2016 Cultivating Hedges and Edges at Jubilee Farm, Carnation, WA

Join farmer, Wendy Haakenson and herbalist, EagleSong Evans Gardener for a day of hands-on learning in the Hedge on a working bio-dynamic farm. The day will include:

• A walking tour of 3 different actively growing hedges serving to contain livestock, preserve salmon habitat and provide nuts...a broken remnant hedge will also be explored reminding us of a time gone by when hedges were part of many Snoqualmie Valley Farms. With farm host: Wendy Haakenson www.jubileefarm.org
• A slide show of different types of hedges and coppice woods in 4 different countries and their impact in local environments over time taken by EagleSong Gardener on her quest to understand the Gnarly Old Hag Hawthorn...
• A sampling of Hedge Medicine made with local plants found in hedges and edges
• A hands-on, experiential opportunity to work with hedging tools while laying a hazel hedge at Jubilee Farm
• Hot beverages and snacks provided...bring a sack lunch for your enjoyment
• Tuition: $65.00 for the day

To Register send a $25. non-refundable deposit by check or money order to:

EagleSong Gardener

PO Box 837

Monroe, WA 98272

Be sure to include:

Your name

Address

Email address

Phone number

Have PayPal?

You can make your payment via PayPal by sending funds to: eaglesong08@gmail.com

Questions? Email them to: eaglesong08@gmail.com 

Herby Hedgerow Punch for Winter Health

Darkness and festiva are upon us! Music and gaiety, light and colors abound. Friends gather to sing, dance, share food and remember. For what is remembered lives! In this time of darkness, a sweet, earthy scent tickles my nose and I am enveloped in her arms once again. A scent anchored in dark, crumbly forest duff and humus rich soils of the river valleys where I live and which supports the revelry of the season.

Hedgerow Punch on a bed of cedar with Brandied Tart Cherries

Over the last dozen years or so, a distant memory living in hedges has slowly been taking root in my mind and body in delicious detail. This season of sharing, caring and reaching out in darkness has given rise to a new winter beverage here at RavenCroft Garden.

Herby Hedgerow Punch, was inspired by my friend, Blanca. She hails from Puebla, Mexico where they call a winter punch, Ponche. She offered me my first taste of Ponche one New Year's Eve. Ponche is a delicious, fruity warm beverage traditionally made and shared through the winter holiday season in Mexico Central and South America. Ponche can be made with guava, pineapple, fresh sugar cane, apples and oranges and always, tejocote, C. mexicana, a species of Hawthorn. All this prompted me to create a NW version using local fruits and herbs as a winter tonic. 

Anyone who has visited this blog knows the gnarly old hag, Hawthorn, has been one of the main characters showing up through every season. We've learned that there may be up to 2718 species of Crataegus around the globe in the temperate northern latitudes. Everywhere in the world Crataegus grows, people revere this small, hardy tree and use her as food, medicine and more.  In gardens, as street trees, in kitchens and in the wild hedges and edges, hawthorn is at home.

These days I can't go anywhere that hawthorn doesn't jump out from a hedge, city park or trailside to once more impress upon me the richness of diversity, adaptability and down right willingness to share her bounty and beauty in any season.

Crataegus mexicana with a smaller local hawthorn

This week that crafty Crataegus almost lept off the shelf of our local tienda. Betty, the gregarious, bilingual clerk caught me reading the label on the tejocote jar. "You know tejocote?"she asked. "I know many of her friends, cousins, and sisters. I'm just getting acquainted with this hawthorn", I responded. "Are you making ponche?" Betty inquired. "Yes, I am crafting a recipe for ponche!" "Oh, then let me show you the fresh tejocotes in back, people are brewing ponche now, so we have fresh ones, much different than processed!" She was so right. Large, yellow and buttery in their texture, like eating pudding or mayhaws.

And so, C. mexicana, has joined the merry caravan of Hawthorn traveling through this walk in beauty adventure…Here is a recipe for you to play with and enjoy! A little wild, a little store bought and a whole lot of fun to create and serve with your friends this holiday season.

