How Has My Gardening/Foraging Year Gone So Far?

✨ Well, well, well. Where do I even start? I think at the end of the year is always a good time to stop and pause and think about our achievements and disasters. No matter where you are, the most important thing is to start! This will set you apart from the rest. You will have no clue what you're doing, you must be honest and admit to yourself you'll be crap from the beginning.

💯 You need to allow yourself time for making mistakes. I think this is what is missing in our current society. Rushing, rushing, rushing and no time for making mistakes. In the process you'll somehow find your style. You'll find out what you like and don't like. You'll find your weaknesses but also your strong sites. You'll find out what is working for you and what not. And usually we overestimate what we can achieve in a year but underestimate what we can achieve in a decade. Good things take time. There's no shortcut!

👩‍❤️‍👨 I've been watching on YouTube Czech/German couple for some time and really like their videos about foraging and decided to buy their online herb school training with lessons for every month in a year. I knew I wanted to buy a dehydrator for some time and strong blender and they really helped me to finally make up my mind. Part of their lessons is how to process food, recipe ideas etc. On the top of it I bought a grain mill, juicer, sprouting jars and Polish Ceramic Fermentation Crock. I know, it was a massive investment!

🙈 Mind you, yes I had a pretty sulking, sour face looking at everybody's nice holiday pictures, lol! I think we can have it all but not at the same time. I managed to have a nice family break in Czech Republic though (picture below - reconnecting with nature with my dear friend). Looking back, I'm really glad I've made this investment. It really helped to acquire new skills and there's so much stuff I still haven't explored. I have itchy fingers on Mandoline slicer. Watch this space!

🔪 A little update.... I bought Mandoline! Woohoo, the creativity is endless now!

🥕 I'm not sure how many batches and variations of fermented veg I've done so far. I love, it's like a little magic you never know what the final result will be. And I love putting something wild into my ferments (e.g. elderflowers, yarrow leaves, Ginkgo leaves and so on, whatever tickles your fancy). When you do squash, it will literally dissolve and you will have lots of liquid there. At the moment I'm fermenting Jerusalem Artichokes from my garden. The result will be known in a couple of days. I can't wait!

👉 You can check my blog article about Jerusalem Artichoke here.

👇 Fermented cabbage

🌹 And I can't even count how much stuff I preserved and dried with this beauty (dehydrator) below. It's a great way to dry your herbs (I can't even count how much herbal teas I've made this year purely from my garden), make fruit leathers (the options are endless); I tried rosehip once this year. You need to separate the irritating hairs which are inside, but I really like the final result. You vitamin C intake is sorted!

🌶️ And I even made vegetable seasoning and bouillon from organic vegetable peels, I was inspired by one of Charles Dowding's posts - Organic & No Dig Gardening Guru.

Don't get me wrong, I still air dry herbs and don't use dehydrator all the time, however it's such a great helper especially in damp weather.

👇 Homemade Seasoning

👇 Spring Flowers Ready for Drying

👇 Nettle Seeds, Homemade Seasoning, Mullein Leaves & Flowers and Pea Pods

👇 Blackberry Fruit Leather

👇 Rosehip Fruit Leather

🍹 And Oscar Neo cold press juicer. I love it!!! I enjoy making green shots from wheatgrass, spelt grass or ordinary fruit and veg variations. It made me grow my own wheatgrass which is pretty much fun to do.

🍝 And guess what, it has a nozzle for pasta making. Homemade pasta... Hmmm, I never done it before, but I'll definitely have a go! I can get the idea of making nettle pasta out of my head! I also grow Cavolo Nero kale in my garden at the moment. I might do some green pasta experiment soon!

🍝 And this super special grain mill. Honestly, I don't know what it is, it makes me feel so good when I make my own flour. I'd call it a mindfulness for me! lol And the amazing stuff you can create with this! I guess, muffins are favourite so far! And when I add homemade infused lilac honey to the dough. Bliss! And yes, I can still enjoy currants and add them to the mix too from my freezer. This is how you can make a little goodies sourced from your garden.

😮 So far I've done buckwheat, spelt and rye flour. But it should be able to mill pulses and so on. On my to do list to explore!

😂 I even made savoury healthier version with kale puree. But honestly, nothing can beat a sweet one. I guess everybody has those sort of moments when they go for the healthy one, if you know what I mean.

👇 Savoury Kale Muffins

🌱 And sprouting. Well, can I say? I think I could have written a book about it. Sprouts are amazing in autumn and winter time to give us an immune system booster which is so much needed during this time.

And shockingly I don't have any pictures with sprouting after my sprouting marathon.

My green favourite is alfalfa, which needs a bit of patience though.

