Mid-May showers – real showers, those that we haven’t seen in a couple of years, it feels like – have caused the forest around us to explode into a flush of green. It’s a welcome change from seasons past, which have been unseasonably dry. Arguably one of the most bittersweet parts of spring is just how fast things can change. In under a week, we have seen the trees leaf out, dandelions burst into a beautiful yellow display that sends my seasonal allergies into a frenzy and the greatest sight to see after several very dismal years, a good crop of natural morels popping up.
The morels have been the most exciting of surprises. After a few good bumper crops years ago, we picked a grand total of about five morels on our property over two seasons – a disappointing amount, considering said previous years had yielded several pounds per outing. Already this year we have managed to pick more than that just on our morning walks with the dog; no grand harvest, but enough to have for dinner with a nice elk steak, Kitimat spot prawns and the very last of the garden potatoes out of the root cellar.
Located next to said garden is a bountiful patch of nettles that have flourished over the past several days; inconvenient and annoying for gardening purposes, but excellent from a foraging perspective – it’s all about how you look at it. Not far away is a patch of horsetail, of which I gather both to make into a nettle horsetail hairspray as both are said to be rich in nutrients and minerals. My seasonal allergies leave me leery to use dandelion in anything for myself, but I make a few small jars of salves to gift to family, using oils infused with the vibrant flower heads.
Within another week, things will have changed dramatically once again as we inch closer and closer to summer. Spring foraging passes in a wonderful flurry, and we preserve little bits of it for use later in the season when the forest is quiet and not quite bursting with life in the way it does currently.
