Field Notes from my journey creating Living Ground, Ecuador.
“If I want people to care about the Earth itself, about the land and soil that feed us, about the way our food, medical, political, and religious systems are shaping us, and about how divided and dysfunctional we have become, then I need to plant those concerns inside stories that are wide enough and deeply connective enough that others can recognize themselves within them.” Leisha of the Living Ground Project.
Living Ground Recent Posts
The Living Intelligence of Vitamin C
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 a complete system. Yes, they can act…
Our Essential Oils
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 plants, and the strength of the plant’s…
Soothing Lip Balms
There is a simple pleasure in creating with my hands. Working with the beeswax, the herbs I have grown, and the oils I press or infuse brings me a kind of peace that only nature offers. I grow these plants, I tend them, and then I carry them into the kitchen to become medicine. The process is…
Banana’s Flower Boldness
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 other than part of the banana’s show…
Turmeric Absorption
We have all heard of taking turmeric (curcumin) with black pepper (piperine) to enhance the bioavailability and absorption of curcumin. Piperine, the bioactive compound found in black pepper, has been shown to significantly increase the absorption of curcumin by inhibiting metabolic enzymes that break it down and increasing intestinal permeability. Curcumin is a highly effective anti-inflammatory agent…
Chaga, The King
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 healer and teacher. Known as the King…
Reishi, The Queen
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 in the shadows of wood yet shining…
Ashwagandha “The Virility of 1000 Horses”
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 Project Site of Living Ground . The…
Slippery Elm: A Tree That Feeds, Coats, and Restores the Gut
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. Slippery elm, or Ulmus fulva, is native…
Alfalfa – The Bridge Between Earth and Body
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 northern farmers cut for hay or sprouting…
What is Living Ground
,The Living Ground Project is a living classroom in southern Ecuador, built from soil, food, plants, microbes, and community.
Here, we grow much of what we serve and teach. The gardens feed the café, the apothecary, the workshops, the books, and the people who come here to learn a different way of living. Everything begins with the soil, because healthy soil grows stronger plants, stronger food, and stronger people.
Living Ground is a place for practical self-reliance. We teach gardening, soil regeneration, fermentation, herbal medicine, food preservation, natural health, and the connection between the human microbiome and the soil food web. Our work is not theory. It is lived every day through the gardens, the kitchen, the store, the café, the animals, the workshops, and the land itself.
The vision is simple. Restore the soil, grow real food, preserve knowledge, create local work, and help people remember that health does not begin in a bottle. It begins in relationship with the land, the microbes, the plants, the food, and each other.
Living Ground’s Online Courses in Self Reliance