👇 Staple favourite and quick ones to sprout are sunflower seeds and buckwheat.

🌿 What have I planted this year?! ASPARAGUS!!!

The look of asparagus root crowns made me laugh! It will be hard to establish, but the important bit is, I've started.

🌿 Cottagers Kale 🌿

😮 Check this out! A cross between a kale, brussels sprout and purple sprouting broccoli.

👽 WOW! It sounds like an alien to me. I love trying new things and extremely hardy was the SELLER for me.

💚 It's been doing well. I'll use it for my green quiche lunch. Yummy!

🌾 I've grown lots of grains out of curiosity. Below is Amaranth. It is amazing what can grow from one little tiny seed. You can find out here what grains I've tried to grow this year here.

👣 Along my way, I've started to follow and learn from new people whether it's regarding foraging or gardening. As you start to walk on the way, the way appears. It's amazing to see how many wonderful people do amazing stuff.

The hard bit

😂 Let me tell you, I'm so glad this part is over now!

🛞 Well, well, well I got rid of 23 car tyres from my garden this year which I used as planters. It was almost impossible task! The plants were already nicely established there because I used those tyres for years, roots were everywhere and with my body built it was proper work out to get this sorted.

❓ But why did I do it? I don't know. Something inside me just changed and what used to work for me in the past, doesn't work for me anymore.

🩸 As the saying goes "Our cells replace themselves every 7 years. That means that you’re not the same person that you were seven years ago.” And if something stops working for you, don't be afraid to change it. Not just in your garden. Maybe you don't like the music anymore, maybe you don't enjoy somebody else's company anymore, maybe you don't like your favourite food etc. You get the point.

😨 The dreaded question was, what do I do with it? I knew I couldn't ask my boyfriend to take it away, because a couple of years ago I made him collect all of these for me. I can imagine the look to ask him to get rid off them now. 😂

🤑 And guess what, marketing is everything. I got the timing right, it was during summer time (just a kind reminder, there's no summer in UK this year) and people like to do DIY stuff. One man's trash is another man's treasure, so I managed to get rid of it for free on Marketplace.

💪 Believe or not, people were fighting for it. Both lots were collected within 2 days. I felt like a proper business woman! Mind you, there was no income but the feeling when I told my boyfriend to chill because there are no 23 car tyres at the back of our house anymore was phenomenal. I felt epic!

🚗 I'm not going to tell if you should use car tyres as planters. The decision is up to you. All I say, I used to do it but I don't anymore. End of story.

The Wild Bit

🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️ It was pretty dominant for me this year. You can read more about my wild craziness here.

I attended 3️⃣ foraging courses by Wild Food UK in spring, summer and autumn time.

👉 You can read more about my spring adventure here, summer one here and autumn one here. You can see a few pictures from autumn one below .

👇 Phil preparing wild feast for us

👇 Wild Mushrooms

I was glad to meet wonderful Amethyst Deceiver.

💡 Next year I'm thinking to expand my knowledge and maybe do 1-2-1 foraging course instead of group one. Phil from Wild Food UK was joking with me, saying I could lead the spring and summer one myself. 😂

🍄 The autumn one was more interesting for me, because I'm not mushroom expert, that's why I found it more appealing.

I follow somebody on Instagram who I might approach directly, it involves some travelling so I'll see how I feel in 2024.

❤️ I also admire a lady from Czech Republic, who mostly concentrates on fermenting. She ferments everything and knows so much wild food. She only does face to face group courses at specific time of the year.

🙌 She was a couple of times on telly. Hmmm, that's another option to consider. You see, I'm already twitching my fingers. I don't know where it takes me, which option I'll go for, but I'm pretty sure I need to do something.

Recently she shared post about making tea from roasted rose branches (pictures below). What???!!! I know this sounds so weird!!!

😂 But in my weird world, I know I'm going to try it one day.

👇 Tea Made From Roasted Rose Branches

Proud moments

🍄 I managed to grow my own Oyster Mushrooms. It was just amazing to watch them grow day by day. It's apparently great project for kids. Who needs kids, I was over the moon growing it myself! Lol

PS: Don't grow up, it's a trap!

👇 Oyster Mushroom Growing Kit

🍒 My cherry tree had a first few cherries this year. It was a really special moment. That means it will get better year by year. Yay!

Pleasantly surprised

💜 Lilac Infused Honey is absolute winner for me this year! I made 3 jars and I thought it would last until sort of February time. What a mistake! It's almost December I'm scraping very hard last bits of the only jar left.

But I'm glad I made it. I know this one will be one of my staples. Lilac has a short season so plan ahead if you'd like to lock its beauty.

