...  Truly learn and study the plant before harvesting and eating a wild plant.

"The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end." 

 - Rabindranath Tagore

I chopped up the bigger pieces and added some Garlic Mustard, see picture below.  This is one plant that you can freely harvest anytime and should actually pull it up by its roots and dispose of the roots in the trash if you do not eat them, not the compost.  It is one of the worst invasives that no amount of purposeful eradication seems to work, so you can't get rid of it even if you try, and I have tried for many years on my property as it crowds out natives and other less tenacious plants.  I still always have it, lots of it.  So harvest away.

I then mixed this with good eggs (good meaning not out of a battery cage like most eggs bought and sold) and cooked it in local lard from happy pigs and put this on sprouted, whole-grain bread with extra virgin olive oil and salt.  All organic, all ways.  Here's why.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It tastes fresh, green, vibrant, and alive! just like spring itself - a perfect way to start the day.                      

Plus you get to eat spirals.  :)

 “The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.” – Goethe

 

 

 

'Cheshire Kaleidoscope' - a new bio pic / meta-collage!

I wanted to create an avatar pic that represents lots of the things I am into; I managed to incorporate art, gardening, belly dance, herbalism, and beekeeping (and maybe even spirit!) in this meta-collage...

'Cheshire Kaleidoscope'

...and while we're at it, some stimulating reading material (one can never have too much of that!) and lastly, a video that is the Yang to this winter's Yin....

“If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death
Perhaps the world can teach us
as when everything seems dead
but later proves to be alive.”
- Pablo Neruda

 

“He who has rejected his demons badgers us to death with his angels”
  -Henri Michaux

 

"When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego
and when we escape like squirrels turning in the cages of our personality
and get into the forests again,
we shall shiver with cold and fright
but things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves.
Cool, unlying life will rush in,
and passion will make our bodies taut with power.
We shall stamp our feet with new power and old things will fall down,
we shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like burnt paper."
  - D.H.Lawrence

 

 “Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.” 

 -​ ​Louise Erdrich, '​The Painted Drum​'​

This video was taken at the height of summer's growth and watching it now in the depth of winter's rest really showcases...
"...when everything seems dead
but later proves to be alive.” 

Take and Eat of this Body: a collection of words and images

"If one doubts the walking of the mountains, 

one doesn't even yet know one's own walking."

- Dogen

'Primordial Herald'

"The further a society drifts from the truth, 

the more it will hate those that speak it."

 - George Orwell

The talkative Wren

"Everyone has talent.  What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads."

 - Erica Jong

'The Birth of Death' 

“For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” - Isaiah 42:14-16

Firewood Rainbow

"I feel and think much as you do, 

care about many of the things you care about, 

although most people do not care about them. 

You are not alone."
- Kurt Vonnegut

'The Future's Provenance'

"It is ironic that, while concentrating 

on the defense of our country from enemies 

who would destroy it from without, 

we should be so heedless of those 

who would destroy it from within."

- Rachel Carson

 

​

Rippling Out Through Eons:  A Rock Found at Work

"Those who don't feel this Love pulling them like a river, 

those who don't drink dawn like a cup of spring water 

or take in sunset like supper, those who don't want to change, 

let them sleep." 

- Rumi

Cars that used to be - on their way to being something else...

“I’d rather be whole than good.”

 - Carl Jung

Digging Medicinal Roots - Yellow Dock

These roots can be decocted fresh, or cut and dried for later decocting.

Here in the mountains of Virginia we've had unusually warm weather and are beyond two months past our usual killing frost date without having had one.  This has given us a long season in which to harvest roots, whether for medicine or food, because not only is the ground far from freezing, but it's actually been warm enough that the top growth of many plants is still happening (this helps for identification and locating).

Note the paper sheath that surrounds the petiole, or leaf stem, and how each individual leaf arises from the ground.

One plant whose roots I've harvested this fall, is Yellow Dock, Rumex spp.; if you have a garden, or a plot of un-manicured land with some sunlight and moisture, it's likely you have Yellow Dock.  It's a tenacious weed whose roots are medicinal (what we'll mainly be discussing today) and it's leaves and seeds are edible.  Harvesting this root was actually a case of "killing two birds with one stone" as it needed to be weeded out of some of the garden area anyway.  I totally dig this efficiency.  :)

The leaves are best eaten when fresh and young in early Spring, but with a warm, late fall like the one we've had,        there is often a second flush of fresh, young leaves.  These pictured here are getting to be mature, but still edible.

    Note that the leaves contain Oxalic acid, like many of our store-bought vegetables, so cooking in water and then pouring it off is ideal.

Here it is with the prior seasons seed stalk - a great identifying feature.

Seed stalk up close.

Just run your hands up the stalks to collect the edible seeds

Yellow Dock root is an alterative; it's cooling, astringent, and bitter (leaves sour) so it's good for Damp Heat conditions and as such has traditionally been used for stimulating digestion, blood cleansing, constipation, food stagnation, wet/red eczema, nervous dyspepsia, liver detoxification, lymph congestion, jaundice, sore throat, fatigue, ovarian cysts, gout, tumors, and chronic skin conditions.  It is also good for anemia as it helps the body to better utilize Iron (combine with Iron rich foods or herbs).

Roots scrubbed and ready to slice.  I "slice" them with pruners though one could use a knife.

After a couple days of drying by the wood stove, still a few more to go before jarring.

*Limited Edition* Collaged Tea Tins filled with Planetary Chai - For Sale...

Help to support my art and herbal work, and this website...

Artwork for your kitchen!

It's that time of year again...  I've made a handful of one-of-a-kind collaged tins for sale.  These make a special decoration for your kitchen or your tea cabinet, or a unique gift.

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'Cosmic Mudra'

SOLD - see others available below...
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Traditionally, I fill these recycled tea tins with my herbal, caffeine-free chai blend that includes herbs from many different healing traditions including Western, Traditional Chinese, and Ayurvedic.
It supports digestion, tastes delightfully spicy, and can be mixed with hot water, black tea, milk, or even apple juice or wine.  You can find out more about this blend or order it by itself here.
The collaged tins are $45 each filled with tea.

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'Wonder Dog'

Order here:

 

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I'm also happy to fill the tin with a different tea blend; I make many of these, such as ones for:
Colds and Flus
Relax
Sleep
Lymph Support
Just leave me a note on paypal when you order if you'd like something different.

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'Inner Journey'

Sold - see others available...

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'The Buzz'

SOLD - see others available...

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'Sea Star'

Order here:

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I will also do custom tins for you, with a two week lead time prior to shipping, just give me a theme!

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 *If you are buying several Ravenwind Botanica products at one time, whether the same item or not, you can save substantially on shipping as I will ship it all together, please inquire and we'll get the payment set up right for you.  :)  You can click on 'Ravenwind Botanica' in the list to the right to see all products available.  Thanks for supporting my work.