WEBVTT 00:00:00.930 --> 00:00:07.083 - Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our weekly celebration of service. My name is Tracy Yovanovich, 00:00:07.083 --> 00:00:13.294 - and I'm honored to serve as your president. It's good to hear the energy in the room. I think everybody's 00:00:13.294 --> 00:00:19.271 - enjoying this beautiful weather. Could you, Tyler? Thank you. You already knew. You read my mind. And 00:00:19.271 --> 00:00:25.306 - it's nice to not have a jumping screen this week. That's awesome. All right. So in the spirit of being 00:00:25.306 --> 00:00:30.814 - international and staying in tune with where in the world are all the different rotary clubs, 00:00:30.978 --> 00:00:37.988 - I wanted to share this one in particular. Joy, I'm so glad you're here, because you'll particularly 00:00:37.988 --> 00:00:45.138 - like this one. Amman Jordan has a club, and it was started by eight rotoractors. How cool is that? We 00:00:45.138 --> 00:00:52.149 - always talk about our rotoractors here at IU, and eight rotoractors started this club in Amman. And 00:00:52.149 --> 00:00:55.934 - Craig and Jim are having their own meeting over here. 00:00:56.066 --> 00:01:01.714 - They get busy with national aid funding, bringing medical support to families in Jordan. That's their 00:01:01.714 --> 00:01:07.306 - big project. They work with families who don't have health care. I thought, hmm, that sounds kind of 00:01:07.306 --> 00:01:12.899 - familiar. And that was started in 2012. But I was particularly interested in this one because of the 00:01:12.899 --> 00:01:18.713 - rotor reactor impact. You never know the influence that you're going to have out in the world. And these 00:01:18.713 --> 00:01:23.198 - are the kids that come from IU that come from other schools, which is fantastic. 00:01:23.650 --> 00:01:32.470 - And with that, I will ask Heidi Schultz to come up and share a reflection. Good afternoon, everyone. 00:01:32.470 --> 00:01:39.806 - There's something about this time of year that naturally invites reflection for me. 00:01:39.874 --> 00:01:45.852 - The seasons are changing, routines are settling in, there's a sense of both momentum and transition, 00:01:45.852 --> 00:01:51.830 - and fall often feels like a season of beginning again, but with a little more perspective since last 00:01:51.830 --> 00:01:57.986 - January. As the pace of the year continues to pick up, especially at my house with four busy kids, I've 00:01:57.986 --> 00:02:04.082 - been thinking about how easy it is to move from one responsibility to the next without taking the time 00:02:04.082 --> 00:02:07.870 - to notice what is going well, who has helped along the way, and 00:02:08.034 --> 00:02:14.535 - what we've been given the opportunity to contribute. Gratitude is often thought of as a personal virtue, 00:02:14.535 --> 00:02:20.851 - but I think it's also a community practice. It changes the way we see people around us. It reminds us 00:02:20.851 --> 00:02:27.352 - that none of us accomplishes much entirely on our own. Every strong organization, every strong community 00:02:27.352 --> 00:02:33.606 - is built through relationships, generosity, encouragement, and people willing to invest in something 00:02:33.606 --> 00:02:34.782 - beyond themselves. 00:02:35.426 --> 00:02:42.238 - That is part of what I think makes service so meaningful and what makes groups like our Rotary so special. 00:02:42.238 --> 00:02:48.795 - So much of service is about planting seeds we may never fully see grow. We support people we may never 00:02:48.795 --> 00:02:55.289 - meet. We strengthen organizations and communities that we may not see visible right away. We give our 00:02:55.289 --> 00:03:00.382 - time, energy and resources because we believe the future is worth investing in. 00:03:00.546 --> 00:03:06.724 - And I think that's one of the most hopeful things about service. It's an act of faith in one another. 00:03:06.724 --> 00:03:13.264 - It says that people matter, communities matter, and the work we do today can create opportunity, stability, 00:03:13.264 --> 00:03:19.381 - and hope for someone else tomorrow. So as we move into this new fall season, I hope we can all carry 00:03:19.381 --> 00:03:23.742 - both gratitude and perspective with us, long enough to notice the good. 00:03:24.002 --> 00:03:30.328 - The colleague who always follows through, the volunteer who says yes without hesitation, the neighbor, 00:03:30.328 --> 00:03:36.531 - the student, family member, or friend who is working hard and trying their best. And when we notice, 00:03:36.531 --> 00:03:42.427 - let's say so. Because gratitude doesn't just make us feel better, it strengthens relationships, 00:03:42.427 --> 00:03:46.174 - deepens trust, and reminds people that what they do matters. 