Animá Lifeways & Herbal School

Registration Open Dec 1st – & Teachers Confirmed For The
2012 TRADITIONS IN WESTERN HERBALISM CONFERENCE

Sept. 13-16 in Arizona’s Beautiful Coconino Forest

www.TraditionsInWesternHerbalism.org

“An amazing conference, resurrecting the spirit of Western Herbalism.” -Paul Bergner

30+ Teachers and 40+ edgy & innovative Classes at our awesome new event site, with topics like nowhere else!

2 full Nights of dance-making music, 4 or more Native Plant Walks, Kid & Teen Workshops, & Healer’s Market with Practitioners

Registration Now Open – As of Dec. 1st

As of December 1st, 2011, you can register for the TWH Conference and receive the special Early Sprout or Plant Healer Subscriber special discounts.  Revised 2012 Website Ready To Peruse:
www.TraditionsInWesternHerbalism.org

Enjoy 3+ days of classes, plant walks and hands-on workshops taught by some of the most knowledgable, inspiring and exciting of teachers, each bringing to this conference their absolutely most adventurous new class topics… along with a Healer’s Market and Friday and Saturday night music and dance concerts.   You’re all welcome in this great learning exchange, this work of healing self, others and earth – clinical practitioners and impassioned students from beginners to advanced, every age and both genders… earnest professionals, grandmotherly herbal hobbyists and young “Occupy Wallstreet” volunteers alike!

“The most amazing conference ever!” -Juliet Blankespoor, Chestnut School of Herbalist

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Confirmed Teachers

All 2012 classes are confirmed, which wasn’t easy considering how very many great Teacher applications and topics we received.  We again showcase a mix of long venerated Herbalist icons and rising talents deserving of opportunity and exposure… with all of them stretching themselves and their audiences with adventurous, personal and practical topics for every level of herbalist student and practitioner.  Their unique, never-before presented classes will range from 1.5 hrs in length to full 3 hour intensives, and include both Native Plant Walks and Classes For Kids every single day of the event:
Matthew Wood • Cascade Anderson Geller • Christa Sinadinos • Aviva Romm • Phyllis Light • Kiva Rose • Kathleen Maier •  Bevin Clare • Paul Bergner • Tania Neubauer • Howie Brounstein • Kristi Reese • Ben Zappin • Phyllis Hogan • 7Song • Jesse Wolf Hardin • Jim McDonald • Lisa Ganora • Larken Bunce • Charles “Doc” Garcia • Linda Garcia • Sean Donahue • Rosalee de la Foret • Nicole Telkes • Katja Swift • Darcey Blue French • Kristine Brown

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2012 Registration Prices

Big Savings For Those Who Register Now

Children 6 & Under – Free
Youth (7-17)  $55 (good anytime)
EarlySprout $240 (until Jan 1st)
Midseason: $275 (Jan. 2nd-June 1st)
LateBloomer (after June 1st)  $315

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And for Plant Healer Subscribers only, and for 2 weeks only, the biggest discount of all… a special Plant Healer offer expiring Dec. 19th, 2011.  Details found in the TWHC article in the Winter Issue (Dec. 5th release) of:
Plant Healer Magazine

“If you can only make it to one herb conference next year, this should be the one! Profound, inspiring, multi-cultural, grass roots, and SO much fun!!  We’ll see you there!” -Julie, Humboldt Herbals

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Lodging

Cabins, rooms and camping with outlets must be purchased direct from Mormon Lake Lodge, and the earlier you reserve a space, the more likely you are to be sure of getting the accommodations you want. For Cabin info go to the:
Mormon Lake Lodging Web Page

When registering, be sure to tell them you are with TWHC so that you get the best deal and are housed with the rest of our community.

Meals

While you can bring your own food, Mormon Lake Lodge will also be catering meals to our specifications including wild game, fresh vegetables, gluten free fare and more.  Meal tickets will not be sold until Spring, so we suggest you purchasing your Conference Tickets and Lodging before then.

