How to Make a Cold-Infused Wild Soda
The following excerpt and wild soda recipes are from Pascal Baudar’s book The Wildcrafter Brewer (Chelsea Green Publishing, Feb. 2018) and is reprinted with permission from the publisher. This method is fantastic for making quick sodas out of your favorite hiking place or to study the flavors of whole environments. Unlike most beers, you really…
St. John’s Wort in Bloom: How To Identify And Forage St. John’s Wort
St. John’s wort, sometimes known as St. Joan’s wort, (Hypericum perforatum) is one sign that summer has indeed arrived. It typically blooms very near to the summer solstice, which is a useful identifier as to the best time to harvest the aerial parts with their sunny yellow flowers. The harvest season of St. John’s wort…
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…
How To Use Morphology to Describe Plants
With an awareness of the many forms that plants, flowers, and leaves come in, a hike in the woods or a stroll through a garden can transform from a blur of green to a diverse exhibit of morphology. With attention to morphology, along with an understanding of binomial nomenclature and the evolutionary relationships that plant…
The Most Inconspicuous Plant You Can Forage Now!
Our new Botany & Wildcrafting Course is here, and we’re so excited about this course! Not only will it provide you with an introduction to plant biology and ecology, but it will help you strengthen your plant identification skills and help you understand and practice sound wildcrafting ethics and techniques as well. In this course,…
7 Essential Tools For Botany (And A Few More For Good Measure!)
Whether you are setting out to become a professional botanist or are just interested in getting to know your local plants a little better, you’ve got to have the right tools on hand to get started. Once you start using different tools and simple botanical equipment to identify and observe plants, a whole new world…
How To Harvest Bark From Trees and Shrubs Correctly
If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to harvest bark from trees or shrubs, you’re not alone. Bark is commonly used in herbal preparations, but the idea of harvesting barks can be rather confusing. How exactly does one go about harvesting barks from trees or shrubs in an ethical and sustainable manner? In the article…
How To Identify & Wildcraft Plants Outside Your Front Door
As the sun spends more time in the sky and the weather begins to warm, fresh green shoots emerge from the earth, buds form on tree branches, and blossoms burst forth in an array of vivid color. Spring has arrived, and with it, an abundance of nourishing plants that are useful to the earth as…
How to be an Environmentally Sustainable Herbalist
Herbalists often come to this enchanting practice via a connection to plants and care for the earth. Many will find that the study of plants and their benefits leads to the development of a connection on a deeper level. From this blooms a relationship that often looks beyond what plants can do for us, and…
3 Tips For Foraging Goldenrod This Year
As we move into fall, the colors of the landscape begin to change from the brilliant reds, purples, lavenders, and pinks of summer to the deeper colors of autumn—yellows, golds, oranges, deep reds, and browns. As these seasonal changes in nature relate to our own rhythms, I was taught to eat and make herbal preparations…
