The winds of fall, the silence of the forest, and getting to the root of things

The first weekend in October we met near Orangeville to focus our learning on roots. The nights had grown longer and the temperature had dropped considerably since our still summery meeting in early September. With these seasonal changes, we knew that the energy of the plants was moving downwards, under the soil.  As we gathered Saturday morning, we were jolted by strong winds that battered around us and blew through the many layers we each wore.  Since we were on a private property, a home and horse farmed owned by good friends of Alexis, we ducked into the barn to circle together and start our day.

Back out in the fields, the wind was fierce.  We dug up plantain roots along our way, then found a sheltered hollow in tall grass which shielded us from the wind.  From this we made forays out to dig and gather plants such as nettle and catnip, and pulled out some field guides to help us answer pressing questions.  We moved through the property, finding plants along the way, but the winds pushed us on.  Eventually we decided to cross the road and tuck ourselves into a forested area off the Boyne Valley.  We were grateful for the shelter and ate some lunch to refuel.  After lunch we took advantage of the relative warmth to each sit with a plant and learn something from it. 

I found myself sitting under a maple focusing on a tiny Herb Robert plant, feeling questions and anxieties of the previous week slipping away from me in the space and silence of the forest, admiring both the delicacy and the resilience of the intricately-leafed plant. As we came back together, we shared stories of what we had learned sitting with the plants, what spaces the forest had opened up in us. We spent some more time focusing on digging: milkweed, burdock, dandelion, and – very conscientiously – a couple of blue cohosh plants. We marveled at how different each of the roots was, wondered what that told us about each plant, and speculated about how fascinating it would be to try to identify the different plants by only looking at their roots.

We finished our day back in the barn, washing the earthy roots in basins of warm and cold water, warming ourselves up, and tincturing the roots of our choice to take home.  We were grateful for shelter and the promise of our warm homes that night!

The second day of our roots weekend was spent in a forest in Dufferin County, an area we had not previously explored.  Much of the morning we spent very close to where our cars were parked, exploring and digging in the richness of the forest soil.  We carved some digging sticks out of a small maple sapling to help us in our efforts. We traced the long rhizomes of sarsaparilla, which link whole colonies of plants together; examined the segmented appearance of the roots of false Solomon’s seal; and admired the incredible tenacity of the deep taproots of burdock, which tested the limits of our own perseverance and digging tools.

Seeds of Wild Leeks

Lunch was spent around a fire, resting and sharing songs together; our afternoon was spent exploring, wandering and digging more roots.  A strange and unexpected moment was finding an ancient Volkswagen rusting and decomposing in the middle of the woods – this find inspired much speculation and many stories!  We also spent time digging up spruce roots, useful for basket making and other traditional crafts, with Judy pulling out an impressively long rope of root; and took some time to rest and talk about our plant-related projects and research.

Spruce Roots

It was great to be out exploring the woods again, feeling joy in the new challenges of the elements as the season changed, and digging under the surface of the earth to deepen further our relationship with the plants.

Written by: Malgosia Halliop - 2nd year Plants A

pprentice

A taste of plant medicine, meetings with trees, and a small surprise

The themes of caretaking and stewardship wove through our June weekend. Our second morning, like our first day, was grounded at Alexis and Bobbi’s place, home of Earth Tracks Outdoor School and Rebel Roots Herb Farm.  

We spent the morning in two groups alternating between two herbal medicine-making activities using common wild plants.  Alexis took a group through the process of harvesting plantain and making an infused oil, to use on its own or as a later base for medicinal salve. Lee and I led a second activity, harvesting some of the abundant wild thyme whose fragrance wafted around our tents, and creating a thyme-infused medicinal apple cider vinegar.  Alex joined in at Alexis’s station to strain off and share the lemon balm cold infusion she had made the previous day: a welcome refresher to the morning’s heat. Each group researched the plants while working with them, using field guides and each other’s knowledge to understand the medicinal properties of the plants we harvested with our hands.  

Our afternoon location was a short drive away: the forested property where Earth Tracks had been based until recently.  The brightness of sun and openness of the agricultural landscape where we had started the weekend was transformed into the coolness and cover of dense trees; the industriousness of the morning’s activities into a grounded and aware exploration of this new place and its energy. 

