Empowering Self-Reliance and Sustainable Living & Microbiomes
Empowering Self-Reliance and Sustainable Living & Microbiomes
Horseradish is one of those plants that carries memory in its roots at least it has for me. The ones growing here in my Ecuadorian gardens at home and the Project Site actually came from my old land in Canada. Fourteen years have passed since I left that soil, yet …
There is something deeply moving about working with plants in their most concentrated form. To distill their essence into a small bottle is like capturing the soul of the garden. Each drop carries not just aroma but the story of the soil, the care of the hands that tended the …
I never imagined that I would one day use banana flowers as medicine. But, here in Ecuador, they hang in the garden, bold and purple, their petals opening one by one to reveal tiny hands of bananas inside. They looked more like ornaments than remedies, too grand to be anything …
Chaga is a medicine of paradox. It hides for decades in the heart of a tree, unseen and unnoticed, and then suddenly bursts outward in a rugged black form that looks more like charred wood than mushroom. It grows slowly, deliberately, intimately intertwined with its host, offering itself as both …
Reishi has always held a certain mystery for me, the kind of presence that feels both ancient and majestic. If Chaga is the king of mushrooms, then surely Reishi is the queen. Her polished, lacquered body glows with a deep red sheen, shaped like a throne or a crown, rooted …
Ashwagandha has become one of the plants I most treasure in our gardens. When I first planted it at my home, I wasn’t sure how well it would take to the Ecuadorian climate, but to my delight it has thrived both in the garden beds of my home and the …
Alfalfa has always struck me as a bridge between the earth and the body, a plant that works as hard beneath the soil as it does within our cells. When I walk through my gardens scattered with alfalfa plants, I see the familiar green leaves and tender stalks that the …
In the quiet of an Ecuadorian night, while you sleep, a bustling army marches across your garden. Small, coordinated, and persistent, ants can strip a plant of its leaves, harvest every fallen crumb, and carry more weight than their own bodies without you noticing until the damage is done. For …
After so many days, months, and even years of dreaming, planning, building, digging, planting, painting, and pushing through, the Living Ground store is finally open. On opening day, over 150 people came through the doors. I stood there and watched them wander through the aisles, pick up jars of fermented …
There are certain plants in Ecuador that most people would not even stop to notice. They spring up through gravel roads, weave into the corners of gardens, and quietly line the edges of fields. To the eye that sees only order and crops they are weeds, nuisances to be cut …