While on the topic "Fermented food as medicine" - for anyone interested, I published a stack on sauerkraut and its wondrous powers on 1 Jan (my homepage- under most popular).
Finland has a long history of fermented cabbage and amongst the choices at the supermarket we can get very good live types as well as pasteurised options.
Every year my uncle and a group of volunteers make hundreds of kg of fermented cabbage and sell it with the proceeds going to charity.
Hah! I did not know that it is possible to get proper live sauerkraut in the supermarket.. Must be that it is used in big quantities in Finland.
Here in Croatia, majority of people are eating it only in fall/winter - with beans or bloodsausage. And they heat it up - so they do not care if it is the supermarket pasteurized stuff with an additive.
I do not cook with it, seems like a waste ... on the other hand, we always have farmers-markets and usually proper live sauerkraut can be bought.
Thank God, it seems people are really realizing how food is the only medicine - traditional food is slowly but surely coming back.
Though 95% of what is available in stores here is ultra mushy chemical laced nutritionally depleted garbage kraut, we can purchase real (unpasteurized and no chemicals) sauerkraut here in Canada at the big supermarket stores now but it is very expensive.
In this post ( https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/decembers-delight ) where I shared some of my photography (and some pics of fermented cabbage preserves I made that month) I did a bit of math to calculate how much one cabbage worth of real sauerkraut would be worth (using our store prices) here is what I came up with.
Here, a typical medium to large sized cabbage cost me a few dollars but it will allow me to make 4 liters plus of Sauerkraut or Kimchi. In our area, a tiny 250 ml jar of unpasteurized sauerkraut costs about 10 dollars CAD (7$ on sale). That means by combining one cabbage with a little salt and some elbow grease with a little patience, I can increase the value of this cabbage from 3 or 4 dollars to 150 dollars worth of kraut or chi. That is a 3650% increase in value. Through teaming up with our elders and allies in the bacteria kingdom (allowing them to carry some of the work load) we are empowered to beat inflation (while increasing our health) one cabbage at a time.
I was reading a lot of comic books as a kid. It turned out that many authors were somehow predicting the state of the world in near future, as well as giving out clues about esoteric knowledge.
So I always found the idea of super expensive GREEN food funny. At least while I read that issue of Alan Ford comic book. Spike in price on all organic food like you desribe, so that only rich people can afford it.
Some 15 years later, when I saw how it is becoming a reality I realized that writers of books and comics etc "predict" the future A LOT. And thats not the only case from comic books.
Good example would be J.Verne's "20000 Leagues Under The Sea" - and, I think it was 50 years after it was published that we had submarines.
So, Is it predicting or is it predictive programming or just catching what is floating in the Akash is an interesting question.
That said, I am a DIY guy mostly out of necessity, so I know the value of work and material; and I hate to see anything that is overpriced... tough world to be in hahah...today every other enterprise is trying to sell smoke&mirrors.
And I agree, as individuals who are accepting the full responsibility as humans, only thing we can do is try and change what is wrong with a better example. And what will be will be...
Food forests are so bad ass, once you get them going (even in cold climates) they can produce amazing abundance with very little work. They gain momentum as nature starts carrying the work load through leaf litter building soil and retaining moisture (also trees create their own rain patterns so this creates a microclimate that means less drought in the area).
There are a multitude of different food forest design techniques that have grown out of ancient cultures all over the world. Each of them has its own set of benefits and each climate and soil type these approaches are utilized in yields different results (calorically speaking, nutritionally speaking and in other yields that are not food related). One theme that all functioning regenerative agroforestry food cultivation systems (aka food forests) share is that due to the inherent biodiversity and positive feedback loops that exist between the crop producing plants (and fungi) within that system and the soil organisms that support those crop producing plants, the nutrient density of the crops produced in food forests are superior to food produced in conventional agriculture systems. Based on my direct experience with such systems in a couple different areas, I am confident that if you looked at a range of different climates and approaches, you would find that that are forest gardens that produce a great deal more calories (as well as vitamins and minerals) per acre than conventional agriculture.
One can begin to glimpse the potent difference in the vitamins and minerals found in food that is grown as part of a functioning ecosystem composed of symbiotically connected organisms, vs food that is produced in a monoculture in dead dirt, via this study:
When compared to crops from conventional farms, crops from regenerative agriculture farms (which means grown in living soil like you would have in a food forest and/or regenerative garden) had 34% more vitamin K, 15% more vitamin E, 14% more vitamin B1 and 17% more vitamin B2. The regenerative agriculture crops also had 11% more calcium, 16% more phosphorus and 27% more copper.
The study also compared wheat crops. Regenerative wheat crops were planted in a crop rotation pattern that included cover crops between crops of spring barley and winter wheat. The regenerative wheat samples had 41% more boron, 29% more magnesium, 48% more calcium and 56% more zinc than conventional wheat samples.
When you grow crops at home or in a community garden (using regenerative and/or forest gardening techniques) in living soil (created via adding homemade compost, companion planting and mulching) the produce you harvest is significantly more nutritious than conventionally grown store bought.
Those metrics do not even begin to address the many non-food related gifts which are offered by regenerative farms, gardens and forest gardens that serve to enhance the resilience of individuals who tend them (and their communities.)
Also, for those that eat meat (or just want to keep goats, sheep or cows for milk or chickens for eggs) there is so much potential for integrating animals into food forest systems for grazing.
In ancient times here on the plains of Turtle Island (aka "North America") the people who lived here did controlled burns of brush and grass land in the proximity of their food forests which stimulated lush green grass re-growing there. In doing so, they would entice the large migratory herds of Buffalo to graze where they wanted them to (for easy hunting and also because the Buffalo would build soil through their manure deposits and roll around in the grass creating microclimates for other animals, increasing biodiversity and resilience in their food forest systems).
That link above from Lyla June goes into some of how that was accomplished and I think there is a lot of potential for customizing a similar approach when we design food forests in present day and we want to keep animals (and find easier cheaper ways to keep them fed, while also building soil faster in our food cultivation systems).
I often watch gardening videos and find it interesting how fruits, vegetables, and flowers are grown from "seed." Gardening is an enormously popular avocation and there's a zillion YouTube channels on horticulture attesting to that. Many find growing organic vegetables and fruit very satisfying and of course tasty.
In this fucked up hellhole known as planet Earth if you find a peaceful and rewarding endeavor pursue it as long as it makes you happy.
That being said, if shit hits the fan and civilization goes down the tubes a juicy homegrown organic tomato or a fresh batch of ripe strawberries won't save the day. But, at that point who gives a damn.😁
But seriously, no mention of kimchi? "Korean sauerkraut" has got to be the best fermented food I've ever had and I'm not Asian. Wife makes it and the family goes through about a gallon every two to three weeks for a couple of years now.
I am even more into Kimchi than I am into Sauerkraut, so much so that I have created recipes for three different kinds using our seasonal garden abundances! :)
If you click on the hyperlink in the second paragraph into the post above that says "I find that low tech (nutrient dense) preserves (which include things like fermented cabbage) serves both those functions beautifully." it will take you to my basic Kimchi recipe. However, given you and your wife are likely a bit more adventurous and into exploring complex kimchi variations i`ll also share a link to my full recipe for something I call "Purple Dragon Chi" below:
I would say that kimchi "knee caps" big pharma's plans to keep us sick and dependent on their synthetic drugs even more effectively than Sauerkraut due to it containing Ginger and Hot Peppers.
I published in depth articles exploring the medicinal/nutritional benefits of both of those ingredients that go into kimchi and i`ll share those below as well:
i used to live in Korea where I experienced the benefits of Kimchi and I still eat it. Kimchi is a Korean present to humanity. I remember the local saying that one man can live without a woman but surely not without Kimchi.
In my recently published book I sought to relay the message that in order to regenerate and restore the integrity of our society and the ecosystems (ecosystem restoration) outside of us, we must first engage in “ego-system re-story-ation”. I elaborated on why this path of inward exploration and healing is essential in the essay discussed in the interview above (titled "Why Involuntary Governance Structures are Not Compatible with The Permaculture Ethical Compass").
In that essay (and in others, some of which I linked above) I elaborate on why I believe that only through consciously and willingly embracing this love within, knowing our own eternal spirit and being present in the moment to recognize that same eternal spark in all other beings, can we truly know (lasting) peace, happiness and fulfillment through engaging in ‘ego-system re-story-ation’ and then eventually ecosystem restoration as well.
Thus, I do not simply "Ask people to behave wisely" but rather I advocate each and everyone of us living by example, learning to recognize the eternal spark within, fanning it like a spark to make it a flame and in doing so helping others to light that same flame within themselves. Each of us can do this in our own way. The Creator gave each of us unique gifts that can be put to use for the purpose of fanning that flame and engaging in "‘ego-system re-story-ation’. Some have the gift of music or physical art forms, some create art with words, some stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves, some shine a light into the shadows to make them flee and others plant seeds and tend the rich living Earth.
It is also important to point out that the pathway to walk in the forest and work in the garden with humility is a catalyst for moments of inner clarity and transcendent awareness of the soul to shine through the drudgery of the 9-5 life, thus, taking the step to learn from nature and grow food in the garden invites one to take steps to nurture the garden within simultaneously.
The time we are living in now calls us to walk not one of those paths, but both paths simultaneously. The Creator calls on those with the courage to walk the mystical path with practical feet.
I tried the hugelkultur... I didn't have to water as often but... I got a mess of unknown mushrooms.... which made me ditch the root crops because I didn't know if they were deadly or not.
Also.... what about gophers.... and other critters? They have eaten all the best produce :(
That is a fascinating with the mushrooms. It would indicate that the wood you used was on an accelerated path to become good healthy soil so in that sense I would describe the presence of mushrooms in that kind of planting as a "good" thing. Unless the root crops were rotting out then the mycelium of the fungi (the underground part of the organism) which produced those mushrooms would not be infiltrated or contaminated by the fungi (even if it was a poisonous species) so I do not think you have to worry about that aspect.
I have not dealt with Gophers, but i`ll share the same thing I shared with Mishelle in another thread where we were discussing animal pressures on gardens as it applies universally.
Since I always look to nature for guidance, my first step would be to assess whether or not the population of the given animal that is digging up/foraging on my garden crops exists in an unnatural population density due to a crippling of the predator prey relationships/natural habitat they would have had in an intact ecosystem before humans may have interfered. If that was the case, I would attempt to encourage the predators that would have originally kept their numbers in check (and their grazing sporadic/well spread out) to set up shop in that ecosystem again, so they can do their important job in that web of relationships (as Mother Earth and Creator intended). Owls are great Gopher hunters so might be worth looking into creating owl habitat?
If introducing a wild predator to that situation was not viable (due to lack of my ability to encourage them to set up shop there, the fact that I have domesticated animals outside that would be harmed or some other variable involving humans preferences/needs) I would seek to find the closest facsimile (likely a few large domesticated canines) and give them the job of patrolling that space in exchange for the food, companionship and shelter I would provide them.
If those potentials are not viable for what ever reason I would likely dive into understanding more about the biology, grazing habits and psychology of the herbivore/omnivore in question (which is digging up/foraging on my preferred garden crops) and see if there is some other aspect of their natural habits and relationship with their environment which I could extrapolate a strategy from to discourage or deter them from focusing on my garden as the place to dig and forage.
Other methods focus on deterring via smells like Garlic or "Bone Sauce" like this
Thank you so much for all the information!! The year I caught 30 gophers I had a helper so I didn't have to dispose of them myself - a raccoon. I tied string on the trap and secure dit to those little garden decor flag poles. I'm convinced the raccoon just looked for the flags to know where to check for breakfast! Raccoons didn't try carrying off their prize but coyotes did.
