When you've got wildcrafting goals and camping goals, and only so many weekends, sometimes you just have to multitask it. We did just that a few weekends ago on a camping trip down to Cape Blanco State Park on the southern Oregon Coast. We had been talking about picking spruce tips for a while, and noticed that on the coast, they were coming out in full force. With another batch of our spruce ...
Wildcrafting
Healing Allergy Inflammation With Stinging Nettle Article
My latest article published in Organic Lifestyle Magazine is all about stinging nettles as a treatment for allergy related inflammation. Check it out! Healing Allergy Inflammation With Stinging Nettle ...
Viva la Nettles!
Not to brag or anything, but... My nettle patch is pretty much winning at life right now. That is all. ...
Nettle Cake from the Good Green Earth
In case I haven't made it clear how much I love nettles, I wanted to share this amazing recipe. While visiting my home town and home ground on the Olympic Peninsula, my amazing herbalist friend Ellen made this fantastic nettle cake. Since cake, nettles and good friends are some of my favorite things, this was a very exciting occasion. I had heard about Ellen making this cake last year, and felt ...
Nettle Surprise!
Look what I found popping up around the compost bins! I planted a stinging nettle patch next to the compost last spring after a couple of failed attempts in other spots around our yard, and was very happy to see them not only surviving, but thriving. It's fun to go out and gather nettles, but when you have them growing in your own yard it is much easier to incorporate them in your regular diet. ...
Brewing Ginger Spruce Beer
Homebrewing is one of those DIY endeavors that can be a lot of fun, and can also be tricky to fit in when times get busy. I hadn't brewed a beer at home since my all-grain Pumpkin Spice Ale in the fall of 2013, so we were long overdue. Fortunately, we got motivated by a prolific homebrewing friend living up the river who is keeping his fermenting carboys at our place. You come home enough times to ...
Foraging Family Traditions
Traditions are the threads that tie families together down through the generations, and foraging traditions go back centuries. Mushroom gathering, huckleberry picking, fishing, and elk hunting are just a few in my family, and I make an effort to carry them on for my kids. The hunting and fishing part I hope to take up one day when my life is a little less busy, but mushrooms and huckleberries are ...
The Mushroom Hunters
They pop up from the forest floor when the autumn rains arrive, golden and glowing through the moss and mist. Chanterelle mushrooms are one of the fun things to forage, and just one more reason fall is my favorite. This time of year, folks are headed out to the woods with their families to go on mushroom hunting expeditions, bringing home bags and baskets full of wild deliciousness. I needle ...
How ‘Bout Them Apples?
Although not a fantastic apple year, I managed to glean a few decent sized baskets full off of abandoned fruit trees for pressing into cider. Our trees at home produced heavily last year and not so much this year, but as a result, we found some new picking spots that should be good sources in better fruiting years. Our garage smells deliciously of apples now, and I'm excited to break out the ...
Fresh, Healthy, Local, and Sustainable Fruit Year-Round
My latest article on harvesting and preserving fruit is published in Organic Lifestyle Magazine today: Fresh, Healthy, Local, and Sustainable Fruit Year-Round Read on! ...