For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes have harvested cranberries in dgwaget. Our word for cranberry, bokmen, describes how the fruit grows on low hanging vines near the water of swamps and bogs. The highly nutritious and antioxidant rich berries were used by our ancestors as seasonal fare, medicinal teas, natural dye and ornamentation. Today, Wisconsin is …
In mnokme (spring), our ancestors drank spicebush tea to improve blood circulation, relieve upset stomach and as a diaphoretic for breaking fevers and treating colds. Similar benefits could be achieved by chewing on the twigs. Spicebush is a deciduous shrub native to eastern North America, ranging from Maine and New York to Ontario in the north, and to Kansas, Texas, …