This past autumn was a really exciting time for my team and I, with so many of our projects coming to fruition and our message of ReWilding, Spring Water, and Indigenous Nutrition spreading around our community and beyond, faster than we ever imagined.

I want to extend a big thanks to the Longevity Now Conference for all they have done to make this happen. Check out this 12 minute video clip (click on the image below) of the talk I delivered in Costa Mesa last October titled, “Developing Sovereign Health: The Path of  Rewilding Ourselves”. If you would like to see the rest of the talk, as well as those presented by the rest of the Longevity Now speakers, it is available here.

"Rewild Yourself: Tips & Tricks for Strengthening Your Epigenetic Health"

I also want to share this quick video clip of my good friend Shailene Woodley’s appearance on the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Show (check out that clip right here)!  She was so kind as to mention my name and the work I have been doing the last several years!  Shailene has become a tremendous ally, helping to share the message of ReWilding, Spring Water, and Indigenous Nutrition with the world.  Recently, she also appeared on the Ellen Degeneres Show carrying a mason jar of spring water which she promptly shared with Ellen!

Here is a recent interview with her in Black Book Magazine titled “Eating Clay and Super Humans”! She talks about foraging, spring water and her daily clay consumption!

If you don’t know Shailene’s work, check out her latest film, The Descendants, where she co-stars alongside George Clooney.  Shailene, from all of us, Thank You for all that you are doing!

Lastly I want to share the link to the newly rebuilt SurThrival website!  It’s a great place to stock up on great winter immune system supplements, such as Medicinal Mushroom Extracts and Colostrum.  I am so proud of SurThrival as a project, as a company, and as a team!  Thanks to all of you who have supported us! We are constantly working to serve you better!

Thats all for now!

Keep on ReWilding Yourself!

~Daniel

On this interview, Daniel will be speaking about his latest research into the reclassification of modern humans as a new subspecies.  It is a wild new idea that comes from the effects our modern lifestyle has had on our epi-genome and our health.  Because our epi-genetics are influenced by everything in our environment, the lifestyle we have lived has shaped us into some new and all together different creature.  The concept of “rewilding” is about recreating or replicating some of our natural conditions to make us healthier and more robust.  Daniel will be sharing tips on the kinds of things a person can do to rewild themselves and what it could mean to our health.

Join us for this sure-to-be spectacular call!

Finally, a Wild Food and Medicine book that really delivers!

My good friend Arthur Haines has just released his new book Ancestral Plants, and I must say, it is amongst the best wild food and plant-use book I have yet to come across.  People are constantly asking me to recommend a book on the subject, and there just haven’t been many that I have found particularly helpful.  Either the pictures weren’t clear, the text wasn’t informative enough, the author was lacking real experience, or the book just wasn’t laid out in a user friendly way (ok, Samuel Thayer’s books are an exception to these criticisms, and are excellent wild food references).

Ancestral Plants is different, this book just seems to have it all.  Arthur writes from a place of profound understanding of the nutritional and medicinal actions of wild foods, as well as the important uses that these 95 plants held for the native people of this continent (and still do for the “neo-aboriginal” today).

Since I received my first copy (just a couple of weeks ago on the Winter Solstice) I haven’t been able to put it down.  Thats not hype, I have literally been taking it everywhere.  This book has become part of my everyday kit.  And even though it is winter here, I have been studying up on the plants I want to learn in the next growing season, as well as using the calendar in the back to determine when I will be harvesting the key plants I intend to use throughout the year of 2011!

One of the things I really appreciate about it is that it is written as more than just a wild food guide, it is a plant medicine guide as well, detailing herbal uses of these plants in addition to their uses as foods. More than that, it also lays out which plants may be useful as a fire resource (for friction fire, tinder etc), for cordage (plants that contain fibers that can be removed and braided in to cord), archery uses (woods that are optimal for making bows or arrows), and even uses like dyes, glues, and basketry.

Ancestral Plants uses a series of icons to denote the possible uses of a plant  (a little fire icon for plants with fire uses, an arrow for plants with uses in archery, etc), and then the text details how, when, and which parts of a plant can be used in this way.  The photos are very clear and the descriptions have been written by someone who has actually used the plants to the ends described therein (believe me, this is not the norm).

