Sweetgrass Wiingashk (Wheen-Gash-K)

What is Sweetgrass?

A type of grass (like what is in your yard) that can grow up to 2 feet tall!!

Sweetgrass needs a haircut once in a while and that is how we can make more of it (This is called propagation)

They also need LOTS of sunlight to grow

It can be harvested in late July to early September

Fun Facts: They can smell like vanilla and can repel mosquitoes

It likes to grow in all sorts of areas where other plants might not want to (they are hardy)

Sweetgrass can be found all over the United States and Canada (including New York) so go out and maybe you can find some!!

Who Eats Sweetgrass?

Rabbits and Gophers love to eat sweetgrass (they are herbivores)

Dogs can also hurt sweetgrass because they like to roll around and damage the sweetgrass

How Can We Use Sweetgrass?

In many Native American cultures, they braid sweetgrass to make items such as baskets, containers, hats, and others! Think of something that YOU could make with sweetgrass

Sweetgrass can also be burned and used to clean and purify air

It is a symbol of peace, healing, and gifting in many cultures and is considered sacred or important

Here are some recipes where we can use sweetgrass:

Sweetgrass Tea

Get your water boiling. It smells and tastes like vanilla with a slight smokey sweet maple flavour

What You Need To Do:

Snip a ½ inch piece off the braid with scissors and place it into your stainless steel tea infuser

Add other loose tea flavors like berry, lemon ginger, or just add a fresh lemon wedge in it

Sweetgrass Lemon Vinaigrette

What You Need To Do:

3 parts sweetgrass infused olive oil (3 tablespoons)

one part fresh squeezed lemon juice (one tablespoon)

a pinch of sea salt & pepper, a teaspoon of dijon mustard

Use a fork to whisk it until it’s all incorporated and pour it over the salad!

Sweetgrass is important in Indigenous gifting culture, what is your gift to give?

Citations

Created By

Ian Mahoney

Appreciate

Credits:

Created with images by Kris Tan - "field of grass during sunset" • Pixel-Shot - "Aromatic vanilla sticks on white background" • Alexander Potapov - "small light brown isolated mosquito" • serhio777 - "gopher climbed out of the hole on the lawn, fluffy cute gopher sitting on a green meadow on a Sunny day, gopher screams in the meadow, closeup" • timolina - "Healthy vegan food. Vegetarian vegetable salad of radish, cucumbers, lettuce and red onion. Top view, copy space"