Do you want to be a Saffron Roads Roadie?

 Do you like trying out new products?  Saffron Road is assembling their first-ever group of insiders to help shape the future of Saffron Road. If you’re curious, opinionated (in the best way), and love globally inspired food, this is your crew. Join here->  https://www.saffronroad.com/pages/roadies 

So far the Vegetable Pad Thai has been my family's favorite. We do not do a lot of premade meals, but if i'm not home in the evening to cook, it's nice to have quick options that everyone likes. 

Kroger often has these on sale, so if you've been curious about them watch for those sales! The Roadie program sent me a $10 coupon to sample their products. Kroger had them on sale for $3.49, plus a $1off digital coupon and i was able to get 4 meals for free!  My local stores do not have a big variety of the vegetarian flavors, but we have been able to try the Pad Thai and the Vegetable Biryani. 

You can also check out their full selection on Amazon. Have you tried Saffron Road before? Which flavor is your favorite?

 #referral #ad #sponsored #freeproduct 

Homegrown and foraged; Mushroom and Asparagus Udon.

Earlier this week i received some Japanese Udon to review. So i put together a quick meal using freshly foraged morels, ramps, wild garlic, homegrown shiitakes, asparagus, onion and chives over  Japanese Udon noodles. 

This isn't an official recipe, just a thrown together quick meal. i sautéed the onion, mushrooms until well cooked, then added the veggies. Cooked a few minutes more until the asparagus was bright green and tender crisp.  Broth was made with shiitake dashi , tamari and mirin, reduced and then poured over the noodles. i topped it with toasted sesame seeds and chives. It was pretty tasty!  i might come back and update with better instructions, i'm currently just trying to add a few back blogs and try to get back in the habit of blogging. 

Plugging my amazon referral links because times are tough. 🫣 #vinereviewer #ad #referral #commision #gardentotable

Homegrown and foraged. Second week of April.

 

The weather here has been so dry, i have only found a handful of small morels this year.  i really haven't seen much of anything, but was really excited to  find these pheasant back/dryads saddle while hiking. They are super young and tender. Still not my favorite, but it's not bad.  Asparagus is slowing coming, we're getting like 1 shoot per day. We should have enough for a meal by the end of May.  i picked a few herbs and wild edibles for tea and to add to our salad. Chickweed, raspberry leaf, lemon balm, peppermint, purple dead nettle, violets and columbine flowers. i love this time of year. #earthprovides

 #homegrownandforaged

Morel Season coming in early.

The weather has been odd this spring and the morels are appearing a little earlier than usual here. Typically i wouldn't even start looking until the second week of April, but i saw that folks were starting to find them in the area, so decided to check my spot. i only found a few and they were still pretty small.  Normally i would leave them to get bigger, but it's so dry out i went ahead and picked them before they shriveled.                 

i often read that Morels can often be found around dying elm trees and in old apple orchards.  i find all of mine at the base of Tulip Poplars.  It makes hunting quite a challenge.                                                 

Over the years we had a few different honey holes on our property, but the forest is always changing and they are getting harder and harder to find. As the trees that feed them die and decompose, the mycelium spreads and shifts its focus when it's current food source is exhausted.  

These were found in a Poplar grove, on a rather steep bank. i've picked 7 this week, and left a few to keep growing . i'm usually finding morels into May, so i'm hoping if we get a good rain i'll find a few more.  

First week of April, 2026, homegrown and foraged.

First week of April, 2026

 First week of April  2026. Homegrown and foraged. Ramps are up! i finally have a small patch established on my land.  Shiitakes are from plugged logs and Kenan spotted the oysters when we were driving back roads. My hens are still laying well and the dandelions and violets are starting to bloom. Both are edible and can be used to make tea, jelly and syrup etc, but these are the first foods for the bees so i didn't harvest much.

Best Sourdough recipe

Finally found a sourdough recipe that i love!!  i have tried just about every recipe i've come across, they've all been okay, but not quite what i wanted.  This is the one! 

 

• 400g bread flour
• 308g water
• 100g starter
• 10g salt

Mix water and starter. Add flour and mix until shaggy. Cover and rest 30 min. 

 Add salt.

Mix just enough to combine. cover and rest 30 min.

Stretch and folds, let dough rest 30 min  

Stretch and folds, let dough rest 30 min 

Stretch and folds, let dough rest 30 min

Stretch and fold.  

