A natural living site where you'll learn about organic gardening, foraging, home medicine and more.
I was passionate about wild violets as a child and would collect them until my hands could hold no more. When we moved 20 years ago, I didn’t find any violets on our new property so I transplanted some from our old home. It wouldn’t have been home without them. Violets have many uses including making a beautiful violet jelly.
Continue Reading
For us, foraging is a hobby. We love identifying plants, gathering mushrooms and other wild edibles, and we enjoy the added variety that foraging adds to our diet. But we are in no way dependent on foraging to live. But still, we think there is wisdom is increasing our knowledge of wild edibles and medicinals, and extending that knowledge to include the winter months. Because, yes, there are still a number of plants (and fungi) that we can forage in winter.
Continue Reading
Like Stinging Nettle Spanakopita, Stuffed Grape Leaves are another Mediterranean food that we just love. While we aren’t Greek, our community has an amazing Greek festival each year and we never miss it.Continue Reading
While I love foraging and eating wild mushrooms, when it comes to growing my own mushrooms, I am completely inexperienced. Thanks to the new book, Growing Mushrooms for Beginners, by Sarah Dalziel-Kirchhevel, this will be the year to remedy that. Continue Reading
Fiddleheads are simply the furled fronds, or tender shoots, of a young fern in spring. As the fiddlehead unfurls, they become the ferns new frond, or leaf. Their name comes from their resemblance to the scroll head of a violin and can be found throughout most of the NE U.S. and all of Canada. And they are a wonderful plant for spring foraging. Continue Reading
Do you suffer from cold sores? If so, I highly recommend that you grow lemon balm, Melissa officinalis, in your herb garden. Also called Sweet Melissa, its oil has a strong antiviral effect on the herpes virus and can easily be made into a healing cold sore lip balm.
What this means is that if you apply this lip balm for cold sores topically, it can inhibit the virus directly and can help speed up the healing time (source).Continue Reading
