It’s hard to imagine wandering around looking for greens and fruits in this snowy weather. So I don’t. I’m relaxing with the knowledge that I have lots of fruits and veggies on the pantry shelves in the basement, a delicious reminder of the abundance of last summer and fall. There are still dried apples and apple sauce, dried apricots, canned apricots and apricot jam, dried plums, plum chutney and jam, and …well the same sorts of deliciousness with cherries, peaches, and pears. I love to gaze on three kinds of tomato sauce, quart jars filled with various colors of heirloom tomatoes, dilly beans and pickles.

Now is the time to use my dried ‘weeds’ and herbs to make oils and salves for healing. These little pots of green goodness are prized in my family for their amazing properties of healing chapped skin, rashes, rubs, minor burns, and scrapes. My Grandchildren ask for it when they have a “booboo”, and the youngest has to be watched like a hawk since she knows how to get the screw top off and uses it by the hand full in her hair! That’s how we found out it’s good for cradle cap, too. Best of all the ingredients are organic and/or wild crafted from plants that are also eaten, so if the little ones get it in their mouths, it won’t hurt them!

So, in part, that’s what an urban forager does during the Winter – other than wait for the first signs of Spring!