Cutleaf Toothwort

      Cutleaf Toothwort

Random rambling on early spring emerging ephemeral flowers and taste…within and without have arbitrary components. I am part of the whole space. I am a soldier of experience. One of the first flowers to emerge are the plants of the Brassicaceae family. Here as cutleaf toothwort. In the oak tree forest woodlands this first emergent observation is true as in the piñon juniper woodlands of the four corners. And the truth will set with leaves. With different species observant, there it was wild candytuft, pennycress, fendler’s pennycress, Nocaeae fendleri. Herein the red oak woodland, it's Cardamine concatenata -- cutleaf toothwort. There it was candytuft here toothwort among oaks, hazel nut and maple. There we are ephemeral gifted, here we are ephemeral gifted abundant wild gifts within the paradigm of wild herb ways. Ephemeral toothwort appears for a month or so before deciduous trees leaf out in early spring. They are there the whole year as perennial under different aspects. So if you stop by after the oaks have leafed the toothwort is gone.  Gone in the sense of invisible. With the vital force deepening to the earth as roots.

     Cardamine laciniata, Dentaria laciniata, Brassicaceae Family (Mustard). Cardamine pronounced kar-DAM-in-ee, comes from the Greek word kardamus, which refers to plants in the bitter garden cress family. Concatenate means "linking together. Cardamine from the greek kardamus, which is confusing because neither the name nor the plant is in any way related to cardamon seeds, which come from an entirely different plant. Cardamine and cardamon are related only in spelling by the alphabet. Linnaeus was referring to plants like Cardamine hirsuta or C. sativa, or C. penslyvanica which have a strong arugula bitterness. The bitter cress of Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 40-90 CE), who wrote Materia Medica, in the 1st century was used as a bitter tonic in red wine as a food/medicine plant. Also considered part of Cruciferae family, Latin, meaning 'cross-bearing' for the flowers in reference to its four 'crossed petals'. Some mustard family botanical traits, leaves are variable but frequently alternate along the stem with basal leaves present. Flowers are perfect, symmetrical, with 4 extending sepals, usually green. There are also 4 petals, typically arranged like either the letters "X" or "H", four-parted and arranged in terminal clusters/raceme occuring in a circular pattern. Fruits are two-parted with rows of seeds in a pod. 

     Emergent from earth through a covering of red oak, and beech fallen leaves. Before the deciduous tree canopy above them finishes leafing out, they make their moves. They are quick with above ground dynamics. They bloom, develop fruit, make their seeds. As the canopy densifies above their above ground visible parts fade back.  They spend the rest of the seasonal cycle storing vital energy in their below earth root systems. Paused waiting for their window when Persephone returns the following spring. 

     Mustard family plants have a long synchronous history with folk. All mustard family plants are edible and occur in a continum of hot peppery, horseradish wasabe taste to broccoli taste. What is observable with the senses outside is also analogous inside the observer. As above below, without within. So the observer checklists the sense perception as external. Seeing is looking out while tasting is looking in. There are complex multiple glucosinolate compounds in plants which exist along this continuum of horseradish to broccoli taste. We have these same lock and keys and they signal within us the same messages. The lock and keys are not only in the tongue as taste. The lock and keys as organoleptic testing are indicators of lock and keys throughout the body. 

     “Organoleptic comes from the french, organoleptique, -organo meaning 'organs of the body', thus the senses and -leptique from the greek leptiqos, disposed to take. So through the organs of sense we take in information about the plant directly in front of us. So using all your senses including tongue, nose, touch sensorial input, and the gestalt of biosense, the whole terrain and lay of the land, we can frequently learn something about the plant. Not only tasting the herb, but seeing the patterns in the landscape. Probably being alone with the plant where it grows. Then taking this style of knowledge which is non-verbal and letting it do its own thing developing connections as it goes. Spending time in the bio-environment of whorled mountain mint. Organoleptic perception allows me to get a sense of the herbal nature of the plant and what that herb does in my body. So you get a sense of how the herb lends itself to certain actions within the body.” (The perfect milagro Wild Herb Ways https://pgmanski.blogspot.com/2022/08/whorled-mountain-mint-pycnanthemum.html )

