Submitted by Zoe Keller of One Beet. Hello Herbstalk community! It’s a treat to be sharing one of my recipes with you today. Pesto is one of the best herb delivery vehicles around. It also happens to be completely delicious and incredibly versatile. I’m a sucker for the old standby, basil pesto, but also love to get creative with new pesto creations (garlic scape pesto, and three herb pesto are two of my favorites). The possibilities are endless! I recently tried my hand at dandelion pesto and the results were terrific. I used the pesto to make delicious little appetizer crostinis, but it can also be slathered on sandwiches, eaten with eggs, blended into hummus, and enjoyed straight from the jar with a spoon. It easily keeps for 2 weeks in the fridge and can be frozen for up to a year. It doesn’t get much better than that for preserving the fresh, wild food of the season. Dandelion Pesto Ingredients:
Directions (10 minutes): Blend all the ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth and creamy. Feel free to add a dash of water if your pesto needs to be thinned. To make the crostinis, toast slices of French bread or use crackers as the base. Spread with a thin layer of dandelion pesto, top with a slice of manchego, parmesan, or romano cheese, and warm in the oven for 10 minutes until the cheese melts. I brought these to a dinner party with friends and they were a total hit. Even the kids were gobbling them up! And of course I couldn’t help myself from reminding everyone of the medicinal properties of dandelions while we were eating them. Once an herbalist, always an herbalist! So, why are dandelion greens good for you? As with many foods that have a bitter flavor, they have a strong cleansing and detoxifying action in the body. In addition, dandelion is high in minerals, such as potassium and calcium. It helps the liquids of the body move freely, which can release blockages and aid in flushing toxins out of the system. In particular, it supports the liver, kidneys, and bladder – all of which can benefit from a spring-cleaning this time of year. After a cold winter of eating sturdy, nourishing root vegetables and heavy, warming dishes, it’s time to lighten up. Our bodies start to crave spring greens, fresh food, and smaller meals. And it’s important to listen to the body and follow these clues about what to eat. Spring greens are one of the healthiest foods after a cold and sluggish winter. They offer a mega-burst of nutrients, cleanse the body, and are energetically lightening. Eating dandelion is a gentle and natural way to invite the benefits of detoxification and the energetics of spring into your life. If you’re looking for even more dandelion, try my garlicky dandelion greens + farmers egg. Enjoy! Zoe Keller is a Boston-based health coach, foodie, herbalist, and general wellness warrior. Her blog, One Beet, is dedicated to celebrating the goodness of food through recipes that maximize flavor and nourishment. Sarah Coyne is a Jamaica Plain based artist, and is also the talented hand behind this year’s Herbstalk flyer. She was a true pleasure to work with during the design process and so we wanted to find out more about her work and what inspired her to become a plant artist. We are really happy to welcome Sarah to the Herbstalk marketplace for the first time this year, where she will be selling her beautiful botanical prints. Read on to learn more about Sarah and her art.
Can you tell us a bit about how you became a botanical artist? What inspired you to start drawing plants? I feel best when I am drawing and painting what I love. Nature themes have always dominated my work. Before moving to Boston, I lived in two houses in rural areas and spent my formative years playing in the woods and helping in our family gardens. I am most comfortable outside in the pine forests I grew up in. I love being out among trees and plants where I can hear myself breathe and think. A couple of years ago I took an introductory botany class at Wellsley College and we toured their beautiful greenhouses. This class got me hooked on looking closely at plants and thinking about their role in the world around us. Tell us about your business, Egg-A-Go-Go: do you work full time as an artist? Yes. Currently I have a three-part job as an artist. I am a freelance illustrator working mostly in watercolor, I teach screen printing locally and I sell my illustrated and screen printed goods in my online store and a few small shops. In what ways does your work get shared with the local community? Up until recently I was very active in the local craft fair scene. I have taken a break the past couple of years to focus on my illustration work and teaching. Getting to speak to people face to face about my work is so rewarding. I still participate in Jamaica Plain’s Open Studios in the fall which is a great way to meet neighbors and share my art. In September of 2013 I