Hawthorn
The fence protects my baby hawthorn (Thank you Eagle Song!) from the depredations of the goats (and the deer). That is why it is twice as big this year as last year. Way to grow hawthorn! (To be continued.) Meanwhile, I am swooning over the fresh hawthorn berry vinegar Rebecca gave me (Thank you Rebecca) and anticipate the day when I will have fresh hawthorn berries of my own.
Mullein
Looking down into the mullein mandala is a favorite meditation. I find the pattern soothing, like mullein is soothing to respiratory tissues. Find mullein mandalas by looking for the dead stalks of last years plants sticking up (or falling over in some cases). There is still time to make tincture of the leaves to counter coughs next winter.
Dandelion
This basket of dandelions greeted me when I got to FireOmEarth the beginning of April. Lorna whipped up a simple pesto of the leaves with garlic, olive oil, and salt. Delicious. We soaked the stalks in cold water to make a digestive remedy. And we washed up the roots and made them into a delicious spring tonic: Dandelion Root Vinegar.
Steven Foster and Susun Weed 2017
Friends in the green for forty years. I love you Steven.
Our First Wild Salad of 2017
With the help of the live-in apprentices, the live-out apprentices made their first wild salad Easter weekend. It contains lettuce, garlic mustard leaves, cronewort shoots including rhizomes, creeping jenny in bloom, wild chives, wild madder tender tips, dandelion leaves cut finely, periwinkle blossoms (no more than 2 per person per day), and forsythia flowers.
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