Yesterday I was excited to pick a single green bean from my “garden”, but more excited to gather from the wild abundance around me! My garden this year has had many challenges, including chipmunks, voles, rabbits, and negligence. Early in the season I realized that this year I’d get more food from my “weeds” than from my cultivated efforts. It truly was exciting when I got a green bean to rise above the reach of the voles to flower and produce a pod.
The picture shows 1) my green bean and a few other nibbles from the garden, 2) lambsquarters, which has tasty greens for eating as well as nutritious seeds, 3) curly dock seeds, that I will grind up for a flour to make crackers, 4) evening primrose, whose flowers I have been nibbling for the past month, but whose seeds I will be harvesting now to incorporate into several things, 5) quickweed/ Galinsoga which makes a fine cooked or raw green, 6) watercress growing abundant in a spring (I will freeze some greens for use in stir-fry this winter), 7) honewort/wild chervil, whose fall rosette of leaves make a tasty fall salad addition, and 8) nasturtium seeds, which I will pickle to make a yummy spicy “caper”. Ok, the nasturtium seeds aren’t wild, but they are a bit crazy.
I had the opportunity to attend the Midwest Wild Harvest Festival (MWHF) near Prairie du Chien last weekend. It is always an amazing time of learning, with classes and opportunity to talk with so many people who are “crazy, like me”. The event maxes out at around 250 people, so not everyone can get in, but it was so fun to see so many returning “regulars”, plus a healthy influx of new participants. At Iowisota, we have drawn many of our speakers from the pool of experts who teach at the MWHF, so I like to think we are kind of an extension of this learning opportunity to a larger community who may not be able to make it to the Festival!
One session I attended this year was a discussion about “Building Community Through Sharing in the Harvest” (thank you, Crystal Brown). As we discussed this topic, several shareable thoughts filled my head. The foremost is that we often do not RECOGNIZE the abundance around us. As I’ve continued to learn more about wild foods, I learn that many of my “weeds” are wonderful things I can eat or use as medicine. Some barriers to recognizing and partaking of these gifts include lack of knowledge, choices of how we allocate our time, and failure to find others with whom we can share the experience (and work of harvesting). I wish each of you the joy of learning more, accepting gifts from nature, and sharing with others.
We have some opportunities at coming up Iowisota to build on these concepts. October will be busy! Our Mushroom Foraging workshop on October 12th is almost full (3 more people can sign up). We have October 17-20 set aside as a flexible “Going Nuts Family Weekend” (MEA weekend for MN folks), centered around the harvest and use of tree nuts… or whatever else you want to do. You can choose which nights you want to stay within that timeframe, and Dennis and I will lead various forest hikes and activities. We have the main retreat center with 4 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, plus the cabin, so we could easily host 3 families. Share this opportunity with friends who are looking for this kind of experience! Lastly, we have our Charcuterie workshop on Saturday October 26th. During this 4-hour long workshop, we’ll meet the trees, make our own charcuterie board (yes, you will decorate and finish a wooden serving board to take home with you), learn about how to set up a charcuterie, and make a demo charcuterie that we can devour for our afternoon snack. It should be great fun. To register for any of these events (or for the FREE women’s walks), check out the events section of Iowisota.org. And you can email to Iowisota@gmail.com any time with questions.
There are so many thoughts I could continue to share… like our improved logo, other things happening in the woods, other things that we’re doing… but I’m really trying to keep this a SHORT read. So, until next time, get out there, be a bit crazy, and enjoy the wild harvest!
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