>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by the following... >> That flower feeling.

♪ At home.

♪ At work.

♪ Or anytime.

♪ CalFlowers is a proud sponsor of "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom," where flowers and wellness go hand in hand.

>> We have fresh in all our stores, from soups and steaks and all things flour to all things flowering.

Custom fresh arrangements designed by our in-store florists at Albertsons Companies.

♪ ♪ >> Today we're learning about foraging for plants and herbs from an expert.

Then we'll make arrangements with our foraged botanicals, mix up a cocktail, and create projects with pine cones and moss.

♪ ♪ I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom."

"You can't be an armchair forager."

More than once in my life, I have foraged for flowers and foliage to arrange or add to a bouquet, sometimes referred to as roadsidia.

♪ However, there are guidelines that are wise to follow.

For example, you want to be able to harvest again in the future, so it's important to limit what you take at any single time.

Herbs and other plants found in nature, whether in a rural or urban location or even from your yard, can also be harvested and utilized in many ways.

You can forage in your garden for botanicals that seem past their prime for creative outcomes and arrangements.

One can also forage in the home for unexpected containers for a bouquet and unusual objects for other arrangements.

Let's discover what can be foraged in this episode of "Life in Bloom."

♪ ♪ Today we're getting outside for a bit of foraging with my expert friend, Lisa Rose.

Lisa is an herbalist, forager, and author.

And I knew she'd be the perfect person to learn from.

I always talk about that I go out and find roadsidia, which is what's growing along the roadside.

But I'm also cautious to warn people that, don't take everything, have permission, be careful.

Tell us the key points to foraging as opposed to gathering roadsidia for flowering.

>> They're not different, actually.

So you mentioned a couple.

First of which, don't be greedy.

Don't be grabby.

If you're grabby, you'll get poison ivy.

If you're grabby, the brambles will pick you, will tear your linen shirt, I promise you.

>> I think that's awesome.

>> Don't be grabby.

>> Right, okay.

>> When we approach foraging or gathering, I think the first couple things is, for me, of course, safety.

>> Right.

>> What is it?

If I pick, you know, the wild carrot, how do I know that it's not poison hemlock... >> Exactly.

>> ...or angelica or cow parsnip?

Right?

>> That's what you know.

>> Well... >> That's what you teach us, hopefully.

>> One should be aware of the differences botanically.

So field guides, not just me, but also so many botanists.

You know, there are resources out there to differentiate.

The second is, "Okay, I know what it is.

Is there -- Is it plentiful?"

I look to plants that are common, generally.

>> Okay.

>> Those that are less common and more, you know, protected, native species, you have to know that before you pick your plants.

You know, know, one, if it's legal to harvest.

>> Okay.

>> Did you ask permission?

So, you know, if it's roadside easement, that is a sort of a gray area.

But then we get into national parks, state parks, municipal parks.

That's a whole other set of rules.

>> And someone's private property.

>> Well, of course, yeah.

>> Don't trespass.

>> That's gonna get you in a whole bunch of trouble if it's private property, right?

But, you know, those rules that are posted for all those places, it's a forager's responsibility to know those in advance.

>> Okay.

So your new book, "Urban Foraging," has recipes in it.

>> It does, and it has recipes that have meaning to me.

But then, also, easy and accessible recipes for folks, especially in the city, who are just like, "Oh, my gosh, you can eat that?"

>> So one of them is acorn bread.

So can you walk us through the process for this amazing "Urban Foraging" recipe?

>> Yes!

And I'm not nuts!

Though people think I am.

So acorns, the Quercus, whole species, all the oak trees produce these edible nuts.

>> Okay.

>> The White Oaks, the Bur Oaks, the Red Oaks -- it doesn't matter the species.

All are edible, and all are found distributed across North America.

So I don't know if you've ever eaten an acorn raw out of the yard.

>> No.

>> No.

Most people haven't.

I don't recommend it, if you do it, because it's extremely bitter, and it's extremely tannic.

So there is a process of working with acorns.

So here I brought some nut meats that I've actually shelled but then, also, boiled to help remove the tannins.

So leaching them in a water removes the tannins and the bitterness and makes it a little more palatable.

Many people have different ways of processing it, in terms of hot water or cold water.

For me, I just put them all in a pot, turn the pot on high, and then just, you know, even if it's a rolling boil for 20 minutes and I strain it, I've retained a lot of the fat.

You want to retain the natural oils in the plant, for me anyway.

Because, for me personally, I ground it into flour, and I use that in porridge and as well as some of the breads we'll talk about.

So when you use the ground acorn nut meat, again, it can be used interchangeably with any type of nut-flour recipe.

So if you're using almond flour, again, you know, it's a little bit of chemistry.

It doesn't have any gluten, so it doesn't self-rise.

So that's some consideration.

Don't go thinking it's gonna become an amazing Italian pastry.

And so, these are just easy loaves.

Actually, when I prepped them for our visit, my family's like, "Oh, my gosh, this is the best version ever."

There have been a lot of versions of these.

>> Okay.

>> It's actually a banana bread.

It's a banana bread and then a little banana cake.

And you know what?

Really, I use my standard "joy of cooking from my mother's cookbook" banana bread recipe.

>> Okay.

>> How do we, you know, start to think about bringing the wild foods into the kitchen?

Slowly.

You know, just again, for those that are just wanting to learn a little more, the acorn from the Oak tree is a very safe and fun way to start to learn wild plants.

>> So I have a tradition here on "Life in Bloom."

I made you a flower crown of foraged items.

I think it looks good!

And it looks like it fits!

I knew you'd have a tiny head.

>> You style me well, sir.

>> It looks good.

It looks good.

So I have a question for you.

Do you think you could whip up a drink for us, a foraged flower cocktail drink?

>> I am absolutely able to pull some things together from the pantry and the garden and even the edges of the garden to make some really delicious concoctions.

>> All right, we'll come back and do it.

>> Yay!

♪ ♪ >> Foraging stems for your arrangements can include your own garden, especially for stems that you might think are past their prime.

As blooms progress, they often become interesting in a different way, as pods and seeds are forming.

Dried stems also make wonderful additions.

Let's make an arrangement with what I've collected.

♪ This wooden box was created by my dad.

It's actually repurposed, as well, or foraged.

He took the benches from the greenhouse and made these lovely boxes.

They're perfect for a block of floral foam.

I used a piece of cellophane inside and then dropped my soaked flower foam on top of it so it's waterproof.

♪ Now, we'll base in our different types of foraged items.

Everything has different textures, so it's wonderful to line them up and put them in groupings.

We'll use different lengths of stems so we have different levels in the arrangement.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I like the way that the different pods and dried materials look together.

♪ ♪ We'll create the base and then add flowers over the top, and we'll finish up with our Crocosmia pods.

Those are kind of dancing over the top of the arrangement.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Another great thing we can forage for is moss.

I've collected some moss today, and we're going to create a mossarium.

It's important, though, that it has good airflow.

Different from a terrarium, where a terrarium would have a cap on top that would create condensation inside.

Moss likes good airflow but likes to remain moist at all times.

So this is gonna be an ideal container.

It's a terrarium-like structure but a hole that goes all the way through.

There are key layers for every mossarium.

They're easy to obtain but vital to the longevity of the moss.

First we have the drainage layer.

That's gravel or rock that allows the moisture to escape away from the moss.

Activated charcoal to keep the substrate layer fresh and clean.

Potting soil, and it needs to be moist at all times.

Then we have our hardscape layer.

That's where we can place our rocks or wood as decoration.

♪ Moss is easier to care for than plants, as in terrariums.

But lighting is important.

Indirect low-lighting is best because moss thrives in shade.

♪ ♪ Watering can be a challenge.

And here's a secret that I found that works really great.

We'll use a turkey baster to water and direct the water exactly where we want it.

Moss is very delicate, so you'll want to use just fresh, clean water, too.

Plant food isn't necessary.

With our activated charcoal inside there and our potting soil, it'll create all the nutrients that it needs.

It's a wonderful way for us to forage something that can be unique and different in our home -- a mossarium.

It's a wonderful part of a life in bloom.

♪ ♪ >> It's cocktail time!

>> Perfect!

