Empowering Self-Reliance and Sustainable Living & Microbiomes
Empowering Self-Reliance and Sustainable Living & Microbiomes
Cholesterol has become one of the most misunderstood substances in the body. It is often spoken about as if it were a toxin that must be lowered at all costs, yet it is one of the most essential molecules for life. Every cell membrane depends on it. Hormones depend on …
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. …
Diabetes is no longer a rare condition. It is now one of the most common health struggles in Ecuador and across the world. Around 589 million adults worldwide live with diabetes, which means almost one in every nine people. The number is expected to continue rising, especially in developing countries. …
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 …
The kidneys are among the most misunderstood organs in the terrain of the body. Most people were taught they are simple filters, two bean shaped organs that strain waste from the blood and send it away. That explanation is technically correct, but it barely touches their depth. Your kidneys are …
Coffee blossoms are a brief candle of the coffee tree. They open after the first good rains, bright white, breathing out a perfume that sits somewhere between jasmine, citrus, and honeyed vanilla. Inside those petals are the same energetic signatures that move sap through the plant, guide bees to nectar, …
As a child I never thought of the pomegranate tree as medicine. For me it was play. I would crush the red seeds and paint my lips and cheeks with their juice, pretending I had lipstick and blush. It was silly, but I remember how the color stained my skin …
Vitamin C is one of those nutrients that has been misunderstood in the modern world. Most people think of it as ascorbic acid or citric acid, but those are only the shell of something much more complex. They are the empty frame of a living compound that nature designed as …
Not all medicine grows in our garden. I deeply believe in using what we cultivate and forage here in Ecuador, but some plants are so profoundly restorative to the body’s inner terrain that they are worth bringing in. Slippery elm is one of them. This is not a tropical tree. …
For years we have been told that cholesterol is the enemy. The word alone makes people nervous, as though it were a poison to be purged from the body. Doctors prescribe statins almost reflexively, diets are stripped of fats, and marketing campaigns praise anything labeled low cholesterol. Yet the more …