season 4, episode 10 - lessons in growth & abundance from plants
happy litha, sweet peas! in honour of the summer solstice here in the north, this week's episode is all about plants. we can learn so much from them when we pay attention, and in particular this episode we talk about what they teach us about true abundance.
you can find oodles of plant-focused goodness in the creative coven community, including new goodies in the upcoming sanctuary hub addition. and if natural dyeing with your local plant world is of interest, check out natural dyeing 101.
take the fibre witch quiz at ashalberg.com/quiz. follow us on instagram @snortandcackle and be sure to subscribe via your favourite podcasting app so you don't miss an episode!
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transcript
snort & cackle - season 4, episode 10 - lessons about growth & abundance from plants
ash alberg: [Upbeat music plays.] Hello, and welcome to the Snort and Cackle podcast where every day magic, work and ritual intersect. I'm your host, Ash Alberg, a queer fibre witch and hedge witch. Each season we read a new book about witchcraft practices around the world with the #SnortAndCackleBookClub with a book review by me and the occasional guest helping us close out the season. Our book this season is Babaylan Sing Back: Philippine Shamans and Voice, Gender and Place by Grace Nono.
Whether you're an aspiring boss witch looking to start your knitwear design business, a plant witch looking to play more with your local naturally dyed color palette or a knit witch wondering just what the hell is a natural yarn and how do you use it in your favorite patterns, we've got the solution for you.
Take the free fiber witch quiz at ashalberg.com/quiz and find out which self-paced online program will help you take your dreams into reality. Visit ashalberg.com/quiz [upbeat music fades out] and then join fellow fiber witches in the Creative Coven Community at ashalberg.com/creative-coven-community for 24/7 access to Ash’s favorite resources, monthly zoom knit nights, and more. [End of intro.]
Hello, sweet peas. Happy Wednesday, I guess, is when you're listening to this. And we are closing in on the end of season four, which started in Beltane, and as I record this episode for you, we are in what would normally be like healthy growing season here in Treaty 1 territory, which is also zone three for those of you who are gardeners.
And this year, climate change is shifting our weather. We are finding much wetter winters, which is abnormal for this region of the world and the country. And we are also dealing with some crazy weather. So we had a really long, hard, cold, and like very wet as far as precipitation, year for winter where we we the most snow on record since a hundred years.
And then also the days where we weren't having blizzards, it was just really fucking cold. It was like -40. And then all of a sudden it would warm up and you'd get a blizzard, and then the next day it’d go back to -40. And so it was not
a fun winter. It was a hard winter for many people, and then it just kept on dragging on.
And after many years of drought we are now dealing with a very wet year and it's ... I can't imagine being a farmer and making your life off of relying on and being in commune with the seasons, especially if it's your income and you work with specific crops every year and with a set schedule of ...
We rely on our farmers and on our harvesters for many things, food being one of them, but medicine and clothing and all of these things. But as a smaller scale farmer ... gardener more, it's really interesting as I've been slowly establishing the various perennials around my small pocket of land and seeing which plants have done well in the past few years of drought and now with a very wet year seeing ... we had a really late winter.
The snow was still here into honestly May and then spring came, but then was just very wet and cold for a really long time. And now we're swinging between like low to mid-twenties, which is honestly my ideal temperature, up to apparently in a couple of days, we're gonna be looking at 37 degrees Celsius.
I don't know what that translates to in Fahrenheit for you American listeners, but 37 Celsius before adding in the humidex, which I think I saw it posting anywhere between 45 to 49, what it will feel like just with the humidity in the air. And then just a lot of rain.
And so we're just having this very wet year in a way that is like the extremes and I feel like this is the way that the weather goes. And when I think of the farmers that I know, I feel like it's rare, very rare, where a farmer has said to me, oh, we've had the perfect growing season. I feel like it's usually either too dry or too wet or too hot or too cold or some combo.
And we seem to be getting all of the above. Except maybe the too dry portion. That's not a concern this year, but it's been a concern for many years. And so as a result, the water table just was not prepared, I don't think, and then just got overly saturated and has stayed saturated.
And so, what that has meant for planting is fascinating because as I'm building these relationships with my plants and seeing who comes back in what capacity, who's happy, who's cranky, who's having a hard time. My nettles are having a hard time and they like get started and then some things getting them, taking them back, I think. The rabbits are nibbling.
