“Fantastic Fungi: The Spirit of Good”

This is a proposed film by Louie Schwartzberg. The working title is “Fantastic Fungi: The Spirit of Good.”

It features some fantastic time lapse photography of mushroom growth.

It also includes a heart felt statement from Paul Stamets, one of the mycologists who is doing so much to expand our understanding of the natural world.

Under our feet, there is an invisible web of life that makes life for … Read more

Creating food meadows


Download the mp3 here

There’s farming which can include big corporate farms, small family farms, and gardens.

Then there’s foraging which is roaming around looking for “free” food to pick and eat.

Is there something in between?

Yes there is.

In this wide ranging conversation with Tama Matsuoka Wong we talk about a middle way in which wild edible plants are encouraged to grow.

This is a “new” idea to … Read more

Ancient Wisdom, Modern Practices

One of my favorite places: The New York Botanical Garden.

One of my favorite projects there: Their thirty year project to discover and study the medicinal plants of Belize in respectful conjunction with local healers.

Here’s the whole story straight from the people who lived it.

PlantWisdom.org did an in depth interview with Rosita about her life and work and you can listen to that here.

The book they’re … Read more

In praise of plantain

The Amazing Golden Thread
Bushcraft on Fire
 
Plantagos, Plantains
Eat the Weeds
 
Common Plantain
Northwest Forager
 
Nature’s Miracle Healer
Rick Van Man
 
Plantain – Anti-bacterial band-aid plant
Wisewoman Tradition
 – Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org

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Insights from the healing forest

Ethnobotanist and herbalist Rocio Alarcon grew up in the Andean highlands of Ecuador in a family that respected and used plants, depending on them for their daily survival.

As a young adult she received an academic training and then went to the Amazon to conduct her real studies.

In this talk from the excellent YouTube channel Herb TV, she discusses the social dimensions of ayawaska use and other shamanic practices … Read more

Small scale urban farming

Lots of people have the dream of farming as a living.

If you feel this in your heart, what’s stopping you?

If your image of farming is owning 20 acres in the country, maybe it’s that image that’s getting in your way.

You can grow, you can make money, and you can get started with a lot less than you think.

Farming is a business and if you go about … Read more

All the leaves of the forest

If you knew the story of all the leaves of the forest, you would know all there is to be known about the gods of Dahomey.

– Dahomean proverb

– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org

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The GMO fraud

Monsanto has succeeded in subverting virtually every mainstream news outlet and academic plant science program in the US. Those it has not bought off, it has terrorized into silence.

Of the handful of legitimate scientists who have published research questioning the safety of GMOs, more than one has had their careers ruined by pressures imposed by the company and its agents.

Add to this a choir of high-profile “useful idiots” … Read more

Herb Sources

03

This is a beginning list. We will add to it as we learn of new reliable sources.

Avena Botanicals

Green Terrestrial
(802) 375-8087

Herbalist and Alchemist

The Herb Wyfe

Jean’s Greens

Jeanne Rose’s Herbal Product

Mountain Rose Herbs

Simpler’s Botanicals

– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org

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Remembering Gene Logsdon

0511_Gene-Logsdon-credit-Rebecca-Cartellone2-624x468

One of our goals for PlantWisdom.org was to do a interview (or three) with farmer/author Gene Logsdon.

Unfortunately before we got to it, Gene passed away after 85 rich years.

Fortunately for all of us, he left us with a lot of writing including over twenty-five books and a fertile weekly blog of nine years (including a post just one week before he passed away.)

What did Gene write about?… Read more