The Latest NewsPip the Pup Loves PeppersJanuary 21, 2021Pip the Farm PupOne thing we’ve noticed about Pip, is he loves peppers! We first noticed when we were laying out our cayenne peppers to dry, and one of them had inadvertently fallen on the floor. No one noticed until we turned around and say Pip just chewing away on the pepper. We kept waiting for it to spice him out, but he was seemingly impervious to the fiery effects of the pepper. To this day, Pip has since chewed on cayenne peppers, poblanos, jalapeños, and, yes, even bell peppers.... Manzanita- (Arctostaphylos spp.)January 19, 2021Plant ProfilesManzanitas are really the iconic plant of California. There are over 50 different species of manzanita native to California, with less than 5 species occurring anywhere else in the world. The twisting turning red branches remind me of the forest fires that have been a natural part of our ecosystem for millennia. One of the reasons I affectionately call this plant “Fire Bush.” In fact, manzanita is so adapted to fire, that their seeds actually require fire in order to germinate. This ensures that the seeds will remain dormant in the soil until the fire can clear out enough space for them to have access to nutrients and sunlight, and will have the greatest chance of success in life. Identifying manzanita is very easy. There are not many plants you can confuse for this one. Manzanita has round or slightly pointed light green leaves about the size of a quarter or fifty-cent piece. The wood is bright red and grows in unique twisting movements and during the heat of summer, the bark starts to peel and reveal the older layers of wood underneath. Sometimes the branches are growing from a large burl at the base of the plant. Manzanita is such a wonderful plant friend, nearly every part of this plant is useful. The leaves can be used for poison oak remedies, the bark can be smoked or used for tea, flowers and berries are edible and delicious. When the plant starts to flower, you can really see its resemblance to it’s cousin the blueberry. The flowers are small pink or white urn-shaped bells and they smell like sweet thick honey. Early in the season, I like to munch on the flowers for a little sweetness as I’m searching for other goodies. Sometimes I will put the fresh flowers into my water bottle for a bit of flavoring. As the season progresses, the flowers become small red berries that look like little apples (in fact, manzanita means “little apple” in Spanish). The flavor of the berries can vary depending on the specific species of manzanita they come from. I have found that once the berries have dried out substantially, their sugars are more concentrated and they start to taste much sweeter. When the berries are young and green, but are starting to turn red, they are at the perfect stage for making a cider drink. The taste of this drink has been compared to a cross between lemonade and apple cider. To make the cider, simply pick a bunch of berries and crush them up a bit. Put them in a pot of boiling water and let them steep for 10 minutes or so. Remove the berries and enjoy your drink. Alternatively, you can steep them in cold water overnight. The greener the berries, the more sour the drink will taste. For a sweeter drink, pick more of the red berries. You will have to experiment to figure out what your preferred flavor is. When the berries have turned completely red, they are at their ripest and sweetest stage. This is when they really look like little apples. You can eat the berries raw, but be careful not to break your teeth on the hard seeds in the middle. At this stage I like to let them dry out right on the bush. This will make them easy to gather and easy to process once I get them home. When the berries are dried out, they will fall from the bush almost immediately as you brush up against them. Make sure you have a bag opened underneath so you catch all the dropping berries! You will want to collect the berries once they are dried, but if they start to look shriveled up, they might become too hard to eat. Some manzanitas get really tall, so I usually leave the higher up berries for the birds and other critters. The forest critters will eat the berries and plant them all around the landscape ensuring the manzanita populations continue to grow. With the dried berries, my favorite preparation is to crush them up with my stone grinder. The inner flesh will powderize very easily once it has dried out. Then I pass the material through a sieve and separate the seeds and skins from the dried powdered berry flesh. This powder is a great sweetener to add to oatmeal or cookies and other baked goods. You can also add this powder into a water bottle for a sweet apple flavored drink. The powder will settle to the bottom of the water, so an occasional