About me
I live in a very rural area without good access to many of the 'gourmet' pantry ingredients that have become mainstream elsewhere throughout the country. I grow as much as I can and try to stock up on things like sea salt , decent pasta, bread and prosciutto when I 'go into the city'. I'm blessed to live here, however, and live for March 25th which is the earliest date I've found Morel mushrooms and I can find them through early or mid-May. Depending on the year, we pick as many as couple thousand (though some are tiny, tiny micro size) and I've refined a method for freezing them that works very well. This was also a bumper year for Wild Raspberries (as opposed to Blackberries, which are usually much more abundant.) I picked several gallons of Raspberries, which I picked over, flash froze on cookie sheets and vacuum sealed. I haven't done much with them yet besides a few cobblers (mixed with wild Blackberries and Peaches from my own trees) but will have more time late in the Fall or this Winter to use them up. I'm and artist and horticulturalist at heart and currently have a floral design and display business but I started out as an herb grower in the family business. To this day I grow lot's of herbs and would be horrified to have to pay $ for the little packs of wilted herbs at a grocery store! One of the great joys in life is to walk outside and pick my supper; loading a colander up with dead ripe tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, wax beans, squashes, topping it all with hand fulls of aromatic Oregano, Italian Parsley, Sweet Marjoram, Rosemary and always, always a fistful of Basil. I could eat it plain I love fresh Basil so much! I have a great late garden this year and am still making tomato sauce, slow roasted tomatoes and 'pesto base' to freeze for use this winter. I also Bow Hunt with my boyfriend; we eat plenty of Venison, Wild Turkey, Rabbit and occasionally, squirrel. My mother, who passed away almost two years ago, was - and still is - the greatest influence in my life, especially in regards to my love of cooking and my green thumb and work ethic. Every time I'm in the kitchen I am also with her in spirit because she taught me so much and my love for cooking and gardening is so connected with the things we used to do together in her kitchen and herb gardens.