Foraging - Blog Posts

Purslane (portulaca oleracea)

This plant is generally considered a “weed” even though it is a superfood with many health benefits, and you probably have some growing near your home.

Purslane has some of the highest levels of omega-3 fatty acids of any foods on the planet, and also contains vitamins A and C, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and antioxidants.

The entire plant is edible, and has a lemony/peppery taste.

Magickal Properties:

Element: Water

Planet: Moon

Feminine

Correspondence: love, luck, protection, happiness, sleep

Place under pillow/near bed to ward off nightmares

Carry with you to attract luck and love and to protect against evil/negative energy

Grow in your home to bring happiness and protection to it

Culinary Uses:

Add to salad, or eat by itself as a salad

Add to salsa

Add to scrambled eggs or omelets

Purslane pesto

Brew into tea

Sauté in oil of your choice

Happy Foraging!

not one chanterelle this season.. drought :(

I’ve come to the conclusion that in most places, it isn’t normal to pick and eat wild berries you find…..ya’ll telling me you didn’t grow up eating wild raspberries and blueberries while walking through the forest or camping?

I feel bad for ya’ll, my family would harvest the wild berries near my house all the time when I was a kid, they were delicious! Some of my core memories are keeping an eye out for raspberries and blueberries while hiking or pretty much any time I was anywhere near the forest, it was pretty common knowledge where I grew up what we could and couldn’t eat in the forest. And it was just normal to wander off the trail slightly if you see some wild berries, and to have semi extensive knowledge on the flora.

Photography by Paulette Phlipot and Rebecca Vanderhorst

THESE ARE MY FAVORITE!! I LOVE ACORN WEEVIL S!!!

Found today while gathering acorns (swamp white oak). How adorable is this? I love her little feet, and the way she pivots around her proboscis, fascinated by how far her head rotates… Curculio sp. (if anyone can ID to species, please add!)

THE OLD FRIENDSHIP OF BLUEBERRIES AND SWEET FERN:

"In the time before refrigeration, Ojibwe folks kept their blueberry harvest fresh by lining their birchbark storage containers with a plant called sweet fern that often grows right alongside blueberry bushes!

The leaves of sweet fern produce a compound called gallic acid, which is a potent anti-microbial and keeps harmful bacteria like salmonella from growing on the berries.

It's name in the Ojibwe dialect I've learned is "giba`iganiminzh" meaning "it covers the berries" because of this usage and its contribution to keeping the precious staple food of minan (blueberries) fresh!

I don't use a birchbark container but I do pop a few sprigs of sweet fern into my gathering bag when out picking and then into my tupperware when storing berries to remember and utilize the gifts of this wonderful plant!

(Sweet fern can also be used as a medicinal tea to help the intestines and colon! And when added to a fire, the smoke will help keep away mosquitos and horse flies--in addition to smelling lovely!)" - The Native Nations Museum, founded by Chippewa Bonnie Jones

I learned that the fruit of the [mesquite] tree was one of many in our landscape that had evolved to be eaten by the giant mammals who disappeared from this continent not long after humans showed up, one of those factual nuggets that punctuate a truth about the deep history of the Anthropocene in ways reading alone cannot. […] [W]e will soon need to learn not to take for granted things like the wild food that goes uneaten due to the absence of the animals whose extinction our dominion coincided with.

I wonder what kind of cake we will make, if we have to make it from the fruit of the old tree that grew up in the brownfield.

Christopher Brown, A Natural History of Vacant Lots: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys, and Other Wild Places (2024)

made a lil infographic thing for a spore print i did recently! my first amanita muscaria so i feel like it deserved a proper tribute

Making some seiðr/hedgeriding glycerite today. I love bearberry so much.

Seidr / Hedgeriding Tincture:

Bearberry - 90%

And:

Cedar

Wild rose petals & hips

Saskatoons

Burdock root

Elder flowers & berries

Horsetail

Rowan

Steep for a day or two in the fridge after tea is cooled.

Glycerin 60%

Tea 40%

I just finished playing Wytchwood and now I feel like my life doesn't make sense

i hate that concerns about urban gardening/foraging safety is often met with "What are you, a cop?" scorn. I believe it's a suspicion of anything that hinders the punk/anti-system urgency to jump in immediately and do whatever feels right.

Safety, ethics, and sustainability are all a part of urban gardening and foraging. I'm sorry that means you need to do homework before you can do anything, I know that sounds lame. But life is complicated.

I know anti-intellectualism is viewed as activist these days, but like, surely you don't want to literally eat lead, right?