Out there, out of doors it’s between leaf and root time. It’s seed time.
In autumn plants put their efforts into reproducing themselves via seeds, both bare and covered with delicious flesh. Time to collect these offspring, juicy apples and pears for cider. Collecting seeds to save for intentional or uninvited sprinklings, to grow next years’ harvests and forages.

Weeds are all about vitality and abundance. And I was to bend your ear to foraging. Let’s not let our species’ hydraheaded scarcity issue overwhelm us convincing us we need more than we really do. That’s how we got into this mess called modern agriculture.

HOT & COLD

As you might of guessed, I don’t use bagged tea from a store or even rarely buy it in bulk as I enjoy foraging our urban lands and dry the plant material I forage in paper bags or hung upside down in small bundles in my dark and dry pantry. Drying medicinal weeds is all about allowing air to circulate around the leaves and protecting them from light. Paper bags are perfect for this as they will not trap moisture.

I want to share how to make an herbal infusion. Infusions are like concentrates –you want the full-on benefit from the plants you decide to put in your body. They will help you but only if you allow them.

When you collect from a plant, try to find more than a few and collect from them in a way that won’t damage them. Don’t rip or tear. (ouch!) Make clean pinches or cuts with a knife, your fingers or some pruning shears. This means only a few leaves/seeds/fruits or less than 10% of any individual plant. It is important that the plant you are collecting from is allowed to thrive and regenerate itself, even if it is considered a ‘weed’. Plants are by nature, generous with what they have to offer (as we also help them in all sort of unconscious and unintended ways) When you are done, thank the plant. Maybe give them a drink from your water bottle. Because that plant is going to help set your liver or blood or mental attitude right. And that is pretty generous of them.

When you’re ready to make an infusion, grab a healthy (no pun intended) handful of dried herb and put it in a quart glass jar. (glass is a must – it is stable and neutral). Pour hot water over it all until full and screw on the lid. You use a lid so volatile oils stay in the brew and actually enter your body to work their effect on you. (Though I do recognize that aroma is simply enjoyable and part of healing. Releasing them into the air will have your home or office smelling terrific.) You will need to do some research as some herbs have chemical compounds and minerals that require a longer steeping to get them to release into water. Roots and bark are two example of this.

With some herbs, cold water instead of hot water is used – this is the general rule for seeds and fruits and I also usually steep these longer, often setting my jar up the night before, having a nice sleep while my infusion makes itself and the waking the next day to drink it at room temp or warming it up with a low flame (stay away from that microwave, yuck!) or even drinking it iced.

a selection of SEEDS to look for (research their uses on your own) & collect before winter settles in:

• amaranth seeds
• burdock burs
• hackberry berries
• juniper berries
• kentucky coffeetree
• lamb’s quarters seeds
• rose hips
• queen anne’s lace
• yellow dock seeds
• sumac berries
• hawthorn haws
• aronia berries
• hazelnuts
• grapes
• pawpaws
• persimmons
• elderberries
• pears and apples…

WHERE DID I PUT THAT NUT?

Two years ago I was driving across country and stopped at this Piggly Wiggly to pick up some snacks for the road. I grabbed some yogurt, some chocolate and I was looking for nuts. And I couldn’t find them. I found the stock guy and asked him, ‘Hey, where can I find the nuts?’ and he replied, ‘Peanuts or Donuts?’ I paused waiting for some faint uncontrollable twitching or the slow crack of a grin. His face was blank. He was waiting for me to answer him. Stunned, I thanked him and left the store.

Who am I kidding? People in Kentucky know what nuts are and where they keep them. This happened on the northwest side of Chicago.

Every animal forages and everyone one of them aide in plants’ dispersal mechanism – the seed. Scratching the soil, knocking into them, eating them and pooping them out, carrying them stuck on their fur or muddy paws or webbed feet across distances they inadvertently or as is the case with a few animals intentionally plant them somewhere. Humans have been carrying seeds around in their pockets for thousands or years as they wander around and set up camp in different places. Wind, the jet stream, rivers and oceans help travel seeds widely too. That’s why we have so many weeds out there.

Squirrel’s energy seems to vibrate just below that of insects. Their seemingly erratic behavior might just be the animal reading the environment with their bodies faster or perhaps more honestly. Their strategy and impulses are not that unlike that of our weedy plant pals.

Squirrels are fantastic collectors and not very good archivists. No matter, as they can fill their self-interest no matter what the result of – whether forest with trees for nesting, playing, broadcasting chattering and eating, safety of for a snack now.

I am hoping I can convince y’all of the following: to travel/walk around with a nut in your pocket for a day. Just to feel it’s potential. Always of a talisman. To keep it in there until you are ready to release it into the earth. This is what squirrels are doing, carrying around acorns, walnuts, hazelnuts and tucking them into the earth. They do it quickly, furiously sussing out a place than scratching, fuddling and putting it in place and patting down the soil again in less than a minute, and whether later in winter they get the nibbles and look for these nuts they’ve stored and not find them is no matter as they are found by another or spring up as tree seedlings that grow into trees to nest in and chatter from which in turn produce nuts for future haphazard storage, snacks or again future trees. So if you can, find a nut tree or shrub and gently pick off a nut or risk going to a store and getting one not irridated. Chestnuts, buckeyes, oaks or walnuts are common in urban areas as street trees and in parks. Select one to act as a temporary talisman and carry it in your pocket like a battery.

…and know when you find that place to plant it, release it and by releasing it you activate it, you are ensuring a future store of nuts, providing shade and squirrel habitat, growing material to construct a ship, starting that forest that we all miss in our hearts.

Got nut, in pocket
Got a walnut and I’m going to use it
Intention I feel inventive
Gonna make you, make you, make you notice