Exploring the many gifts offered by Birch trees in the context of Food Forest Design. This is Installment #2 of the Stacking Functions in the Garden, Food Forest and Medicine Cabinet series.
I have many paintings of birch trees. I like birch trees. Chaga grows on birch trees.
I decided I was going to stop buying birch tree paintings because I have more than enough. Went swimming at the sports plex and they had a showing there, of paintings of birch trees. The bastards.
I am always happy to cross paths with a fellow birch-aholic! :)
Thanks for sharing that story and providing me with the powerful medicine of laughter my friend.
Now you have me envisioning an entire room devoted to Birch worship, with giant murals on the walls showing the birch's beauty in all the seasons, a coffee table made out of wind fallen birch wood and a fruit bowl made out of woven birch bark! :)
LOL! It's not that bad. But now I want to build a canoe. Mind you I like the plastic canoes, heavy fuckers but they bounce off rocks completely unscathed.
Holy moly, Gavin! I thought I could do a quick read of your post but this will take lots of coming back to. :) I LOVE Birch trees so much! I have lots of varieties in the woods out back here. A beautiful majestic White Birch is the guardian tree in. my Nemeton.
I have an anecdotal story for you. I had what I was pretty certain was a basal cell skin cancer on the tip of my. nose. It kept scabbing but wouldn't fully heal. I tried using a Chaga creme that I have that successfully healed another one, also on my face, a few years ago. But this one was stubborn. I was out in the woods hanging with a favorite Birch and IDK why :) but I decided to rub my nose on the powdery surface of the tree. I came back and did it a few more times. Guess what? It's fully healed, I'm not kidding.
One of my favorite things to do here is search for fallen Birch trees to harvest bark for fire starter for my wood stove. Loved the Birch biting video and also the twig tea. Thx for taking the time to put this all together! 🌳 💚
I am so glad that our elder sister birch helped you to heal! Thanks for sharing that. I am going to investigate those particular medicinal gifts of the tree (and her fungi friends) and add any pertinent studies and material to the article. Thanks for the inspiration.
Thank you for caring deeply about our rooted kin, I am so glad you find what I put together here useful.
:) I suspect that the most potent, healing and holistic of scientific endeavors all began with an individual listening to their intuition, the whispers of their ancestors and elder rooted ones on the wind and taking a leap of faith. After which, began the process of proving out that intuitive knowing and faith based discovery using the materialistic/reductionist lens of science (so that the awareness could be shared with those who are only willing to look at the world and accept what is true and what is not through such limited lenses).
For instance, as I begin to learn more about soil microscopy and other modern areas of regenerative soil science (while simultaneously learning about more ancient lenses of perception with their roots in indigenous cultures) what I am coming to realize is many of the techniques people use today (which many consider to be "new" techniques that were made possible by high tech science) are actually just modern echoes of more ancient knowings and practices which have been wrapped in new words.
I mean don't get me wrong, I am not saying microscopes are a useless waste of time. I think there is a lot of potential to identify species in soil and compost samples and optimize regenerative cultivation strategies accordingly, at the same time I feel as though the Creator (and/or evolution) gave us the senses to be able to detect the presence of beneficial soil organisms (and medicines) without the need for high tech gear. Thus, while I am using my microscope I am attempting to hone my internal modes of measurement and detection of key species via using the sense of smell (and my intuitive capacities, attuning my heart and mind to sensing the energetic signature of those beings).
I think that indigenous peoples have been doing that without microscopes for millennia. Some peoples who live around where I do now (the Eastern Woodlands of Turtle Island) had a practice of taking the roots of a healthy plant from the forest (which they planned to cultivate by seed) plunging the roots into water in a container and then soaking the seeds in that water before planting. They used words like inviting in the “good spirits” or giving “blessings” to the seeds when they describe the process, but what they were really doing intuitively and via using their senses/skills of observation (in today's language) was inoculating the seeds with beneficial species of mutualistic bacteria (rhizobia) and beneficial fungi (mycorrhizae).
