Art of Craft

This past 5 month experience of trips from Johannesburg to the Fountain Farm in Mpumalanga, and back every two weeks, have taught me many things about farming, people, myself and of course plants ;-)  I have even developed a code of conduct in business – fair trade, honesty and good communication are key elements for sure.

I have a lot to write about, at some point, especially all the people and experiences out there. For now I feel it necessary to explain a small part of the decision I have made to resign from working as I have been with these employers and employees of the farm.  The way we work and do not work must change or end completely.  They have been teachers in many ways, for which I am eternally grateful.  I came along and got a lot going and done, and restored some things in them, at least I think so and I am hopeful that this farm will continue to grow and sustain itself.  How it grows and how it continues to grow is not my decision to make.  My decision to leave the way we work and the work we do, has not been an easy one.  I have really had to look within deeply and clear away a lot of my own anger and judgment in order to find and ground myself.

I have learnt that some people, in some kind of effort to be independent or self less or whatever it is, see people as objects or pawns in a game of chess.  It is all about networking, putting people into positions where things are more beneficial for the person paying for all the networking.  I can understand the logic in numbers, but people seem to forget that people are human.  People feel, some people actually look within and find their core, outer influences like the system we all feel we are lifted up by because of numbers in accounts instead of the system we all feel is really going to shit… our earth, our integrity…damaged.  I believe we have so much crime and hate and hurt because people do this, they suppress themselves in the process too because they look in the mirrors and judge all the time instead of looking within.  If people were working in jobs they could just live from their core in, then, perhaps, we would have less crime and more good judgment ;-)

It seems rather manipulative.  I have felt this way about many who have come to my garden at Pirates and paid me to go give advice and do the same for them in various places.   My journey got way more interesting and exciting when opportunities like this arose; it grounded me in many ways.

I am always made to believe that there is some kind of business opportunity to do with my teas, once I have done what I am paid for.  I am always questioned on permaculture methods I keep saying I have not got time to look into.  I always make it clear I want to sell and grow tea ;-) I always end up showing people how to do what I do for more people, and in the end I am more drawn to the ideas I have cultivated for over 2 years around the garden at the Pirates Sports Club in Johannesburg.  I know that at the end of the day I will still be selling, making and growing medicinal tea and infusions ;-)  I know that I will come and go for a while still – where to is yet to be determined.  I know that I have to work for money and whatever other system of trading exists, and create a balanced, kind of balanced income – I guess we all need that.  I have learnt money buys anything that exists whereas all these other alternatives still need to catch up and change the value systems they function in… and this is why money is most widely accepted in trades.

I am at most fortunate in the garden to have the best assistance ever from Nature, and can be taken away to consult, teach, learn with anyone and advice can be given from afar if communication is utilized with pictures, videos and words.  If I ever meet people serious about farming my teas I may very well be able to become the next Tea Merchant, for now I must sit down and listen again… I must be where I am grounded.  I feel this is in my garden, and that working toward farming around it for local restaurants and home owners, while I make my teas is 100% healing and restorative.

I find that the stress and bullshit surrounding joining the way people function in the so called system or city life in general that is just considered the way success looks???  Anyway, I find the stress and pseudoscience of it all really just takes me away from my core, who I am.  I do not want to monoculture anything or turn away my neighbor, while I send what they need away for money, imagine if the neighbors did the same.  I remember starting to cry on one of these trips, in a heated discussion on how to do the garden there … and I said, “It’s a bit insane to me I have always asked the earth and seed for its blessings and thanked it when they come, and in farming or planning a business of farming to sustain families, done must tell the earth and seed what to give, it is sad that we do not trust it.”

I am learning to be humble, to accept that I need to work with people alot – despite my virtually life-long introverted, hermit lifestyle.  I am learning that it is not worth it to give up sustaining and maintaining my own efforts in my own garden.  I am learning that everyone is reasonable, except they have their own reasons and that, in fact, gardening is an art form.  This garden, just like artwork, done in public, results in people thanking me, questioning me, taking me to go do it there because mine is fine, and I can teach and do it there and then and then and then…. (those who have done me wrong, misplaced me or whatever that was about will know some of the true impact that all of this has had on all of us)

My dream was to eat healthy food with energy still in it, to get up off my feet, stronger and purify myself on all levels before I die.  My dream included a community of people learning, trading and sharing with me… and man alive, it does become a nightmare when I drift too far from where it is all grounded in my garden.  It really is a different experience doing it for money for and with someone else, somewhere else.  For all of these reasons, and more, I am only willing to consult and manage anyone else’s garden anywhere in this world and not willing to become their middleman or breadwinner.  Here are, in fact, hundreds of people without jobs too.  I started doing this in public mainly because I wanted a community here.  Some, like Joseph, worked with me to learn without being paid money, but food instead.  Mandla came to me today again to work for food alone.

I feel like I really have had to do this and to speak up, and I walk away with a great sadness and hope that you all find your way.

I will see you in the garden, I look forward to whatever journey it leads me on.

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A pseudoscience is a belief or process which masquerades as science in an attempt to claim a legitimacy which it would not otherwise be able to achieve on its own terms; it is often known as fringe- or alternative  science. The most important of its defects is usually the lack of the carefully controlled and thoughtfully interpreted experiments which provide the foundation of the natural sciences and which contribute to their advancement.  A very good example of this Pseudoscience in farming is found in a variety of compost recipes, in my opinion.