   

(from The miracle teachings of Wild Herb Ways 

     From the tongue, down the food pipe and down further in the gut. The taste is a thought in the world’s mouth.  We can view these compounds through multiple lenses. They are inside and outside. The scientific lens of words tends to objectify. The experience happening as an aspect of science talk reduced to chemicals. Taste occurs on the edge of the tongue front of within. So to use the metaphor of external mechanistic science, a chemical marker. Taste for the mechanist becomes the measurable molecular marker. The quantity of which exists frozen in an objectified given. In the words of reduction, they have additional chemical markers resembling phenylthiocarbamide PTC and 6-7i-propylthiouracil (PROP). “In northern europeans the non-taster percentage (or those that can’t taste PTC at all) is 31.5%, but for some other ethnic groups the non-taster percentage is much higher.” It would be accurate to say the taster is the tasted in a circular loop. 

     “  “ A crucial and important part of herbal study is the actual tasting of plants, this is called the organoleptic approach so that we engage our senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, where the plant is growing. We work with the plant to develop a sense of the energetics of the plant in the human body. So as herbalists we spend time looking, seeing, touching the plant and tasting the plant in various locations to find out the medicinal properties of the plant. One particular plant can vary greatly in its medicinal qualities through different seasons of the year. One specific plant can vary greatly in its energetic and medicinal qualities with regard to where it's growing, what type of year it's been in terms of wetness and warmth. Based on this hands-on, organoleptic approach to plant medicine we begin to understand that specific plants can be vastly different depending on where they're growing and what time of the year we encounter them.

Within this folk tradition, because of this, we have plants that have developed a reputation within the historical context of bioregional herbalism of nourishing and protecting and nourishing the body in disease states, yet also nourishing the spirit.” (Perfect Dharma from Wild Herb Ways, meeting the perfect teacher https://pgmanski.blogspot.com/2016/09/wild-herb-ways-medicine-road.html )

     So like a needle in a haystack, the search for the needle in the dark becomes a search where the light can penetrate, not related to the search for where the needle was lost and is. They look for the needle lost in the dark They look where their flashlights can point. The PTC, PROP, T2R bitter taste receptors, and other bitter taste gene receptor family has implications for BMI hence metabolic syndrome. PTC non-taster status has been associated with a higher accumulation of chunk around the middle adiposity, and unhealthy food preferences and dietary habits (e.g., a higher consumption and acceptance of fat) that favor the development of chronic non-communicable diseases diabetes, obesity and certain types of cancer. "The discovery of extra-oral T2Rs in several metabolically active tissues has generated intense interest in their physiological significance and potential health impact [44]. T2Rs, which are expressed in enteroendocrine cells, can be involved in nutrient-gut interactions that modulate the secretion of gut hormones such as ghrelin, cholecystokinin, and glucagon-like peptide 1, thereby influencing gastrointestinal motility, appetite, and glycemia [41]." So it's not only that the chemical compounds exist in the plant, they simultaneously exist in the human body as part of the communication mechanism. Which has implications for the herbalist in tissue states and plant energetics in a vitalist tradition. 

    The hot watery, acrid (bitter) juice; peppery taste (due to mustard glucosinolates). Brassicaceae Family Mustard family plants have a long history with people as garden plants, with various cultivars selected for their varying degrees of flavor hot, peppery as horseradish radish to broccoli taste continum. Some in the roots as radish. Some in elaborate flowers as brocoli. Some in the leaf as arugala or collard greens.

    The important take on isolated bitter chemical markers, reduced and quantified for approachable study. Is this, our resilient ancestors saw the emergent green and gobbled them up. Thus they survived. That the plants are bitter means we are bitter. 

