“I think it’s pointless asking questions like “Will humanity survive?” It’s purely up to people – if they want to, they can, if they don’t want to, they won’t.

Use all the skills you have in relation to others – and that way we can do anything. But if you lend your skills to other systems that you don’t really believe in, then you might as well never have lived. You haven’t expressed yourself.

If people want some guidance, I say, just look at what people really do. Don’t listen to them that much. And choose your friends from people who you like what they do – even though you mightn’t like what they say.

We are sufficient to do everything possible to heal this Earth. We don’t have to suppose we need oil, or governments, or anything. We can do it.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0osO1_FR_24

Ain’t I a Woman? Famous Speech by Sojourner Truth (from Speaking Truth to Power: Carolyn Baker)
The Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio – December, 1851

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from?
From God and a woman!
Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again!
And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEHc_UzeT9w

When I think about the penultimate plant for Permaculture sites I go immediately to comfrey (symphytum officinale). Simply by cutting a button sized piece of tap root and planting it, within two weeks a new plant emerges. In Southern Illinois I take four cuttings of the above ground portions a season and use them in countless ways. At the moment I have a five gallon bucket stuffed with comfrey where it will ferment for two weeks in water, bubbled (with an aquarium bubbler, as is done for compost tea), for 24 hours, and then used as a spray on the food forest and annual crops. As the prime dynamic accumulator in the plant matrix this dark liquid feeds the plants with a mineral-, and enzyme-rich soup. It also makes for a superior mulch! Through the years I have made it a goal to eliminate the need to buy in foliar feeds and fertilizers such as kelp and fish and simply utilize the biological intelligence bequeathed on us by plants and animals: what is already growing on the property and in the the immediate region, what is produced in compost bins, what the worms are generating, the mycorrizhae, etc.  Besides being a delicious edible (the young leaves) and a potent medicine (otherwise know as “knitbone”), the bumble bees are a site to observe as they hold themselves suspended upside-down while seeking the nectar deep inside the dangling flowers. 

Comfrey produces more than 6 times the amount of protein than soy. It is excellent when used in a smoothie with other leaves, fruits, berries and yogurt. I make a salve out of comfrey, calendula, St John’s wort, olive oil and beeswax and use it topically on cuts, bruises and burns.

Comfrey is a perennial herbaceous plant that is native to Europe and temperate parts of Asia. Fond of moist soils, comfrey has a thick, hairy stem, and grows 2 – 5 feet tall. Its flowers are dull purple, blue or whitish, and densely arranged in clusters. The leaves are oblong, and often look different depending upon their position on the stem: lower leaves are broad at the base and tapered at the ends while upper leaves are broad throughout and narrow only at the ends. The root has a black outside and fleshy whitish interior filled with juice.”

As the month progresses I will be adding more pertinent content to this post about the uses of comfrey. If you have any significant stories, information or important facts about your experience with this wonderful plant please respond.

Here are several links exploring comfrey and its numerous functions and uses:

From Plants for a Future

From Wikipedia

From Mountain Rose Herbs

From the USDA Plant Database

From the MIIU Plant Database

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.