Author Archives: maria

Herb walk

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My class came up to the land today for an herb walk. We identified lots of beautiful plants, but check out what we found!!

Huge Morels!!

Spotting more morels

I love this picture! Patrick is such a forest man!


And we found a little patch of baby ginseng. There should have been a mama somewhere… The land is perfect for ginseng, but I think it has been totally harvested out and is now just starting to repopulate.

Oh the homefront, we moved the bees to the land and they seem to be doing fine. We have 4 hives now! Our most active hive had to be split once because it was so full, and then it still swarmed, but we caught it!!

We hope to have all the walls and tin roof up by the end of this weekend!

The most wonderful day!

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I woke up early yesterday, knowing we had a long day of building ahead of us, and went out to take a walk. I decided to walk around the land to places I hadn’t gone before. So, down the hill I go into the rhododendron area thinking, “what am I going to find here? Nothing grows around the rhododendron.” But then, the flora changed and the forest opened up and I saw her… Pink Lady Slipper! Then… I saw another! And another! (I have never found more than 9 lady slippers at one site. She was severely over harvested in the 1900’s for medicine, and has never recovered. She has a symbiotic relationship with the microbes in the soil and only grows in specific areas and is extremely hard to transplant.) So, I began bawling when my count got to over 160 lady slippers, and I decided to stop counting and just enjoy!! There were so many that I had to watch where I stepped so as not to step on them! I can’t begin to explain the feeling I had yesterday morning walking on this amazing, sacred land! I am pretty dure that I am going to change my herb consultations name from “Dandelion Forest Herbals” to Sacred Forest Botanicals”. Good thing I haven’t gotten business cards yet 🙂


Anyone know what this one is??? I have heard that there are still wild, but rare, cannabis species around… and I think I have one growing in my new garden!! It sure looks and smells like it… or so I’m told 🙂

Yay for spring!

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Ok, so it may be lightly snowing outside, but it is the first day of Spring today! So, Happy Spring!

K and I spent the morning coloring eggs, eating eggs, and talking egg talk :-) I am impressed with the colors that we got. We used Turmeric for the yellow, grape juice concentrate for the purples and blues, spinach and parsley for the really light greens and a mix of other things for the inbetween colors.

Yesterday I harvested a bunch of Chickweed from my bro-in-laws land and made some chickweed pesto and yummy green drinks. Tonight, we will have pesto and pasta and probably some eggs! I also picked up some chocolate eggs this morning, so when T gets home we will hide some for K to find. Our own little tribute to the rebirth of Spring!

Here is the recipe for the absolutely, splendidly, scrumptiously, yummy Chickweed Pesto:

  • Place 4 cloves garlic and a handful of walnuts in a blender and chop ‘em up
  • Add some olive oil (~1/4 cup), feta or parmasean (~1/2 cup) and lots of chickweed(~3 cups), and blend until mixed well.
  • Taste and see if there is anything missing and adjust to taste

You can use this as you would any other pesto, and it freezes well.

For the green drink, I put ~4 cups of apple juice in a blender and added a~1 cup of chickweed, 1/4cup of parsley and a handfull of blueberries and blended well. MMmmmmm. Yummy!!

Happy weekend!

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Graduation was this past week and we had sooo much fun! All the students and some of the teachers had a camp out at this great house in the boonies. We stayed up until 3am, had a lazy morning cooking and playing (I brought my hoops and got almost everyone hooked, and there was a trampoline there too) and had a wonderful ceremony. One of our teachers (she specialized in energetic herbalism) conducted a hand-fasting for each student and a chosen plant. For the next year, we are to learn more about the plant we were hand-fasted to, in every way we can. She said that when she meditated on me, Rock Rose (Cistus ladaniferus) came to her. So, for the next year I will make this plant my ally. I’m excited, first because this is so cool, and second because I know nothing about this plant except that it is one of the main ingredients in the flower essence “Rescue Remedy“. I ordered the essential oil so that I can work with that too.

Here’s a picture of my class and some of the teachers. All of us but one are going on to level three (and that’s only because one student just had a baby and is taking some time off).

