In early February at THE SEED ARCHIVE’S “Seedy Sunday” event, 70 people came to pick up and learn about seeds. It was a bit of a pileup. Four gallons of homemade, homegrown (last season) posole was never slurped so fast. Experienced growers shared their seeds and carefully picked through the collection, taking the most rare and unusual. The inexperienced came empty handed and stuffed their pockets. As my friend Erik said: “Wait until they have 200 radishes to harvest and have to figure out what to do with them.” Particularly exciting arrivals to the SEED ARCHIVE were blue lotus, mandrake and white alpine strawberries.

A public-access seed archive relies on its PUBLIC which to me means a broad diffuse network of folks learning how to grow seed out and bringing it back is essential to not only a seed’s continued life but the vitality of the archive as a community resource.

Many seeds can only be stored for a short period of time. Potatoes need to be grown out every year to remain viable. Lettuce seeds last only a year or two before they reach the end of their shelf-life. We can’t just stuff seed away and we can’t just grow things out willy-nilly.

Taking an informal poll here (in case any of you wish to respond, you are invited to) Why were people taking so much seed? Too much to grow and use for an experienced grower/eater.

This came to mind at the moment Vandana Shiva stepped up to a podium of a packed auditorium in Chicago. Shiva comes from a farming, conservation and teaching family and as an environmental activist who has written over 15 books also has a PhD in quantum physics. She is a GRANDMOTHER WARRIOR fighting Monsanto and the other four transnational corporations that control our global food supply – pushing GMO’s, toxic pesticides and herbicides affecting our seed and therefore farmers and their families, rural communities and ecosystems of plants and animals, soil quality and even us urban consumers. She uses an old form of resistance – inspiring a dedicated (read strategized) and devoted (read heart-solid) group of people, mostly women to put their bodies on the line. Among some things, she has brought down the likes of Monsanto and Cargill on seeds and CocaCola on water rights. Shiva travels the globe extensively inserting toothpicks between our eyelids so we can see what the heck is going on. And like the toothpicks, it ain’t comfortable.

Four years ago I had the privilege of serving her on her week’s teaching residency in SW England. She was puffy, her breathing heavy, full of congestion. She was so unhealthy that it made me question the ability of a human, any human to hold such a large public identity and still remain whole and vital.

She looked better a few days ago. She spoke about the Chipko movement of the early seventies an organized resistance to the destruction of forests in India. Village women organized the Chipko – the spontaneous actions of thousands of women hugging trees stopped the destruction and popularized the action and use of ‘treehugging’ around the world. Chipko’s stance: forests support food, fuel, fodder and stabilize soil and water. In otherwords, forests are integral to subsistence another way of saying: Ecology = Economy.

She also spoke about the great Bengal famine of the mid-forties when hundreds of thousands of Indians died due to the misdistribution of rice. Women, armed with broomsticks confronted the British East Indian Company to demand a lessened “tribute” of their rice crop so they could actually feed their families. Their message being – let us keep more of the rice we grew or kills us now. Women and broomsticks mind you. Witchy farmers, but not witches. These women also stopped them.

Shiva has given a strong voice to SEED SOVEREIGNTY. She started an organization called NAVDANYA whose mission is: to protect nature and people’s rights to knowledge, biodiversity, water and food. Navdanya works with almost half a million farmers and urban people to establish and maintain 34 seed banks throughout India. These seed banks hold 2000 rice varieties, numerous grains, pulses and greens – some of them drought resistant, some salt water tolerant. They hold and share the crops that for thousands of years have been selected and cultivated and saved and passed on from generation to generation.

To echo Grandma Shiva: an agriculture free, biodiverse and in the commons addresses economics as well as food, soil and water security for all us creatures.

THE IDES OF MARCH

Toxic land increases but nutrition does not. Since we are what we eat, it’s time to start planting and cultivating and foraging our lands. But we need to know how to do that first before we start stuffing our pockets with living embryos – an instinct called hoarding. When two separate attendees to the SEED ARCHIVE’s early February ‘Seedy Sunday’ event proudly reported sowing every single seed they brought home immediately after the event, my smile cracked. Too early, folks!

