From HerbMentor.com, this is Herb Mentor Radio.
You're listening to Herb Mentor Radio on HerbMentor.com. I'm John Gallagher. My guest today is Dina Falconi. Dina is author of Foraging and Feasting, a Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook with illustrations by Wendy Hollander, as well as Earthly Bodies and Heavenly Hair, natural and healthy personal care for everybody. Dina produces Falcon Formulations, a line of herbal skin and hair care products, and earthly extracts medicinal tinctures. Dina is also a practicing clinical herbalist and has been very active in herbal education, and you can visit Dina today at BotanicalArtsPress.com.
Dina Falconi, welcome back to Herb Mentor Radio.
Thanks, John. Thanks for having me back.
It's awesome to have you back. And so you've been busy.
Yes. I have.
So you you have this new book, Foraging and Feasting, a Field Guide to and Wild Food Cookbook, and I'm just blown away. It's so beautiful. It came in the mail, and I was like, I've gotta have Dina back. This is so amazing.
Thank you. Thanks for your support. It's awesome.
Thank you're welcome. And so I wanted to reach out and, have a little, herbal wisdom, sharing session here for our listeners as Sounds great. Anyone who has made such an incredible book like this has surely learned a thing or two about Wild Foods Cooking.
So what I thought was really cool is that when I first heard about this book, I saw, like, the I saw it on Kickstarter, Like, you started a Kickstarter campaign. Can you share that experience, like, what it was like to put a book together and kinda involve a community and and all that? Because because it's very different way of going about it.
Definitely. Well, I had decided to self publish the, illustrator, Wendy Hollander, and I have founded this publishing company to produce the book.
And, we needed to get some big funds together. So we wanted to I I really wanted to do the Kickstarter. Wendy was a little bit hesitant, and then she just jumped right on board.
And we had worked pretty concretely and steadily on the book for three years before we launched the Kickstarter. So we were very close to having finished the project. And it was a very scary moment to launch the Kickstarter because I had been privately working on this project, and then the world was about to see it, and they could reject it. You know?
Mhmm. They they it's a vulnerable moment as much as I feel and felt that it was a very worthy project that had strength and and that would be loved and so useful, I still had, you know, that moment where you're revealing something that's so close to your heart that you don't know what's gonna happen. Mhmm. There's always that fear. So the Kickstarter moment was that the public it was gonna go out into cyber reality.
And, you know, you hit the launch button. It's a launch button you hit when you when you begin your Kickstarter campaign. And there was a lot of heart, you know, pounding, but it it so Wendy and I, you know, the first thousand dollars rolled in so fast that it was a little bit shocking. And then the support for this project, was was so wonderful and kinda mind blowing. You know, it was, you know, you you you can't believe that people are appreciating something that is so close to to your heart. You know, something that I've worked so hard that that I've felt so deeply connected to, and then the response is people are loving it through their words, but also through financial support.
You know, they were willing to invest in the book. They were willing to buy the book. It was basically a presale, just to be clear. Mhmm. We weren't asking for, a a a fund to be created to support our publishing company. We were asking for people to pre buy our book, and then we would have the funds to make the you know, to print the the run, to create the the book.
Not to create the content, but actually to do the printing of it and to finalize all of the production components. So, that's how, you know, that's how the the, beginnings of the Kickstarter. You know, it felt a little bit it was a dream. It felt like a kind of a crazy, you know, wonderful, you know, dream of of just the response and and the revenue flow. You know, that allowed us to produce a book, which is now, I think, as an it's a very, sturdy, long lasting, highly designed book that was and we were allowed to produce such a beautiful product because we had the presales from the support of the people.
And you had control because you're a publishing company, so you had control about exactly how you wanted it to look, what materials you wanted to use, or you wanted to get it done.
And, You got it.
And that and you will own the right.
So, you know, nobody can take this away from you.
That's right. And in order to produce a book like Forging and Feasting, the person, myself being the quote expert needed to be there to design every aspect of it. Mhmm. So it wasn't like I could hand over to a production team. Forget about a publishing company. I was sitting next to everybody who was doing all the different parts that I didn't actually do, the craft graphic design.
I mean and the illustrator who is an amazingly talented illustrator was willing to work with me in that very, slow paced, detailed way over the course of three years to produce visual pages that speak, you know, to telling the plant stories as I see them as I as I see them in terms of being educationally effective. You know? People I teach this subject, and so I I know I know the content and how it needs to read. And so I was, you know, so grateful to have an illustrator who would work with me in that very tight way to to direct the art Mhmm.
So it would speak right. And then also to work with laying the pages out with graphic designers that I was always telling the story. You know? And how could a publishing company do that?
They wouldn't have the skills. They wouldn't know, you know, what to do. Yeah. So it it required that that kind of intimacy that my being the publishing company allowed for and needed.
So in that way, it kinda had to be that or, you know, if we were to have been hired to do this through a publishing company, they would have had to pay us a couple of million dollars.
Right. Absolutely. And you're right. And what's really amazed me is you had mentioned to me earlier that, you started without a a a list or a community online, that this has brought you out online.
And so what I'm getting from this is that people who have a vision and a great idea can make something happen. But the but but the secret sauce here as I'm seeing through you is you had a few years of, like, work into it. So when you brought the vision forth to people, you because I remember going on that page and seeing, like, the beautiful illustrations and the layout. And I was like, I'm gonna support this.
This is gonna happen because they've been putting a lot of work into this. So I think that's the secret right there.
You got it. I mean, I think, you know, the book itself reflects twenty plus years of my focus as an herbalist forager, you know, cook, and and that kind of thing. But the actual working of on the project had already you know, the third year had begun. And I was holding back until we had a pretty finished product to offer Mhmm.
Partly because I was a little bit protective too. It was like my baby, and I didn't want it to just go out into the world yet. I I had the vision. I knew what it was gonna be, so I wanted to get much closer before offering it to the public. And then you're right. The people responded to the strength of the work that had already happened.
So once the Kickstarter launched, I mean, we were already in the last stages of the book. You know, the book came out. We sent it to be printed in May. So Kickstarter ended in March. So we just had two two to three months of, you know, production to complete.
And then it was at the printer, and then it was shipped to us and you know? So then people got their books in mid July. Hopefully, most of them did.
But so, yeah, you're right. The idea is you do your you know, you I think that the recipe is that you're very passionate about something Mhmm. And that you're committed to it and that you put in the good hard work and also, you know, that the vision makes sense. Like, for me, I I could see that the niche of this book hadn't been filled yet Mhmm.
In the world of herb books and cookbooks. So you know, which is where I live. I mean, I I collect cookbooks. I collect herb books, and I could see that what I was accomplishing here in this text hadn't been done yet.
So I felt confident around that too. So I had done my homework for many, you know, couple of decades and then putting it to work and then creating this product, getting the right team together, having Wendy to work with me to make it so gorgeous and beautiful, and it just, like, it took off. You know? It was like a rocket, you know?
