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The wild part of the garden.
Well .. one of the wild parts..

That's a blanket of Self-Heal, the blue you're seeing in the photo.

 I learned, in that moment, that it's true what they say about mosquitos being pollinators as well as bloodsuckers. I reached down to pluck a leaf and up from the blossoms came a cloud of thousands of them - and straight for my tender hide, of course. I was forced to flee the area. Ha! 

We're having the perfect spring. Granted, there's been some Weather, ie an ice storm that was, okay, a bit dramatic in terms of power outages from falling trees. But it came before the leaves were leafing or the crops were cropping so no losses there. And it has meant a plethora of material for those of us who make use of such things as downed branches. I've got jars and jars of aspen oil and a particularly fragrant pot of poplar buds. Yum.

Medicine Chest - birch bark (saves the day)

Don't read this if you're squeamish about feet. 'Cause this is (partly) about feet stuff. Winter weary feet, to be precise. It's about hair, too. Winter weary hair.

But if you have feet, or hair, or even both, and they're troubling you at all, you might want to read on.

Late fall foraging

We seem to be having what the country folk call a 'long, open fall' here; no snow yet. And as this comes on the heels of the best wild fruit summer we've seen in our 10 years here, I am one happy camper these days.

I keep going for walks and coming home with the likes of this:

Top - dandelions
Left - nettles good for eatin' (and we did) Right - rosehips and wild grapes for juice

Wintergreen foraging through the snow

It was the day before February.

Cabin fever setting in for real now. Not that it's been a harsh winter, but .. well, we still get crazy. So what to do when there's a thaw for a day? Why go to the beach of course!

"Cote Jaune", Calumet Island, on a narrow channel of the mighty Ottawa river. Across the way is Mansfield, Quebec.

The Chaga ramble and the anti-Chaga rant

Chaga's kingdom. 

Rarely have I seen and read such utter malarkey as what I've come across lately while I research Chaga, the new darling of the "herbal" biz. Nearly everything I've read - the mumbo jumbo about its healing powers, the rigamarole most sites say is necessary to prep it for use - is way over the top. Just shameful.

I'm not saying it isn't a good tonic - it is a very good tonic. But I am going on record right here and now to say if you can't gather it and garble it yourself then my friends, you need to really do your research and look into your heart before deciding if you want to use it. Despite what the sellers tell you, this is not a terribly sustainable product. In my opinion, it is not suitable for commercial exploitation.

Foraging is

both hunting and gathering.

Some plants throw themselves at us: "pick me, pick me!". Some fall at our feet, literally, like the aspen. Some hide really well in the wild - I'm looking at you, nettle - and some become rampant in the garden, offering far more than we can use - I'm looking at you again, nettle.