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• Our Work With Wild Lands and Native Forest Systems in sustainable wild harvests (188)
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• Using the Courts to clean up Organic Fraud - Dr. Bronner's pushes change!
• How to use witch hazel and where to buy organic witch hazel
• Goods From The Woods - Justin.tv Internet Television Channel
• Farmer's Market Winner - Photos of the Week , 1st place Salem Mo 65560
• You may now buy persimmon leaf tea from A Wild Crops Farm
• Good Work - A Person I admire and her book Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It."
• Goods From The Woods: A short history of alternative activism with native plant sytems
• Avoiding Organic Fraud in Natural or Organic Health and Beauty Cosmetic Products
• Our Special Forest Products: Brick and Mortar "Goods From The Woods"
• Fidde head Harvest 120,000,000 lb per day - Wild Food Harvest - 20% rise,
• SCHWAGSTOCK Secrets: Salem Mo Scene for Memorial Day at Camp Zoe (NEWS AND TIPS) Zip 65560
• Retooling for Green, Local Enterprise and our new still
• More...

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Our Work With Wild Lands and Native Forest Systems in sustainable wild harvests

• Retooling for Green, Local Enterprise and our new still

  We went to a program the other night, called "The Well Fed Neighbor" Glen went on sometime about the need to reinvent manufacturing.

  Glen said,"People use to depend on well made tools. If you have to buy a hand crafted tool from a local blacksmith or machine shop and it costs you 10 times as much, do it."

  We could not agree more. Cheaply manufactured tools break and you end up buying ten. There is nothing like having a tool break in the middle of the job. When all of our jobs went overseas, so did the tooling. To rebuild our entrises, we must retool our country.

  

  Our new, custom, locally made distiller for wild floral water distillation in Missouri. Locally harvested flowers, locally distilled, in a locally manufactured (HIGH QUALITY) still

  We have been looking at distillation units for years and own several types. We want the best tools money can buy. We want the best product we can produce. I would dare any other regional farm producer to match what we have going with product quality.

  

  Essential oil of Mondarda Fistulosa distilled today. We have both hydrosol and E.O. to offer from our small farm in the Ozarks

  Hand harvested flowers,handled properly, slow steam distilled in GLASS, no chemical overflow between products, easily sanitized.

  

  Another of Matt's custom created distillation units for small scale producers.

  Matt at Riverbend worked with George every step of the way to design this custom unit for A Wild Crops Farm. http://www.riverbendglassblowing.com/About_the_Artist.html We are really proud of that. We can tell you, where the flowers were picked, by whom, when and when each and every item was distilled. Where else in the entire world can a aromatherapist or herbal practioner find that kind of information? Matt is an incredible asset to our community and he will build you an awesome still. We chose this type because those copper stills don't have seperate biomass chambers and tossing the water in to the pot didn't work for us. When I ask specific questions about the biomass chamber, I got snooty replies. I never buy anything from people who send snooty replies. Matt is an awesome artist and there is no snooty about him. Thanks Matt

  
• Roasting Nut:s: A do it yourself guide

  Simple steps: (a guide for dumbies)
  Don't get too hot too quick.
  Be sure you washed them, first.
  Know when to stir and turn over.
  Pull them out when they are done.

  Picture Guide to home roasting pine nuts

  http://www.pinenut.com/roast.pdf

  
• Wild Crops Farm Documenting Sustainabilty
  

  This is our bottom. The land stair steps up in 3 levels. Most of the time, the bottoms are cleared for grazing. The forest here is pretty young and along the edges of the hollar thick with young stick like trees.

  Its been raining for 4 days and the news is filled with stories of floods in the Ozark. First chance we had, we took off in the woods with our camera.
  We finished our application for wild crops certification on this property. I haven't counted the species on our list, but I used www.ifcae.org data base to research the Non Timber or Special Forest Products that COULD be here. Then, as we harvest we photograph, pre harvest, during harvest and post harvest. This is the only way that an inspector can really monitor the wild crop harvest together with the daily harvest log. The daily harvest log is a journal that show how much was harvested where. This is how an organic certifier can determine that the harvest comes from the property and meets the sustainability criteria.

