Beekeeping

The honey bee is nature’s most effective pollinator; she accounts for 80% of all pollination done by insects. A typical hive yields 20-40 pounds of honey per year depending on weather, rainfall, forage and the strength of your colony. Honeybees are productive insects that thrive in backyard hives. Since millions of colonies have been wiped out by urbanization, pesticides and parasitic mites, backyard beekeeping has become vital to efforts to reestablish strong colonies and offset declines in pollination.

How to get started:

• Read and research, join a beekeeping guild and find a mentor.
• Assemble the hive components, tools and gear.
• Practice keeping your smoker lit.
• Make a sturdy hive stand.
• Order your bees early.

Materials:

• two hive bodies, a bottom board, supers, inner and outer covers, frames, foundation, a veil and gloves, a smoker and a hive tool
• a hive stand to keep the hive off the ground can be made from scrap lumber; put the feet in tins of oil to protect from ants
• a four-pound package of bees

Resources:

• santacruzbees.com (guild)
• carriersbees.com (supplies)
• beeculture.com
• Beekeeping for Dummies by Howland Blackiston

Herb Energetics

What if you could learn the healing properties of plants by using your own body?

We’re proud to help unveil the…

NEW… Herb Energetics

It’s a recently updated video course with Kiva Rose using herbs and home remedies.

This course will again be available for a limited time and the only way to find out about it is here….

HerbEnergetics.com and did we mention… they are giving away…

Module 1: The Sensory Language of Life:
An Introduction to Herbal and Human Energetics

All you have to do is enter your email address!

After you sign up, they’ll send you more announcements and YOU get the 1st Module FREE!

Herb Energetics Course

How would you like to…

• be able to use your senses to learn about herbs?
• have a personal and physical connection to the medicines you use?
• know how to match a specific plant to a specific person based on the primary actions of the herbs?
• be able to discern the differences season, environment and subspecies can have on an herb just by tasting it (after you have positively identified it)?
• learn how to know exactly which herb(s) you want in a situation rather than having to choose randomly from a long list?

Kiva Rose is an herbalist in the Anima Medicine Woman Tradition. She teaches and practices down to earth herbalism, nutrition and healing based on the same principles our ancestors followed within an adaptive and contemporary context.

Kiva is the author of the forthcoming The Medicine Woman’s Herbal, an in depth guide to common nourishing herbs, traditional and wild foods, and healing the Medicine Woman way. She makes her home in the Mogollon Mountains of the Gila bioregion of New Mexico, where she and her partners, Wolf and Loba, live in a small off the grid cabin at the Anima Botanical and Women’s Sanctuary.

HerbEnergetics.com

Seed Saving

Seed saving is an important agroecology process that preserves the genetic diversity of food crops and perpetuates heirloom plants. Seeds you save from your garden are accustomed to your climate and soil and adapted to the pests in your area. Saving garden seeds each year is also a great cost-saving measure and an easy way to duplicate your favorite vegetables from last year’s harvest. A supply of seeds is also a smart component of your disaster-preparedness kit. Save a minimum of twenty-five seeds per species.

How To Get Started:

• Grow some of your plants to maturity and allow their seeds to dry naturally on the plant or remove them and let them air-dry. Make sure they are thoroughly dry before storing them.
• Tomato seeds need to be fermented to remove the pulp that inhibits germination. Squeeze the pulp into a jar, add water and let it set for a few days; the good seeds will sink to the bottom. Dry before storage.
• Store seeds in air-tight containers at around 40 degrees F. Control moisture by adding a few grains of rice to each container.

Materials:

• fully mature and dry seeds
• heavy plastic or foil ziplock bags, film canisters or small glass jars
• a refrigerator or a cool, dark, dry space

Resources:

• virtualseeds.com
• seedsave.org
• Seed To Seed by Suzanne Ashworth and Kent Whealy

Sheet Mulching

Sheet mulching is a method of controlling weeds and invasive plants that mimics the litter layer of a forest floor. It improves soil and plant health such that you no longer need to turn the soil. The earthworms do the tilling.

How To Get Started:

• Knock down tall weeds and woody plants or simply trample the area.
• Add soil amendments – enriched compost, manure, or worm castings to “jumpstart” microbial action.
• Lay down a weed barrier. Well-overlapped cardboard works well. Make sure it covers the ground without any breaks to block light and air.
• Add a fairly dense layer of weed-free compost. Grass clippings, seaweed or leaves are ideal.
• For the top dressing, use weed-free leaves, straw, woodchips or sawdust. Replenish this layer periodically as it decomposes.

Materials:

• cardboard or newspaper (without the glossy sections)
• organic mulch
• manure
• soil amendments

Resources:

• agroforestry.net
• omexchange.org (Organic Materials Exchange)
• Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway

2 cups organic rolled oats
1/2 cup organic almonds, sliced
1/4 cup organic maca powder
1/4 cup organic hemp seeds
Pinch of Himalayan pink salt
2/3 cup organic apple sauce or mashed banana
2/3 cup almond butter

Combine oats, almonds, maca, hemp seeds, and salt in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, mix apple sauce or banana with almond butter until well blended.
Scrape the almond butter mix into the oat mixture and blend well.
Pat into an 11 x 7 baking dish and bake at 300 degrees for about 35 minutes.
Score with a knife while warm and then cut into bars when cool.

Put all ingredients in a food processor and process on high until its nettle creamy goodness.

4 cups fresh chopped nettle tops
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup nuts of your choice. Pine nuts are used in traditional pesto.
4-6 cloves garlic according to taste
1/4 cup romano or parmesan cheese