I have been researching the meaning of 'wild simulated'. My idea of what that means was based on the permaculture principle that there are plant communities, or guilds, made up of plants that like to grow together, and they have complimentary properties that all fit together to make a well-rounded healthy ecosystem. I surmised that wild simulating would mean growing them in a setting as close to a natural one as possible. Like below! This is a picture of a Goldthread guild!
Earlier this summer I was in Goldthread country and decided to try an experiment. Instead of digging up individual plants, I decided to dig up everything growing in the whole circle of foliage surrounding a few Goldthread (Coptis trifolia) plants. Three months later and both the little tree and the Goldthread are doing quite well, better than earlier transplants that arrived alone without their neighbors. 🙂
So what does wild simulated mean? Does wild mean the seed or the location? Can you till the soil? Can you weed? Or fertilize? What I learned is that the term appears to be mostly in reference to Ginseng production..although the concept should apply to any crop that varies when planted in tilled soil as opposed to a la natural. Here's what a Virginia Tech article said:
"Since there is no tillage of the soil with wild simulated ginseng crops, all fertilizers are applied on the soil surface. Applications of gypsum and/or rock phosphate may have to be made every two or three years. Soil testing should be done every year to monitor available soil nutrients." For the weed question, they simply recommend avoiding planting near any large stands of obnoxious weeds.
From what I have gathered, wild simulation is mainly about replicating what is happening in the wild by not intervening beyond planting the seeds - and only using shovels and hoes to do it, either in the wild or somewhere with similar soil pH and shade, moisture, etc., and commonly associated plant species growing there.
Tilling seems to be the defining no-no with wild simulation. In the case of Ginseng, the root is different and less sought after when it is grown in tilled soil. I don't think this would apply with Goldthread, since it is just little runner roots going everywhere.
Both Ginseng and Goldthread like deep shade and plentiful moisture. The climate in Montana is a lot more arid than Northcentral Idaho, where the nearest Goldthread is. I have learned that even a little too much direct sun will burn Goldthread and cause it to just stall out in failure to thrive mode. If shaded under a Rhubarb leaf, for example, it will be green and happy with only the sun that shines through the sheltering leaf. The problem with Rhubarb, however, is that it dies back and leaves the Goldthread exposed and the gardener has to get inventive. Last year it was an umbrella, lol.
So, for this year's experiment, I surrounded the little guild with other plants so that it would get a lot of shade, and I kept it well watered. To my delight, all of the plants in all of the containers loved their circle! And - the true test - no sunburned Goldthread!
Goldthread is a very slow growing plant, however. It is a worthy herb to propagate though, and is full of berberine, as evidenced by its bright yellow roots! The new little guild that came over the hill with me is clearly thriving although we are only starting to learn about growing it in a habitat that may fall far short of commercial quantities. Again, it is a case of everyone growing a small amount, for the best Essiac around, using herbs that are easy enough to grow enough of for a family or a group. I do have more respect than ever for those that do get us herbs on a larger scale so we don't have to grow them all. Make that something short of Big Ag though!
Well, there is more than one variety of Goldthread, and some of it grows faster, and is just as full of Berberine. I did get a Coptis chinensis seedling from Horizon Herbs and it has already made new leaves in the few months since it arrived. Coptis chinensis is most likely the mystery herb Rene Caisse was trying to order from India during the summer of 1977 when they were testing Essiac and she was short on herbs.
Wishing you all a great harvest season and may you enjoy these beautiful September days!
~~ Like Essiac herb growing info and sharing? Join the Essiac Growers Guild group on Facebook!
48 years ago today - August 25, 1966, Seattle Colisseum - the Beatles in concert!…. there I was, just 50 feet from the stage, at what was to be the third to last concert the Beatles ever performed. I was just a Montana teeny-bopper, following the Beatles in the teeny-bopper magazines - Tiger Beat, Datebook..I discovered that they were coming to Seattle! A mere 588 miles from Helena Montana and I didn't even have a learner's permit. But I was a huge fan, and that would not stop me. So, I wrote a note. To: the City of Seattle, Seattle, Wash. I asked them how to go about getting tickets to the Beatles concert?
They wrote back! City Commissioner Ted Best notified me that I had two complimentary tickets awaiting me in the City Council offices!!!! After some really fervent begging and bribing, I convinced my parents to take a vacation to Seattle, and my Mom agreed to go with me to the concert, even though she did not really like the Beatles. 🙂
Turns out, the seats were alongside the stage, in the first section, 'totally close'! In fact…Paul did see me, I just know he did. I still can't believe we had such good seats. I tried to sneak off 'to go to the bathroom' - but Mom saw right through that, and would not let me out of her sight. Ok, I confess - I was on a mission: backstage or bust! Seeing the Beatles was one of those pivotal events in my life and the memories really came back for me this Aug. 5….because
…on this magic day just three under weeks ago - Paul McCartney actually came to Missoula Montana and gave a concert!! Haha, Mali Klein and her Essiac master classes have started a trend, perhaps? Meeting in Missoula, always a wonderful adventure! Of course I went to the concert, but this time, Paul did not see me. I was about 200 feet back this time.
