It’s funny how wild animals eat for free whereas us domesticated humans have to pay for most of our food isn’t it?
Wild foraging is a very valuable skill we can learn to not only boost our diets and provide us with outdoor exercise, but it can also save some of our hard-earned cash.
In our busy lives it’s often hard to find time to get immersed in nature although a walk in the forest is exactly what we may need. The quiet of the trees, the flow of meandering creeks and the scurrying of little creatures can bring us out of our worries and into the moment. If motivation is lacking, we can increase our effort to get out into the forest knowing we can come home with some of the bounty and medicine that is growing all around us. Even in the middle of winter, we can come home with treasure from the woods.
Last winter a friend and I went foraging for cambium out of as many trees as we could find. Cambium is the inner bark of trees, which is full of vitamins and minerals although the taste can be intense.
Examples of edible cambium include maples, cottonwoods, slippery elm, birch, alder, hemlock (the tree) and ash (also the tree not what’s left over after a fire). It is best to consult a guide before eating the cambium out of any tree as for example white pine cambium is edible but ponderosa pine is not.
Flour can be made out of the cambium if you desire so by drying and grinding the cambium and voila – gluten-free mineral-rich flour!
It is extremely valuable knowledge to have knowing the forest can sustain us, even in the dead of winter. Other valuables that may be found and gathered are frozen crab apples, rosehips, black walnuts and if you get lucky you may even find the king of bush medicine – chaga. This incredible healer can boost any immune system into stronger functioning.
Some important wisdom to take with us into the forest is to not overharvest any plant or fungi. A rule many North American First Nations follow is never harvest the first plant or fungi you are after that you see and never take more than half of what is available. The wild animals need to eat too!
I wish you luck on your outdoor expeditions and look forward to writing about foraging to be done this coming Spring and Summer!
Anna
YaMaY Botanicals
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