If you have access to fresh or frozen wild blueberries, you have to try this recipe for homemade blueberry preserves, made with wild blueberries, and spiced with vanilla and cardamom. This adds warmth and complexity to your traditional wild blueberry jam, a flavour of home for many of us in the north.
Elderflowers lend a fragrant and floral flavour to beverages, and a small bottle of elderflower cordial is often priced over $20 in stores. If you forage the flowers fresh around the end of July, you can make your own! And it's really easy.
Pest patrolling your garden could sometimes make or break your harvest. Hungry herbivores sometimes seem to have no consideration for all the hard work you put into your garden. If you try to avoid pesticides and chemicals it can be even more difficult to dissuade animals from snacking on your garden goods. With the help of herbs, some insects and birds you can hopefully attempt to bring a balance to your garden that sees no pest can get carried away in your garden.
Many native bees nest in cavities in wood, hollow stems, or below ground. Besides growing native plants to support native pollinators, providing nesting habitat is also important. In our newest blog post we dive into the pros and cons of backyard bee hotels to discuss whether or not they really help native bees.
Have you tried DIY rainbow roses? This process also works well with carnations and daisies! Many folks think that these dreamy roses are hand painted, or the result of some interesting plant breeding, but they are actually just white roses that are artificially coloured through the flower's intake of water (remember those experiments in middle school??!!).
In a world where fruits and vegetables are available year-round at the local grocery store, it's easy to get into a routine of eating the same foods all year long. However, there's something truly special about embracing the bounty of each season and savouring the flavours available to us locally.
In areas where maple trees can not grow people have turned to making syrup out of birch sap. The sugar content in birch sap is not as high as sugar maple sap so there is more boiling required than with maple sap. The end result is a sweet and complex tasting syrup that goes great with savoury dishes especially smoked fish.