I have hawk families and falcons but they can't keep up. Owls live here too but I've more seen them go for the mice/rat type.
I have a trail camera and the coyote makes a trip through here about every 3rd night but gopher must not be on his menu. I know they say the gophers are here to soften up the soil but I have great soil and in some areas I have no idea how their runs don't collapse.
Right now I've resorted to all raised beds for vegetables and figure I've got a ready supply of meat for the apocalypse :) I couldn't do it though... they have such lovely soft fur....
The only thing with raised beds if you really have to cover them or the rats and other night critters get at things..... I'm thinking some sort of rat terrier is needed to keep the varmints reduced but that's a commitment all on its own.
hahah ya why not!? :) If the predators from the wild cannot do the job, perhaps some people can take on that role themselves to bring balance to the equation.
I think our cats and dog would be the same if we had any gophers or wild pigs in the garden, they are too spoiled. Well except maybe one feral cat we rescued named Gracie. She is a super motivated hunter of all things (even sometimes our poor Great Dane's wagging tail!) which results in him putting her in her place and now she has a missing piece of one ear.
Wild Hogs and Gophers! That must be super frustrating.. since you guys eat meat, do you end up having a lot of wild game bbqs? or are they mostly too sneaky for hunting?
Ah okay, that is helpful info, thanks for the details.
We rescued a Great Dane at age 3 (he is all scarred up from someone wacking him with something when he was a pup). Jasper is very good as a guard dog for people (one bark when some stranger is at the front door or in yard makes the windows vibrate and they step back pretty quick haha) but he is a wimp for unpleasant weather, water and doesn't go for critters in the garden. At least the squirrels are scared of him so they stay out of the yard when he is roaming around but ya I doubt he would go for gophers or hogs.
I caught 30 one year just in the backyard :( ... I recently read that they don't like mint and supposedly putting mint down their holes will drive them off.... haven't tried it yet as my thinking is they will just plug off that section and go merely on their way to their next meal.
I will say, from my own experience — gophers don’t mind mint when (I guess) they’re hungry? They have popped up in my mint. Tho, they didn’t pull it all under ground.
I dislike them, a lot!
I also read, if you put castor oil or cat/dog droppings (💩) in their hole, they will disappear — not in my experience );
Exactly my experience.... so many things I've read and zero of them work. But I've got to catch the one I've got now... altho he may be frighteningly large.... he's not only eaten the root off my rose but also my seflera bush and now a 12 ft tall california pepper tree!! Very strange as there is plenty of grass to eat.
Another thing I saw - (which I’ve not attempted) was to fill a hole with propane. Plug all other holes and ignite ! My property would probably not survive - lol
I swear, on the video you could see the land rise and fall !!!
Wow man, that is fantastic! I have never tried counting how many I can identify here in the Carolinian Forest but I think that will make a fun game for my forest walks this year. Thanks for the inspiration!
I admire your tenacity and the wisdom of your intended path to gather botanical literacy knowledge through direct experience. That is the kind of experience and knowledge that only increases in value as time goes on and can enrich many people's lives who you cross paths with.
Precisely. My daytime job as a bus driver usually goes like this:
"Good morning."
"Crickey, look at all the dandelions growing there."
"Geeze, bumper crop of pods on that flame tree this year!"
"Oh nice, madeira vines on the train line fence here."
"Someone's neglecting that grapefruit tree."
"Wow, look at that patch of blueberry lilies!"
"Is that... yes! Pecans!"
"The chickweed is dying back... summer will be here soon."
"Ha, look at all you amaranths popping up from the neighbour's side of the fence!"
So I practice my IDs as I go about my normal day. The constant reinforcement creates a solid memory foundation on which I can then hang the extraneous information, like medicinal and other uses of the plants.
I also married a Korean so we do a lot of fermentation, too!
I should also say that while Riley's witty writing is often humorous, this is often the sugar coating that encapsulates a bitter truth which would be hard to stomach on it's own. Thus, you will also find profound truth in the archives on village life and his other convos with friends and acquaintances.
HI Gavin, I am thrilled. I am sure I would receive more than I can give. I have been saving seed from organic veggies for a couple of years, and dating the containers...Let me figure out where I can garden My terrace might be all ( it was very successful last year.) Also I gardened at a friend's and made her promise not to use herbicides or pesticides on the area I carved out of her lawn...I also forage a lot, so I have collected coltsfoot and horsetail( but I don't know where those seeds are...) and Yarrow, and comfrey, and mugwort ( artemisia) and white pine needles and plantain, and red clover, but I really can only identify the seeds on the dried yarrow and mugwort and comfrey...I could grab the white pine cones if I knew when their seeds are ripe. But what a thrill and an honor!
Diana Right now, since my terrace gardening is screened-in, I think I only can use tomatoes and can share butternut and buttercup and acorn, from the Amish....Maybe you have something else to suggest for the pots. I have very limited light indoors so have only been able to maintain my thyme and rosemary and aloes through the winter. If you are anywhere near Vermont at the Canadian border, I could dig up some great rhubarb for you.
That is beautiful, thanks for describing your experiences gardening over the past couple years.
I also love to forage, perhaps you could collect some wild seeds for me this summer from medicine plants local to your region?
Yarrow seeds would be much appreciated.
I had an enchanting experience with wild yarrow in the high alpine of BC last summer (I share some pics about half way down this post: https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/the-jubilation-of-june ) and I was not able to save seed since the flowers bloom so late in the season up there at 7000 feet above sea level. I have wanted to source out some wild seeds ever since though.
I have germinated some seeds I saved from 150 year old plus Eastern White Pines that were growing in Algonquin Provincial Park and I hope to give them a safe home here in southern Ontario out of the reach of the loggers that will be targeting their beautiful parents.
I love that you want to do a stealthy cross border rhubarb gifting operation! I have a lot in my garden but your generous offer warms my heart, thanks for that.
As far as what to grow in pots, have you ever tried growing Ginger as a house plant? What about Tusli (aka "holy basil")?
Home economy in a rural/bucolic environment is the actual genuine, neglected, normal. Saurkraut is special! Neo-paganism/idolatry/gaianism/new-age religion stinks, however! A little, superficial insight, for we are under attack from the entities of darkness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaianismhttps://spells8.com/lessons/gaia-goddess/
Thanks for the comment and for sharing your thoughts.
While I never claimed to subscribe to nor endorse "Neo-paganism, idolatry, gaianism, nor 'new-age' religion" I suppose my recognition of the planet Earth as a sentient living organism could be labelled as "gaianism". Though I am sure that word is seen as meaning a bunch of things that I do not agree with, so I tend to avoid such labels whenever possible and just live the truth (allowing people who like labels to either apply them to me, or not, with me not paying much attention either way).
I have no interest in religious dogmas, I advocate people should use their own God given senses of perception (both physical senses and senses that allow for perception of non-physical aspects of this universe) to directly perceive the truth of what is for themselves so they can know the truth (rather than simply believing what someone else is telling them to accept as true). Most religions attempt to train people into seeing themselves as being dependent on books, gurus or priests of some sort to be able to know what is true and what is not. I think that type of system is a scam.
I advocate for autodidactism as a more reliable form of learning and being capable of discerning what is true and what is not.
I feel that the Earth is indeed a conscious being, self aware and very much alive. This feeling I have, this inward knowing, was not born out of scientific data, other’s opinions, or any kind of external stimuli, but rather it was something I came to understand through spending much time in nature, consciously entering into stillness of mind, and learning to enable my heart to act as an organ of perception. It is in that state of inward stillness that I came to directly sense the consciousness and life pulse of this world in which we inhabit.
Since that experience I have learned that though we live in a 3 dimensional universe, this physical form and experience we all share here does not represent the true essence of who and what we are. It is understandably difficult to approach the question above without knowing that innate truth. To ask your self if a planet is alive and sentient, while seeking to define the housing, mechanisms, and structure of a planetary consciousness limited by the assumption that it is purely 3 dimensional, is like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle without having all the pieces. You see without acknowledging our own multidimensionality, and learning to move beyond the limitations of the 5 senses, human brain and ego we cannot see the full picture.
Science is the system of thought which explores this universe through the truly amazing intellectual capacities of the human brain (a bio-mechanical molecular electromagnetic computer) the operating system for the most advanced machine known to exist in the universe, the human body. So while this brain may be exceptionally well versed at navigating and perceiving this 3 dimensional plane of time and matter, through the 5 senses. It cannot perceive that which exists beyond, and there lies the limitation of the science of the current paradigm on earth to understand the nature of the universe and existence.
That being said, it is possible to gain meaningful insight into this reality through the true scientific process (that being the exploration of the world and universe around and inside of us, through measurement and observation, while always being open to the possibility that the 'facts' we think to be absolute and fundamental could indeed be proved to be wrong or need an improved understanding). Modern science tell us that there are aspects of this universe that are very real that cannot be perceived with our 5 senses, things that are all around us, microbial life, higher octaves of light, gamma and ultraviolet rays, and frequencies of sound and vibration beyond the spectrum that we can detect. A few hundred years ago, if you told someone that in a cup of pond water there are multitudes of strange lifeforms taking many shapes smaller than the eye can see, you would have probably been told that you are crazy.
Throughout human history paradigms of thought and 'science' have asserted them selves and their principles as absolute only to be proven false by new understandings subsequently coming to light. Do we really think that we are exempt from this historical lesson? Are we so arrogant that we claim to be standing on the pedestal of absolute knowledge, like so many before us, closing ourselves to new ideas and understandings that challenge our current paradigm of thought?
There are now many scientists who do believe that plants possess some form of sentience. That in fact they have intelligence, perception, thought and that their behavior is often altruistic. Many are surprised to find out that the truth, is, that like animals, plants communicate, feel, think and respond to their environment including interactions with humans… and similar to humans, plants actually reason. Here are a few of the links I found related to this.
So, even working within the constraints of the current scientific model, we are now learning that plants possess a far greater level of intelligence than was previously assumed, at the same time we are also learning that these intelligent plants are connected over large distances through vast networks of mycorrhizal communities. These communities of fungi which form a symbiotic relationship with the plants roots, also have now been shown to serve as a communication system between plants. Even plants of different species have been documented using this 'organic internet' to communicate directly with others, warning each other of impending aphid invasions and even sharing resources to a seedling in need.
Given that we are only beginning to understand these intricate inter-relationships, and that some of these living networks of mycorrhizae are very ancient, connecting entire old growth forests, I think it would be reasonable to consider that we may indeed be starting to understand the working physical parts of a planetary organism, a part of some kind of her 'central nervous system' perhaps. It is also in my opinion possible that the physical housing, mechanisms, and inter-relationships that make up a 'planetary mind' may exist in the form of subtle energetic frequencies, harmonics, or electromagnetic expressions that are not detectable by our current instruments, or at least not discernible as a coherent representation of a sentient mind.
I feel it is also worth noting that the living Earth has been measured to communicate in the language of energy in a way that is life affirming and in a way that nurture’s coherence among the beings that call her body home. She does this with her eternal heart beat (which some call the Schumann Resonance) that harmonizes and connects all living beings on the Earth. I believe that in doing so, she offers us inspiration on how we might emulate her way of speaking with the heart to consciously communicate (energetically, anchoring that energy and seeding it through what some might call the “morphic field”) to bring peace and healing to this world.
As we look to define what is intelligent, sentient, and conscious, I suggest that we should be cautious not to go about looking for these things through the limitations of a very 'anthropomorphic lens', and in doing so obscure the discovery of truths and understandings that could benefit and enrich all of our lives. Since we are not separate from nature and are indeed an integrated facet of it, I do feel it would be prudent to begin acting like it. We are like cells of a larger organism in this way. The planet is very alive and we are among the mutually interdependent parts of her that function together to weave the fabric of the biospheres that when in balance, thrive and exist symbiotically. This interconnected web of life fosters the physical evolution of lifeforms that unfold into ever higher levels of complexity, intelligence, and beauty.
