Events

Seed Exchange & Native Edible Plants
presented by Pat Armstrong
2-2:30 Seed Sharing

Penstemon digitalis seed heads

Before the presentation, we will have an half-hour for sharing native seeds and socializing.  Bring seeds if you have any to share.

You can have them in a labeled envelope or other container.  If you would like to bring seeds home, bring some paper envelope and a pen or two.  Please bring only straight native plant seeds that were recently collected.  

2:30-4:30 Presentation on Native Edible Plants

Although most of the well-known edible wild plants are weeds from Europe and Asia, there are native edibles that you can grow in your yard. Native Americans utilized over 500 native plants for food, fiber, dye, and other uses.  

Pat has spent over 75 years living with and studying nature. She has taught public high school, Montessori School, worked 17 years at the Morton Arboretum where she trained school guides and started the Prairie volunteers, taught field studies at College of DuPage for over 22 years, and now teaches at the Resiliency Institute. She and Vicki Nowicki founded the first Chapter of Wild Ones outside of WI and helped make Wild Ones a National Organization. She has a master of science degree from Univ. of Chicago in Botany & Ecology.