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philosophicalfolia

Extreme Makeover: Backyard Rewilding Edition!!! 🌾

Extreme Makeover: Backyard Rewilding Edition!!! 🌾

(Keep in mind that this is a long-term project and nothing has had a chance to sprout, establish, or spread yet.)

It was so exciting to spend the last four days rewilding a backyard to an eco-friendly vision of what backyards COULD be like if they weren’t just exclusively invasive turfgrass! 🤩 And thank you @christinejanusiak and @lnicholson67 for trusting me even when it first looked like I was just digging a bunch of ugly patches into your yard! 😂 The real prize will be in a year or two when the TONS of different seeds sprout and the diverse groundcover is established and spreading! I was going for a labyrinthine design, with different “themes” for the “journey” through the yard. The wildlife, soil, ecology, and even the climate will be thankful for this yard’s transition. And it might even be more exciting and fun than it was! 🤷‍♂️

This yard’s design features what will grow into:
1. An enormous pollinator wildflower garden
2. A veggie trellis
3. A “bonsai” maple (that will grow to be full size), along with lily of the valley, wild strawberry, and wild ginger as groundcover
4. Two more wildflower sections, one featuring mostly perennials and the other featuring hummingbird-attracting flowers
5. A tea garden including peppermint, lavender, hibiscus, rose, creeping charlie, lemongrass, catmint, and raspberry
6. A sculpture area with wild strawberry as groundcover
7. A prairie dock and wild ginger display
8. An evergreen tree with ferns and various woodland groundcover
9. A “prairie” backdrop with native plants, variegated grasses and groundcover, dewberry, etc.
10. A “food” section with tomatoes, peppers, kale, scallions, onions, jerusalem artichoke, oregano, chives, etc.

I just can’t wait to see what it will look like in a year!

P.S. This was done using just a shovel, shared or foraged plants, and using only $50 on seeds.

#rewilding #yardmakeover #nativeplants #pollinatorfriendly #landscaping

To bonsai or not to bonsai? 🌳 That definitely is

To bonsai or not to bonsai? 🌳

That definitely is the question! 😅

Today was my (and Trilli’s) first day ever trying to bonsai some lemon trees, coffee plants, and maples. It took me a while to even decide which plants to start with. Some produce leaves that stay too big, while others start producing smaller leaves with consistent pruning. Some grow quickly, others slowly. Some plants (like maples) need to be overwintered outside but are great for bonsai. Some plants can produce flowers, fruits, and seeds when bonsai-ed (such as lemon, coffee, maple, crabapple, and bougainvillea), while others cannot. Some flourish while root-bound and others don’t. 🌺

I will attempt to propagate the cuttings using rooting hormone to hopefully create more plants with these top branches that already took so long to grow! This is definitely an art of patience, and I’m already antsy to see what their final forms (and ugly stages along the way) will be! 😌

If you have any tips, insights, or comments about this practice, I’d love to hear in the comments! Thanks @cjordan211 for the tips and inspiration you’ve already shared!

#bonsai #bonsaitree #lemonbonsai #coffeebonsai #maplebonsai

Turn this common watermelon-flavored mushroom into

Turn this common watermelon-flavored mushroom into Tajin-inspired chili lime candy!!! 🍄‍🟫👉🍬

Recipe in my blog at philofolia.com. 👨‍💻

#dryadssaddle #mushroomcandy #foragedfoods #ediblemushrooms #unusualrecipes

🗑️ Kitchen scraps ⏭️ windowsill garden 🧑‍🌾 Experi

🗑️ Kitchen scraps ⏭️ windowsill garden 🧑‍🌾

Experiment update: Lookin’ good! 👀

I made a quick garden box that actually fits in our tiny apartment’s tiny windowsill by using a box from our recycling bin, cut grocery bags, and duct tape.

Ft.:
🥕 Carrot tops (produce edible and nutritious shoots and seeds)
🧅 Onion (produces many “rounds” of greens if cut; can also go to seed)
🍠 Sweet potato top (can make new sweet potatoes from each “slip”/sprout; beautiful houseplant)
🥬 Cabbage butt (produces edible leaves)

#growthfromwaste #windowsillgardening #kitchenscraps #kitchenscrapgarden

Bacon? 🚫 Dryads saddle? ✅ I rarely find “tween” d

Bacon? 🚫
Dryads saddle? ✅

I rarely find “tween” dryads saddle — usually huge, mature, tough ones. But what they say is true! The smaller dryads saddle mushrooms (or “pheasants back mushrooms”) are super tender and make a mean vegetarian bacon! 🥓

Just slice thin and sautee in butter with a little bit of salt, thyme, and garlic powder for about 10 minutes. And they are even high in protein but have many more healthy and medicinal compounds than bacon, and a delicious flavor all their own. 🍄‍🟫