We began the afternoon identifying trees on the property; but quickly moved into several activities that shifted our awareness to more subtle information around us.  A paired blindfolded “meet a tree” exercise gave each person the opportunity to use their less dominant senses – including intuition – to get to know an individual tree and then find it again with the blindfold removed.  We followed this with a focused sit spot, each of us tuning in to the space around us and asking the questions “what can I do to help?” or “how can I give back to this land?” and listening to the possible answers: moving branches, lifting up weight, pruning.  It was in introduction to listening deeply to the land as an expression of caretaking.

To close the afternoon, we worked on one more caretaking project, a deer trail that the apprenticeship group of three years ago had begun clearing.  Alexis spoke of his connection to the deer on this property, where he had hunted as well as stewarded the land. We moved on to the trail, thinking through the mind of a deer which obstacles would hinder our progress, especially at low energy and hungry times of year.  As we moved branches, our intention was also to create brush piles, as we had the day before, to provide shelter for small mammals and other creatures. 

As I stood on a trail clearing branches onto a pile beside me, I did not expect what happened next.  I lifted a particularly long branch and dropped it to my right with a small crash.  The crash was followed by several more, the rustling of leaves and the crashing of small panicked feet.  I looked up to see a small dappled fawn dashing fleetly away from me, looking for its mother, who would not have been far away.  I was astonished at how well this small creature had been camouflaged two feet beside me, and shaken to have found myself scaring it in this way.  A few people around me working on the same trail gathered together to look at the spot where the fawn had been – a tiny kidney-shaped spot in the earth still warm to the touch.  It was a gift to see this fawn, to know that there were young here needing shelter, and to see that the brush piles we made would be used exactly as we intended.  It was a powerful experience to walk away with while reflecting on caretaking as one of the gifts and responsibilities of humans to the Earth.

Written By: Malgosia Halliop - 2nd year Earth Tracks Wild Plants Apprentice

Caretaking and Land Stewardship for Future Generations

Friday was a day of stewardship and caretaking on the new Earth Tracks land. 

Getting our hands into the dirt was the priority for the morning.  We each researched a herb that had been brought up in the Rebel Roots greenhouse to learn about its medicinal qualities and where it might grow best.  With flats of classics like nettle, calendula and chamomile we put a lot of seedlings into the ground. There were also some heritage tobacco plants and a strong vermifuge called wormwood. We learned a few growing techniques, like scratching up astragalus seeds to help them sprout. We will check back on our newly planted medicinals next weekend to see how they’re doing.

We worked on some stewardship projects after lunch.  The sugar maple trees that we had potted last weekend were ready to go into the ground.  We planted them along the driveway into the house.  The location we selected was in between the row of pines that shadow the southern edge of the road into the property.  When the red pines have past their peak, these sugar maples will hopefully take on the role of snow and windbreak, provide shelter for the gardens, lawn and thicket on the other side and encourage animal habitat. 

Building animal den/cover sites was another after-lunch project. We made these structures to encourage small mammals like voles, mice, rabbits and hares to live on the property.  These included spheres we made called “mouse houses” or “vole domes”.  Made of tree branches and shrub bows, these homes have a soft, grassy interior and would be a welcome place for any small mammal on a winter’s night! Even a chipmunk or red squirrel might want to move in.  More small mammals means more diversity in the ecosystem and can attract predators like foxes, hawks and coyotes to visit the farm.  We also built brush piles, a collection of sticks and shrubs that can serve the same purpose. 

A walk around the Earth Tracks property helped to animate our work. We looked at the various permaculture and ecosystem restoration projects that are in store for the land. As we dropped off the vole domes and built brush piles along the way, we were inspired by the many ways that humans can work to improve a landscape.  By being true “caretakers” of a land, we can increase the diversity of species that live there and enhance the richness of life for all the species nearby. 

Several folks took a turn at using the bow drills and Basia got a coal that lit our dinner fire. As we built up the fire, we got ready for the evening and our meal.  We harvested some wild edible leaves for our dinner and finished up our projects. Ox eye daisy, red clovers, lamb’s quarters and more went into our wild salad for the evening. Before we ate, we shared some gratitude and reflected on all of the work, learnings and stewardship that had made up our time together.  We looked forward to tomorrow as we ate.  As night fell, we settled into our tents and listened to the bull frog droning on, calling out each time he saw a mosquito fly by… or so it seemed. J.

