Tag: Edible Mountain

Comfrey is a profound healer when it comes to open wounds. Its name is derived from the Latin word confervo, meaning knit, grow together, or heal. Its use is documented as far back as 400 BCE by Greek physicians. Even its scientific name, Symphytum, is the Greek word for ‘to grow together.’ A lot of plants have names with ancient meanings based on their uses.

A great aspect of comfrey is that it truly works. You actually have to be careful because it can work too well. A wound may heal on the outside faster than the inside, trapping bacteria and causing infection. To avoid this, you have to apply the ointment on the inside of the wound first.

Denise Cusack

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Comfrey contains a chemical compound called allantoin which promotes cell-reproduction. Allantoin is what heals the boo-boos. Allantoin is also found in the milk of nursing mothers.

Comfrey has some fun folktales around it. It’s used for luck while traveling; some say that if you put a leaf in your luggage it will protect it from being lost or stolen. Travelers can also use the root to be sure their lovers will be faithful in their absence.

Another place you will find comfrey is on a midwife’s tool belt. Leaves are frozen into pads which accelerate healing after childbirth.

Your garden will appreciate comfrey as well. Its taproots are long and strong and have a knack for breaking up clay and hard soils. It will eventually aerate the ground as its black roots draw hard to pull minerals into its leaves. The leaves can be harvested and placed around other plants to feed them the out of reach minerals. It’s also one of the rare plants that can pull vitamin B12 from the soil.

Denise Cusack

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It is not often eaten, but the young leaves and flower buds have a great flavor. There are concerns about eating comfrey since it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids which can cause an upset belly and liver damage.

You can also spray yarrow tincture on the wound first. Yarrow is another profound healer that is amazing at stopping bleeding, and the alcohol in the tincture will help disinfect the injury.

To make the ointment, you mix a small amount of filtered honey and comfrey cold infused oil. The sugars in the honey draw water out of the tissue that is damaged. This reduces swelling and sets the stage for comfrey to work its magic.

Apply the honey/comfrey ointment first on the inside and then on the outside. This order of application is important to prevent the outside from healing faster than the inside.

Rock Tripe

Knowing what is edible in the wilderness can create a sense of security
in our wild world. But what if you need to feed yourself in the dead of
winter? What would you eat?

Rock Tripe (Umbilicaria mammulata) is a type of edible lichen, and it is
plentiful in North America.

Chuck Kleine

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A lichen is not just one organism–it is a mutual, symbiotic life form
comprising of a species of fungus and a species of algae. They work
together to survive, needing very little from their surrounding
environment.

Chuck Kleine

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In the dead of winter, when just about every plant is dormant, Rock
Tripe is still thriving. It’s not great tasting, and you may even
struggle to keep it down, but it will alleviate hunger pains. It
contains a similar amount of calories as cornflakes.

Soldiers from the Battle of Valley Forge journaled that they ate Rock
Tripe by the bushels to combat starvation through winter months of 1777.
God forbid anyone is ever in such a dire situation, but when push comes
to shove, now you know that Rock Tripe can be on the menu.

Edible Mountain is a bite-sized, digital series from WVPB that showcases
some of Appalachia’s overlooked and underappreciated products of the
forest while highlighting their mostly forgotten uses. The series
features experts, from botanists to conservationists, who provide
insight on how to sustainably forage these delicacies. It also explores
the preparation of these amazing delectables, something that many could
be achieved in the home kitchen.

The Cranberry Glades Botanical Area is a rare cluster of boreal bogs in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Bogs are acidic wetlands with a spongy moss ground. With its five small bogs, the Cranberry Glades is the largest area of bogs in the state.

For the last 20,000 years, sphagnum moss has grown there. Under the top coat of the moss is partially-decayed plant material known as peat. These layers at the Cranberry glades are 10 to 20 feet deep.

Chuck Kleine

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Sphagnum is a genus of about 380 species of moss and there are a multitude of moss growing in the cranberry glades but it is the sphagnum that has made this special ecosystem.

Darrin Martin

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Sphagnum moss is considered a “habitat manipulator” because it creates a unique ecosystem of plants, including carnivorous plants, orchids and wild cranberries that are rarely found thriving this far south. Many of these plants were dumped here by glaciers at the end of the last ice age.

The layers of living and dead sphagnum can store large quantities of water inside their cells. It’s basically a giant sponge holding water even during dry spells, keeping the water-loving plants thriving.

Darrin Martin

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Sometimes called “camper’s pampers,” humans have used the moss for its absorption properties for thousands of years. Many cultures have used it as diapers. The smaller bits of moss work like baby powder while the moss absorption keeps skin dry. The antiseptic properties can even help and heal diaper rash.

Because it is so highly antiseptic, it has been used to dress wounds as late as the First World War. Other medicinal uses are insect repellent and as an application for a wide array of skin irritations.

