If you had a banner crabapple year, this Crabapple Whiskey Cake recipe is for you. This cake is a great combination of sweet, tart, and boozy, and fills a 9-inch tube or Bundt pan or several smaller pans. The Crabapple Whiskey Cake freezes like a dream, so I often make three or four small cakes. Then I freeze a couple of the cakes for when I’m feeling sad and lonely. And hungry. In my story about winter foraging published here on HomeGardenandHomestead.com, I went into detail about Foraging for Crabapples. So please read that story for more information. For this story about Crabapple Whiskey Cake, we’re jumping right into the recipe. To make the crabapple sauce, you can either use your favorite applesauce recipe and substitute crabapples or do what I do. Just toss all your crabapples into a slow cooker with a little water and some sugar. Then after four to eight hours, when the crabapples are nice and soft, run them through a food mill. CRABAPPLE WHISKEY … [Read more...] about Got Crabapples? Bake this Crabapple Whiskey Cake!
Food & Drink
Easy-to-Make (and Delicious!) Dandelion Pesto
The world is divided into two kinds of people: dandelion haters and dandelion lovers. If you’re someone who’s interested in unique flavors, growing your own food, and creatively making the most of what you’ve got, you may already belong to the latter group. If so, you're going to love this dandelion pesto. But If you despise the dandelion, and spend time and money on its eradication, I suggest you seek revenge on this tenacious weed by eating it. The truth about dandelion greens Dandelion leaves are a classic bitter green, packed with minerals and vitamins. Don’t be put off by the word “bitter”. Lots of people pay good money for bitter greens like arugula, chicory, and endive. In small quantities, raw bitter greens liven up a salad, balanced with mild greens like cultivated lettuce or foraged chickweed. Cool temperatures produce the tastiest, most tender dandelion greens, so look for them in early spring or late fall. Summer dandelion greens (especially those growing in full … [Read more...] about Easy-to-Make (and Delicious!) Dandelion Pesto
How to Make Lavender Lemonade
Got lavender? Then it's time to make lavender lemonade! Whether you have just one lavender plant or a hedge of lavender plants, lavender is a wonderful addition to every garden. The scented leaves and flowers of lavender have been used for centuries to keep bugs at bay, add a pleasant scent to bathing water or laundry water, and simply for the gentle scent it gives to the air. Lavender is also used in the kitchen to flavor cakes and other traditional recipes. Lavender is a Mediterranean herb that enjoys warm, dry weather and dislikes poorly drained soil. Most English Lavender (angustifolia) varieties are hardy to at least USDA Zone 5, and they are happy in containers as well as in the ground. There are two common varieties of English Lavender – Munstead and Hidcote, and both do well in the garden. Hidcote varieties have short flower stems and a stubby lavender flower while the Munstead has longer stems and a more elongated flower. The flower color is usually purple with … [Read more...] about How to Make Lavender Lemonade
Eat Your Weeds
Our gardens are at their biggest and best in summer. Unfortunately, that’s the case with our weeds too. Most gardeners will rip these weeds out of the ground and into the trash can as soon as they see them, but consider this: some of those weeds might secretly be a delicious superfood! And harvesting them for food means less waste, less work, and a more eco-friendly garden. It used to be common to eat many of these weeds, but the knowledge was lost in the past couple generations. Today, “urban foraging” is making a comeback, as more savvy gardeners come to realize the waste of perfectly good food. Common Weeds that are Good to Eat You might be surprised at how many of those weeds infiltrating your garden beds are edible. These are some very common edible weeds that you probably have in your garden right now, and all of them put spinach to shame with their nutrient content. Purslane Purslane is a small succulent-like annual that creeps through garden beds, and thrives in … [Read more...] about Eat Your Weeds
How to Make a Black Raspberry Bramble Cocktail
Cocktail historians tell us that the Bramble was invented in London in 1984. (Surely someone somewhere made one of these delicious cocktails sooner, don’t you think?) This delightful drink is typically composed of gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, and blackberry liqueur. Sure, it’s a tasty adult beverage, but we can make it even better. As a forager, I’m obsessed with un-buyable flavors, and my favorite way to make this cocktail is with freshly harvested black raspberries, still warm from the sun. And yes, the fact that I’ve risked encountering a bear to gather my harvest makes me value it even more! But whether you pick your fruit in the wild, from your backyard, or at the farmers’ market, this is a delicious, quintessentially summer drink. Need more convincing? The Black Raspberry Bramble strikes the perfect balance between sweet berries and tart citrus. This is a lighter, more summery beverage than the original, with slightly less alcohol and a boost of bubbles from … [Read more...] about How to Make a Black Raspberry Bramble Cocktail