Cover and bulk ferment 4.5 hours on counter.  Shape, place in floured banneton. Cover with plastic wrap or place in plastic bag.  Refrigerate overnight. 

In the morning, preheat oven to 475 for 30 min. Reduce heat to 450. Transfer dough to parchment paper or silicone sling.  Score. Place in roasting pan, with 2 ice cubes under parchment. 

Bake 35 minutes lid on, 15-20 minutes lid off.   Make sure internal temp is at least 205.  Wait at least 2 hours before cutting. i usually place a baking sheet on the rack below to keep the bottom from getting too brown/hard. Wanted to share with anyone looking for a good recipe and also so i don't lose it and can come back here to find it. 

Chewy Coconut Cookies (New favorite recipe)

 

i recently got this giant bag of shredded coconut to review. It's a little different than the bagged sweetened coconut i usually buy, and figured out it makes amazing cookies!!  

This coconut is raw, organic and unsweetened.  It's a little different than the sweetened bagged coconut i usually buy from the grocery store. It's a finer shred and slightly dry. While trying to figure out what to make with it, i decided to try baking it into cookies. They are currently our favorite cookie!! 

The recipe makes 3 dozen, and i usually do one dozen plain, one dozen chocolate chip and one dozen chocolate chip with mini M&Ms.  They are always a big hit!  The recipe is very easy and they come out perfect every time. 

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour 

½ teaspoon baking soda 

¼ teaspoon salt

 ½ cup butter (room temperature)

½ cup packed brown sugar

 ½ cup white sugar 

1 egg 

½ teaspoon vanilla extract 

1 ⅓ cups flaked coconut 

*optional chocolate chips, mini-M&Ms, 

Directions

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 

First, combine flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.  Next, beat butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth.  Add egg and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy. Gradually blend in flour mixture, then stir in coconut until well combined. Add chocolate chips and/or m&ms if using.  Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, about 3 inches apart. 

Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.  Allow cookies to cool briefly on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Additional adds-in that we've tried include dried cranberries and walnuts. They cookies are chewy and delicious.  Enjoy! 

i received this product at no cost in exchange for an honest review, my opinions are my own. As an amazon affiliate i earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. 

The Journey Begins..

 

So it seems that most people got into sourdough during Covid time (2020-21).  i admit, i was already baking bread regularly, and didn't really understand the appeal of sourdough.  We have a local sourdough bakery here in Floyd, VA and my daughter started bringing home loaves from them and they were super delicious. 

So when i had the opportunity to review a sourdough  starter, i jumped at it! This sourdough starter by Sunrise Flour Mill worked wonderfully. i have never made sourdough before, and was really a bit clueless about the process. The starter comes dried and includes a booklet on how to activate your starter and bake your first sourdough loaf. The instructions say that you can bake with your starter on day 5, but my kitchen is pretty cold and my starter was not ready.

 i continued to feed it and ended up moving it closer to my woodstove. It seemed to like that and began bubbling and doubled it's size after just a couple days. It has a wonderful sourdough smell. If you have never made sourdough before, i suggest watching a few youtube videos of the process before you start.

 The booklet does come with written instructions, but i found i needed the visuals from video tutorials to really understand the stretch and fold technique and the shaping. One of these days i'll put together my own sourdough video to show my process. 

This is my very first sourdough loaf. It wasn't perfect, but it was delicious. One of the fun parts of  sourdough starter is that it's a living, symbiotic culture of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria that needs to be fed. If you are baking regularly, you can leave it out on the counter and feed it daily. If you don't plan to bake regularly you can keep it in the fridge and feed it once a week.  Each time you feed it, you'll want to discard a portion of starter first. The discard can be given away to friends  as a starter, or you can save it to use in discard recipes.  Since starting my sourdough journey, i'm now making bread 3 times a week and cinnamon rolls and bagels once a week using the discard. 

So, i'm a little late to the sourdough game, but i'm completely addicted now that it's cold and i'm stuck inside.  i'm sure once garden season starts my baking may slow down.  Although i can already imagine the amazing garden fresh sandwiches we can make with our homemade sourdough. 

My usual disclaimer- i received this product at no cost in exchange for an honest review, my opinions are my own. As an amazon affiliate i earn a small commission from qualifying purchases

We weave because we have to...

