Today’s winter foraging run was a smashing success! In addition to being requested to do a winter foraging trail tour, we had to get a few things ourselves due to certain teas selling rather well over the fall craft/Christmas fair season. Those items were fir needles, lichen, and fir resin.
Most of the pics in today’s foraging update are courtesy of our tour and workshop alumnus as my own phone decided to quit working even though temperatures were hovering just above 0C. Normally my phone doesn’t quit till after -5C, but today it had other ideas. I still had 20% power when I got home, silly thing!
Fir resin in an icicle formation
We found a number of trees that had either been hit by lightening, or had woodpeckers go nuts on them, or both! There was quite a bit of fir resin, and even some pine resin to be gathered! This jar went out to the trail empty, and came back full in short order!
While we asked a few younger fir trees for sprigs, we also found entire branches laying on the ground, which we scooped up and brought home. The big ones on Ashley’s back here, are now dripping in the shower stall!
We found some lichen, but most of it is still actively growing and in the green or blue stage of growth. We were able to bring home some monochrome lichen, but it is SO soft in these wet, mild temperatures, that it will take a bit to dry on our kitchen counter.
Kinnickinick/bearberry
Other herbs were also spotted today, such as kinnickinnick or bearberry, a succulent that can be harvested year-round if you know where to look in the snow.
wild rosehips
We also found rosehips of the larger variety out on the trail. After bringing them home, I decided to do a trial run of making them into a garland. Ashley thinks they’d look nicer with a knot between each one, but I am no good at making evenly-spaced knots. Otherwise, I think this string went together very well. Creating rosehip garland is a proposed advanced foraging workshop for children that could happen next fall.
Speaking of garland, while most people are now considering when they will dedecorate for another year, I now have fir sprigs all along a ridgeline in my home, AND this rosehip garland to boot! So I’m adding while everyone else considers their dedecorating timeline.
While out scouting where to start harvesting the fir, we came across a fairly sizeable swath of raspberry runners along a couple sections of trail. We will be returning to get more raspberry leaf this coming year for sure! I don’t have a pic of that one, sorry. We didn’t find any prickly lettuce skeletons, which is a shame as we are trying to track down stands of it for the coming growing season as well.
Gathering juniper berries
We had to show our tour alumnus an old, friendly, gnarled juniper tree that we like to visit at least once a year if we can swing it. We named her June, and she feels very much like Grandma June. She still has quite a few juniper berries on her branches! We grabbed a solid handful before continuing on.
Here is a view of the valley from just above Grandma June’s location.
While rain is forecast to fall this afternoon, we were tickled to have it snowing every now and then while we were up on the hill. Many people stayed off the logging road till closer to noon. One person’s motorhome had slid off near a zone many people camp or have bonfires at, while a small pickup truck came around a corner fishtailing as they approached. The snow is my favourite kind of weather, but you have to respect it on the roads, paved or not. Packed snow turns to ice.
If you want to go out on a foraging workshop/trail tour over the winter months, feel free to contact me with the date you want to claim. More foraging notebooks are on order and due to be here this coming week. We need more lichen than what we gathered today, but today was a good start to replenishing that particular storage container once they crisp up again.
Still hoping for feedback, comments, etc on the proposed advanced foraging workshop schedule for 2025. If you live in the Okanagan and have previously expressed interest in advanced workshops, let me know of the long-range dates already booked on your calendar and I’ll see where each month’s workshop can be placed to try to ensure you are there. Currently, the schedule is month only, not date. I want to plan for dates when interested parties are able to attend. See the blog announcement for more details. Send feedback to bnhc@naturalhealthgodsway.ca
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Today’s winter foraging run was a smashing success! In addition to being requested to do a winter foraging trail tour, we had to get a few things ourselves due to certain teas selling rather well over the fall craft/Christmas fair season. Those items were fir needles, lichen, and fir resin.
While we asked a few younger fir trees for sprigs, we also found entire branches laying on the ground, which we scooped up and brought home. The big ones on Ashley’s back here, are now dripping in the shower stall!
Speaking of garland, while most people are now considering when they will dedecorate for another year, I now have fir sprigs all along a ridgeline in my home, AND this rosehip garland to boot! So I’m adding while everyone else considers their dedecorating timeline.
Here is a view of the valley from just above Grandma June’s location.
If you want to go out on a foraging workshop/trail tour over the winter months, feel free to contact me with the date you want to claim. More foraging notebooks are on order and due to be here this coming week. We need more lichen than what we gathered today, but today was a good start to replenishing that particular storage container once they crisp up again.