I feel that we are capable of learning to engage in those kinds of low tech expressions of high level science and understanding (as the ancient peoples of Turtle Island and most likely the Gaels/Druids did elsewhere have done for millennia) without the need for microscopes or lab equipment.
So while the toys and modern scientific methods of quantification are great and helpful in some contexts, I feel that the more ancient and intuitive sciences are also important to develop as we work with the living Earth.
Thank you for the illuminating and thought provoking comment sister.
Well said, Gavin. Sometimes I feel like a fish out of water here on Substack. So many researchers, world problem solvers, etc. and here I am this little old Crone talking to the Trees and rubbing my nose up against bark for healing. 😂🌲🥰
You know, now that I think about it, the Birch tree shares some characteristics with the UN's 2030 "Sustainable" Development and the WHO's ONE Health agendas. It does not recognize the arbitrary borders of nationstates and it has set down roots all the way from Canada, through Europe and to Russia!
Where the global reach of the Birch and the globalist reach of the 2030/"One Health" agendas differ however, is unlike the ubiquitous transnational UN/Davos/plutocrat trojan horse that is the 2030/One Health agendas (which, in contrast to the shiny greenwashing propaganda it's proponents espouse, is actually detrimental to the biosphere and ecosystems we depend on, programs people to embrace reductionist separation mentality, is a system of thought that attempts to program people into severing their connection with nature, programming them into seeing themselves as an 'imposition' on the biosphere as a human, and as you have astutely pointed out in your substack posts, is basically a pathway for misanthropic oligarchic tyrants to curb stomp humanity indefinitely) Birch on the other hand, actually does regenerate the environment. The birch tree also invites us to unify and become active participants (seeing ourselves instead as a positive presence within the ecosystems we depend on) through actively engaging with trees and other beings in reciprocity. Also, unlike the 2030 agenda, working with ubiquitous medicine trees like the Birch tree uplifts, heals, empowers and mentally emancipates humanity through reminding us of the humility and place based wisdom of our ancestors.
So yes, Birch or bust! :)
Thanks for the comment my friend.
(ps - I am gonna work on those excellent questions you asked me later today)
I have many paintings of birch trees. I like birch trees. Chaga grows on birch trees.
I decided I was going to stop buying birch tree paintings because I have more than enough. Went swimming at the sports plex and they had a showing there, of paintings of birch trees. The bastards.
I am always happy to cross paths with a fellow birch-aholic! :)
Thanks for sharing that story and providing me with the powerful medicine of laughter my friend.
Now you have me envisioning an entire room devoted to Birch worship, with giant murals on the walls showing the birch's beauty in all the seasons, a coffee table made out of wind fallen birch wood and a fruit bowl made out of woven birch bark! :)
You should see my canoe.
LOL! It's not that bad. But now I want to build a canoe. Mind you I like the plastic canoes, heavy fuckers but they bounce off rocks completely unscathed.
Holy moly, Gavin! I thought I could do a quick read of your post but this will take lots of coming back to. :) I LOVE Birch trees so much! I have lots of varieties in the woods out back here. A beautiful majestic White Birch is the guardian tree in. my Nemeton.
I have an anecdotal story for you. I had what I was pretty certain was a basal cell skin cancer on the tip of my. nose. It kept scabbing but wouldn't fully heal. I tried using a Chaga creme that I have that successfully healed another one, also on my face, a few years ago. But this one was stubborn. I was out in the woods hanging with a favorite Birch and IDK why :) but I decided to rub my nose on the powdery surface of the tree. I came back and did it a few more times. Guess what? It's fully healed, I'm not kidding.
One of my favorite things to do here is search for fallen Birch trees to harvest bark for fire starter for my wood stove. Loved the Birch biting video and also the twig tea. Thx for taking the time to put this all together! 🌳 💚
I am so glad that our elder sister birch helped you to heal! Thanks for sharing that. I am going to investigate those particular medicinal gifts of the tree (and her fungi friends) and add any pertinent studies and material to the article. Thanks for the inspiration.
Thank you for caring deeply about our rooted kin, I am so glad you find what I put together here useful.