#dryadssaddle #foragedrecipes #mushrooms #baconsubstitute

It’s crazy what you can find just looking under tr

It’s crazy what you can find just looking under trees in a normal public park! 🌳

Glad I decided to take a short walk in the rain with Trilli. 😊🦮

I used to dissect owl pellets as a kid and that’s why I’m a nerd now. Should I make bone jewelry out of the owl pellet bones? 🦴

#owlpellets #foraging #pineresin

Because I can’t be up north and not throw foraged

Because I can’t be up north and not throw foraged finds in my dinner… and because I’m the kind of person who tries things for myself before recommending them to others or sharing what I think… 🙈🍄‍🟫

BUT birch polypore (Fomitopsis betulina) was a fail (in terms of culinary use). 👎 While it likely has a ton of medicinal potential for immunity, anti-inflammatory benefits, anti-cancer potential, digestive stimulation, antimicrobial activity, and antiparasitic activity, it’s… well, gross (bitter and tough).

Good thing I kept it in long chunks I could pick out of my otherwise delicious tempeh-potato-garlic-onion stir fry! 😂😱

Hopefully researchers will study this mushroom more thoroughly in the future, as well as the SO many others with huge medical (especially anti-cancer) potential! 🔬

P.S. Don’t try eating foraged mushrooms unless you are 100% sure of ID. 🪪

#foragingmushrooms #birchpolypore #medicinalmushrooms #anticancerfoods #campdinner

Although I’ve been impatient for mushroom foraging

Although I’ve been impatient for mushroom foraging season to start here in Wisconsin (searching high and low with our new dog Trilli) while all our friends in Iowa are finding pounds of morels in their yards without even trying, at least the few plants that are already growing are edible ones I can throw into my rice and beans to make them not sad! 🥳🌱🍛

Ft. Garlic mustard, daylilies (tubers/‘potatoes’ and sprouts), and white pine.

It’s actually delish and now I’m healthy so don’t throw shade. 💁‍♂️

Also featuring an anthill so big that I consider it a landmark and the only reason I can find my way back to our property from the woods behind it.

What are you foraging this late April?!

#justcentralwisconsinthings #foraging #april #camping #dogtraining

Don’t ask ChatGPT for help making your own maple c

Don’t ask ChatGPT for help making your own maple cream! 🤦‍♂️

There is no learning without mistakes, and sometimes “mistakes” can be, well, even BETTER than what you intended! (God learned this when he created me.) 👼

If you haven’t tried maple cream or maple “candy,” PLEASE buy or make some ASAP because I swear it is an otherworldly taste experience (and way healthier than normal candy although it’s still mostly sugar). 🍁

#Maplesyrup #maplecream #maplesugar #beautifulmistakes #homesteading

Growing food from just garbage! ♻️ Cloning oyster

Growing food from just garbage! ♻️

Cloning oysters mushrooms from grocery store stems, used cardboard, a yogurt container, and some patience.

Going good so far… now we just have to wait for the bags to hopefully colonize successfully (without mold)!

#mycology #mushroomgrowing #oystermushrooms #growyourownfood #sustainability

Every day is kitchen experiment day when you live

Every day is kitchen experiment day when you live with me (sorry about the messes, roomies) 👨‍🔬

1. I soaked carrot tops in water and they grew leaves in just a few days. I’m told they just grow leaves and seeds (no more actual carrots), but we’ll just see about that, and if worst comes to worst, I get seeds and my rabbits and I get edible carrot leaves. 🥕

2. Crack open a dried mango pit and there’s a seed inside. Soak it in very diluted hydrogen peroxide for a few minutes if moldy, then wrap in damp paper towels for a week. Bam, you’ve got a germinated mango plant that can grow into a tree with fruit in 5 years. Some say they *can* be “gross” if they’re grown from seed, but I don’t just believe everything I read on the internet. Commitment? Yes. Fun? Yes. Worst case scenario I grow a beautiful plant I’m proud of and get measly mangos but a huge sense of accomplishment and real evidence. 🥭

3. This one is FUN! Get oyster mushrooms from the store. Use the mushrooms and just save the dirty bottoms of the stems that some might throw in the garbage. Pour boiling water on cardboard and let it cool. Layer the stems and cardboard in a container you poked 6 teeny holes into. Let sit for a month. You then literally have a bunch of mushroom aubstrate that you could either move to humidity and light to watch them fruit, or transfer to even MORE substrate that will colonize even quicker and lead you to addictively farming your own delicious, expensive, healthy mushrooms in your tiny apartment. 🍄‍🟫

4. Refrigerate apple seeds for 3 months. Plant. You are now Johnny Appleseed. 🍎

5. Throw all your lemon seeds in a pot of dirt and own a literal lemon orchard in 5-15 years. These also just make cute houseplants though too. 🍋

Just sayin’, if you like to experiment and don’t like to waste, there are a LOT of opportunities to grow your own cool stuff with kitchen “scraps.” Stay tuned for many more experiments that will hopefully lead to self-sustainability techniques and the downfall of all the toxic parts of capitalism and agriculture in the U.S., and please share your kitchen scrap hacks or experiments with me! 😊

The magic of a some boxes, a little hot glue, an x

The magic of a some boxes, a little hot glue, an xacto knife, scissors, and duct tape! #organizationwithstyle

Who says you can’t forage in the dead of winter?!

