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 Sour: Vinegar, Lemon Juice, lime juice, pickle brine, caper juice Spicy: Mustard, hot pepper sauce, peppers, onions, garlic Creamy: Mayonnaise, sour cream, whipped cream cheese, cream Sweet: Honey, sugar, jams and jellies, sorghum, maple syrup Emulsifier: Olive Oil, grape seed oil, avocado oil, any infused oils, oil, oil, oil.  The process: Define salad’s core flavor Choose complimentary flavor elements from the five above 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: BDHutier: Oil, vinegar, favorite jelly 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