Gifts from Nature: Sprouts!

Crystal Cooper

As we prepare for winter amid these overwhelming times, great opportunity and responsibility exist for maintaining our health and strength. Relying on our abilities and resources has become vital as our societal systems sustain prolonged, multi-faceted stress. One way to move forward with health-focused lifestyle changes is to grow food indoors for whole-being inspiration. Considering combined nutritional value, cost, and required effort and maintenance, one method outshines them all—sprouting! By harnessing the ancient practice of sprouting seeds, we can reap the benefits of eating live food while it’s too cold for plants to grow outside.

Through the sprouting process, water and electricity awaken and enliven stored enzymes, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and antioxidants. Eating sprouts is like eating every part of an entire plant at a very young age. It’s as simple as soaking, draining, rinsing, and storing. Given the convenience of such a power-packed food, sprouting is a historically popular form of ancient agriculture.

The advantages of eating sprouts are vast. Being easily digestible, the bioavailability of sprouts provides a synergy of nutrients with gut flora. This makes them a notable source of energy and protein. The sprouting process also inhibits certain anti-nutrients found in many grains and nuts. Enjoying your crop as raw as possible provides the most benefit, as heat can damage nutrients. It’s also wise to introduce sprouts in small quantities, as some bellies may be sensitive to this live, concentrated food.

In addition to being a superior food, studies have shown that sprouts particularly benefit the brain, heart, lungs, organs, and bones, as well as help with cancer prevention and lowering cholesterol. They also regulate blood sugar and are therefore ideal for those with diabetes and inflammatory issues. You can access these benefits by incorporating sprouts long-term into your diet. Furthermore, not all sprouts are created equal. Specific plants provide particular health advantages. Sproutpeople.org is a great resource for research.

An abundance of information and options exist in the simple world of sprouting.

A cornucopia of seeds can be used, including all edible grains, seeds, and legumes. From a simple mason jar or hemp bag to self-draining, variable ventilation, stacking sprouters, a range of growing mediums are available. Sproutpeople.org is a complete sprouting info and resource website, providing all one needs to know about sprouting while streamlining the process of purchasing quality seeds and growing mediums.

Dry seeds can remain viable for one to five or more years, making them ideal for stocking up and storing. Dormant seeds should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place. You can freeze them for increased shelf life; just be careful to avoid freezer-burn. Since refrigerators are humid, they are not ideal for dry seed storage. However, once the seeds have been sprouted, rinsed, dried completely (towels or a salad spinner are helpful), and stored in air-tight containers, they’ll stay fresh and bacteria-free in your refrigerator for weeks.

With a fresh crop of sprouts, occasions to experiment with flavors, textures, and consistencies are infinite! From spicy to sweet, big fava beans to small sesame seeds, recipes are limited by only your creativity level. They can be added to salads—but not just spinach and lettuce ones. Sprouts spice up anything from tabouli to potato salad. Being the most bio-available and nutrient-dense protein for the cost, sprouts are a sustainable meat alternative. Sandwiches, soup, hummus, salsa, pizza—they can even be dried and ground to make bread flour. Sprouts are a natural, nourishing way to support us when we need it most.

It can be challenging to remain happy and healthy throughout our long U.P. winters. We can grow these fun, teeny kitchen gardens to satisfy our minds and bodies with a living harvest during our darkest months. Making sprouts a regular part of one’s diet can provide extra energy, vitamin C, and weight loss—something many particularly appreciate this season. Plus, these baby plants can delight us with their sweet spark of new life in our indoor winter world.

Crystal Cooper has called Marquette home for over a decade and is passionate about natural healing modalities as well as personal and global sustainability. Crystal advocates resiliency-promoting actions within the community in the face of our changing climate.Crystal.coocooper@gmail.com.

Gifts from Nature: Benefitting from Mother Nature’s Two Sides, Kevin McGrath

Lyrics from an old-time favorite tune, Blue Oyster Cult’s Godzilla, about how nature repeatedly reveals man’s follies, ring in my ear as I venture outside for the first time in quite a while to refresh my being. Frigid temperatures had forced me into greater confinement during this time of self-isolation while our pandemic continues its global tour wreaking havoc upon every unfortunate earthling whom isn’t immune to its often-fatal concoction of body invaders.