Yes. So what A lot of parallels here with us in Herb Fairies, three years of work before anyone even knew about it. Exactly. My wife's books.
You got it.
You know?
The the thing about the cyber community, which I should just give you a little background, was that I had rarely used the Internet.
So I was a resistor. You know, I had not you know, I wasn't I was trying to relay a lot of that or just had not set up my life with email and and cyber stuff.
But Good for you.
When I knew that we were launching this Kickstarter and I realized that we needed to send it out, that part of it was that we needed to have, a recipient for, you know, the Kickstarter, and it was gonna be online.
I went through my Gmail, and I looked for contacts so that I was doing homework again and looking for those I went backwards through time. And so I picked up a couple of, you know, maybe a year or so. And I I would say that I wasn't active in it, but I was able to gather up that information, the contact information. And along with Wendy's list, it it was somewhat robust. You know, even though I wasn't active, I I did my homework. And probably that's how maybe I even sent you one because maybe you had communicated with me Mhmm. At some point.
Well, we had our we've interviewed, and we have another Exactly.
Yeah. So I was like, oh, John. He would he'll like this book. You know? And it was kind of like working backwards even though I I don't I didn't you I didn't use the Internet as a form of business or for communication very much. The Kickstarter changed that.
Yeah. It's all the power of crowdsourcing, as they call it.
Yeah. I mean, we had access, you know, to millions of people through the Internet, and the book sold all over the world. And we presold once the entire preselling happened, it was over three thousand copies. Mhmm.
It was crazy, and it wasn't people we knew. Mhmm. It was maybe fifteen percent were people we knew in our community, and then the other eighty five percent were maybe connected to those people, but we had no idea. And books were sent to Israel.
They were sent to Asia Wow. A lot to Australasia, to New Zealand, and a lot to Europe. And it you know, it was just really moving. It was like, wow.
And the Internet and Kickstarter, the support that Kickstarter gave our project, not because we knew Kickstarter or anyone in there, but because they loved it, made that made that possible as well. You know?
They did.
The project and made it their their project of the day and the project we love and, you know, it was like, woah. We thank you.
Alright. Well, thank you for sharing that because I think, why the reason why I kinda went wanted to go in-depth into that is because, Dina, like, I know there's a lot of our listeners out there who have a great idea or herbalists who, you know, have there there's a book or a site or a product that they wanna get out there and to know that there's ways of doing it is inspiring. So your story is inspiring, you know, so I wanted to share that. Yeah.
And, and as a person who's really into supporting independent, you know, projects and authors, like, in in making raising awareness, it was right up my alley. So Right on. So let's talk about wild foods and, which is what the book's about. And so let's what I thought I'd do today is is kind of if we can create, like, a little mini wild foods primer of sorts because I know on HerbMentor and a lot of people listening that, that there's interest in wild foods, and wanting to use them.
But for a lot of people, even the step of going from, you know, buying some dandelion roots and roasting them and and make to make a dandelion root coffee, drink compared to going out into to a local park or somewhere and and picking some dandelions and chopping them and roasting them and making the same coffee is, is is something that that, that that is a hard thing. You know? It's it's it's it's a break through that wall. I'm sure anyone listening who who, at least in their adult life, got into use using herbs, knows that there was that moment, that definitive moment that you never forget that I I went you go and harvest your first, you know, your first flowers or roots or leaves and and to turn transform that into, you know, a medicine or a great meal.
So what I like about your book is it's a mentor to bring people through that process.
So what is needed to break people through that wall, of learning to use wild foods?
So, you know, having taught the subject of forging for many, many years, it's the best thing to do is to be an observer of nature. So when I lead plant walks, before you know what the name is and before you're hung up on whether it's food and how you can prepare it, you're really focusing on the plants as organisms, just as individual beings out there in the world. So you become a plant detective. You become somebody who's curious and observant of the plant world and not as obsessed initially with ID ing, labeling so that you may not even know what you're looking at, and, certainly, you're not eating it yet.
So you're a curious observer of the plant kingdom, and you come into close contact. You may choose to touch. Most of the plants are safe to touch. You don't eat yet.
You can certainly smell.
And so the idea is to get your senses open and awake to the plant kingdom so you begin to differentiate the greenery out there. Because what's scary is us as a culture, we've been disconnected from all the plants, and we don't know what the heck we're looking at. Could it kill us is always the fear. Is it, you know, really dangerous?
So the idea is to settle in an approach. It you know, it's a new territory. It's a new language, and you need to develop skills to learn how to read it again. You know?
So you're understanding how plants are, created in terms of anatomical structure, which is exactly why we have the plant laid out the book laid out in the way that it is. So you're really brought into these plant maps, and you're brought into the world of the plant.
And so to break the ice with somebody, you know, who's, quote, a virginal forager, they they're afraid. They don't wanna go out. There's no pressure around it. It's it's really a practice, and I suggest it as a daily practice that you go out into your backyard or your meadow or your park, and you begin to differentiate the greenery and look and see.
The book is is meant to to guide you, you know, through that process so you can go out with the book and reference and match the keys, match the identification features. Like, is this you know, if you were describing a person, does she have curly hair? Is it red? You know, her eye color. It's the same thing with a plant. You're looking for those physical characteristics.
So those are, forging. What would you say? The key to forging is proper identification Mhmm. And knowing how to use the plant, and what part you would use at what time. And so it's it it's a it's something that need it's very easy to do, but you just need patience, and everybody's very impatient.
They just, you know, want it right away.
And I do the same thing. Like, here where I live, we're lucky to have some, you know, land and things just arrive, and I don't know who they are. And I'll spend that whole season tracking that plant to meet it. So I'm like, I don't know you.
What do you, you know, what are you gonna do? And I watch for months, maybe a year, maybe two years to see the development of the plant. I know this plant then. You see what I'm saying?
Exactly.
So it's it's not about, like, learning or maybe every plant in your area, but it's, like, trying to find a few, getting to a few, like, plants or, like, how how what's the you know, is it best to go out the plan ID bug and try identify everything you can?
Or is it, like, just, like, focus on a couple?
Or what's Well, I always say at least well, for our class students here, you know, one of the homework assignments is to always be observing something you don't know.
Mhmm.
So you're always tracking at least one plant that you're unfamiliar with, and you're checking in with it regularly so you see what ends up happening to it. And then usually, once you followed it for a while, you can key it out and you begin to know, actually, you can you know, you know its species, you know its genus, and then you can start to cross reference it and learn how it's used. Mhmm. The the the part of the, you you know, the beauty of the gift of this book is that I've compiled those years of information so somebody can't cheat and come into Forging and Feasting the book and get in there and be there, and we've tracked the plants for you for three years. You can see the life cycle, but you still need to go out there in nature to confirm it. You know? So but the book is trying in two dimension to do what I'm describing to you now in real life.
