#robin wall kimmerer

[eleanor-arroway]

times, places, and practices that I want to learn from to imagine a hopeful future for humanity 🍃

the three sisters (squash, beans, maize) stock photo - alamy // anecdote by Ira Byock about Margaret Mead // art by Amanda Key // always coming home by Ursula K. Le Guin // Yup'ik basket weaver Lucille Westlock photographed by John Rowley // the left hand of darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin // photo by Jacob Klassen // the carrier bag theory of fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin // article in national geographic // the dawn of everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow // braiding sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer // the birchbark house by Louise Erdrich // photo by John Noltner

I'm looking for more content and book recs in this vein, so please send them my way!

#solarpunk #hopepunk #braiding sweetgrass #just a collection of books and pictures that make me hopeful for the future #margaret mead #robin wall kimmerer #nature #ursula k le guin #ursula k. le guin #the left hand of darkness #the carrier bag theory of fiction #the dawn of everything #anthropology #future #hopecore #native plants #biodiversity #sustainability #eco #eco friendly #louise erdrich #civilization

[decolonize-the-left]

x

He listened to and enjoyed Potawatomi Nation teachings and died saying Free Palestine. He will be in indigenous history and prayers a long time.

Please read/listen to Braiding Sweetgrass. It's a wonderfully poetic read and additionally an amazing book to add to your decolonial reading list.

#yall i am sobbing that this man had so much allyship and love and patience for indigenous communities #aaron bushnell #braiding sweetgrass #Potawatomi Nation #Robin Wall Kimmerer

[the-bramble--patch]

"what would it be like, I wondered, to live with that heightened sensitivity of the lives given for ours? To consider the tree in the Kleenex, the algae in the toothpaste, the oaks in the floor, the grapes in the wine; to follow back the thread of life in everything and pay it respect? Once you start, it's hard to stop, and you begin to feel yourself awash in gifts."

-Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

#solarpunk #my projects #reading #robin wall kimmerer #braiding sweetgrass #quotes #solarpunk inspiration

[aseaofquotes]

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

#Robin Wall Kimmerer #braiding sweetgrass #commodities #poor #world #gifts #wealth

[backlogbooks]

"In the Western tradition there is a recognized hierarchy of beings, with, of course, the human being on top--the pinnacle of evolution, the darling of Creation--and the plants at the bottom. But in Native ways of knowing, human people are often referred to as "the younger brothers of Creation." We say that humans have the least experience with how to live and thus the most to learn--we must look to our teachers among the other species for guidance. Their wisdom is apparent in the way that they live. They teach us by example. They've been on the earth far longer than we have been, and have had time to figure things out."

-Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer

#braiding sweetgrass #robin wall kimmerer #my quotes #mary emma's posts

[samwisethewitch]

How I Get the Most Out of Meat When Cooking

As someone who 1.) was 100% vegetarian for ethical/religious reasons until very recently, and 2.) recently had to reintroduce meat for vitamin deficiency reasons, limiting waste as much as possible when I cook with meat is really important to me. For one thing, I feel like I owe it to the animal that died to get as much use as possible out of its body as a way of honoring its death. For another, meat is expensive (ethically raised meat even more so) and I want to get my money's worth.

I recently bought a bunch of lamb for my family's holiday dinner, so I wanted to share my attempt to practice the Honorable Harvest in my meat consumption. This is new to me, but I wanted to document the attempt because it's been a fun learning process for me! If you want to actually learn about honorable consumption I encourage you to read the works of Robin Wall Kimmerer and other indigenous ecologists, since the Honorable Harvest is based on indigenous North American practices. (Though there are other cultural practices all over the world.)

Step One: Sourcing the Meat

I am very fortunate to have enough disposable income to buy ethically raised meat, which tends to be more expensive. This is a privilege. Other people are not able to spend this extra money on their meat, and that doesn't make me better than them. Feeding yourself is morally neutral, and a tight budget is not a moral failing. Most meat alternative products (Beyond Beef, Impossible, etc.) are also pretty expensive. If the factory-farmed meat at the supermarket is the only thing in your budget, use that.