Some of you have asked about the school I go to…
There are three official herb schools, and many others that hold classes, in Western North Carolina. This area really attracts healers, so there are all kinds of alternative education programs around here. The school that I go to, and teach for, is the Mountain Spirit School of Herbalism (MSSH) (We just changed our name from the Southeast Center for Herbal Healing, so don’t get confused by the web page). I took my first classes in 1999 at the North Carolina School of Natural Healing, which was being run by another herbalist at the time. I went on to open Full Circle Herbs, but kept it very small. This past September, I met up with Mimi Middleton, who is the director at MSSH. She was one of the first graduating classes from Tai Sophia with her Masters in Herbal Medicine. (Tai Sophia is the only school in the US that is approved to give Master’s degrees in Herbal Medicine). Anyway, she is an amazing woman to talk with and a fantastic teacher. She asked me if I would be interested in teaching some basic classes for the school, but I didn’t feel confident or competent enough to teach. So, instead, I decided to take the Level 2 class that was about to start, and I am so glad I did. Though some of the stuff was review, most of it was absolutely amazing and educational and stimulating! So, now, I have decided to go on to level 3. This is the final level and I will begin seeing clients in the clinical setting as an herbalist. I’m really excited about this! I have seen clients before, but I have never had a course like this and I think it will be extremely helpful. My plan, when I am done, is to see clients part-time out on the land. I will have a small apothacary out there and a great big herb garden. I am also about to begin teaching for the school. The next level one course is beginning next week and I will be teaching a few classes. All of this is really amazing, especially since I never thought I would find a place as an herbalist when we moved back to Asheville.

Now, for those of you who could care less about herbs, and are only checking this blog to see how my Chia Heads are doing, well, here you go:

Check it out!!! The roots grew through the panty hose without a problem, but the little sprouts couldn’t. So, I had to do a little brain surgery and cut a hole in the top. I love how the hair style changes depending on the angle of the sun :-) Kaia and I will probably plant them for the Equinox on Monday. We also plan to dye eggs and plant some flower seeds. What are you all planning for Ostara?

Purple, sparkly fairy dress

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Last week, I promised K that I would make her a “purple, sparkly fairy dress” when she got over the chicken pox. So, yesterday, we went to the fabric store and she picked out what she wanted for her dress, and I spent the afternoon sewing. I have to say that I am very impressed with what resulted, ’cause I don’t know how to sew! I took the basic idea from another dress that K has and came up with this:

Isn’t that awesome!! If I thought I could even come close to repeating it, I would make one for myself too!! :-) And K likes pockets, so I made two in the front for her:

And here are her wings in the back. They are held on by a button, so she can take them off if she doesn’t feel like flying:

This week is also graduation for my herb school! Then, in one month, I will start the clinical preceptorship and begin seeing clients. I have seen clients before, but taking an ‘official’ course makes me feel more confident in my skills and more qualified to teach other herb students. I will be teaching Male and Female Anatomy and Physiology, Respiratory A&P, and select herbs to go along with those to the first level students that are beginning school in two weeks!

Oh, and on the beekeeping front, both of our hives made it through the winter and seem to be holding strong! We hope to move them up to our new land soon so that they can take advantage of all the Tulip poplars out there during blooming season!

Oh (again), and the Chia heads are growing!!

pox and such

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Well, I think we are over the rough part of chicken pox with K. She developed full blown symptoms last Thursday (fever and some small spots) and has had a rough weekend. But she is such a trooper! She loves taking her oatmeal baths and she helped me make a lotion to soothe her spots. She is even using visualization to help! (I told her to imagine a purple, sparkly sunshine just outside of her body and that when she takes a deep breath, the sunshine goes into her body and warms her up and helps her feel better. She was so cute… taking deep breaths and trying to concentrate on the purple sunshine.)
Here she is taking a little break on the couch:

Today, K helped me make some home-made chia pets. I don’t know how they will work, but it was fun anyway. We took old panty hose and put a layer of red clover seeds on the bottom. Then we stuffed it with seed starting soil and the end of a wick (I used some yarn since I didn’t have a real ‘wick’). Then, we tied up the ‘head’ and stiched on some buttons for eyes, nose and mouth. Then I dunked the whole thing in water and for a minute and placed it over a jar with water and am letting it sit in the window. I’ll let you know if it works. I think the hose may be to tightly woven and the seeds won’t be able to break through…

We also went up to the land this weekend. We had hoped to camp, but with K feeling under the weather, we decided against it. Still waiting on the Atty. to finish the paper work before we can close. Hopefully, next week.

