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.

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..

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