The winds of fall, the silence of the forest, and getting to the root of things

The first weekend in October we met near Orangeville to focus our learning on roots. The nights had grown longer and the temperature had dropped considerably since our still summery meeting in early September. With these seasonal changes, we knew that the energy of the plants was moving downwards, under the soil.  As we gathered Saturday morning, we were jolted by strong winds that battered around us and blew through the many layers we each wore.  Since we were on a private property, a home and horse farmed owned by good friends of Alexis, we ducked into the barn to circle together and start our day.

Back out in the fields, the wind was fierce.  We dug up plantain roots along our way, then found a sheltered hollow in tall grass which shielded us from the wind.  From this we made forays out to dig and gather plants such as nettle and catnip, and pulled out some field guides to help us answer pressing questions.  We moved through the property, finding plants along the way, but the winds pushed us on.  Eventually we decided to cross the road and tuck ourselves into a forested area off the Boyne Valley.  We were grateful for the shelter and ate some lunch to refuel.  After lunch we took advantage of the relative warmth to each sit with a plant and learn something from it. 

I found myself sitting under a maple focusing on a tiny Herb Robert plant, feeling questions and anxieties of the previous week slipping away from me in the space and silence of the forest, admiring both the delicacy and the resilience of the intricately-leafed plant. As we came back together, we shared stories of what we had learned sitting with the plants, what spaces the forest had opened up in us. We spent some more time focusing on digging: milkweed, burdock, dandelion, and – very conscientiously – a couple of blue cohosh plants. We marveled at how different each of the roots was, wondered what that told us about each plant, and speculated about how fascinating it would be to try to identify the different plants by only looking at their roots.

We finished our day back in the barn, washing the earthy roots in basins of warm and cold water, warming ourselves up, and tincturing the roots of our choice to take home.  We were grateful for shelter and the promise of our warm homes that night!

The second day of our roots weekend was spent in a forest in Dufferin County, an area we had not previously explored.  Much of the morning we spent very close to where our cars were parked, exploring and digging in the richness of the forest soil.  We carved some digging sticks out of a small maple sapling to help us in our efforts. We traced the long rhizomes of sarsaparilla, which link whole colonies of plants together; examined the segmented appearance of the roots of false Solomon’s seal; and admired the incredible tenacity of the deep taproots of burdock, which tested the limits of our own perseverance and digging tools.

Seeds of Wild Leeks

Lunch was spent around a fire, resting and sharing songs together; our afternoon was spent exploring, wandering and digging more roots.  A strange and unexpected moment was finding an ancient Volkswagen rusting and decomposing in the middle of the woods – this find inspired much speculation and many stories!  We also spent time digging up spruce roots, useful for basket making and other traditional crafts, with Judy pulling out an impressively long rope of root; and took some time to rest and talk about our plant-related projects and research.

Spruce Roots

It was great to be out exploring the woods again, feeling joy in the new challenges of the elements as the season changed, and digging under the surface of the earth to deepen further our relationship with the plants.

Written by: Malgosia Halliop - 2nd year Plants A

pprentice

The Spirit of Plants

The Spirit of Plants

Our August plants apprenticeship weekend took us deeper into some questions we had dipped into in previous months, questions on engaging with the spiritual aspects of the plant world, and exploring how we could tune into understanding the gifts that plants bring to us with our hearts and intuitions, as well as our minds and hands.

The energy of the weekend was quiet and receptive, quite different from our previous weekends of adventurous exploring, meeting plants in new locations, researching species, and working with ethically-harvested wild plants and farmed plants in medicinal and culinary ways. This time we stayed on site at the home of Earth Tracks and Rebel Roots Herb Farm, and spent much of our two days under a large black walnut tree that sheltered us against the bright August sun.

The weekend was primarily composed of a series of deepening meditations that worked on our abilities to open up to intuition and deeply listen to the energies of the living beings all around us. We were encouraged to keep our minds and hearts open to visualize, imagine, dream, find metaphors, listen to our inner voices, and engage in the unseen world in whatever way worked for each of us. We made space to speak of our personal experiences of the sacred, and a container of trust and respect was created that honoured each participant’s individual beliefs and experiences.

 

To set the tone and bring us into a quieter frame of awareness and connection, we wove in elements of ceremony and ritual into the weekend.  Alexis incorporated some good context on the lineage of the rituals we were using, and we had opportunities for questions and dialogue on how to incorporate ceremony into our own lives in ways that felt authentic to each of us.

