FORAGING WITH ROBIN GREENFIELD

ROBIN GREENFIELD – ONE YEAR OF 100% FORAGING

By Christopher Nyerges    [www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com]

 

Helen, Robin, and Christopher after a day of foraging

Robin Greenfield is a man on a mission.

Greenfield describes himself as a truth-seeker, activist, social reformer and servant to Earth, humanity and our plant and animal relatives. Through living closely connected to Earth, he rejects the status quo of consumerism and demonstrates a way of being in gratitude, mindfulness and presence. He describes his life as an experiment with truth and integrity.

His ”experiments” have been both bold and radical.  A recent campaign of his was his commitment to earn below the federal poverty threshold for life and donates 100% of his media earnings to grassroots nonprofits. 

In fact, during our short conversation, I offered him a $20 bill as appreciation for getting some of the  plants he was giving away for free.  He gave it back to me, telling me that he was currently in a period where he is seeing what it is like to not handle any money! 

ONE YEAR 100% FORAGING

His most recent campaign is to go for one year eating nothing but food foraged from the wild.  That’s right, no supermarkets, no farms.

 Is that even possible?

 

Foraging!  Is that even a thing anymore?  Part of the way of life from the “hunter-gatherer” period aeons ago, foraging has experienced a steady increase in interest since the 1970s.  It refers to collecting foods and medicines from the wild.

 

From his homeland in Wisconsin, Greenfield has been travelling around the country during his year of foraging, conducting foraging workshops along the way to teach people what he’s actually doing for a whole year. Recently, about 50 people walked with Greenfield in the hills of Griffith Park to learn about some of the wild plants and how they can be used.

When he came to the Pasadena area on his U.S. tour last month, he was nearly into 8 months of 100% foraging.  I asked him  how he was able to fill his caloric and other needs with wild plants alone.

“I’m eating about 120 pounds of greens a year,” he explained, while showing me large bags of the leaves of lamb’s quarter and watercress that he had just collected along a waterway.    Both of those plants can be harvested world-wide, when in season, and are both powerhouses of vitamins and minerals.

“Gardeners generally regard the lambs quarter as a weed and they pull it and toss it,” said Greenfield, “but it’s loaded with vitamins and minerals, and can be boiled, sauteed, added to soup, and used in salads.”  Greenfield went on to explain that the watercress only grows along slow-moving waters, such as around the edges of streams and lakes, which means that watercress is only found in more specific environments.

I asked Greenfield how he gets his body’s needed protein, and oils and carbohydrates for energy.

He smiled, and told me that he did lose a bit of weight after starting this experiment, though his weight has leveled off.  “The one food I really miss is olive oil,” he added.

Greenfield doesn’t just try to forage each day, eating only what he finds that day.  He carries with him a rack which has bottles of wild foods and meats which he has collected.  The bottled foods included dried foods, pickled foods, fruits, nuts, and meats.  The meat includes fish and deer.

He caught the fish during his journey and he pickled it. The deer was roadkill that he processed and canned.

In the normal course of foraging, the availability of foods varies with the season, and diminishes as summer comes.  So he collects plenty of food plants, and dries, or pickles, them for later.

At his recent foraging walk in the Pasadena area, he collected a bag of cattail shoots, about two gallons of curly dock seeds, a bag of lamb’s quarter greens, a large bag of watercress, and some wild currants, most of which were eaten on the spot.  These plants were in season, and are fairly easy to forage just about anywhere in the U.S. 

Cattail shoots, mostly available in just the spring, were once called “Cossack asparagus,” when they were widely used during the wars in Europe.  They are the white interior part of the young plant, crisp, with a flavor like cucumbers.

Lambs quarter is another European weed that is now found everywhere in North America, but most commonly in the spring and summer. The leaves are used raw or cooked, just as you’d use spinach, and they are regarded as a powerhouse of vitamins and minerals.

Curly dock is so widespread that it’s regarded as an agricultural pest.  The roots are used medicinally, and the leaves are mostly used in cooked dishes. The seeds, which are produced in abundance every fall, persist on the plant so they can be harvested over a long period.  Robin collected over a gallon of the curly dock seed, intending to grind it into a flour to use for bread, or a cooked mush.

This is just a sampling of the foods that Greenfield is eating during his year of foraging.  But just imagine the task of getting all your nutritional needs met, and enjoying your meals too!  That’s why Robin carries along his rack of foods that he’s already collected.

His supply of food includes acorns which he has leached and ground, ready to be used for flour.  He has hazelnuts, and hickory nuts.  He has collected elm tree samaras (“seeds”) for flour, and 75 pounds of wild rice that he collected during the beginning of his adventure.

Though he uses lots of fresh greens as he travels, such as mallow, fennel, mustard, and sow thistle, he carries a container of dried nettle leaves which he uses for soup, stew, and tea. 

He has containers of certain dried mushrooms, which he uses for soups, or flavoring.

“I like to harvest fresh fruits,” says Greenfield, such as pears, apples, and plums from feral trees, which he dries or makes into canned sauce.  He also collects wild elderberries, cherries, and currants.

He has a pressure cooker which he makes a daily stew of greens, meat, rice and other seasonings.  The seasonings that he carries includes maple syrup, ocean salt, Brazilian pepper, garlic, ramps, sea weed powder, and more.

During one of his public foraging walks in Los Angeles, Robin told the small group that he once had a good paying job but he turned his back on it because he didn’t want to be a part of a lifestyle that was destructive.  Robin has committed to earning below the federal poverty threshold for life and donates 100% of his media earnings to grassroots nonprofits, with a focus on supporting Black and Indigenous women-led organizations. 

In fact, during our short instructional session with Robin, I offered him a $20 bill as appreciation for giving out free toilet paper plants.  He gave the bill back to me, telling me that he was currently in a period where he is seeing what it is like to not handle any money!

You can learn more about Robin and his mission by checking the web site at http://robingreenfield.org/tp

THREE FISH

 

THREE FISH

Musing in a Waiting Room

Nyerges [www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com] 

I was sitting in a waiting room watching three golden fish in a fish tank.  The tank was perhaps 3 feet high and five feet wide, and maybe two feet deep.  It was bigger than any fishtank I ever had as a child. 

I normally read a book or magazine when I’m in  a waiting room, but something about them caused me to watch the fish. I watched them go back and forth and up and down, seemingly always looking for food. I do not know how long they had resided in that tank, but I figured that they knew the full scope of their world, every nook and cranny, around every rock and all the details of each plastic plant designed to look like real seaweeds.  I watched to see if the three had patterns to their movements, or whether it was very random. 

As I watched, I thought of the German novel “The Wall,” where this invisible wall suddenly appeared in the countryside.  You didn’t see it, but you could not pass beyond this  wall.  Because the wall kept people within certain parameters, people died.  It was a depressing novel.

Then I thought about zoos, those places where we all visited as children and loved to get close to the “wild” animals.  I’ve heard both good and bad things about zoos, how certain animals are saved from near extinction in the wild because of the zoos.  And as I continued to observed the meandering journey of the three fish, I thought about zoos and realized why I didn’t like the concept of a zoo, which imprisons animals in confined spaces so other people can come and look at them. 

From the animals’ perspective, it must feel like a life of futility and lost dreams.  Yes, it’s true that some animals will live longer in a zoo and not go extinct.  Still, I don’t like zoos.  An animal can wander freely and fend for himself and probably live a shorter life than he would in a cage, but he’s living the sort of life that nature intended.  Is the animal “happier” in the wild?  Does the animal even think in those terms?  Does the caged animal realize that he no longer can make certain choices?  What’s the solution?  You couldn’t very well just open all the cages and let the animals run free.  Some would not survive on their own, far from home.  Others would be a threat to the urban humans and their pets.