Rather than allowing the comforting stagnation of ego flattering ideas (that lean towards self-importance and humanocentric hubris) to guide our thinking (at this critical fork in the road) I would instead humbly suggest that we consider using the sentience (that many so covetously claim is unique to humans) to consciously choose to work in collaboration with each other and the organism we are a part of, lending our creative genius to be a source of creation and inspiration, as we nourish the living world that sustains us, forging reciprocal relationships with our elder species, accepting the wisdom they offer us gratefully and unfolding ever higher expressions of human potential in the process.
The truths I have come to directly experience described above are able to be perceived by anyone willing to let go of ego flattering myths of human exceptionalism and actually use their mind and senses to directly perceive what is.
Growing and preserving your own food is a seditious act, I wholeheartedly support it. We grow, collect and preserve herbs. I would like to start freeze drying of berries and mushrooms. I like fermented cabbage but the effort and smell of making it has held me back so far, it is on my bucket list all the same.
Back in the days of Indian colonialism production of salt was a crown monopoly in India. Gandhi went to the seaside and took a saucer and scooped up some seawater and stood on the beach while waiting for t to dry. This was illegal and when others joined him it caused the colonial overlords to react. Eventually India gained independence.
Thanks for pointing out that important part of history regarding Gandhi's salt Satyagraha movement.
I am a big fan of what Vandana Shiva is doing in breathing new life and purpose into the principles of non-violent resistance to corrupt empire which Gandhi created with her Seed Satyagraha movement. I feel that through gardening, saving seed and preserving food/medicine we can effectively sabotage the plans of the oligarchs for erasing our shared living cultural heritage, nutrient dense diversity of open pollinated crops and our ability to save seed for free.
For more info: https://www.navdanya.org/living-seed/seed-satyagraha I really like their “Global Movement for Seed Freedom” as they focus on a decentralized solutions based approach that can bring resilience to each of our individual communities.
It seems like some of the language used on their website shows that either some people in their organization are ignorant/brainwashed about the ‘climate change/global warming’ scam, they are aware that it’s BS but are using it for PR or they have been infiltrated by COINTELPRO type operatives. That being said, I still think there is a lot of truth, important info worth learning from and solutions worth putting into action which are shared on the Navdanya website (as long as one keeps in mind that the ‘climate change’ narrative that is sometimes brought up in their material is bogus).
They describe these movements as being “..network(s) of individuals and organizations committed to align our thoughts and actions with the laws of Gaia, Pachamama, Vasundhara, Mother Earth… We protect the biodiversity of the planet by defending of the freedom of the seed to evolve in integrity, self-organisation, and diversity. We are seed savers and seed defenders, farmers and gardeners, practitioners of regenerative agriculture..
..Our right to save and exchange our open pollinated, non GMO, non patented seed is non alienable. We will resist every law and technology that attempts to undermine our freedoms, and the freedom of the seed, which is intimately linked to the freedom of Mother Earth. Across Diverse Ecosystems and cultures we are united in defending Seed freedom/Seed sovereignty as the foundation of Food Freedom/Food Sovereignty, based on ecological production and fair and just distribution, beginning with protecting and promoting local food systems.”
I do my best to serve as a living embodiment of seed satyagrahi in my community, gathering ancient heirlooms that offer drought tolerance, cold tolerance, disease resistance, potent nutrition, medicinal benefits, unique flavors and ancient cultural stories, growing them, and sharing them with others far and wide to preserve the living heritage of our ancient ancestors.
I find it very rewarding, not just living with the knowing I am boycotting the corporate oligarchs, but also that I am tending the same living crops that our ancient ancestors spent many generations tending to make them what they are today. It offers a sort of living bridge to connect with and give thanks to those that came before us in a tangible way by honoring (and protecting) the heirloom varieties they worked to co-create with nature.
Our Freeze dryer is one of the few expensive high tech devices I have. It allows me to stack functions and preserve not only entire meals, eggs, soups and any and all garden harvests, but also seeds for both using as food and also simultaneously preserving their viability as living seeds for decades. That way when I use the machine to preserve, beans, amaranth, peas, cannabis seeds etc I can either us them to share or plant as seeds, or eat them as nutrient dense food if need be.
I see the huge practical benefits of freeze dryers but I feel I would be remiss if I did not also caution about the risks of depending (solely) on technology such as that for preserving food.
Unless one is capable of gathering all the electricity they need to run their home (and their freeze drying machine) off grid and unless one has back up components for both the energy generation/accumulation systems and the freeze dryer itself stored in some kind of Faraday cage, situations could arise where that technology could become totally unusable.
This is one of the reasons that I published some material that can help empower individuals to preserve seasonal abundances of food (whether foraged or cultivated) using low tech methods without the need for specialized equipment. Lacto-fermentation is one versatile method that any gardener or forager should become accustomed with as you do not need anything other than salt, water and random containers (such as mason jars etc) to be able to preserve food for up to a year.
If you are not into cabbage due to the smell or what ever, you can ferment other things than cabbage too and get similar health benefits. Hot peppers for instance ferment beautifully. I like to ferment some heirloom chilis whole in a light salt brine for later use in recipes or snacking and then I also make a range of raw fermented hot sauces.
You can find recipes for some of those in this post if you are into hot peppers:
Also, for another fun recipe that involves lacto-fermentation that may be up your ally, check out my process of making Purple Pakoras and Purple Dosa batter. We used black ("forbidden") rice, wild rice, mahogany rice, red lentils, split peas and homegrown amaranth seed to make our batter and it turns out really tasty, nutritious and colorful.
I just replied to another comment about how I am baffled how all the rich people just go along to get along. There are over 33'000 people with more than $100million who would never have to think about money for the rest of their lives and could probably increase it with little effort. While they may be manipulating human society for some perverse reasons towards inconceivable goals I cannot believe that they want society to totally collapse, it would be very bad if they could no longer fly, manipulate, organ transplant and many other things that they do want access to.
I have been an armchair prepper, studying the basics of what I might need to survive a zombie apocalypse but have come to the realisation that what will happen may be less or more but it could equally be something we could not have imagined.
So while the cost of utilities will likely keep rising and cause social pain I do't believe the plan is to have utilities and society totally collapse. New Zealand is not self sufficient in everything, no place is. Not USA, not China, not Europe. Simply bombing all the semiconductor wafer fabs will cause a minimum of 5 years pause in production while new fabs are built. No new memory or processors, all countries would be affected. The goal is not to destroy infrastructure, it is to demoralise the population, sending out scare scenarios of zombie apocalypses (peak zombie was reached about 7 years ago) and disease X is enough to achieve the control objective. Having rumours of depopulation and increasing food prices provides control and endless demoralised slaves.
So I think that freeze drying will remain an option for quite a while, certainly as long as there are elite to oppose.
If society totally crashes we have big problems, there are thousands of nuclear reactors that cannot survive without involved and drawn out shutdown scenarios. The fact that no nuclear sites have been bombed in the Ukraine or elsewhere tells me that war is a facade, real damage is avoided so that the show can continue.
We make Kombucha and Kefir regularly and adding other ferments will not be too hard.
"I cannot believe that they want society to totally collapse, it would be very bad if they could no longer fly, manipulate, organ transplant and many other things that they do want access to."
First of all, it is important to keep in mind that many of the ultra rich people you describe are psychopaths so trying to put yourself in their shoes as though they are rational human beings represents a failure to assess the type of people you are dealing with. These are mentally deranged people, most of the time being sociopathic and psychopathic is a pre-requisite for attaining the amount of material wealth you are describing. Also, some of these billionaires are religious fanatics obsessed with eschatology. Some have openly declared they feel it is their purpose in life to accelerate the second coming of christ or some other religious prophecy involving fire and brimstone.
Human beings that attain obscene amounts of wealth and material influence have shown themselves to be insane. Just look at the history of nuclear weapons testing. Over 2000 nuclear warheads detonated since the 1940-s. Over one thousand of those being detonated by the US. You would think that after a few of them they would know that it works and that its effects are horrific, but no, they kept detonating more of them.. thousands more.
Another variable worth considering is that while most of the governments in the developed world do capitulate to the banksters and corporate oligarchs (imposing similar policies with regards to injections and "Sustainable Development" agendas onto every day people regardless of what country you are in) there is are still significant disagreements among the most powerful people on Earth.
There is never consensus within the echelons of material power on Earth.
We are talking about multi-generational conmen, murders and racketeering specialists. They are self-interested and always guided by fear that another one of their peers will take their stuff (this is true regardless of the veneer of opulence, confidence and unity some of the plutocrats may project outwardly).
At the top of the realms of material influence on Earth is the group that has their grasp on the electrogravitic craft and orbital DEW tech.
They are those select few (who are also among the controlling interests at the BIS, IMF, WB, Blackrock and Vanguard Group) that managed to get their hands on the tech first, and with it, they hold the other plutocrats under constant threat of kidnapping and death (in order to force them to fall in line). For a time the group of the nastiest plutocrats with the nastiest tech were called PI-40 but more recently my sources indicate the committee now has approximately 300 members (though again, a select few of those 300 are the nastiest and most psychopathic/misanthropic ones, and they use the tech they have sequestered to bend the others to their will).
Advanced MILAB operations carried out by paramilitary forces are utilized to kidnap and encourage any members who do not want to go along with what the dominant members are wanting to do at any given time. Those that do not capitulate encounter sudden health challenges.
The nastiest and craziest of that group have constructed massive D.U.M.B.s which are self sustaining city sized fortresses that grow food hydroponically and are shielded to most natural and manmade forms of destruction.
Another, variable worth considering is that even if some of these insane misanthropic billionaires want to keep their top heavy parasitic hyper-centralized industrial infrastructure going indefinitely, their hubris will eventually be their undoing as the finite resources and ecological functions of the living Earth that their industrial civilization depends upon continuing to extract, will eventually reach a breaking point.
The most powerful and wealthy in the Roman Empire likely wanted their reign to continue, yet they extracted from the soil instead of giving back as the more horticulturally advanced and ecologically literate societies did, resulting in the implosion of their empire and infrastructure.
Our industrial infrastructure is on the same trajectory as the Roman Empire's was before it began to implode, right now.
Also, it may not take any bombs to fry all the semiconductor wafer fabs as if our current understanding of astrophysics is correct, eventually the sun will burp out a Carrington Event or larger class CME (as part of it's natural lifecycle) and send our technology dependent civilization back to the stone ages anyways.
Hmm, DUMB?, Antigravity? They exceed my conspiracy theory threshold.
I am still not convinced why EVERY rich person would be amenable to be controlled and not be prepared to fight back if they knew that people would die en mass.
You are quite right about the potential danger of a stronger than usual sun burp, it would drive 99.9% of us into the steam age in just a few days. However a lot of military tech is hardenned enough to keep working for a while. Fuel stockpiles can be rationed for a while, nuclear submarines are probably immune Satelite comunications will probably end but optical firbe communications will probably be recoverable if customers demand it.
Radio amateurs that use thermionic technology will be unaffected if they have a source of power.
Hydroelectric power with lead acid batteries and crude electronics should remain viable. Alcohol powered cars could keep running.
Biggest problem in Finland is the need to het houses in winter and have enough food preserved if the shops are empty.
I would love to be prepared for a 100 year solar storm but it takes more money than I have, either enough forest to cut firewood or property next to a hydro power station that is out of the way and enough fields to grow alcohol and food crops.
