I am coming to you today from a place called Highland Rim Retreats near Fall Creek Falls in Tennessee!  Today, I thought it would be fun to do something a little different. We will talk about the five elements of homemade salad dressing.

Seasonal Eating and Tales From the Prepper Pantry

• Quarterly freezer re-organization
• Seasoning a pork belly for bacon: salt, rosemary, sage, turmeric, brown sugar
• Garden kale and lettuces, pea shoots, hairy vetch, redbud, baby bamboo shoots, poke weed
• The morels are out there my friends – IF you can find them

 What we are preserving this week

• Drying for tea
  • Blackberry
  • Raspberry
  • Stinging nettle
  • Bee balm

 The Five Elements of Homemade Salad Dressing

1. Sour: Vinegar, Lemon Juice, lime juice, pickle brine, caper juice
2. Spicy: Mustard, hot pepper sauce, peppers, onions, garlic
3. Creamy: Mayonnaise, sour cream, whipped cream cheese, cream
4. Sweet: Honey, sugar, jams and jellies, sorghum, maple syrup
5. Emulsifier: Olive Oil, grape seed oil, avocado oil, any infused oils, oil, oil, oil. 

The process:

1. Define salad’s core flavor
2. Choose complimentary flavor elements from the five above
3. Make your dressing recipe!

Example: Watercress, kale based salad.

• Core flavor: spicy
• What will complement that? Sweet and sour
• Dressing recipe – Basic balsamic vinaigrette: 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp fig infused balsamic, 1 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp water, 1 tsp salt. 

Example: Spinach salad

• Core flavor: nutty, flat
• What goes with that? Almost anything - try spicy and sweet
• Dressing Recipe – honey mustard: 1 tbsp, mustard, 2 tbsp mayo, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp water, salt, pepper and shake! (You can sneak in a tbsp. of balsamic on this one and it is really good)

 

Example: Peppers, tomatoes, kale leaves, a little corn, spinach

• Core flavor: sweet and nutty
• What goes with that? Lemon and spice and everything nice!
• Dressing Recipe – basil lemon zest: 2 tbsp lemon, onions, 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp olive oil, sliced fresh basil, 2 tbsp water, shake and let sit overnight in the fridge. Remove from fridge 30 mins before using so that it reaches room temp.
• A Hack: soak the onions in the lemon for 30 minutes, then mix all the other ingredients directly into the salad if you are in a rush.

Other recipe ideas from Zello:

1. BDHutier: Oil, vinegar, favorite jelly
2. Kirtus: Olive oil, anchovies - canned, Italian spice mix, leave for 24 hours in the fridge – likely added vinegar

Stories from the holler

• Torrential downpours
• Did a walk through of a friend’s new piece of land – and It has some interesting features, including a really cool run off area that many people would see as a problem but that we see as an asset – now it is just very important to properly identify zone one, which is an interesting amoeba shape because of how his outbuilding is situated.
• BEES ESCAPED

We are setting up a page – soft launch – over at Patreon.com to share premium content to show supporters.

Cider Hollow Farms – He’s put the rest of his comfrey on sale at an extra $1.50 per plant for spring closeout and if you use the coupon code LFITN5 you will get an additional 5% of anything you order. Go to CiderHollow.com.

This spring has been the usual whirlwind with lots of activity and shifting priorities, but things are going well because we have done a good job of always re-orienting toward our primary family goals of making time for recreation and fun, local stable income, and paying attention to our health.

Get out there and make it a great week!

Song: Sauce, The Flood