As I sat in the quiet waiting room while others read magazines or talked in hushed tones, I continued to wait my turn as I watched the fish.  It occurred to me that zoos are the partners-in-crime with modern agriculture.  Have you ever seen a modern chicken factory, with three chickens to a tiny cage so small that they cannot turn around, with lights on 24/7 so the farmer can extract the most eggs out the chickens before they are killed?  While there are some free-range farms, chickens in small cages life-long is not unusual.  It’s the price that is paid to have a surplus of eggs at every store.  And it’s why I always buy free-range, or not at all.

The fish continue to swim back and forth and up and down, and I still do not see a recognizable repeatable pattern to their movements. They do not seem at all aware of my existence, and I wonder how long they have lived in the tank, and how much longer they will live.

The door opens and the receptionist at the doctor’s office calls my name.  My last thought as I left the waiting room was that I would never want to be one of those fish.  And then, for a split second, I began to consider all the limits and restrictions and repeatable patterns of my own life.  “Hmmm” I pondered, as I go to see the doctor.

BOOKS AND CLASSES BY CHRISTOPHER NYERGES:  Go to www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com

Excerpt from "Watermelon Dreams" on Love

 

THE NATURE OF LOVE AND ITS MANY COUNTERFEITS

From “Watermelon Dreams”

 WATERMELON DREAMS: Strange Tales: Childhood’s Passage of Growing up in Pasadena: Nyerges, Christoher: 9798359334716: Amazon.com: Books

            One day in July of 2008, I went to the Coffee Gallery in Altadena and started talking with my friend Michael, who was reading a book about love. Love, one of the few topics you can study your entire life and never really “get it.”

            “The problem,” I told Michael, as if I knew what I was talking about, “is that we think about this way too much, whereas the animals – at least some animals – don’t think about it. They just act.  The basic fundamentals of what most of us mean by love – protection, providing food for the young, some training – are simply done without all the considering and evaluating and vacillation that humans are so famous for.”

            Michael nodded.  He didn’t talk a lot but he listened, and when he spoke, he asked a deep question or he had a pithy comment.

            We agreed upon certain things that every human should know about “love” and its many facets and tangents.  A man cannot have more than one woman at a time, whether wife or girlfriend. OK,  some try and seem to get away with it, and some are even involved in consentual polygamy.  But that seems to be  the exception, not the rule.  One woman at a time, period.  That works and other arrangements do not.  Even when people try to have “open” arrangements, they all seem to fail in the long run, usually due to arguments and disagreements about what “open relationship” means, as well as jealousies that inevitably arise.

 

We agreed that the Masai men in Africa might have four wives there and “get away with it,” because that is the social norm.  It is done in plain view with everyone knowing that’s what’s happening.  But it won’t work here.

 

Don’t have sex if you’re not prepared for children.  “Hoping that she doesn’t get pregnant” is not a good protective measure.  Don’t have children until you’re ready to devote the next 15 or so years to them, as a child without involved parents is part of the formula called “How to make a criminal.”

 

Michael and I agreed on some of these basics, and we barely brought up the principles in the “Art of Loving” book by Eric Fromme.

 

I realized that much of what my parents “taught” me about this subject was due to the fact that I knew I should not follow the path that they took.  Though there was rarely a show of affection between my mother and father, at least I had a roof over my head, we didn’t move around all the time, and we were all given a good education.  My father always worked, and my mother sometimes worked as a nurse.  There seemed to be little of what we would call “romantic love” there, but at least we had the essentials handled, in a more or less stable relationship.  In other words, my brothers and I received at least as good a home life as is given to their children by the most protective of animals.  Which is more than I could say for many of our friends and their parents.

 

Michael and I continued to discuss why he was reading a book about “love” in the first place, and it continued to invoke memories from my childhood.  Where, for example, did I get my idea of what “love” is, or should be?  What did I learn from my own home?  More precisely, what didn’t I learn from home that I should have learned?