Who says you can’t forage in the dead of winter?!

❄️🌲❄️🌲❄️

Pine resin has been used for AGES to heal wounds, flavor wine, waterproof boats and leather, and much more. Its terpenes and resin acids not only give it antimicrobial and healing properties, but also that marvelous genuine forest scent. @cjordan211 and I already made homemade incense with it, and I plan to experiment with the rest by incorporating it into my wound balm, pomade, and deodorant recipes.

Did you have to prune a frightening amount of bran

Did you have to prune a frightening amount of branches off the bottom of your Christmas tree to get it to fit in the stand? You can use them to make a wreath and save $50! 😂 I just bent a wire hanger into a circle, overlapped and tied the best-looking branches to it with green twine, then stuck any extra bits and pieces firmly into the bare spots. It took me about an hour, and I’d say it was worth it for the cute and Christmasy decor! 🎄❄️

Do you eat healthy breakfasts every morning to get

Do you eat healthy breakfasts every morning to get your mind and body going with high protein, antioxidants, and delicious fresh ingredients?! I am working on being able to do that every day! 🤪 That’s why I’m experimenting with smoothie bowls!

For this one, I threw frozen blueberries, frozen nanas, and a frozen peach cube into a blender with some soy milk, apple juice, and spices (like ginger for stomach health and cinnamon for blood sugar regulation), blended it up, and added some cashews, peanut butter, chia seeds, and hemp hearts (things I had on hand) with a generous drizzle of maple syrup over the top! What’re your smoothie bowl secrets?!

We went hard for harvest time today! 🏃‍♂️🍄‍🟫🍂 Whi

We went hard for harvest time today! 🏃‍♂️🍄‍🟫🍂

While some other foragers may have gotten to all of the oyster mushrooms from the log we planned to go back to on our favorite running path (since it would’ve been a shame to harvest them that small), it didn’t stop @cjordan211 and I from running deeper into the forest with our tiny backpack to find other surprises!

Identifying, harvesting (including running with mushrooms for 10 miles 😂), cleaning, and cooking mushrooms is serious work, but I obviously think it’s fully worth it for these healthy, delicious, umami-packed meal staples! If you go out, this fall, be sure to cross-reference your mushroom IDs and stay safe, but have fun enjoying the gifts of nature, as well as the adventure! 🤩🌲🌳

🍁 Slide 1: Turkey tail and (probably) honey mushrooms (not harvested).
🍁 Slide 2: Finding our first chicken of the woods (laetiporus sulphureus).
🍁 Pholiota aurivella (not considered edible) and some other beautiful, unharvested finds, as well as the chicken of the woods we harvested.
🍁 A classic edible - dryad’s saddle (cerioporus squamosus).
🍁 Dryad’s saddle, baby chickens (etc.), unidentified LBMs (little brown mushrooms), and a rooting polypore (polyporus radicatus - probably edible aside from a tough texture but I am going to do more research).
🍁 Resinous polypore (ischnoderma resinosum), a meaty, steak-like, edible mushroom that I am excited to marinate and cook like a steak.
🍁 Chicken of the woods tacos (delish!), seitan (protein from flour that has a texture and taste like chicken if prepared properly), and pressure-cooked seitan with some dryad’s saddle and chicken of the woods.
🍁 A huge harvest of honey mushrooms (armillaria mellea - edible) at sunset.

Don’t be a chicken to foraging ‘shroomies! It’s never a bad time to get your foot in the door and start with very easy to identify species with no real toxic lookalikes, such as chicken of the woods!

