Harvesting Sweet Fern (Comptonia peregrina): A Native Healer of Soil and Spirit

This morning, I grabbed a pair of garden scissors and a basket, and stepped out of the back door to harvest sweet fern.  There isn't as much of it this year as in years past.  That's actually a good thing.  It means that it's doing its job of restoring nitrogen to the soil. 

It's a treat to be in a patch of these when the sun warms the oils in the leaves.  Gorgeous, resinous aroma envelopes you.  It's a scent that I find both calms and lifts the mood.  Contentment.  That's what it is.

Sweet Fern, Comptonia peregrina is native to our area.  It shows up in places where the soil is bereft of nutrients.  We often find it wherever there are also autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) shrubs (non native).  They're both trying to restore soil.  When the job is done, they die off and other things can begin to grow.

In the autumn, we can go and harvest some of the leaves.  These can be used to make incense and saining sticks to purify the air.  In folk practice, they are believed to bring us into greater communion with the natural world.  Who couldn't use more of that?

Tea made from the leaves can be used to support recovery from too-high fever as well as stomach upset.  As an external wash, it is used to quell itchiness in the skin (not for mucus membranes, though, friends).

Watch the shop in the coming weeks for what we make from it!  In the meantime, be well!