Are you hoping to forage some elusive morel mushrooms this year? These tips for hunting morels should be useful! 1. When to Start Searching Morel mushrooms (Morchella spp) are only around for a short window each spring, but it can be hard to know exactly when to begin your mushroom hunting. Morel mushroom hunting season…
You’ve got a glut of gorgeous broccoli heads, or the prettiest harvest of cauliflower: but the problem is, you can’t eat this many brassicas before they go bad! Luckily, it’s easy to freeze broccoli and cauliflower right at home. All you need is a few pots, a strainer, a cookie sheet, and a freezer, then…
Elderberry propagation might sound tricky and intimidating, but it’s simpler than you’d think! In fact, between creating clones via cuttings or starting new plants from seed, growing elderberry from cuttings is actually the easier way to get your hands on new plants! With just a sharp pair of pruning shears, a pot of soil, and…
Learn how to grow sweet violets or common violets from seed! Violets are a delightful addition to your woodland garden or tucked into shady areas or pots around your house. The pretty purple flowers are used to make tasty jellies, syrup, and vinegars, and the leaves can be used to makes soothing salves or lip…
Learn how to identify and forage for wild violets, plus how to harvest, preserve, and use them. Often considered a backyard weed, violets provide value to native butterflies, bees, and wildlife, and they offer food and herbal benefits for humans too! Foraging wild violets is an easy and fun springtime activity! Here’s how to make…
Turn edible peach flowers into this pretty springtime lemonade! It’s an ultra easy recipe that creates a single serving of naturally pink homemade lemonade. While ripe peaches are best known for being delicious fruits of summer, the peach tree itself can also be utilized year ’round. In Appalachian herbalism, peach leaves, flowers, and twigs are…
Once you’ve grown your own Alpine strawberries, you’ll find that you want more! An easy way to create more free plants and keep them healthy is to divide your Alpine strawberries every few years. Here’s how to do that! Alpine strawberries grow in dense clusters, forming thick green mounds. It might come as a surprise,…
Learn how to grow, harvest, and store delicious Alpine Strawberries, and fill your garden with these tasty little everbearing treasures! These heirloom berries will provide wild-flavored strawberries all summer long. Here in US Zone 7, they’re quite prolific, even providing fruit into November, weeks after the first heavy frosts arrive. About Alpine Strawberries differ from…
Native plants are vital to supporting local birds, pollinators, and other wildlife. Learn how easy it is to grow a variety of native plants using the winter sowing method! In nature, wild plants produce flowers, then seeds, which naturally make their way to the ground and spend time over autumn and winter, experiencing lots of…
Learn how to identify and forage plantain, a common backyard weed, plus how to harvest, dry, and use it! The herbal weed we know as plantain belongs to the family Plantago – of which there are about 275 species worldwide. Some of the plantagos most commonly seen here in the United States are non-native, introduced…
Learn how to make fresh garden salsa with this easy recipe. It only takes minutes to throw together and tastes amazing! No cooking required for this flavor packed salsa recipe! You just need a bunch of fresh garden produce, a few seasonings, a splash of lime juice, and a food processor. If you’ve got all…
Learn how to identify, harvest, and preserve wild American persimmons, a tasty late-fall foraged food! Look for American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) trees growing along field edges. They can sometimes have a shrubby appearance, especially when young, but can eventually grow quite tall – 20 to 60 feet. Unfortunately, many invasive shrubs, such as Autumn Olive…