>> We're gonna go ahead and blend our ingredients -- the lavender-infused gin, my lavender-infused homemade, backyard, tree-tapped maple syrup, and a little bit of lime juice to muddle that together into a Tom Collins.

So you prefer to have your liquor at the bottom?

I'm not a properly-trained bartender.

>> No, it's all good.

Okay.

>> All right, we're gonna add a little bit of the infused gin.

>> Perfect.

>> A little bit of the lime juice.

Again, so the infused gin -- I use the lavender to infuse the gin to complement and, actually, in some ways, offset the bossiness of the juniper and the coriander.

And then, for me, again, that's a little extra sweetness, not just a simple syrup, but a maple simple syrup with infused lavender.

I know, right?

Do you want to add berries?

Or you want to taste it straight up?

>> Wow!

I can add berries.

Of course I'll add berries.

>> I know.

So, you know, and it is berry season.

>> It is berry season.

>> And I always find that the lavender and the berries pair nicely.

And then we're gonna be featuring, as a snack, the acorn bread.

>> Perfect!

>> Again, you know, acorns, as we've talked before, really have just an earthy -- an earthy flavor similar to coffee and also pairs well with chocolate.

So the con-- What really pulls this together, I feel, is the blueberry flavor, right, so you pull dark berries, the acorns, and then the lavender, and it's like this whole little -- Wait, do you need a garnish?

>> We do, yeah.

>> I think -- Here's a garnish for you.

>> Oh, look!

Okay.

>> I know.

Here's a garnish for me.

>> Wonderful.

Cheers.

Let's see.

>> Let's see.

♪ >> Oh, Lisa, that's wonderful.

>> Thank you.

>> Yeah!

You know, I love the way that the maple syrup pairs with the lime juice.

>> I think -- Yes.

>> Okay, so this is what I've been waiting for.

♪ ♪ So good!

And right out of your yard.

>> Right?!

I know!

The front yard gave us the acorns that made the bread!

>> Front yard, backyard.

>> Front yard, backyard.

>> Perfect!

Thank you so much for coming and sharing this, being my forager friend, always having these great ideas.

And, Lisa Rose, what better guest to have than a person with the last name of "Rose" on a flower show?

Right?

So, cheers.

>> Cheers.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Queen Anne's lace is a white flowering plant, also known as a wild carrot, bird's nest, or bishop's lace.

The flowers are small and dull white, clustered in flat, dense umbels.

The umbels are terminal and approximately three to four inches wide.

Queen Anne's lace blooms in summer and fall.

It thrives best in sun to partial shade and is commonly found along the roadside and in unused fields.

Both Anne, Queen of Great Britain, and her great-grandmother, Anne of Denmark, are taken to be the Queen Anne for whom the plant is named.

Queen Anne's lace is so called because the flower resembles lace, prominent in the fine clothing of Queen Anne's day.

The red flower in the center is thought to represent a blood droplet where Queen Anne pricked herself with a needle when she was making the lace.

♪ ♪ This is a fun project that helps us turn pine cones into lilacs.

First of all, we start with our pine cone.

And we want to attach it to a stick.

That's step one.

Now, these are fresh pine cones that I collected right out in the garden.

So I tie a wire around the outside of them.

And then I line that wire up by a stick.

And then I wrap that around the stick, cut off any excess that we have.

And then we're gonna use floral tape.

Floral tape is a special paper tape that has wax attached to it.

So the wax helps it cling to other things.

So I twisted around it a couple times first.

And then I can go in and do a formal taping with it.

So we'll use our tape and the wire to get it securely attached to the stick.

So my next step, after I had it attached to the stick, I painted it using a primer.

That primer helps seal the pine cone so that we can attach the paint to it.

Our next step, then, is to paint it with purple paint.

Now, you'll notice I painted some with purple.

I painted some with lavender.

I painted some with another color of lavender.

So we have different shades, like we do with lilacs.

So I've already created a bunch of pine cones.

And I'll use those to arrange into the pitcher.

So we'll start by adding some of this beautiful Victoria leather leaf.

♪ We'll also add a couple of bunches of lily grass.

Now, I leave the bundles all together.

And I just cut the entire bundle off at an angle.

And then I can add it right into my vase.

Notice how it keeps it clustered together.