had my first solo show at Aviary Gallery. The show was called Great Distances and featured watercolors about animal migration. Being active in a couple of online spaces has a huge reach. My Etsy shop has allowed me to sell my work to people all over the world and I am very active on Instagram as well. Social media has it’s negative aspects but being able to easily see what other artists are working on and to share my current works-in-progress is so inspiring. Are there any unique challenges you face as an entrepreneur? I love what I do, 100%. I feel very, very lucky that I have an opportunity to pursue art as my full-time career but as any self-employed person will tell you, it’s not always easy. Time management and varying workloads are both challenging aspects of this life. My husband has a great job and that is definitely helpful as I navigate the beginnings of life as a working artist. Where do you envision your work/business leading you in the future? Hopefully I can continue to create artwork for myself and others while sharing screen printing with those who want to learn. You have such a unique business name – can you tell us where it came from? I get asked this question a lot and I wish I had a good answer! I really have no idea. In college I remember making up the name Egg-A-Go-Go when discussing imaginary traveling carnivals with a friend. I never applied the name to anything but it was locked away in the back of my brain. When I started doing fairs in 2005 I decided I wanted a business name and Egg-A-Go-Go popped into my mind. I do love birds and egg imagery so it stuck. What is your experience with herbal medicine? Do you use herbs yourself when you feel sick, or incorporate them into your daily life? My father gathers and preserves his own medicinal plants. Giant, glowing red jars of St. John’s Wort oil lined our windowsill when I was growing up. I remember him portioning it out into tiny bottles for others and it was quickly applied to just about any skin problem my brother and I had as children and teens. Echinacea was always on hand for the first hints of a cold. Today whenever I visit, I am usually sent home with a tincture or handful of dried leaves. I drink tea all day everyday and have a cabinet full of various steep-able remedies. Do you have a favorite plant or two at the moment? When sketching and doodling I find myself drawing lavender over and over again. Something about the delicate stalks and tiny blooms makes it such a charming plant! I’m hoping to add some to my garden this year. As both a visual and edible favorite – I love beets. I’m currently working on a beet screen print that I hope to have at Herbstalk in June! For us plant-loving folks it is often hard to have enough nature time in the city. Are there any special natural areas in or around Boston where you seek inspiration or frequently visit? I feel very fortunate to live in Jamaica Plain – one of Boston’s leafiest neighborhoods! I take regular walks around Jamaica Pond and the Arnold Arboretum is only a few minutes from where I live. I also have a plot in a community garden that gives me a nice refuge and a place to get my hands dirty and feel connected to nature. My husband is crazy for tomatoes so we usually dedicate at least half the plot to those! My parents still live in New Hampshire so I can get away to that part of New England in under two hours. I love living in Boston but it’s nice to get out once in a while and I always feel like my batteries get recharged with even a quick visit back home. How can people find you if they want to get in touch with you? Do you do commissions? YES! Commissions and custom illustrations are my favorite projects. People can connect with me via my website eggagogo.com, Etsy shop, Instagram or Twitter. (My user name is “eggagogo” just about everywhere). Thank you, Sarah! We so enjoyed learning more about you and your beautiful work. We are really looking forward to having you be a part of the Herbstalk marketplace this year! Submitted by Felix Lufkin. Consider this an opportunity for an unexpected family reunion. Skunk cabbage is often framed as a nasty, stinky, swamp weed. Maybe we were victims of leaf attacks as kids. Maybe we just assume that any plant whose ecosystem role we can’t comprehend, that we don’t eat, that lives in shady, damp, boggy environments, and that smells unappetizing has no purpose, or at the very least, doesn’t inspire our interest. Truthfully, I didn’t know much about skunk cabbage until writing this piece – but it’s such a unique and interesting member of our local eco-family that it deserves more of our attention and respect. Skunk cabbage emerging in snow. It lives from Nova Scotia south to the Carolinas, west to the mid-west. As stated, it prefers slow moving woodland streams or bogs rather than the sunnier edges of faster rivers. It thrives in deep mud, forming big colonies in the woods. It’s