As our climate changes, it’s imperative that home and commercial landscapes in the West become drought tolerant while also supporting wildlife such as pollinators, birds, and animals. In this blog post, I’m sharing a list of trees, shrubs, flowering perennials, grasses and ground covers that are drought tolerant.
Read MoreAfter learning that common hydration powder packets contain many ingredients (such as pure cane sugar as the primary ingredient) that negatively impact our health and hormones, I began scheming ways to make my own herbal electrolyte drink. I crafted this refreshing and nourishing cold-water botanical infusion that is loaded with minerals and electrolytes for hydration.
Read MoreMy personal ritual of communing with the land, foraging with gratitude, then crafting a my own symbol of hope and everlasting life to hang on my front door is my way of welcoming winter. It is, after all, on the winter solstice when our solar year ends and a new seasonal year begins.
Read MoreDuring the week of the Fall Equinox each year you can find me in my kitchen chopping up spicy garden-grown vegetables and adding them to a large glass jar. I’m making fire cider in preparation for the oncoming cold and flu season. Fire Cider is a spicy cold and flu tonic that boosts immunity, improves digestion, and warms the body. Discover the benefits of fire cider, how to make fire cider, and how to use fire cider in this simple recipe.
Read MoreYarrow salve is a natural remedy for bee stings, rashes, minor cuts, burns, and abrasions. Learn how to identify, forage and wildcraft with yarrow as well as make your own yarrow salve at home for your natural first aid kit.
Read MoreForaging and wildcrafting is an amazing way to connect to nature anytime throughout the year. Knowing what plants are doing in each season as well as what’s available to forage has helped me develop an intimate relationship with my landscape. To help you develop fundamental knowledge of foraging and wildcrafting through a seasonal year, I’m sharing a list of what to forage in each season.
Read MoreThere are few things in life more joyful than going for a walk in nature, identifying a plant, then foraging and wildcrafting with it to create a delicious meal or medicinal herbal remedy. Engaging in the ancient and beautiful tradition of foraging and wildcrafting is an enriching practice that intimately bonds us with the natural world. Although, foraging of any kind has an impact on the environment. Here’s a handy checklist covering safe, sustainable, and ethical foraging practices that all foragers should review before foraging and wildcrafting.
Read MoreEvery piece of land holds innumerable stories. When we breathe deep and quiet our minds the language traverses into our bodies like gently moving mist. It’s delivered in a language only our bodies can speak. It is my desire for the knowing of such stories that leads me back into these misty mountains time and time again to the land that has cradled me since I was a babe.
Read MoreI wanted to capture the poetic and whimsical elegance of this late summer meadow in motion by mindfully crafting an ikebana flower arrangement.
Read MoreSpruce tips are one of my favorite easy spring plants to forage. I especially love to munch the raw, tender, zingy shoots with trail mix on a hike. While other wild plants might be elusive to locate, spruce tips are usually quite abundant and safe to forage. Because this plant is a great introductory plant into the world of foraging I thought I would share tips for foraging wild spruce tips plus my recipe for quick-pickled spruce tips, so you can also enjoy the wild flavors of the forest this spring.
Read MoreI just spent the day working in the garden. It creates a certain sort of soreness in all the large and small muscles that is most gratifying. As I dust off my knees, hang up my tools for the day and rub my allergy itchy eyes, the only thing I want to do is take a long hot soak in the tub. It’s my favorite way to nurse my body after a hard day in the yard. So I turn to a few of my favorite floral plant allies to quickly craft up a nourishing and soothing blend of bath soak and body oil. As a bath soak and body oil blend, chamomile and rose is divinely aromatic and calming. As I soak the day away at golden hour and watch the buds of rose and chamomile swirl in the steaming waters around my knees and hair I dream of the flowers that will soon burst to life in my freshly prepped garden.
Read MoreLearn how to make your own wild pine infused vinegar natural cleaning spray. Forage for pine needles and try my easy Wild Pine All Purpose Cleaning Spray recipe to enliven your spring cleaning activities this season. Consider this a sneak peek into my upcoming Forage & Wildcrafting Course that launches Spring 2021.
Read MoreWeeding has become an essential self-soothing routine these weeks at home lately. On the worst of days it’s a task to distract me. Other days it feels more like a sacred meditation, or an intimate dialog between me and Her. In this therapy session with nature, she reminds me that things are not always as they seem. Labels are deceiving. A “weed”, after all, is only a flower growing in a place where someone doesn’t want it.
Read MoreMy eyes opened softly and blinked away the sleep of another fitful night. I yawned and stretched leisurely as I looked out the window above my bed to greet the grey spring morning. There was nothing to do and nowhere to go so I welcomed the opportunity to linger in bed. It was our first day off in weeks. A welcomed rest, but gifted at the cost of being unemployed due to the national mandate to isolate and halt any non-essential business. As my husband and I lay in bed, propped up on our forearms with linen sheets tangled around our waists, we quietly gazed out the window searching for answers in our minds' eyes. As nice as it felt to finally be home while the panic about the coronavirus pandemic continued in the outside world, we couldn’t help but wonder how we’d survive the next few months financially. The uncertainty of sustaining our health and the health of our family members also muddled our quandering thoughts. So I did what I always do when my ends feel fried; I escaped into nature to calm my mind.
Read MoreWhen I add a new tool to my collection, I’m not just buying a tool to get the job done, I’m buying an extension to my hands that will garden and forage with me for the rest of my life. These tools will become my allies and comrades in all my ventures, and so I regard tool buying as one of my most important gardening and foraging tasks. Nevertheless the sheer amount of tools on the market can be overwhelming. Knowing what tool is best for what job, or learning what tool can help make many tasks easier takes time and experience. So I’ve compiled a guide to share the gardening and foraging tools that I cannot work without. And I’ve shared what tasks I use them for, too.
Read MoreThe land looks barren in November. Where others overlook this understated micro-season and turn their heads in disgust at the brown and grey, I see beauty. In my latest woodland adventure, I sought to bring the kiss of nature’s November to the holiday dinner table. As it turns out, I enjoy this simple foraged holiday tablescape so much that I think I’ll keep it around through the New Year. My holiday table will hold the space for intentional holiday gatherings, delicious home-cooked meals, catch-up conversations with old friends, and heart-centered connections with family. See how I’ve captured the essence of nature’s understated calm through my sustainably foraged holiday decor.
Read MoreIt is 8:30 Monday morning and I have a different sort of commute. As the sun crests over the peaks, I walk onward and upward into the forest. For those willing to walk the path less traveled, wild foraging is a journey that nourishes the body and re-wilds the soul.
Read MoreHave you ever walked under evergreens and noticed the trees excreting drops of sap? On a recent adventure into the forest I came across a beautiful old pine tree that was dropping large globs of pine resin. Here are my instructions for sustainably harvesting pine resin and using it to craft an antimicrobial healing balm.
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