If you DO have some extra funds, local farms are a great place to source meat. The reason we had lamb for the holidays is because a local farm recently culled their herd and had lamb on sale. In the past we've gotten beef from a relative who raises cattle. I encourage you to learn about farms in your area and what they have to offer. CSAs and farmers' markets are great places to start. You can also ask around at local restaurants about where they source their ingredients.

When I say "ethically raised meat," what I'm really talking about is pasture-raised animals. Cage-free animals may not live in cages, but they can still be kept in cramped, dirty, inhumane conditions and be sold as "cage free." Pasture-raised animals are able to graze and forage and generally wander around within a paddock. For some animals like chickens you can also look for "free range," which means the animals are unfenced and are able to wander freely. Since I don't cook meat often, I try to get free range or pasture-raised meat when I do buy it.

In some areas, you may also be able to find certified ethically slaughtered meat, which means the slaughtering process has been designed to cause as little suffering to the animal as possible. That kind of certification isn't really available where I live, but it might be for you!

And of course, hunting or fishing yourself is also an option. If you kill the animal yourself, you know exactly how it died and can take steps to limit suffering as much as possible. Hunting isn't a skillset I have, but if you do more power to you!

Step Two: Cooking the Meat

This is the easy part. Depending on the cut of meat you got and the dish you are cooking, you may need to remove bones or trim fat, but aside from that it's just following a recipe.

For our holiday lamb stew, I used this recipe. I have Celiac disease, so I subbed gluten-free flour and replaced the beer with red wine. I also added rosemary and garlic for a more Mediterranean flavor to compliment the wine.

Step Three: Organs and Bones

This is where the breakdown is for a lot of Americans. We don't cook with bones or organs very often, and we tend to throw away whatever parts of the animal we don't want. That is not honorable consumption. Part of the Honorable Harvest is using every part of the being that died to feed you.

Most organs make great stew meat. My favorite Nicaraguan beef stew is made with tongue, and my indigenous Hawaiian relatives make stew with pig feet. And while I don't like them, lots of my Southern family members love chitlins (pickled pig intestines). Lots of cultures eat organs, and you'll find plenty of delicious recipes if you look!

Bones are typically used to make stock, which can be used as a base for future soups and stews. There are lots of recipes for DIY stocks and broths, but I usually fry some onions and/or garlic, deglaze with wine, and then add the meat/bones and the water, plus salt, pepper, and herbs for flavor. Most animal bones can produce two batches of stock before they lose flavor. (For really flavorful stock, leave some meat on the bones.)

Once the stock is done, you'll still have bones to deal with. Contrary to popular belief, cooked bones are not safe for dogs to chew on. (But raw bones usually are!) Instead, I strip any remaining meat and gristle from the stock bones, give those scraps to my pups as a treat, and then use the stripped bones for something else. With a little extra processing, the bones can be used as a fertilizer in a garden, a calcium supplement for chickens, or a safe treat for dogs and/or cats.

This was my first time processing bones, but after boiling them for, like, 12 hours in water with salt and vinegar, they were soft enough to break apart with my hands. I'm going to grind them to make bone meal.

#long post #cooking #the honorable harvest #robin wall kimmerer #sustainable cooking #sustainable #sustainability #animism #kitchen witch #kitchen witchcraft #kitchen witchery #green witch #green witchery #solarpunk #cottagecore #food waste #mine #my writing

[doomhope]

Your strange hunger for ease should not mean a death sentence for all of creation.

