Foraging Friday

 

Autumn is here.  My instinct to gather wild food is strong:

Now is time to get outside, in nature before the winter comes,
To collect the sun's rays and saturate my body with vitamin D.

To build and straighten my immunity.

Now is the time to forage, identify and collect medicinal plants.



 

 

With Julien in the stroller, my dog on a leash, I explore my neighborhood.  In the stroller I carry gardening gloves, plastic bags, and a hand shovel. 

I have brought home apples, rose hips, thistle leaves (made a lovely tea), mullein  and blackberries.  I discovered this Mullein plant in a parking lot.
  

 

 

Mullein leaves can be prepared as a tea for bronchial congestion, colds and coughs. The perfect herb to have on hand for the winter cold season. I look forward to working with this herb.

I am also infusing olive oil with the mullein flowers.  Mullein oil is recommended for earaches.

I discovered a rose bush covered with rose hips. Rose hips have a high vitamin C content.  Rose hips can be prepared as tea or a concentrated syrup. Rose hip syrup sweetens our hot tea and even our picky eater Eva will happily swallow a teaspoon daily.

Wishing you abundance on this fall Equinox.

 

 

 

 

 

River Fun and Foraging

A trip from Humboldt County's foggy coast inland to hot Willow Creek brought about an unexpected surprise. The family was headed for the Trinity River, where we can soak up the heat (yes I have come to enjoy sunburns) and play in the sun baked frigid river.  We left the 60 degree coastline to sweat in  the 90 degree temperature of Willow Creek.

 

 

 

I spotted a yellow flower and to my delight discovered the powerful Saint John's Wort plant.  I knew what the plant looked like.  I had just searched Saint John's Wort images, on the Internet to determine if  the sorry looking dried herb I had just purchased, was indeed Saint John's Wort, as the label indicated.   I scurried the landscape, searching for the fresh herb.

The medicinal flower was growing in the fertile soil of a rock.

Next to the river.

On the gravel bar.

I used an empty tupperware container from our lunch earlier, and filled it with the bright yellow flower.  

Once home I quickly made an olive oil infusion. I will wait six weeks for the herbs to infuse the oil before I make a salve. I will apply the salve to burns, insect bites, scratches and minor cuts.

Foraging Times

February is the time to pick Nettles.

July is time to pick St. John's Wort and Red Clover.

September is time to pick rose hips, huckleberry, blackberry.














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