00:03:46.306 --> 00:03:53.737 - In a world that can feel heavy at times, choosing to notice the good and continuing to invest in one 00:03:53.737 --> 00:04:01.168 - another is no small act of service. So thanks to each of you for the many ways you contribute to our 00:04:01.168 --> 00:04:08.672 - community and one another. I think I would say I'm Verklempt. That was amazing. Thank you, Heidi. And 00:04:08.672 --> 00:04:13.822 - with that, Dr. Winston, if you would come up and introduce our guest. 00:04:23.554 --> 00:04:38.358 - When I call your name, if you could please stand and be recognized. We have guest Kate Cedar is the 00:04:38.358 --> 00:04:52.126 - guest of Melinda. Nell Cronke is the guest of Melinda. Lynette Marshall is the guest of Rex. 00:04:57.058 --> 00:05:10.046 - Katie Beck is a guest of Sarah Laughlin. Kim Arnold is the guest of Tracy. And do we have any guests 00:05:10.046 --> 00:05:23.806 - online? No, we do not. All RotorX. Okay. Rotarians, excuse me. All right. Thank you for that, Dr. Winston. 00:05:23.970 --> 00:05:29.897 - Tyler, if you could bring us back up. For birthdays, there are no birthdays this week, but we do have 00:05:29.897 --> 00:05:36.057 - quite a few anniversaries. We have Tom Gallagher for two years, Leslie Kutsenko for two years, Art Ohmick 00:05:36.057 --> 00:05:41.984 - 12 years, Bill Perkins 22 years, Randy Saunders one year, and James Wolf 24 years, four of those with 00:05:41.984 --> 00:05:48.318 - us and 20 with his club before, so quite a few anniversaries. Now, hold on, we've got lots of announcements. 00:05:49.474 --> 00:05:56.470 - Just a reminder, I had lots of questions on this. Everyone in this room is invited to Charlotte's service 00:05:56.470 --> 00:06:03.268 - for Rotary. There are two services. There's one on Thursday, which everyone in the city and county and 00:06:03.268 --> 00:06:10.132 - state and world, because Charlotte is Charlotte or was, is invited on Thursday. All Rotarians and close 00:06:10.132 --> 00:06:16.798 - friends are invited on Saturday. And that's at the UU Church at 3 o'clock. OK, any questions on that 00:06:16.798 --> 00:06:17.854 - one? All right. 00:06:19.298 --> 00:06:27.449 - different music. Okay, I know that we have Sally Gaskell singing. I know Alon is playing the flute. 00:06:27.449 --> 00:06:35.763 - It's going to be quite, oh, and Amy's singing as well. So it's going to be quite something to behold, 00:06:35.763 --> 00:06:42.366 - as is to be expected. We also have a remote that's not working. Hold on. Can you 00:06:44.034 --> 00:06:49.947 - There we go. We also have Kim Gray's celebration at the same time at the Presbyterian Church. 00:06:49.947 --> 00:06:56.300 - I will be doing, on behalf of Rotary, I will be presenting perspectives on Kim and how much we loved 00:06:56.300 --> 00:07:02.654 - her and everything she contributed. So I would ask for all of you, I've gotten feedback from some of 00:07:02.654 --> 00:07:09.196 - you already, but if you could share, email me some insights and how you would like Kim to be remembered 00:07:09.196 --> 00:07:13.662 - from your perspective. I know the family would really appreciate that. 00:07:13.890 --> 00:07:19.937 - And there's also a visitation because of the two services at the same time, which is, it is what it 00:07:19.937 --> 00:07:26.045 - is. But there is a visitation in the morning from 11 to 1, so you can certainly stop by and pay your 00:07:26.045 --> 00:07:32.274 - respects that way, okay? All right, next, I'm gonna fly through some of these and stick on a few more. 00:07:32.274 --> 00:07:38.381 - Rotary Book Club, Wednesday the 14th, Be There or Be Square, Rotary Toast, individual tickets are on 00:07:38.381 --> 00:07:43.582 - sale. Do we have the flyers, Jill? I forgot to get those. So we have flyers up front. 