Of course, the pursuit of scientific knowledge usually involves elements of intuition and guesswork; experiments do not always test a theory adequately, and experimental results can be incorrectly interpreted or even wrong.  It is for this reason, that I did an experiment in a bucket, based on a compost recipe and also 6 large piles of similar layering in the compost and have taught staff on the farm to record the process.  Critical thinking is an essential element of science.  It is quite a challenge to convert these pseudo-scientific ways of farming into legitimate science.

Firstly, going out to as far as we can reach, up the mountain, off grid and away from most so called western ways of civilization, and creating an awesome edible and medicinal garden is not like planning and doing a garden in a urban or more common kind of rural setting.   This post is about a two week period at the beginning of October 2016 on the farm.  A good example of more pseudoscience in farming is really simply just looking at the bigger picture of what I am sharing at some point, in my opinion.

I arrived on a Monday, from the hot, sunny Johannesburg to a cold, freezing mountaintop on the farm, due to snow in the KZN region.  I made a comfortable place to sleep on my deck in my tent.  This cold weather persisted for the first few days.   I looked at the progress, and it seemed lacking, and quickly learnt that a cow was jumping our fence in two areas (I was told this is unusual, unless its a Brahman cow).  I also learnt that human capacity, energy, time management and ability  always outweigh each other – making it seem even less useful to me to stress and freak out when things are not up to my standard or where I need them to be.  At some point every farmer must acknowledge the fact that either we need more patience or more staff.  Yet, it is also a matter of knowing everything on the farm, in order to manage the time and capacity of the workers more efficiently.  It is also a matter of getting my staff to understand this concept at times.

In my own learning, I take long walks around the farm, I make notes and drawings.  I discuss priorities and time management with my workers, and we come up with solutions we agree we can manage.  In most of these rural off grid settings, the people have lived without running water and electricity in their homes all their lives, education and language is also lacking.  In my opinion, these are our true earth children, because they are very happy despite the poverty, and I also have not exactly sat in a classroom or university studying… making the need for education another pseudoscience in my opinion.  A world of information does really exist outside a classroom and also within us all ;-)

Here are some pics of my first few walk – abouts on this trip.  The pics tell a story too, in their own sequence… the story of the fire after the cold weather, and the rains, a trip to Elukwatini, and more…

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That is Aunty Hilda, likes to be called Hildee instead ;-) who drives me to the farm and all over, and allows me to practice my driving.  One fantastic woman of note.

I usually climb up the waterfall to see the farm from above, and check on one of our water sources.  Everything here is gravity fed.

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dsc_0151Smoke started to grow … and I picked up a heart shaped rock, headed down from the lookout and found staff preparing to fight fire.

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This random man came by with his horse through the fiery path…  the dog is Captain, the dog of the mountain ;-) he belongs to no one and spends time all over – over hundreds of acres of land.  Needless to say, Captain spent the night after the fire.

dsc_0156Note that in farming, if one does not reckon in such things happening and time management goes completely out the window.

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We had a storm the next evening, which was quite surreal for me because I had a migraine type headache throughout it all…  and then a trip to Elukwatini followed.

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So much actually happens on these trips that it is not possible to sum up in a blog post, which is why I have not recorded this as much as my other projects.

We also built a shade tunnel for some plants, had to repair a pipe, and the side of the reservoir, finish off the chicken fence and gates…. I could probably write another hour, in fact.

At some point I will get a better laptop and be more diligent in sharing this journey into the pseudoscience of farming ;-)

Most people confuse a common Thistle weed with Milk Thistle.  The second image is a Milk Thistle, I  have it growing in my garden, and have been diligently harvesting seed and trying to multiply my seed over the past two years.  I will be planting these seeds in trays on the farm this week, while an awesome team of workers from Vlakplaas construct a tunnel for them to germinate in.

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Most people also do not know what to do with Milk Thistle when it is not in a capsule.  I make tea alot so I usually have some ;-)  Crushed leaves and seeds in a muslin bag, steeped in hot water for five minutes, with honey or anistar for flavor is actually quite an awesome cup of tea.  Ive added mint to mine too, at times.

You can also sprinkle the seed powder on your burgers, smoothies, and salads.  I think only my more adventurous readers will try milk thistle leaves in a salad – do note the thorny edges and remove them before adding to your salad.  I have also seen Milk Thistle available in capsule form at Dischem.

The medicinal use of Milk Thistle is mainly for the liver, gall bladder, skin, helpful in treatment of liver cancer – known to kill carcinogenic cells.