Read the book for the FULL CHAPTER...

THE RICK TRILOGY: How I wrote these three books

 

THE RICK TRILOGY: How I wrote these three books

Christopher Nyerges

www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com

[BOOKS AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON]

Amazon.com : Journey Into the underground, Nyerges

I have long wanted to write a novel.  Finally, over the last few years, and culminating in December of 2024, I finished a trilogy of novels, all based around a main character named Rick.  I hadn’t originally intended to write a trilogy, but I just kept going once I got started.

BOOK ONE: JOURNEY INTO THE UNDERGROUND

This first one started as a dream I had.  I was in these underground tunnels beneath JPL that exited in diverse places in the desert to the north.  Later I called my friend who works at JPL and he gave me a tour.  I told him I was particular interested in any underground tunnels, like the one in my dream that was labeled “Tunnel 16.”  I got the tour and there was no Tunnel 16, but I kept thinking about it, and began to write the story.

Each day when I sat down to write, I would first close my eyes and try to picture the dream again.  Then I wrote as if I was describing the internal movie I was watching.  A  young Pasadena boy, Rick, discovers the tunnel behind a gas station and explores it.  He discovers that an Invisible race lives there, and Rick is called upon to settle a civil war among the Invisibles.  Yes, an odd premise, and I let my dreams guide the telling and resolution of the story.  Eventually, Rick helped resolve the conflict and tried to go back to his normal life.  I titled this first adventure Tunnel 16.

In part two, called Sinkhole 102, maybe 5 years later, Rick is a student at Caltech, one of the youngest, very involved as a physics student,  and one day a stranger asks his help in resolve another Invisibles conflict, this time in the Malibu Canyon caves.  Rick does it, but only because he believes he will be getting paid, which turned out to be not as Rick expected.  Frank Landry, the anti-spy operative from JPL who we met in part one, makes an appearance.

In part three, Mojave Caves, Rick is on a short break from Caltech, and feels moved to drive up to the Death Valley area in search of a man named Charlie who might show him some of fabled Indian caves full of ancient writings.  Rick does meet the son of Charlie, and gets involved in another cave episode at the same time the local Indian tribe is trying to fend off sales of their sacred land.  Rick meets some of the same players in this complicated story of intrigue, mystery, and resolution.

In all these cases, no one actually believes that Rick went into tunnels and interacted with an Invisible race. After all, there is no proof.  Since those who Rick told about it think he’s making it all up, he tries to not talk about it too much and just devote his time to his studies.

BOOK TWO: RICK’S TRAINING

This book was a suggestion by my friend Angelo, who told me to tell a story about how Rick learned his outdoor survival skills.  So here we have Rick disillusioned with Caltech after being one of the very youngest PhDs, and professors, and then dropping out and living with a native man in a remote desert location somewhere east of Castaic.  There Rick learns homesteading, foraging, and general survival and self-reliance skills.  In this book we are introduced to a cast of characters, most of whom have an uncanny resemblance to people that your probably know.

It’s not a how-to book, but rather intended to be an entertaining view of what it actually takes to support yourself with your own businesses, and to provide your food and needs from the land, without having to run to the store every minute.  Besides, in this story, there had been a serious economic depression and no one has money anyway. 

In this story, Rick eventually gets married, and divorced, and has moved from the high desert to Highland Park.

BOOK THREE: THE EVENT

Amazon.com: The Event eBook : Nyerges, Christopher: Kindle Store

This book also originated with a dream I had – really, it was nightmare since it seemed so real and I woke up in a sweat, feeling uneasy most of the day.  In the dream, some sort of cataclysmic event happened. It was a very fragmentary dream which repeated a few times, and I wrote down the details when I woke up. 