And, but another It's like a Kickstarter. It's a kick you kick you in fear, get you moving.
Right. But, you know, it's this and so I think there's fear around the unknown Mhmm. And and it's appropriate. And I think if we can be peaceful and patient with the unknown, it starts to reveal itself. And this is the plant kingdom in our culture because we've disconnected from it, and it's an unknown.
And we're warned all the time since we're little that we could kill ourselves by eating the wrong thing.
In most cases, nothing will you know, the the the plants are not too toxic. A handful, yes. Most not mushrooms is of concern. But a lot of the plant kingdom, you know, there are a percentage of them that are dangerous, and so therefore, you never eat anything, you know, that you haven't properly ID'd and know that it's inedible.
But in general, it's not that dangerous out there with plants.
Right.
You know, as much as there is that little bit, and so therefore, I'm still very strict with my students. They cannot just go out and eat anything. You know, they need to know. But it's so beautiful to just encourage people to go out into the plant kingdom and become more fluent. You know, it's becoming fluent again in a language that we used to know.
And and then it all starts to come together once you stay you make the commitment to learn the language, you know, it becomes much easier. I can actually key a plant out because I know it looks like another species of its genus.
And I'm like, oh, you know, I get it. I can pretty much figure it out. So somebody will get that fluency as well with just time spent, you know, in the language of plants.
You know, we got this, Erica, posted on our in the Urban Mentor forum that so here's here's somebody, and I'll just paraphrase what you're saying just to save a little time. But she lives in the badlands of eastern Montana, and she doesn't hasn't found a good resource for a local field guide. And she also is unable to find someone to go on a weed walk with. Like, she doesn't have a problem with dandelion and currants and some basic ones, but she's feeling I think she's what's going on, she's feeling a little stuck.
So someone's in that state where they have a little experience. They've been out there. They're feeling a little stuck. They can't find the right book.
They can't find the right can't find anybody doing anything. Like, what what's what can get her through that block?
Well, again, part of it is to not be impatient, you know, that you wanna get out there and you just wanna know. But if she just goes into her ecosystem there and finds a handful of plants that she doesn't know, she can certainly she cannot eat them, but she can certainly hang out with them, track them, draw them, watch them through the growing season, and she'll probably know what they are pretty soon.
So as much as that sounds really vague, you know, the first couple of years, you feel like you can't make your way through. It's all very confusing. Mhmm. But with a little bit of just practice, you start to differentiate, you know, the the physical characteristics of a plant, which often lead you to ID ing it. But, you know, it does not lead you right away to eating it. So the foraging and the feasting part, you have to hold back on.
Yeah. Right.
You know? And so for her, it's an opportunity to stand in that uncomfortable place of the unknown Mhmm. And observe what's in her ecosystem, keep notes, keep track, see when it flowers, see if it seeds. If there's plenty of them, dig up some roots, see what they look like.
You know? So you're a plant detective, and that is really how we learn. You know? But, hopefully, she'll get somebody in her neighborhood who's experienced because that's worth so much just to go out there with an experienced forager. And then hope she can go to the library and look for resources. There's gotta be some some plants I plant books that are Montana based.
And and and also there's the Montana herb gathering out there. I look for herb gatherings in your area, and I know there's one in Montana. So there's probably I know it's it's a big state, but if you live in Montana, you're gonna get used to driving a lot.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and the thing the thing with the book, the Forging and Feasting book that I wrote, I chose very ubiquitous weeds of the world, and she would probably find thirty to forty of them in Montana. Mhmm.
So Absolutely.
They're they're, you know, the more common ubiquitous weeds, like, they're everywhere. They're they're invasive.
And I know that's a bad word, but in this case, it's a good word. You know? Mhmm. We can learn to eat those invasives and understand what their gifts are. So, I think, you know, I understand her where she's at, and I think it's just, again, being patient and curious and go out and become a plant detective, not with the I'm gonna go and gather lunch, but you know what? I'm gonna go and meet all of these critter you know, these wild the green. I'm gonna meet what's out there.
Mhmm. Okay.
And so yeah. Great. And and also, other resources, Erica, there's our mentor. You're on there.
There's, you know, then there's, forums and and whatnot. There's also the learning your plants course on there. So there's a lot of places. I mean, in Montana, I think that's where where Tom L.
Pell lives, and he wrote Botany in a Day, and that's another good resource, isn't it? Cool. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
So, you know, I wanna get into safety and stuff. And so I think I wanna do that by lead a lead in question from another member, Renee. And then we can kinda get into might you know, I think this question will will tip you off into some of your other favorite tips about safety.
So she so this is Renee, and and she says even though there's no chemicals being used in our yard, we live on a corner of a street where there's quite a few cars.
And, is there wild food we can get from our yard still that's worth eating or should avoid? Also, when do I you know, when when I do forage in the local mountains, I'll take a little here, a little there.
Would it be wrong for her to take a little more and give it to someone who can as long as there is still plenty on the ground? So it sounds like we're dealing with questions of not just safety and chemical stuff, but also the whole, oh, it's just too much to harvest kind of thing. So Sure. Yeah.
Right. So it's it's a question of assessing the land. You know? Is it, quote, clean enough to harvest from?
Mhmm.
And that is a challenging question. You know? We don't know the history of land use, maybe of where we're standing.
But I always ask the landowner, you know, if I don't know the history. Where she lives, if I personally don't feel comfortable harvesting right from traffic, you know, if you're on a busy road, twenty feet away, maybe fifty feet away, we all need to, assess what we're comfortable with. For me, it's probably twenty feet from a road and fifty feet from a bigger road.
Mhmm.
You know, I also don't like to harvest from homes. Like, I I want a good buffer from my home because homes are made with a lot of chemicals. So I'm of that opinion, you know, move away so that it, you know, I'm, like, not eating right off of my house. Mhmm.
So, you know but I know other herbalists who are very comfortable with eating from the Meridian Strip and eating from, you know, right off the side of the road. And I think everybody will find what makes sense for them. I'm much more I'm maybe I'm lucky and privileged to have access, but I'm also pretty preoccupied with healthful eating. And so I'm not gonna be eating the toxins from house construction or roadsides.
You know? So I'm gonna choose to push away from there. Mhmm. So that's my take on it.
And it is something else just to point out is, you know, as you begin to forage and connect with the landscape, we then become the stewards of that landscape, and we need to make sure that it isn't getting poisoned and that it's being treated right because that's our resource. You know? So it makes us really it makes us activists, and we need to wake up to that, Mhmm. You know, that human responsibility as protectors of the land.
And then the question regarding foraging, amounts. And so, again, if you're working with something that's in a weed quote or an invasive, you know, that's different than if you're harvesting something that's an in day well, I never suggest harvesting endangered species. Just no. You know? So part of it is that you require a little bit of knowledge about how prolific the plant is and how it reproduces.