Let me know if you want to try some by emailing  nntreasure@gmail.com

One of the definitions of community is that community is ”a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals”.  Some will have heard this cliche’…. “the sense of community that organized religion can provide”.  I would like this garden to create that kind of sense of community.
Trevor Thouroughgood from an 18 year old family business called Thourogood Gardens donated almost 4 cubes of topsoil and grass from a clients garden in the area last week.  Thourogood Gardens specializes in landscaping, maintenance and clean ups.  They do alot of work in the Northern Suburbs, but can reach all of Johannesburg.  And, to top it off, they can sort out your koi pond, water features, irrigation and take out a few trees too.  I hope Trevor will drop off some logs or stepping stones too at some point.   This particular gift from the Universe (as I call it) was very special to me, it came as I was waiting a few days to confirm soil coming for pirates and kinda stuck without it.  Thank you Thourogood Gardens <3 and thank you to Cultura too for delivering.  Contact Trevor on 082 319 4214
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IN the previous garden, my tap was installed by a family from Boksburg, and in this one the new tap is from the man I work with in the mountains.  I see people from the Owl People group in Greenside come by, and old customers from the market.  At the market I get vegan soap with hibiscus and rose water, avo and cucumber cream and potato flour bread.  I smile.  I see you speak with each other, I see the new market growing and the fences restored, all sorts of things have come together within this community I no longer fathom defining.
I have traded for and been gifted with many plants from the Kitchen Garden Company in Greenside, and pots and trays from Pirates and bokashied food waste from someone who goes to the market regularly.
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Thank you to all of you.
I believe that this Pirate garden will at some point become a more interactive space, bringing together a community of people who trade with and support each other. I have vented online about how community simply does not exist, yet still worked toward it and within it, and I am deeply humbled looking back on this journey.   A community might not always be your neighbor or a family member.  In this garden, people from Honeydew area or Boksburg have assisted, even people from as far as Germany, just passing through ;-)
In a book Ive started reading, by M. Scott Peck called The Different Drum – the creation of true community – the first step to world peace.  Yes, I do giggle at the thought of me finally starting to read again, and it happens to be about creating world peace ;-) …. anyway, it says we believe ”If we can resolve our conflicts, then someday we shall have community.” Could it be that we are wrong and that the real belief should be in that, “If we can live together as community, then someday we shall be able to resolve our conflicts.”
I would still like to get a bench or some kind of outdoor kitchen area going, and a wendy hut, definitely more soil for around the perimeter and more fruit trees.  Please let us know if you wish to trade or donate something toward it by email nntreasure@gmail.com as I am not around signal alot.
Do come enjoy the space, say hello to us and each other more often.
Thank you for respecting the space we grow our food and medicine in ;-)

For those following my story, on this blog, I have been deterred so many times just trying to be self -sustainable off the land I traded for using various systems of trade and proxy.  I figured what I loved doing the most when I worked in the company I resigned from, was actually the simple act of foraging in the garden for leaves and flowers for a tea and sharing it with my fellow workers ;-) So, when I resigned, I decided to trade for the land I use at Pirates and to firstly, grow my own food, and then my medicine or teas and share that.

Along this journey, I sold out in before the first summer of the first garden came, and had to relocate the garden, just as I was getting the tea plants to grow more, and start again.  I started again, which brought new people into the garden.  One of them is now my boss or investor or mentor, time will tell.  He has an interest in self-sustainability and living off-grid comfortably, and has invested, not only in the Pirates garden, but also out in the Lebombo / also known as the Ingwenya mountain range near the Oshoek border post of Swaziland and South Africa.  It is still on the South African side of the border, so no need for a passport if you are South African ;-)  These are some images from my first trip out there.

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The accommodation include a gas powered stove top and shower, with toilet.

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My accommodation is set in the cliff-side on a wooden deck, with draping tents as walls and a corrugated rooftop.  I have a comfortable big bed too with storage units under it.   We will be needing volunteers to assist in building more of these platforms for accommodation for a while, as this is quite an impressive few hectares of land to food forest. Please contact me if you want to assist. 072 146 9017

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Here is already sugarcane, papaya, mango, olive, litchi, berry and more growing for a few years… and the gardener has done a PDC course – which I have not, so this will be interesting as I will be farming the plants I used to make teas and teaching the people about my teas and how to connect to the garden, well hopefully, that as well, as we grow together.  Firstly, the land has been in drought for over 2 years, so we dig alot and take water from the mountain literally ;-)  I am learning alot about the earth I have danced with for so long, and deeply grateful that so many of my favorite fruits can already be tasted in December.

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This is Yarrow – used as an antiseptic in soaps and teas, can be used as a wound wash as a tea or ingested and very safe for anyone, including children ;-)

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The Lebombo Mountains, also called Lubombo Mountains  are an 800 km long, narrow range of mountains in Southern Africa. They stretch from Hluhluwe in KwaZulu-Natal in the south to Punda Maria in the Limpopo Province in South Africa in the north. Part of the mountains are also found in Mozambique and Swaziland.  This is mostly still tribal land ;-)

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Plantain – on of the edible weeds at pirates is found growing next to the river here…

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THE FOLLOWING IMAGES ARE OF THE FOUNTAIN GARDEN I WILL BE USING TO GROW MY TEAS AND HERBS IN.  I will need volunteers here too – please contact me if you are interested in spending some time learning and growing in this space with me,

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love and light

Netanya

0721469017

nntreasure@gmail.com

Plantain is a useful herb that is often considered a weed by most people.  It’s scientific name is Plantago Major, and it is likely that it grows in your yard.

The leaves are actually edible and somewhat similar to spinach, though slightly more bitter. They can be used in salads or other culinary uses.

Herbal Uses

The leaves can also be made into a tea or tincture, and this is said to help with indigestion, heartburn and ulcers when taking internally.

