What are you collecting now?

[salmonberry]

Anybody care to share what their favorite thing to collect at this time of year is. Please share whether you tincture, make salve, dry, or use it fresh.

Today I will be preparing my first cup of Labrador tea. I'll let you know how that goes.

Salmonberry

[Jenny]

I'm envious! You have Labrador Tea ! ! ! When we lived in the interior, I wasn't really into wild plants that much, so I didn't appreciate all the wonderful things we had just outside our door. Can't complain, though. We have LOTS of other things here that don't even grow within a couple of miles of here.

I'll list more later. Just waiting on the dish water to heat. This time of year I collect lots of stuff. Here are some I can think of off the top of my head. I'll add to the list, and elaborate later if you want. It's a little late now for some of the things, and a little early for others, but this is a quick list.

Chickweed, spruce tips, fireweed shoots, fiddleheads, cleavers, devil's club root, wild raspberry leaves, wild geranium, blue bell flowers, dandelion leaves and roots, elder flowers and leaves, spruce sap, wild chives, buckbean, mountain ash berries, lambs quarter, cow parsnip stems and roots, wormwood, angelica roots, birch sap, horsetail, comfrey leaves and roots, currants, raspberries and highbush cranberries (if the birds don't get to them before I do), willow bark. That's all I can think of right now. Oh yes. I just remembered one more thing ---- Black Bear for the Independence Day barbecue!

I try to collect enough to last about 2 years or more for whatever I want to make ---- salve, tincture, tea. That way I don't have to collect so much the next year.

The water's steaming, so I'd better get to the dishes.

Jenny

[salmonberry]

Okay,

I don't have the courage to do devil's club root yet. The whole plant just scares me. Do you wear gloves and use a shovel to harvest? Is it just the root bark that you are harvesting? How do you separate the root bark from the rest?

Do you harvest the geranium for the flowers only? Is there a part of the plant that is useful? We have so many geranium plants around here.

Does comfrey grow wild around here or do you grow it in your garden?

I could ask a million more questions, but I'll start with these.

Thank you
Salmonberry

[salmonberry]

Oh, by the way, the Labrador tea was very good.

Should I collect and dry it or just dig down to it in the winter?

Salmonberry

[Jenny]

I've never collected Labrador Tea in any amount to put up for later use, but I know folks who dry it, then use it throughout the year in tea. I think that would be easier than digging through the snow during the winter, but if you dont' get too much snow, that may be better for you.

OK, now for some of the other questions:

Chuck and I gathered some using just a shovel. I did get stuck in one finger. Was really nasty. I didn't remember getting poked (must not have been that bad), but it was very painful, red, hot, and swollen for days. I thought it was a spider bite, so put some activated charcoal on it for awhile, then used a salve I made from spruce sap. I used that last year twice for spider bites when I didn't have any charcoal on hand. Worked great. Anyway, it did help, but if I'd known it was the devil's club, I would have picked a young leaf and rubbed on it. I've heard that helps, like nettle leaves will help if you're stung by the nettle. (I tried it the other day when my hand brushed against a stinging nettle plant.) Anyway, about the time my finger healed, Chuck got stuck by devil's club and his finger did the same thing. Spruce salve was really helpful. I wouldn't want to be without the stuff.

I collected just the root bark. It peels off really easy, kind of like peeling birch bark. I scored the root through the bark, then lifted up one edge with my fingernail. It peeled right off. Then I cut it up and tinctured it. I must admit, though, that I haven't had the nerve to try it yet. I was intentially handling it without gloves, and noticed no effects from it that way, so I think the next step is to try a drop of the tincture on my lip.

Oh, I've read that it's best to collect in the spring only. Don't know why, but that's what we did ---- just as new growth was popping out.

The geranium leaves are supposed to be edible, but I've tried them and don't think they're anything I'd really like to have for a salad. But, the leaves are supposed to be good for sore throats and other pains. Since I've found other things that work so good, I've never tried it for that. The dried and powdered roots are supposed to be useful as a styptic, so I keep some handy in case it's needed. Horsetail and yarrow flowers are also supposed to be excellent for stopping bleeding.

Years ago we got some comfrey roots from a fellow in NC. We really didn't expect them to grow because 1) they were from NC and we're in AK, so I didn't think they'd adapt; 2) the box sat in town for over a month before our mail was flown out; and 3) we received it in early April, and we couldn't plant it until late May that year. So, we thought there was no chance of it taking off. Well, we were certainly wrong. I don't think you can kill the stuff. Chuck transplanted it this year to expand our main garden, but now it's growing up all the time as a weed everyplace it used to be. But, I'm not complaining about that one cropping up as a weed. I'm happy to have all the comfrey I can get!

Jenny