Today is Samhain, or as most people know it, Halloween. What better way to spend a Halloween afternoon than on a hike through the damp fall woods, battling through spiderwebs and hunting weird mushrooms.
Samhain Walk
The adventure goes on …
Our Adventures
Today is Samhain, or as most people know it, Halloween. What better way to spend a Halloween afternoon than on a hike through the damp fall woods, battling through spiderwebs and hunting weird mushrooms.
When we purchased our property, we knew that it had a history of human use – hand logging and pioneer homesteading around the turn of the century, then more recently, clear-cut logging. So we expected weeds. Weeds and humans go hand-in-hand. Some weeds, such as ivy, can be just plain irritating. Other weeds, such as dandelions, are good edible species.
Our yard has been taken over by ruffed grouse, or “yard chickens”, as Ken calls them.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve talked to a lot of people who thought that our crazy scheme of going OTG and developing a “permaculture homestead” was a really good idea. But when asked whether or not they would consider doing a similar thing, they would always end up saying no, followed by a list of excuses (my kids …, my parents …, my job …, my social needs …, my lack of money …). I’ve always figured that the reason why I’m out here and the rest of the world is in there (the box, that is) is because I’m a doer, and not a dreamer. But maybe the real reason is because I’m a Gen Xer (short for being a member of Generation X).
Since I have written quite a few journal entries about foraging or wild harvesting, I figured that now would be a good time to post this presentation I gave a couple years ago, titled “Ethical Wildcrafting”.
With the start of the fall rains, mushrooms are popping up everywhere. It’s time to go shroom hunting.
After being away in Campbell River for two weeks, it was time to get caught up on a bunch of fall projects, before the rainy, drear weather of winter settles in.
Sometimes I can go weeks without remembering my past life of over 20 years in Prince Rupert. This week was not one of those weeks.
Having just got in from chopping wood in the forest (hence the wild woman look complete with twigs and moss in the hair), I decided to pick some vegetables from the garden to make a good lumberjack stew, and pulled up this beauty.
We’ve been away from home for two weeks, and sometimes things happen when you’ve been away. This time, it was a dreadful smell associated with the sinks.