But there's a very well-established nettle patch that I visit on dog walks nearby that is very happy. So I think once they're more established, they'll have an easier time, but this year's hard for them. And it's just really interesting to be in more regular communion with so many plants and to be tending to each of their individual needs and trying to water the ones that need water in between on the really hot days, and then support the ones that are like we've had enough water, give us a break.
And it's hard to tell what is going to end up happening as far as harvests go. It's interesting seeing which plants are thriving and which ones are having a really hard time. And then the other thing that ... I feel bad for my neighbors, but I'm running experiments with some of the weeds that are growing, because there are certain weeds that I'm interested in trying out in my dye pots.
And I have a patch of dirt in my back lane that I had plopped there after getting the patio put in last winter. And I didn't, I wanted to keep the soil. And so there are a few different plants that are growing back there and I'm just kinda letting them do their thing.
And they are really loving how wet it is and back there gets the best sun so it's ideal growing conditions as far as where on my land is gonna be where you get that nice hot sun and a good amount of rain and protection from wind and all the rest of it, ‘cause I don't really know what they are yet and I could pull out one of my books and identify them relatively quickly but I'm just kind letting them do their thing first.
And eventually probably they will either end up in my compost or in my dye pot ‘cause I don't think they're good for anything else. They do not seem particularly food-specific for me. And I'm quite certain that they're not potent medicinal buddies, although quite a few of our weeds are.
And so yeah, I've got these three feet tall, weird looking weeds of some sort in my back lane alongside my very intentionally planted garden beds that have my dye plants in them. And it's ... I feel like plants are one of our like best teachers when it comes to the concept of abundance, like true abundance and true scarcity because they need care and they need attention.
Sometimes they need less of both of those things, but they need the ideal conditions for each of them, which change depending on which plant it is. Like they're not all, they don't all thrive off of the exact same kinds of conditions. And if they are given those ideal conditions, then they grow in true abundance.
But if they don't have those conditions, then we don't get them. And so, this year I'm finding that some of my plants that I was expecting to see, and that did, potentially earlier in the spring, before the torrential rains came, were doing okay, starting to kick back in post-winter, and now are just like, they are struggle busting.
And I think that there's a lot that we can actually be learning and gleaning from that in terms of understanding what is true abundance versus true scarcity compared to the false scarcity that capitalism in particular likes to create for us. And the kyriarchy likes to create for us. Money is a perfect example of this.
We ... money is a tool that also humans invented and it's honestly something that we have decided and agreed upon rules around money, and those rules are not fair. And they were created a long time ago and the ways that they are ... continue to be made and shifted and adjusted and maintained are unfair for the vast majority of us because really, if we decided that we cared and I say we, the people who are in true positions of power.
Which is not ... there are the uber rich and potentially some of the billionaires who have this kind of power, but I think there is other types of power that go even beyond that. Although certainly there are interesting doors that can be opened to one when one has a certain level of income that is beyond what one would ever actually need in real life.
And if we, going back to that royal we, decided that we valued human life more than maintaining these false systems of power, then we would decide, okay, this country or this area or this group of people does not have enough money to live and cover their basic necessities so we will print them more money and we will give it to them so that they can cover their basic necessities.
And that does not need to impact everybody else in the way that they are going about and doing their own business of things. And I'm sure anybody who is like, traditional capitalist accountant would give me a billion reasons, potentially dollars, of why that is wrong and why that would threaten the whole system and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But I think it's false. I think that's a lie. I think, especially when you look at what do humans actually need to live stable, comfortable lives, where they are not scared or worried about their basic needs being met and where they have security around those basic needs, then things would look very different.
And actually we have, it's been proven that when people's basic needs are met, either through themselves or through assistance, then overwhelmingly the data shows that it actually makes capitalism thrive because people are able to engage in their local economies and support the flow of money and there are fewer other social assistance things that are required. Health ends up being better, which long-term results in a lower drain on the healthcare system. School and education rates end up being higher, which ultimately leads to a very different, more engaged and innovative workforce. And there's less crime.
