Tag: foraging
The Dandy Lion of Spring
The dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is much more than a weed — it is a healthful salad green and important herbal medicine. As a food, dandelion should be included at the dinner table. Bitter greens such as dandelion help the stomach in digestion by increasing bile production. It’s a good spring habit to add handfuls of …
Eat the Weeds: Garlic Mustard
Garlic Mustard: An Edible, Bitter Green Dandelion, parsley, arugula, romaine, radicchio, endive are all delicious, bitter greens of springtime that make perfect addition to salads! Why do bitter flavors matter? Bitter flavors of plants, while having a negative connotation to many, may be one of the keys to our wellness. Bitter flavors help stimulate digestion, bile …
Herbal First Responders: Cold & Flu Care
Sometimes when you feel a cold or a flu coming on, it’s easy to brush it off and keep pushing ahead. But when that little voice tells you that your body has caught a virus, heed its warning! Learning when and how to use popular herbal remedies can help you prevent from getting stuck at the …
Wild Summer Refreshments: Sumac “Lemonade”
Infused in cold water overnight, the sumac berries of Rhus glabra and Rhus typhina make a great-tasting, refreshing sour and citrus-like beverage that is delicious on its own or simply sweetened with honey and garnished with lavender for an extra herbal flavor.
Eat the Weeds: Strawberry-Knotweed Pie
Yup I said it. Pie. Who said foraging and eating wild edibles was all about tree barks in tea and wild and bitter leaves in salads?? Us foragers also love a really yummy PIE! {which that’s not to discount the barks or bitters, btw}. We all know and love a good strawberry-rhubarb pie in the …
The Pine: A Woodland Tree Medicine
Winter is at its peak — the smell of cold, crisp, harsh air reminds us of the scarcity of the dark months. But even in the depths of winter’s darkness, nature offers us healing winter remedies for the season’s ailments. Up above in the canopy of the woods, the boughs of pine (Pinus spp.) sends …
Simply Sassy: A Mitten Gal’s Sassafras Rootbeer
While on a trail run through the dunes of Hoffmaster State Park this summer I realized that there is no other smell reminiscent of my West Michigan lakeshore upbringing than sassafras. That aromatic, spicy rootbeer fragrance of the sassafras floats on the breeze in the dew of the morning or after a wet, damp rain. It is one …
High Summer Wild Harvests
The days are long and warm for now, but we all know that winter will return and with it – cold and flu season as well as all sorts of other general maladies we face across the year. There are many ways to keep the ills and chills away with wild plants! Some helpful herbs …
“Midwest Foraging” Featured in Chicago Tribune
To read the entire Chicago Tribune article, click HERE.
Go Nuts with Walnuts: Italian Walnut Liqueur
Cocktails flavored with different plants and herbals are now all the rage among foodies and at popular restaurants. Beyond the garden, foraged, wild flavors can be gathered from the woods and fields to be blended into infused liqueurs, simple syrups and handmade bitters for the cocktail cart. The windfall of falling walnuts becomes noticeable in …
