Unstuffed: I heart Doug Elliott

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

I heart Doug Elliott

One of my favourite classes at the herbal resurgence conference was the walk with Doug Elliott. Naturalist, herbalist and storyteller among many other things, I've been a real big fan of his for a while now and was happy to have a chance to tell him so when I purchased his beautiful book, Wild Roots: A Forager's Guide to the Edible and Medicinal Roots, Tubers, Corms, and Rhizomes of North America. His gentle and humble ways, corny sense of humour and down home stories accompanied by harmonica belies the unbelievably deep and incredibly rich wisdom Doug has of the natural world, that comes from devoting one's whole existence to become at one with nature.

Covering three miles with Doug is to see more of the world than walking for years by yourself.

Watch this delightful video to learn a little more about Doug and his way of life.

5 comments:

JG said...: "Covering three miles with Doug is to see more of the world than walking for years by yourself." Wow, that's a very eloquent quote. Nicely said.; October 16, 2012 at 11:25 AM
Anonymous said...: If you like him so much hen why don't you marry him...; October 18, 2012 at 7:40 PM
Amber said...: Eloquent eh? Well shucks, thanks for the compliment. It's true though. I had already been on part of the trail that Doug took us on, the day before, and he pointed out all kinds of things that I missed. He's just so tuned in and notices everything. It's was awesome.

Well, ADG...ahem, I mean Anon, it sounds like Mr. Elliott is quite content with his current marital status. His handsome, barefoot, pepper picking son with the biceps however..... ;); October 19, 2012 at 9:42 AM
Rachel said...: After watching that video now I heart Doug Elliot too! How amazing to have taken one of his courses! Also, LOL ADG!

(and I agree with you Amber about the handsome, barefoot, pepper picking son!) ;-); October 31, 2012 at 10:16 AM
Amber said...: I know! Right? Doug is awesome. I was reading his book about roots and in one paragraph I learned so much about a plant I had never heard before and he had me laughing out loud with delight from his way of describing it. I mean anyone who can do that about roots has a real gift. :); November 1, 2012 at 12:04 PM

Raison d'etre

In 2008 I didn't buy anything new for the whole year. Food and basic toiletries (but not toilet paper) were the obvious exceptions (twice I broke my own rule). Used items were allowed, but I tried really hard to reduce consumption as much as possible.

I finished my year successfully, and along the way learned a lot about how much the world consumes, the waste we produce, sustainability, voluntary simplicity, climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, the water crisis, the food crisis, voting with your dollar, voting with your fork....

Now, I've transformed into a slightly nutty, very passionate, gardening, preserving, DIYing, simple living, nature loving, weed eating, backyard medicine making, urban homesteader, and I still don't use toilet paper!

With the help of the Awesomedudeguy (ADG), I'm continuing my exploration of living lightly and frugally, while increasing my self-sufficiency and resiliency, staying debt free, and preparing for a climate changed, resource depleted world, in uncertain economic times.

My nothing new restriction is lifted, but I continue to be a gentle, local consumer as much as possible.

My hope is that some of the information and resources I post about here will be helpful to others. Thanks so much for stopping by !

Yours in unstuffing,
Amber

"Forgive me if I never visit. I am from the fields, you know, and while quite at home with dandelion, make a sorry figure for the drawing room" ~Emily Dickinson

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that.... I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature." ~Abraham Cowley

"The laws of nature are under no obligation to cater to our culture’s emotionally charged fantasies of perpetual progress and limitless growth." ~John Michael Greer

"Sometimes we think we are too small to make a difference in this big world. Our actions seem insignificant in comparison to global issues such as climate change and population growth. However, the reality is that action on an individual level is exactly how big changes are made. Without individual and family sustainability, there’s no community sustainability. And without community sustainability, there’s no global sustainability. In fact, earth-wide change is absolutely impossible without individual change.
It really does come down to you and me."
~From Living Sustainably: It's Your Choice

"The universal conspiracy of the silent-assertion lie is hard at work always and everywhere, and always in the interest of a stupidity or a sham, never in the interest of a thing fine or respectable. Is it the most timid and shabby of all lies? It seems to have the look of it. For ages and ages it has mutely laboured in the interest of despotisms and aristocracies and chattel slaveries, and military slaveries, and religious slaveries, and has kept them alive; keeps them alive yet, here and there and yonder, all about the globe; and will go on keeping them alive until the silent-assertion lie retires from business--the silent assertion that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent men and women are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop." ~Mark Twain

"It is not enough simply to abstain from theft...We must remember that nothing in this world really belongs to us. At best, we are merely borrowers. It is our duty, therefore, to borrow no more from the world than we absolutely need, and to make full and proper use of it. Taking more than we need, and wasting it, is a form of stealing from the rest of humankind."
~Commentary on Sutra 30 The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali