The local world of foraging is an interesting place. To this day in many parts of Europe, foraging is still engaged in to augment what is bought at the store. Here in the Okanagan of BC, Canada however, the idea of foraging is still mostly a foreign concept, and one that seems to be associated with earth worship, paganism, new age beliefs, and even witchcraft. The idea that one can be involved in foraging and NOT be engaged in those belief systems is a mind-blower to some that we've met, not to mention those who feel that the concept of foraging is reserved solely for first nations peoples and no one else. Various people who come to our booth feel that our 1850's aesthetic is somehow reminiscent of witchcraft. A wooden tea sign slowed down these accusations for a time, but they've ramped back up again. It's gotten to the point where an explanation of what we are and are not, needs to be written. Our aesthetic grew out of the restoration of an 1890's travel trunk that we turned into a popup apothecary. We cheer when someone comes to our booth and promptly declares it a roving apothecary! THAT is what we are after! In lieu of a coffeetable book, allow me to take you on a short tour of what travelling and brick and mortar apothecaries have looked like over the years. Welcome to the world of phytotherapeutic herbalism as seen through the eyes of two born-again Christian foragers! https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2026/11/04/no-we-are-not-witches/

Heads up the Vernon Wellness Fair is this weekend  This fall, we are putting out the Ashtree Wildcrafting banner.  Basically treating the booth as if it were just another craft fair setup. Secondly, we are across the aisle from our usual location.  We are trying out our larger booth setup in that space. Our time at the Kelowna Farmer's Market is wrapping up the outdoor attendance this month. Book efforts have been slow over the summer, but I now have just 14 herbs left to go before moving on to the rest of my outline. Here's hoping without a mad-crash foraging season, that I can start making more speedy headway as we move toward Christmas. After 11 years of foraging, we finally found a large patch of field mint that did NOT get destroyed!!!  We got three harvests of it this year, and now have a blend where it features called "Cool Glades" in honour of the space where we found it. Soon we will have our 12 Days of Christmas sample collection on the table.  The teas have been chosen, and this year, it will be a "Bakers Dozen" selection because I wan't to include Cool Glades https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2026/10/22/vernon-wellness-fair-this-weekend-slightly-different-booth-location/

Some say they didn't have turkey dinner back when Columbus is said to have celebrated, but old books talk about wild turkeys. Pumpkin and squash also existed before the settlers, and some tribes were known to farm them, alongside corn and beans in a system known as "the three sisters" method. The traditional thanksgiving meal for the settlers, was no doubt an otherwise normal meal for the locals, but it was most definitely enjoyed in the spirit of thanksgiving. Even the cranberries are known to grow wild across swaths of the North American landmass, both low and high bush to this day. Thanksgiving is a time deliberately set on the calendar, to give thanks and show gratitude. While modern life is regularly turning itself upside down and spinning around these days, when we get off the bandwagon long enough to look around us, we rediscover just how much we still have to be thankful for. In Scripture, God commands us to be thankful. Psalms 100:1-5 KJV 1  A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. 2  Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3  Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5  For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2026/10/11/its-thanksgiving-weekend-what-are-you-thankful-for/

In another case of modern versus older definitions, my household suddenly finds itself questioning historical writings whenever they mention a herb being poisonous. This is due to a little historical digging my daughter was doing around buckbrush/snowball/wild snowball. Going into several old books that she has on her phone, she found an entry where someone had supposedly suffered the worst case of poisoning they'd seen from a herb, even beating out rhus poisoning. This was from a book written in the early 1900's. However, the word poison had been used to describe not just Rhus or sumac, but also rhubarb leaf AND the reaction this person had to buckbrush. . . . these conflicts of understanding and behaviour seem to centre around the person being able to ingest as much as they want without side effects of any kind. This isn't true of domestically sold foods, so why would it be true of garden or wild-grown foods? To call a bad allergic reaction a poisoning, that puts a very erroneous spin on things that has coloured our modern understandings of some plants, because we assumed that the word "poison" meant in the past what it means today. In our house, we like to learn from history, spitting out the bones whenever necessary. It appears we've found a potentially problematic bone, and will be paying closer attention as to whether the ancients described poisoning or allergy/sensitivity instead. This kind of erroneous labelling may be what happened to the rhubarb leaf. https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2026/09/30/rant-poison-i-dont-think-that-word-means-what-they-thought-it-meant/

Back in 2018, an article appeared on the Ashtree Wildcrafting website addressing the controversy around ingesting chokecherry fruit. Digging to the bottom of that controversy revealed the concept of preparation. However, visitors to our booth have begun surfacing a third way to enjoy this fruit - the practice of pouring salt into a bag, dropping berries in to coat them in salt, then eating them raw. The Amygdalin rabbit-trail revealed other things too,however, the scientific community has no idea what dosage is safe and what is unsafe, though some admit that getting it from food is more advantagous and most likely safer than getting it as a supplement. My Nutritional/Medicinal database now has 34 common foods listed. 12 of them are noted to have the compound in the kernel or seed, the highest concentration in the domestic world being that of the bitter almond followed by the apricot kernel. If your diet is high in sulfur-rich and B12 rich foods, which means your cabbage, broccoli, onions, garlic, beef, eggs, etc, then salted raw chockecherries may be ok. If you avoid bioavailable sources of B12, or don't like or can't have sulfur-rich foods, cooking your chockecherries is preferable before ingesting them. https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2026/09/24/eating-raw-chokecherries-with-salt-can-i-get-some-scientific-proof-here/

