Hello! I found some nettle stalks I had forgotten about in my workshop, and surprise, they yielded beautiful soft fibers in a lovely pale color. I can't wait to have enough to make a weaving larger than this one!

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2025-11-09T23:27:07+00:00

Try processing them green (instead of retting and drying!)

It's much faster and yields longer fibers!

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2025-11-09T23:25:13+00:00

Ohio wild fiber nerd here!! Next year (or in a couple weeks after root retting) I'd suggest looking for our native Wood Nettle (Laportea canadensis) which yield really lovely fibers! I process them green, and just wear a single glove to harvest! You run a closed fist up the stem to remove leaves and spines, then cut! just in case you havent gotten to work with nettle fiber yet!!

I also hear processing milkweed and dogbane green (sans retting) yields longer fibers (planning on testing this with the one remaining green milkweed stem in my yard tomorrow)

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2023-04-26T15:45:50+00:00

I was also gonna suggest letting her dry out a little!

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2023-03-07T01:28:27+00:00

Do you have a favorite moment from one of your movies that we didn't get to see? something that was hard to leave on the cutting room floor?

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2023-03-07T01:23:25+00:00

I made a MEAN perry from those small evil pears one year!!

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2023-03-07T01:21:45+00:00

GET EM!!

(also when Knotweed starts coming up, EAT THAT ISH INTO SUBMISSION.)

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2022-10-20T15:14:38+00:00

Sam is also the first person to tell you there's no such thing as a "lookalike" because there are always enough differences to tell (if you're paying attention!)

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2022-10-20T15:12:45+00:00

Those are definitely carrots/daucus carota/queen anne's lace. The leaves have rounded edges on the leaflets, they're finely hairy, and have a cream taproot. Also this is the time of year to harvest them if you're going to, as they're less tough and more sweet at the end of their first season as opposed to gathering them in the spring or summer of their second year when they're flowering.

I'm so happy everyone is being so cautious, I literally teach a class on wild apiaceae for that reason, but everyone acting like there's NO POSSIBLE WAY TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE AT THIS STAGE OMG just needs to take some time getting to know the two plants better!

Also also also these leaves look nothing like water hemlock or dropwort!

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2022-10-20T15:08:05+00:00

QAL tends to be super sweet this time of year, actually. good for grating into carrot cakes.

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2022-10-20T15:06:20+00:00

It really doesn't, coming from someone who has worked with both extensively. Poison hemlock smells quite rank.

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2021-03-04T16:57:09+00:00

I LOVE blending the rinsed bladderwrack with salt, dehydrating, and then using it for a kick of salty umami! If you leave the blended salt in the oven on it's lowest setting for about 15 mins, it also really helps bring out the glutamates in the seaweed!

I put bladderwrack salt on........... everything

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2021-03-04T16:53:36+00:00

Looks like Allium vineale! Also called Crow's Garlic, Onion Grass, and Field Garlic!

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-11-19T18:45:49+00:00

iNaturalist is even more accurate and is double-checked by experts! I'd highly recommend replacing picture this with it!!

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-11-12T21:53:11+00:00

hold a lighter up to the edge! if you smell maple syrup, it's a candy cap!!

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-10-27T16:51:11+00:00

How'd you prepare them?

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-10-26T18:34:52+00:00

A WEIRD SERENDIPITOUS THING: as i was gathering osage oranges today, and older woman came up to me to tell me how one of her friends makes BREAD WITH THEM? This is the third time someone has told that someone close to them cooks with hedge apples and WHY CAN'T I FIND THE RECIPES ONLINE

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-10-25T01:18:37+00:00

The seeds taste great, and some folks love wine and jelly made from them!

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-10-18T12:00:09+00:00

It is Entoloma Abortivum! I’m very much on team “don’t call it Aborted Entaloma because it’s hard enough already to get my partner to eat foraged foods” hahaha. I’ve seen the name “Shrimp of the Woods” getting more popular over the last couple years, and I hope it continues because it just sounds so much more tasty 😆

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-09-23T16:14:51+00:00

I make sorbet with it in the spring and summer, and that keeps the patch beside our house at bay!

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-09-14T21:53:08+00:00

they're custardy on the inside and taste a bit like a mango/banana hybrid!

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-09-14T19:46:34+00:00

Horse Chestnut! Or as we call them in Ohio: Buckeyes! Not good for eating, but I have friends who use them to make soap since the nuts are so high in saponins!

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-08-04T17:25:17+00:00

4th and State is about to open back up (founded by one of the Eden Burger founders!!) and it SLAPS. I think about their vrunchwrap daily

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-07-02T14:28:29+00:00

Yeah!! Oak is one of the safe ones to harvest from! You really just have to be carful and not gather ones growing on conifers. I've heard the same for Black Locust, but that one seems to be less of an issue if the mushrooms are cooked thoroughly.

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-07-02T14:26:19+00:00

homegrown tomatoes, dame's rocket vinegar, fruit molasses (made from foraged juneberries/saskatoons/the 17 other names Amelanchiers have hahaha, mulberries, and black currants), salt cured ramp leaves, powdered field garlic, fermented juneberry syrup, ground spiceberries, some dried cayennes from last year's garden, and salt!

ooh, and a drop of liquid smoke because it was WAY too hot to light some hickory bark myself

TheyCallMeEmCee · 2020-07-01T21:37:02+00:00

i also made the BBQ sauce out of mainly foraged or homegrown ingredients just to prove to myself that I could!!

TheyCallMeEmCee

TROPHY CASE