This past weekend during our monthly herb school, I took the students up to Short Creek Retreat for the day. We roamed the property enjoying a pretty day as we saw a lot of great edible and medicinal plants. In the afternoon, we concentrated on making salves and tinctures as well as cooking some Oyster mushrooms we harvested. This video is of making Lion's Mane tincture which is not only a delicious mushroom to eat, it is also a powerful medicinal for regenerating nerve cells.

Some friends and I spent a great day hunting Fall mushrooms today. While we didn't find lots of them, the ones we found were large and will last all winter in the freezer. As you can see from the photo, we found a huge Hen of the Woods and Lion's Mane as well as a couple of decent sized Cauliflower mushrooms and some poisonous Jack O' Lantern cluster. Not only are the Hens and Lion's Mane delicious mushrooms, they are also highly medicinal and will be featured in the next issue of the Southern Herbalist.

A lot of people ask me every year about the subject of eating Poison Ivy leaves in order to gain immunity from the rash. Although this is a controversial subject, I have found that over 25 years of doing this, it works like a charm. I made a short video on the subject showing how to properly ingest the leaves in the spring. Of course, you do understand that you are doing so at your own risk.

After a long and pretty wet winter season, it is nice to see that the earth is ready to spring back to life! It is early March and I have already spotted Bloodroot, Trilliums, Celandine Poppy, Toothworts, Hepatica and Virginia Bluebells either poking their heads up or actually blooming. Actually, things are running a bit late due to the weather. We never had any really bitter temps but had consistently long periods of cold, wet weather and that delayed some of the plants.

This is the time of year that my blood really begins to pump and I get excited to get out in the woods, explore and see all that nature has to offer. In just a couple of weeks, what was just a smattering of plants will exponentially grow into a riot of blossoms. As the season progresses, I'll keep everyone informed of what I find each week. So, until then......

I'll see you in the Woods!

Back in the spring, I had a lot of fun providing a bit of wilderness survival consulting for the Man versus Wild show when they filmed here in Alabama. It was filmed at the Little River Canyon/Ball Play Swamp area and provided something of a challenge for the crew due to the wide variety of weather we were having at the time. After shooting wrapped up, Jane and I were invited to the after filming get together where Bear Grylls and I had this picture taken. All in all, it was an interesting experience. Bear turned out to be an exceptionally nice guy and is very personable and easy going. It turns out that there is a lot more to putting on a production like this than I had imagined.

I have uploaded some new plant videos from my new DVD called, "Southern Medicinal Plants". I am going to add a page to the website with various videos as I film them as well as having a section of podcasts. Visit http://www.youtube.com/southernherbalist to see the newest uploaded videos. I will also be adding more podcasts to this site as well. Be prepared for a lot of new changes and an updated list of classes by this weekend. I am planning on adding a series of videos this weekend on the Swine Flu and its potential ramifications on our health as well as civil liberties. You can also find all of these videos in the Video page on this website.

I don't know how it is for most of you in the cold north but here in the Deep South, it is absolutely beautiful. the woods are filling rapidly with an assortment of wildflowers and medicinal plants. Bloodroot leaves are getting larger now that the blossoms have begun to fall. The Trilliums, Black and Blue Cohosh, Wild Ginger, Alleghenny Spurge and a host of other plants are rapidly spreading across the forest floor. It is a glorious time to get out and ramble in the woods. For the next few days, it is going to be very rainy here in Alabama and this just means that it will cause another explosion of color both in the woods and in the surrounding fields.

On the Survival/Homesteading front - I have really been putting an emphasis this year on getting the gardening in order, planting a wider assortment of blueberries, thornless blackberries, apple rees etc... along with the usual cabbages, tomatoes and other vegetables. As Jules Dervaes says, "Resistance is Fertile!". It is our duty as Americans to be as independent and self-sufficient as possible. One of the best ways we can do this is by taking control of our food supply so that we are less dependent on food brought in from thousands of miles and even continents away. America has become dangerously dependent upon outside sources of food and it is just a matter of time before we find ourselves held hostage to other countries for our food just as oil has a stranglehold on our economy now. As a net importer of food for the first time in our history, we are critically close to a dangerous tipping point in our food supply. It is up to us as individuals to retake control of our lives and the best thing we can do is to begin to garden.

For years, on an off I have been doing a series of newsletters and occasional podcast about the issues of herbal medicine, homesteading, survival gardening and survivalist topics in general. Over the next few weeks, I have decided to again put more emphasis in these areas. Back in the 1980's when I began homesteading seriously, those of us in this are we thought to be radical doom and gloom naysayers. It is amazing how, 20 years later, our predictions are actually beginning to be taken more seriously. As the podcasts and the Youtube videos ramp up, I hope you take the time to listen, watch and send in show ideas. Whether it is gardening, survival skills, homesteading, firearms or whatever, we will try and cover it for you. Keep tuned in through the newsletter and here on the website for new podcasts and videos as they become available. Until then, check on the podcast on my herbal mentor Tommie Bass and keep tuned for episode #1 of the new podcast series in the next few days.