Learn how to identify Japanese honeysuckle, an edible flower that can be used for tea, tincture, jelly, and more! Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) is a non-native species of honeysuckle that you’ll often find growing in the wild. The trumpet shaped edible flowers not only smell amazing, they have food and herbal medicine uses too! Because…
Learn how to make and can honeysuckle jelly. It tastes like the scent of honeysuckle, combined with a light floral sweetness! Picking & Preparation Before you can make jelly, first you’ll need to head out and pick flowers for this recipe! Picking Honeysuckle Flowers For this recipe, you need 2 1/2 cups of honeysuckle blossoms,…
Learn how to identify, safely harvest, prepare, and preserve stinging nettle, plus ways to use it for food, natural medicine, and more! Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) is delicious and nutritious wild edible that may already be growing near you. (If not, you can also grow it as an outdoors potted plant.) Not only is it…
Tasty and nutritious, black locust flowers are only in bloom for about two weeks each spring. Here’s how to identify and harvest them, plus ideas for using! Black locust trees (Robinia pseudoacacia), also called false acacia, are native to southeastern United States, but have spread throughout North America and the rest of the world. You’ll…
Learn how to turn edible black locust flowers into this delicious jelly that reminds us of the taste of peach! Preparation Flower jellies are fairly straightforward to make. First, you make an infusion, or tea, of the chosen flower and hot water, then cook that flower tea with sugar, lemon juice, and pectin to create…
Learn how to grow, harvest, and store homegrown asparagus from seed! Growing Details for Asparagus: Seed-Starting Start asparagus seeds indoors 2-3 months before your estimated final frost date. The seeds should be soaked in water for 24 hours first before sowing. To sow the seeds, fill a pot with soil- we use 4″ plastic pots-…
Learn how to turn violet flowers from your backyard into a delicious homemade jelly that tastes like grape! Picking Violets Violets are often found in gardens and around the edges of houses, forming gorgeous huge patches when left unchecked. Below is a photo of a small part of the large patch growing happily all along…
Learn how to identify and use chickweed – a common backyard weed that’s nutritious and delicious, and can also be turned into salves for itchy skin, and more! Where & When to Look for Chickweed While common chickweed (Stellaria media) isn’t a native plant, it has naturalized and spread all over North America, and is…
Learn how to identify and use Eastern redbud – a beautiful spring flowering tree that produces edible flowers! Where Redbud Grows Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) is native to the eastern part of North America – from the top part of Florida, all the way up to southern New England, and westward towards the Great Plains….
Learn how to make this easy and delicious jelly using common dandelions growing in your backyard! This recipe uses low sugar needed pectin, to reduce the overall amount of sugar needed, compared to traditional recipes. Picking Dandelions To make dandelion jelly, you’ll first need to pick yourself some dandelions! For a full recipe, you’ll want…
Learn how to tell the difference between henbit and purple dead nettle, plus tips for using and eating these early spring weeds! Where to Find Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) and purple dead nettle (Lamium purpureum) are two commonly confused weeds whose flowers appear around March, or early spring. You can easily go foraging for them in…
Learn how to forage and harvest pine resin, then use it to make a first aid salve, a decongestant balm, and a pine resin sore muscle rub! Resin is a substance that oozes or exudes from pine trees, and some other plants, to help heal wounds or seal off insect damage. Depending on what time…