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

#robin wall kimmerer #braiding sweetgrass #climate crisis #upload #words

[the-hearth-and-the-wild]

The land knows you, even when you are lost.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

#book quotes #literature #nature quotes #braiding sweetgrass #robin wall kimmerer #walking in nature #nature #books and libraries

[probablyasocialecologist]

The biologist Robin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, observes that the indigenous Potawatomi language is rich in verb forms that attribute aliveness to the more-than-human world. The word for “hill,” for example, is a verb: to be a hill. Hills are always in the process of hilling, they are actively being hills. Equipped with this “grammar of animacy,” it is possible to talk about the life of other organisms without either reducing them to an “it” or borrowing concepts traditionally reserved for humans. By contrast, in English, writes Kimmerer, there is no way to recognize the “simple existence of another living being.” If you’re not a human subject, by default you’re an inanimate object: an “it,” a “mere thing.” If you repurpose a human concept to help make sense of the life of a nonhuman organism, you’ve tumbled into the trap of anthropomorphism. Use “it,” and you’ve objectified the organism and fallen into a different kind of trap.

Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

#Entangled Life #Robin Wall Kimmerer #life

[vfdinthewild]

"The volunteer fire department, the ambulance squad as well, rely on contributions to their monthly pancake breakfast, to raise funds for a new engine."

-from Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, 6:47:15

#vfd #lemony snicket #asoue #a series of unfortunate events #robin wall kimmerer #volunteer fire department #book #audiobook #clocking vfds in audio is more challenging than you might think #this was a really excellent book #about indigenous ways of thinking about land and resources #volunteer #fire #department

[justalittlesolarpunk]

I’m reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass at the moment and wow, I’ve cried every chapter so far. The way she nurtures her deep generational pain and turns it into love and wisdom is just awe-inspiring. A lesson we could all learn from

#braiding sweetgrass #hopepunk #solarpunk #environmentalism #social justice #cottagepunk #climate justice #bright future #community #optimism #robin wall kimmerer #indigenous wisdom #plant medicine #potawatomi #the honourable harvest #wiingaashk

[julesofnature]

In some Native languages the term for plants translates to 'those who take care of us.'

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

#Robin Wall Kimmerer

[the-bramble--patch]

"Naturalist E. O. Wilson writes, “There can be no purpose more inspiring than to begin the age of restoration, reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us.” The stories are piling up all around in scraps of land being restored: trout streams reclaimed from siltation, brownfields turned into community gardens, prairies reclaimed from soybeans, wolves howling in their old territories, schoolkids helping salamanders across the road. If your heart isn’t raised by the sight of whooping cranes restored to their ancient flyway, you must not have a pulse. It’s true that these victories are as small and fragile as origami cranes, but their power moves as inspiration. Your hands itch to pull out invasive species and replant the native flowers. Your finger trembles with a wish to detonate the explosion of an obsolete dam that would restore a salmon run. These are antidotes to the poison of despair."

-Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

#solarpunk #my projects #reading #solarpunk inspiration #quotes #braiding sweetgrass #robin wall kimmerer

[tommming]

Gift Economy

Maybe we all feel something so dark and painful deep down, something off and something exhausting about living in this world, which has become so thoroughly pervaded by capitalism and the values of white christian imperialism, because life is a gift meant to be given, and we are not made to exchange one thing for another.

In many indigenous societies, instead of having a transactional economy ("barter" is a myth by the way) there exists what anthropologists call a gift economy, where the main way things get passed around is through gifts and reciprocity.

I think that life itself is a gift we have received, and it's ours to do whatever we want with it, but the best thing to do when you receive a gift is to give again, if you are able. I for one think that the meaning in my life comes from giving; giving myself to my wife, and to my work, giving gifts and sharing love with my friends, giving my heart to music and to the beauty in the world around me. Life is a gift, so I want to give it.

#anthropology #anarchism #robin wall kimmerer #braiding sweetgrass #anti capitalism #gift economy #life #life is a gift #economics #communism #feminism #I got these ideas mainly from Kimmerer's book Braiding Sweetgrass #Also influenced by David Graeber's anarchist anthropology work. #david graeber #capitalist hell #mental health

[theinquisitxor]

January 2024 Reading Wrap

First wrap up of the new year! I read 8 books this month, and I'd say it was a strong reading month overall. I read some new releases, caught up or finished series, and read some good stuff! I read 6 fantasy books, 1 nonfiction, and 1 regular fiction. 6 books I read physical copies, and 2 audiobooks.

