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Hi'iaka's Healing Herb Garden : Column Index : 2005 : Dec05
Coming Soon...
Give a Book, Help the `Aina
If you're like me, December 15 is definitely NOT the last minute for Christmas shopping! Some of my all-time favorite gifts, both to give and to receive, have been books, so for this month's column I'll talk about three titles that might be the answer for your gardening and environmentally aware friends and ohana.
Growing Hawai`i's Native Plants
Just published by Mutual Publishing in Honolulu, Growing Hawai`i's Native Plants: A Simple, Step-by-Step Approach to All Species, by Kerin E. Lilleeng-Rosenberger, was a 10-year project and is THE most complete work on native Hawaiian plants ever published. It includes all known native plants, with their Hawaiian names, botanical and common names. It can be a little hard to find a plant, however, because it's organized by plant families (count 'em, 84 families!), and if you're not savvy about plant families, it might take some time to find a plant. However, there are indexes that direct readers to the names. The photographs are plentiful and of good quality, although not all plants are pictured. And it's written in a fairly reader friendly, first person voice (at least she tries, but technical botanical terms do creep in).
The book has two parts. Part one includes chapters on seed preparation, propagation methods, greenhouse management, transplanting, and pest and weed control (although the information in these last two areas is a bit sketchy for my likes and no illustrations are included). She cautions against using herbicides around native plants, but provides no organic alternatives. She also recommends using chemical fertilizers and does not include instructions on making compost, so this is not an organic gardening guide.
Part two, "Native Hawaiian Plant Profiles and Propagation Techniques by Family and Genera," includes the plants. All plant descriptions include the same categories of information, such as their appearance, how to grow them, possible insect pests, etc.
This is truly a doctoral dissertation in terms of its completeness and accuracy. It sells for $44.95 and is available at local bookstores and the Internet.
Mycelium Running
I was amazed when I first saw this book in October. Written by Paul Stamets of the company Fungi Perfect (www.fungi.com), Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, is a "manual for the mycological rescue of the planet," according to the Fungi Perfect catalog. It offers new instructions for growing mushrooms, generating mycelium and implanting mushroom colonies into the environment. Stamets believes that growing mushrooms can strengthen the sustainability of habitats, based on the premise that habitats and all animals have immune systems and that mushrooms form a beneficial bridge between them. "Mycelium Running marks the dawn of a new era: the use of mycelial membranes for ecological health," says the catalog. The author claims that mushroom farms can be reinvented as healing arts centers, "steering ecological evolution for the benefit of humans living in harmony with its inhabitants."
The book describes four important components of mycoreforestation:
* Mycofiltration: the filtration of biological and chemical pathogens as well as controlling erosion.
* Mycoforestry and mycogardening: the use of mycelium for companion cultivation for the benefit and protection of plants.
* Mycoremediation: the use of mycelium for decomposing toxic wastes and pollutants.
* Mycopesticides: the use of mycelium for attracting and controlling insect populations.
What I liked best was a chart showing a cross index of mushrooms and their therapeutic effects. You can look up a common mushroom like shiitake and learn that it is anti-bacterial, anti-candida, anti-tumor, anti-viral, a cholesterol reducer, and more. I've never before seen this information so clearly presented in one easy to read place.
It doesn't stop there: it also has chapters on nutrition, medicinal properties, log and stump culture, natural culture, and using easy, low-tech techniques to grow mushrooms. Over 28 species are described, and each includes a high quality illustration. It's selling for $35.00.
Fateful Harvest
Published in 2001, this tell-all book by Duff Wilson is based on a series of articles in the Seattle Times. It was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Subtitled "The True Story of a Small Town, a Global Industry, and a Toxic Secret," it tells the shocking story of what continues to happen in Quincy, Washington, a small farming town whose residents started developing some unexplained illnesses.
It reads like a real "who done it," and is a page-turner I couldn't put down. It chronicles the struggle of a woman named Patty Martin, who discovered that large chemical manufacturers dispose their leftover toxic waste by selling it to farmers as fertilizer. You might ask, "How can this be?" Well, it's completely legal! Every time you buy and use "Triple 16" or other chemical fertilizers, you are adding heavy metals and other toxic substances such as arsenic and cadmium, lead and dioxins to your soil, and it winds up in the food crops that grow in that soil. As stated on the book's dust jacket, "The tainted fertilizer is believed to be destroying crops, sickening animals, and endangering the nation's food supply."
Patty Martin is the mother of four and had never before been involved in any kind of politics or protest. But she was transformed when she learned about reduced wheat harvests, poor corn crops and sick people and cows. The reason is that hazardous wastes-many of the worst chemicals known to modern-day industrial pollution-are "sneaked into common farm and garden fertilizers. Hazardous waste is mixed with plant food, she says, to save industry money instead of being buried, burned, or purified safely. And nobody knows about it." Martin claims that the companies put almost anything in fertilizer if there is even a small amount of nutrient such as phosphorus in it. She says it is "recycling run amok. It's the ultimate dilution solution: what they can't dump in the oceans or pour in the air, they mix with dirt. Fertilizer is an easy place to hide toxins behind the 'green mask of recycling,' she says, because the protectors of public health and product safety don't look any deeper than the advertised ingredients." She continues, "If they just call a dangerous waste a "product," it's no longer considered a dangerous waste. Instead, it's called a fertilizer." And this continues to be standard practice. Visit Patty's website at www.safefoodandfertilizer.org. The hardcover edition sells for $26.00.
