I love foraging the local area for plants that I can incorporate into my meals. I especially enjoy sharing those meals with friends and telling the story about where the ingredients came from. So, even though my summer was looking pretty hectic, when the chance to take an edible and medicinal plant walk in the Sanctuary Forest came up, I had to do it!
Michelle Palazzo is one of those people who is a born storyteller and presenter. Using a combination of sweet insight and humor, she shares her natural world with those of us who are hungry for the information. I was happy to see that while there were plenty of us older folk, there were also many younger hikers along. They were were armed with notebooks and field guides and were making some serious plans to start foraging some of the items we were seeing.
Jessica Eden, Food for Thought Producer and Forest Elf
One of the things that really surprised me was finding out that redwood trees are edible. Now, don’t plant on munching on the bark of an old growth — we sampled some of the new shoots of a tree that was accessible from the trail. The taste was first lemony, then pine, with a finish that was pleasant but bitter. I once tasted a spruce jelly and immediately thought how nice it would be to make some redwood jelly — of course spruce tips are a little easier to come by since there are some closer to the ground.
To listen to the interview with Michelle Palazzo, click here. To get more information about the Sanctuary Forest, click here.
