There are so many opportunities to Get Wild and explore Your Backyard and Beyond!
Summer 2017 found the United Plant Savers’ Interns dabbling in alchemy by making Hydrosols with my Copper Alembic Still. I also set up a demonstration of how to make a table top version with large cook pots for an Anybody Can Kitchen Apothecary approach! It was a great group to work with, they picked plenty of Arborvitae Thuja occidentalis for the large still and we created a facial toner of rose, lavender and lemon balm for a refreshing and renewing spritzer in the table top demo. While we waited, poured, changed the water we all ‘wafted” our way through Jeannie Rose’s The Vocabulary of Oder. How fun. Once we where done pouring off both still, they had to sniff there way to deciding which of the 7 Odors their alchemy produced and you know what, they all came up with very similar review! Young noses. They also named and labeled their labors appropriately!
Spring of 2017 found Hopewood Holistic Health and partners OSU Extension, United Plant Savers and Rural Action offering Wild Food for 40 and more… It was an extension of OSU’s A Day in the Woods where normally share a Wild Slide presentation, talk and walk about to about 50-70 interested Ohioans. This adventure was an opportunity to get their fingernails dirty planting Ramps with Tanner, walking the woods with me and learning to prepare and eat those tasty Wild Treats! It was a great success. Wild gourmet food for 40 from soup to nuts or should I say nettles to ramps! Lunch demos and eats included; nettle wild mushroom quiche, nettle ramp wild mushroom lasagna, ramp garlic mustard pesto and hummus, ramp crackers, violet-goat cheese roll up canopies, wild mixed green salad, violet honey, violet butter, pickled ramps, wild mushroom pate,. We started the morning with paw paw/persimmon and strawberry/knot-weed muffins…. Dandelion coffee, nettle mint tea and roasted root Tea. Oh it was a busy, tasty day.
Thank you all who came and thank you United Plant Savers for hosting our pre A Day in The Woods OSU Extension’s “How to” Wild Plants event. Rural Action, you all rock and Tanner… Yes Ramp Man…. we can now, not only dig ’em… we can plant and propagate ’em.. too, a much more sustainable solution. I Could not have done this event without the help of herbal volunteers and Paleo-cooks, Kim and Kim and Bill, Crazy Dave and Jenn… past students, friends, and inspiring herbalists!
It was a lovely, vibrant spring day, we where lucky to catch the sun amidst a raining week… thank you Green Goddess and Sun Spirits! 40 plus folks came from all over Ohio and Pa to join in the fun and be delighted by taste tantalizing treats from the wild (with help from lots of friends and Nature’s Bounty… cooking for 3 days prior).
Much was shared, Chip and John shared a presentation about the history and great new plans at United Plant Saver’s Goldenseal Botanical Sanctuary (please join, become a Botanical Sanctuary Member, Sponsor Herb Students and or donate to the new James Duke Library and Welcome Center). A project near and dear to my heart. Paul Strauss was there as well as Chip, an
d John, caretakers and Office Manager extraordinaire,
It really was a beautiful day at United Plant Savers with artists, herbalists, students and Lonnie, newest manager and steward of herbs and yoga at Equinox Botanicals. I feel we are in good hands with the next generation… but hold on, the older generation ins’t done yet, there is so much to share, learn and love! Come visit, hike, stay the weekend in the Tornado Cabin or one of the rooms in the “barn” pretty nice “barn” accommodations….stroll, walk, swim, be inspired by nature at it’s best.
It was a day to learn how to… Yes, How to make our own… food from the wild and as importantly, why… we ate, oh we ate…and we hiked, botanized, took time to sit in the sanctuary only Nature can offer and ponder. We learned to Id and plant ramps and felt community with new and old friends and nature.
So many Thanks…. to each and every one. Next year? Who knows, Wild food for 100! Oh joy! Just need a little help from my friends and our Green Plant Allies…………… now go ahead, I dare you….”Get the Green Spark”
Upcoming 2018 will find Hopewood on April 12-14 at the West Virginia’s Urban Agriculture Gathering Chicken Stew! Thanks for the invite Annette Ericksen of West Va Extension. Plan to enjoy a Walk about Exploring Food Security and Value Added Products in Your Backyard & Beyond and maybe a second session Permaculture Solutions Large or Small, It all Starts with a Resource Inventory! Should be a bountiful time of year to explore Wild Urban Solutions.