Author: Paula Cas

I write fiction, non-fiction, verbiage for all our websites, and have been publishing my fan fiction on my various sites for many years. https://paulacas.com I am a Spiritual Medium and use Tarot cards as one my primary tools in doing readings. For 30 plus years have been doing readings in settings from my living room to truck stops. I tell you what Spirit wants you know for your betterment, not what you think you need to know. I’ve worked on computers since before there was such a creature as Windows. A Mountain Maryland native, but have spent years spent living in Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Arizona. My husband, Oro Cas, and I spent 10 years driving tractor-trailer across the 48 contiguous states. Oro Cas and I produced and hosted Internet Radio shows on BlogTalk Radio, video productions on KDCL Media and Oro Expeditions YouTube Channels.

Cardamom: Tropical Spice and…Scandinavian Staple!?

The Herb Society of America Blog

By Amy Forsberg

Green cardamom seed pods I had what seemed like a simple question: How and why did cardamom, the spice native to southern India, become such an essential and beloved baking spice in snowy Scandinavia? I have Swedish ancestry, and absolutely love cardamom bread and other baked goods made with cardamom. In Scandinavian culture, cardamom often represents comfort and home and family and holiday treats–similar to how we in the U.S. view cinnamon, perhaps. (Of course, cinnamon is also of South Asian origin!) I started with some hazy knowledge of the history of the spice trade–that cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, pepper, and ginger spread throughout the world from their places of origin via complex trade routes over the course of many centuries, contributing to the rise and fall of various empires and economies. But I was curious why cardamom, in particular, took root in Scandinavia of all places. Researching that question took…

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History

Sacred Gardening: A Druid’s Spiritual Approach to Weeding and Clearing Plants

The Druid's Garden

A shrine for the spirits of nature in a new outdoor kitchen area

Druids revere all nature as sacred–but what happens when you need to weed your garden? What happens when you need to clear a new area for a project where lots of things are growing? Is there a way to clear plants or trees honorably and with reverence? In fact, there certainly is! In today’s post, I’ll walk through some simple suggestions for how to weed and clear plants respectfully and with reverence. This is all part of my philosophy of Sacred Action, or bringing earth-honoring, care-oriented activities into our every day life (if you are interested in this concept, check out my Sacred Actions book!). This is part of what sacred gardening, creating a true Druid’s garden, is all about!

Our big project this year was starting to build an wood-fired, naturally built outdoor kitchen with…

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Be On The Lookout For This Elusive Edible Mushroom (It Looks Like A Spaceship)

Over the next few weeks, a strange wild mushroom will appear from the trunks of oaks and other deciduous trees.

At first glance, this fungus resembles a scarlet-colored spaceship. Upon closer inspection, and especially upon internal inspection, this mushroom literally looks like raw meat. Its taste — a bit sour, a bit mushroomy — is reminiscent of a tangy portobello mushroom.

The Beefsteak Polypore is a mushroom unlike any other. In some parts of Europe, this species is considered to be rare. Here in North America, summer and autumn sightings of the Beefsteak Polypore aren’t infrequent, though they’re not incredibly common either.

Needless to say, the Beefsteak Polypore is one mushroom worth adding to your must-see list of 2021.

To learn more about this fascinating fungus, you can view the following video for the next few days.

This video is one of over 80 exclusive videos featured in Foraging Wild Mushrooms — a four-season online course designed to help you confidently and successfully forage wild mushrooms.

Registration for Foraging Wild Mushrooms is open until Tuesday, September 28th. After that, registration will be closed.

To get a sneak peek into the kinds of content found within the course, please enjoy this video.

Please note that the video will only be publicly available until September 28th, after which it will only be available to students.

-Adam Haritan

Foraging Wild Mushrooms — Online Course Is Now Open For Enrollment

Greetings,

There’s no shortage of reasons to explore the woods these days, though if you feel like you need some inspiration, consider at least two motivating factors that mushrooms offer:

Nutritious wild food
Nature connection

In anticipation and celebration of the autumn mushroom season, I’m excited to announce that Foraging Wild Mushrooms is currently open for enrollment.

