 Good morning Auroville and the whole wild world Krishna Mackenzie here sharing with you This road back to nature Exploring our relationship with where our food comes from and today. I want to talk to you about weeds so Recently about a couple of months ago I started working with Nina Sengupta who is a very well-known figure in Auroville She is the queen of weeds in Auroville and I think she's also starting a radio show actually soon Here on on Auroville radio Dix next Friday. It's gonna start and Working with Nina has been such an eye-opener because my whole experience Of permaculture natural farming has through has been through the the philosophy and the teachings of Masanabha Fukuoka Which is very much about a non-interventional farming Recognizing that nature's natural processes are far superior to the plow and to pesticides and to all the actions that man Seems to do to nature seems to bring him away from nature because they have repercussions like destroying With the plow we destroy subtle structures in the soil and we expose the all the all the micro organisms to Intense sunlight and and of course then then kill them and we compress the soil under the weight of a tractor So although this looks like an intelligent, you know Practice technique of farming. It's actually destructive and because it's destructive then we need to you know compromise and and do things to to To make up for the mistakes that we've done So there's a great foolishness in that whereas if you look at nature in nature The earthworms are the plow and the roots are the plow and the less we weed the less weeds there are the less at These dominant weeds because when the soil is very impoverished Then we start to have these very pioneer weeds with very intense Root systems that are very hard to get out and you spend all your time trying to weed the land But when you stop plowing and the soil takes on a much more diverse Like a makeup of life in the soil then the structure of the soil changes and because the structure of the soil changes That's the types of weed that populate the soil they change and they become much softer weeds Which are easily removed and and can just even in many cases just be chopped and dropped and be returned as mulch so that just gives one example of how nature is really superior and What I've seen with the this work on Valuing the edible weeds in Oroville is such an eye-opener because it goes even one step further in that valuation that There are so many weeds that grow there's no plowing there's no weeding there's no sowing there's no watering There's nothing much to be done and yet if you start to explore these weeds you see while they're in abundance now This last few weeks I've been doing these videos with Nina for the crowdfunding of her reprinting her Amazing book edible weeds and naturally growing plants in Oroville It is actually it's actually a coloring book and she has two more Editions in the series that are coming out which are on medicinal weeds and edible flowers, so We've been doing these YouTube videos a few times a week in the mornings and The first one we did was on the wild passion fruit leaf so the wild passion fruit as a plant So we looked at the I was familiar with the plant, you know, I know the plant I know all these plants and because I've sort of lived here and I kind of know them You sort of you think you know them It's like you think you know that guy who lives next door because you see him every day But did you actually take time to find out what's in his heart what's in his mind? Did you know that he's a you know an expert on I don't know God knows what you know But he do you know his passions? Do we take time for something time is our currency So by going with Nina to the field by going close to this wild passion fruit She showed me the fruit first and I I think I've eaten it before but she showed it me much more consciously And I taste and it's so delicious is amazing and it has this lovely They're called brackets. They're like they're like hands green hands holding the fruit and Then she showed me the leaf and she said this leaf can be used as a salad So I tried the leaves. Oh, wow, that's very tasty. That's amazing So the next day for our basket service when we are harvesting the When we are harvesting all the produce from the farm, we're making these baskets which people pay in advance for And one component of the basket is a is a salad kit and another component is a spinach kit So the salad kit just has a diversity of salad greens in it So we added this wild passion fruit leaf to the salad kit and the response we got from people was really amazing how much they liked it and This was something that's been there all the time in as it as Nina's words are it they are here and now You know, they've always been here, but we're too blind to see them So that has become a staple now in the salad kit and it's free and it's there and it's always there and Then we explored a plant called the gangetic primrose or Chinese violet I think the local names are rather sort of arbitrary They, you know, if you go to village to village you can even you can see a lot of variation local names but this gangetic primrose is a weed that has such a Delicate and tender crunch to it very lovely taste and it sort of populates itself It makes like this colony inside the gap between two banana trees And it has these lovely little white flowers, which if I'm not mistaken are also edible and a number of times I've been with the garden Community garden project that I'm doing I've gone to people's houses and I've said to them You know, you really should explore the weeds and I've turned around I've seen that plant I've said look try that leaf and boom they've eaten it they go wow and I think what happens They sort of wonder why they're trying to grow carrots, you know They wonder why they even bothering trying to grow big palak spinach with big leaves when they have this Beautiful leaf just growing everywhere around them So this leaf we also started harvesting and it's also part of the salad kit now Along with the rosella that we already were giving and the chicken spinach that we were that we already were giving and a few other bits and pieces that were already there as components and And Again people are so amazed by it. They think it's wonderful Then there's a third leaf that Nina introduced me to and again, I know it I mean, I've been farming for the last 27 years here in Oroville. I know it and this I know it is actually an arrogance It's an arrogance that says I I know everything and I don't need to be told But actually we don't know. Okay, you know the face, you know the you know the color, you know the shape you you But do you know it? So this