Where Have We Been?

You might have noticed that the blog has been rather silent for the past month.  The long and the short of it is that we've been really busy!  Here is something in the way of an update, with more posts to follow!

This past month or so we have had way too much traveling to do!  Some of it was a planned holiday, some was work related, and some was to celebrate the wedding of some dear friends.  Though it was all really great, we were just completely wiped out for about a full week afterward!  

The beginning of all this travel was a much needed holiday to Whistler.  This was the first family getaway we had taken in the past two years!  Not that we haven't had holiday time before this, but when your family stretches across most of one of the biggest countries on earth visiting them all eats up a lot of vacation days!  This March we took a week to ourselves and had some much needed family bonding time.

This winter has been particularly bitter all across BC, and so we decided to just embrace it and make our "spring" break one last winter celebration!  We got to use our snowshoes again (I love snowshoeing), and visit Whistler Olympic Park.  We lucked out the last weekend since they were having the national championships for Nordic Combined and Ski Jumping.

Sometimes you have to nurse your kid in the weirdest places!  This was at the biathlon range at the Whistler Olympic Park.  I really enjoyed snowshoeing here.  It was really affordable, and so fun to see all the sights from the 2010 Olympic Games!

The drive home was the most beautiful day.  This shot in Pemberton really doesn't do it justice.  It's a long drive through what could be a treacherous mountain road, but thankfully the sun was shining and the roads were bare!

Our next trip down was work related for Mr. Forager, but we still found time to visit the Tulips in the Valley festival!  Little Forager loves flowers - that's one of the words he can already say - and we caught it at a really beautiful moment where the storm clouds were gathering over the mountains.

One of the really fun things Little Forager and I got up to while Mr. Forager was in class was visiting the BC Farm Museum in Fort Langley.  This place was amazing, and admission was only $6!  We still haven't seen everything they have on display and we'll definitely be back again.

It was lucky that our visit coincided with my mom's parents coming to Vancouver as well.  They usually stop by our place on their way, but this way we wound up with some extra time with them, and that was really nice.  Below you can see my mom and her mom "breadwinning" in the kitchen.  My mom bakes a brilliant loaf of sourdough!  Every time we visit we get sent home with one of the incredible loaves!

Little Forager loves visiting Vancouver.  Cars, boats, and puppies are some of his favourite things, so he's pretty happy to be out and about with us there.

I realized our last visit - again to the Vancouver area, this time for a wedding - was so busy I barely took any photos!  Mr. Forager and I were both very involved in the wedding and we simply enjoyed being in the moment of it all and left the photos to the professionals.  I did manage to take a shot of the incredibly dreamy lavender mocha my mom treated me to at Cafe Medina, though!

Now that we are back home and more rested, I have quite a few more posts planned for your enjoyment!  Thankfully there are no more road trips planned until the summer!

Recommended Reading - Nordic: A Photographic Essay of Landscapes, Food, and People

Nordic: A Photographic Essay of Landscapes, Food, and People is an absolutely gorgeous book.  From the cloth cover with its embossed text to the stunning photography inside, reading this book has brought me a lot of joy.  Magnus Nilsson has a very engaging conversational writing style.  It might be because I've seen and heard him on television programs like Mind of Chef or Chef's Table, but while I read I felt like I was sitting across the table from him as he shared the culture of the Nordic countries.  After finishing this, it makes me want to read his other books: The Nordic Cookbook, and Fäviken. 

On my Grandfather's side our family is from Denmark, and this book left me with a drive to explore my ancestors' heritage further.  Even more so, I feel a passionate longing to discover the answer to a question I have been asking myself for some time: "What is my culture"?  What does it mean to be the daughter of the daughter of the daughter of the daughter of an immigrant?  What does it mean to be a naturalized transplant?  What is my experience of life in a home that has a different heritage from the people in my family who came here so many years ago?  What is my Canada?  My British Columbia?  What could it look like to me to synthesize all of that into my own new, real, vibrant culture?  These are the questions that drive me as I forage, garden, shop markets, cook, and create.  I am thankful to Nilsson for following his passion so keenly and fanning the flame in me to do the same.

Foraging in Winter: Snow

It can be hard to be a forager in the winter when everything is covered with snow.  The earth is dormant, so there is not much obviously available to eat.  The day I stumbled upon Bless This Mess's recipe for snow ice cream, I knew that I had to try it!  (Can I also just say how much I love the fact that they have a family cookbook?  Definitely something to aspire to leave as a legacy for my own family!)

