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GO TO NEWS 2008
2009/2010
Plants found during my hike: Wild Rhubarb and Wild Cucumber.
March 2010
Found some wild rhubarb (right photo) today. It looks very similar to Curly Dock but the colors of the plant are very different. Quite beautiful actually. Now unlike the Curly Dock, the leaves are considered poisonous but the stalks are the edible parts. I'm not too found of rhubarb in the first place so I didn't forage that plant.
With all the recent rain, I also have an incredible amount of wild cucumbers growing in the wash nearby. Although not edible (you can mash the stuff and use it to stun fish), the fruits are an excellent ressource for natural luffas, When the fruit has matured (it's brown and extremely prickly), pick it up and boil it, then remove the spiny skin. Once the skin is removed you end up with a beautiful luffa. I guess you'll have to wait until it matures to see a photo.
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Going Primitive with my Pestle and Mortar: The Molcajete
March 2010
Decided to go a bit more primitive with my pestle and mortar. I already had a nice one made from porcelain but it wasn't rough enough for some of the wild food I usually collect.
After doing some research, I decided to buy a Molcajete. I did a bit of research on it and you need to find a good one. Some are made in China and some are made of cement (which will always leave residues when grinding). The one I finally chose is made in Mexico from lava rock. It takes a while to make it ready for grinding. The stone is very rough, so you clean it (just water) first then put a small amount of rice and grind it. You do that several times until the rice does not turn grayish but stays white. Took me around 6 hrs of actual rice grinding to do it properly but it's soooo worth it!
The next phase was to grind some garlic and usual wild food (Nettles, etc...) and leave it overnight, then clean it again. Even after a couple of weeks of no use, the stone has kept the wild food and garlic aroma.
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Gourmet Wild Food Class
February 2010
Had my gourmet wild food class this morning. We went on a hike for a couple of hours and gathered some wild food (Nettles, Lambsquarters, Wild Mustard, Sow Thistle, etc...). We also looked at various other plants (White Sage, Black Sage, California Sage, etc...), and made some soap with Yucca.
The lunch consisted of some eggs mixed with the wild food and we also had some of my now "famous" nettle soup.
It was a beautiful day and I had a great time!
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Making Organic White Sage Soap
February 2010
I'm really excited by this new process. Last year I did some experiments with mixing pure plants when making soap but the problem with White Sage was the fact that the beautiful smell was pretty much gone. This time, I infused the oil for many weeks, sometimes changing the White Sage three times and used the infused oil to make the soap. For this batch of soap I used organic Avocado oil, Coconut oil and Olive oil. To take the organic to the extreme, I even used rain water to make the lye water (lye is the chemical that changes the oil into soap - you can also make it naturally with wood ashes).
As in my first experiment last year, the organic compound from the White Sage reacted with the lye and the liquid soap turned a nice translucent red with a hint of green too. As it was curing/drying the soap turned into a beautiful Sage color...fascinating but perfect!!!!!
The smell of the White Sage was also holding up while I was mixing the lye and soap so I think the soap will be awesome! If I sell some, it will probably be the most expensive soap in the world but hey... White Sage gathered from the wild, oil was sun infused for weeks, rain water...it's all worth it!
The soap has to cure for 3 weeks - I can't wait to test it! |
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Stone Knapping - Making Arrowheads
February 2010
Attended a short class on stone knapping last weekend. Last class I took on that subject was many years ago and I must said that the lack of practice was evident on my side. It's not really a skill necessary for someone living in an urban area but it is definitly a lot of fun to shape a stone and make it into something useful.
My arrowhead ended up quite rough (right) compared to an authentic native arrowhead (left) but I think I'm going to keep practicing that craft. Once you understand the basics, it's really a matter of practice, practice, practice!
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Exploring the Urban Wilderness
February 2010
Once a month I organize a meeting and take people on a hike and introduce them to wild food.
This month, we hiked for a couple of hours and collected some wild plants. We made a wild food salad with Chickweeds, Lambsquarters, Sow Thistle and a few other wild plants.
We also did some cordage with Yucca.
