Quote of the Month
"Delicious autumn!
My very soul is
wedded to it, and
if I were a bird
I would fly about
the earth seeking
the successive
autumns."
-George Eliot
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HEADWATERS GATHERING
Can you believe it's already that time again? We are honoured to announce that the Sticks & Stones Wilderness School workshop will be host to the 6th Biannual Headwaters Gathering next month. The first weekend in October promises the arrival of dozens of keen individuals and families with their tents. There will be free traditional skills and earth-based workshops and seminars scheduled all weekend long, as well as the famous trading blanket fire, and evening potluck meals. Time to celebrate the changing leaves and dramatic fall skies!
This is a community gathering organized in partnership with outdoor/nature educators and enthusiasts all across Ontario. Whether you're a Headwaters veteran or a newcomer, be sure to register:
Click here, or copy and paste the URL link below into a new window:
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What's Happening at Sticks & Stones:
Summer Review
Summer was a busy time here in the Headwaters region. With events and activities happening virtually every weekend, we are still buzzing with excitement, motivated to continue riding the positive momentum ahead into a fall full of Traditional Hunting, Tracking, Way of the Wild wilderness living, and Traditional Hide-Tanning. There is so much to learn and look forward to through nature observation that comes with the change of the seasons.
But before we look too far ahead, here's our summer in review:
Silent Lake Provincial Park Presentations - On a hot Sunday in July, families of campers joined Sticks & Stones for informative, interactive workshops on Animal Sign and Tracking as well as Friction Fire.
Grade Five Pond Study with Sticks & Stones -
Forty grade five students spent an afternoon exploring and appreciating the critters and plants who live in ponds.
Kettleby Camp Staff Training - From fox-walking and owl-eyes to friction fire, counsellors getting ready to embark on a busy camp summer explored how to plant seeds of natural curiosity in their kids.
Kage Musha Dojo Wilderness Workshops - Sticks & Stones is conducting monthly wilderness skills workshops with this esoteric Toronto-based martial arts club, which focuses on Traditional Samurai, Ninja and modern combative arts. Wilderness skills are approached from the perspective of how they can be integrated into a traditional martial arts lifestyle. Our first session focused on friction fire and shelter building, and we look forward to many more.
The Art of Mentoring Community Growth - after being part of the administrative team bringing the Art of Mentoring program to Ontario, Sticks & Stones staff and interns attended the course from the perspective of participants. What amazing fuel for building our growing community fire.
 Workshops- Flint Knapping, Animal Tracking, Empowering Ancient Ways... with amazing groups of instructors, volunteers, interns, and participants, these intense programs were incredibly successful. See "Story of the Month" below for a vivid glimpse into one of these experiences.
MFTIPs (Managed Forest Tax Incentive Plans) -With stewardship always in the forefront, Sticks & Stones worked with dozens of landowers this season to develop or renew forest management plans for their properties. Promoting regenerative forest plans and providing up to 75% off land taxes, this program is worthwhile for every landowner in Ontario to look into.
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Interns Corner
We are happy to have been joined at the Sticks & Stones Workshop by Mike, Drasko, and David, three passionate interns who are very keen and focused on developing their wilderness living skills on a daily basis. Mike has been with us since June, living in his debris hut in the pines behind the barn workshop. The other two joined at the end of August, and are busy building shelters of their own. Mike, Drasko, and David will participate in all scheduled classes, as well as recieve ongoing mentoring and access to a full library of naturalist and skills-based resources.
For more info on the Internship program, click here or visit the Wilderness Programs page of our website.
You can also check out the blog, updated regularly by, as they call themselves "the Three Little Interns."
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Sticks & Stones and HERBS!
Summer Harvest and Ferment Preserving
by Kate Jones
With vegetable gardens now in high yield, it's time to start thinking ahead to the fall and most especially the winter, when the complex sea of green we currently see outside our windows will be covered in a blanket of white, sleeping. The snow, which is so crucial to the insulation and protection of plants and dormant seeds, marks and maintains a period of dormancy. Animals, birds, and humans who live in recognition of seasonal ebbs and flows, understand that winter can be a hungry time of trial and a fight for survival. Today the sun may still be shining warmly, mosquitos may still be biting in the evenings, and food might seem in plenty... which means it's the perfect time to be stocking up on local organic produce and saving it for the hungrier months. The Benefits of Fermented Foods Food and drinks that are traditionally or lacto-fermented, such as sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, kefir, miso and rejuvelac, contain helpful bacteria such as lactobacilli whose probiotic qualities benefit not only the digestive system, but also enable your body to readily absorb many more nutrients than are available through unfermented food. The "predigested " state of fermented food is easy on the digestive system, and allows your body to obtain nutrients efficiently. Kay Baxter and Bob Corker, authors of "Change of Heart: the Ecology of Nutrition," have been gathering information over the past 40 years about traditional vs. modern human diets, and how a lack of important enzymes and fermented foods in our diets today has resulted in widespread poor nutrition and a vast range of disease. As Hippocrates so simply put it centuries ago: "All disease originates in the gut."
Baxter and Corker recommend 40% of our diets should be comprised of fermented foods and drinks.
