Did you know that many common herbs are in danger of going extinct?
Have you ever used Echinacea to stave off a cold or flu? It is pretty much a staple medicine here around my house. Especially in the wintertime with all the exposure from gatherings of relatives, holiday foods, and the contrast of the warm house to the outside cold to fetch firewood or take care of livestock. One of us is bound to start getting a runny nose, or worse. A dropperful or two of echinacea kicks the immune system into gear and illness is fairly rare in our family.
Years ago, with the birth of my son we put a dab of goldenseal on the cut from the umbilical cord to prevent infection. Was it absolutely necessary? Maybe not. But I was a new mother with my first child and I needed every bit of confidence I could get, and I am grateful to have had the ally of the goldenseal.
I was stunned recently to discover that both of these medicines, and a surprising number of others, are in big trouble.
I got a chance to do a short video interview with Rosemary Gladstar who is the founder of the organization “United Plant Savers”. Getting that interview was quite a challenge as Rosemary is quite famous and just walking across a room with her is almost impossible with everyone vying for her attention. But she is dedicated to saving these important plant communities – watch this short video – we need to pull together on this one!
Learn what you can do and how you can help at www.UnitedPlantSavers.org.
Marjory Wildcraft is an Expedition Leader and Bioneer Blogger with The [Grow] Network, which is an online community that recognizes the wisdom of “homegrown food on every table.” Marjory has been featured as an expert on sustainable living by National Geographic, she is a speaker at Mother Earth News fairs, and is a returning guest on Coast to Coast AM. She is an author of several books, but is best known for her “Grow Your Own Groceries” video series, which is used by more than 300,000 homesteaders, survivalists, universities, and missionary organizations around the world.
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Just this fall I put in a goldenseal bed at my home in South central Idaho!!!
Also, did you know that barberry and Oregon grape root are analogs to goldenseal? Barberry is a landscape staple and Oregon grape root grows well in many environments in the West. It is also a landscape plant out here.
God is so good to provide MANY alternatives for the varying climates that have been developed on this Earth.
Thanks Steven,
Yes I am working to find a really good herbalist with lots of local, bioregional information for our upcoming home herbals class starting next year.
Thank you so much for this video. I, too, would be lost without my Echinacea and goldenseal….omg. I will go to the plant savers website and buy at least, one, of their books.
Also, I will just mention that my friend, Kelly Madigan (a published author and poet) became aware of the diminished numbers of monarch butterflies that we are experiencing. And one of the causes, is because the milkweed plants are disappearing — (along with habitat, both here and in Mexico)– probably for some of the same reasons that we have fewer numbers of the the herbal plants. I believe that the monarchs lay their eggs on the milkweed plants and then when the new monarchs come out, they feed on the milkweed. (if I’m not mistaken)
Here is Kelly’s great idea. I don’t know if Nebraska is like other states with their cemeteries, but she thought everyone should plant milkweed on their family members’ graves or around their tombstones (of course, some of the bigger cemeteries have restrictions on that sort of thing) and then the cemeteries would be full of monarchs flying around. And it would make what might be a sad place, it could become a happier place. I thought this might be a wonderful solution, and I’m so proud of Kelly that she thought of that.
Thanks again, Marjory, for your marvelous e-mails. You rock!
Carolyn F.
Carolyne,
Yes, butterflies in cemeteries is a beautiful solution.
Thank You for the time you put into creating these videos for all of us to learn new things. I just moved to a small town South central Wi. looking forward to planting all medicinal and herbal plants in the front and side of my house. Dogs get the backyard. have two 5ft.x5ft. gardens last year to start, will start 2 more this spring. I want all flowers on my property, to be usable. No space for ornamental flowers. Oh and I planted 4 Blueberry bushes and 3 blackberry plants. We will see how they grow.
Congrats Pam on your gardens. I am guessing the blackberries will do well! They are practically a weed almost everywhere.
Hi,
The last two days have got me in a pickle. Since every time I try to view a video from your site I get a German site instead. I get other videos OK, but every time it is this German site. Just thought I would let you know.
Bye,
Matt Newell
Matt,
That is quite strange. I’ll look into it.
What computer and browser are you using?
Sound like your browser or DSN may of been hijack. Run a full antivirus scan. Also I would run something like Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware as well.
Hi Marjory. A little off this topic but I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed the Grow Your Own Groceries video set that I purchased. Just a quick question. Is raising ducks different from raising geese? I have 18 moringa trees. If I were to raise ducks, what would I need to feed them besides moringa? Also would I need more pond water space than the trays that you use for the geese?
Hi Adrian,
Ducks and geese are bit different. Ducks eat a wider variety of things including broadleaf plants and insects – which geese aren’t interested in. You’ll need to feed them more than moringa – almost no creature can live on a single food source. But nice that you have so many trees going. You might consider a side business of selling moringa tea for you neighborhood
On the other hand, ducks lay eggs almost year round. Which is much nicer for a human food source than geese.
The ducks would do well with the water pans as I show using for the geese. All water animals would like more water of course, but they would be fine with that. And hopefully you’ll be using that poopy water to fertilize the trees…
One of the best books about ducks is Carol Depp’s “Resilient Gardener”. You can pick up a copy at Amazon here: http://astore.amazon.com/wwwbackyardfo-20