It’s that time of year. The wild rose bushes, aka Sea Roses, all across the coast of Maine, are starting to die down. Why is that good? Because it means the seed pods, those beautiful red rose hips, are ready for harvesting. Foraging rose hips in the wild offers the naturalist an easy way to get a top source of Vitamin C and many other vitamins and minerals. Continue reading Foraging Rose Hips for Herbal Tea
Tag: foraging
Foraging Milk Thistle Nuts (& seeds)
I did some experimenting with wild Milk Thistle this afternoon. I managed to figure out one way to harvest and separate the delicious nuts and seeds from the thistle flowers. It’s not an easy task, I will admit. But here’s one method of doing it without impaling yourself many times over. Continue reading Foraging Milk Thistle Nuts (& seeds)
Foraging Wild Raspberries
It’s a hot August afternoon in Maine, and I just returned from foraging wild raspberries. I ended up picking a quart of these red juicies out in the wilds. I left my car radio on nice and loud for two reasons. One is that it’s obvious that many other animal friends are enjoying the bountiful harvest, some much bigger than others (bear and moose I’m thinking), as seen from the enormous indentations in the growth surrounding the most succulent berry bushes. I would rather make a loud entrance than scare someone up. Continue reading Foraging Wild Raspberries
The Earliest Wild Herbs of Spring
What a gorgeous sunny day here in Maine. Feeling so lucky to be outside and not be freezing or shoveling, which is pretty much what most of us spent our winter doing. By far the coldest, snowiest and longest winter of the 42 years I’ve lived here, spring right now is feeling like a balm to the soul. Continue reading The Earliest Wild Herbs of Spring
Pine Inner Bark – Uses and Benefits
Here’s a link to my video about foraging for inner pine bark and using it to make a tea. Inner pine bark is very high in antioxidants and can also be used in a tea (cooled to room temp) to treat wounds, because of its astringent properties.
Happiness is discovering that a pesky garden weed is a useful plant!
Today I was looking at this great video from Garden Fork on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAtGrCIyec0
As soon as I saw the close-up of this ‘weed’ called Purslane, a medicinal wild herb with super nutritional properties, it was a huge ‘AHA!’ moment for me. That is the weed that has cropped up all through our gardens; practically laying a carpet around everything planted. I had a feeling when I was weeding this plant that I shouldn’t be. I wanted to know what it was, but sometimes it’s hard to identify a plant from the wild. Is this weed going to leech away all the soil nutrients so my cultivated plants suffer?
I always learn better when someone shows me. I’m so grateful to all the youtubers out there posting videos of wild edibles plants!