a perennial in the Arum family, like jack-in-the-pulpit, or the famous, person-sized titan arums that stink up greenhouses from time to time. This is a strange and mysterious plant family with hood like flowers and often powerful medicines or poisons. Skunk cabbage is one of the first plants to emerge in the spring, as strange claw-shaped hoods with a bizarre, alien shaped flower inside. Strangely, skunk cabbage, like others in its family, is one of the few plants that can actually generate heat, up to 90 degrees warmer than the air temp, melting the ice and snow around each sprout so it can grow up above it. This can also help the flowers’ scent disperse as steam, and attracts pollinating flies and bees who can shelter in the warm flower. The early shoots are almost the only things that black bears break their hibernation fast on, until other foods emerge. Calcium oxalate crystals. Be careful!: Skunk cabbage, like jack-in-the-pulpit, produces calcium oxalate crystals in its leaves and other body parts. These small crystals are very sharp, like little glass ninja stars. When they touch our bodies’ tissue, especially mucous membranes in our mouths or stomachs, they get lodged and lacerate us – it is incredibly painful. These crystals make any part of skunk cabbage inedible raw. Nevertheless, it is, and has been used as, a food by many peoples. The crystals in the roots can be broken down only by VERY prolonged drying – 6 months or more, or are rendered harmless in the leaves by boiling in multiple changes of water. More information about preparing skunk cabbage for food, visit Arcadian Abe’s blog “Wild Cabbage”. Large skunk cabbage leaves. Leaves: These are crushed and used as a topical poultice for muscle, joint, arthritis pain or bruises. The leaves can be dried for 6 months, then cooked into a stew as emergency winter food (begin prep in the spring). The leaf shoots, which are white, thick, and hidden underground, can be boiled in changes of water to make a decent cooked veggie. (See link above). Roots: The roots of skunk cabbage are ‘contractile’, which pull the plants’ body deeper and deeper into the mud each season, extending the length of its leaf stalks. The tincture of the DRIED (see below) roots is an antispasmodic and nervine. It is used for menstrual cramps, bronchitis, intense coughs, both topically and internally, and topically for ringworm and possibly warts. For more information about its medicinal uses, see the Plant’s for a Future database site, Wikipedia, and this excellent Greenman Rambling blog post. Fruit of the skunk cabbage. Flower and fruit: The strange tropical-brain like fruit is a prized snack for bears – whose springtime scat is often found to be full of the peanut-sized, hard, pale and strange seeds. There’s nothing else that looks like it! Felix Lufkin teaches nature classes and wild edibles at K-12 schools and works with Help Yourself!, a project that plants public orchards and gardens in the Pioneer Valley. Help Yourself is currently running an Indiegogo campaign to raise money to plant more fruit trees and forest gardens locally. Felix also offers an on-site butchering service and instruction in central New England with Ape and Ape, Inc. Submitted by Jenny Hauf of Allandale Farm. Photo by Justin Q. Taylor. I hope that you, dear reader, are enjoying the slow, sweet beginnings of spring. It is lovely to listen to the rain while warm and dry inside and to follow the millimeters of growth in the neighborhood’s emerging bulbs. Besides the sweetness and slowness, however, there are also days splattered with cold and shades of grey. It makes you long for green—the light new kind that will soon overwhelm our landscape. While we don’t have much of that springing chartreuse yet, we can find it by growing seedlings or potted plants in our kitchen windows. Indoor gardening is a thing of joy and complexity. Aside from bringing the beauty of living plants into your home, windowsill flowers (and cacti, trees, vines, ferns, and more!) can help purify the air and add new textures to your décor. And, depending on what you plant, your little garden can also fill your teapot! Rosemary bonsai courtesy of Justin Q. Taylor. If you’re interested in growing plants inside it is essential to pay attention to their light requirements. Just as you would with an outdoor garden, observe your space intimately before choosing what plants to grow or sow. If you live in a dark basement apartment unfortunately you won’t be able to grow passionflower, though if you’re interested you might be able to rig up a lighting system fancy enough to make it work. Do your homework and you’ll reap the rewards. I also recommend a visit to your favorite garden center. Because indoor plants are restricted to container life, a setting that is so different from the earthen soil, it helps to speak with a professional about feeding, watering, and general nurturing. The