Have You Seen These Amazing Wildflowers?

Greetings!

First, I want to say “thank you!” to everyone who pre-registered for the upcoming Wild Edible Plant & Mushroom Outing (featuring Sam Thayer!) on June 2nd. The event filled to max capacity within 24 hours and registration is now closed. Stay tuned for another exciting Learn Your Land event to be held in early July!

Second, let’s talk about flowers.

If you’re a wildflower enthusiast like me, perhaps you’ll agree that the spring ephemeral wildflower season is one of the best times of year to explore the woods.

What’s not to love about a hillside teeming with White Trillium? Or a vernal pool speckled with Marsh Marigold? Or a floodplain loaded with Virginia Bluebells?

Personally, I can’t think of a spring ephemeral wildflower I don’t like. No matter the color, no matter the size… each one is a superstar in its own special way.

Recently, I took to the woods in search of these fleeting flowers and tried my best to capture the magic on film. The sky was sunny, the air was warm, and plenty of plants were blooming that afternoon. Needless to say, the wildflowers definitely put on a good show. Check it out!

Speaking of ephemeral organisms, morel mushrooms are making grand appearances all over the woods right now. Depending on where you live, these choice edible fungi may currently be fruiting in your neck of the woods. Check out this recent Instagram post to learn more about these elusive springtime fungi!

Click to view post

Thanks for reading and watching, and as always, thank you for your support!

-Adam Haritan

CREATING HERB GARDENS WITH CHILDREN

Visit http://www.kidsgardening.org/ for more fun gardening ideas at school or at home. Herbs arouse kids’ curiosity and interest because they thoroughly engage the senses. What better motivator for student investigations than plants that feel cool, smell great, and can turn mere tomatoes into pizza sauce? Their life stories, it turns out, are fascinating too. After all, […]

via Creating Herb Gardens With Children — Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

HERBARIUM PROJECT FOR CHILDREN

An herbarium is a collection of dried plants that botanists use for studying, identifying, and classifying plants. Making an herbarium is a great way for kids and their parents to learn about botany and the plants used in herbalism. An herbarium will help you and your child get to know what plants look like, along with […]

via HERBARIUM PROJECT FOR CHILDREN — Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

FUN ON THE WILD SIDE ~ INTRODUCTION TO HERBS FOR KIDS: WILDCRAFTING

Take a trip outside your door and look down! What do you see? Do you see little plants growing? Perhaps it is one single little dandelion or maybe you have found a whole area of plants growing and thriving. You won’t have to go far to find wild plants! Sometimes wild plants found around homes, […]

via Fun On The Wild Side ~ INTRODUCTION TO HERBS FOR KIDS: WILDCRAFTING — Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Jewelweed Salve

By Luna Walks Alone

Wild Edible Plant & Mushroom Outing with Sam Thayer & Adam Haritan

Greetings!

I am extremely excited to announce that I will be co-hosting the upcoming Wild Edible Plant & Mushroom Outing with Sam Thayer on Saturday, June 2nd. Sam is a nationally recognized foraging instructor and the author of three popular foraging books, including The Forager’s Harvest, Nature’s Garden, and Incredible Wild Edibles.

He will be traveling from his home in Wisconsin to spend the day with us in Western Pennsylvania for the Wild Edible Plant & Mushroom Outing. This event is an all-day outdoor excursion designed to improve your identification skills by introducing you to a variety of edible species that grow in the early weeks of summer.

During the first part of the event, we will explore Pennsylvania’s beautiful Moraine State Park by hiking a 1.5-mile trail alongside the park’s main feature, Lake Arthur. While walking, we’ll discuss the plants and mushrooms that inhabit the grassy meadows, lakeside ecosystems, and wooded habitats.

In the afternoon, we’ll head to nearby McConnells Mill State Park to explore 2.5 miles of the North Country Trail and its notable hemlock-lined ravines, sugar maple slopes, and sandstone cliffs… all while discussing the area’s unique plants and mushrooms.

