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Wild Food CSA

2/25/2019

We are very excited to announce our new project this spring of 2019! Starting in May members can sign up for a six-week bi-weekly food share. If you are familiar with the vegetable CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) system this will be very similar. If your not, CSA is an agriculture system that uses weekly or bi-weekly subscriptions for vegetable food crops. Customers pre-pay the farmer for a 'box" of vegetables, eggs and/or meat.

Wild mint, dandelion blossoms, common plantain, violet, nettle and cleavers. A great harvest!

This CSA is going to be slightly different. Instead of weekly boxes of cultivated or domesticated vegetables, members will get a bi-weekly box of "wild food" or foraged foods.

Wild strawberry, plantain, mullien, meadow horsetail and morel mushrooms. Are they medicine or food... or both?

What is wild food?
Wild food plants are plants that are not domesticated. They can be native to the area or invasive/weedy plants that were introduced from around the world. There are many species of wild plants that are both edible and medicinal. Most are both! If you are living with the mantra "let food be thy medicine" then wild food is for you. Many wild plants have studies that show their nutritional makeup is multiple times more than that of the domesticated crop we eat today.

Some links to nutrition studies:
Dandelion Benefits
Mother Earth News
Nettle
Sunchoke better than potatoes

Daylily buds sautéed with butter and garlic scapes. YUM!

Chicken of the Woods mushroom (Laetiporus spp.) very tasty and fairly easy to identify wild mushroom.

Processing acorns for an amazing gluten-free alternative to flour

Spring violet blossoms are a joyful addition in salads

This share will be slightly different than most. Because it is more education based, the goal is not for us to continue selling wild food to you. The goal is to teach folks about wild food and how to use it. So that one day you can go out and forage on your own. To provide a unique, nutritious and free food for yourself and family. The goal is food sovereignty.

With each delivery of foraged food you receive. Members will be getting newsletters with tips on how to process the plants, storage tips, recipes, and plant bios. Members will also be able to attend one of the many foraging class that will be held through out the season for free.

Or they make to most beautiful jelly!

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Benefits of Honey

3/19/2018

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Honey has for thousands of years been considered a medicine. Especially when you put it in context with Hippocrates age old saying "let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food".
But why is honey commonly considered medicine and is it really good for you?

First, we have to look at what honey is. And remember that not all honey is treated equally, but that is for a later post.
Honey starts out as nectar from flowers. Nectar is a watery substance that contains sugar, proteins, salt, acids and essential oils. Each species contain a different percent of sugar (from 3%-80%), as well as different levels of nutrients and essential oils. (Remember this bit a little later)
When nectar is collected by the honey bee (Apis mellifera) it is carried in a part of the bee's body called the "honey crop". It is like a storage container inside the bee, just before the stomach. (so the debate is still up on whether honey is 'bee barf' or not) While in the crop, the nectar is mixed with enzymes from the bee. Once the bee reaches the hive, the nectar will be transferred between bees until it is packed with other nectar in a cell of the comb.
While in the cell the nectar is fanned by the bees using their wings. This drops the moisture content down between 16-18%. This makes honey shelf stable (So honeybees are basically the ultimate doomsday preppers). This is also the point where honey becomes honey.
Once the moisture content is right the bees cap the cells with beeswax. (Which may or may not add it's own medical constitutes to the honey)

Male squash bees hanging out on the pistil of a squash flower.

Honey cells getting capped off with beeswax.

So now that we have traveled from the flower to the hive, from nectar to honey. We can ask the question again, what is honey?
Warning: here we are going get a bit nerdy.
Honey is made up of roughly 82% carbohydrates. The most being monosaccharides, fructose, and glucose. A smaller percent is the disaccharide like sucrose and maltose, along with 7 other simple sugars.
But that's not all folks! Did you know honey contains proteins and amino acids? A lot of it comes from the small bits of pollen in the honey but remember there was protein listed in the nectar as well.
These and other enzymes added by the bees break down the sugar into different acids. This is where we get the anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties honey is so famous for.
Honey also contains a surprising amount of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Honey has trace vitamin B, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, pantothenic acid and vitamin B6. Along with vitamin C, iron, zinc, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, selenium, chromium, and manganese. Whew. That was a mouth full.
Okay, and I can't forget to mention the antioxidant flavonoids! One being pinocembrin which is only found in honey and propolis. Cool right?
Okay, okay I will quite geekin' out. So what does this mean? Well for one honey is more than just sugar. It contains unique qualities that our ancestors held very high. Some cultures even deeming honey "the food of the gods".
Because of honey's powerful antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, it has been used to treat wounds and skin ailments (like acne, eczema, and psoriasis). Honey has also been used to boost the immune system, to treat colds, coughs, and flu.
Of course, we have all heard of the popular home remedy to help heal allergies. It is true, as you are ingesting some bit of pollen into your system. Although keep in mind, if your allergy is being provoked by a windblown pollen there is a chance honey may not do the trick.
Honey was even used (and still is in some parts of the world) as a natural contraceptive!

