Cherry blossoms
66 Square Feet (Plus)
by
1w ago
On the Vernal Equinox I walked in Green-Wood Cemetery under a high, racing sky and patchy cloud. In an early-blooming cherry, some house finches were very busy. If you taste a cherry blossom, it is very bitter. But after a few seconds the flavor turns to marzipan. Perhaps finches like marzipan. Or the effects of prussic acid? How much is in a finch-sized blossom-dose? _____________ New Walks and Picnic   ..read more
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What and How to Eat Now
66 Square Feet (Plus)
by
3M ago
Here's a quick round-up of some seasonally appealing Gardenista pieces I have written. Follow the links to read:  First up, Forest Toddies. On the cold-weather walks I lead, I sometimes make a hot toddy to warm frigid fingers. (It stays steaming in Thermos flasks.) It's alcohol-free but manages to taste grown up and complex. Everyone asks how it is made. My current hot toddy recipe is based on fresh apple cider, with the addition of citrus and herbs, a whisper of fir, and sometimes even a beneficial mushroom.  When I've made the toddy and allowed all the flavors to infuse, it is st ..read more
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The sill
66 Square Feet (Plus)
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5M ago
Austere, like the flavor of autumn olives. Clear, tart, enough sweetness to keep your attention. But definitely autumn. _____________ daily posts at Instagram @marie_viljoen ..read more
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Picnic like you mean it
66 Square Feet (Plus)
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6M ago
  The water comes up, and then it goes down, and then it does it again. This is high tide, and we perched on the edge to picnic. But at low tide we have walked across the shell-crunching wet sand to that island with the trees, to picnic, there. Once, we watched a mink swim across the water to explore the rocks. There are sometimes seals, poking their faces up to look like whiskery buoys tethered on the water. And almost always we see a loon, patrolling offshore. I don't know when last we took wine on a picnic*. A day picnic. I carried it as a surprise for the Frenchman, who that morning ..read more
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The chanterelle stream in the woods
66 Square Feet (Plus)
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9M ago
In the middle of summer-humid woods in the Hudson Valley, is a stream where we picnic, after hunting for chanterelles. Above: August, 2018 - the first time we saw it, water tumbling. There are crayfish in the water, with blue pincers. 2021 - Baskets of chanterelles collected. 2022 - in a months-long drought. The crayfish were still there. Not a mushroom to be seen.  2023 - a recent weekend, after some small chanterelles (and lots of other mushrooms) were sighted, and the day before historic flooding in the Hudson Valley. What does it look like, after? As sticky and p ..read more
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American burnweed - a herb to eat
66 Square Feet (Plus)
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9M ago
We lurch from apocalypse to apocalypse. Choking wildfire smoke, and now, unprecedented rainfall. Brooklyn escaped Sunday night's flooding rain; in fact, it has been drier than usual, while just an hour north, where we hunted chanterelles over the weekend, mild creeks and tame streams turned into torrential monsters, and cliffs into cataracts.   It is very hot, and meals have been cool. Above? Slivered baby cucumbers atop labneh, with Palestinina olive oil, New Jersey peas and...an indigenous plant foraged in Brooklyn. In season now is an unheralded aromatic herb of North America: Er ..read more
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Apocalypse forage
66 Square Feet (Plus)
by
10M ago
Some likened our apocalyptic skies this week, and the pervasive smell of smoke, to 9/11. But the smell of the Canadian wildfires was misleadingly wholesome and pleasant, like woodsmoke. Even through my N95 mask, from our Covid stash. 9/11 was a terrible smell. Like burned wires and bone.  I went foraging, masked.  The air grew progressively worse; it hadn't been too bad when I set out. So the world was sepia. A few days before 9/11 I dreamed that my mother and I were hiding in a bombed-out building in lower Manhattan. This was the light in the dream. In the dream three old ..read more
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Chickweed
66 Square Feet (Plus)
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11M ago
Chickweed, a luscious, cool-weather green, has a unique flavor. Read all about it and get my super-easy chickweed recipe on Gardenista. _____________ ..read more
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Choose field garlic
66 Square Feet (Plus)
by
1y ago
It's field garlic season, where we live, and perhaps where you are, too. This chive-like wild onion (Allium vineale) is a winter-through-spring weed in North America, but a very tasty one. And infinitely more sustainable than ramps (Allium tricoccum). Eggs deviled, and destined for a picnic. Their yolky stuffing is laced with fresh field garlic, mustard, and mayonnaise. And a deeply soothing soup. You'll find its recipe in my story about field garlic for Gardenista (and yes, you can substitute chives, or scallion greens). _________________ Classes: 4 March, Winter Foraging at the NYBG 11 M ..read more
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Radishes - it's time
66 Square Feet (Plus)
by
1y ago
  I love radishes. They have a remarkable affinity for eggs - high on my list of Loved Things. Also, toast. (Perhaps everything has an affinity for toast?) They were the first vegetable I ever grew, as a very small person living in Bloemfontein, in the heart of South Africa. So there is that, too.  In our Cobble Hill days (the terrace of the original 66 square feet size) I raised them on our so-called roof farm - a collection of pots where fava beans, peas, tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and raspberries grew. And this year I will sow them again, this time in the windowboxes on our Win ..read more
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