shake is necessary to keep it mixed up well.... Covid RegulationsJanuary 19, 2021Pip the Farm PupPip says make sure to follow all the current Covid guidelines to keep our community safe! We are all in this together... Dandelions Root CoffeeJanuary 12, 2021RecipesOne of the easiest and most common wild goodies to forage is the common dandelion. Every part of this plant is edible. The best time to harvest dandelion greens is in the spring, before they start to flower. This is when their energy is coming up from the roots into those newly grown leaves. When it starts to flower, the leaves will start to taste bitter as the energy moves from the leaves to the flowers. The flowers can be used to make tea, wine, or even flour. After the plant has flowered, and the energy has returned to the roots (usually from fall until spring), you can also harvest the root. There is a large taproot that makes a great coffee-like drink. Dandelion Root Coffee Recipe: Ingredients: -Dandelion root, chopped -Water -Sugar and milk, if preferred Directions: -Chop 2 cups of dandelion root into ¼ inch slices -Roast them in a pan over fire or in the oven until they start to crisp on the outside -(Optional) Grind the roasted roots in a coffee grinder and make a powder -Boil the water and use the roots to make a tea -The tea should be the same color as coffee and will have a nutty flavor... Soaproot – (Chlorogalum pomeridianum)January 12, 2021Plant ProfilesHere’s another great one that is abundant in the Northstate. This is called soaproot. This plant has wavy leaves and when it comes out of the ground it looks very similar to a corn sprout. This plant has a bulbous root that is covered in fibrous hairs. There are lots of uses for this plant, so it’s definitely a blessing to stumble upon a patch of soaproot in the woods. They can grow in woodlands or chaparral environments. These hairs are great for making rope or other cordage. What I don’t use to make rope, I save them to make fire starters. If you peel off the hairs, you will find a white bulb underneath. The bulb itself actually has many practical uses as well. The bulb is high in saponins, meaning it can be used to make soap (this plant is called soaproot for a reason after all). Simply squeeze the juice from the bulb and rub it between your hands with some water. If you place the bulb next to a fire, the juice will start to ooze out. This juice is more of a concentrated form that can be used as a mid-strength glue. If you boil the bulb thoroughly it can also be eaten as a starch. This must be done carefully though, because if you do not boil out all the saponins, it can make some people sick.... Blue Elderberry- (Sambucus cerulea)January 9, 2021Plant ProfilesElderberry is a wonderful plant, that grows as a medium sized shrub or tree. It can be easily identified when the clusters of cream colored flowers are in bloom during spring. These flowers can be used as flavoring to make tea or other beverages. The cream colored flowers will eventually be replaced by dark blue berries. These berries are highly prized for their medicinal value. The berries can be eaten raw or dried, and can be used to make a cough syrup. Native people use this plant for many things. Besides using it for food and medicine, the wood from this plant can be used to make instruments like flutes or clapping sticks. The young shoots are also great as twirling sticks for making friction fires. This wonderful plant can be found growing along the banks of the Sacramento River or one of the local creeks, and even up into the mountainous regions.... Pip the Farm PupJanuary 7, 2021Pip the Farm PupOur newest addition to our farm crew comes not in the form of another humanoid creature, but that of a four legged furry canine companion. We’d like to introduce to you, Pip the Farm Pup. This little guy was born mid-September, and is the offspring of dogs who belong to other members of the Providence farm family. Naturally, we needed a dog to patrol the perimeter and protect our chickens from predators. When Pip isn’t busy guarding the farm, he is looking for a bone to chew on or some produce dropped on the floor that he can eat. Pip is a super friendly, happy-go-lucky pup who has a heart full of love for everyone he meets. Come by and say hi sometime soon!... Elderberry Syrup RecipeJanuary 5, 2021RecipesElderberry is a wonderful native local plant that has fantastic medicinal qualities. Elderberry syrup is a great remedy for coughs, colds, and flus during the cold winter season. Elderberries are known to support a healthy immune system. Here is my favorite recipe that I want to share with you. This is a syrup that will help minor illnesses and help to ease sore throats. Ingredients – Elderberries – Raw organic honey – Raw or powdered ginger – Spritz of lemon juice – Brandy (optional) Directions Destem all the elderberries. An easy way to do this is by using a fork to pull the berries off the stem. Another easy way is to freeze the berries. This causes them to literally fall right off the stem with almost no effort.Put the berries in a bowl or pot and smash them up into a juicy mash. Add about twice the amount of water to the pot and turn the heat on medium. When the mix begins to simmer, lower the heat so as not to boil the mix.When the mix has cooked down a bit and the water has simmered off, strain out the mush. Sometimes I add a minimal amount of water to the mush and squeeze out any more juice I can. Add all the liquid back into the pot to continue the simmer, stirring occasionally.When the mix has decreased by at least half, and starts to thicken, add the honey. The best honey to use is local organic honey, as this will have the most medicinal benefit. Honey will help with a sore throat and with coughs, which will act in combination with the elderberries to strengthen the final product. The mix should thicken substantially at this point.Add a pinch of ginger to taste. Ginger also helps with colds and coughs. The acid in a spritz of lemon juice will also aid in preservation. Brandy is also a good preservative. Add just a bit to taste, it doesn’t take much. Adding a preservative will ensure the cough syrup lasts through the winter season when you need it most.Store your cough syrup in the fridge until ready to use. Simply take a spoonful when you feel sickness coming on.... Happy New Year from the Providence Farm FamilyJanuary 1, 2021UncategorizedHappy New Year! This year sure has been a wild ride, and I’m sure we are not the only ones who are ready for 2021! Despite all of the crazy challenges this year has presented us with, we are still proud of the accomplishments we were able to achieve this year. The best addition to Providence this year has without a doubt been the wonderful team that we have managed to bring together. Each of our team members are uniquely talented and very capable and competent hardworking people. When you bring together such amazing skills and direct them all towards one unified goal, there’s no telling how much we can accomplish. So what’s coming up for us in 2021? We have a number of projects in the works, some we have already started. Just to give you guys a small sneak preview of what’s to come this year… We plan to expand our worm operation to supply the culture for our living soil starter buckets (now available at Northern Roots and Wyntour Gardens). As the weather starts to warm up, these worms will start to become more active and our modest set up we have now will no longer suffice to keep these guys happy. We are currently constructing an aquaponics system in our greenhouse which will supply our local bioregion with fresh produce all year round. Aquaponics is basically a system of growing food in water by using fish to fertilize the water. Be sure to stay on the look out for upcoming posts about tours when this system is completed. The last big project coming up in 2021 that I’d like to share is the smartification of our farm. One of our dearest partners, CircuitTree is planning to help us get our farm up-to-date with the latest technology that will allow us to be more efficient and precise in our growing. Soil moisture sensors, light sensors, weather data tracking software, all of this will be implemented to maximize production on our farm by providing optimal growing conditions for our plants and fungi. That about it for now, thanks for checking in. We are eagerly looking forward to 2021 and wishing that the year brings the best of blessings for us all.... Pacific Madrone- (Arbutus menziesii)December 28, 2020Plant ProfilesOut in the Trinities is where you will find an abundance of trees known as madrones. There are also some small pockets of them growing in the very western Sierra Nevadas. I’ve seen them growing often alongside Douglas fir trees. They are an evergreen tree that has lime green broad leaves shaped like footballs. Their most notable characteristic is their peeling red bark that makes their trunk look like a mosaic of reds, browns, and yellows. The madrone is related to manzanita, and by looking at the bark you can easily see that. The bark is very useful as a flavoring agent in food. It gives a very mild earthy taste that has nodes of cinnamon, mushrooms, and forest floor. I like to drink it as a tea in the winter. I’ve also heard of people smoking the bark but I haven’t personally tried it. Madrones will also give berries, just like their cousin manzanita. You can use the berries for jams, ciders, or eat them raw.... Pip the Pup Loves Peppers Manzanita- (Arctostaphylos spp.) Covid Regulations Dandelions Root Coffee Soaproot – (Chlorogalum pomeridianum)