A-boon-dance from hedges and edges

Herby Hedgerow Punch

1 cup dried hawthorn berries and/or
6-9  fruits of C. mexicana fresh or canned, if you have a tienda nearby...
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup dried wild plums 
1/2 cup rosehips
1/2 cup walnuts or hazelnuts, chopped
1/2 cup burdock, astragalus, elecampane or asparagus root or any other nourishing root you have on hand
1/2 cup reishi or devil's club root bark or any other tonic roots or fungi you have on hand
2-3  4" cinnamon sticks
6-8 oz Piloncillo cones chopped (dried sugar cane juice) You can use honey or other sweetener of choice. No added sweet is OK, too.
5 quarts water

Bring hawthorn, roots and/or fungi and cinnamon sticks to a slow boil in all the water, then turn down heat and simmer 3-4 hours. Strain decoction here as hawthorn berry has very hard seeds and fungi are inedible.

Return decoction to pan. Add piloncillo, dried fruits, roots and nuts. Bring to a soft boil, turn down heat and simmer for 1-2 hours. Your recipe can be as simple or extravagant as resources allow. I use the back of a wood stove to brew the punch, a crock pot works as well.

Once the punch is well blended in flavor and the dried fruits are soft, add fresh apples and pears and a small orange or lemon sliced thin…continue to simmer until the fresh fruit is soft but not mushy. 

Serve the brew in cups. For adults, a couple brandied tart cherries and their juice is a festive addition...

Eat the fruit in bowls alone or over yogurt or ice cream for a treat or on your cooked cereal for breakfast! I occasionally run the fruit through a sieve and enjoy the pulpy fruit drink expressed.

As the punch travels through my classes and people taste the fruity punch, a myriad of memories begin to surface…

"Oh, that tastes like the punch my grandma from Russia made when I was little, she called it compote." 

"I remember something like this that my grandmother made with rose hips and fruit" a voice from a friend whose family hails from Sweden concurs.

And yes, now a grandmother myself, amazing recipes are filtering through. With a few mischievous local flourishes they will live on, nourishing, tonifying and bringing cheer through the dark time. Rich and filled with laughter and story these Ponches bring people together in celebration and wonder!

Do you have a favorite winter punch using fruit and herbs to keep you and your family well through the winter months? Let me know if this recipe inspires you to carry it forward with your own flourishes! 

Be sure to bundle up and go outside and play! 

Be well, until next time...

Bright Blessings, my friends, 
may winter nourish the depths of our souls
in times such as these!

Grapes, Vines & Dolmas, Cooling Fare

Do you grow grapes? Have you ever wondered how to make brined grape leaves? Did you know grape leaves have been used in herbal healing for millennia? Come along with me on a little excursion and find out why you might want to grow grapes for food and drink and enjoy the vines as well. Yes, there is the wine which goes without saying. And, then, there are the vines themselves. The twisting, turning entwining nature of their growth habit; their water seeking, mineral loving, deep rootedness. Dancing with them is a full on pleasure for this gardener. Today we're going to explore grape leaves and how to use them in daily life.

Okanagan Riesling grapevine

This season promises exceptional bounty for the Okanagan Riesling growing up and over one of many arbors at RavenCroft Garden. A few years back several arbors rose from the earth here. A phase of three dimensional gardening brought fragrant honeysuckles, grapes and roses to the garden. Plant life lifted from earth, a pleasure to walk beneath and beautiful points of transition from one room of the garden to another, a place to inhale a cool, plant infused breath before walking on. Much as we move from one stage of our life to another or one part of the day to another is augmented by creating a structure for life to move within.

Understanding how the vine grows and, as a gardener, how I can direct its life flow to embrace the essence of grape and create a bountiful harvest of fruit is a study in approach. This season there is such an abundance of fruit, thinning is necessary for grape ripening. Early spring rains and a warm start to summer boosted the fruiting and flowering bushes, trees and shrubs in the Snoqualmie Valley toward abundant yields.

What is so exciting about grapevines and leaves beyond observing their growth habit and patterns? In my experience and the tales of countless others, they are a proven platform on which food, drink and medicine dance. On a deep level, food is a strong thread in weaving a healthy life and cultivating health just makes sense. 

Green grapes forming for use in verjus

Grapes hold deep nutrition in their very essence. The leaves are cooling, mineral rich and tasty. They have a sour taste with a hint of bitter. Using taste as a guide, the tonic effect of grape leaves supports clearing congestion, reducing inflammation and clearing heat at the blood level. Grape leaves have been used to assuage fever, inflammations and infections for eons of time in areas where they naturally grow and, today, grapes are found around the globe. When Viking travelers visited this continent they described the land as Vinland, the land of vines, referring to the abundance of wild grapes they found. 

