Jeff Cassman

After five consecutive days above 90 degrees, temperatures (as I write this) have plummeted into the 60’s. It’s felt incredible. People joyfully pulled out their sweaters and jeans and opened their windows.

The cool temperatures get everyone in the mood for cooking and “soup season.” My daughter began pulling out our fall/Halloween decor, and we even baked a batch of apple crisp. Apples are as synonymous with fall in Minnesota as pumpkins.

Being that we are midway through September already, I thought it would be a great time to share a recipe from a new book that my publisher sent me called The Green Witch’s Guide to Magical Plants and Flowers, written by Chris Young and Susan Ottaviano.

Have you heard the term, “Green Witch” over the past few years? The definition of a green witch is someone that embraces nature and intentionally works toward living in harmony with the earth and humanity. Green witches believe that their “connection to the earth and the universe allows them to draw great power from creating love, health, peace, blessings and harmony in their world.”

Magical herbalism is the central practice of a green witch. The 2 Green Witches that authored this book seek to encourage readers to transform everyday flowers, fruits and plants from the garden into salts, herbal infusions, soaps, sachets, tinctures and more.

I tried one of the recipes in the book this week, as I was craving tea with these cooler temps. I’d say this apple tea definitely worth making again.

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 2 green tea bags
• 2 sticks of cinnamon
• 3 whole cloves
• 4 whole allspice berries
• 1 cup unsweetened organic apple juice or apple cider
• 1 green organic apple, sliced
• Maple syrup or organic sugar, to taste

Instructions

In a saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add tea bags, cinnamon, cloves and allspice to the pan. Remove from heat. Cover and let steep for 3 minutes.

Discard tea bags and spices. Stir in apple juice (or cider) and heat through.

Always remember that spoons are a kind of wand. You can use them while you cook to direct your energy and intentions to empower whatever you are preparing.

Serve tea with the green apple slices and sweetener of choice.

This recipe has been shared from The Green Witch’s Guide to Magical Plants and Flowers with permission from Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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I review knives, and must barter, trade or sell some to pay the bills and acquire more knives to review.

A reader asked if there was one particular knife I wouldn’t sell. Here are six.

By Leon Pantenburg

Some physical items become touchstones to great memories. Some knives do that for me. For that reason, I have several worn, semi-grungy knives that couldn’t be replaced and that will never be sold.

Mora 840 Companion: Several years ago, I bought several Mora knives to field test as potential knives for Boy Scout Troop 18 in Bend, Oregon. A scout nearly severed his finger at camp the previous summer, when a combination of stupid knife handling and a faulty lock on a folder created a serious accident.

There was a dual purpose in checking out Moras – I wanted to see if there was a way to use the blade for flint and steel firemaking, and we needed a quality, rigid blade for the scouts to use. (Sheath knives ARE NOT banned in the scouts, but some districts and/or scoutmasters do ban them. Here is why this is a bad idea.)

So after trying out several different styles and brands of blades, and some use and downright abuse, the troop settled on the Mora 840 Companion. (Read the review.) We got a great deal on 40, from an Eagle Scout who owns a knife store, and were able to sell them to the scouts for $8 each. A few years later we ordered 50 more, and the scout price was $10 each. The scouts have used these knives hard, as only an enthusiastic kid can, and there has never been a failure in any of the Moras.

I used the hell out of my original Mora. It was the knife I took along on camping and canoe trips and loaned out to beginners. Basically, it was disposable – if the Companion got lost in a creek of deep snow, I could get another for under $20. A scoutmaster friend of mine also got a 840 as a utility knife. A physician, he could easily afford a better knife, but his $8 Mora has been taken and used on moose, caribou, elk, deer and hog hunts.

So these thing creep up on you. Today, my original Mora is showing some wear around the edges. But whenever I use it, I recall the many, many scout campouts, the kids I loaned it to and good times associated with the outdoors. So it’s not for sale.

