Today we went to Gee Creek Wilderness Area and did a little foraging. With it being the end of Winter, there was not too much to find, but we did luck up on a few things. I know exactly where to go from now on if I need a close place for Partridgeberries. They were everywhere near the creek and I managed to pick quite a few and got them all home safely…thanks to Chris’ pocket! I will upload more pics tomorrow when I have access to high speed. We also got some polypores, wild ginger, mountain mint and Sweetgum Balls. I will add pics and details about them tomorrow. I am working on an article on foraging as well.

Here is a pic that Chris took this morning as I was picking partridgeberries.

You can chew the hardened sap from a wound in a Sweetum Tree as a gum for fresh breath. As a child, chewing gum was not something we got except on holidays like Christmas and our birthday. We would always grab a “glob” of sap from the Sweetgum Tree as we were on the way to the barn to milk the cow.

The inner bark of the Tree can be boiled with milk and used to relieve diarrhea. Oil from the leaves of the Tree is great for killing bacteria and viruses. This may be taken orally or the oil taken from the leaves and placed on wounds to prevent infection.