 

i currently have about 40 handwoven dishcloths available. Most singles and some tied together in neat little bundles of 3. These are made with 100% cotton and are washing machine safe.

It's not often that i have time to sit, and these require sitting. i used to only make these on long car rides and sitting in hotels while traveling.  The last couple years there has been a lot of that. So i've spent a lot of time with my loom. What was once just a fun craft i did occasionally, became a much needed respite.  i don't weave for fun or just to make dishcloths, i weave because i have to.  To care about weaving is to be in touch with a 10,000-year-old human tradition that binds us to our ancestors and to each other.  

t

 If you've been following my summer adventures you know many of these were woven at various outdoor concerts and music festivals.  Sierra Ferrell, Del McCoury, Molly Tuttle, Sister Sadie and more! So i do believe each dishcloth holds the spirit of the music & magic. 😉 Of course each one is also made with love. ❤

In the evenings i've been working to get them finished and listing them in my Ko-fi shop.  Each set has 3 cotton dishcloths, woven on a loom and finished with a crocheted border.  These sets are $15 per pack. i also have individual dishcloths for sale for $5 each. If you are local i can meet up in town this weekend. For everyone else, i do ship. For anyone interested the looms are made by my FIL.  You can find them on Etsy in the BigFam15 shop, i believe mine is the 10" mini loom in oak. 

Many people weave all of their lives without knowing that it is not cloth they are after. (Attributed to Henry David Thoreau, but not exactly his quote.)

Stolen Moments.

“I've seen women insist on cleaning everything in the house before they could sit down to write... and you know it's a funny thing about housecleaning... it never comes to an end. Perfect way to stop a woman. A woman must be careful to not allow over-responsibility (or over-respectability) to steal her necessary creative rests, riffs, and raptures. She simply must put her foot down and say no to half of what she believes she "should" be doing. Art is not meant to be created in stolen moments only.”  

-Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

IndestrucTable® ECO™ Table by Iceberg Enterprises Product Review

 

It's been a minute since i've done a public product review, but i recently got the chance to try out this IndestrucTable® ECO™ Table and wanted to share my experience! Over the summer i used one of our regular vending tables outside to pot some plants, and a surprise rain storm pretty much destroyed it. So i was looking for a new table that was multi-purpose. i wanted something that would work for vending and could also be used outside when we're camping or to start trays of seeds etc. 

One thing i really like about this one is that it's really easy to set up and it folds up for easy storage. It has a carry handle for easy transport. It's also really heavy-duty and is advertised as being environmentally friendly. The tabletop is made from 90% post consumer resin. It also has heavy gauge 1” bamboo green powder coated round tube legs for stability. It's described as being lightweight, but i found it to be pretty heavy (for me). i had to have Kenan do the unboxing because i couldn't lift it out of the box. i have a smaller folding table that is significantly lighter, but it's also not as solid or heavy duty as this one feels. 

The table top is dent resistant and really easy to clean. It is slightly textured, not a perfectly smooth surface. i added the iGear™ Stretch Cover and did a quick set up of our vending table and really think it's great! Over all, i'm pretty impressed with it. It's a little heavier than i was hoping, but it really does feel solid. Iceberg Enterprises is family-owned business committed to manufacturing in the United States. You can read more about them on their website. https://icebergenterprises.com.

i received this product at no cost in exchange for an honest review, my opinions are my own. 

 #Tryazon #IcebergEnterprises #ecofriendly #sustainable #sustainability #eco #sustainableliving #gogreen #nature #environment #savetheplanet #green #ecofriendlyproducts #ecofriendlyliving #smallbusiness #environmentallyfriendly #greenliving #ad #productreviewer 

Eggs and Honey for Sale

Local folks. i'm in Floyd a few times a week and have extra eggs and honey available. Eggs are $5 per dozen. You can pick them up at our house or i can meet you in town. Connect with me on messenger to arrange pick up.

We have a limited amount of fall '22 honey available for purchase. If you are local you can pick up here, or i can meet in Floyd. For those that are not local we do ship.

Our honey is available in 1lbs glass bottles, 1lbs and 2 lbs plastic squeeze bottles and 8oz sampler jars.  My 8oz giftable sample jars are available as liquid honey w/mini honey dipper or crystalized honey with bamboo mini spoon.  They have a decorative fabric top and are perfect for gifting. 