Time after time, we humans are lulled into believing we have firm control over nature as we as a species advance with technology and improvements to our systems through new ideas, and upgrades to infrastructure and design. Yet, whether it be flooding, tornado, fire, tsunami, earthquake, volcano, avalanche, or virus to name many but not all, we are never as prepared as we would prefer, and many of the shortcomings of our society are highlighted for all who are willing to see them.

All of the cutbacks our current government has made to reduce costs have ended up costing us way more in the long run, as is always the case when you’re not prepared for something. Every cause has an effect.

I regress. A silver lining can be found if we choose to keep our focus positive. Once the crisis ends, our human folly provides an opening for us to collectively begin anew within a clearer, more beneficial path where smarter choices can be made before the tension and pressures of “everyday normalcy” set back into the global economy, choices that still enable cleaner air and water, where distant mountain ranges aren’t blocked from showing their splendor due to smog from fossil fuel emissions, choices where the good of all is held higher than the good of just a few.

Nature is a great teacher and great teachers are often hard on their students, especially when their pupils are not grasping the main concept. That main concept is simple—take care of nature, or at least take nature into consideration with all decisions.

It’s pretty clear that our natural environment is a central part of the human formula (humanity), even though we try to reduce this fact through “progress.” We can work with it, or we can continue to work against it, despite witnessing time and time again how the latter doesn’t work.

As destructive and fierce as nature can sometimes be, for the most part, nature is beautiful and healing in its majesty.

Google “healing and nature,” and you’ll get an endless number of studies about improved concentration, decreased anxiety, uplifted mood, improved focus, better sleep and mental health, to helping children with ADD, helping us get exercise, providing us vitamin D, boosting our creative-solving abilities, and assisting us to maintain our weight through better sleep and energy use. Thank you, sunlight and good old-fashioned fresh air!

For me, and probably for many of you also, I don’t need a study to let me know how beneficial being out in nature truly is, I can just feel it. It makes me feel happy just to be outside, and I can feel my body sink into a more natural way of being, living as humankind was intended as a part of nature. Let’s learn the lessons as a people, and stand up for nature for the benefit of all, as we take steps to figure out how to proceed from here as a society.

Kevin McGrath can be found observing nature with respect and reverence in an attempt to learn the lessons it’s teaching.

Gifts from Nature: Pusilli et Magni (Great and Small), Crystal Cooper

natural living, holistic wellness, U.P. wellness publication, holistic health

Photo by Crystal Cooper

It’s 4.5 billion years ago—the unstable atmosphere is comprised of noxious gases, and life is yet to begin. Barren rock exists, but most of the Earth is oceanic. This vast ocean, a cauldron of primordial soup, is where the elements of life originated. Algae began experimenting. Through time, random chance, and fungal help, it creeped onto the rock and succeeded. Our first land ancestors were born, assembling premier leaf and root-like structures to harness energy, making static life possible. This ancestor is moss, the first land plant.

Maximizing opportunities between air and earth for the greater good of all, moss began an atmospheric and terrestrial revolution. Along with algae, it created an oxygenated atmosphere, making this space more habitable. Through the weathering of rock with their root-like structures, moss cultivated soil. Growing together in tightly bound communities to conserve resources and communicate, moss also provided a physical nursery from which other plant and animal life would spring. This led to the forests and plant-covered earth we now inhabit. A living affirmation of the fractal nature of existence, each cushion of moss sustains a micro-rainforest, complete with predators, prey, and a thriving food web.

Today, still a master of microscopic minimalism, moss has survived history with around 22,000 current species worldwide. Remaining small and simple has been the key to its fundamental efficiency. To reduce requirements, moss only grows as big as necessary, keeping assimilation of raw materials easy. Lacking the more evolved structures of higher plants, moss takes in nutrients and water directly through its tissues, which are only one cell-layer thick. This highlights just how sensitive they are, identifying them as indicators of healthy habitats.

