Every year I create a goal for myself.
Not your typical New Years Resolution kind, but by the end of every summer I like to have mastered a new skill. Previous skills have included knitting, sewing, wine making, canning, and rabbit husbandry.
This year that skill is foraging/wildcrafting for edible and medicinal plants on our farm and in the woods that surround us.
My goal in doing this is to learn how to survive more off the land, teach myself and my children how to identify more plants and less logos, and to tap into some of that ancestral wisdom that we all once knew. This summer will be spent learning how to safely identify, harvest, preserve, tincture and dry all the plants, berries, flowers, seeds, nuts, and trees around us. I even hope to create a book for each of the children to always have.
Currently I can identify: Yarrow Mullein, Purple Dead Nettles, Dandelions, Violets, Henbit, Chickweed, Clovers, and Juniper.
I’ve just begun learning about each of these individual plants and what beneficial properties they can provide in my diet and as first line defense in my apothecary. With a hopeful heart, I want this to be the summer that I teach my family (and myself!) all about the land around us. Which leaves me curious…
What are your favorite sources for learning about the plants around you?
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