Herbs.

Look!
We made butter. And we didn´t make it by going to the store, buying ready-made butter and adding some herbs we bought, no, no.

We went ino the woods. In my purse, I carried a lidded jar with cream, and some grains of salt.
Then, in the woods, we went to search for...

...wild garlic mustard. Wild garlic mustard grows pretty much everywhere, when you know how to spot it, you´ll see it all the time. When you grind the leaves between your fingers, they smell strongly like garlic, but the garlic isn´t alium-based, so when you eat it, you won´t smell out of all pores. The seeds taste a little like mustard, and, if you collected enough of them, you could actually make some, hence the name.
Wild garlic mustard is completely edible and doesn´t have an evil, poisonous twin plant, so you need not fear. Wildwood survival has a nice section on garlic mustard. And you don´t need to boil or steam the leaves! They´ll loose all their aroma and vitamins! You can just chew them.Well, you can wash them, if you´re picky. No pun intended :)
We picked some, ripped them apart as we went, and sprinkled them into our cream jar. Close the lid, move on.
Find some plantain. And some bishop´s weed. Those two are, like the garlic mustard, herbs that by no means are endangered. Actually, many people have them in their gardens and tear them out (the silly ones :). Anyway, plaintain and bishop´s weed are not only herbs which you can pick woothout fearing about sustainability, they are also easy to spot and save to eat (no evil twins).
Tear the leaves apart, too, add to your cream.
And then...

...find a jumpy six-jear old in a football shirt to SHAKE.

Go for a walk in between, and while walking, pass the glass around, so eveyone can shake.
When you reach a beautiful river...

...said jumpy six year olds might find it more interesting to cross the river.

Which is okay, too. If you shook long enough, your cream might have transformed...

...into something like this, which means you´re almost there: You churned aromatized butter.

And well, now you only have to make it home, somehow, and in the evening, you can take a mesh and filter away the whey, and enjoy your flavoured butter on a slice of fresh bread!

Of course, if you find all the herbs a little odd, you can just churn your butter without aromatiizng it. Or you could add honey, or chopped nuts, or cranberries... get creative!

Need something to drink? Try some homemade woodruff syrup. Or some elder-blossom syrup. Or maybe...

...some herbal lemonade. You just throw some bishop´s weed, plantain, elder flowers, rosepetals, whatever (not the garlic mustard, though ;)) into a pitcher with apple juice, let it sit over night, and mix it with sparkling water. So, so delicious. Tastes like spring and sunny meadows.

So... I´m really happy with the things I learned. I allready knew plantain and bishop´s weed, but I only knew to use it as a remedy against insect bites and to boil a tea from it... now I know a lot more uses, not only the two mentioned above, and wild garlic mustard was new to me, too, so I´m very glad to have aquired some new skills. Be warned of more "green" posts... but I promise, there´s a sewing post around the corner, seriously. Or two.

Music:

Their music smells like herbs on a meadow - earthy, and with roots :) Oh, and the lyrics - may I quote:
"alcohol´s a lubricant/surely you could use it to/slywly fuck yourself".
He´s such a poet :) I love this band, really - it´s been a while since I found a band whose music I enjoyed so much.