did this last night
couple’s t-shirt idea
THE OLD FRIENDSHIP OF BLUEBERRIES AND SWEET FERN:
"In the time before refrigeration, Ojibwe folks kept their blueberry harvest fresh by lining their birchbark storage containers with a plant called sweet fern that often grows right alongside blueberry bushes!
The leaves of sweet fern produce a compound called gallic acid, which is a potent anti-microbial and keeps harmful bacteria like salmonella from growing on the berries.
It's name in the Ojibwe dialect I've learned is "giba`iganiminzh" meaning "it covers the berries" because of this usage and its contribution to keeping the precious staple food of minan (blueberries) fresh!
I don't use a birchbark container but I do pop a few sprigs of sweet fern into my gathering bag when out picking and then into my tupperware when storing berries to remember and utilize the gifts of this wonderful plant!
(Sweet fern can also be used as a medicinal tea to help the intestines and colon! And when added to a fire, the smoke will help keep away mosquitos and horse flies--in addition to smelling lovely!)"
- The Native Nations Museum, founded by Chippewa Bonnie Jones
Pride, New York, June 1990
caveman with a mug that says “don’t talk to me until coffee has been discovered”
Here’s the true secret of life: We mostly do everything over and over. In the morning, we let the dogs out, make coffee, read the paper, help whoever is around get ready for the day. We do our work. In the afternoon, if we have left, we come home, put down our keys and satchels, let the dogs out, take off constrictive clothing, make a drink or put water on for tea, toast the leftover bit of scone. I love ritual and repetition. Without them, I would be a balloon with a slow leak.…Daily rituals, especially walks, even forced marches around the neighborhood, and schedules, whether work or meals with non-awful people, can be the knots you hold on to when you’ve run out of rope.
Anne Lamott, Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair
thinking about noah’s nameless wife takes inventory