Well, you know me, Gavin. I’d rather just rub my nose on a tree than research the science… 😂🌳💚🧚
:) I suspect that the most potent, healing and holistic of scientific endeavors all began with an individual listening to their intuition, the whispers of their ancestors and elder rooted ones on the wind and taking a leap of faith. After which, began the process of proving out that intuitive knowing and faith based discovery using the materialistic/reductionist lens of science (so that the awareness could be shared with those who are only willing to look at the world and accept what is true and what is not through such limited lenses).
For instance, as I begin to learn more about soil microscopy and other modern areas of regenerative soil science (while simultaneously learning about more ancient lenses of perception with their roots in indigenous cultures) what I am coming to realize is many of the techniques people use today (which many consider to be "new" techniques that were made possible by high tech science) are actually just modern echoes of more ancient knowings and practices which have been wrapped in new words.
I mean don't get me wrong, I am not saying microscopes are a useless waste of time. I think there is a lot of potential to identify species in soil and compost samples and optimize regenerative cultivation strategies accordingly, at the same time I feel as though the Creator (and/or evolution) gave us the senses to be able to detect the presence of beneficial soil organisms (and medicines) without the need for high tech gear. Thus, while I am using my microscope I am attempting to hone my internal modes of measurement and detection of key species via using the sense of smell (and my intuitive capacities, attuning my heart and mind to sensing the energetic signature of those beings).
I think that indigenous peoples have been doing that without microscopes for millennia. Some peoples who live around where I do now (the Eastern Woodlands of Turtle Island) had a practice of taking the roots of a healthy plant from the forest (which they planned to cultivate by seed) plunging the roots into water in a container and then soaking the seeds in that water before planting. They used words like inviting in the “good spirits” or giving “blessings” to the seeds when they describe the process, but what they were really doing intuitively and via using their senses/skills of observation (in today's language) was inoculating the seeds with beneficial species of mutualistic bacteria (rhizobia) and beneficial fungi (mycorrhizae).
I feel that we are capable of learning to engage in those kinds of low tech expressions of high level science and understanding (as the ancient peoples of Turtle Island and most likely the Gaels/Druids did elsewhere have done for millennia) without the need for microscopes or lab equipment.
So while the toys and modern scientific methods of quantification are great and helpful in some contexts, I feel that the more ancient and intuitive sciences are also important to develop as we work with the living Earth.
Thank you for the illuminating and thought provoking comment sister.
Well said, Gavin. Sometimes I feel like a fish out of water here on Substack. So many researchers, world problem solvers, etc. and here I am this little old Crone talking to the Trees and rubbing my nose up against bark for healing. 😂🌲🥰
Great article, Gavin. Birch or bust!!
Thanks my friend!
You know, now that I think about it, the Birch tree shares some characteristics with the UN's 2030 "Sustainable" Development and the WHO's ONE Health agendas. It does not recognize the arbitrary borders of nationstates and it has set down roots all the way from Canada, through Europe and to Russia!
Where the global reach of the Birch and the globalist reach of the 2030/"One Health" agendas differ however, is unlike the ubiquitous transnational UN/Davos/plutocrat trojan horse that is the 2030/One Health agendas (which, in contrast to the shiny greenwashing propaganda it's proponents espouse, is actually detrimental to the biosphere and ecosystems we depend on, programs people to embrace reductionist separation mentality, is a system of thought that attempts to program people into severing their connection with nature, programming them into seeing themselves as an 'imposition' on the biosphere as a human, and as you have astutely pointed out in your substack posts, is basically a pathway for misanthropic oligarchic tyrants to curb stomp humanity indefinitely) Birch on the other hand, actually does regenerate the environment. The birch tree also invites us to unify and become active participants (seeing ourselves instead as a positive presence within the ecosystems we depend on) through actively engaging with trees and other beings in reciprocity. Also, unlike the 2030 agenda, working with ubiquitous medicine trees like the Birch tree uplifts, heals, empowers and mentally emancipates humanity through reminding us of the humility and place based wisdom of our ancestors.
So yes, Birch or bust! :)
Thanks for the comment my friend.
(ps - I am gonna work on those excellent questions you asked me later today)