Along with group meditations, we had time to sit individually with plants and trees on the landscape to deepen our relationships with them, as well as to practice meditation and visualization techniques on our own. We spoke of dreams and how to find meaning in them – in a personal, intuitive, non-formulaic way - to help guide us in waking life, and we learned a useful word-association exercise for dream recall and interpretation. We also did a number of playful paired and group exercises on reading energy from each other, from plants, and from objects that we were deeply connected to.

The atmosphere of the weekend was open, exploratory, curious and connecting.

It was also nourishing and relaxed. And above all, it introduced us to a set of approaches, tools and possibilities for engaging with the natural world through spirit, and engaging with spirit through the natural world.

Written By: Malgosia Halliop - 2nd Year Plants Apprentice

Medicinal Plants Walk with Laura and Alexis –and a special plant!

 On Sunday July 19th, we left the Rebel Roots Herb Farm land and headed

to the Krug Forest, a beautifully preserved tract of land near
Dornoch, Ontario.
Introducing us to the many medicinal plants we saw today was Alexis
Burnett, head instructor of Earth Tracks and guest instructor, Laura
Gilmour of Wild Muskoka Botanicals.

We stopped along the edge of a wetland and found many plants and
creatures along the way. Blue Flag Iris and Boneset grew near the
marsh along with many Cattails.  As we discussed harvesting the pollen
of the cattails we spotted a frog. This wasn’t just a regular frog but
was two-toned! The frog was half blue and half grey-brown and was
patient with us and let us photograph and look at kin.

We found a rarer Skullcap flower and learned about it’s medicinal
properties and then found both False and True Solomon’s Seal right
next to each other.  We had a thoughtful discussion about these two
plants, including their roots, young shoots and their berries-a
grizzly bear’s favourite fruit.

Another wetland along the trail had bright red Cardinal Flowers, so
tall and stately and the brightest, deep red you have ever seen.  One
of the most beautiful of our local wildflowers, at least according to
this apprentice!  You can also see a picture of White Snakeroot, a
plant that has many healing properties but is also quite toxic.  It
can affect humans who eat the plant, but is also transmitted from the
milk of cows that consume the plant!

After a lunch off-trail, we changed gears.  We did a quiet walk
through the forest in fox walk and owl eyes.  Walking separately but
in a line, we had a neat experience of feeling the forest with our
feet, hearing the sounds, and smelling all the scents on the breeze.
After the walk we each found quiet spot and did a sit spot with a
particular plant. We connected with the plant while at our quiet spot,
with the intention of learning what we can from kin. We each harvested
a few leaves from our plant and put them in a cup with some boiling
water to make a tea.  We spent quiet time with our tea as we drank it,
and then gathered together to share our experience.

Walking back, we caught sight of a baby raccoon in a tree that we had
passed in the morning.  This time, ki was having an afternoon nap and
didn’t even notice us pass underneath kin!

*As per Robin Wall Kimmerer’s article, the pronouns for animals have
been changed, instead of “he” or “she” I’ve used “ki” and instead of
“him” or “her” I’ve used “kin”.
http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2842875/living_beings_as_our_kith_and_kin_we_need_a_new_pronoun_for_nature.html

Written by:  Alex Thomson - 2nd year Wild Plants Apprentice

A taste of plant medicine, meetings with trees, and a small surprise

The themes of caretaking and stewardship wove through our June weekend. Our second morning, like our first day, was grounded at Alexis and Bobbi’s place, home of Earth Tracks Outdoor School and Rebel Roots Herb Farm.  

We spent the morning in two groups alternating between two herbal medicine-making activities using common wild plants.  Alexis took a group through the process of harvesting plantain and making an infused oil, to use on its own or as a later base for medicinal salve. Lee and I led a second activity, harvesting some of the abundant wild thyme whose fragrance wafted around our tents, and creating a thyme-infused medicinal apple cider vinegar.  Alex joined in at Alexis’s station to strain off and share the lemon balm cold infusion she had made the previous day: a welcome refresher to the morning’s heat. Each group researched the plants while working with them, using field guides and each other’s knowledge to understand the medicinal properties of the plants we harvested with our hands.  

Our afternoon location was a short drive away: the forested property where Earth Tracks had been based until recently.  The brightness of sun and openness of the agricultural landscape where we had started the weekend was transformed into the coolness and cover of dense trees; the industriousness of the morning’s activities into a grounded and aware exploration of this new place and its energy. 

