May 13, 2021 - Foraging and Finding
Libby Reed
At Orange Star we farm on the ancestral lands of the Snohomish, Snoqualmie and Coast Salish people and the care that has gone into this land for millenia is evident. It is so fertile and full of life at every level. We farm in a narrow valley bordered on one side by a salmon spawning creek and on the other side by deep, damp, green woods. Farming is about so very many things but I’ve found that the thing that informs most every decision that gets made is about place.
The micro climate, the soil, the water, the surrounding environment all of those things impact how we’ve decided to farm here. It’s also informed what we sell. We grow most of what we sell on the farm but there are some native plants that the land here offers that nourishes our family and you, our customers. Nootka rose, tender spring spruce tips, elder flower, maple blossoms, salmon berry, thimble berry and the stinging nettle are just a few. I spend many harvest mornings in springtime foraging for nettle. It grows along the woods edge where it can receive dappled sunlight from above and the moist, rich duff from below. As nature is want to do, it has responded to our foraging by expanding the patches of nettle. What was just a few pounds 4 years ago is now 15-20! The beauty of harvesting from nature is that we always leave most of it behind. It’s a reciprocal effort where we harvest a small part of the plant and then leave it to grow naturally so it can feed itself, the soil and continue providing for us the following spring.
Spending dedicated time in the woods and foraging always teaches me something. It continually gives me insight on how to look differently at plants in my cultivated field and inspires me to bring the balance of the nature and it’s abundant wisdom to the fields we cultivate.