  
• 20 lbs of plum flowers for plum flower essence- awesome!!!!!!!!!
  

  Think 8 foot screen door, think flowers piled 8 inches, think spring and the smells that define the earth as it awakens from winter. It is a beautiful awakening and a beautiful product of love and nature.

  
• 2008 American Pine Nut Harvest - Pinon Nuts

  Its getting to be pine nut harvest time and everyone is getting restless. Yes, there will be a pinon nut harvest in 2008. I am not going to give anything away, on our blog at this time. BUT, look at www.pinonnuts.org for information about viable harvest areas in the Southwestern United States. Looks like there is a good harvest in certain places, like.....oh, almost slipped, see www.pinonnuts.org for info on 2008 harvesting areas.

  

  Pinon Penny's pine nuts. These are Nevada Pinon Nuts. THere will be a 2008 harvest. More information available!
  
• 22,000 tons of wild foods harvest in Alaska yearly

  One thing we stress on a regular basis is the scope of wild harvest. In the American Herbal Association Tonnage report, one sees the amazing amounts of yearly wild harvest for American Wild Botanicals. Rarely, do I ever see documentation of wild food harvests. This article from the Tundra Drums caught my eye

  

  Why is it that public land managers continue to think in terms of board feet for our forests?

  The Federal Subsistence Management Program quotes, "Subsistence fishing and hunting provide a large share of the food consumed in rural Alaska." The state’s rural residents harvest about 22,000 tons of wild foods each year – an average of 375 pounds per person.

  A 2004 Report on the Status of Alaska Natives by the University of Alaska Institute for Social and Economic Research indicates that our people in Western Alaska consume 640 pounds of wild food per capita. Fish makes up about 60 percent of this harvest.

  
• 45,000 tons of medicinal plants to Germany alone

  Each year, 45,000 tons of medicinal plants are used in Germany -- more
  than in any other European country. But this booming business also creates
  problems for species preservation.

  

  Drugs made from medicinal plants have become ever more popular among
  doctors and patients in Germany in recent years. Around 75 percent of
  customers in German pharmacies reach for a natural product when they buy
  non-prescription medications. In 2006, so-called phytopharmaceuticals
  accounted for around 2 billions euros ($2.9 billion) worth of revenue, or
  about a third of the total revenue in non-prescription medications. That
  translates into a high demand for the raw materials for these products --
  medicinal plants and their leaves, flowers, roots, and seeds.
  http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3106747,00.html

  My question- how many of our native plants end up overseas? What would be the value to our wild lands if these were certified wild crop organic harvests?

  
• Absolute Green Wash: "Sustainably Wild Crafted"

  There are any number of herb sellers who label products "Sustainably Wild Crafted". Frankly, I am tried of the deception. Here is how the botanical market works:
  There are a handful of large buyers. Representatives from these companies put out fliers stating that they will be in an area at xyz town square or parking lot to buy.
  The buyers have the harvesters sign a form that says the item is "organic" and sustainably wild crafted. The harvester signs it. END OF STORY.
  These herbs are marketed to wholesale companies that sell herbal products. Many are shipped over seas. The global market for medicinal plants is in excess of 400,000 tons. Somewhere in this blog there is a post about Germany's consumption of herbal products. It is an amazing amount of tonnage to that country alone. Unless an item is certified, who checks? NO ONE. NO ONE. What has me up in arms is the news article below the image.

  

  Around 15,000 species are under threat from pollution, over-harvesting and habitat loss, including Himalayan Yew, known as a source of anti-cancer drugs. The decimation of the plants is not only leading to a loss of traditional knowledge but could prevent a breakthrough in treating conditions like migraines, fever and even cancer.

  Plantlife have compiled a report on the best way to protect plants for the future, following a three-year study of projects around the world involving medicinal plants. Projects included developing medicinal first aid kits in Uganda, establishing China's first ever community nature reserve for wild medicinal plants and promoting the cultivation of medicinal plants by local farmers in Nepal.

  Alan Hamilton, the author of the report, said protecting medicinal plants is not only important for human health but for the surrounding ecosystem.

  He said: "Focusing on medicinal plants has the potential to be a major motivating force behind nature conservation. Improving health, earning an income and maintaining cultural traditions are important to us all – wherever we live – and all three are involved in motivating people to conserve medicinal plants, and thus the habitats where they grow."

