Is Hollywood ReWilding?
Greetings Friends & Welcome to 2012!
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
Neti Pots: Nasal Irrigation to Smog-Proof Your Sinuses
How is your sinus hygiene?
After 14 years of using a neti pot on a regular, almost daily basis – I must admit, I am amazed how overlooked this basic bit of personal hygiene is.
Most of us brush our teeth and we usually expect the same of others. In fact, when someone neglects this important bit of personal cleanliness, the rest of us can be easily turned off.
How about bathing? What if you knew someone hadn’t showered or bathed in months, years, or worse still, never at all… How would you feel about getting… um, close to them?
Well, how about our sinuses? Each day we are all breathing the many stow-away particles (read: pollutants) that free float amongst what was once, some pretty fresh air here on planet earth. Today our air is loaded with everything from dust (which is mostly dead skin cells) to heavy metals, from car exhaust to radioactive isoptopes. These particles are constantly lodging in and congesting our upper respiratory tract, creating an environment for infection and/or being drawn still deeper into our lower respiratory tract (our lungs). The neti pot gives us the ability to clean our upper respiratory tract, in much the same way that a toothbrush cleans our mouth or a shower washes our skin, before these particles can accumulate or be drawn deeper.
Otherwise, we simply carry this debris around, haphazardly sneezing or blowing it out, or letting it drain back into our throats… Blah!
Want to see what a truly clean upper respiratory tract feels like? Try using a neti pot!
After a few days, to a few weeks, of implementing this practice it will become immediately clear why I am recommending it. My experience has been that you can only truly feel the chronic congestion after you have cleared it. It is the open, clear, and relaxed sense of breathing; the ability to fully utilize your respiration that makes you conscious of its importance. In other words, once you have tried it and felt what clean and clear sinus cavities feel like, you won’t want to go back.
As for the technique and specifics, I will let this video explain the rest.
My company SurThrival recently started carrying what we feel are the most beautiful and durable ceramic neti pots available anywhere, and you can get one for yourself right here on our newly designed website (we are pretty excited about this)! We were sure to get them in several different colors so that you can choose one thats right for you. These are made right here in the State of Maine (where we are based out of) and I have personally tested them now for almost a decade and a half, so I can honestly tell you they are the best around. Watch the video above where I compare some of the features against other design-styles.
If your looking to smog proof your sinuses, help to prevent sinus issues in general, and improve your respiratory health, give the neti pot a try. Better yet, take some time to develop mastery of this skill by making it a regular practice!
My hope is that our community will immediately see the value of this handy little device and add it to the tool-belt of practices and skills that are helping us to thrive in, and adapt to our modern environment. I promise if you give it just one week of consistent practice, not only will you easily master this skill, but you will have a life long practice that will contribute to your health and personal detoxification strategy.
I have used this strategy, along side others, such as regular sauna use (check out Clearlight Saunas, it is the brand of infrared sauna that I have in my home), a clean whole food diet containing lots of wild foods and herbs, drinking natural spring water, implimenting regular functional exercise, all combined with and tied together with time spent in nature. The goal is to create a kind of Invincible Health that allows us to thrive in this mad, mad, world!
To your health and adaptation!
ReWild Yourself!
~D
P.S. Though saline water is what people usually put in their neti pots, I have heard of many other solutions. Quick question: What is the most exotic thing you have ever put in a neti pot? Go ahead and leave a comment below, and please… Don’t be shy 
Sovereign Dental Health, a 6 Part Strategy
Hello Friends,
Welcome (or welcome back) and thanks again for stopping by. My last few videos have been focused on sharing some Sovereign Self-Healthcare strategies that I have been developing and employing for some time now. It has been really exciting to share these with you all, and for me it feels like a timely message, given the considerable distrust and dissatisfaction so many of us have been feeling for mainstream “medicine” in recent years.
Many of us have taken our diets and nutrition into our own hands, though when it comes to personal health care, few of us have really stepped out and away from the entrenched medical system’s doctor/dentist treatment, and the role we play in it as “patient” (from the Latin meaning “suffering”).
This current video is a 6 part dental health and maintenance strategy that has replaced the role of dentistry in my life. It has been many years since I have seen a dentist (I was 12 the last time I can remember having an appointment with one), and as it is with so many aspects of living, I have found it far more rewarding to take care of myself, rather than turning my health over to others. Especially those “quacks” – originally a term reserved for dentists who employed mercury amalgam fillings – with less than shiny-white histories (e.g. fluoride, mercury, etc).
The world of “modern medicine”, to include modern dentistry, seems far less interested in our health than it does in furthering its quasi-scientific agendas, human experiemention, and profit driven procedures. For this reason I will continue to promote Sovereign Self-health Care Strategies here at DanielVitalis.com.
ReWild Yourself! This doesn’t refer to behaving wildly, or giving up your standards of personal conduct, rather it means “Shed your Domesticator“!
This video is for all of you who celebrate being grown-ups, and are unafraid to raise yourselves up and out of the near ubiquitous neoteny that is now standard in the epi-genome in our “modernized” population.
This video comes on the heels of the last video we released, which details how to make the toothpaste that is used in this dental care strategy. Please keep in mind that this toothpaste, in addition to providing the mild abrasive qualities we have become accustomed to in our commercially available toothpaste preparations, is designed to pull toxic cations out of the body, and to be an aid in our overall radio-protection strategy (protection from radioactive isotopes).
For those of you who are interested in going deeper, I would highly recommend an e-book by my good friend Nadine Artemis called “Successful Self-Dentistry, how to avoid the dentist without ignoring your teeth”. This e-book is very comprehensive, and empowers us to take our dental health into our own hands for a lifetime.
We are now getting ready for Ancestral Ignition, a workshop that myself and some good friends are hosting here at my home in Maine, September 16th – 18th, 2011. The main focus of this retreat is to share the ancient and ancestral skill of aboriginal friction fire with all of those who attend. We really believe that stewardship of this ancient fire-craft is valuable for many reasons, not the least of which is the carrying on of what is one of our most ancient and fundamental human technologies.
Our ability to generate and maintain fire is a powerful thing indeed, so it is our intention to pass on not just the skill, but the ethics of stewardship as well.
We also feel privileged to share the basics of fire-craft with our friends and clients because so many of us were never taught how to properly or efficiently build or maintain a fire. I certainly wasn’t, growing up in the 1980’s American Dream. In fact, learning to properly construct and burn a fire has meant far more to me than just having another survival skill. It has connected me with one of the essential practices that makes us human.
This workshop will be fully catered with organic, local food, prepared by Chef Frank Giglio, who is one of my best friends and a truly culinary mentor of mine.
Check out the video below to hear more about Ancestral Ignition, and to see acclaimed botanist, author, and my foraging and aboriginal skills guide and all around friend, Arthur Haines, make a fire with a primitive tool known as the bow drill.
