Wild Harvest Life - Winter Family in PNW

I Did Not Even Know Fireweed Existed Until recently, I did not even know that fireweed existed. I first heard the name while watching one of my favorite foraging YouTubers. In the video, several foragers were walking through the forest together looking for mushrooms. Along the way, someone stopped to harvest a tall plant with narrow leaves and pink flowers. “Fireweed,” they called it. They also mentioned that fireweed could be sold alongside wild mushrooms. That detail caught my attention, so I visited the forager’s online shop. Sure enough, fireweed was really listed there. From that moment, I became curious. What was this plant? Why were people harvesting it? How could it be used? And most importantly, could it possibly grow here in the Pacific Northwest near my own home? I began reading and watching everything I could find. The more photographs I saw, the more familiar the plant looked. Then one thought stopped me: Wait a minute. Don’t I see this along our mountain road? The plant I...

A Mountain Walk After Strange Weather My husband and I usually go mushroom hunting in the fall and winter. But this year, the weather has felt very different from what we remember. It became unusually hot for a while, and then recently, after almost a full week of rain, the temperature suddenly dropped again. So we looked at each other and thought, “Maybe we should go check the mountains.” The first mountain area we visited was over 4,300 feet in elevation. There, we found coral mushrooms — a beautiful surprise after the rain. But that was not the only thing we saw. Among the green plants on the mountain, I noticed a tall wild plant with long narrow leaves. At first, I was not completely sure what it was, so I did not harvest it. I only took photos and came back home. Later, when I looked more closely, I realized it was Fireweed . Fireweed ’s scientific name is Chamaenerion angustifolium . It is also known by older botanical names such as Chamerion angustifolium or Epilobium angustifo...