Everyone knows (i.e. has been indoctrinated to believe) that when you’re not feeling well you go to the pharmacy for over-the-counter meds.
Or – if you have the time, the money, the patience and a decent doctor – you go to your doctor for a prescription.
While it’s great that these resources are available when needed, there’s a wee bit of a problem with this:
1. In 2010 alone, there … Read more
This is a beginning list. We will add to it as we learn of new reliable sources.
Green Terrestrial
(802) 375-8087
– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org
Herbalism is not science “lite.”
It’s also not an alternative therapy.
It’s a sophisticated healing system unto itself that has played and continues to play an essential role in the care and survival of the human race.
This is a talk that David Hoffman gave to the American Herbalists Guild Symposium in Portland, Oregon on November 5th, 2005.
In it he addresses the subversion of herbalism by Big Business and … Read more
In our last post, we talked about the importance of being well informed when you source herbs and herbal products.
In case you think we were overstating the need for this, we just discovered the results of an investigation published by the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York.
They took at at look at the actual contents of “herbal supplements” sold in Wal-Mart, Target … Read more
Many sources advocate herbs for healing and cooking, and they’re right – but only half right. There’s another very important part of the equation.
Where you get your herbs and how you store them are of maximum importance.
Where should you buy your herbs?
Because the effectiveness of herbs degrades significantly after one year, supermarkets – including most health food stores – are not a … Read more
Fascinating talk by Wade Davis on the varieties of human experience, the value of the existence of these diverse worlds views and the serious and ongoing threat to indigenous people around the world.
At the 11:23 point Davis explains how it is that forest dwellers make profound botanical discoveries that elude the most advanced western science.
– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org
In the previous post, we introduced Richard Evans Schultes though a short video and excerpts of an interview conducted with him later in his life.
In this video, his student and protege Wade Davis goes much deeper into Schultes’ story.
Absolutely fascinating and excellent preparation for seeing the new movie “Abrazo de la Serpiente” (Embrace of the Serpent) – which I’ve now seen three times.
If this account of Schultes’s … Read more
Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001) was probably the greatest explorer of the Amazon, and regarded among anthropologists and seekers alike as the “father of ethnobotany.”
Taking what was meant to be a short leave from Harvard in 1941, he surveyed the Amazon basin almost continuously for twelve years, during which time he lived among two dozen different Indian tribes, mapped rivers, secretly sought sources of rubber for the US government during … Read more
Baba Rahsan Abdul Hakim
Baba Rahsan Abdul Hakim grew up in Jamaica where his training in plants began when he was a small child at the hands of his grandmother, aunt and mother.
His grandfather, Charles Williams, was an important horticulturist and agriculturist who introduced a number of useful plants to Jamaica. He was the uncredited developer of the Hope Garden, the largest botanical garden in the Caribbean.
As an … Read more
If you don’t know Jeremy Narby, you should.
He’s a “diplomat between two systems of knowledge.”
Narby as born in Montreal in 1959 and grew up in Canada and Switzerland.
He studied history at the University of Canterbury and received a doctorate in anthropology from Stanford University.
Narby spent several years living with the Ashaninca in the Peruvian Amazon cataloging their understanding and use of the plants in their forest … Read more
