Newsletter #29
We are a living, breathing, manifestation of this beautiful and generous planet.
When we know this, we fall completely in love with the Earth, and as with anything we love, we naturally do whatever we can to take care of it.
~Words by Thich Nhat Hanh~
Hello Friends!
Welcome to all new subscribers and a big thank you to all paid subscribers. The words by Thich Nhat Hanh are the core of my work. Since I launched my first store and previous Almanac Newsletter in January 2009, my goal was and still is, to get as many people as possible to fall in love with the Earth, and experience that profound “Aha” moment, whether it’s through watching a film, reading a story, learning about someone who is doing inspiring work to better the planet or by having an experience outdoors.
Did you know that the last Newsletter was sent from Marrakech, where I spent 10 days this month! I had a wonderful trip which I’ll be sharing info about in a separate news blast, which will include favorite places I went to. In this Newsletter, you will learn about an argan farm; a disappearing frog; humanely produced silk; what it’s like to live without plastic for one day and a short film about how to live on only foraged foods for one month. Enjoy!
#1 Argan Farm
-Natural Skin Care-
When I was in Morocco recently, I stopped by a Women’s Co-operative Argan oil Farm near Essaouira and came away with a much better understanding of argan and a love and respect for the women who make the oil by hand.
Argan oil is produced from the kernels of the argan tree (Argania spinosa L.), which is indigenous to Morocco and southwestern Algeria. The argan nuts are picked, the outer shell removed, to reveal an inner shell, which also has to be cracked open to reveal the inner kernel. A lot of this process is still done by hand.
The ladies taking turns cracking the shells using a rock…
An argan tree in front of the women’s co-operative
The high concentration of vitamin E in argan oil makes it effective at boosting the immune system. It also contains vitamins A and C, and antioxidants, which help to reducere inflammation and promote the regeneration of cells.
Women in Morocco use argan oil as a sunscreen. Argan can also help heal wounds from burns to cuts because of the vitamin E.
This is a common sight along the main roads in south-western Morocco, where acrobatic goats climb argan trees to eat their fruit and leaves. A tree full of goats is a striking sight, but the goats’ widely overlooked habit of regurgitating and spitting out the nuts may be important to the life of these forests.
Argan accounts for between 47 percent and 84 percent of a tree goat's diet, depending on the season. They will graze both beneath the tree and up in its aerial leaves, spending up to 6 hours grazing in a tree.
Argan oil can also be used as a culinary oil, with cholesterol lowering health benefits. It should only be used for dipping bread or drizzled on foods, make salad dressing or added to hummus and never used as a cooking oil as it burns easily.
100% Organic Fair Trade Argan Oil is available here
#2-A Biomimicry Story
~Biomimicry is the emulation of elements in nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems~
The story of the disappearing Frog
The glass frog of the Costa Rican rain forest, as its name suggests, is nearly translucent: its skin, muscle, and tissues are all see-through. But this half dollar-size amphibian also has a neat trick to keep itself hidden while it’s asleep: almost all its red blood cells retreat into its liver, rendering its body almost completely invisible.
Researchers discovered the nifty camouflage technique after noticing that when the frog went to sleep, its heart lost color.
What is still not understood is how the frogs can continue breathing when almost 90 percent of the cells that carry oxygen around the body are holed up in the liver- and how they can cram so many of the cells into one place without forming blood clots.
Finding an answer to that latter question could point the way toward new anticoagulants for humans.
You can learn more about biomimicry at The Biomimicry Institute
Source: NPR
#3- Humanely made Silk
Years ago, when my daughters were still at school, they brought home a handful of silkworms to look after (actually, for me to look after), a project that involved finding fresh white mulberry leaves daily, the silkworms favorite and only food. Over 35 days, they ate and ate, went through 4 moltings, and grew 10,000 times heavier than when they hatched and then they begin spinning a cocoon, with a liquid silk that is forced through openings (!) in their head called spinnerets. It takes the silkworms 2-3 days to spin a silk thread that measures at least a mile long.
I find the process of silk making- one of the strongest natural fibers- fascinating, and recently read about a company in France that produces silk humanely in the Cévennes region. Traditionally, once the silkworms have spun their cocoons, these are dissolved in boiling water (the silkworm is inside the cocoon), in order for individual long fibers to be extended and fed into a spinning wheel. To produce 1 kilo of silk, 104 kilos of mulberry leaves must be eaten by 3000 silkworms.
Since 2015, Sericyne is the first company to successfully reintroduce the manufacture of silk in France, from the planting of the white mulberry trees to the training of sericulture farmers (raising silkworms).
Sericyne collaborates with artists to manufacture woven silk products and objects of various shapes. The weavers, being the silkworms, are carefully put on supports and spin their silk onto two or three-dimensional shapes on which they are placed.
*I couldn’t find information about what happens to the silkworms once they have finished producing the liquid silk. I imagine that they pass away from natural causes.
