What is an invasive plant anyway?

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What is an invasive plant anyway?

  These days we hear a lot about how invasive plants are destroying our environment.  But how true is this?  What is a native plant?  Who defines these things?  What is a non-native?  Who defines these things?  What help does defining a planets inhabitants by their nativeness or non-nativeness give us?  These are questions, that while maybe make some uncomfortable, are very important questions to be asking in these times.  

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Strategies for improving your harvest

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Strategies for improving your harvest

Lately I have been giving a whole lot of thought to the concept of improving your harvest.  Whether that be through the use of tools, or in quickness of gathering.  I personally as a practice use minimal tools for harvest, but a few things are handy this time of year. 

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Sumac-Ade, a refreshment fit for Royalty!

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Sumac-Ade, a refreshment fit for Royalty!

Ahhhh, summer!  That special time when you wish you could remove your skin and sit in a pool of ice cubes!  

Oh, sorry, that is what I think of the heat anyway.  

Summer is hot, but fortunately, it seems that nature has given us something that, while not air conditioning, is very refreshing and marvelously delicious.  This something I am talking about is Sumac-ade.  Unsurprisingly it comes from the Staghorn Sumac plant, one of our areas most common plants!  

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Black Locust

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Black Locust

Robinia pseudoacacia or Black Locust is an amazing tree.  Let's do some inventory for how amazing this tree actually is......

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A note regarding rain dates.

So with my first plant class coming up this weekend, and a weather outlook that is not looking so encouraging, I need to clarify what I mean by bad weather.  I WILL still do the class if it is sprinkling and or raining lightly on and off.  I WILL NOT do the class if it is thunderstorming and or raining very hard.  That all being said, if Saturday does not work, the rain date is set for the following day, Sunday at the same time.  Now at the current moment the forecast is calling for thunderstorms on both Saturday AND Sunday. If this does happen, then I will have no choice but to relocate the class to the following weekend, Saturday June 4th.  Knowing the weather up here though, I find it hard to believe that it would actually thunderstorm two days in a row.  

 

We shall See.  I will call Oryana with an update on Saturday morning.  

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A horror story from the woods....

 There is a plant out there so invasive other plants only whisper its name.  So toxic to other plants it can rightly be called an evildoer!  It is poisonous to cattle, dogs, pigs, sheep, horses and is carcinogenic to humans.  It is known to produce and release allelopathic chemicals, which is a critical part in its ability to dominate other vegetation

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2016 class Schedule

So here we go folks, this is the current schedule of classes that I will be offering this year!

May 28th/Foraging walk, Grand Traverse Commons

June 25th/ Foraging walk, Location TBD

July 23rd/ Foraging walk, Location TBD

August 20th/Foraging walk, Location TBD

September 24th/Foraging Walk, Location TBD

October 15th, Foraging Walk, Location TBD

November 5th, Black Walnut Processing, Location TBD

I can guarantee that there will be additions to this schedule, Willow Basketry classes perhaps?  Rope making using wild plants?  Who knows!??  Do join me and learn how to wildcraft ingredients for your dinners!  

Prices will be listed on Events tab.  And I can now accept prepayment online!

 

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Wild Parsnip, Friend not Foe.

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Wild Parsnip, Friend not Foe.

Hello my dear friends.  This is My very first Blog post, and I have decided that I should rather like to dedicate it to talking about one of the best tasting of all of the spring "forageables": Wild Parsnip.  First things first, lets clear up one very annoying thing I hear far too often. People think that wild parsnip is some unruly plant secretly working for an evil organization seeking to cause you bodily harm. 

Click to read the rest of this post!

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