Problems with Foraging

Susun Weed is an amazing woman and herbal healer. I wan'ted to share her words from her e-zine about Foraging. Spring is here and I know a few of you are seeing so many wild plants growing such as the dandelion, clover, plantain and more. Keep Susun's tips in mind before you do:

"Are you concerned about contamination of wild plants with lead, chemicals, and dog doo?

Avoid harvesting herbs from roadsides where lead concentration is high; plants growing by busy roads will accumulate more lead. The nearer the plant is to the road, the higher the level of lead concentration.

If you can't find a particular herb anywhere except by a road, pick at least eight feet from the road edge; lead levels drop sharply in the first few feet. In cities, pick from parks and other out-of-the-way places. Be wary of vacant lots which may be contaminated with lead paint.

Avoid picking under powerlines and along roads where the weeds are controlled by spraying instead of cutting. Suburban lawns that have been doused with weed killers rarely grow medicinal weeds, but if you support chemical warfare (distorted, mutated, sparse weeds are good clues), avoid that area.

Avoid gathering herbs where canines gather. Dogs can pass parasites to humans.

Allow yourself to be guided by your intuition, as well as your senses and your intelligence, and you will know which areas to avoid when picking wild plants. Given the amount of chemical contamination on commercial herbs (and fruits and vegetables, for that matter), I honestly feel safer taking risks in the wild.

Open your eyes and observe the green abundance. Open your heart and feel the green joy. Come with respect for green power. The devas of the plant kingdom welcome you."

by Susun Weed

Update

I've added a page bar at the top of the blog.

The first page is Home, here of course.

Second is called Recipes and right now there is a recipe for Thieves Oil from Mountain Rose Herbs available to use for cold and flu season. I'll be adding other healthy recipes to the mix as I find them.

Third is a link to my website EcoGoth.

Enjoy ^_^

I am now Affiliated

My company, EcoGoth, is now Affiliated with The Raw Food World and Mountain Rose Herbs!
I will be posting banners for both soon here on the blog.

Many of you have seen my many posts about both of these companies on this blog. I advocate both of them as they both sell products that I use.
Now, when you use the links above or the banners on this site to go to these businesses and make an order, I receive a percentage of your sub total. This percentage will go towards updating EcoGoth and helping get more products out to my customers.

Thank you everyone who uses or plans to use these affiliate links. ^_^

Pop vs Pot

I just had to share this...

Food Documentaries

Here are 2 Food Documentaries that are available for Instant Viewing on Netflix that are inspiring and eye-opening (and gut wrenching).

The Future of Food gives a clear picture of the effects of Genetically Modified food on farmers, economy, government, and food culture.
I feel like we're setting ourselves up for disaster...for famine and pestilence. If these GM crops are all we have and there's a bug or weed or effect of some sort that wipes that type of plant out...we're lost.

When I first heard about the effect of GM crops on other countries I was in my Anthropology class. My professor told us about a group of farmers in India that had committed mass suicide by drinking the pesticide and herbicide Monsanto had sold them to use on the Monsanto crops...the same crops that had made the farmers impoverished (a situation that they could not stand with honor and that led to their suicide).
They became impoverished because of the Terminator technology (the suicide genes in the plant) that cause the plant to be sterile so every year the farmers must buy new seed from the company.

Food, Inc. is a look at the food industry and the effects on the people.
"This isn't about what we're eating. Its about what we're allowed to say; what we're allowed to know."
This movie differs from Future of Food in that it spoke about animals/meat a little more and directed its attention away from Monsanto as much and more on the companies that benefit from Monsanto.
There's a scene in the movie where a man interviewed open up a live cow with a 4-5 inch hole to access the first stomach! The cow squirms and bucks a lil but doesn't feel the cut as its been numbed but still...It squicked me out so I thought I would put a warning. 
There's also a slaughterhouse scene...so if you have a weak stomach...you may not want to watch.
I will say that this movie was emotionally jarring...it made me want to cry several times.

Updates

A lot going on with me.

New Job
New Haircut
New, Refurbished Website

I'm also ordering stuff for EcoGoth products and trying to prioritize...

Also a surprise coming soon 0.0

I am eating more vegan products. There's a shop in Elizabethton, TN called O Go Grocery that has vegan cheese, cream cheese, butter, etc for $1 each! Thank you Amy who also turned me onto the Vegan blog in the last post. She's been very helpful with all my dietary changes.

New blog!

My friend Amy turned me onto this new vegan blog because I'm having some issues with milk (I'm getting an appointment with the doctor to find out if I'm lactose intolerant). Posting the link here to 1) share it with all you readers and 2) remember it myself since its not a blogger account, I can't follow it like one. I really like the idea for grilled chickpea sammies.^_^