If you are interested in joining us, or learning more about Ancestral Ignition please contact us at info@danielvitalis.com.
As always, we would love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of this recent post, video upload, and what you would like to see in the future by commenting below.
Your readership is truly appreciated,
~Daniel
How to make your own Detoxifying Toothpaste, and details on my annual trip to Peru
Greetings Friends, thanks for stopping by.
Would you like to make your own toothpaste for self-dentistry and detoxification?
The video below is an installment in dental health sovereignty. It has been working very well for me, and it just might work for you too.
For years I have been looking for the right toothpaste for my home self-dentistry, and have experimented with a great many things. From “organic” store-bought toothpaste brands, to tooth soaps and powders, and even aboriginal “chew sticks” – Nothing has been the right fit for my self-dentistry needs.
I have now arrived at a strategy that is really working wonders for me, and I feel could really work for you too. This video is the first part of that strategy, the rest of which I am eager to share with you in full over the next few weeks.
How I arrived at this…
As I began experimenting with tissue detoxification using Zeolites and Clay, it dawned on me that these, when rendered into a fine flour-like powder, have just the right amount of abrasiveness to take the place of the toothpaste I had grown up with.
This video details how you can make your own, and at a very low price at that. In fact, if you know where to look, you could get everything you would need for making all the toothpaste you would use for the rest of your life for probably under $100!
Best of all, you can swallow this toothpaste, which yields all of the amazing health benefits of these detoxifying earth compounds. In particular I am referring to zeolites ability to perform cation exchange - CEC or Cation Exchange Capacity is the term used in physics- which is its ability to electrically bind positively charged ions (heavy metals, radio-isotopes, etc) whilst trading out (in exchange) beneficial cations like potassium or calcium. The toxic cations are then transported out of our bodies, along with the zeolite powder in our bowel movement. The case with clay is very similar, though the phenomena in this case is referred to as adsorption, which is also an electrical binding, but in this case to the surface of the clay particle and without the accompanying exchange of a cation.
Keep in mind that this practice, consuming clay and other earth compounds, is perhaps one of the oldest of all human behaviors. It has been practiced around the world and is present in virtually all pre-industrial populations. Evidence for this has been found in archeological sites that predated our current human form, and anthropological surveys have found that it lives on in societies around the world today. Actually, it is common to nearly all mammals, and in particular to broad ranging herbivores. The behavior is termed “geophagy”, and is unquestionably part of the species-specific diet of human beings. From my perspective, it appears that a diet that lacks the geophagy pattern could not be called a “natural diet” at all, as it would essentially be deficient in these all-important compounds. Below is a link to one of the best books I have read on the subject.
Most of us were taught to spit our toothpaste out, which, given the host of less-than-beneficial ingredients (particularly fluoride) is pretty sound advice. With this home-made clay or zeolite toothpaste, the goal is indeed to swallow it, moving it into the intestine where it can go to work mopping up industrial and nuclear debris that has bioaccumulated in our tissues.
When this clay or zeolite consumption is combined with sauna therapy (this dual approach is the subject of my last video), we arrive at a very effective life-long detoxification strategy that really works, and is easy to implement.
This second video is about my August 4th, 11 day tour of Peru, for which I have just a few openings left.
If you are looking for a riveting adventure, are interested in Peruvian shamanism, amazonian biology, visiting Machu Pichu, or just wanting to soak in a rain forest hotspring, this trip might be for you. We are less than a month away, so if you would like to join us – by us I mean the very amazing and interesting group of people who have assembled for this trip – contact Jeannette at info@rawflora.com, and check out the 11 day 10 night itinerary here. It is exciting to see who takes the plunge and comes along!
Please let us know what you thought about the video above, and if there are any subjects you would like to see covered in the future.
Until then, please know that your readership is appreciated.
Enjoy the summer sunshine!
~Daniel
Looking for Some Inexpensive Radiation Detoxification?
Greetings and thanks for visiting!
Your time here is very appreciated. The video that accompanies this blog post is a two part strategy breaking down how you can inexpensively and easily begin protecting yourself from the long-lived radio isotopes, which have now become a regular part of our habitat. This began 65 years ago, and has become particularly disconcerting in the last few months since the damage to the Japanese facility at Fukushima.
I am also including here the two links that I mention in the video. The first is an amazing visualization that shows all of the nuclear detonations that have happened on Earth since 1946. Hint… its over 2000!
The second is a documentary called Trinity, and it shows with nothing less than truly epic footage, the history of these tests. This, if you have time, is a must see! Very disturbing, but strangely entrancing… I guess that is the nature of this technology.
The reason I share these videos and information is to demonstrate that the issues with radiation did not begin Fukushima, or even with Chernobyl, but with the “silent” nuclear war that has already happened on Earth.
So what do we do? This video is about the strategies that I have been employing since the Japan disaster earlier this year. Knowing what I know now, I wish I had started the day I came into this world. Regardless, taking actions like these has put me at considerable ease about the radio-isotopes in our environment. This allows me to operate without fear, but remain in a dominant emotion of confidence.
Also, on another note, my opening evening talk at the Longevity Now Conference last April is now available for purchase in DVD format, in an 18-DVD set which includes the lectures from each of the other health educators who spoke at the Conference! The DVD set is a compilation of hours, upon hours, of live footage from the weekend long event and includes tons of the latest health information and inspiration. Click here to see a 15 minute clip of the my main lecture from the event, titled “Habitat, Living the Life of Our Biological Design” which I feel came out wonderfully! To learn more about this excellent DVD offer or to purchase your copy today, follow this link.
Thats all for now, though I eagerly await your comments, so please let me know what you would like to see future videos on!
Thank You for taking the time. Keep SurThriving!
~D
Coconut Water in Maine??? The First Wild Food of the Season!
Ok, so of course Maine hasn’t got any coconuts, but we do have something that tastes just as good – maybe better – and is just as nutritious.
Its the sap of the Maple tree.
There are not many wild foods that taste particularly sweet here in New England, but Maple Syrup is certainly the exception. Whats more, the flowing sap of the maple tree is the first wild food to emerge after a long and cold snow covered New England winter.
This video is a quick peek into my spring cleansing strategy which is most welcomed after a lengthy season of living indoors. The fresh Maple sap is so refreshing, so hydrating, and tastes so good that it is almost shocking that more people aren’t taking advantage of this delicious, abundant, and free late winter/early spring drink! In the second half of the video I’ve included a recipe that I have been making with fresh maple water, chaga, and a bit of cream. I wish there was some way to convey flavor through the internet! Is there an app for that yet?
To compliment and expand on my video, I have also included a video with botanist Arthur Haines detailing how he taps his maples, and prepares his maple syrup. With childlike enthusiasm, we have been texting back and forth each day to see how much sap the others trees have produced!
