Just a bit of gathering while walking the dog, to keep me occupied during winter in case I get urges.

In addition to the chestnut hulls I brought home, I also gathered spruce cones from the forest.

AND I found one young alder tree on our property that had produced cones, so I got myself a bag of those too.

I then tried to strip the larch trees, but they were not quite ready to let go of their needles, and those which did mostly ended up on my sweater. Tricky! I’ll get back to them in a week or so.

Then I went foraging websites and ended up ordering this canning device with a thermostat, I’m guessing it’s real good for keeping madder root at it’s proper temp as well! Since the jars will be shut I’m wondering if I could use it for apple sauce too. Not sure if I’ve had actual mordants or acid dye in there, what do y’all think?