Edible Ethnobotany

The one thing almost EVERYone can connect to plants through, is food. They are the start of most food chains and make a great end on our plate. Here's some taste-testing, foraging, and general cool edible-planty info and tips using broader ecology for tasty plant-nerding.

Red Belted Conk: Cool PNW Medicinal Mushroom

medical traits and ID of wild shelf mushroom red belted conk (Fomitopsis pinicola)

Wet* Hot Wild Berry Summer in the PNW:

*(sweaty, even while standing still because… heat domes & such) It’s a berry Pacific Northwest kind of life in summer time here. The sun...

Black Locust Flower- Pancakes Plague?

I will never forget being puzzled by a large tree, trying to ID it during a plant monitoring project but the leaves were all too high up...

Random Roots to Weed-Out & EAT

What's the best way to get rid of weeds? Eat them, of course! And we are hitting prime dandelion season, so it's time to get digging. ...

My 'Currant' Vodka Infusion

There are dozens of flavors for vodkas on the liquor shelves, some fruity, some floral. As delightful as a toasted marshmallow vodka can...

Tale of Three Junipers and a Gin

Junipers are not the trees you think of associated with the drizzly Pacific Northwest. But they are old friends from home in the much...

Cottonwood: Cuddly, But Sticky

Cottonwood trees (Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa, P. deltoides and B. fremontii) have a love-hate relationship with people. Some...

Why I can’t stop smelling this bush

On a trip to southern California, I was so pleasantly surprised to find myself among the silvery scent-sational low shrubs I recall from...

Peeking at Beaked Hazelnut – wild filberts

Roast them by an open campfire, if you can find them. Or stick to chestnuts. I challenge you to roast pine nuts though. So small. Not...