internet, of course, is very helpful as well, and the links below will provide a good basis for beginning your living room garden. Before revealing the best herbs for growing indoors I’ll mention that I’ve discovered that these plants thrive when there’s a young kid in the house. From one friend’s 7-month old who is enamored of the family rosemary to another toddler that’s kindred to a basil, little children enjoy the sensual delights that come from knowing a plant. They delight in the reward—the immediate and satisfying release of aromatics—that comes from touching an herb. Of course, kids will also put things in their mouth—as will your pets—so make sure that anything at kid or pet height is non-toxic. And so, without further ado, here are my top twelve herbs for Indoor Growing (as of this writing!). Aloe (Aloe vera) Sweet Basil (Ocimum basilicum) Catnip (Nepeta cataria) Houseleek (Sempervivum tectorum) Mint (Mentha, spp.) Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) Hot peppers (See link for best varieties) Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) Sage (Salvia officinalis) Mad-dog Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) (Treat this like its cousin, mint.) Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) As always, please feel welcome to leave comments about your own experience with growing herbs, especially if you’ve worked with herbs not profiled in this article. Let’s work together to make this a great resource for interior gardeners! Jenny Hauf is a medicinal herb grower and writer living in Boston. She began using herbal medicine a decade ago, and has been tending to herbs on farms and gardens since 2006. Jennifer is the herb grower at Allandale Farm, and when not elbow-deep in dirt she writes about urban ecology at her blog, Spokes and Petals, spins wool and bicycle tires, and occasionally hammers out a tune on her banjo. She is also available for gardening consultations, workshops, and freelance work. Submitted by Katie Munn of Anchor & Rose Apothecary. The digestive system is one of the most import systems within the body. Keeping your digestion in tip-top shape is essential to health and well-being. Below are some tips on how to maintain healthy and happy digestion. Mindfulness is Magic: Being mindful while eating sets the tone for your entire digestive process. Being mindful could include simple things such as saying a prayer before eating, blessing your food, or just taking a deep breath before eating. It doesn’t matter what you do, just do whatever helps you become present and relaxed while eating. It’s the Way you Chew: Chewing your food thoroughly is so important for a number of reasons. Chewing your food well coats it with your enzyme-rich saliva, which aids in the digestive process. Combined with this the chewing process breaks down your meal into smaller pieces which is much easier on your stomach. So next time you eat make sure to slowly chew and savor your food. Bitters for the Belly: Bitters are amazing for digestion. Bitters are foods or herbs that we commonly consume. Some examples are dandelion, greens and even coffee! Humans evolved eating bitter foods but sadly today’s normal diet is lacking in bitters. Bitters are important because they help stimulate the digestive process by producing digestive enzymes and balancing HCL in the stomach. So next time before you eat take some bitters to get the process jumpstarted! Ginger Tea for You and Me: Herbal teas are wonderful for your stomach. Ginger tea is one I especially love due to its warming qualities. Ginger stimulates the digestive “fire” helping the stomach release enzymes to assist in the digestion process. Along with this it is anti-inflammatory and helps with nausea. So next time before you eat brew yourself a cup of ginger tea! Fermentation is Fun: Many cultures around the world eat fermented foods on a daily basis. The reason for this is that fermented foods are full of “friendly” probiotic bacteria as well as enzymes. Some traditional fermented foods include sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha and even miso soup. Fermented foods are known to improve digestion, balance the bacteria in your gut and even boost your body’s ability to absorb the nutrients from the foods you eat. So invite your friends over and make a big vat of sauerkraut–your belly will thank you! Exercise is Essential: That’s right, movement is amazing for your digestive health! Exercise has been shown to help speed up digestion, increase blood flow to your organs, and even stimulate muscles in the GI tract. So this spring make sure to get out there and move your body! Let’s Talk about Stress Baby: Stress can wreak havoc on the body–especially on the digestive system. Keeping your stress in check is key to maintaining a happy digestive tract. Preventive care is the best so do those little things everyday that help you de-stress and relax. It could be yoga, meditating, taking a walk in nature or drinking tea and doing a crossword puzzle. Whatever that “thing” is that helps you relax make it a priority for your health. If you like these tips and want to hear more I’ll be giving a talk on digestive health at this year’s Herbstalk. Thanks for reading and many blessings to everyone this spring.
