A walk with Russ Cohen

This winter Russ Cohen, a naturalist and forager extraordinaire from MA, contacted Alnôbaiwi through our website and generously offered to donate plants from his nursery of native edible species to our Agroforest/Ethnobotanical garden project. We absolutely jumped at the opportunity! In addition to leading a wonderful tour of some of the native species around Ethan Allen Homestead this weekend, Russ donated the following plants to our project: 1 American Chestnut, 2 Shagbark Hickories, 4 American Hazelnuts, 4 Beach Plums, 2 Sassafras plants, 1 Highbush Blueberry, 3 Fox Grape, 2 Wild Mint and 30 Wild Strawberries! Wliwni Russ for the donation of your time and your beautiful baby plants, we promise to take good care of them with the help of our wonderful partners at the Intervale Center.

The bounty from Russ finding a temporary home in the loving care of the stewards of the Intervale Center and Conservation Nursery!

Below is a summary of some highlights of the walk around the Winooski Valley Parks District Ethan Allen Homestead property. We plan on hosting similar walks as part of our future programming in the years to come, but there is still so much to learn about our land and work to be done! If you are interested in volunteering to help us in our efforts or want to partner with our organization please reach out through our Contact Us page.

Disclaimer. ***Currently foraging is not permitted WVPD Parks*** If trying a new wild plant for the first time eat only small amount and see how it agrees with your body. Never eat any wild edible without first consulting an expert. Check with your Doctor first if you have health issues. Please forage only from spray free areas and do so honorably, never taking more than you need and with thanks in your heart and with permission..

Without further ado here is my take on the walk, with the first stop we made on our journey ~30 yards outside the parking lot..

Choke Cherry - The ripe fruit is edible and can be used to make jelly and in other preparations.

Choke Cherry blossoms - This Fall maybe we will make a sauce with the fruits when they are ripe and if the birds leave any for us to sample.

Riverside Grape - Also a nice option for a harvest dinner jelly when they ripen at the end of September

The riverside grape leaves - They are green and shiny on the underside while Fox grape are white fuzzy. When harvested in late Spring and blanched in boiling water for 20 seconds you can use them to make stuffed grape leaf recipes.

Wild Parsnip - Harvest this feral biannual at the end of the first or beginning of the second growing season, before flowers form and you will have the equivalent of a store bought parsnip. Avoid the flowers in the summer sun in combination with moisture caused by sweat as that can lead to a terribly painful rash!

Butternut - A favorite nut tree of the VT Abenakis that is in decline due to a blight similar to that of the American Chestnut. Growing the seeds of blight resistant trees helps give the population a chance while new Butternut/Japanese Walnut hybrids are naturally resistant but the nuts are not as tasty. Alnôbaiwi recently planted 2 bare root butternuts on the border of our encampment at the Homestead and we hope to one day help establish new groves across Vermont.

Curly Dock - A truly wonderful plant, the young leaves can be blanched for 20 seconds in boiling water and used as a replacement for spinach in any recipe. The roots medicinal and seeds are edible. The leaves contain oxalic acid and should not be consumed in mass quantities. Curley dock is also medicinal in many ways (will not go into that in this post), but one amazing property of note is that it is the antidote to stinging nettle! Just crush up a leaf and rub the juices on the sting for some relief. I used it today when I accidentally brushed my leg on a stinging nettle at the Intervale Conservation Nursery and it worked great! Thanks Russ!!

Autumn Olive - An invasive nitrogen fixer shrub that thrives in poor soils and commonly planted along highways. It’s berries make good fruit leather and should fall off when ripe in the fall. They are very fragrant in the spring when in bloom!

Day Lily - One of the earliest non native edible species introduced but not invasive. You can find them near old homesteads in the woods with nothing else around. Eat the roots and tender leaves. The flower buds, flower and the wilted flowers are also edible. Some people have sensitivity to eating day lilies so try a small amount at first!

Hackberry - the pulp surrounding the seed is sweet and tastes like dates, tribal groups pound the fruit and seed together as raw material for pemmican. One of the earliest fruits gathered by Native people..

Plantain - ‘white mans footprint’ was brought over by the first settlers and when found was a sign of their presence. Eat raw when young, or cook the old leaves. It has many uses as a medicine, the leaves can used as bandages, chew and slap on, or make a poultice to treat wounds and inflammation. Plantain has anti-inflammatory anti-bacterial and antioxidant properties.

Russ brought some absolutely delicious Shagbark Hickory Nut Maple cookies as a reward for getting to the end of the walk!

He also brought some delicious Honey/Black Walnut bars and Autumn Olive fruit leather and some Sumac “Lemonade” to wash it all down. What a great way to end such a wonderful class learning about some of the bounty that surrounds us.

Some notable plants left out of this post that we talked about are: Milkweed, Dame’s Rocket, Nannyberry, Black Cherry, Ostrich fern, Currant, false Solomon seal and three varieties of raspberry, but don’t worry there will be more blogs to follow with more useful info! Hopefully Russ will return one day and continue his teaching at a later date. Thanks again Russ for everything! ~Aaron D., Alnôbaiwi Garden Committee Co-Chair