• General

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

    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…

  • General

    Macerated Aromatic Oils, and the Discovery of Scented Lies

    This week, we’ve been very busy foraging around the barn property each evening. Coming home with more purple deadnettle, yarrow, discovered quite a bit of desert parsley we need to grab, and began picking arrowleaf balsomroot flowers for Ashley’s aromatic oil by maceration experiment. Apparently according to old books from over 200 years ago, this was how perfumaries got their perfume oils before distillation became the rage for making essential oils. The arrowleaf balsomroot flower has an interesting scent. It first strikes you as having a quiet vanilla scent, continue sniffing, and you discover a sweet note reminiscent of white…