Thursday, November 1, 2012

Quick, write something, it's November 1st!

Ok, to avoid massive shaming on LSG, I am writing my first entry of the month, to be followed, hopefully, by a post every single day for all of November. Laziness, I have it  :)

Anyway, in terms of the urban wild harvest, we have a nice haul of crabapple jelly from a great wild tree, more black trumpet mushrooms dried and ready for winter, and th last of the garden tomatoes, still green but starting to ripen, on the window ledge.

There's also a bottle of pretty decent homemade bitters on the shelf - like Jaegermeister, but better: Take one bottle of brandy, pour into larger bottle, and add a handful or two of wild mint, a few snippets of basil, rue, and horehound, some coriander seeds and a little caraway. Seal tightly, stand the bottle in the sunshine for a week or so, and decant back into the original bottle. Take as a digestive after dinner - so good!

And, the curbside haul has been impressive these past couple of weeks - rescued from the land fill are 2 sets of solid pine shelves, which will take up residence in my soon-to-be craft room (when my daughter moves out in a week, yay!); 8 maple dining room chairs to accompany said daughter to her new apartment, and a wooden rocking chair for me. Nice, huh? I will have to stop soon - just because it's awesome and free, doesn't mean I NEED it in my house! It's hard to reconcile my wannabe-minimalist with my collector persona.

4 comments:

  1. We had a crabapple tree when I was growing up but never used the fruit for anything other than Crabapple Wars. And now, I'm a huge urban forager. Go figure.

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  2. And why did crabapple war never cross my tiny mind? The fun I have missed!

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  3. I just saw crabapples at Safeway and wondered what one makes with them. Aso -- I can make bitters? At my house?? *makes bitters*

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    1. SO easy to make bitters - you can use orange or lemon peel, licorice root, anise seeds, whatever you think might taste good. We also make homemade Gentiane, but we have to buy the gentian root for that. Be warned, my recipe for bitters has no added sugar, so it ain't sweet like Jaegermeister is.

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