We are thrilled to announce that our five intensive classes are now on sale! These classes are longer (3 hours) and limited to 15 people each. This year our teachers come from New England and beyond. We are pleased to welcome:
Please purchase your tickets soon if you wish to attend one of these classes as space is extremely limited. Intensives also include a Weekend Pass which gives access to ALL other non-intensive classes on June 7 & 8 – an excellent deal! If you are not planning on attending an Intensive, but are looking forward to all the other non-intensive offerings, Weekend Pass tickets for our 30+ classes and plant walks will go on sale on April 15th, so stay tuned. We will also be posting our class schedule soon… Our marketplace is FREE so if attending classes is not your thing, you can still learn a lot and interact with the amazing herbalists and crafters in our marketplace! by Steph Zabel The other day I co-hosted a local community networking event with a friend. We envisioned our gathering as a way for like-minded people to converge in the same room at the same time, facilitating introductions that otherwise might never have happened. In this instance we were aiming for local Somerville entrepreneurs and community builders to meet one another, and hopefully to form valuable connections for their businesses, creative projects and community initiatives. Although we put the word out to our networks and had some positive feedback about this idea beforehand, we didn’t really know who would show up, and what exactly would happen. It was an experiment of sorts… However we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves with a roomful of people, and more importantly, with an overall feeling of excitement, curiosity and friendliness that permeated the event. I left that gathering buzzing from the positive interactions, and grateful to have connected with so many interesting people. This, I believe, is where magic resides – in the easy-going encounter of people who are open, willing to share some of themselves, and wanting to listen to and learn from others. This is how you not only root yourself in your local community, but it’s how you find it in the first place. And this is why I find in-person events and real-time interactions to be so exciting and transformative. We have so many ways that we can connect with people through the internet and social media, but I truly think that there is never anything quite as powerful as face-to-face, mind-to-mind, and heart-to-heart interactions that occur in person. This is the reason why we create Herbstalk gatherings, after all. We do it in order to facilitate introductions between people, to create a space for herb- and plant-lovers to interact. It’s for new possibilities to be created and new connections to be formed. It’s for knowledge and experience to be shared, for minds and hearts to be inspired. We want people to feel that attending an Herbstalk event is gratifying not only because of what was learned, but also because of the relationships with people—and plants!—that were created. We are truly honored and excited to bring this event to you and we hope that we can continue to be a positive force for community-building by affirming our relationship to the place we live in, to the people we are connected with, and to plants that are a part of our daily lives. See you in June to do just that! Steph is the founder and organizer of Herbstalk. She is also a practicing community herbalist and educator in Somerville – visit Flowerfolk Herbal Apothecary to learn more. Submitted by Larken Bunce of the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism. Spring is coming to the forest. Even as gale winds continue to blow and snow remains a constant presence in the far Northeast that I call home, the birds have started to sing. The sun is higher in the sky, sending strong shafts of light glancing through branches swelling with leaf buds. On a recent day, I’m sure I heard the rushing whisper of sap rising. In the people around me, I sense a kind of readiness, even an impatience, to burst forth, start moving, rise up, make a plan, get gardens in the ground. Many folks are getting antsy. I’ve even seen t-shirts and shorts when the thermometer approaches 40 degrees! And then there are those who are still enjoying the hibernation of shorter days, richer meals, warm fires. They might be feeling a bit nervous, even fearful about the coming activity, the expectations to jump into action, know the path and get to work on another season of