But what a show. He really has still got it. In 1966 everyone was screaming during the songs - in 2014 we were all singing along! It was a good day. And the fans sure did come out! Missoula has 68,000 population, and there were over 25,000 concert-goers. They had to flag folks off the interstate so many were coming in to town! The pre-party at Caras Park totally sold out of food, but true to western protocol, I hear there was plenty of beer. It was the largest gathering in the history of the state of Montana!
The following week Sir Paul played Candlestick Park in San Francisco. It was where the Beatles played their last concert, on August 29, 1966. Paul's August 14 concert was the last one before they demolish the stadium.
Labor day weekend is coming and the office will be closed from Tuesday August 26 - Tuesday September 2. All orders placed during that time will ship on Tuesday Sept. 2. May you enjoy the last of August!
We're hitting the road at ReneCaisseTea - heading for Idaho to pick up the new book! Black Root Medicine the Original Native American Essiac Formula,softcover, 54 p., 2014 Mali Klein - the last installment. Order here, and… meet us in Missoula! October 11 - Essiac Master Class 3 - Healing Cancer Can it be Done? Prior attendance not required. Or, meet us in Seattle on November 1 for An Afternoon Seminar on Herbs and Cancer.
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."~ Helen Keller
This is the only Essiac master class offered anywhere. It happens only once per year, and 2014 marks our final gathering in Missoula, Montana. This is a one-of-a-kind experience. It will not be recorded, in keeping with the idea behind such gatherings, so that the experience will be intimate, candid and completely unique. The theme will be about Essiac and its role in healing in the context of our personal lives as well as how that can best compliment the world we live in. Participants will directly experience some of the healing protocols Mali Klein has developed over the past twenty years. All are welcome, including those with serious illness, as well as those in the profession of providing health care. It is for anyone who sees the importance of keeping the knowledge and use of this and other herbal medicines alive and would like to be part of a dialogue about how we as individuals, professionals and businesspersons can help to facilitate this.
Essiac and herbal medicine can have an amazing role to play in the emerging healing paradigms of the 21st century. Master class attendees will be introduced to a perspective not shared quite so freely in the written word as it will be in this session. Each class has been a stand-alone experience and prior attendance is not required.
The 2014 Master Class will focus on the original 8-herb formula handed down from an old Native American medicine man in Northern Ontario in the 1890s. But more than that, it will be from the perspective of the Medicine man that brought this formula to us in the 1890s. Before the days of Essiac. (The formula was later reduced to a four herb formula by Rene Caisse and those four herbs - Burdock, Sheep sorrel, Slippery elm and Turkey rhubarb, make up most of what is sold as Essiac today.)
This original eight herb formula is what Rene began working with when she first started her work with the herbs in the 1920s, and the results were impressive. Mali Klein's work now focuses almost completely on this original eight-herb formula, which has been shelved since the 1920s, and which Rene Caisse only revealed in writing once. Virtually all of the 8-herb Essiac formulas on the market today do not contain the herbs originally used.
Mali will be sharing her findings about this indigenous formula and what happened to it in her newest book Black Root Medicine, the Original Native American Essiac Formula, to be released September 1, 2014. Mali will share some insights and evidence that will forever change your assumptions about what Essiac is and how the politics and confusion about the correct formula following Rene's death resulted in so much misinformation about Essiac in the years to follow.
Included in the tuition will be signed copies of the new book!
Mali will go deep into the subject of healing and living a quality life, with or without serious health challenges, and will be sharing a unique approach to health and healing using a combination drawing from Native American, Buddhist and other spiritual traditions. Mali will also be available for private consultations from October 1 - 24.
Ever wonder what it must have been like to have a breast cancer diagnosis 120 years ago? Enter Black Root Medicine - The Original Native American Essiac Formula (softcover, 2014, 54 pages). This easy-to-read companion volume to The Complete Essiac Essentials book takes a uniquely inclusive look at the early history of the Native American formula that was the basis for Canadian nurse Rene Caisse's Essiac. The book is available as of September 1, 2014 on Amazon and here at ReneCaisseTea.com, for $12, or $30 for both Black Root Medicineand The Complete Essiac Essentials.
Mali Klein and her late writing partner Sheila Snow have documented the history of Rene Caisse and Essiac extensively in a series of Essiac books: Essiac Essentials (1999), Essiac the Secrets of Rene Caisse's Herbal Pharmacy (2001), The Essiac Book (2006). and The Complete Essiac Essentials (2010). Sheila co-authored the Canadian Homemaker's Magazine article that brought Essiac back from obscurity in June 1977: Could Essiac Halt Cancer?The final installment, Black Root Medicine - The Original Native American Essiac Formula, takes a step further back in time, to the days before the herbal remedy became known as Essiac.
