Foraging for Food

Over at Biblical womanhood, Crystal shared about some foraging they had done. That has been something we have been enjoying as well so I thought I would share.
I think foraging for wild foods is a very neat thing to do. If you look you can probably find food that is good for you and that you didn't have to work for growing in you own backyard. This is definitely "organic" food as long as you aren't harvesting from a place that has been sprayed or something of that nature. (You do need to be careful about that.) I am very blessed to have a Dad that is interested in wild foods and so he taught me a lot. I also really enjoy the book "Stalking the wild asparagus" by Euell Gibbons. You want to be careful to not just eat anything you find (there are poisonous foods out there and it is best to avoid them! :-), so if you can learn from somebody that is great or find a good book that will help you correctly identify the plants.

Here are some of the things we have been eating lately:


Purslane ~ This is an interesting plant with a rather succulent leaf and stem. It can be used in salads or sauteed with a little butter or you can mix it in with many dishes to just add some vitamins. This grows as a weed in our garden so it is pretty easy for us to get.



Sorrel ~ This little plant is quite common growing in our lawn and garden and all over. It has a kind of spicy taste and is a neat addition to salads (add the leaves and the flowers).

Amaranth~ A mild tasting green. This also grows as a weed in my garden so for harvesting I just pull it up and cut the root off and then bring it in and wash it.It is nice to harvest these as I can do my weeding as I collect stuff to eat! I have been adding this to lots of things that I have been cooking (sloppy joes, rice, taco meat, casseroles, etc.). You will notice the green leaves in the food but if you cut it up small and don't go overboard on how much you put in (I usually only add 1/2 - 1 cup of it) you don't really taste it, it just adds nutrition.

Chenopodium album (or Lamb's quarter, pig-weed, goose foot or wild spinach)~
This one I use just like Amaranth (above).

Cat-tail ~ I don't have a picture of this one but I think most people know what it is. We harvested it the other day but just pulling the stem up and then eating around the first 4 inches after we peeled off the outer layer. It was a little tough, I think we might be a little late on harvesting that part. I also chopped some up and used them in place of celery in my cooking. Cat-tails actually have all sorts of edible parts, check out Euell Gibbons book to find out all about them.

Some other wild foods I very much enjoy collecting (but aren't presently available) are:

• Morrell Mushrooms
• Juneberries
• Wild strawberries (the grow in the ditch all along our road so we are hoping to pick a bunch soon)
• Wild raspberries
• Chokecherries
• Pin cherries
• Wild plums
• Blueberries

This year we are trying to learn even more about wild foods and making them a bigger part of our diet. I really enjoy the book I have by Euell Gibbons but I would like to find an even bigger one with photographs. Does anybody know of such a book? I am hoping to find one that specializes in Northern plants and also explains how to use them to eat.

For more Frugal Friday posts visit Biblical Womanhood.

Fun ideas for recycled clothing

I happened to run across this Etsy shop and I found it very fun to look at and get ideas from. The creator of these outfits uses all recycled fabrics and comes up with some very cute and creative creations. If you have visited my blog much you know that recycling clothing is something I find to be quite fun. I encourage you to visit this site to because I think it would be great if many others were also inspired to do some clothing recycling.



I decided it would be fun to see what other recycled clothing I could find online, so here are some more links for you:

• Paper people clothing, a bunch of rather funky but interesting clothes, mainly recycling sweaters.


• Some ideas for how to remake clothing from the Dollar Stretcher.
• Ideas for recycling without sewing.
• And a former post of mine about remaking swimsuits and a dress.
• A post of mine that explains how to make pants fit thin people.
• Overalls from old jeans.
• A jumper remade.
• A skirt from old jeans and a dress.

I would love to hear about anything that you have remade. Please include a link if you have blogged about it. I love getting any inspiration in this line!

An Expectation of Joy

One of our Bible College friends, Billy, sends out a weekly devotional by e-mail. The last one I received I really enjoyed reading and found it to be very encouraging so I thought (with Billy's permission) that I would share it with you. I hope you also gain something from it!





"An Expectation Of Joy"

Do you have to struggle to complain?
Do you have to remind yourself to be grumpy?
I would dare to guess that the answer is NO. For most of us grumbling and complaining come natural.
What doesn't come quite as natural is finding joy in our lives--everyday.
Oh, we may find some joy and happiness in things we are excited about, but how about the mundane?
I would say that most of our life is made up of mundane, normal activities.
How do we find joy in these?

1. Understand that joy is an expected part of the Christian's life.

The famous evangelist, Billy Sunday, said this, "If you have no joy in your religion, there's a leak in your Christianity somewhere."

While suffering and hard times are a part of our lives, joy is an expected part of our lives, too.

Here are two Biblical examples:

"Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes in the morning."
--Psalms 30:5

"Those who go out weeping...shall come home with shouts of joy."
--Psalms 126:6

To think that we will not encounter difficulties is a naive view of life, but to think that joy will not soon accompany these hard times is a pessimistic view of life.
We are not doomed to suffer and barely get by on this earth, we are made to be people of joy.


