What is kombucha? An effervescent fermented tea made from regular black/green tea, sugar and the starter culture, also known as the Scoby. What is that alien-looking thing and why do I want it in my tea? Scoby is actually an acronym for “symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast”. The bacteria is Acetobacter (a genus of acetic… Continue reading How to make kombucha
Last weekend I participated in a 20-hour CERT training course taught by Scott Paul, CERT Bexar County, and organized by The Human Path. CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Teams, and is a national program for individuals who want to help out in case of a disaster in their community. In basic CERT training you… Continue reading CERT Training
A small group of herbology and primitive engineering students from The Human Path and the Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine will be joining the non-profit organization Missions of Grace to travel to remote communities in Nicaragua in November 2012. In Nicaragua, in partnership with local communities, we will be participating in health care clinics along… Continue reading Zombies invade Nicaragua fundraiser event
A woman with an idea. That was me in November, 2009. At the University of Texas at Austin, they had launched a new platform to solicit feedback and ideas from the University community. On the day it launched, I happened to walk by two large raised beds, filled with flowers that were being dug up… Continue reading My garden and my legacy
To my loyal readers: it’s been a whirlwind of a month. I don’t have time right now for a full blog post but I figured a short update would be in order. First of all, my small duplex garden is going crazy! I’ve already harvested tomatoes and zucchini, and I have a baby eggplant and… Continue reading Catching up
On April 21st I was lucky to get to sit in on Nicole Telkes’ basic and more advanced herbology classes that she teaches for her school, the Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine. We talked a lot about taxonomies and botany, and along with Sam Coffman, who teaches herbology for The Human Path, I learned some… Continue reading A day full of stuff!
It’s amazing what a little rain and warm spring weather will do! Last year I planted a small raised bed garden in the backyard of my duplex apartment. I had a couple tomato plants, herbs and peppers, but not much else. As the summer progressed, I got a little bit of food out of the… Continue reading My backyard garden
Carla and Stephanie, teachers at the Austin-based Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine, led our eager group on an early evening plant walk in the Muller Development in East Austin. I’ve posted the brief comments they made about each plant, to the best of my ability. Please note that many of these plants have fantastic medicinal… Continue reading Austin plant walk with the Wildflower School
I happen to have a great fondness for turtles, as they seem so elegant and peaceful and wise. On a beautiful spring day like today, it’s important to stop and appreciate the small things in life, like the flowers popping up everywhere with their seductive brightness and fragrance, the heavy rains watering our parched soils,… Continue reading The snapping of turtles
I just got a tip on Facebook from a fellow blogger (Save Our Skills) that the Department of Homeland Security is checking up on prepper-type blogs. According to SurvivalBlog.com, the FBI has been visiting sites and even tracking users. They note that the FBI “surreptitiously collected the IP addresses of [their] site visitors. In all,… Continue reading Big Brother is watching… me?
Surviving the Modern World 