A New Heartsease...

To Go A'Walkin' In the Woods - Walk #3: Summer's End

The forest trail at Summer's end is no longer lush and green.

 

    Hot weather has brought forest fires, smokey days, and air-quality alerts to avoid outdoor activity.

A day's rain temporarily cleared the air and I visited the trail. It's amazing what just a few hot days can wrought upon the natural abundance along the forest trail. Heat has brought Summer's bounty to a close. And, shorter days have brought a seasonal silence to the woods.

    Birdsong has quieted with the needs to nest, mate, and raise their young now met. Presently, it seems only occasional tweeting over territorial boundaries breaks the gathering quiet...oh, and that of the chittering squirrels as I walk under "their" trees. 

 

 

Speaking of squirrels and "their" trees, maple seeds are one of their favorite foods to "squirrel" away for winter.

 

        The winged seeds of wild maples are ripening and drying. Soon squirrels will be too busy gathering them to scold me! Instead they'll be racing around the forest collecting maple seeds and stockpiling them in knot holes, abandoned birds nests, and other nooks and crannies along with pine seeds.

    There are few nut-bearing trees, such as oaks, in our woods. I suppose that squirrels also make use of dried fruits and various other types of seeds to get them through the Winter.

    The disappearance of Summer's plenty is heralded by the drying and going-to-seed of the forest's bouquets of lovely flowers. However, with the coming of Autumn, Nature puts on a last "harvest" of elderberries, rose hips, and chanterelles.

 

 

Rose hips are beginning to turn from green toward red-orange and will soon be ready to gather.

 

    Rose hips are rich in Vitamin C and make wonderful tea and nutritious syrups for beverages, pancakes,waffles, biscuits, and cornbread.

 

 

A lovely, healthy cup of rose hip tea.

 

 

Berries of Mahonia, also known as Oregon grape.

 

    The Mahonia berries put on a poor showing this year. The tall variety didn't produce either flowers or fruit. The ground hugging type produced a few berries which I left for the forest critters.

    In abundant years, I gather the berries to make syrup and sauce. Wine,jams and jellies may also be made. As with elderberries, Mahonia needs the benefit of sweetening to make the berries bloom with flavor, otherwise their tartness makes them unpalatable.

 

 

    Already some of the deciduous under-story shrubs are starting to put on their Autumn colors.

 

 

Normally green and lush, mosses have grown pallid and dry.

 

    I'll miss the abundance along the forest trail, but I've learned that each Season has its function, its beauty, and that the forest reveals her secrets to those who strive to know her. For me the forest is not only a source of food and medicine, but one of wonder and revitalization.   

   There'll be another forest walk post in late September/early October where I'll share the last harvests before she puts on the dormancy and deeper silences of Winter.

    In the meantime, I'll share some of the ways I beat inflation through lifestyle changes and making many of my own household and body care products! 

    

    

    

 

 

To Go A'Walkin' In the Woods - Walk #2

 

A steep, narrow path branching off my main forest trail eventually leads to a road that leads to a lake.

 

    There's good reason to occasionally take this steep path...there are more black raspberries growing down there! It's also less trodden by other hikers and there are species of plants that don't grow along the main trail.

 

This young mullein hasn't completely sent up its tall, sturdy flowering stalk.

 

    Mullein grows on both trail and path, and I harvest its yellow blossoms to steep in olive oil. I only gather a few flowers from each plant.

    After six weeks, I strain off the oil to use as an earache remedy. I also make a tincture by steeping the leaves, roots, and stalk for six weeks in vodka. 

    The tincture may be taken by the dropper full for lung and respiratory issues and for strengthening the bladder, and as a wound healer. 

    I've recently learned that mullein's stalks and roots may be tinctured to alleviate backaches, as well. I've made a tincture just for this purpose and am interested to see if it works!

    Some herbs are "multi-talented", meaning they heal more than one health issue. Mullein seems to be one such herb.