And in some cases, people will beg you to come and dig out their weeds, and you can take as many as you want because there's no danger.
Mhmm.
But I I have to say that part of, the choice of plants for foraging and feasting is that they are they are not they're not endangered.
They're invasive, or what would we say, very happy on earth species. You know, they're really, you know, they're really prolific, and part of the reason for choosing those plants is that, you know, it's to celebrate that abundance. It's not to have people go and hunt down the ramps or, you know, the ginseng root, but to actually eat the field garlic, which is something we step on every day and we don't notice. That's, you know, an allium family. That's, you know, a delicious, wild green chive.
You have your root in there that's like a, you know, a little onion bulb or a big it's a mixed onion garlic hybrid kind of taste.
But, anyway, so the idea behind the plants that I chose was that we were gonna bring into focus what everyone is stepping on all the time and and giving, honor to those plans. You know, not so the idea is true. We need to be respectful and honor the the, you know, the plants in the landscape.
But at the same time, it requires that we take a bit of a plant inventory so we know how to engage in that ecosystem.
And then we know, oh, well, I'm never you know, my harvesting, in fact, of certain plants increases that plant's output.
And so that is all covered in the book too where And this is where the plant detective comes in.
Right? I mean, you're going. You don't have to be in a hurry. You can go to a a local park that you might find a hedgerow or something, and you can watch it, you know, through the seasons.
Do is someone spraying there? What's the growth cycle? Is there a lot there? Did you go hike around the corner to see if there's more growing?
I mean, did you You got it.
Exactly.
But it's also, you know, the forging and feasting concept is to celebrate those plants that are considered invasive because they're the gifts that nature is offering us and why aren't we paying attention to them. And that includes things like the dandelion, the burdock.
In some situations, it's chickweed. It's violet.
You know, it's garlic mustard. It's a gill over the ground and so on. You know? So it was about celebrating what we're not, that's everywhere for everyone pretty much. You know? And I love that image.
And then the other thing too is, like, if you have access to a little piece of wild, be it a backyard or maybe a bigger area, you can forage that area and you can work with it to make it more abundant and more diverse based on how you harvest. And it's it's just it's great. You know? It's you know, you can really pick your chickweed in a way that's gonna make that chickweed flourish.
You know? You're gonna you work with your nettle patch and maybe keep it in or or maybe make it flourish depending on what you need and where you are. Garlic mustard is such a beat up plant right now. At least in the northeast, people are just hating it.
And, it's a resource. It's an incredible resource. And so, yes, I don't want it either to invade my goldenseal patch here, but I do want it. And so by knowing the plants, I wanna be able to keep them, you know, in the landscape appropriately for my needs, you know, for and for the die encouraging plant diversity.
Right. So it's a good question, this this, this listener or viewer writes. And and it's you know, you can see how there's so many ways to answer it. You know?
Right.
You wanna check it And I think that where to harvest thing is always a big question.
Like, there are a couple other questions. They wanna know good methods, the folks wanted to know is good good methods for finding safe and legal ethical foraging places, and someone else connected that with, like, it's their state lands. Is that a place?
You know, so searching for the places, because, like, I know there's so many different kinds of places where you live, and some of us live with a lot of public a lot of public lands around us. Some of us live with a lot of organic farms around us.
I mean Right.
Organic farms are gonna have tons of those delicious edible weeds, and they would love you to come and weed them. Uh-huh. You know? So you wanna just connect to a lot of, you know, good local CSAs, farmers, organically maintained community gardens, our resource for some of these very useful weeds, you know, that are featured in the book.
Other other plants like, different conditions, and so you might need to drive around and there you spot one in the field, you know, a colony of them. And there you might ask the landowner, are you comfortable with me, you know, forging for this? Digging roots is very different than gathering flowers. You know? When you dig the roots, the end of that plant's life, when you gather flowers or leaves and you you do it in a way that's not harming the plant, that plant will only recharge from that. You know?
Right. Right.
So you're you're doing it in a in a considerate and conscious manner. You know? You're not mowing things down. You're hopping through the meadow, clipping this and that, you know, leaving a good percentage.
I think in the book, I even mentioned a percentage to leave in general. Like, you would leave thirty percent of the plants untouched. So if it's if it's an abundant non endangered plant, you would still leave thirty percent. Like and I know that sounds crazy for dandelion and garlic mustard.
People would say take it all out, but I would say leave thirty percent Mhmm. So you know you can come back here and they'll still be here.
And it's a good rule of thumb especially as you get to know each plant. Because sometimes it's like say if I'm gathering elderberries, like, you know, I can't reach the third of them at the top of the tree anyway.
That's right.
That's right. I mean and and with elderberry, you're not gonna wipe it out when you harvest flower or seed.
You will be competing with wildlife, and so you wanna honor that and consider how much you wanna leave.
But in terms of the plant itself, flower and and fruit, you know, it's their giveaway. You know, they're not, you're not hurting the mama plant from that. Mhmm. You're not endangering elderberry. Although, always leave flower and seed because you want birds and you want reproduction to happen. So, you you know, for the colony, the elderberry colony, but the particular plant itself is not harmed in any way by you harvesting flower or or fruit from it.
Yeah. I think people, often it's it's it's an attractive thing to want to have a formula to to just do it by. But the reality is this is nature and your connection to nature. And so it's gonna be whatever. It's gonna be a learning journey.
Yeah. It's about you and your ecosystem.
Yeah.
You know? So what do you have where you live? How does it behave in your landscape? And what are your needs or the needs of your community or the needs of the ecosystem there? And those are all the things to consider.
And, but I can say, generally speaking, that the weedy, quote, weedy, you know, plants that are so useful, we don't have to be too cautious around. You know, we can dig a lot of dandelion and burdock, and I don't think we have to be too concerned.
You know?
So or gill over the ground is another one that people, you know, don't even recognize, and it's a useful plant. I mean, it's not a delicious plant, but it has its uses. It's it's a great, you know, plant in its own right. Things like lamb's quarter and amaranth, which just totally take over, you know, gardens and and, fields of cultivated crops, that that's another, you know, thing to celebrate.
Mhmm. You know? Here here they are. They're showing up, and they're annoying the corn grower or whoever, you know, whatever is being grown.
But that that amaranth is so nutritious, more nutritious than most of the field crops that are, you know, cultivated, and we're just tossing them out. So the idea is, hey. You know, you're not going into pristine nature to forage. You're you're going right into your own backyard, right into your lawn, right into the landscape.
And so I you know, parks, the question of the parks is that I've, like, at a local park where I pick, you know, blackberries or I pick rose petals, and I know the people work there. And then I could, you know, was always asking, which area don't you spray or if, you know, something. But they didn't seem to mind that, but I know that there's gonna be all different rules if it's state or federal or whatever. I just don't know. Do you have a resource to find out about that?