I suspect any and all disaster scenarios are amplified to keep everyone in a state of fear even if the probabilities are low or zero that th event is likely.
Data, Historical Info, Physics and Technology (pertaining to interstellar craft and covert manmade electrogravitic craft):
Electromagnetic Lifter Technology (Electrogravitics) is technology that was developed by a brilliant mathematician and physicist who has elucidated the fundamental relationship between electromagnetism, magnetic fields and mass and gravity. Essentially, this technology (having been developed to the level of a proof of principle system as early as 8 decades ago) allows for a reduction in mass, allowing for lift. The principles allow for creating extremely efficient energy generation systems as well as advanced aerospace applications. Examples and scientific background of this technology have been described by Valone (1994, 2004), Cameron (2001), LaViolette (2008), and Loder (2002).
– Valone, T. (2004). Electrogravitics II: Validating reports on a new propulsion methodology. Beltsville,
In the highly classified aerospace industry, such flying devices were dubbed ‘Flux Liners’ because they used the Quantum Vacuum Flux field to provide energy and propulsion. The early Aerospace prototypes used only a 24-volt marine battery as a power-up system, after which the device went ‘over unity’, drawing its power from the Quantum Vacuum of space. Later (once the military got their hands on downed exotic space craft) they used back engineering in combination with what they had learned from the human inventors above to create more efficient and powerful prototypes. One such iteration was called the “A.R.V.”. My research and sources indicate that effective gravity control technology was mastered in covert military R&D programs as of October of 1954. Significant improvements, augmentations and refinement has occurred since then, resulting in a wide array of craft being manufactured in compartmented military contracts (USAPs). To the layman, when observed in flight, these craft would appear ‘extraterrestrial’, this is not by accident.
Historical Background:
It began with Townsend Brown and Kowsky-Frost.
In 1927 an article was published in German journal, describing research experiments by Prof. Kowsky and his engineer Mr. Frost. They discovered that if they placed a quartz crystal inside a metal box and treated it with high-powered radio waves the crystal expanded and caused the whole apparatus weighing 55 pounds to rise in the air. Later that year these results were published in a US magazine.
Townsend Brown’s development of Electrogravitics tech began in the mid 1920’s. Townsend Brown discovered that electric charge and gravitational mass are coupled. He found that when a capacitor is charged to a high voltage, it has a tendency to move toward its positive pole. His findings, which became known as the BiefeldBrown effect, were opposed by conventional minded physicists of his time. Brown conducted a demonstration for military top brass. He flew a pair of 3-foot diameter discs around a 50-foot course tethered to a central pole. Energized with 150,000 volts and emitting ions from their leading edge, they attained speeds of several hundred miles per hour. The subject was thereafter classified. Project Winterhaven involved Brown submitting a proposal to the Pentagon for the development of a Mach 3 disc shaped electrogravitic fighter craft. Drawings of its basic design are shown in one of his patents. They are essentially large-scale versions of his tethered test discs.
The rest is as they say, history…
Additional references and pertinent info on the physics and technology involved with the above described interstellar craft (and covert human electrogravitic craft):
- "The U.S. Antigravity Squadron" (Dr. Paul Laviollette wrote this article for inclusion in Tom Valone's breakthrough book "Electrogravitics Systems". The article below is a partial-length reprint of Laviolette's work suggesting a connection between the B2-Bomber and the 1960's electrogravitics research of TT-Brown) : https://archive.org/details/ventura-03
- An article exploring how Defense contractors raced to create ZPE tech (technology that extracts usable energy from the quantum vacuum (including BAE systems) then all the research went dark: https://archive.org/details/zero-point-energy
-Physics of the zero-point field: implications for inertia, gravitation and mass ( Harold E. Puthoff ) : https://archive.org/details/sst97
-An electromagnetic basis for inertia and gravitation: What are the implications for 21st century physics and technology? (B. Haisch, A. Rueda) Published 15 January 1998 Physics: https://archive.org/details/zpf_staif98
Fortified underground bases are not a theory, they are publicly acknowledged.
Mass cancellation technology is not a theory, the research was actually quite public and being confirmed in popular scientific journals until that research was scooped into the military black ops realm in the late 50-s.
Not every rich person is okay with the psychopath's agenda, some do fight back, and some also die suddenly and/or disappear.
One thing I have learned the hard way about is to not to allow the confirmation bias momentum I have built up behind comforting ideas to blind me from considering that some of the things I would rather not think are true or could be possible, may actually be possible and perhaps even extant.
This happened with me regarding how I used to make fun of people talking about “UFOs” and “flying saucers” quoting a bunch of ‘leading edge’ astrophysics stats and perspectives from “experts” to cast doubt on the likelihood that our planet is being visited by interstellar capable cultures. Then a massive spherical spaceship went zooming over me and my buddies heads right above the tree tops when we were out camping one night and all my comforting worldviews about humanity’s planetary isolation and technological superiority were shattered.
Same thing happened for me with regards to what the mainstream educational institutions and research labs were saying about transgenic seeds, all through my childhood I was programmed to see such things as “wonderful advancements of science that will help us end world hunger”… that was the 90-s… and now we have simultaneous obesity and malnutrition epidemics and our life expectancy in the west is on a steady decline.. so much for that comforting fairy tale.
At one time people thought it impossible that we could build flying machines and if you told people that a teaspoon of soil was filled with billions of tiny lifeforms a few hundred years ago they would have called you crazy.
All it takes is relentless dedication and one small invasive hard earned discover after another, until one day, the seemingly impossible, becomes possible, and then ordinary. This is what happened with weaponizing Nikola Tesla's, Townsend Brown's and Kowsky-Frost's work in combination with backengineering downed ET craft. I`ll share some pertinent intel relating to these realities in a separate comment incase you are serious about educating yourself about these aspects of our reality and covert technologies.
Exceptional claims require exceptional proof. Or words to that effect.
Just one solid evidence of UFO would likely convince me. However I have only seen hundreds of circumstantial bits and speculation and theories each of which that I have investigated have failed on grounds of testable physics or basic common sense.
You see the goal of the ruling class is to confuse and divide, they do this by providing fake proof of conspiracies to discredit people who want to believe. In amongst it there may be even a proof but it is too well hidden amongst the impossible that it cannot be used as proof of anything YET.
As an electronic engineer with HAM radio as an interest and a wide range of reading I watch Tesla ideas pass by, perhaps something he came up with has been overlooked but I can tell you now that if there was any financial value to any one off his ideas that are all over the conspiracy sites it would be in commercial production. It does not matter how I wish some idea was real if I know it fails on circuit theory or electromagnetic wave theory and no one has bothered to even produce a working prototype I am reasonably sure that it will remain a pipe dream even if it is ALLEGEDLY hidden.
The fact that antivaxers are equated by people to flat earthers tells you that there is DELIBERATE misinformation about what is real and what is not. Some things are just rubbish while others are probably true. Some things can be tested, researched and proven while others use emotive language to offer scans of random patents to try and prove a policy.
I wrote a patent for a guy, it was never used, does not mean it is or is not a alien technology. Another guy wanted me to write up a patent on a free energy device, ne had me sign an NDA to show me a document he had found on the internet. I had to let him and his wife down gently and explain it was not free energy and very difficult to harness the static charge from falling water. They wanted to provide the systems to poor people and make a little on the side.
So if your sales pitch requires dismissing the well understood laws of thermodynamics to achieve free energy you would be better of just making one device and selling the prototype or making a million and selling the energy. The truth would come out in a few days. Quoting stuff on the internet does not make it so. Sorry, I too would like energy, heating is expensive in Finland.
Excellent stuff Riley!
Sauer-anarchists UNITE! ;)
While on the topic "Fermented food as medicine" - for anyone interested, I published a stack on sauerkraut and its wondrous powers on 1 Jan (my homepage- under most popular).
Cheers
Viva la Sauer-revolution! :)
I love this line from your post:
"I am talking about the real sauerkraut, proper homemade stuff.. ..Not that supermarket chem laced sauer-crap."
You also included some top notch info on the microbiome, thanks for helping educate people about the importance of nourishing the ecosystem within.
Finland has a long history of fermented cabbage and amongst the choices at the supermarket we can get very good live types as well as pasteurised options.
Every year my uncle and a group of volunteers make hundreds of kg of fermented cabbage and sell it with the proceeds going to charity.
Excellent - your uncle is a good man!
Hah! I did not know that it is possible to get proper live sauerkraut in the supermarket.. Must be that it is used in big quantities in Finland.
Here in Croatia, majority of people are eating it only in fall/winter - with beans or bloodsausage. And they heat it up - so they do not care if it is the supermarket pasteurized stuff with an additive.
I do not cook with it, seems like a waste ... on the other hand, we always have farmers-markets and usually proper live sauerkraut can be bought.
Thank God, it seems people are really realizing how food is the only medicine - traditional food is slowly but surely coming back.
Though 95% of what is available in stores here is ultra mushy chemical laced nutritionally depleted garbage kraut, we can purchase real (unpasteurized and no chemicals) sauerkraut here in Canada at the big supermarket stores now but it is very expensive.
In this post ( https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/decembers-delight ) where I shared some of my photography (and some pics of fermented cabbage preserves I made that month) I did a bit of math to calculate how much one cabbage worth of real sauerkraut would be worth (using our store prices) here is what I came up with.
Here, a typical medium to large sized cabbage cost me a few dollars but it will allow me to make 4 liters plus of Sauerkraut or Kimchi. In our area, a tiny 250 ml jar of unpasteurized sauerkraut costs about 10 dollars CAD (7$ on sale). That means by combining one cabbage with a little salt and some elbow grease with a little patience, I can increase the value of this cabbage from 3 or 4 dollars to 150 dollars worth of kraut or chi. That is a 3650% increase in value. Through teaming up with our elders and allies in the bacteria kingdom (allowing them to carry some of the work load) we are empowered to beat inflation (while increasing our health) one cabbage at a time.
I was reading a lot of comic books as a kid. It turned out that many authors were somehow predicting the state of the world in near future, as well as giving out clues about esoteric knowledge.
So I always found the idea of super expensive GREEN food funny. At least while I read that issue of Alan Ford comic book. Spike in price on all organic food like you desribe, so that only rich people can afford it.
Some 15 years later, when I saw how it is becoming a reality I realized that writers of books and comics etc "predict" the future A LOT. And thats not the only case from comic books.
Good example would be J.Verne's "20000 Leagues Under The Sea" - and, I think it was 50 years after it was published that we had submarines.
So, Is it predicting or is it predictive programming or just catching what is floating in the Akash is an interesting question.
That said, I am a DIY guy mostly out of necessity, so I know the value of work and material; and I hate to see anything that is overpriced... tough world to be in hahah...today every other enterprise is trying to sell smoke&mirrors.
And I agree, as individuals who are accepting the full responsibility as humans, only thing we can do is try and change what is wrong with a better example. And what will be will be...
Speaking of media that offered sobering prescient visions of what we are now living in the present, check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJMO0i-xsbc&t=2s
Thank you Gavin! Much appreciated :)
With your excellent post, we now have a "monumental sauerkraut foundation"!
Cheers mate, have a nice day
Excellent and educational interview!!! I've never heard about food forests before.
I make sauerkraut from locally produced cabbage every year. It's nice to think of it as act of rebellion against Big Brother :)
Thanks Natalie! :)
Food forests are so bad ass, once you get them going (even in cold climates) they can produce amazing abundance with very little work. They gain momentum as nature starts carrying the work load through leaf litter building soil and retaining moisture (also trees create their own rain patterns so this creates a microclimate that means less drought in the area).