Canadian Kimchi
Here's a recipe I have adapted from Sandor Katz's "Wild Fermentation," another wonderful book that celebrates the joys and healing benefits of fermented food. It's best if the vegetables used in the recipe are organic.
Ingredients: The following are just guidelines; you can use many different kinds of hard vegetables, and in any amount you have on hand. Some veggies, such as cabbage, naturally contain more lactobacilli than others, so it's good to have such a veggie as a base.
2 heads cabbage, finely chopped
5 or 6 carrots, grated
1 cauliflower, finely chopped
5 or 6 beets, grated
3 to 6-inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
2 heads of garlic, minced
about 1/4 cup sea salt (to create an environment salty enough to kill away harmful bacteria, and allow the lactobacilli to prosper, as it survives higher salinity)
4 or 5 large whole cabbage leaves (these can be retained from the 2 heads before you start chopping)
Optional: a sprinkle of hot red pepper flakes
Directions:
Put all ingredients together in a large ceramic crock (do not use a metal pot or plastic tupperware container). The insides of old electric crock pots work nicely for this. Sitting on the floor or standing at a table, use your fists to crush the vegetables and salt together, until the juices of the vegetables extract themselves. This can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 1/2 an hour, depending on the moisture content of the veggies, and the raw power behind your crushing fists.
Once the veggies are submerged in their own juices when you press down on them, use the large cabbage leaves to tuck around the goods and hold everything down. If there's not enough juice, add 10% salinity brine (salty water) until the veggies are submerged about 1 inch when pressed down with your hands. The goal for kimchi is to achieve anaerobic breakdown of the vegetables-- that is, you don't want the veggie material to come into contact with the air and begin to rot. The leaves will most likely have to be discarded after the fermenting process is complete, as they act as a shield for the other veggies and often come into contact with the surface.
Put a small plate on top of the cabbage leaves, and a non-organic weight such as a large rock, bowl full of water, or a ziplock bag containing brine (in the off-chance the bag breaks, it won't dilute the salinity). Cover the crock with a plastic bag to prevent dust and insects from getting in. Move to a dark place, around room temperature. Some people like to ferment their kimchi in a slightly warmer-than-room-temperature environment, but I prefer a cooler space. The process takes longer (2-3 weeks instead of 1-2), but I find it is more controlled and there's less chance of "invasion" from other growing moulds and bacteria.
After the first week, check the kimchi and skim off any scum that has formed on the surface of the brine. This scum is totally normal and won't hurt you if you can't quite get it all, but it's good practice to skim it off every day or two. After a week or so, begin tasting the kimchi for sourness. Once you like the flavour, put the kimchi into jars and store in the fridge. If left at room temperature, the kimchi will continue to ferment and become increasingly sour. It is up to your preference how sour you let the kimchi become.
Kimchi is great to heat 1/2 an hour before your regular evening meal, as a way to kick-start your digestive tract. I eat it on its own kind of like sauerkraut salad. It's also good on sausages.
Enjoy!
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Story of the Month
Empowering Ancient Ways -- by Sue Steffes
"Squeak, squeak, squeak" is the first noticeable sign that someone is hard at work. This is quickly followed by wafts of cedar smoke that slither through the air and win over the olfactory senses. You feel yourself pulled over to the corner of the workshop to find her pouring their heart into creating a coal through a friction fire technique called the Bowdrill. A group of people have now wandered over from their projects and form a web of support and encouragement, cheering on as the smoke billows from the pile of dust created by spinning a spindle on a flat board of cedar, using a bow. We can literally sense how close she is to helping birth a coal that will be used to make fire. One last push....a coal!
She puts down her tools and tenderly maneuvers the glowing ember into a warm nest of tinder that will ignite the coal into flame. The tinder fiber, made of finely stripped cedar,cattail fuzz, and birch bark, encapsulates the coal as she gently blows into it providing the additional fuel it needs to ignite. More smoke smothers the air above the bundle and quite suddenly the bundle bursts into flame. A roar of cheers, "yips", congratulations and thanks are given as she places the fire into a smaller fire structure that will burn itself to its end and provide us with a bit of warmth to ward off the nip of the rainy day.
 This is a mere snapshot of the week a group of us shared at the past Empowering Ancient Ways Course. It's so difficult to really put into words what a week like the one past was about. There was the knowledge and experience shared of wild edible plants, various primitive skills such as preparing and tanning hides and so much more. But our skilled facilitators Chris, Skeet, and Alexis, took us on an even deeper journey where we were guided to engage all of our senses, to truly feel and connect with the world around us. It was more than learning about wilderness surviving rather it was about wilderness living.
The week empowered us to use these new skills and understanding for the well
being of ourselves, communities and the entirety of the natural world. There was an understanding that we all make tracks on this earth regardless of how lightly we tread. The question that remained was will we leave tracks of degradation or regeneration? Quite simply put, "Our tracks echo our intention into the future."
Our week ended as it began, with a talking circle. Where we set intentions and made introductions at the opening circle, the closing circle revealed that in a short 6 days we traveled a great journey internally, externally and as a community. Thanks to everyone who shared in this journey, it was an amazing week.
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