growth. These folks might be getting a bit irritated in their own way, too, as when being asked an important question just a little sooner than you’ve arrived at an answer. So, there’s early Spring in a nutshell: the dynamic tension between moving ahead into expansive, decisive action and staying wrapped up tight in rest and unknowing, between rest and productivity, solitude and community. You’ve probably noticed that you lean one way or the other, towards wanting Spring to hurry up and arrive in earnest and wishing Winter would stay a bit longer. And since the seasons acquiesce to no one, you might notice that either way you lean, you are not satisfied. Except, of course, if you’re content with just exactly what is, right now–if you’re comfortable being flexible, letting life flow through you, just as it is. Because the truth about Spring–at least the face it wears here in the Northeast–is that sometimes it’s warm with promise, other times blustering and harsh. The constant, especially now, is change. If you’re one of the folks able to stay present and navigate this time of transition, you may find that you are able to bend gracefully, not break in frustration under these mutable conditions. Like the young maples in the forest, you might find that as the day is warm and night cold, the sap in you rises just as it should, pulsing in rhythm with the fluctuations, even dependent on them. At exactly the right time, your leaves will burst forth, extending toward the light, and arch skyward into the song-filled air. These are some of the core teachings of Spring. Flexibility. Ability to respond at the perfect moment. Reveling in change. Channeling inner treasures, discovered and accumulated during deep rest, into powerful manifestations of who we are. These are Spring’s requirement of us, as well as its invitation. Though Chinese medicine can sometimes seem to be a maze of abstract theory to those not accustomed to its language or concepts, in the Five Phases (or Elements), the Chinese elegantly captured what I’ve found to be timeless insights about life on this planet. Essentially, they recorded how the landscape is reflected in the bodies, hearts and minds of humans in an analogous, inner terrain. While this particular tradition is rooted in Taoist alchemical, even shamanic, philosophies and practices specific to China, we can see that the essence of this system bears truth in multiple bioregional and cultural contexts. Identifying the core features which resonate with our own rich experiences and diverse locales, we begin to craft a modern, living, breathing medicine, rooted firmly to place. No matter where we are, we can see the teachings and invitations of each Phase present in the cycles of our lives. We see ourselves as glints in our parents’ DNA, becoming infants and children, young adults, parents, and then elders, preparing to transition back to the earth. We see the dark of midnight, sliding into dawn, noon-day sun, afternoon’s glow, evening, and night again. We see the plants as they move from seed to sprout, to flower, to fruit, to making seed and letting it fall, beginning the cycle anew. We see our fears, our hopes, our passion, our care and tenderness, and our solitude with spirit. We can universally recognize these cycles as expressed in ourselves and the land, though Spring in one place might have a different face than in another, just as we are each a singular terrain with unique stories. Regardless of place, this living system affirms that Nature, in all its complexity and diversity, is a perfect, self-sustaining whole. In answering Nature’s invitation to become attentive to our inner landscapes, we can experience the same complex, diverse and imperfectly-perfect wholeness. In essence, it is an invitation to dynamic health and to belonging. So, as the snows recede and ever more green peeks through, as creatures begin to emerge from winter dens and our seed packets start to call to us from wherever they’ve been tucked away, consider apprenticing yourself to Spring. How can you flow gracefully into this season embodying all at once the lithe sapling, the bursting bud, and the birdsong that fills the sky?
Submitted by Felix Lufkin. White pine, Pinus strobus, is a tall evergreen tree native to the American north-east. It is easy to identify with its dark black / brown, deeply and widely furrowed bark, its straight trunk and upright aiming branches. White pine, like many other pines in the area, offers a number of different edible and medicinal uses. Since it is accessible year round, it’s a great friend of ours in the winter – when wild foods are more difficult to come by. White pine is a fast growing tree if given the opportunity. It often germinates and grows in large, uniform stands after fires clear patches in a forest. Most pines in the north east have been cut since European contact, though some old growth beings remain – while not