Chicken Pox Stew

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Well, in anticipation for K getting the Pox (no signs yet), I decided to make a ton of yummy, nutritious, immune supporting soup. I made ~ a gallon and put a bunch in the freezer. Here’s the recipe:

  • Place 4 chicken legs (fat and skin removed) in ~ one gallon of water with 2 crushed garlic cloves and 2 green onions and simmer until the meat falls off the bones. (Crush the garlic 10 minutes before using it to activate the medicinal properites.)
  • Take the bones out of the soup and leave the meat
  • Add into the broth: 3 chopped red potatoes, one chopped burdock root, one shreaded turmeric root (~2 inches), and one cup of dry rice, and simmer for ~30 minutes
  • Add ~10 sliced Shitake mushrooms, a handful of Wakame seaweed (dry), 2 handfuls of kale, 5 crushed cloves of garlic and 5 green onions, and simmer for another 15 minutes
  • This soup is fairly bland, which is good if you are sick, but if you want more flavor, add Miso paste to taste. I add ~ 1 heaping Tbsp each time I heat up enough soup to feed the three of us. Once you heat the soup take it off the heat and strain off some liquid into a bowl. Add the Miso paste to this liquid and stir it well. Then add this miso fluid back to the main soup, mix and serve.

Yum Yum!!

SCORE!

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A friend of ours clued us in to some free house stuff in a local warehouse. We just came back from there with our car loaded down with brand new tile and double paned windows (just the glass. We will still need to frame it, but still, it’s free!) There are ~50 more double paned glass panels left, we just didn’t have the room for them in the car. So, hopefully we can go back and get more!!

Oh, and this friend also has an almost new chicken coop to give us. It was at a house in the city limits and the neighbors complained about the chickens. So, now it’s ours. We just have to have a way to haul it to the land, and hope that JA’s (that stand for Jerk Asses! They are no longer Jerk Butts, I have upgraded them to official asses!) don’t destroy it. Maybe we will keep it off of the land until we get the steel gate up. I can’t wait to see them try to pull that thing down!

The trespassing saga continues

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Well, after Toby met those guys on our land 3 weeks back, we hoped the trespassing issue would go away. Apparently they had other ideas. Toby was up there by himself a few weeks ago and up the hill come the trucks. They said “oh, hey, um we were just headed to the property above yours.” and drove on (2 truck loads of people). Then, up comes another truck that just turned around as soon as they saw Toby’s car. The next time we went up to the land, there had obviously been some trucks on the property and someone had shit by the well head!!. SO, we gated all the access areas to the property again, posted no tresspassing signs, and locked the bottom gate that allows acces to 2 other properties as well. This morning, both the gates have been torn down and there has been more activity on the land! This is making me insane!! It should be obvious to them by now that someone does not want them on the property and that they need to move their parties else where. I think they need a serious lesson in respect!! So, our next plan is to go camp out there on a Friday or Sat. night, which is when they seem to come up to the property. We will lock both gates and listen for them to show up. Then, call the sheriff and have him block them in. I hate to involve the law, ’cause I think this will make them more pissed and more likely to come back and do more damage. But, I don’t know what else we can do. We plan to invite all our friends up there to camp with us so that we can make a big presence (it definitely won’t be just Toby, K and I!!). I may even put a sign on the first gate that says “OK, listen up! We are currently up on the property waiting for you. If you chose to break down this gate again, we will call the law and you will be charged with Trespassing and willful destruction of property.” I figure, even if we aren’t up there, maybe (doubtfully) that will get them thinking. Either way, they can’t say we didn’t give them ample warning.

Chicken Pox

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Well, K may be getting chicken pox sometime soon. One of the friends she plays with just came down with it. His doctor said it was the first case she has had in her office in over 2 years. WOW! I know a lot of kids are vaccinated against it now, but in our community where so many families don’t vaccinate, you’d think there would be more cases. A bunch of parents have already asked me if their kids can come over and try to get it through natural exposure if K gets it. So, maybe we will throw a Chicken Pox Party. Anyway, in preparation I wrote up a little herbal info for dealing with chicken pox.

