Guest Bloggers Archives - Page 4 of 4

It’s “Squirrel Syndrome” Time of Year

by PREPARE Magazine Editorial Team | Apr 5, 2025 | Blog, Guest Bloggers

Here at PREPARE Magazine, we’re always delighted when another Author who really walks the talk reaches out to share with us and you. Today’s Guest Blogger, Abby Artemisia is exactly the kind of grassroots instructor/teacher that we love introducing to you.

It’s interesting that Abby submitted this article while our most recent issue was in at the design desk. She had no way of knowing, other than that ‘feeling in the air’ what the cover of the most recent issue would be! You can get this exact Issue for FREE if you subscribe before November 15, 2015.

<- Just take a look at how appropriate it is in regards to this topic!

As with all of our Authors, Abby endeavors to live a more self-sustaining lifestyle. Her steps toward this lifestyle have taken her into her area of expertise. We are happy to introduce her to you and hope you will connect with her at the end of reading this article. Look for more from Abby within the upcoming pages of PREPARE Magazine!

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Squirrel Syndrome

By Abby Artemisia, http://www.mightyoakfromlittleacorn.com/

As I write this, it’s mid-October and I’m seriously suffering from Squirrel Syndrome. One of the last times I was in Asheville, my friend pointed to a squirrel, frantically running across the road with a nut in its mouth, and exclaimed, “Look, that’s you!”

We both burst out laughing, but it struck a chord somewhere deep inside of me. Then she said, “But just think, soon it will be winter and you can stop foraging.” Instead of calming me, that remark panicked me.

So what’s “Squirrel Syndrome” you ask. It’s when I feel like one of those squirrels who tries to run under your tires. I imagine their mouths are full of high-protein, health-supporting, oil-rich nuts, going to the equivalent of their root cellar. I start to believe they’re so hyper-focused on getting in the last of the available wild food, they barely (on a good day) stay alive.

That’s what I feel like this time of year. I have a list of at least twenty species of wild edibles and medicinals I want to harvest and preserve before it’s too late. I’ve been trying to get to the wild greens before they’re frost damaged, including things like sochan (the Cherokee word for cut-leaf coneflower) and raspberry leaf for tea. Luckily some greens like chickweed are hardier and will stick around most of the winter.

This is the perfect time of year for digging roots. My friend and I have been teaching about roots lately, like dandelion, burdock, chicory, and sun chokes (aka Jerusalem artichoke [neither from Jerusalem or an artichoke]). They’re all in the Aster family, and all have inulin, shown to help balance blood sugar, and prebiotics, the food for probiotics in our body.

And, of course, who can forget: nuts! Around here, there don’t seem to be many acorns this year. It changes from year to year. How about where you are? They can be a lot of work, but I think they’re worth it. I wish I would have harvested more chestnuts, but there still seem to be plenty of hickory nuts and black walnuts.

Instead of succumbing to the panic of Squirrel Syndrome, I’ve decided to remember about Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. I love this holiday because:

1) you aren’t expected to buy gifts for anyone, and

2) it’s all about gratitude for everything, but especially the abundance of nourishing, fresh food.

In that vein, I’m grateful that I got chestnuts at all this year. I’m grateful that the hickory and walnuts can wait to be processed until squirrel (syndrome) season is over. I’m grateful for the elderberries, pawpaws, and persimmons I harvested when I went home to Ohio to visit. I’m grateful to live in such an incredibly biodiverse region with so much wild food and medicine. I’m grateful, that though foraging is a lot of work, I get to do it in beautiful locations. Most importantly, I’m grateful to the plants for giving parts of themselves or even their whole lives so freely for my nourishment. Now off to gather the last of the nettles! Happy foraging!

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Abby Artemisia is a botanist, herbalist, professional forager and mom living in a small community in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She received her botany degree in Ohio, worked on organic farms across the country, and learned about plant medicine and spirituality from Native Americans. Abby teaches about edible and medicinal plants and mushrooms, while foraging as much as possible. Her mission is to inspire nature (re)connection and health empowerment.

Visit Abbey’s Website: http://www.mightyoakfromlittleacorn.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/abbyfrolickingintheforest/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/AbbyBotanistHerbalist/

Enjoy this Winter Weather Treat! Snow Cream

by PREPARE Magazine Editorial Team | Apr 5, 2025 | Guest Bloggers, Preparedness planning

It may seem odd that on a preparedness blog we are talking about the Winter Weather Treat of Snow Cream. To be sure, preparedness is our main goal, but making good use of time and resources also applies to living with what life hands you and making the best out of a potentially uncomfortable situation.

When live gives you lemons, make lemonade – when winter gives you an abundance of snow, make snow cream!

As winter weather continues to keep spring at bay, it may seem as if there is nothing to do, especially on those days when new snow drifts keep you inside the house. Here is a fun, old-fashioned and delicious way to beat boredom as well as a unique way to prepare candy.

Making maple snow candy is perhaps most famous from it’s description in the Little House on the Prairie series. Here’s what you’ll need for your own maple snow candy:

A large cooking container. I used a soup pot but you can use any bowl or pot large enough to pour your syrup into.
A medium saucepan for melting the syrup in
Mixing spoon
Maple syrup, the darker the syrup the more maple flavor the candy will have.
Of course, the most important ingredient of all, snow!

First, go outside and find a clean patch of snow. The further away from a city you live the easier this will be. Fill your pot up to the very top and leave it just outside your door. This allows you to work quickly once the syrup is heated but also keeps it from getting too frozen as it would if you put it in the freezer.

Next, take your maple syrup and pour it into a medium saucepan. Make sure you cover the bottom of your saucepan with syrup. Place the saucepan onto the stove on medium. Stirring constantly, wait until the syrup bubbles and fluffs up to twice its original size, so that it looks more like honeycomb candy than syrup. It should also lighten to a pale brown taffy color.

