March Newsletter

It’s hard to imagine that winter is on it’s way out with snow on the ground, but it is!

*****THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED*******This month will see my first presentation happen on March 29th, a Sunday from 1-3pm. It will be at Mountain Sage Wellness Shop in Hendersonville. I really love herb shops and this one is wonderful. I will be talking about the top medicinal mushrooms I work with, Chaga, Reishi, Turkey Tail and Lions Mane. I will also have Chaga tea samples and a tincture tasting of my Four Of A Kind Blend. The event will be $10, tickets are available here, click Book Now.

I hope to do many more presentations and workshops this year. March is my last month to stock my inventory before the tail gate market season begins. This year I’m vending at East Asheville, Black Mountain, Burnsville and adding Weaverville. I am also stocking up for a great event happening in April called the Floyd herb fest. The fest is in Floyd, Virginia, and looks like a whole lot of health in one place. They will have over 70 vendors , classes, workshops, nature walks, parades for kids, drum circles, music, yoga and more! I’m pretty excited to be a part of this.

This time of year, as winter winds down, I really start to get excited for spring plants and flowers to start budding and for the early mushrooms such as Morels and Fawns. This winter allowed me to forage quite a bit and the forest was good to me, I found more than enough Chaga, leaving quite a bit behind for future hunts, others and the natural cycles of nature. I also had time to work on fine tuning and organizing my business, I am not a business minded person by any means, so this was necessary.

I wanted to take a minute to describe the process that goes into getting Chaga ready for product making, forest to friends I call it. First naturally is finding the Chaga in the wild. Hunting Chaga can be a tough task, often roaming off trail to get deep in the forest. Once spotted it often takes a good deal of work to get it out of the tree, as well as leaving 30-50% to regrow. Next comes the smashing, I use a big mallet and spend many hours breaking it into small pieces, removing bark and shifting out dirt, leaves and anything else mixed in. Then comes drying. Chaga can absorb quite a bit of moisture. I prefer drying it in the sun but sometimes use a dehydrator when necessary. After it’s dry, I spend time filling tea bags and creating tinctures. All in all the whole process takes weeks and everything is done by hand, by only myself, no fancy machines, just the old fashioned process, the way native cultures did. I put much time and love into each forage and product. It won’t be long now until my walks and the markets begin again, stay tuned.

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