Connecting with the Herb
Hello family! And here we go again! A Wednesday in April, a beautiful spring day here in the Netherlands. I am currently chewing on a licorice tree branch. And why? To keep on moving, to stimulate my jaw muscles. I have been learning so much in the past months and there is a lot more to come. I am currently doing an aquaponics course which includes, theory, design and practice. We have had a couple of theory classes, one design get together and we are going to start the build this Sunday at the Creative Garden. On a related topic, I registered to take a Permaculture Design Certification here in the Netherlands, starting at the end of the month. Woohoo! I am excited about all the learning.
I have also been learning about the planting of annual vegetables, since we started sowing seeds of those into the ground in the communal garden and we have started our private plot with Elkita. Following the same train of thought I have been learning about plants in general since they are all coming back to life with the spring. What has attracted me the most are the weeds and specially the Dandelions at this time of the year. Because of this I have been researching these more closely and have been asking people at the garden and following other weed or herb lovers on Instagram like @forestwyfe and @verbalroots. I have been learning a ton from all of them. I was asking Jonatan from the garden about his experience with these herbs or weeds or if he had any guidance and he sent me many online books that include topics in permaculture, agro forestry, mushroom cultivation, herbs and more. There are like one hundred books so I am still learning what all I have. Since I am so eager to learn about these herbs or weeds I started reading the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Herbal Remedies, supposedly reading this book is the equivalent to talking a 101 class on Herbalism. So I think it is a good place to start. I would like to be able to become proficient with herbs to be able to create medicine and help people live in ease.
These herbs or weeds are amazing to me. They provide so much and they seem to survive in the craziest conditions. They are resilient, they provide food for wild life, they don’t require any human input, on the contrary, humans spend A LOT of energy and resources on trying to keep these herbs or weeds away and they forever keep on coming back. They are amazing! Now I see them as teachers, as healers, as the wise plants, as food providers and as the freedom fighters, they will not give up.
The other day I was at the garden checking out the abundance of Dandelions and I couldn’t help to see how excited the honey bees were, rubbing themselves all over the Dandelion pollen, and the Dandelion has a lot of pollen! While checking out the Dandelions I realized how many other herbs were growing like Plantain and Stinging Nettle and many others that I still do not know their names. Additionally, based on what I am learning, all of these herbs or weeds are edible and have medicinal properties! Wooow! What bogles my mind is how we don’t know about this as mainstream information, that is why I am in the quest of learning more, trying these herbs and weeds, observing more attentively and connecting to people that have experience with herbs or weeds. I have been posting some pictures of my herb adventure on my Instagram @Nayasupercamp. I have already been eating some of the Dandelion leaves as part of my greens in the salad, I am dehydrating Stinging Nettle to make tea and I am also dehydrating the Dandelion roots to make tea as well.
To wrap it up, Elkita and I are back to our home routine after several exciting weeks of visitors in the house. We had friends from Elkita’s Master’s program and old friends from Costa Rica and new friends from the Netherlands. It was 3 weeks packed with excitement and learning from other people. Now that we are more relaxed we re-started our morning routines watching Infinite Waters and all his teachings on becoming our greater selves which we love! Peeeeeace!!! His teachings are amazing. As a final inspirational note I am really excited to see how people are willing to help each other out through Karma Tribe. It is so fun to see what creative people like to offer to other people and also see how people are opening up to share their needs.
As I always say, we live in a magical world, and even though sometimes the routine or the stagnancy or the anxiety kick in always remember there is magic out there. I have to make myself remember that all the time and I love falling in love with existence.