Foraging . . .

When I became ill with Lyme disease and co-infections in 2006 it brought me to a place where I could no longer keep my dairy goats or continue gardening.  When I did not recover after many treatments I stayed in the house and even refused to walk on the grass unless absolutely necessary.  A couple of years ago I once again underwent treatment and began to recover.  I was bitten by something and possibly re-infected.  My doctor fussed at me and told me that I needed to stop getting re-infected.  That is pretty difficult when I seem to live in the epicenter of the Lyme epidemic just a few miles from Lyme, Connecticut.

I finally plateaued after long-term treatment and decided, with my doctor, to stop antibiotics.  I have been better and I have been worse since that time.  One thing I decided recently was to stop hiding away in my house.  The political controversy caused by the CDC and IDSA guidelines have created an atmosphere of patient abuse and negligence.  So it is quite possible that I will continue to decline over the next few years.  I spent a few years waiting to get well, waiting for healing, waiting for a cure.  I am sick of waiting and from now on I plan to live as much as I can for as long as I can.

This long-winded preface leads into my current interest: foraging.  While a few years ago it would have become a passion because that is how I am, I step out my front door nearly every day to explore my property with curiosity.  Honestly, I have not left the perimeter of the yard yet.  I haven't needed to.  Eventually I will head farther out into the woods, explore the bog, and enjoy the pond.  For now I find something new each day to excite me just a few feet from my front door and make sure I spray on my peppermint oil spray  before heading out.

One of my childhood friends who now lives in Maine shared her delight in enjoying wild strawberries.  I sure wished I had some of those around here.  So what do I find this morning when making my rounds with my camera? Wild strawberries peaking out of the thick brush near my front vegetable garden.  Oh, the delight!

Wishing my camera took decent close-ups I took this shot of my tiny patch of wild strawberry plants, excited to see them blooming.  This is a promise of delicious, juicy berries in the near future.

I stepped back a bit and looked to the right and saw even more plants peeking out from beneath the shrubs.  I decided to grab my pruners and clear away a little bit of the brush so the berry plants could get more sun.  The more I cleared the more plants I found.

I was giddy as a schoolgirl as I continued to clear brush and overhanging tree branches.  Pleased with my first efforts I kept pulling out ferns, cutting some unknown shrub away, and pulling out grass.  My wild strawberry patch was looking good.

It seemed that no matter how much I cleared there were more berry plants growing beneath the brush and among the ferns.  I was tiring but kept up.

Here is my cleared wild strawberry patch.  They continue beneath the ferns to the right but I didn't want to destroy my fern patch so I stopped.

Stepping back for a final evaluation I was thrilled with my new wild strawberry patch and knew that in the next month or so I will be picking and enjoying even more sweet, juicy berries.

What do I mean more?

Yes, those are ripe blueberries in mid-June.  I just plopped every ripe berry I found into my mouth last evening.

This morning when I went back I found many more nearly ripe and the ripe ones did not make it into the house.  Yum!!!

Foraging is beginning to taste really good!