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The Sacred Gardener
Golden Lake, Ontario
 
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Steven’s Story

Steven’s Story

By Steven Martyn November 14, 2017 January 13, 2020

One of two videos from the introduction to Herbal Medicine Making workshop; in this video of the sharing circle Steven gives us a brief account of his journey. Lots of life lessons for all of us here.

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sacredgardener

Seeding earth wisdom since 1989.
Home of The Sacred Gardener School.
Wildculturing ~ Co-create ~ Wildcrafting
We're on Patreon!

The Sacred Gardener
"When I say sacred, I don’t mean it at all as a "When I say sacred, I don’t mean it at all as a synonym for higher or separate, but as a clear expression of the divine. I use the word to mean moments and places in which we are conscious of being in the company of Gods and Goddesses, of connecting with the protogenic sources of the physical world. I mean it as something that when experienced makes everything inclusive, part of one large animate narrative rather than exclusive. These divine moments are built into a sacred building. And while unseen, or unspoken of, they also form the foundation of our civilization. They are the ones who contain the information on which everything we are rests. In these divine moments we remember our connection to everything. These moments are seeds from which all time grows and unfolds, keeping us as a culture and as individuals, alive.” From Steven's book: THE ROUNDHOUSE: A MEDITATION AND GUIDE TO BUILDING A HANDMADE HOUSE WITH LOCAL MATERIALS Link to purchase your copy is in our bio. #naturalbuilding #cob #localbuildingmaterials #localbuild #stackwall #earthship #bioregional #bioregionalbuilding #hobbithouse #communitybuild #lowtech
Hope Springs Eternal This spring, after having ‘lost hope’ in many ways over the last year, I have been cautiously basking in the light of ‘hope’ like never before. I’m relishing the majesty of her purposefulness, and the razor’s edge of my expectations that cut me from ‘being’ in the moment. Like spring herself, hope’s ethereal quality only adds to my enjoyment while she resides with me. Over the decades I’m slowly coming to understand how we can fully feel and be inhabited by an emotion without holding onto it. How to let them come and go, of their own accord, like the wild things they are. Working with and learning to embrace hope without holding onto her has turned into a sacred exercise that is helping me not be attached to my own irrational and disproportionately emotional leanings. In my exploration of hope this old phrase came back to me “hope springs eternal”. These three lovely words and this expression is not one you often hear these days and if you do it’s likely with eye rolling and an ironic or sarcastic edge, usually in reference to a ‘lost cause’. But really it means that even in the worst of times there is always hope and to have faith that things with work out. And that the very nature of ‘hope’ itself springs eternal like a spring in the ground or as the spring returns every year. So why is it that such a positive feeling, of all the tones in our emotional spectrum, has come to have such a bad rap these days when we might need hope the most? Continued on our Patreon page, become a patron by following the link in our bio. You can join for $10/month and have full access to all writings and videos. For $65/month (there's openings!) you will receive a delivery of lovingly crafted teas, body care items, spice blends, incense kits and more. #patreon #spring #springwater #hopespringseternal #wildwater #livingwiththeseasons #handmadelife
"I’m interested in promoting gardening as consen "I’m interested in promoting gardening as consensus, gardening as communion, and gardening as an extension of the ecological continuum, of which our human evolution is also part. Gardening did not begin with humans. There are many ancient contracts between species. The Earth is a garden. Cultivation is the domain of creation. Everything on this Earth cultivates its own environment with the help of other beings and, in so doing, participates in the Earth’s cultivation and Her perennial cycles of abundance." Steven Martyn, from The Story of the Madawaska Forest Garden Check out the link in our bio to purchase Steven's books. #forestgarden #consensus #cocreation #gardeningasconsensus #madawaska #algonquinpark #rapidlake
All my plant relations are jumping back up now. Ev All my plant relations are jumping back up now. Every spring I’m brought to tears of gratefulness when I see their beautiful faces again. Only a week ago as the moon waxed toward fullness, we thrashed bags of un-hulled bean pods for their bright coloured eyes and coaxed hard white knuckle-like kernels from fourteen inch, eight-row Onondaga flint-corn. She and three other of last year’s heritage corns that I carry, still safely hang rodent-free, from the centre rafter of our living room ceiling. We need to keep an eye out for our family and those we love. How we select our seed is very important. I’ve grown out heritage varieties of corn and beans for over twenty five years, and kept the seed strains consistent during that time. To have done this I am thankful for many corn teachings. One of the most important teachings was