🐓🍄‍🟫🐓🍄‍🟫🐓

Busy as a freaking BEE! 🐝 Lately, I… 🍎 Got some

Busy as a freaking BEE! 🐝

Lately, I…

🍎 Got some hard cider brewing (and used an actual hydrometer to take the initial reading of the specific gravity so I can calculate ABV when it’s done)
🍎 Made normal apple cider
🍎 Made spiced dried apples in the dehydrator
🍎 Made apple/alfalfa bunny treats
🍁 Made yummy caramel
🦋 Observed monarchs (and goats, chickens, bees, etc.) and hung out at Craig’s amazing parents’ farm, where we obtained farm-fresh treats
🍅 Harvested, spiced, and dehydrated tomatoes (🔥)
🏃‍♂️ Have been running consistently, with long runs and a few workouts (including trying a fun route to the Fossil Gorge and a track workout)
🕸️ Have experienced the conflicting emotions of being overwhelmed by spiders and being impressed by them
🫐 Made elderberry syrup
🛍️ Have been working HARD on researching and improving products for my shop (PhiloFolia) so I can “fully” open my online store, which I am very excited about
🛍️ Spent way too much money on high-quality product ingredients despite having a shameful financial status (I guess that’s just what it means to start a business 😬 but I am proud of being the kind of person who genuinely wants to make people’s lives a little better instead of just trying to make a quick buck 🤷‍♂️)
🌺 Have foraged and researched many incredible plants, always stunned by the medicinal uses of species I never knew were growing right in my city

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful transition from summer to fall! ☀️🍂

🌵 This snotty little cactus is a real pain, but it

🌵 This snotty little cactus is a real pain, but it’s a wound-healing powerhouse and a delicious and nutritious vegetable if you can figure out a way to get the extremely sharp and painful spines (and hairlike “glochids”) off before use. The mucilage promotes collagen production and has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties that accelerate the healing of wounds. I very carefully used tongs and a vegetable peeler and STILL got about 5 teeny glochids in my hands (and one cluster in my hair somehow 😂). Thank goodness for tweezers, but god knows how that groundhog is doing that took a bite out of it! I will be adding the powerful mucilage to a new wound healing product I’m working on, and the rest are in my southwest salad (with air-fried tofu, roasted pine nuts, tahini lime dressing, etc.). Give prickly pear a chance… if you’re brave enough! 😱🏜️🔪

And that’s why they’re called “toadstools.” 🥹🐸🍄‍🟫

And that’s why they’re called “toadstools.”

🥹🐸🍄‍🟫

Hit the jackpot of *golden* oysters on my sweltering run through the woods today! (Also LOL at the fact that I was blasting the song “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters in the car afterwards and didn’t even realize the irony til just now 🤣)

I also found some cool orange mycena, hexagonal-pore polypores, and a deer mushroom!

🍄‍🟫 PRO TIP for processing oyster mushrooms: Tear/crumble them and fry them for a half hour or so until the water content is dramatically decreased so you can freeze them and add them to dishes while preserving their texture!

Happy running and foraging! Stay safe!

🤩🌿🏃‍♂️

I’ve wanted to grow sweet potato vines for years n

I’ve wanted to grow sweet potato vines for years now, and I finally got some organic ones from the store to devote to this purpose. They are gorgeous plants that are cultivated for food and beautiful aesthetics around the world. Hilariously, I asked ChatGPT for everything I should know about growing sweet potato “suckers” (the sprouts that can be individually planted), and it basically told me (using a ton of energy/water resources and WAY too many words) to throw it into some dirt — can you guess what happened?! Yes, it got moldy just like you would think. On the bright side, the other sweet potato I had sitting in my vegetable basket sprouted some suckers just by sitting there! 🤣

As someone who (reluctantly) works in AI programming to make ends meet, I highly recommend being EXTREMELY critical of the downright misinformation, bias, and even manipulation when it comes to this tool. While I personally find it useful for things like troubleshooting product recipes for my shop or brainstorming marketing ideas, it’s certainly better to do your own research (with TRUSTWORTHY sources — not AI Instagram accounts or shitty blogs with no citations) on topics you actually care to learn about.

For the sweet potato vines, I am hoping to integrate them into my paludarium (fishtank/terrarium setup) eventually!

It’s a relief to know there are some things in the world that can provide me with real joy and which I can still trust to not manipulate and mislead me, such as my garden, pet rabbits, real books by educated authors, friends and family, etc.! Stay sane out there, and follow my account for zero-bullsh*t content!

🍠🪴🤖📚

#aintnobodygottimeforthat #sweetpotato #vine #indoorgardening #plantaesthetics #ai #intellectualintegrity

