This is going to be a event-filled update so brace yourselves. The Hostel in the Forest was bustling this week with the hatching of seven home-brew chicks starting things off: we have EB (Early Bird), Luna, Gerdy (Gertrude), Jonny-Sue, Crackle (who had to be helped out of her shell by Chicken Shamama Amanda), Archimedes and Delilah chirping in the warmth of the loft.

A couple from the Twin Oaks Community in Virginia brought in a bunch of their homemade tofu to spice up our dinners as well as a mushroom pate which is made from okara (left over soy guts from the tofu making process). Yummy. We made some oat milk in the kitchen by boiling oats with water like you would to make oatmeal, processing the mush, squeezing it through a pillow case to strain and boiling the liquid with vanilla and some canola oil. Double Yummy. We welcomed a beautiful buzzing bee hive into our secret garden which will pollinate our summer garden and give us honey in just a little while. Our handyman Critter sadly left us for Rendezvous, a skills share in LaFayette, but not before he shared with us his homemade locust mead and concord wine. Le Chaim.

The weekend cultivated our semi-annual Ethnobotany Intensive with Ethnobotanists Mycol Stevens and Marc Williams. We gathered surrounding flora and Mycol presented an Ethnobotany 101 explaining the different ways to identify plants of different families and their uses for us be they aesthetic, culinary, ceremonial or mind-altering like the native Holly which can be used as a local caffeine alternative to mate. Repeat after me: Sedges have edges, rushes are round, grasses have joints, what have you found? A simple identifying technique! We shared a lunch of foraged, gardened and bought greens and an array of kimchi (fermented vegetables filled with beneficial probiotics for the belly) before which Marc presented a 101 on fermentation and sprouting, Simple and quick ways to supplement your diet and boost its nutritional value. The plant walk along the T trail was enlightening learning what we can pick and eat while strolling through the forest. The evening exploded with an effervescent workshop on mead making followed by bubbly discussions about our responsibility for an eco-conscious lifestyle. Sunday’s plant walk discovered three carnivorous plants and many mosquitoes and the intensive wrapped up with a walk along driftwood beach on Jekyll Island. Sigh. Oms and Giggles.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff