ILC Week 6

Well, I almost killed myself wildcrafting this week! No matter how much we know, we can always know more. Getting stuck in the ego trap of “already knowing” in the case of foraging can be deadly.

I foraged this week and collected wild grape flowers for tea and thimble-berry leaves. I had intended to make tea with the thimble-berry leaves and use some to make dolmas. I picked thimble berries and left them in my car with the intent of cooking with them the next day.

Sometime in the night I could not sleep and began researching different uses for thimbleberries. It was then that I read that wilted thimble-berry leaves are toxic. WOW! I was pretty close to offing myself or at least making myself very sick.

This week I also harvested some wood sorel, or Oxalis from the trail at Rainbow falls. I noticed while I was here the large amount of Devil’s Club that is growing there.

I did some more research on the devils club and found some useful and fascinating information. Devil’s Club as been previously called Alaskan Ginseng. It is not part of the ginseng family but shares many medicinal qualities. Harvesting is supposed to be difficult, but I am going to try it this next week.

I have spent a good amount of time on the computer. I am still trying to completely figure out Zotero and I have been working on getting my website up to date.

After getting all of the equipment loaded into my car for starting the garden for our most current client, I received a message asking to reschedule. I was actually relieved as it started to downpour shortly after.