Hey @mountainjewel. I can't get enough of your posts, each one is rammed with beautiful photos and really important knowledge.
I am an avid forager, mostly fruit for hedgerow hootch, and am really excited to start exploring once we find our spot out here.
I would like to re-emphasise your point about poisonous plants. If you don't know exactly what it is and how to use it, don't harvest it! I know this through personal experience. While gathering elderberries and sloes I let my eldest feegle have a bunch of elderberries to munch on.
Now, I don't know about the species you have around you, but about half way through the bunch a little voice from the past started niggling at me. I couldn't grasp the memory for details but it was enough to make me call my wife and get her to check online. We were lucky, turns out raw elderberries where we were had a high probability of containing cyanide.
All was well, the eldest feegle, he is only 4 bless him, didn't complain as we administered the fingers down the throat treatment and was never the worse for it but again, we got lucky.
If you don't know what it's is and how to use it, don't harvest it.
This is a fantastic point and thank you for reiterating it with a personal story (glad your child is ok and the emesis went well!). I’ll boost it to the top so more people read it.
And thank you for your kindest words!! Hope you enjoy some great wildcrafting this year. And also in your post is another great point that some plants are toxic if ingested in a certain way (raw in this case), but are ok in another form (cooked in this case). Worth noting!!
💕✨💕thanks again!!
Thank you for the upvote! I meant to write as well about your comment on about thanking the plant for it's bounty. This is something that has become very important to me while out foraging.
I was introduced to the idea by a woodsman, a green woodworker or bodger as they are known in the UK. He taught me about the importance of having respect for the trees from which we harvested materials when I went on a search for a maiden ash staff.
It was really brought home to me last year while on my last UK forage for elderflower for a massive batch of champagne.
It was early in the season and I had managed to find a few flowers here and there, thanking the bushes as I went. Then I walked out into the middle of the park, round a tree and there she was. In beaming sunshine, clothed in fresh white flowers, one of the biggest single elders I have ever seen. The flowers were a glorious virgin white with the finest scent.
It helped me realise just how lucky we are to live in a world of such abundance. I thanked her profusely for the harvest and promised the results would be heartily enjoyed by many.
The champagne that resulted was my best ever. It is an amazing world we live in and we should give thanks to it everyday.
i love this story so much. i can't wait until you start posting your stories! i have a feeling there are going to be some incredible gems :) <3 thank you thank you for this!! i have had many experiences like this, too, and they make life so rich.