After the hike we also tasted some Nettle soup.
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Horehound Candy
February 2010
Made some Horehound candy last week. Horehound is a plant in the mint family,quite abundant where I live. It is also a known as one of the most popular pectoral remedies (cough, asthma, cold, etc...). I remember eating some as a kid. The plant is quite bitter so the candies taste like...well...medicine but you get used to it. The recipe I used was:
1 3/4 pints horehound leaves and stems
1 pint water
3 cups organic sugar
1/2 cup organic butter
Method
- Make a strong brew of horehound by boiling the leaves and stems in the water for half an hour. Strain and add the sugar then boil again and add the butter. Continue to boil until syrup has reached the "hard ball" stage when dropped into a saucer of cold water. When cool and hardened break into squares. I didn't do a good job cutting the squares though :)
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Entomophagy - Gourmet Yummy Bugs!
February 2010
Let's face it, eating bugs is not for everyone or...is it?
I took a bunch of friends including my son and my daughter to a very cool Thai restaurant in Los Angeles. The name of the place is Typhoon. They serve bugs (scorpions, crickets, etc...) as appetizers. The interesting part was the fact that many of my friends were not very interested by eating bugs but, guess what! In a nice restaurant and with a nice presentation, every single person actually ate some of the bugs.
So if you live in Los Angeles and are interested by a peculiar culinary experience, Typhoon is the place! The web site for the restaurant is:
www.Typhoon.biz
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Making Fire in the Rain
February 2010
Attended one of Christopher's class, it was a rainy day and the ground was soaked from several days of rain in the last couple of weeks. The people attending were old hands so it was decided to do something a bit more challenging and make some fire using a bow drill in the rain and finding materials in the environment to make the fire.
I had more fun taking the photos so wasn't helping much but we were successful and had a decent fire within an hour.
For outdoor/survival and primitive classes check Christopher Nyerges web site at: www.christophernyerges.com
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Desert Weekend - Finding Incense, Collecting Aromatic plants and Finding Water.
February 2010
Went to the desert for a weekend trip. Had a couple of goals: Finding more aromatic plants, collecting incense resine (from Brittlebush/Incensio) and Juniper Berries for an upcoming class on how to make incense. My last goal was to be able to find water.
Managed to accomplish all my goals. There was an abundance of Brittlebush near Indio (North of Palm Springs) and resine was oozing from the plants. Although it was quite tedious to collect (2 hours), managed to have a decent amount available for my upcoming class. I also collected some Juniper Berries and just had a great time going around checking the local plants. There is so much I still have to learn about desert plants. I did collect some Creosote Bush as well to make some Creosote soap in the next month.
Finding water was an interesting exercise. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be for February. The place where I found the most water was definitely not per what the textbook says so I learned a few new things.
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Time for Yummy Wild Food Salads
February 2010
This is the perfect time to collect wild food. No need to go to the supermarket to buy green stuff, nature is offering us an abundance of wild greens.
Last weekend I mixed some wild food (Chickweed, Lamb'ss quarter, Mallow, Miner's Lettuce, Wild Radish and Wild Mustard) with some cold pasta. Added a bit of goat cheese and prosciutto on top. By itself it was a full healthy dinner.
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Catching Rain Water
January 2010
With several storms coming our way this week, we decided to store some rain water for the garden and also for emergencies.
So far we've collected over 300 gallons of water in 6 containers.
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Primitive Urban Settlements
January 2010
Made a trip to the desert to explore some old mines and the famous Calico Ghost town.
It was interesting to see how the earlier settlers/miners were able to use the natural elements to construct some primitive (and in some case quite elaborate) housing. Within a matter of a few days, I can see how someone could put together a nice little cabin, including fire place and make it quite cozy...hmmm....gets me thinking about building myself a little piece of heaven in some remote place for some occasional weekend relaxation.
Calico has some great examples once you adventure a bit further than the touristic area. Visiting the museum provides some interesting information on the miner's way of life which, from my perspective, was probably quite rough at times.
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Making Natural Incenses (Incense Cones, Pellets, etc...)
