This week we're bringing to you Steemian @ofsedgeandsalt, who blows us away with the wealth of knowledge she brings to her work as a blogger, researcher, creative artist, experiential botany and plant based medicines. Her extensive travels enable her to gather ideas about how we engage with the land and the plants there, and the intersections between culture and wildness that allow us more understandings about natural medicines and botany.
Photo Credit Ashley Carr
We highly recommend you check out her blog here and give her some love on her Steemit blog too - she's truly one to follow and has so much to share. We started by asking her about what she's been up to and where she's been.
Sedgeandsalt: For 5 years now I have primarily been on the road by choice. I studied herbal medicine and was a farmer for years, growing medicinal herbs and organic vegetables in North Carolina and also at my family's farm in Virginia. I met a lot of travelers in North Carolina, and after awhile, I decided to break from farming for a bit and explore the United States' wild places, visit my friends, find season work, and learn new plants.
I met a lot of botanists, naturalists, herbalists in Asheville, NC, that inspired me to 'connect the dots' so to speak with plants far and wide. It inspired me to take careful records during my travels, through writing and drawing, and using plant ID books, from the get go. Before this bout of travel, I seasonally lived in North Carolina and New Hampshire, so I got a lot of time working with plants in New England too- as I worked for a family of foresters at a cross-country ski area. I primarily do my research and personal work with no money involved and take seasonal work that has nothing to do with it. I make just enough to be able to live the minimal life I do, while taking as much time as I can to learn.
Lately, I have been focusing a lot on the social, political and cultural intersections of learning plants, thinking about their ecological big picture and understanding their medicine and history. Only in the last year and a half have I started applying more all of my collected art/writing/plant lists/studies into something I am offering the outside world through blogging, Instagram, making zines to distribute and more.
I hope to get research jobs in the future that work with plants and animals, but I do not have a science degree. I actually have a degree in philosophy and anthropology, and they are actually quite relevant. I worked for herbalists, farmers, and tree climbers on the road and have learned different things from them. I am also considering taking a break for a bit and working out of Asheville again, and interviewing folks in that area that originally inspired me for my podcast associated with my research projects.
On a herbal walk: Photo Cred Ashley Carr
Natural Medicine: What a busy life you lead. I checked your Facebook site too and love what's going on there. Your podcasts too! For anyone reading this, do go and check out Kelly's work - she's got some amazing stuff to share. I know we've got a lot of listening to do to catch up on! Love the multi-media aspect you bring to your life as your zines are fabulous too!
I love how everything you do is connected to nature, yet you are also entwined with the academic aspect of the landscapes in which you move, particularly, as you say, the social, political and cultural intersections of plant knowledge. Do you have a particular story of a medicine plant you could share in this regard?
Sedgeandsalt: Hmm. So much to say about this. I could cover a few, let me see what to start with. Something like Ginseng for example. I was just thinking a lot about this plant because my next podcast guest is an older Appalachian root digger woman. Ginseng is seen by some as purely a 'resource' plant, as people have dug it and sold it for $ for years. For as long as settlers of European descent have lived in the Appalachias. This is intimately intertwined with culture in a few ways. It is the main source of income for some folks in Appalachia, as they only other jobs are factories or coal mines. This means that they spend a lot of time in the woods looking for this plant to dig up and sell. Also- as ecology and culture intersect- Ginseng is also revered in Asia for its medicine and 'sacred' nature. There is a culture of use around it, when to take it, when to gift it, how to use it and honor it. There are species of Ginseng that grow in China, Korea and the Himalayas, but they actually often prefer the American Ginseng over the local species. It is seen as 'stronger.' So, come fall, during Ginseng digging season, Chinese businessmen fill the Appalachian hills looking for roots to buy. The ones that look most gnarled and 'human like' are preferred. The gnarled nature is a clue to the conditions it grew it, the wilder looking the root, the wilder the environment, and supposedly the better the medicine. in geologic time, a lot of plants in Appalachia are related to plants in China, because of a once combined land mass, and over time, and due to the land NOT being glaciated in southern Appalachia, the species have remained in both places, slowly changing and drifting away from one another. Traditional Chinese Medicine includes a lot of plants that are also found in Appalachia, or species that are closely related. As TCM becomes more popular in the U.S. and the west, so does the need for the plants. This is curious because many of them can be grown in Appalachia, even the ones that aren't native there, because there are also similar climates in both places. The way that geologic time, culture, and economy intersect here is interesting. Also- politically, this is important because Ginseng is being over-harvested in Appalachia because of the demand in China, and because of the lack of jobs in the Appalachian region of the U.S. The economic and political situation of both places affect the longevity of the plant surviving in an ecosystem.
