As the leaves are beginning to change colour, it's time to harvest bare rooted saplings. The first ones are sycamore, often considered a weed tree, it's a good medium sized fast growing Pioneer that will form a woodland in well under ten years. Easy firewood and chipping biomass that's suitable for coppice.

It seems likely we will have some catastrophic event between February and 2030, after three days under the kitchen table with only the light and warmth of a candle ,with perhaps a pack of playing cards for entertainment, having eaten all the tins of cold beans, and filled the toilet bucket, we will emerge to a new world order. The army and high rank civil servants are planning to stay in their bunkers for 90 days, so we will be on our own. If you're trapped in a prison, mental institution or hospital, or any area of high population density, the chances are not good. If you were trapped travelling out of urban areas you'll already be toast. I think this may be a planned population reset , like the first two world wars or COVID. World social engineering on this scale , comes from where, and who are these influencers and puppeteers? Sometimes it's enough to suggest a event will occur, to instigate a reaction, or change in public opinion. Especially if we were told to prepare and nothing happened. Believe it , or not, change is in the wind!

We have been learning to recognize qualities such as warmth, coldness, dryness, and moisture in ourselves. These same qualities are also used in traditional herbalism to describe how herbs may influence the body. Consider ginger and peppermint. Ginger is traditionally considered warming. Its pungent character and warming sensation make it a familiar choice when someone feels chilled or experiences sluggish digestion. Peppermint on the other hand is generally considered cooling. Its menthol content produces a cooling sensation, and it has a long history of use for digestive discomfort, particularly when cramping or tension is involved. Traditional herbal energetics helps us understand these qualities and how they may influence the body. Warming and cooling are not precise measurements of body temperature, but they are traditional descriptions that help guide herbal selection alongside our understanding of an herb's actions and safety. This brings us to an important relationship between the person and the plant. If someone already experiences excessive warmth, a strongly warming herb may not be the best fit. If someone tends toward coldness, a cooling herb may not provide the balance they are seeking. But we cannot make that decision from one quality alone. A person who generally feels cold may still benefit from peppermint when experiencing digestive cramping because peppermint has actions beyond its cooling quality. Likewise, someone who generally feels warm may find ginger helpful for occasional digestive sluggishness. We look at the particular discomfort, the herb's actions, the person's usual tendencies, and how they respond. An herb is not automatically a poor choice simply because one of its qualities seems opposite to the person's constitution. As we continue learning, we will also encounter drying, moistening, relaxing, and toning qualities in herbs. Together, these descriptions help us understand why an herb might be a good fit for one situation and a poorer fit for another. The goal is not simply to memorize what each herb does, it is to understand why its qualities might fit the person and the conditions we observe.

If we gathered onions, garlic, leeks, and parsley from our gardens today, we would be bringing together foods named in Mayster Jon Gardener’s instructions preserved from around 1440. The spelling looks different, but several names are recognizable. His opening lines include “leke,” “ownyns,” “garleke,” and “percely.” Across nearly six centuries, these are still familiar garden crops and kitchen ingredients. What interests me is how easily we can picture using them. Onions and garlic might begin a meal in the cooking pot. Leeks could become part of a soup, and parsley could supply leaves for a sauce. Medieval English cooking records also connect these plants with soups, sauces, and other preparations. Mayster Jon gives parsley particular attention. He describes cutting it repeatedly during the season, while leaving plants intended for seed uncut. This was a crop to manage for continued use, with some plants serving the kitchen and others providing seed. That does not mean his parsley or onions were identical to the varieties we buy today. The familiar crop name does not establish the same size, appearance, flavor, or growing behavior. Nor does one gardening text tell us what every household grew or ate. Still, these recognizable foods give us a practical connection with the past. We can begin with something we know, then ask how people grew it, prepared it, and carried it into another season. For our next look at Mayster Jon’s garden, I would like to follow these familiar foods a little further, from the growing bed toward the household table. Which of these four do you grow, and which earns its place most often in your cooking?

A familiar meal may stay on our table for years while the people eating it change. Someone who once spent the day doing physical work may now spend more time sitting. A household that cooked for five may now cook for one. The food is familiar, but what we need from the meal may deserve another look. One important distinction is between energy and nutrients. Calories measure the energy food provides. Protein, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients have roles in keeping the body functioning. As we age, we may need less energy, particularly when activity decreases, while our need for adequate nourishment continues. Needing fewer calories does not mean needing proportionately less of every nutrient. This helps explain why “just eat less” is an incomplete approach to nourishment in later life. We need to consider both how much we eat and what our food provides. This does not mean every older adult should reduce portions. Needs differ with activity, body size, health, and individual circumstances. There is also a practical side. A meal can offer useful nutrients and still be difficult to shop for, prepare, or enjoy. Cooking for one, a limited budget, or less energy for preparation can change what is manageable. These circumstances are important when we consider how nourishment reaches the person. This week, look at one familiar meal and ask two questions. What nourishment does it provide, and does the way I prepare and serve it still fit my life? You might recognize a useful adjustment, or find that the meal still serves you well. The purpose is to understand the fit before changing it. What has changed most in what you need from a meal over the years? Which change has most affected your everyday meals?