plant is a cousin of the amaranth and it's called purple joy weed or Brazilian joy weed The Latin names you really have to Watch listen to Nina's podcast and her her live radio show on Friday Here at Oroville radio, but the the common names purple joy within Brazilian joy weed are of this Absolutely delicious purple colored Amaranth that's so sturdy and so hardy that goes through a summer No problem comes a little rain and pop up up up up up up up up these tender little leaves start Coming out and you can have it raw in the salad or you can cook it and That also has made an appearance in the spinach kit and there's another weed which is again a cousin of the Amaranthus family and it's This one is crazy prolific in the farm it's growing everywhere and it has these little white flowers They're a bit like if you're familiar with the Mother's names that she's given to the flowers. This is a bit a bit like immortality and I think it's called Yeah, I'm not quite sure the name. I think it's integral immortality or something like that, but it's an amazing Spinach again that's everywhere. So when the ladies are harvesting in the morning I say don't forget to bring that one in they bring like a huge bucket of it in and you can eat the flowers I think it's a good diuretic and good for I Don't know. I'm not quite sure, but there's so many medicinal values for all of these plants It's you really have to research it yourself like I tell people don't don't say Krishna told me go on Google Find the Latin name write it out Research it ask Nina, you know ask questions She's got a beautiful Facebook page called edible weed walk and a YouTube channel called edible weed walk which is really worth checking out and And find out those values oneself. I think that's really important I know the gangetic primrose is very good for Asthma and it's very good for all sort of bronchitis and the lungs Because there's a certain chemical in it and that chemical is well known for having value for the for the lungs So in this last couple of weeks these four plants all of a sudden have become regular You know characters in our in our in our cafe and in the basket service Enriching people's diets enriching people's health adding one more component of diversity to their food and tastes and quality in color and Bringing income for us as well Bringing value to our society by simply valuing something that was all ready there so That really is an eye-opener for me Nina says it's I think she calls it the ultimate organic, you know, it's the ultimate organic because It's just there and there's nothing to do and it's always been there. It's been there in the past It's there. It's in here in the present. It's in the past. It's part of traditions traditional recipes But in the future we can develop new recipes create new traditions with it So it's from the past into the in the present into the future And it's so important that this knowledge Comes alive in our community. I I have a vision of Oroville schools having a class once a week where every student goes with Nina's book and identifies plants harvest plants has a chance to make food with those plants and eat it and and You know, I'm from that book then there comes a biology class and you know ecology class Botany class there comes an art class coloring the using the coloring book There comes maybe even a poetry class comes out of that Maybe a little film class emerges out of that or who knows kids giving making little YouTube videos Explaining to other kids the the importance of this plant and and its qualities and nutritional medicinal values So I see education emerging from this knowledge as well as nutrition and Most importantly, I see a reconnect to mother nature. It's a sensitivity to this planet and That's to each other and to all life and that sensitivity is I think at the very root of a Renaissance of well-being in our in on in this world between us in society as As well as you know on an ecological level The crowdfunding is aimed not just at people giving ten dollars and getting a book The crowdfunding is actually aimed at this vision where people would sponsor a school to maybe get you know all three books or maybe a few copies of each of the books and then have a Couple of the teachers come every month to Oroville to Nina to to have a training of how to value this book and how to use the how to use this book to create a syllabus just to create a content in there in their in their school in their in their classes how to bring that into their career curriculum So actually when people are contributing to this crowdfunding they're actually contributing to a vision of a road back to nature through valuing edible weeds in the society in education and We're gonna start that crowdfunding. Hopefully some time in I think probably in September It's a huge work. It's really a huge work So if anyone's out there who has any ideas and then can offer any help and time and context or if you have a million dollars You know just let us know because it would be so wonderful if we could get this book get these books printed and For Nina, it's really important Not just to make a cheap version of this book for Nina and I'm I don't I mean saying for Nina It seems silly. It's I completely agree with her. She has got this book made with handmade paper It's even the binding is done with with with cotton threads and there's no You know, this is completely natural Material and when you hold it you feel like you're holding something precious and then there's the the interaction of doing the coloring And there's a little pop-out Color manual as well where where you can see a bit more clearly the colors of the flowers and some of the seeds and the leaves So it's really an artwork. This isn't about making something cheap and quick. This is about It's about investing and we should invest we should invest into this type of education This shouldn't be a short cut sort of thing. I think Her vision needs to be honored her work needs to be honored and What better way and then getting this to every kid in in the schools in Oroville and in this bio region So thanks for sharing with me this week go to edible weed walk on YouTube and Many of these plants that we're talking about are slowly being Represented by in videos that Nina is been doing. I've been doing them with her at the beginning But I think other people are also going to join her Also the Facebook page, which is edible weed walk, which there's a lot more content to because the YouTube videos We've just been giving once a week, but I think the Facebook's been updated every day and Instagram is also edible weed walk so check it out and I Look forward to speaking to you next week. You take care. Thank you very much