“We see this conference as the weaving of a beautiful tapestry where the strength of the warp and the possibilities of the weft can come together to form new and beautiful patterns not previously possible, based on the wise and thoughtful integration of diverse traditions of herbalism, healing and community. Perhaps most importantly it feels like a conference for truly inspired and serious herbal folk that want to come away not just having had a good time, but to come away feeling reinvigorated in their herbal pursuits and practices and having learned valuable skills that are immediately applicable to deepening herbal skill and knowledge. This conference seemed to offer enough for beginning students to feel both inspired and appropriately overwhelmed as well as an abundance of learning opportunities for intermediate and advanced students as well. What a great balance!”
–Hanna Jordan & Chris Smaka, School of Traditional Western Herbalism

TWHC – September in the Coconino!

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My Handmade Book For Papa

by Rhiannon (age 11)

Hello! I hope you’re all well, I’m back to tell you all more exiting and interesting things, on this sunny Thanksgiving Day!

Recently I made Papa a book of art, I love making him things. It is fun to make things for people you love, as it says on our kitchen trivet “it’s pleasant to labor for those we love.”

I made a 21 page book filled with my art and love.

I made a picture of Mama Loba and I cooking him a soup of hearts and above  I wrote “A soup of hearts for our king of hearts” and “He is a King of Hearts” as my Pa has such a big heart ☺

I made a picture of a wolf howling a rainbow of magic to the cliffs and a cossack warrior spurring his horse along. Mama Loba got as much enjoyment out of making it as I did, we both had a absolutely wonderful time.

I also did a picture of me as a 6 year old girl carrying an impossibly big load of wood and I wrote “Thank you for teaching me to attempt the impossible”. It is important to try to attempt the impossible, no matter how hard it seems you should still try your best, and be proud of yourself if you succeed, and if you can’t do it, don’t let it get you down just accept that there’s somethings you can’t do. But always always at least attempt the impossible. That’s what he taught me and I’m grateful for it.

I hope everyone enjoys this blog post.

–love, Rhiannon

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The Balance:

Gifting & Receiving Are Both Ways of Doing

Canyon Updates & Ponderings

by Jesse Wolf Hardin – Anima School & Sanctuary

Wolf working hard on relaxing, or accomplishing in a relaxed manner?

“Thank you for all you offer to the world!.  Please do take time to tend to your own basic needs, to relax, to play, to enjoy the company of your loved ones, to create spontaneously, to listen quietly to the voice of life in this moment.” -Lauren S.

Today I would like to briefly address the uses of our mortal hours, the balance of giving and receiving, rest and effort, in the context of this Anima update.  It is certainly true that we have not found the time for relaxation that we had hoped for following a Summer of wildfire and a wonderful conference, as much as we agree with our caring friend Lauren’s hopes we can find the time.  Unslackened has been the stream of  projects much needed by the world as well as of so much satisfaction to me, and relentless both the joy and stress that accompany them.  The work of the upcoming 2012 event began immediately after getting home from the 2011 TWHC, as we strove to select the teacher’s and classes that would go best in this year’s magical recipe (preferably without hurting any feelings, though it seems it’s not always possible, no matter how hard we try).  It’s actually been quite an effort just to get back to and acknowledge important companeros and allies like Nick and Marcus, go over new student applications or respond to the up to 50 emails a day that come in to our various addresses.  With Loba tending the land, our bellies and Rhiannon’s home school, Kiva and I try to take care of all the rest, including the two blogs and rewriting, recreating, and just now uploading the latest revised 2012 TWHC Website.

Readers of Kiva’s Medicine Woman’s Roots Blog will see a a great new post by her, not just for herbalists.  And you will now see a new header and subtitle: “A Feral Approach To Midwidery, the Folk Herbalism Revolution and Living On The Land.”  Never one to mince words, Kiva has overcome the doldrums by redefining her mission and work closer to what she has always felt and enjoyed.  Expressing the wild joy and deep connection that she feels with plants, daring to broach controversial subjects that may make some uncomfortable, and unleashing her feral (rewilded) self in her posts and Plant Healer Magazine has rebooted and reframed her efforts, setting fire to her excitement again.  It still won’t be stillness or stress-less this way, but it can be satisfying.

