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Jennifer Jewell

THE ELDER - AN ANCIENT PLANT ALLY, HEALING GARDENS #4


Photos Courtesy of Frailty Myths, All rights reserved.
 
 
 

As we continue our series on Healing Gardens and Therapeutic Landscapes, this week we dive into one age old plant ally – the elder or elderberry, of the genus Sambucus, comprised of 20 species widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere as well as Australia, New Zealand and South America.


We’re joined in our discussion today by John Moody, who with his wife Jessica and their now 5 children aged 3 – 13, homesteads on a 35 acre farm - known as Some Small Farm - outside of Louisville, Kentucky.


Having moved to the land for health reasons, the family spent their few years learning how to farm by learning how to grow soil. John is the founder of Whole Life Services and the Whole Life Buying Club and his book The Elderberry Book (2019), from New Society Publishers shares all he has learned about foraging, cultivating, preparing and preserving with the many parts of the elder plant, and its long history. We start our conversation with how he and the family came to this life.


Follow John Moody's work online at facebook: farmandfoodfreedom/

Join us again next week when we return to Horticultural Therapy with Matthew J. Wichrowski, MSW HTR, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Senior Horticultural Therapist at Rusk Rehabilitation at NYU Langone Health.



RELATED EPISODES INCLUDE:







UPCOMING CULTIVATING PLACE LIVE EVENTS: click green title links for more info or to register!

- SPRING FEVER Feb 26th & 27th (12:30 pm each day) Northwest Flower & Garden Show Seattle, WA

- MRS. DALLOWAY'S BOOKS - FEBRUARY 28, Berkeley, CA 7:30 - 9 pm


- CHICO WOMEN'S CLUB - SUNDAY MARCH 1, 1 - 3:30 pm Book signing, refreshment, home-town celebration! RSVP required for FREE event JOIN US!

Mark your calendars - I hope to meet you wherever you cultivate your place in the coming year....

 

 

Thinking out Loud this week...

 

Those of you who are very keen listeners might be asking – wait what happened to the Chelsea Physic Garden???


And I have to share with you friends that for the first time in a FULL FOUR YEARS OF production this month – happy birthday to us! We had an audio file glitch with our Chelsea Physic Garden recording – and so listen up for that one a little later in the season.


The Chelsea Physic Garden is of course one of the oldest extant medicinal plant gardens in the world – but also of course – the oldest medicinal plant garden is the planet herself and the many plant allies all around us. And so the deep dive into the wonderful world of the Elderberry cued up nicely.


There is something symbolically as well as literally rich and important about such historic sharing of information about plants and medicine such as contained and curated at the likes of the Chelsea Physic Garden, and in documented histories of specific plants like this about the Elderberry – integral to culture and myth literally the world over. I like to think of Cultivating Place as a repository of its own – a kind of Seed bank of people and plants and places that grow us into the people and plant lovers and places we want to be for the better of us all.


This is the 4th episode in our Healing garden series, and we have two official episodes in the series still to go.


But really – the series title is a conceit of sorts because after all – done with heart and intention for the earth, ourselves, and our fellow planet mates of plants, animals and humans - our gardens are always healing something if you ask me – our connections on all levels.


Remember this. On Bad days, on good days, on sick days, and well days – our gardens make everything better.


As gardeners, we make a difference – and together we grow in all health -

UPCOMING CULTIVATING PLACE LIVE EVENTS: click green title links for more info or to register!

- SPRING FEVER Feb 26th & 27th (12:30 pm each day) Northwest Flower & Garden Show Seattle, WA

- MRS. DALLOWAY'S BOOKS - FEBRUARY 28, Berkeley, CA 7:30 - 9 pm


- CHICO WOMEN'S CLUB - SUNDAY MARCH 1, 1 - 3:30 pm Book signing, refreshment, home-town celebration! RSVP required for FREE event JOIN US!

Mark your calendars - I hope to meet you wherever you cultivate your place in the coming year

 

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