Herbal Elixirs and Infusions

Permaculture Womens Guild

Need any recipes for medicinal herbs? Herbal elixirs involve steeping medicinal herbs in honey or, maple syrup, sometimes combining them with brandy or other alcohol, or fermenting them, such as medicinal meads.

How to Save Water (and Yourself): ten things you can do

Permaculture Womens Guild

Translation: Essential steps towards the survival of the human species by Heather Jo Flores Here are ten top strategies for saving our water and ourselves. They are in no particular order of importance — we’ll need to do them all, and more, if we are to reverse the tide of scarcity, pollution, and corporate control that threatens us today. 1. Eat Organic Food and Support Local Organic Agriculture. Organic methods don’t use harsh toxins that pollute the water. Organic farms and gardens emphasize mulch and other soil stewardship practices, which means less erosion and/or salination of the soil, and less runoff and damage…

Principles of Presence:

Permaculture Womens Guild

Applying Permaculture Design and Integral Theory to Personal Development By Jennifer English Morgan The image of a woman wearing a golden straw hat with a basket of colorful goodies from tending her summer kitchen garden and herb spiral may come to mind when I say the word Permaculture. This image may elicit the taste of a fresh ripe heirloom tomato on your lips, or the smell of handpicked dill and basil wafting through the kitchen. Those sensory observations might expand out to a larger scale, with a picture of a mother and father hoisting shovels and pickaxes, drenched in sweat,…

Peas, Poppies, Potatoes: What to plant in February

Permaculture Womens Guild

It’s February again, and time to start planting. by Heather Jo Flores Growing a garden is one of the best ways to get exercise, spend time outdoors and improve your diet and sense of food security, but sometimes it can be difficult to find the motivation. To get back into the swing of things, I like to start with what I call the Three P’s of Spring: peas, poppies and potatoes. Peas: Gardeners always tell me that their homegrown peas never make it out of the garden because the gardener eats them first, and I say, “That’s just fine.” Fresh…

Food Not Lawns! How and Why to Turn Your Yard into a Garden

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Heather Jo Flores and your neighbor’s front yard…and the local park…and…and… ​Lawns use more equipment, labor, fuel, and agricultural toxins than industrial farming, making lawns the largest (and most toxic) agricultural sector in the United States, so grow food, not lawns.​ Growing food at home is hardly a new idea. But in this culture, where more people know how to take the perfect selfie than how to grow a potato, urban agriculture has become a form of activism. The slogan “Food Not Lawns” is spreading like wildfire. Here are some reasons why to grow food not lawns: ​Lawns are the…