Welcome back! I hope you brought your appetite. Go ahead, dig in, satisfy your hunger.
Food for Thought…
Ever contemplate your food-gathering survival skills in nature? Could you rummage through the prairie or woods looking for something to snack on just as easily as hunting in the fridge?
On a toasty summer day, I wrestled with that very thought as I ate my sandwich, having settled amongst the prairie grass with my bee and butterfly lunch buddies.
A recent class at the Morton Arboretum on edible plants taught by *Wild Dryad stirred the notion of how perfectly sustainable the nearby prairie and woodlands were for mankind’s needs. If I hadn’t brought my lunch with me, there probably would’ve been an abundance of things to eat out in the prairie should I have needed to forage.
5 Simple Plants for Beginners
First: Use field guides, get landowner permission, avoid treated lawns & pet do-dos
- White Clover: Sweet honey-like blossoms and young leaves for salads and smoothies. Boil older leaves and cook like spinach. Rich in vitamins A, C, and protein. If taking coumarin, check with your doctor as white clover contains compounds in this drug.
- Dandelion: Highly healthy–vitamins (A, C, E, K), iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and antioxidants. Spring leaves are mild, and summer leaves bitter. Eat raw or sauté in oil. Fry batter-dipped blossoms. Roots make a faux coffee by roasting in the oven.
- Elderberry: This plant’s perk pounds the cold and flu with its vitamin C and antioxidants. Berries can be used in syrups and jellies. Note that it should never be eaten raw. Also, ID it correctly against its dangerous look-alikes. Read more…
- Wild Black or Red Raspberries: The berry’s sweet taste is worth braving the thorns. Its winning sweetness is kind to diabetics, and it has a low glycemic index and high fiber content that slow digestion and prevent sugar spikes. Read more…
- Violets: Spring to early summer foraging, these pretty purple blossoms have a gentle fragrance. Rich in Vitamins A and C, flowers and leaves go into salads or dried for tea.
Recommended book: Sam Thayer’s Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: of Eastern and Central North America
*Learn more about Shane Aldan as the Wild Dryad
Be Bold – Action Step
Take a look at the common plants in your own backyard and value them beyond weeds or just pretty flowers. God provided these plants long ago for medicine and sustenance. How can you benefit from them today? When you take that bold step, I would enjoy hearing your foraging stories; just reply to this email.
Coming this fall!
Master Naturalist nature updates: Recently accepted into the University of Illinois Extension, I begin training for certification. This will enable me to teach others, contribute to ongoing research, restore habitats, and so much more! Starting in September, I will be sharing intriguing nature notes of what I learn on my socail media. Won’t you join me on this journey? Like my Facebook Page: Cynthia Bolds-Author or follow me on Instagram @Cynthia.Bolds.
Worship Nature Journal Workshop: September 11- 13- Camp Zion in Ellison Bay (Door County), WI, has invited me to teach a nature journaling workshop as a part of their Ladies Retreat. Come for a restful and spiritual pause, a desire to learn and laugh. Visit their website for more information: https://campzion.com/.
Sunrise in Naples, FL
Photo credit: Cynthia Bolds
Morning Light
Sunlight begins to shorten after June’s solstice. Varying by location, it begins with just a few seconds a day, then slides into minutes. September is clearly when the shift occurs, and nearly 2 hours are lost. The growing season ends. Sunflowers and other light-dependent plants fade.
Light is a building block for our planet. All of creation took its first step when God spoke, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3). Light’s foundation is also woven into our spiritual fabric. Darkness threatened light when sin muscled in. But the Lord’s light broke through, illuminating a promise for eternal life through Christ’s salvation from the cross. As we muddle through life, God lights our path to meet trials head-on with strength, hope, and peace. What a comfort to have light that never sets regardless of the season.
“Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
– Luke 1: 78-79
Seeking More Ways to Find God in Nature?
Recently I was accepted into the University of Illinois Extension, master naturalist program.
God creatively retooled his beautiful design on land with the white coral jelly fungus.
The sun sets over Lake Michigan in Door County
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