Photos: Charleston Food Forest

[ysabetwordsmith]

These pictures are from Thursday.  I went foraging at the Charleston Food Forest.  It's across the parking lot from the Coles County Community Garden.


The entrance to the Charleston Food Forest is flanked by rows of lavender, currently in full bloom.




Here is a closeup of the sign.




This is the left front.




This is the right front.




These yellow flowers blooming at the front may be calendula.




Two big bushy rows of lavender line the path into the food forest.  I recommend lining paths with something that is low-growing and less prone to become a wall of solid bees in bloom.




The lavender was absolutely swarming with bees. Did I want to wade through a thigh-high pile of hungry and possibly territorial bees? A great big fuck no to that. I took an alternate route into the food forest.




Bachelor's button is blooming in the food forest.




This peach tree is full of green fruit.




Here is the sign for the nectarine tree.




The nectarine tree has green fruit.




This Nanking cherry bush still had a few cherries in the center, but was pretty picked over.




Here is the sign for a scarlet goumi bush.




The scarlet goumi bush is covered in ripe fruit. I tasted some, but found it tart and astringent, not worth picking.




Common milkweed blooms beside a bench. It is a host plant for monarch butterflies.




Here is a closeup of the milkweed flowers.




Green grapes hang on their arbor.




Here is the sign for the raspberry patch.




Yellow raspberries grow close to the front of the patch. They turn peach-colored when ripe and taste strongly of apricot.  I picked about half a bag of these.




The back of the patch holds red raspberries.  I picked a handful of these.  We ate all the raspberries on the way home.




Here is a closeup of the red raspberries.