How to Grow Your Own Tea Garden + Helpful Harvesting Tips
It’s an Appalachian summer morning and the sun is just starting to peek its face over the mountain. I start my day in the tea garden. The tops of the trees glow gold while the valley is still cool and covered in dew. I wander through the garden, favorite mug in hand, snipping a bit…
12 At-Risk Plants NOT To Harvest This Year
Late spring and summer are ideal times for harvesting plants. This is because, by this time, most plants have developed to the point where their identifying characteristics are obvious—leaves are often fully grown, flowers have blossomed, and some plants are already forming seeds, each of which makes plant identification easier. While most in the herbal…
Maitake 101: A Valuable Mushroom (+ Maitake Barley Risotto Recipe!)
Early October in New England means many things: cool and sunny days, peak fall color, crisp apples, and icy cold cider come to mind, for starters. More obscure but no less exciting (for some of us)—it’s maitake time. Maitake what? Maitake mushrooms, also called hen-of-the-woods, or Grifola frondosa. If we’ve gotten enough precipitation in late…
9 Summer Herbs To Forage This Year
The “Dog Days” of summer are upon us in the South. The dogs and cats are lazy, the snakes are more prone to bite, the gnats, flies, and mosquitoes are more bothersome than normal, and the poison ivy is thriving. Thankfully, it isn’t all bad. These slow, hot days bring more time for family gatherings,…
Connecting With The Season of Roots
The herbs in our gardens and the wild places around us live a year that is marked by the ritual of necessity. Each season has unique blessings and challenges for our plant allies, and learning these rhythms gives us a deeper insight into the natural world and our own health. Spring is marked with new…
Giving Thanks for the Fall Harvest
The time has come again. Fall is right around the corner and it is time to start collecting and harvesting what Mother Earth has given to us. She has been very good to us this year, here in Michigan, with all the good heavy rainfall that we had at the beginning of spring which has…
Lemon Balm Lavender Scones
Today is a drip-droppy rainy Spring day here in Colorado. It has been raining for days which is strange for our little community. All this quiet persistent rain is bringing the world alive with vibrant greens of every shade. Dwelling in our yard is a luscious patch of fragrant lemon balm which showing it’s colors…