There is, there's so ... there's less drug use. There's so many things that can be solved by people being given enough money to survive. And also, money is not a magic bullet that fixes all of the things, but it can fix a number of things and give people a more even playing field to then deal with all of the other complexities of being a human.
But back to plants, I think it's interesting when we create these false scarcities and that then get used and manipulated in like bro-y marketing schemes of here's an online program that's technically evergreen, but the doors are closing forever. Maybe not forever, but forever. And you've got this much time and so you need to buy it now and you'll never be able to access it again.
Which is not true. I ... like, there's a difference between saying, look, the doors are open for this offer right now. If you, we are offering you these additional things alongside of that during this timeframe. If you don't purchase right now, that's okay. That's your choice. And it means that you'll miss out on these extras, but it's not going to mean that your life falls apart or that your business is going to fail or that your marriage is going to dissolve.
There's this false scarcity used in marketing that tugs at some of our deepest fears. And I think it's such bullshit. There's, yeah, there's a difference between giving people a deadline so that it allows them to make a decision by a certain point and then move on with their life, whether that decision is that yes, they want to invest in a thing. No, they don't want to. Eh, maybe they're on the fence, but oh wait, the deadline has come and passed and they missed out this round.
And if it comes around next round, maybe they will be ready at that stage. That's a different thing. Or, if I bring in a limited batch of sock yarn that comes from a flock of sheep that I'm not going to be able to work with again, because the somebody's selling off their flock or we're doing fleece-specific wool and there's all, each year, each animal's fleece changes and once that animal is gone, then also that animal's fleece is no longer available.
And, like those are true limits, but it doesn't mean that if you don't buy that particular yarn, there is no other yarn in the universe for you to guy ... to buy. Or even that, yes, this is a special yarn, that's not the only sheep in the world that produces either that yarn or a similar type of yarn that would work just as well in the project that you are trying to make.
And so, I find it interesting as a small biz owner, trying to find that balance of when coming from values and when centering my customer's actual life experience and giving them space to have their life experience outside of my business as being a reality, that impacts my business in a side effect, right? If somebody is really stressed out or is financially struggling, then it means that they're not necessarily gonna be able to purchase from me.
But it also doesn't mean that they won't purchase it. When I was making way less money than I do these days I would still, prioritize buying nice yarn versus spending it on other things that my peers would and that was because that was how I chose to place value. And so, I think we can't ... we also cannot make blanket statements of, if you do not have A then that means that you cannot access B or C or D or EFG, blah, blah.
And in fact, when we have restrictions on things, then that can be really interesting opportunities for innovation. If we are harvesting a certain plant for medicine or as a dye, and then one year we have a low harvest of it or the entire crop fails, then now we get to look at our alternatives, right? If I am not able to grow enough indigo in order to dye whatever amount I'm looking to dye, then is there a different area or a different farmer who did manage to get a good crop? And can I source some from them?
Or did my woad survive? And yeah, I didn't get my blue from indigo, but I did get some nice blue from my woad and it's a different kind of blue, but it's still something that I was looking for and it still has value. Or maybe my indigo failed, but my marigolds did great.
Yes, that's a totally different color, but there is still value in the yellows and greens that I get from marigolds. And then same with medicines, like especially when we look at the plants that have been traditionally overused and are now over harvested and at risk and especially when they are sacred medicines, things like white sage and palo santo and echinacea and so many of these natural sources that do have actual limits, then what effect are we looking for? And can we achieve that effect with something else that is more abundant and that is more plentiful and not endangered?
And in fact, if that plant works really well as a substitute, can we perhaps just fully switch so that we are not using these endangered plants? Or if we want to use those endangered plants, is there a way for us to grow them ourselves at home? Which then I think just naturally forces you in a good way to build a more intimate relationship with the plant and to value it a lot more and to value the harvests that you get from it a lot more.
It's interesting right now, basically all of my herbs have gotten very leggy, and so I am looking at what are like small harvests, but actually feeling a little overwhelming to me right now, as far as being fresh harvests of so many different kinds of herbs that just need to be pruned and pinched back so that they can grow bushier and actually become even more abundant.
But then I'm going to have so many different herbs that either need to be fresh or need to be stored because I'm growing them because I want to use them. And yes, they look and smell pretty, but like also I'm growing them to use in teas or medicine or food. And I, they're not gonna go to waste.
