Empowering Self-Reliance and Sustainable Living & Microbiomes
Empowering Self-Reliance and Sustainable Living & Microbiomes
(this is an excerpt from my new upcoming book “Plant & Kitchen Alchemy“) There is alchemy when a green tomato turns red. It may look as though the fruit is simply ripening, yet inside it an entire chemistry is rearranging. The green chlorophyll is disappearing, and the sugars and acids …
This November, from November 8–13, 2026, I will be teaching a new six-day workshop here at Living Ground Project in southern Ecuador called Plant & Kitchen Alchemy: Food, Medicine & Microbes. It brings together many of the threads that have been part of my work for years: soil, compost, plants, …
Every meal sets in motion a carefully coordinated process involving the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, intestines, microbiome, and the production, storage, release, and transformation of bile. The liver produces much of the cholesterol the body needs by assembling it from nutrients and smaller compounds created during the metabolism of fats, carbohydrates, …
One of the things I enjoy most about working with clients is that every person teaches me something new. Each case encourages me to ask more questions, read more research, and continue learning. I have never believed that we know everything there is to know about the human body. In …
I often wonder where my fascination with gardens, herbs, and growing food really began. Looking back, I think it started in my mother’s rose garden. I didn’t realize it then, but perhaps that was also the beginning of learning about self-reliance. As a little girl in England, I decided I …
This is a long article and was inspired because I was working with some workshop participants and friends and I wanted to go deeper into understanding the thyroid and most especially, Hashimotos. Over the years I have worked with many people diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and I did not have …
The body is always in motion. Blood moves through the arteries and veins, nutrients travel into the cells, waste products move out of the tissues, and the lymphatic system quietly gathers what needs to be cleared, recycled, or carried away. Beneath the skin there is a whole living landscape of …
I believe I am entering a newness. Preparing for this retreat has been opening doors I never expected. I literally started moving the microscopes into the workshop room and thought, “Why not make this my office?” Suddenly, a space I had been viewing one way revealed an entirely different possibility. …
A Love Letter to Place, Soil, and the Foods That Remember There are moments at the Living Ground Project when I bite into something from the garden and have to stop everything I am doing. Usually, it is a tomato. I stand there in the middle of the garden, juice …
Aloe vera, celebrated as the “plant of immortality,” is a remarkable succulent renowned for its extraordinary healing properties and its robust ability to survive in tough conditions. Thriving in arid, nutrient-deficient soils, Aloe vera has captured the fascination of many cultures throughout history with its rejuvenating and therapeutic potential. The …