In Chicago, there remains two months until our first frost-free day. This means that in eight short weeks, the evening temperatures won’t drop lower than 30 degrees and it will be safe to plant out tender plants like basil. Frost-free areas of this country like Miami and Honolulu need not worry about ever stopping sowing and growing.

Check out the USDA ZONE HARDINESS map (google it) and find out roughly what zone you are in to know when your frost-free growing season begins.

So roughly….

• Feb 15 - Mar 15 – Zone 9 (Houston, St. Augustine, Tucson)
• March 15-30 – Zone 8 (SF, Seattle, Gainsville)
• April 1-15 – Zone 7 (Oklahoma City, Little Rock)
• April 15-30 – Zone 6 (St. Louis, NewYork)
• May 1-15 – Zone 5 (Chicago)
• May 15-30 – Zone 4 (Kansas, Nebraska)
• June 1-15 – Zone 3 (Upper Midwest/Upper Great Plains)

On the back of many seed packages you will read ‘sow 6 weeks before frost ends’ etc. Knowing this plus where you are on the thawing continuum, you will know when it’s time to sow your seeds outside or inside in your egg cartons and soup cans.

Right now in zone 5 (Chicago) the soil is workable and cool, ready for certain cool season sowing. Three days ago it was 17 degrees; yesterday it was 50 degrees and I planted: peas, potatoes, kale and daikon radishes. I don’t cultivate lettuce or spinach as I prefer wild greens, but it is time to plant these too. Inside I have already sown: tomatoes, chilis, eggplant, basil, lemongrass and a huge bunch of other oddball medicinals and edibles. My horseradish that anchors my center garden and the hops off the back alley is out of the ground a few inches!

No need to wait though, food is already here no matter how much frost you’re met with in the morning. Plenty of weeds are hurtling through the soil and unfurling – dandelion, dock, ramps, garlic mustard and ground ivy are already big enough to nibble on and in a week or so, I can start delicately picking my dear friend nettles.

SEED SKEEBALL

• - Mix half compost with half clay-y soil or river clay. Use the local soil you have around you. You are afterall, reseeding locally.
• - The seed ball has to stick together, but should not be too dense. The rain needs to penetrate the soil ball and the roots need both the structure and the air space to grow into their location. Use more clay or compost until you get a good mix
• - Moisten the mix so it is quite wet. Mix in 1/2 teaspoon of seed per quart of soil. (if you are metrically oriented, use 2-3 ml of seeds per liter of soil.) more seeds is not better. Too many seeds will crowd each other out.
• - Roll a palm-sized ball of soil. set aside to dry. (you will need to distribute the seed balls fairly soon as water + seed = germination! i suggest doing this within 2-3 days after you make them.)
• - Bowl, place or lob seed balls into areas for greening and future foraging opportunities.

Out there, out of doors it’s between leaf and root time. It’s seed time.
In autumn plants put their efforts into reproducing themselves via seeds, both bare and covered with delicious flesh. Time to collect these offspring, juicy apples and pears for cider. Collecting seeds to save for intentional or uninvited sprinklings, to grow next years’ harvests and forages.

Weeds are all about vitality and abundance. And I was to bend your ear to foraging. Let’s not let our species’ hydraheaded scarcity issue overwhelm us convincing us we need more than we really do. That’s how we got into this mess called modern agriculture.

HOT & COLD

As you might of guessed, I don’t use bagged tea from a store or even rarely buy it in bulk as I enjoy foraging our urban lands and dry the plant material I forage in paper bags or hung upside down in small bundles in my dark and dry pantry. Drying medicinal weeds is all about allowing air to circulate around the leaves and protecting them from light. Paper bags are perfect for this as they will not trap moisture.

I want to share how to make an herbal infusion. Infusions are like concentrates –you want the full-on benefit from the plants you decide to put in your body. They will help you but only if you allow them.