Tinker: My buddy and fellow Boy Scout volunteer Jim Grenfell were discussing/debating what was the best pocket knife. I made a persuasive pitch for the three blade Stockman pattern knives I have been carrying for decades.

The Swiss Army Tinker is an inexpensive knife that can handle a variety of tasks.

Jim argued…

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You can find many reasons to put your garden to sleep for the winter. Remember that a natural ecosystem will necessarily have preparation in order to go into the long cold winters that we experience throughout most of North America.

There are many important ways that we can maximize ecosystem services when putting our garden to rest. These can be broken down into various strategies and can also paired with other typical market garden and landscape management techniques.

Let’s explore some of the top choices for preparing your garden for winter.

Cover Cropping

Cover cropping is your ally going into the winter because it protects the soil surface not only in the fall when you may have heavy rains, but also throughout the winter. Cover crops can keep soil life buffered from the extreme temperatures of the cold winter months.

It also protects the soil in the spring, when there is not only a lot of runoff from snow melt but also heavy rains, which will erode unprotected soil, causing you to lose not only the grains of your soil but also the nutrients.

Cover cropping has additional benefits, too, scavenging nutrients in the fall.  This means these crops take up various soluble nutrients, such as nitrogen available in the soil after your crop is finished, and holds them in an insoluble form in the form of organic matter that is living and growing.

Cover crops can also provide weed suppression benefits by preventing the germination of weeds by covering them over with a canopy—especially perennial weeds that may germinate in the fall and annual weeds that may germinate in the spring. This last benefit is best achieved by using an overwintered cover crop such as winter rye, which has the added effect of actually suppressing weed seed germination by an allele pathic chemical reaction in the soil.

The addition of cover crops in the spring through flail mowing and incorporation will serve as a green manure, only further adding to their overall ecosystem services for your garden. Cover cropping is one of the top choices for putting your garden to rest in the winter.

Cover cropping is easy to do, too. You can simply remove your crop debris and broadcast or re-prepare by lightly tilling the beds and seeding. Or you can undersow with cover crops like clover and allow them to germinate in the canopy of the crop, such as squash, just prior to harvest.

However you slice it, cover crops are a multi-faceted way of keeping your garden in good shape in the fall winter and spring.

Crop Cover Cropping

Another type of cover cropping that is often overlooked is crop cover cropping. This is the process of leaving crop debris in your garden fields or beds in order to benefit from their protective services over the fall and winter. In the spring this would mean allowing late crops of lettuce to bolt and go in flower,…

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The following recipe for Pam’s Pumpkin Soup is from SurvivalBlog reader Pam C.

Ingredients

• 2 small sweet pumpkins — 2 pumpkins yield about 2 1/4 cups of pumpkin puree
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium shallots, diced — 2 shallots yield ~1/4 cup)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced — 3 cloves yield ~1 1/2 Tbsp)
• 2 cups vegetable broth (home-made or store-bought)
• 1 cup canned light coconut milk
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup or honey
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Using a sharp knife, cut off the tops of the pumpkins and then halve them.
4. Use a sharp spoon to scrape out all of the seeds and strings. You can save the seeds for planting or roasting.
5. Brush the pumpkin flesh with oil and place face down on the baking sheet.
6. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a fork easily pierces the skin.
7. Remove from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes, then peel away the skin and set pumpkin aside.
8. To a large saucepan over medium heat add olive oil, shallot, and garlic.
9. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until slightly browned and translucent. Turn down the heat if it is cooking too quickly.
10. Add the remaining ingredients, including the pumpkin, and bring to a simmer.
11. Transfer the soup mixture to a blender or use an immersion blender to puree the soup.
12. Pour mixture back into your pot.
13. Continue cooking over medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes and taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

SERVING

This serves 3-to-4 adults.

Optionally, it can be topped with chopped kale.

STORAGE

Leftover soup keeps well in the fridge for up to a few days and in the freezer for up to a month or more.

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Do you have a well-tested recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long-term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven recipes, slow cooker recipes, and any recipes that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

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