Welcoming Spring-Part 1

Posted May 10, 2018

In earth tracks, edible plants, Edibles, gathering, harvest, land stewardship, medicinal plants, Mentoring, naturalist, nature, Plants, Uncategorized, Wild Plants, Wild Plants Apprenticeship, Wildcrafting, wilderness skills, wildlife

The first weekend of 2018’s Plant Apprenticeship began on a cloudy morning along a special spot on the Bruce Trail near Orangeville. We started the day with a circle where we shared gratitude, our names, goals and some logistics about the Plant Apprenticeship and all the fun to come!

Soon we left the company of the Black Cherry trees and ventured along, looking for plants high and low!

Here is a visual journey of what we discovered on our first adventure together as a group!

: First we met the Hawthorn (Crataegus sp.) plant, noticing their thorns and last years fruit!

: Walking along the Bruce trail!

: Pinecone Comparison: on the left is the larger Norway Spruce (Picea abies) right the smaller White Spruce (Picea glauca)!

: How many needles per bundle? Long or short? We concluded this is Red Pine (Pinus resinosa).

: Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana)

: Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) have distincative orange-ish bark, and two twisty needles per bundle.

: Scots Pine Needles

: We stumbled upon this mystery! What could this possibly be?

: Mystery plant! We noticed the plant has one stem/stalk, with whorled leaves that are deeply lobed. There are 3 or 4 flower stalks leading to flowers with teeny fluff coated seeds! Who could this be?

: We talked about how important it is to know all the poisonous plants in this region, even before we learn the many more edible ones.

: Viper’s Bugloss ( Echium vulgare)

: Admiring Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), the “lungs of the soil”

: We could not help but notice this interesting scat with what seemed like the tips of feathers and some hair!

: As we walked through a marshy area, and over a little creek we could smell the fragrance of this Water Mint (Mentha aquatica) in the air!

: We were in awe at the Scarlet Cup mushrooms

: Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata ) is a yummy spring green! We talked about how thier “invasive” reputation is complicated! We love their flavor, and know they are not as villainous as portrated in the media.

: The Wild Leeks or Ramps were just beginning to come up! We spoke about this “trendy” wild food and how to harvest sustainabily. One way is by only taking a leaf, not the entire plant, and transplanting to spread the patch.

: Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum giganteum) was coming up all over the forest floor with thier unique purple colour. This is a poweful medicine and a very senstive plant.

: Blue Cohosh Seed

: This was not the first place we noticed the Yellow Birch and Hemlock tree in very close proximity! We were all wondering why this might be?

: We tasted a teeny leaf of Watercress (Nasturtium sp.), and admired its mild mustard-like flavour!

: Inspecting some Deer hair!

: I SPY…

: A Porcupine!! All day we noticed signs of them eating the bark off Cedar and Hemlock trees, it was such a treat to spot this one!

: It’s amazing to see the world through the eyes of others, and what they notice. Maddy pointed out how this moss? Fungus? Liverwort? looks so much like Cedar leaves!