Edible Mountain

Tallow is rendered animal fat and has been used primarily in traditional food preparation — as an ingredient and as a cooking oil. In addition, tallow can be used in making soap, candles, healing salves, skin moisturizers and perfumes, as well as lubricants for wood, leather and metal working.

Have you ever found a four leaf clover?Besides being lucky the clovers have many uses, here are just a few.

The Narrow-Leaved Leek, (Allium burdickii), while related to broad leaf ramps we enjoy every spring, is its own species all together and not a variation of Allium tricoccum. It’s a relative of the typical wild ramp, or leek, that people seek out this time of year as an eatable spring onion. We know very little about this wild onion.

The Trillium is an icon in Appalachia. Old timers of this region thought picking this delicate flower would bring rain.The ephemeral plant graces us with its beauty in the early spring before the leaves fully grow on the trees. When Trillium is in bloom and has a foothold on the side of a wooded hill, it can stop you in your tracks and make you take a moment to appreciate the amazing garden we live in.

Comfrey is a profound healer when it comes to open wounds.It has an constituent in it called allantoinAllantoin is also found in the milk of nursing mothers. It promotes cell-reproduction which is exactly what is needed for healing boo boos.

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?

Sphagnum moss has been growing in the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area since the last ice age. Located in Pocahontas County, the Cranberry Glades are home to five boreal bogs, making it the largest area of bogs in the state. Sphagnum moss defines the landscape of the bogs, making it a magical ecosystem in West Virginia.

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.

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.

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