There are a multitude of different food forest design techniques that have grown out of ancient cultures all over the world. Each of them has its own set of benefits and each climate and soil type these approaches are utilized in yields different results (calorically speaking, nutritionally speaking and in other yields that are not food related). One theme that all functioning regenerative agroforestry food cultivation systems (aka food forests) share is that due to the inherent biodiversity and positive feedback loops that exist between the crop producing plants (and fungi) within that system and the soil organisms that support those crop producing plants, the nutrient density of the crops produced in food forests are superior to food produced in conventional agriculture systems. Based on my direct experience with such systems in a couple different areas, I am confident that if you looked at a range of different climates and approaches, you would find that that are forest gardens that produce a great deal more calories (as well as vitamins and minerals) per acre than conventional agriculture.
One can begin to glimpse the potent difference in the vitamins and minerals found in food that is grown as part of a functioning ecosystem composed of symbiotically connected organisms, vs food that is produced in a monoculture in dead dirt, via this study:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35127297/
From the study linked above:
When compared to crops from conventional farms, crops from regenerative agriculture farms (which means grown in living soil like you would have in a food forest and/or regenerative garden) had 34% more vitamin K, 15% more vitamin E, 14% more vitamin B1 and 17% more vitamin B2. The regenerative agriculture crops also had 11% more calcium, 16% more phosphorus and 27% more copper.
The study also compared wheat crops. Regenerative wheat crops were planted in a crop rotation pattern that included cover crops between crops of spring barley and winter wheat. The regenerative wheat samples had 41% more boron, 29% more magnesium, 48% more calcium and 56% more zinc than conventional wheat samples.
When you grow crops at home or in a community garden (using regenerative and/or forest gardening techniques) in living soil (created via adding homemade compost, companion planting and mulching) the produce you harvest is significantly more nutritious than conventionally grown store bought.
Those metrics do not even begin to address the many non-food related gifts which are offered by regenerative farms, gardens and forest gardens that serve to enhance the resilience of individuals who tend them (and their communities.)
Also, for those that eat meat (or just want to keep goats, sheep or cows for milk or chickens for eggs) there is so much potential for integrating animals into food forest systems for grazing.
In ancient times here on the plains of Turtle Island (aka "North America") the people who lived here did controlled burns of brush and grass land in the proximity of their food forests which stimulated lush green grass re-growing there. In doing so, they would entice the large migratory herds of Buffalo to graze where they wanted them to (for easy hunting and also because the Buffalo would build soil through their manure deposits and roll around in the grass creating microclimates for other animals, increasing biodiversity and resilience in their food forest systems).
That link above from Lyla June goes into some of how that was accomplished and I think there is a lot of potential for customizing a similar approach when we design food forests in present day and we want to keep animals (and find easier cheaper ways to keep them fed, while also building soil faster in our food cultivation systems).
Thanks for the comment!
This is based AF.
I often watch gardening videos and find it interesting how fruits, vegetables, and flowers are grown from "seed." Gardening is an enormously popular avocation and there's a zillion YouTube channels on horticulture attesting to that. Many find growing organic vegetables and fruit very satisfying and of course tasty.
In this fucked up hellhole known as planet Earth if you find a peaceful and rewarding endeavor pursue it as long as it makes you happy.
That being said, if shit hits the fan and civilization goes down the tubes a juicy homegrown organic tomato or a fresh batch of ripe strawberries won't save the day. But, at that point who gives a damn.😁
"if shit hits the fan and civilization goes down the tubes a juicy homegrown organic tomato or a fresh batch of ripe strawberries won't save the day."
Why not? and what would "save the day" more effectively?
Also, saved from what?
Also, what exactly does the day being "saved" look like?
and, what are we trying to "save the day" for?
Maybe, that's why I said who gives a damn at that point.
Great article and practical!
Wow. I'm going to check out a lot of stuff now.
But seriously, no mention of kimchi? "Korean sauerkraut" has got to be the best fermented food I've ever had and I'm not Asian. Wife makes it and the family goes through about a gallon every two to three weeks for a couple of years now.
I am even more into Kimchi than I am into Sauerkraut, so much so that I have created recipes for three different kinds using our seasonal garden abundances! :)
If you click on the hyperlink in the second paragraph into the post above that says "I find that low tech (nutrient dense) preserves (which include things like fermented cabbage) serves both those functions beautifully." it will take you to my basic Kimchi recipe. However, given you and your wife are likely a bit more adventurous and into exploring complex kimchi variations i`ll also share a link to my full recipe for something I call "Purple Dragon Chi" below:
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/purple-dragon-chi
I would say that kimchi "knee caps" big pharma's plans to keep us sick and dependent on their synthetic drugs even more effectively than Sauerkraut due to it containing Ginger and Hot Peppers.
I published in depth articles exploring the medicinal/nutritional benefits of both of those ingredients that go into kimchi and i`ll share those below as well:
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/the-generosity-of-ginger
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/hot-peppers-for-health
Always glad to cross paths with another kimchi fanatic :)
Thanks for the comment.
Thanks
i used to live in Korea where I experienced the benefits of Kimchi and I still eat it. Kimchi is a Korean present to humanity. I remember the local saying that one man can live without a woman but surely not without Kimchi.
I'm not telling that to my wife as she'll answer "make it yourself then" LOL. She has her recipe down to an art form.
People will only care about the earth, the future and other human beings when there is an awakening of intelligence.
Without love, all action (and all designs) will only lead to further chaos and misery.
Asking people to behave wisely is useless. Ideals are an escape from reality. What is useful is looking within, looking at WHAT IS.
I agree that "What is useful is looking within" which is why I posted these questions and messages for our human family
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/poll-of-the-month-are-we-accidental
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/dispelling-the-most-detrimental-myth
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/spiritual-autodidacticism
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/meditation-as-medicine-for-humanity
In my recently published book I sought to relay the message that in order to regenerate and restore the integrity of our society and the ecosystems (ecosystem restoration) outside of us, we must first engage in “ego-system re-story-ation”. I elaborated on why this path of inward exploration and healing is essential in the essay discussed in the interview above (titled "Why Involuntary Governance Structures are Not Compatible with The Permaculture Ethical Compass").
In that essay (and in others, some of which I linked above) I elaborate on why I believe that only through consciously and willingly embracing this love within, knowing our own eternal spirit and being present in the moment to recognize that same eternal spark in all other beings, can we truly know (lasting) peace, happiness and fulfillment through engaging in ‘ego-system re-story-ation’ and then eventually ecosystem restoration as well.
Thus, I do not simply "Ask people to behave wisely" but rather I advocate each and everyone of us living by example, learning to recognize the eternal spark within, fanning it like a spark to make it a flame and in doing so helping others to light that same flame within themselves. Each of us can do this in our own way. The Creator gave each of us unique gifts that can be put to use for the purpose of fanning that flame and engaging in "‘ego-system re-story-ation’. Some have the gift of music or physical art forms, some create art with words, some stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves, some shine a light into the shadows to make them flee and others plant seeds and tend the rich living Earth.
It is also important to point out that the pathway to walk in the forest and work in the garden with humility is a catalyst for moments of inner clarity and transcendent awareness of the soul to shine through the drudgery of the 9-5 life, thus, taking the step to learn from nature and grow food in the garden invites one to take steps to nurture the garden within simultaneously.
The time we are living in now calls us to walk not one of those paths, but both paths simultaneously. The Creator calls on those with the courage to walk the mystical path with practical feet.
I tried the hugelkultur... I didn't have to water as often but... I got a mess of unknown mushrooms.... which made me ditch the root crops because I didn't know if they were deadly or not.
Also.... what about gophers.... and other critters? They have eaten all the best produce :(
That is a fascinating with the mushrooms. It would indicate that the wood you used was on an accelerated path to become good healthy soil so in that sense I would describe the presence of mushrooms in that kind of planting as a "good" thing. Unless the root crops were rotting out then the mycelium of the fungi (the underground part of the organism) which produced those mushrooms would not be infiltrated or contaminated by the fungi (even if it was a poisonous species) so I do not think you have to worry about that aspect.
I have not dealt with Gophers, but i`ll share the same thing I shared with Mishelle in another thread where we were discussing animal pressures on gardens as it applies universally.
Since I always look to nature for guidance, my first step would be to assess whether or not the population of the given animal that is digging up/foraging on my garden crops exists in an unnatural population density due to a crippling of the predator prey relationships/natural habitat they would have had in an intact ecosystem before humans may have interfered. If that was the case, I would attempt to encourage the predators that would have originally kept their numbers in check (and their grazing sporadic/well spread out) to set up shop in that ecosystem again, so they can do their important job in that web of relationships (as Mother Earth and Creator intended). Owls are great Gopher hunters so might be worth looking into creating owl habitat?
For some additional info: https://theecologistcowboy.com/2020/07/14/coping-with-gophers/
If introducing a wild predator to that situation was not viable (due to lack of my ability to encourage them to set up shop there, the fact that I have domesticated animals outside that would be harmed or some other variable involving humans preferences/needs) I would seek to find the closest facsimile (likely a few large domesticated canines) and give them the job of patrolling that space in exchange for the food, companionship and shelter I would provide them.
If those potentials are not viable for what ever reason I would likely dive into understanding more about the biology, grazing habits and psychology of the herbivore/omnivore in question (which is digging up/foraging on my preferred garden crops) and see if there is some other aspect of their natural habits and relationship with their environment which I could extrapolate a strategy from to discourage or deter them from focusing on my garden as the place to dig and forage.
Other methods focus on deterring via smells like Garlic or "Bone Sauce" like this
https://www.permaculturenews.org/2014/06/05/bone-sauce-a-tool-for-deterring-browsing/#google_vignette
and this
https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/get-rid-of-pests-with-garlic/#:~:text=Using%20garlic%20water%20for%20plants,is%20treated%20with%20garlic%20water.
Then if all else fails and you are someone that eats meat and is willing to kill and process them, there is always .. https://outsidebozeman.com/culture/culture-more/food-drink/gopher-hot-wings
Hope this helps!
Then if that fails there is building buried fence systems (which could stack functions as a trellis so maybe multi-functional).
Thank you so much for all the information!! The year I caught 30 gophers I had a helper so I didn't have to dispose of them myself - a raccoon. I tied string on the trap and secure dit to those little garden decor flag poles. I'm convinced the raccoon just looked for the flags to know where to check for breakfast! Raccoons didn't try carrying off their prize but coyotes did.
I have hawk families and falcons but they can't keep up. Owls live here too but I've more seen them go for the mice/rat type.
I have a trail camera and the coyote makes a trip through here about every 3rd night but gopher must not be on his menu. I know they say the gophers are here to soften up the soil but I have great soil and in some areas I have no idea how their runs don't collapse.
Right now I've resorted to all raised beds for vegetables and figure I've got a ready supply of meat for the apocalypse :) I couldn't do it though... they have such lovely soft fur....
The only thing with raised beds if you really have to cover them or the rats and other night critters get at things..... I'm thinking some sort of rat terrier is needed to keep the varmints reduced but that's a commitment all on its own.
Thanks very much for the links! Much appreciated!
hahah ya why not!? :) If the predators from the wild cannot do the job, perhaps some people can take on that role themselves to bring balance to the equation.
I think our cats and dog would be the same if we had any gophers or wild pigs in the garden, they are too spoiled. Well except maybe one feral cat we rescued named Gracie. She is a super motivated hunter of all things (even sometimes our poor Great Dane's wagging tail!) which results in him putting her in her place and now she has a missing piece of one ear.
Wild Hogs and Gophers! That must be super frustrating.. since you guys eat meat, do you end up having a lot of wild game bbqs? or are they mostly too sneaky for hunting?