So I worked the various pictures from my dream into this third novel in the trilogy called The Event.  In this book, our character Rick is on his way home from work, trying to get to Highland Park,  when something inexplicable begins to happen, and he and his friend spend the next three days in the basement.  It turns out that anyone who stayed underground survived, but perhaps 95% of the population was dead after that first three days.

This then is the story of how Rick walks back to his old neighborhood to see who survived. The landscape is dark and devoid of people, and dangers seem to lurk everywhere.  He finds that his wife survived in Pasadena – they had been separated – and she chose to go into the government trucks that came through trying to get people to evacuate.  Rick carefully makes his way to Highland Park to find more survivors. The story tracks how these two groups began their new life where they had to grow food, get water, and find ways to supply themselves with all the necessities of life.  And there were dead bodies everywhere, and lots of  people who wanted to rob or kill you in this very dark world.  You meet another cast of very familiar characters, and the two developing communities are learning to get food, water, and organize for protection.  You begin to feel that there is hope in the world, even in these dire conditions.

 

ALL THREE ARE ABOUT 1000 PAGES, and you can purchase them individually from Amazon. 

Journey into the Underground, Rick’s Training, The Event

A great literary experience

A book review: "THE EVENT: At Dawn's Early Light"

 

THE EVENT: At Dawn’s Early Light

Amazon.com: The Event eBook : Nyerges, Christopher: Kindle Store

A novel by Christopher Nyerges

[www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com]

Nearly 20 years ago I had a series of memorable dreams that seemed so real that I wrote down all the details when I woke up.  This was a time in my life when I was worrying about everything, and I would often go to sleep hoping for a vision, or an answer.

Pictures came in my dreams, and little by little, I pieced the pictures together. I dutifully wrote down he details every morning, and eventually, I thought to myself, Hey, this might make a good story!  I slowly wrote a fictitious novel based on these dreams which I now call The Event.

Though most of the dreams had to do with my personal life, the larger picture that I began to write about took on a life of its own. 

THE EVENT

In the novel, The Event, “something” happens one day.  No one ever finds out what it was.  Was it a comet that hit the earth?  Was it plasma ejected from the sun?  No one knows, but it killed off nearly everyone, unless they happened to be underground and stayed there for about three days.

The story that emerges is of a dark world, through the eyes of  the main character who I call Rick. Rick survived because he stayed with his co-worker Tim,  in Tim’s family cellar.  Finally, Rick emerges and explores the world that now exists.

The story takes place in Southern California, from the Pasadena area, into Eagle Rock, and into Highland Park.  Rick sees abandoned vehicles and dead bodies everywhere, and he cautiously  seeks out the survivors.

In the Pasadena/ Altadena area, he finds that his wife survived.  They had not been living together and Rick finds her in a hidden shelter that she created deep in her backyard.  She knows the few neighbors who survived, and tells Rick that trucks came through the area in the days after the event, telling survivors that they had to get into the trucks and evacuate the area.  Dolores just hid, and made her shelter and cooked soup, which she served to any friendly visitors.

Rick makes his way on foot through the Rose Bowl area, and through the Annandale Golf Course where he finds some drunken survivors who think Rick is coming to help them.  Rick had been a famous physicist from Caltech, though now youthfully retired, and his picture was on the wall of the golf course office along with other famous physicists.  The drunken survivors thus believed that Rick was there to provide some answers, though Rick was just passing through.

On his way to his old home and urban farm in Highland Park, which is northeast Los Angeles, he encounters homeless camps still surviving, he gets shot at, and he meets Jane, who was a former member of the National Guard. Together, they make their way into Rick’s destination, the old Fuller Farm, which had been a place to garden and farm in the city and learn about permaculture and self-reliant living.

Most of the folks at the Fuller Farm survived, though barely.