The experience of procuring food directly from wild nature is truly, for me at least, one of the great joys of living! As each season goes by and my skills in this area increase, not only have I developed a strong sense of food security, my direct relationship to the Earth as an abundant and loving provider continues to increases. To say that I am grateful would hardly do justice to this exuberant emotion.
For those of you who are interested in developing more wild food identification, harvesting, and processing skills, please consider joining Arthur and I for our Ancestral Plants workshop here in Maine, May 6th – 8th, 2011. Be sure to contact us soon, as the class size is very limited. We have chosen the intimate class size to ensure that each of you gets the close personal attention you need, and to ensure that we don’t trample our wild foraging grounds. The class has been filling up rather quickly these last few weeks, and we are getting very excited for the spring foraging to begin!
I have a few more days of maple sap harvesting before heading of to Los Angeles for the Longevity Now Conference, April 1st -3rd. I have just finished preparing my presentation, called “Habitat, Your Guide to Intentional Lifestyle Design” which will focus on specific strategies for more than just vigorous health, but epi-genetic wealth. In other words, we can use our environment and lifestyle to activate our genetic potential for a more robust experience of life on Earth! The newly emerging scientific field of “epigenetics” is rapidly confirming the obvious fact, our habitat and lifestyle choices, from what we eat and breath to what we wear and think not only impacts our health but actually influences our gene expression! Many of you are already planning on being there, and those who would like to join can get your tickets here. If you can’t make it to the event, but would like to watch the video stream, here is the link where you can sign up to watch at home.
I am so enthusiastic about this upcoming foraging and touring season. I have events planned around the US, Canada, and even in Peru. Keep checking my current events for more details, and I hope to meet you somewhere out there soon!
Keep ReWilding,
~Daniel
David Wolfe, Matt Monarch, and Daniel Vitalis Make a Smoothie Spoof!
Whats the World’s Best Kept Health Secret???
Being able to laugh at yourself! Let me explain…
This week has been full of just that kind of laughter! For the last couple of weeks myself and several good friends and great acquaintances have been working together diligently to get the word out about the 16 DVD set that was filmed last September at the Longevity Now Conference in Costa Mesa, CA. There has been a friendly rivalry going on, and a few of us decided to take it as far as we had to in order to bring the most attention to these DVD’s. It sort of turned into an informal contest, and I was determined to win…
It all started last week with my team and I brainstorming about how we could get peoples attention. I needed to do something out of the ordinary, something bold and hilarious. This is what I came up with, and if you haven’t seen it yet, I would love to hear your opinion.
My girlfriend Ali, my operations manager and brother Kaleb, and my Best Friend and Business Partner LeighLon and I then spent several hours posting this video to everyone we could think of in our social networks. It was a huge hit, and got a few thousand views in its first 24 hours! People were loving it, but the competition was swarming and before we knew what to do, several other videos popped up. It was our friends and colleagues trying to out-do us (special thanks to Jason Wrobel and Ron Obadia) with videos of their own!
We went back to the drawing board.
I needed something fresh, something bold, something that would send ripples coursing throughout the health-minded community… I had an idea, but would this be going to far? Was what I was about to do; was I crossing the boundary? Did I even dare?
No… I couldn’t, I didn’t. I was going to back down. I was defeated.
Then, suddenly I was flooded by a deluge of emails. It was my friends from the Longevity Now Conference. They wanted to know if I, Daniel Vitalis, was the kind of person to retreat into shadow, to fall sullenly into obscurity, or would I rise like the proverbial Phoenix from the ashes of video doldrums to deliver the masterpiece that the world had been waiting for?
Text messages from my close friends David Wolfe and Chef Frank Giglio started rolling in. They told me that I had until midnight to get something onto youtube, if I was to regain my honor. It was 9 p.m., and time was running out. I had just a mere three hours to make some magic.
The few hours that followed are little more than a blur, and if it wasn’t for the record kept in the footage I am about to share with you, I would’t have believed that it even happened. None the less, it will now be immortalized forever.
What follows is a spoof of myself, David Wolfe, and Matt Monarch all hanging out in my kitchen making the “Longevity Now Conference 16 DVD Set Superfood Tonic Elixir Smoothie”…
I play all of the parts, and keep in mind that this was made on an extreme time budget. Each character had to be filmed separately and I had to shave between each filming session. I can hardly believe this is real….
So, what’s the message here? Is there a message?
Please allow me to summerize. For years now the three of have worked seperately and together in the same general arena and field. Each of the three of us represent extrememly driven and productive individuals. Each of us has spent countless hours employing personal development strategies to fulfill the blueprints for who we truly are and what we want to share with the world. Though each of us is very different, there is a common theme that we all agree on, and that is wanting to see a healthier, more peaceful, and more beautiful world for everyone.
As public speakers and figures, there is a tremendous amount of pressure placed on us from all directions, as this is the nature of the work that we do. It can be so easy to find and focus on the differences in what each of us is teaching and if we are not careful, to allow ourselves to be divided by it. It is easy to lose sight of the obvious; that we are all friends and working together toward a common goal. The differences between us are beautiful and healthy, and ultimately what make this whole ride so much fun.
I think of it like this, imagine that David Wolfe, Matt Monarch, and I all walked into a restraunt together (ok, what restraunt would that be? I guess this is hypothetical). Each of us orders something different from the menu, something that is suited our own unique taste, preference, whim, and health goals. The fact that we ordered different dishes does not mean we are in nutritional opposition to one another. It does not mean we are contending with one another, and certainly doesn’t affect our friendship or support of eachother. None of us would be wrong for what we ordered, it is just a menu after all. We can each enjoy our meal together over laughter and appreciation for each others company.
A second message I have embedded into this video is the following: Don’t take life or yourself too seriously. Ever.
All three of us are so focused on creating the life that we desire, each of us so good at what we do, that we have all become characters as archetypical as those found in the pages of a comic book. This deserves to be laughed at sometimes… Its funny.
David the globetrotting shamanic mad scientist, Matt the California beach boy turned South American land owner, Me the elven borreal forest primitive locavore. This is the stuff comedy is born of! Each of us is simply bringing forward the health strategy that has fueled our unique missions and passions, and each of us does this in our own unique style. Our work is the distillation of years of study and practice, and we could be celebrating the diversity that this has created.
There are times when we all come together for work and play, and when we do, all of these apparent differences are set aside. We are friends first and foremost, and we know the value of love and laughter.
You the reader may have encountered some of the harassing internet trolling that each of us has had to endure. There are those online who do take this far too seriously and are constantly leveling accusations, and cruel and harsh words against us. They take our work and contort it in an attempt to make a mockery of us. What is funny to me, is the way that these people seem to do this as a near full time job! They are so obsessed, and take it all so seriously that they have committed their lives to displaying hatred and spewing vitriol, claiming that their way, their method, their diet, is the only viable truth. This video is a message to those people. It says “You can never make fun of us better than we can of ourselves!”, and that living without humor in your life is more than ugly, it is unhealthy and violates one of realities prime directives. Honestly, I feel sorry for people like that, people who are too closed down in their hearts to display the lightness of being that initiates human bonding. It seems like a cold way to live, and very, very lonely.