passed on to Gary Nabhan by an elder in Mexico, which he’s passed on in his book “Enduring Seeds”. She “tisk-tisk’d” him as he tried to help the old woman choose seed, because he only took the best looking cobs. She told him and my practice follows, that we should always make sure we take our seed, the planting kernels, not from just one or two of the prime cobs (as a breeder would if they were trying to hybrid the plant), but to take the seed from many different cobs including the ones that don’t look so good. The lesson here is to not discriminate based on appearances! Because the twisted little one with crooked rows may contain the very genes or medicine, that the species needs to survive this time of change. There are great mysteries waiting to reveal themselves to us at the heart of agriculture. #threesisters #savingseeds #corn #community #agriculture #regenerativegardening #smallscalefarming #subsistencefarming
Wild strawberries in bloom 🍓 #wildfruit #straw Wild strawberries in bloom 🍓 #wildfruit #strawberries #spring
Today at the end of day, June 1 , the offer of the Today at the end of day, June 1 , the offer of the Mound Planting the Three Sisters course ends, tomorrow the price will go up. Should you purchase today for it's current price, you will receive all the updates to the course that we'll send on to you as they're made throughout the season. What you receive now: ~Our hour long documentary: you will learn how to mound plant corn, beans and squash using a heavy hoe, and a good deal more. From Steven’s perspective we are given a rare insight into the prehistoric foundations of agriculture. Perhaps most importantly this video claims back agriculture as a sacred art. Steven brings the viewer with him as he steps into the philosophy and practice of a 10000 year old agricultural ritual. ~Access to the Q&A session recording ~ 10 page PDF synopsis of information in the video, plus additional information What we're adding to the course, released to you as it's made: ~ Building your heavy hoe, what kind we suggest and where to purchase ~How to store your harvest ~How to process corn and beans ~How to Nixtamalize Corn and why you should for optimum nutrition ~Recipes for the three types of corn we grow: Tortillas, Corn Bread, Posole and more -How to incorporate these foods into your diet 10% of course proceeds go towards The Circle of Turtle Lodge; reviving, promoting, and restoring Traditional Anishinabe Culture in the Ottawa Valley since 1999. The link to purchase is in our bio. #moundplanting #threesisters #growyourown #lowtechtools #heavyhoe #hoe #cornbeanssquash #regenerativeagriculture #gardening
It’s the season to watch for turtles! Yesterda It’s the season to watch for turtles! Yesterday we stopped twice to help turtles cross a busy road. One painted turtle, one blandings turtle, pictured here. These turtles are endangered. We felt pretty honoured to find her and responsible for her care. Blandings females aren’t ready to make babies until they’re 18, and the hatchlings have a low rate of survival. But those that make it, can live into their 70’s. We keep our eyes out for turtles crossing the road all the more since we learned how long it takes them to reach maturity. We keep a pair of leather gloves in the car to pick them up, though these are mostly for snapping turtles who have sharp shells and sharp claws. They also can’t pull back their heads into their shells so they feel more vulnerable. They aren’t vicious, but they are feistier than other turtles we’ve picked up because they’re protecting themselves. Painted turtles and blandings we pick them up by the lip of their shell on either side, and move them in the direction they’re facing, no matter how close they are to the side they’re coming from. They will start again from where they were coming from if you put them back. This lady didn’t seem to mind us taking her picture. We mostly find painted turtles who are pretty quick to pull their heads in. We got a good look at her beautiful yellow throat and yellow spots; her magnificent shell! Watch out, take care of these old ones. #blandingsturtle #turtle #protectturtles #turtlecrossing #ottawavalley
We’re nearing the end of our carrots from last y We’re nearing the end of our carrots from last year. We store them in our root cellar, buried in damp sand. We have a backup furnace in our house that turns on sometimes in the night, so it can dry out the air in the cellar, hence why we do this. They are still firm, some have some rot spots and while their flavour is still wonderful, is not as good as earlier in the season. These things are all a part of living in reality. I think about all the food that goes to waste, because many of us don’t want to, know how to or don’t have to think of a way to use it. In this house, cutting off the bad bits of vegetables, scraping off a funky layer from the sauerkraut are things that are just part of our way of life. Because we honour food, whether we grow it here or not. We give thanks to the shrivelled carrot, and find a way to make sure it’s used. Do you chop off the bad bits and use it anyway? #foodsovereignty #rootcellar #overwintering #foodstorage #growyourown #carrot #winterroots

sacredgardener

Seeding earth wisdom since 1989.
Home of The Sacred Gardener School.
Wildculturing ~ Co-create ~ Wildcrafting
We're on Patreon!

