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
Life as a Teacher
As a little human at 10, I learned that to be seen I had to play my part. My job was to be good, to excel, to lead. Not to be the best, just not to be a problem. I read the room, felt the moods, and stepped into the role that seemed to hold everything together….
The Rogue Little Microbe
There once was a little, beautiful microbe who decided to go alone. She had lived her existence within a vast and intricate field that was coded ancestrally and environmentally, shaped long before her and sustained by forces she did not create yet depended upon completely. Water moved steadily through mineral corridors carved by time and pressure, fungal…
What Weeders Know
When a garden begins to mature, the whole feeling of the place changes. Perennials settle in and claim their spots. Annuals slip between them, filling the open spaces with color and food. The soil is no longer naked and exposed. It is shaded, held, protected. Life returns in layers. Birds, insects, spiders, worms, roots and unseen microbial…
Healing Diabetes Naturally: A Rising Need in Ecuador
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. In Ecuador, nearly five percent of adults…
Becoming Living Ground Part One
The Beginning of Living Ground Sometimes you do not set out to build a project. Sometimes a project builds you. Living Ground did not begin with a clear plan or a grand design. It began with an ache for self-reliance, a longing to live closer to the land, and a compost of a dream that refused to…
Becoming Living Ground Part Two
There is a quiet movement happening now. You might have felt it too. It is a movement to withdraw, silently. Something deep inside you knows that much of what plays out around us….online, in politics, in families, in culture. It does not feel right. The noise has grown too loud. The stories too shallow. The arguments too…
A Pilgrimage Rooted in Soil
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 have always known why this land calls…
Bougainvillea: Thorny Climber, Healing Medicine
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. It is a plant of contrast, showing…
Weekends at Living Ground
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 favorites such as chili con carne, braised…
Pomegrante Skin – Parasite Protection
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 life depends on microbial cooperation. The soil…
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