I go a little bit heavier with the foliage because my pine cone lilacs don't have foliage on them.

So now we can add these to our vase.

♪ These are gonna last a long time, and so will the foliage, so we could slip a few other flowers in between, and it's like having everlasting lilacs in the house.

Got some beautiful viburnum right now.

We'll just slip those in between the lilacs.

♪ ♪ So now we have our beautiful pitcher filled with lilacs we can enjoy all year long.

♪ So once I have my pine cone painted purple, I want to add another color that's contrasting to give it more dimension.

So that's a great place for a Bloom 365 tip that will help you enjoy flowers all year long.

It's bubble wrap.

I take bubble wrap, and I paint the contrasting color on the bubble wrap.

What happens is the paint puddles up inside the bubble wrap, and I'm able to brush it onto the pine cone.

Then I get a result that looks like this.

See how there's large quantities of that paint just hitting on the edges?

And that's thanks to the bubble wrap for applying the secondary paint.

♪ ♪ So now we'll create something that's bigger.

I like to incorporate all sorts of things into a foraged arrangement.

It doesn't have to be just the flower and plant material.

We can use sticks that we've found or this lovely piece of driftwood I found on a beach in Lake Huron.

We've got rocks and pine cones, even a fallen bird's nest that came down in a windstorm.

Different things like this will help us set up an area where we can add flowers to it.

I conceal pieces of flower foam in here, including one over here that's inside a broken clay pot.

We've soaked those in flower food water so they can accept our beautiful plant material.

♪ ♪ The great part about an arrangement like this is we want to look as if we had lifted it out of the garden.

And as the garden progresses through the year, things look different.

Things bloom, or they get pods.

Sometimes a flower will lose its petals or even get broken.

It's okay to include those in a foraged arrangement.

The more natural it looks, the better.

I start by adding the textural elements, but remember that there can be color along with those textures.

The Coleus is a perfect example.

It has the red reverse side and the green front, but the edges are very lacy and distressed.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The dahlias are a beautiful accent, and I'm using one with a very heavy bloom so it hangs over from one part of the arrangement to another.

♪ ♪ We'll add our grass at the end because it gives a sweeping nature to it, and it goes over the tops of the other flowers.

My final step is a few turkey feathers I found by the roadside.

We'll sprinkle them through here so it looks as if they just dropped on the arrangement.

♪ Today I have four photos to share with you from viewer Jackie Buys, one of which includes flowers in a favorite container of hers -- a white pitcher similar to the one earlier in today's show.

Jackie wanted to share her favorite vase with me and sent me my own white pitcher.

So I want to share these beautiful flower creations Jackie creates for her life in bloom.

♪ I love to see what you create with flowers inspired by "Life in Bloom."

We call your arrangement "Schwankes" after viewer's nickname.

Send them to J@uBloom.com.

J@uBloom.com And watch for more Schwankes on upcoming shows.

Are you inspired to forage a few flowers for your own bouquet?

If so, now you have guidelines to do so with care and conservation in mind.

For "Life in Bloom," I'm J Schwanke.

We have three ingredients.

>> We do.

Each has been uniquely prepared for our Tom Collins adventure today, the first of which, here on the left, my left, or their -- your -- >> First.

>> One of the lefts first.

>> Correct.

>> So, you know, this has been on the shelf for a bit.

And, you know, it's cheap gin.

>> Correct.

And so, we also advocate that, when you're using gin, to keep your paper whitener short.

So you add a tablespoon of gin, to keep your paper whitener short, but use cheap gin because there's no sense in wasting expensive gin for that.

>> Yeah, yeah, 100%.

>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is filmed in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

>> Visit J's website, uBloom.com, for flower projects and crafts, complete recipes, behind-the-scenes videos, J's blog, flower cocktails, and more.

♪ "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by the following... >> That flower feeling.

♪ At home.

♪ At work.

♪ Or anytime.

♪ CalFlowers is a proud sponsor of "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom," where flowers and wellness go hand in hand.

>> We have fresh in all our stores, from soups and steaks and all things flour to all things flowering.

Custom fresh arrangements designed by our in-store florists at Albertsons Companies.

♪ >> Closed-caption funding provided by Holland America Flowers.

♪