2. Bring enthusiasm into everything you do.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." --1 Corinthians 10:31

When we bring enthusiasm and purpose into everything that we do, we will have joy in our lives.
We can make every aspect our lives complete drudgery if we want to--we have that ability.
I've spent time with people who can make the most fun activity seem like a burden beyond compare.
But I've also spent time with people who make the most mundane activity seem like a game. They bring joy into everything they do.
They make the most of everything they get involved in.

I've had friends who hated every job they've had, and I've had friends who loved every job they had.
It wasn't about the job, it was the attitude brought into the job.


3. Be a blessing

The source of our grumbling and complaining is not our situation, it's our selfishness. The focus of our grumbling and complaining is our own self-absorbed world.
When you begin to seek to be a blessing to other people, you can't help but have more joy in your life.
What greater source of joy is there in the world than helping someone else, making someone's life better.

Take a lunch break and go donate blood.
Offer someone with less groceries to go before you in the line.
Stop and help someone change a flat tire.
Help your co-worker with a difficult project.

When you go beyond ourselves and help others, we find ourselves complaining and grumbling less and less.

Listen to Paul's plea to the church in Phillipi:

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." Philippians 2:3-4

Paul goes on to say in verse 14 of the same chapter that we should avoid grumbling and complaining, but first of all he gives us the formula for this: consider others, not just yourself.
This is the greatest source of joy.

It's Monday. I know for some of you this is not the day of the week you normally look forward to.
But try something different today.
If you find yourself complaining and grumbling find a way to get out of it.
Seek to apply the principles I've given you today.

Maybe after a while it will become more natural for you to be joyful, and less natural for you to be a complainer.

Have a joyful day,
Billy

WFMW ~ U-pick strawberries!

What works for me today is U-pick strawberry patches. I totally enjoy fresh strawberries as do my children. They are so much better than the ones you can buy at the store! We used to go strawberry picking every year but last year the place we went to closed, so we didn't go. Thankfully this year a friend told us about another place close by that we could go to. We went this morning (our friend went with us) and now we have a bunch of yummy strawberries. Yea!

Now we just need to clean them and we want to make some jam and put some in the freezer and have plenty to just eat. It works for me!

Tipster Tuesday ~ fixing plastic pants

I am not sure if this applies to anybody who reads this blog but I thought I would share it anyway. I still use the old method of cloth diapering where you need to use plastic pants on top. The plastic pants seem to wear out in some areas faster than others so I decided that in order to save a little money and to keep something useful instead of just throwing it away, mending was in order.

We were have trouble with having rips in the side (sometimes right on the "seam") and also the plastic ripping away from the elastic. I discovered it works just fine to sew them on the sewing machine. For the ripped sides I just put the two right sides together and took a narrow straight stitch seam. For the elastic problem I pulled the elastic out until it was as big as the plastic part and then using a zig-zap stitch I sewed them together. If it doesn't make sense from what I have written, maybe the picture will. If you have questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

I am glad to be able to avoid buying something else, especially as we hope to have Megan potty trained and all done with them before long anyway. I also thought about using a plastic bag and an iron and mending ripped places that way but I haven't. Has anybody else tried that?


For more tips visit BeCentsAble.

Interesting Illinois

A while back (I am not doing a very good job of staying current with my posting) we studied about Illinois. It is an interesting state with a neat variety of countryside.

• The state flower is the violet
• The state bird is the cardinal
• The state tree in the white oak
• The state fish is the bluegill
• The state insect is the monarch butterfly

It is called "The Prairie State" though I can't say that Prairie is what I think of when I think of Illinois. There is a lot of gently rolling country side and areas with big old trees. There is lots of good farmland which makes Illinois one of the US's most important agricultural states. A couple of years ago we spent our 4th of July weekend at a campground in North Western Illinois (we were at a large reunion of friends and family), that was a very pretty area with hills, river, huge trees and blackberry bushes. It was also quite hot and humid which made my hair very curly!



Chicago is the 3rd biggest city in the nation and also where the majority of Illinois population is. The O'Hare airport was the busiest airport in the nation for quite some time but it isn't any longer, it has been declining since 1998.



When I had asked for State information way back in December Jamie had commented and told us this: "I'm from Illinois near Chicago. I would have to say a few special foods are corn on the cob and probably deep dish Chicago style pizza! I don't have any specific recipes but I'm sure you could find some online! Our state is special because of the mix of country and city! Most of the state is farmland but then you have the huge city of Chicago! Something fun to do here is to go to Chicago Cubs games!" We did enjoy Chicago style pizza but didn't get corn on the cob. We are trying to wait until it gets ripe locally but it sure sounds good!!

We also tried "horse shoes" which are a local favorite in Springfield, Ill. (though I didn't have french fries and I was to tired from running a garage sale all day to make some so I used tater tots. Also I botched my cheese sauce recipe and so it tasted rather like burnt butter!)

We are "in" Michigan this week. I would love to hear about that state or just any state. I love to hear information from my readers, we can always look back to it when we study that state and we still love hearing about states that we have already studied!