A few years ago was the first time I learned about the amazing medicinal properties of yarrow. Since then, I harvest some every year to keep around the house for first aid uses. When yarrow is in bloom during the summer, it is easy for me to run out to the garden and harvest some to use. I used to dry yarrow to use for first aid purposes year round. I found that it wasn't as … [Read more...]
How to make herb infused oil
I learned how to make herb infused oil a number of years ago and it is a skill I don't know how I lived without! Years ago I thought making herb infused oil would be too difficult, but then I tried it and was amazed at how easy it is. Every herb or flower I grow or come across in the mountains, I read more about to see if it has any medicinal properties that could be … [Read more...]
Chokecherry Identification & Foraging
For the last month, I've been pining away for some wild chokecherry shrubs to harvest and make chokecherry jelly. Last year it seemed like everywhere we went, we spotted chokecherry shrubs along the road. They were all loaded down with ripe chokecherries just calling my name to harvest them. I figured that as often as we saw them on private property, it wouldn't be that … [Read more...]
Dandelion tea, jelly and syrup
We've gone dandelion crazy! Today we harvested a whole bunch of dandelion flowers and made dandelion tea, dandelion syrup and dandelion jelly. Yum! This early in the season there aren't a lot of plants to forage around here, except for the dandelions. The dandelions started blooming here last month. Since there weren't any other flowers for our honeybees, we decided not to … [Read more...]
The Wild Wisdom of Weeds
Do you eat weeds? This sounds like a pretty crazy question doesn't it? I'm here to tell you that weeds are not just for the grazing animals! There are so many wild edible plants out there that most people commonly think of as weeds. If you've been following our blog for a little while, you'll already know that we love to forage and wild harvest plants, herbs, berries … [Read more...]
Rose Hips Foraging and 25+ Recipes
Fall and winter are the perfect times to go foraging for rose hips. During this time, the leaves have fallen off the rose plants so the rose hips are easy to see. We harvested wild rose hips while out in the mountains and we also harvested rose hips from the domestic rose bushes on our property. They're a free, all natural source of Vitamin C with so many different … [Read more...]