Moss inhabits places considered unfavorable by most plants, utilizing their small size and adaptive ability to become strikingly specialized or remain generalized. One often pictures a lush rainforest of moss flourishing on all available surfaces. At the same time, it can persist on our barren rock outcrops, the branches of towering frozen pines, in the cracks of a sidewalk, on roofs, and even traveling on the shell of a turtle. Displaying its amphibious demeanor, moss’s main concern on land is water availability. To sustain life in the variety of environments it does, moss exhibits the skill of desiccating, or drying up. Halting photosynthesis, it patiently awaits the return of water and favorable conditions.

The ancient and intimate relationship between moss, water, and the atmosphere still evolves. This is prominently observed in the health and functioning of bogs and peatlands. Here, Sphagnum mosses begin growing at the edge of a nearly stagnant body of water. Many distinct properties enable the Sphagnum to create an ecosystem of its own. The water-holding capacity of its leaves and production of humic acid result in water-logged, oxygen depleted, acidic, and nutrient-poor conditions that inhibit most plants from surviving. Over thousands of years, creeping inward on the water, the moss creates a floating mat—growing, accumulating, compressing, and storing plant matter. This also inhibits bacterial function and decomposition. The world’s peatlands and bogs sequester twice as much carbon as trees on the planet.

Considering the earth’s greenhouse gas and climate crisis, the function and health of bogs and peatlands are imperative for our future. Humans use peatlands and bogs for fuel and convert them to agricultural land. This, along with other environmental threats, inhibits or destroys the function of these critical habitats. When healthy, these places act as crucial carbon sink, storing carbon in the form of plant matter. However, when function ceases they become an immense carbon source, releasing greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere. One hectare (about 2.5 acres) of peatland can hold approximately 1,500 metric tons of carbon—and millions of hectares have been damaged. Raising awareness of our social and environmental responsibility as stewards of the earth, perhaps we can look to moss for lessons in surviving.

A myriad of symbolic treasures can be gleaned from the life and ways of moss. Returning to a small, simple, sensitive, and adaptable life, we might begin to heal our relationship with ourselves and nature. Moving forward in the face of our changing climate, living this way would be beneficial for all.

Humbly holding on to the rocks, fallen trees, and humic earth of our north woods, moss lives in the shade of the showy, flowering plants of spring and summer. As those plants grow fast and tall, moss pales in their wake, remaining small, whispering the virtues of simplicity. As autumn falls across the land, leaves and tall plants browning as they perish, the small and mighty plants once again begin to shine. Moving into winter, the enduring moss can photosynthesize at near-freezing temperatures. Blazing emerald, stark against the white snow, moss offers a colorful solace and the promise of life.

Resources:
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer – A book I reference in this article and in my life. A beautiful balance of science and Native American wisdom, the author paints a living awareness and importance of moss.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/bog/
Great general information on bogs/peatlands and other resources.

https://www.bogology.org – A fun, informational platform of bogs and an enthusiast’s goings-on.

Biello, David. (2009, December 08). Peat and Repeat: Can Major Carbon Sinks Be Restored by Rewetting the World’s Drained Bogs? Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/peat-and-repeat-rewetting-carbon-sinks/- A good article, though dated, for getting a general picture of the significance of bogs and peatlands around the world.

Crystal Cooper has called Marquette, MI home for a decade. She received a degree in Biology Ecology, emphasizing Botany at Northern Michigan University. Passionate about traditional ecological knowledge and sustainable, minimalistic lifestyle, Crystal’s focus is community resilience in the future of our changing climate. Reach her at crystal.coocooper@gmail.com.

Inner Nutrition: What Camp Means to Me, by Christine Saari

It all began with a clearing in the woods cluttered with ramshackle buildings from a former homestead: the remains of a cabin, a leaning barn, a decaying pig sty and chicken coop. I was horrified to learn this was to be the site for our camp. Why would we want a camp to begin with when we lived amidst a beautiful landscape waiting to be explored? “I’ll never come here,” I said to my husband. If he wanted a camp, so be it. I did not!

Jon proceeded without me. One day he took me to the transformed site – the buildings were gone, the clearing pristine. Then he purchased a 100-year old log cabin which had brambles growing inside and no windows and doors. Again I was aghast. But Jon was undeterred. The building was taken apart, transferred and rebuilt. Trees were felled for replacement logs, windows cut, doors made, layers of wallpaper stripped off the cedar logs. Endless work, but I participated, helped lay the floor, chinked, found furniture, worked to make the place cozy.

