• General

    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…

  • General

    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.…

  • General

    Macerated Aromatic Oils, and the Discovery of Scented Lies

    April 20, 2024 - By 

    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…

  • Ashley riding the horse that started it all
    Blog

    Introducing our Latest Wildcrafted, Looseleaf Tea: Snow Drift

    February 5, 2024 - By 

    Looking out across the small valley, trees look like they belong in a winter wonderland postcard. The fields’s various rises and hollows are rounded out in a fresh blanket of snow. The noise of cars going by on the nearby road is muted, somehow quieter. Cedar-tiled rooftops are dusted in snow as it collects in nooks and crannies, lending a gingerbread-style appearance to the slanted rooflines. Underneath it all, the plant kingdom sleeps. Bulbs that require overwintering are preparing for spring. Seeds that require freezing, are preparing to grow. Grass hibernates, as do various members of the animal kingdom who…

  • Catnip
    General

    Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids – a Lesson From the Caterpillar

    January 12, 2024 - By 

    Originally published over at Biblical Natural Health Coaching. Today’s article takes the concept of “One Health”, and turns it on it’s head. The string pullers want you to be scared of zoonotic diseases, also known as diseases that spread from critter to human, and they have plans to use these diseases to create pandemics to feed an agenda that turns up the heat on climate change while following established paranoia around depopulating the earth of mankind. However, it appears so far, that those who began working on “One Health” over a decade ago, may have forgotten that while the animal kingdom does…

  • General

    Breaking the Silence in 2023

    December 6, 2023 - By 

    The last time we shared anything on this blog was late 2019!  Our best craft fair season yet had just closed and we had no idea what was about to land on everyone’s head in 2020!  For better or for worse, everything ground to a halt that year, and it wouldn’t be till early 2023 that we at Ashtree Wildcrafting finally felt we could get back into the craft fair scene selling our wildcrafted, locally foraged loose leaf tea.  Our first craft fair this year was in March, which led to two more craft fairs and Marilynn’s first holistic fair…

  • original 5 gift basket
    Blog

    I’m Pregnant, Is Your Tea Safe?

    December 12, 2019 - By 

    The Fall and Christmas 2019 Craft Fair season is behind us, and what a season it was! We sold 55 teas, some selling in groups as people bought more than one together or came back to buy more. We were asked where people could find us as the craft fairs came and went and brochures flew off the table at every fair. We were asked about plants that we have not yet discovered in the local area. Considering there are well over 300 wild edible plants in Okanagan and in 4 years of foraging we have only made positive identification…

  • Catnip
    Stamina Potion Lite - Sun Drop

    Catnip: What it Is, How We Use It

    November 21, 2018 - By 

    It grows wild all over the Okanagan. It is known to make cats go crazy. It can be smoked like cannabis but is not related even remotely, nor has any kind of intoxicating result. This plant actually belongs to the mint family! Whenever we’ve tried to give this plant to our cat, he’s a) acted like it’s an intruder and to be treated warily, and b) the one time he couldn’t get away from it, he got worried and scared that he couldn’t seem to control himself. This plant has been known to sedate felines as well.  Our cat’s reaction…

  • lichen community
    Stamina Potion Lite

    Lichen: What it is, How we use it

    November 7, 2018 - By 

    Lichen is one of those plants classified in the edible/survival food category! But not all lichens are edible. If they are greenish-yellow, yellow, orange, or hairy, there is a strong chance they are not edible and may actually be toxic! Reindeer Lichen is one of the few hairy-ish type lichens that are edible. When edible is paired with Lichen, the intention is that you can ingest it, it does have necessary trace elements to the human body, and it does have nutritional value, but tastes absolutely terrible as a singular food! Some who have tried to prepare it as a…

  • alfalfa
    Stamina Potion Lite - Sun Drop - Warm Hug

    Alfalfa: What It Is, How We Use It

    October 25, 2018 - By 

    Cows eat it. Horses eat it. Humans eat it as a sprout. Of course if you’re pregnant, at risk for Lupus, or on blood thinning medication, you may want to steer clear of this widely and commercially-grown herb in both it’s seed and sprout forms, at least in large quantities. Unfortunately, Alfalfa sprouts sold in stores do not carry this warning, and it would appear you do need to eat it fairly frequently to risk the complications that can arise. Even in horses, too much Alfalfa can cause health problems due to the sugar content. So if eaten in moderation…