foraging

Y’all, we got our first Free State Feasts virtual cookbook published and then things got really crazy really fast in life. I started a job that I just couldn’t turn down, our house started coming along really quickly and decisions had to be made about finishes and paint and light fixtures and stuff, my little one got a cold and started school, AND I got an opportunity to start writing a food essay each month for a magazine. Cooking ended up taking a bit of a backseat for the past two weeks or so, but I’m back and I’ve got some awesome things to share! My friend, Joseph brought me a sack of wild persimmons, beautyberries, and chestnuts, and a sweet friend’s mama has been REALLY good to her basil plant this fall and she brought me a huge bouquet of it. All that is to say I’ve had some pretty incredible local ingredients to work with this weekend. Stay tuned for some stuff you’ll want to make yourself!

First up, beauty berry jelly. …

So, I’d been in kind of a cooking rut lately… I’ve been spending so much time thinking about our home that we’re renovating/building out at our family farm that I just hadn’t had much creative energy to expend in the kitchen… There was a lot of “Oh! Wagner! You’re going to have chicken tenders AGAIN tonight! Won’t those be delicious??” and “I think I just want watermelon and coffee for lunch today.” Ugh. Cooking’s not as much fun when there aren’t fun things to cook, you know?

But then, last week, that all changed. Our new, wonderful forager friend brought me two quarts of mulberries and a quart of dewberries and I basically died and went to berry heaven. I had SO many ideas for using these tart, sweet, perfect little treasures and not enough time to make them. You’ve hopefully already seen (and tried!) the mulberry scones recipe, and then that very same night, my daddy requested a cobbler. That seemed the PERFECT way to use the berries but not overwhelm their natural perfection… so he got his wish. Each of us had a personal sized one piping hot after supper, with OF COURSE, homemade vanilla ice cream.

Don’t have your own forager friend or a mulberry tree in your backyard? No worries. A combo of fresh or frozen blueberries and raspberries will do the trick. Your tummy will thank you.

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Foraged Beauties: Beautyberry Jelly

Wild berry Cobbler.

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