Or I I don't.
I think, you know, it's best to, you know, to pick, on land that you've gotten permission to pick from.
You know? Exactly.
And so if it's if it's we you know, if you have a preserve in your in your area and it's like you cannot pick plants, then I don't know what to say about that.
So if it's that's a great point. So I think no matter what the land is, find someone to talk to. So a ranger will refer you to somebody, and they'll tell you, oh, okay. Well, we there is a because it's who it's who kinda plant it is, you know.
It's one thing if you're picking something, they might be like, oh, well. You know, other times, it might be like, no. There's protection over this. You can't touch this.
Yeah.
I'm I'm unhappy personally. Like, we have, an incredible blueberry, a wild blueberry range up here in in a in a state park that's right right where we live in a preserve right in this neighborhood, and they don't allow blue the blueberries to be picked. And it just it's like, are you kidding? You know? Yeah. This is such a gift, and it's and they just will rot on that, you know, and there's hundreds of acres of these wild blueberries.
The bears can't possibly eat them all.
No. The bears are in there, and it's like, wow. Such a resource. So I'm unhappy with when you know, they should have some kind of I understand you need to protect the land, but, you know, you wanna find the balance between that's a resource for this neighborhood and that they should say no, you know, and it's not hurting anything.
And it's just it's so it's it's a celebration, but, you know, whatever. So you still have to be respectful and figure out how you can work, you know, with what the landscape offers you. Mhmm. Yeah.
Mhmm.
Okay. So, you know, when speaking of blueberries, that would be, you know, that late summertime or whatever depending on where you live. Now, what about, like, people understand, make a basic ideas on what plant parts to pick? Because sometimes people will be like, oh, I've heard about burdock root, and, it's good for this, and I wanna pick it.
And it's spring or so that's not a good example because you can pick it. But it's it's off season, and it's, like, middle of summer. And this is, like, I wanna pick it. And so, like, is it a general guideline for times of years for different parts of plants?
Right. So, part of teaching plants is that you track that particular plant, and so you're gonna meet the plan in all these different stages of growth, and that's gonna help you to understand when you pick what. Each plan has its unique, you know, ever what would you say? Its unique moment. And and so you can't generalize, but I'm gonna do that anyway. Yeah.
So with berries, you know, you're looking really it's summer. Generally, berries are available through the summer.
Salad, leafy greens, depending on where you live for us, are really abundant in spring, early summer, and then again in early fall through fall if there's enough rainfall. So, you know, I'm really generalizing. Roots generally are dug after a couple of hard frosts. That is here. We have them in the northeast.
We don't have any.
Right. Or as the plant has gone dormant. Right. So you're you're looking for when the energy of the plant has descended down and has gone dormant, and that's usually root digging time.
But that changes. That rule changes if you want a very bitter dandelion root because you wanna make a bitter tincture. You know, you would dig that in in full flower in in full in in the height of its, you know, flowering period. So that's more like, I wanna say, you know, early summer or something early.
So depending on what you're going for. In Jerusalem artichoke, which I feature in the book, is more gas producing in the earlier, fall to winter and less so in the spring when you dig the roots. So, again but roots in general are done dug after the plant has has its tops have died back. That's you know, so generalizations aren't great here because, you know, each plant has its own story to tell and and the parts are available at different times.
Right. Right. Right.
But But it's a good, you know, generalization to understand.
That's great.
Yeah.
And before we get into a specific, you know, get going on a little plant walk, you know, just because because I remember this with myself is, like, how much to pick and what to do when you get home. Like, good practices. Like, you know, so don't as far as overharvesting or taking too much or you get you know? So what what do you and people do have those fears, like, oh, I'm gonna pick too much or whatever. So what what about that?
What about that? I mean, you know, it depends how yeah. You're right to say, hey. I have to curb my, enthusiasm here. I'm too eager because I'm not gonna be able to process all of this. Or you might be that kind of industrious person that is gonna be able to process them.
That's true.
And so, you know, it has to do with checking with yourself just like when you are, you know, putting food on your plate. Right. And are you packing the plate too full and you can't eat it? You're gonna be are you that kind of person that will finish your plate? You know? Right. So you wanna just check-in with yourself about that.
For me, I feel like forging it once you get into the rhythm of it, it's about daily practice. You're out there every day gathering salad. You know, if you're in the salad moment of the year, which is a long moment here. You know, we can eat wild salad seven or eight months out of the year.
And so you're not picking that much at it. You're picking the amount you're gonna be eating in a few minutes. You know? Bring out your bowl depending on how many folks you're feeding.
You know, you're gonna cook some nettle. You just consider the recipe.
So for me, forging, it's when you're making medicines, you have it's different. When you're thinking you're gonna preserve and dry, you might over harvest. But when you're thinking about what what you're preparing as a meal, it's not that difficult, you know, because you're gonna be doing it tomorrow or the next day, hopefully. I mean, that's the goal is to have people, you know, out there in nature constantly connecting.
But I'll say also that if you're only able to forage once a week, you can put in, you know, your wild greens just the way you would put freshly picked kale into a nice, you know, ziplock plastic bag or whatever you have. It will stay if like amaranth and lamb's quarter and nettle. Mhmm. I've had the experience where I can pick a week's worth and it stays fresh.
You know? Like, if I have to present somewhere and I need to bring a a chunk of it and I can't harvest on a daily basis, you know, think about how much you would use before it goes bad. So that's another thing. Is the greens, generally, the ones that are for cooking, the quote, pot herbs, will stay fresh in the fridge for probably five week you know, five days to seven days or something.
Just make sure you eat them, you know, so they don't rot in the back of the fridge.
But the other things too, like picking berries for me here, I'm a crazy berry picker. Mhmm. And so I wanna pick, pick, pick, and I just have to make sure that I will process them. And I process them into what's called a fruit coulis, and I stick that into the the freezer.
And then now on off season, I can eat berries and put them, you know, into shakes or into ice cream or into cheesecake or into Syrups.
Yeah.
Syrups. Everything. Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll Yeah.
So great.
Yeah. So it depends on who you are and if you have freezer space. You know?
You know? What what what are your resources?
And yeah. So don't over harvest. It's not the biggest crime to do that.
You won't get arrested.
Especially Unless it's on a federal land.
Yeah. I mean, it's not a crime to do that. For example, if you're picking too much nettle and you end up with too much and you, you know, some of it rots, well, you put it in your compost and it's wonderful compost food.
Right.
You know? So but yeah. So I I hope that answers the question. Long long answer to that, how much should you harvest.
Mhmm.
Okay. And, so let's get to some plants. Like, I know there's, like, ones that, you know, that are great everyone to know about, like things like dandelion and whatnot. But when you're writing this book, Greg, as you've been growing as an herbalist and and what what are some maybe a few maybe we'll talk about more surprising and common plants that you've found a lot of versatility to use in different recipes.