January 2010
Last year I did quite some research on aromatic plants and in the last month I've been experimenting with ways to incorporate wild aromatic plants in the creation of natural incenses. It's actually quite fascinating to blend various elements to create scents that you like and you make some personal discoveries as well. Aromatic plants for which you have scent affinity sometimes don't translate too well once burning as incense (Sage is a personal example).
In the last few weeks I created Natural Incenses cones using various elements for self-combustion such as Makko Powder, Charcoal and Mugwort. I'm experimenting with White Sage, Yerba Santa, Black Sage, Desert Sage, Creosote and various resines as well. I've also done some more traditional/primitive incenses such as honey based and fruits based pellets.
From my perspective the resine incenses (Brittlebush, Pine, etc...) are the best so far but over the next few months, I'm sure I will come up with some nice blending of aromatic wild plants and resines.
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Trip to Collect Aromatic Desert Plants
January 2010
Spent a day in the desert near Barstow to collect some aromatic desert plants this weekend. I collected some Creosote, Sage, Desert Sage and some other plants I still have to identify. I realize I still have quite a few things to learn about plants in the desert. January is not the best month to collect plants but nevertheless I found what I was looking for and it was a beautiful day as well.
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2009
Brittlebush Incense
December 2009
From far away, I thought this was some white sage but as I approached the bush, it became obvious it wasn't. The Brittlebush is quite beautiful and striking with its blue-green leaves. The smell of the Brittlebush is also quite pungent and very different from Sage.
As an interesting note the stems secrete a resin which was used by Native Americans as a glue and also as a gum. Grounded up, it was also used as a toothpaste and a pain reliever (externally).
The name in Spanish (Incensio) also tells of another use for that plant. Indeed, the early Spanish missionaries collected the clear resin and burned it as an incense.
As I love making incense, I collected some of the resine to try it.
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What's that fluffy stuff you see on cactuses sometimes?
December 2009
If you care to investigate a bit you'll discover something quite amazing. Inside that fluffy white stuff you find on cactuses, you will find bugs...cochineal bugs.
The Cohineal bug has been used for centuries as a natural dye and produces a beautiful Carmine color. You can collect and dry the bugs, mix it with water later on and you get this awesome dark red color.
I plan to use it to color some of my incense cones.
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Collecting White Sage and Making Smudge Sticks
December 2009
I use white sage a lot, sometimes for cooking but more often for aromatic purposes. This weekend I decided to take off in the mountains to collect White Sage.
While White Sage is somewhat abundant where I live, the sage is much better in the mountains, probably due to soil quality, elevation and a somewhat different climate.
As I'm currently doing some research on aromatic herbs, I decided to make Sage Smudge Sticks for the fun of it. To keep it "natural", instead of using regular twine, I used Yucca twine which I collected from the nearby wash.
Took 3 days to dry inside my studio, the sticks look beautiful and ready to use. Maybe I should wait until my cold is gone so I can appreciate it!
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Gourmet Wild Food - Sage Chicken and Lambsquarters/Nettle Pesto
December 2009
Decided to try some new wild food recipes last Friday and it came up great. I made some Sage Chicken with White Sage and California Sage Brush. Marinated the chicken with the wine/sage all night and roasted it the next day with mushrooms and potatoes. It was absolutely delicious.
Also made some pesto with lambsquarter (75%) and Nettle (25%), just added some garlic, parmesan cheese, thyme and salt/pepper.
I'll post the complete recipes soon.
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Wild Food Gardening
November 2009
With the current drought in SoCal, it's been much harder than usual to find wild food in Los Angeles.
I had a lot of buckets that I found near the road a few months ago. Someone had dumped around 30 buckets (the ones used in plant nurseries) which I took home.
So I decided to create my own little wild food garden and went to collect some of the dirt (top dirt) where there were an abundance of wild food last year. I chose specific locations which I knew would have the seeds I needed.
Well, what do you know! So far I've been extremely well rewarded. Lots of purslane, lambsquarter, mallow, nettles, etc... I use the plants often for breakfast (with eggs), made some pickled purslane and soon some nettle soup.
