Nature has not closed shop

Our favorite restaurants, cafes, stores and places for music, worship, education and entertainment may be closed, but nature remains “in business”.

And what a beautiful business it is.

In our neck of the woods, the choruses of wood frogs are starting to emerge and of course bird songs are on the increase .

LearnYourLand.com is a channel we discovered last year and we love it.

Also if you’re looking for … Read more

America’s rich and little known natural healing treasure

Download the mp3 here

An interview with Phyllis D. Light, author of Southern Folk Medicine, the first comprehensive treatment of one of America’s most valuable, but little known natural healing treasures.

You can order the book here: Southern Folk Medicine

You can get more information here about Phyllis Light’s work and The Appalachian Center for Natural Health

– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org

Save

Save

Read more

What do the colors of mushrooms tell us?

Another great video from the wonderful Learn Your Land website and Adam Haritan.

Don’t be scared of the technical terms. Every word you know now was once new to you too.

If you catch 20% the first time through you’re doing great. Adam packed a lot into this and it merits a re-watch or two.

Visit Learn Your Land website so you can subscribe directly.

– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.orgRead more

Burdock root chai

Click here to watch how to forage and prepare burdock root chai

After you watch Diana’s lesson, you might be interested in the Plant Wisdom interview with her. You can click here to listen to the interview.

– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org

Save

Save

Read more

Forest farming of herbs

Dr. John Munsell of Mountain Rose Herbs

Three benefits to this:

1. It’s a way to “add value” to forest land to keep it from being clear cut

2. It builds local communities in depressed areas

3. Higher quality

Historical note:

Forest farming is probably how the Mayans, Amazonians and other Native people grew medicinal herbs.

How do we know?

We constantly find medicinal plants in denser concentrations than … Read more

Demolishing mushroom myths

Adam Haritan of LearnYourLand.com demolishes many of the “what’s safe/what’s not safe” mushroom myths.

Here’s Adam’s course on mushroom foraging.

– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org

Save

Save

Read more

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

Dandelions – Humanity’s long term companion

This informative survey on the history and benefits of the dandelion comes from YouTube’s “The History Guy.”

It answers a big mystery:

“How did we come to spend millions of dollars every year to spray toxins in our environment to kill one of the most useful and health-giving plants on Earth?”

– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org

Save

Save

Read more

Two of my favorite plants

Enjoy!

Mullien

Lemon Balm

– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org

Save

Save

Read more

Mugwort

Korean TV documentary on medicinal uses

The film refers to May as optimal harvest time, but, of course, that differences from place to place.

How wonderful it must be to live in a country that has “modern” medicine and deep herbal knowledge too.

The second half of the video is a bonus: Korean Qi Gong.

– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org

Save

Save

Read more