Ashley Adamant

Chanterelle Ice Cream

September 25, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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Chanterelles have a fruity aroma and a mild taste that’s just as at home in a savory risotto as a sweet treat. I’ve candied them, made them into a cheesecake and finally homemade chanterelle ice cream.

Years ago, if you told me mushroom ice cream was delicious, I would have been skeptical. That was until I smelled fresh chanterelles. True chanterelles have a fruity aroma, a bit like fresh cider or apricots, and they don’t taste anything like the store bought button mushrooms most people know. Chanterelle ice cream is mild, fruity and downright wonderful.

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Chanterelle Risotto

September 25, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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Chanterelle risotto is the perfect fall weather comfort food. The richness of a simple risotto is brightened by the fruity flavors of chanterelles, leaving you with a dish suited for a fancy first date. Or in my case, a much-needed weeknight dinner “date” with my husband, toddlers in tow. The little ones were so excited about their dinner, that we ate in blissful silence…and that’s all this mama could ask for.

Chanterelles are usually a summertime treat, where the delicate and fruity flavors combine well with sweet corn, apricots and other warm-weather fare. We forage chanterelles on our land in early August, and they’re long gone before the weather turns cold and I’m craving risotto. This year, I ran across yellow foot chanterelles at the farmers market on the first day of fall, right alongside the apples and cider. These fragrant, late-season mushrooms are perfect for chanterelle risotto.

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Foraging and Using Chaga Mushroom

September 24, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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Chaga mushrooms are a centuries-old wild foraged remedy for everything from high blood pressure to cancer. They fetch a high price in stores or online, but they’re a common, easy to identify mushroom that grows all over the world. It’s most commonly found on white and yellow birch trees, and once you’ve found a stand of birch there’s a good chance it contains Chaga mushrooms.

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Why We Went On-Grid (and Why We Regret It)

September 22, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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Connecting to the power grid was one of the worst decisions we’ve made on our homestead. This is the story of how we connected to the grid only to voluntarily choose to live with it off, and still operate our homestead independently. After nearly 5 years living completely off the grid, here’s how we came to find ourselves living off the grid, even with a grid connection.

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Foraging Shaggy Mane Mushrooms

September 21, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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Shaggy Mane mushrooms (Coprinus comatus) are incredibly easy to identify, and a great choice for beginning foragers. They’re one of the “foolproof four” or the four most easily identified mushrooms, along with chicken of the woods, giant puffballs and morels. Also known as lawyer’s wig because they look a bit like the old school wigs used in historical courtrooms. They have only one common look alike, which is also edible, reducing the worry of harvesting the wrong species.

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Cranberry Coconut Energy Balls (Vegan & Gluten Free)

September 20, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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I’m always searching for quick and healthy snack ideas, and they come in especially handy during a long day working out in the garden. I’ll pop in the house for a glass of water, and a quick energy boost. The problem is, unless I have something planned ahead of time, my mid-garden day snack ends up being a bowl of cereal. Not exactly nourishing, and lacking a bit on staying power.

In the past, we’d make homemade lara bars by mixing dates, dried cherries and pecans in the blender, but all that fruit sugar goes right to the brain. The trick to wholesome energy balls is more nuts than fruit and healthy fats for balance.

On that note, I’m so happy to introduce Sharon from The Honour System. She’s a food blogger that focuses on whole food and healthy meals, to honour your body. She created this cranberry coconut energy ball recipe just for y’all. Enjoy!

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Homemade Pomegranate Wine

September 20, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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Pomegranate wine is easy to make at home with fresh pomegranates or pomegranate juice. It’s a traditional drink in eastern Europe and the middle east, and it’s still made today. Commercial bottles of pomegranate wine generally sell for more than $20 each and tend to be very dry and acidic. Making pomegranate wine at home costs about $2 per bottle, and you can adjust the sweetness to your own tastes.

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Growing Asparagus from Seed

September 18, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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Starting asparagus from seed is easy, and it’ll save you a lot of money compared to buying pricey asparagus crowns. Nurseries sell asparagus crowns, which are just bare root 1-year-old plants, for as much as $5 each. A potted asparagus plant will set you back $10 to $12 in the spring. A single seed packet, on the other hand, costs about $3 for a pack of 50 to 100 seeds. That’s a tiny investment for a whole field of homegrown asparagus.

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Best Pie Apples

September 17, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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Here we are, trying to plant an heirloom orchard on our homestead. We’ve got plenty of winter storage apples, cider apples and even an early summer apple that ripens on the 4th of July. Now comes my favorite type of apple: Pie apples.

Pie apples have a crisp texture that holds up well to cooking, and strong acidity that helps to balance out the sugar in the pie. More often than not, when someone tells you that a particular variety is a “good pie apple” it’s actually horrible for baking. Why is that? It turns out apple pie tastes have changed over the centuries.

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Extracting Salt From Plants for Survival

September 17, 2018 by Ashley Adamant 4 Comments

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Humans require salt for survival, plain and simple. While it’s easy enough to extract salt from seawater, that’s only practical if you’re near the coast. Inland sources of salt were well known to our ancestors, but most of that knowledge is long gone. Beyond natural deposits, it’s also possible to extract salt from plants. Some plants, especially salt-tolerant plants, can bioaccumulate salt in their tissues.

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Ashley Adamant

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