Though people may at time level criticisms against us, I ask that you imagine this. Imagine the fearlessness it takes to put yourself out there to the world. Imagine what it takes to make videos, write books, travel the world getting in front of hundreds and thousands of people to share a message of hope and healing in a world so full of suffering and destruction. It takes a lot, and it is not always easy.
To those who have supported us all these years, THANK YOU.
Oh, and one other thing, a message to the haters… I am making a joke about the sales of this DVD for this reason alone. I don’t understand why there are people who are critical of me or anyone in my field for being a business person. How would I be able to do what I do if I otherwise had a full time career doing something else? Also, I feel the need to point out the obvious here: People buy products from myself or my colleagues because we carry extremely good products, products that help people. People choose to purchase these products because they add value to their lives and health, and because they feel good about putting their money back into the economic networks that support what they believe in.
We exist as businesses because we carry things that people want. That should be obvious, though there are those that detract from this. Perhaps it is because they make their money in ways they are not so proud of.
The businesses that each of us run are beautiful, thriving, life promoting operations and each of them is working to support the vision that each of us share for the world. My company, SurThrival, is my contribution to peoples health and healing and is my way of operating economically in a world that demands this of me. I am proud of the work that I do there, and of the people that this business supports. David Wolfe and his Longevity Warehouse exists to support peoples health and developement, and is critical to keeping the message alive and available. I am proud to work with him. Matt Monarch has ceaslessly brought more and more products to us at his Raw Food World, and runs one of the tightest ships I have ever seen. I am proud to work with him.
In closing, I want to say this. The Longevity Now Conference DVD’s are amazing. I feel very good about sharing these with you because I know how much quality information they contain, and how diverse that information is. Each speaker is very different from the others, and holds a piece of information that could be the piece that you are looking for. These DVD’s are not for the dogmatic; they are for the open minded and adaptable! One of those DVD’s is dedicated to the talks that I gave at the conference, and is the information that is most on my heart and mind now. I truly hope that you get the chance to watch these, as this is why I do what I do. I believe in their value.
If you would like to get yourself a set, click here now!
Also, I will be at the Longevity Now Conference in April (1st-3rd), and will be making tickets for the upcoming conference available soon… So… Stay tuned, I might just be forced to top this last video!
~Daniel
Sauerkraut Fermentation At Home
For those of us who are developing or returning to our ancestral health through traditional and indigenous nutritional practices, few food preparation skills are as valuable to possess as lacto-fermentation.
Imagine for a moment living without a fossil fuel driven infrastructure to deliver us our “fresh” veggies in January and an electrically powered refrigerator to store them in, and its importance and relevance becomes clear. Storing vegetables for the winter is a critical skill, and lacto-fermentation has some advantages that are hard to beat.
For instance, Lacto-Fermentaion actually increases the amount of nutrition that was present in the vegetable alone (by converting sugars into protein rich bacterial bodies, B vitamins, and omega 3 fatty acids), increase the bio-availability of the existing nutrition (by breaking down cell walls by predigesting the vegetables cellulose, and removing anti-nutrients) and all the while preserving the inherent nutrition better than freezing, canning, or drying!
Lacto-fermentation, the kind of vegetable fermentation that produces foods like sauerkraut (as well as kimchee and brined pickles), preserves our food in lactic acid, and was one of the dominant preservation techniques used by our ancestors before sugar and preservatives became the norm. The primary fermentative organism present in these kinds of preserves is lactobacillus acidophilus (who’s name means “acid loving milk bacteria”) one of our bodies primary microbial symbionts.
Not only does lactobacillus acidophilus allow us to preserve and even increase the amount of nutrition in our vegetables, but it also aids in digestion and increases our immunity too! Lactobacillus takes up residence in our small intestine, creating a kind of probiotic bio-shield in the gut, where it aggressively out-competes other dys-biotic organisms that can cause us to fall ill.
Ok, so forgive me here, but I am going to interject a few definitions and a quick mathmatical formula. Trust me, it will help.
Prebiotic + Probiotic = Synbiotic. Easy right? Here is what it means.
The thing we intend to ferment is known as a “prebiotic” (I am using this term loosely, don’t tell the scientists), this is the food source (sugars) for the organisms that will be converting the food into a fermented-food (in our case cabbage). We add to that the “probiotic” organism (these are healthy, symbiotic micro-organisms) that will be performing the fermentation (here it will be lactobacillus). Ok, a little caveat, we might not actually add the probiotic, but rather let it colonize itself, in what is called a “wild fermentation”, as is the case here with sauerkraut. Organisms native to the area where you are fermenting, or – as is the case with cabbage – are indigenous to the food itself. Through the alchemy of the fermentative process something new will be created, and that new thing is known as the “synbiotic”. I want to emphasize, the synbiotic is a new food, not the sum of the original parts, this is why sauerkraut is not “cabbage”, and wine is not “grape juice”.
Synbiotics like sauerkraut have long been used by those before us to fortify their immune systems, assist in digestion (their acidity helps to lower the pH of the stomach increasing the effectiveness of our hydrochloric acid), and to maintain healthy levels of the probiotic organisms that colonize our digestive lumen. While many people use probiotic supplements in an attempt to achieve these ends, most often lacto-fermented foods perform these tasks better, can be made at home from whole, fresh, local foods, are inexpensive, and add a considerable amount of quality nutrition in the form of highly absorbable predigested, living food. Oh, and they taste great too!
For me, lacto-ferments like sauerkraut are one of my primary ways of preserving and consuming local vegetables through out the long Maine winters. Aside from the occasional Whole Foods splurge, I don’t suspect I will be eating very many fresh green vegetables until the wild spring shoots emerge after the thaw. Aside from the vegetables that keep in my cellar (onions, squashes, garlic) and the vegetables I have frozen (wild fiddle heads, japanese knotweed) lacto-ferments are my main source of “living” vegetation.
If you have never made a fermentation like this at home, take heart! It is easy to do, and requires very little work or know how. Simply follow the steps in the video below, and in a couple of weeks you will have your first batch ready to eat!
For those who would like a deeper look into the biological processes that take place in the fermentation of cabbage into sauerkraut, check out this link!
I love to hear from you, so please leave me comment below to let me know what you think of this post, the website, and what you would like to see next!
~Daniel
Wild Fermented Hard Cider
Did you know that fermented beverages, specifically ethanol containing beverages were a crucial componant of most indigenous and traditional health strategies? Or that those who drink a moderate amount of ethanol live longer than those who drink heavily or don’t drink at all?
