The darkness of winter gives us a chance to rest and replenish as the days begin to grow longer and progress toward spring. In addition to nourishing the body with good foods and healing flavors, now is the time to experiment with ways to address stress, insomnia, and worry and find out what works for …
Spent time in the woods gathering autumn olive berries yesterday from trees still heavy with ripe fruit. I hope we can reimagine these delightful fruits as life-giving and nourishing because of their abundance (or invasiveness, depending on perspective). The rain, falling leaves and dark day’s weather were symbolic of the slow transition to winter; these …
Next weekend, I will run my first full marathon. But 8 weeks ago, I wasn’t so sure that’d I’d be able to finish my training program, let alone run the Grand Rapids Marathon on October 20. This summer, after I had returned from my writing sabbatical out west, my dad had a catastrophic accident that …
… A plant has been calling me…Chicory. It’s been playfully waving to me from the road side for the last several days that it has been in bloom. But it wasn’t until late last night while I lay in bed reading about its virtues that I felt the strong need to return the call and …
It’s that time of year again — Spring! I know I’ve been thinking about planting time since January, when the seed catalogues began to drop into our mailbox (an evil tease, I say) and this time of year I become so excited to once again get my hands into the soil. It is my therapy …
Life sometimes can be hard to swallow. That’s why the universe invented aromatic herbs & raw honey. And truffles. A quick fix for an achy-heart, these herbal truffles use raw cacao, raw coconut, raw honey — are rich in antioxidants and are filled with wonderful aromatic herbs that lighten the spirit. For extra magic, I …
As I look out my window typing this, winter has definitely settled in. Cold sun. Branches icing. Big, fat snowflakes float gently from the sky. I pause to admire their beauty. The quiet outside is a reflection of what I am feeling inside – a settling of peace, quiet, and contentment that only a moment …
I took a walk through the fields and in the woods this morning in one of my most favorite areas in GR– the gravel pits and down by the Grand River in and around Johnson/Millenium Park. Not only did this help re-root my person back to my own land after being away in Nicaragua for …
This year will mark my third year journeying to the desert southwest from the Mitten State for the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference. While only a few days long, the past two Traditions gatherings have played a pretty significant role in developing my confidence in growing as an herbalist. At the core it has helped …
About two years ago, I began documenting my forays in life — mostly edible and mostly of plants — on Tumblr. It was easy. It’s been easy. I’ve gotten great feedback for offering my aesthic and perspective on family, life, plants, cooking, and gardening in this way — short, simple, easy, visual. Tumblr has been …
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