Personal Histories and Wild Food Day

Great Grandma's Box of Memories
We started the day with personal histories... that's a fancy way of saying we went through some old stuff of my grandmother's: Some letters from just after the turn of the (previous) century, written by my great grandfather to my great grandmother. They were very interesting, but the children bored of them after a while, of course. Then we looked at photos of the last 6 generations on my mother's side, including, of course, Tal and Rhiannon's own birth photos. Next week we'll be bringing these things in to the Learning Centre, to share with the older kids, there.

Wild Food Day: Burdock Root Tea
Later it was time for our Wild Food Day adventure. Apparently burdock root is best harvested in spring or autumn, so we thought it would be a good food to look for, today.

Taliesin first declared he didn't want to do wild food day, anymore, but since his preference was to hang out inside and do nothing, or just be inside doing.... well, nothing... Rhiannon and I trumped him and we went outside. By the time we reached the endless burdock field, his interest was revived, especially after I assured him we didn't have to dig them ALL up. The process is described best in photos:

Off to the field with a shovel, a bowl and a pinwheel!

Required: the weight of at least two on the shovel-handle.

Oof! There it is!

Washing the roots...

Peeling the roots...

Chopping up the roots...

Our friendly helpful kitchen-cow, dumping the roots...

The same kitchen cow, between milkings, pan-roasting the roots!

We did have some fresh burdock tea, but just can't show you every cup of tea we photograph; they're all so alike! The kids were quite disappointed, declaring that it tastes like nothing. "Just like water? We like water!" says Mama, trying to be optimistic. "No," they assured me, "not like water -- like nothing." Well it was a bit green, at least. The book we read claimed that burdock root tea is strong and robust, and needs no honey or milk. Well I tell you, if we had added honey or milk to this we would still have tasted nothing but honey and milk. I suspect that the roasting of the roots brings out that robust flavour; we'll try them, tomorrow. And why not, since we now have a nice little bowl of burdock root, roasted and toasted and waiting in the kitchen...