Wildcrafting On The Homestead

Image via WikipediaWildcrafting is gathering or gleaning plants found in the wild for food, medicine crafts or other purposes. Humans have practiced wildcrafting since time immemorial, but you may be surprised to find out that there are many people who wildcraft even today, including a growing segment of the population who wildcraft in urban areas.

How is this possible? Familiarize yourself with common edible species that grow in your area then take a look around. You may be surprised to find that even in a major city you may be surrounded by edible plants growing right under your nose. If you do plan to wildcraft in an urban area, be sure that you have permission to glean - particularly on private property.

The easiest way to get started with wildcrafting is to pick up a book that identifies plants that grow in your area or to take a class in wildflower, tree or mushroom identification from a local college or extension office.

Want to learn more? Read the rest here

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Image via Wikipedia

Blogging has changed the way we live our lives. My favorite blogs to read are those written by my fellow moms. I love reading about their trials, joys and triumphs. I especially love those a-ha moments when I can read about another woman’s life and think; yes, me too.

My family is pretty unique. First of all, we’re poor. Second, we don't care that we're considered poor. Yes, there is a lot of stigma associated with that word so let me say, we’re happily poor. My husband and I are non-traditional students, having chosen to earn college degrees later in our lives than most people do. So you might say we chose poverty, at least temporarily, in the hope that we’ll eventually make a better life for our children.

You’ll never read me writing a review for a brand new product because almost everything we own comes from the Salvation Army, garage sales, or our local freecycle list. We’ve figured out how to be happy with less, how to make do with what we have, how to budget carefully to meet the needs of the five people in our family. A side effect of this is that we’ve learned how to live greener, eat healthier, and be more active.

We grow our own food on windowsills and in the tiny back yard of our rented home. The children help, and as a result they get fresh air, sunshine, exercise and delicious homegrown produce that they pick and eat right off the plants. I’m happy that being poor taught us how to share these gifts with our kids; so much better in my opinion than a life spent eating fast food and walking around the mall for entertainment.

I look forward to sharing our green-living journey with you! I hope that by blogging about my family’s life, others may learn something different, take comfort from our trials, cheer our triumphs and have their own a-ha moments.

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