Kiva's adjusted blog header, featuring an ambivalent and ever so mildly worded subtitle.

As any herbalist or healer knows, stress comes with pleasurable events as well as unpleasant, with doing certain things that feel great as well as those we might wish we could avoid.  For me, the greatest stress is always over what I cannot make happen, rather than even the most tragic or difficult of events.  But another that is hard on nearly everyone, is the stress of anxiety as something unseen or as-yet unarrived threatens us.  Thus the pain that came with watching the rapid approach of the Wallow fire’s undiscerning flames… and since October’s incursion by a bulldozer through the canyon, the underlying anxiety that comes with waiting for the “other shoe to drop” (as the saying goes, and just the expression come from, anyway?).  As many of you read earlier, our proud anti-federalist county chose the historic trail down this sensitive river canyon to challenge the government’s restricting of vehicle access in public forests.  Like the hero of the Milagro Beanfield War, they scraped at the river crossings and left tracks meant to demonstrate who the heck has sovereignty, the agencies of the United States or the residents of Catron County.  The government response is an ongoing investigation by more agencies than I can name, charged with protection of water quality, archaeological sites, wildlife and more, and on top of however many lawsuits and cease and desist requests they’ve inspired.  The first of November I raised in the local newspaper an issue that no one seemed to be talking about, which is the violation of private property that occurred during this anti-federal demonstration, including our Sanctuary here, and how private property rights are as American a principle as personal liberty.  Only a short while before, a county commissioner had publicly admonished people to do whatever the wanted in regards to the road issue here, likely leading to a local club offroad club pulling out a no trespass post and driving into the sanctuary.  And likely led also to someone having dragged logs into the trail to cause us difficulty.  While we teach our child the realities of history, lay out the magazine to be as beautiful as we can imagine, finally get around to straining our medicinal tinctures, and do all we can to make the world a more healthful and response-able place, we do with the added stress of watching for what we might face next.

Kiva recently unearthed Wolf's cossack ancestory... and indeed, this looks a man who might have a problem with a bulldozer in his yard, and prefer trade or plunder to money.

One of the more difficult aspects is income, as for all so called civilized peoples.  It is hard for everyone we know to get enough money coming in to survive, often in order to be giving time freely to a place, people or cause.  None can escape the requirement in this society for at least a certain amount of income, no matter how differently and more simply we live than the bankers and top 5% that get away with 80% of the wealth.  For us at Anima (first named “Duration Ranch” because of my love for Paladin type cowboy characters and the fact that I was staying for the duration of my life), the struggle is how difficult it can be to make enough to pay not for our personal needs so much as for all that we are trying to accomplish.  Yes, to survive this wild rural lifestyle,with expected dental and medical needs with no heath insurance, repairs and improvements to the sanctuary infrastructure, but most importantly to build the conference and courses, print the new books waiting, and thus have an impact on the course of the world… with our work offered at a sliding scale and only 2 consistent (and ever so appreciated) supporters able to send any monthly assistance to the project.

Part of what we need for our own balance is buying a little time, which can come in part from seeking (and accepting!) assistance.  Much of what we do requires us along, but there are other areas that require skilled efforts without our personal touch, and it is making a difference to have Resolute taking care of all that she does for Anima and TWHC on to of her own worries and work.  The outreach help of Katja and Sean, our conference extensions and reps.  Lauren and Asa taking on the job of proofing, which can make such a difference to writing’s clarity as well as appearance.  And it seems that at least one and maybe more helpers are still coming for the live-in position we advertised, which will make it possible for the Trail Boss to see our fire fighting and water cache system completed, an outdoor overhang kitchen for Loba, maintenance on the cabins.  With more assistance and alliance, aides or staff dedicated at least in part to sharing these tasks and goals, we may yet find time… not to fill with yet more exciting projects, but to take those nutritive and sense awakening walks on the river we tend and protect.