  For full story, please see:

  www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/4162311/Medicinal-plants-in-danger-of-dying-out-according-to-conservationists.html

  I am pretty tired of companies that post terms like "sustainably wild harvested" while they don't have a clue where the material was harvested, by whom, or how. If you happen to buy from a company with such a label, please ask "how do you know?" Certification of Organic Wild Crops, properly preformed will help save these plants by creating better value to landowners than cutting down the forest. There is one noteworthy exception, Moon Branch Botanicals. That is because Robin is passionate about the responsibility we humans have. Don't let the green washers fool you, demand certified herb products.

  
• All Natural Beauty and Sharambrosia

  Origins had invited us to give this distillation and we are excited about certified organic cosmetics entering into the American mainstream. I looked over their website and saw it to be encouraging. Yet, I think there are outstanding pioneers doing work for women in health and beauty. Sharon has been encouraging us and supporting our native plant work for about 2 years. She has a way of finding real people working at creating healthy products for a healthier world. We are very glad to have friends like her! She published this article about our work and made us, stop working to take a good photo for her publication.

  www.wildcrops.com and www.pinenut.com" title="" width="216" height="192" />

  Thank you Sharon for the wonderful spotlight on our work and our products!
  
• American Herbal Products: Harvester, handler, home : A trip through the wild world of botanicals supply chains

  The United States Forest Service recently requested comments on the fee structure for botanical harvests. The AMERICAN HERBAL PRODUCTS ASSOCIATION prepared excellent comments. Unless a person is engaged in wild harvesting chances are you would not read the comments (23 pages of an adobe file). We support the collection of certified wild crops and found the comments to be excellent. With the permission of the Association, I am posting excerpts.

  

  Bloodroot - a wild harvested plant, difficult to find. It is a powerful medicine and I know of three people who treated themselves for cancer with it. The root pictured went to treat skin cancer on the face of the person who harvested it.

  It is important in evaluating how the proposed rule may affect the many people who harvest the relevant forest products to know something about standard harvest
  practices for those species that are used by the dietary supplement trade.
  It is AHPA’s understanding that most of the material that comes into trade is harvested by self-employed individuals or small groups of friends or family members who work together but do not have any formal business relationship.

  These self-employed harvesters sell the materials that they collect to local buyers, usually after conducting basic cleaning operations and often, but not necessarily, after dehydrating these harvests. It is at this transaction point that the current value of a harvested commodity to the actual harvesters is established. These local buyers subsequently resell the materials toregional consolidators (who may also serve as “local buyers,” as that term is used here, for harvesters in their immediate vicinity or with whom they have established direct purchase agreements), or may skip this intermediate transaction if they have identified buyers further upstream in the materials’ marketing route. Most relevant forest products obtained by harvest in the wild, however, come into the manufacturing trade, both domestic and foreign, from the regional consolidator point, and are then sold directly to consumers or used in the production of value-added ingredients and finished consumer products.

  So, that is how botanicals move from the forest to your home for consumption. It is a low impact, family styled business for the most part. You tell me, how many people are there that can go out in the woods and find these plants?

  
• American Pine Nut Harvest Forecast 2008:

  We forecast pricing to be in the range of $12.50 per pound of 2008 pinon nuts. (Gas and other expenses is forcing pricing upward). The first nuts of the season .... http://www.pinenut.com/pinon_nuts.html

  

  2008 American Pine Nut Harvest Pinon Penny

  As a producer of wild crops, I understand that forecasting wild harvests yields is a critical part of their management. Using harvest forecasts helps people see the values in their wild systems that would other wise go unnoticed, save timber. It is crucially important that people find economic value in their native plant systems or at least greater biodiversity. I believe that economic data must be collected which will prove to decision makers of large land holding, its profitable to keep wilderness. Case in point, The Pioneer Forest one of our partners in other wild crop harvesting. Its there care of the forest that makes commercial harvest possible, thus saving many thing and creating great opportunity.