Along with an interesting history, science is investigating some of the constituents that have a dynamic effect on the body. Two of note are anthocyanidins, which tone tissue in veins and capillaries improving circulation, and quercetrin, a flavonoid and structural protein known to reduce inflammation and build a strong collagen matrix throughout the body, necessary for healthy skin and connective tissue. In other words, adding grape leaves to your diet helps hold you together, allows your blood to flow freely and cools excess heat in your body. As with all plants, there are too many constituents to unravel so embracing the practice of using whole plants allows body and plant to find the best way to dance together to support health.

Cool shade under the grape arbor

From a nourishing and tonifying perspective, the benefits are on-going and increase with regular ingestion! As an herbal food with minimal toxicity, you can  enjoy them as you would any other food.

Once blanched and brined, the flavor of the leaves shifts to tangy and bitterness softens. Grape leaves are perfect for wrapping vegetables, grains and meat to create hand food. I have a penchant for doing all kinds of activities with my hands and eating food is one of my favorite.

Here are two recipes to get you started with grape leaves as a contributing actor in your cast of thousands on your journey in a life filled with optimum nourishment.

Brined Grape Leaves

From vine to brine

If you are not growing a grapevine, walk around your neighborhood and see if anyone in your area has one. Grapes are vigorous growers and when I've been without vines, people have  shared their abundance willingly. By the time the vines have leaves large enough to brine, they are ready for pruning to encourage fruit production. A great way to meet your neighbors!

First, imagine how many grape leaves you will use in a 1 year cycle.  I like to brine at least 5 pints of leaves for later use. I pack the leaves in bundles of 5 with approximately 11 bundles per pint, yielding 275 brined leaves to use throughout the year.

Select leaves the size of your hand or a bit larger. Cut them from the stem right at the juncture of the leaf so no stem is left on the leaf. Little bits of stem cause tears during processing and rolling later.

4 qts water
4 oz kosher salt
100-200 grape leaves
3-4 pint canning jars with sealable lids

1.  Place water and salt in kettle bring to boil then turn to simmer
2.  Stack grape leaves, by size, in piles of 5 (more than 5 are difficult to work with when stuffing)
3.  Set piles in hot brine with a weight to hold under for 30-60 seconds (I use a potato masher as the weight use creative license here)
4.  Remove from hot brine, carefully place in pan with cold water keeping stacks together
5.  Remove from cold water and drain on rack. Next, roll stacks into cigar shaped tubes on a level surface and put into pint jars. The tubes will be too long for the jar so after jar is filled, bend them all over in one direction to fit.
6.  When all jars are filled, bring brine back to boil and pour into each jar to fill. Cap and screw bands on jars. Turn upside down to seal. When cool place in refrigerator or store in cool cellar. 

Fresh leaves, brined rolled leaves and dolmas

Tasty Dolma Recipe

3 c. cooked rice
1 c. cooked ground meat (a great place for the odd leftover chicken, pork, beef or lamb... grind in a meat grinder)
3 T fresh mint, minced
3 T fresh chives, minced
1/3 c. fresh parsley, minced
1 T ground cinnamon
1/3 c. raisins soaked in 1/3 c. orange liquor
1/3 c. almonds, chopped
1 tsp salt
2 lemons, juiced
3/4 c. olive oil

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, add olive oil and lemon juice. Let rest while you drink a cup of refreshing herbal infusion. Then, stuff 1-T mixture onto each grape leaf at leaf junction with leaves vein side up. Tuck sides in and roll toward top of leaf. Place rolled dolmas in glass dish, pour more lemon juice over finished dolmas and refrigerate. Enjoy!

Wines, brines, brandied cherries, kim chi, beets, jams! 
It's summer time and the livn' is easy!

Out of the Box Food Camp will return in August, 2019. Verjus, Ode to Joy soft cheese, Audrey's Fermented Crock Dills and so much more await you. Your curiosity will reach new zeniths as EagleSong, herbalist and artisan food maker with 4 decades practice takes you on a journey you'll want to remember!!!

