Both wood nettle (Laportea canadensis) and stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) are an excellent and medicinal green. They are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and taste great too. They have stingers which give a rash if you bang into them without awareness, but with careful movement they wont hurt much, and actually cause a histamine healing response which reduces stagnation and inflammation. Heres a video on how to harvest them! With love and care! ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KjhFqj7_mM

Heres a bit of footage from Ken Crouses Mushroom ID Retreat. I happily attended summer of 2012 in Hot Springs, NC. It was a great experience learning from such a wonderful teacher, and being around lots of friends who love to forage for fungus. Elmer hosted the workshop from the Sunnybank Inn, and it was such a blessing to arrive early and do work trade there. We talked alot of frank cook, his life path, and his roots starting out doing the same thing I was doing,.. worktrading at sunnybank inn; learning that thats where he and Ken met felt very auspicious to be walking in such giant footsteps. Happily and concidentally the workshop weekend culminated with a soak in the hot springs, which as i had researched more, happened to be on the anniversary of franks passing. So in honor of the occasion I brought in a big bag of mugwort to steam with us and infuse us with its healing. All in all the journey was enlightening, inspiring, and relit my passion to share and teach a foraging appreciation for nature. And really was inspiring to be around so many people who love the green world. Thanks to all the connections made, human and otherwise. The 2013 Mushroom ID Retreat with Ken will be Aug 9/10/11 - 2013, At Elmers Sunnybank Inn, Hot Springs, NC Created by Dan Farella Dan@returntonature.us www.returntonature.us ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUx0KhfJOTc

Here's a video considering ethical and sustainable harvest of the Laetiporus mushrooms, of which there are 2 or 3 species in North America; namely laetiporus sulphureus, and laetiporus cincinnatus. Commonly known as the chicken of the woods mushroom, this is a beautiful, and relatively easy mushroom to identify. They are amazing in a stir fry, and research has actually been shown that they are active against staph infections, " All strains demonstrated antimicrobial activity against a wide spectrum of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria during agar and submerged cultivation including methicillin-resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and glycopeptide-resistant strain of Leuconostoc mesenteroides." - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12741318 - Check out more videos at the Return to Nature Youtube Channel as well as www.returntonature.us for upcoming classes and lessons. Join www.facebook.com/returntonatureskills Instagram/returntonature ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYnWKnE5_yY

Hey friends, Heres a visual look at the step by step process of Kimchee Making and some Guitar Shreading to boot with Dan De Lion of Return to Nature. Soon to come is our live webcast of a fermentation class from start to finish that was done on the fb page: Returntonatureskills Articles on the Vegetable Fermentation Process: http://returntonature.us/make-your-own-ferments Bacteria synthesize vitamins minerals and neurotransmitters in the gut as we feed them properly. ---Problems with germ theory: Isolated, sterilized still pushing just doesn't work. We are destroying our immune systems with chemicals that are sterilizing not only our homes but also ourselves. Our collective immunity has tanked due to these products, and also bacteria and viruses have morphed beyond mother medicines capacity. This is a large part of the reason why fermented foods is so imperative to our diet right now. What we need is cultural diversity, here's why: http://returntonature.us/reculturing-our-worldview/ ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW0pof80_-U