Recent Harvest

Seems like winter lasted up into may this year, then we had three months of spring happen in three weeks. Here's a few of th' fine goods we've been harvesting and eating lately. 

Milkweed shoots. Pick these before they form flowers buds, while they're still rapidly growing, and cook them anyway you'd cook asparagus. They are similar in shape and texture, but have a much better flavor, in my opinion. We like to eat them raw, but i have heard of some people getting sick from th' raw ones, nevertheless, th' flavor is much better than when cooked, so try one or two raw before you cook them, you won't get sick off of so few, and your taste buds will  be glad you did. Below are some grilled with fish, peppers and shallots. Those were good.

A few days ago we pounded and leached acorns for this mornings breakfast. 

Acorn waffles with butter and maple syrup

Then i headed into th' mountains with Alex, or Axe, as Fynn calls him to a spot we've come to call "Th' Garden". Me and Alex have an ongoing skills trade agreement, which is nice, because skill sharing is better than reading books, or laboring away solo for years. I'm learning hide tanning, among a host of other skills, and he's learning foraging, and bowmaking. Plus, it helps us all to hone our skills. It's easy to impress folks who have little experience in an area, it's something else to show off your skill to someone with experience. Helps you to always get better. Never settle for mediocre. 

We picked wild Violet flowers. 

And stinging nettle. Sorry for th' blurry picture. 

We munched dandelion flower stalks, and came to understand that stalks with flowers are more bitter than stalks with seedpods. Try it for yourself. 

One of my favorite things in th' world is walking barefoot through a mountain stream surrounded by food. We harvested a bag of raspberry leaves to dry for tea. We got rained on. And we ate Cow Parsnip. A flavor i crave every year, that tastes like no other, and cannot be bought in any store. 

We peeled and ate thistle stalks and petioles, and collected a bunch to make pickles. Thistles are very juicy, like a cucumber or a watermelon, and th' ones up here were enormous. 

Here's a thistle garden. I know you can't see how big these really are, but some of th' stalks were two inches in diameter, and full of fresh filtered water.

30 pounds of thistle in this bundle.

To eat th' flower stalks you need to peel the outer layer of fiber, or just break it in half and scrape it off with your teeth. To eat th' leaf petioles, just scrape off th' spines and eat. 

Another exciting find was th' positive identification of a new to us and very useful food, Wyeth Biscuitroot. This was a north american native peoples staple food, and another root vegetable, which is where th' calories are. 

Th' root at this time of year was fibrous and dry, but it had a good flavor. We'll be back for more in th' fall, and next spring, th' root season. Th' leaves have a flavor very much akin to fennel and dill, which we'll dry for spice. I love foraging because there is always a new plant to learn, and biscuitroot is one i've been after for a while now, and now that i know it, i'm finding it in great abundance. It's amazing how you can see a plant for years, and then one day, when you realize what it is, you see it in a brand new light. I look forward to many new experiences with this plant, and it's cousin, th' yampa. 

To finish th' day we gathered two good sized bags of Black Locust flowers. These are too good for words, but Alex says they taste like they look. Try some and see what you think. 

And, just for th' icing on th' cake, we found a four and a half foot roadkill bull snake, which we promptly skinned, and is now waiting to go on a bow's back.

All in all, it was a good day.

Sinew Backed Hackberry Bow

Finally, if the student be observant, the arrow will write for him long chapters about the people, the fishes, birds and beasts of the separate regions and their peculiar habits.

~from North American Bows, Arrows and Quivers by Otis T. Mason, 1893

Finished up my favorite bow to date- it's a sinew backed hackberry. 

Measures 62 inches nock to nock- pulls 48 pounds at 26 inches of draw.

I tillered this one to one ring on th' belly, then strung it into four inches of reflex before applying th' sinew- unstrung it sits at 2 1/2 inches of reflex- when first unbraced it falls to 1 1/2 inches, and pulls back into 2 1/2 after a couple of hours. 

String is twisted linen dyed with black walnut husks, endless loop style.

nice little design/knot on belly fade

. 

Here's a look at some of th' sinew, which i hackled before applying, and th' bow strung backwards just after applying th' sinew.

hackled deer leg sinew

bow strung backwards to apply sinew in reflex

And here it is at 28" of draw, i realize now that i don't have any of me shooting it, so this will have to do for a full draw shot. I'm pulling it on a spring scale to measure it.