The Sacred Gardener
"When I say sacred, I don’t mean it at all as a "When I say sacred, I don’t mean it at all as a synonym for higher or separate, but as a clear expression of the divine. I use the word to mean moments and places in which we are conscious of being in the company of Gods and Goddesses, of connecting with the protogenic sources of the physical world. I mean it as something that when experienced makes everything inclusive, part of one large animate narrative rather than exclusive. These divine moments are built into a sacred building. And while unseen, or unspoken of, they also form the foundation of our civilization. They are the ones who contain the information on which everything we are rests. In these divine moments we remember our connection to everything. These moments are seeds from which all time grows and unfolds, keeping us as a culture and as individuals, alive.” From Steven's book: THE ROUNDHOUSE: A MEDITATION AND GUIDE TO BUILDING A HANDMADE HOUSE WITH LOCAL MATERIALS Link to purchase your copy is in our bio. #naturalbuilding #cob #localbuildingmaterials #localbuild #stackwall #earthship #bioregional #bioregionalbuilding #hobbithouse #communitybuild #lowtech
Hope Springs Eternal This spring, after having ‘lost hope’ in many ways over the last year, I have been cautiously basking in the light of ‘hope’ like never before. I’m relishing the majesty of her purposefulness, and the razor’s edge of my expectations that cut me from ‘being’ in the moment. Like spring herself, hope’s ethereal quality only adds to my enjoyment while she resides with me. Over the decades I’m slowly coming to understand how we can fully feel and be inhabited by an emotion without holding onto it. How to let them come and go, of their own accord, like the wild things they are. Working with and learning to embrace hope without holding onto her has turned into a sacred exercise that is helping me not be attached to my own irrational and disproportionately emotional leanings. In my exploration of hope this old phrase came back to me “hope springs eternal”. These three lovely words and this expression is not one you often hear these days and if you do it’s likely with eye rolling and an ironic or sarcastic edge, usually in reference to a ‘lost cause’. But really it means that even in the worst of times there is always hope and to have faith that things with work out. And that the very nature of ‘hope’ itself springs eternal like a spring in the ground or as the spring returns every year. So why is it that such a positive feeling, of all the tones in our emotional spectrum, has come to have such a bad rap these days when we might need hope the most? Continued on our Patreon page, become a patron by following the link in our bio. You can join for $10/month and have full access to all writings and videos. For $65/month (there's openings!) you will receive a delivery of lovingly crafted teas, body care items, spice blends, incense kits and more. #patreon #spring #springwater #hopespringseternal #wildwater #livingwiththeseasons #handmadelife
"I’m interested in promoting gardening as consen "I’m interested in promoting gardening as consensus, gardening as communion, and gardening as an extension of the ecological continuum, of which our human evolution is also part. Gardening did not begin with humans. There are many ancient contracts between species. The Earth is a garden. Cultivation is the domain of creation. Everything on this Earth cultivates its own environment with the help of other beings and, in so doing, participates in the Earth’s cultivation and Her perennial cycles of abundance." Steven Martyn, from The Story of the Madawaska Forest Garden Check out the link in our bio to purchase Steven's books. #forestgarden #consensus #cocreation #gardeningasconsensus #madawaska #algonquinpark #rapidlake
All my plant relations are jumping back up now. Ev All my plant relations are jumping back up now. Every spring I’m brought to tears of gratefulness when I see their beautiful faces again. Only a week ago as the moon waxed toward fullness, we thrashed bags of un-hulled bean pods for their bright coloured eyes and coaxed hard white knuckle-like kernels from fourteen inch, eight-row Onondaga flint-corn. She and three other of last year’s heritage corns that I carry, still safely hang rodent-free, from the centre rafter of our living room ceiling. We need to keep an eye out for our family and those we love. How we select our seed is very important. I’ve grown out heritage varieties of corn and beans for over twenty five years, and kept the seed strains consistent during that time. To have done this I am thankful for many corn teachings. One of the most important teachings was passed on to Gary Nabhan by an elder in Mexico, which he’s passed on in his book “Enduring Seeds”. She “tisk-tisk’d” him as he tried to help the old woman choose seed, because he only took the best looking cobs. She told him and my practice follows, that we should always make sure we take our seed, the planting kernels, not from just one or two of the prime cobs (as a breeder would if they were trying to hybrid the plant), but to take the seed from many different cobs including the ones that don’t look so good. The lesson here is to not discriminate based on appearances! Because the twisted little one with crooked rows may contain the very genes or medicine, that the species needs to survive this time of change. There are great mysteries waiting to reveal themselves to us at the heart of agriculture. #threesisters #savingseeds #corn #community #agriculture #regenerativegardening #smallscalefarming #subsistencefarming
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