I decided to make a writing commitment this month. NaNoWriMo is an incentive to get more writing done. The November project asks us to write 50,000 words and regardless of the word count to get going and write.
This year, I spent much of summer and early fall out foraging, gathering and drying edible plants for classes, salve making and to renew my own herb supplies for winter. It’s been time consuming but fun and I will share more as this month rolls along.
For now I have a novel to dig into as I continue to crack acorn shells for their meat and peel chestnuts to grind into flour. My main character knows plants at least some before she was removed from her community. She’s alone now in the forest sitting in the stillness. Yet, she must go through the motions of drying acorns to have acorn flour for winter use and others for survival. She’s found chestnuts a plenty. In the not so distant future they will be gone due to a blight that wiped out most American chestnuts from our eastern forests. Will she be strong enough to handle the changes about to come? Will her knowledge of medicine from the plant world survive generational shifts in her community and those of her relations?
Dried herbs are in glass jars. Wait, a pot of tea has brewed. Gotta get my cup of tea as I put words on paper. Wonder what my characters are doing today?
In the meantime, my next blog will continue my fall foraging series. Enjoy. Judith
Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN, Writer, Speaker, and Workshop Presenter, Master Gardener.
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