THAT was a weekend! We were at Creative Chaos in Vernon over the weekend, a three-day massive craft fair bringing vendors from across Canada! We were able to reconnect with a herbalist who got us started on our wildcrafted herbal journey 10 years ago on Canada Day. That had to be the biggest highlight of the entire weekend, being able to say hi, then later thank him for sharing the tidbit of advice that sent us down this engaging, fun, lifetime of learning!
- Because of that initial wild herbal recipe, I now offer Biblical Natural Health Coaching.
- Because of that initial wild herbal recipe, my daughter now has her Chartered Herbalist Certificate.
- Because of that initial wild herbal recipe, we’ve saved tons of money NOT going to the pharmacy anywhere near as often, and because of that recipe, not frequenting the produce section of the grocery store as often either!
- Because of that recipe, we now make our own personal hygiene products, often with wild herbs, and
- As that initial recipe was for my daughter’s horse, that horse has also benefited over the years as well, not merely with the one condition being handled, but other situations cropping up as they do over time.
If you want to check out who set us down this road, his name is Joe, and he runs Forest Garden Soap and Sundry. We’ve been wishing we could run into him to say thanks for several years now, and this past weekend, we got our chance!
We ran into a number of people we haven’t seen in years and got to catch up with them a little. Having my brochure, business card and books out on the table proved to be an encouragement to several fellow believers, one of which is newly-saved, and so relieved to find a natural health practitioner offering natural health from a Biblical perspective! She had two young children, one still in a carrier. I let the older one grab a free pen off the table. Speaking of children, another child, potentially around 10yrs old give or take a couple years, maybe younger, bought a sample envelope from us!
We debuted a new product to the Ashtree Wildcrafting line: Sample Collections! These contain envelopes filled with 2 tablespoons or 6 teaspoons of tea, allowing for up to 6 cups of tea depending on how heaping a person fills their teaspoon or not. We had one full collection featuring a sample of everything across the table, and a number of smaller, themed collections. We had a few individual sample envelopes, and the young child grabbed one of those and bought it. They’re only 3 dollars each by themselves. So now Ashtree Wildcrafting has a product offering that a child sent out with a $5 bill to buy themselves somthing, can buy. I was tickled to watch that envelope walk away on Sunday in small hands.
We are occasionally asked if Ashtree Wildcrafting sells cups. Ashley wants to learn how to make low-fired mugs, and we’ve got the bisk fire step down pat, but the glaze recipe has been so far eluding us. It is said you can both bisk and glaze in the same step if you wish, and we’ve been trying that, and while one recipe very nearly worked, the bubbling caused leakage when tested. We’ve bought some premade low-fire glaze, but may decide to bisk and glaze fire separately to see if that works out better, if it does for the premade blend, we may try one of our glaze recipes again to see if the bubbling stops and the glaze holds water.
In the meantime, we went to various thrift stores and found some beautiful English china! I had to price it out online to see what others are charging for it, and then figured out price tags from there to a) relfect we got it second-hand and b) reflect the vintage quality that others charge quite a bit more for. Those can’t go on tables at fairs where only hand-crafted items are allowed, but they can appear at fairs where they accept reps for products made by other companies. Ashley needs to sew more reusable tea bags, and then we can start referring to our setup as a roving tea parler! If I get more culinary ash made, get more fir tip syrup made, then the curly dock cookies can go out as well, and maybe ash biscuits too. We’ve bought ph strips to test for ph levels to sell chokecherry jelly on our table, which has put an idea in my head. . .
My first job out of high school was in a Welsh Tea Room in Chemanus, BC. They served Afternoon Tea in Tea for One, Tea for Two, and Tea for Four. Tea for One was served on a two-layer cake server, and Tea for Two or Four was served on a 3 layer cake server. The bottom layer featured cut up sandwiches. The middle layer of the Tea for Four, featured large fluffy scones. The top layer of Tea for One featured those scones with containers of custard and jam while the custard and jam containers sat on the top-most 3rd layer of the cake server in a Tea for Two or Four. Can you see where I’m going with this? Ash biscuits on the bottom layer, curly dock cookies in the middle or top layer, and chokecherry jelly on the top layer. I’ve learned how to make fir syrup butter, and that could go on the top tray of the cake server too. Some people are taking vintage china plates and making their cake servers from a dinner plate on the bottom, lunch plate in the middle, and saucer on the top. As this generally requires drilling through the porcelain, something that done wrong will shatter the plate, an idea popped into my head to take porcelain skinny bud vases and superglue those in as the center post supporting each tray, then glue it all down to a lazy susan spinner and done! The more I think about that, the more I might try to do it!