1.A Winter's Promise (Mirror Visitor Quartet 1) by Christelle Dabos. 3/5 stars. This is a book I've been wanting to read since before it was translated into English. This book didn't quite live up to the expectations I had of it, but I still overall enjoyed it. I plan to continue the series, possibly quarterly. Young adult fantasy.

2. A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft. 4.5/5 stars. Another great Allison Saft book, and this one is possibly my favorite so far. This is exactly my type of fantasy romance and I was very invested in reading this. It's about a young magical seamstress who is commissioned to make the royal wedding clothes for the kingdom's prince. Young adult fantasy.

3.Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard. 3/5 stars. This was a fun read, but not the most exciting or great as it had the potential to be. The story has a fun cast of characters, and enjoyable world, but not a whole lot happened in this book. I can def see Aveyard's LOTR inspirations in this. I plan on continuing this series soon.

4.The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake. 2/5 stars. This was a disappointing end to a series and was very lackluster and fell apart at the end. Disappointing because of how much I loved book 2. There were some redeeming moments, but much of this book felt unnecessary or frustrating. Adult fantasy.

5.Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. 5/5 stars. This is a collection of essays by the author about the world around us, life, nature, and the way we interact with the world. Absolutely my new favorite thing and much of Kimmerer's teachings in the book resonate with me very deeply. Read on audio- which I highly recommend. Nature/essays.

6.Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde 2) by Heather Fawcett. 5/5 stars. This was just as good as book 1, and I loved the new adventure and learning more about fairies. Emily and Wendall are my favorite, and I can't wait to see how this series concludes.

7.Beartown (Beartown 1) by Fredrik Backman 4.5/5 stars. I read this book in less than 24 hours and it emotionally abused me throughout. I'm late to the game in regards to this book (no pun intended) but I'm glad I finally read it. Backman never disappoints, and I plan to continue the series soon. Fiction.

8. Mislaid in Parts Half-Known (Wayward Children 9) by Seanan McGuire. 4/5 stars. This felt like the continuation of Antsy's story from book 8, but with some of our main cast of characters on a new quest. Very enjoyable and another solid installment in the series. Is the last time we see the "main cast?". Read on audio. Fantasy.

That's it for January! I am currently reading my TBR Pick of the Month, The Throne of the Five Winds, but I am only still in the first half of the book, so I will have to finish it up for Feb. I also started a new nonfiction audiobook, but am still in the first half of that as well.

February TBR:

finish The Throne of the Five Winds by SC Emmett

Crescent City 3

Nonfiction Audiobook (finish)

Blade Breaker by Victoria Aveyard

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

What Feasts at Night by T Kingfisher

TBR Pick of the month

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman (?)

#reading wrap up #january 2024 #fantasy books #A Winter's Promise #The mirror visitor #A fragile enchantment #allison saft #realm breaker #the atlas complex #Braiding Sweetgrass #Robin Wall Kimmerer #Emily Wilde #emily wilde's map of the otherlands #beartown #fredrick backman #wayward children #mislaid in parts half known #seanan mcguire

[entheognosis]

The Seventh Fire prophecy presents a second vision for the time that is upon us. It tells that all the people of the earth will see that the path ahead is divided. They must make a choice in their path to the future. One of the roads is soft and green with new grass. You could walk barefoot there. The other path is scorched black, hard; the cinders would cut your feet. If the people choose the grassy path, then life will be sustained. But if they choose the cinder path, the damage they have wrought upon the earth will turn against them and bring suffering and death to earth’s people.

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Braiding Sweetgrass

Eco City vs Industrial City

by Svetlana Grecova

#robin wall kimmerer #ecology