     “Trusting your own judgment. Use your heart, use your intuition to see the patterns and realize that most of what you see is a reflection of yourself.  The things that you have to work with are close by. We work with our eyes, with our hands, with the tongue. This is the organoleptic  approach to herbs we take.  we taste them, smell them. we touch them we look at how they grow. where they grow. when they grow. Wevwill use that information to speak to us with the herbs. this is the approach to take with herbalism. We work with them, and allow the nature of the herb to enter into her being so that we can remember, knowing the thoughts that fill our mind, taking seriously whatever the herb wants to give us in terms of information. with  sight, with smell, with the taste and form of the herb where it grows before our eyes. on this path of herbal medicine you have to go directly to the plant. On this path of my herbal medicine you have to go directly to the place where the plant is growing and meet the plant in its own space. You need to meet the plant where it is growing. And you need to look at the total picture of you as the person in the place with the plant.” (From the Miraculous Wild Herb Ways, The Commune of Being https://pgmanski.blogspot.com/2016/06/ligusticum-porteri-osha-diaries.html )

Trius-Soler, M., Bersano-Reyes, P.A., Góngora, C. et al. Association of phenylthiocarbamide perception with anthropometric variables and intake and liking for bitter vegetables. Genes Nutr 17, 12 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12263-022-00715-w

Feeney, E., O'Brien, S., Scannell, A., Markey, A., & Gibney, E. (2011). Genetic variation in taste perception: Does it have a role in healthy eating? Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 70(1), 135-143.

McDonald, J.H. 2011. Myths of human genetics. Baltimore: Sparky House Publishing. 2011

Erigenia bulbosa

#Erigeniabulbosa

Harbinger-of-Spring, salt and pepper later after red anthers turn black

Erigenia bulbosa

Carrot family (Apiaceae)... Etymology. Erigenia: Greek for “born in the spring.” bulbosa: from the Greek bolbos for “bulb, plant with round swelling on an underground stem.

Harbinger-of-Spring is a spring ephemeral short lived, in a brief spell or fever wildflower, above-ground activity fast and rushed each year not waiting for deciduous shade to emerge and the canopy closes creating darkness in the understory. 

And Theia was subject in love to Hyperion and bore great Helius （Sun） and clear Selene （Moon） and Eos （Dawn）

who shines upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven. [375] And Eurybia, bright goddess, was joined in love to Crius and bore great Astraeus, and Pallas, and Perses who also was eminent among all men in wisdom. And Eos bore to Astraeus the strong-hearted winds, brightening Zephyrus, and Boreas, headlong in his course, [380] and Notus,—a goddess mating in love with a god.

And after these Erigeneia1 bare the star Eosphorus （Dawn-bringer）, and the gleaming stars with which heaven is crowned. Hesiod Theogony greek Ἠώς Eos is Dawn, a goddess perpetually in love.

Shiny offspring

The offspring of the TITANS Hyperion and Thia are those who shine both on earth and heaven, for one of their children is called Helius (Sun), another Selene (Moon), and yet another Eos (Dawn). Eos consorted with Astraeus 1, the son of the Titan Crius 1 and Eurybia 1, daughter of Pontus (Sea) and Gaia (Earth). They gave birth to the WINDS and to the stars, among which Eosphorus. Eos asked Zeus that Tithonus 1 should be deathless and live eternally. But on asking this favor, she forgot to ask youth for him. So at first, they lived as enthusiastic lovers live, but when his hair became grey, Eos grew tired of sleeping with him, and in spite of she cherishing him and nourishing him with ambrosia, Old Age came upon him, and gradually hardening its grip on him, made so that he could not move his limbs nor do anything except babble endlessly. Yet others affirm that she always loved him, and that she never was ashamed of sleeping with and old man, and kiss his hoary hair.

Always in love

”perennial wildflower  ¼" across, consisting of 5 narrow white petals, 5 stamens, a divided white style, and no sepals. The anthers of the stamens are initially dark red, but they soon turn black.

