January

In this newsletter you’ll find suggestions for foraging and nature connection practices this time of year (including a recipe for cookies!), an upcoming Foraging Home event, ideas for expanding our positive impact as citizens of this planet, and a few seasonal products.

Though the days are slowly getting longer, January is often the time we start to feel the resting season in our bones, after an overly-busy holiday month around the Solstice. This is the time to snuggle in against the cold and dark, to let our bodies and hearts rest as the plants do this time of year, and to dream of what this year will bring - and what we will bring to it.

But right now I think many of us are also feeling a restlessness. Big shifts are happening in the world around us, and we feel a deep pull- a need, actually- to shift our inner selves and our communities to build a better world of connection, resilience, safety, love, and well-being for all. We are feeling called to attune more closely to all that matters to us and all that we dream for the world, and in this year to take action to protect, create, and be a part that dream.

If you’d like to support your rest & dreaming season with locally and sustainably gathered plant allies, scroll down for our sleep supporting and dream-enhancing teas.

Foraging White Pine

One of my favorite things to forage this time of year is evergreen needles and white pine is, to my palate, the tastiest one. This plant is packed with vitamin C, antioxidants, and a slew of body supporting and healing properties, and is available to gather in one form or another year-round. And it tastes, somehow, magically, like memories of winter holidays! I’m grateful when the greens, mushrooms and berries slow down with the shorter days and I can spend time with the still-abundant-but-fewer wild foods and medicines that remain.

White pine is a relatively easy one to learn with her bundles of 5 needles, each with a white stripe running down one side (these are actually tiny breathing holes for the tree!). Still, always be sure you are 100% about what plant you have found, as well as best practices for gathering with care, before harvesting or eating any wild foods.

🌲🍪White Pine Shortbread Cookies🍪🌲
1 cup butter (unsalted)
1/2 c sugar
1 tablespoon orange zest
Pinch of salt
About 1/8 cup finely ground pine needles
2 cups all purpose flour

Beat together butter and sugar until creamy, then add zest, salt and conifer needles and blend. Gradually add flour, mixing until it just comes together when squeezed.

Divide dough in half and roll out into logs. Wrap tightly in wax paper and chill for 30 minutes.

Slice into quarter inch cookies, place about an inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 350 until edges are just turning tan (about 10 min).

Cool completely before icing.

Icing: grind needles in coffee grinder as finely as you can, then add powdered sugar until you get a slightly wet sand consistency. Scrape into a bowl, mix in a little orange zest and very, very slowly add cream to get a smooth icing to your preferred thickness.

Sprinkles if ya got ‘em!

Teas for Resting and Dreaming

Even in the quiet time of the year, sleep can be hard to reach sometimes. A handful of years ago, when my daughter was 4 or 5, I crafted a “sleepy time” blend with herbs from our garden and we started brewing and sipping a cup together as bedtime drew near every evening. The sweet ritual, plus the calming, soothing, and sleep-bringing effects of mint, oatstraw and passionvine, made it so we both looked forward to the ease and peacefulness of (even little-kid!) bedtime.

Our Honk-Shoo Mimi (snoring sounds, if ya don’t know) blend is one of our most popular teas, and is still crafted from WNC native passionvine, mint and oatstraw grown and gathered at our home in Asheville, NC.

If you are interested in exploring your dreamworld more, we also have Mugwort leaf available- to be sipped on its own or blended with the Honk-Shoo Mimi tea. Mugwort has been used by cultures around the world to enhance and interact with the dreamworld, and is now known to contain compounds that promote REM sleep, which is the state in which dreaming takes place. (Please note this plant is not intended for long term use and NOT safe for use during pregnancy).

Wild Foods Winter Walk

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

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?

I think many of us who care about our earth, including our fellow humans, are feeling concerned with the direction many things have been taking lately. We want to know, what can we do in the face of environmental catastrophe, injustice, and the suffering of so many (human and more-than-human beings)? I hope to create this space for sharing ideas, large and small, to help us all feel more empowered to educate ourselves and others in a way that is not overwhelming (as news of worldly events can often be), but gives us real actionable steps to take to move our world in a better direction for all.

In our slow season, we invite you to start slow. Take this week to find a sit spot for the year for yourself. This is a place you can easily get to at least once a week- even if it is a rock by a creek in your neighborhood, a local park, or a tree in your backyard. Anywhere you can sit and tune into your senses in nature, smelling the dirt, touching grass, and just being still for 15 minutes, as many times a week as you are able. 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.

If you partake in social media, we encourage you to find 3 new accounts to follow that are reputable sources of information on the issues that matter most to you - environmental justice, building resilient communities, fighting harmful legislation against our neighbors, etc. We all know about the damage social media can do to our systems, and how hard it can be to get away from it anyway, so try to find ways to fill it with things that align more with what you want in the year going forward.

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