Foraging

Spring Fever

mcjuli

imageThe signs are subtle at first. A robin here, a tuft of new green there… Then it crescendos undeniably, reaching a fevered pitch – until the snow and cold winds are gone without a doubt… and life starts bursting at the seams again, in a new cycle of growth and lush greenery.

To me, the first signs of true spring are always the mosses and the ferns in the forest, and the garlic and lovage shoots pushing up through layers of compost and mulch in the garden, undeterred by s few more frosts – certain that the sun’s warmth will continue.

Whether you are in a place you can forage safely for wild greens or not,  one of the best antidotes to Spring Fever is a fresh green salad, vibrant with the flavor of Spring. Here is a recipe for one of my favorite salads, which we used on a Talkeetna River rafting trip to film an episode of the Food Network’s “Beach Eats” several years ago…

Spring Salad of Mesclun & Wild Greens with a Lovage-Allium Dressing

A Farm in the Cloud

mcjuli

Pumpkin vineI suppose you could say that this new little blog is a farm “in the cloud”, since there is not yet any earthly real estate connected to it. This farm is full of life, though… an organic, lush, and productive place  full of garlic, lovage, herbs, weeds, ladybugs, frolicking goats… with plenty of inspiration and rambling stories of blood, sweat, and tears.

Like any worthy journey, this one is circuitous, like a river with many eddies, rapids, and waterfalls along the way.  If you stumbled in here seeking information about farming or gardening or homesteading, there will be some of that – and celebration of the magic of compost. There will be recipes – plenty of botanically-oriented, vegetarian, vegan, pescetarian… most garlic-infused, of course. There will also be eddies, stories, and travelogs.

Who knows – as this journey progresses, it may even root the farm in the clouds and the heart to the earth.