The peat created by sphagnum moss has also had wide use throughout time. It is sold all over the world as a garden medium and peat blocks are used as fuel for fires.

Some of the most well preserved bodies from the past have been discovered in peat bogs. With Cranberry Glades being about 20,000 years old, there is no telling what kind of archeological treasures are hidden deep inside the layers of peat. But those will stay hidden, as any visitors to the glades must stay on the boardwalk. The ecology, though resilient, is fragile and easily disrupted. State park rangers and conservation officers implore all visitors to keep to the boardwalks that make this state gem accessible to visitors.

The rose hip is the accessory fruit of the various species of rose plants. Whether the pride of your garden is the English rose, American rose, vintage rose, or Multiflora rose, all are producing rose hips that are edible if, of course, not sprayed with pesticides.

Chuck Kleine

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Since rose hips are in the same family as apples (Rosaceae), they’re packed with a ton of vitamin C. In England, these sweet “false fruits” are popular in making tea, jam and syrup.

The best time to pick rose hips is after the first frost. You do want to remove the seeds because they contain hair that are actually used as an ingredient in itching powder!

Chuck Kleine

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When preparing a tea, keep a few things in mind. Dry them whole to avoid the hairs. Drying them in the oven with a temp of 100 F will draw out the flavor and preserve the vitamin C. And dry them until brittle; this could take 3-12 hours. Steep in hot water for 10-15 minutes and then strain with a coffee filter to enjoy a delicious and healthy cup of tea. And don’t forget dried rose hips can be stored for months, sealed in a
jar and kept in a dry, cool place.

So next year instead of dead heading your roses, you may want to think twice so you can gather the rose hips for delicious and healthy tea, jam and syrup throughout the winter months.

Edible Mountain is a bite-sized, digital series from WVPB that showcases some of Appalachia’s overlooked and underappreciated products of the forest while highlighting their mostly forgotten uses. The series features experts, from botanists to conservationists, who provide insight on how to sustainably forage these delicacies. It also explores the preparation of these amazing delectables, something that many could
achieve in the home kitchen.

The Appalachian region is one of the most bio diverse ecosystems on planet earth. There is so much to wonder at even when I take a short stroll in nature here.
When I come across the blossom of the passionflower
(Passifloraincarnata) no matter how many times I have seen it, I always stop and enjoy its extraordinary blossom. Some folks refer to this gorgeous, often-purple flowering plant as maypop. How can something this beautiful even exist? But here it is. If it’s in bloom, I’m almost never the only one there.

Bees are usually
having some sort of party basking in its sweet aroma, while on the
bottom side of the passionflower blossom ants are drinking its sticky nectar.
This while hummingbirds are most likely hovering around its twisted tendril vines.
he bees will literally fall asleep on the flower as they get their
fill.

Ella Jennings

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This also works for people too. The flower of this fast-growing
perennial vine can be made into an infusion or a tincture and is
ingested to promote a calming effect before bed.

The plant can be used to treat anxiety as well. Researchers believe
passionflower works by increasing levels of a chemical called
gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the brain. GABA lowers the activity of some brain cells, making you feel more relaxed.

There are more than 500 species in the Passiflora incarnata family all over the world. The purple passionflower is native here in West
Virginia.

We also have a less flamboyant species called yellow passionflower but it’s the purple maypop you will use to make the medicine.

It is hardy and easily cultivated for its fantastic sweet fruit, which
are tennis ball size and also “maypop” when you step on them.

Be warned if you plant it in your garden that it may take over. Its
roots run horizontal in all directions and its suckers “maypop” up in spots of your garden where you don’t want. them.

In the wild it is found along forest edges, preferring full sunlight,
and will usually pop-up in May.

Watch Barbara Volk make passionflower-infused honey. Delicious!

This forgotten fever remedy was once one of the most popular medicinal herbs used by herbalists in Eastern North America.

Also called break bone fever, it’s leaves can be used steeped as a tea and taken as warm as a person can stand to break a fever.

Some folks in Appalachia would simmer it with lemon and honey to make a cough syrup.

Boneset was also combined with elderberry and used with great success by some doctors during the influenza outbreak of 1918-19.

It’s popularity has faded over the years and is now considered a weed.

Ella Jennings

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A key way to identify boneset is that its stem grows through the leaves.

In the early days of herbalism visual observations like this would influence what it was thought it would cure. In this case it was believed that wrapping a broken bone in the leaves of boneset would help cure the break. Of course this was not true but this is how it got the name boneset.

While it doesn’t fix bones, the fever remedy works very well. It’s worth having a boneset tincture in your apothecary for this reason.

Ella Jennings

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Do mind that white snakeroot has very similar flowers and can be mistaken for boneset. White snakeroot is deadly poisonous so please be sure what you are harvesting.

In the video below, 👇🏼Barbra Volk gives us info on how to ID identify it and makes a simple boneset tincture.