The story tracks a few other groups of individuals as well, all who end up at the Fuller Farm, and who find ways to work together now that there is no functioning larger society.  The Event meant that suddenly there were no banks, no electricity, no functioning grocery or hardware stores.  Indeed, there was nothing to spend money on, even if  you had any.   Though water is not an immediate problem, everyone knows that most of the water to Los Angeles came from over 300 miles away, and that they needed to plan for water.

The surviving society is also full of opportunists who want to control areas, and who are ready to fight and kill to take what they need.  The story describes the gun fights and assaults that were the inevitable result of the battles started by those who wanted to forcefully acquire something they wanted or needed..  It’s not a pretty picture, but the survivors of the developing communities learn to set up perimeter barriers, and alarms, though they continue to have random and unexpected gunfights.

Of course, The Event is a work of fiction, and I do not possess a crystal ball as to what the future portends.   This is the exploration of one scenario, and the mechanics for how a small group of people in L.A. County might survive under such adverse conditions. 

Six months after the event, it is apparent that whatever happened was very widespread and that things would not be going back to “normal” anytime soon.  The two groups which this novel tracks,  begin to assert their political identity and they take charge of their little emerging and growing communities.  There are lots of twists and turns and setback, while there is still hope.  Along the way, I was able to insert little hints about the things that people might need, such as a silcock key for accessing water, or the “vinegar of four thieves” for washing wounds.

I enjoyed the process of creating this as a movie in my mind and then writing what I was “seeing.”  I hope that you enjoy it too, and find it both entertaining and educational.

The Event is available from Amazon.com as an e-book or hard copy book.  It is 283 pages long.

 

 

HALLOWE'EN

 

The Roots of Hallowe’en (and Day of the Dead):

What’s it all about?

 [Nyerges is the author of several books including “How to Survive Anywhere,” “Extreme Simplicity,” and “Foraging California.”  Information about his books and classes is available at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.]

 

 

Why has the day of All Hallows Eve – Hallowe’en --  devolved into a day of  fun and fear?  How was this once- Holy Day commemorated before it was all commercialized into a scary night?  Is it possible to discover the roots of this day, and observe it in its original fashion today?

 My circle of friends attempted to answer these questions.  We determined that we’d need to dig up whatever historical facts we could find that show how this day was commemorated before 1700, more or less.  Though we couldn’t be 100% certain, we at least assumed that “commercialization” didn’t really exist in 1700, and all the European and some American commemorations before that year probably retained some semblance of what the day was all about, originally.

 So, first, let’s begin with the day.

 It is believed that the ancient Celts observed something called a “Samhain festival” towards the end of October.  Says the World Book Encyclopedia. “The Celts believed that the dead could walk among the living at this time. During Samhain, the living could visit with the dead. Elements of the customs can be traced to a Druid ceremony in pre-Christian times. The Celts had festivals for two major gods—a sun god and a god of the dead (called Samhain), whose festival was held on November 1, the beginning of the Celtic New Year.

 This day, or period, was to mark the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. 

 Samhain (pronounced “sow-in,” which means “summer’s end,” or the name of a god, or both) is seen by some Wiccans as a time to celebrate the lives of those who have died, and it often involves paying respect to ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets and other loved ones who have died. In some rituals the spirits of the dead are invited to attend the festivities.

 Various sorts of activities done on Samhain have been described over the centuries. In Ireland,  Samhain was a time to take stock of the herds and food supplies. Cattle were brought  to the winter pastures after six months in the higher summer pastures. Then, the people chose which animals to slaughter before the winter. After the slaughter of the animals, there would be feasting. And obviously, if you aren’t an animal-raising farmer, how would you celebrate this aspect, except for the feasting?

 The Catholic Church was aware of all the so-called “pagan” observances, and had their own day to commemorate the dead, May 13. This began in  609 or 610 A.D., when Pope Boniface the 4th dedicated the Pantheon— the Roman temple of all the gods—to Mary and all the martyrs.  Later that date was changed by Pope Gregory III (731-741 A.D.), who dedicated a chapel in Rome to all the saints and ordered that they be honored on November 1.  This was done, in part, to overshadow the pre-existing Samhain commemorations.