Natural Therapies To Support Our Children Through Chicken Pox

Continue reading »

Lovely Pineapples

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It must be Pineapple season in the tropics, ’cause our grocery stores are bursting with them. So, in case you were wondering, the way to know if a pineapple is ready to eat… pull on one of the center leaves, if it comes out easily, it’s ready to eat; if it holds tight to the pineapple, move on to the next one.

Bright idea!!

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You guys have got to check Kenny Luna out! He and his students are trying to get Oprah Winfrey to help give every student in America one compact fluorescent light bulb. If this is done, he says it will “help fight global warming by reducing our carbon emissions from electric power plants, save Americans AT LEAST $2.3 BILLION in electricity costs, and help put America on the path to environmental sustainability.” Get all the info at his blog and support the cause!

I’ve sent my letter!

be back soon!

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So, we are still without any internet connection at our apartment. I am logging in from my mom’s house… So, I won’t be on much for the next week or so. But things are going well here. K’s sleep has been a little erratic and I am having a little trouble adjusting to being around so many people when we are use to living in the boonies. But, otherwise, we are good. In all this turmoil K has officially potty trained! Anyway, talk more later…

The Big Apple

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Live From NY CITY…it’s My Blog!!

(I’m trying to type as quietly as I possibly can while K is taking a very needed nap next to me. We are currently sacked out in my cousins studio apt. in Manhattan. I haven’t been to NY since I was 10 and I feel like a kid again…what a wild place this is!)

Last March, Toby’s friend asked him if he wanted to run the NY Marathon with him and Toby said yes (Neither of these two are runners, by the way.) So, for the last 8 months, Toby has been in training…and this Sunday he will race. I am so proud of him…what commitment (what is it with me and the “…”? I really have no concept of when it is appropriate to use it, but I sure do like it…Now, on to the race…) Early in his training, I tried to get out and run with him, for support (mentally, not physically. He has a good pair of running shorts to take care of that). But, I couldn’t even make it more than one mile and I was wheezing. So, whatever…I’m not a runner!

ooopp, the queen has just woken (is that a word??) from her nap. So we are headed to the corner store for some fruit.

I’ll keep you posted on the marathon.

Rainbow dinners and vegetable cars

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Lately, many of the blogs that I read have been posting about food, especially fall harvest foods. So, today I was inspired to head to the Farmer’s Market and get some of the local goodies. Then, I went out into the back yard and picked some herbs to add to the mix. For dinner we had eggplant, sweet peppers, tomato, and shitake mushrooms stir-fried up with some garlic, ginger, lady’s thumbs, lemon verbena, rosemary, brown rice vinegar, tamari, sesame oil, and a splash of orange juice. MMmmmmm, tasty!

On another exciting note, I just found out that our car is going to be ‘featured’ at the Shakori Grass Roots Festival this Sunday, to show people how to convert their cars to run off of vegetable oil.

Here I Am-worms

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I’ve been told that with all the research I do on a daily basis (just for the hell of it), I should start a blog and publish some of my findings. So, here I am.

Yesterday, I found a large string on my floor. Atleast, I thought it was a string until I tried to pick it up with my toes. That’s when it wiggled and I screamed and we were both unhappy. I picked the thing up and plopped it in the sink so I could have a better look at it. It was about 7 inches long, had a triangle shaped head, and left a trail like a slug. I’m not generally squemish about worms, but this one was freaking me out. Toby (husband) came in and said it looked like a tapeworm. eehhck!! Great, my one year old has just figured out how to crawl and is putting everything in her mouth. Now one of my pets has butt worms!! Gross!! (Sorry for the imagery, but it really is that disgusting!) Anyway, I have done a little research and, to my relief, discovered that what we had in our house (as it is now down the toilet) was a “Planarian”…a nonsegmented flatworm, that is not parasitic. Still a bit freaky, but no threat to my family. Here is a link with lots of info and this one has some great pictures not for the faint of heart.

Thanks for logging on!