Harbinger Erigenia "plants have a slow start to their reproductive phase and may spend 5 or 6 yr in vegetative development before producing their first flowers—often blooming some 6 or 7 yr after germination." This species has two disjunct separated populations, one in the west of the appalachian divide in the basins of the  yough, ohio, mon and allegheny rivers  and a western population in the south west lower Susquehanna River Valley. The west population has bioregional ties to the ohio and midwest populations while the eastern variety is a flat population. 

Population Genomics and Conservation of Erigenia bulbosa (Apiaceae), an Edge-of-Range Species in Pennsylvania

Angela J. McDonnell, Cheyenne L. Moore, Scott Schuette, and Christopher T. Martine

International Journal of Plant Sciences 2021 182:5, 344-355 

Hesiod. The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Theogony. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.

Lindera benzoin

 Lindera benzoin,

for the aromatic gum, identified apropos in the fasting season, this leafless tree, bending, deeply from the hip. The bark grey dappled with light lenticels, so to breathe, as we transition Imbolc and the feast of the purification at Candlemas.

A bald eagle greets with a shriek, perched on another leafless tree, perhaps a trend? The yellow ovate leafs of autumn, fallen, littered to the ground. A deer hind shows the white center, and drops and nimbles up the rhododendron thicket, thinking herself so clever.

“The trees of the Sun Most High are full of sap; the cedars of white mountains, which he hath planted;” Praise Sun 104:16 These the remembered days, golden low winter light. Buds closed on thin flexible branches. Unable to keep still, pulsating swollen ready to burst. Strong scent of pine and frankincense, delightful with cinnamon and camphor as per its familiar aspect, Lauraceae family with first cousin sassafras nearby asserting the recent snowed lightning shooting spice.

Vital force moves upward from the ground, meeting sky. I wanted to tell you all these things. Our hobbled bodies for an instant passionate and certain.

We do well to imitate the leafless benzoin, muted with warmth. To drink a cup of tea, and taste the soon to be yellow flowers of spring.

Melting ice will you remember to save me a few brilliant red drupes?

Herbal Energetics Opening

      The one principle that guides me is that for every health problem there is an herbal solution remedy.

winter witch hazel flowers

The path of herbalism begins at the beginning, where you are, as best you can, directly face to face, with yourself as a unique person in a specific place. You as a person are the person you are as a unfolding pattern. Therefore your fundamental identity is process, becoming. It is imperative you understand your pattern, strengths and weaknesses and then work to address them. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw-EsbogfNU

     We understand this as the primal pattern prototype developing according to its innate tendency. Just as Quercus alba, a white oak tree is somehow determined by the acorn from which it grew, to be exactly, unaltered what it is according to its prototype. So an oak acorn planted does not put out maple leaves. The oak is forever limited by its oakness. The oakness of an oak is both its strength and weakness, both its salvation and nemesis. So you too are a living being, whose origins is through your parents and immediate ancestors. In a sense, you are your parents. You can of course react against this, yet even this reaction against who you are, is somehow contained in who you are.

      If you travel to study with plants you will notice that the white oak, with its distinctive paired lobed alternate leaves, will take on different aspects of that prototype depending on where it is located. We understand the unique environment within the bioregion where the white oak grows is significant. Yet somehow the white oak will remain true to its pattern regardless of the environment within which it grows. There is some flexibility within the pattern yet the pattern itself is ruthlessly rigid. There is dialog within the pattern but no arguing with the pattern.

In other words the white oak within its pattern of white oakness doesn’t suddenly begin to grow Acer or maple leaves. In herbalism this unfolding pattern is sometimes called the constitution. The unique responses to the environmental challenges, the coping mechanisms, childhood illness, and subsequent recovery from illness are called the pattern tendencies for that specific individual. These pattern tendencies of both renewal/recovery and sickness in some ways might be the medical history of childhood and adolescence. This analogy of white oak to human person has obvious limitations. An oak tree for all its grandeur is obviously enormously stuck in place. If we define intelligence as skill in survival, expertise in living strategies, the white oak, Quercus alba although enormously stuck, limited to place, also has enormous inherent intelligence. The Bedford oak is 500 years old. The Bedford oak continues to live about 50 miles north of Long Island, NY. It began as an acorn sometime around 1500AD. Another white oak Mingus oak, from West Virgina was dated to be 650 years old in 1938. Several white oak groves in North Carolina Pisgah forest have multiple 300 year old trees. 

