Yarrow is an amazing edible and medicinal plant that is very common. Here is everything you need to know about foraging yarrow, a powerful plant you might have growing in your own backyard! Wildcrafting Weeds If you want to learn more about the edible and medicinal weeds that surround us and how to use them,…
Summer Foraging
Kick off your summer foraging expeditions with our foraging guides. You'll discover the joys of finding delicious berries and healthy herbs in the wild like Plantain, Mugwort, Lemon Balm, Mullein, even Cattails!
Foraging for Elderberries & Elderflowers: Identification, Look-alikes, & Uses
Well, the season is now upon us… what season, do you ask? Elderberry season! This extremely important wild edible and medicinal plant starts getting ripe berries any time from July to September, depending on your specific location and elevation. Here in southern Oregon elderberries are perfect from mid August to early September. Before the berries,…
Foraging Plantain: Identification and Uses
Even if you don’t know this plant by name, you’ve almost definitely seen plantain growing in the wild before! Typically dismissed as a weed, plantain has a long history of use as a healing plant, often called “nature’s band-aid.” From varieties of plantain to its edible and medicinal uses, here’s everything you need to know…
Foraging St. John’s Wort + How to Make St. John’s Wort Oil & Salve
When the sunny yellow flowers of St. John’s wort start to appear then I know that summer is here! It is such an unassuming little plant that often grows along roadsides, but it is a powerful herbal ally. It is a great plant to know how to forage for, as it grows nearly everywhere and…
Sonoran Desert Foraging: What to Forage in Summer
While it may not seem like there is much to forage in the desert, there are quite a few edible and medicinal plants that have been used throughout history! Learn about Sonoran Desert foraging and what is available in the summer in this sparse but beautiful desert region. Dry barren land with cacti baking in…
Foraging for Pineapple Weed (Wild Chamomile) + Pineapple Weed Tea
One aspect about foraging that I absolutely love is when I discover a plant that I’ve seen for years, since childhood even, is edible and medicinal! This was the case with pineapple weed, also known as wild chamomile. When I learned several years ago that it can be used in the same way as its…
Poison Hemlock: How to Identify and Potential Look-alikes
When out foraging for edible and medicinal plants, it is just as important—if not more so—to know how to identify the poisonous plants that grow in your region. Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) is one of those that everyone should know how to identify, as it can be quite prolific in some areas. Wildcrafting Weeds If…
Foraging for Wild Fennel
I’ve been visiting family on the central California coast, which has been wonderful. I always like going to other parts of the country to see what I can forage, and the temperature here is so mild that you can pretty much find edible or medicinal plants year round. Late spring and summer is when the…
Foraging for Salal Berries and Leaves
On a recent camping trip to the central Oregon coast, we went on hike like we usually do, and came across what we believed to be salal berries! IÂ snapped a few photos, then double checked my guidebooks when we got back to camp, and discovered that they were, in fact, salal berries. We decided…
Foraging for Wild Poppies (California Poppies)
In spring and summer wildflowers start popping up everywhere. I love finding and identifying them, especially when I discover that they are edible or medicinal (or both!). Wild California poppies are a common sight for us here in Southern Oregon and in other western states. No, they won’t quite put you to sleep like Dorothy…