Well, that was part of the fun, was actually taking plants that I've been using forever Uh-huh. And pushing their edge. Like, where can you push the edge? You know?
And it's part of the pleasure, like, lemon balm, which is pretty weedy around here, and most people just end up with too much lemon balm. They don't know what to do with it. Mhmm. So, of course, we know it makes a beautiful tea, and we can use it in the aromatic aromatic spirits like a kind of a tincture.
But lemon balm ice cream, lemon balm custard, minced up lemon balm in a marinated green pilaf, lemon balm and stuffed grape leaves. You know? So you have, all this fun. You know? Even lemon balm actually as a fish topping.
Wow. So you're baking fish, and lemon balm is is with other herbs, it's not straight lemon balm, but you puree it into a paste, and you're coating the fish. It's delicious. So, you know, pushing the edge with these flavors, it's like, you know, how creative can we be and still be delicious.
You know? So lemon balm is an example. The mints are also like that. They're crazy abundant around here, and mints can be played with too endlessly.
It's like and in fact, you know, I wanted to feature a lot of mint recipes in the book, like the mint chutney, mint lassis, mint in trying to remember.
I should turn to the mint page.
Again, you know, making herbal truffles with the dehydrated mint, in it or actually using fresh peppermint minced into cookies that are delicious or making a banana smoothie that has mint fresh mint leaves you you infuse. Actually, you can also use cocoa in there, so you have your peppermint, chocolate banana smoothie.
I mean, you know, that's part of the beauty of this project, this this cookbook is, you know, taking templates or master recipes.
And then, once you learn the techniques of what's possible, you know, then you then you begin to investigate. And so I give, you know, several variations and choices, having tested them all. But it just also let it's a springboard for for more creativity once you understand those master recipe templates and techniques. So what other ones to push the edge? I mean, garlic mustard, you know, grating that root up and making a horseradish k. Is amazing.
How would you do that?
Well, you would dig up the, garlic mustard now where I am would be perfect or in the spring, and then you would, puree the the root with vinegar with a good apple cider vinegar, put in some salt, and you have a very strong horseradish.
Really? Without Or the other thing say it again?
This is without actually it being horseradish.
You have a Well, it's a close relative.
It is.
Meaning, you know, it's a brassicaceae.
It's in the same family. Of course. You know? So once you get to to be fluent in the language of plants, right, you're gonna start to be able to see those connections.
Oh, yeah. That makes sense. You know? You can make mustard from its seeds, and you can make horseradish from its roots, and then you eat the leaves of garlic mustard.
And it's fun to for the cookbook, for example, you know, I make grilled cheese, like a good sourdough bread, good, you know, good high quality grass fed cheese, and you can sneak in, like, all kinds of wild greens. And garlic mustard works beautifully in that. So, garlic mustard grilled cheese.
Let's see what other curious, you know, ways to use herbs.
There is a fun recipe in the book, called it's a shepherd's pie or a cottage pie, and you're using potatoes as the, you know, as as the topping, but you're actually mixing them with burdock root, and you have a a potato burdock root mashed topping, which is delicious. If if you eat meat, it's you know, use grass fed grass fed meats Mhmm. And then you you bake this dish and you have this amazingly tasty, and it has this essence of burdock root. You know?
It's great. Another interesting thing which was put pushing the edge is dandelion root bisque soup. So you're making the root bisque saying you're adding just enough dandelion that it's not too bitter, but it has the dandelion essence in it. And you have these root bisques and dandelion. I just thought, wow. That that's pretty cool.
So what you're doing is essentially is okay.
So you're a cook or you're a chef cook person and you've got I'm just a cook.
You're a cook.
I'm a long time cook.
You're a long time cook as who knows the basics cook.
And then here you are, just figuring out creative ways to put wild foods in recipes that you're already making. So So that's a way for some people so in a way to really I mean, even if though your book's awesome, in a way somebody in a way could just take a, I don't know, like a lasagna recipe and replace the greens with, the spinach with whatever.
Or With Lance Porter.
Lance Porter. Yep.
Absolutely right. Yep. Right. You're absolutely right. That's the idea is you take classic recipes.
Right.
And so and the book lays that out, actually. The recipes are designed so, they're classic master recipes that, I've accumulated and researched over the years. You'll find, like, for example, a gratin, which is delicious cheesy custard, savory cheesy custard, and you put greens typically, you know, spinach gratin or something. But in this case, you know, you can use the amaranth or the lamb's quarter or the nettle or the yellow dock leaves that are young, you know, or the dames rocket leaves that are young.
So you're you have all these potter choices. You know, the herbs you cook in a pot and you plug them into the garden. But you also if you don't have those wild plants, you can use cultivated ones. Always in the cookbook, it celebrates, all it's it celebrates food and doesn't wanna limit it.
So the idea is here are the wild plants that relate to this particular recipe, but the cultivated variations are also delicious and this is what they look like. So you're creating, food literacy. You know, you're creating in the book, the desire is to create plant literacy and food or slash cooking literacy. So people become, you know, empowered and they know, hey.
This is the green I have. I know I can I can cook it in all these different ways? It's not limited.
Mhmm.
You know?
But, yeah, you're right. So it's it's about knowing your recipes, and that's part of the fun is offering these hundred master recipes for folks to really get to know, you know, your where you can plug in the wild.
This is cool. So I I wanna I went I went to this page, page hundred and fifty, to the root it's called the root bisque master recipe. So we have so what I'm seeing here is a master recipe. Now, you know, it's real hard to just say all this on a podcast because you're not gonna remember it anyway. But the point is, is that I I'm looking at this great recipe that that's, you know, has a butter, the onion, celery, the stock, and then it'll say in there, and and the process, six simple six step process. And it'll say four cups of roots, see variations below. I look below for root bisque variations, and here I see Jerusalem artichoke bisque, burdock bisque, dandelion bisque, cardamom, fennel dandelion bisque, you know, and and which are squash bisque.
So that's amazing. Wait.
Then you get you get This is a learning how to cookbook in addition to how to infuse the herbs into it.
So I'm gonna learn how to make a bisque with this book really simply, and then I'm gonna know exactly how to go out and, you know, chop up some dandelions and and and and I just wanna point out too that that that, you know, that's right. I mean, Dina, this is how you learn about the plants. Like, so here you are with dandelion. You go and do that, then you learn about dandelion.
You might go and say, I'm gonna read some more about dandelion and, you know, it's hard.
That's right. I mean, a couple of things to note about the master recipes. Two is that you have three tablespoons of fat, and then you have your options. If you're not a butter eater, you can use olive oil.
If you are, you have got grass fed beef tallow available, that's your local fat. You can use that if you want. Coconut oil, that's available. So the idea is, you know, there's flexibility within that master, but it's also very, very concrete and clear.
Mhmm.
And then it shows you what you can vary.