     Before we can have herbal cures and remedies, on the most basic level there must be effective nourishment from food, air and water. The person first has to have these needs met with dependability and regularity. You can’t decide to take a breath, then a few hours later decide to take another breath. Choice and volitional control although hallmarks of human will are in short supply and over rated concepts within the functioning of the body. If you break the meta rules of human health whether through ignorance or accident, you suffer the consequence. Obviously if a person is deprived of air, and there is a constriction in the airway then herbal remedies are pointless.

cold and dry

There is a dynamic hierarchy of needs and because a person can only exist within a cultural social community, meeting those needs for optimal health is not only physical interaction but also a social interaction. Within supplying food, air and water there must be in-flow, absorption of nutrients and out-flow, elimination of waste from these things. So these basic concepts: the constitutional pattern, constitutional tendencies, nourishing the body and establishing in-flow and out-flow, understanding specific organ systems, are the essence of understanding the human body within an herbal framework. So the artful interplay and development of herbal remedies between a person’s inherent nature, their tendencies and patterns of illness and the overt presentation of the person in relation to energetics of warm/cool, moist/dry, tonic/relax, tightening/loosening, excess/deficiency, stimulation/suppression, and the corresponding body systems and tissue states is the fundamental stuff of herbalism.

sassafras autumn

     Plants, herbs, hands and fingers working together with what is available to maximize health is the foundation of learning the practice of the herbalism art. Herbalism is an art and not a science. Every unique situation of disease has an herbal cure. The work done with herbs is process in the der Geist, the imagination of the hearth. The herbs and plants of your personal materia medica growing in field, forest and garden are held in the gathered leaves, roots, oils and tinctures we brew in the hearth. For this reason, we don’t begin herbalism with the study of plants. We begin with the study of a plant. We begin with a single plant. Begin with the study of your place. Your place with you in it. Remember when you were a child, or exploring the place around you in a childlike way, walking through a forest. Something catches your eye. You are walking up a steep hill, it’s muddy, you reach out and grab a branch. As you grip the stalk, in the fleshiness of the lobed leaves there is a scent, a spicy, sweetness, sassafras albidum. It may be years later, you are drawn to dig the roots. Maybe in the mean time someone told you more about it.

There is frequently recognition instantly on a certain level regarding plants. Something happens within the relationship of plant, person and place. The plant, person and place are already established, the connection is a mystery. If you are an herb gatherer it is a kind of arrogance to view yourself as creating this connection, as a service for someone. Likewise if you are sick and taking herbs, it’s laziness to think your responsibility is limited to gulp down and swallow. The connection is already present. Whether you are the herbalist or the person seeking to get well, the process is similar. So hone the direct face to face connection of person, plant and place.

cool and dry

      At the beginning working with a specific plant, whenever possible meet and greet the plant where the plant lives. Work with a few plants at a time local to the place. Where you found the sassafras you’ll see other plants a short distance away, maybe mugwort or boneset. You are going to be drawn to certain plants. Again it’s an art form, a mystery, not a science. Look within that small circle. Gather and process the plant, not only with your hands but within the imagination with attention to detail. Be alert around the plants. The plant as an herb is a self contained other with a capacity to heal, produce change in a positive outcome. How that is is beyond our understanding. The endless speculation on the other leads us away from what we can and do know about the other. It is something we can use. Some things we can know and some things we can’t know. It is something we can use to bring harmony. In herbalism it is the plants that bring a kind of memory of the balanced state.

