I found this site not too long ago, and I love reading thru everything. A while back, you listed a lot of flowers that could be made into jelly, and I made lilac jelly. It was beautiful and SO easy! I missed out on some others like dandelions, but they'll come back. I also missed out on the forsythia. By the time I read I could make the jelly from them, they had passed. Yesterday I discovered a large patch of comfrey right across the street in a wooded patch that I'll be able to pick from soon. I have intentions of making a salve to see if it will help my arthritis, and there are enough leaves to use for poulticing. I just put in a small garden with a few things, but I am hoping to have a medicinal and tea garden along with a late summer planting in another part of the yard. I've been doing a lot of container gardening due to being partially disabled, so everything is on sawhorses and plywood now. Your site is a real inspiration.
Would thank you for a specific piece of inspiration and information from this post, but there were almost too many to count. Appreciated it all very much, thank you. (So morels can be freeze-dried, good to know. And thank you for telling us about the planting drill attachment, never knew such a thing existed.)
Oh yes definitely. They're canned, but I want to taste them now to and refine the recipes if necessary. They're all very simple recipes though, following the University of Alaska's Hearty Soup protocol.
Did not know about dandelions infused for cramps. Always getting cramps and have lots of dandelions. Made everything else with the blooms, so next yr this will be a project. Stuck reminder in email for my old head. This year my infused project is wild rose petals. Started collecting Saturday, infused about 600 grams, a little over 1 qt in 190 proof. Tedious picking out the green stuff
This is my favorite kind of post. The pictures are beautiful and it's the kind of here and there bits of info and updates that you would pick up in a conversation with a neighbor. 🙂
We expanded our tomato gardens this year, six goat kids were born, and the first rose bloom of the year will always elicit the same joy and gratitude as it did the first year. 🌹
how delightful to read your articles just before going to sleep, puts me in a great frame of mind. I marvel at your energy! All such useful information, even if I don't have the time or energy to make a lot of what is listed here, it is inspirational to read about these possibilities. I forage, and love dandelions.
We made grape hyacinth jelly. They're edible, but be careful, regular hyacinth is toxic. Grape hyacinth is actually a completely different species and not a hyacinth at all. Make sure you have the right one.
I love your salves. I’ve made several and even sell them. Just harvested some dandelions that were in our strawberry bed and dried them to make a tincture.
I’ve been wanting to make dandelion blossom jelly, but I can’t get the pedals separated from the green. Is there anything you do to aid with that?
Yes, it's actually easy once you get the hang of it. I'll get an article up with pictures of the process soon. But basically, use your thumb nail to break the flower in half (top down, so each side has half of the yellow petals). Once it's in half, you can use your thumb and index finger to pinch out the petals all in one go.
This is such an inspirational site. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us wanna-bees. After reading each time I am motivated to finish another flower bed. The Lawn flower Site was excellent.
I loved this article! I put up wild violet jelly, Dandelion Jelly this year for the first time... It turned out great! so when i saw the Grape hyacinth and the tulip to make jelly i was excited! I do hope you will share some of your recipes. Thank you again Ashley!
Also I foraged Usnea from our woods this winter and made a tincture, using your article! I pulled it out last night to give to my son who was struggling with an earache so that hopefully we can avoid a round of conventional antibiotics. Thank you for all your generous and hard work to share all your knowledge and experience with us!
Oh interesting. Somehow I've never tried it with earache, just throat and mouth stuff, and topical skin stuff. I bet it does wonders for ear ache, let me know how it goes!
(My go to for ear stuff is garlic oil made fresh. I take a bit of olive oil and put it in a pan, then press several garlic cloves into it. I then gently heat it to just warm, like no more than 120 degrees, then let it cool while the cloves infuse. When it's comfortably warm, like body temperature, I drop it in my ears. The warmth is soothing (be careful though, not hot obviously) and the garlic is antimicrobial and always works wonders if I'm starting to get an ear infection.)
My mom did the garlic oil for me as a kid when I’d (often) get ear infections too! I didn’t have the presence of mind to make some this time as it was in the middle of the night but I did give him some of the usnea tincture orally a few times and a drop in his ear once or twice. Between that, an herbal immune boost, and the homeopathic ear drops I had on hand it seemed to clear up pretty quickly and avoided an infection as far as I could tell.
We’re building our chicken coop as our chicks are four weeks old now and quickly outgrowing the stock tank we’ve been housing them in! So excited to get them outside soon, they’ve been very happy to forage in the little portable run we made for them and our two bunnies. I’m loving seeing what’s popping up in our new yard (we moved in December when everything was dormant); so far we have lilac, forsythia, dandelion, buttercup, plantain, celandine, clover, wild strawberries, Lily of the valley, and violets…I made forsythia syrup and your dandelion jelly recipe a few weeks ago which was really fun! Love all your salves, they look great!!
I found this site not too long ago, and I love reading thru everything. A while back, you listed a lot of flowers that could be made into jelly, and I made lilac jelly. It was beautiful and SO easy! I missed out on some others like dandelions, but they'll come back. I also missed out on the forsythia. By the time I read I could make the jelly from them, they had passed. Yesterday I discovered a large patch of comfrey right across the street in a wooded patch that I'll be able to pick from soon. I have intentions of making a salve to see if it will help my arthritis, and there are enough leaves to use for poulticing. I just put in a small garden with a few things, but I am hoping to have a medicinal and tea garden along with a late summer planting in another part of the yard. I've been doing a lot of container gardening due to being partially disabled, so everything is on sawhorses and plywood now. Your site is a real inspiration.