Until next time, go outside and thank the sun, well, for everything! Then, cool off with a feast of dolmas! Enjoy!!!

Dancing the Round in the Merry Month of May

An hawthorn hedge in the Snoqualmie Valley, WA

What a luscious May week. Rain and sun, hot and cold, perfect in every way, so reminiscent of maiden energy! Long underwear on one day, barefoot the next! 

This week, I followed blooming hawthorn up and down the Snoqualmie Valley. Seeing the persistence of remnant hedges brings to mind a once thriving agricultural activity that prospered people here. After years of agricultural decline, it is uplifting to see a return of vibrant young farmers and hungry eaters eagerly growing a new world from the ground up. This enthusiasm is a heartfelt match for the bounty and medicine of the many crataegus gowing in our valley. Although the week was filled with rainy days, one fine, sun filled day opened to the possibility of harvest. After morning rounds, I put my kit together and set off for a ramble in the hedge.

Over the years, I’ve found much medicine in visits and tendings of trees, shrubs and perennial wild herbs engaged in my rounds. Over time, I’ve found visiting plants as deeply nourishing, if not more so, as their constituents. These plants are friends, when we see one another after a long spell, there is mutual greeting and sweet remembrance of who we are. Some offer themselves in harvest, others offer solace and comfort just in their presence, some give shape and form, color and fragrance to life which feeds a deep place; a place reflecting the same beauty the plants offer in the practice of a lemniscate life. I’ve come to know this way of plants as the order and flow of an ever changing, growing universe and am reassured through these long term relationships, that, “all is well in this world”.

Local Diversity in Hawthorns

Haw Thorns, Serious!

This week I was amazed by the diversity in the hawthorn trees I met along the way. A wide range of leaf forms from serrate to deeply lobed, resembling mittens or paws. So many different flower clustering habits. And, unique thorn forms from short 1/2” piercing mechanisms to thorns over 1 1/2” in length. Thorns, those sharp, woody spines, modified branches, function mechanically as a deterrent to herbivory, which, I admit, I was wont to do! Even the shapes of hawthorn trees differed greatly. 

Many years ago I read about this in a book by Alan Watts. A sameness enough to recognize the trees as their genus, yet, seeing each tree’s individual difference referred to as li, ‘“the underlying reason and order of nature as reflected in its organic forms.” Zhu Xi, in the Neo-Confucian period in China “held that li, together with qi, or vital material force, depend on each other to create structures of nature and matter”.  It was during this period of history that Buddhism became more integrated into Confucianism. Some now embrace a further philosophical shifting as seen in a westernized version of tao, or watercourse way and recognize patterns of li as patterns of flowing water. I was so moved by the possibility this perspective offered, my youngest son carries the name Li.

What, you ask, does this have to do with hawthorn, medicine, or you? Given the engaging transitions our world is currently experiencing set me on a quest through space and time looking for patterns and morphologies of culture that may currently serve our personal and collective transitions.  

Hawthorn: Keynote Heart Remedy

Crataegus monogyna, Snoqualmie Valley, WA

Hawthorn stands out as a keynote medicine for strengthening heart and is a perfect tonic for the times. Crataegus spp. is a genus comprising some 200-300 species worldwide, being used in many cultures through centuries for a variety of therapeutic purposes. The World Heath Organization, WHO, lists cardiovascular disease as globally the number one cause of death and the American Heart Association cites heart disease as the number one killer of American adults. Personally, my father had 3 open heart surgeries in the last 30 years of his life. I have experienced the toll a troubled heart can have on a family’s well-being in many ways. I’m sure his experience spurred me toward a better understanding of natural health, herbal remedies and spirit healing in matters of the heart. 

We live in challenging times. In keeping with the wise tradition of using hands-on accessible medicine, I am delighted to see so many Hawthorn in our NW region, along with its global distribution and long term use. Various species of hawthorn are found locally on roadsides, in hedges, in public and private gardens and in the wild. You might find Crataegus monogyna, C. oxycantha, C. douglasii, C. laviegata and frisky as these trees are at calling in their allies, i.e. the birds and the bees, the squirrels and the breeze, you’ll find innumerable natural hybrids! Again, perfect medicine for our times and abundantly available.

Rambling with Hawthorn

"Enjoy the day a bit," they intoned.