     If you have been around sick people it’s a serious situation. Especially long drawn out debilitating illness. We can word play with diagnosis yet the fundamental issue is withdrawal of energy and redistribution of the energy into a negative energy loop.

wet moving

Things tend to develop in a certain way and keep on developing in that way. There is both inertia in health and inertia in sickness. Whether we recognize or don’t recognize, we are connected. We are members of a team. That team is embedded on a cultural playing field. Whether you recognize or don’t recognize, you are a member of a team. It is like you are a member of a basketball team, the scheduled games can not be postponed. If a member of the basketball team is injured and forced to play with injury, then your team suffers. Then there is the emotional feeling tone of injury. Being laid up. Forced to play games at less than potential, sitting on the bench and watching others play. Or the redundancy of forced idleness. The systemic situation of certain team players disavowed from the playing field. They are capable of playing but the rules don’t allow their participation. So they are disavowed cancelled basketball players unable to take the field. This systemic redundancy leads to resentment, passive aggressive behaviour. Someone sneaks in and damages the back board, another time steals the hoop. This passive aggressive attitude becomes habit, people self sabotage their own health. People become attached in some way to misery and begin to live contagiously miserable lives. The cult of sick infirm people becomes an economic driving engine of the economy. 

great lobelia warm and dry

     When you work with the plant, see it in your mind's eye, recall the smell, taste, color, texture of the leaves, and context of the plant. See the leaves, flowers and if you gathered the roots, see them too. When i say context of the plant, i mean where it lives, the ecosystem, desert, forest, mountain, riparian, wet/dry, sun/shade, flat or hilly, season, the surrounding plants growing around it. Was it tall, or close to the ground? A creeping vine, shrub with woody stem, a tree towering above our heads? Was it still, moving with the breeze? If you are taking a tisane or tincture that someone gathered or made for you, try to have a picture of the plant, and visualize it in your imagination. What is the taste? Sweet, sour, hot, cool, bitter, acrid, salty? What is the smell, fragrance, aroma, earthy, musky, aromatic, floral, what does it resemble in smell? What does it smell like? What does it remind you of? Is it familiar? This will help you to unify the tissue states of the body and the action of the plant on that tissue state. These insights take a long while to develop. So don’t beat yourself up for not knowing what you haven’t had time to learn. Milk thistle, yellow root, mahonia, hydrastis, chicory root all work on liver in a slightly different way. Lacking a dedicated system of learning within herbalism is a problem and one that won’t be solved within our lifetime. The plants are here, we are here, that is enough.

mountain mint warm and dry

     Plants are forms of life with their own sovereignty and nature. We encounter the plant and in our body it’s doing something, creating movement of the body systems. The idea is not necessarily what it should be doing, but what is it actually doing in terms of direct experience. Is it warming? Cooling? Causing sweat? Does it cause us to notice a specific bodily sensation? Saliva in the mouth? A tightening of the throat? Rumbling in the stomach? A desire to rest, or a desire to get up and move about? To close our eyes, or look about?

On the endless road of cold, warm, wet, dry, tightening, loosening, winter towards spring..

cold and wet season

Hydrangea arborescens

 Hydrangea arborescens is an easily found perrenial shrub understory plant of eastern woodlands.

A meter to shoulder height. The leaves are opposite ovate to a sharp point with moderately serrated edges, on an extended petiole, the leaf veination is more pronounced on the underside, and a lighter green. The plant has an interesting cyme panicle with white, sterile 3-4 petaled phlox like flowers around the flat topped bunches. It has an extended bloom time from spring to late summer. If you look at the flowers you imagine they would turn into berries but I don't think they do. There are cultivated varieties around peoples houses that have a more snow ball appearance which I have never seen in the wild free varieties, do not use the cultivated variety only the wild. 

    Hydrangea has diuretic properties, meaning it promotes urination, kidney activity. It relates well to kidney, bladder, uti, prostate and other likewise complaints in male and female. Use the dug up root which you can sometimes clean with a nylon brush rinsing in water, or lightly peel scrape with a knife, then cut into small pieces to dry or tincture. It's easy to find in winter because you can identify the flower tops from last summer if you need to gather in winter.