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Coyote Gourd
November 2009
During one of my hike, I came across this vine and fruits. Wasn't sure what is is and I remember seeing it as well right in the middle of the Mojave desert once. With the help of a forum (www.dirttime.com), I got the proper identification.
The interesting part is the fact that although it is not "edible" per se (it's actually extremely bitter), the seeds were actually collected by natives and eaten. It was also used as a detergent.
I did some test on the "detergent" part and it's actually not too bad but not as good as some other plants such as Yucca or Soaproot. I took some of the fruits home and plan to roast the seeds after the fruits have dried.
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Native Burial Ground?
November 2009
I like to follow up on rumors sometimes.
One of the rumor was the tale of an ancient native burial ground in the Orcas Park and apparently in the 70's you could see circles made of stones where people had been buried. So I decided to investigate the supposed "burial ground" area and after a while, well...what do you know...I actually found one circle made of stones. Only one, although there were a bunch of large stones in the area as well which could have been disturbed circles.
So was it a native burial ground? Dunno yet but it was interesting to actually find one of those circle where the "rumor" said it should have been.
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Purslane and Traditional Salsa
September 2009
We still have a lot of peppers and tomatoes in the garden so I decided to can some Salsa.
I always try to incorporate wild food into some of my recipes and I thought it would be a good idea to replace the peppers with purslane (edible weed growing in my garden) and make some some salsa with it too.
It was a wonderful surprise to say the least! The purslane salsa is actually better than the traditional salsa. To compensate for the slight bitterness of the purslane, I added a bit of honey and it is just delicious.
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Urban Primitive Trapping
September 2009
What if you only had a knife and had to find food within the urban "wilderness". One way to acquire food is by trapping. Where I live, we have all kinds of small animals such as rabbits, squirrels, etc...
Today, I took off with just a knife and created several traps. I could not find any wires so I made my own cordage from Yucca leaves. I created various traps such as basic snares, trigger snares with spring poles, deadfall traps using a figure-4 trigger and for the first time using a simple Promontory Peg. The Promontory Peg was extremely easy to use and you can see on the right that I was able to use a cement block.
Here is more information on the Promontory Peg.
This kind of trapping is illegal within the confine of Los Angeles- no actual trapping was done. I left some snares in place but I made sure the cordage would brake very easily. So my way of verifying if it worked is simply to check if the snare was broken.
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Los Angeles Fires
August 2009
This week, I experienced mother nature's fury. Although so far the fire didn't come closer than a mile to my location, I'm pretty much surrounded by it and the smoke has been extremely thick in the morning making the air quality quite hazardous. Although it seems a bit better as of Wednesday, I'm still keeping an eye on the fire's progress and hopefully it won't come any closer.
This is the perfect example to illustrate the fact that preparedness is a must, even in a big city. Having a BOB (Bug Out Backpack), things ready in case you need to leave right away, protection from smoke, etc....
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Dirt Time 2009
August 2009
Just came back from Dirt Time 2009. The week long event is the nations largest of its kind offering a rich, diverse program in Modern, Traditional, and Primitive Survival Skills. This years instructors include some of the leading names in the business. This year we had people such as Ron Hood, Christopher Nyerges, Alan Halcon, Dude McClean, Sig Nubula, Paul Campbell and many more attending the event.
Although I could not go the whole week, I learned a lot in the few days I was able to attend and enjoyed the company very much.
Specifically I learned new primitive traps, how to pack lighter for outdoor trips or even emergencies, got educated about some new edible plants - wild food was really hard to find in that area. I learned new things about knifes and their history, got some education about archery and much more...
I also shared some of the wild food canning I made a couple of month ago such as Lambsquarters, pickled wild radish, pickled purslane, canned curly dock, wild currant jam, etc.... On Thursday morning, we made a wild food salad with plants that I took from my garden and from the Orcas wash in Lake View Terrace.
Also found a nice gopher snake. First I thought it was a rattlesnake as it was sliding through the grass but once the head/tail was showing up it turned up to be a gopher snake - quite decent size too. It was really tame and the kids that attended the event enjoyed playing with it a bit and then we released it.
