Plant wisdom by the side of the highway

The first rule of plant wisdom is keep your eyes open.

The second rule of plant wisdom is ALL plants are sacred, no matter what they are or where they are.

The third rule of plant wisdom is that the plants in your backyard are as “exotic” and mysterious – and powerful – as plants deep in the Amazon rain forest.

There is beauty and power everywhere.

Our good friend … Read more

Plant Wisdom talks with LearnYourLand.com

In the woods with Adam Haritan

A deep dive into the eastern woods

Plant Wisdom talks with Adam Haritan of LearnYourLand.com

You can click here to see Adam’s growing library of videos.

My hope: That people all over the world see these videos and some are inspired create ones of similar quality and depth.

If you’re an Eastern Woodlands person, they will amplify your love and appreciation of where … Read more

Nettle

Click here for more from Adam and LearnYourLand.com

– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org

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Warning: Essential oils are NOT risk-free

A while back, I wrote about the “commercially inspired over-enthusiasm” for essential oils.

In response, I received a flood of vociferous hate mail.

Hate mail to PlantWisdom.org? Yup. That’s part of the word we live in.

Unfortunately, most of what appears online and elsewhere about essential oils comes from people who manufacture and sell them.

That said if you dig even a little – Google: “essential oil dangers” – you’ll … Read more

High tech air purification with houseplants

In the 1980s, NASA spent millions of dollars on how to deal with unhealthy indoor environments.

They were interested in the big challenge of purifying air on space stations and long space flights.

Here’s what they came up with…

Houseplants.

The simplest plant to take care of:

Sansevieria laurentii, also known as “mother-in-law’s tongue” and “snake plant.”

The original NASA paper is here:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19930073077.pdf

The specs

Still more

– … Read more

A great cause – Restoring local grain production in America

This is one of the most fascinating and promising local sustainable food projects I’ve ever seen. Please help take it to the next level.

Click here to learn how you can help

– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org

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Foraging & Feasting with Dina Falconi


Download the mp3 here 

The ideal introduction to plants, herbs and “weeds” would be to have a grandmother (or grandfather) take us by the hand through the fields and woods from an early age.

In these “modern” times, few of us have that experience. Our guest on this installment of PlantWisdom.org, Dina Falcone, certainly didn’t.

Dina grew up in New York City’s East Village in the 1970s, an urban … Read more

Plant Spirit Medicine

What are plants?

Dumb bundles of cellulose that exist merely to do our bidding?

Sophisticated bio-chemical factories that are the source of countless medicines – and medicines to come?

How about this?

“Plants know us and love us as grandchildren.”

What is a grandparent?

Someone older than you…someone related to you…someone who cares about your well-being…someone in a position to help you in profound ways.

Carlos Castaneda (1925-1998) in his … Read more

“Weeds are part of our future”

Earlier this year, we did an interview with Tama Matsuoka Wong of MeadowsandMore.

It was one of our most popular programs, so I thought you might like to see her TED talk.

If you’d like to help our publishing efforts here at Plant Wisdom—and we can certainly use the help—consider contributing to our parent company, The Real Food Channel, that makes this programming possible.

– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org

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Juliette de Bairacli Levy

Juliette de Bairacli Levy was born in Manchester, England, in 1912.

After studying veterinary medicine at the University of Manchester, she decided to spend her life traveling the world, studying the herbal healing practices of people in Mexico, France, Spain, England, Portugal, Greece, Israel, Turkey, Algeria, and French and Spanish Morocco.

Her research was particularly valuable because she gathered much of her knowledge in the era before the widespread use … Read more