grow your own

MEND Season 2 - Episode 31

Living Capital with Marcie Goldman

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Welcome back.

Today, we move into the topic of Living Capital.  In the traditional landscape of Permatculture, from where we’re taking a page this season…  this form of vital currency is often defined as our local Ecology.

The land, soil, air, water, animals, plants - i.e. the very stuff that sustains LIFE.

Another way to look at Living Capital, and the way we’ve chosen to cozy up to this topic is through the very intimate ecology of the BODY.  How we choose to feed and sustain and, as you’ll hear again and again throughout this conversation - NOURISH - ourselves, our families and the skin we’re in.

Toward that end, we sat down this week with Marcie Goldman.

Marcie is a nutritionist who rallies against the current culture of fad diets and the idea that stringent dietary restricitons will somehow lead to long-lasting health.

This is a woman who wants us to FEED ourselves.

On every level.

Inviting MORE food to the table, to our gut biomes & returning to a way of  - here it is again - Nourishing ourselves - that honors the wisdom of our bodies, our earth, and our ancestry.

We loved sitting down with Marcie, where we dipped into some unexpected territory around dieting, childhood eating disorders, & toxic beliefs and patterns around food (that we often get from seemingly “healthy” sources).  

Ultimately, over the course of our conversation, we circle round automatically to the reality that truly nourishing ourselves - and re-connecting to our inherent appetites and vitality - in the end re-connects us to the health of our own ecosystem.  Re-connects us back to each other, the living culture of which we are a part, and the earth itself.

You can find out more about Marcie at her website at marciegoldman.com

While you’re there be sure to sign up for her meal plan, which includes a whole array of nourishing food and herbal remedies to add into your life.

We loved sitting down and talking food and Living capital with this wise and well-fed woman.

We know you will too.

MEND Season 1 - Episode 20

Pass It Along...

We were excited, this week, to speak with Siobhan, a 2nd generation cannabis farmer and one half of the YouTube duo The Grow Sisters.  She and her husband own Blessed Coast Farms, Humboldt’s first permitted cannabis farm, where she is proud to plant into the native soil along the Van Duzen River.

Legalization ended her days dodging helicopters on a dirt bike, and brought her a sense of liberation.  Now she can be honest about who she is, what she does.  She recognizes that being such a public advocate for her farm and cannabis cultivation may place her head on the chopping block, but the work needs to be done and she recognizes her well-placed position as an advocate. 

This is farming; practices and techniques are not secret, nor should they be.  Siobhan stresses the importance of sharing this knowledge, exclaiming, “This is how we survive!”  The coveting of farming knowledge is a black market thought and now we must grow into this new realm of legalization and transparency together.

Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties have been growing cannabis for decades, Siobhan describes it as generations.  No county is, perhaps, as known for its quality of cannabis as is Humboldt.  This is our strength and Siobhan urges us to get involved, step in and represent ourselves; suggesting, I believe, that as we move forward into compliance and legalization, our future lies in our history.  

To find out more about the resources we discuss, check out:::

Blessed Coast Farms

California Growers Association

Info on the Mendocino Appellation Project

MEND Season 1 - Episode 11

Outlaw Farming - A New Twist on Things

This past week we had the great pleasure of sitting down with Carl Stanley.

Carl is the former pastor of a cannabis-friendly All Faith church in Eureka, CA, an educator in sustainability and self-sufficiency, founder of Manabu Farms, and an advocate for “outlaw farming”, which is perhaps not what you may think it is.

We spoke with him via phone from Flint, Michigan where he resides in an effort to help the local community with the water crisis before heading back to his beloved Humboldt County.

He speaks about the many services the church provided for the community here, the why’s and how’s of becoming Producers rather than Consumers, outlaw farming, his work in Flint, and offers his thoughts on how cannabis can help Humboldt County become a self-sustaining community.

Some of what we loved about speaking with Carl was his passion for the work that he does, but also what his origin story of Humboldt implies.  He came here as a ‘traveler’, what many might describe in not too polite terms as a transient.  The stereotype of the Humboldt transient juxtaposed with the amazing work that Carl has done here in this community and elsewhere is an interesting and important part of this story; and one could argue yet another stitch to further mend the way we relate to ourselves and to each other.

To find out more about Carl, or the work that he does, or how you can become more energy-independent and reduce your monthly bills, check out his work on Facebook.  

Become a part of the Bill Free Group @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/155362171643501/

Or find out more about the work and mission of Manabu Farms @ https://www.facebook.com/manabufarms2/

There’s also a website with links to his 300+ instructional YouTube videos on living the Outlaw Farmer lifestyle @ http://manabufarms.blogspot.com/

So much inspiration and food for thought here.  

We hope you enjoy.