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    Legalities of Foraging in BC, Canada

    April 25, 2025 - By 

    A recent article published on Castanet, a local news site, erroneously has claimed that it is illegal to dig up Arrowleaf Balsamroot on crown land here in BC. When I asked for sources, they sent me this link, where I immediately noticed the reporter’s error: Collection 2 (1) Subject to subsection (2), a person must not collect cones, seeds or vegetative material from Crown land unless in possession of a cone and vegetative material collection permit issued by the district manager, or person authorized by the district manager. (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to (a) employees or agents of…

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    Early Foraging and Craft Fair Sales PSA

    April 3, 2025 - By 

    Spring greetings!  It’s the beginning of April, and plants are growing again, some more quickly than others, but growing just the same.  Spring markets are also happening, with two big ones on our doorstep! We will be at the Spring Shoparama event this weekend in Vernon at the Vernon Rec Centre on Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday is from 10am to 6pm, and Sunday is from 10am to 5pm. We will then be at the Vernon Wellness Fair under Marilynn’s Biblical Natural Health Coaching banner the following weekend, 10-5pm on the Saturday and 10-4pm on the Sunday. These two fairs come…

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    2024 Year in Review

    January 4, 2025 - By 

    2024 was an Amazing Year! We could also call it “The Year of Expansion”! Ashtree Wildcrafting began 2024 by introducing one new tea, and upscaling our table display with live edge risers. The tea we introduced back in January, was Snow Drift, our answer to everyone’s requests for something similar to Sleepy Time, without being that trademarked tea. Wouldn’t you know it, but we’d go on to sell 51 Snow Drift teas! We learned that most people want to buy medium-sized cloth reusable tea bags, or the large size, but very few smalls sold. Later in the Fall, I’d go…

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    Foraging, at Home and on the Trail

    June 11, 2024 - By 

    The tiny “lawn” patch that came with the pad we rent, is a literal power-patch!  We create a poster now each spring of what it appears will be growing there. Today was the third harvest since that poster went up, and. . . This pic shows most of the result: 1 long tray of mustard weed, the equivalent of 2 trays’ worth of horsetail, a tray of pineapple weed, 4 trays of prickly lettuce, and 3 trays of dandelion. I have at least one tray’s worth of broadleaf plantain waiting to be hand washed, but the washing machine is using…

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    Today’s Foraging Run Almost Got Cancelled!

    May 27, 2024 - By 

    So today’s foraging run was supposed to have been cancelled due to largely having run out of space to dry stuff at home! Then we attended the May 25th fair down in Kettle Valley, and discovered that to replenish some of our teas before June 9th’s wellness fair at the Laurel, we’d run out of Pasture Sage! We did VERY well at the Kettle Valley event! So we couldn’t let this week go by without seeing if we could find any Pasture Sage in one of our foraging zones where we know it grows. While the sage is indeed growing,…

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    Today’s Foraging Workshop and a Lightning Strike!

    May 19, 2024 - By 

    So we ran our first foraging workshop today with one attendee, taking her to a trail often frequented by other foragers, but that we hadn’t scouted out yet for what is growing there this year. The workshop portion took roughly 30-35 minutes. But by the time we were done with the initial trail and our guest wanting to join us on going to another nearby foraging zone afterward, we were out there for a total of 5 hours! She was very happy to receive her foraging notebook and did make some notes, take pictures of plants we pointed out to…

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    A Tea Order and A Marathon Foraging Run – Reminder of Upcoming Foraging Workshops

    May 6, 2024 - By 

    Today’s foraging run is brought to you buy a custom tea request at the recent wellness fair, that was hoped to be a wild flavour version similar to Earl Grey. The purchaser liked the smell, and if the recipient likes the tea, we need to be ready for potential re-orders. For starters, plants in the Okanagan area in general, are not caffeinated. None of our research has shown any plants to contain caffeic acid, let alone to any degree. What we DO have, is a plant that when steeped too long, begins to taste much like black tea without any…

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    Foraging Workshop Dates and Registration

    April 23, 2024 - By 

    Introducing Foraging Workshop dates with Ashtree Wildcrafting and Biblical Natural Health Coaching! Ashtree Wildcrafting will be present on May 19th and June 2nd, but Biblical Natural Health Coaching will be present on all four dates consisting of May 18th, 19th, June 1st and June 2nd. The workshop and tour will be held somewhere in the Central Okanagan, with locations to be announced as they are firmed up. Cost is $30 which gets you a reserved seat, a pen, a foraging notebook, and an in-person tour discovering and discussing various wild plants in the area and what they are useful for.…