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

True nature is always in season

I set out this evening to visit an area which I suspected may have the first spring flowers in my area, interestingly enough another plant I forgot about was flowering. I love it when true nature proves me of the path again, anyway I have a few things to show you tonight.

Coltsfoot –Tussilago farfara —- This is a very common plant in Atlantic Canada and has medicinal uses, usually for cough relief. These are the first local spring flowers other than Skunk cabbage flowers

Teaberry–Gaultheria procumbens— Now I  think most folks in the north would be surprised to learn that the first ripe berry of the year is the Teaberry which actually over winters and then continues to increase in size and ripen fully in May to June, at least this is so in my neck of the woods. Teaberry fruit and leaves taste of wintergreen and have medicinal properties, don’t try this plant if you are allergic to aspirin.

Japanese knotweed–Polygonum cuspidatum— These grow into large plants often over 8 ft high, here is a photo of young buds, the early growth up to 1 ft can be used similar to rhubarb in desserts or like asparagus as a vegetable.

Trailing Arbutus–Epigaea repens—- This is the one I suspected may be in bloom in dry sandy jack pine areas, nope maybe in 7 to 10 days by the look of this photo.

Wild blueberry–Vaccinium angustifolium—Here are the spring blueberry stems which in the photo resembles a wild blueberry plant forest.

Cattails–In this photo both Typha latifolia & Typha angustifolia are growing together you will need to click the photo once or twice to enlarge enough to notice the different head sizes.

Lastly, I’m going to enter a page at some point concerning interesting rocks I encounter, here are a few from tonight’s adventure. Also there are plenty of info on the net for uses of the above plants so check them out if they grow in your area, cheers for true nature.