Protein packed-pollen.

Like all good things, it is important to remember that healing is not singular. There is no such thing as a 'fix all'. Eat a diverse diet of REAL and preferably organic vegetables, fruits, and greens. Along with healthy fats rich in omega 3, like fish, and pastured meats/animal fats. The ecosystems outside and inside our bodies are vast and deeply connected. We need to learn how to reconnect to these systems through eating. Then our food will truly be our medicine.

Resources:
-Honey, The Gourmet Medicine by Joe Traynor
- Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers by Stephen Harrod Buhner
-The Bee, A natural History by Noah Wilson-Rich
-britannica.com
-www.chm.bris.ac.uk

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Honey Fermented Garlic

4/5/2017

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As with any change in seasons, the change in weather can always be hard on our immune systems. You may feel weak or tried or maybe picked up a small cold. Or maybe spring allergies are kicking your butt! Today I am going to share my favorite go-to "medicine" for this kind of stuff. Honey fermented garlic is magic in my eyes! Honey is an a strong antibacterial that help to fight off infection. It also contains antiseptic properties, enzymes and wild yeast that help your gut regulate the bodies systems. The wild yeast is helpful in the process of fermenting too. Garlic is one of my favorite herbs and rightfully so. It is such a powerful plant ally. It is immune boosting, an anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, antibacterial, antiseptic, expectorant, and antihistamine. Combined with the magic that is fermentation this stuff is gold!
So how do you make it?
Easy!

First get your materials together. You will need:
Some sort of jar. ( I use a quart mason jar with a screw top lid).
Raw honey (I would choose Moody Bees, hehe!)
Really potent garlic, preferably local and organic (I get mine from Alternative Roots Farm, MN)

Now that you have everything, the hardest part is pealing all that garlic! I leave the cloves whole, but you can cut them into smaller pieces if you'd like. Put the cloves in the jar. I fill it to about half way.
Pour the honey over it until the jar is about 3/4 full. You will want to leave room for the fermentation process. The garlic cloves should contain enough water to kick start the fermentation but if you feel it is not enough just the tiniest amount of water will do the trick. Put the lid on loosely and you may want to put a small bowl or dish under the jar. It can leak if you are not careful. Store in a room temperature, dark place and let it do it's magic. I usually stir it every few days. This also allows me to check on it. After about a month your fermented garlic is ready!

You can take a spoonful a day or use it in cooking! Very tasty and sooo good for you!

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Honey a substitute of granulated sugar

12/2/2015

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In our home we have virtually banished granulated sugar. Except when we are canning or making jelly, which is something I’ve been working on changing as well. Many people are beginning to look at alternates for over processed food for various health reasons. Also for thoughtful considerations for protecting ecosystems damaged by modern agriculture. For me they are both very valid reasons. There are quite a few granulated sugar substitutes. For example, stevia, agave nectar, molasses, brown rice syrup, coconut sugar, maple syrup and honey. The latter two are my personal favorites. And why wouldn’t they be? Both maple syrup and honey are produced locally in Minnesota and here on our farm!

But of course today I am going to talk about using honey…

Remember when baking with honey you will want to drop the heat roughly 25 degrees from the original recipe. Here is a basic chart.

So other than baking and cooking, where else could you replace honey for sugar? Well first off, I am addicted to honey in coffee. If you like a little sweet in your coffee and haven’t tried honey, you are missing out! Also in your tea, on cereal, meat glazes, salad dressings and toast.
My mother and I always had this tradition on lazy days of watching the movie Practical Magic and eating creamed strawberries with sugar. Well honey on strawberries is simply amazing! Sorry mom, I’m changing the tradition. (*snicker*)

With all honesty the skies the limit, and a little imagination goes a long way. I believe I haven’t even scratched the surface of possibility with honey. It truly is the food of the Gods.

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First blog post!

6/12/2015

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Okidoki, well it took me a ridiculously long time to put out the first blog post but here it is folks! Considering the fact I am new at this I will keep it short and sweet (like our honey ;-P).

After a pretty frantic spring getting all 30 colonies set-up and equipment put together it is all slowing down to a nice pace. Out of the 29 queens we bought three were not accepted, leaving us to find new ones last minute. I believe this worked out to our advantage. We now have three beautiful MN Hygienic Queens. This is a breed that is gaining in popularity and I can see why. These ladies are workaholics! We are very excited to see how their offspring function and with these hot days we should see progress soon.

A quick shout out to the amazing flowers that are blooming at this very moment! We are very fortunate to have such great bee yards and such beautiful native flowers!