Externally, Plantain has been used for insect and snake bites, and as a remedy for rashes and cuts, used as a natural antibiotic.  This speeds up recovery of wounds and itching associated with skin problems.  A tea made with the leaves can be sprayed on mosquito bites to ease the itch.

A tea, tincture or salve made with plantain also greatly eases the itch of poison ivy, oak, or sumac and I keep it on hand for this reason.

A tea or infusion of the leaf  can be poured into the ear for ear infections (as long as the ear drum has not burst) to ease the pain and shorten duration of ear infections.

There is unconfirmed information that a strong tea of this herb, taken internally, can help protect the body from the effects of chemotherapy and that a strong infusion can improve blood sugar. While taking plantain in these situations would generally be considered safe, one should still check with an attending physician before doing so.

I have seen this ingredient used in many smoothies ;-)

enjoy

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You get a broad leaf and a thin leaf plantain, the broad leaf is noted as the more edible variety.

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These plants are usually all over, like dandelions ;-)

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This expression is an attempt to heal and in doing so share the healing with you, as I follow what I call my core back to sustainable ways of life.

It takes between 30 and 90 days to detox THC out the body.  Previously I documented mood changes, eating patterns, sleeping patterns and thoughts, this time will be similar but more of a reality, than some information I’m trying to share for some purpose… this time it’s more than just a detox…we really should not blame any imbalance, or any one thing for all our discomfort.   Most people think my problem or whatever it is, is Marijuana, but this post, being the most personal thing Ive ever shared might change that perception.  It might change how you see yourself.  It feels right to share, to voice, to express.

My medical history, if it was recorded, apart from the file and its contents I walked out of a hospital with and destroyed, might tell you that a few years ago I was diagnosed as a borderline, manic depressive in need of psychiatric attention and prescribed medication also included something to slow my heart rate.  At that point in my life, I had withdrawn for many months into a friends garage apartment and spent most of my time as an absolute recluse.   According to the doctor I was having a panic attack every hour. Perhaps I had a bit of post traumatic stress disorder too at the time, given the history I won’t give in detail herein, that is probably true. Unfortunately the medicine they gave me made me feel like bugs were crawling under my skin, all over my body for a few hours, I couldn’t sleep for days and felt like pulling off my own skin, it was an itchy irritation I will never forget… I decided not to take more of it and spoke to God – inner voice, whatever you call it – through the attacks instead.  This was the beginning of my journey with natural medicine, celery being the first. In the public health system no one ever follows up on you and mails you whether or not you will make your next appointment so people like me just move on and deal with it in our own ways.  The psychiatric ward in fact, never contacted me and I did go and sit there for an entire day waiting to see someone, which resulted in a one time 6 month supply of the medicines.  I only took the medicine that calmed my heart rate, as I started to exercise again and change where I slept, as well as, everything I was doing and eating.

The reason I am sharing this, is that I was deeply sad and I had very little still after all these years, just gypsying around, as if I was waiting for something, letting my pride keep me in survival mode, for several years. I had given up entirely, and was left gasping quite literally for my breath.  I have returned full circle to this breaking point in empathy, as I type now.  To some, this off-grid way of life, eating more out of garden, foraging and trading more than finding what is needed in shops and markets is honorable and inspiring – in fact I meet many people leaving behind good jobs, good relationships, abandoning the system of money so to speak, for this gypsying homeless material-less way of living, that I adopted as my survival mode.  To others, it is  a way of life that exhibits no self love or self respect whatsoever.  I have shared in the shame and sadness from both perspectives.  In my opinion, poverty is a choice we create based on our subconscious judgements.  I am learning that abundance is and always was for everyone.  A currency is not something you base your value on, how much currency you have does not determine your access to abundance.  Clearing subconscious judgements is an entirely different subject, but a very necessary part of healing, and accessing this abundance. It seems never-ending.

I felt anger, I pushed the only person I let near me away over and over, until we both finally remained silent.  Completely alone for a bit.  It was an anger that I did not understand, and loathed.  A very necessary aloneness.  The more I loathed it, the angrier I became, so I smoked more, worked harder despite how run down my system and body became, also, despite how much judgement and disappointment I got from a few interactions with people, because I was not earning a lot of money yet, and they could not seem to fathom why I seemed so strong and content without it at times.   I also seemed all over the place, and like I was running all the time, an absolute mess in my personal space as it was within.  I forgot to eat on time too many times, for too long.  I lost weight quickly.  I was completely run down and emotional all the time.

In a notebook, I have written about how I felt like an end, not wanting to do anything anymore because it seems that one can dress your space with nice clothes, a car, a dining table …. All that home stuff, and the right brands and you have “LOVE” lol seems so ridiculous and untrustworthy to me.  In fact in business, once you pay money to print up a signboard for example, instead of hand-painting it, people start buying more of what you sell, in most urban societies.  If I get a vehicle that is second hand and old from cash I save for over 3 years instead of a brand new one, my teas will be selling slower.  I hope to change that.  I wrote about my homeless assistant working on his own volition at times, to finish my garden perimetre without being paid and enduring my moods… how for that reason, among others, like a man offering me a car and others bringing plants and seeds or whatever I needed along my gypsying path, I got up to continue day after day, making the garden at Pirates.  That the Universe or God was screaming at me literally ‘ get up and walk’….  While my heart broke and all the sadness of all my life flowed through me, because of how people responded to my reality in different ways (their own perceptions often left me awakened) leaving me in some weird way refreshed, especially at a moment of absolute abandonment.  I am deeply grateful for it, not because I blamed the person that abandoned me but because I realized how hard she tried to break this wall down, how it destroyed parts of her and myself too.   I needed to let go.