But perhaps I'm going to have to strategically plan out what goes on what screens in my dehydrater so that I don't lose track of who is where, making sure that I have enough individual jars to be storing the dried material once it's dried or the stuff that's gonna be fresh or is going to be frozen, do I have space for those?
Do I have plans for what they're going to turn into? We honestly often don't need that much to do what we're looking for on a personal level. It's once you're looking at the more commercial level that it does get tricky. And I definitely experience this as a dyer and as somebody who makes medicines. I dream of being able to make a completely local, locally sourced version of my knitter’s joints salve. I would swap out the olive oil for either hemp oil or probably sunflower oil. I think I might do hemp oil.
And then all of the herbs and plants I've actually been able to grow and then distilling the essential oils, the thing with essential oils is that you need so much material. It's like dyeing with them. Like you need so much more material than if you're just taking a pinch of this and a pinch of that.
And so that's where I currently run into limits, but also it would have to be a special, limited-edition batch. And I would need to decide, is this such a small batch that I'm actually going to keep it slash gift it to my loved ones to use? Or do I actually have enough that I could actually make a larger batch and then sell? And it would still be a limited-edition batch.
I have excess and so that excess can be shared. I just, I think that there's such interesting lessons that can be learned in terms of what does true abundance look like and what does true scarcity look like and what are the lessons that we can learn from those moments and what are the innovations that can come from either having truly too much of something and the sharing, especially, that can come from those moments versus the innovation that comes from not having enough and having to figure out something else to achieve what you were looking to achieve or potentially, letting go is a hard lesson.
And sometimes we are forced to do so because of scarcity, but that's not the same as a big retailer sending you an email, letting you know that oh, that our bedding sale is ending and if you miss it, then you're missing out in a significant way. If you need to replace your sheets, yeah, this is a good time to buy sheets, but it's not as though all of the sheets in the world are suddenly going to disappear because their sale is ending. I don't know.
I just, I find it interesting thinking about ... this is early in the, in the harvest season. There's going to be way more harvesting happening as the summer progresses, regardless of what the weather ends up doing. There will be some plants that continue to grow and grow significantly. And then, but then also paying attention to what are the seasons? I missed out on the dandelion harvest this year, which was a significant one.
And I still probably will harvest the roots of the plants. I don't really do much with the leaves. I don't ... yeah, they're nutritious. I just personally don't like them. But the roots are really useful. I make them into bitters.
And I normally would love to collect the plants to put it into my dye pots, but I also make a bit of a rule for myself where if it's a source for pollinators, then I don't, and I don't harvest until there are enough other blooms out there for the pollinators to be eating from, which took a while, and usually means that I'm waiting until right at the cusp of the end of the major dandelion season.
The dandelions kick around through the whole summer but that first spring, like explosion of them is really the key time I find. And so you're waiting right to the end of that period anyway. And then the sheer amount that you need by weight to dye a significant result on wool is a lot. Like, it's, if I'm gonna look for that beautiful, cheery yellow, it's this like lovely buttery, bright yellow, it's a little fugitive, but not that fugitive, not as fugitive as people might think.
I need six times the amount, minimum, of weight of dandelion heads to the weight of the fiber. So that's, that's just so much. Think of how light a dandelion
head is. And then times that by a hundred-gram skein of yarn needs 600 grams, over half a kilo of dandelion flowers. That's a lot of dandelions.
And so for me, usually that means that with my smaller harvests, I am pretty much keeping them exclusive to my sock yarns, because I don't need to worry about sweater lots with them. And also, my sock yarns are like true local products. They are sourced generally from local farms and spun at the mini mill, Long Way Homestead. And so it feels like a much closer to home product.
Whereas my other bases generally are coming a couple of provinces over, being spun on Treaty 7 territory. And it's just, like it's still local in terms of being Canadian. And honestly, by Canadian standards, it's pretty close. I can drive there in a day. It's a hard day's drive, but I can drive there in a day. But it, it's just, I don't know. For me, I, there's something special about my sock yarns for me and something special also about my local plants that I'm harvesting.
