Preserving Huckleberries & Wild Huckleberry Lemonade Recipe

Each summer we venture out to our secret huckleberry spot to pick the sweet, juicy berries. This year we made huckleberry lemonade aide with our berries and it is a new favorite summer beverage in our family!

My parents are visiting us this week from the east coast so we thought we would venture up the mountain to our secret huckleberry spot to share with them our family tradition of picking huckleberries. The bushes are hanging even more full than a week ago with dark purple juicy berries.

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

Today we are joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots for

G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

Making Tinctures and Infused Oils

Making your own herbal tinctures and infused oils at home is so easy I can't believe I never made them until now! With a few basic tips, you can start making your own infused oils and tinctures to use in your home crafting or herbal medicine chest.

 After our little nugget was born, another mama in town gave me the book Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year by Susan S. Weed. I highly recommend this book to any mama or mama to be. What I am currently finding most intriguing is the chapter on “Herbal Pharmacy”. There are specific instructions on how to harvest/store your own herbs, make syrups/oils/tinctures/teas/ointments and it looks to be easier than I ever imagined!

Wild Huckleberry Harvest!

After checking our secret huckleberry spot up on the mountain two weeks ago, we've been counting the days until we could head back up and find a mountain covered with dark purple, juicy huckleberries. Heading up the mountain yesterday seemed like the perfect reward for finishing the painting in our back room just in time for my parent's visit this week.

As we drove up the windy, rocky dirt road to our huckleberry spot high up on the mountain, we eagerly watched the mountainside. The trees are tall and thick but the forest floor is covered with huckleberry bushes as far as the eye can see. Simply amazing!

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

Today we are joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots for

G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

Garden Harvest + Homegrown Herbal Tea Recipe

This week I harvested a large bunch of mint and lemon balm from our gardens to dry and store for use in teas. That same night I was hosting our monthly book club at our house so decided it would be fun to make an herbal sun tea for us to sip on while we chatted about our book selection for the month.

Last month I posted a recipe for making Meadow Tea (click here to read the post) but this time I wanted to experiment with making a sun tea with a variety of flavors.

This year I was given two chocolate mint plant starts that are thriving but not big enough to harvest from to dry. I picked two sprigs of chocolate mint, a bunch of lemon balm, and a bunch of mint. I placed them in my large glass sun tea jar, filled with water, put the lid on and sat outside in the hot summer sunshine to work its magic.

After the tea sat out all afternoon, I removed the greens and put them in the compost bin. I added about 1TBS honey to sweeten a little. The sun tea went in the refrigerator to chill until book club started.

To serve this tasty herbal tea, I filled a glass with ice and poured tea over the ice. To top it off I added a fresh lemon slice, just squeeze into the glass of tea and enjoy!

***If you enjoyed reading this post, please join our other regular readers and subscribe to this blog by clicking here. We are so grateful to our regular readers and feel so blessed, thank you all!

This post shared on: Natural Living Link Up 
Simple Lives Thursday

Foodie Friday: Marinated Grilled Zucchini

Zucchini is one of those plentiful veggies where it seems everyone is always looking for new ways to prepare it. I came up with this recipe for marinated grilled zucchini a number of years ago, I'm sure I'm not the first one to do it but it is simple and oh so tasty. 

When it is too hot to cook indoors, this is a great side dish to cook up outside on the grill. When cooked in a pan the taste doesn't even compare to when it is grilled.

Marinated Grilled Zucchini:

1 medium size zucchini (or more if you are serving a larger crowd)

1/8 cup olive oil

1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

1-2 tsp chive vinegar (optional- click here to read how to make it)

fresh cracked pepper

salt

Cut ends off of zucchini  and cut in half. Slice the zucchini into thin slices not more than 1/4" thick. If the slices are too thick they take a long time to grill and can dry out. Place zucchini in a container with a tight fitting lid.

Mix olive oil, balsamic vinegar and chive vinegar. I keep this on hand in a glass jar with a lid on our counter to use as a salad dressing also so often I don't need to make a new batch for this recipe. I simply grab the jar, give it a few shakes to mix it up and pour on top of the zucchini. 

Evenly sprinkle fresh cracked pepper and salt over top. Put the lid on the container and shake so the zucchini is evenly coated with the marinade. 

Refrigerate for one hour, can be refrigerated for up to a couple hours before grilling.

Grill on a medium heat and flip once the bottom side starts to get some nice dark grill marks on it and then grill the other side the same. If you grill them too long, they will turn into blackened zucchini chips which aren't nearly as tasty!

These are so tasty that last night I wasn't able to get a picture of the final grilled product before they were all gone!

***If you enjoyed reading this post, please join our other regular readers and subscribe to this blog by clicking here. We are so grateful to our regular readers and feel so blessed, thank you all!

This post shared on: Foodie Friday
Real Food Wednesday
Fight Back Friday 
Freak Friday  
Simple Lives Thursday 
Themed Blog & Shop Hop: Summer Vegetables

A Family Tradition: Preserving Sugar Snap Peas

Growing up we always preserved the majority of the veggies we ate by blanching and freezing them. Every year when I start my veggie preserving, I always think of all the women in my family who preserved produce for their families and passed on this knowledge to the next generation. I am so grateful

Red Clover Harvest

For the last few weeks, I have been searching for red clover anytime we headed into the woods on an adventure. Growing up in Pennsylvania farm country, red clover was everywhere and was seen as an invasive weed and not a nourishing flower to harvest for medicinal purposes. Where we live in western Montana, red clover is much harder to find growing naturally. 