This is the go-to book for understanding wild plants of the North East, and the one that will accompany me into the field this year and for years to come (mine is getting dog-eared already).

Also, I want to let you know that though this book was written for plants of the North East, dozens of the plants here will  be found throughout North America, and even beyond.  I think that foragers of all skill level and in a variety of eco-ranges will benefit from this work.  Also, this is an excellent resource for herbalists or those interested in herbal medicine, as each plants pharmacology and mode of action are broken down in a very explicit and comprehensible way.  It has already become one of my most valued herbal references.

This book was published by Anaskimin, (the Penobscot native word for “acorn”) a nonprofit organization here in Maine, who’s purpose is the protection of open and wild spaces through public and private education.  Not only is this book the most useful and user friendly I have seen on the subject, but by purchasing it you are directly supporting the preservation of remaining wild places in a radical new way, by educating people how to care for and interface with wild nature.

Also, as a heads up, Arthur and I will be leading two weekend workshops together this year in the North East, one in May called “Ancestral Plants” and another in September called “Ancestral Ignition”.  The first will be a three day wild food education, identifaction, gathering, processing, and preparation workshop!  The second will focus on the creation of fire from friction, using natural materials from the landscape, the way it was done for the last 400,000 years.  I am very excited about both of these classes, and will be posting the details shortly.  Stay Tuned!

Check out the video interview below to learn more about the book, and click here to get your copy now! You will gain tremendous knowledge and be supporting a wonderful and important cause.

Today is the first blizzard of 2011 here in Maine, and I am off to enjoy the snow!  Thanks for visiting and please let me know what you think of the book!

~Daniel

We are excited to bring yet another video with Wild Foods expert Arthur Haines!

This information, for me, was particularly fascinating, and I think the same is true for Arthur as well!

For centuries people have been enjoying the health benefits of the fermented beverage Kombucha, which is often mistakenly referred to a Chinese Mushroom Tea.  In truth, Kombucha, which most likely hails not from China, but from Russia, is tea that has been fermented by a “SCOBY”.  This is an acronym for a Symbiotic Colony Of Yeast and Bacteria, the strange pancake like colony of organisms that float on top of the ferment.

Typically the Kombucha begins with a steeped tea (literally the Tea plant “Camellia sinensis”) and white or “unrefined”  cane sugar.  The SCOBY, often called the “Mother” is placed into the tea where it (the yeast and bacteria) ferment the feed on the sugars and phytonutrients of the tea, fermenting it into the drink we call Kombucha.

For years I have been told that the Mother required the caffeine from the tea plant, as well as the Sucrose from the sugar.  I have seen small Kombucha projects where honey, agave, and other alternative sugar sources have been used, but they ultimately are less functional than sucrose.  The flavored and herbed Kombucha we see on the market is made first with tea, and then is infused with other plants after it is fermented.

Arthur has discovered a method that bypasses both the Tea plant as well as the Refined Sugar! What he shares here is a truly Wild food, fully medicinal, and even better tasting than what I was used to!

So, this is an official challenge to the Kombucha producers and communities to up their game!

Have a look and let us know what you think!!! ~Daniel

Oh, almost forgot!  Special thanks to Lauren Kinsey, who posted a really valuable comment after seeing the last set of videos with Arthur.  I had mentioned that wild plant harvesting by humans can actually benefit the ecosystem.  In a portion of her response Lauren’s says “I don’t understand how harvesting wild food can “benefit the ecosystem”.

I really appreciated her stepping up to ask because I know that I (and much of my generation) was raised to believe that we are inherently, by our very nature, damaging to ecosystems.  This way of seeing the world is very much in vogue today.  Arthur shares a very eloquent response;

“It does at first seem like an odd statement that collecting wild plants can actually benefit the ecosystem. But Daniel’s statement is factual. It may be hard to perceive because we simply don’t interact with wild plants as traditional cultures did, which means we lack the knowledge base to understand our role in the ecology of these organisms. Further, we have been taught to “take only pictures, leave only footprints.” This well-intentioned phrase has created a populace that no longer uses and cherishes wild species. Consequently, many do not understand their true value.