While on my Hawthorn ramble, I had the good fortune to visit a dignified group of old trees in a remnant hedge. As I began to harvest, they encouraged me to pause and sit a spell. “Enjoy the day a bit”, they intoned! The cool, tall grass was a tad more than slightly damp and smelled fresh and green as I settled in under the trees. I felt tension held in my body give way, melting into earth. Simultaneously, I felt earth energy moving up into the empty space recharging my body with a refreshing vitality. 

So many connections weave a life

The clear blue sky marked with wispy, white clouds made a brilliant, saturated backdrop for the profuse white blossoms adorning the trees. An energetic hum filled my ears as honey bees busily burdened themselves with bluging saddle bags of pollen. A butterfly slowly opened her wings and then just as slowly closed them. A fragrance, somewhere between earthy and heavenly, rich and fertile, filled the air wafting into my nose and settling down into deep consciousness. It is easy to imagine why she is called Mayflower and how it happens that fertility rites are part of this season in the northern hemisphere. Birds flitted and darted around the trees, chasing one another in the reckless abandon of the season. Recharged from my dreamy, restful meander, I picked up the loppers and began the harvest. So many flowers, so few needed to abundantly fill the tea cupboard at home for a winter of nourishing infusions. 

Health Benefits

Knowing each leaf and flower is filled with antioxidants, bioflavonoids, vasorelaxants and vitamins which increase blood flow to the heart and brain, strengthen the contractions of the heart, tone the circulatory system by strengthening cell walls in arteries, normalize blood pressure, improve exercise capacity and duration and reduce the need for the body to create plaque on arteries brings great impetus to get to know this herb well. We are now beginning to recognize the health building value of bee-song, butterfly whispers and myriad unknown constituents that will be released into densely nutritive infusions brewed from the flowers and leaves of the simply amazing hawthorn as well.

Harvest 

Harvest by removing 3’ long pieces of branches with a pair of strong loppers. Remove crossed branches to open the canopy for air flow, ones hanging too low and, generally, use the pruning/harvest to improve the structure and health of the tree. Over time trees improve in vigor and health with careful tending. Heap onto a cloth for transport back to the car. 

Ready for transport

Occasionally, branches are still filled with the hum of a hitchhiking bee, enjoy! At home, flower and leaf clusters are deftly plucked by hand from the short spurs, mind the thorns or they’ll mind you! 

Plucked branches and drying baskets

Then, flowers and leaves are laid out on cloths and in baskets to air dry. Depending on humidity the herb may take from a few days to over a week to completely dry. Dried flowers and leaves are then placed in paper bags, put in the freezer 3-5 days to inhibit unwanted larva lingering in the material from hatching in storage and, finally, store bags in a dark, dry closet or cupboard.

Making Hawthorn Herbal Vinegar

Hawthorn vinegar basking in the sun

1. Fill any size jar with fresh hawthorn flowers and leaves lightly packed, you know, so a fairy jumping in neither bounces out or sinks to the bottom

2. Now, fill the jar again with apple cider vinegar, watch out for decoys labeled as apple cider flavored vinegar, which is distilled vinegar flavored like apple cider vinegar, no apples no health benefits!

3. Enjoy this earthy vinegar in any recipe calling for a sour taste, on salads, as a condiment on beans, greens or grains 
It delivers flavor and a stiff dose of heart health with a side of courage! 

Can You Find a Hawthorn Close to You?

Hawthorn tree alive with honey bees and a butterfly!

Now, go outside, take a look around. What kind of  trees are blooming in your neighborhood right now?  Find the nearest hawthorn to your home. If you miss leaf and flower harvest, watch for the berries, which are botanically pomes, like apples, both being in the grand family of Roses and prepare for another harvest come fall. Please note! A possible side effect of an increasing awareness of plant life around you is a condition known as 55 MPH botany. Bee warned! 

Stay Tuned...

There’s more coming on this delightful hedge medicine ally. More remedies and recipes, folklore, cultural uses, magick and crafts! 

And, if you will, comment with your natural discoveries, rambles and recipes in search of the ubiquitous hawthorn.

Until next time... Be Well, go outside often, enjoy the meander...

A hybrid cross between Hawthorn and Mtn. Ash in the S. hedge at RavenCroft