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Pickling Peppers and Wild Purslane
August 2009
Yesterday I collected most of the peppers we had in the garden as well as some squashs and zucchinis and did some pickling with it using apple cider vinegar and white vinegar - trying different recipes.
I also collected a bunch of Purslane and picked it as well. Purslane is considered a "weed" yet it is one of the richest plant in Omega 3. I usually use Purslane in my salads or eggs in the morning but I have so much in my backyard that I decided to pickle some for the winter.
In a month, I'll start tasting some of the jars I made.
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Grapes Jam
August 2009
We had a bunch of grapes in the garden and decided to make some jam with it. It's not the usual grapes you find in the store, not sure where it comes from and it's probably used to make wine.
I've made lots of jams over the years but, for whatever reason, this wasn't easy. I had to do it the "European way". In America most people use a product called Pectine to help the jam to "settle" but despite using the standard recipe for grapes, it just wouldn't do so. So I simply boiled it until it reached the consistency that I wanted, pretty much the way I learned when I was a kid without using the pectine and ended up with some beautiful and tasty jam.
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Discovering the Urban Wilderness Class
Free Class - August 2009
On Saturday, I took a group of people to visit the Orcas Wash. We started by having a quick breakfast with eggs and "weeds" (Purslane, Lambsquarters, Sow Thistle, etc...) and hiked in the wash. We discovered some of the many uses of Yucca, I shared some of my pickled Yucca buds with the students. We also made lemonade with berries, tasted some dried Elderberries and looked at many other plants. We hicked for a couple of hours, stopping at the Orcas Lake - a very beautiful lake and a good example of wilderness in the middle of an urban environment. We also saw a beautiful dark colored trout in the river.
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Saugus Rimfire Precision Match
August 2009
It's been a while since I participated in a shooting competition. I attented the rimfire precision match in Saugus and to my surprise, despite the lack of training, managed second place. It was a tough match with around 20 shooters, many very experienced in precision shooting. We shot from 35 yards to 150 yards in various positions; prone, kneeling, standing, etc...
I like rimfire shooting a lot, the discipline really teaches you to read the wind properly and the fundamentals of marksmanship still applies, I've found that trigger control is less forgiving with rimfire shooting.
Bill is the match director and a good friend, you can contact him for more information. We usually have a rimfire competition once a month at "A Place to Shoot" in Saugus (CA). It's fun, cheap and you always learn something.
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Growing organic food
July 2009
Our little garden is doing great! With the combination of wild food, sprouting and what we're growing, I've not had to purchase any "green" at the store in the last 3 weeks. Granted we're just starting and we have much more work to do, it's already helping a lot. We have a lot of tomatoes, peppers, squash, grapes, spices, zucchinis, carrots, onions, salads and some potatoes growing. We also planted some watermelons and honeydew melons.
I also just purchased a large quantity of heirloom seeds.
Within the next couple of months we plan to increase the size of the garden 2X.
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Introduction to Urban Outdoor Skills class
July 2009
I had an awesome time yesterday teaching a class on Urban Outdoor Skills at a local school. I had around 20 kids with me and we did all kinds of fun activities such as: making fire, solar cooking, creating a wild food salad, making soap with plants and much more. I showed them some of the organic soaps I make with local plants, more recently with white sage.
We also had a short discussion about preparedness and how to be better prepared for emergencies such as earthquake, etc... but most the time was spent on actually "doing" stuff which the kids enjoyed very much and so did I.
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Dried Elderberries
July 2009
I have A LOT of Elderberry trees where I live and I collected a bunch of elderberries yesterday and dried it. Took me a couple of days to do it. Later this year, I plan to use the berries to make "Indian Cookies" with acorn flour and other wild food plants.
I'll make some jam tomorrow as well.
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Water Purification Class
July 2009
Well, this was probably my smallest class - the temperature was around 102 degrees and only one person showed up. Rob was a trooper though, we collected water from the local river, explored the various means of filtering and purifying water (Primitive and commercial filters, chemical water purification using bleach and iodine crystal and much more...)
