World Herbs Seminar: Culinary and Medicinal Herbs from Mexico to India
Presented by Darren Butler, Kellee Matsushita, and Ecoworkshops.com

Saturday, November 3
The LA Arboretum Palm Room
8:45am – 4:30pm

Speakers include:
USC Professor of Pharmacology JIM ADAMS, coauthor with Cecilia Garcia of the book Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West
NAOKO MOORE on Japanese traditional herbs for healthy cooking
DARREN BUTLER on traditional shamanic and neoshamanic plant spirit healing practices
RISHI KUMAR of The Growing Home on Backyard Ayurvedics
JULIE JAMES head of the Green Wisdom Herbal Studies Program on medicinal weeds and the basics of plant medicine preparations
KATHLEEN SANCHEZ on Southwestern and Mexican Herbs

You may change your outlook on weeds from despair to delight as you discover the deep healing (not to mention powerful nutrition) of many common weeds and wild edibles. Participants will sample teas, extracts and salves, take home ideas and recipes to begin an herbal journey right away. Some of the finest herbs grow unexpectedly right in our own garden; dandelion for the liver, plantain for skin healing, the dreaded stinging nettle with more iron than any other plant source.

You will be introduced to the medicinal uses of traditional Indian foods, such as tumeric as an antiseptic, or licorice root to cure sore throats. In addition, participants will learn about commonly found California Native plants as used by the Chumash people. Other plants to be discussed include Amaranth (used as a red dye by the Hopi), Mayo/Yoeme Basil, and Tarahumara Chia of the Southwest.

The World Herbs Series by EcoWorkshops.com celebrates our diverse international heritage of medicinal and culinary herbs by bringing together expert speakers on specially selected topics for a day of educational workshops. Join us in learning about the cultivation, preparation, use, folklore, and cultural traditions for culinary and medicinal herbs from countries and traditions around the world. Sessions will include practical methods and information for growing herbs in Southern California.

For more information:
http://ecoworkshops.com/ecoworkshops/courses-and-workshops/2012-world-herbs/
$10.00 off $75 dollar registration to $65, if paid before Oct 10

Biodynamic Preps

There are numerous practical ways to get this goodness going in your own garden. You can start first by setting up a Biodynamic compost heap in your backyard, given a little space and time. Adding a blend of specialized herbal preparations (yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion, valerian) help to stimulate soil microorganisms to break down biomass and create a powerful compost that is far superior to conventional bagged soil amendments. It’s quite easy- build the compost heap and add the preps. (BD Compost preps can be found online through the Josephine Porter Institute)  Then wait for a gorgeous compost teeming with microorganisms and life energy, that is better than regular homemade compost and far superior to bagged. If space and time is an issue, try amending your soil with a bagged Biodynamic compost (I recommend Malibu Compost) that is available at specialty nurseries.

While your compost heap is decomposing (you can hardly wait, I know), start checking out a lunar planting guide and getting the knack of how it works.  Use it as a general guide and do your own experiments. According to biodynamic principles, seeds are planted according to which zodiac sign the moon is passing through, and whether the crop is a leaf, root, fruiting or flowering crop. Many have found great success with this method and can truly see the difference in plant vigor and productivity.

Lunar Gardening Chart

Once seedlings are growing, they and the soil can be nourished with a Field Spray, Equisetum and as well as Silica.  These sprays encourage a plant’s immunity to diseases, and ward off fungal diseases.  The aim is to keep the ecosystem of the garden and farm balanced with itself as a whole entity. Biodiversity within the plant community increases this balance, and plants are “fertilized” by the compost the farm or garden created on the grounds, with plant and matter it has produced.  Cover crops and crop rotation are also utilized. The farm or garden is it’s own, balanced ecosystem that works in tandem with cosmic and earthly energies.

The interest in Biodynamics has increased as wineries have embraced these practices along with many other farmers, home gardeners and agriculturalists. Whether you choose to venture into the rewarding world of biodynamics, or continue with your own organic gardening, the most important thing is to get inspired and get your hands in the dirt!

-Loretta Allison

Loretta Allison is a prop and floral stylist who gardens biodynamically in her South Pasadena garden. She is also soon to be part of the Altadena Farmer’s Market collective, selling biodynamically grown winter garden seedlings to the people.

There is a need for a revolution in our garden and on our plates!

Our modern 21^st century life has largely dictated that the way we view food is one of the consumer, taking for granted it’s production and consumption with little left over in the way of reverence or even simple appreciation of it’s presence and origin.  The current conventional farming systems have left a soil behind that is depleted and nutritionally empty, ultimately producing crops for the masses that lack nourishing vitality. This is to say nothing of the chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers that repeatedly enter our soils, ecosystems and bodies, which is why many of us have chosen to grow as much of our own food as possible. The result is that global ecosystems have gone haywire, and modern agriculture has put us on a destructive path of food consumption which does more harm than good to the earth and our bodies.

But you already know all that.

And you have probably sought to enlighten your health habits, your shopping choices, and even how you garden. You also know on some deep gut level and in your heart that this all necessitates a shift in our consciousness.  But…you are wondering how and where to start.

Let’s start where countless of other cultures and farmers have-working the soil in harmony with the primal forces of the earth and planets. Humans have respected and farmed with these energies as their guides for thousands of years.  It was the way. In the early 1920’s the Austrian educator Dr. Rudolph Steiner gave some of these ideas a voice with an agricultural philosophy later called Biodynamics.  Biodynamics is a practice (organic, natch) that works to enhance crops growth, nutritional value and flavor by vitalizing and healing the soil with energized herbal preparations and compost, in tandem with unseen “cosmic” forces of nature. In a sense, it goes beyond modern organic methods. Seedlings are planted in a biologically robust soil according to a lunar calendar, and crops are harvested at a time which provides maximum flavor and nutrition.  Everything that can be composted- is composted. The microcosm of the farm or garden is taken into consideration as it’s own, unique living entity, and treated as such. Special potentized manure and herbal preparations are sprayed onto crops and soil to increase overall health and humic content of soil. Biodynamic gardens and farms are in balance ecologically and spiritually, as they unify practical methods with the acknowledgement of the sacredness of all living things and cycles.  In a sense, it philosophically and practically seeks to end the dualism between the self and surrounding nature, and stresses balance and connection to earth energies. The farmer or gardener is deeply attuned to their land and it’s natural rhythms, which provides a basis for advanced consciousness and in turn, highly effective farming and gardening.  It all sounds lofty and mystical, and in many respects…it is! Gloriously so.  But the bottom line is that these practices truly work and you will see noticeable results from even one season of gardening biodynamically. In your garden, as well as in your own personal consciousness.

-Loretta Allison

Loretta Allison is a prop and floral stylist who gardens biodynamically in her South Pasadena garden. She is also soon to be part of the Altadena Farmer’s Market collective, selling biodynamically grown winter garden seedlings to the people.