     Hydrangea root is usually combined with a couple different herbs for a specific condition. For example if uti is the issue you may want to use it with pipsisewa and or uva-ursi, and yellow root, a mahonia or golden seal. These could probably be best used as a strong tea. For prostate combine with carolina saw berries, stinging nettle root. For stones maybe joe pye and some kind of antispasmodic like viburnum cramp bark, silk tassel and so on. 

   

Some people have recently made a topical with hydrangea root a for sunscreen made with butter, lard or olive oil, a little bees wax and creosote bush. The roots contain a compound called hydrangin, aka 7-hydroxycoumarin, which has been used in sunscreens. 

     Definitely spend some time with hydrangea

Vitalist Golumpki Jesus Prayer

 Vitalist Golumpki,

in winter solstice, at Christmas, long nights. dark, cold, wet. with even days,

accord with season. Whether plaki, kasza, latke, it is who we were, are and will continue to be. Our ethnic identity is rooted in cold dark times, positioned to embrace the light.

https://youtu.be/5dMptP7XGjU
The centerfold union of vitalism is the golumpki or stuffed cabbage, the plaki, latke and kasza. Cabbage, buckwheat, sour milk, cheese, meat, salt. Nourishing the center is the ethnic vitality prototype unfoldment. https://youtu.be/9EDui9EFb5M

Attentive to person, time and place. Cabbage is cold wet, moist and expresses this time as a lacto-ferment. Likewise buckwheat flour plaki.

      Plaki recipe: buckwheat flour in a bowl, sour milk or kefir, an egg, teaspoon aluminum free baking powder, or leave buckwheat flour with sourdough starter. 

Mix ingredients in a bowl add water till a firm batter.

Sautee in butter. Top with ham, swiss cheese, top with cut up pears.

     Plaki may be topped with ham, sour cream, smoked salmon, pickles, meat, used as a bread to make a sandwich with spouts, cucumber, and so on.-

    Vitalist Golumpki, stuffed cabbage, buckwheat, cold winter roots. Christmas is made sacred as winter solstice, wrapped in cold dark snow, in a time of even days. Our faith is the mystery. We accord with season by placing the birth of Jesus before our hearts. O God cleanse me a sinner. Jesus Christ son of God, have have mercy on me a sinner. Enter the day with prayer upholding the mystery of Christ.

 https://youtu.be/COj58MT20IY

     Whether pierogi, plaki, kasza, latke, it is who we are, were and continue to be. Becoming as people invoking a pole star of tradition. In simplicity on earth as it is in heaven. ‘Thy will be done’, “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28, … to the father and the son and the holy spirit now and forever unto ages and ages. The centerfold union of vitalism is the golumpki of stuffed cabbage, buckwheat, potatoes, butter, kefir, nutrolls, kolbasi, the plaki, latke and kasza meeting the sacred space of mortality and eternity.

     As we enter sacred space nourishing the center which is ethnic vitality prototype unfoldment. Attentive to person, time and place. Cabbage is cold wet, moist and expresses this time as lacto-ferment. Likewise dry buckwheat flour plaki becomes warm moist cakes. The potato grows in the soil and nourishes the people. Grateful for this day awakened by the giver of life for another day above ground. All praise to you O Lord, glory to thee. Holy God, holy mighty, Holy Inmortal, have mercy on us.

    

Be attentive. Every breath and heartbeat is the Jesus prayer. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Within Christ is the cross, an acknowledgement of suffering and pain. There is no escape from suffering, old age and death.  The Jesus prayer is who we are nourished by our kinsman redeemer, Christ. You, Mary Theotokos birth giver to our Saviour. Mary Theotokos give birth to saints. I venerate Mary Prokov, the protector, thank you Mary for safe keeping and prayer delivered to your son Jesus. 