  

  Regardless, of work in the Ozarks, I was very excited to work on a project that pulled together information for the American Pinon Pine Nut Harvest. Together with the BLM, The Colorado Wood Utilization Team, Institute for Culture and Ecology, Goods From The Woods assisted in creating a page for forecasting the 2008 pinon pine nut harvest potential. We would love feedback that will help support the project. I think it is a very important step forward in creating better pinyon pine tree understanding and values. Here is the link. http://www.pinonnuts.org/forecast2008.htm and also see www.pinenut.com/pinon_nuts.html for ordering information.

  
• Ancestors - Those who lived on this land before us

  Some of the first settlers came in 1829,mostly to the Meramec, Spring Creek and Dry Fork valleys. Land could be purchased for five cents or less an acre. William Thornton, Daniel Troutman and Daniel W. Wooliver were among the 1829 settlers, followed by William
  Blackwell, Lewis Dent, Wilson Craddock and Silas Hamby.

  

  Silas Hamby 1811 - 1901 Texas County Mo

  George and I stopped at a tiny grave yard near our old home in Licking. I walked through the cemetery thinking that these people were my ancestors, too. They lived on this land. They raised families, earned what they needed with their hands. They knew this land, the seasons, the plants, the trees. They saw it before industrialization, before tractors, before chainsaws, before feller bunchers and fescue.

  As I walk in the forest, I often wonder what this land was like before the settlers came. We saw Silas'stone and he was oldest person in the cemetery. So, Silas saw this land before the changes. At some point in time, the last person with 1st hand knowledge passed away. I wonder if that was Silas.

  
• Another View of The "Low Value Forest"

  This is mostlikely going to be a topic of this blog for its life time. The average return on agriculture acreage is $500.00. There is a huge push to turn forests into fuels. I understand that the corn ethonal plants can process "low value forest plants now"
  In Missouri there are 405 species of forest plants know for the food, medicinal and ornimental values. 38 species of medicine plants are harvested by the ton in Missouri. 99.999% via illegal harvest. Forest Managers don't have the man power to manage, so they don't and don't know the value of our "whole forest" just the trees they do manage.

  

  Low value forest plants do not exisit. Our forests do not belong in gas tanks.

  Let's take another native plant Echinacea 6lbs of fresh plant material = 1 gallon of hydrosol value $250.00 wholesale market (and up!). That same plant's raw botanical value freshly harvested is .75 lb. $40.00lb value added, $1.50 lb dried and sold to broker.
  The point is the LOW VALUE forest is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. Our forests do not belong in our gas tanks and we have to show value if we are going to keep them safe from post oil mania.

  
• Aromahead's Contribution: free online aromatherpay class

  I have been looking for possible clients for our witch hazel distillations and in a quandary about where to market the product. Three larger companies have stated they will take the entire inventory. BUT, I would really like to see it go to smaller companies who have been ethical about organic ingredients. I looked around the web and found some real jewels. One company I really liked was aromahead.

  

  Translating from the natural world to the human world. A story for people who consume

  They put out a free online class in aromatherapy,http://www.aromahead.com/online-classes.php Also several online classes that are very affordable. I can tell from their pages and Andrea Butje's reply to my email that there is a passion for the medicine of creation. I got such a great feel from our exchange.

  I don't know if we can find a way to do business. I do know these woman are working, teaching, sharing and developing tools for people to understand the plants and their healing ways. In doing healing work, for people, for plants,for the planet it is about sharing the tools we have and teaching each other ways of being another kind of human being.

  Maybe, I figured out what I want to do. Maybe, I want our product to go to those are willing to tell its story.

  
• Auditing Wild Crop Harvests for the Health and Beauty Industry

  The fact the USDA is taking up certification of health and beauty products is creating a great deal of interest in better ways to audit the harvest of wild crops. Most wild crops are the botanicals used in either beauty products or in health products. With just $26 billion in global organic sales projected, the food portion of trade is dwarfed by the $30 billion US cosmetics market. In fact the entire US organic market is just larger than the wholesale market for cosmetic chemicals in the US, which themselves are just one small part of product formulations. Then compare the Nationwide herbal and botanical supplement sales totaled $4.8 billion in 2007, when the recession began, up 4.3 percent over 2006. For the three months that ended Dec. 28, nationwide retail sales of vitamins and supplements totaled nearly $639 million, up almost 10 percent from the same period in 2007.

  We are talking some major money in industries clamoring for organic certified botanicals. In the E.U. accredited agents have a manual to assist in determining sustainability. Here in the U.S. inspectors are familiar with row crops and food production while sorely lacking in experience with auditing botanical harvests. Chances are an organic inspector could not tell by looking at an acre of wild cherry, if there was a sustainable harvest of 5 lbs, 50 lbs or 500 lbs. For this reason, a lot of wild harvesters materials are slipping into the organic supply chain, that are not from certified harvests. It sort of began with IFOAM which looked affidavits from harvesters from the global community of botanicals. This didn't really hit the mark for determining sustainability so a collectors guide was developed a few years ago. The collectors guide is now used in the E.U. and it an excellent resource. We used it to set our wild harvest plan and as a "go by" to support the sustainability of our plans. (Please see previous post on witch hazel harvest). US inspectors got a lot of their ideas about wild harvesting from the pre- manual IFOAM. It is an area where the USDA need to play catch up in a major way before we turn our forests into fuel resources without understanding the forest beneath the trees. On inspection service's application for wild crops certification was incredibly appalling in its lack of inquiry into sustainability. Sustainable wild harvest means the entire eco-system is sustained, not just the harvestable material. I suggested a couple years ago that harvesters were certifing "organic" then raping the land of a couple species, then letting the certificate lapse. That is just bad!

  
• Avoiding Organic Fraud in Natural or Organic Health and Beauty Cosmetic Products

  As a certified producer, who worked her behind off for several years to put together an organic wild crops farm and processing facility, I am a tad resentful of organic marketing cheats. I thought I would give a quick run through on some of the more common marketing scams:

  Product x - "Organic Witch Hazel"
  One sees the tags in the search terms, then goes to the shopping page and finds the witch hazel is not the organic certified ingredient, but the alcohol or other ingredient is the certified ingredients. BIG NO, NO for USDA. A company is not to advertise a product as organic without certification and an approved certification aproved label.

  A product must be 75% or more certified organic to carry the organic seal. Companies that scam this way hurt, legitimate producers of certified products.

  Product X - Organic Witch Hazel without a certification seal. If a product is certified organic, you will find the inspectors seal or the USDA seal somewhere on the label. If it is not there it is a fake. The certifier must approve the label and the label must contain identification of the certifying agent. I found this rampent on ebay but that is just a drop in the bucket compared to some of the big companies exploiting the word "organic".

  If a producer is legitimate, they will proudly display the certificate. ASK for it. When Goods From The Woods was retailing organic pine nuts, we requested and received the entire paper trail. That is the only way, one can be sure the product is an "organic certified product."

  

  This means something! If it is not on the product, there is an intent to deceive the buyer and this hurts those of us who are certified

  http://www.organicwitchhazel.com/cert.html

  Please send comments to me directly as spammers and others with ill intent were using the comment section to be naughty. I will post most comments or send a personal reply.

  
• Baboon Sex: Monkeying around with wild plums

  As we harvest wild plums, I felt this fell in the our news catagory on wild harvesting.
  We have been trying to get the full spectrum of the wild plum flower hydrosol phyto chemicals of the American species

  Baboons use contraceptives ?

  

  What do baboons know that people don't?

  Nigerian baboons appear to be self-medicating with a wild plum that has a contraceptive effect. This is the first known example of an animal deliberately ingesting a contraceptive plant.

  Biologists have found that fruit and leaves of the Vitex donian plant, otherwise known as the African black plum, are affecting female baboon hormones and preventing pregnancy in a similar way to the human contraceptive pill.

  "The hypothesis that [this fruit] can regulate sexual behaviour… is very exciting and, if supported, could have a major impact on the study of primate reproduction", commented primatologist Wendy Saltzman, at the University of California in Riverside, USA.

  After detecting unusual progesterone levels in olive baboons (Papio anubis) in Nigeria's Gashaka-Gumti National Park, British researchers set out to probe the effect of the plum on the primate's reproductive biology. They tracked two troops of baboons and recorded their consumption of the plum as a proportion of their total diet.

  
• Before you certify your forest organic wild crop

  Identifing Native Plants - where to get help:

  The face of rural america has changed. That is like saying the sun is rising in the east this morning. Large land owners timber off their holdings and sub-divide into small vacation lots. Corporate land owners prepare plantation planting of timber crops and the the retired person just does not have a clue about how to manage a wild landscape for income. There are very few human resources with on the ground knowlege to help identify wild plant species and how to go about certifing wild crops. I guess that is why we are so committed to making our blog a "how to".

  There are a handful of permaculturists, botanists, restorationists and herbal harvesters to teach and develop the information for wild crop certification. I mentioned Roxann's page for ginseng in my last post. There is a fellow in North Carolina that is able to certify lands wild and consult on woodland economics.

  Mr. Robin Suggs, Moonbranch Botanicals. http://www.moonbranch.com Robin "gets it" in a way almost no else does. He has a background in horiculture, ecconomic development and training in organic certification. He harvests and plants and buys wild botanicals. He is a "go to" guy. Check out his credential list:

  Member:
  American Herbalist Guild
  Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project; Farm Partner
  Co-op America
  Green Products Alliance
  National Network of Forest Practitioners
  North Carolina Consortium on Natural Medicines
  North Carolina Goodness Grows/NCDA&CS
  North Carolina Natural Products Association
  Southwestern North Carolina RC&D Council
  United Plant Savers

  You have to know, this man is committed to doing all that he can to help the plants, the planet and the people. Robin is an awesome human being.

  Before you get ready to certify your lands wild crop organic - you have to know what is there - what should be there. Most rural landowners have lost the connection with the native landscape. For the last 50 years farms have been on tractors and woodsmen have been on feller bunchers. The experts in managing wild landscapes are few and far between. Sort of an oximoron, as there are no experts and one does not manage wild landscapes, but incorpates into them.

  Before you start looking for someone to certify your forest wild crop organic, you have to know what is there and what should be there. What the plants are worth and where to sell them. We are going to try to help with this. You are welcome to send comments and questions.

  
• Blogging the wild plum bud

  Our wild plum flowers are budding out 8 days earlier than last year. We thought we make a record of our buds and harvest. This helps our wild organic certifier, any plant science person and creates a great picture log. This is a plum plum bud picture taken 3/22/07.
  Last year our first day on the ground was April 1 and the temp was in the mid 40's. Yesterday's high was about 70 degrees and partially sunny.

  
  
• Buying Fanny - tax rebates for rural investors

  We could have done just about anything with our tax rebate. Being rural investors, we bought a little ass. Fanny is her name and she came home during the days of my shrunken band with. So, George - is learning to speak donkey. The Ass whisperer...I have lovingly daubed him.

  

  This is very, very different from her world. We took the responsibly of Fanny, and long and short- George is zenning with his Fanny as I write. Adorable is just not the world.

  He is out there near her. He took her up and down the street, showing off his adorable Fanny. We need her to be comfortable in trusting him. I am hoping that he will introduce his Fanny to the lady across the road, Mrs. Wood. She kind soul and I am sure you will enjoy George's Fanny, unless Fanny stomps her little dogs. I think an introduction would be a good thing. Perhaps, help everyone get along better.

  This year George's Fanny will apprentice and help with tools, light supplies. It is an important process, establishing a long term relationship. One wants to do it with care and foresight. In our world we take care of life with pleasure. We want George's ass to be happy.

  
  It has been going very, very well as Fanny is loving and gentle. She is comforted by George and they have developed a bond. George is a loving, fun, gentle human being. It is not surprising , George and his Fanny were destined. That was the end of donkey searching.

  He goes out to be with her several times a day. She has her own space, which I think is important to all creatures. She is sleeping. He went in after she opened an eye and sat with her . They both snoozee for a while. Donkey snuzzing....

  She wakes up and seems to be confused by her surroundings, a very natural thing when you have been moved. George is right there. I thought it was brilliant. She had a sense of place and safety to associate with him. They are going to be a lovely team George and his Fanny. The rebate check covered her, the fence, supplies and .....now.....she needs a companion.

  But, I too am entralled with George's little Fanny and think there is no harm in a second donkey. Perhaps he will be Tuchie or a little French Tuchea.

  

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