We planted our prairie! From a seed planted at Caring for Common Ground 2018, through two and a half years of planning and then two seasons of site prep, we arrived at the moment of seeding our prairie at the Emmett Schulte food pantry garden on Oct 28th. 7 volunteers participated in sowing 3000 sq feet of seeds. We read a Care for Creation prayer from Pope Francis and a blessing of the seeds before scattering the seeds over the ground. We are excited to see what this prairie will grow into! In September we installed an educational sign next to the prairie site. As one volunteer said after we planted, "Now we have a prairie to go with our sign!" :)

Thank you so much for being the spark, guidance and inspiration from this project. We truly would not have done this planting without Caring for Common Ground. Next step is to figure out how to permanently protect this land from heavily encroaching development. Our location right next to the Ice Age Trail and a few blocks away from a nature reserve might help our cause…

I have redesigned the Arboretum’s restoration volunteer work party program to adapt to Covid safety guidelines, and have enjoyed working on restorations at the Arb (and we’ve been blessed with Laura’s participation!). We held a seed collecting session with Cheryl’s Landscape Architecture 363 class; we read The Honorable Harvest by Robin Wall Kimmerer before we collected Indian grass seed for the Ho Chunk Community and Youth Center (Teejop Hocira) in Madison. I also moderated the Arb’s Fall lecture series about the land ethic from a variety of people of color’s perspectives, and shared with Maia information from Pao Vue’s presentation about land guardians. I collected garden pots for Julia in case she has to transfer plants from her project next Spring. I have been contacted by the Contemplative Renewal Online committee from the Ecumenical Center for Clergy Spiritual Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery about offering some contemplative nature practices for the participants.

On a personal/spiritual level, I’ve spent a lot of time in nature, visiting natural areas I’ve never been before and seeking out champion trees and old growth forests. I have been taking a variety of classes: CoCreative Partnership with Nature with Pam Montgomery, Nature Spirits with Tanis Helliwell, Decolonizing Ancestor Trauma with the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries, Tree Identification with US Stevens Point. I have really enjoyed and appreciated spending a lot of time in nature -- it balances all out the left brained work I do for work.

I’ve been locally advocating the sharing of botanical medicines and herbal support as either barters or for free when possible as well as working with a reparations project for supporting Black Southern farmers. It’s been humbling and illuminating, fueling the need for White people to retain the momentum of anti-racism work that has lost steam since the Black Lives Matter protests rejuvenated this summer.

Brown Horse Herbal LLC is now establishing itself as a Neighborhood Community Apothecary, doing our part to provide affordable, sustainable care and support for our community. Ideally, every area of fifteen square miles should have at least one apothecary situated for serving the surrounding community. Can you imagine how accessible healthcare and food would be if that became our future?

It’s also been a season of working with Herbalists Without Borders, donating portions of crops and storage for international and domestic shipping in a year when natural disasters, poverty, and illness have decimated Community Apothecary shelves. There’s also been a writing project started that has me interviewing and learning from herbalists around the world during an unprecedented time of global disaster.