Last weekend, I attended a class taught by Alicia Funk, co-author of Living Wild:  Gardening, Cooking and Healing with Native Plants of California and founder of the Living Wild Project.  I was impressed with the book and the speaker, and had the opportunity to sample a variety of wild foods, Including oak nuts (acorns), elderberry syrup, and toyon and manzanita ciders, and to take a walking tour of Soil Born Farms, an organic farm complex in Rancho Cordova, CA.

I left the class with a renewed appreciation for all of the food and medicinal plants that I am fortunate to already have growing in my food forest, including manzanita, yarrow, madrone, pine, various oaks, bay, bear clover, and gooseberry, and with a renewed commitment to planting drought-tolerant natives, especially toyon, holly leaf cherry, and sugar bush.  Though it’s been raining steadily for the last few days, we’ve got a long way to go…