as tall, they are the east coast’s version of redwoods, along with American chestnut – growing to at least 150 feet in height and 6 in diameter. How to ID white pine: Bark: White pine bark is dark black with a sort of frosted gray hue. It has wide ridges and deepish groves. It’s not scaly, or shaggy. The bark of the younger branches is quite smooth, with a greenish black color. Cones: White pine’s female cones are the familiar pine cones of the north-east, roughly the size and shape of medium cucumbers, and dark brown. The male cones are small, like small pickled gherkins – smaller than a baby carrot, and more dense. They are both less scaly than spruce cones, and much bigger than hemlock cones, which are just the size of grapes. Needles: White pine needles are in clusters of 5 and are about as long as a playing card. Just think of the five letters in W-H-I-T-E. Red pine needles, in contrast, are in bunches of 2, thicker, and as long as hot dog. Pitch pine needles are in bunches of three and can protrude from the trunk itself. Appearance: White pine has a distinctive, stately appearance, especially when viewed at a distance. It’s branches aim out and slightly upward, like a person with spread arms, lifted up and soaking in the sun. It’s easy to ID them on a ridge even miles away. Its branches are ‘whorled’ on the stem, meaning, many of them radiate out from a single part of the branch they sprout from – different than alternate oak branches, or opposite – aligned maple branches, for example. Whorled branches are somewhat uncommon. Food / Medicine uses: Edible needles: The needles are tasty, aromatic and sour. While a bit chewy, there’s no harm in nibbling them right of the tree for vitamins and some roughage. The lime-green new needles each spring are very tender, sour, and refreshing. Enjoy them! Otherwise, take a few handfuls of needles per quart of tea. You can boil water, pour over the needles and cover, or, to make a richer, more resiny and carb-rich tea, you can bring the needles and some thin twigs to a boil for a few minutes then let steep in the pot, also covered. They’re loaded with vitamin C and other minerals (4 or more times more than OJ – and what are we doing drinking orange juice in New England?!). They also make an excellent fortified vinegar. Inner bark: The inner bark, peeled like a pale, fibrous wonton wrapper off the outer (smooth and darker) bark, is a great survival food. It is rich in carbs. It will sustain you when other food sources are unavailable, though causes harm to the tree – so just use wind falls or pruned branches only if you need to. You’ll have to stew it to make it tender, but it’s worth the experience. Sap: The sap can be chewed as a refreshing and flavorful gum that freshens the breath. Find a scab on a trunk that is very dry and firm to the touch. If it’s the slightest bit sticky or mushy, it will get stuck all over your mouth. If that happens, just chew a little butter to break it down. Cones: The small male cones and immature female cones can be steamed or boiled as a vegetable when green and pliable. They are resinous, but the female cones do have tiny pine nuts in them. Medicinal uses: The pollen can be gathered and tinctured for ‘upright chi’, for vigor and vim. The soft sap can be used as an antibiotic on wounds and to ‘stitch’ together a ragged wound. The needles are great for winter immune boosting, and can be steamed and inhaled for upper respiratory infections. Practical uses: The pitch can be boiled with fat or beeswax into superglue and is an excellent fire starter. The wood, of course, is used for lumber and to keep us warm. The soft, younger bark can be skinned from branches and folded into baskets or containers which harden, and can be sewn together with flexible pine roots, sealed with pitch, and will be water tight. You can even boil water in them! Permaculture: Korean nut pine can be grafted onto white pine for a fast growing, canopy evergreen nut tree. The normal pine nuts we eat, from pinon or Chinese nut pines, don’t grow at altitudes below 6000′, so this is an interesting new option for forest gardens. Felix Lufkin teaches nature classes and wild edibles at K-12 schools and works with Help Yourself!, a project that plants public orchards and gardens in the Pioneer Valley. He also offers an on-site butchering service and instruction in central New England with Ape and Ape, Inc. Submitted by Mischa Schuler of Wild Carrot Herbs. Experiencing inclusion in community is a powerful aspect of our humanity. In the context of community we build relationships, express ourselves through our words, our actions, and our work, and give and receive time, energy, and a sense of belonging. When we are new to a place – this could be a new city, job, school, housemate situation – it can take some time to move from feeling “outside” to being an integral “part.” Perhaps you are familiar with the powerful