Interested? Here are more details:

What: Wild Edible Plant & Mushroom Outing with Sam Thayer & Adam Haritan
When: Saturday, June 2nd, 2018
Where: Moraine & McConnells Mill State Parks, Western Pennsylvania
Time: 9:00 AM — 6:00 PM

Please note that in order to maximize your learning experience, space for this event is limited to approximately 25 participants. Registration with payment in advance is required.

To purchase your ticket, and to learn more about the outing, please visit this link: Wild Edible Plant & Mushroom Outing

We’d love to see you there!

-Adam Haritan

A Shady Subject…

By Crooked Bear Creek Organics

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Question: I have a lot of trees in my yard, which leaves very few sunny spots. Are there any herbs I can grow?

herb farm bucket

Answer: Most herbs love the sun, but some do thrive in woodlands and other shady spaces. Look for herbs that have shallow roots, which help them compete with tree roots that tend to hog water. Here are several of my favorite herbs that thrive on four or fewer hours of sun a day or dappled sunlight.

Angelica {Angelica archangelica}
Anise Hyssop {Agastache foeniculum}
Black cohosh {Actaea racemose}
Cardamom {Elettaria cardamomum}
Catnip {Nepeta Cataria}
Chervil {Anthriscus cerefolium}
Chives {Allium schoenoprasum}
Cilantro {Coriandum sativum}
Evening Primrose {Oenothera biennis}
Ginger, wild {Asarum canadense} or Mioga {Zingiber mioga}
Goldenseal {Hydrastis canadensis}
Lemon balm {Melissa officinalis}

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Honey Bees; Heros of Our Planet

By Crooked Bear Creek Organics

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Have you ever had the opportunity to observe the busy work of a tiny honey bee as it meanders from flower to flower on a clear, sunny day? There’s something truly captivating about honey bees that draw us deeper into their world. We see honey bees frequently in books, movies, and television, where they are often associated with making hives filled with delicious, golden honey. You might recall reading about a hungry bear character in search of the honey bee’s golden treasures in various children’s stories. Honey bees are known for their production of honey and beeswax, as well as the large role they play in the pollination of plants and flowers. Honey bees can also be considered super-organisms due to their complex social systems and dynamic, tight-knit interactions with one another and their environments.

Bee Species

There are actually seven recognized species of honey bee within the genus Apis…

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IPM For The Herb Garden

By Crooked Bear Creek Organics

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Designed as an alternative to the rampant use of insecticides in agriculture, Integrated Pest Management has proven to be an effective means of promoting healthy growth in the backyard garden as well. Learn more about how you can implement this technique in your herb plot.

Even under the best of care, your herb garden may be affected by pests or disease at some point. It can be difficult to choose the right moment and method to deal with these problems that arise, but implementing an Integrated Pest Management {IPM} strategy can help get your garden on the right track. With its multipronged approach of prevention, observation, identification, and control {if necessary}, IPM can have a significant impact in any garden, large or small, and will reward you with healthy, thriving plants with minimal impact to the environment.

The concept of IPM was first explored by American scientists and agriculturalists after…

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Companion Planting with Herbs

By Crooked Bear Creek Organics

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Boost your garden this season with the right pairings of plants.

Companion planting is a fantastic addition to any garden. By specific plants next to certain fruits, flowers, and vegetables, you can boost their health and increase their production. Of course, knowing what pairings work best is key, especially when it comes to herbs.

How It Works

Companion planting improves growth in a number of ways. To start, some plants serve to repel unwanted pests while providing shelter and safety for beneficial insects. Others encourage pollination, which is especially needed for those fruits and vegetables that don’t have noticeable flowers. Species with bright shades of blue, white, or yellow and/or with high concentrations of nectar can attract bees to these lesser-flowered plants. Larkspur, sunflowers, sweet peas, cosmos, zinnias, and mints all do well in vegetable gardens {though the mint does spread quickly}. Companion planting is a wonderful tool for organic…

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