Then, go grab your snow container. Working quickly, pour the syrup on top of the snow. You can make patterns and shapes or just simply drizzle it.

Let it set for about 45 seconds to a minute. At this point the boiling hot syrup will be barely warm to the touch and firm enough to pick up and eat.

Enjoy the delicious maple candy, which is as much fun to eat as it is to make.

Kathleen-June G. Horne is a survival enthusiast and amateur outdoors-woman. She graduated from Western Kentucky University in 2015 with a degree in business and has written two books, a historical young adult novel entitled “The Sparrow’s Call” and a Christmas devotional, “24 Days of Devotion“. She was homeschooled until college, and used her free time to learn all she could about all the things people used to know. She runs the blog Miniskirts & Margins which is about fashion, her Southern Baptist faith and the adventures she runs into.

Listen to this podcast to get to know Kathleen-June G. Horne a bit better!

Holiday Trees – Digging up vs. Cutting Down

by PREPARE Magazine Editorial Team | Apr 5, 2025 | Blog, Guest Bloggers

Before the festivities begin and the calendar turns over to a new year, many people are preparing for their holiday tradition of trimming the tree. We’d like to share with you, another thought about this topic. It is a more sustainable thought with hints of long-term heirloom memories for years to come.

One of our friends and authors, Desere, who is the Office Manager (and more) at Turtle Island Preserve, sent in this timely article that we thought would be good to share right away. We hope you’ll pass this on to your friends and family this year. And we hope you’ll use some of the inspiration Desere has to offer to sustain the memory of the season from generation to generation.

The Off-Road Girl’s Guide to: Holiday Trees – Digging up vs. Cutting Down

Regardless of religious persuasions, cultural heritage patterns, or particular holiday traditions, throughout North America there’s an undeniable mass harvesting of evergreen trees each winter. Here in southern Appalachia, Christmas trees are big business. According to the national Christmas Tree Association, approx. 26 million live conifers were harvested and sold in our nation in 2014. On average, consumers pay from $35 – 50 for freshly cut firs, spruces and pines. And each year from late December into January, our neighborhood curbsides are scattered with a surplus of discarded trees.

Christmas Tree3 Some municipalities provide composting sites where trees can be taken and chipped, and some even offer neighborhood pick-ups for compost/mulch operations, but a good majority of our fallen tannenbaums become landfill-bound. There are green alternatives from recycled-plastic reusable trees to stringing up lights on potted plants, but if your halls simply cannot be decked without the age-old tradition of harvesting a lush verdant evergreen tree – consider planting a live tree that you dug up, rather than cut down. Planting your annual investment can beautify your yard, create privacy and windbreaks and reduce future landscaping costs. You can design and enhance your homestead with the boughs of Christmas past.

It’s easy and here’s how:

Evaluate your yard and select an ideal location for an evergreen tree or trees. Think long-term gain. Consider permaculture concepts in choosing the right site for a tree or a row of trees to commemorate each season. Evergreens in favorable conditions grow quickly to create boundaries, provide shade, attract birds and an intentionally planted row creates a windbreak to shelter your home from north winds.

Depending on your location’s fall temperatures, dig your receiving hole well before the ground freezes. Once the earth is removed, you can lightly fill with compost or fallen leaves and cover with an old piece of plywood. Be mindful if you have livestock or small children that may be attracted to or susceptible to hazards in the yard like a new giant hole. Christmas Tree

Some tree farms allow you to come out to dig instead of saw, but plenty of nurseries and home-centers have them already pre-balled and bundled for the convenience-oriented types too. If you’ve never dug up a tree by yourself, there are countless video tutorials online that describe the process in great detail but here are a few tips: Bring plenty of rope (I like mule-tape the best), burlap, a square-point shovel and a wheel barrel. Before you begin, bind the limbs and branches up and out of the way so you have plenty of room to work the tree from the earth.

Christmas Tree2 If your ground freezes early, you can do the digging in October, flag your tree, leave it bound in its original hole and return closer to the holiday to pick up your tree. If you bring it home right away, have a 30-50 gallon galvanized wash tub ready to serve as your tree’s temporary “pot”; it helps to have a dolly beneath the tree’s tub so you can roll it from here to there. Loosen the burlap, secure the tree in the tub, adding earth if needed. Water it well and unbind the rope to reduce stress on the branches. Leave it in a shed or garage to acclimate your new little green friend from the cold outdoors to the heated indoors. Once you roll the tree into your warm and cozy home, choose a spot that is as far away from heat sources and near a window if possible. Your potted tree won’t mind having its branches misted. Decorate as desired and enjoy much less needle loss than from a sawn-down tree.

As soon as the season has passed, roll your tree back into the shed or garage for re-acclimation to the outdoors. On a fair weather day, return to your yard’s receiving hole with the potted tree and plant it, making sure not to go too deep.

a row of snow covered conifers

It’s been said that “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, but the second-best time is today.” With a little extra thought and effort you can increase the value of your property and leave your family a lasting legacy of trees. In a few years your homestead can sparkle with a living commemoration for each year of holiday cheer. Traditions like this have a lasting positive impact not just on your wallet and the environment, but across the generations who will have both the memories you created inside the home, but also a meaningful personal connection to what’s planted just outside.

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Desere Square

Since 2006, Desere has lived and taught at Turtle Island Preserve. As office manager and Co-Director of Girls Camp and Young Boys Camp, she brings 10 years of experience as an outdoor educator having worked at various camps and educational institutions throughout the Nation. She has a wide and adventurous background in travel, art, and woodworking. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in fine art from The Rochester Institute of Technology and Associates in Visual Communications at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

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