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Dryad’s Saddle Candy – The Foraged Mushroom That Tastes Like WatermelonMay 14, 2026
Homage to Hugi MooMoo Cande – The Ethereal RabbitApril 7, 2026
The Roots of Intelligence: Why Outdoor Experiential Learning is the Ultimate Form of EducationMay 31, 2025
How a Neo-Fascist Nightmare is Replacing the American Dream in 2025 (and What to Do About It)May 27, 2025
From Cancellation to Celebration: Community, Nature Appreciation, and Resilience at “Book Across the Bay” 2025 – (Ashland and Glidden, WI)February 17, 2025
From Running to Climbing to ‘Cleansing’ to Cooking – Foraging Oyster Mushrooms and Dryad’s Saddle (Ft. Mouthwatering Vegetarian Dryad’s Saddle Jerky Recipe)November 19, 2024
Bridging the Gap between Humans and Wolves: Insights from the 2024 Great Lakes Wolf SymposiumNovember 9, 2024
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Pilot Mountain State Park’s Seasonal Faces: A Visual Run-Through (& Hike-Through)February 23, 2024
All-Natural Nourishing Winter Hand Cream – DIY RecipeJanuary 22, 2024
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Growing Your Own Lion’s Mane Mushrooms (& Lion’s Mane Taco Recipe)March 8, 2022
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philosophicalfolia

Extreme Makeover: Backyard Rewilding Edition!!! 🌾

Extreme Makeover: Backyard Rewilding Edition!!! 🌾

(Keep in mind that this is a long-term project and nothing has had a chance to sprout, establish, or spread yet.)

It was so exciting to spend the last four days rewilding a backyard to an eco-friendly vision of what backyards COULD be like if they weren’t just exclusively invasive turfgrass! 🤩 And thank you @christinejanusiak and @lnicholson67 for trusting me even when it first looked like I was just digging a bunch of ugly patches into your yard! 😂 The real prize will be in a year or two when the TONS of different seeds sprout and the diverse groundcover is established and spreading! I was going for a labyrinthine design, with different “themes” for the “journey” through the yard. The wildlife, soil, ecology, and even the climate will be thankful for this yard’s transition. And it might even be more exciting and fun than it was! 🤷‍♂️

This yard’s design features what will grow into:
1. An enormous pollinator wildflower garden
2. A veggie trellis
3. A “bonsai” maple (that will grow to be full size), along with lily of the valley, wild strawberry, and wild ginger as groundcover
4. Two more wildflower sections, one featuring mostly perennials and the other featuring hummingbird-attracting flowers
5. A tea garden including peppermint, lavender, hibiscus, rose, creeping charlie, lemongrass, catmint, and raspberry
6. A sculpture area with wild strawberry as groundcover
7. A prairie dock and wild ginger display
8. An evergreen tree with ferns and various woodland groundcover
9. A “prairie” backdrop with native plants, variegated grasses and groundcover, dewberry, etc.
10. A “food” section with tomatoes, peppers, kale, scallions, onions, jerusalem artichoke, oregano, chives, etc.

I just can’t wait to see what it will look like in a year!

P.S. This was done using just a shovel, shared or foraged plants, and using only $50 on seeds.

#rewilding #yardmakeover #nativeplants #pollinatorfriendly #landscaping

To bonsai or not to bonsai? 🌳 That definitely is

To bonsai or not to bonsai? 🌳

That definitely is the question! 😅

Today was my (and Trilli’s) first day ever trying to bonsai some lemon trees, coffee plants, and maples. It took me a while to even decide which plants to start with. Some produce leaves that stay too big, while others start producing smaller leaves with consistent pruning. Some grow quickly, others slowly. Some plants (like maples) need to be overwintered outside but are great for bonsai. Some plants can produce flowers, fruits, and seeds when bonsai-ed (such as lemon, coffee, maple, crabapple, and bougainvillea), while others cannot. Some flourish while root-bound and others don’t. 🌺

I will attempt to propagate the cuttings using rooting hormone to hopefully create more plants with these top branches that already took so long to grow! This is definitely an art of patience, and I’m already antsy to see what their final forms (and ugly stages along the way) will be! 😌

If you have any tips, insights, or comments about this practice, I’d love to hear in the comments! Thanks @cjordan211 for the tips and inspiration you’ve already shared!

#bonsai #bonsaitree #lemonbonsai #coffeebonsai #maplebonsai

Turn this common watermelon-flavored mushroom into

Turn this common watermelon-flavored mushroom into Tajin-inspired chili lime candy!!! 🍄‍🟫👉🍬

Recipe in my blog at philofolia.com. 👨‍💻

#dryadssaddle #mushroomcandy #foragedfoods #ediblemushrooms #unusualrecipes

🗑️ Kitchen scraps ⏭️ windowsill garden 🧑‍🌾 Experi

🗑️ Kitchen scraps ⏭️ windowsill garden 🧑‍🌾

Experiment update: Lookin’ good! 👀

I made a quick garden box that actually fits in our tiny apartment’s tiny windowsill by using a box from our recycling bin, cut grocery bags, and duct tape.

