Late May Nature Log

Tea Foraging & Label Making & Pink Lady Slippers

Hey friends! It started to feel like summer here in the blink of an eye. The weather has been hot, and plants have been moving faster than I can keep up with. But capturing a few moments in the madness is worth doing! I’ve been sitting outside with my camera whenever I’m doing other things (for birds).

This sweet phoebe has a nest on our house, which she lovingly guards all day long.

Of course, I am drawn to the flowers.

Canada Mayflower

My favorite floral visit this month was to a pair of surprise Pink Lady Slippers. This is a flower in the orchid family native to the Northeast. Seeing them was an unexpected treat. These plants can be more than 20 years old, and they take years to mature to flowering state.

Cypripedium acaule

I’ve also seen lots of angelica, a new to me plant this year. It’s a beautiful one-of-a-kind native plant. It can grow more than six feet tall, and it edible and medicinal properties.

Angelica atropurpurea

Pink Columbine

Canadian Bunchberry

The forest continues to delight, even when seeing nothing new.

I also spotted what appears to be albino milkweed? Feel free to weigh in if you have any ideas about this plant.

Foraging

I’ve done fewer foraging walks because there’s just been so much to do, but I still have been really actively drying stuff for tea. Enter label maker.

It’s true that I could be using paper labels, but a label maker is pretty fun. I don’t have a dehydrator (yet), so I’ve been drying materials in my hanging rack for a few weeks, then finishing them off by drying them in the oven very briefly.

At the end of the season, I’m going to make several tea blends!

Test harvests of wild roses, raspberry leaves, and red clover.

And of course, I’ve been making beautiful things with Hannah during my botany apprenticeship!

Rose-infused honey

In June, I’m attending two weddings and traveling for almost two of the four weeks, so there might not be a nature log (sad! sad!), but we’ll see. Maybe they will be travel nature logs! You know I’ll always be trying to get outside!