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RedBerry Buckthorn ( Rhamnus Crocea)
July 2009
I found this interesting bush full of berries a couple of weeks ago and it took me quite a while to identify it and found out after some extensive research that it was used by natives to make juice. I did some testing and tasting, proceeding carefully and a week ago made some juice with it. It was delicious, reminding me of prickly pear juice.
I plan to make some jam with it this weekend.
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Water from Bamboo? Not really...
July 2009
I was told a nifty trick about getting water from bamboo which I also read in a couple of wilderness/outdoor manual. Some bamboo contain water trapped within sections and you can collect the water by bending the bamboo into a recipient to collect it. One manual also said that by cutting the top, water would drip from the plant itself.
I have a lot of bamboo nearby so I decided to try it. I never found any bamboo that already had water trapped in its section so I tried the other method of collecting water. I took off the top of a bamboo, using a stone and some string I bent the bambo and placed the top into a container.
I checked back 7 hrs later and ....Nothing.
I checked back 2 days later and I had around 10 drops of murky water and 2 dead flies.
I changed the recipient and I'm now using a platic bottle so that flies don't get in and evaporation is not an issue but I'm less than impressed by that method!
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Urban "Primitive" Water Filtration
July 2009
I'm giving a class on water purification in a couple of weeks and I wanted to see how long it would take me to build a "primitive" water filtration system using tools that most people would have/find in a urban environment such as empty platic bottles, charcoal (from fire or natural charcoal used for BBQ).
I used 3 platic bottles which usually end up in the recycling bin and created this filter using sand, charcoal, gravel, stones and cotton. Although it is really a textbook surival filtration system and it looks simple when you read about it, the interesting part is the fact that it took me around 5-6 hrs to put it together. Little details like "obtaining clean sand" required a little trip to the local river bed, gathering fine/clean gravel and crushing charcoal took a while too.
The temperature being above 100 degrees that day, it was actually tiresome work and a good demonstration on the fact that it may "look easy" in a book but actually doing it is a different beast.
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California Sage Soap
July 2009
I made a bunch of unscented organic soap a few months back and this weekend I decided to make some California Sage soap. I collected the sage a couple of weeks ago, dried it and using a grinder made fine powder which I mixed into the soap for flagrance.
I needed to re-melt the soap in order to mix it with the california sage. It's usually a somewhat long process (4 or more hours) on a standard stove and thus it requires lots of energy, so I decided to use the solar oven to do it. Well, I was in for a surprise! I did the traditional approach which is to place a plastic bag with shredded soap in it and boil it until it melt but with the solar oven, it got so hot that the plastic actually melted releasing the soap into the water. I managed to rescue most of it, a bit of a mess and the soap will take longer to dry but I should have some nice solid bars of soap in 2-3 weeks.
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Gourmet Wild Food: Watercress Soup, Native "Escargots" and Lambsquarters.
July 2009
Made a "wild food" dinner with the watercress and lambsquarters we collected during the day. A couple of weeks ago I also prepared some Escargot (native snails) which I placed into the freezer and served it with the lambsquarters (and a touch of parmesan). I'll add the recipes for the watercress soup and how to prepare escargot in the wild food section very soon.
By the way, did you know that your average garden snail is not native but actually comes from Europe and probably from France? In France they are called "Petit Gris" and are completely edible if you know how to prepare it properly. Good protein and very low fat.
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Hike in my "backyard" with Jarrett and Jamie
July 2009
This Sunday, Jarrett Sleeper and Jamie Parker joined me for a hike and food gathering. We had a bit of a hard time to collect some lambsquarters but we did find enough. We also collected a bunch of watercress which I used to make some soup. We also made some lemonade along the way and identified several plants.
Jarrett has a very cool radio show online called "Hunt and Gather", talking about sustainability and food gathering. You can listen to his show HERE.
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Green Self-Reliance
July 2009
We've been working on creating a garden with the intention to achieve complete green (vegetables, salads, spices, etc...) self-reliance, you can see a section of it on the left. If you add the knowledge of wild food to what's currently growing, we should be able to achieve it within the next 3-4 months.