The two-story cabin has been proudly standing in our clearing since 1994, over time joined by a two-seater outhouse bought from an aunt, a shed and sauna rescued from a pasture for cows who rubbed the dovetailed corners round. Finnish relatives equipped the smoke sauna with a hearth and benches, and a deck was added to the house.

Although I said I’d never come, I have grown to love our camp above the West Branch of the Whitefish River. Why? What does camp mean for me?

With a thirty-mile trip, it is close enough from home to come for just an evening in the summer or for an overnight stay. Of course, if we can we stay longer, but whatever the length of our visit, we return to town refreshed.

Thanks to the “primitive” nature of the place – no electricity, a spring in the woods, a wood stove, life there slows down immediately. We forget about the news, e-mail or phone connection. Instead we make sure the kerosene lamps are filled for the evening and that there is enough wood to stay warm. This is a place just to be. We cook simple meals, talk, write letters, read and play scrabble. We take time to take a nap, we go to bed early. In summer we take canoe rides on the river, in winter we ski. We watch the natural world around us: a wild turkey has lost a beautiful feather, irises are blooming on the shore, a heron flies overhead.

Although we are close to a road, we seem far away from civilization. I can sunbathe unobserved. There are berries and mushrooms and flowers to pick. The stars shine brightly at night, the moon lights up the clearing, fireflies glow in the dark. Because the area is small, we have gotten to know it intimately. Every time we come we see changes. The river swells from melting snow, spring leaves unfold, white trilliums cover the dark forest floor. Here we are aware of the annual cycle of growth and decay and of our place in this universe.

Aside from all that, at camp we are surrounded by our ancestors: the flour bin reminds us of Jon’s grandmother’s farm. Jon’s father brought the cuckoo clock from the war in Europe, and camp brings me back to my childhood, to the Austrian mountain farm without electricity and running water where I grew up. Here I am connected to the past and to nature. Here I feel whole.

Christine Saari, an Austrian immigrant, is a writer and visual artist. She has published a book, Love and War at Stag Farm, The Story of Hirschengut, an Austrian Mountain Farm 1938-48. It tells the story of her family in Austria during WWII and its aftermath.

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Gifts from Nature: Autumn’s Look Within, by Kevin McGrath

As I sit amongst the trees on the banks of the Chocolay River, on this summer-like autumn day, gazing at the placid lifeblood of this Greatest Lake of ours, I can’t help but realize the correlation between the trees’ evolution with nature’s flow, dropping their color and beauty to become future fertilizer and soil, their trunks and branches sending energy inward and down toward their root systems, and us humans sending our kids and students back to school.

This back-to-basics time, working on a core human feature – our brains, can be likened to the inward journey of our hardwood brethren, the aspens, tamaracks and birches, to name a few, as we potentially learn to reclaim ourselves from the inside out.

For me, as I contemplate this renewal, I ask myself, “Am I living up to my personal standards? Am I living life on my terms? Am I being the person I truly want to be?”

I have more questions than answers at this point, but as fall starts giving way to winter, my contemplation period can develop into devising a plan in early winter, so that sometime during the new year, a personal yearly manifesto is constructed and written down, enabling me to look back at it when the need is there. It’s a New Year’s resolution of sorts on how I plan on being a better person. I observe shortcomings in myself and attempt to rectify them through new actions.

For example, I never used to dance. Somewhere along the line in growing up, my perception was that real men didn’t dance. Even though it looked like a lot of fun, I avoided dancing at all cost. I was afraid of appearing vulnerable and inept, and becoming the target of jokes.

As I turned middle aged, I had an a-ha moment, realizing “Who cares what others think or say? Deep down I want to dance!” Now I dance whenever I can, and to help with my two left feet, I started taking Zumba, an exercise dance class, where to my surprise I discovered I love it, even though I’m often the only male there. I move a little more smoothly now, and it’s really helped my city league basketball game.

So as I take this time to evaluate where I am in life, like the trees focusing inward and our schoolchildren going back to learning, I look to this time of renewal to help tweak the real me into becoming the person who feels completely happy and comfortable with himself.