The immediate strategy, however, is more a matter of 1. Prioritization, daily determining what is most important, pertinent to our purpose, effective and especially timely. 2. Less email, facebook or other interfacing if possible, with more blogs and articles. 3. A fierceness of focus, following elements through to completion more than multi tasking.  And 4. Even with that degree of focus and determination, to always, all-ways, remain engaged with the physical world, noticing the songs of the birds outside the window as well as the possible crunch and hum of a vehicle’s approach, the dance of the leaves in the wind as well as (not just following) our attention to the dance of words on the page.  We are not relaxed, as Lauren hoped, but we are as you wished, indeed “playing, enjoying the company of loved ones, creating spontaneously, listening quietly to the voice of life in this moment.”

Our friend 7Song wondered how Kiva can accomplish so much and still notice the little things in life.  It comes not from a healthy making of time for wandering and paying attention, but from training ourselves to notice the richness of form and nuances of meaning, in spite of all the important tasks which those trying to help the world know must be done.  And not just taking satisfaction in moments of looking away from our work, but in finding ways to notice and savor even while meaningfully busy.  The balance between gifting and receiving can be achieved through alternating from one to the other, or by accomplishing and experiencing both concurrently.

As I wrote recently to our friend and aide Katja, even the efforts to relax and enjoy are a “doing”… hence, let us do well.

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Autumn Celebrations and Ruminations
by Loba

Anima School & Retreat Center

Hello Friends!

I hope you all have been enjoying the joys of Autumn as much as we have! I so love this time of year! Oh the gloriousness! The welcome chill in the air, the happy building of morning fires once again, the miraculous palette of gold and orange and red, fading greens and brilliant evergreens, against the impossibly blue New Mexico sky! It is truly way too beautiful here in the canyon to put into words, so just look:

The sacred cliffs at Anima Center, NM

Watching the late summer turn into fall has kept me in a constant state of amazement. Each day the giant grape leaves that were too pretty for me to bear to harvest turn more golden, catching the afternoon light and reminding me to slow down to admire them. Every day at the river there have been yellow butterflies fluttering around with the falling cottonwood leaves! I love watching the leaves  get caught up with the wind in a butterfly-like dance before they flutter to float on the river. They are little boats of beauty, reminding me of the preciousness of life and time.  And then I float down the river myself! It’s certainly getting more chilly, what a thrill!

Rhiannon and I made a fun list a few weeks ago of many things we wanted to do to celebrate Autumn. The list has a bunch of different categories– things to harvest, things to bake, things to can, things to make (like velvet leaves we made and attached to ribbons to hang in our hair, and a leather purse for Rhiannon we’re working on), specific celebrations (A Teddy Bear Picnic, Autumn Equinox, my birthday, Day of the Dead), and things to clean and/or give attention to.

It may seem funny to think of cleaning things as a way of celebrating, but it helps make it seem fun and special! Besides, we never got entirely through with our Spring Cleaning list, so this gives us another chance! What I’ve been doing is trying to do at least one of the fun creative things on the list each day, and at least one of the Fall cleaning items, even if it means that some of the daily chores aren’t done as thoroughly as usual. It feels so good to finally make time to do the hand wash laundry pile, and wash the windows, and scrub the walls behind the woodstove, and clean out the pantry again!

