Category: Identification

Saint John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) is one of my favorite foraged plants to make a tea out of. It is easily identifiable, and easy to make a tea out of the fresh flowers and leaves. St. John’s wort has been used medicinally for ages, and is often bought over the counter at health stores in pill form. It is used to treat depression, and symptoms that arise from depression such as anxiety and insomnia. However, take note that if you are taking other medications you should read up on the interactions, as it is known to have negative interactions with some prescription meds.

How to Identify St. Johns Wort

Identifying saint johns wort is pretty easy. Here are some tips and trips to identify this medicinal plant in Stowe Vermont.

• First, you should be aware when Saint Johns Wort flowers, since that is what you are mostly after. In the northern Green Mountains of Vermont, the plant begins to flower in late June or early July, and will continue to flower throughout the month of July.
• The flower itself is bright yellow with 5 petals

• Perforated leaves. The Latin name of St Johns Wort is derived from the perforated leaves. When held up to a light source, you will always see a bunch of translucent dots on every leaf. This a very good way to identify st johns wort.

• Another good way to identify saint johns wort is by taking the flowers or flowers that have started to turn to seed and smooshing them in your hand. Although they are yellow, they will magically turn purple in your hand. This effect is also evident in the tea, which comes out purple as well.

How to Make Tea out of Saint Johns Wort

Making tea out of Saint John’s Wort is easy and rewarding. Follow the directions below for a delicious and medicinal tea.

• The first step is to harvest some of the flowers and leaves of the plant. Just cut the stem on a couple of flowering branches and you are good to go.
• Next, you should wash the plant under cool water, and chop of any roots, or parts that are mostly just stem

• Next fill a pot with some water. The amount of water used will determine the strength of taste and potency of tea. In this recipe I used a quart and a half of water for the above pictured amount of foraged plant.
• Gently bring the pot of water to a boil. As soon as boil is reached, take off heat and let slowly cool/steep till desired temperature is reached.

• There you have it, delicious and medicinal Saint John’s Wort!

With Spring finally in the air here in Stowe, Vermont, all those first foragable items are a buzz among folks. I’ve been hearing a lot of people talking and posting via social media about looking for ramps. I’ve also heard a quite a few people say that they don’t really know how to identify wild ramps. So I thought I would put together a few simple tips and tricks to help embolden budding foragers in their foraging adventures.

Tips and Tricks

• 1) If it is early in Vermont, especially in a place like Stowe which is at a comparatively higher elevation than some other places in the state, you need to find warmer areas to forage. The best tip I can give is to look for south facing slopes. A nice, gradual, but prolonged south-facing slope is ideal, and will be where the first ramps are found as the air warms. South-facing slopes receive the most sun exposure, and so naturally they are significantly warmer than everywhere else early season.
• 2) Know the look-a-likes. As with every foraged food, it is always important to know that you are foraging and eating what you think you are. The best way to do this is to learn what else may look like the desired wild food. In the case of ramps, this would be Lily of the Valley. A dead give away is to look at the roots. The ramp emerges from a bulb, where as the lily of the valley does not, and just has some smaller roots. The other big difference is the leaves. Ramps have 1 or 2 leaves that come from the base, where as Lilly of the valley will have multiple leaves that whirl around the stem.
• 3) Smell them! Ramps definitively have an unmistakable smell. If you were to rub the leaves in your hand, you will recognize the onion /garlic smell that characterizes many plants of the allium family.
• 4) Look in the right place. If you really want to find ramps, it helps if you look where they like to grow. First of, make sure you are in a deciduous forest. Forests that are primary composed of evergreens and meadow type landscapes will not produce ramps.
• 5) Practice sustainable foraging with Ramps! OK, so this isn’t really a tip or trick to help you, but instead it will help the ramps. Ramps are very slow to grow and reproduce, and with all the hype surrounding them, it would not be hard to over forage these wonderful plants. Also, ramps are very strong flavored, and you really never need more than a few to go along with any dish. Even if you are going to make a pesto, it will be too strong if you just replace all the basil with ramps. Less is more!

For more on ramps and more pictures, check out the Ramp page.