Of course the beverages fermented by native peoples and by our traditional cultural forebearers were much healthier and nutritionally viable than those of today, created with local ingredients and wild yeasts, and were not filtered and pasturized like the ones that most of us were raised around. Turning simple sugars into ethanol, amino acids, and B complex vitamins, not to mention a culturally and ritually significant inebriant is a nearly ubiquitous human behavior, and part of what holds the fabric of traditional societies together.
Earlier in the year I had the culturally enriching experience of imbibing some of the traditional fermented beverages of South America, specifically Chicha (from Maize) and Masatao (from Cassava), both traditional ferments of the people of Peru. These wonderful drinks were both relatively low in alcohol, with probably just a bit less than a modern beer, and loaded with nutrition and calories, making them as much a food as a drink. I was immediately impressed with the way that these were built into the nutritional and spiritual systems of the area. They were not viewed as guilt laden pleasures or sources of immoral behavior and debauchery, but rather as sacred and vitally health supportive. And while we use the term “intoxicant” to refer to drinks that contain alcohol, these people didn’t associate their sacred beverages with “toxicity” at all.
It was my desire to begin wild fermenting a local sugar of low to moderate alcohol content that could be drank unfiltered and unpasteruized. I wanted to recreate this often undiscussed and overlooked aspect of traditional human diets and bring it into my home and my life. While I have also been fermenting honey with some success (a beverage called Mead), I wanted to brew something with a milder effect (mead has the alcohol content of wine, upwards of 16 % or more) that could be done with very little labor or input, just the way our ancestors had done it.
Through this quest I have become enamoured by Cider, which is the proper name for the fermented alcoholic draught made from the fresh pressed juice from apples. Today we often refer to “Hard Cider” as the fully fermented version, and “Cider” as the unfermented, unfiltered juice of apples, which is a departure from the traditional meaning. Cider is usually defined as having an alcohol content of 2 – 8.5 % or higher, though my experience is that it tastes great and is incredibly refreshing even during initial fermentation when the alcohol content is negligible like that of Kombucha.
You can imagine that prior to the widespread use of refrigeration, areas of the world with large apple yields would have had quite a bit of Cider on hand, as the juice of fresh apples ferments quite readily. Perhaps you have bought fresh apple juice from a local orchard before and had it begin to ferment on you!
The apple juice I have worked with begins to ferment almost immediately after it reaches room temperature, and in truth gets better each and every day that it sits. The initial fermentation stage is wonderful, as the Cider develops its sparkling effervescence. I love drinking it this way throughout the day, and like saving the older, dryer, and “harder” Cider for the evenings with dinner and after.
Fermentation can seem a bit intimidating when you haven’t tried it before, and that is why I am posting this video. Cider is so easy to produce at home a cave man could do it!
I hope you enjoy this two part “Wild Fermented Hard Cider” video. Please give us your feedback by leaving a comment below!
~Daniel
P.S. Your probably wondering what “a moderate amount of alcohol” is. Studies indicate that 1 – 3 drinks ethanol drinks per day seems to extend lifespans! Here is a review from the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology showing the effects of alcohol on life span!
P.P.S. I understand the many detrimental effects that alcoholism and alcohol related accidents have had on us as individuals and as a civilization. I have personally been witness to it in my own life amongst people that I love dearly. This blog is in no way supporting reckless or irreverent use of ethanol. Alcohol consumption goes further into antiquity than can be accounted for, in other words it is part of the human story. Each one of us must determine how we will responsibly relate to it as a substance, and how we will steward it with health and safety in mind.
Wild Ricing in Maine!
(The actual video of harvesting wild rice is at the bottom of this blog post!)
I have had the opportuntiy to forage wild foods for a few years now, with each season yielding greater and greater amounts of food. No harvest yet has supplied me with the amount of food energy that I was able to gather this September when I learned the ancient art of “Ricing”.
Most of the wild plants that I have been learning to use are incredibly nutritious (as well as delicious) but a bit low in calories. Many wild foraged plants are eaten like vegetables (stinging nettle come to mind) but lack the energy density that we get from meats, grains, oils, concentrated sugars. This means that as a forager I am still largely dependent on my local agricultural system to provide me with calories that I need to live out my daily life.
Wild rice however, is a complex carbohydrate (macro-nutrient), and unlike the mono-cropped and refined carbohydrates of the average American diet, is a rich whole food grain loaded with vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) as well.
Today, most of the worlds citizens are living with an inverse relationship between micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc) and macronutrients (calories). We have become overfed and under nourished. Our ancestors ate extremely micronutrient dense diets when compared against our own. Their constant quest instead was securing the macronutrient (carbohydrate, lipid, and protein calories) that they required for their huge daily energy expenditures.
Of course today it is nearly the opposite, where most of the (over) developed world has calorie rich diet composed of overly processed and refined food – think white sugar, white flour, high fructose corn syrup, etc – that is deeply lacking in micro-nutrition. Most Americans are deficient in micronutrients even to the RDA standard (recommended daily allowances of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences) which is surprisingly low when compared against the nutrient intakes of so called “primitive peoples”.
Now that I am moving away from “novelty foraging” toward a subsistence that includes Wild Foods, I am acutely aware of this nutritional crux. There are plenty of micronutrients in the foods that I forage from my ecosystem, but most of my actual caloric needs still come from my local farm.
That is all changing for me now that I have learned to forage a few key items, perhaps the greatest and most important, of which is Wild Rice.
Zizania palustris is an aquatic grain occurring widely throughout the Eastern United States (like Maine where I live) and Canada. It inhabits the shallow waters of lakes, ponds, and slow moving rivers. There is a long and rich historical record of its harvest by native peoples of this continent and is to this day still harvested by existing native populations of North America, and in particular the Great Lakes region.
Though today much of the Wild Rice sold in the market place is cultivated in rice paddies, this highly nutritious grain is still available to the forager for the price of his or her labor.
Before trying truly wild rice, I was familiar only with the store bought, paddy cultivated wild rice which, though wonderful in flavor and rich in nutrition, just simply pales in comparison. Hand harvested, sundried, fire parched, foot treaded, and wind winnowed wild rice is so soft and delicate in flavor that it simply has to be tasted to be understood. The softness is like that of the most perfectly cooked white rice but with all the nutritious nutty flavors of a wild intact grain. This is because of a curing process used with commercially prepared “wild rice” that causes the grains to become very hard and locks in some of the unpleasantly strong flavors.
In contrast to many wild foraged plants, wild rice requires a more considerable amount of know how and equipment to locate, access, harvest, and process, so to show this in its entirety is simply outside the scope of a blog post. Instead I have prepared this short video to highlight the experiences I had ricing this season.
I am hoping that in the future some of you will have the opportunity to come to Maine to learn the art in person.
What a wonderful feeling to know that this winter I will be eating more of my calories from foods that were sustainably harvested from my local landscape.
I am grateful to the abundant Earth.
~Daniel
Nettle Root Tincturing and Male Health
This video below is part 2 of the Stinging Nettle Root harvesting video that I put up a couple of weeks back.
