RECONNECTING LINKS


RECONNECTING LINKS
Reconnecting can be broadly interpreted to include a whole lot of things, some of which we are interested in more than others. It’s a matter of how far you want to plunge into rewilding: permaculture only goes so far, but is still valuable and can help our decadent culture bring itself back into balance. General sustainable living resources are easy to find (such as www.backwoodshome.com ) but some rewilding info is buried deeper.

Here's a list of web resources that reflect some of our passions and visions, followed by a booklist.

PRIMITIVE LIVING

http://nativeways.tripod.com/index.htm
An earthskills education organization in Northern Wisconsin working to
proliferate, nurture and protect native knowledge, wisdom, culture, and
living skill

http://www.dancinghawk.com
Dancing Hawk Native Lifeways'  "goal is to help people live closer to the edge, to relearn what means to be alive. We connect people with the earth, with themselves and each other, by teaching them to live a native lifestyle, to live simply."  They offer workshops, intensive course, and longer term projects.

 http://www.braintan.com
Tools and instruction on the natural way to making buckskin. Publishes an incredible How-To book called Deerskins into Buckskins By Matt Richards. A really good schedule of gatherings where braintanning is taught at www.braintan.com/resources/classes.html

 http://www.rewild.org
We are forming an intentional community focused on rewilding. Our passion lies in living simply and forming a close, unmediated relationship with the Earth. This will be a garden, pet, livestock, drug, alcohol & electricity-free environment. We want to find a piece of land, live on it with a group of people and become a clan of hunter/gatherers. We want to know if it’s still possible to get there in a single lifetime. We want to see if we’ve been hypnotized for too long. It is our goal to eventually sustain ourselves entirely (food, clothing shelter, tools) with materials we harvest from the wild. We want others with the same desires and visions to join us.

http://www.backtracks.net
Home of the annual Rabbitstick (September in Idaho) and Winter Count (February in Arizona) primitive skills gatherings.

http://www.abotech.org
Excellent resource for information, writings, tools and supplies, and listings of gatherings and other such opportunities.

http://www.earthskills.net
This is the virtual home of our bioregion’s primitive skills network and spring and fall gatherings, the Rivercane Rendezvous and Falling Leaves Rendezvous. It’s meant to become a clearinghouse, resource center and networking forum.

http://www.teachingdrum.org
Teaching Drum Outdoor School in northern Wisconsin (ojibway country) is an excellent opportunity for folks to learn general skills like shelter-building and fire making, as well as to concentrate on specifics like hide tanning. There's also a yea long submersion program that has changed many lives, and they are open to work/trades for some programs. Contact us for a personal account of a month-long experience there.

WILD FOODS/MEDICINE

http://www.persimmonpudding.com
Persimmon Pudding is dedicated to growing, education, and use of Diospyros virginiana L., the common, or American persimmon

http://www.unitedplantsavers.org
United Plant Savers is dedicated to protecting native plants

http://www.wildmanstevebrill.org
Steve Brill is a legendary New York City urban forager who leads walks and classes, and has written several must-have books for foraging fans. He was once arrested for picking a dandelion from Central Park.

http://www.foraging.com
Foraging and Ethnobotany links. INCREDIBLY COMPREHENSIVE!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wild-edibles/
Wild Edibles listserve, fairly active, but really useful. Since it's on yahoo you can set your subscription to read it online.

http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~seb/pemmican.html
Pemmican links

WHOLE FOODS

http://www.westonaprice.org
A network dedicated to disseminating the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated non industrialized peoples established the parameters of human health and determined the optimum characteristics of human diets. Dr. Price's research demonstrated that humans achieve perfect physical form and perfect health generation after generation only when they consume nutrient-dense whole foods and the vital fat-soluble activators found exclusively in animal fats.

http://www.beyondveg.org
Wow. This web site will make you seriously question a lot of what you believe about vegetarian/vegan nutrition, and the real meaning of the “traditional” diet.

http://www.paleodiet.com
SUPER useful links to articles, essays, and web sites.

http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/health.html
http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/green_leaf.html
Plants for Future (UK) web page on Plants for Health

PERMACULTURE/SEEDS

 http://www.mountaingardensherbs.com
Mountain Gardens is an appalachian/chinese herb garden tucked in a cove in an alternative rural community 1 hour from asheville. An incredible learning opportunity for self-motivated folks. Sells medicines and medicinal plant (mostly natives) seeds, holds workshops and offers apprenticeships.

http://www.permacultureactivist.org
A hub of permaculture activism and practice around the world. Listings of classes and gatherings, and archives of articles from The Permaculture Activist magazine.

http://www.hopefarm.org
An organic permaculture model farm and “kinship botanical garden” with internships and classes. A synthesis of food not lawns and apervechio veterans.

http://www.wildfarmalliance
This organization raises awareness of the importance of balancing biodiversity and agriculture, and maintaining habitat for wildlife within farm ecosystems.

http://www.nativeseeds.org/v1/default.php
A nonprofit dedicated to preserving the crop seeds that connect native american cultures to their land.

http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/
Plants for A Future (UK) web site. Extensive resources on seeds, permaculture, edible landscaping.

NATURAL BUILDING
http://www.kleiworks.com
Learn about various methods of building with earthen materials, through workshops & seminars, as well as hands-on internships in Thailand and other worldly locales.

ECOVILLAGES
http://www.dancingrabbit.org
Dancing Rabbit is an ecovillage set amid the hills and prairies of rural northeastern Missouri. Their goal is to live ecologically sustainable and socially rewarding lives, and to share the skills and ideas behind that lifestyle.

http://www.earthhaven.org
A 300+ acre, 80+ member ecovillage with their own sawmill, permaculture gardens, earthen building, herbalism, solar and hydro energy systems, and internships, classes and gatherings. Definitely worth a visit, and arguably one of the most impressive examples developed so far.


BOOKLIST for RECONNECTING
Thomas J. Elpel - Botany in A Day (Must-have for plant identification, with some info on edible and medicinal uses)
Ewell Gibbon - Stalking the Wild Asparagus
Tom Brown’s Field Guides (REALLY useful for anyone learning the basics of primitive living)
Peterson’s Field Guides to Edible and Medicinal Plants - A must have for foragers
Doug Elliot - WildRoots (a field guide to medicinal and edible roots in the Appalachians, with incredible pen and ink drawings by one of our bioregion’s infamous teachers and storytellers)
Doug Elliot - Wildwoods Wisdom (collection of funny and profound observations of nature)
Paul Stamets - Mushrooms Demystified (the bible for mushroom identification in North America)
A Pattern Language-
Sandor Katz - Wild Fermentation (one of the few books written on fermentation for health. Brand new)
Sally Fallon - Nourishing Traditions (examines the role of the modern diet in the decline of health, and suggests a high-protein animal, based diet)
Foxfire - entire series (anthology of Appalachian mountain folk wisdom)

ZINES
The Feral Forager - A Guide to living off nature’s bounty in urban, rural and wilderness areas
Available for $3 -  Wildroots PO Box 1485 Asheville, NC 28801

Shelter Building, Firemaking, and Wilderness Cooking - By Gerry and John McPherson
(available from Hollowtop.org)

wildroots(a)riseup.net


P.O. Box 1485
Asheville, NC 28801