There are so many examples of beneficial human interaction it is hard to know where to begin. Consider species such as evening-primrose, a colonizer of open, disturbed places that has an edible taproot. When we gather this root, we kill the plant. However, we also till the ground when we excavate the roots, disturbing the soil and maintaining an open area–which is absolutely necessary for this species. Without repeated disturbance, the area will eventually grow in with taller plants that will shade out the evening-primrose, leading to a loss of that species at that site. When we gather edible seeds and seed-like fruits, we unintentionally scatter or drop some of them, helping the plant to disperse further than it would have otherwise. Native American practices have been shown to increase the abundance of certain species even though lethal collection was being performed. They utilized many traditional practices to ensure plants were not eradicated. Simply gathering bulbs after the seeds had formed would allow the plant to germinate in freshly tilled earth.

We really do need a shift away from the current paradigm of a hands-off approach to nature. This “look but don’t touch” attitude toward nature has been applied too extensively, and many mistakenly believe that all wild beings are better off without any human interaction. However, there exist many examples showing that conscientious use of plants by people is beneficial for those species. Further, experientially learning the uses of wild plants teaches people to value those species while also helping them to become more self-sufficient.

The simultaneous use and conservation of nature requires far more knowledge and skill than simply leaving nature alone. What might appear on the surface to be a wanton act of collection actually represents a gathering system that includes numerous safeguards to protect plants from overharvest. Abstract learning about nature (i.e., learning that doesn’t involve interaction and use) doesn’t accurately portray the value of different species. Without this knowledge, the need to preserve species can’t be fully appreciated.

Best wishes,
Arthur Haines

I really love the devices he uses to process the foods he Wild Crafts.

Many are hand made and quite intentional in their design and function.

The Mortor and Pestle Arthur is using here is incredibly functional, and makes most kitchen Mortors look somewhat silly by comparison.  This is the size that I think is most functional for actual use in any traditional setting.  Years ago while traveling in South East Asia I noticed Mortors made from stone that were nearly this exact size, and they were used daily in the households of people there.

The ones that we keep in our kitchens today are usually just decorative, or at best are for small novelty jobs.  Wild crafting medicinal herbs and wild foods on any significant scale means obtaining or creating some innovative tools for processing your produce!

One thing you can sense as Arthur talks is his deep grasp of the nutritional components of the wild foods he discusses.  There is a vast difference between understanding the basic survival foods needed to stay alive while stranded in the woods, and fully understanding how the local indigenous peoples thrived on the foods of their eco-ranges for countless generations.

This awareness makes all “diets” look like unsustainable fads.  If you remove the neurotic nutritionism disorders that are plaguing humanity, there would really only be two significant diets to choose from…  Agrarian (domestic foods) or Gatherer/Hunter (wild foods).  Or of course some composite of the two.

“Modern” man is almost, with little exception, exclusively Agrarian today.  Unlike Agrarians of the past, he seems to be weakening and poisoning his food supply with a near total irreverence.

Today the world wide commercial mono-crop farming practices all around us are raising varieties of weak-gened domesticated food hybrids in conditions so toxic as to make them very unattractive as food options.  These are most often processed into nutrient deficient edible caloric non-foods.  This of course continues to weaken us just as it does our offspring and ultimately our species genetics.

Well grown Local Food is beginning to gain a foothold, though in much of the world it has become increasingly more interesting to find food from local organic growers.  Real, well grown local heirloom food appears scarce here in society at this time in history.

And yet Wild Food remains as nutritious, as tonic, and as much a delicacy as ever!

Wild Foods offer a powerful source of nutrition that is not only free, but actually benefits the ecosystem while strengthening your awareness of your relationship to it.  These foods are invariably more nutritious and therapeutic than their domesticated relatives.  Bringing them back into our lives in any amount is one of the best investments we can make in our longevity, in our strength, in our Vibrancy and Vitality.

When we use local Wild Foods we re receiving the medicines and macro-nutrient (fat, carbohydrate, protein) profiles and ratios that are particular to that species in our own climate.  Each meal is representative of the conditions of that place and to eat it places us in the interconnected web of life-forms of that ecosystem.

It is a critical time for us to remember that we are biotic too, and we are a part of a Living Organism Earth, not separate from it….

Foraging Wild Food teaches us this in a way that is experiential and far more life enhancing than merely learning about it intellectually.

It is why I share videos like these.

Thanks for making some time to read this.

Gratitude!

~Daniel