Rose Cottage

 I've been enjoying the Food Revolution Network Summit, featuring interviews with a wonderful range of health practioners.  Dieticians, health coaches, MDs and Osteopaths .... each focused on helping their clients make little changes to overcome challenges, and move toward better health. And they apply the same principles for their own health and well being!  The evidence points to whole food, plant based diets laying the best foundation for optimum health! Other pillars are incorporating daily movement, reducing stress, getting good sleep.  One concern folks often have around plant strong diets - will I get enough protein? Plant based protein is well absorbed, and as we age, we do need to be sure we're getting enough!  A range of .8 - 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of weight is suggested daily  (divide your weight in pounds by 2.2 to convert from pounds to kg!)  Folks who are more active need more protein, as do kids as they're growing.  And b...

 Recently, I came across an account by Melanie Sawyer on dehydrating wild foods and grinding them into flour. She uses these at home, and found they served her health, during a stint on a reality TV show.  Melanie writes, " making flours converts perishable, bulky or bitter forest forage into lightweight, shelf-stable staples to be used throughout the lean months." (And rodents are less likely to steal flours - they're harder to tuck in their cheeks!) I was delighted that she featured using the seeds of yellow dock, Rumex Crispa! We've all seen those beautiful red-brown seed heads - yes! They can be harvested and used for food! (And - at thousands of wee seeds per stalk, it's a great use!)  "They are widely foraged over England, Scandinavia and Europe, and used as a nutritious, yeast and gluten-free wild brown flour that tastes similar to buckwheat." Dock stem  with chaff and seeds With their deep roots, dock acts as a bio-accumulator, bringing minerals ...

 This morning I headed out to the gardens, and gathered Comfrey and borage leaves for a batch of  FPJ - Fermented Plant Juice. This is a pleasant  (and less stinky!) way to use Comfrey  to enhance plant health in our gardens!   Comfrey and FPJ in Rose Cottage Garden Welsh gardener Huw Richards gives this description on his  YouTube tutorial on making and using FPJ for healthier plants and soil.  "Fermented Plant Juice (or FPJ in short) is a method developed from Korean Natural Farming, to help get better yields using local and 100% natural materials. "The whole goal in Korean Natural Farming is to use local resources to make mineral and biological amendments that not only improve results in the garden, but are kind to nature and helps close the waste gap in our modern culture." Nettles, dandelions, mugwort, or nasturtium are also great options for making FPJ. Perennial plants are especially potent bioaccumulators. Look for young, fresh leaves, a...

  This fall marks  3 years since I moved across town to my daughter's, and (the following spring) into my sweet Rose Cottage. It was awesome to have so much help with sorting and downsizing for the move! That was a marathon - which we often attempt on our own - but without aid, it can be  overwhelming!  For  day-to-day tending  and periodic  resets , it's better to do in regular, steady increments. I watched a  little clip  from an organizer of a marathon sorting project, and could relate to the stacks and piles and boxes ... d uring my move, my son-in law was the 'take away guy,' dealing with trash, recycling, donations, things we were bringing over here, and storage.  Along with season's turn, I am also preparing for the SoulCollage® Facilitator training (squee!)  It feels timely to do a fall reset with this in mind, and set the stage for deepening with creative process!  I tend to let things pile up around me - and I hav...

  One of the prerequisites for  SoulCollage® Facilitator training is to create and meet cards from several suits, including 2 Companion Suit cards. From the  description of this suit  on the  KaleidoSoul  website:  these cards r epresent the energetic dimensions of our lives.   This suit encompasses two different kinds of energies:  Animal energies Chakra (body) energies You can think of your Animal Totems as imaginary guides on your life journey. You might also think of them as Power Animals because each one imparts a special energy/power to your life. The animals can be animate or legendary - like the Courage card i made this spring - featuring a phoenix. As you choose images, be open to both animals you already feel connected to, and surprises!  Courage  In the 90s, I did a visioning journey to discover Chakra totem animals, in a workshop with indigenous doctor/ healer Louis Mehl. I know I have the notes *somewhere* - horse,...

  What a lovely week with lots of tsalagi sprinkles!  On Saturday, our Willamette TsaLaGi and the Mount Hood groups hosted folks from the Cherokee Nation for a feast and gathering in Salem, Oregon!  Principal Chief Chuck Hoskins Jr   Guests included Principal Chief Hoskins, Storyteller Robert Lewis, at large council members, and several others - plus 2 ASL interpreters! My friend ᎵᏒ (Li-sv) helped send food and volunteered at the Willamette TsaLaGi booth. When I met Chief Hoskins, I mentioned taking Cherokee online with Ed Fields, and he, in turn, mentioned that during his 'state of the nation' talk! I'm in Ed's first Cherokee ᏅᎩ (nv-gi /Four) class, and we're learning verb tenses. It's fun for all of us (Ed included!) to work with new sentences and 'Word pictures.' This week I also joined the hybrid language study group which meets at the Longhouse at Lane CC. This is where our language classes have been held - and is open for use by indigenous groups. ...