It’s been a crazy end to the month of September!
As of last week, we are finally DONE processing anything to do with chokecherry! The exception will be turning the large mason jars of syrup into jelly as the weeks go along. As noted in the last foraging update, we will save anywhere from a mere $20 compared against our usual brand of jam, and as much as up to $80 if we were buying brand name, by turning chokecherry syrup into jelly. My latest batch is a bit runny looking, not as firm as the first batch, but it still appears to have gelled. I may have to use two packets for every jar instead of one, which will wipe out savings compared to the brand we usually buy, but still will be saving compared to name brands we refuse to buy! I took a photo of two different batches of juice concentrate that got turned into syrups. You can tell one pot was more Pin while the other pot was more Black. To my surprise, the Pin’s magenta colour carried through to the syrup! There are three jars of Pin and one jar of Black in this photo.
The leaf tub for Ashtree Wildcrafting is as full as it’s going to get for this year. Both of us are more than DONE trying to get that thing filled. We’re pleased it happened before the frosts hit however. Some years, the first frost can hit quite early, and after that the hydrocyanin settles in the leaf. Our tub was filled long before that happened this year. As of writing this, some areas of the Okanagan may have had their first frost as of September 29th. Talk about breathing a sigh of relief that we got that harvest in beforehand!
I finally got around to crushing our two grocery tubs of mallow, which resulted in two very stuffed honey tubs of crushed mallow leaf/flower/small stem. The previous week’s haul of yarrow is now partially crushed and the trays of goldenrod are waiting to be crushed. The hawthorn berry got partially dried as summer heat turned into Indian Summer. I might have to finish those in the toaster oven.
The most recent foraging haul was for more rosehips, and we wanted to go say hi to June again. We haven’t seen her since the spring, and she had a very large harvest of juniper berries growing in the spring.
We got out to see her today, gathering yarrow and kinnickinnick on our way over to her.
The white “berries” (actually very tiny cones) are now bluish and ready for harvesting.
Those are now drying in the house and at last check, appear to be ready for storage.
Then we were able to return to a private property to harvest more crab apple, get more pears and plums, more comfrey and lemon balm, and dig up more first year burdock root.
We brought home some comfrey root as well, and even as I cleaned it, one piece had already sprouted in the time it took to come home and wash it! So that piece is now in a small pot. We’ll see how it winters and if it begins to grow in the spring. The nature of comfrey is that once it takes hold, it can take over your yard! So if it takes hold in that tiny pot, it will most definitely be a container plant as well! Considering both of these plants have ONLY been found on private property in our area, here’s hoping we can have them growing for us too.
We also found ourselves discovering Jerusalem Artichoke tubors and brought home a fair bit of that! We’ve set aside a small sand-filled tub of a few tubors to plant this coming year in containers to see if we can grow it ourselves or not. We are brown thumbs, so the fact this plant tends to manage itself is good news for us.
We short-sightedly set up our market canopy in order to hang long raspberry runners we also brought home, and the bunches of comfrey and burdock leaves, only to realise we’d need that canopy this past weekend! So when I began de-stemming the yarrow as mentioned earlier, I stopped at one tray because I had to rush over and start crushing dried raspberry leaves! They still had a bit of moisture in them, so I laid out the crushed leaf to dry further. I’ll be checking on all of that this week while prepping for this coming weekend.
The past weekend saw us at two fairs, a small wellness fair in Vernon, and a mini market at a winery in Kelowna. We did better at the Vernon fair than anticipated, and did very well at the mini-market in spite of the weather on Sunday! We had wind all day, for which we’d put up two of our tarps as sidewalls. We had to quickly put up the third wall when the rain came, and backed our table further into the shelter. Many vendors packed up and left, but we along with 3 others chose to stay and we sold three more teas during the “inclement” weather!
We have learned that this particular winery fosters a culture of persistence! When they set up to do something, they do it no matter the weather, even providing blankets for their patrons to continue to enjoy the patio outside when it’s cooler! Fair attendance was very busy in spite of the weather, and even when the rain came, they still popped outside to see who was left in the mini-market. We don’t drink at all, but we DO like how this winery does things! This was our third time at their mini-markets, and we will endeavour to be there for as many as we can in the future! Their next fair is happening October 20th and we’ll be there selling wildcrafted teas by the bag, and also by the cup.
This coming weekend, we are at the Vernon Wellness Fair for October 5th and 6th at the Vernon Recreation Centre. So we need to unpack from this past weekend, prep for Vernon, and try to get as much of the past two week’s foraging processed and into storage as we can. Cooler temperatures mean things will not dry as quickly and risk going bad. I really, REALLY hate throwing out food even if I got it for free, so now that we’ve risked our first frost, it’s time to get all that wrapped up outside if we can. We’ll see how the week goes.
One thing that will hopefully begin showing up at our wellness fair vendor tables, is what I am called the “Natural Health Fun Zone”! It’s a folding display featuring opportunities to get free pens, free reusable tea bags, and free mini assessments. A $2 guess at how many dried chokecherries are in the jar will win one person a signed copy of My Foraging Notebook, and children can take a colouring page and return with it coloured to get a tiny reusable tea bag for free!
The Zone also has a petition I’d love for everyone to sign, asking the Canadian government to consider a separate act for natural health products, breaking it out of Health Canada and into it’s own department to handle testing, certification and regulation in a manner more conducive to the small manufacturers who create the supplements and products that many Canadians rely on every day for their health maintenance. A leaflet describing the problem and hoped-for solution is created by the NHPPA, run by lawyer Shawn Buckley.
The Natural Health Fun Zone made it’s debut at the small wellness fair this past weekend, and will be present at the Vernon Wellness Fair this coming weekend!
Do check the event calendar here to see where else we’ll be this fall heading toward Christmas. Now is the time to get your Christmas gift shopping done before everyone else gets into the rush! Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up soon as well! So stop by and grab some wildcrafted teas for your celebrations! My book: 38 Nutritional/Medicinal Profiles is available at the fairs as well, outlining 38 festive foods, herbs and spices and their benefits. Having this flip book on hand in your kitchen may help you choose and/or understand just why these came to be known as traditionally fall or holiday flavours, and inform your grocery list into the coming year.
Speaking of grocery lists, the Natural Health Fun Zone also offers a free grocery audit! Fill out the sheet with what you can remember of your pantry, cupboards and fridge, how much/many you tend to buy at what estimated price tag, and why you generally buy it. This is an exercise in understanding how your purchasing choices affect your household’s health along with discussion about how it might be tweaked for better health for your buck. Your grocery list will include things like foods, beverages, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene, snacks, etc.
I’m excited to have you stop by and see this new addition to our wellness table this coming weekend! As this zone only shows up at wellness fairs, this coming weekend might be the only wellness fair to see the zone till the new year.
