Wildcrafting

A fascinating word that seems to promise both adventure and art, wildcrafting refers to the harvesting of plants from the wild, most often for their use as medicines. In the theme of My Year Of Plants, I decided to wildcraft some of my favorite plants that grow in Wisconsin. Due to the generosity of proprietor Tom of Nature Nooks Retreat (www.naturenooksretreat.com), my friends Lynn and August, and myself were able to explore his property with a shovel and clippers, hoping to procure the raw materials necessary to make healing medicines for the next few months, if not beyond. In preparation for this adventure, the night before was spent perusing a variety of herbal texts (see photo),

trying to determine which plants might be best harvested this time of year, how to do it, and for which medical conditions they would be useful. I was hoping for an anti-viral or two, a tonic (to "build up" my system for the cold weather to come), or any other intriguing plants. The red herring, and, well, art to this endeavor was the fact that I had no prior experience with this property (and Lynn and August just one prior visit), and therefore the translation of our book smarts to usable raw material was a bit of a challenge. The property was beautiful (see another amazing Kiefer photo)

so just the process of walking around exploring was enough to markedly improve my health. We found only one burdock plant (on our wish list), so in the name of conservation we left it behind. Elderberry (Sambucus nigra, I think!) however was in abundance (see photo), leading to a full bowl of berries that would make a great anti-viral syrup.

That step, though, is too much information for this lowly blog; please buy my book someday to learn, in detail, about herbal medicine making and use!