Sounds like you have a lot going on over in your neck of the woods. Well done!
Would thank you for a specific piece of inspiration and information from this post, but there were almost too many to count. Appreciated it all very much, thank you. (So morels can be freeze-dried, good to know. And thank you for telling us about the planting drill attachment, never knew such a thing existed.)
You're quite welcome! So glad it was helpful.
Wonderful issue, Ashley. I'm very curious about your asparagus soup projects. Will you be sharing more of the recipe?
Oh yes definitely. They're canned, but I want to taste them now to and refine the recipes if necessary. They're all very simple recipes though, following the University of Alaska's Hearty Soup protocol.
Thanks! I'll check out the UofA!
Did not know about dandelions infused for cramps. Always getting cramps and have lots of dandelions. Made everything else with the blooms, so next yr this will be a project. Stuck reminder in email for my old head. This year my infused project is wild rose petals. Started collecting Saturday, infused about 600 grams, a little over 1 qt in 190 proof. Tedious picking out the green stuff
This is my favorite kind of post. The pictures are beautiful and it's the kind of here and there bits of info and updates that you would pick up in a conversation with a neighbor. 🙂
We expanded our tomato gardens this year, six goat kids were born, and the first rose bloom of the year will always elicit the same joy and gratitude as it did the first year. 🌹
how delightful to read your articles just before going to sleep, puts me in a great frame of mind. I marvel at your energy! All such useful information, even if I don't have the time or energy to make a lot of what is listed here, it is inspirational to read about these possibilities. I forage, and love dandelions.
Hello, could you please tell what you are doing with the grape hyacinth blooms? Thank you
We made grape hyacinth jelly. They're edible, but be careful, regular hyacinth is toxic. Grape hyacinth is actually a completely different species and not a hyacinth at all. Make sure you have the right one.
Are you talking about muscari? What do they taste like?
Thank you. I've made Redbud & violets jelly. Dandelion honey and sakura jam. The grape hyacinth was new to me. Thank you
This is very inspiring. Thanks!
everything you guys do looks great ! i guess this will be my garden year , getting old , , thank you for everything you show us !
I love your salves. I’ve made several and even sell them. Just harvested some dandelions that were in our strawberry bed and dried them to make a tincture.
I’ve been wanting to make dandelion blossom jelly, but I can’t get the pedals separated from the green. Is there anything you do to aid with that?
Can’t wait to hear how your new salves work!
Yes, it's actually easy once you get the hang of it. I'll get an article up with pictures of the process soon. But basically, use your thumb nail to break the flower in half (top down, so each side has half of the yellow petals). Once it's in half, you can use your thumb and index finger to pinch out the petals all in one go.
Thank you, I will get to work ☺️
This is such an inspirational site. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us wanna-bees. After reading each time I am motivated to finish another flower bed. The Lawn flower Site was excellent.
Thank you.
I loved this article! I put up wild violet jelly, Dandelion Jelly this year for the first time... It turned out great! so when i saw the Grape hyacinth and the tulip to make jelly i was excited! I do hope you will share some of your recipes. Thank you again Ashley!
Wonderful!
You are such an inspiration! Thank you for sharing all your knowledge and enthusiasm with us. It’s a joy to read!
Glad you enjoyed it Jani!
Also I foraged Usnea from our woods this winter and made a tincture, using your article! I pulled it out last night to give to my son who was struggling with an earache so that hopefully we can avoid a round of conventional antibiotics. Thank you for all your generous and hard work to share all your knowledge and experience with us!
Oh interesting. Somehow I've never tried it with earache, just throat and mouth stuff, and topical skin stuff. I bet it does wonders for ear ache, let me know how it goes!
(My go to for ear stuff is garlic oil made fresh. I take a bit of olive oil and put it in a pan, then press several garlic cloves into it. I then gently heat it to just warm, like no more than 120 degrees, then let it cool while the cloves infuse. When it's comfortably warm, like body temperature, I drop it in my ears. The warmth is soothing (be careful though, not hot obviously) and the garlic is antimicrobial and always works wonders if I'm starting to get an ear infection.)
My mom did the garlic oil for me as a kid when I’d (often) get ear infections too! I didn’t have the presence of mind to make some this time as it was in the middle of the night but I did give him some of the usnea tincture orally a few times and a drop in his ear once or twice. Between that, an herbal immune boost, and the homeopathic ear drops I had on hand it seemed to clear up pretty quickly and avoided an infection as far as I could tell.
We’re building our chicken coop as our chicks are four weeks old now and quickly outgrowing the stock tank we’ve been housing them in! So excited to get them outside soon, they’ve been very happy to forage in the little portable run we made for them and our two bunnies. I’m loving seeing what’s popping up in our new yard (we moved in December when everything was dormant); so far we have lilac, forsythia, dandelion, buttercup, plantain, celandine, clover, wild strawberries, Lily of the valley, and violets…I made forsythia syrup and your dandelion jelly recipe a few weeks ago which was really fun! Love all your salves, they look great!!
Nice!
Loved the information, thank you for putting it out there for all to enjoy
You're quite welcome!