Kevin McGrath can be found dancing amongst the trees, tweaking the direction of his life, or as Jim Carey told Marshall University graduates, “hitting the reset button as often as it takes” to become the true him.

*Did you know you can find exclusive Solar Products for the U.P. online at www.upgreen.org? Great hiking and off-grid products included!

Gifts from Nature: Mid City Gem, by Kevin McGrath

I am torn about writing the following, as the low number of people that use the area I’m about to describe is one reason it’s such a gem. We are often confronted with this catch-22 in the U.P., which has many treasured local spots we might hope to keep to ourselves. This selfishness is unhealthy and far too prevalent in current society. The Native American concept of un-ownable land makes good sense, allowing everyone to share in its abundance.

So I’m going ahead and sharing information on one of my favorite hiking and cross-country ski trails which is hidden in plain sight – the Fit Strip, a half-mile by half-mile plot of land bordering Park Cemetery. On a first-of-spring jaunt through this easy, meandering trail winding past stunning white pines and other conifers, maples and birch, a jogger approached. He pointed and asked whether I saw the red fox grazing just fifty feet off the path. We both stopped and enjoyed the view for a moment before this sleek critter with a white patch on the tip of its full tail slipped back into denser thicket.

The park is home to an array of four-legged foragers, including deer, skunk, raccoon, squirrel, chipmunk, and mouse. I’m always pleasantly surprised when I venture into this woodsy park. Nearly every year brings a new and exciting sighting. Once while traversing the soft wood chip trail, I turned a sharp corner and spotted a great horned owl a mere twenty feet away, busily devouring a chippy or mouse. He seemed perturbed by my sudden appearance, yet determined to finish his delectable meal. I stopped quickly and slowly backed away around the same corner so I could watch him without triggering his early departure. He turned his head toward me with an intensely fierce stare that penetrated my being, and then continued shredding the helpless rodent.

Several years ago, a six-hundred pound moose yearling wandered into this forest haven and claimed it as home. Park Cemetery offers three beautiful ponds filled with water lilies, so this massive adolescent would sleep in the fit strip, forage, and then go to the pond to drink and feast. At first a handful of us watched his every move. Then the crowds grew each week until finally, after several months, hundreds would await his timely arrival. This gentle giant had to navigate through the crowds three times a day, causing concern from local authorities about possible danger.

These crowds are not what I am seeking, but if you are looking for a close-to-home, nature-filled, peaceful adventure, this mid-city gem is worth the trip. It offers entrance from every side and trails that wind gracefully through a gently sloped city forest of endless nature-watching possibilities.

To contact Kevin McGrath, see-male him hiking about enjoying the great outdoors.

Beginning Your Own Herb Garden

by Victoria Jungwirth

I gave a presentation recently to a class of students at NMU and was asked what herbs I would grow if I was just starting up an herb garden. I had to think for a moment because I don’t grow many herbs, using mostly wild-crafted plants, or herbs I buy because they don’t grow well in our climate. But I do have some things in my garden that I can’t imagine life without, all easy to grow for beginners, good basics for medicinal use, and available from most seed catalogs.

Nettles

(Urtica Dioica): I have cultivated a good patch of nettles in my garden. They arrived by accident in compost imported from the city, and I was very happy to see them. A perennial, they are one of the first greens to appear in spring, well before anything I might care to sow, and I pick the young leaves for steaming and eating. (I am very careful when picking and don’t mind a few stings, but if you do, wear gloves for this!) As the season progresses, I pick and dry bunches for tea in the winter and make a batch of tincture. Nettles are high in vitamins and minerals, especially iron, so they make a useful addition to winter teas and stews, and are a great tonic, especially for treating persistent skin problems. They are easily cultivated from a root cutting or from seed, and grow well in most garden situations.

Comfrey

(Symphytum Officinale): Another perennial that grows vigorously, the pretty blue flowers attract bees to the garden, which is an added bonus. Comfrey appears early too and I add small leaves to salads, but they quickly become too furry to be palatable. Comfrey is the consummate healing herb for open wounds, speeding the healing process and reducing scarring. It can be infused in oil, or the leaves can be used fresh as a poultice. Excess leaves can be used to make manure tea for the garden by rotting them down in a bucket of water. The smell will quickly remind you why this is called “manure” tea! Again, a root cutting is the easiest way to propagate, but it can be grown from seed as well and grows anywhere!