So much anger, and confusion and sadness as a result of putting it all out there literally and getting what felt like judgements and disbelief in return.  I felt absolutely worthless, hopeless and at the mercy of strangers for too many years, and I started to listen again to my inner self or God – like I say – whatever you call it.  I am deeply grateful to some of these strangers who are becoming true friends.

Here it is then…or is it the time is now? The time to STOP…. in fact it is not yet time, I dont know this yet but it’s another month and a bit before I really do stop smoking so much, and being such a reclusive hermit, and to stop getting sidetracked by some search for love or community to lift me out of this empathy that I literally fed off of.

I try to create a day to stop completely and start this document instead.  In the process, I change the name several times varying from 40 dayze to the last 40 dayze to what it is now awakening to living from the core, and later Healing with the Core…the reality… I feel this is appropriate considering my past and present, as so many things manifest from my deepest desires before me now, to lift me somehow away from whatever parasitic or egotistical or self loathing being I became.  My mother earth carries me, quite literally, and I am sure it is much the same for many.

I want to scream.  I  will take a bath instead.

The sadness from thoughts of suicide and misunderstood expressions of it dissipates again.  I am tired of feeling sad, I loathe this feeling and I do not understand.  I wake and shout at my mind, shout at my body, shout at God to take this away.  I am angry and begin to lose the feeling that I should be entitled to abundance, that I need it and that I do not deserve it.

As a long term marijuana abuser or user I can honestly say that it is not possible for me to function as a stoner in some societies and in most forms of work and creativity.  We become stoners when we overuse this medicine, and it destroys our minds quite literally, in my opinion, much the same as too much coffee damages our gall bladder, making us feel run down and nauseous instead of giving us a boost of energy…. It is not possible because I do not stay in my mind in one place or in my body at times, it feels that way anyway.  If I suddenly stop, I am very depressed and angry and irrational with anyone, even a 5 year old recently   The sadness of my situation is from one perspective quite debilitating and numbing, and the passion and dedication displayed in the attempts I’ve made to work through this with God or Mother Earth, however you perceive, it is what is causing people to connect around me in their communities, which is what anyone’s purpose is I believe.

This is the reason I do not change where i am or what I am doing and everything at once again, I have done that 4 times in my life already.  Change is definitely as good as a holiday, but if the result of 22 years of marijuana smoking is this kind of rollercoaster, and isolation or abandonment is the result then this problem perhaps is my mind or something within the chemicals in my brain.   I do wonder what if I had taken more of those creepy pills years ago?  We are what we eat literally, and it is recorded in many medical texts that Marijuana causes some kind of imbalance in brain tissue and brain chemicals, affecting mood mostly.  I want to make it clear again, that I do not believe anyone’s state of being can be defined or tainted by one imbalance – as one is never out of balance in only one part at a time, and besides, right now my heart has been breaking for a quite some time as well.

Damaged or not, beyond all this hurt and sadness I do love my SELF and you should feel that way about your own self too.  Its this self love that makes me take a bath and continue to live

I’ve shared this as it happens as it is so that it’s not just a simple Day 1 and a list of symptoms like anger, nihilism, suicidal etc so many go through this.  Marijuana is not the same as stopping alot of chocolate and bananas, and I have got some serious depression going on here.  I believe Marijuana is a powerful medicine and if abused as I have abused it results in the above-mentioned kind of debilitating empathy and depression for many.   So what do we do?  What does SANCA offer long term marijuana users as mood stabilizers?  I am in contact with them regarding this, and hopefully they will share some of the natural medicines more widely in the future.  What are natural mood stabilizers?

I know that at some point I will be making use of the following plants as mood stabilizers.

  1. Sceletium
  2. Ginko Biloba
  3. Goto Kola –  centella
  4. Rosemary

On a random time I took a walk from my garden past a house, and the owner outside invited me in for coffee.  I didn’t tell him much about myself but rather my ideas about urban farmers and community development.  He gave me R2000 cash to start learning to drive.  It is still surreal.  In that moment, I don’t know whether to cry or say fuck you to be honest.  I asked him if he was sure about giving it to me, and he giggled, ‘no, I am not, are you?’.  I also headed out with him and his mum into the mountains where they are working on a food forest.  It was beautiful and humbling in the sense that much of what I imagine I would want to own or create for myself exists there already.  E.G a solar heated bathtub on top of a cliff overlooking the mountains with a waterfall on the left.  Isolation still though but I may be there to change that two weeks a month.   This means I will be in two worlds still, still creating, still awakening to living from core.

I felt very sore and sick from a lack of stable eating, lack of sleep, the anger, the sadness, a fall that resulted in a huge bruise on my butt and a swollen bicep, with lacerations on the inside of my left hand.  A fantastic simulation of pain that seemed to flash through me resulting in some form of happiness, as I fell, seemed rather strange.  I stood up from that with gratitude.