And so for the most part, I find myself at this stage with the size of the harvests that I get, and am able to grow myself on the amount of land that I have, I restrict my harvests mostly to sock yarn, or I kind of hoard them a little bit just in case I end up with some leftover yarn from a friend who got some yarn spun and not necessarily what they were anticipating and so they're looking to offload it and I'm always happy to take stuff like that and stick it through my dye pots.
And in that situation, I wanna use stuff that I've grown or stuff that I've harvested versus the dyes that I purchase from an ethical supplier who harvests or who sources them from much larger operations elsewhere in the world. There's also value in that and I am grateful for them, especially because of the sheer volume that I dye.
But yeah, it's just, there's kind of these limits. And at this point, it does get a little tricky because my sock yarns generally are ... if I have an annual sock collection, I usually have the wool in time for late harvests and I maybe get it dyed in time for Fiber Fest, Manitoba Fiber Fest, in mid-September. But sometimes I might be dying into October.
And when the dandelions are easing themselves out in early June, I don't necessarily have sock yarn slash I don't think I've ever had sock yarn on hand that early to be able to then take advantage of the dandelions. And as a result, I generally don't have dandelion dye yarn. But yeah, I don't know.
I think all of these things are interesting when we look at applying them as concepts more broadly, right? Where there are restrictions and limits that we are
forced place and deal with in some ways. And then in other ways, we make those decisions for values, whether ... and also for creative reasons rooted in things like sustainability and being an ethical cohabitant and steward of the land and working with other natural processes and farmers who shear their sheep once a year and mills that only have so much capacity.
And depending on this, the season, then the shearing might not happen until late because it's too wet to share the sheep. And if it's a small enough operation where they don't have their sheep living in a barn, then they're not gonna be able to shear early enough to then get it to the mill. There's all of these kind of things in place that in COVID, I think a lot of people notice this supply chain issue for so many things and it's still impacting us.
I was listening yesterday to a podcast talking about how tampons are the newest thing and baby formulas. Both of those are like recent things. And it was Trevor Noah, and he made the delightful point, (I adore him), of how they were trying to place the tampon shortage blame on menstruating people and the high demand for tampons, despite the fact that that demand is pretty much the same each month and increases with the population growth.
But hey, let's blame menstruaters for their need for products that support them while they menstruate. The, these false scarcity tactics and then not actually breaking down, like why, what are the reasons that there is a shortage? And is there truly a shortage or is ... did something go weird along the way, and so we're just gonna blame the shortage? I don't think that they're necessarily holding tampons back in the way that like the diamond industry will hold diamonds back in order to keep prices and value at a certain rate.
I doubt that is what is happening with tampons. Please don't start conspiracy theories according to that. But there's also this question of like, why is there a shortage and what can we do around that? And if there is a shortage then who has what ability to make different decisions, right?
If you are a houseless person, it's gonna be a lot harder for you to be regularly emptying and sterilizing a menstrual cup, then a suburban housewife who, you know, has a home, doesn't have to worry about access to cleaning spaces and supplies and private space to be handling that. And then also, depending on the way that you were raised and what your culture is and what cultural beliefs there are around menstruation, then it may be more or less taboo.
And there's so many things at play, but these might also be times where if you do have easy access to using a menstrual cup and you've been traditionally
using tampons, maybe use this as an excuse to shift and see what happens. It’s funny because I'm like, this has nothing to do with plants and yet it totally does because ultimately everything is finite on the earth. And also many things are not actually finite.
We create a limit to them that doesn't necessarily exist. [Yawns.] And then ignore limitations of other things. Which also now just makes my brain shift over into thinking about donut economics and this theory of, if we think about economics and we think about the market as a donut, then there is a hole in the middle, which is where people do not have enough and like they truly do not have enough to have their basic needs met.
And there is the other side of the donut where now we have gone too far. We've extracted too much. And we are, we've pushed past what our limitations actually are. And there is a negative impact as a result of that. But then there's the donut and the donut is delicious and is the happy space within which everybody is able to move and function around their lives and one another with space and security and with their needs being met.
And not just being met in a way where it's, you were able to pay your mortgage this month, we'll see about next month. And oh, you were able to buy groceries this month, let's hope inflation doesn't go up. But where we truly actually are able to buy what we need, access what we need, trade what we need and have that security and not be worrying about that.
