Part of my personal superstition about the new year is that what I do on the first of January will have an impact on the entirety of the year ahead. With that in mind, my partner and I knew that we wanted to head out for a new year’s walk. We both are deeply connected to the earth and ground best by being outside. Luckily, there is no shortage of places to get in a wonderful time in the woods nearby to where I live.
My partner had been wanting to take me to a semi-local old mineral mine that they found a while back while hiking with some friends. First, we approached from the cliffside which gave me a gorgeous view of the old stones of the mountainsides and my favorite of all of the evergreens, Eastern White Pine. I’ve written about Eastern White Pine a bunch in the past – it is a native to my area of the Northeast and I love to use it to make infused vodka. It’s also quite good in all types of cooking – we’ve even added it to batches of fire cider in the past.
After scouting out the remains of the mine from above, we followed the trail around and down into the bowl below. This is a very old mine and it has been reclaimed by much of the vegetation that is native to this area (and some that aren’t). I was particularly enamored with the beautiful Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) that was growing tall and proud in the meadow space.
Here in the bowl left by the former excavations, we were mostly following deer trails through the foliage. The deer had munched on the closest staghorn, leaving behind long strange spirals at the tops of the plants. Staghorn sumac is edible and has many medicinal properties. As a spice, sumac is popular in a lot of Middle Eastern cuisines. I’ve been meaning to harvest some but want to be certain to find a place where the sumac will be free of toxins before trying it out.
Staghorn sumac wasn’t the only edible plant that I found nearby. We also found some Cattails growing along the frozen pond. I’ve been told that Cattails are more of a survival food and that they are considered to be an acquired taste (at best) but I still would like to try some if I can source them safely.
On the less native side, many of the plants were covered in our local menace: Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus). Bittersweet is extremely invasive in my area and every year it chokes out and brings down monstrous trees that have been alive for hundreds of years. It’s sad to see Bittersweet so far out into the wilderness as we are here.
Sadly, it was not the only invasive that I found. Somehow, out in the middle of the woods on a game trail, we came across Rosa multiflora. This is a highly invasive Asiatic rose that is supposed to be all over my area but I rarely see it. I suspect that it is just less showy than Rosa rugosa. I almost didn’t recognize it because its hips were so tiny!
In any case, it was nice to see some color in the world. January is filled with many shades of gray and brown that are only sometimes broken up by the omnipresence of our many evergreens. Though I appreciate our pines, spruces, firs, and mountain laurels – it’s nice to see a splash of red in amongst the forest. It is a reminder that even in winter, food can be found. And that soon enough, the ground will thaw and the cycle will be reborn anew.