The Bounty Hunter

The Bounty Hunter is a website about cooking and eating delicious, seasonal and local foods.

Melissa

Carrot Spice Muffins

This muffin recipe is one I have been baking for a while and felt it was time to share as it reminds me of my parents (I just shared a story about them and Serenity Farm) and the cool and crisp days of fall. Baking was the first thing I learned to do in the kitchen when I was little and I fell in love with the process and the results. While I love cooking, I still find the greatest comfort in baking. There is something about homemade baked goods that just can’t be beat.

The amount I bake and the ingredients I use has changed a lot over the years but I love the process just as much as when I first learned. Muffins were a fairly common happening around our house growing up and we would often have them Sunday morning for breakfast with fruit and cheese. Nothing like waking up to the smell of fresh muffins. These muffins are gluten and dairy free and sweetened with maple syrup. The smell of the cinnamon and ginger will be sure to fill the house with the ultimate smell of fall baking.

Enjoy!


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Finding Peace and Belonging With Ardelle and Ernie Quantz at Serenity Farm

This story is even closer to my heart than others I have shared as it involves my sweet parents and the story of a community farming project. This story is about them, the project they have helped initiate but also indirectly tells so much about me and the path I am on with my work and my passions. These two are responsible for fostering for my love of plants, gardening, food, cooking and of course eating and sharing food with others. Family dinners were foundational in our house. I especially looked forward to Sunday dinners. They were the types of meals you would smell cooking a good part of the day and often involved some of our family’s favourite recipes and there was always dessert. My grandpa would join us every Sunday and sometimes our elderly Austrian neighbour, Joe or other family friends.

We always had a garden growing up and both sides of the family were well rooted in farming communities. I feel so grateful to have grown up in such a loving and caring environment and exposed to good food and taught to cook from a very early age. I was raised to have a deep appreciation for nature and eating with the seasons and from as close to home as possible. I am keenly aware, however, that so many do not have such a supportive and nourishing start to their lives and do not receive the love and support they need to thrive. It is my intention with the telling of these stories around food and healing to not only look at how we can use food to heal our physical bodies but how the act of growing food and caring for plants can be deeply healing on an mental and emotional level.

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Peach, Lavender and Ginger Oxymel

It rained, it finally rained! After what has been a very hot and dry summer, we finally had some rain over the weekend and it felt good, really good. The smell and sound of the rain and freshness of the air was so comforting and calming. While we are back to sunshine today, I can certainly feel fall creeping in. The days are noticeably shorter, the morning air is cooler and the light is changing. My wee summer garden is also slowing down in its production. Late summer is the time of year where I really feel the call to squirrel away bits of summer to enjoy on those dark, wet and rainy days that are characteristic of fall on the west coast.

I am always looking for new (to me) kitchen experiments and ways to preserve the summer season in a small apartment in the city. I love having things brewing, soaking, fermenting and infusing around the kitchen. I find these practices to be grounding and it is fun and powerful to connect with old traditions and wisdom around food and medicine making.

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