Spring Foraging in Kentucky: Wild Meadow Begins

The first true harvest of the season rarely begins in a garden; it begins in the wild.

This past weekend, I began spring foraging in Kentucky to gather the first wildcrafted herbal tea ingredients for the Wild Meadow blend—one of Hilltop Botanicals’ seasonal herbal teas marking the transition from winter into spring.

The fields are just beginning to wake.

Low to the ground, the earliest plants are already offering what they can.

This first foraging included:

• Dandelion flowers
• Wild violet
• Purple dead nettle
• Blackberry leaves
• Mullein leaves

These plants are traditionally used in herbal tea blends, valued for their flavor, mineral content, and connection to seasonal wellness. Each of these plants carries something different—bitterness, softness, mineral depth, floral notes—and together they form the foundation of both Wild Meadow and future seasonal blends.

Foraging at this time of year requires attention.

Nothing is abundant yet.
Nothing is rushed.

It is a practice of observation as much as gathering.

Dandelion opens fully in the morning light.
Violet tucks itself into shaded edges.
Purple dead nettle spreads quietly across the ground, often unnoticed.

These are not cultivated ingredients—they are part of the living landscape.

And that is where the work begins.

Wild Meadow is built from this exact moment in the season.

From what is available now, not later.

From what grows here, not elsewhere.

From what is gathered by hand, in small amounts, with intention.

This is the beginning of the 2026 spring harvest.

And it is only just starting.