We have been reveling in the abundances of produce we’ve been able to harvest, trade for, and buy! I’ve been very busy processing over 100 pounds of root veggies that a wonderful student of Kiva’s brought to the TWHC in trade for her registration. Thank you Kristen for all the lovingly tended fruits of your labors! Been making oil preserved parsnips and carrots, candied parsnips and apples, carrot salsa, eggplant salsas of many persuasions, home-dried turnips, carrots and parsnips, fermented turnips, green chile relish, and more! Kiva and Rhiannon and I went up to the mountains to harvest fir where Kiva spotted some rare, out-of season morel mushrooms! I nearly fell over with excitement!!!!  So of course we’ve been making all kinds of tree-flavored treats– Fir Oil, Fir Honey Paste, Fir Vinegar and Fir Almond Paste, which I’ve been putting in so many things! I’ve been busy working on a new Plant Healer piece on breads and other foods I make with soaked buckwheat groats, which has resulted in lots of fun experiments involving buckwheat banana bread, buckwheat gingerbread cookies, and buckwheat tamales! Yum!

Fresh Morrel Mushrooms, we're in luck!

Some of you may be wondering by now if that fabled cookbook of mine will EVER get finished! I do apologize for the endlessly long wait! And no, it’s not done yet! But you’ll be happy to know I have been on a roll lately, now that I’ve gotten myself back in the habit of getting up before dawn to write. I seem to have a really hard time fitting any writing into the daytime hours. So far I’ve been keeping up with my goal of completing a page of the cookbook each day. At this rate, in eight or nine months the text should be completed, then I’ll need another 3 months or so to work on the artwork I’m planning to do. Then it will be up to Wolf to deal with all my edits and layout. I could really use some recipe testers– any volunteers? I need folks who are already capable cooks who are able test oven temperatures and timing on many of the baked items, and spot any missing instructions or such things in recipes. Please let me know if you think you can help!

And now, just a couple Loba recipes for your sensory enjoyment!

Fir Oil Preserved Parsnips (or Carrots, Turnips, or Rutabagas)

What a blessing it is, to use what has been grown with love and care! Parsnips are my favorite for this lovely way to preserve root veggies that have a bit of woodiness to them. I’ll eat these with just about everything!

1 lb. parsnips
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar or any wild herbal vinegar
1/2 cup water
sea salt
Fir Oil (about 1 cup)

Peel parsnips and chop into bite-size chunks. In a large pot, bring vinegar and water to a boil, add chopped parsnips and bring to a boil again. Simmer until just tender, then strain the parsnips and save the vinegar water for another use, or another batch! In pint jars, layer the cooked parsnips with sprinklings of sea salt, and pour enough Fir Oil over to cover. Place a canning lid soaked in hot water ten minutes over the jar rim, screw on caps and store in a cool place for at least two weeks before eating. (If you can stand to wait that long!) I often process these jars in a hot water bath for ten minutes before storing, but they usually seal anyhow, within 24 hours, without the extra precaution. Inverting the jars after putting the lids on while the parsnips are still very warm (strange as it may seem!) will help facilitate this, if you prefer not to water-process them.

To Make Fir Oil, strip enough fir needles to nearly fill a pint or quart jar, cover with extra virgin olive oil, and put in a warm place for several weeks. OR, place the jar of oil in a very barely simmering water bath for at least four hours. When the oil tastes very strongly of Fir, strain and jar.

Not sure if these really qualify as candied parsnips, as they’re not really THAT sweet, but for lack of a better term….

Lemons in the sun! Photo by Loba

Candied Parsnips with Apple and Lemon

This is such a treat I like to can it and use it as a topping for shortbread or gingerbread tarts, an accompaniment for apple strudel or buckwheat pancakes,  or a filling for crepes (with sour cream). It’s also lovely stirred into a bowl of fresh yogurt, maybe with a little extra honey or maple syrup. It can also be made without the apples. I like to use the apples to make the parsnips go further, and I love how their married flavors remind me of the magic of quinces.

2 cups cooked parsnips (peeled, chopped and braised in butter)
2 cups chopped apples
1/2 cup finely minced fresh lemon, rind and flesh (de-seeded)
1/2-2/3 cup honey (to taste)
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepot and bring to a simmer. Simmer until the apples are cooked. Can in half-pint jars or enjoy right away!

Makes about 4 half-pint jars

Until we talk again, treat yourself well, and remember to savor!  It’s the Anima way!

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