magic of walking in the woods, surrounded by stunning trees and blooms, and suddenly knowing that you belong to the magic? The woods are whole with your presence and you are a part of the collective symphony. You belong to that moment and that place. The question becomes “how do we embrace this powerful message from the plants and bring it home to our day to day Life?” As in forest ecology, we experience our own personal succession of growth in community. Just as in an established forest, when we first arrive in a new community, we must discover the sunny niches left open and available for us to sprout into. If we are considering moving to a community, we must look to see if we will be nourished. Do we know what part of ourselves we want to grow? Is there enough sunlight and water for the seed of ourselves to germinate? Who are our symbiotic companion plants who will help us establish our root systems? This blog topic hits close to home for me and has been surprisingly challenging to write about. I moved six months ago from Quebec, Canada to Portland, Maine and it’s been exciting (and at moments scary!) to re-define what community means for me. Before I arrived in Maine, I picked up a copy of the Buy Local, Independent Businesses guide. I looked through the booklet to see what people were doing and circled all the places that inspired me and once I moved, I went on a pilgrimage to visit them. I looked on local community bulletin boards for upcoming events and I signed up for Portland Meetup groups that were of interest to me. I also signed up for a Permaculture Design Class over a series of weekends – I figured this would be a sure way to meet folks who also appreciate the plants and who would come from many backgrounds and perspectives. And because it would convene one weekend a month for six months, it would be a regular community check-in point that I felt would be a healthy support. I also had several friends living in the area, so I had a weekly dose of friendly companionship I could rely on. (I don’t think this aspect of comfort can be under-estimated.) I got involved with the local Food Coop, where there are recurring friendly faces, and then I looked into organizations and groups where I might meet like-minded people. (In my case, I love to sing, so I searched out a cappella groups.) I wanted to get to know the fellow herbalists in the area. I had met some herb friends through other Northeast herb gatherings and I wanted to learn where we could connect and share so that we were supporting each other and collaborating. I wanted to see what our community already had available and to see what niche I might fulfill. We started a Southern Maine Medicinal Plant Meetup group to post herbal events in the area – and we’re hoping other event organizers will also use this as a way to get the word out about their offerings. Other herb friends hold a weekly Monday night herb event focusing on a different theme each evening at Justice in the Body, an incredible resource in downtown Portland. Since sharing about the plants is one of my greatest joys, I also offer classes – some out of my kitchen and some are also out of Justice in the Body. My sense of community is still growing and building – I’m a beginner here, and it’s arguable if I will ever qualify as a Mainer, since I wasn’t born in this state. I’ve been paying attention to what brings me joy, who makes me laugh, who is a good listener, spaces and places that feel good and focusing on these positive characteristics. I am gravitating toward people and events in which I feel grounded and connected. I also maintain a morning and evening ritual of saying thank you to the plants. I’m much more present on days when I take five minutes to light a candle and say hello. Transitions are multi-faceted (and aren’t we always transitioning in some way?) so it’s been helpful (and fun) exploring new adaptogen formulas which I blend up each month and enjoying individual herb teas to get to know them ever-better. Just like our community of people friends, we’re always deepening our relationship with our plant friends and discovering their personalities and how they like to interact in community. Community building and sense of belonging takes time and energy – when we’re feeling stuck we can remember the interconnection of the plants to one another and with us and allow that vision to percolate into our view of community. Mischa is a community herbalist and fertility awareness practitioner in Portland, Maine. She loves reproductive health and supporting women and children with plant medicine. She studied herbal medicine at the Tai Sophia Institute and feels grateful to have apprenticed with Deb Soule at Avena Botanicals for a very magical growing season. She teaches classes locally through Portland Adult Education, Justice in the Body, and in her kitchen. |
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