💜 Another thing which I enjoyed is lilac flowers oxidised tea. I still have some left and it will keep me going throughout winter.

I'm thinking to do some fruit leathers infused with lilac next. See, so many possibilities.

👇 Lilac Infused Honey

👇 Lilac Flowers Oxidised Tea

💚 Simply green 💚

🍹 Refreshing drink made from edible conifer tips. This was summer winner and everybody was very curious about this one. Cheers!

Hawthorn ketchup

This recipe is easy to follow, and you'll end up with a delicious and nutritious ketchup that you can use to top your favourite dishes.

🤤 Trust me, your taste buds will thank you!

📕 Where did I get inspiration from? You should check this awesome book “Knowledge to Forage” written by Home is where our heart is.

🙏 Thank you so much for putting this masterpiece together for wild souls!

🗒️ Recipe:

3 mugs of hawthorn berries

1 mug of water

1 mug of apple cider vinegar

Half a cup of honey, syrup or sugar

Salt & pepper to taste

❓I’m curious to know, have you ever made hawthorn ketchup yourself?

❓Have you got any favourite food to eat it with?

🤤 Mind you this is another winner for me. I ended up with 3 jars, I ate about half of jar during making process.

❤️ It only lasted about a week or so before it's gone! I was looking for various ways to eat it with and I never made so many homemade chips before. 😂 It was so good!

I used swede, carrot, potatoes you name it, I made homemade chips with it.

❄️ Next year, I'll definitely make it again. Good thing is we have freezers now, I didn't have time to make anything with it when I foraged it, so it waited for me patiently in the freezer until I had time.

Where did I go deep?

💚 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐠𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐝 💚

Pick one wild edible or new fruit/veg and learn as much as you can for at least a week. Study it, check books, videos, posts etc. Once you know what you are doing and you are fully confident you can recognise it, go and enjoy it.

I really zoomed in on Common Hogweed this year. You can eat the young leaves, unopened flower buds and you can use its seeds as well.

👇 Common Hogweed Flower Buds at their edible stage

💚 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐠𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 💚

🥜 The seeds are a direct replacement for cardamom.

⚠️ Not to be confused with Giant Hogweed!!!

Which is a very dangerous plant with phototoxic sap which will burn your skin extremely badly if exposed to the Sun.

What I didn't manage to do this year

🍫 Linden Fruit Chocolate

🌰 Acorn Flour

Yep, another weird stuff to try on my to do list. Perhaps next year. I'll keep you posted!

Well in the process or writing this article I realised it's not possible to share with you everything what I did this year. I've done loads and I don't even recognise the girl who started at the beginning of the year. That's the beauty of progress and becoming something.

Where does it take me? I don't know. And I don't need to know. But important thing is to make a start. Whatever it is your heart is telling you to do, I encourage you to pluck up the courage and make the first step.

👇 Smile 😊

😱 It's quite scary to open my kitchen cupboards to see homemade seasoning, homemade herbal and oxidised teas, elderberry capers, hawthorn ketchup, fruit leathers made from everything, infused honey, busy fermentation crock filled with various veggies, re-grown vegetable greens from table scraps and busy sprouting jars. And in another cupboard I store red and black currants 𝗯𝘆 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗮 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗿𝘀. Well, I'll need to write another blog post about this one. And yes, I've got always something in my freezer too. Mostly goodies from my garden.

👩‍🌾 Oh man! Where did it come from???!!! I've got a little micro farm inside of my house! Help!

👇 Elderberry capers

👇 Storing fruit by Anastasia Method

💚 How to Re-Grow Vegetable Greens From Table Scraps 💚

⛄ This is a great tip for winter time if you are craving something green. Great addition to your soups.

🌱 Just cut off the plant's base, which you normally wouldn't eat, so you have a piece about 1 inch tall. Place it cut side up in a shallow saucer, and then add 1/2 inch of water. Refresh the water regularly, and get ready for harvestable greens. Leafy scraps will grow in water on a sunny indoor windowsill year-round.

🥕 Here, I'm re-growing Salsify & Carrot Greens.

🛀 And now with miserable weather outside is great time to unlock our senses and bring happy memories back. I just had a bath infused with rose petals and lavender flowers. I love having a bath with flower petals from my own garden. Thank God for the dehydrator!

Bring back the happy memories. Stop and pause and focus what you'd like to achieve next year; in your garden, in your personal life, in your local community and so on...

🎉🎉🎉 Wishing you a wonderful and abundant 2024! 🎉🎉🎉

Let's share some great gardening ideas and tips. Let's make the world a better place together.

❤️ As always from my heart ❤️ to your heart.❤️

💋 Much Love! 💋