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Forest Foragers for your natural and wild foods, herbs and crafts |
| The yum-yums are all-natural from wild plants. Where the recipe calls, pectin, sugar and lemon juice are added. |
| When not sold out, we usually have delicious jams, jellies, and syrups in the following all-wild and natural flavors: Blackberry, BlackHaw, Blueberry, Crabapple, Elderberry, Guelder Rose, Hawthorn, Mountain Ash, Nannyberry, Rasberry, Rose Hip, Sarsaparilla, Strawberry, Wintergreen |
| The exotic candied products are truly a delightful experience which you can savor! Currently, if not sold out, we have candied Burdock root and tender shoots, Cattail shoots and tender stem, Colt's Foot root and stem, Pine and Spruce buds. These are not like the hard candies you will find in any store! |
| If you want a real Voyageur or American Indian experience, you have to try the Spruce Gum. This is definitely not for denture wearers (or maybe, ladies)--but then, the Indians did not wear dentures because they chewed Spruce Gum! If you are new to this, here's how to do it: Put the lump of gum in your mouth (it doesn't look very appealing at this stage--don't worry, it's antiseptic and 100% safe) and break it up into a granular and strong-tasting substance. At this stage it is somewhat distasteful but resist the temptation to spit it out. In this granular form it will merge with saliva and be warmed by your mouth. Keep chewing for about four minutes without spitting. You will notice that it becomes less granular as you chew. When you have a sizable lump which holds together, then spit out the juice and the impurities, which separated out, and keep chewing. You will spit out another 6-8 times before it is purified and great! After this period, take it out and look at it. It will have a beautiful color and taste great. It will now be good for about 30 minutes of terrific chewing and is the greatest tooth cleaner you can get. You can swallow the juice. It is antiseptic and medicinal and will not harm you in any way. After 30 minutes of chewing it becomes harder to chew and eventually becomes granular again and needs to be discarded. I don't understand why but this gum helped me stop smoking and relaxed me when I have felt stressed. I strongly recommend this as the very best thing that can happen to your mouth and you. |
| The reason that I include flour here is because this flour which I am suggesting can only be in the Yum-Yum category. You have to try it to believe it. We are so conditioned to say nay to anything wild or unmarketted by the capitalist (do I sound like a Marxist? I am a naturallist!!) Give yourself a treat and taste this. Add a little-like 5-10% of a flour recipe to your regular flour and WOW! You don't have to have a bread machine, but if you do, great. The flour I'm referring to is made of Sweet-Birch , Pine inner-bark or Arrowhead , Cattail root. Sweet-Birch bark is loaded with wintergreen and was the major source of the oil-of-wintergreen before alchemist synthesized it with taste-bud trickery. |
| Culinary historians may tell you that man, over the ages, utilized spices and herbs to mask unpleasant taste, spoilage, bad cooking, as a preservative or to enhance or complement taste. In days of poor refrigeration, food spoiled quickly and needed the extra time bought by herbs when herbs were cheaper than the food. The American Indians also had their herbs and spices. Cayenne peppers are an example. I don't know if Pine sap and Wintergreen was similarly used but I bet it was and I say try it. I have and it is great! If you know of this and other spices , please let me know. |
Golden Maple Sweets: My cousin in French Canada makes some of the best Maple Products on the market. For generations, it has been a source of pleasure to have reunions at the 'cabane a sucre' in early Spring when the sap was running. Three or four generations, or more, of Nadeaus would pour the taffy in a thread on the clean snow to be rolled around a wooden spoon and sucked on. I will be there in March. You can have some too. Visit with me and see how maple yum-yums are made--click here. Place your order with me for maple sugar, taffy, syrup, butter and candy now. The season is very short and the products are sold very quickly. |