When you collect from a plant, try to find more than a few and collect from them in a way that won’t damage them. Don’t rip or tear. (ouch!) Make clean pinches or cuts with a knife, your fingers or some pruning shears. This means only a few leaves/seeds/fruits or less than 10% of any individual plant. It is important that the plant you are collecting from is allowed to thrive and regenerate itself, even if it is considered a ‘weed’. Plants are by nature, generous with what they have to offer (as we also help them in all sort of unconscious and unintended ways) When you are done, thank the plant. Maybe give them a drink from your water bottle. Because that plant is going to help set your liver or blood or mental attitude right. And that is pretty generous of them.

When you’re ready to make an infusion, grab a healthy (no pun intended) handful of dried herb and put it in a quart glass jar. (glass is a must – it is stable and neutral). Pour hot water over it all until full and screw on the lid. You use a lid so volatile oils stay in the brew and actually enter your body to work their effect on you. (Though I do recognize that aroma is simply enjoyable and part of healing. Releasing them into the air will have your home or office smelling terrific.) You will need to do some research as some herbs have chemical compounds and minerals that require a longer steeping to get them to release into water. Roots and bark are two example of this.

With some herbs, cold water instead of hot water is used – this is the general rule for seeds and fruits and I also usually steep these longer, often setting my jar up the night before, having a nice sleep while my infusion makes itself and the waking the next day to drink it at room temp or warming it up with a low flame (stay away from that microwave, yuck!) or even drinking it iced.

a selection of SEEDS to look for (research their uses on your own) & collect before winter settles in:

• amaranth seeds
• burdock burs
• hackberry berries
• juniper berries
• kentucky coffeetree
• lamb’s quarters seeds
• rose hips
• queen anne’s lace
• yellow dock seeds
• sumac berries
• hawthorn haws
• aronia berries
• hazelnuts
• grapes
• pawpaws
• persimmons
• elderberries
• pears and apples…

WHERE DID I PUT THAT NUT?

Two years ago I was driving across country and stopped at this Piggly Wiggly to pick up some snacks for the road. I grabbed some yogurt, some chocolate and I was looking for nuts. And I couldn’t find them. I found the stock guy and asked him, ‘Hey, where can I find the nuts?’ and he replied, ‘Peanuts or Donuts?’ I paused waiting for some faint uncontrollable twitching or the slow crack of a grin. His face was blank. He was waiting for me to answer him. Stunned, I thanked him and left the store.

Who am I kidding? People in Kentucky know what nuts are and where they keep them. This happened on the northwest side of Chicago.

Every animal forages and everyone one of them aide in plants’ dispersal mechanism – the seed. Scratching the soil, knocking into them, eating them and pooping them out, carrying them stuck on their fur or muddy paws or webbed feet across distances they inadvertently or as is the case with a few animals intentionally plant them somewhere. Humans have been carrying seeds around in their pockets for thousands or years as they wander around and set up camp in different places. Wind, the jet stream, rivers and oceans help travel seeds widely too. That’s why we have so many weeds out there.

Squirrel’s energy seems to vibrate just below that of insects. Their seemingly erratic behavior might just be the animal reading the environment with their bodies faster or perhaps more honestly. Their strategy and impulses are not that unlike that of our weedy plant pals.

Squirrels are fantastic collectors and not very good archivists. No matter, as they can fill their self-interest no matter what the result of – whether forest with trees for nesting, playing, broadcasting chattering and eating, safety of for a snack now.

I am hoping I can convince y’all of the following: to travel/walk around with a nut in your pocket for a day. Just to feel it’s potential. Always of a talisman. To keep it in there until you are ready to release it into the earth. This is what squirrels are doing, carrying around acorns, walnuts, hazelnuts and tucking them into the earth. They do it quickly, furiously sussing out a place than scratching, fuddling and putting it in place and patting down the soil again in less than a minute, and whether later in winter they get the nibbles and look for these nuts they’ve stored and not find them is no matter as they are found by another or spring up as tree seedlings that grow into trees to nest in and chatter from which in turn produce nuts for future haphazard storage, snacks or again future trees. So if you can, find a nut tree or shrub and gently pick off a nut or risk going to a store and getting one not irridated. Chestnuts, buckeyes, oaks or walnuts are common in urban areas as street trees and in parks. Select one to act as a temporary talisman and carry it in your pocket like a battery.