Ft.:
🥕 Carrot tops (produce edible and nutritious shoots and seeds)
🧅 Onion (produces many “rounds” of greens if cut; can also go to seed)
🍠 Sweet potato top (can make new sweet potatoes from each “slip”/sprout; beautiful houseplant)
🥬 Cabbage butt (produces edible leaves)

#growthfromwaste #windowsillgardening #kitchenscraps #kitchenscrapgarden

Bacon? 🚫 Dryads saddle? ✅ I rarely find “tween” d

Bacon? 🚫
Dryads saddle? ✅

I rarely find “tween” dryads saddle — usually huge, mature, tough ones. But what they say is true! The smaller dryads saddle mushrooms (or “pheasants back mushrooms”) are super tender and make a mean vegetarian bacon! 🥓

Just slice thin and sautee in butter with a little bit of salt, thyme, and garlic powder for about 10 minutes. And they are even high in protein but have many more healthy and medicinal compounds than bacon, and a delicious flavor all their own. 🍄‍🟫

#dryadssaddle #foragedrecipes #mushrooms #baconsubstitute

It’s crazy what you can find just looking under tr

It’s crazy what you can find just looking under trees in a normal public park! 🌳

Glad I decided to take a short walk in the rain with Trilli. 😊🦮

I used to dissect owl pellets as a kid and that’s why I’m a nerd now. Should I make bone jewelry out of the owl pellet bones? 🦴

#owlpellets #foraging #pineresin

Because I can’t be up north and not throw foraged

Because I can’t be up north and not throw foraged finds in my dinner… and because I’m the kind of person who tries things for myself before recommending them to others or sharing what I think… 🙈🍄‍🟫

BUT birch polypore (Fomitopsis betulina) was a fail (in terms of culinary use). 👎 While it likely has a ton of medicinal potential for immunity, anti-inflammatory benefits, anti-cancer potential, digestive stimulation, antimicrobial activity, and antiparasitic activity, it’s… well, gross (bitter and tough).

Good thing I kept it in long chunks I could pick out of my otherwise delicious tempeh-potato-garlic-onion stir fry! 😂😱

Hopefully researchers will study this mushroom more thoroughly in the future, as well as the SO many others with huge medical (especially anti-cancer) potential! 🔬

P.S. Don’t try eating foraged mushrooms unless you are 100% sure of ID. 🪪

#foragingmushrooms #birchpolypore #medicinalmushrooms #anticancerfoods #campdinner

Although I’ve been impatient for mushroom foraging

Although I’ve been impatient for mushroom foraging season to start here in Wisconsin (searching high and low with our new dog Trilli) while all our friends in Iowa are finding pounds of morels in their yards without even trying, at least the few plants that are already growing are edible ones I can throw into my rice and beans to make them not sad! 🥳🌱🍛

Ft. Garlic mustard, daylilies (tubers/‘potatoes’ and sprouts), and white pine.

It’s actually delish and now I’m healthy so don’t throw shade. 💁‍♂️

Also featuring an anthill so big that I consider it a landmark and the only reason I can find my way back to our property from the woods behind it.

What are you foraging this late April?!

#justcentralwisconsinthings #foraging #april #camping #dogtraining

Don’t ask ChatGPT for help making your own maple c

Don’t ask ChatGPT for help making your own maple cream! 🤦‍♂️

There is no learning without mistakes, and sometimes “mistakes” can be, well, even BETTER than what you intended! (God learned this when he created me.) 👼

If you haven’t tried maple cream or maple “candy,” PLEASE buy or make some ASAP because I swear it is an otherworldly taste experience (and way healthier than normal candy although it’s still mostly sugar). 🍁

#Maplesyrup #maplecream #maplesugar #beautifulmistakes #homesteading

Growing food from just garbage! ♻️ Cloning oyster

Growing food from just garbage! ♻️

Cloning oysters mushrooms from grocery store stems, used cardboard, a yogurt container, and some patience.

Going good so far… now we just have to wait for the bags to hopefully colonize successfully (without mold)!

#mycology #mushroomgrowing #oystermushrooms #growyourownfood #sustainability

Every day is kitchen experiment day when you live

Every day is kitchen experiment day when you live with me (sorry about the messes, roomies) 👨‍🔬

1. I soaked carrot tops in water and they grew leaves in just a few days. I’m told they just grow leaves and seeds (no more actual carrots), but we’ll just see about that, and if worst comes to worst, I get seeds and my rabbits and I get edible carrot leaves. 🥕

2. Crack open a dried mango pit and there’s a seed inside. Soak it in very diluted hydrogen peroxide for a few minutes if moldy, then wrap in damp paper towels for a week. Bam, you’ve got a germinated mango plant that can grow into a tree with fruit in 5 years. Some say they *can* be “gross” if they’re grown from seed, but I don’t just believe everything I read on the internet. Commitment? Yes. Fun? Yes. Worst case scenario I grow a beautiful plant I’m proud of and get measly mangos but a huge sense of accomplishment and real evidence. 🥭

