What's Your Nature?

Become a Nature Up North explorer to share your encounters with wild things and wild places in New York's North Country. Post your wildlife sightings, landscape shots, photos from your outings, and even your organization's events!

Wild Eats: Spring Foraging Fling

By Isabella de Buy Wenniger on April 23, 2019

Blog: Farmed and Foraged

One of the best parts of spring is seeing the first shoots of green poking out of the ground, replacing the gray and brown of winter with bursts of color. The first plants to sprout not only lift our spirits and remind us of the summer warmth and color soon to come, but can add flavor and nutrients to spring meals. Known as spring tonics, commonly found early spring edible plants in the…

By India Harvey on August 15, 2016

Blog: Farmed and Foraged

No campfire is complete without a few s’mores. S’mores hit the proverbial sweet spot of flavor and entertainment – enjoyed around a crackling campfire with family and friends, the challenge of roasting the perfect marshmallow can keep you occupied for hours. The classic marshmallow, graham cracker, and Hershey bar s’more has existed since at least 1927, when the recipe for “some mores” was…

By India Harvey on July 25, 2016

Blog: Farmed and Foraged

In most cases it’s wise to avoid contact from anything that stings, yet nettles are a notable exception. Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) are covered in fine hairs called trichomes, which inject histamines into your skin on contact, causing an unpleasant stinging sensation. Fortunately for us, cooking nettles destroys the trichomes, leaving us with a mild-flavored and nutritious leafy green…

By India Harvey on July 12, 2016

Blog: Farmed and Foraged

Who needs mining gold when you can have swamp gold? What is swamp gold, you ask? Well, hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen: you’re in for a treat! The North Country may not have a lot of golden ore, but its wetlands are filled with cattails whose pollen transforms local swamps into a virtual goldmine. Cattails (Typha latifolia) are common wetland plants that are surprisingly useful to humans…

Ripe juneberries can be reddish-pink or purple

By India Harvey on June 30, 2016

Blog: Farmed and Foraged

Amelanchier canadensis, a small shrubby tree native to our region, goes by many names: serviceberry, shadberry, shadbush, and juneberry. But my personal favorite is saskatoon berry. What a wonderful name for a fruit. It perfectly captures the pizzazz of these tiny reddish purple spheres, which are most commonly known as juneberries. This designation highlights its harvesting season, since the…

You'll likely find yourself competing with wildlife for ripe junberries

The three stages of life for a dandelion.

By India Harvey on June 20, 2016

Blog: Farmed and Foraged

Some plants are so common that we forget to appreciate them. We see dandelions everywhere during the summer - their yellow flowers speckle the grass at local parks and poke out between the cracks of village sidewalks. Many people feel some hostility towards the plant, as dandelions stand in the way of a perfectly manicured lawn. Dandelions have a bad reputation, which is ironic because they were…

The sting from stinging nettles comes from fine prickly hairs called trichomes, found on their leaves and stems.

By Paul J. Hetzler on May 24, 2016

Blog: Farmed and Foraged

One of my favorite plants is either highly versatile, or very confused. On the one hand, professional herbivores like rabbits and deer refuse to even touch it, but many people, myself included, will gladly eat it every day it is available. While contacting it is painful, it has been proven to relieve certain chronic pain. It is steeped in over a thousand years of folklore, at one point imbued…

Juneberry flowers in Canton, May 6th 2016.

By Paul J. Hetzler on May 6, 2016

Blog: Farmed and Foraged

Another regional attraction has just opened, and for the next few weeks you can see the show at innumerable open-air venues across the Northeast. The performance is free, although only matinees are available. The new event is the blossoming of a widespread, though strangely little-known, early-flowering plant. It is either a small tree or a shrub, depending on who you ask, which makes me wonder…

Unripe juneberry leaves and fruit, June 2015.

By Samantha Haab on April 27, 2016

Blog: Farmed and Foraged

Bees are key pollinators for a variety of plant species that we rely on for food, medicine, livelihood, and aesthetics. They are obligate pollinators, so their diet of nectar and pollen makes their role in pollination a de facto part of their life. Farmers, gardeners, and all nature lovers alike, should aim to foster a diversity of pollinators in their farms or gardens. Especially in light…

By Imman Merdan on April 5, 2016

Blog: Farmed and Foraged

Maple season is not considered to be one of the four seasons, but for those in the North Country, it is the sweetest. New York State Maple Weekend, which this year took place on March 19-20 and April 2-3 this year, is a celebration of the maple season and an opportunity for the public to see how maple syrup, candies, and other sweet treats are made. On April 2nd we caught up with St. Lawrence…