Trailing Arbutus Jam

Epigaea repens (Trailing Arbutus) is usually a common plant I find in  sandy forest which are quite acidity. I stumbled upon these ones in an old pasture while checking out some young bedstraw plants I have an interest in.

Since some of the flowers were in good condition I decided to gather a few flower tubes to try as a simple jam.

This small bowl of flowers took awhile to gather, though if you are in a patch of Trailing Arbutus you will probably not be in any rush to leave the pleasant scent this plant adds to its surroundings anyway.

I made 3 small patches, (1) flower tubes and sugar, (2) flower tubes and honey and (3) flower tubes and maple syrup. The flower tubes in all 3 recipes were pressed into a paste with the other ingredient and the results were extremely good with the honey and flower tubes my personal favorite.

I will probably try a few wild rose petal recipes and use Trailing Arbutus to replace the rose petals. This is not the type of product anyone could mass produce, but a couple small bottles of these flower tubes preserved each spring is going to be a new tradition at our house.

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Spring flowers, fruits and fungus

Flowers first—Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens)-smells like Avon’s calling

Here is a patch of Trailing Arbutus leaves, the flowers in this shady area won’t be in bloom for a few weeks.

A week ago I mentioned Teaberry  was the only northern fruit I knew that ripened in the spring, well I figured out tonight Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens) also overwinters as an immature fruit  and then ripens in the spring. Partridgeberry has some medicinal properties. So here is partridgeberry my (how did I not already know this) of the day.

And Teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens) wintergreen flavored leaves and berries.

These Red-belt polypore’s bright color stood out from a far distance, another pleasant evening with a few woodpeckers creating the background music in this new area for me of mid to young birch and poplar trees.

Red-belt polypore appears to have some impressive medicinal properties which actually have been utilized by man for a few thousand years and is once again gathering renewed attention.

Another nice Phellinus

ciao for now