In September 2014, I was on a work trip to the US and took a week first to visit a good friend in Vermont (from Norway) who was there just for the summer, and who just happened to live a few miles away from my US publishers Chelsea Green. Afterwards, I travelled north to visit my good virtual but now real friend Telsing Andrews near Ottawa. On the way to Vermont (I took the wonderful Vermontian train).  I met long-time Internet friend and fellow forager Leda Meredith on her home foraging ground in Central Park. Fantastic!!

Below, I’ve collected various albums from this memorable trip, previously posted on FB.

First, two albums of the wonderful plants in the woods near to the cabin where I was staying  (Mt. Tom, Woodstock). This was a near religious experience for me seeing so many edible woodlanders that I’d grown at home for many years, at last seeing them on home territory. Some of them are in my book: Maianthemum racemosum (False Solomon’s Seal), Laportea (Wood nettle), Matteuccia (Ostrich Fern), Hydrophyllum (Water leaf/Indian salad), Cryptotaenia canadensis (Honewort), Osmorhiza (Sweet cicely) and there were many other familiar edible plants such as Trillium, Hog Peanut, Clintonia, Zizia etc. An incredible forest garden diversity………………WOW WOW WOW!! http://s304.photobucket.com/user/stevil2008_photo/library/Facebook/Mt%20Tom%20Woodstock%20VT
http://s304.photobucket.com/user/stevil2008_photo/library/Facebook/Mt%20Tom%20Woodstock%20VT%20Day%202

What a greeting I had at the cabin in the woods! http://s304.photobucket.com/user/stevil2008_photo/library/Facebook/Greeted%20at%20the%20cabin%20in%20Vermont%20by%20these%20lovely%20c

…and even the moon was happy to see me:
http://s304.photobucket.com/user/stevil2008_photo/library/Facebook/Harvest%20Full%20Vermoon

My visit to my US distributors, Chelsea Green in White River Junction, VT:
http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=431

Fungi of Mt. Tom, Woodstock, Vermont
http://s304.photobucket.com/user/stevil2008_photo/library/Facebook/Fungi%20of%20Mt%20Tom%20Woodstock%20VT

Central Park with Leda Meredith:
http://s304.photobucket.com/user/stevil2008_photo/library/Facebook/Central%20Park%20with%20Leda%20Meredith

Aster Lane Edibles is a fantastic property cultivated by a real devotee of edible plants, Telsing Andrews (see also http://asterlanedibles.ca)!  http://s304.photobucket.com/user/stevil2008_photo/library/Facebook/Aster%20Lane%20Edibles

My first talk outside of Europe was in a church in Ottawa…what a great crowd!!
http://s304.photobucket.com/user/stevil2008_photo/library/Facebook/Around%20the%20world%20tour%20in%20All%20Saints%20Church%20Ottawa

The Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa  with Telsing and another old friend from the fora Melana Hiatt!!  http://s304.photobucket.com/user/stevil2008_photo/library/Facebook/Central%20Experimental%20Farm%20Ottawa

After my visit, it turned out that my friend  the Onion Man (not this one, but the real one, Mark McDonough) had actually worked in Woodstock and had also walked these same woods….and I didn\t know he lived so close, I could have visited him!

…and then more cosmic resonating, my first radio interview in the UK was on BBC Radio Solent near to where I grew up in Hampshire, UK (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02cj91b ). After the show, I was telling my Mum about the trip to Vermont, I went to bed early…and the next morning Mum says “You’ll never guess what was on BBC Radio Solent last night after you went to bed!”…..there was a travel program featuring…..Woodstock, Vermont!!!

Other related links:
Sowing a Vermontian Wood
http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=399

Riceroot and Hog Peanuts
http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=480