While I have my foodsafe level 1 certificate, we don’t yet have a foodsafe kitchen, so we can’t offer a wildcrafted Tea for One, Two or Four, all we can do is process and bag looseleaf tea. No risk of pathogens in that task. Sales of wildcrafted teas are growing, so the need to expand to where we can obtain a full-blown business license would require a space that Interior Health can inspect. So we are on the lookout now to see what’s available for foodsafe kitchen rentals that would accept a business address that Interior Health can pop in on randomly when they do snap inspections. If we can get this as a roving food kitchen such as a food trailer or food truck, then we merely find a permanent resting place for it that accepts a business address. We don’t have that space where we live. The gated community doesn’t allow business addresses within the gates. But this is very much on the radar now and could be forced into reality within the next few years, if not sooner.
Getting final tasks ready for Creative Chaos meant a pause in writing the textbook, but it’s still going forward. I’m also 3 lessons into taking a herbalism for animals course. There are 11 lessons, so I need to find time to continue that set of studies. Once completed, that course will grant me a certificate in Herbalism for Animals. As I am not a practicing veterinarian, the certificate lends credence to recommendations I may suggest for your pet, but is not to be construed as diagnosing or treatment from a licensed vet. Only vets trained in mainstream methods are allowed to diagnose or treat your pet. Some liability insurance companies won’t insure you if you offer recommendations for pets either. But I am taking the course anyway, as it will bolster what we’ve learned in our house for dealing with horses, cats, and the occasional dog so far to date. People are discovering that mainstream health isn’t just harmful for their own health and wellness, but also that of their pets, and they are asking if what we recommend for them will work for their pet too. Sometimes the answer is yes, other times the answer is no. Humans can eat what animals can’t, and animals can eat what humans can’t. There is enough overlap however, that sometimes my daughter and I banter around doing a workshop called “Herbs for You and Your Horse”. This certificate will support such an endeavour if we actually do it.
This past weekend was the last opportunity to register for the Thistle Workshop happening at the end of June. We have two registrants and looking forward to making a wild thistle version of artichoke dip, and making breaded thistle spears to eat it with! The coleman stove freaked us out at the glycerine workshop by refusing to start. . . turns out we flooded it and it works fine after all. So now to go out and buy the non-foraged ingredients and associated containers, print the handouts and recipes, bundle it all up into the portable field kitchen and go have fun with thistles!!!
The next workshop coming up is July’s Purslane Advanced Foraging Workshop on July 26th. We will learn about the benefits and uses of Purslane while gathering and then making a couple different dipping sauces. I may be able to rent the gated community’s kitchen for this workshop, and talk to the gardens coordinator about gathering purslane in and among the gardens to a) get it out of community garden beds while b) gathering it for use in the workshop.
The deadline to register for the Purslane workshop has moved to July 12th! There are containers, non-foraged ingredients, and other details to firm up, so knowing who all is coming will be helpful in planning the kitchen rental among other details. We don’t have a portable source of electricity for the blender in this particular workshop. We do have a mortar and pestle, but it is only one, and not big enough to make a single sauce for several people. So if you are interested in attending this workshop, let me know ASAP so I can finalize details around your attendance! (do manual blenders (not wisk-type) exist???)
We’ve just registered for more summer craft fairs. The calendars for both Biblical Natural Health Coaching and Ashtree Wildcrafting will be updated shortly. We’ll be at two Fintry Manor craft fairs, one in July and one in August, and if all goes well, we’ll be at the Garlic Festival in Oyama again in August as well.
August will see another Advanced Foraging Workshop, this time around chokecherry berries! We will make some juice concentrate, then turn that into a syrup and from there into a jelly! The bushes are showing signs of having a bumper crop this year, and some of the early breeds will be very heavy by the time the workshop date rolls around. It will be a very yummy, finger-staining event! We will request that leaves and stems be kept, as Ashtree Wildcrafting uses those. We keep the stems for home use and dry/crush the leaves as a base in several teas we offer for sale.
So catching us in person over the next while will take place at Lumby Days Indoor Craft Fair June 14th and 15th, Schubert Centre craft fair June 28th, Fintry Manor July 19th, and in August, the garlic festival on the 10th and Fintry Manor on the 17th.
Hope to see you at one of those events if you are in the area!
Final note for today, due to various people at wellness fairs and even at craft fairs asking if we are 7th Day Adventist, no we are not. We are evangelical in our Christian faith. A basic Statement of Faith is now added to my website in two places, the Spiritual Wafare right-hand menu, and up under About in the main menu.
