Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook

Here’s a review of Robin Rose Bennett’s Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook that I originally wrote for the Journal of the Northeast Herbal Association back in 2004. -Jen

There is a scene in Michael Moore’s film, Farenheit 9/11, where several Representatives go before Congress to protest the acceptance of the 2000 electoral vote. Their courage in speaking their truth even without the needed support of a single Senator brought tears to my eyes. I thought of how this courage and strength to “stand in your own power” and honor your intentions is such a vital part of being an authentic human being.

Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook by Robin Rose Bennett invites you to develop your intuition, to live magically with abundance of nature, working with herbs, trees, ritual and spells. At its essence, however, it is a book about becoming who you fully and truly are. It might seem odd to open a book review on magical healing with a political documentary, but if I learned anything when I apprenticed with Robin it was that living your truth means not just walking your walk at the Women’s Herbal Conference or Women Gathering but letting your spirit shine through in all areas of your life.

Rainwater Harvesting at the New Mexico Xeriscape Expo

Jen and I dropped by the 2008 New Mexico Xeriscape Expo yesterday to check out the exhibitors, visit our friends Bard and Zoe at the Soilutions booth and attend Brad Lancaster’s seminar on harvesting rainwater. We bought a copy of Brad’s book before moving to New Mexico and are in the process of designing both rainwater catchment and grey water systems for our new homestead in the South Valley.

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands (Vol. 1): Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life And Landscape

Brad is an energetic and gifted speaker. His talk was exciting because it was filled with common-sense (and easy to implement) solutions to managing rainwater so that it creates and supports sustainable landscapes rather than ending up as stormwater runoff that is directed away from communities and the watershed.

The River Cottage Meat Book

Jen opened her Christmas present from me this morning (I can never wait until Christmas) so now I can write about it. I gave her a copy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Meat Book which was originally published in the UK in 2004 and was released this year in a revised American edition.

Engagingly written and accompanied by gorgeous photographs of British farm life, perfect cuts of meat and mouth-watering dishes, this book is far more than a cookbook. It opens with a manifesto on high-quality, local, and sustainable meat production that forces you to think long and hard about the meat you eat. What breed of animal did it come from? Where was the animal raised? How was it treated? What did it eat? Questions that Big Agriculture doesn’t want you to think about.

A guide on choosing and storing meats and fowl follows with the remainder of the book devoted to procedures and recipes for roasting, cooking, barbecuing, preserving, and processing meats as well as getting the most out of leftovers. I can’t wait to try the loin of lamb stuffed with apricots and pine nuts!