We made our annual obligatory strawberry shortcake and it's super-easy, super tastey, and loved by everyone in our household.

Back in June I picked and pickled a jar of wild grape leaves when I found them newly growing on the vines in the hedgerow by our house.  A couple weeks later, I've decided to turn them into dolmades!  They were fairly easy to put together, and I loved the flavor combination.

Enjoy!

The Summer Solstice was a busy day around here! And the beer that resulted from my nettle harvest is ready (in just under 2 weeks).  It's carbonated, zingy with a large dose of citrus, and has the bitterness of mature nettle that is reminiscent of Cascade hops.

*side-note*    Mature stinging nettle, in our area, is bitter. Not completely unpalatable...but my kids and husband did not appreciate it in the soup that I made.  If you're using your nettle in a food recipe that you do not want to be mildly bitter, use young nettle early in the season.  I'll be trying this again next May, since I now know where there's a large patch of it.

And now, on to the beer!

We picked 6 quarts of strawberries on the Summer Solstice, as you may recall.  2 for eating (and pancakes), 2 for wine, and 2 for strawberry rhubarb jam. 

I got the wine going right away that day and it has been wildly fermenting ever since!  Yep, needed a blowoff tube again with this batch.  Never a dull moment around here!

So here's the recipe for preserving the flavor of the Summer Solstice, that'll be ready just in time for the Winter Solstice... when we can ALL use a little more sunshine (or at least a reminder of it).

Mash the sugar into the berries, then add 2 quarts of water.  Let the mixture stand covered with a kitchen towel for 24 hours. 

Stir mixture and then strain the liquid into a 2 gallon carboy (I actually put mine in a 3 liter carboy... and had to discard some of the liquid to make it fit). 

In a mason jar, make a yeast starter culture by combining the wine yeast, yeast nutrient, and orange juice.  Cover, shake vigorously, and let stand for about an hour until it gets bubbly; then add to the must.

Add the lemon juice and tea stir with a skewer or chopstick, and airlock the fermentation vessel.  Allow the mixture to ferment to completion.



When it has finished fermenting (no more bubbles are coming out of the airlock), bottle, cork, and cellar the wine.

Wait at least 6 months before sampling.

We have pancake day about once a week around here and tried out this variation with our freshly-picked strawberries.  They're amazing!

Measure out 1/2 cup sized cakes and cook in/on a skillet (the one pictured happens to be electric, and we LOVE it). 

Flip, serve, and enjoy!   These are delicious with just a little butter on them, but my kids loaded them up with syrup as well :-)

My youngest daughter is currently potty training, AND has switched into a big girl bed... in the last week and a half.   She woke me up at 5:00am this morning.  The sun was up, the birds were singing and she was excited!

I decided to take a meditative "weed walk" this morning at 6:00am.  Yesterday, I had brought my daughter to the swimming hole, and had seen a lot of weeds.  Most notably, to me, was a huge abundance of stinging nettle...




As a child, I grew up on the same creek that I bring my girls to on our hikes.  One time, when the neighborhood boys and I went down there to look for newts, we got into a patch of stinging nettles.  Our legs were on FIRE for the rest of he afternoon.  We spent the next several hours pool-hopping, hoping that the cool water and the chlorine would somehow help ease the sting... it didn't.


Many years later, I read about the health benefits of making teas and infusions out of dried stinging nettle. I used to buy it in bulk, prepared... so I didn't have to deal with the sting.

And now, there it was on my path... inches away from my toddler's legs...

What a beautiful opportunity.  I decided to take this day, the Summer Solstice, the lightest day of the year, to shine some light on my fears and negative thoughts through walking meditation... and I took a bag, gloves, and rubber boots with me to act out this light shining exercise by harvesting and becoming allied with stinging nettle.  I made a potato nettle soup, started a nettle beer, and hung up 10 bunches of nettle to dry for tea and infusions.

I sorted, washed, weighed and deligated nettle to 3 purposes.


2 of these containers full were used to make Nettle Beer.


This bowlful was used to make a potato-nettle soup


And these bunches are hanging up to dry.


And if that wasn't enough to keep me busy, we also went strawberry picking!




We got 6 quarts, and one last small harvest of rhubarb.  I'll be putting together a strawberry wine, strawberry rhubarb jam, and a fresh strawberry cake in the next few days. This week should be fun!

For as long as I can remember, I've been enchanted by everything Victorian (and Renaissance, and Medieval, and... old).  I have seen plenty of recipes calling for rosewater for both bath and body and for baking. When the wild roses bloomed this year is huge CRAZY amounts in the backyard, I couldn't help myself.  Making my own rosewater was so easy to do and a really fun project.  I can't wait to try it out in some recipes which I plan to share on here as I go.  The Rosewater from this particular recipe is supposed to keep for up to 1 month in the refridgerator.