Fat hen, Sheep’s sorrel Pesto n more

Today is a beautiful day so I have been out n about a bit to enjoy it whilst it lasts, I went n visited my sista in law just down the hill a bit n asked her if I could weed her garden she said there wouldn’t be much because she’s been on to it but I managed to find some yummy lambs quarts/fat hen (Chenopodium album) n sheep’s sorrel (Rumex acetosella) amongst the pea patch so I was very satified with that.

Then I strolled off to see if I could find the elusive nettles (Urtica dioica) up the paddock, there were a few but I will leave till later again as I didn’t have my glove, bag or snipers with me, silly, I only had my little basket but I sat in the sun and collected some silver wattle (Acacia dealbata) seeds to play with but so far I can’t find any info on them being edible the sap is apparently n I have used the bark to tan furs, I have nibbled a couple and they taste the same as other wattles I have tasted very beany so I will store these until I find something on them.

After chatting away with my niece Dannika for a few minutes well she does most of the chatting really I headed off out the gate n not far from the front gate I found and picked some yarrow (Achillea millefolium), it smells amazing like honey n I’m not sure what I’m doing with the yarrow yet I will fill you in later.
Further on in the pine plantation that runs all the way along the road side across from my grandfathers property I grabbed a handful of fresh pine (Pinus radiata) needles they to smell lovely but in a different way in a piney cleaner kind of away
I also  found some young holly (Ilex aquifolium) trees growing in the forest in the shade they had nice new leaves so I picked the very ends of the branches I will only use the lighter softer new seasons leaves.
Ok home I headed basket over flowing with goodies a pretty productive day really when I got back I made another pesto from the fat hen n sorrel I added some of my uncles gorgeous organic garlic to it and my special salt as usual, I just fried off the garlic in a bit of oil and I then added it with all the weeds n put everything into thank goodness a food processor this time n with a flicked of tha switch it was done I then put it into a glass jars.
It came out the most amazing vibrant green color n it taste so green n fresh.
I love making pesto’s from fresh greens I think it is the best way to preserve some of them for later use along with drying, I have found in the past that the fat hen n the sorrel don’t dry well last time I tried it the fat hen went yellowish by the time it dried and wasn’t attractive at all n the sorrel just dried up to nothing n lost its bite but making pesto’s with them works great.

After making the pesto I thought about what to do with the pine needles n I remembered  I had a couple bottles of kombucha in the van so I put some of the sticky resinous pine needles into a jar with some kombucha, I will leave this to brew for a few day or so then take the needles out. I will put the rest of the needles in my tea over the next few days.

I finally got the holly leaves sun wilted after chasing them around in the van n yard for awhile as the wind kept blowing them away on me. I have blogged about the process I use for making holly tea before way back n you have to put the leaves in the sun shinny side up to wilt them to cook off that shinny layer to make them edible. When I was researching it for the first time I read this somewhere n if you don’t cook it off they can upset your tummy, it does make them go a horrible dull brownish color but it taste good n that’s what counts it is a nice like green tea that I mix with my mixed herbal tea.

Well that’s it for awhile I’m going bush for a few days out of reception but hopefully I will find lots of goodies to blog about out there, Cheers