…and know when you find that place to plant it, release it and by releasing it you activate it, you are ensuring a future store of nuts, providing shade and squirrel habitat, growing material to construct a ship, starting that forest that we all miss in our hearts.

Got nut, in pocket
Got a walnut and I’m going to use it
Intention I feel inventive
Gonna make you, make you, make you notice

Agriculture and the grid was about opportunity, an equitable share of wealth, a stake in the land and a home place. The Land Act of 1797 measured and divided all land in the public domain into a gridwork of survey lines leading to the distribution of land where all parcels we considered the same ignoring natural topography and water ways.

Weeds have followed the plow. They are artifacts of our modern food culture, Agriculture. The way we eat and live by ripping and removing the living soil of the indigenous deep rooted-structure of tall grasses, trees and shrubs exposes soil to wayward seeds. The most assertive weedy seeds settle into these open patches of soil and establish themselves. When the Mayflower arrived in 1620, there were no dandelions in North America. By 1671, they were everywhere. Weeds are our reward for not going native.

Weeds adapt the condition at hand, make use of marginalized soils that agricultural plants can’t. They optimize vitamins and mineral contents within their bodies, create passageways through the soil for water and air to flow via their deep roots and create forage for animals and insects. Weeds prevent further degradation of soils by covering the land’s tilled surface, they prepare and heal the soil for other plants. Weeds are the first step in ecological succession. Weeds enhance our internal and external landscapes’ capacity to support themselves.

photo by Becky Pflueger

ELIMINATION
LUBRICATION
RESTORATION

DANDELION (Taraxacum officinale)

Dandelions are windborne seeds of perennial indestructible roots. It disperses surplus fluids and moves stagnation. Dandelion helps the kidneys retain potassium and supports the liver. Roots, leaves, buds and flowers are medicinal.

BURDOCK (Articum lappa)

Burdock is in the dandelion tribe. Terrestrially, its deep roots pull nutrients up to topsoil – you can burn and add to your compost to enhance its mineral content. The root is dark brown while inside a dense white. Burdock is a guardian of inner flows. It helps the liver process oil and increases bile production. Burdock moisturizes tissues and supports blood. A single burdock plant can bear 400,000 seeds it’s second year. The root and seeds are used as well as young leaves.

NETTLES (Urtica dioica)

Nettles naturalize around septic systems, outhouses and manure piles. It utilizes these protein wastes to build its protein content. Nettles help the liver metabolize and the kidney eliminate. It is very high in calcium and magnesium. Nettles restore our overtaxed adrenals.

BLOOD AND WATER

The liver relates to blood the kidney to water. Both organs actively change the structure of and are nurtured by the blood that feeds them. They are stewards and beneficiaries of the body’s abundance.

The liver stores and metabolizes carbohydrates, proteins and fats. It is a detoxifier protecting our inner ecology of drugs, pollution and stress. The liver is a nutrifier of the blood. It is the organ of Planning and Strategy.

The kidney is a sorter keeping what is useful and letting go of what is not. It maintains the environment of the body conserving water while passing on only a little bit to the bladder to help dissolve waste. It also regulates the pH of the blood and the salt in the body. The kidney is the ocean of the body. It holds Essence and Will.

Uh…you guys…wait, wait…I…uh…I want to tell you about something that happened this week.

My car passed its 100,000th mile. I anticipated the milestone for sometime and found myself thinking about time, distance and life changes. A spiritualist once told me that cars represent the symbolic self and marketers may sell to the id and the ego, but while I admire fine vehicles the cars I have owned are utilitarian. Basically I look for cars that stop, go, and have a spare tire.

My current vehicle is best described as a “permanent rental car.” I purchased the car new in 1998 and considered neither style, nor color, nor options package. I told the dealer the payment stream that I could make and he responded with a white mid-size four-door sedan. Like what you find on any airport’s rental car lot. “What’s a Contour?” I asked. A vanilla white Ford that I drove off the lot onward to my future.

