Empowering Self-Reliance and Sustainable Living & Microbiomes
Empowering Self-Reliance and Sustainable Living & Microbiomes
There is a plant I was recently introduced too, Laritaco. In botanical language it is known as Vernonanthura patens. It is a shrub with narrow leaves and clusters of soft purple flowers, often growing along roadsides, abandoned fields, and the edges of regenerating forest. When I first heard about Laritaco, …
I have been working on a small book about flower essences. It feels natural for me to say that because so much of what I do already circles around plants and medicine. I love making natural remedies. I love watching how plants work with the body. I have always had …
One of the most common things I hear from women moving through menopause is the statement that they no longer have hormones or estrogen. It is usually said with certainty, resignation, and often with the belief that the body has lost something essential and irreversible. This idea is repeated so …
We talk about “B vitamins” as if they are a single substance you can swallow, measure, or fix with a pill, but in the body they behave more like a living network. Vitamin B is never just one thing, and that is where the misunderstanding usually begins. They are a …
I had never even heard of the curry tree before coming to Ecuador. Now I cannot imagine this place without her. She is one of the most beautiful small trees in the garden, graceful and decorative, with glossy green leaves that seem to shimmer in the light. Birds adore her. …
Morning and Evening Elixirs For Blood, Liver, Brain and Microbial Balance When I started to really understand microbiology, I quietly moved most of the strong germ fighting herbs and foods out of my apothecary. I began to see those “kill the bugs” tools as blunt instruments that did not care …
Pilgrimage usually brings to mind sacred paths across continents, places where saints left traces of miracles behind them. My pilgrimage has stayed closer to the ground. It has taken place in the living experiment of the Project site, a journey fueled by a clear vision and an unclear route. I …
Bougainvillea grows where it pleases. It climbs, weaves, and stretches upward toward the sun, wrapping itself around trees, fences, and walls in search of light. Its branches are lined with thorns that protect and anchor it, yet from this fierce defense bursts a brilliance of color that softens the landscape. …
At our Gratitude Café, we are bringing life back to the table, from the soil to the plate. Each week we prepare something special from our gardens and kitchens. Some weekends it will be a full celebration meal like roast beef or turkey, and other weekends we will feature hearty …
The pomegranate’s outer skin is a universe of medicine that most people throw away. Most people who know me know that when I began to study the soil, my whole way of seeing health changed. Once I understood how the soil food web functions, I saw how every part of …