Have you had any dogs that like to hunt them?
Ah okay, that is helpful info, thanks for the details.
We rescued a Great Dane at age 3 (he is all scarred up from someone wacking him with something when he was a pup). Jasper is very good as a guard dog for people (one bark when some stranger is at the front door or in yard makes the windows vibrate and they step back pretty quick haha) but he is a wimp for unpleasant weather, water and doesn't go for critters in the garden. At least the squirrels are scared of him so they stay out of the yard when he is roaming around but ya I doubt he would go for gophers or hogs.
Thanks again for the thoughtful comments.
I caught 30 one year just in the backyard :( ... I recently read that they don't like mint and supposedly putting mint down their holes will drive them off.... haven't tried it yet as my thinking is they will just plug off that section and go merely on their way to their next meal.
I will say, from my own experience — gophers don’t mind mint when (I guess) they’re hungry? They have popped up in my mint. Tho, they didn’t pull it all under ground.
I dislike them, a lot!
I also read, if you put castor oil or cat/dog droppings (💩) in their hole, they will disappear — not in my experience );
Exactly my experience.... so many things I've read and zero of them work. But I've got to catch the one I've got now... altho he may be frighteningly large.... he's not only eaten the root off my rose but also my seflera bush and now a 12 ft tall california pepper tree!! Very strange as there is plenty of grass to eat.
Another thing I saw - (which I’ve not attempted) was to fill a hole with propane. Plug all other holes and ignite ! My property would probably not survive - lol
I swear, on the video you could see the land rise and fall !!!
lol.. yes I've seen that... and dissuaded my husband from trying same....
This is so awesome, given I like both of you!!
I think it was your conversation with Riley back in February of 2022 ( https://youtu.be/lMi8JfVK0kM?si=URaIWBtBkItV4pT2 ) that first introduced me to his work, so thanks for that! :)
I can ID probably 150 or so edible Australian plants and introduced herbs and weeds. Not going to stop until it's at least 2,000.
Wow man, that is fantastic! I have never tried counting how many I can identify here in the Carolinian Forest but I think that will make a fun game for my forest walks this year. Thanks for the inspiration!
I admire your tenacity and the wisdom of your intended path to gather botanical literacy knowledge through direct experience. That is the kind of experience and knowledge that only increases in value as time goes on and can enrich many people's lives who you cross paths with.
Precisely. My daytime job as a bus driver usually goes like this:
"Good morning."
"Crickey, look at all the dandelions growing there."
"Geeze, bumper crop of pods on that flame tree this year!"
"Oh nice, madeira vines on the train line fence here."
"Someone's neglecting that grapefruit tree."
"Wow, look at that patch of blueberry lilies!"
"Is that... yes! Pecans!"
"The chickweed is dying back... summer will be here soon."
"Ha, look at all you amaranths popping up from the neighbour's side of the fence!"
So I practice my IDs as I go about my normal day. The constant reinforcement creates a solid memory foundation on which I can then hang the extraneous information, like medicinal and other uses of the plants.
I also married a Korean so we do a lot of fermentation, too!
Just great interview!
Soo good! Beautiful interview. From the satirical setup, to the warrior philosophy responses. Love it! 😁
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Check out Riley's other posts where he does interviews / conversations with friends too, some of them are Gold.
Check this one out:
https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/hows-life-in-rural-russia-we-asked
Or just go to his archive and use the search word "Village" for barrels and barrels of laughs :)
https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/archive
I should also say that while Riley's witty writing is often humorous, this is often the sugar coating that encapsulates a bitter truth which would be hard to stomach on it's own. Thus, you will also find profound truth in the archives on village life and his other convos with friends and acquaintances.
No doubt. Bitter, truth, and bourbon is the way I handle it sometimes.
Cheers mate
Or Birch Beer! https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/birch ;)
and can you imagine if you distilled it (or maybe spruce beer https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/befriending-the-boreal-getting-to ) made some forest spirits!? mmm Spruce Whiskey and Birch Vodka, yes I am adding making those to my bucket list. :)
Brilliant and inspired my friend! 👌
HI Gavin, I am thrilled. I am sure I would receive more than I can give. I have been saving seed from organic veggies for a couple of years, and dating the containers...Let me figure out where I can garden My terrace might be all ( it was very successful last year.) Also I gardened at a friend's and made her promise not to use herbicides or pesticides on the area I carved out of her lawn...I also forage a lot, so I have collected coltsfoot and horsetail( but I don't know where those seeds are...) and Yarrow, and comfrey, and mugwort ( artemisia) and white pine needles and plantain, and red clover, but I really can only identify the seeds on the dried yarrow and mugwort and comfrey...I could grab the white pine cones if I knew when their seeds are ripe. But what a thrill and an honor!
Diana Right now, since my terrace gardening is screened-in, I think I only can use tomatoes and can share butternut and buttercup and acorn, from the Amish....Maybe you have something else to suggest for the pots. I have very limited light indoors so have only been able to maintain my thyme and rosemary and aloes through the winter. If you are anywhere near Vermont at the Canadian border, I could dig up some great rhubarb for you.
I also have red pepper seeds, apple seeds. lemon seeds....
Hi Diana
That is beautiful, thanks for describing your experiences gardening over the past couple years.
I also love to forage, perhaps you could collect some wild seeds for me this summer from medicine plants local to your region?
Yarrow seeds would be much appreciated.
I had an enchanting experience with wild yarrow in the high alpine of BC last summer (I share some pics about half way down this post: https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/the-jubilation-of-june ) and I was not able to save seed since the flowers bloom so late in the season up there at 7000 feet above sea level. I have wanted to source out some wild seeds ever since though.
I also love White Pines, I wrote an article on them which you can read here: https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/an-encounter-with-an-ancient-healer
I have germinated some seeds I saved from 150 year old plus Eastern White Pines that were growing in Algonquin Provincial Park and I hope to give them a safe home here in southern Ontario out of the reach of the loggers that will be targeting their beautiful parents.
I love that you want to do a stealthy cross border rhubarb gifting operation! I have a lot in my garden but your generous offer warms my heart, thanks for that.
As far as what to grow in pots, have you ever tried growing Ginger as a house plant? What about Tusli (aka "holy basil")?
You can get in touch with me via :
recipesforreciprocity@proton.me
For exchanging mailing addresses etc.
Thanks so much for the thoughtful response.
My life changed forever with a three-week course at the Tree People in LA, taught by Bill Mollison. My photographs of this gifted teacher are here: http://www.dianamarahenry.com/InlovingmemoryofBillMollison-Mylifeinpermaculture.htm
Thank you very much for sharing Diana.
I am always up for an heirloom seed swap if you would like to infuse some ancient genetic diversity into your gardens :)
Home economy in a rural/bucolic environment is the actual genuine, neglected, normal. Saurkraut is special! Neo-paganism/idolatry/gaianism/new-age religion stinks, however! A little, superficial insight, for we are under attack from the entities of darkness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaianism https://spells8.com/lessons/gaia-goddess/
For more on the types of spiritual pathways of knowing and perceiving that I choose to walk and encourage:
https://rumble.com/v6891js-designing-bio-cultural-refugia-seeding-ancient-wisdom-w-modern-regenerative
Thanks for the comment and for sharing your thoughts.
While I never claimed to subscribe to nor endorse "Neo-paganism, idolatry, gaianism, nor 'new-age' religion" I suppose my recognition of the planet Earth as a sentient living organism could be labelled as "gaianism". Though I am sure that word is seen as meaning a bunch of things that I do not agree with, so I tend to avoid such labels whenever possible and just live the truth (allowing people who like labels to either apply them to me, or not, with me not paying much attention either way).
I have no interest in religious dogmas, I advocate people should use their own God given senses of perception (both physical senses and senses that allow for perception of non-physical aspects of this universe) to directly perceive the truth of what is for themselves so they can know the truth (rather than simply believing what someone else is telling them to accept as true). Most religions attempt to train people into seeing themselves as being dependent on books, gurus or priests of some sort to be able to know what is true and what is not. I think that type of system is a scam.
I advocate for autodidactism as a more reliable form of learning and being capable of discerning what is true and what is not.
I feel that the Earth is indeed a conscious being, self aware and very much alive. This feeling I have, this inward knowing, was not born out of scientific data, other’s opinions, or any kind of external stimuli, but rather it was something I came to understand through spending much time in nature, consciously entering into stillness of mind, and learning to enable my heart to act as an organ of perception. It is in that state of inward stillness that I came to directly sense the consciousness and life pulse of this world in which we inhabit.
Since that experience I have learned that though we live in a 3 dimensional universe, this physical form and experience we all share here does not represent the true essence of who and what we are. It is understandably difficult to approach the question above without knowing that innate truth. To ask your self if a planet is alive and sentient, while seeking to define the housing, mechanisms, and structure of a planetary consciousness limited by the assumption that it is purely 3 dimensional, is like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle without having all the pieces. You see without acknowledging our own multidimensionality, and learning to move beyond the limitations of the 5 senses, human brain and ego we cannot see the full picture.
Science is the system of thought which explores this universe through the truly amazing intellectual capacities of the human brain (a bio-mechanical molecular electromagnetic computer) the operating system for the most advanced machine known to exist in the universe, the human body. So while this brain may be exceptionally well versed at navigating and perceiving this 3 dimensional plane of time and matter, through the 5 senses. It cannot perceive that which exists beyond, and there lies the limitation of the science of the current paradigm on earth to understand the nature of the universe and existence.
That being said, it is possible to gain meaningful insight into this reality through the true scientific process (that being the exploration of the world and universe around and inside of us, through measurement and observation, while always being open to the possibility that the 'facts' we think to be absolute and fundamental could indeed be proved to be wrong or need an improved understanding). Modern science tell us that there are aspects of this universe that are very real that cannot be perceived with our 5 senses, things that are all around us, microbial life, higher octaves of light, gamma and ultraviolet rays, and frequencies of sound and vibration beyond the spectrum that we can detect. A few hundred years ago, if you told someone that in a cup of pond water there are multitudes of strange lifeforms taking many shapes smaller than the eye can see, you would have probably been told that you are crazy.
Throughout human history paradigms of thought and 'science' have asserted them selves and their principles as absolute only to be proven false by new understandings subsequently coming to light. Do we really think that we are exempt from this historical lesson? Are we so arrogant that we claim to be standing on the pedestal of absolute knowledge, like so many before us, closing ourselves to new ideas and understandings that challenge our current paradigm of thought?
There are now many scientists who do believe that plants possess some form of sentience. That in fact they have intelligence, perception, thought and that their behavior is often altruistic. Many are surprised to find out that the truth, is, that like animals, plants communicate, feel, think and respond to their environment including interactions with humans… and similar to humans, plants actually reason. Here are a few of the links I found related to this.
https://www.plantbehavior.org/
https://www.ted.com/talks/stefano_mancuso_the_roots_of_plant_intelligence#t-811430
http://goodnature.nathab.com/research-shows-plants-are-sentient-will-we-act-accordingly/
So, even working within the constraints of the current scientific model, we are now learning that plants possess a far greater level of intelligence than was previously assumed, at the same time we are also learning that these intelligent plants are connected over large distances through vast networks of mycorrhizal communities. These communities of fungi which form a symbiotic relationship with the plants roots, also have now been shown to serve as a communication system between plants. Even plants of different species have been documented using this 'organic internet' to communicate directly with others, warning each other of impending aphid invasions and even sharing resources to a seedling in need.