And then when you go down to the roots and their variations, you will have to follow that according to the ratios. So dandelion root is bitter, so we don't want too much of it. We need a certain amount of potato to offset that. And so that's detailed in the variations.
It's not like just use dandelion and root. It's it's used dandelion root in these ratios because Right. The nature of dandelion is it will nobody will eat that soup if it's straight up dandelion root. Mhmm.
It's too bitter. You know? But, it works really it's a it's an amazing taste when it's set in properly, you know, when it's in the right context. So that's part of the challenge or beauty or pleasure of this book is that, you know, there's a lot of finessing to understand the personalities of the plants and how they relate to those recipes.
Right. You know?
So you even have master recipe for, like, herbal drink. So could you talk about one of the your favorite herbal drinks?
Oh, the herbal drinks are awesome.
I really fattened up the beverage section. Like, I you know, most cookbooks don't feature beverages, and I feel like when you're an herbalist, beverages, you know, you have so much play with them. And when you're a forager and then you have all these fruits, you know, you have so much.
So you can make Face it.
Tea gets boring. Right? I mean, really.
Say it again?
Tea gets boring.
Well, you can take that tea and you can make it from a hundred or more different plants, and it doesn't get so boring because you have that option. But you can take that herbal infusion, and then you can layer it. Yeah. And you can add fruits to it, and so you create the raspberry leaf raspberry agua fresca.
It's basically a raspberry, juice that has raspberry leaf tea as its base. You know, it's fresh raspberry leaves pureed with a raspberry leaf infusion, and you're sweetening it just as much as your taste buds need. And it's just, you know, it's got a depth in it. Or nettle, blueberry.
You know? You're so you're part partnering herbs now with fruits and making these fresh drinks, and then you can ferment them. You can turn them into water kefir sodas, so then you're making these pretty, you know, amazing sodas.
The herbal deluxe drinks are pretty impressive.
They re they require a little bit more I'm gonna look yeah. So the deluxe herbal drinks are where you're actually using an infusion.
You're using an herbal essence water. You're using a fruit puree or a coulis, as they call them, and you're mixing all of those together. And you're so it's a very layered drink that whenever you whenever I serve that, like, it's a book release party, we served it or at my friend's weddings and just big events and people, you know, just die for them.
Just layering and doing this, I just hadn't seen it before.
Did you come up with it or inspired from other, you know, you know, your friends or your family?
I mean, I I probably was inspired, but I don't remember from where. It's the kind of thing that I've been investigating this for years. So it was I'm sorry to say if someone inspired me. I can't remember who, but I feel like I did come up with it.
You know, and then the most subtle waters are where you have your aromatics, and you take fresh handfuls of anise systole or other aromatic of choice, even like a a garden basil, and you're steeping that into cold water and you're just letting it sit. No heat. Just time, maybe two to four hours, and you have this very light, refreshing aromatic water. You know, that's the easiest to make.
And then from there, you just go on, and and you can choose to just stay really simple, and it's still satisfying, or you can go deeper, you know, and and investigate. You can even go to the point where you take, like, you add alcohol. So I have this whole section on on, what do you alcohol, like, I'm not remembering the name. Spirits, where the spirits are entering.
And and it's it's also not I'm not much of a drinker personally, but I love inventing. And so you can make, you know, the apple, apple mint bourbon or, you know, the grape lemon balm brandy. You know, it's just all these parts you put together. And and using, distilled liquor brings in this whole other category of of mixing, you know, that I'm excited about even though I don't drink much.
You know, I just had this vision here about a great way for people to learn. I'm looking through this and how you've got these the the agua fresca, and you have all these different things. And you have spreads, and I'm looking at the wild tapenade master recipe.
I'm like, folks, you can have this vision of, like, having a, like, a wild foods, cocktail party or hors d'oeuvre party and have your friends over and and sample all these beautiful things that you're making, and how inspiring would that be?
And and talk about a way to learn. I mean, learn That's it. It's learn by doing and and sharing.
That's exactly it. Yeah. Yep. Learn by doing. And, also, it's so delicious and, appealing, you know, that it's an entry point.
Mhmm. Like, people we've been serving because we've been going around promoting our book now. We're serving these wild green pestos and these tapenots, and they are made with the weediest weeds.
You know? And if they're in elegant settings and people are nibbling it, and it's just it's a pleasure. You know? This is exactly the point is to celebrate these weeds that we're ignoring. You know, the burdock root is ground up. The nettle leaf is ground up, and it's it's put into these truffles that are served with rose hips. And you have these very elegant herbal truffles, but they're full of these invasive weeds Right.
That are really good for us, you know, that are nutritious.
So it this book is, metaphorically, you know, you it's it's called the it's not the real image of a Trojan horse, but, like, you're bringing it in somewhere and they don't know what's really in there.
Right.
Something else is coming out.
Right. Right.
You know, so you're you're putting it in a guise that's appealing, that's attractive, tasty, and really you're you're celebrating local, you know, wild food, that people, you know, ignore or or have been stepping on and don't know it's there.
You can make a very elegant bitters, and one of the main ingredients is gill over the ground, and that's a weedy weed. You know? And you use gill over the ground in there, and you put it in an attractive bottle and, you know, people put it in their mixed drinks or a little bit as an aperitif and, you know, it's just I love that image, you know, that you're you're taking these things that are abundant and free and available to everyone almost everywhere, and it's a resource. And how do we tap into that resource, you know, and and make it so that as much as I am radical and fringe, I'm also wanting to appeal to to everyone. It isn't like it has to be experienced as a a radical fringe thing, you know.
Mhmm. Mhmm.
So The the yeah.
Well, so now that winter is, you know, coming on here, we're, in, the time we're recording this. And by the time this is first released to our mentor members, this recording, it'll be just about Thanksgiving time. So if there was something that people could make from the book or, like, or recipe, what what would you feel be a great thing people could make for their family on Thanksgiving if they would love?
Well, you know, I do have a big Thanksgiving here with family, and I have to always do the turkey thing, and I love to do that. So that's you you want so let's say you could serve a meal, you know, that you're gonna I'm gonna serve the Thanksgiving meal, but let's say you could serve other dishes around that or something, or you could serve a meal the next day, you know, with the same festivity around it.
The cottage pie that I referred to is pretty celebratory and delicious. So it's it's a cottage pie. It's an, burdock root, topped cottage pie.
But something you could serve on Thanksgiving Day along with the turkey for dis you know, as a dessert is the fruit mousse pies. They are amazing.
So the the burdock root is appropriate for November. You're gonna be able to dig roots. The berries, you'll have had to have frozen already. You know?
So that if people have some frozen berries or maybe they could buy them and cheat, you know, they're not gonna be wild. You can make these fruit mousse pies that are in a in a raw pressed crust. Mhmm. And they're incredibly refreshing, and people respond to them, you know, across the board.