Natural Medicine: That's remarkable that the American ginseng is preferable, as it's such a well known Asian herb, and we're amazed that Appalachia is the source for so many plants species used for medicine. We'd love a link to that podcast, if you have it handy! This reinforces for us how nature, and plants, work in symbiosis with man and a kind of co-dependency - we need them for our economies, yet economics and politics can also limit survival of plants unless managed properly. Is there another plant that you can talk about - this stuff is mind blowing!
Sedgeandsalt: Cultural sensitivity in relationship to harvest and use is important to consider and is something I'm learning more about and deepening as I travel and discover these nuanced relationships with plants. White Sage for example- has been traditionally used by many native folks for ceremony and cleansing. Currently there are many companies own by folks of European descent that harvest the plant in big numbers to sell as 'smudge sticks.' While some feel that because Sage is in the Mint family and harvesting it a lot actually makes it more abundant (from an ecological standpoint) so the stands are not compromised- others beg to differ and say that the stands are being compromised.
Photo Cred Ashley Carr
Some say that it is not relevant whether we harvest sustainably if a plant is culturally significant to a group of people historically displaced or pushed from their native lands, or killed/tortured for practicing their traditional ways. Harvesting a plant like White Sage for personal use is one thing- but harvesting it to sell to others creates a capitalistic dynamic in relationship to a sacred plant found in the commons. The trend is that when the commons can be capitalized and profited off of- when nature is seen as a 'resource' that can be exploited, that it is possible for it to be over-harvested to nothing. This is relevant to the Ginseng conversation, too. I am in the middle with this moral dilemma about harvest, use and selling of herbal medicines.
I explore a lot of these concepts my writings on my blog, some in Steemit, and definitely in my podcast. Oh, and if Itunes doesn't work for you, you can also find it on Stitcher too as well as Spotify and a few other sites.
Natural Medicine: Indeed - we think you're one of the most interesting Steemfolk out there! We're also wondering that, being on the road alot, you can't store a lot of things - this of course is the bane of many travellers. It's wonderful to have so little possessions and very liberating, but a lack of space can make it hard to make and store natural medicines. How do you get around that? Are there particular remedies or supportive herbs you travel with all the time and couldn't do without?
Photo Cred: Heath Pusey of Opia Creative
Sedgeandsalt: It is tricky storing and dealing with natural medicines on the road. Recently I was staying with a friend during the winter here and there, and I used their space to make as much medicine as I could: salves, elixirs, syrups, tinctures. But, as of May of this year, that space has ceased to exist. It is where I stored extra things, and given that I am also incredibly crafty, I have things like willow, deer and sheep hides, handmade paper, pieces of wood for woodworking, and more. And also skis since I am a skier.
Since I've been fully in my truck camper (again, this is not the first time), it has been interesting storing things and sometimes a bit frustrating. I am constantly trying to get rid of things or figure out how to organize better in a small space. As for storing small batches of medicines, it actually has been frustrating lately. I store my medicines that are macerating in the coolest shadiest place I can find in my rig, in the back of my closest under books and other things. But, I don't have A/C in my camper, and I've been in some hot places this summer. This proved problematic for a batch of my Elderberry elixir I made this year that didn't have as much honey in it as a syrup-- and some of them fermented, and the toppers either got really bloated and a few exploded in a sticky mess in my camper.
It's not all petals and roses. Sometimes things just don't make sense. Ideally, I'd have a home base, and a good place to store these things, and use the road for research, interviews, art-making, plant ID, medicine making in the field- but not the place where bottling and storing happens.
Natural Medicine: Yes, the travelling life can be idyllic on the surface, but there's definitely drawbacks too. It's good to have a homebase and a nest, but then again, when we have these things the open road calls us back too!
Sedgeandsalt: Yes, and travelling has given me more lenses from which to see these conversations about plants. I harvest small batches for myself, and very recently to to sell or use on my Patreon.
Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us, @sedgeandsalt, and we hope the folk here enjoyed it as much as we did! We wish you beautiful travels and wonderful explorations into the things you are most passionate about.
Would you like to be interviewed by @naturalmedicine? It's very easy to do, taking place as a conversation that happens across Discord. It may take a week or so back and forth with questions, so it's not a massive time committment and a whole lot of fun.