You can contact me at m.me/enchantedtree  on messenger or email me at enchantedtree@hotmail.com

 

Glass Pendant Giveaway!

 Glass Pendant Giveaway! 

It's been a long time since i've hosted a giveaway!   Winner will receive their choice of a random mushroom pendant or a goddess pendant. 

 Everyone can get the free entry to enter. You can do the optional other entries to increase your chances!

 US only. 

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Temu is a shopping app like Amazon, by downloading the app you help me to earn free products and by sharing it with your friends you can win cash and freebies too. i've ordered from them a few times and received some awesome freebies playing the games. 

This year in Mushrooms

 This poor blog is so neglected, but i still like to try to post now and again to keep it active. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram then you've probably already seen all these photos, but i'm doing sort of a round up for the year. Mushroom hunting has gone from a little hobby to a full blown obsession. 

i'm not adding all my mushroom harvests from the year, but just a few of the more notable ones. This was 5-9-22. Normally i would be finding Morels in April/May but this year there were very few. The ones i did find were small and dry and the conditions just were not right for them this year. We did get several shiitake from out plugged logs.  They are several years old, so i'm always a bit surprised when they still flush.

We had another amazing year for Chicken of the Woods and chanterelles. This photo is from July.  Now that we've found a few logs that produce chicken of the woods on our property, we tend to check those spots every time we are out hiking. Same goes for cauliflower mushrooms and lion's mane. Anything that comes back year after year.  We have over a dozen logs now that we know produce chicken of the woods. We were able to pack the freezer full this year.

Another photo from July. We tend to find chanterelles and black trumpets from July until October depending on the conditions. i have a fabulous black Trumpet spot on my property under a grove of Beech trees. They are one of my favorites to find.  

This is our best Chicken of the Woods log. i stumbled upon it a few years ago and it has produced an amazing amount of chicken of the woods every year since. This year it flushed twice. Chicken of the woods is still my favorite mushroom. As long as you get it when it is prime it's absolutely delicious! 

We typically only mushroom hunt on our land, but decided to try some new areas on a hunt for Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa).  This is one of the few mushrooms we do not find often on our land. We found one small one several years ago, and check the spot every year but it never came back. This year i found one completely randomly while checking my Chicken of the Woods logs and it inspired us to go hunting off our property in some areas where i knew they often came up.

We ended up finding several at the beginning of September which is pretty early for them around here. We went back to the same place a few times and found at least one each time. Hens are great to cook and freeze for later. We were super thrilled to pack our freezer full. 

Every year i make sort of a mushroom bucket list.  i choose mushrooms i've never found before and try to find at least one before the end of the year.  Last year my bucket list mushroom was the Indigo Milk Caps. It was really exciting to find a whole patch of them on the land behind my house. This year i didn't even find one, but i did find Blewitts!  These are not rare or especially exciting, but i had never found one before and had it on my bucket list. The first one i found was at the same place i'd found the hens. After correctly identifying it i went looking in my own woods and found a few more.  These have to be one of the cutest mushrooms ever. They are edible, although i haven't tried them yet. 

This is a collection of some of the edible mushrooms that come up on my land. Chicken of the woods, chanterelles, cinnabars, black trumpets, honey fungus, Cauliflower mushroom, Hen of the woods, Lion's Mane, Purple gilled Laccaria, Green Russula and Shrimp of the woods.  i'm always amazed at the variety that pops up right in my backyard.  i've been wanting to get a picture for a while of all the different mushrooms, but can never find them all at the same time to get a group picture. This is the best i've gotten so far, although i'm still missing Oysters, hedgehogs, Indigos, pheasant backs, blewitts and of course morels (early spring).   i've only ever found hedgehogs here once and that was several years ago. i also found a Bear's Head Tooth here once.

i'm already looking forward to see what types of mushrooms we find next year! i've already found so many mushrooms that were on my bucket list i'm going to have to create a new one!  

The Ranch Camp, Dugspur Virginia.

The universe works in such mysterious ways. When Kenan and i first started dating (over 25 years ago) he was really into BMX bikes. When we moved down here, he eventually gave it up because there just isn't a lot of places out here to do it without driving an hour.

Last year when he turned 44,  he bought a BMX bike, kind of on a whim in Richmond, VA when he was taking Sequoia back to Williamsburg.  Now that he is working in town, he's been riding it after work in the parking lot and around town and realized he really missed it and still really enjoying it.