Written By: Alex Thomson - 2nd year Earth Tracks Wild Plants Apprentice

Trillions of trilliums and other adventures in the understory

Story of the Day for Sunday May 17

 After a beautiful Saturday night potluck full of wild foods, and a beautiful fire, our plants group got up on Sunday morning with a transplanting mission. In the long grasses under some pine trees, tiny sugar maple seedlings were trying to grow. Before the mower could reach them, it was our plan to plant some of these maples elsewhere.

Mixing the native soil with some of the potting soil so that the young plants would not be shocked, we each took turns digging out two seedlings and potting them up for our trees and stewardship weekend in June.

We then got into vehicles, and headed to an established hardwood forest on the Niagara Escarpment. Moments after being on the trail, there were little bunches of white flowers and single magenta-pink blossoms lining the way. What were some of the differences between the various types of native cherry we wondered? Choke, Pin and Black Cherry. . . and what (if anything) can be done with their blossoms?

Past honeysuckles, wild strawberries and endless amounts of deer browse, we climbed. Stopping at a Hop Hornbeam, a member of the Birch family, we found out that it has edible seeds that hang in a cluster similar to hops. The maple and ash trees nearby also have edible seeds, which are more palatable before maturing, as the older, the more bitter they seem to get.

Hiking up the slope, we encountered many, many trilliums, varying in colour from bright white to dark maroon, some with a distinctive ripe smell that attracts some of the pollinators (tricked into thinking they will get a carrion meal). There were also some examples of both false and true Solomon's seal, which can be differentiated by the way they flower.

Many spectacular orchids were found, including the Yellow Lady Slipper, whose flower smelled of mango! , and a beautiful patch of pink and white Showy Orchis. After a lunch atop the mountain, we listened to birds and even saw a beautiful Rose-Breasted Grosbeak.

Traversing down the slope, on our way to refill our water bottles from a natural aquifer, we passed the Coffee Plant - a cool find with plenty of further research about how to get that delectable brew from it!

Visiting the "supermarket" of the lowlands, a name Euell Gibbons imparted upon Cattail, we tasted some young shoots and discussed survival uses and foods from all seasons that could be made from this plant. Even the mucous/slime that lines the inner cattail can be useful as a bit of natural topical painkiller.

As we headed back to our starting point, before closing our circle with porcupine browsed poplar buds, we encountered our final member of the Solomon Seal family - Star flowered - with some very young and delectably edible shoots. Our last edible find - a morel! To more  adventures next time!

Written by:  Lee Earl - 2nd Year Plants Apprentice

Majestic Trees and the first Spring Ephemerals

On Sunday, Along the Niagara Escarpment,  we continued to learn about trees, and found several spring ephemerals poking through the leaves on the forest floor. There were tiny Spring Beauties with whitish pink flowers and Trout Lilies whose bell-shaped yellow flowers were yet to bloom. Tiny purple Violet flowers were growing in a sunny spot near Blue Cohosh's with their stems still purple as they emerge from the earth. We paused to harvest some Trout Lily corms, a sweet treat in the spring and in the summer and fall they have a taste more like potatoes. These early spring wildflowers grow, flower and go to seed in a forest before the leaf canopy grows thick enough to block out the sun.

We focused on identifying hardwood trees today, especially opposite branching ashes and maples.  We also found Ironwood, Trembling Aspens, White Birch, Black Birch, some Willows, Balsam Fir, and Common Elderberry shrub. We talked about forest succession when we came across Indian Pipe, a plant that gets it’s energy not from the sun, but from the fungus under the ground growing on the roots of trees. Also known as Monotropa uniflora, this plant has the coolest latin name of the many we learned today.

The Trail took us down the cliffs along a set of stairs. We paused for lunch near a pond and several folks sang some beautiful songs as we ate.  We tasted a thin slice of Wild Ginger root just before lunch, the unique maroon flowers should be coming out soon.  In the afternoon, we made tinctures.