In the 11th century,   November 2^nd was assigned as "All Souls’ Day" in commemoration of the dead.   So this began the use of the term Hallow’s Eve, or Hallowe’en for October 31.

Hallowe’en customs are similar to the observance of Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, commonly racticed in Mexico and which can be traced to early Aztec times.  Apparently,  this “day of the dead” was originally commemorated in Mexico in May, and was changed to November 2 sometime after Spanish contact, possibly to correspond with the “Christian” tradition.

FOOD and GIFTING
Trick or treating in modern times goes back to leaving food and wine for roaming dead spirits and ghosts. The custom was referred to as "going a-souling" and was eventually practiced only by the children who would visit the houses in their neighborhoods and be given gifts of ale, food and money. It was believed the spirits of the dead returned to visit their old homes during this time, so in ancient times, people left food out for them and arranged chairs so that the dead would be able to rest.  

Treats called “soul cakes” were given out in memory of the departed.  The Middle Age practice of souling — going door to door begging for food in return for prayers — became popular and is even referenced by William Shakespeare in 1593.  This is obviously the root of the modern “trick or treating” for mini Snickers bars, a practice no doubt loved by every dentist.

Seasonal foods such as apples and nuts were often used in the Samhain rituals. Apples were peeled, the peel tossed over the shoulder, and its shape examined to see if it formed the first letter of the future spouse's name.  Nuts were roasted on the hearth and then interpreted – if the nuts stayed together, so would the couple. Egg whites were dropped in water, and the shapes foretold the number of future children. Children would also chase crows and divine some of these things from the number of birds or the direction they flew.  

COSTUMES
Celts would wear masks when they left their homes during the night hours during Samhain days, because they hoped they would avoid being recognized by the ghosts and be mistaken merely for fellow ghosts.

“Mumming” and “Guising” were a part of Samhain from at least the 16th century and was recorded in parts of Ireland, Scotland, Mann and Wales. It involved people going from house to house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting songs or verses in exchange for food.  It is suggested that it evolved from a tradition whereby people impersonated the aos sí, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf.  Impersonating these spirits or souls was also believed to protect oneself from them.   One researcher suggests that the ancient festival included people in masks or costumes representing these spirits, and that the modern custom came from this.

PARADES
Pagan Celtic priestesses and their followers would roam the countryside, chanting songs in order to frighten away the evil spirits thought to be out on Halloween night.  I wonder how that could be practiced in your neighborhood?

FIRES

Bonfires  were a big part of the festival in many areas of western Europe.  Bonfires were typically lit on hilltops at Samhain where everyone could see them, and there were rituals involving them.  We concluded that a small, safe backyard fire might be a good addition to celebrating the day, though we were pretty sure that local fire departments would take a very dim view if fires were built on local hilltops!

Bonfires comes from the root, “bone-fires” because the priests sacrificed animals and supposedly even people in an attempt to appease the sun god, while also looking for future omens. The fire was said to be a type of sympathetic magic, where the fire mimicked the sun, which has the power to hold back the darkness of winter.  Burning the fires was also believed to be a way of banishing evil, at least symbolically.

DIVINATION

Divination has likely been a part of the festival since ancient times, and it has survived in some rural areas.  In part, this meant that the spirits could enter your world.  Many of the food offerings and fires were directed to these spirits.   Or perhaps, some of the  crops might also be left in the ground for them.    These spirits were addressed in various ways, with food offerings, with walks into the ocean, with the idea to hold off any mischief, and perhaps to learn the future.

The belief that the souls of the dead return home on one night of the year seems to have ancient origins and is found in many cultures throughout the world.

CONCLUSION
So what do you conclude from all this?  Is there an ideal way to commemorate this ancient day, and still avoid the trappings of commercialization?  Is it even possible?

