I remember the first time I visited a food co-op. It was in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a wonderful, progressive town, and the co-op was incredible. From products made or grown locally in South-East Michigan (non-GMO and organic tortilla chips, fresh …
Living in Harmony
The Wisdom of the Elder: Recipes for Infused Elderflower Honey, Elderflower Cordial, and Elder-Lemon Tea
Elderflowers (flowers from the Sambucus nigra plant) are in bloom right around the Summer Solstice (at least where I live), and this is a perfect time to create delightful healing recipes. One of these recipes uses raw honey (from my hives, …
Living the Wheel of the Year: Spiritual and Sustainable Practices for the Summer Solstice
The Summer Solstice, what we call “Alban Hefin” in the Druid Revival tradition, marks the beginning of high summer in my part of the world, and many activities of this time period focus on harvesting and honoring the power of …
Sacred Lessons from the Bees, Honey Flows, and Honey Harvesting
I’ve been making the transition to Pennsylvania and to my new life here (I spoke of this transition in an earlier blog post). Sorry for the delay in a regular weekly post–I’m back on track now, and have many wonderful …
Building Sacred Relationships with Food: Seasonal Food Rituals, Agricultural Blessings, Prayers, and Honoring Our Food
Modern culture prevents many of us from engaging in a critical part of our human heritage—developing a sacred relationship with food. I’ve talked about developing such a sacred relationship with food on this blog before with regards to growing it …
Dandelion Wine Part III: New Recipes and Insights
I’ve posted on Dandelion wine before on this blog, and I wanted to follow up on my previous posts on dandelion wine – making the wine and racking/bottling. I’ve also written more generally about the dandelion as a beneficial plant–so …
Geographies of Nowhere, Regaining a Sense of Place, and Embracing the Local
I sit and write these words while I’m traveling for my work to a professional conference halfway across the country in another nameless city that is typically a carbon copy of another nameless city I visited the year before. The …
Converting Lawns to Gardens: Nature’s Harvest Permaculture Urban Farm
Over the years, I’ve done quite a bit of coverage about lawn issues, as I really do believe that the lawn can be one of the primary sites of transformation and change for ordinary Americans and others in the Western …
What To Do With All That Stuff? Breaking Patterns, Eliminating Excess, and Downsizing
Americans, in particular, although a good big of the Western industrialized world, have entirely too much stuff. Annie Lenoard’s “Story of Stuff” tells the tale of the linear process in which stuff enters our lives–from natural resource exploitation to factory …
Other Sites: The Hotel Belmar Garden (Organic, Biointensive, Incredible)
Once in a while, you encounter something that is truly extraordinary. Something created by a unity of human effort and ingenuity and natural processes that is a sacred and inspirational place. I want to share one of those places with …
Resources to Learn the Inner and Outer Worlds of Herbalism: Plants, Books, Courses, Lore, and More
I have been doing an ongoing series of posts about herbalism: herbalism as a druidic practice, my path into herbalism, and medicine making during sacred times of the year. Given the fact that its early spring, and the herbs are …
On Letting Go of Your Land and Leaving Your Homestead: Lamentations, Joys, and the Way Forward
I’m in the midst of a major life transition. After six years of living in South-East Michigan (with five of those here on my homestead), I have made a big life decision to take a new job at a new …
The Wheel of the Year and Sustainable Action: The Spring Equinox
The spring equinox is upon us! This is a wonderful time to begin to engage in Sacred Actions and explore sustainable activities for the spring equinox. This post suggests activities for sustainable and spiritual actions that are appropriate for this …
Other Sites: Costa Rica as a Model Sustainable Living and Permaculture Design in Action
In February 2015, I took a 12-day trip to Costa Rica (my first real vacation!) Part of the reason I decided on Costa Rica was that this culture is well-known for emphasizing sustainability in a way that is well beyond …
Druid Tree Workings: Connecting with the Tree on the Outer Planes
The trees themselves present much in the way of mystery teachings. This second post in my “Druid Tree Workings” series explores various methods for listening to the voices of the trees and developing methods of communication, like finding the face …
Druid Tree Workings: Finding the Face of the Tree
Sometimes the trees themselves share lessons with us about how to work with them, talk with them, and heal with them. These are often presented to me as mystery teachings from the trees themselves–and I’ll be sharing some of these …
The Sound of Silence: Mass Extinction and the Music of the World
I recently came across an article from The Guardian in 2012 detailing the work of scientist Bernie Krause, who has spent his life recording sounds of nature. Krause’s major finding is simple: the loss of biodiversity, from the depths of …
Introduction to Wildcrafting and Foraging, Part II: Places to Gather, Ethical Harvesting, Avoiding Pollution, and Foraging as Spiritual Practice
This is my second in a two-part series on how to wildcraft and forage successfully. The first post dealt with supplies for foraging, resources and how to learn the skills, and understanding timing. This post will talk about places to …
Introduction to Wildcrafting and Foraging, Part I: Equipment, Resources, What to Learn, and Timing
I’ve been spending a lot of time talking about various wild foods and other kinds of wildcrafting and foraging on this blog, and I wanted to talk today about the principles of wildcrafting and ethical foraging more broadly. This post …
Alternative Housing: Tiny Houses, Campers, and the Road Less Traveled
For an increasing number of Americans, especially those under 30, the “American Dream” is an absolute joke. For those of us in our 30’s, like me, its still a joke, but a harsh one because lot of us got sucked …
Creating Sacred Spaces: Bee and Butterfly Sanctuaries
In the depths of the winter, I like to do my planning for next year’s garden, organize my seeds, and start seeds for the coming season. This year, I’m thinking a lot about perennial spaces and planning more bee and …