This 4-season online course is designed to help you safely, successfully, and confidently forage wild mushrooms from the forest, from the field, and even from your own backyard.

Whether you’re interested in foraging for food, for medicine, for study, or just for fun, Foraging Wild Mushrooms covers the most important lessons to get you started.

In addition to over 80 step-by-step exclusive and instructional videos included within the course, you’ll also receive:

Supplemental handouts covering mushroom anatomy, terminology, and biology that you can download and print for easy viewing.
A 42-page guide to medicinal mushrooms that summarizes the latest research on the most popular medicinal fungi with over 75 peer-reviewed references.
Immediate and lifetime access to all materials.

Please note that enrollment for Foraging Wild Mushrooms is open for one week only — from today until Tuesday, September 28th. After that, enrollment will be closed for the season.

As is the case with all enrollment periods, a portion of all proceeds derived from course sales will be used for land conservation.

To learn more about the course, check out this video which gives an overview of what you can expect.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support!
—Adam Haritan

Enchanted Crabapple Galette for Morgan Le Fay — Gather Victoria

Oh my, it is almost the Autumn Equinox! This means it’s time to share this rustic Crabapple Galette inspired by the Great Mother goddess Modron and the great Fairy Queen Morgan Le Fay. Crabapples and berries have long played a role in the magical lore of the Second Harvest or Mabon. (You can learn more…
Enchanted Crabapple Galette for Morgan Le Fay — Gather Victoria

Finding Peace in the Garden

The Herb Society of America Blog

By Karen Kennedy
HSA Education Coordinator

LemonBalmClose200911 The lazy days of summer quickly transition to the more scheduled and hurried days of autumn. While glorious hues are found in changing leaf color and late season blooms like goldenrod and Joe-Pye weed, the pace of our world undeniably quickens during this season. Add the additional stress and worry about the Covid-19 pandemic and the message is clear–take time to personally cultivate peace and manage stress.

Research by environmental psychologists like Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, as well as landscape architects like Clare Cooper Marcus and Naomi Sachs and others, points to the overall positive impact of plant-rich environments and contact with nature on reducing mental fatigue and increasing feelings of restoration, recovery from stress, and improved mood (Haller, Kennedy and Capra, 2019).

Gardeners, without knowledge of the research, often say they find peace and solace in the garden. The act of gardening, tending…

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A 21st Century Wheel of the Year: Cultivating Receptivity at the Fall Equinox

The Druid's Garden

Nature Mandala

The Fall Equinox is traditionally about harvest, harvesting the fruits of your labor and the fruits of the land in preparation for the coming of winter. This model of the wheel of the year focuses on earned outcomes: you’ve planted your crops, you’ve tended them all season, you’ve invested the time, and now, you are able to receive the rewards of your efforts. And a lot of our own understanding of the celebration of these seasons works on that narrative: planning, planting, tending, harvesting, and the cycle of the seasons. This same cycle is expected, perhaps, anticipated, in our everyday lives. For example, if you put the effort into getting degrees and starting a career, or if you put in a ton of hard effort at your workplace, you will eventually be rewarded with a harvest, a payoff, and a sense of stability. There’s this large sense that…

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Sacred Trees in the Americas: Paw Paw (Asimina triloba) Medicine, Myths, and Meaning

The Druid's Garden

PawPaw leaf – as big as your hand!

The PawPaw is a tree that is so wild and unique and wonderful, and yet, is often quite unknown–it is the only native citrus tree we have in the upper east East Coast and midwest areas. Like some of the other trees I have recently shared in this series, Paw Paw is an underappreciated and under-recognized tree. Within the bushcraft and permaculture circles, it is quite well known as an amazing tree to find, plant, and tend. One of the reasons that PawPaw is probably not more well known has, unsurprisingly, everything to do with the commercial viability of the fruits. PawPaw fruit is absolutely delicious but it only stays good for a few days after picking–so it would never survive the rigors of modern industrial agriculture. You can occasionally find it at a good farmer’s market, and it is well worth…

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