Given that we are only beginning to understand these intricate inter-relationships, and that some of these living networks of mycorrhizae are very ancient, connecting entire old growth forests, I think it would be reasonable to consider that we may indeed be starting to understand the working physical parts of a planetary organism, a part of some kind of her 'central nervous system' perhaps. It is also in my opinion possible that the physical housing, mechanisms, and inter-relationships that make up a 'planetary mind' may exist in the form of subtle energetic frequencies, harmonics, or electromagnetic expressions that are not detectable by our current instruments, or at least not discernible as a coherent representation of a sentient mind.
I feel it is also worth noting that the living Earth has been measured to communicate in the language of energy in a way that is life affirming and in a way that nurture’s coherence among the beings that call her body home. She does this with her eternal heart beat (which some call the Schumann Resonance) that harmonizes and connects all living beings on the Earth. I believe that in doing so, she offers us inspiration on how we might emulate her way of speaking with the heart to consciously communicate (energetically, anchoring that energy and seeding it through what some might call the “morphic field”) to bring peace and healing to this world.
As we look to define what is intelligent, sentient, and conscious, I suggest that we should be cautious not to go about looking for these things through the limitations of a very 'anthropomorphic lens', and in doing so obscure the discovery of truths and understandings that could benefit and enrich all of our lives. Since we are not separate from nature and are indeed an integrated facet of it, I do feel it would be prudent to begin acting like it. We are like cells of a larger organism in this way. The planet is very alive and we are among the mutually interdependent parts of her that function together to weave the fabric of the biospheres that when in balance, thrive and exist symbiotically. This interconnected web of life fosters the physical evolution of lifeforms that unfold into ever higher levels of complexity, intelligence, and beauty.
Rather than allowing the comforting stagnation of ego flattering ideas (that lean towards self-importance and humanocentric hubris) to guide our thinking (at this critical fork in the road) I would instead humbly suggest that we consider using the sentience (that many so covetously claim is unique to humans) to consciously choose to work in collaboration with each other and the organism we are a part of, lending our creative genius to be a source of creation and inspiration, as we nourish the living world that sustains us, forging reciprocal relationships with our elder species, accepting the wisdom they offer us gratefully and unfolding ever higher expressions of human potential in the process.
The truths I have come to directly experience described above are able to be perceived by anyone willing to let go of ego flattering myths of human exceptionalism and actually use their mind and senses to directly perceive what is.
Thanks for the comment.
Growing and preserving your own food is a seditious act, I wholeheartedly support it. We grow, collect and preserve herbs. I would like to start freeze drying of berries and mushrooms. I like fermented cabbage but the effort and smell of making it has held me back so far, it is on my bucket list all the same.
Back in the days of Indian colonialism production of salt was a crown monopoly in India. Gandhi went to the seaside and took a saucer and scooped up some seawater and stood on the beach while waiting for t to dry. This was illegal and when others joined him it caused the colonial overlords to react. Eventually India gained independence.
Thanks for pointing out that important part of history regarding Gandhi's salt Satyagraha movement.
I am a big fan of what Vandana Shiva is doing in breathing new life and purpose into the principles of non-violent resistance to corrupt empire which Gandhi created with her Seed Satyagraha movement. I feel that through gardening, saving seed and preserving food/medicine we can effectively sabotage the plans of the oligarchs for erasing our shared living cultural heritage, nutrient dense diversity of open pollinated crops and our ability to save seed for free.
For more info: https://www.navdanya.org/living-seed/seed-satyagraha I really like their “Global Movement for Seed Freedom” as they focus on a decentralized solutions based approach that can bring resilience to each of our individual communities.
It seems like some of the language used on their website shows that either some people in their organization are ignorant/brainwashed about the ‘climate change/global warming’ scam, they are aware that it’s BS but are using it for PR or they have been infiltrated by COINTELPRO type operatives. That being said, I still think there is a lot of truth, important info worth learning from and solutions worth putting into action which are shared on the Navdanya website (as long as one keeps in mind that the ‘climate change’ narrative that is sometimes brought up in their material is bogus).
They describe these movements as being “..network(s) of individuals and organizations committed to align our thoughts and actions with the laws of Gaia, Pachamama, Vasundhara, Mother Earth… We protect the biodiversity of the planet by defending of the freedom of the seed to evolve in integrity, self-organisation, and diversity. We are seed savers and seed defenders, farmers and gardeners, practitioners of regenerative agriculture..
..Our right to save and exchange our open pollinated, non GMO, non patented seed is non alienable. We will resist every law and technology that attempts to undermine our freedoms, and the freedom of the seed, which is intimately linked to the freedom of Mother Earth. Across Diverse Ecosystems and cultures we are united in defending Seed freedom/Seed sovereignty as the foundation of Food Freedom/Food Sovereignty, based on ecological production and fair and just distribution, beginning with protecting and promoting local food systems.”
I do my best to serve as a living embodiment of seed satyagrahi in my community, gathering ancient heirlooms that offer drought tolerance, cold tolerance, disease resistance, potent nutrition, medicinal benefits, unique flavors and ancient cultural stories, growing them, and sharing them with others far and wide to preserve the living heritage of our ancient ancestors.
I find it very rewarding, not just living with the knowing I am boycotting the corporate oligarchs, but also that I am tending the same living crops that our ancient ancestors spent many generations tending to make them what they are today. It offers a sort of living bridge to connect with and give thanks to those that came before us in a tangible way by honoring (and protecting) the heirloom varieties they worked to co-create with nature.
oh and I also like this
“Declaration on Seed Freedom”
by Dr. Vandana Shiva
https://seedfreedom.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/declaration.pdf
In many ways, the pockets of resistance against corporate GMO tyranny in India are leading the way for the rest of the world.
Our Freeze dryer is one of the few expensive high tech devices I have. It allows me to stack functions and preserve not only entire meals, eggs, soups and any and all garden harvests, but also seeds for both using as food and also simultaneously preserving their viability as living seeds for decades. That way when I use the machine to preserve, beans, amaranth, peas, cannabis seeds etc I can either us them to share or plant as seeds, or eat them as nutrient dense food if need be.
I see the huge practical benefits of freeze dryers but I feel I would be remiss if I did not also caution about the risks of depending (solely) on technology such as that for preserving food.
Unless one is capable of gathering all the electricity they need to run their home (and their freeze drying machine) off grid and unless one has back up components for both the energy generation/accumulation systems and the freeze dryer itself stored in some kind of Faraday cage, situations could arise where that technology could become totally unusable.
This is one of the reasons that I published some material that can help empower individuals to preserve seasonal abundances of food (whether foraged or cultivated) using low tech methods without the need for specialized equipment. Lacto-fermentation is one versatile method that any gardener or forager should become accustomed with as you do not need anything other than salt, water and random containers (such as mason jars etc) to be able to preserve food for up to a year.
If you are not into cabbage due to the smell or what ever, you can ferment other things than cabbage too and get similar health benefits. Hot peppers for instance ferment beautifully. I like to ferment some heirloom chilis whole in a light salt brine for later use in recipes or snacking and then I also make a range of raw fermented hot sauces.
You can find recipes for some of those in this post if you are into hot peppers:
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/hot-peppers-for-health
Also, for another fun recipe that involves lacto-fermentation that may be up your ally, check out my process of making Purple Pakoras and Purple Dosa batter. We used black ("forbidden") rice, wild rice, mahogany rice, red lentils, split peas and homegrown amaranth seed to make our batter and it turns out really tasty, nutritious and colorful.
https://rb.gy/ch6z6y
I will investigate your other posts.
I just replied to another comment about how I am baffled how all the rich people just go along to get along. There are over 33'000 people with more than $100million who would never have to think about money for the rest of their lives and could probably increase it with little effort. While they may be manipulating human society for some perverse reasons towards inconceivable goals I cannot believe that they want society to totally collapse, it would be very bad if they could no longer fly, manipulate, organ transplant and many other things that they do want access to.
I have been an armchair prepper, studying the basics of what I might need to survive a zombie apocalypse but have come to the realisation that what will happen may be less or more but it could equally be something we could not have imagined.
So while the cost of utilities will likely keep rising and cause social pain I do't believe the plan is to have utilities and society totally collapse. New Zealand is not self sufficient in everything, no place is. Not USA, not China, not Europe. Simply bombing all the semiconductor wafer fabs will cause a minimum of 5 years pause in production while new fabs are built. No new memory or processors, all countries would be affected. The goal is not to destroy infrastructure, it is to demoralise the population, sending out scare scenarios of zombie apocalypses (peak zombie was reached about 7 years ago) and disease X is enough to achieve the control objective. Having rumours of depopulation and increasing food prices provides control and endless demoralised slaves.
So I think that freeze drying will remain an option for quite a while, certainly as long as there are elite to oppose.
If society totally crashes we have big problems, there are thousands of nuclear reactors that cannot survive without involved and drawn out shutdown scenarios. The fact that no nuclear sites have been bombed in the Ukraine or elsewhere tells me that war is a facade, real damage is avoided so that the show can continue.
We make Kombucha and Kefir regularly and adding other ferments will not be too hard.
Thank you or your engagement with readers. <3
"I cannot believe that they want society to totally collapse, it would be very bad if they could no longer fly, manipulate, organ transplant and many other things that they do want access to."
First of all, it is important to keep in mind that many of the ultra rich people you describe are psychopaths so trying to put yourself in their shoes as though they are rational human beings represents a failure to assess the type of people you are dealing with. These are mentally deranged people, most of the time being sociopathic and psychopathic is a pre-requisite for attaining the amount of material wealth you are describing. Also, some of these billionaires are religious fanatics obsessed with eschatology. Some have openly declared they feel it is their purpose in life to accelerate the second coming of christ or some other religious prophecy involving fire and brimstone.
Human beings that attain obscene amounts of wealth and material influence have shown themselves to be insane. Just look at the history of nuclear weapons testing. Over 2000 nuclear warheads detonated since the 1940-s. Over one thousand of those being detonated by the US. You would think that after a few of them they would know that it works and that its effects are horrific, but no, they kept detonating more of them.. thousands more.
Another variable worth considering is that while most of the governments in the developed world do capitulate to the banksters and corporate oligarchs (imposing similar policies with regards to injections and "Sustainable Development" agendas onto every day people regardless of what country you are in) there is are still significant disagreements among the most powerful people on Earth.
There is never consensus within the echelons of material power on Earth.
We are talking about multi-generational conmen, murders and racketeering specialists. They are self-interested and always guided by fear that another one of their peers will take their stuff (this is true regardless of the veneer of opulence, confidence and unity some of the plutocrats may project outwardly).
At the top of the realms of material influence on Earth is the group that has their grasp on the electrogravitic craft and orbital DEW tech.
They are those select few (who are also among the controlling interests at the BIS, IMF, WB, Blackrock and Vanguard Group) that managed to get their hands on the tech first, and with it, they hold the other plutocrats under constant threat of kidnapping and death (in order to force them to fall in line). For a time the group of the nastiest plutocrats with the nastiest tech were called PI-40 but more recently my sources indicate the committee now has approximately 300 members (though again, a select few of those 300 are the nastiest and most psychopathic/misanthropic ones, and they use the tech they have sequestered to bend the others to their will).
Advanced MILAB operations carried out by paramilitary forces are utilized to kidnap and encourage any members who do not want to go along with what the dominant members are wanting to do at any given time. Those that do not capitulate encounter sudden health challenges.
The nastiest and craziest of that group have constructed massive D.U.M.B.s which are self sustaining city sized fortresses that grow food hydroponically and are shielded to most natural and manmade forms of destruction.
Another, variable worth considering is that even if some of these insane misanthropic billionaires want to keep their top heavy parasitic hyper-centralized industrial infrastructure going indefinitely, their hubris will eventually be their undoing as the finite resources and ecological functions of the living Earth that their industrial civilization depends upon continuing to extract, will eventually reach a breaking point.
