Nothing like a magic ball to lift your spirits! Over Christmas I took a trip to visit family in Durango, CO. Shopping in the local co-op I had an ecstatic moment when I saw a local company selling wild food products. I immediately called them on the phone and was greeted by a lovely woman named Katrina Blair. Katrina is a Durango native, and the founder and visionary of Turtle Lake Refuge. She has been teaching people the benefits of eating wild, locally grown and living/raw foods since Turtle Lake’s inception in 1998.

Katrina runs a restaurant called Local Wild Life, which serves meals from 11:11am-2:22pm every Tuesday and Friday. These meals serve up seasonally available wild, local and living foods. Unfortunately I missed out on what I can only imagine as a divine meal, but I did make a new friend in this wild food world. Click here to visit her website, and to learn more about wild food activities in the Durango area.

Katrina makes absolutely dynamite Wild Mint Magic balls, which inspired me to create a recipe using Toyon berries. I am still playing around with this recipe, and will share how it evolves over time, but it has passed the test with friends. I think I will add more dates to my next batch.

Magic Toyon Balls

2 c raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds
1 c orange juice
1 c dates
1 c dry roasted Toyon berries
1 c water
unhulled sesame seeds

Soak pumpkin seeds in orange juice overnight, or for roughly 8 hours. Remove pits from dates and place the date fruits, along with soaked pumpkin seeds, roasted Toyon berries (see previous posts for information on Toyon and how to process it) and water into a blender or food processor. Blend until you have a smooth paste, adding additional water or orange juice as necessary. Roll paste into small balls, roughly quarter size, and then roll the balls in sesame seeds. Makes about 50 magic balls.