WildCraft and Wild Creatures

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Wildcrafting is the practice of harvesting plants from their natural, or "wild" habitat, for food or medicinal purposes. It applies to uncultivated plants wherever they may be found, and is not necessarily limited to wilderness areas. Ethical considerations are often involved, such as protecting endangered species.

When wildcrafting is done sustainably with proper respect, generally only the fruit, flowers or branches from plants are taken and the living plant is left, or if it is necessary to take the whole plant, seeds of the plant are placed in the empty hole from which the plant was taken. Care is taken to only remove a few plants, flowers, or branches, so plenty remains to continue the supply.[1]

I have become a wildcrafting convert!!!  The yard is a veritable garden of delights.  The first step is identifying the edibles and then creating the tea, tincture, salve or meal! 

Above are ox-eyed daisies, from the chamomile family.  Washed and dried they make a lovely calming tea!  We also picked a bucket of wild rose petals and boiled them then used the water in Sid's bath.  It and she, smelled sooooo good!

This is plantain.  It is everywhere!!!  This can be used in salads but most importantly it is perfect for stings, cuts, and bites!  Picked, chopped and put in bottles then filled with apple cider, the tincture must sit in the dark for 6 weeks being turned twice a day.  In the end you will have a wonderful bug bite, cut and scrape remedy!

We have also harvested red raspberry leaves for excellent tea that is high in calcium, magnesium and is good for bladder health.  Plus raspberry leaf tea is really delicious.  Red clover is amazing to drink to help with circulation and can be made into a salve for skin issues like eczema and is also high in vitamins and calcium.   Both the raspberry leaf and red clover are dried out and placed in jars for easy tea making!  We have also been desperately trying to find chickweed due to its nutritional value and healing properties.  We have found a close relative, stitchwort which is littering our property and is of the Stellaria family.  Our oldest dog, Groovy, has several warts and the stellaria is known to shrink them so we are giving it a try.  The only thing we have noticed so far is Groovy isn't chewing on the wart on her tail since we started treating it with stellaria.  We won't know if there are any benefits for a few weeks.  We can't use anything with chemicals because she does lick, however it does seem to be bothering her a  lot less now that we are addressing it with the stitchwort!

In our harvesting adventures Sid came across this cute little fellow!  This is a 1 to 2 year old Eastern Spotted Newt!  After 3 years old they turn brown / green and when under one year they are only about an inch long.

Look at that tummy!  I was impressed at how we moved something and Sid yelled "LIZARD!" and in a flash had him in her hands.   We studied him for about 20 minutes then released him.

Sid's best friend Bella turned 8 this past week and celebrated with her friends at Little Ray's.  Sid and the other kids had an awesome time.

Stuart the crocodile!

Darth Vader the scorpion

Angela Anaconda

And Bella was SUPER happy with her sea monkeys :)

Another memorable moment this week came on our trip into Amethyst Women's Addiction Centre.  Ken has worked for them for several years and they are like family.  When they heard Sid made it to team Canada, they decided to donate 500.00 out of their union dues to help her get to Italy!  In return Sid attended a staff meeting and did a little presentation and demonstration.  She was really impressive.  She walked into the room of adults and commanded their attention by saying " First of all, I really want to thank you for supporting me with your donation.  It really means a lot to me."  A few of the women got teary (including me), it was so heart felt and sincere.  Next Sid explained her art then showed them her Provincial and National medals followed by Soft Form then Kata One to demonstrate hard forms.  She thanked them again and answered their questions.  I quietly stood by the door, just there as a chauffeur.  I was so proud that at 7 years old she can speak to a crowd with such confidence and no prompting.  Definitely her Daddy's girl :)

This week we also had a wonderful article published in the Villager by Tom Van Deusen. 
And Ken did a gig where an artist raffled off one of his paintings to support Sid's trip to Italy

The raffle raised 200.00!  Thank you :)

Ken also got to play at the Summer Solstice Festival with AMB again this year.  Here are two links to a couple of the songs.

Long Walk 49

Barbwire Blues

And then there is the felting, felting, felting!  Another custom mobile off to its new home!

Above is the beginnings of a custom felted ball with batting I carded and some of it I dyed myself as well. 
I have even begun to experiment with creating my own dyes using our flowers.  The poppy leaves make a beautiful orange and the dark purple spiderwort make a lovely purple.

I was asked to make micro-food for a doll house and some little frogs and butterflies for one of my play mats.  Here they are!  DNA comes free of charge ;)  The little stuff is hard to make without poking yourself  LOL.

More adventures this week with more wildcrafting, computer programming, swimming (yes the pool IS open) and playing.  See you soon.