    Another more "down to earth" use of mullein is as Nature's toilet paper. For this, the big soft, slightly hairy leaves are used. I've never used mullein for this purpose - and hope not to - as it seems disrespectful of the plant. However, in an emergency situation...

 

 

Oxeye daisies are related to our garden daisies! They grow all along the forest path, seeding in gardens, and popping up in road verges.

 

    I haven't gathered any of the daisies yet as they grow all season and into Autumn. They're usually steeped in olive oil and made into a salve to rub onto achy muscles and joints similarly to their other daisy family counterpart - arnica. 

    My store bought arnica salve is nearly gone and now that I've learned that Oxeye daisy works similarly, I'll save some money and make my own salve hence forth. To that end, I'll gather some and dry them for future use.

 

A welcome sight along the trail are the Oxeye daisies!

 

    The rose hips aren't ripe yet and neither are the huckleberries and elderberries. The black raspberries are done for the season, but coming along nicely are the Oregon grapes - also called, Mahonia. 

    Mahonia berries are now turning from green to dark purple and almost ready to harvest.

 

Preceded by fragrant, yellow flowers, these berries make delicious wine, jam and jelly, sauce, and syrup. Notice the holly-like leaves?

 

    Like elderberries, Mahonia aren't sweet or particularly tasty when eaten raw. Sweeten them, however, with sugar or honey and their "berry-licious" flavors become deliciously evident.

 

 

Last year I made a delicious sauce to adorn cream cheese schmeared Ritz crackers! A perfect "tasty bite" for guests.

 

    The yellow roots of Mahonia are a rich source of an antibiotic and antimicrobial substance called, berberine. As pharmaceutical antibiotics lose their efficacy against bacteria and microbes developing an immunity against them, berberine is being studied as an alternative.

    Here in Idaho two types of Mahonia grow. One is ground-hugging, and the other grows into tall shrubs. Both types grow useful berries and medicinal roots.

    I use elderflowers to make cordial, elderflower sugar, syrup, and mead. Elderflowers combined with in-bloom wild mint and yarrow - all dried - yield a healing soothing tea formula for colds, flu, and allergies.

    From the elderberries which ripen in a few weeks, I'll make wine and mead, a syrup, and dry some of the berries for winter use.

    I make my own Sambucus elixer to strengthen my immune system rather than buying the expensive health food store's version. Sambucus is simply the botanical name for elderberry.

    Here in Idaho, the elderberries appear blue, instead of almost black, due to a "bloom" similar to that which grows on grapes.

 

Elderberry trees can become quite tall.

 

    Earlier this season I gathered plantain...not the banana-like fruit of the tropics...but the low-growing herb that's common to wild places and sometimes lawns. It comes in a broad-leafed variety and a narrow-leafed form, called ribwort.

 

This is the broad-leafed variety. It's edible and medicinal.

 

This ribwort is in bloom!

 

    Both varieties are edible and medicinal. The broad-leaf variety is a more tender choice for a salad, but both work equally well as medicine for treating wounds and as a drawing salve.

    A few weeks ago I dried the plantain leaves I'd gathered. When they had dried I ground them finely and infused them in olive oil just to cover. I waited six weeks for them to steep.

    Then I measured out two tablespoons of the infused olive oil into a heatproof measuring cup, added 3/4's teaspoon of beeswax granules. I didn't strain out the herb but left it in the oil.

     I heated up this mixture until the beeswax melted and stirred the mixture thoroughly, then poured the liquid into a small, clean tin and allowed it to cool. 

    As the mixture cools it hardens into a salve that I'll use as a drawing salve when I get a splinter or to soothe insect bites and irritated skin. 

 

My herbal notebook of herbal medicines and the newly made and labeled plantain salve.

 

    The forest is a rich source for wild edibles and medicines all season long. My forest trail and adjoining path are not only a verdant feast for the senses, but pantry and medicine chest, too!

    In addition, studies have shown that spending time in nature reduces stress and strengthens the immune system simply by walking or sitting, camping, fishing, hiking, etc. 

    Stay tuned to this blog for our next forest walk to see what's going on as the Season matures toward Autumn!