Who is this person?

I’ve been an inveterate jam maker since I was old enough to reach the stove, and my favorites have always been those made with wild fruits. I have vivid childhood memories of picking wild strawberries with my mother, gathering blackberries in the August sun with my dad, and turning my fingers purple harvesting elderberries with my best friend.

Nowadays I forage ingredients in Upstate New York, and have spent the last 30 years learning where all the wild things are within a forty-mile radius of my house in the woods.

I love scouting for blossoms in the spring, and going back a few months later to harvest the wild berries and fruit those blossoms promised. I get a vicious joy picking invasive plants and using them to make beautiful things in jars. I adore plucking edible flowers and wild herbs and turning them into translucent, luscious jellies. 

So this blog exists because I figured I should share the joy. I hope the plant descriptions, harvesting instructions, and recipes here lead you try your own hand at foraging the wild things in YOUR neck of the woods.