With many areas of North America suffering or having suffered various levels of wildfires this summer, and with discussions above and below the 49th Parallel centering around whether or not governments are doing enough to mitigate forest fire potential and better fight forest fires, fire mitigation and forest fuel management are popping up more and more frequently. One method of protecting property . . . is the use of vegetation that doesn't easily catch fire or stay aflame. As foragers, we can do our bit for forest management, by harvesting the peeling/shedding bark of the Ponderosa Pine tree, taking it home, grinding it up, and using it in place of cinnamon in our cooking, baking, drinks, etc. When we see downed branches with green pine, spruce or fir needles, we can snap off needle bunches and take them home as well. We can gather unopened green or brown cones of pine, spruce and fir, and make mugolio from them. Sap and resin that has hardened on the outside of conifer trunks can be broken off and taken home for use in salves and oils. Its easiest to harvest in winter Brown pine needles can be gathered and used to weave baskets and mats. Opened cones laying on the ground can be gathered for use in fall and winter crafts such as table center-pieces, votive candle accents, wreaths, garlands, in decorative jars, etc. Gathering windfall or deadfall is an ethical way of stocking up your pantry and craft cupboard while doing your part in forest fuel management. https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2026/08/26/forest-fuel-management-foraging-style/

A moment to catch up with everyone! Life has been going lickety-split so far this summer, and with berry harvest staring us down the barrel, we are wondering how we're going to get it all done. The smoke that's rolled into the valley is the reason I have time to write just now. Forecasts have it lightening up a bit this weekend, which is good because we are at the Penticton Ribfest Friday afternoon through to Sunday. Why is a natural health practitioner at a meat-focussed event??? Because God created humans as omnivores, both in our mouths and in our guts. We recently held our first wildcrafted high tea and it went over smashingly well! The attendees were suitably amazed at the spread they saw, flavours they tasted, and several remarked about how full they felt. One of the attendees was vegan and a couple were vegetarian, so it had been requested that no animal products be at this particular event. But otherwise, the layout, the presentation of the space we were in, and the guests made it one for the history books! We've also been out foraging, and dismayed to see just how dry our zones have become. We did another advanced foraging workshop up in Vernon in partnership with Noodlelegs, and did some actual gathering during our time together. We gathered various herbs for the workshop itself where we ended with cups of fresh tea by the tailgate of the truck. It was a nice way to end the day. The Fall schedule is taking shape. We will be at the Kelowna Farmer's Market more frequently in August while also trying to dive head-first into the berry harvest. I hope to have the website calendars updated before the end of July and then will post a new Where We'll Be Card as well. If you are wondering about a date for a workshop or event from the booking card, do reach out in the meantime to ask what's available. We can look at our pencilled in calendar and get back to you. For the full update with photos, click here: https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2026/07/23/from-wildcrafted-high-tea-to-foraging-forecasts-newsy-update/

In the vein of yet another go big or go home event, today was supposed to be kitchen day in our house! The catch however, occurred in a new addition to my cheese sauce that began late winter 2026, just before spring. Ashley suggested looking into making hummus from chickpea flour. I counted out how many cups of carrot I rough-pureed, and had 13.5 cups, or roughly 27 times the recipe I'd used last time! Out of curiousity, I weighed the various containers, and discovered I've made over 8kg of spicy carrot chickpea hummus! Ashley got curious, and came up with a slightly rewilded herbed chickpea hummus, throwing in catnip. Mint is a common cooking herb in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean region as well. It's flavour blended very nicely with the besan in finger dipped taste tests. I've written down her recipe for future use! We had a great time at Creative Chaos this past weekend! We look forward to establishing a presence at the Kelowna Farmer's Market this summer. We might need rope tied to our ankles to make sure our trajectory doesn't leave orbit! Monday's foraging run had a fun discovery!  Purple/magenta baby cones looking for all the world like little spiky flowers, are appearing at the tips of ponderosa pines in our region!  Ashley stopped to take several photos. We also began our sage harvesting early again this year.  Here's hoping we get enough to last through to next spring. For the full adventure and a few photos, click here: https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2026/06/10/of-carrots-hummus-fairs-and-markets-i-hear-the-engines-revving/

This is a VERY busy blog post today! From fairs and foraging, to opportunities and scrambling! If you like to stay current with what we are up to, this is one article you don't want to miss! There are a few photos from Monday's foraging run in here as well: https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2026/06/02/ren-fair-creative-chaos-foraging-and-efforts-to-catch-up/

A lot going on in this particular newsletter-style blog post. From workshops and trail tours to foraging runs and upcoming fairs we'll be at, there's lots to catch up on here, as well as photos of various wild herbs in the area. Join the adventure by clicking here for the full report: https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2026/04/20/more-foraging-escapades-two-workshop-trail-tours-upcoming-events-this-spring/