The World According to Monsanto

I'm a member of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. Today I received a notice from them, which I feel compelled to share:

On March 11 a new documentary was aired on French television (ARTE –French-German cultural tv channel) by French journalist and film makerMarie-Monique Robin, The World According to Monsanto - A documentary that Americans won't ever see. The gigantic biotech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-842180934463681887&hl=en
Please watch and forward before this gets removed.

Chickweed for Breakfast

I love early Spring when I can finally begin harvesting wild greens from the garden! I make scrambled eggs with sauted' greens about 3 times a week year-round, but in Winter, the greens are locally-grown baby salad mix from a farmer with a greenhouse. They're good, but they don't compare to wild greens! The day before yesterday we had Nettles in our eggs for the first time this year, and today we had Chickweed! We have several little mounds growing near each other - here's a photo of one of them just before I started snipping. I use sharp scissors & take the longer stems, back to the outer edge of the rosette.

I harvested about 3 cups loosely in the colander & then went back inside to rinse the little bits of soil off. Chickweed (Stellaria media) is so soft & moist that you really have to handle it gently or it will bruise. I use a colander with larger holes & a smooth surface, so that the debris can wash through the holes & the tender plants won't be scratched with the wire most colanders are made of.

After a good rinsing, I melted some butter in the skillet & added the Chickweed.

Once the Chickweed was thoroughly wilted, probably 2 minutes, I poured an egg & goat milk mixture into the pan & made scrambled eggs! Voila! Breakfast!

Poem from Shekhinah

It's interesting how things happen. This morning someone placed an order on my web site for a book, Ariadne's Thread, written by my friend Shekhinah Mountainwater. Shekhinah died last August. So, missing her, I "searched" her name & found a poem I don't remember reading before. A call to heirloom apples! Here it is.

Apple Tales
by Shekhinah Mountainwater
2/11/06

Five things a proper apple must contain
Ripe, crisp, tart, juicy and sweet
To satisfy me tooth and tongue
And make the eating of her complete
Can these be alligned perhaps
With the magic pentacle?
Is that why She placed Her star So cleverly within?

So hard it is now to find such
In the marketplace
Apples are there so vividly displayed
In colors red and gold and green
But alas they are mealy or dry or flavorless
Even now the beloved MacIntosh.
"Delicious" grown to distorted unnatural shape
And Braeburns from Australia
That I had found still held those Five
Have also changed.

Gone are the true authentic apples
Fading from our world even as Gaia herself is fading
Sisters we must bring them back!
Find the seeds and plant anew
Rewrite the myths now gone askew
No wonder apples have lost their taste
When the tales told of them speak untrue!

The Essential Herbal Blog: A Sense of Wonder Camp

As I have mentioned before, I am one of the founding board members of Full Circle Susquehanna, Inc. We are a small non-profit organization dedicated to the empowerment of women and girls. We have a distinctly earth-centered perspective.

Each June, during the week of Summer Solstice, for nearly 15 years, we have offered a one-week camp for girls, called Sense of Wonder camp. Girls often return for four, five or even more years for this wonderful experience.

This morning, the mother of one of the long-time campers wrote about it on her blog. Here's a link:

The Essential Herbal Blog: A Sense of Wonder Camp

A Carpet of Blue Scilla

It's amazing to me how early Spring seems to have arrived here. There is a fabulous carpet of blue Scilla under the Japanese Maples in front of our house. My mother-in-law, Maggie, planted some many years ago. I've lived in this house for 18 years & they multiply every year. There are thousands of them now. I can see them from way down the street & my heart just leaps every time they come into view. What a wonderful way to be welcomed home!

That's the fence around my compost in the background, and a gate into the back garden where the labyrinth is.

"Turn off the Lights" tomorrow night!

On Saturday, March 29th at 8pm local time, millions of people will "turn off the lights" for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.

This is a global event, location doesn't matter! Just DO IT!

Get involved and make a difference! It's easy, and you can make it fun!

To show your support sign up at:
http://www.earthhour.org

Snowdrops are Blooming

I got home about 5:45 tonight & thought that I might have just barely enough light to take a photo of the snowdrops, which are are the fullness of blooming. There are hundreds of them in my gardens, little clumps everywhere. These are in the front of the house, where they get more sun than the ones in back in the labyrinth. It's still quite chilly here, but every year the snowdrops come out, as soon as the light begins to grow. Some years they are mostly covered with snow, but they don't seem to mind.

I read somewhere that snowdrops are sacred to the goddess Brigid, but I can't seem to remember where I heard that. If anyone knows more of the lore, I'd love to hear from you. Since they are the first flower to bloom, snowdrops are like a promise from Mother Nature - reminding us to be assured that Winter is coming to an end, and Spring is on the way. The Wheel of the Year keeps turning.

I've also read in Anne McIntyre's book, Flower Power, that snowdrops are considered a flower symbolic of death, and that many people think the flower looks like a shroud. What a lovely, soft, sweet-smelling shroud that would be.

If I could harvest all of the tiny snowdrop flowers in my garden and sew them all together, I would make a shroud for my dear friend. Lynn was in a terrible car accident on the night of the lunar eclipse. She's been unconscious ever since, and was removed from life support on Tuesday afternoon. Her body still breathes, but not for long. Her spirit is ready to move on. I will miss her so much. I always thought that Lynn would be a long-time elder in my spiritual community, but alas, it is not to be.