I was bedridden with flu, after this trip and it became a very nihilistic few days in which I considered all the reasons one can fathom to end such a lifetime… I stand, just the way I am supposed to be placed into a reality of my own dreams coming true.  It is teaching me that abundance is really always there, always was and always will be.  We just need to learn to trust it.  I found, I no longer desired anything and then everything I ever desired presented itself.

TO BEGIN this detox needs to get real.  I need to really stop smoking.  This flu has left me with heart palpitations and chest pains of note. I am not diligent in drinking water but I have managed to start feeding myself meals that are not just soups or pasta.  I am deeply sad still, even though I am earning eight times the income I had and having a beautiful mountain space to go garden in and stay in for at least two weeks each month.   I am sad because I am alone.  I embrace this and decide to reach out to the woman I love, I am ignored mostly.  Eventually I get a angry response, and I respond with the love I do possess.  I am not sure we will ever be friends.  To forgive takes time, and when one does forgive, it does not create the changes one desires in those we forgive, or delete their subconscious judgements that cause them to treat us so badly.  We must learn to love without understanding.

This flu lasted almost 5 weeks.  I bombed my body with tissue salts, garlic, ginger, tumeric, cayenne pepper, african wormwood, olive leaf and echinacea extract and eventually snake oil… smoking alot of marijuana in between just to ease the discomfort.  I stop taking anything and I let it ride its journey through my body.  Now I am detoxing off of anti-inflamatories too, goodness…. I stop smoking so much.  I start to walk again in the city.  I try to reach out to society on facebook to come assist in the garden at Pirates or to contact me if any of my proposed ideas are wanted.  I get one response.  It is a response I cannot honor until I have actually earned the first months full salary or get funding or donations of soil from community.  I am not sure I will honor it, and the few that know me tell me to stop running away.

I plan another garden, one that will be started in the mountains this week.  I prepare myself to be healed and restored in doing this.  I go shopping for the first time in years not for anything I need – i don’t rush in and out reading labels of products I am not familiar with, I don’t get anxious in the mall for a change, I don’t get a headache trying to be normal anymore.  I laugh, it’s quite an ironic and biased community in this city – everyone consuming and literally pushing each other out the way to throw around abundance they think they earned?

I am not sure where my journey will lead me but this blog is a huge part of mine, a record of all the ups and downs that, like so many in my life, always lead me to be alone in nature and with God for a certain time.  Out in the mountains, there are 5 workers, hundreds of hectares of unused land and a small village of people I am yet to meet.  I will walk with the plant healers and learn, I will map out trails I explore with a compass, a machete, some paper and my pencil among other things. I will start and grow an awesome medicine and food garden, that will supply more tisanes or teas to any city, and add to subscription food boxes. I will fearfully shape shift and awaken to living from the core.  Human interaction, and this flu and the attempts I’ve made in the city to be free to enjoy it, have not killed me, neither did my wish for death or any of my past shit.  I surrendered.

Whatever perception you, as the reader have of me or my expressions are yours alone.  I can only hope to continue to inspire and empower people along with myself through this blog.  If you are a marijuana smoker, smoke less, make some cookies once a month instead, use the plant medicines I mentioned I would be using to stabilize your moods and make the detox as mindfully pleasant as possible.   Choose life, realize that when you let it ALL GO &  TRUST there really is a whole lot more energy, clarity, production and reward.

If you would like to sign up for a food box, seeing as it’s already growing in Westbury, please send me an email nntreasure@gmail.com because I will be on and off signal at least two weeks every month.  I will post about what is being done in the mountains as I go along, healing with the land ;-)

Thank you for reading this.

Thank you for letting me know you want a food box ;-) full of naturally grown edibles and medicinals.  

A good friend of mine, Jamie Shepherd offers an online course, please contact me if you want to sign up for it 072 146 9017.

He designs and structures an environment to yield the maximum carrying capacity of the land and implements a water and waste management system to form functional working community and sustainability. With water contouring techniques and natural process he allows for nature to thrive and creates an eco-system that teaches people to live in harmony with nature.

He has developed an exact science of transferring authentically sustainable land use practices into populations based on his identification of natural patterns of behavioral change and consciousness transformation in populations. The lives, livelihoods and quality of life of millions of citizens depend on these unique insights.

Jamie has a UNISA B.Sc. in analytical natural resource geography and botany and did his permaculture design course with Bill Mollison. He has mapped the wetlands of the Umkomazi catchment for KZN administration, compiled alternative land use reports for the Msunduzi town planner and laid out hundreds of self regulating micro homestead food forest ecosystems around South Africa.

His report on the harvesting of built environment runoff as the foundation of sustainable development was published in the submissions to the 3rd international conference on public open space management held at TECHNIKON PRETORIA and presented at an international conference on sustainable architecture facilitated by the CSIR.