I was a different man then, a bachelor pursuing humanitarian good through finance. I was not casper milktoast; I labored for years, more than a decade, to organize, finance and fund a bank/information network granting credit based upon the ability to communicate: the fewest people have material assets but every person has the ability to communicate. Our birthright could form the basis of a system humane and pivotal.

My financial logic was valid, no banker did deny, and the prospects seemed strong but with galling naivety I asked the wrong question, wondering, “Could this be done?” And as certainly as folk wisdom knows to “be careful what you ask for, you just may get it” I learned that while such a system is possible the salient question is whether the political will exists to implement such a system? I found “humanitarian finance” to be an oxymoron, and I came to question an economic system where pursuing the common good is classified by what it is not - the sector of community service, of the arts, education and culture termed “not-for-profit.” More than semantics are at play here; the economy is about ownership rather than stewardship.

To the Ancient Greeks hubris was the greatest sin. I sought the brass ring, to slay the dragon and my transgressions came not by an assigned fate but rather through conscious choice. Assets far and rare, hundreds of millions of dollars, came in pursuit of the structure that I built but so too came lawyers in wing tips and lawsuits. For one year I was held in contempt of court with fines mounting daily, until in the end the Federal judge erased the ruling and its penalties were fictive, though intensely painful scarring memories. Oh, the angst and tempering pressure was slow to play out. Its half-life ripples still.

The fall was sharp and wrenching but it granted me a lesson in compassion. How do we learn compassion? It’s not just an idea and it really can’t be taught. It’s not an achievement, not about doing, but a quality within that is practiced in the local and present. Humility must be renewed daily.

I am a different man now, and stronger for the experience. My journey, while specific to me, I sense may be general to a wider population, my peers – male or female - raised in pursuit of opportunity, fueled with ambition and an unquestioning sense that to achieve is to be, that to “climb the mountain” is inherently good. The orthodoxy of the masculine, regardless of gender, celebrates action, too often unreflective, as heroic, meaningful and lasting. But there is an imbalance at our core.

The miles also brought sterling moments, as when I drove along Lake Shore Drive one Chicago autumn evening. My passenger was a beautiful soul clad in a woman’s body and about whom I was moved to say, “It’s true that still waters run deep.” She stood beside me while my prior self was burned and reborn. I speak now of same life reincarnation. While I did the work, in so many ways she nurtured the transformation and through all the miles since she has been my daily companion. In fact, most of the time she drives.

100,000 miles have measured a distance greater in life than in geography. We have moved far from the city but further still from the life lived there. As I approached the turning of the zeroes I thought on these things. I discounted the place where the event would occur, thinking mostly in symbolic terms. When it happened I was driving to work and it was an astonishing coincidence that the fifth zero fell into line exactly upon the threshold to the parking lot of my employment at a factory making durable goods. I took this not as an omen but as a cosmic joke.

The universe, as it often reminds me, does have a sense of humor. Sometimes not subtle.

- william ulysses

spontaneous vegetation are plants that grow where we did not will them to grow. they are mostly immigrants whose original seeds traveled in the pockets of humans, in the ballasts of ships, in airstream or in the guts and on the feet of migrating animals. these seeds produce plants that thrive where domesticated plants don’t - in soils too poor, too dry, too acid or alkaline, too compacted, i.e. urban soils. mostly these plants are called "weeds" and they make up the bulk of inner city areas. they colonize cleared sites quickly and remain wild and undomesticated. they improve soil. create habitat and many are edible and/or medicinal.

collecting and using spontaneous vegetation carries the following advantages:
1) they provide flavors and textures not to be obtained elsewhere
2) they are clean in so far as they are not genetically modified and not sprayed by pesticides or chemical fertilizers
3) they are free and abundant
4) they are higher in nutrient content than many domesticated plants

wander open lots, sidewalk cracks, alleys, train tracks and expressway embankments to find ingredients for your morning omelet, your afternoon tea or this evening’s salad.