Happy holidays.
Give a Book, Help the `Aina
If you're like me, December 15 is definitely NOT the last minute for Christmas shopping! Some of my all-time favorite gifts, both to give and to receive, have been books, so for this month's column I'll talk about three titles that might be the answer for your gardening and environmentally aware friends and ohana.
Growing Hawai`i's Native Plants
Just published by Mutual Publishing in Honolulu, Growing Hawai`i's Native Plants: A Simple, Step-by-Step Approach to All Species, by Kerin E. Lilleeng-Rosenberger, was a 10-year project and is THE most complete work on native Hawaiian plants ever published. It includes all known native plants, with their Hawaiian names, botanical and common names. It can be a little hard to find a plant, however, because it's organized by plant families (count 'em, 84 families!), and if you're not savvy about plant families, it might take some time to find a plant. However, there are indexes that direct readers to the names. The photographs are plentiful and of good quality, although not all plants are pictured. And it's written in a fairly reader friendly, first person voice (at least she tries, but technical botanical terms do creep in).
The book has two parts. Part one includes chapters on seed preparation, propagation methods, greenhouse management, transplanting, and pest and weed control (although the information in these last two areas is a bit sketchy for my likes and no illustrations are included). She cautions against using herbicides around native plants, but provides no organic alternatives. She also recommends using chemical fertilizers and does not include instructions on making compost, so this is not an organic gardening guide.
Part two, "Native Hawaiian Plant Profiles and Propagation Techniques by Family and Genera," includes the plants. All plant descriptions include the same categories of information, such as their appearance, how to grow them, possible insect pests, etc.
This is truly a doctoral dissertation in terms of its completeness and accuracy. It sells for $44.95 and is available at local bookstores and the Internet.
Mycelium Running
I was amazed when I first saw this book in October. Written by Paul Stamets of the company Fungi Perfect (www.fungi.com), Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, is a "manual for the mycological rescue of the planet," according to the Fungi Perfect catalog. It offers new instructions for growing mushrooms, generating mycelium and implanting mushroom colonies into the environment. Stamets believes that growing mushrooms can strengthen the sustainability of habitats, based on the premise that habitats and all animals have immune systems and that mushrooms form a beneficial bridge between them. "Mycelium Running marks the dawn of a new era: the use of mycelial membranes for ecological health," says the catalog. The author claims that mushroom farms can be reinvented as healing arts centers, "steering ecological evolution for the benefit of humans living in harmony with its inhabitants."
The book describes four important components of mycoreforestation:
* Mycofiltration: the filtration of biological and chemical pathogens as well as controlling erosion.
* Mycoforestry and mycogardening: the use of mycelium for companion cultivation for the benefit and protection of plants.
* Mycoremediation: the use of mycelium for decomposing toxic wastes and pollutants.
* Mycopesticides: the use of mycelium for attracting and controlling insect populations.
What I liked best was a chart showing a cross index of mushrooms and their therapeutic effects. You can look up a common mushroom like shiitake and learn that it is anti-bacterial, anti-candida, anti-tumor, anti-viral, a cholesterol reducer, and more. I've never before seen this information so clearly presented in one easy to read place.
It doesn't stop there: it also has chapters on nutrition, medicinal properties, log and stump culture, natural culture, and using easy, low-tech techniques to grow mushrooms. Over 28 species are described, and each includes a high quality illustration. It's selling for $35.00.
Fateful Harvest
Published in 2001, this tell-all book by Duff Wilson is based on a series of articles in the Seattle Times. It was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Subtitled "The True Story of a Small Town, a Global Industry, and a Toxic Secret," it tells the shocking story of what continues to happen in Quincy, Washington, a small farming town whose residents started developing some unexplained illnesses.
It reads like a real "who done it," and is a page-turner I couldn't put down. It chronicles the struggle of a woman named Patty Martin, who discovered that large chemical manufacturers dispose their leftover toxic waste by selling it to farmers as fertilizer. You might ask, "How can this be?" Well, it's completely legal! Every time you buy and use "Triple 16" or other chemical fertilizers, you are adding heavy metals and other toxic substances such as arsenic and cadmium, lead and dioxins to your soil, and it winds up in the food crops that grow in that soil. As stated on the book's dust jacket, "The tainted fertilizer is believed to be destroying crops, sickening animals, and endangering the nation's food supply."
Patty Martin is the mother of four and had never before been involved in any kind of politics or protest. But she was transformed when she learned about reduced wheat harvests, poor corn crops and sick people and cows. The reason is that hazardous wastes-many of the worst chemicals known to modern-day industrial pollution-are "sneaked into common farm and garden fertilizers. Hazardous waste is mixed with plant food, she says, to save industry money instead of being buried, burned, or purified safely. And nobody knows about it." Martin claims that the companies put almost anything in fertilizer if there is even a small amount of nutrient such as phosphorus in it. She says it is "recycling run amok. It's the ultimate dilution solution: what they can't dump in the oceans or pour in the air, they mix with dirt. Fertilizer is an easy place to hide toxins behind the 'green mask of recycling,' she says, because the protectors of public health and product safety don't look any deeper than the advertised ingredients." She continues, "If they just call a dangerous waste a "product," it's no longer considered a dangerous waste. Instead, it's called a fertilizer." And this continues to be standard practice. Visit Patty's website at www.safefoodandfertilizer.org. The hardcover edition sells for $26.00.
Happy holidays.
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