Dandelion woodstove enchiladas

This is a delicious way to eat dandelion greens. Pick the dandelion greens, wash and blanch for 5 minutes then discard the water.

Sautee peppers, onion, and garlic in olive oil. Add greens and a little broth and cook 5 more minutes or until most of the liquid is gone.

Grate about 2 cups of pepper jack cheese or whatever cheese strikes your fancy.

Soften corn tortillas on a dry skillet for about 10 seconds on one side and 8 seconds on the other.

Put home made or store bought enchilada sauce in the bottom of a dutch oven cast iron pot. Make sure the bottom is completely covered, be generous. Lay 2 corn tortillas in the bottom of the dutch oven on top of the sauce. They will over lap in the middle and they will not completely cover the bottom of the pot on the sides.

Layer with dandelion mixture, cheese and more tortillas until you are out of ingredients. I'm typically out after about 3 1/2 to 4 inches high. Put a layer of cheese on last. Put the lid on.

Place on the top of your wood heat stove. The top of our woodstove is flat cast iron. There is no precise cooking time for the woodstove and things will not burn within minutes like a traditional stove. After about an hour I check to see if it's bubbly. I typically will leave it on for longer than that but after several hours, the bottom layer will get hard. It's delicious!

Mineral Rich Vinegar

I notice more and more how herbs and wild plants feel in my body. It's an experience you don't get with vitamins. They've entered my dreams with their roots moving through the muscles and organs and their flowers blooming from the skin. When eating freshly picked wild Dandelion simmered in a soup, the leaf melts on your teeth like chocolate, coating your them with a microscopic yumminess that my teeth craved for 3 more days after the first time. My gall-bladder makes this little squirt noise that feels so nice and my stomach and colon chime in with happy gurgles when I'm eating a nutritious soup.

This photo by Missouri artist Virginia Harold represents to me what it feels like when the roots of the plant "grow" inside you and their energy, their fire lap out.


More than masking symptoms or artificially propping you up, creating dependency; using herbs and wild plants restore and build up the body. It's part of the human - plant experience that should not be missed.

People have used Vinegar to extract and preserve nutrients from herbs for thousands of years. "Those of the ancient world quickly learned to combine vinegar with beneficial plants for maximum medicinal value. "

"Infused vinegar is mineral rich, due to its ability to extract the minerals from plants Not only is the vinegar transformed into a mineral rich liquid, but because vinegar can increase calcium and other mineral absorption by as much as 1/3, the minerals from the plants become more bio-available. One tablespoon of an herbal vinegar.. can deliver 300 mg or more of easily absorbed calcium. "

My favorite mineral rich vinegar right now is Self-heal (Prunella Vulgaris). It's loaded with minerals, especially calcium. For a drink that helps kick start my day, I put 2 tsps of Self-heal vinegar in a glass of water with a little sprinkle of Tumeric and a spoon coated with molasses. Here is a nice article about the benefits of herbal vinegars and how easy it is to make them by Prodigal Gardens. Another great way to use vinegar is in salad dressings, cooking beans or how ever you'd normally use vinegar in your cooking.

Self heal is a common herb (weed) and easy to identify. Check out these links and maybe you have some growing in your yard. Pick the self-heal flowers from an area that hasn't been sprayed with pesticides and isn't near cars or the road. The links above show how easy it is to make a vinegar but it's basically chop herb, put in a jar, fill with vinegar, let it sit 6 weeks, shaking daily and strain.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=PRVU
http://www.altnature.com/gallery/healall.htm

Here is another site on Dandelion vinegar:
http://crowsdaughtersherbs.blogspot.com/2008/01/dandelion-has-been-potent-ally-of-mine.html

The earthen roof that will cover the earth-bermed house that we are going to build this Spring will be covered in low maintenance and highly beneficial herbs such as dandelion, plantain, chickweed, and self heal. It will be so fun to pick the greens and flowers by walking out of the kitchen door and onto the green roof sloping to the ground.

I imagine the North side of the house to look like a Hobbit House, but am having great difficulty drawing it. The elevations and floor plans that are done with ruler and on graph paper look good, but the North side is giving me fits. There aren't many drawings of Hobbit houses online that I can find and with the berm being most of that side, I find that the soft lines in my imagination aren't coming across on paper.

If you like to draw Hobbit houses and might want to help for fun or trade, please contact me.