In case you’re new to the amazing benefits the red cloverflower provides, click here to read about it on the Mountain Rose Herbs website. They do a wonderful job providing an overview of the health benefits ranging from heart health to hormone levels and more.

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

Today we are joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots for

G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

Highlights of what I wrote about being grateful for this past week:

Foodie Friday: Garden Harvest Salad

This week we were invited to lunch with another mama and baby in town. Our contribution was to be a salad, so I decided I wanted to try to make a salad with only ingredients from our garden. Those of you reading this in warmer climates

Reusable Produce Bag Giveaway

PLEASE NOTE: THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!

MontanaSolarCreations is hosting a giveaway for a reusable produce bag!  The winner of this giveaway will get to choose which reusable produce bag they would like from the eight bags shown in this picture. 

Why a giveaway for a

This week's flower harvest

Now that our Montana summer has finally started warming up and the sun is shining more, the plants in my gardens have really started thriving and blooming. Which means harvest time can begin!

Lavender

I tied the lavender in a

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

Today we are joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots for

G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

Highlights of what I wrote about being grateful for this past week:

The Grief of a Thousand Miles

Each time I wrote a blog post over the last two weeks and clicked the “publish” button, I knew an email of that blog post would get sent across the country to my aunt’s inbox. I knew it would never get read. It would sit there, unopened, unread, among all the other emails she was receiving in her inbox. 

 

The reason you wonder? She lay unresponsive in a hospital bed in Pennsylvania where most of my family lives. I felt conflicted and guilty about writing any blog posts, knowing she was

{this moment}

{this moment} 

  We're linking up with Amanda over at SouleMama again this week for

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Foodie Friday: Chocolate Mousse Dessert and/or Popsicles

 When I was pregnant last year, I was always borrowing books from our midwife’s expansive collection. One of the books I borrowed was “The Pregnancy Cookbook” by Hope Ricciotti and Vincent Connelly. The first time I sat down and looked through the book

I made a list of all the recipes I wanted to try.

When I realized how long my list was, I knew I had to buy a copy. I was able to find a used copy online for less than $5 so now have this great cookbook in my collection.

One of my favorite recipes from this cookbook is Tofu Chocolate Mousse. Since it is made with tofu instead of whipping cream it is a little more lean and makes me feel like it is even a slightly healthy dessert (if there is such a thing!) I made it for the first time last summer when the temps were just starting to heat up. I froze some of the mousse in popsicle molds and WOW! What a super tasty treat on a hot summer day.

So as the temps started rising again this summer, I made sure I had all the necessary ingredients on my last trip to the Missoula Co-op. So here it is, the recipe you've all been waiting for: 

Tofu Chocolate Mousse

5oz semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1/3 cup strong coffee such as Espresso or French Roast

1/2 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup sugar

2lbs silken tofu

3TBS cocoa powder

We buy our chocolate chips in bulk at the co-op so I had to get out my scale to measure out 5oz.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. My double boiler is quite large so I used a small glass bowl that fits on top of a small pan of boiling water and it worked perfect.

Add the coffee/espresso and stir until mixed. I used decaf french roast coffee beans in my espresso machine and it works just as well if you prefer no caffeine (I like to snack on this in the evenings and can't sleep if I have caffeine later in the day!) Allow to cool to room temperature.

Place the mixture in a food processor or blender. Add the remaining ingredients and puree until smooth. 

At our local co-op I couldn't find silken tofu which has a creamy texture so substituted firm tofu. If you have to substitute, note that you will need to add more liquid such as more coffee/espresso or a little water. The end result turned out the same as the batch I made last year with silken tofu, just took a little longer due to the need to add a little more liquid.

To make popsicles, spoon mousse into popsicle molds and freeze. Last year I also froze some in small reusable containers that I could easily take to work with me and have a tasty lunch time treat once it had time to thaw a little. You can also serve as a dessert, just spoon mousse into serving dishes and chill overnight or for several hours before serving.

Enjoy!

*It was brought to my attention after posting this that tofu is considered a pre-processed food and is not as healthy of a food we once thought. Since we don't eat tofu very often (this is probably the only time I use it each year!) I hadn't really thought of that before. We try to eat all whole, real foods in our household so this got me thinking about alternatives to make this recipe to substitute the tofu. I am going to try using our homemade whole milk pima yogurt and see what happens!

***If you enjoyed reading this post, please join our other regular readers and subscribe to this blog by clicking here .We are so grateful to our regular readers and feel so blessed, thank you all!

To find out where we're linking up, click here to see our link list.

Wildflower Walks with Baby

This week we camped in one of our favorite archery hunting spots on top of a mountain. We figured it would be the perfect spot to camp and watch the full moon rise. Since we were at such a high elevation, the early season wildflowers were in full bloom in the alpine meadow next to camp.

 I have many fond memories of going on wildflower walks with my mom as a kid, something that has stayed with me on my own wildflower walks since I left home at 18.

 Arnica

Yellowish Paintbrush

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

 Today we are joining WoolyMossRoots again for

G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

Highlights of what I wrote about being grateful for this past week: