The warmth of the mother and the shade of the Guaje tree!
It’s hard to convey the warmth of Oaxaca with words on a screen, but I’ll give it a go!
Come back to my inspiration page to keep that fire in the belly ignited around topics of Ethnobotany, People-Plants, Nature Connection, Growing
Close your eyes for a second and imagine the perfect summer’s day in England or wherever you are, then imagine your skin is grateful for this warmth, you can feel an inner glow. It reminds you of the warmth of terracotta pots, the glow of sandstone in the height of summer at sunset or that warmth bouncing back from warmed stone when you walk by on the hottest day of the year.
Now, imagine you can let go of all worries about the future of the planet or personal relationships, and imagine that delicious aroma of a wood fired pizza and the warmth of song around a log fire outside with friends.
It’s a feeling that warms your bones. Familiar, homely, saying come and sit for a while and chat with me, in sweet warm tones, of the joys of your life. Forget about your worries for a while.
For me, this is the feeling of Oaxaca.
There are mothers everywhere selling food on the streets, with their warm faces, made to glow by the sun, worn aprons tending the fires that produce delicious homemade foods, nurtured by familiar hands from these lands, from the sacred corn, Mahiz, ‘giver of life’, ‘mother of all’.
The mothers are accompanied by their compañeros, their children, brothers, sisters, their husbands, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. These mothers have space to spread the warmth and care, that is their calling, and give such abundant warmth.
The warmth is in the spice, the chillis which make every sauce, every salsa, every dish bring the taste of the land that is home. Their warm, rich colours fill sacks in the market and their aromas fill the lungs and tastebuds stir. Quesadillas cooked on a wood fired comal, hot chocolate and pan de yema, mole and aguas frescas, as well tejate served in jicarras are just a few of the traditional foods and drinks.*
It is also how all these delights are served. The mothers beckon you over with their woodsmoke, a warm smile, on a kindly face, starting to wrinkle with each beckoning, a beckoning gesture of hands that know you need to stop, just for a while and taste the good things in life, taste what these hands have made, connected to belonging, knowing, caring and nurturing.
They know they are intimately connected to these lands, the fire, the woodsmoke, the plants that nurture, warm and strengthen, the waters that fall in the rainy season and allow the earth and all her seeds to swell.
Because the mother takes centre place the feeling we are all intimately connected is present and so they beckon me over and invite me with a warm smile to taste and receive the nourishing goodness they ripple out. In turn I am ready to receive as the warm air tells me to slow down, heart open, know belonging and connection, sit a while and enjoy the warmth and perhaps then when it feels a little too hot, walk in the shade of the Guaje tree, the tree Oaxaca takes its name from.
This is the warmth of Oaxaca!
*Quesadillas are tortillas filled with stringy mozzarella like cheese, sometimes mushrooms and squash flowers, hot chocolate has been drunk since ancient times with water and spices (rather than milk) and served with ‘pan de yema’ a yeasted traditional bread. Moles are rich curry-like dishes which are made with chillies and many other ingredients, creating delicious sauces. There are many moles, including mole negro made with chocolate! The aguas frescas are fresh drink made by blending the abundance of fruits with water and a bit of sugar. Finally tejate is an ancient beverage made with fermented cacao beans as well as maize and cacao flowers and it is served in a jicarra, a bowl made from the Mexican calabash or gourd of the Cruscentia alata and Cruscentia cujete.
Ethnobotany, People-Plants, Nature Connection, Growing
#Seedweek and Seeds of Hope
Come back to my inspiration page to keep that fire in the belly ignited around topics of Ethnobotany, People-Plants, Nature Connection, Growing
Are you like me, itching to sow seeds, even though you know they’ll do better if sown in a couple of weeks? (that’s for my readers in the Northern hemisphere – north of the Watford Gap for those in England!)
Now in its 6th year, #seedweek from the Gaia Foundation‘s Seed Sovereignty team is forging beautiful unions across these lands (UK & Ireland) and further afield between people, seeds, soil, farming, growing, community, social enterprise, agroecology, weaving together stories of past present and future.
It was a delight heading up northern seed networks for the past couple of years, learning from fellow growers, farmers and experts in their field, and although I have moved on from my formal role as Northern England Seed Sovereignty Coordinator (bit of a mouthful), I am chomping at the bit for the seed gathering, taking place this weekend.
Saturday and Sunday will be a gorgeous gathering. Being online has its advantages, especially at this time of year in northern lands, as we can be warm at home, meet with folk from far afield, in other lands and it makes seeing lots of people with similar interests really easy, and is held by a wonderful team.
Photo credit above in the zine: Gabriela Toledo-Ortiz. Photos on right hand side, please use with Creative Commons permission and credit to Charlie Gray. Seeds of Hope seed library packets and dedication, Tomato collections from field work research on display at l’a feria del tomate nativo y ancestral’ in Zimatlan, Oaxaca.
Above, my short update on my visit to Oaxaca in the summer to la feria de tomate nativo y ancestral, The Festival of native and ancestral tomatoes with many mouth-watering salsas and dishes.
Credit to the Seed Sovereignty team and their collaborators, the zine and comms around the Seed Gathering are a delight!
If you’re wanting some seed saving inspiration, check out the #seedweek hashtag on instagram – it is going from strength to strength, and I’m loving the Isla Middleton artwork, also available through the Gaia Foundation’s Tee Mill shop to support the amazing Seed Sovereignty work.
The northern seed sovereignty role is being beautifully held by my successor from Middlesborough, Catherine Howell, and networks are mushrooming like mycelium in damp, Yorkshire woods on a sunny day, gleaming with temptation!
As a community grower at Horton Community Farm, it was a delight visiting and learning from Garden Organic and staff from the Heritage Seed Library via their Sowing New Seeds project, which ultimately led to me setting up the Seeds of Hope Seed Library for Bradford.
Spurred on by inspiration from other seed libraries across these lands who’ve made the link with local book libraries, I was delighted to meet with Maryam and Silvie, friends, and colleagues, and visit Great Horton Community hub and library who will be happy to house the seeds for the project, making them more accessible to the public (very soon hopefully!)
The seeds on the front page are Ailsa Craig tomato seed, saved for 2 years, from some tomatoes that resisted the blight that took over all the rest of the tomatoes. They were grown outdoors and hopefully useful for local beginner growers to have something more resilient.
Love seed? Already a member of the seed library or fancy joining?
If you are a keen seed saver, an IT or social media whizz or like hosting events, please get in touch to offer what you can to the seed library. Ideally we want to improve our admin systems, catalogue the seeds using Airtable, increase the number of seed savers and start saving ever more local and culturally appropriate open-polllinated seed to share with our communities.
Be in touch! info@seedsofhope.uk
Thank you!
Ethnobotany, People-Plants, Nature Connection, Growing
Vandana Shiva! An ongoing inspiration for food, farming and seed!
Come back to my inspiration page to keep that fire in the belly ignited around topics of Ethnobotany, People-Plants, Nature Connection, Growing
They say it’s not always a good idea to meet your heroes!
I know for sure, however, that my year is off to an inspirational start after, well not really meeting, but sharing a space with one of my all time heroes/heroines: Vandana Shiva! Seeing and hearing her speaking live on the stage felt like a true blessing!
Wandering through the Town Hall in Oxford and passing her in the corridors also felt really special; she is a true powerhouse, working at all levels from the grassroots up and out, standing with, speaking out and writing on topics vital for these times with such conviction and passion!
I also happened to see numerous other ‘everyday’ heroes, people I admire greatly, doing their thing and sharing their inspiration with the rest of us, who had gathered at the Oxford Real Farming Conference 2023 or the 14th ORFC, for short.
It was nearly 20 years ago (in September 2003) that I watched a film about Vandana Shiva as part of my MSc in Ethnobotany and felt the raw truth in her words of wisdom. Each time I have listened to her (numerous times on film, podcasts and interviews) I have always felt the same.
In 2020, as part of the Gaia Foundation’s Seed Sovereignty Programme team, I had the great pleasure of being part of organising the new Seed Gathering with my colleagues and was delighted to listen attentively to Vandana Shiva giving our Opening Key note speech, which she always does in inimitable style. The Seed Gathering is on again next month, and you can get tickets here!
January and 2023 are off to a flying start and full of inspiration for me after attending ORFC, the conference which unites farmers, growers, activists, chefs and food systems designers and it was wonderful to see and hug so many friends, old and new.
Vandana’s way with words holds so much commitment and determination, guidance and wisdom, my belly is always full of fire after listening to her. Her intellect is also balanced by her grounded approach which she turned to seed saving many years, ago, and I vow to follow her wise words and share them far and wide.
We cannot trust or take our eagle eyed attention off the poison cartel, as she likes to call ‘big ag’, the chemical cartel or the very small number of companies that formed and transformed after World War II, from whom chameleon companies continue to keep transforming themselves into an ever smaller number of ever richer conglomerates; this time, with the focus on gene editing. See GM Freeze’s website and campaign against the Government’s Genetic Technology Bill, which we need to push back against!
We must keep our focus and stay in united in the vision of what we DO want. She was as clear as ever. We are united by our interconnectedness with all beings, all species; and it is from that knowing we need to continue to keep the fire in our bellies stoked and bring ever more people in to the movement for food sovereignty and seed sovereignty; sharing our knowledge, seeds, resources and soil we have access to.
If you are in a position to do so, share your land with someone who wants to learn, share your knowledge and your seeds, it is in building the commons and re-membering that we can continue to build the better world that we know is possible! Thank you, Vandana Shiva, and all the organisers of the ORFC and the community re-weaving the commons and real farming!
If you are wanting to get more involved in growing your own food, connecting to nature and others nearby then I highly recommend checking out the ORFC website for updates as they upload and share info there, sign up to their newsletter, maybe join in person or online next year, There is also a Northern Real Farming Conference which started in 2020, and was very well attended online! https://orfc.org.uk
Also, Vandana Shiva’s latest film, The Seeds of Vandana Shiva can be shown as a community screening. This is a great way to share Ethnobotany, People-Plants, Nature Connection, Growing
She has written many books and there are so many interviews with her. You are sure to be inspired, (whether you know of her work already or not!) Her latest book Terra Viva is published by Chelsea Green.
Also, in the spirit of sharing, if you’re in my area or want to join online I’m sharing my learnings, by running courses about organic food growing in Yorkshire and beyond and will continue to add more information to my website, so be sure to visit again for more Ethnobotany, People-Plants, Nature Connection, Growing and keep an eye on my new offerings https://www.notesfromthefield.blog/new-offerings-signup-now/
Thank you!
Vandana Giving her Plenary Speech at the Opening of ORFC23 in Oxford Town Hall January 2023