Lovely quote about bigotry and intolerance

Just a quick blog here. I saw this quote today and felt I wanted to share it, thanks to Peter Smith for bringing it to my attention!

As a certain group of well known skeptics and journalists are doing a 'tour' at the minute I thought this was particularly relevant.







I have never known a clergyman or a professor who could be more narrow, bigoted, and intolerant than some scientists, or pseudo-scientists… Intolerance is a closed mind. Bigotry is an exaltation of authorities. Narrowness is ignorance unwilling to be taught. And one of the outstanding truths I have learned in my University (of Nature) is that the moment you reach a final conclusion on anything, set that conclusion up as a fact to which nothing can be added and from which nothing can be taken away, and refuse to listen to any new evidence, you have reached an intellectual dead-centre, and nothing will start the engine again short of a charge of dynamite… Ossified knowledge is a dead-weight to the world, and it does not matter in what realm of man’s intellectual activities it is found… Any obstinate clinging to outworn doctrines, whether of religion or politics or morality or of science, are equally damning and equally damnable.

- Luther Burbank Quoted from page 21 of The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in Direct Perception of Nature by Stephen Harrod Buhner ISBN-13: 978-978-159143035-3 or ISBN-10: 159143035-6 Bear & Company, Rochester, Vermont




Jo Rhodes is a participant in the Amazon Europe S.à r.l. Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.

Emotional Freedom Technique

I have several friends who are Emotional Freedom Technique practitioners and I have been using it myself quite a bit lately. It is a bit weird and hard to get your head around, but if you can suspend your disbelief and give it a go you might be surprised.

In very simple terms EFT is a sort of emotional version of acupuncture, you tap certain acupuncture points as you say phrases and the idea is to make you feel more positive about what is going on and to help release negative emotions or limiting beliefs.

Thise have you that have seen the film 'The Secret' might be interested to know that several people featured including Bob Doyle, Joe Vitale, Bob Proctor and Jack Canfield are all big fans of EFT.

When I first looked into it I must confess I was put off by the evangelical enthusiasm of the orange, over tanned Americans in the videos. It just seemed too good to be true and just too easy. I was never quite sure what phrases to use and so tried EFT a few times and then stopped. Now there is a huge amount of good quality information and videos on youtube so it's much easier to find out more.

One of the things I really like about the EFT community is that the founder Gary Craig encourages free distribution of the information so more people can find out about how it works. You can pay to see an EFT practitioner to work on specific issues and there are courses available if you want to learn more but there is a lot of great free stuff out there.

http://www.emofree.com/ The Official EFT website from the founder of the technique Gary Craig. There is an introduction to EFT video and a huge amount of information available here including a free manual to download.

Brad Yates has a very extensive website with many short 5-10 minute youtube EFT videos on a variety of themes.

Tapping.com is an excellent site from Magnus with some longer EFT videos of around 20 minutes on a variety of themes including an introduction to EFT, self acceptance, procrastination, stress relief and dealing with anger.

While EFT has produced remarkable results, it must still be considered to be in the experimental stage and thus practitioners and the public must take complete responsibility for their use of it and their own physical and emotional well-being. EFT should not be seen as a substitute for regular care from your GP or other health provider.

There are a growing number of EFT practitioners in the UK. Locally I can highly recommend Penny Lowe who works in Settle and Ilkley, Ruth Ablett in Bentham and Heather Smiles in Barrowford near Nelson who also works does EFT with animals, especially horses.

If you want to give it a try and start your day with a bit of tapping, have a look at this video from Brad Yates, 'Tap O The Mornin!'.

Wild food and foraging

Living in the coutryside my hubby and I often eat foods we pick up on walks such as apples, many types of mushroom, nettles, sorrel, chickweed, borage, wild garlic, many different berries and rosehips. After doing a bit of weeding in the garden yesterday I was a bit disturbed to see some ground elder creeping its way through the rockery.

But then I thought.. hmmm.. 'free food'. For those of you that haven't tried it, ground elder is actually quite tasty and can be cooked like spinach. The small waxy looking new shoots are very nice eaten raw in salads and are quite spicy, a bit like rocket.


If you are going to eat anything wild please make absolutely sure what you pick is safe. I strongly recommend you get a good book but if you aren't sure whether foraging is for you The Wild Food School offer a free 50 page Urban Foraging Guide which is available to download from their website.

Food For Free by Richard Mabey is, in my humble opinion, the definitive foraging book. First published in 1974 and reprinted many, many times since then. There are several versions available but my favourite is the handy pocket size book.

