Tuesday, December 3, 2024

'Shopping' in Wild Forests: Foraging

California wild food foraging in Los Angeles' Hahamongna with Pascal and Mia

Braiding Sweetgrass (Kimmerer)
(PBS SoCal) Sept. 12, 2012: Everywhere we turn in California, there's something to eat -- if we know what to look for. Wild foragers and chefs Pascal Baudar and Mia Wasilevich of Transitional Gastronomy shop at the grocery store, but they also head out into the woods regularly, carrying backpacks and knives and compasses, finding edible plants scattered across public lands. They like it so much they've turned it into a business, with Pascal leading interested food nerds out into the woods to collect wild plants like mugwort, elderberries, lambs' quarter, cattails, purslane (verdolagas), wild radishes. and more, while Mia cooks up a feast using these wild ingredients.

KCET.org/socal/food/california... Eli Newell went out on one such veggie hunt with Pascal and learned about native versus invasive plants in Southern California's parks. (Which would you guess peaches are?) We ate flowers and asked Pascal why exactly he makes a habit of rubbing poison oak on his hands and face. Enjoy the video. And be cautiously hungry out there! Music: "Petit talibé" instrumental version, Löhstana David.

The sacred art of foraging
Chef Mia Wasilevich: Foraging and Transitional Gastronomy — House of Citrine

(Suzanne Joy Teune) Oct. 28, 2023: Hello! This month is the month of foraging. It is a full moon as I upload. I am calling it the "moon of colored trees." This is a very special moon, for this season does not last long. Foraging is something I began doing for art when I attended the Burren College of Art, Ireland. I have been doing it and incorporating items gathered into my art ever since. This video is to show that it's not just about gathering supplies from nature. It's far deeper than that. It's a sacred spiritual practice. This is why I am in awe and inspired by the Indigenous people of the Americas and their art. I don't know how to put this into words.

Music: "If You Wonder" by Nebulae. I reference the short film The Great Kind Mystery by artist Ella Morton (ellamorton.com). Thanks to the late Alice Ladas who died at age 102 for her pink tights.

Buddhist Theravada Thai Forest Tradition
Ambrosia Alchemist, meditation in Sedona vortex — House of Citrine

The Kammaṭṭhāna ("field of cultivation") Forest Tradition of Thailand (Pali kammaṭṭhāna, meaning "place of meditative work"), commonly known in the West as the Thai Forest Tradition, is a lineage of Theravada Buddhist monasticism.

It started around 1900 with Ajahn Mun Bhuridatto, who wanted to practice Buddhist wandering asceticism and its meditative practices like the Buddha, according to the standards of pre-sectarian Buddhism.
Are women able to attain? - Yes!
After studying with Ajahn Sao Kantasīlo and wandering through the northeast of Thailand (Isan), Ajahn Mun reportedly attained the stage of enlightenment known as non-returning and started teaching in Northeast Thailand.

He strove for a revival of Early Buddhism, insisting on a strict observance of the Buddhist Monastic Code known as the Vinaya and teaching the practice of meditative absorptions (jhāna) and the realization of nirvana (Pali nibbāna) in this very life.
  • (Anyone who attains even the first stage of enlightenment called stream entry glimpses or touches nirvana).
Initially, Ajahn Mun's teachings were met with fierce opposition, but in the 1930s his group was acknowledged as a formal faction of Thai Buddhism, and in the 1950s the relationship with the royal and religious establishment improved.

In the 1960s, Western students started to be attracted to this back-to-basics movement, and in the 1970s branch monasteries of the tradition began to be established in the West.

Underlying attitudes of the Thai Forest Tradition include an interest in the empirical and verifiable effectiveness of Buddhist practice, the individual's cultivation and development, and the use of skill in practice and living. More

Rewilding a Forest | Artist and Poet Maria "Vildhjärta" Westerberg

(Campfire Stories) Feb. 23, 2024: This film is part of a series called "Something Beautiful for the World,” which is a collaboration between Reflections of Life, Campfire Stories, and Happen Films.
Synopsis
Maria was a romantic, animal-loving, dreamy child who, growing up, had a hard time conforming to the demands associated with the trajectory towards a "normal" life. As a young adult she became depressed and was encouraged by her therapist to go for walks in the forest.

The myriads of funny-looking twigs and sticks she found along the way immediately put her on a path to recovery. Now, 25 years later, she's a celebrated "twig poet," whose art is shown in galleries throughout Sweden.

When a climate-related crisis strikes the forest where she lives and works, she's forced into a new type of creativity in order to save the place that once upon a time saved her.

Production
Filmed in: Värmland, Sweden. Featuring: Maria "Vildhjärta" Westerberg and Johannes Söderqvist (vildhjarta.net) and Martin Jentzen (jentzen.se). Produced, filmed, and edited by: Mattias Olsson for Campfire Stories (campfire-stories.org). Sound mix: Boris Laible (borislaible.com).

The films of the series "Something Beautiful for the World" explore how small acts of love and kindness have the potential to ripple out and change the world, touching hearts and minds in ways that we could never begin to imagine.

We'll be sharing a total of 12 short films, from across five continents -- releasing one per month for the whole year of 2024 -- four from each filmmaker.

More information about the three production companies:

Campfire Stories on YouTube: @campfire-stories. Visit website: campfire-stories.org. Support on Patreon: mattiasolsson.

Reflections of Life on YouTube: @reflectionsoflife. Visit website: reflectionsof.life. Support on Patreon: reflectionsoflife.

Happen Films on YouTube: @happenfilms. Visit website: happenfilms.com. Support on Patreon: happenfilms.

A huge thanks to the following brilliant people, who gave so generously of their time to help with translations, enabling us to provide subtitles for this film, in the following languages:
  • Bulgarian: Polina Stoyanova
  • Dutch: Karla Greven
  • Croatian: Davor Bobanac
  • (English: Mattias Olsson)
  • French: Amélie Macoin
  • German: Tanja Pütz
  • Indonesian: Ary Nuansa
  • Italian: Grazia Gironella
  • Polish: Anna Konieczna
  • Portuguese: Sibylle Steinpass
  • Slovakian: Zuzana Beračova
  • Slovenian: Jasmina Kovačič
  • Spanish: Patricia Aguirre
  • (Swedish: Mattias Olsson)
  • Compiled by Xochitl, Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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