Stacking Functions in the Garden, Food Forest and Medicine Cabinet : The Regenerative Way From Seed To Apothecary

Announcing a new series which will eventually get compiled and formatted into my next book

some of the ingredients that went into a super-kraut recipe I made a while back, more info below..

Hello everyone!

I am announcing a new series which will eventually get compiled and formatted into my next book.

Recipes For Reciprocity: The Regenerative Way From Seed To Table is a book that I wrote to offer techniques, perspectives and recipes that invite one to walk along a holistic pathway to cultivate, harvest and preserve delicious food (while giving back to the Earth at the same time). I touched on using food as medicine in my first book with a chapter that was devoted to exploring using food as part of a preventative medicine regime through proper nutrition. I also touched on how to grow some of those foods in the context of a Forest Garden.

My next book is going to focus more specifically on working with medicinal plants and fungi through the permaculture lens, offering not only info on how to regeneratively cultivate and/or regeneratively forage for each species, but also how to companion plant them as synergistic guilds in the context of food forest design. This series (and the book I eventually create from combining them) will also offer ideas for formulas for how to combine one’s harvests in synergistic ways which serves to augment and potentiate the efficacy of the medicinal compounds they contain.

some of the ingredients that went into a synergistic elderberry syrup I made recently

Unlike my first book (which mainly covered annual food crops) this series (which will become the foundation for my next book) will place an emphasis on exploring the medicinal gifts of trees and perennials which have great potential to become central supporting members in a functioning forest ecosystem that offers habitat, sanctuary as well forage for pollinators and self-perpetuating soil building dynamics (which simultaneously provides medicine and food for humans). I will cover species that many would not typically think of with regards to Food Forest Design (some of which I have already written about, such as Spruce and Fir) as well as others such as Gingko, Five Flavor Fruit (Schisandra Canadensis), Shagbark Hickory, Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus), Western White Pine (Pinus monticola), Red Pine (Pinus resinosa), Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), Larch (Larix), Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), Scots Pine (Pinus Sylvestris)
Swiss Stone Pine (Pinus cembra), Siberian Stone Pine (Pinus cembra ssp. sibirica), Korean Nut Pine (Pinus koraiensis), Single-leaf Pinyon Pine (Pinus monophylla), Oak, Birch, Maple, Paw Paw, Serviceberry and Tulip Trees.

Norway Spruce (Picea abies) tips after being harvested (picked by hand like one would berries) ready to be used as food and/or for creating powerful medicines

I will also explore food and medicine plants which often grow abundantly in the wild (aka “weeds”) which can easily be propagated and encouraged to set up shop as valuable understory and/or effective ‘edge effect’ members of a Food Forest design (many of which have a long history of use by the Indigenous people’s of Turtle Island, such as Elderberry, Anise Hyssop, Echinacea, Yarrow, Stinging Nettle, Staghorn Sumac and Cattails.

not my picture (source)

The book will also include expanded information on other powerful medicine plants which originate from other parts of the world will also be explored for their potential roles in a food forest ecosystem (some of which I have written about such as Tulsi, aka “Holy Basil”, Cannabis, Goji Berries, Amaranth, Ginger, Turmeric and Hot Peppers).

I intend to design dietary lists that serve to stack-functions and are formulated to embark on pathways to healing and optimizing the function of specific parts of the body and addressing specific conditions.

not my picture (source)

For instance, I will endeavor to compile lists of medicinal plants and fungi that offer potential to offer cardioregenerative/cardioprotective, radioprotective, neuroprotective, neuroregenerative, nootropic, osteoregenerative, osteoprotective, hepatoprotective, ocular-regenerative/ocular-protective, anti-carcinogenic, immunomodulatory, adaptogenic, mitochondrial-protective, mitochondrial-regenerative and anti-coagulant effects.

To give you an example of the type of synergistic medicinal recipes I intend on including in the book here are a couple examples:

and another example would be the recipe we call Exponential Immunity Elderberry Syrup which I shared some pictures of about half way down this post:

and also wacky and delicious medicinal function stacking fermented preserves such as this Eastern White Pine Needle, Tulsi and Turmeric rhizome infused Sauerkraut

This ‘super-kraut’ contains Eastern White Pine needles (Pinus strobus), Star Anise, several types of Tulsi aka "Holy Basil" (including Ocimum tenuiflorum, Ocimum gratissimum and Ocimum africanum), Turmeric and Ginger rhizome, Lemon Balm, black pepper corns and a Japanese 7 spice blend called "Shichimi Togarashi" (which contains hot red chili flakes, black and white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, orange zest, wasabi and nori seaweed).

and my 𝟳 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗙𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝘁 𝗦𝗮𝘂𝗰𝗲

It is a sauce involved fermenting 7 immune system boosting herbs, spices and berries with 7 of my favorite heirloom pepper varieties.

The non pepper ingredients include (but are not limited to): Echinacea, Elderberry, Goji Berry, Peruvian Golden Berries (aka “Ground Cherries”), Ginger, Turmeric, Tulsi and Lemon Balm.

Pepper Varieties included (but were not limited to): Biquinho, Chiltepin, Jalapeno, Sugar Rush Peach, Peruvian White Habanero, Buena Mulata, Aji Charapita Peppers.

adding the ingredients to a jar (before adding brine and fermenting)

and medicinally potent kimchi recipes such as my Purple and Golden Dragon Chi recipes.

I will also do research in the interest of formulating diets to help mitigate the unpleasant symptoms of conditions/processes such as postpartum depression, menopause and address widespread health issues such as heavy metal toxicity (offering lists of foods that can help our body to set up a defensive barrier and express harmful heavy metals and other toxics, such as Glyphosate and Dioxin) We live in the midst of a world being sprayed with metallic nano-particulates in a consumer society where everything from furniture to shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, junk food and vaccines are laced with toxic heavy metals and glyphosate, I want to empower those who are willing to be capable of not only protecting their bodies against these attacks, but thriving, becoming their best selves and giving back to the living Earth that gives so much to us at the same time.

not my picture (source)

I will also explore how these medicinal plants and fungi can be integrated into a multi-layered forest garden design so that they not only serve multiple functions for healing the human body, but also serve multiple functions within the context of a self regenerating eco-system that provides for more than just human beings at the same time.

Thus, the title of this series and my future book will be :

Stacking Functions in the Garden, Food Forest and Medicine Cabinet : The Regenerative Way From Seed To Apothecary

This series will be my way to give back to my generous substack subscribers and to plant the seeds for a holistic harvest of knowledge, cultural context, modern lab studies, ancient indigenous science and medicinal perspectives and recipes worth synthesizing and alchemically merging together into something worth publishing as a book.

I shall use this series as a way to ‘sub-stack’ a great many functions (if you will) :)

If there is enough interest in having physical copies of this future publication made available I will consider crowd funding a printing run after the e-book is published.

I look forward to exploring many powerful, ancient, humble, sometimes delicious and often overlooked/underrated medicine plants and fungi with all of you through this series in the coming months.

It is my hope that this series (and the resulting book, which will be the culmination and combination of both the past articles I linked above and future articles yet to be written) will serve to I hope this info helps you feel empowered in the knowing that you can grow, forage for and/or purchase natural locally grown medicines to be your best self without any need for pharmaceutical corporations.

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