Wild Food Journal

    (Trifolium pratense) Red clover flowers are dotting the roadsides right now with their cheerful pink and magenta hues. Though not native, these naturalized flowers have many amazing uses from food to medicine. They contains a wide array of vitamins and minerals, as well as beneficial phytochemicals like isoflavones. Isoflavones are a type of…

Field to table is all the rage these days with foraged foods finding their ways onto the plates of restaurants around the world. But have you ever tried a foraged cocktail? It’s true you can’t forage a handle of liquor, but you can forage for flavorful, unique ingredients for syrups, bitters and garnishes for regionally…

Broad-Leaf Toothwort: Cardamine diphylla This spicy woodland inhabitant ranges from Georgia north to Ontario and from the Atlantic to Wisconsin. It is generally found in moist woodlands and blooms from April to May here in WNC. It is a member of the brassica (mustard) family,which we can see by a four petal flower which…

Spring has taken its first wobbling steps just like the new lambs hitting the cold ground all around Western North Carolina, and we’re gearing up for the official start of Spring March 21st. Not long after that, on March 25th, we’re having our first topical class, Wild Food as Medicine. In preparation, let’s look at…

Though we have been wrapped in winter for a few months now, the cold has not stopped the daffodils from poking their heads above ground and the first greens of spring from unfurling their leaves. We’re excited for our upcoming tours and want to involve more local folks on our plant walks. If you’re a…

In the Winter the woods can seem barren and devoid of life, but even in the depths of the cold times, there are trees which can provide us with food, medicine and more. The Birch family boasts a wide array of useful trees. The Black or Sweet Birch (Betula lenta), which we have in abundance…

Even in the coldest months, there is always abundance. On one of our most recent tours, we’ve found a nice selection of WNC’s winter offerings. Check out the photo above- Jerusalem artichokes, sassafras roots, onion grass, stinging nettles, alehoof (ground ivy), chickweed, birch twigs, and dead nettle, plus an usnea lichen garnish (see it clinging…