We took part in a program about native plants at a nearby park today. We learned a lot about the plants native to our area, and even got to taste some of them. It was a gorgeous day for a walk, and the red leaves of the blueberry bushes were stunningly beautiful. We saw some really cool mushrooms in the underbrush, and the kids had fun imagining the fairies and gnomes that might live in them. I've only ever seen toadstools like this in storybooks! We learned about cattails and their edible roots (which apparently taste like celery). Muskrats must like celery, because a pair of them moved into the park and ate every last one! Here are some of the kids blowing cattail fluff back into the pond. The ground in the park is covered with cranberries. Here our guide is telling us all about them - did you know that cranberries float, so the farmers harvest them by flooding the fields and scooping them off the surface? . We'd love to visit a farm during harvest time (which is right now)! At the end we got to taste the berries - they were sour, but yummy! Racing back to the nature house! Back at the nature house we got to make cattail bracelets while snacking on blueberry fruit leather and labrador tea.

Pay a visit to our other blog to see some more pictures and learn more about our native plants.
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