All in a Day

All in a day's work.

I'm actually a bit too small of a person to handle a scythe properly with a good wide swing. However, I make it work.

I do this work at dawn, it is cooler out and I learned that weeds cut with a scythe much easier when they are damp with dewfall.

I see these tools hanging on the side of sheds with citified folk who don't know how to use them ... I imagine they are 'decorates'. To me, it is better than a power tool. I have to get it sharpened again. I asked hubby but he forgot.

[Perhaps I'll take it up to my neighbor and have him do it as he has one too. When I was getting the mail he and his son were out yesterday afternoon and we discussed the attributes of Scythes. I think he was surprised that I used on. ]

Next up was a trip to town to turn in my ancient STIPUD Phone and see if I could get a newer upgraded one. I went to the local US Cellular place in town and was waited on by the absolutely nicest bunch of customer service folks. The gal that waited on me was named Sara and she was newer at her job so she apologized a lot for doing things slowly.

I told her that this was my thing to do today, so I was not in a rush. I was learning about this phone and it was the first decent one I've ever had. My previous cell came at a discount of less than $50 and I admit, it was pretty crappy. However, it worked for what I needed it for.

Hands down. The greatest Customer Service I've ever had from anyone in recent memory!

When I got home I tried to familiarize myself with the Google Pixel phone [yeah Eddie, it is a nice phone and I got it for 50% off!]. 
Olive texted and asked if I wanted to walk in their woods with her and Aiden.

Off we went.
We were hunting for Oyster Mushrooms and we hit the jackpot.
The first shot is dried up Oysters...

[photos below are with the cell phone Google Pixel 6a]

This one is of a flush of them....

No Forest Adventure is complete without a Lego Person.
This guy needs a name before he is introduced to Fern! Got any good ideas?

By nearly nightfall, I was tired and worn out. Today I'll have to take a nap so I can go out in the fields on the ridge and hopefully shoot the milky way & fireflies!

As a last bit of something, I'll say this. I know I go on and on about CrossFit and it may seem obsessive to others. It can seem that way. Below is a link to a video that pretty much shows what our gym is like. It isn't a hard core place -- though if you wish to be hard core, it can be done. Our gym is very unique. In the summer they offer children's gym class and teen gym class too.

CrossFit Viroqua 'We are Family'

This video is Exactly Why I
Go... [the video directs you to watch it on FB so I am sorry for that, but if you have access, it is really quite fun and very short.]

PS: 
This morning I finished up the Thistle Patch ... onto my next Farm Job whatever that will be!

Tofu, Shrimp of the Woods & Adventure

My nephew, Colin, and his wife Kat arrived Friday evening. 

We took a whirl wind tour of Viroqua, which included coffee at Wonderstate [Formerly, Kickapoo Coffee], the Farmer's Market, and Viroqua Food Co-op for supplies and groceries.

Kat made some amazing gluten free muffins and a bread for us when we returned. After eating some delights, us 'kids' set off the the Kickapoo Valley Reserve. I thought we'd avoid all the hoopla of the Dam Challenge by heading over to Wiester Creek.

We headed up the West Ridge Trail and then went down the hill to Ma & Pa's trail. Yippee! One more section to cross off for me! Section 29 is done!

Infrared photo of the West Ridge Trail

As we headed down Ma & Pa's Trail, we encountered a couple hiking towards us with a full basket of mushrooms.

We were looking for them as well as trying to spot birds either visually or by song.

Mr. and Mrs. Kingfisher watching for birds!

Colin has edible Fungi in the red bandana.

We started to find Shrimp of the Woods

Then we went...

off the map...

And unfortunately, we had to do some major brush busting. However, that led us to even more Shrimp of the Woods!

Our take after cleaning them and before Colin cooked them:

Our last part of the off the map trek took us through a corn field to where we parked.

Charlie led the way. Colin and Kat wanted to see what Charlie looked like in Infrared.

He looked like a Zombie Dog!

PS~ The Shrimp of the Woods were amazing and so delicious! We wanted to head back out right away and search for more! 
Colin made us a delicious supper vegan style that included Tofu. I thought I'd never try it, but everything was delicious.

Rich stuck with having a steak!

Foraging for Fresh Forest Food

Yeah...
say that 4 times very fast!

I thought I'd hike back and check on the leeks...or wild ramps. They were too small to dig near the creek, so I headed towards the back of the property that was nearer to the ridge top.

Still not prime size, but I was hungry for forest food. Fresh forest food and if it took all day, I'd find some. I found enough leeks to flavor a dish and decided to come back in a few days when they were larger. I'd pick enough and leave enough so I wouldn't clean out the patch. I could dehydrate them to use next winter.

Charlie and I spent a long time looking for Wild Parsnip. Well, Charlie sniffed around and did dog stuff. I took the leeks home and cleaned them.

I was able to find one parsnip that was on the bank of the creek.

So I grabbed a long shovel and started a hike along the roadside on the ridge. I was pretty disappointed not to find any along the north south ditches. I crossed the neighbor's contoured crop land and hiked along the road side that had south exposure.

Score!

I found just enough for a good taste.

These roots are as ugly as ugly can be.

I used an old toothbrush to scrub them and cut out any spots. A peeler helps clean them up too.

And I tossed it all in a bowl with my frozen carrots and added a few morel mushrooms.

We'll see what this mixture ends up like tasting.
If nothing else it sure is colorful!

I also made Nettle Tea with the first leaves of nettles in the garden that I still need to clean up.

The warm tea tasted pretty good after wandering about foraging for forest food!

Foraging again in the rain

My Grandfather Fred used to say silly things like. "It's raining, let's have a picnic!"

As a kid I thought he was crazy. Who wanted to be out in the rain?
Right?

He'd follow up that comment with an explanation.
"You can't farm in the rain, you can't work in the garden in the rain, so what else is there to do? Why a picnic of course!"

It usually meant that we'd pack up in mom's station wagon and go visiting to other farms and relatives. It was always a mystery to me that we'd show up somewhere and the grown ups would gather around the kitchen table and talk while the kids went into another room to play.

However now that I am the grown up and I see rain coming down. I put on rain-gear and go for a walk.
My husband looks at me as though I've grown two heads and a third eye ball.
"Walk in the rain, are you nuts?"

Oh well. Not really.
"I can't dig in the garden, or do much else," I reply. "I may as well go looking for parsnips and leeks!"

And off I go into a very light rain.

I find parsnips at 'The Beach' easy to pull. I like keeping them out of a section of the neighbor's creek so that we don't have to deal with parsnip burns if the kids come down to wade and play in the creek later on in the year.
Besides, they are good to eat.

The leek patch needs a bit of thinning out so they have room to grow larger. Leeks come up, and after they wilt, disappear into the ground until next spring. They have a nice light onion flavor to them and go well with sauteed parsnips.

 Note the plastic bag over the camera. It is a plastic sleeve often used as a vet sleeve...
It covers the camera quite nicely and keeps it from getting wet.

I made my way back home and stopped to look admire the Mayflowers in the rain.

It may even have been fun to find an overhang of rocks to sit under and enjoy a picnic.

Don't you think?

Free Food!

The past several days have been rainy and gloomy, but this morning the sun came out!
So with some time on my hands, I'm going to go foraging for some free food.

The stinging nettles pictured above are helping themselves to my veggie garden spot. I've always battled these plants in the garden. But in early spring they are very tasty. Once steamed they have absolutely no sting. Nettle Tea is supposed to be very good for you.
I won't go into all the health benefits, most people will turn their noses up at Nettle Tea.

Nettles as fresh veggies are another great spring benefit. Once cooked or steamed you can eat them with a dab of butter. Don't think of them as nasty weeds, think of them as free food.

I like digging up leeks or wild ramps too. They are a wild onion. I'm going to dehydrate the extras this year to use in soups and stews this winter.

And today I'm going to wander around in the creek bottom and search for wild parsnips.

These are those nasty plants that cause burns when they are flowering.

Of course there is another free food that will come with the nice spring weather but Morel Mushrooms won't be out for at least a month or so yet.

Lamb's Quarters will show up around my birthday and I can't wait for a taste of those either.

Foraging is a lot of fun and if you know what you are doing, you can get grab some free food along with your exercise!

Wild Parsnip ~ delicious!

Well if you like to experiment and get FREE food there are some great things to be found in the woods.

Yesterday I found Wild Parsnip which is an invasive species and when it is blossoming in the summer, the juice from the plant can give you a nasty burn.

This is a shot from a year or so ago on a very warm spring day.  

I was doing yard work yesterday, digging out thistles when I spotted some wild parsnip tops in a pile of dirt.  I've not seen them ever in the yard yet so I decided to get rid the ones I saw.

I was very surprised at how long and huge the roots were when I dug them out. They didn't look like much when I tossed them on the ground so I twisted off the tops and brushed the dirt off from them.

I took them to the outside pump and rinsed them.

I used a peeler and then diced them up and tossed them in the frying pan with some olive oil and pesto and a dash of garlic pepper.

I really wasn't quite sure as to how it would all turn out until we sat down to eat.

It was super!  I realized then that this weekend I'd be out foraging the creek bottom for more spring wild parsnip and some wild ramp/leeks to go in the fry pan.

There certainly is no reason to go hungry for fresh vegetables in the early spring.

I'm not certain I am ready for looking for Fiddleheads which is a type of fern that can be cooked up.

Soon enough it will be time to search for those delicious and elusive mushrooms, the Morel!