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    Radiator Charlie's Mortgage-Lifter Tomato Paid Member

    By Wendy Johnson
    In August my gardener hands are stained nicotine dark from the resinous sap of tangled tomato vines heavy with summer fruit. In the spell of the nightshades I return to my first season of growing tomatoes at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, deep in the Ventana wilderness of central California. Anchored by a daily meditation schedule of dawn and nighttime zazen, the tomato plants of the Tassajara garden kept my practice grounded by day. Now, almost 35 years later, the intrepid tomato continues to provide long hours of mindfulness and the real wealth of a succulent harvest. More »
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    A Season of Nonviolence Paid Member

    By Wendy Johnson
    In bitter January a black rime of ice sealed the frozen pores of the land. Trappist monk Thomas Merton often encouraged practitioners and gardeners alike to hunker down in this dormant season and “love winter, when the plant says nothing.” For more than a decade peace activists have set aside 64 days from January 30, the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s death, through April 4, the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination, as a season of nonviolence, an ideal time to commit to sit deep in the saddle of meditation and mindfulness. More »
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    Silver Thread Broken Paid Member

    By Wendy Johnson
    IT IS high season in the garden, just past summer solstice. The land is heavy with crops while the bloodline of Redwood Creek, where I have lived, gardened, and meditated for over three decades, runs through the old-growth redwoods at Muir Woods National Monument out to the sea. Redwood Creek is a short, seven mile-long spawning stream for silver salmon, ancient members of the endangered Coho salmon line.More »
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    Socrates' Friend Paid Member

    By Wendy Johnson
    Much as I love to grow rosy-cheeked apples and long stripes of pale green butter lettuce, I equally welcome the presence of poisonous weeds and flowers in the garden. No paradise is complete without the murmur of these dark sorcerers from beyond the fringe: snakeroot and henbane, monkshood and deadly nightshade. Chief among the poisonous plants I respect is Conium maculatum, or poison hemlock, also known as the executioner of kings and philosophers, or “Socrates’ friend,” for the swift and fatal hemlock dose the Greek philosopher was condemned to drink by his political enemies around 400 B.C.E. More »
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    Seeds of Plenty Paid Member

    By Wendy Johnson
    Almost fifteen years ago, at our annual gathering of ecological farmers, I received a bulging handful of Rainbow Inca flint corn from my gardening sister, Dru Rivers of Full Belly Farm. “Plant this corn,” she urged me, “and save some seed to share with new farmers next year.” The beauty of this heritage corn captured me from the first with its dense rows of russet gold, steel blue, and burnt orange kernels wrapped under dark burgundy and pale dun husks. When we ground the corn at harvest time, it yielded a soft mound of lavender-hued meal that we added to our Thanksgiving bread. Best of all, Rainbow Inca corn was generous; even after the first growing season we returned to the Eco-Farm gathering with plenty of seed to share. More »