Fall, Acorns and Traditional Crafts

Ok friends, we've decided to merge our foraging and crafts blogs into one, which will be this one. After all, it's all traditonal, old world activity, so why th' dichotomy? If you're unfamiliar with our crafts blog i'll just tell you that all th' work i do is done without power tools, i don't even own any. I don't say this to brag but to clarify that it's more about th' process than the end result, more about that later...Now we can do posts like this one...

spoon rack

This past week has been rife with activity- Acorn processing and wood carving and turning to name a few. The above picture is a spoon rack i carved from a split elm sapling. Wooden spoons are beautiful on their own, but displayed in a nice rack they are outstanding, why hide them in a drawer?  All th' spoons were carved by me except th' two in th' middle with th' white and blue handles, which were carved by Jarrod Stonedahl, another journeyman of traditional living.

But lets talk about fall, and food gathering for a bit... anyone for some acorns?

burr oak acorns, big.

Anyone in Fort Collins reading this blog? If so, you wanna do me, or yourself rather, a favor and go out gather up some oak nuts? We're really running out of room to store them, and it's hard for me to pass them by. There's still a lot out there. I'll even help you eat them if you want. But seriously, my neighbors are starting to think that Ishi lives in my garage... help us out why don'tcha. Just look at this tree, it's covered with large acorns, half an hours worth of picking supplied us with over ten pounds. And there's a lot of half-hours in a persons life.

And don't think this is unusual around here, there's trees all over like this. You'll see. 

Let's get crackin shall we...

Look at th' inside of th' shell, how beautiful it is...

Here's a Burr Oak acorn on th' left, and an average size, unidentified as of now, acorn on th' right.

Th' Burr Oak acorns are enormous, so be carefull while drying them out, as they take a very long time.  Sometimes you'll come across ones with sunken in centers like in th' picture below.

Don't waste your time gathering these, as this is what you'll find inside.

We crack and pound all our acorns by hand. I've used blenders and coffee grinders before, but they don't work as well as pounding with a hammerstone. And more importantly, they don't work th' same way on me. And this is also why i don't use power tools, th' real reason. When i'm pounding acorns, in th' sun, with a rock, it does something to me. It takes a long time, but it's time well spent. My mind is fee to wander, while my hands perform th' task at hand. I smell the acorn, i breathe it in along with th' scent of dry leaves. (Do you know how good pounded acorns smell?) If affects me in a subtle, yet powerful way. It's th' same with carving wood with hand tools. Th' time spent changes you, makes you, builds you into a more patient, more thoughtful person. The end result becomes less important than th' way you get there. Th' native americans, and traditional people all over th' world, spent thousands of years pounding acorns with rocks, who are we to say we've come up with a better way. Have we really counted th' cost of what we've given up? Have we counted th' cost of th' tools that we now depend upon, that we consider necessary for life? It's hard, because we are so disconnected from th' price we pay, to even realize that a toll is being extracted. We don't remember what it's like to be able to drink water from our rivers and streams, or that there used to be mountains in Wyoming and West Virginia that no longer exist due to coal mining. Or that there were no landfills here a few hundred years ago. Me cracking acorns with a rock, or hewing out a piece of wood with an axe isn't going to change all that, but me and you doing it, and you, and you too, well then, things might start to look different. Or at least we'll be different, and that's worth it.

acorn pounding

Here's Beth and Fynn partaking of some fall activities, as i was hewing some bowl blanks one day.

axe hewn bowl blank

This is black locust wood, which has a relatively easy to work yellow sapwood and a seriously hard and pretty brown heartwood. It makes really pretty bowls and bows. 

pole lathe turned bowls

Before I made these two i was really turning in th' dark. I was so focused on getting a bowl that i didn't pay enough attention to how i got one. Then i was forced to spend two weeks away from my shop. I got craftsmans withdrawal. But something happened. I learned (again) to slow down. When i got back home i took my time, went slower, focused more on making nice clean cuts and keeping my tools sharp. I slowed down and my bowls and spoons came out better and in half th' time or less. Here's th' rest of what came of that locust log, as well as a couple of Aspen spoons.

This one got cold, so i had to carve a hat for it.

 Here's a couple made from opposite sides of th' log, th' one on th' left has th' sapwood on th' bottom, heartwood on top, and th' one on th' right has th' heartwood on th' bottom, making a different, and in my opinion nicer looking bowl, though it takes longer to hew because of th' greater amount of heartwood you're chopping. These are fresh off th' lathe, where as th' darker ones have been oiled already.

Here's that bow i was carving in th' last post, it's almost finished, and pulling about eighty pounds right now. Just needs to be CAREFULLY tillered down to about fifty-five, and it's ready for th' hunt. 

Ash bow, ancient European style

And two Aspen spoons.

Well, i hope you've had some good food for thought, even if you can't eat the acorns. Drop us a line and let us know what you think. I'll leave you with a few more scenes of fall.

Cheers    

~Rico

Bag full of acorns. Now that's some whole foods.