      Plaki recipe: buckwheat flour in a bowl, sour milk or kefir, an egg, teaspoon aluminum free baking powder, or leave buckwheat flour with sourdough starter. 

Mix ingredients in a bowl add water till a firm batter.

Sautee in butter. Top with available protein, swiss cheese, top with cut up apples and pears.

     Plaki may be topped with sour cream, smoked salmon, pickles, meat, used as a bread to make a sandwich with spouts, cucumber, and so on. You nourish our bodies, In gratitude and thanks we take the body and blood of Christ at every meal eating Christ bread.

    So what is vitalism? Vitalism is an extreme localism of sovereignty both within the physical body, in the spirit, and within Christ’s divine kingdom around us. The holy herbs are given for our healing. In that way a majority minority tradition, outside the flag waver pill pusher filth generator of the occupying regime. We are grateful to the martyrs and grateful to live to praise another day.  By Mary Mother of God Theotokos we preserve this knowledge of holy blessed remedies, in trees, roots, leaves and flowers. We have a spark of divine life that animates, guides, nourishes and protects the body. This same spark of life, set in motion by God, creator of the world, animates the plants that we use to create remedies to heal the body of Christ.

Within this minority tradition, we invoke the mystery of faith that is our health outside of the occupied pharmakeia designed by the occupying regime to erase our people. We are not mechanical machines. Our narrative and story is within the mind of Jesus Christ that lives in our hearts, speaks through the spirit filled breath of our voices, and just as the Theotokos suckled him, so do our veiled women do likewise for our children. 

   

     Christmas in the habitation of sacred space. We are God created infused beings. Our worship of God necessary for health is supportive tradition. Those who seek to destroy the practice of tradition are Bergolian enemies working spiritual wickedness. We pray and bless all shepherds and pilgrims of the one true church. We pray for the conversion of Judas shepherds who betray our people’s culture and tradition. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner, Russian Orthodox Jesus prayer. “When the son of man returnth shall he find faith on earth?” Luke 18:8 When the son of man comes to earth in judgement, will he find faith in men’s hearts? He will find faith because we live a life of faith. He will find faith because we are faithful. He will find faith because we seek faith and life abundantly.

              The Pokrov, in Russian, or Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God was placed above our heads, draped over the church a fresco painted by human hands on the upper dome. Here we take part in Divine Liturgy. 

     In Constantinople at the Church of the Virgin at Blachernae the mantle of Mary mother of Jesus was kept and venerated, in the 10th century the Most Holy Mother of God, Mary appeared at an all night vigil held in the church. The people were under attack. The people gathered to pray at the all night vigil. She appeared to them, to St Andrew the Fool, his associate St Epiphanius, and others praying in the church. She knelt in their midst, her eyes filled with tears. It is fundamental to acknowledge the mystery of our faith. The tears of the kneeling Theotokus are Mary’s tears. She came with the Essene Baptist John, and angel messengers who draped her mantle garment over all those praying. She knelt in prayer, remaining a long time comforting the people. In the icon she drapes an item of clothing over the people as a sign of protection.

     “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.’ Ephesians 6:12 The main struggle is of those human beings who make it their work to compromise with the evil power that attacks not only our people, but every people, every culture. The darkness seeks to erase the ethnic local sovereignty of person and place.This darkness of this world wants to destroy the spirit, the soul, the truth and replace the spirit, soul, and truth of the people with false narratives, bizarre concerns, fake news, deviant values of a perverted pseudo-civilization. When you defend the soul, which is the dignity of the spirit, of the people and place, you become a target of those rulers and darkness of this world, you will be erased, liquidated, suspended, taken out of circulation.

For that reason we honour tradition of our ancestors. The icon is an ancestor of our authentic bio-spirit. For that reason we hold fast to tradition, especially in our worship of Jesus Christ, Mary the Theotokus God bearer, along with the angels and saints, who as our ultimate ancestors, we beseech with continual prayer. Christ is with and among us, be attentive.