A Woods Walk (much tiny beauty)

Since I have been sick the whole month of june (with suspected parasites from my pond, still waiting for test results to come back) .... i haven't been able to really walk much in the forest. I have been resting my body alot. The anti parasite herbal remedies i took made me half better, so today i went for a walk to see what the forest floor would behold. Cause if you look real close, there is always something going on - no matter how tiny the patch of ground you choose.
I found wild red bee balm, and mannnnnny mushrooms pushing their way up from the dirt...
Mushrooms hold some kind of magic, and no i don't mean the hallucinating and poisoning your enemy kind.... i mean, the way they always look like something in a fairy tale. Always manage to be beautiful, mysterious, and a sign of nature at it's best.
I saw alot of these tiny white flowers, which hang like bells or rain drops... or a saddness that is stunning in it's beauty.

I always get supremely excited when i see these mushrooms that look like underwater coral! I love when sea and land are so similar.
Tiny red wildflower.... growing near the red bee balm, but is not bee balm. Just a disguise.
XoxOXOX

Do You Forage For Food?

...cause it's kinda exciting and fun. Not to mention probably some deep biological drive that feels super satisfying to fulfill. While I am working on having much of my own food growing at the Luck Cabin by planting dwarf fruit trees, having seasonal veggie gardens, planting a variety of culinary herbs, and learning about edible forest plants... I also am a food foraging scout for at least 2 miles around me.

Meaning, alot of the folks who live in these parts don't actually live here anymore. Farmers get old and die, the family holds onto the land but doesn't want to live there, or there are the once popular vacation homes that are for sale & abandoned now. These people just are not around, and with all the walks I take in the area I can't help but scope out every plant, fruit tree, nut tree and take a mental note of when it will be ready to drop a good meal.

Pictured above are a ton of small white peaches on the ground at a house no one has lived at for quite some time. I picked through them to find the best looking ones. I wanna make peach sauce! :)

Pictured below are HUGE delicious turnip greens I found in a field down the road, the cabin & property there is a vacation spot I have yet to see anyone stay at. The field is mostly overgrown.

There are some places where neighbors DO live, and have such an abundance of apples and chestnuts they are willing to share. :)

Another "food" I forage for is seeds. I find seeds to other herbs, plants, and wildflowers that I want to take back with me to my cabin. In my hand (pic below) is the seed head for the herb YARROW. I use yarrow alot during the summer in the natural bug repellent I make for my skin.

Usually while I am out on these walks I find tracks from native animals, and sometimes I find the real thing...

These are wild turkeys that were very close and within perfect range to get for dinner, but I don't have those kind of hunting skills yet. Or rather I only had a big knife on me at the time and not a gun, or a bow & arrow. But the potential to forage some good turkey meat is easily available...and for me personally one turkey would last me 6-8 months.

FOOD I GATHERED :::::::::

I got a pretty good variety of free foods to eat. Think about it.. it's FREE. Free food and free therapy because giving in to your inner hunter/gatherer just feels good, feels peaceful, and right.

And since these foods are wild, they are not only organic but they are even better then organic!

Chestnuts, apples, peaches, acorns, turnip greens (and wishfully a turkey, maybe next time)! And there is so much more to be had, this is just what I can fit in my backpack and carry on each trip. Had I bought all this at the health food store I would have spent a fuckin' TON of money, just organic apples alone woulda broke me.

But now i can have yummy peach and apple sauce, and enjoy the fruits & nuts of my scouting labors. :)

Xoxoxox

Edible Forest: Indian Cucumber Root

I have to confess. Sometimes I am scared to try new foods in the forest because I have so many digestive problems from damage caused by Celiac Sprue...but the wild woman in me can not help but want to learn about every single plant that grows around my cabin. Today my curiosity took a stronger hold and I decided to actually take a taste of the Indian Cucumber root.

These are pictures of the Indian Cucumber plant, growing wild in the woods - since it is the Fall season the plants are looking less then perfect (in the Spring they look more healthy and vigorous).

The multi-leafed plant shoots up a smaller tower of less leaves where it flowers and makes this little dark 'berry' (see below), which I assume is the seed case. (I doubt that seed berry is edible, does anyone know for sure? DO NOT eat anything in the wild unless you know without doubt it's edible!)