Calendula

(Calendula Officinalis): This is an annual, so it needs to be sown each year, but the seeds are easy to save, and it often reseeds itself! The flowers are a beautiful addition to any garden and continue flowering late into fall, tolerating the first few frosts. Sometimes it’s hard to bring myself to harvest the flowers, but the more you pick, the more flowers will come. Calendula is mildly antiseptic and anti-inflammatory, so it is useful for skin rashes or abrasions, especially if infection is suspected or there is swelling. It makes a great massage or baby oil, so consider putting some up for gifts. Pick the flowers on a dry, sunny day and cover them with good quality oil for four to six weeks. It’s as easy as that!

This year I grew feverfew and chamomile for the first time. The feverfew did well and I was able to make a batch of tincture with it, but the chamomile was not as productive. I’ve found some non-native plants do not produce such strong medicine, even if they appear to cultivate well. Echinacea is an example. I got some growing in my garden, but when I harvested the roots and made tincture, it was nowhere near as strong as the product I made with roots from the West Coast. I’m assuming that the shorter season and less sunshine contributed to this effect. So there is lots of room for experimentation.

Victoria Jungwirth is the owner of Wilderness Herbs and specializes in local medicinal plants. She lives in a remote corner of Marquette county where she and her husband build birch bark canoes. She is also a manager at the Marquette Food Co-op.

Gifts from Nature: Take A Hike

by Kevin McGrath

The last several days had been downright frigid, with temperatures hovering at zero and below. So when I looked outside on a mid-January Saturday and saw the sun shining, I knew I had to get outside to enjoy it. Twenty-three is what the thermometer was showing and like most of us living in these north woods would say, it felt like spring. So I jumped into my car and headed to the Dead River Falls where I usually enjoy a nice summer hike and also a fall excursion with all its colorful grandeur.

This was actually my first trip to this hidden gem during the winter months. I was excited so I eagerly proceeded, camera in hand, wondering what this season had to offer. After climbing the somewhat steep but level snow-covered path leading to the trail head, it was clear the snow surely made it slower going. Upon entering the beginning of the trail, I was greeted by a pileated woodpecker busily chipping away at a tree in search of a mid-afternoon meal. He was working so hard he didn’t even notice me as I got my camera out and took several photos of his colorful plumage. I knew at that moment I was where I needed to be.

Continuing on my way down the slope, I could hear the powerful flow of the water long before I could see it. Reaching the bottom of the hill, I entered an opening where the rushing life source was capped and blanketed with snowy-white curved and smooth drifts creating a beautiful landscape only seen in paintings. I took another picture. The air was fresh and pure, nourishing my olfactory senses as I proceeded upstream along the picturesque banks.

Navigating a steep climb, I maneuvered myself to the top of the first of a series of waterfalls. I sat there quite a while, taking in all the splendor of the moment. After snapping several more photos, I continued my uplifting journey in this postcard-worthy adventure, reaching another series of iced-over falls whose gurgling, powerful, fast-moving liquid is only visible here and there at the very bottom, where openings from windblown snow hadn’t yet created the ice shelves that encased the rest.

Wanting to get closer but not being able to judge clearly where water and land divide, given all the drifting and covered surfaces, I slowly, cautiously, followed others’ footsteps on the trail I sat and listened to the winter birds busy above in the treetops. Soaking in this fine day, I continue a little further before deciding it was time to turn back and retrace my steps as the sun began slowly to sink and a chill that wasn’t around at the start of this local thrill became a noticeable temperature drop.

Heading in the opposite direction brought new perspectives on this endeavor so I had to stop to take more photos. This popular summer haven for locals is now deserted, offering me this entire cornucopia of delight all to myself. I exited fully nourished, inspiration flowing through my veins like the water rushing over the hidden stones below.

Kevin McGrath seeks inspiration wherever it is calling from, but particularly enjoys receiving it from nature.