The most powerful and wealthy in the Roman Empire likely wanted their reign to continue, yet they extracted from the soil instead of giving back as the more horticulturally advanced and ecologically literate societies did, resulting in the implosion of their empire and infrastructure.
Our industrial infrastructure is on the same trajectory as the Roman Empire's was before it began to implode, right now.
Also, it may not take any bombs to fry all the semiconductor wafer fabs as if our current understanding of astrophysics is correct, eventually the sun will burp out a Carrington Event or larger class CME (as part of it's natural lifecycle) and send our technology dependent civilization back to the stone ages anyways.
For more info on CMEs : https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/preparing-for-the-100-year-storms
I am so glad you guys make Kombucha and Kefir and I appreciate you sharing your thoughts.
Hmm, DUMB?, Antigravity? They exceed my conspiracy theory threshold.
I am still not convinced why EVERY rich person would be amenable to be controlled and not be prepared to fight back if they knew that people would die en mass.
You are quite right about the potential danger of a stronger than usual sun burp, it would drive 99.9% of us into the steam age in just a few days. However a lot of military tech is hardenned enough to keep working for a while. Fuel stockpiles can be rationed for a while, nuclear submarines are probably immune Satelite comunications will probably end but optical firbe communications will probably be recoverable if customers demand it.
Radio amateurs that use thermionic technology will be unaffected if they have a source of power.
Hydroelectric power with lead acid batteries and crude electronics should remain viable. Alcohol powered cars could keep running.
Biggest problem in Finland is the need to het houses in winter and have enough food preserved if the shops are empty.
I would love to be prepared for a 100 year solar storm but it takes more money than I have, either enough forest to cut firewood or property next to a hydro power station that is out of the way and enough fields to grow alcohol and food crops.
I suspect any and all disaster scenarios are amplified to keep everyone in a state of fear even if the probabilities are low or zero that th event is likely.
Data, Historical Info, Physics and Technology (pertaining to interstellar craft and covert manmade electrogravitic craft):
Electromagnetic Lifter Technology (Electrogravitics) is technology that was developed by a brilliant mathematician and physicist who has elucidated the fundamental relationship between electromagnetism, magnetic fields and mass and gravity. Essentially, this technology (having been developed to the level of a proof of principle system as early as 8 decades ago) allows for a reduction in mass, allowing for lift. The principles allow for creating extremely efficient energy generation systems as well as advanced aerospace applications. Examples and scientific background of this technology have been described by Valone (1994, 2004), Cameron (2001), LaViolette (2008), and Loder (2002).
– Valone, T. (2004). Electrogravitics II: Validating reports on a new propulsion methodology. Beltsville,
MD, Integrity Research Institute. 159pp. https://ia601404.us.archive.org/35/items/ijg-2015042015204020/IJG_2015042015204020.pdf
– Cameron, J. (2001). “An Asymmetric Gravitational Wave Propulsion System,” AIAA Paper No. 2001-
3913, Joint Propulsion Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah, July 8-11, 2001. : https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2001-3913
– LaViolette, P. (2008). Secrets of Antigravity Propulsion: Tesla, UFOs, and Classified Aerospace
Technology. Bear & Company. 512 pp. : https://archive.org/details/secrets-of-antigravity-propulsion_202211
-- Thomas E. Bearden “Energy from the Vacuum: Concepts & Principles” (PDF download, the book is 952 pages long, though pages 609 onwards are index, footnotes, and glossary. The book has the heaviness and thickness of a phone book.) : https://archive.org/details/energy-vacuum-bearden and for select pages from the book that are viewable directly on archive.org : https://archive.org/details/t.-e.-bearden-energy-from-the-vacuum-concepts-and-principles-additional
– Loder, T.C. III (2002). “Outside-the-box” space and terrestrial transportation and energy technologies for the 21st century. Presented at the 40th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, NV Jan. 2002. https://ia601504.us.archive.org/5/items/outside-the-box-ted-loder-paper-1/OutsideTheBox-TedLoderPaper%20%281%29.pdf
In the highly classified aerospace industry, such flying devices were dubbed ‘Flux Liners’ because they used the Quantum Vacuum Flux field to provide energy and propulsion. The early Aerospace prototypes used only a 24-volt marine battery as a power-up system, after which the device went ‘over unity’, drawing its power from the Quantum Vacuum of space. Later (once the military got their hands on downed exotic space craft) they used back engineering in combination with what they had learned from the human inventors above to create more efficient and powerful prototypes. One such iteration was called the “A.R.V.”. My research and sources indicate that effective gravity control technology was mastered in covert military R&D programs as of October of 1954. Significant improvements, augmentations and refinement has occurred since then, resulting in a wide array of craft being manufactured in compartmented military contracts (USAPs). To the layman, when observed in flight, these craft would appear ‘extraterrestrial’, this is not by accident.
Historical Background:
It began with Townsend Brown and Kowsky-Frost.
In 1927 an article was published in German journal, describing research experiments by Prof. Kowsky and his engineer Mr. Frost. They discovered that if they placed a quartz crystal inside a metal box and treated it with high-powered radio waves the crystal expanded and caused the whole apparatus weighing 55 pounds to rise in the air. Later that year these results were published in a US magazine.
Townsend Brown’s development of Electrogravitics tech began in the mid 1920’s. Townsend Brown discovered that electric charge and gravitational mass are coupled. He found that when a capacitor is charged to a high voltage, it has a tendency to move toward its positive pole. His findings, which became known as the BiefeldBrown effect, were opposed by conventional minded physicists of his time. Brown conducted a demonstration for military top brass. He flew a pair of 3-foot diameter discs around a 50-foot course tethered to a central pole. Energized with 150,000 volts and emitting ions from their leading edge, they attained speeds of several hundred miles per hour. The subject was thereafter classified. Project Winterhaven involved Brown submitting a proposal to the Pentagon for the development of a Mach 3 disc shaped electrogravitic fighter craft. Drawings of its basic design are shown in one of his patents. They are essentially large-scale versions of his tethered test discs.
The rest is as they say, history…
Additional references and pertinent info on the physics and technology involved with the above described interstellar craft (and covert human electrogravitic craft):
- "The U.S. Antigravity Squadron" (Dr. Paul Laviollette wrote this article for inclusion in Tom Valone's breakthrough book "Electrogravitics Systems". The article below is a partial-length reprint of Laviolette's work suggesting a connection between the B2-Bomber and the 1960's electrogravitics research of TT-Brown) : https://archive.org/details/ventura-03
- “Everything for nothing” - new physics based on the fluctuations of empty space (by Harold E. Puthoff) https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12717275-500/
- An article exploring how Defense contractors raced to create ZPE tech (technology that extracts usable energy from the quantum vacuum (including BAE systems) then all the research went dark: https://archive.org/details/zero-point-energy
-Gravity as a zero-point-fluctuation force (Harold E. Puthoff): https://archive.org/details/gravity.-pra.paper-1
-Source of vacuum electromagnetic zero-point energy ( Harold E. Puthoff ): https://archive.org/details/source-of-vacuum-electromagnetic-zero-po
-Physics of the zero-point field: implications for inertia, gravitation and mass ( Harold E. Puthoff ) : https://archive.org/details/sst97
-An electromagnetic basis for inertia and gravitation: What are the implications for 21st century physics and technology? (B. Haisch, A. Rueda) Published 15 January 1998 Physics: https://archive.org/details/zpf_staif98
-Space Drives ( Electromagnetic ) ~ US Patents for anti-G, force-field propulsion, electro-kinetics, &c. : https://web.archive.org/web/20180703042632/http://rexresearch.com/antigrav/antigrav.htm
– https://www.integrityresearchinstitute.org/Pinheiro.pdf
– https://web.archive.org/web/20180703041949/http://rexresearch.com/perl/elgsys.htm
– https://web.archive.org/web/20190104012250/http://www.rexresearch.com/brown5/ttbrown5.htm
Fran De AQUINO - Gravitational Spacecraft: https://web.archive.org/web/20190412112606/http://www.rexresearch.com/aquino/aquino.htm
Fortified underground bases are not a theory, they are publicly acknowledged.
Mass cancellation technology is not a theory, the research was actually quite public and being confirmed in popular scientific journals until that research was scooped into the military black ops realm in the late 50-s.
Not every rich person is okay with the psychopath's agenda, some do fight back, and some also die suddenly and/or disappear.
One thing I have learned the hard way about is to not to allow the confirmation bias momentum I have built up behind comforting ideas to blind me from considering that some of the things I would rather not think are true or could be possible, may actually be possible and perhaps even extant.
This happened with me regarding how I used to make fun of people talking about “UFOs” and “flying saucers” quoting a bunch of ‘leading edge’ astrophysics stats and perspectives from “experts” to cast doubt on the likelihood that our planet is being visited by interstellar capable cultures. Then a massive spherical spaceship went zooming over me and my buddies heads right above the tree tops when we were out camping one night and all my comforting worldviews about humanity’s planetary isolation and technological superiority were shattered.
Same thing happened for me with regards to what the mainstream educational institutions and research labs were saying about transgenic seeds, all through my childhood I was programmed to see such things as “wonderful advancements of science that will help us end world hunger”… that was the 90-s… and now we have simultaneous obesity and malnutrition epidemics and our life expectancy in the west is on a steady decline.. so much for that comforting fairy tale.
At one time people thought it impossible that we could build flying machines and if you told people that a teaspoon of soil was filled with billions of tiny lifeforms a few hundred years ago they would have called you crazy.
All it takes is relentless dedication and one small invasive hard earned discover after another, until one day, the seemingly impossible, becomes possible, and then ordinary. This is what happened with weaponizing Nikola Tesla's, Townsend Brown's and Kowsky-Frost's work in combination with backengineering downed ET craft. I`ll share some pertinent intel relating to these realities in a separate comment incase you are serious about educating yourself about these aspects of our reality and covert technologies.
Exceptional claims require exceptional proof. Or words to that effect.
Just one solid evidence of UFO would likely convince me. However I have only seen hundreds of circumstantial bits and speculation and theories each of which that I have investigated have failed on grounds of testable physics or basic common sense.
You see the goal of the ruling class is to confuse and divide, they do this by providing fake proof of conspiracies to discredit people who want to believe. In amongst it there may be even a proof but it is too well hidden amongst the impossible that it cannot be used as proof of anything YET.
As an electronic engineer with HAM radio as an interest and a wide range of reading I watch Tesla ideas pass by, perhaps something he came up with has been overlooked but I can tell you now that if there was any financial value to any one off his ideas that are all over the conspiracy sites it would be in commercial production. It does not matter how I wish some idea was real if I know it fails on circuit theory or electromagnetic wave theory and no one has bothered to even produce a working prototype I am reasonably sure that it will remain a pipe dream even if it is ALLEGEDLY hidden.
The fact that antivaxers are equated by people to flat earthers tells you that there is DELIBERATE misinformation about what is real and what is not. Some things are just rubbish while others are probably true. Some things can be tested, researched and proven while others use emotive language to offer scans of random patents to try and prove a policy.
I wrote a patent for a guy, it was never used, does not mean it is or is not a alien technology. Another guy wanted me to write up a patent on a free energy device, ne had me sign an NDA to show me a document he had found on the internet. I had to let him and his wife down gently and explain it was not free energy and very difficult to harness the static charge from falling water. They wanted to provide the systems to poor people and make a little on the side.
So if your sales pitch requires dismissing the well understood laws of thermodynamics to achieve free energy you would be better of just making one device and selling the prototype or making a million and selling the energy. The truth would come out in a few days. Quoting stuff on the internet does not make it so. Sorry, I too would like energy, heating is expensive in Finland.