Gray and I ran away to Cape Cod on Saturday to try and harvest some of the wild forageables that we had scoped out throughout the year and I thought that I could take you all along for the ride. We found so many fun botanicals that are worth meeting and getting to know better.
Though in many ways the five witches in my tiny coven are all very different from one another, we all have one thing in common: a love of Mama Atlantic. Since we all live ~3.5 hours from the good beaches (see also: outer shore of the Cape), it is imperative for our practices to continually return to the ocean and bring pieces of the ocean home with us. This comes in the form of shells, bones, and when seasonally appropriate – wild forageables that were sustainably and safely harvested.
First, we hit up Marconi Point in Wellfleet. This is a beautiful space of public land with beach access, cliff access, and many beautiful trails through the cliffside. Above you see some wild goldenrod (and some seals cruising in the waves in the background). Goldenrod is a wild native that is connected to Abundance and Money magics through its golden color.
Marconi, like most of the beaches on Cape Cod, is also home to the Beach Rose, aka Rosa Rugosa. This is a non-native rose that has been naturalized to the East Coast – because of this it is one of my favorite wild forageables. In the scheme of “Eat Your Invasives” – Rose Rugosa takes the cake – rose hips are amazingly tasty and very high in Vitamin C. They are what I came to the Cape to pick.
From what I understand, Rugosa’s hips are especially prized because they do not contain the itchy hairs that the other common American wild rose (the dog rose) has internally and are, therefore, supposed to be much easier to process. (I have only worked with Beach Rose hips myself.)
Also, the flowers are stunningly beautiful and bloom all Summer long and late into the Fall. Rosehips, in general, are used magically for Love, Psychic Powers, Healing, and Protection but I apply an extra intention to Rugosa hips in particular: tenacity. If a plant can grow in the salty air, it can pretty much grow anywhere. Rugosa hips are heavily seeded and can also be used to bring your desires (seeds) to fruition through fertility/fecundity magic.
The (sur)prize of the day was getting to meet Bayberry in the wild for the first time. An American Native, Bayberry is often called Candleberry because its tiny berries can be boiled down to make a plant-based wax with lovely green color and a pleasant smell that can only be described as distinctly “Christmasy.”
As a folk practitioner, I have a long-time interest in Bayberry and its uses. Because it is an impractical everyday candle (it takes a LOT of bayberries to make a single candle) – Bayberry candles were somewhat of a special treat for early settlers who normally made candles out of smelly tallow. They were often burning on Christmas or New Year’s Eve and are associated with abundance for the coming year.
We’ve had an incredibly wet Summer and I was surprised to find mushrooms growing among the sand! Not by the water proper but on the bluffs above the beach. The beach always has such beautiful gifts to explore and get to see and this was certainly no disappointment.
Marconi Point is especially unique in that it has a beautiful White Cedar Swamp trail with a boardwalk so that you can get in your forest bathing while you are at the beach – hence why this location has become my favorite place on Earth.
It is always moody in the cedar swamp which makes my black witch heart so very, very happy. Here, do the constant influx of water, everything is covered in a carpet of beautiful green moss and lichens. It looks like it is straight out of a fairy tale. The trees have faces, too!
These are cedar galls – they are technically a sign of pathogens in the plants but the end results are these strange chthonic faces growing out of the trees. You are definitely watched while you are in the cedar swamp. Tread only where you dare (and stick to the boardwalks because the environment is very fragile!)
Here was why Gray came – they had remembered that during previous Autumns, you can find bits of cedar needles that have fallen onto the walkway. We collected to our heart’s content – knowing that we were taking only what the trees were willing to give.
Cedar is a powerful plant most often used for Healing, Purification, Money, and Protection.
Nature has its own way and creates its own rhythm in its own time. I am always amazed by what I call “Nature’s Still Lifes” – beautiful items that I just find gathered together on the forest floor. Here you see another mushroom, a branch of cedarwood (I’m pretty sure), and a sprig of Pitch Pine.
Pitch Pine is native pine that loves the sandy soil. Like all of the pines, it can be used magically for Healing, Protection, or Money/Abundance Spells. Since I have a personal relationship with Eastern White Pine, I let the Pitch Pine needles be after stopping to admire them.
I deeply love the evergreens – you can read about my relationships with them and how they help me to survive our long New England winters. Here you see a recently shed pine cone nestled among some Crowberry!
Crowberry is a plant that I did not know anything about until I visited Iceland (they make liquor from Crowberries there). It is an alpine or sub-alpine plant that keeps its berries late into the winter and serves as an important food for animals when there is little else to eat. There weren’t any crowberries on the plants that I found but I would have left them be since I know that they are an important food source for the critters.
Lastly, before we left, we had to actually go for a walk on the beach. Since we were still in search of more rosehips, Gray and I headed to Harding Beach in Chatham because I know from past experience that there is a plethora of Rugosa rose growing on the dune walk on the backside of that beach. We were not disappointed and found a beautiful crop.
When you visit the south-facing beaches of the Cape during the early fall, this is a common sight. This is most likely a molted horseshoe crab shell and not a dead crab though I didn’t get close enough to check! Horseshoe crabs are a common visitor to the Cape – they come here to spawn in the Spring and then their molts wash up on the beaches all throughout the Fall.
Horseshoe crabs are pretty cool and have some strange anatomy that gives them their magical associations. Their copper-rich blood is blue in color which connects with the 3rd eye and anatomically, they have many different eyes on different parts of their body. It is easy to see why they are associated, as a result, with the Sight and Visioning. Since horseshoe crabs molt, it is safe to collect their empty former homes for use in your sea magic if you wish.
All in all, it was a beautiful day. I feel cleansed and renewed by sticking my toes in the chilly water, by being battered by the strong sea winds, and just getting to be in the spaces that I love so fiercely.
I hope that you enjoyed getting to hear about this trip as much as I did writing about it!
You can read more on my series about Sea Magic here.