Using my solar oven, I cooked some chicken in wine that day. Max, my cat, was checking out what we would have for dinner.
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Yucca Fruits Pickling
June 2009
Recently, I've done some experimenting with cooking the yucca flowers - I think I'm getting there with a great recipe for pasta sauce. I better hurry up finding the "magic recipe" because very soon we won't have anymore flowers - at least where I live. The fruits are also edible and in some books, the authors explain they can be fried like ocra. I'm not a fan of it so I'm trying something new. The young fruits (make sure to pick them young, the inside should be white) taste a bit like a nutty cucumber so I decided to pickle a few and see what comes out of it. I think it will be delicious. I used apple cider vinegar (not diluted in water), added some garlic, Italian herbs with a dash of salt and pepper. I'll try one jar next week and if it works out great, I can make a bunch more!
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Urban Outdoor Skills Newsletter
June 2009
You can now download my newsletter - being the first issue, I pretty much introduce the concept of Urban Outdoor Skills, a small article about water purification, some tips and tricks for the urban dweller, etc...
You can download it HERE
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So many plums, so little time!
June 2009
Our plum tree in the garden is completely full so I decided to start canning the plums. I'll probably have 30 jars when I'm done. I already tasted one jar today and it was absolutely delicious! I just used a medium syrop with the plums and 25 minutes of cooking time for the jars in boiling water.
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Making some lemonade...
June 2009
This saturday I went for a 7 hrs hike and explored the lake section of Orcas park for wild edible plants. I actually found quite a lot! - Lambsquarter, giant nettles, black mustard (the one that taste very spicy) and I also found two lemonade berry shrubs. The flattened berries can be used to make a refreshing lemony drink - simply mix the berries with water, shake it and using a coffee filter, place the content in another glass. Add a bit of sugar and voila! Instant organic lemonade.
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Wild Blackcurrant Jam
May 2009
3 months ago I moved to a new location. Beyond the border of my backyard is a huge wash and direct access to the Angeles forest. During one of my wild food gatherings, I came accross a huge field of blackcurrant and redcurrant. Within an hour I had collected 4 cups of it. I made some jam with it and it is absolutely delicious! Next weekend, I plan to collect some of the red one and make some more jam.
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Wild Food Canning
May 2009
This weekend I did some wild food canning. From a self-reliance viewpoint, it's actually interesting that you can build up a reserve of natural and healthy food even if you are living in an apartment and have no garden .In a long term emergency situation, the ability to create your own food reserve from the "city wilderness" and not having to rely on the regular food supply lines (all the food is really imported in Los Angeles) is a very good skill to have. The wild food being more abundant in spring, canning allows you to create reserves for the winter
I canned some Lambsquarter and Curly Dock using a high pressure cooker. Just added some garlic, spices and soy sauce for the Curly Dock. In the near future, I plan to make some nettle soup and can it as well.
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Urban Water Purification
May 2009
I'm currently testing different methods to purify waters and adapting some of those techniques using materials found in common households. Some are working and some...well...don't work too well.
I also tried different water stills with various common objects (such as the storage bin on the right) and originally thought they would be more effective than the traditional water stills but it really wasn't the case. Using the method on the right (with a storage bin), you can see how much pure distilled water I managed to get in a day.
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Free Wild Food Gourmet Class
April 2009
Around 20 people showed up for a class on how to create gourmet dishes with some specific wild food. That day I cooked various dishes with Curly Dock and Nettle. We also prepared a quick salad using prickly lettuce, chickweed, lambsquarter and various other wild plants.
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Emergency Shelters
April 2009
I took a bunch of my students that weekend and we visited Cal Earth (www.calearth.org). This was primarly related to research on how to create emergency shelters with basic materials you can find around you such as mud, bottles, tires and whatever other components you can find in an urban environment or the outdoor.
It's actually quite fascinating to see how much can be created with basic components, some of the structures are quite impressive.
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Urban Preparedness Meeting
March 2009
I was invited at a local meeting to talk about urban preparedness. It was an interesting meeting, we shared information about emergency back packs. The hosts were definitely into self-reliance and permaculture which made it interesting for myself as well.