3. This one is FUN! Get oyster mushrooms from the store. Use the mushrooms and just save the dirty bottoms of the stems that some might throw in the garbage. Pour boiling water on cardboard and let it cool. Layer the stems and cardboard in a container you poked 6 teeny holes into. Let sit for a month. You then literally have a bunch of mushroom aubstrate that you could either move to humidity and light to watch them fruit, or transfer to even MORE substrate that will colonize even quicker and lead you to addictively farming your own delicious, expensive, healthy mushrooms in your tiny apartment. 🍄‍🟫

4. Refrigerate apple seeds for 3 months. Plant. You are now Johnny Appleseed. 🍎

5. Throw all your lemon seeds in a pot of dirt and own a literal lemon orchard in 5-15 years. These also just make cute houseplants though too. 🍋

Just sayin’, if you like to experiment and don’t like to waste, there are a LOT of opportunities to grow your own cool stuff with kitchen “scraps.” Stay tuned for many more experiments that will hopefully lead to self-sustainability techniques and the downfall of all the toxic parts of capitalism and agriculture in the U.S., and please share your kitchen scrap hacks or experiments with me! 😊

The magic of a some boxes, a little hot glue, an x

The magic of a some boxes, a little hot glue, an xacto knife, scissors, and duct tape! #organizationwithstyle

Who says you can’t forage in the dead of winter?!

Who says you can’t forage in the dead of winter?!

❄️🌲❄️🌲❄️

Pine resin has been used for AGES to heal wounds, flavor wine, waterproof boats and leather, and much more. Its terpenes and resin acids not only give it antimicrobial and healing properties, but also that marvelous genuine forest scent. @cjordan211 and I already made homemade incense with it, and I plan to experiment with the rest by incorporating it into my wound balm, pomade, and deodorant recipes.

Did you have to prune a frightening amount of bran

Did you have to prune a frightening amount of branches off the bottom of your Christmas tree to get it to fit in the stand? You can use them to make a wreath and save $50! 😂 I just bent a wire hanger into a circle, overlapped and tied the best-looking branches to it with green twine, then stuck any extra bits and pieces firmly into the bare spots. It took me about an hour, and I’d say it was worth it for the cute and Christmasy decor! 🎄❄️

Do you eat healthy breakfasts every morning to get

Do you eat healthy breakfasts every morning to get your mind and body going with high protein, antioxidants, and delicious fresh ingredients?! I am working on being able to do that every day! 🤪 That’s why I’m experimenting with smoothie bowls!

For this one, I threw frozen blueberries, frozen nanas, and a frozen peach cube into a blender with some soy milk, apple juice, and spices (like ginger for stomach health and cinnamon for blood sugar regulation), blended it up, and added some cashews, peanut butter, chia seeds, and hemp hearts (things I had on hand) with a generous drizzle of maple syrup over the top! What’re your smoothie bowl secrets?!

We went hard for harvest time today! 🏃‍♂️🍄‍🟫🍂 Whi

We went hard for harvest time today! 🏃‍♂️🍄‍🟫🍂

While some other foragers may have gotten to all of the oyster mushrooms from the log we planned to go back to on our favorite running path (since it would’ve been a shame to harvest them that small), it didn’t stop @cjordan211 and I from running deeper into the forest with our tiny backpack to find other surprises!

Identifying, harvesting (including running with mushrooms for 10 miles 😂), cleaning, and cooking mushrooms is serious work, but I obviously think it’s fully worth it for these healthy, delicious, umami-packed meal staples! If you go out, this fall, be sure to cross-reference your mushroom IDs and stay safe, but have fun enjoying the gifts of nature, as well as the adventure! 🤩🌲🌳

🍁 Slide 1: Turkey tail and (probably) honey mushrooms (not harvested).
🍁 Slide 2: Finding our first chicken of the woods (laetiporus sulphureus).
🍁 Pholiota aurivella (not considered edible) and some other beautiful, unharvested finds, as well as the chicken of the woods we harvested.
🍁 A classic edible - dryad’s saddle (cerioporus squamosus).
🍁 Dryad’s saddle, baby chickens (etc.), unidentified LBMs (little brown mushrooms), and a rooting polypore (polyporus radicatus - probably edible aside from a tough texture but I am going to do more research).
🍁 Resinous polypore (ischnoderma resinosum), a meaty, steak-like, edible mushroom that I am excited to marinate and cook like a steak.
🍁 Chicken of the woods tacos (delish!), seitan (protein from flour that has a texture and taste like chicken if prepared properly), and pressure-cooked seitan with some dryad’s saddle and chicken of the woods.
🍁 A huge harvest of honey mushrooms (armillaria mellea - edible) at sunset.

Don’t be a chicken to foraging ‘shroomies! It’s never a bad time to get your foot in the door and start with very easy to identify species with no real toxic lookalikes, such as chicken of the woods!