Imagine how much magic could be happening in the world if we weren't spending so much of our fucking time and energy worrying about where the next bill is going to be paid or whether or not we're gonna be able to afford our regular groceries this month, or whether you're gonna be able to enter the housing market or stay in the housing market.
That like, the kyriarchy is this nasty creature that is created a series of systems that keeps the vast majority of people in constant stress and fear mode and scarcity mode. And it takes a lot of energy to combat that. And I wanna acknowledge that having an abundant mindset is not an automatically easy thing.
Once you are living that abundant mindset, it certainly makes handling things easier to do. And if you are able to come from an abundant mindset more frequently, then it does make day to day existence a lot more comfortable, I think. But it takes a lot of effort and I think it's also very natural and reasonable,
honestly, when you look at the state of the world [yawns] for humans to naturally fall into a scarcity mindset.
And so what can we learn from plants to help us to start identifying where is there actual scarcity? Where is there abundance? Where is there maybe a lot of scarcity, but then also moments of abundance? Like, both can be true at the same time.
And the other thing that I think is really lovely about plants is that they also teach us that growth is a cycle. There can be years where you are dormant. There can be years where you are blooming beautifully, and then there's the years in between. And you might have one day where you are just loving life and the next day you are wilting and having a hard time.
And all of that is natural and reasonable. And it's what we do as we navigate through that, that then determines how we end up, I think. And yeah, I don't know. I just, I think that there's a lot that we can benefit from when we take our plants as our kind of elders and our teachers.
We didn't even get into trees and the way that trees do things. They are so smart and so wise and so old, and then lichens and moss and mushrooms. They all, there's so much that we can learn from other beings. It takes some time to tune into them, but it's, there's so much benefit to it.
Anyway. [Chuckles.] I've waxed on poetic. I also think I'm starting to get a little rambley, so I'm going to wrap this up for you. The sanctuary hub is almost ready in the Creative Coven Community, and within the Creative Coven Community, you will find oodles of plant-based things like some of my favorite herbalism books, some of my favorite natural dye books, some of my favorite batch recipes, my natural dye color journal, all of those things exist in the Creative Coven Community, 24/7.
And then also with the new sanctuary hub that will be joining the rest of the Creative Coven Community because you get access to all of it when you join, which is just, I think, great. I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about luxury and abundance and Empress energy as I like to call it. As I've been writing this new book, Sanctuary. And so there's oodles of resources and also more waxing poetic on the concepts.
And so you will find those things also in the Creative Coven Community. The sanctuary hub will be going live on July 1st so you'll be able to find goodies in there. And so that's pretty soon, but you'll also in the meantime get immediate
access to what is already in there, which includes, like I said, those recipes in the natural dye color journal and books and all of those lovely things. And of course, if you are interested in natural dyeing, then you can check out natural dyeing 101, or if you are currently living in circumstances that make affording natural dying 101 not accessible to you and you identify as BIPOC and/or queer/trans, within our lovely spectrum there, check out the Crush scholarship, because for every natural dying 101 student that joins, then we get an additional natural dye or Crush scholarship available.
And so we have over 20 available right now that I am very happy to be distributing to folks who qualify. So check out Crush scholarship to see if you qualify. And if you are of financial means and are interested in learning more about natural dyeing from the position that I take with my fun little brain, then you can check out natural dying 101, which is a self-study pre-recorded video course with oodles of resources for you.
You can be up and successfully dyeing with actual color-fast results within a weekend. It's a lot of fun. That's just me being biased because I obviously love my dye pots.
So, I think that's all that I have for you. I am waiting on news from the mill for this year's batches of things. And meanwhile, dyeing up the remaining stack of roots that I have as I prep for festival season, because we're back in person or supposed to be this year at various events. I'll be going to Quebec for Twist.
That'll be my first trip, honestly, I think out of ... no, not completely out of the city, but definitely out of province since before COVID, and I am honestly a little nervous but also excited. And I am excited because I will be with so many good people, including my doppelganger Kalea who shares many of my feels about plants and sheep.
Looking forward to continuing to harvest more things and stay tuned and connected with me on social media and on the blog and on the website and the newsletter, of course, and in the Creative Coven Community to see more of my adventures with plants, and Willow's also adventures with plants. She brings her own flavor to things.
Thanks so much for listening, sweet peas. Talk to you soon.
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