It's a favorite. We serve them at the more elegant functions.
I tell tell you what, you know, I'm gonna ask you on the spot here.
Can I, this page from the book, can I, post this this one page Absolutely? So people can see the fruit mousse pie so they could and it'll be on HerbMentor where you, you know, where this is posted on herbmentor dot com, and you can download a PDF here and there and, that so you could make that for Thanksgiving so you know how to do it.
Yeah. That would be so wonderful. Mhmm. The only thing is you need to post the pressed crusts, and that's fine too because they'll need to know or they can use a crust of choice.
But if you use these pressed crusts, which are made with almonds or with hazelnuts or you know? And they're just fabulous, you know? But you could use any rolled baked crust as well, and they work. But, in the recipe, the master, I think I suggest you use the pressed crust.
Cool. I mean, I'll just I'll just pyre. I'll just take a great photo on my iPhone and turn it into a PDF and Yeah. Yeah.
Do whatever you need to call the closest.
Yeah.
I mean and then other things for, you know, recipes to feature, you can always add a little bit of an herbal essence to your whipped cream if you're getting good grass fed cream and you whip it, maple sweeten it, and you can add a little elderberry syrup, or you can add raspberry syrup, or you can add you know, it's fun. Just playing around with stuff like that. You're gonna serve, a dessert, and you wanna put some whipped cream. What other, let's see, what other things you know, of course, if you're air like, I think where you live, you'll be able to still get greens for salad. Right?
Yeah. I mean, right in front of my office is a giant Chickwheat thatch at zero. It just started, you know, so it's a be it's all winter for me here.
Absolutely. So for Thanksgiving, salad is always nice, and adding the wild greens to that salad is very good. Mhmm. You know, good digestive, just as a simple thing.
Let's see. I'm trying to quickly review. What would it's a good question. What would we serve for Thanksgiving?
As an appetizer, you could do the wild green pesto, and we will we will have garlic mustard, here, and chickweed and violet would make a good combination. Absolutely.
The wild tapenade is very tasty. That's a nice one to offer. So you could have an appetizer moment, you know, in your Thanksgiving meal.
I mean, it just goes on and on.
Don't tell your grandma till you're done, till it's over. No. Grandmom, you just ate.
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
Did you like it?
So, You know what?
Go ahead.
Let me just add one thing. There's the fruit chutneys. I'm just sorting through the book and the fruit chutneys. There's a whole thing on fruit chutneys. And if you if you have access to fruit or if you frozen it, you can make some really delicious chutneys that would go well with your cranberry sauce or in place of your cranberry sauce. Gooseberry chutney, for example, or red currant chutney.
So that's just other things to think about.
Man, I'm getting hungry now.
So, you know, one question I forgot to ask was Tamara was wondering about, you know, winter's coming and so are here for some of us. What kind of wild food choices do we have? Or do they have to hang on till spring comes around? Now, you know, I said where I live, I can get Chickweed. I guess it depends on where you live and I don't know where she lives, but is there some, you know, couple things she could think about?
Well, in the northeast where I'm from, you're not gonna be forging very much. Mhmm. You know, once the snow comes and the ground freezes, you still have pine trees. You know, you can make your your pine tea and things like that, but it's very minimal, the forging.
Where you live, you're gonna be able I'm pretty sure you're gonna be able to get greens throughout the winter. Totally. You have your wild hearty greens, you know, on the Pacific Northwest.
So each each climate, you know, will have different things.
I don't know where she's from.
But Yeah. I just where I am.
Yeah. It sleeps. Things start to go to sleep.
So Exactly.
Exactly.
So, alright, Dina. The book here, Barging and Feasting, where can folks get a copy now that their now that their appetites are wet?
They can order the book directly from our website, which is botanical arts press dot com.
And those come packaged and shipped from our own hands, so we send them out. If people are listening and they'd like to get them, into their local neighborhoods, we also do wholesale. So people are welcome to request them through their independent local bookstores.
The book is not available, as, a low cost option, you know, on the Internet. It's only available at the price that it's set.
So Oh, well, just actually, I think it's low cost. It's forty dollars. And to me, for what this book is, for what it represents, for the work that went into it and the quality of the material and the wisdom and, you know, this isn't like, you know, going to Half Price Books and seeing a pile of herbal books written by information compilers. This is a book written by an herbalist, with wisdom and, you know, a respected herbalist.
So forty dollars to me is nothing. Like, this is, like, this is I mean, come on. This is a this is what would you spend for a course in wild foods? And this is, like, you know, a lot more than forty dollars, and you've done it here.
So Right.
So I'll add I'll add to the Powell's now Carrie's book.
So is that a store in your area or somewhere out there?
Powell's is in Portland, but I think they do online sales too. Right?
So Okay. Well, Powell's in Portland at their at their shop. I'm just thinking if people wanna go and support local independent bookstores, we want those stores to have our book, and Powell's now carries it.
Nice.
But if you're gonna order online, which is great, you know, do it through us.
Yeah. Always recommend go straight to the Herbalist.
That's why I always ask even if some things on, something's on sale on Amazon, I'll always search first to see if that person's selling it themselves because, you know Well, Amazon isn't a vendor of the book.
We sell through Amazon, but Amazon itself does not sell the book. That was a choice we made. But it's available through vendors on Amazon so that Amazon is not able to undersell the value of the book. Great. You know? Smart. Yeah.
Very smart. Yeah. That's that's great. And also, Botanical Arts Press has, you know, because these illustrations, they shouldn't just live in this book.
There's prints and note cards. There's also other books, Dina's other books, and Wendy's other books. You can check out that. Workshops.
Do you have any cool workshops that you're gonna be doing in the spring or something to inspire people to places you're teaching that people can meet you and take take classes?
That's so nice of you to ask. You know, I'm still figuring out I typically teach a class that's May through October, one Saturday a month so people really meet the plants through the growing season, and that's here in the Mid Hudson Valley. I typically teach that class, but because of this book, I'm not sure. And I'm thinking maybe that we're gonna do some touring around to promote the book. So it's I'm on the fence, but thanks for asking. And I will be offering that class in two thousand fifteen for sure.
But for for right now, I'm just tentative on yeah.
Oh, if you're coming to Seattle, come to Seattle area, we can hang out.
Yeah. Actually, we might.
Oh, that'd be great.
You know, we're trying to figure it all out.
That'd be great.
If we come to Seattle, shall we hook up something with you?
Yeah. Absolutely. We'll just come I don't know. Just go hang out.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. I just hide up here in my little, little town. I don't get out much.
Great.
So, folks, again, BotanicalArtsPress.com. Dina Falconi, thank you so much for joining us today again on Herb Mentor Radio. It was an honor, a pleasure, and, I guess we'll have you back after your next book, whatever that is.
Oh, thank you. Thanks, John. Thank you so much.
You're welcome. See you all.
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