Fall Foraging Class

 I had the most enthusiastic group for today’s foraging class! You name it, whatever I put in front of them, they gamely tasted - cattail shoots and roots (“like salad”), dandelion roots (“not bitter!”), burdock root (“so tasty”), sunchoke tubers (“soo good!”), plantain leaves (“like mushrooms”), multiflora rose hips, autumn olive berries and wild grapes, which even the baby loved. There’s a lot to forage in the fall. 

Bunnies on the loose!

 It’s so entertaining watching my colony bunnies indulge in their natural behavior digging in their enclosure, and baby bunnies popping in and out of burrows. That is, until they dig out and get loose in the yard. We spent hours today catching and recatching these jail break bunnies! I did lay chicken wire on the ground covering the enclosure fence perimeter but they found a weak spot. So they are all grounded in cages until I can fix this. :) 

Foraging

 We are blessed with an abundance of wild foods in the woods behind our homestead. We usually have chanterelles available summer to fall and other choice edible mushrooms are encountered. 

Sunchokes

One of my favorite native plants, the sunchoke (Helianthus tuberosus) is a wonderful native belonging to the sunflower family. They bear cheery yellow flowers atop 10 foot stems in the fall that I love to use in my fall floral arrangements. After the first frost I tug on the stems to unearth bushels of knobby tubers that keep well in sand, providing a delicious source of sustenance through winter. Tubers in excess of our needs will be available for purchase in November.  

Rabbitry

Our Mini Rex bunnies started out as a homeschool project that remains my daughter’s labor of love. Orange Peel, our black torte senior doe, was sired by Princess and Bunjamin, a tri-colored and broken red, respectively. Her kits take after mom in temperament - laidback and friendly, which is also thanks to Meili loving on them daily. Cuddles, a brokern red buck, and Houdini, a fawn buck are available for adoption to loving homes. They are litter trained.

American Elderberry

American elderberry (Sambucus canadensis), full of tasty goodness. We harvest bushels every July from our productive York elderberry bushes. Sold fresh by the pound, and as a delicious immune-boosting syrup $10 per half pint. Hardwood cuttings are available, some already rooted. Elderberry potted plants are our best selling native plant!

Hardneck Garlic

This hardneck garlic has grown on our homestead for over five decades. Spencer's grandma Lucille planted it around the Concord grape vines and I have since rehomed them around the vegetable garden beds.  

It thrives in the heavy clay soil here and is a carefree, easy plant-n-forget vegetable. It sends out scapes in spring that are also good eating and reliably produces medium sized bulbs late summer. We harvested over 300 beautiful heads of garlic this year. October is a perfect for planting and I put in a hundred cloves this week.