I still get a little thrill every time I see snowflakes falling.  I feel a little like Lorelai from Gilmore Girls: snow is special.  The morning my son was born I looked out the window and upon seeing the feathery crystals tumbling out of the clouds I thought 'wouldn't it be lucky for him to be born today'? 

Before you start thinking I am too crazy, understand that where I did most of my growing up it barely ever snowed.  Sometime - usually in early January - we would get our week of winter and that would be it.  There are only a handful of winters in my memory that actually yielded enough snow to be worth mentioning, and that was usually for only one day or so.  Now living in Kamloops, the fact that we actually have obvious seasons is refreshing.  Although this winter has been particularly snowy - even temperate Vancouver has been covered in white several times - I still think snow is magical, and the idea of making ice cream from it just puts it all over the top.

I have to preface these photos by saying that my snow was not as good as it could have been.  It was freshly fallen that morning, but the temperatures warmed up that afternoon and it got a bit of an icy crust on the top.  I was wondering if I was going to get a chance to try again with better snow since it was looking like the temperatures were going to continue rising, but as I am typing right now there is a huge storm outside that is set to continue all day tomorrow so it looks like I will get my chance! 

For my attempt, I riffed off of the Bless this Mess recipe, but made less since I was only making it for myself.  I also only had table cream for my dairy, but I would like to try again with evaporated milk like she did.  Regardless, it was actually pretty tasty, even if the texture of mine was a bit more like a vanilla sno-cone than ice cream due to the icy layer that had formed when the sun came out.  The dinosaur sprinkles were also obviously 100% necessary.

Is it still snowing where you live?  Go out and try this!  You'll have a lot of fun.

Foraging Goals for 2017

I'm going to continue on a bit of a "New Year's" theme for today's post, and write up my foraging goals for the coming year.  This is something I didn't do last year, and as a result the foraging efforts were sporadic and haphazard.  As I said yesterday I am aware of the fact that I also was getting used to doing all of this now with a baby, so I am not down on myself about how it went last year, but I know that I can probably do better.  This year I wanted to give myself some specific goals to accomplish so I would have a clearer plan.

1. ASPARAGUS

I really want to capitalize on the incredible, free bounty of asparagus we have in our area this year.  It blew me away that I could go on a nice walk for about an hour, and come home with 2.5 kilos of food!  It is plentiful, and delicious, and I want to make the most of it.

2. YARROW

I noticed this growing in quite a few places last summer, but I never seemed to get around to collecting any.  This Christmas, I was making some batches of herbed bath salts for some postpartum ladies, and I realized that this would be the perfect thing to include, only I didn't have any!  This is definitely on my list to gather for next year.

3. MULLEIN

Similar to the above, this (kind of ugly) plant grows all over the place where I live, and it is supposed to be good when used in healing salves.  

4. OREGON GRAPE

This was such a good find last year.  A lady from my church gave me a tip and took me to the biggest patch of it.  We were only there for about half an hour, but we gathered several kilograms.  It made a seriously delicious jelly.  I am hoping to go back for more next summer and make more things using its delectable, complex flavour.

5. DANDELION

These cheerful, humble flowers are so plentiful.  All I have to do is step outside and I am greeted by all their smiling yellow faces.  I made some syrup from their blossoms last year, and pesto from their leaves and those were both really delicious.  I want to make more with them next spring, and also to learn to harvest and use their roots in the fall.

6. SPRUCE TIPS

These have the most incredible flavour, but for some reason I keep missing out on the season.  This is the year!  

7. ARROW LEAVED BALSAM ROOT

There is a time of the year when these flowers burst into flower all over the sunny hills near my home.  I have no idea what to do with them, but I have read that all parts of the plant are edible.  I am especially interested to try using the roots since I have heard they can be roasted, dried, and ground into a sort of coffee type drink.  I am definitely NOT looking for a replacement for my beloved coffee, but it sounds interesting to try all the same!

8. WILD STRAWBERRIES

Last spring I found a patch of them in blossom, but I never made it back to gather any when they were ripe.  This year I would like to (being respectful of the size of the patch and the fact that they are food for the local wildlife) come back and gather a few when they are ready for eating.

9. LEARN MORE

I want to educate myself more this year about what to go out looking for.  I want to read more - online, but also in print - and find people who have knowledge to pass on.  I am very interested in learning to forage mushrooms since I have heard that morels are in our area.  I am cautious to do this on my own since you are risking quite a bit when you are foraging mushrooms, but if I find someone reputable is offering a course somewhere nearby I would be very interested in taking it!

10. LINGONBERRIES

Ok, these are not in my area, and that is why this is the last item on my list, but if anyone has a tip about where to find these (also called 'High Bush Cranberries') please let me know!  They are so delicious!

2016 In Photos