This method reminded me of an artist who works with bees in a similar way. Just as the silkworms are unharmed at Sericyne, the bees build on a structure provided by the artist Tomáš Libertíny, (featured artist in my previous Almanac, July 2013).
Learn more about Sericyne here
#4-A Day without Plastic
-a writer’s tale of a trying to live a day without plastic-
Plastic is everywhere. It’s in our clothes, our phones, our sunscreen and in marine food chains and immense floating garbage patches in the oceans.
Do you think you could go an entire day without using any plastic?
In “Trying to Live a Day Without Plastic,” A. J. Jacobs writes about his 24-hour experiment to go plastic-free:
On the morning of the day I had decided to go without using plastic products — or even touching plastic — I opened my eyes and put my bare feet on the carpet. Which is made of nylon, a type of plastic. I was roughly 10 seconds into my experiment, and I had already committed a violation.
Must avoid: All of these items, which are part of the reporter’s everyday life, contain plastic.Credit...Photographs by Jonah Rosenberg for The New York Times
Most mornings I check my iPhone soon after waking up. On the appointed day, this was not possible, given that, in addition to aluminum, iron, lithium, gold and copper, each iPhone contains plastic. In preparation for the experiment, I had stashed my device in a closet. I quickly found that not having access to it left me feeling disoriented and bold, as if I were some sort of intrepid time traveler.
I made my way toward the bathroom, only to stop myself before I went in.
“Could you open the door for me?” I asked my wife, Julie. “The doorknob has a plastic coating.”
She opened it for me, letting out a “this is going to be a long day” sigh.
My morning hygiene routine needed a total revamp, which required detailed preparations in the days before my experiment. I could not use my regular toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo or liquid soap, all of which were encased in plastic or made of plastic.
Fortunately, there is a huge industry of plastic-free products targeted at eco-conscious consumers, and I had bought an array of them, a haul that included a bamboo toothbrush with bristles made of wild boar hair from Life Without Plastic. “The bristles are completely sterilized,” Jay Sinha, the company’s co-owner, assured me when I spoke with him the week before.
Instead of toothpaste, I had a jar of gray charcoal-mint toothpaste pellets. I popped one in, chewed it, sipped water and brushed. It was nice and minty, though the ash-colored spit was unsettling.
I liked my shampoo bar. A shampoo bar is just what it sounds like: a bar of shampoo. Mine was scented pink grapefruit and vanilla, and lathered up well. According to shampoo bar advocates, it is also cheaper than bottled shampoo on a per-wash basis (one bar can last 80 showers).
Before I was done in the bathroom, I had broken the rules a second time, by using the toilet.
Getting dressed was also a challenge, given that so many clothing items include plastic. I had ordered a pair of wool pants that promised to be plastic free, but they had not arrived. In their stead, I chose a pair of old Banana Republic chinos.
The tag said “100 percent cotton,” but when I had checked the day before with a very helpful Banana Republic public relations representative, it turned out to be a little more complicated. The main fabric is indeed 100 percent cotton, but there was plastic lurking in the zipper tape, the internal waistband, woven label, pocketing and threads, the representative told me.
Early in my no-plastic day, I started to see the world differently. Everything looked menacing, like it might be harboring hidden polymers. The kitchen was particularly fraught. Anything I could use for cooking was off-limits — the toaster, the oven, the microwave.
Instead, I decided to go foraging for raw food items.
I left my building using the stairs, rather than the elevator with its plastic buttons, and walked to a health food store near our apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
When I go shopping, I try to remember to take a cloth bag with me. This time, I had brought along seven bags of varying sizes, all of them cotton. I also had two glass containers.
At the store, I filled up one of my cotton bags with apples and oranges. On close inspection, I noticed that the each rind had a sticker with a code. Another likely violation, but I ignored it.
At the bulk bins, I scooped walnuts and oatmeal into my glass dishes using a (washed) steel ladle I had brought from home. The bins themselves were plastic, which I ignored, because I was hungry.
To avoid sitting on plastic, the writer brought a wooden chair to the New York City subway.Credit...Jonah Rosenberg for The New York Times
Read the rest of the article here
#5- Movie
Living on Foraged Food for One Month by Robin Greenfield, who was featured here in issues #11 (where he wore all the trash that he produced in a month) and #16.
In this short film, for one month Robin foraged 100% of his food. No grocery stores, no restaurants and not even a garden! Every. Single. Bite. Nature was his garden, his pantry and his pharmacy. Now he is here to share the story with you and help YOU reconnect with Earth and gain food freedom! The 9 days of preparation began August 29th, 2022. The month of eating 100% foraged food was September 9th - October 9th (late summer and early fall).
Robin Greenfield is an activist and humanitarian dedicated to leading the way to a more sustainable and just world. He embarks on extreme projects to bring attention to important global issues and inspire positive change. 100% of his media income is donated to grassroots nonprofits.
Watch the full movie here:
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter! You are most welcome to share it.
The first day of Spring is two and half weeks away, which is most exciting. I can’t wait to see all the blossoms!
I hope you and your loved ones are well.
See you soon again,
Priscilla