firecracker chanterelles

if you have ever went foraging for chanterelles you may know how hard these firecracker chanterelles are to find.  throughout the decade of foraging, I have only found them once and there were only 6 or so tiny shrooms!  they are super small....and spicy.  the other day my husband spotted these from a drive in the north georgia mountians.  he pulled over and we found hundreds of them!  an exciting find!

Vetch

photo by rinne allen

deserted homeplace

spied this beauty on the way to a friend's house on a winding road. what a grand place it was in it's day! where i could peek inside i saw an upright coal burning stove in the parlor, and as you'll see in the kitchen, an amazing enameled cookstove, too heavy to move. there was an enclosed well off the kitchen. it was situated on a hilltop with old trees nearby for shade. one can only wonder what life was like there in the quietude of the mountains.

photographs and words by rebecca wood

Borage

photo by Rinne Allen

handmade house

one day years ago a lady came to r.wood studio looking for work. she was 50 years old, but said she'd never had a job. she brought some pictures of her woodcarvings and the house she built with her. she's an old hippie who 'turned on, tuned in, and dropped out' in the sixties, and bought 200 acres of land in eastern tennessee. she started homesteading, building her house one room at a time (as needed), growing her own food, etc.

needless to say, i hired her on the spot! 

since then i've been to visit the lady, lee, and her husband, john, a few times.
here's some pics of their amazing home...

photographs and words by rebecca wood

nasturtiums

we are up in maine right now and there is a huge patch of nasturtiums growing right outside our house. while nasturtiums grow in the south, they often can get too hot, but here in the 70 degree temps of maine they are thriving. plus, there is a beautiful range of hues to these, and even some variegated leaves too...

plus, the petals are edible- these ended up in our salad later that night...

arrangements & photographs by rinne allen

wood pile

photo by kristen bach

foraging for chanterelles

this year hasn't been a great year for foraging for chanterelles.   we have had lots of heat and little rain, both not good climates for the golden beauties.  we had spent many a days foraging around our favorite spots with no chanterelles in sight and before we knew it, our season was over.

my family and i recently spent some time in the mountains near ellijay, georgia.  while we were there it rained, rained, and rained again.  in between the rain spells we wandered through our lush surroundings.  while on a hike we found a bounty of chanterelles!  

we were spending the weekend with our friend mimi, from homemade.  she was excited to have some freshly foraged ingredients and made a lovely side to accompany our meal.   

mimi sauteed the chanterelles in some olive oil with salt, sherry vinegar, and some pine shoots.  they were simple and delicious!

photos by kristen bach, recipe by mimi maumus

dill flower

photograph by rinne allen

seed life skills

our friend chef hugh acheson recently started a non-profit called seed life skills , and i recently spent time with them in the classroom and in the teaching garden at clarke middle school here in athens, as they learned to make pickles with hugh and almeta tuloss, director of seed life skills.

as they write on their website, "Seed Life Skills is a living curriculum dedicated to empowering youth to be sustainable stewards of food and financial resources; while emphasizing innovative and handcrafted approaches to core and community lessons."

go check out their good work!

words and photographs by rinne allen

shining through

photograph by rebecca wood

a favorite place

we spend alot of time at a place in the mountains....there is an amazing old gym there that spans a creek. i just love it so much.

summer weeds

photograph by rebecca wood

carl sandburg's home

i've always loved carl sandburg's poetry, so on the way to the mountains i stopped at connemara, his home in hendersonville, nc. for the last 22 years of his life. he and his wife moved from michigan to the 248 acre homeplace in 1945, because his wife, paula, was a champion goat breeder, and she longed for greener pastures and longer summers.
the house sits high on a hill, surrounded by pastures and fir trees. there is no air conditioning, so all the shades are drawn to keep it cool. in the basement is the 'summer kitchen'. it's underground and feels like air conditioning! there is a lovely old sink under the window.
paula and his two daughters ran the goat farm, raised fruits and vegetables, raised rabbits and geese, had honeybees and a dairy going. they did all the manual work, leaving carl to write till all houses, and leaving him a cup of hot coffee with goat's milk and honey on their way out to work.

photographs and words by rebecca wood

hibiscus

photograph by rinne allen

amaranth

i love the drama of amaranth...

arrangement and photograph by rinne allen

baby pokes

photo by kristen bach

pickled soft boiled eggs

in our house, eggs seem to be one of our favorite ingredients.  my husband loves to make deviled eggs and we usually have some hard boiled eggs on hand.  he recently started making soft boiled eggs for sandwiches and salads.  the other day i was just about to toss some brine from some fermented cukes we had just polished off and i decided to try to 'pickle' the eggs in the delicious, salty and herb filled brine.  i let them marinate for just a day or maybe two and the result was amazing!  a perfectly salted egg that had absorbed the flavors from the fresh herbs in the brine.  

pickled soft boiled eggs

-boil a pan full of salted water, just as you would do for hard boiled eggs

-when the water is boiling, carefully drop your eggs into the water

-keep it on heat for 6 minutes, 50 seconds (that's what my hubs says)

-remove the eggs and put them directly in a bowl of ice water and let rest and cool for 5 minutes

-peel

-carefully drop into a jar of pickle juice or brine

-enjoy on toast, salad, or just eat as is!

photos and recipe by kristen bach

goslings and mama

Photograph by Rinne Allen