Oxbow

Bleeding hearts.

Jasper loves learning about botany, so he was really enthusiastic about joining Dr. John Kallas on one of his workshops to learn about edible wild foods.  This workshop took place at Oxbow Regional Park, one of our local treasures. Mr. Kallas was most enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and truly a delightful guide.  Jasper was interested mostly because he just loves to learn about plants.  I was interested because I love food!   And it left me with a new respect for foraging.  Unlike cultivated plants, wild plants are not consistent,  sometimes varying greatly from one specimen to another.  People have bread crops to be consistent,  a homogeny which is both reassuring and a bit dull!   I was really proud of Jasper.  My notoriously picky eater eat several wild foods, even putting a salmonberry flower in his mouth!  But what really pleased me was that when the adults were all standing around for long periods, listening attentively to a lecture, he was able not only to listen as well, but to find enormous fascination in the minute details of the forest around him.  No detail escaped his attention, from tiny silver drops of water on leaves, to snails, wildflowers, and some particularly interesting slime mold.    I actually didn't take many pictures of the edible plants themselves, but took pictures of the things Jasper showed me.  Oxbow is a lovely place; the annual Not Back To School Campout will be held there again this year, on Sept. 6-8, and every fall they celebrate the salmon migration with the Salmon Homecoming Festival.