February

In this newsletter you’ll find suggestions for foraging and nature connection practices this time of year (including a recipe with wild greens you can find right now!), an upcoming Foraging Home event, ideas for expanding our positive impact as citizens of this planet, and some sweet wildcrafted treats to warm your heart or treat someone you love this Valentine’s day.

This past weekend, we celebrated the halfway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox- a time known to many as Imbolc, but more commonly in this country and time it is marked as Groundhog’s Day. In Gaelic tradition, it was said the goddess Cailleach controlled weather and seasons. So if she wished for a longer winter, she would make this day bright and sunny so she could gather lots of firewood. If it were an overcast day, that meant she was not planning to gather lots of wood and so the spring would come sooner. Similarly, on Groundhog’s Day, if it is overcast then the woodchuck is unlikely to see a shadow, and so won’t be scared back into his den - so the winter is ending soon!

Can you feel the stillness of winter retreating, and the earth beginning to warm (even if under a layer of frost today) as the seeds start to wake in their beds? In our house, this is when we start to feel our energy moving in us more too- more urges to start projects, create, and most especially to get outside and see what new beings might be waking up and showing their faces. We are starting to find our pace for balancing energy and rest as we create, learn, explore, and work toward all we want to be bringing to this year.

Foraging Winter Greens

As the earth gently, slowly, starts to wake up, we see some of our late winter greens popping out of the cold ground. We have nibbled on hairy bittercress, wild onion, and and even chickweed this week.

Hairy bittercress is often the first green we gather in the new year. She shows up first in a beautiful rosette, her unique leaf pattern hugging close to the ground. Her hairiness is found along the stems of the plant- the leaves are smooth and, being part of the mustard family, have a tangy bite like arugula or nasturtiums. Soon, the plant will send up a tall stalk and white flowers, which will become the explosive seed pods that give her many of her nicknames: flickweed, popping cress, shot weed, even jumpin’ Jesus — You have probably noticed this plant before when walking through a weedy space in spring, just brushing past her causes the seeds to shoot out up to several feet!

But for now, she’s small and sweet and the mustardy bite is quite mild, making this edible a great addition to salads, sandwiches, or anything needing a fresh herby tang. If you have a bounty of spring greens, you can try out our herby egg fritters.

One thing I love about cooking with wild food is rotating the ingredients I use in favorite recipes throughout the seasons- so something as simple as a fritter can evolve and be the perfect spring, summer or autumn flavor- just depending on what is available in the yard and woods that week.

Keep an eye out for upcoming spring events - we are planning an open class on learning and using wild spring greens!

🌿🥚Wild Green Egg Fritters🥚🌿

1 cup chopped wild greens*
1-2 tablespoons fine chopped fresh herbs*
2 eggs
1 tablespoon flour of your choice
Salt and Pepper to taste

• Gather your fresh wild greens: bittercress, chickweed, nettle, violet leaves, cleavers, etc. You can experiment to see how much of each flavor and texture you like best!

• Add in your finely- minced herbs of choice. These can be wild (wild onion, ramps, bee balm) or whatever you have in the kitchen.

• Mix all together with beaten eggs, flour (just to help bind together), S&P and any other seasonings you love

• Fry in oil of choice (we are butter people) on medium high, getting a golden crisp on both sides

• Enjoy over salad, as a breakfast side or breakfast sandwich ingredient, with another egg on top, whatever you like!

🌿🌿🌿

As always, make sure you are 100% sure about ID, safety, and sustainable harvesting practices before gathering or consuming any wild plants & fungi. 

🌿🌿🌿

Love is in the Air (and your teacup)

If you know me you know I can be a real grinch about holidays that center around buying *stuff* in order to celebrate and show our loved ones we care about them…. but I also LOVE celebrating the people I love in meaningful ways. And celebrating ❤️ love ❤️ in general — for our romantic partners, sure, but also for family, friends, children, friends’ children… and ourselves. And it was love for my friends, kiddo, and myself that led me to concoct these sweet heart-holding goodies.

Rose Honey was the first - the unbelievably powerful and sweet rose bush that our neighbors so kindly let us gather petals from each year steeps in honey for weeks to make this intoxicating treat. You can drizzle it on your toast or oatmeal, stir it into tea, or just enjoy licking it off anything or anyone you’d like.

Our Open Heart Tea is a gently sweet blend of strawberry and wineberry leaves, plus rose petals, hawthorn berries, and uplifting lemon balm, making for a wonderful heart tending & warming tea. This one is perfect for sharing over sweet (or spicy!) conversation or for self care moments.

Finally, this Wild Love Potion has been growing and evolving over the years, and this particular blend is just right for sharing with your Valentine’s love. The magical hawthorn tree has long been known for her heart effects- they have been used for centuries as medicine to protect, strengthen, heal — and even 🔥heat up🔥 — hearts. And more recently, they have been studied in modern medicine and found to have important effects on our physical heart health (blood pressure, flow, and circulation), as well. The unique flavor of hawthorn berry, and sweetness of a little brandy and honey, make for a tasty sensual treat to share with your love this holiday.

Available individually, or save a little with the beautiful gift pack shown above!

Wild Foods Winter Walk

Sunday, February 23rd, 11am-12:30pm
Location TBD

There is still space on our upcoming walk in the woods!

Join us for a crisp winter stroll to meet some of the wild edible and medicinal plants and fungi of Western NC that can be found even in the coldest time of the year!

We will take an easy walk, suitable for all ages, learn about foraging safely and respectfully, and get to know some of the trees, mushrooms, and greens that can nourish us in the winter season.

Registration is required, payment can be made day-of.

What Can We Do?

Last month the assignment was to find a sit spot for the year for yourself- a place in nature for you to visit a few times a week if possible, to just be present and ground into the real world. The mental and physical benefits of spending time in nature are widely documented, and we all need regular practices of caring for ourselves in order to do the hard work of fighting for a better world. I hope you have been able to find some peace in nature in the past few weeks.

This week, I want to recommend reaching out to those in your friend group, family, local community, to start a discussion group. This can be in person or virtual, but is a space to share news, concerns, and most importantly actions you can take together- maybe things like calling your representatives to make sure your voices are heard, but also finding places to plug in locally to help build the world we want to see. Begin to find your focus - there is so much to be concerned about in our world right now, but none of us can do it all and we all have unique gifts to bring to the table. Start figuring out the place that feels most important to you- and that aligns with what you are realistically able to contribute right now.

Maybe you aren’t an “organizer” type, or one for virtual meet-ups. Thanks ok! There are infinite ways for us to build community and take action together. For me, it’s starting a weekly walk in the woods group, where folks can attend as they are able each week. The hope is to share information and actionable ideas, but also to connect with each other, briefly “unplug” and get some exercise and fresh air, and even spend some time caring for the woods and trails and learning about plants and fungi together. There are no steps too small to fighting the horrors happening in our country right now, or to build towards the world we want to see instead- there are so many of us and we all have a part to play!

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