So how crazy is it that we found out a BMX & skateboarding facility and camp is being built right in Dugspur, VA of all places?!?   Dugspur is a beautiful area in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but it's literally in BFE.  There is pretty much nothing in Dugspur, except the minimart with is about 3 miles from us.  We are closer to Dugspur than we are Floyd.   So although it's in the middle nowhere, so are we and it's actually not too far down the road from us! 

We were there for their media event and got to see some professional skate boarders and BMX riders our doing tricks and riding. It was really pretty cool.  The people building this facility helped to build/design/run (i can't remember the details) the Woodward skate park in Pennsylvania. 

When we were there, they were really just getting started. There were a lot of areas under construction and they were still working out details of their summer camp program. The first camp ended up canceled because of Covid, but that gave them time to add even more cool features to the facility!

They were still working on the dirt jumps and trails when we were there.  Although Kenan has been back a few times to ride, i haven't so i'm not sure what all they have going on now.  They are having an open house type of eent in April and Kenan is planning to go and ride and i'll probably go to walk the trails and mushroom hunt. :D 

The place used to be an old theater camp, so it's already got cabins and a club house etc. They were in the process of building more skateboard areas, including a 10,000 sq. ft indoor skate park, adding hiking trails, disk gulf, a pool and more!  

It's really a neat facility and almost unbelievable that it would be built so close to us right as Kenan decides he wants to get back into it.  Definitely some crazy manifesting going on there! 

You can check out The Ranch Camp here - https://www.ranch-camp.com/

Follow them on Instagram- The Ranch Camp and Facebook- The Ranch-Camp

What a year! Wrapping up 2020 (back post).

 i realized the other day that i've really been neglecting my blog. Life just seems to get busier and busier each year, and as technology has changed over the years blogs just no longer seem very relevant.  i've always kept this blog more as a journal or way to document important moments in my life and really want to continue to do that. Although i love hosting giveaways and sharing product reviews, the blog has really always been about daily family life and i would really like to get back to that.

So, here is a brief recap of 2020, since i sort of abandoned the blog while the world around us was turning upside down. 

My sweet little boy, grew up, graduated high school and is now attending William & Mary University in Williamsburg VA. To say i am proud of his achievements is an understatement. 

Moving my boy across the state during a pandemic was a pretty huge transition.  Empty nest syndrome is no joke, and even though Sage is still at home i got my first taste of empty nest and it kind of terrified me and made me really rethink my life. It may have been the beginnings of an existential crisis.

Honestly, 2020 is a complete blur. When Covid first hit i began making and giving away masks to friends and neighbors. Eventually i was making them for the schools, local stores and the veterinary office for a donation towards fabric cost. i made at least a 1000 and eventually began taking orders for custom masks and making them for sale. i admit, i had a lot of fun buying cute fabrics, something i haven't done since my patchwork days. 

With Covid spreading, we stayed pretty close to home. Although Kenan was spending most of his time in Floyd at the new shop, i was spending my time (when i wasn't sewing masks) in the garden and mushroom hunting.  i had to really dig through my photos, to find a few images from 2020, so these are the best. Just a few i found to show that we did actually grow stuff in 2020.  The garden was somewhat neglected, because my focus was on producing stuff for the shop and sewing masks.

We were still harvesting mushrooms from the logs plugged a few years before. The shiitake and oysters are the only ones that ever grew from the logs we plugged. We plan to plug a bunch more this year.  We are still (2022) getting occasional shiitakes and oysters from these same logs.

Since Covid kept me home more than usual, i was able to spend much more time in the woods hunting mushrooms. 2020 was a good year for mushroom hunting!  i'll probably put together a post soon of all the varieties of mushrooms i've been foraging. Every year i seem to find a new one.

In the fall of 2020, Blue Ridge Alchemy opened it's store front. It is now a working glass studio with a store front that is open to the public. We carry work from many local artists and it gives me an outlet to sell my own work, eggs and honey.  

i'm having to really dig through my FB posts to see just what exactly we did in 2020 so i can play catch up on my posts. i'm not really sure anyone evens reads this blog anymore, but i've always used it as an online scrap book to document life and really want to fill in the last couple years with more than just product reviews and giveaways.  Planning to spend the next few days back posting.  So if you still here reading. Thank you.