Bright yellow Coltsfoot, has several features that distinguish it from dandelion, including purplish alternating scales on the stem, and heart-shaped leaves that don’t come out until after the flower does. We sat by the water, harvested some Coltsfoot and made a tincture in a mason jar.  Coltstfoot has demulcent properties, which means it can soothe a throat sore from a cough or a cold.  It’s expectorant properties mean that it can thin out mucous so that it is more easily expelled by coughing. We stopped by the creek to harvest some bark from a White Birch that had been cut down recently- it would make great baskets and other natural crafts.      

 

The Willows sat by the water; a small pond with some geese asserting themselves for a prime nesting ground.  Nine Painted Turtles basked on a log, they seemed to be unfazed by the geese’s loud honking battles.  A bat and several birds, sparrows and Red-Winged Blackbirds also inhabit this wetland.  As the clouds rolled in, the spring peepers started their mating song. We tinctured some Willow here, to be used to help with pain and inflammation.

Heading home, we stopped along another pond making up the headwaters of the Sheldon Creek.  We filled up our water bottles at a nearby spring. The path turned south and got steeper.  As we climbed through the cliffs we stopped to take a group photo!

 

The trail took us to a lookout at the top of the Escarpment. Looking out over the forest, we watched the turkey vultures soaring in the cliff’s updrafts and listened to some stories of Alexis’ adventures in this place many years ago. A closing circle was held at the top of the cliff.  We shared some gratitude and anticipation for the months to come before heading to the cars.

Written By:  Alex Thomson - 2nd Year Plants Apprentice

Trees, Owl Eyes and Cold Water

Saturday April 18 – Trees, Owl Eyes and Cold Water

 As we sat in our first circle of the 2015 Wild Plants Apprenticeship – the sun was out and so were the birds. In our spot along the Bruce Trail, many hikers passed us quickly as we sat and learned each others names in the cool grass dotted with raspberry canes.

Soon, we stepped a few feet further along the path to discover a tall, flaky barked tree. I scraped a young branch with my fingernail to release the smell of almonds that the black cherry has hidden under its bark. We spent many moments by this tree, harvesting some of its inner bark to make medicine with. Using knives and fingers, we were each able to take some bark with us, while stashing some branches to return to later.

Hiking past the first meadow, we found ourselves in a stand of pines, planted perhaps to break the wind across these fields. “All pines are evergreens, but not all evergreens are pines” was a lesson to remember. With five pine species in this region, we spent some time teasing out which one we were looking, and with five needles in each bundle, this first tree was in fact the official tree of OntarioJ

In a survival situation, pines are a reliable source of safe foods – but we were reminded “Don’t ever ingest anything that you don’t have 100% ID on”. Seems like some words to live by!

Further down the trail, we came upon a velvety-leaved rosette coming through the grasses. This biennial plant is a great medicine to support the lungs and airways, and when the flowers are steeped in oil, can also be a remedy for the common earache.

As we passed another stand of pines and some feeding sign from a porcupine friend, we came out to a south facing hill where some tiny lobed leaves were making an appearance. This new growth of the Ox-eye Daisy is uniquely flavoured and quite lovely in a salad.

Looking at pine cones and pulling needles, we spent much of our day absorbing the details of the conifers that allows us to differentiate them and begin to build relationships with these tall towers of food and medicine that once dominated this landscape.

Through a low cedar wetland, we found yellow birch, and even a wild spring where water can be drunk from the ground! The cool liquid was a great addition to our warm sunny day, and I loved the opportunity to have water that was known to be safe coming directly from the earth to me.

 

After crossing a precarious creek or two, many of us had removed our shoes and were varying levels of muddy. Walking into a hardwood stand, there were some stunning baby blue cohosh plants, and the young leaves of a Garlic Mustard.  With the Garlic Mustard sparking some interesting conversations around native and invasive plants, and sustainable harvesting, there was some excitement building for using and eating some of our more bountiful plants!

After sitting in silence in the late afternoon, we slowly came back together as a group again by the cold creek. With our bare feet on the earth, we were encouraged to spend a little time learning how to feel through our footsteps, and soften our gaze to use all of our peripheral vision. In “owl eyes” we walked slowly around the grasses and saplings, and I was so excited to see some moths and small flies pop into vision. I can’t wait for what I see next!

Written By:  Lee Earl - 2nd Year Plants Apprentice