In the 1920s when Rene Caisse was working at a hospital in Haileybury Northern Ontario, she met the woman who had originally gotten the formula from a Medicine man some 30 years earlier. The woman had recovered from breast cancer using the remedy. "Mrs. Johnson" is the only scrap of this woman's name not lost to history - "or it might have been Johnston." "A mining camp in northern Ontario" is as specific as it gets for the town she lived in. "A very old Native American medicine man" is as specific as the tribal affiliation gets - Ojibwa is just a guess.
Piecing together the details with such little hard evidence and a long-cold trail is a challenge Mali has met in good form. She has taken a step into the mists to reconstruct life in those days for us and in doing so has penned one of those books you can't put down. It is a quick read and a worthy bedside companion for ending each day on the final section!
If you are familiar with the Snow/Klein work, well, you'll be checking your preconceived notions at the door to Chapter 1. This amazing little book draws from the written history found in the Essiac archives while shining the light on the most recent research findings about the properties of the original herbs. Black Root Medicine adds another dimension, bringing late 19th century culture, traditions and worldview in the wilds of Northern Ontario to life in a way that makes perfect sense and symmetry. Through the pages of this book, Mali continually sheds very compelling light on how this original 8-herb formula may hold important clues for the 21st century.
‘Time is comin’ when all us on Mother Earth will be part of the army to save her.’ - Little Bill Penn (Uncle Yum), Twilight on the Thunderbird.
The book resonates with a feeling set by the illustrations as well as the pure prose of the writing. While the earlier Snow/Klein books have been outstandingly informative, this book takes things to a new level, with a view to sorting out another time and conjuring up images as they might have been seen through the old medicine man's eyes. The intimate connection with nature and the power of the animals and plants comes alive in a palpable way in the pages of this book.
It's summer!!! By definition, gardens should be planted by now, unless you are like me and have bitten off a lot this year so are behind! We got 300 feet worth of hugelkultur beds planted with Sheep sorrel..in the meantime I planted a lot of tomatos that are still patiently awaiting life in the field.. but I digress. This post is about our friend Slippery elm (Ulmus rubra). Read More →
I just found this, thank you Victoria for telling me about it! This bit of video of Mary McPherson making Essiac has surfaced, and is well worth the watch. Only 8 mins. long, and some change. Enjoy!
We've just made our first foray of the spring out to the Place of Gathering, up at Dayton MT, one of a few different places where we'll be growing the Essiac herbs! It hasn't greened up a lot yet, but my favorite six months of the year officially began today! The Place of Gathering has great energy and Dayton is always so sunny.
We will be direct-seeding Sheep sorrel within a few weeks, if spring decides to stick around. I started Burdock in seed trays and will transplant it out there. Ditto on Turkey rhubarb. I am planting a veritable grove's worth of Slippery elm seeds, and they will probably stay in their pots for at least a year. This year I am soaking the seeds for 24 hrs. before planting. Update: They are planted, but what a soggy mess..I took "soak" literally. But when they dried off it was as if they'd never gotten wet.
Horizon Herbs has Slippery elm seedlings! Read More →
Part one of this series was posted in April 2013, and the very next day we got ten inches of snow. Fast forward to Feb. 2014. This keeps happening. I have been remiss on updating! Now that spring 2014's official start is just weeks away, Montana is again playing catch-up on snow. When other parts of the US were getting blanketed from the Polar Vortex, we had blue skies and no snow…now we are getting 'Vortexed' too.
Last April ended up with a total of three of the year's largest snowfalls but the Sheep sorrel didn't mind one bit. The Slippery elm went on to grow a LOT inside my greenhouse, which will be getting moved this spring so the two trees I planted in the ground inside can keep growing! Growing and wildcrafting blog #1 featured the first bud on a sapling the deer had nibbled down on my porch the previous fall. Below is a time lapse:
Slippery elm, from early April to late April to June to October, from one bud to almost six feet tall!
In photo #2 you will note the very friendly Burdock 'companion' plant. It wanted to take over and had to be 'un-friended'. Other Slippery elm youngsters were 'farmed' out to spend the winter in a nursery bed outside. Once it stops snowing, I will be out to check on them and I hope they fared ok this winter. They were mulched with straw.
The Sheep sorrel took very nicely to growing in a Hugelkultur bed, a six foot tall raised bed full of rotting wood that supplies nutrients and moisture for a long time, and which plants love! This idea was the brainchild of Sepp Holzer. Go to holzeragroecology.com for more info, and check out the arial view of the farm just below Sepp's picture on the Home page - it is one of two permaculture farms that we will be growing the Essiac herbs at - called The Place of Gathering. Good folks! Montana's Flathead Valley is full of innovative ideas like this. It is a wonderful place to be.
2014 marks planting Sheep sorrel and the other herbs on a bigger scale than before. We have sold a lot of Essiac Seed Kits. I am not too active on Facebook but I see how it can work to put people and ideas together, and would be a good way for us to all share our growing experiences. So, welcome to the Essiac Growers Guild, or EGG, which has just been 'hatched', haha. It's an open group, all welcome!
Before we know it it's going to be greening up again - I for one am looking forward to that!