I introduced people to the concept of using wild food as a food ressource. We talked about preparedness in an urban environment and how to get ready for emergencies. I did a couple of demonstrations on how to "think" with the resources of your environment and adapt your environment for your own survival.
I had a great time and as usual a good learning experience for all.
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Urban "Wilderness" Field Trip
March 2009
Think there is no "wilderness" in the city? Think again....
I took a small group of people to demonstrate that there is such a thing as an urban "wilderness" . The area is located in the middle of the San Fernando valley in the greater Los Angeles area. We hicked along a river, identified some of the edible plants that grow in the area.
We also visited some elaborate primitive shelters created by the local "residents" - yes, although we did not meet them, there are people actually living in the urban wilderness and using primitive skills to survive. The most elaborate "primitive" shelter (photo on the right) had a stone wall, fire pit, trash bag, sleeping quarter and water nearby. Based on observation, it has not been used in the last two months.
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Hygiene - Basic Soap Making Class
March 2009
Just had a class on making basic soap. During the class we learned how to create an organic soap with Olive and Coconut oils and used natural tea tree oil for parfum.
I took the students through the whole process including how to create a custom mold, safety issues when creating soap and how to find the basic materials to make soap in an urban environment.
One of the student also had some yucca and we demonstrated how to create soap using the yucca leaves.
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What's in Your Emergency Back Pack?
Feb 2009
On Feb 22nd, I put together a meeting related to emergency back packs. The concept was to have some of the top survival experts and people interested in urban preparedness to attend and actually show what the content of their emergency back pack was.
It was a fascinating learning experience to see how the attendants customized their bag packs based on their individual needs but also their knowledge. Factually, the top experts have the most simple bags containing just the essentials and rely on their actual skills to survive.
I think it was a good experience for all, as usual I learned new things!
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Wild Planting / Gardening
Feb 2009
I live in an aparment with no garden and in the last 2 months I've done some research and tests on wild planting/gardening.
What's wild planting? Basically I find spots in nature where the condition could be ideal for planting specific vegetables and let nature take over. My interest is mostly on planting food that will complement the wild food I usually collect. Basically garlic, onions, tomatoes, herbs and such. I also planted some potatoes and will check next week to see how my experiment is going and will take some photos.
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Cool find at the flea market
February 2009
Over the years, I've been collecting some old tools that I actually use in daily life or use for my classes about power outage..
Last weekend, I went to the Pasadena Flea Market and found a bizarre grinder. I was looking for a grinder I could use for grinding Acorn and make flour but I could not figure out what the use of that grinder was. Obviously, I HAD to buy it! and I did so for $10.00
I took it home, cleaned it inside and out and did some research on it. To my surprise, I had a coffee grinder in my hand. Interestingly, I was also looking for one that day and had no idea I already had one in my bag. Interestingly too, the Spong coffee grinders are also actively sought by coffee enthusiasts and are considered one of the best.
You can buy one online for around $70 (some are $100+) and add shipping, usually from the UK. So I'm very happy with my $10 purchase!
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Weaving - Primitive Fire Making and Wild Food
Feb 2009
Just attended another class with Christopher Nyerges about weaving and wild food. Gary also educated some of the youngster on how to make fire using sticks and a bow.
Despite the forecast, it was actually a beautiful day!.
I've been attending Christopher's classes for the last 3 years and I learn something new everytime. Check out his web site at: www.christophernyerges.com
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Making Wild Plants Soaps
January 2009
Just had a 5 page article about making organic soap using ingredients easily found in an urban environment and aromatic wild plants. Good to know for self-reliance and emergency hygiene.
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Free Gourmet Wild Food Hike
Jan 2009
It was a beautiful and sunny day. We had a short hike foraging some specific wild food and tasted various recipes that can be used with the collected plants. We collected and tasted cooked Curly Dock, Neetle soup and how to recognize and incorporate Chickweed into salads.
We also reviewed various other plants and how they can be used in outdoor survival and some tips on water purification.
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