You can use just your fingers to dig up the root, which isn't all that deep into the ground. The root is very tiny though so it takes a lil' care to make sure you find it.

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Bright white and just like it's name sake... it tastes ALOT like a cucumber! In fact, it tastes just like a cucumber but with a really delicious sweet flavor added to it....

mmmmmm.....

so good.....

I go cross eyed.

Thank you tiny cucumber for helping me overcome my fear of trying random edibles in the forest.

Read more info on the INDIAN CUCUMBER ROOT here.

xoxoxoxo

Wild Ginseng In The Fall (red seed berries)

Remember when I found some ginseng earlier in the summer? I have found more spots of ginseng since then, especially now that the seed cluster has turned bright red and is easy to spot in the green & brown woods. I won't reveal the locations where I found them (they are all different anyway) - cause in our area people will come and steal your ginseng to sell for a high price! Silly theives, don't they know we all have ole' shotguns out here in the woods. :)
Also, I have had several local old men already ask me if I knew where some was (does this qualify me even more for the neighborhood witch?)

The ginseng leaves are no longer dark green at this time of year, but are turning yellow-ish now and the stems are weaker. The berries are ready when they are loose and easily fall off if you lightly shake the plant - those berries are not for eating, but for planting. They contain the seeds to grow more ginseng plants.

I plan on spreading these seeds around to help grow more of this rare and over-hunted native plant. Then maybe one day I can dig up a root and not feel bad about taking what little is left in the forest.

THE FOLLOWING PLANTS ARE NOT GINSENG....

the following pictures below are native plants that also contain red berries that could be mistaken for the ginseng plant, when hunting for it in the fall. It is REALLY important not to get edible plants in the woods confused, to avoid getting sick/poisoning/ or death. Be certain you know what you are looking for by having a clear picture of leaf shapes, roots, berries, ect...!

Not Ginseng! (can anyone ID these other red berry producing plants?)

Xoxoxox

Elderberries: Identifying, Picking & Recipes

This morning I noticed the elderberry bush growing right on the edge of my pond finally had ripe berries! I have been waiting for this for quite a while hoping I could finally make use of the wild edible berry (not edible in it's raw form, but cooked into so many other magical applications.)

Elderberries start out as a cluster of white flowers around the beginning of summer, which eventually turn into the tiny dark purple juicy balls pictured above at the end of summer (late august through early september).

The leaf pattern is pretty easy to recognize (see pic below) and once you know it you will realize you see this bush along side the road, in the woods, and maybe even in your own yard.

The bark is somewhat smooth with little dots, nodules similar to a young black walnut tree or sumac (but without the nasty acrid smell of the black walnut.)

I picked a good bunch of clusters off my bush - all of which were dark and ripe. Do NOT eat these raw or unripe... they aren't that kinda berry! They have to be processed in some form, into some fabulous recipe to be edible....

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something like :::

• Elderberry wine
• Elderberry syrup
• Elderberry jelly
• Elderberry medicine
• Elderberry pie
• Elderberry dye

The tedious part is getting all the tiny little berries off the web of stems, and making sure all the wittle bitty woody stems are outta your bowl of berries that you are preparing to use - no matter which recipe you might choose. It isn't hard work, but it takes some time and care, to double check.

I had a pretty good amount of berries just from my one bush, and considered making the elderberry syrup but didn't have all the ingredients on hand (raw sugar & a hand food mill)...so I decided to just boil mine down for about 30 minutes with a little maple syrup.

I put water in a stainless steel pot to boil them with- twice as much water as I had berries.

(If you were using these to make dye, you could add vinegar or salt depending on what you wanted to use the dye on.)

Once my boiled elderberries had cooled down I poured them into a Popsicle mold to store in the freezer.... this is a great way to keep it ready-made, so that you can decide later which wonderful thing to use these berries for (if you aren't quite ready to decide, like me)!

Xoxoxox

White Thistle!?!

Am I crazy or is there no such thing as white thistle? I have only ever seen the purple thistle flowers in my life and today when I was hiking, high up on top a ridge I wondered over to a patch of Queen Ann's Lace (wild carrot) mixed in with butterfly covered thistle. Thing is, what I thought at first was the white of the thistle when the purple flower finishes and turns white-n- fuzzy, so it's seeds can take flight.... suddenly transformed in front my eyes when I realized the actual flowers were WHITE!
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Now.... see this pic below! That is the color thistle always is - (and that is what was growing all round the field....)