I put this up to demonstrate how simple it is to produce your own wild nettle root tincture for use as an herbal medicine.
Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) is an herbaceous perennial flowering plant known by many of us for the painful stinging hairs (they are actually called “trichomes”) that inject histamine into our skin like micro hypodermic needles.
Despite this, and even because of it, Nettle has been used as food and medicine by many cultures and is an important species for those of us who practice foraging, herbalism, or primitive outdoor skills.
While the aerial parts of the plant (the parts that grow above the ground) are most commonly eaten as a pot herb (cooked) or made into infusions (teas), it is the roots from which we can extract its potent androgenic substances. If you are woman reading this pay close attention. While you may not need Nettle root as a medicine for yourself, its highly likely you know a man who does. Be sure to read on.
Nettle root supports male health in a few different ways. There is a globulin in human blood called Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG) which binds to testosterone, rendering it unavailable to the our cells. Nettle root contains compunds that bind to SHBG taking the place of testosterone and thereby keeping free testosterone in the blood.
More than this, it also prevents the conversion of testosterone into a metabolite known as dihydrotestosterone, which has been implicated in benign prostate hyperplasia and even male pattern baldness.
If this wasn’t enough, phyto-chemicals in Nettle root further work to prevent Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (BPH) by stopping the binding of DHT to the prostate membrane.
Since the prostrate is the endocrine gland thats responsible for male orgasm, taking care of it for a lifetime is probably a good idea!
Nettle Root is an herbal ally that seems almost designed to ensure the good health of a mans reproductive system into longevity (wives and girlfriends may want to take note).
Making your own Nettle Root tinctures at home can be easy, and only takes few minutes.
I encourage you to give it a try, and to get out into your local ecosystem to commune with your landscape. This is truest expression of environmentalism I can think of!
If this post (or any other) has inspired you, please leave a comment below!
~Daniel
Important New Chaga Foraging Update!!!
Welcome Friends, Foodies, and Foragers!
For the last several years I have talked more about Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) than any other wild foraged food or medicine.
For those who don’t know, Chaga is a fungal sclerotium with notable anti-cancer terpines (such as betulinic acid) and immune system modulating sugars (called beta glucans). More than any other medicinal mushroom, this has been my number one herbal/fungal ally. In fact, for much of the year I use it almost daily and have for several years now…
Chaga is normally decocted (boiled in water to produce a broth or tea) for about two hours, yielding a very mild vanilla like flavor (it contains vanillin as one of its components) which is great to drink on its own, with added cream and a sweetener (I like maple syrup) to create a drink much like coffee. It is also an excellent blended drink or soup base.
This video post is about peeling Chaga, which is its traditional preparation method in Siberia (it is from their folk medicine that we have learned of Chaga). For years I used this fungus without peeling it, which yeilded wonderful results, but now that I have included the traditional preperation method, it would be difficult to depart from. De-barking Chaga yields a far more mild, pleasant tasting, less medicinal and more tonic tea.
There are of course wonderful uses for Chaga with its bark on as well, particularly as an anti-neoplastic medicine. Still for my daily use this is now my preferred method.
Here is another video from my archive showing how to identify and harvest Chaga if you are interested in trying this yourself. If you are looking for a premier Chaga extract you can find it at my company, SurThrival.
Thanks for watching and I can’t wait to hear your results!
~Daniel
Wilbur Hot Springs ~ A Water Like No Other!!!
I am just back from a month on the road, touring and teaching across California! It is constantly amazing to me, being from the east coast, just how geologically active that part of the world is!
My trip began in Hollywood and ended at Mt Shasta, and this trip if done right is something like a spiritual pilgrimage! Along the way I made a point to visit as many HotSprings as I could find, and each one had its own unique qualities and properties. Not all Springs are created equal, and I must say, of all I visited while there one stands out in my mind.
Wilbur Hot Springs! Just 2.5 hours North East of the Bay, this is a great place to take a break from city living, or for anyone who loves to Spring Jump around the World! This Water is Raw, Alive, and untreated, and flows into the pools (the “fluminarium” as this style is called) just as they flow from the Earth. There is a bit of a cooling that is allowed before they enter the pools so as to prevent serious burns, but no chlorination, ozonation or any other denaturing technology is used!
This is a truly unique source, rich in both Sulfur and Sodium Chloride, as well as…. something unidentified. I am guessing it is a naturally occurring Petroleum Oil of some kind. It leaves a silky coat on your skin, and adds dramatically to the exotic experience of Wilbur’s enchanted grounds.
There is a 140 degree F hotspring geyser that erupts every 44 minutes, and over 1,800 acres of private nature preserve to explore. The valley is totally concealed from civilization, and its nestled into its Napa Valley-like hills are the solar panels that power this off grid facility.
There is a gigantic public commercial sized kitchen, and as a guest you are given your own cupboard and refrigerator shelf. This means that no matter what your diet you can take care of yourself in a very comfortable environment!
Also, unlike some of the other Hot Springs I visited in California, Wilbur has the feel of the Sacred without being the culty experience of some of the Hot Spring “churches” (legal spiritual communities) around the State.
The grounds have been decorated in a Zen theme that creates an ideal blank canvass for you to paint your own experience upon! In the gift shop they sell the dehydrated salts of the Waters there, which have now found their way into my kitchen at home!
Enjoy these videos, and visit these springs as soon as you can!
Be sure to check out the upcoming Eden Hot Springs retreat in Arizona April 28th through May 2nd, and if your ready join us in what is perhaps the most transformative environment on Earth!
Thanks as always for reading and for watching!
Bless!
~Daniel
Bodybuilding Wild Chaga Protein Elixir
Hey Everyone! This is Sarah Maria and I’m really excited to have the opportunity to create this blog post today!
Daniel and I didn’t want to leave you hanging for long without new information posted on the site but Daniel is unable to devote any time to his blog for a little while yet as he is on the road and busy spreading the word of Shamanic Nutrition in California! The tour is going great and there are several events left if your thinking you’d like to see Daniel do his thing live and in person!
These next 3 videos are the follow up from the last post entitled “Stalking the Wild Chaga”.
The first video covers proper drying and storage of the Chaga mushroom and preparing a decoction, with the 2nd & 3rd videos being a detailed, step by step instruction on creating an Elixir, using the wild-harvested Chaga tea as a base.
As per usual, Daniel’s delivery in these next 3 videos is flawless… Enjoy!
Daniel has a bit of an aversion to recipes….. preferring to teach the principles and process of ElixirCrafting and encouraging people to use their intuition and to create from their own unique palate, so it’s a special treat that he measured everything this time and I was able to put together the recipe for you!
I’ll let you watch the videos first though… the recipe is included at the bottom of the post.
The ElixirCraft Mastery Program is an excellent resource for understanding the concept and components of making liquid medicinal preparations and I recommend it to anyone who is embarking on the journey to Invincible Health!
