The Rustic Elk

The Rustic Elk Noticing things worth sharing. The changing seasons. Wild places. Good books. Old recipes. Rain-soaked forests. Ocean air. Beautiful meals. Stories that stay with us.
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Welcome to The Rustic Elk. The Rustic Elk shares recipes, seasonal cooking, food preservation, and wild food traditions for modern life. Here you’ll find practical guides for canning, herbal remedies, foraging, and cooking with real ingredients... rooted in seasonal rhythms rather than trends. No perfection required. Just real food, real seasons, and practical skills for everyday homes. Founded in 2016.

For warm evenings and one more chapter. Fresh strawberries, bright lemon, and a little sugar around the rim. Summer does...
06/16/2026

For warm evenings and one more chapter. Fresh strawberries, bright lemon, and a little sugar around the rim. Summer doesn’t last forever. Strawberry lemon drop martini recipe up now.

June is teaching me that growth doesn’t always look like blooming. Sometimes, it looks like unfolding.
06/08/2026

June is teaching me that growth doesn’t always look like blooming. Sometimes, it looks like unfolding.

06/06/2026

I am in love with how this turned out! I still have specimens and frames to hang for gallery walls and I am going to refinish the entry table and put on new hardware, but I love the transformation so far. What do you think??

If you could disappear for one month and spend it anywhere, where would you go?No responsibilities.No work.No obligation...
06/06/2026

If you could disappear for one month and spend it anywhere, where would you go?

No responsibilities.

No work.

No obligations.

Just a place that makes you feel more like yourself.

Where is it?

The smoker’s been running all afternoon, I'm curling up with a good book on the lawn, and the entire backyard smells lik...
06/04/2026

The smoker’s been running all afternoon, I'm curling up with a good book on the lawn, and the entire backyard smells like smoke, spice, and summer.

Honestly? This feels more like June than anything else.

Slow smoked ribs, peach tea over ice, overgrown herbs, music loud enough to hear from the porch, and fireflies starting to wake up once the sun finally drops behind the trees.

I shared my smoked ribs recipe if you need me this weekend, I’ll probably be outside pretending life makes perfect sense for approximately four hours while meat cooks slowly. https://www.therusticelk.com/smoked-pork-ribs/

The windows are open.There’s peach tea cooling on the counter.Thunder somewhere in the distance.The herbs need harvested...
06/03/2026

The windows are open.
There’s peach tea cooling on the counter.
Thunder somewhere in the distance.
The herbs need harvested again already.

June feels alive in a way winter never could.
What are you up to so far this month?

I finished Slewfoot and immediately bought a copy after returning my library book because I already know this story is g...
06/02/2026

I finished Slewfoot and immediately bought a copy after returning my library book because I already know this story is going to live in my brain for a very long time.

The real horror in this book isn’t the creature in the woods.

It’s the way women are punished for existing outside the boundaries society creates for them.

The fear.
The control.
The projection.
The persecution disguised as morality.

Historically accurate feminine rage in the form of folklore horror and honestly? I loved every second of it.

Get a copy here >>> https://amzn.to/4dUgDbr

There’s something about peach sweet tea simmering on the stove that feels like summer settling into the house for good.T...
06/02/2026

There’s something about peach sweet tea simmering on the stove that feels like summer settling into the house for good.

The windows open.
Sticky countertops.
A sink full of jars waiting to be filled.

This recipe tastes like the kind of June evenings I want to remember when winter comes back around again... sweet peaches, strong black tea, and the slow comfort of preserving something beautiful while it’s here.

I shared the recipe for canning peach sweet tea and honestly? It might be one of my favorite things I make all summer.

https://www.therusticelk.com/canning-peach-sweet-tea/

Welcome to June.The month of overgrown gardens, humid late nights, strawberries staining your fingers, thunderstorms rol...
06/01/2026

Welcome to June.

The month of overgrown gardens, humid late nights, strawberries staining your fingers, thunderstorms rolling in at dusk, and herbs drying in the kitchen window.

The month where everything blooms a little too fast.

Tonight I’ll probably still blow cinnamon through my front door like I do every first of the month.... not because I think magic fixes everything, but because I like the reminder to leave space for abundance, sweetness, and new beginnings wherever I can find them.

This month also brings:
✧ the summer solstice
✧ longer evenings
✧ fireflies in the tall grass
✧ Cancer season
✧ gardens beginning to spill over themselves
✧ the feeling that life is asking us to fully arrive again

Here’s to softer mornings.
Fuller lives.
Heavy bloom season.
And becoming a little more ourselves with the return of the light.

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Fort Wayne, IN

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