Here We Go a'Herbing!

I was completely enthralled with all the lush green landscape this Summer, but I never dreamed there would be this much yellow-gold!













Where I come from in California, our Fall is wet and grey/brown.
The colorful trees and shrubs there are mostly foreign to the area.
I've never lived where the native trees and shrubs are so breath-taking!













The bigger Little Bugs took me walking down the lane this afternoon.































First we scouted out some Oregon Grape.

The berries are ripe at this time of year after a couple frosts increases their fructose.













They're not especially sweet, but high in vitamin C; and the root of the Oregon grape has some very valuable medicinal properties which can be easily utilized for home use.
We tried to poke around in the dirt for the root, but never got to the bottom of the plant, it and decided to do a little more homework before getting in over our heads.

While we were out, I had intended for us to pick a bag full of Plantain, but some of us got side-tracked by a forest of fern (which was perfect for making tunnels through), and some Snowberries.













Others of us... got distracted with the camera!

















The Snowberries we discovered, are edible but called "a famine food when all else fails" and are not too tasty (as might be suggested by "when all else fails" -and see below).

















Apparently they have some medicinal uses as well, but the boys found that they made great ammunition for blow fights, and I'm pretty sure this is the use that will be more popular at our house!
(I think the inspiration must have been Uncle Char's marshmallow guns, minus gun, substitute Snowberries for marshmallows - THANKS UNCLE CHAR!)

















And a day like this is MY KINDA SCHOOL!