We began the afternoon identifying trees on the property; but quickly moved into several activities that shifted our awareness to more subtle information around us.  A paired blindfolded “meet a tree” exercise gave each person the opportunity to use their less dominant senses – including intuition – to get to know an individual tree and then find it again with the blindfold removed.  We followed this with a focused sit spot, each of us tuning in to the space around us and asking the questions “what can I do to help?” or “how can I give back to this land?” and listening to the possible answers: moving branches, lifting up weight, pruning.  It was in introduction to listening deeply to the land as an expression of caretaking.

To close the afternoon, we worked on one more caretaking project, a deer trail that the apprenticeship group of three years ago had begun clearing.  Alexis spoke of his connection to the deer on this property, where he had hunted as well as stewarded the land. We moved on to the trail, thinking through the mind of a deer which obstacles would hinder our progress, especially at low energy and hungry times of year.  As we moved branches, our intention was also to create brush piles, as we had the day before, to provide shelter for small mammals and other creatures. 

As I stood on a trail clearing branches onto a pile beside me, I did not expect what happened next.  I lifted a particularly long branch and dropped it to my right with a small crash.  The crash was followed by several more, the rustling of leaves and the crashing of small panicked feet.  I looked up to see a small dappled fawn dashing fleetly away from me, looking for its mother, who would not have been far away.  I was astonished at how well this small creature had been camouflaged two feet beside me, and shaken to have found myself scaring it in this way.  A few people around me working on the same trail gathered together to look at the spot where the fawn had been – a tiny kidney-shaped spot in the earth still warm to the touch.  It was a gift to see this fawn, to know that there were young here needing shelter, and to see that the brush piles we made would be used exactly as we intended.  It was a powerful experience to walk away with while reflecting on caretaking as one of the gifts and responsibilities of humans to the Earth.

Written By: Malgosia Halliop - 2nd year Earth Tracks Wild Plants Apprentice

Caretaking and Land Stewardship for Future Generations

Friday was a day of stewardship and caretaking on the new Earth Tracks land. 

Getting our hands into the dirt was the priority for the morning.  We each researched a herb that had been brought up in the Rebel Roots greenhouse to learn about its medicinal qualities and where it might grow best.  With flats of classics like nettle, calendula and chamomile we put a lot of seedlings into the ground. There were also some heritage tobacco plants and a strong vermifuge called wormwood. We learned a few growing techniques, like scratching up astragalus seeds to help them sprout. We will check back on our newly planted medicinals next weekend to see how they’re doing.

We worked on some stewardship projects after lunch.  The sugar maple trees that we had potted last weekend were ready to go into the ground.  We planted them along the driveway into the house.  The location we selected was in between the row of pines that shadow the southern edge of the road into the property.  When the red pines have past their peak, these sugar maples will hopefully take on the role of snow and windbreak, provide shelter for the gardens, lawn and thicket on the other side and encourage animal habitat. 

Building animal den/cover sites was another after-lunch project. We made these structures to encourage small mammals like voles, mice, rabbits and hares to live on the property.  These included spheres we made called “mouse houses” or “vole domes”.  Made of tree branches and shrub bows, these homes have a soft, grassy interior and would be a welcome place for any small mammal on a winter’s night! Even a chipmunk or red squirrel might want to move in.  More small mammals means more diversity in the ecosystem and can attract predators like foxes, hawks and coyotes to visit the farm.  We also built brush piles, a collection of sticks and shrubs that can serve the same purpose. 

A walk around the Earth Tracks property helped to animate our work. We looked at the various permaculture and ecosystem restoration projects that are in store for the land. As we dropped off the vole domes and built brush piles along the way, we were inspired by the many ways that humans can work to improve a landscape.  By being true “caretakers” of a land, we can increase the diversity of species that live there and enhance the richness of life for all the species nearby. 

Several folks took a turn at using the bow drills and Basia got a coal that lit our dinner fire. As we built up the fire, we got ready for the evening and our meal.  We harvested some wild edible leaves for our dinner and finished up our projects. Ox eye daisy, red clovers, lamb’s quarters and more went into our wild salad for the evening. Before we ate, we shared some gratitude and reflected on all of the work, learnings and stewardship that had made up our time together.  We looked forward to tomorrow as we ate.  As night fell, we settled into our tents and listened to the bull frog droning on, calling out each time he saw a mosquito fly by… or so it seemed. J.

Written By: Alex Thomson - 2nd year Earth Tracks Wild Plants Apprentice