Also, check out our friends at rawnatureboy.com to get an exclusive package deal on Sun Warrior Protein Powder, SurThrival Colostrum & Immortal Velvet Deer Antler!!!
For those of us living in areas where Chaga is not readily available we can substitute the Chaga tea base with any medicinal teas we are currently working with, keeping in mind that the flavor may vary slightly… but not enough to make that big of a difference.
Bodybuilding Wild Chaga Protein Elixir
6 cups wild chaga decoction (tea)
1/2 cup soaked chia seeds
1/4 cup mesquite powder
1 cup wild blueberries
3 raw eggs
1/2 cup Sun Warrior protein powder
1/2 cup SurThrival colostrum
1tblsp raw butter (or other fat source)
3 guarana seeds
1tsp vanilla powder
1/3 tsp whole leaf stevia powder (or sweetener of choice)
pinch of salt
Thanks for all your support here at DanielVitalis.com!!!!
We look forward to your comments and feedback….
Sarah Maria xo
Superfood SpeakEasy Promotions
You Can Harvest Wild Rice!
Ever wonder where Wild Rice comes from?
These are the final two videos from the series I shot with Arthur Haines, Botonist and Wild Foods Expert and Primitive Skills Master! When he wants to eat Wild Rice he doesn’t go to the market or health food store, he goes to into the Wilds!
For much of the year Wild Rice has formed a significant part of my diet and I recommend it to my friends and clients often as a commercially available source of Wild Food! For countless generations it served as a staple food crop to many indigenous peoples of North America.
Arthur and his crew harvest enough each season to last them through the year, and they process all of it by hand! This is more than interesting, it is an education in how you can get started too!
Special thanks to both Arthur and the Maine Primitive Skills School for introducing me to him! I will be taking part in a 3 day course this weekend with them on Winter Survival Skills, and I will be sure to get lots of great footage!
Also, there are just a few days left to grab your discounted tickets to Eden Hot Springs (seriously)! Don’t miss this chance to soak in these Wild Waters!
And, if you love Arthur let him know by leaving your comments! If all goes well we will offer a foraging class sometime this summer!
Thank You for reading this and for all your support! This is for you! ~Daniel
A special offer just for you!
Are you stuck in a rut? Ready for a change?
Want to feel connected again and re-member why you are here and what your purpose is? Are you ready to explore the Wildness within? Ready to meet people like you, people who share your visions, values, and goals?I feel confident when I say that this is the adventure that you have been longing for!
I am headed back to the Desert to visit the sacred healing springs of Geronimo, the Apache Warrior… Eden Hot Springs Arizona! The Epic Eden Hot Springs 2010 Spring Retreat is the place where you can truly express your Feral nature!
This is the spot where I fully express parts of myself that are hidden when I walk through the domesticated world! A place where you can take off the mask and explore who you really are!
Not only is this the Party of the year, but what makes Eden so unique is that the focus here is on tribe, holistic living and multi-dimensional healing… Complete with Organic whole food, Healing Hotspring Water, and the vitalizing rays of the desert Sun, there is nowhere I would rather be this Spring!
Come cleanse with us.. physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually in the height of the Spring bloom of the Sonoran desert! Reconnect to the Majesty of creation as the Milky Way fills the vast night sky high over head.
As a presenter at this epic event, I will be leading you across the land to teach the Secrets of Water at Eden’s various desert Spring Sources. We will explore the Mineral properties of the waters, and gather the natural salts that rise up out of the ground.
Not only will we explore the Element of Water, but also of Earth, Air, and Fire as well. This retreat will be an immersion into the Elemental. This is a place where each Element is so powerfully evident that it is almost like an alchemical laboratory…
The staff of this retreat are world class healer-practitioners who know the art of facilitating a most powerful, once in a lifetime journey! Joy Light and Rebecca Astara, without a doubt, both masterfully wield the art of facilitating a transformational life experience for everyone who attends.
Each presenter and staff member has been consciously and specifically chosen to weave together an experience that will add value to your life for the rest of your days!
This is a crew that I have worked with many times, and this is more than just a retreat for us. Eden Hot Springs is like our Temple, a place whose Hot Springs hold a sacred power. A power that burns away the layers of false self that can sometimes accumulate on and around us.
It leaves behind a glowing new You, in a deep state of wonder, with a renewed vision, purpose, and clarity and personal power. It is a place of renewal.
It is a place where I feel I can experience what it is like to live like a tribe on the land. I feel indigenous and married to the elements. There is no where else I feel more “connected”.
Those who join us will be a part of our Eden Family forever.
From now until Sunday the 31st we can offer you this exclusive opportunity for $50 off of your ticket. Trust me, you want to be at this one!
~Daniel
An official challenge to those who love Kombucha!
Thanks for checking back!
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
Wild Elixirs of the Native Americans!
This is Wild Food expert Arthur Haines showing us his method of making the indigenous North American wild hickory nut mylk elixir!
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
This Guy Really Eats Wild Food!
Arthur Haines is not your average botanist!
I first met him 2 years ago at the Maine Primitive Skills Gathering… He was dressed in buckskins and was winnowing wild rice in a pit he had dug in the ground… I knew at that moment I had found someone I wanted to study with!
Arthur is truly a renaissance man. He is a scientist, an author, a martial artist, a primitive skills master (He and his partner Nicole start all the fires for their wood-stove with a handrill!), and by far the greatest teacher that I have found for wild food foraging in my neck of the woods!
Every Year he leads seasonal foraging classes near his home in Maine. I took a 3 day course with him last summer and learned more in a few days than I had in years of study. When it comes to plants, it is clear that Arthur has found his calling!
What’s more is that he truly understands how to use the plants around him. Whether for food, fuel, fiber, or building material, his skill set never ceases to amaze me! What I appreciate most about his teaching style is the way he so effortlessly blends his modern western science background with his deep knowledge of the indigenous uses of the species around him.
It is an honor to present this video series to you!
These of course, are just the first of vids of the series so stay tuned to see the rest! And as always, leave some comments if you find this as inspiring as I do!Thanks Arthur, and thanks to all of you who take the time! ~Daniel
Is Cacao a Drug?
For several years now the Nutrition Community has been working with Cacao Beans as food and medicine. There has been so much debate about this in the health community…. some say Cacao is the ultimate Superfood, rich in antioxidants, others say it is a dangerous Stimulant Drug… So, is it a Medicine or a Poison?
The answer is obvious… It is all of the above!
Allow me to explain.
We have had our words and definitions a bit mixed up when it comes to substances that affect our consciousness… For instance we have in this country a “War on Drugs”. We also, simultaneously, have be-speckled our every street with “Drug Stores”. The Drugs on the street are considered Poisons. The Drugs in the Stores are considered Medicine. Many illegal street drugs were once or still are considered Medicines. Most of the world is waking up to the fact that Pharmaceutical Drugs are Poisons (just listen to the long list of toxic chemical side effects on the drug TV commercials).
