Yes I forgot about the peppermint and you still find a few plants of peppermint. Also we chewed spice wood, wild cherry bark and slipper elm was also a marvel to me.

Did you ever make a whistle out of chestnut limb sprout? Cut abt. six inches when the sap was in the chestnut, cut a notch, rub a knife over the bark until it was loosened from from the
wood. Slip the bard off the wood and make a small opening at the notch end and cut both ends off the wood and slide the ends back in the bark. It was a little experimentation to get the sound like you wanted it.

Just part of my boyhood.
Edgar L. Vest