This white thistle was a loner. A rebel. Bugs were not even on it. It stood alone in it's rare majesty. I saw no other white thistle around.

I took three small seed heads with me in a baggie I had in my backpack - I would love to plant them and see if more white thistle will grow!

Tell me --- have any of ya'll ever seen white thistle (in any location, smokey mountains or otherwise?)

Xoxoxo

(Not) Trespassing: The Blue Shack

Decay doesn't have to take 100 years, sometimes just in your own life span humans can build things, and watch their tiny personal empire fall to pieces. There's always a hidden story, a mini drama, a loss, forgotten time or sometimes a death these places hold onto... but for the blue shack not very much longer.

Ya might notice there isn't any No Trespassing signs on this property, and that is because it is for sale - under $100,000 with 13 acres! ( If you want to know where it's located in Western North Carolina, send me an email.)

The house is caving in. Literally. Porch posts leaning into a V shape, if you step on the covered porch floor boards your foot will go through it. Windows are broken, wood is bending, pieces of the roof are falling off.... yet it still holds it's bright blue spirit, you can still read some of the dreams that were afloat when it was built.

The back of the house pushes up to a rather steep hill, which is probably why the blue paint has washed off, the wall is pushing outward under the weight of the roof.... even a piece of the whole back wall has opened up and a freakin' lawn chair is poking out! Somehow that is creepy.

Peeking into the windows, I didn't find much on the inside of the house --- the usual anticipation to see something beautiful in it's last run of decay was not really even there...

Unless you feel a toilet seat is beautiful....

The ceiling is peeling off in sheets, which shows the rafters.... the rafters are the only thing about the structure that still looks stable. "Stable" being used real loosely.

Since there was 13 more acres of mystery to explore, I set off up the long winding road that led back up the side of the mountain. Plants & wildlife abound...

EDIBLE, MEDICINAL, and NATIVE PLANTS :::::::::

The Fiddle Head Fern... Edible when it first shoots up in the spring.Raspberries!!! Mmmmmm - the berries will pop out those hairy shells....

Blackberries ..... about to be ripe!

Woodland Nettles and Jewelweed growing in patches together.... ( so if the nettles sting you, you can put the jewelweed on your skin to sooth it!)

Pokeberry.... not yet ready to use for dye, but the white flowers turn into dark purple berries. You can eat the young plant in the spring, but not the berries or the mature plant (although i have heard people debate this!)

Bloodroot! My favorite native plant eva' ! The root is used for dye and medicine.

Mountain Mint?? Some kind of minty, menthol, bee balm smelling herb that grows in the woods here....

More HUMAN STUFF :::::::

In places along the road there was old fencing, from when this land was most likely a pasture with some type of domesticated animal... I have heard stories from locals about how their parents or grandparents made pasture by digging around & cutting roots of trees then having them pulled by mules out the ground. That's a shit ton of work!
There was also a small hidden barn, with wide open slats --- it was totally covered in thorny wild roses making it impossible for me to go inside or get near it!

In a lil' nook I saw this cinder block built contraption, that upon closer examination I realized was an old spring water box....

I would not be drinking the water from this thing anymore- it was full of mud and I did not see water in it... either that spring has run dry or the box was old enough to have a leak down below.

ANIMAL EVIDENCE::::::

Even though there had been a big huge rain storm just last night, I still found a few bits of evidence left by the wildlife on that property.

First, coyote scat (poop) totally rained on so hard that most the poop part was gone and all that was left was the huge hair glob left from the little critters it had eaten.

Then a fresh deer track in the mud, it slid a little downward because of the steep part of the path...

right next to the deer track was a patch of jewelweed (see the pic below) that the tops of the plants were eaten off....

THE ROAD ENDS :::::::::

The long long long road ended at the top of a ridge, which behind the trees you could see lots of mountains.

On my way back down I stopped to take a pic with the rocks being exposed from the erosion along the road... I LOVE big funky rocks! ANd I loooooove (not) trespassing. :)

XOxoxoox