He proved his training management strategy for effective behavioral change on the 180 gardens project in the Isimangaliso Wetland Park, sponsored by the KZN Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

DISCOVER:

  1. How to produce a variety crops in less than 2 months.
  2. How to cycle moisture within the system and improve rainfall.
  3. How to increase the productive capacity of your system over the years.
  4. How to maintain a continuity of production 365 DAYS A YEAR and avoid the feast and famine syndrome.
  5. How to create a self regulating productive ecosystem that can survive without maintenance and still produce a continuity of annual crops.
  6. Produce at least 50% of your families’ nutrition needs; that will cure anybody of anything short of an amputation; at home effortlessly.
  7. Equip you with practical skills that will empower you to apply what you learn yourself.
  8. Empower you with a real ownership and connection with your self-regulating food forest ecosystem as an extension of yourself; your habitat.
  9. How to sequestrate atmospheric carbon at a rate of 2 storeys of biomass / year and grow a rich organic soil from seed on any land.
  10. How to provide your own pristine quality domestic water from a well in your backyard that never runs dry.
  11. How to drive your local area revolution that will make this possible for your neighbors effectively.
  12. How to lay out an authentically sustainable Eco-village that will provide abundantly for posterity.
  13. How to multiply your property value
  14. How to turn pollution and impending desertification, famine and escalating oil prices on their head.

Contact me on 072 146 9017 or email me nntreasure@gmail.com for more details on how to do the course

 

Westbury Youth Centre began with a dream and vision to fulfill the need for a place the community could not only call their own, but also a place that would take care of their own; take care of their future.   They have various programs to assist community, including a fantastic garden.  They strive to empower the youth and community through skills development, multimedia , community outreach and education.  Truly a place of hope, providing opportunities, developing great citizens, offering alternatives to substance abuse.

I was fortunate to meet Harry from Little Green Men in my garden at Pirates, who took me to a meeting at the Centre.  In this meeting we decided to redesign and integrate much more variety of plants, and community activities to help the garden grow.   We decided to start tomorrow, and in we went with Nklandla and Josef from the Pirates garden and began to utilize and remove waste from the space.

This is how it started…

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Along with some awesome volunteer students from the centre and community, we have been digging swales and planting seeds, redoing the entire garden and adding alot more surface area to plant in for a start.  Below are more images of progress and updates will be posted regularly on the Little Green Men website.

20160505_082726Here the guys were using waste materials to construct our gate for the potting area.

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Also made use of some of the waste creating an awesome potting area and below are the beginnings of my mind map of things to come…

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…. and so it is some areas ready for planting now early May 2016 please go to the Little Green Men page and sign up for some of the harvest at only R70 for the contents of a box and a once off fee of R50 for a box made by the school can help us get books and other items for the school and continue to grow a supply of food for the centre and community around it as well.

 The potting area in progress… 20160505_082807

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20160421_134446 If you would like to donate any plants or seedlings that are either medicinal or edible please contact me on 072 146 9017 or nntreasure@gmail.com  Thank you to Shahn from The Kitchen Garden company for some of our first plants ;-)

20160505_161437Westbury Youth Centre garden is open to the public during the week, so feel free to come pick your own veggies with us from time to time ;-) <3

ArtOfCraftlogoFunding or Donation Requests

People Involved

  • Netanya Naude’ founder & administrator of Art of Craft
  • Nklandla  Pirates Garden Guardian and Compost Manager
  • Joseph Laborer, assistant apprentice for managing future urban farming project

Supporters of Art of Craft include the Pirates Sports Club and community, and also small businesses in the surrounds of Pirates Sports Club.

MISSION – the Preservation of Culture : To revise the current standard of living among urban settlements, and provide training in the application of low-cost, practical upliftment through example and education, as well as creative learnership of our African cultural heritage to all.  In essence a re-establishment of community based exchanges.

The purposes of the plan or ideas set out in this document are to achieve empowerment and to achieve the end goal of rehabilitating some land on the grounds, providing subscription food boxes and other naturally grown organic products such as hand creams to the community.

This project will be beneficial in creating more community and a central gathering space to achieve the above-mentioned mission.

Background of Founder of Art of Craft – Netanya Naude’

Netanya has a wealth of experience and knowledge about plants and their medicinal use. She worked for a company assisting urban communities with farming and gardening projects, while living off the grid herself. When she moved back to Johannesburg she got in contact with the Pirates Sports Club (PSC) in Greenside. The initial food garden was located between the gym and squash courts, which she maintained for a period of 6 months. Together with volunteers from various companies the garden grew significantly. She started a blog, www.artofcraft.co.za to record all the activities at the garden. On the blog (this one you are reading now) Netanya writes about herbal teas, medicinal use of plants, poetry, organic and recycled art and the companies that volunteered in the garden. Herbal tea remedies from the garden were sold at local markets

PSG Certification

After 6 months of maintaining the garden, it was moved to a different location at the Pirates Sports Club to allow for more growth and growing opportunities. At the same time Netanya got Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) “in transition” certification for the garden as defined by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). “Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are locally focused quality assurance systems. They certify producers based on active participation of stakeholders and are built on a foundation of trust, social networks and knowledge exchange.” (IFOAM, 2008)

PGS represent a real alternative to third party certification, especially adapted to local markets. Thousands of small farmers who grow organic produce are unable to certify their products, due to the costly processes involved and requires onerous record-keeping and infrastructure beyond the means of small farmers.

The new garden was started in November 2015.

