Foraging Escapades Again, Conifer Sweetness, and Fall Forecast

Finally getting around to sharing how this week’s foraging run went, and current challenges and escapades.

Foraging this week was on Sunday, and the intention was two-fold: get more chokecherry berry twigs with their leaves and berries, and get more goldenrod.

A third goal was to get more hawthorn berry while we were passing through.

The trail we went on has had a case of hybridized Queen Anne’s Lace/Hemlock that’s been going on for the better part of the 6 years we’ve seen it, and potentially longer than that. Slowly but surely, the plants are reverting back to their genetics for Queen Anne’s Lace.

This meant being able to harvest two roots, while deliberately planting/scattering seed heads to promote more healthy growth.

We could have grabbed more root, but we really want this patch to fully revert back to what it’s supposed to be!

One section in the middle still has plants with both flower types on the same stalk, so we’re more interested in trying to help push out the hemlock hybrid than full-on harvesting as of yet.

Some of the chokecherry bushes we came across were seriously weighed down by their fruit!

This one bush had completely bowed over, fortunately it hadn’t snapped as some have in the past, but bowed over under the weight of it’s fruit.

This is me holding up one of the festooned branches below!

A smaller, much younger bush looked like a Christmas tree the way it’s droops hung about it! I gathered some of them, but didn’t grab all of them for fear it would really end up looking like Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree!

Further up the trail, Ashley spotted a ponderosa pine with closed pine cones on it that were within reachable range, so we stopped to harvest them. These closed pine cones are pokey and hurt when you try to grab them! Ashley began complaining of the pain after gathering several cones. I began figuring out a twisting method to get them off when suddenly a branch tip Ashley was holding snapped off in her hand, almost like the tree saying, “here, this will feel better, just hold it”. She grasped it in both hands and exclaimed how both cooling and soothing it was to the stabbed palm. Looking up, a branch that I saw cones on was now in range and I reached up to pull it down to get the cones. I could have sworn this branch wasn’t reachable earlier, but it was now, and we grabbed the cones, carefully. When they were in the bag, I let go of the branch and it immediately swung way up out of reach, WAY out of reach! I was struck by how kind this pine had chosen to be with us, lowering a branch so we could reach the cones, popping off a branch tip with it’s long needles to hold against stabbed palms. . . it was as if the tree thought that picking it’s cones wasn’t supposed to have hurt, offered help, and offered more cones. I have now nicknamed it “Pinus Care-abilus” partly after the silly way modern scientists name things, and because I wanted to remember the kindness of this tree.

The hawthorn bushes are doing well, mostly ripe, but lots yet to ripen, so their season will go on for a while yet. The path got chewed up in one section by heavy equipment, and jostling over it resulted in losing most of what we’d harvested prior to coming up to that section of the path. We stood there lamenting what we’d lost before looking over and realizing we were right near another hawthorn bush, this one with mostly ripe berries on it! We were able to pick everything we’d lost to the rough patch, and then some!

We got some goldenrod, but it appears that plant is growing more thickly on a road near our home than out on the trail this year. Ashley also gathered some hound’s tongue leaves for use in a couple salves she’s begun making for her horse’s first aid kit lately. It became part of a healing salve that we’ve had to make active use of over the past three weeks, and once it’s fully resolved, I plan to write about that situation with photos.

Rain has entered the forecast again, meaning I couldn’t finish crushing the hanging lamb’s quarters in the shelter, nor get to the dried mallow. We laid out trays of hound’s tongue and goldenrod and put those into the herb dryer, and that was it that day. Monday I realized the cones were sweating in their plastic bag, so I grabbed jars and sugar and filled 4 quart jars with cones and poured in the sugar. I know I said in a previous post that I might not make more pine mugolio because I don’t like the alcohol smell of the first jar that I finish up on the 30th this month. But to honour the tree’s caring behaviour toward us, I started more jars. Ashley feels that tree’s cones smell sweeter than the other two I have going, so here’s hoping their syrup turns out. I’m hoping the first jar’s syrup will smell better once I’ve put it’s contents on the stove to melt the sugar. We’ll see. But you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, and to turn down the generosity of God’s creation is just rude! So hopefully these jars turn out when the end of September rolls around.

We are due to warm up again this weekend, BUT. . . the burn ban has lifted in our area finally! Our gated community doesn’t want me making lamb’s quarters salt in the neighbourhood, so I’ll be taking the materials to the barn and doing it there. Just have to remember to pack everything on our way out the door, both to prime the bucket, and then to make the ash.

If you haven’t seen the event calendar lately, September is currently quiet, but then October shows up with 2 fairs to begin with, and November explodes in fairs. I may have trouble getting to a few of them mid-month if others in the household take the truck those weekends. With three travel trunks to haul, a truck is necessary to get to and from the fairs now, and two sets of strong arms and backs. We’ll see how mid-November turns out. There’s also the threat that string pullers might be planning something that throws everyone into lockdowns too by then, in a bid to interfere with US elections and move along their ideas of the Great Reset and Agenda 2030. If that happens, I won’t have to worry about trying to get to those fairs, but it would be nice to be there if God puts the brakes on human disruptive plans.

Lastly, just to wrap up on a fun note. My recent update to my curly dock bread recipe, with it’s stack of stove-top-baked dock sponge breads, led to a fun discovery today. Put a sponge bread in a bowl, add some syrup and milk, and you have a very nice-tasting breakfast dish!!! This discovery was at lunch, but it seriously felt like eating breakfast at lunch! Very light, slightly crunchy, milk offsetting the sweetness of the syrup nicely. Ashley and I really enjoyed it!

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