More Fairs and More Foraging! – Biblical Natural Health Coaching

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A new sign got it’s debut at an event in town that I wasn’t sure we’d be accepted to or not. Maplefest has a vendor fair and activities as part of their event every year, and I thought to see if we could attend to offer our teas for sale. They accepted us!

Earlier in April, it was finally driven home that we needed a better sign to tell people at a distance, what we sell at our booth. So, we made a TEA sign!

April was a very busy month, so we didn’t get to the final steps until the week before Maplefest, but it was encouraging to see people across the street read the sign, then immediately come over! It didn’t stop the odd person from looking at our tea samples and ask if we sold honey. We even had people asking if we sold natural, or natural maple soaps. But fewer people thought we sold honey, which was a win, AND we made more sales than anticipated!

Now considering you can drink maple sap and boil it down for maple syrup, I don’t see why other parts ot the tree couldn’t be used for food or flavouring, but I haven’t looked into that as of yet. (edit: after writing this, I looked it up, and you can eat the leaves, the bark, and the seeds inside the helicopter (snap off the wings and outer casing of the seed pod first, then eat raw or roast). At least one person claims you can’t eat the leaves as they are toxic for horses.

This is when I remind you that a horse’s liver is far more sensitive than a human’s liver. Just 5 peppermint lifesavers (made with real peppermint oil, the shortest mint ingredient list we’ve ever seen for a mint) made our horse ill for the better part of a week! A human on the other hand, could have that many without issue.

Maplefest was followed up by the Rutland Flea Market on Sunday, and then a massive foraging run on two private properties on Monday.

We were out there to grab alfalfa primarily, but also grabbed more curly dock leaf, prickly lettuce, Crane’s Bill (or stork’s bill, or dove’s foot, etc), mustard weed, dandelion with it’s roots (nice big ones this time!), Great Mullein leaf, etc.

We came across an absolutely beautiful stand of nettle, when we realized we’d forgotten our gloves at home! As the weather was warm, the improvisation was to take Ashley’s rain shell, put her hands in the sleeves, and pick that way!

We brought home a full cloth grocery bag of nettle leaves.

The haul was very successful, but as Monday was also household errands and voting day here in Canada, I wouldn’t get anything washed or laid out to dry till Tuesday.

We’ve set up our old market canopy as a drying shelter for the season, with boards on bins to add more space, and this is how one wall looked after I got everything laid out. I kept a tub of prickly lettuce, dandelion greens, some crane’s bill, and some curly dock in the fridge for salads, but the rest is out to dry for mostly tea-building and some medicine-making in the future. I chopped up the dandelion root to dry it for ease of use.

Young salsify in front, young iris behind it. — Young salsify in front, the spindly leaves, young iris behind it. the broad leaves

I needed to do some foraging in our front yard today as well. Already, someone has tromped through it, almost destroying the salsify growing there and stomping on several dandelion plants. They came rather close to stepping on my daughter’s elecampane and iris plants too! Foraging in the front yard revealed far more dandelion than we’ve ever had in that little patch before! It turns out, Ashley is watering along there while growing her garlic! I dug up some of the plants and managed to get a few more roots.

I harvested some salsify leaves, prickly lettuce, and a couple more mustard plants.

The pineapple weed is starting to grow now, which is a quiet “yaaaa!!” and if all goes well, there might be a nice crop of it in our little patch again this year! The broadleaf plantain is trying to grow again.

We’ll see how big it does or doesn’t get this year. It’s almost time to be making my wild meadow poster for the fence again. This year, there will be mentions of not just horsetail and all-heal or self-heal, but the elecampane, garlic, and irises also growing there.

Currently, with the foraging on Monday at two locations, and my own here at home, all available trays are now in use, large and small alike! All the slots in the herb dryer are full and I’ve balanced a few trays on top of it too! We are due for a couple warm days, so we’ll see how soon everything dries. The mustard harvested from our patch a couple weeks ago was 90% dry. I got it destemmed and it’s back out on a tray in the sun today. I’d hoped to use that tray, but it’s still in use.

The wild herbal life of the foraging natural health practitioner is in full swing for another season.

We will be at the Lake Country Spring Market this Sunday, from 10am to 3pm at the Lion’s Hall in Lake Country. Now that the alfalfa is drying, some of our teas that have either run out or about to run out, are a little closer to being replenished. As soon as it’s dry and crushed, we can make more of those regulars and put them back on the table. In the meantime, we have some new teas to try! Stop by to see what they are!

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