Shopping Tips
Foraging Friday’s started today on the porch of the Todd Mercantile where I taught some of my wild shopping tips and covered our shopping list for the morning. Then we headed out to some of my favorite ‘stores’ and brought back a wealth of nutrition and abundance to ‘garble’ and cook back at my house.
“Oh Lord, how many and varied are Your works, in wisdom You have made them all. The whole earth is full of Your riches.” Psalms 104:24
In contemplating these riches it occurred to me that they fall into various categories that includes something…edible…something medicinal…something useful…beautiful…transplantable…reproducible and we usually keep an eye open for something magical that is on sale.
Here was the list for today in non wild terms:
Edible: mushrooms, onions, garlic, peas, celery, lettuce, spinach, coffee, soda, flour
Useful / Practical / : wrapping paper, straws
Beautiful: centerpiece for lunch
Medicinal: Vitamin C, Liver tonic, Lymph mover, Lymes anecdote
Transplantable / Reproducible: plants for gardening, seeds for sowing
Magical: Magic just happens as you are out in the Creator’s playground, ask for eyes to see and ears to hear the Love that is so freely offered and the privilege of watching mysteries unfold before your eyes. I taught my students to change a verse in the Scriptures by adding a single letter L
Questionable: Always keep an eye out for mystery plants. PreFriends that you need to ID and befriend. A weed is a plant that you don’t know the use for yet!
“Open my eyes that I might behold WONDERFUL things in your WorLd.” Psalms 119:18
Pray for eyes to see the blessings hidden in plain view!
Our Wild Shopping List:
Morels, Wild Onion, Ramps, Poke leaves, Dandelion (roots, leaves, buds, crowns, blossoms, stems, seeds), Chickweed, Red Clover leaves, Redbud blossoms
Items on sale
Though our shopping list was pretty long it’s always wise to keep an eye out for what else is on The Creator’s shelves ripe for the picking. We saw Purple Nettle, Garlic Mustard, Wild Mustard, Cleavers, Yellowdock ready for harvesting as well.
Previews of upcoming sales
Spring is an amazing time to locate fruit trees. Their glorious flower adorned crowns are like neon lights saying REMEMBER ME in the Fall when you are looking for apples, or in July when you are looking for Elderberries. Once the flowers have dropped to the ground these treasures are hard to find unless you know where to look. So be observant.
Look too at last Fall’s seed skeletons to locate babies of the parent plant that will inevitably be popping up in a close vicinity to it’s origin.
Educate yourself on Nature’s Wave for each plant that you wish to study and befriend so you can know it’s hidden gifts at each stage of it’s evolution and growth.
