Farmer John is a wonderful neighbor. More than forty years ago, John drove up my (long) driveway to give me a bottle. There used to a glass factory near us, about 250 years ago. 

Pre-revolutionary.

 

A local road — Glasco Turnpike — connects the Hudson River sand banks (glass is melted sand) with the Catskill forest (you need to burn a lot of trees to melt sand). The bottle he gave me was a rare find: Unbroken, clear, small. It created a bond between us that we have nurtured all these years.

John has become pretty good at recognizing and using the medicinal plants that abound on his land. His "miracle" cure from the ravages of Lyme disease — with the help of Hypericum — sold him on green blessings.

I've been walking John's upper field this spring. There's a good tractor road, and I wear my Insect Shield pants (to ward off the ticks I know are there, certainly there, hitchhiking on the herds of deer that browse that field.)

My friend Candace, here for a visit, agreed to walk the field with me. She wanted shoes for the quarter mile of road before the tractor road. When we got to the field, she took them off. As she did so, I noticed lots of red clover, in full bloom. We had seen good patches of red clover along the road, and promised ourselves we would harvest on the walk home.

I picked one. Two. Ten. Wandered further. Twenty. Everywhere my eyes went I saw more red clover. Ten acres of red clover spread before me. I couldn't stop.

 

I followed the bees. Blossom to blossom. In the bright sun, picking. Sliding fingers on either side of the blossom, I sink into gratitude, snap the blossom off, put it in my gathered shirt "basket." I pick a hundred. Say a hundred "thank yous," I pick a thousand.

My gratitude swirls across the field. Millions of red clover blossoms await. I'm lying down picking. From one spot I can gather fifty blossoms they are so thick, so fresh. I'm picking as we leave. Step, pick, step, pick. I'll never get home like this. I try closing my eyes. Red clover tickles the insides of my lids. But I manage to leave the field. We picked for an hour.

Back home, time to lay out the red clover to dry. Its high protein content makes it likely to ferment while drying, and that turns the blossoms brown. So they must be laid, one by one, not touching, on a flat basket to preserve their color and their energy.

That night I have red clover dreams. Nightmares? The field is mowed, clover and grass ready to be baled. Spurred on by my dream, I set out the next day with my granddaughter, Monica Jean, to harvest more red clover.

The roadbed scorches my bare feet. We run. The field is unchanged, except perhaps that there are more bees at work. Red clover beckons. MJ and I pick our way across the field to a resting place where we sit, wishing we had thought to bring something to drink when Farmer John appears with a quart mason jar.

"You looked thirsty," he says grinning. "Want some nettle infusion?"
Yes, indeed.

Soon we are enjoying jelly jars of iced nettle, John's amazing stories, and his blessing on our harvest. "I'm compelled to pick before you mow," I admit.
"Mower's broken," he admits.
We exchange smiles.

He turns to walk home, and MJ and I start back, picking, picking. We harvested for an hour and a half. Back home, we lay our blossoms out to dry. Herbalists need huge amounts of baskets. 

 

Would you be at all surprised when I tell you I went back the next day too? MJ came with me. We wore hats. And shoes for treading on the asphalt. And took a thermos of linden infusion, iced. The sun was brutal. The bees were buzzing. Red clover filled my heart and hands. We harvested for an hour.

At home, I group the mostly dried blossoms from the first day's harvest together in one basket, freeing up basket space to lay out our new harvest. So far, we have put about ten people-hours into our red clover harvest. And have close to a pound of dried blossoms.

Walmart offers 8 ounces of organic red clover (Frontier label) for $30. Frontier charges the same price; but I'm told they are out of stock right now. An online seller has junky, brown red clover for $20 a pound. So we "made" $2-6 an hour for our effort. But we got lots of "intangible" benefits:

* Quality social time with friends and family.
* Stockpiles of vitamin D.
"Vitamin D is stored in various body tissues, with adipose tissue being a major storage site. Studies have shown that vitamin D can be released from storage gradually to circulate in the blood and that there are detectable amounts for 2 to 3 months after a single dose/exposure."
* Exercise
* Butterflies
* Wild flower bouquets
* Spiritual delight

☘️
Curious about red clover?
Check out The Red Clover Conference here: https://www.wisewomanschool.com/p/red-clover-con