🐓🍄‍🟫🐓🍄‍🟫🐓

Busy as a freaking BEE! 🐝 Lately, I… 🍎 Got some

Busy as a freaking BEE! 🐝

Lately, I…

🍎 Got some hard cider brewing (and used an actual hydrometer to take the initial reading of the specific gravity so I can calculate ABV when it’s done)
🍎 Made normal apple cider
🍎 Made spiced dried apples in the dehydrator
🍎 Made apple/alfalfa bunny treats
🍁 Made yummy caramel
🦋 Observed monarchs (and goats, chickens, bees, etc.) and hung out at Craig’s amazing parents’ farm, where we obtained farm-fresh treats
🍅 Harvested, spiced, and dehydrated tomatoes (🔥)
🏃‍♂️ Have been running consistently, with long runs and a few workouts (including trying a fun route to the Fossil Gorge and a track workout)
🕸️ Have experienced the conflicting emotions of being overwhelmed by spiders and being impressed by them
🫐 Made elderberry syrup
🛍️ Have been working HARD on researching and improving products for my shop (PhiloFolia) so I can “fully” open my online store, which I am very excited about
🛍️ Spent way too much money on high-quality product ingredients despite having a shameful financial status (I guess that’s just what it means to start a business 😬 but I am proud of being the kind of person who genuinely wants to make people’s lives a little better instead of just trying to make a quick buck 🤷‍♂️)
🌺 Have foraged and researched many incredible plants, always stunned by the medicinal uses of species I never knew were growing right in my city

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful transition from summer to fall! ☀️🍂

🌵 This snotty little cactus is a real pain, but it

🌵 This snotty little cactus is a real pain, but it’s a wound-healing powerhouse and a delicious and nutritious vegetable if you can figure out a way to get the extremely sharp and painful spines (and hairlike “glochids”) off before use. The mucilage promotes collagen production and has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties that accelerate the healing of wounds. I very carefully used tongs and a vegetable peeler and STILL got about 5 teeny glochids in my hands (and one cluster in my hair somehow 😂). Thank goodness for tweezers, but god knows how that groundhog is doing that took a bite out of it! I will be adding the powerful mucilage to a new wound healing product I’m working on, and the rest are in my southwest salad (with air-fried tofu, roasted pine nuts, tahini lime dressing, etc.). Give prickly pear a chance… if you’re brave enough! 😱🏜️🔪

And that’s why they’re called “toadstools.” 🥹🐸🍄‍🟫

And that’s why they’re called “toadstools.”

🥹🐸🍄‍🟫

Hit the jackpot of *golden* oysters on my sweltering run through the woods today! (Also LOL at the fact that I was blasting the song “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters in the car afterwards and didn’t even realize the irony til just now 🤣)

I also found some cool orange mycena, hexagonal-pore polypores, and a deer mushroom!

🍄‍🟫 PRO TIP for processing oyster mushrooms: Tear/crumble them and fry them for a half hour or so until the water content is dramatically decreased so you can freeze them and add them to dishes while preserving their texture!

Happy running and foraging! Stay safe!

🤩🌿🏃‍♂️

I’ve wanted to grow sweet potato vines for years n

I’ve wanted to grow sweet potato vines for years now, and I finally got some organic ones from the store to devote to this purpose. They are gorgeous plants that are cultivated for food and beautiful aesthetics around the world. Hilariously, I asked ChatGPT for everything I should know about growing sweet potato “suckers” (the sprouts that can be individually planted), and it basically told me (using a ton of energy/water resources and WAY too many words) to throw it into some dirt — can you guess what happened?! Yes, it got moldy just like you would think. On the bright side, the other sweet potato I had sitting in my vegetable basket sprouted some suckers just by sitting there! 🤣

As someone who (reluctantly) works in AI programming to make ends meet, I highly recommend being EXTREMELY critical of the downright misinformation, bias, and even manipulation when it comes to this tool. While I personally find it useful for things like troubleshooting product recipes for my shop or brainstorming marketing ideas, it’s certainly better to do your own research (with TRUSTWORTHY sources — not AI Instagram accounts or shitty blogs with no citations) on topics you actually care to learn about.

For the sweet potato vines, I am hoping to integrate them into my paludarium (fishtank/terrarium setup) eventually!

It’s a relief to know there are some things in the world that can provide me with real joy and which I can still trust to not manipulate and mislead me, such as my garden, pet rabbits, real books by educated authors, friends and family, etc.! Stay sane out there, and follow my account for zero-bullsh*t content!

🍠🪴🤖📚

#aintnobodygottimeforthat #sweetpotato #vine #indoorgardening #plantaesthetics #ai #intellectualintegrity

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