What is the difference between all of these substances? How can we use the words “drug”, “medicine”, and “poison”, which seem to mean such incredibly different things, to describe the same substances?
Thats easy! Its because they are Synonyms!
The Alchemist, and “Father of Modern Chemical Medicine”, Paracelsus left us a phrase that has lit my path through the world of nutrition for years; “Everything is Poison, nothing is Poison, Dose is everything!”
Cacao Beans are a Mildly Psychoactive Cardiac Stimulant, no question. This means they are Medicine, a Drug, and yes with over-dose or over-use, a Poison as well…. Welcome to the world of Pharmacologically Active Indigenous Nutrition… here the lines can get a bit blurry.
The separation of “Foods” and “Drugs” is a relatively new concept that has very little to do with your health and safety. In fact, when it comes to Plant Foods most, as they are found in the wild, are very medicinal… In other words they are “drugs”. It is only with the extreme hybridization of our food supply that these medicinal substances have been bred out of our food.
Domesticated Humans don’t like the taste of medicine…. Bitter.
Remember Hippocrates admonition “Let Food be they Medicine, and Medicine be thy Food. Another way to say this is “Let your Foods be your Drugs, and your Drugs be your Foods”…. Interesting. This timeless (or maybe ‘timely’) piece of advice can be a bit challenging to follow when the foods in our marketplaces are devoid of the medicine they once contained… Take lettuce for example… in the Wild it is a Mild Narcotic!!! In fact, its sap is called Lettuce Opium! This lettuce is by nature quite bitter. While it is the source of all of our supermarket varieties, its use is radically different.
Its the difference between a Wolf and a Chihuahua…
Because of the down breeding of our staple plant foods, we now have to have our Foods and Medicines separately.
Enter the Cacao Bean… Still bitter… the taste of Medicine… still psychoactive… Still intact. And unlike so many other “Drugs” that have survived in our culture, tobacco as an example, Cacao Beans are a food! Food as Medicine!
Just remember, everything in Moderation (especially moderation)!
Now that we have put that to rest… How do we use them??!!!
Great Quest-I-on!
Here are some vids from my travels in Arizona. While in Sedona I gave a talk at the “ChocolaTree” Cafe’ where I recieved quite a Chocolate Education! From where they get their Beans, to how they Process and Temper them, this team has it down!
They are also running one of the countries most cutting-edge high-vibe nutrition cafe’s… They serve excellent Raw Food dishes, Soups, Juices, Elixirs, Tea’s and of course…. Chocolate!
Big Thanks to the whole team for hosting me for such a truly amazing event! Even bigger thanks for your total committment to excellence. From the ethics to the quality, to the standard of production… You are really a model for the future! ~Daniel
Santa Clause and Psychedelic Mushroom Shamanism?
Ahhh… Christmas.
I grew up attending Protestant schools. I was taught the Story of Jesus and his birth. This was of course complete with Three Wise Men, a Virgin, and Incense and Gold.
Simultaneously I was indoctrinated into the Strange Cult of Santa Clause. He lives at the North Pole with Elves… His Reindeer fly.
I was at once told that that the birth of the “Sun” of God was the reason for the holiday, and was to also Believe that this man was coming down my chimney (often we had no chimney). How did this Jolly Bearded character from the North Pole fit into the story and why was he standing in for the “Sun” of God?
After years of de~programming and Meta~Programming my mind, I am preparing to Celebrate the Yule Time, or Winter Solstice.
This year that will occur December 21st at 1747 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Yes I know, Green Witch… that is interesting.
That is the moment of course where the Sun (of God) is the lowest in the sky that it can go (that by the way is called the “Tropic of Capricorn, and is the first day of the Zodiacal Sign of Capricorn), and it will remain at the Latitude for 3 days. This of course ties into the 3 days of the “Sun of God” in “Hell” or the underworld, that is found in the Biblical Gospels.
We celebrate the birth of the “Sun of God” on the December 25th, because the Solstice (21st or 22nd, it changes year to year in our Calendric approximation of the Solar Year) + 3 days of the Sun at its low point in the sky equals December 25 or Christ~Mass, the day the Sun (of God) is “Born”.
This day has always been Sacred to Humans and in all cultures, as our species civilizations have eternally charted the Sun, Moon and Stars.
So… Wait!!! What does that have to do with is Santa Clause, and what does he have to do with Christmas?
Wow was I ever shocked when I found out…
Here is a little clip from the DVD “Invincible Health” that I created with Superfood Speakeasy. In the clip I am letting the audience in on The Secret! Santa Clause is about Getting High!
Hmmm….
Interesting! What Now?
Meta~Programming.
~Daniel
Would You Do This? Amazonian Warrior Initiation!
Wow, does our culture ever lack rights of passage!
Ever since I was young I have been drawn to tribal initiation ritual. As a young boy I would flip through pages of National Geographic looking at the tattoos and body piercings of indigenous peoples around the world.
For me the attraction has never really been about art as much as about ritual and initiation. It was a way of becoming what so many ancient cultures called a “warrior”. To them, a warrior is not just someone capable of waging war, but rather someone who is capable of confronting themselves.
The ritualistic initiation is usually designed to thrust you out of your comfort zone… often way out! Whether the pain and blood of tattoo or scarring, the mock death of the psychoactive brews, or the hunger and thirst of the vision quest, these rituals powerfully silence the voice of doubt and introduce a child into the world of adulthood.
Without this in our lives many of us seek to re-create it…
I think that many of us seek opportunities to create a “proving ground” experience for ourselves, whether this is a daring sport adventure like rock climbing or skydiving, something more ritualized like a Native American SweatLodge or Peruvian Ayahuasca Ceremony, or maybe even acts of nutritional resolve like lengthy juice or water fasts or rawfood diets, these things help us to prove to ourselves what we are really made of.
Is this simply ego, or is it something more fundamental to the needs of Fully Formed Humans? Though I understand (and have finally accepted) that we can not go back to the indigenous ways, I do feel that they offer us important insight into how we can move forward in the creation of a sustainable and functional culture here on Earth.
Enter the Bullet Ant…
A few nights back I was talking to the owner of a local wine bar about the native meads, wines, and beers of indigenous peoples. He asked if I had ever seen the “Bullet Ant Initiation” from the Amazon.
When I told him I hadn’t he pulled this video up on his iPhone… I had to share it!
The video is intense, and at first perhaps a challenge to fully understand. As someone who has been through a few painful initiations I can appreciate why something like this has been built into their culture. Imagine really knowing what your allies are capable of, what they have been through, and how very committed they are to you, your family, your tribe, your culture.
Is it possible that the lack of such ritual actually hurts us more than the ritual itself?
I would love to hear your feedback in the comments below!
Gratitude!
Enjoy!
~Daniel