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Product or services and its advantages

  1. Interactive gardening sessions on Saturdays from the garden, where people can learn about plants and their uses.
  2. A venue for people wanting to do workshops on making toothpaste, permaculture gardening, sustainable building such as building with bottle bricks or cob, composting, medicinal plants and how to use them and cooking from the garden.
  3. Showcase of thriving food and herb garden. Customers can see how food and medicine are growing and are encouraged to interact in the production of food and medicine.
  4. Fresh 100% organically grown produce from heritage or heirloom seeds.
  5. To provide a conferencing center, or showcase garden that will be used to host visiting expert trainers in job skills, work ethic, sustainability and sufficiency in maintenance – connecting people and community.

All of the above awaken the connection between mankind and nature, they awaken the body to healing itself again, to longevity and health and abundance for all ;-) The earth is assisted in her recovery of what all the waste and concrete on the land did.  A lot of bottles, broken bricks and waste from the grounds have already been used, promoting ideas of recycling.

Benefits and Features

  1. The soil is being rehabilitated, and the garden will be self-sustainable within the 36 month period.
  2. Many people are learning the medicinal use of everyday cooking herbs and that organic medicine is just as possible as organic food from their own back yards.
  3. People have the opportunity to learn about composting, hugelkultuur, plant medicine,making creams, making toothpaste and making hair shampoo and much more.
  4. Empower, inspire and educate people.  Community is coming together in a way recreating itself, encouraged to trade or use money or use alternative currencies or both or all three closer to home or at least en-route home.
  5. The harvest is organically or naturally grown. Coffee grains and bokashi are used in the garden and grow anti-pest plants which I ferment and spray with if required.  So far not yet.
  6. The garden is a sanctuary for all to enjoy, excluding the herbs and medicinal plants reserved for above-mentioned companies.
  7. Future plans include exclusive meals from the garden or served on deck at Pirates or during wine tastings. Workshops on a variety of topics can also be introduced.  And growing alot of herbs for different companies and restaurants making use of them in food preparation.

Unique selling points

  1. No produce is ever older than a month, in the case of a month it may only be dried herbs in this period of agreement of land usage.
  2. Pick food fresh in front of customers, or customers can harvest themselves.
  3. Custom made tisanes or herbal remedies.
  4. Unique once off workshops – many plants to use in various creams, soaps and shampoos.
  5. Limited and exclusive harvest.

Produce Impression

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Market opportunity

  1. Suburban upper-class enjoys wine tastings – food, tea and wine pairing is becoming very popular. Carmien Teas used in Netanya’s tisanes from the garden, already do this with wine clubs in the Citrisdaal area in the Cape.   X Factor Wines is based in Johannesburg and Pirates already have a wine club going.  Small local tea companies such as Dandelion teas can also come together in this space.
  2. Organic or Farmers Markets bring community members together.
  3. Supply ofHealth Shops
  4. Co-op produce shops and Open Food Network
  5. Restaurants and Coffee shops.

 

THIS IS HOW YOU CAN HELP US                                  072 146 9017

Corporate/Civic Partners 

Corporate/Civic partners are companies and organizations with a special tie to Art of Craft ;-)   Netanya features corporate partners prominently whenever possible on her blog, on Facebook, newsletters and anywhere else we can promote the partnership.

Corporate/Civic Partners engage in our efforts to create this garden in at least one of the following ways:

  • Contribute R500 or more
  • Host a food or fund drive, using produce from the garden.- as much as possible.
  • Place a link to Art of Craft on your website
  • Sponsor an Art of Craft event
  • Bring a group to volunteer at the Art of Craft garden

2016 Art of Craft Corporate/Civic Partners:

  1. Pirates Sports Club – grounds and water for 36 months
  2. Solid Green Consultants – volunteers in the garden

Funding requirements

Item Required Cost of item Quantity Total Supplier Motivation / Reason
TOOLS Workshops
Gardening Fork R150 1 R150
Gardening Spade R150 2 R150
Dibber R90 5 R450
Pruning shears or scissors R500 3 R1 500
Hoe R150 2 R300
Spray bottle R700 2 R1 400
Watering can R100 1 R100
Lasher hand tool set R260 1 R260
Hose 20m R300 1 R300
Jojo 2200L and set up R5000 1 R5 000
Building mix 40kg R43.50 6 R261
MATERIALS
Soil and compost R3 000 3 cubes R3 000
Hay Erogenis R100 5 R500
Co- co nut coir R80 5 x 5kg blocks R400
TRANSPORT
Electric bicycle
Electric trike
Van/ bakkie Mercedes ?
License & driving school Netanya R2 500 R2 500
COMMUNICATION
Cell phone R2 000 R2 000
Laptop R10 000 R10 000
Wifi or data R1 000 R1 000
SALARIES
Nklandla 3000 X 3 MONTHS R9 000
Netanya 3000 X 3 MONTHS R9 000
OTHER
3 X 3M wendy R15 000 R15 000 Dehydration & Packaging & storage space also for workshops on above-mentioned.
4 X 5 BIG Wendy R21 000 R21 000 Workshop and training space.  Exclusive meals served at intervals.
Dehydrator R5 000 R5 000
Marketing Budget R5 000 R5 000 Business cards & flyers
Greenhouse to be constructed in workshop event A recycle project using bottles.
Bench and table nooks Joseph makes R1 000 R1 000 To be used in garden for tisanes daily.
TOTAL ESTIMATED FUNDS REQUIRED R94 271