When it comes to mushrooms I would urge you to be extra cautious and never pick anything you are unsure of. There are some excellent mushroom identification books around. We have the pocket guide which is pretty good but seem to often forget it when we go out on foraging walks!

Mushroom Picker's Foolproof Field Guide is a much larger book and is definitely not pocket sized but has some great information and tips on drying and preserving too. it also has a chapter on the poisonous ones so clearly identifies which mushrooms to avoid.

When you have got some goodies you need to know what to do with them. Our favourite is an ancient book Hedgerow Cookery by Rosamund Richardson-Gerson but there are many more trendy versions around now including a Hedgerow Handbook from the River Cottage folk

There are a growing number of excellent websites and news articles with information and recipes for wild and foraged foods. A recent one I came across was Wild about Weeds in The Ecologist

Fergus Drennan has been foraging for years and has appeared on TV and written many articles in the press. Wild Man Wild Food is his website and he offers foraging courses in the Canterbury area. There are a vast number of unusual recipes in the magazine articles on the website including some fantastic nettle recipes and a Japanese Knotweed and Quince Crumble - that's not one I've tried myself yet but there is some knotweed up the road so might give it a go later in the year.

Eat Weeds near Sidmouth in Devon and The Wild Food School in Lostwithiel in Cornwall have some excellent recipes on their websites and also offer foraging courses.

Some people are also advocating eating insects, they are a great source of free protein and eaten in many countries, but I think I'll write about that another time! 

I have set up an Amazon AStore with a selection of my favourite foraging and  wild food and medicine books. Have a look and see what you think - and let me know if you think I've missed out some good ones. 

Jo Rhodes is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.

Firewalking fun..

When I told people I was going to walk on hot coals to raise money for charity the response generally was something like this.

'Why?? You must be mad!'

Strangely enough, I have done fire eating and fire breathing (which I was pretty good at!) A group of us learned how to do it at a friends 40th birthday party...don't try this at home!


Myself and friends Sophie Wild, Penny Lowe and about 20 others were all firewalking to raise money for the lovely folk at Lineham Farm Children's Centre. The event took place on the farm on Thursday evening with a crowd of cold but enthusiastic friends and relatives cheering us on. We got there late afternoon and the weather was fantastic. We had a walk through the woods and met some of the animals, then had some food before we got ready for our team talk. Everyone seemed very calm and relaxed about it all, until we got the disclaimer forms to sign, then that got some people worried!

Sophie and I doing a practise run without the fire!

The 'Learn or Burn' seminar we did before the walk was at times really hilarious. Thanks to Tony Ferrol for making it so enjoyable, entertaining and not at all scary. What actually went on is top secret but I can say it involved lots of laughter, shouting and some very peculiar Peter Pan impressions. I've no idea what the people outside thought we were up to!

Getting warm now...

The walk itself was over so quickly. I remember standing at the beginning waiting to go and stepping on to the coals but then really can't remember anything until I got off the other end. My feet were a bit sooty but completely unharmed. Amusingly, the gravel path was much more painful on the feet than the coals were. Lots of people took photos but they actually didn't come out too well.. so this is the only one of me in action. My pink fleece flapping in the breeze makes it look like I have wings!

Me in action!

Yorkshire TV were there filming and apparently there were clips of us on Calendar, the regional news programme on Friday. Unfortunately, even though we live in Yorkshire, we can't get Yorkshire TV and end up with Granada and all the lovely news from Liverpool and Manchester!

Huge thanks to Tony and all the guys and girls from Blaze Firewalking for making it such a great evening. I can heartily recommend them if you want to do some fundraising with a difference. Whatever you do.. don't try this at home!!

You can still donate direct to Lineham Farm via their Just Giving page

Pictures of Plants and Fungi in Homeopathy

This is a fantastic area on the Natural History Museum website. There is some excellent information and pictures of hundreds of plants and fungi as well as lichens and algae used in homeopathic remedies.

This is the work of Vilma Bharatan who is a botanist at the NHM.

Plants and Fungi in Homeopathy

Gelsemium Sempervirens

The homeopathic remedy Gelsemium is
often used to treat the symptoms of flu

The illustrations in the website reminded me of an excellent book that I have somewhere but can't seem to put my hands on at the minute! It is called 'Dangerous Garden: The Quest for Plants to Change our Lives' by David Stuart. He is a botanist and his passion for his subject really shines through every page. There are many wonderful pictures of plants in the book that are still in common use in homeopathy and herbalism. It is full of enthralling tales of poisonings, plague and pestilence, aphrodisiacs, mysterious mass hallucinations and much, much more. I do love reading Culpeper and Gerard but this is a herbal book with a difference!

Jo Rhodes is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.