Mothers Day Dinner

Every Mothers Day several of us husbands and their children get together and but on a garden dinner for our wives/mothers. This year the 'garden' was inside as the weather was on the chilly side.

Around here we are so use to using wild edibles as a normal part of our meals that we sometimes forget that we are using them. Our belief is that wild foods should me just used when camping but as a everyday contribution to our regular food.

With this dinner you will see that we have a combination of both wild & domestic food. The shishkabobs have the whole wild leek (bulbs and the green leaves), venison, red peppers and potatoes

The highlight of the meal were morels served on a plate with a whole steamed wild leek.



We usually always have wild violets on top of the salad for color but this year in the rush of things we forgot them. Even though there were lots of them growing in our lawn.






Morels done with butter, soy sauce and a little spice in cast iron frying pan.

First Kohler-Andre Hike of the Year

Garlic Mustard- is quite good if prepared right and picked early enough in the season.

This is the first of a series of Edibile & Medicinal plant outings that will be held at Kohler-Andrea state park this year. We will be doing these about twice a month through fall. This is the peak of the season for some of the best spring greens

We had around 24 adults and kids show up. We tried something a little different this time by bringing some cooked leeks and rice for everyone to have a sample along with their nettle tea.

Even the little ones like sampling and harvesting

I have been taking people on these types of hikes for over 30 years now. My new emphasis isn't to just show a lot of different plants but to focus on and help people realize how gourmet the wild foods really are. It's to easy to always try to wow people with all the possibilities and forget about the 'ordinary' few that we personally use all the time

Nettles-- Nettle tea is what is in the teapot.



In order to eat gourmet food you have to have a lace table cloth to serve it on.

On the bench is a big bunch of garlic mustard.

Last week I quickly dipped the garlic mustard leaves into boiling water before I stir fried them. This seemed to cut some of the bitterness. As with many of the vegetables we eat I stir fry with soy sauce, olive oil or butter and sometimes some seasonings. I found the stems to have very little bitterness in them. Wonder if if would be worth the work to just fry up the stems?

Stuffed Garlic Mustard Leaves

20 medium garlic mustard leaves, washed and dried on paper towels
5 wooden spoonfuls of cooked sausage
4 wooden spoonfuls of cooked rice
2 Tbsp chopped garlic mustard leaves
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Mix rice and sausage and stir well. Add chopped leaves and lemon and toss. Put a teaspoon of this mix on a medium leaf of garlic mustard. Hold leaf together with a toothpick. Serve on a plate.

Haven't tried this recipe yet. Try it out and give me some feedback. Thanks John

Lunch Today

Wild leeks, venison marinating in the bowl, morels, home pressed wild apple juice and home made apple jack (it has quite a kick).

Cut up the leeks and stir fry them with the venison and chase it down with a nice drink.

Morels stir fried in butter.

Annual Wild Leek festival

Today was our annual Wild Leek Festival. We've been having these for 8 or 9 years now.

Every year people come up with more and more dishes that use wild leeks. This plate has stir fried wild leek bulbs and greens, wild onions, nettles, deviled egg with wild violets and 3 other dished that have wild leeks in the. We still haven’t made wild leek ice cream yet!

Getting the dirt and roots off.

Preparing for cooking

Going though the food line with different dishes of leeks.