I like the way that the Day of the Dead is commemorated. There are altars with pictures of the dearly departed, and plates of good food.  Candles are lit, rather than a big bonfire which the local fire department would frown upon.  Families gather, and talk in respectful tones about their departed relatives.  Yes, of course, even the Day of the Dead has turned into wild partying in some quarters, but if you seek a return to roots of the ancient commemoration of the dead, perhaps begin here.  

Begin with family or neighborhood gatherings. Prepare a good meal, and keep in the mind the foods that your beloved departeds enjoyed. This is not necessarily because you think their spirits will come to eat (last I checked, ghosts don’t need to eat), but because having, for example, your mother’s favorite dish will give you another reason to talk about your mother, and to remember all the good things she did. 

This is at least a start, and it elevates our day of ghoulish and pointless fear-mongering into one that reconnects us with our roots.  

"EXTREME SIMPLICITY -- Homesteading in the City" book

 

Of all the books I’ve written, one of my favorites is still “EXTREME SIMPLICTY, Homesteading in the City,” which I wrote with my late wife  Dolores.

 

The book is packed with the details of how w purchased a very run-down house and how we proceeded to practice our self-sufficient lifestyle. We didn’t know everything, and we were really on a low budget, but, step by step, we took action.

 

The book describes our efforts to practice "living lightly on the earth," even in the small suburban Los Angeles home.

We describe what we call "integral gardening, " using every bit of usable land, to produce food (for people and wildlife), medicines, fragrance, shade, and useful tools. We also raised earthworms, chickens, rabbits, bees, a goose, a pig, and our dogs in the back yard.

We  take the reader along on our journey to installing a wood fireplace, solar water heating, and a solar electric system.

Though there is much "how to" in this book, it is full of personal stories and rich reading of the learning we experienced along the way.

 

It’s really a timeless book that you’ll enjoy reading, illustrated with both drawings and photos.  You can get your copy from  Amazon, or from the  Store at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com

 

 

SOME SELECTED EXCERPTS

  

4 MAGIC WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR FINANCIAL SITUATION

    1. Never waste anything.

    2. Continually improve your personal honesty.

    3. Leave every situation or circumstance better than you found it.

    4. Tithe to the church (or organization) of your choice.

    We know that these are genuine practical solutions. We have heard people say that they cannot make these efforts - such as tithing, or improving an environment - because "we are poor." Our perspective is that they have their reasoning backwards. They are poor because they do not engage themselves in the world in these ways. Logical thinking leads to erroneous conclusions when the premise is false.

  

3 STEPS TO HOUSEHOLD ENERGY EFFICIENCY

    1. You can do without some electrical devices.  This will probably involve changing your behavior, for instance, thinking twice before switching on an electrical tool or appliance when a non-electric alternative will work just as well or better.

    2. You can learn to use your existing devices more efficiently.

    This step, too, requires changes in habit, but once you've understood the extra expenses caused by inefficiency and waste, you'll feel good about it - plus you'll save money by practicing efficiency.

    3. You can purchase new appliances that render your household inherently more energy efficient.

    This step requires initial outlays of money, and in some cases higher short-term expenses, but with certain especially wasteful appliances, the best way to save energy and money is to immediately replace the old, wasteful model.

 

 A CONVERSATION WITH VERNON

    During an early morning conversation with our friend Vernon .. he remarked that the musical group that he played with would begin and end each performance with a lively rendition of "Love Makes the World Go Round." Yet he always felt that this was very hypocritical, because it isn't "love" that makes this world go around, but rather fear. He explained to us that fear drives most people for decades to hold down regular jobs that they hate, because they "need the money." This, of course, opened up a whole can of worms - and led us into long discussions about the differences between "needs" and "wants," "cost" and "real value," and about how it is rarely money, per se, that we need.

    Vernon's view was that by letting fear control our lives, we are eternally cut off from the real magic of the world.