00:07:43.682 --> 00:07:49.874 - We've only sold 173 tickets so far. So I would ask if you could take extra flyers, please. We'll put 00:07:49.874 --> 00:07:56.127 - some on the tables and try handing those out to people you think might be interested. We need to show 00:07:56.127 --> 00:08:02.503 - up and support Lori Burns-McRobbie. She's done a lot with the community, certainly with Middleway House 00:08:02.503 --> 00:08:08.757 - University, a number of efforts out there. I know she helped out with Beacon as well. So if you could 00:08:08.757 --> 00:08:12.190 - help us stimulate those sales, that would be fantastic. 00:08:12.290 --> 00:08:18.648 - Parking update, the Henderson garage is no longer free. The only free parking is at Atwater and IMU. 00:08:18.648 --> 00:08:25.006 - And then for the holiday party update, we did have to increase by $2 the ticket price. So it's $62 a 00:08:25.006 --> 00:08:31.302 - ticket. I don't think it's gonna break the bank. But food costs, I think everybody knows food costs 00:08:31.302 --> 00:08:37.723 - have gone up. And so we wanna make sure we have decent food like last year was fantastic. So put that 00:08:37.723 --> 00:08:41.374 - on your calendars and more to come on available for sale. 00:08:41.922 --> 00:08:48.923 - Uh-oh, I know I went too fast. Get out the vote. Everybody should know in the spirit of civic responsibility, 00:08:48.923 --> 00:08:55.288 - you need to show up. And at 501 North Morton, the early voting will be starting next week. So let's 00:08:55.288 --> 00:09:01.843 - get the vote out. Secondly, if anybody has time this Saturday, Lotus Festival needs volunteers to help 00:09:01.843 --> 00:09:08.653 - with the carnival from 530 to 1130. If you're able, the phone number's here. It will be in the roundabout. 00:09:08.653 --> 00:09:11.390 - They'd appreciate any support you can get. 00:09:11.554 --> 00:09:19.106 - And then lastly, we need volunteers for our district grant project. Michelle's got the sign up sheet. 00:09:19.106 --> 00:09:26.805 - I just signed, I hadn't done it yet and I should have. We need 14 to 24 people more to sign up. We have 00:09:26.805 --> 00:09:32.062 - about eight or nine or 10 right now. But this is part of our backpack. 00:09:32.674 --> 00:09:40.513 - Pack Buddy program where we'll be packing those backpacks, say that five times fast, for two hours on 00:09:40.513 --> 00:09:48.505 - Sunday. So if you could sign up ASAP with Michelle, it would be greatly appreciated. Then next, perfect 00:09:48.505 --> 00:09:55.422 - timing for Dr. Winst to speak, they have MCCSE has a strong community ambassador program. 00:09:55.618 --> 00:10:00.896 - These are four sessions that they've designed. They've already got a cohort that started this spring 00:10:00.896 --> 00:10:06.279 - and they're working with the chamber on this. The intent is really to get some people in the community 00:10:06.279 --> 00:10:11.975 - that understand how the schools operate. Doesn't matter if you have kids there or not, but we need advocates 00:10:11.975 --> 00:10:17.358 - out there with the media challenges, with the SCA-1 bill and things that have happened. We need to get 00:10:17.358 --> 00:10:22.898 - people better educated about what's working well, what's not, where help is needed. So it's an excellent, 00:10:22.898 --> 00:10:25.406 - excellent opportunity for some of us to sign up 00:10:26.018 --> 00:10:31.693 - and participate. There are four dates in the spring, and I didn't print out my sheet, but there are 00:10:31.693 --> 00:10:37.708 - four dates in the spring. You can find it on the MCCS website. I will make sure that's in the roundabout. 00:10:37.708 --> 00:10:43.497 - I'm going to be signing up to do it, but I want to be able to better speak, and I know that there are 00:10:43.497 --> 00:10:49.342 - many of you in the audience who would also like to represent and help MCCSC and how we're represented. 00:10:51.458 --> 00:10:58.347 - Okay, so I am not a beauty pageant person really. I know that's shocking for most of you. But this caught 00:10:58.347 --> 00:11:04.847 - my eye and there's a couple of reasons. First of all, an IU alum won Miss USA totally off my radar. 00:11:04.847 --> 00:11:11.346 - I had no idea because I just don't follow it if it's not in the sports. But what I really wanted to 00:11:11.346 --> 00:11:18.430 - point out in the spirit of expanding our minds and changing, she's the first person over 30. She's a mother. 00:11:18.690 --> 00:11:24.738 - So Miss USA is actually a mother and first person over 30. So if they can change, we can all change, 00:11:24.738 --> 00:11:31.086 - going back to what you said. And my gosh, she's from IU, which is amazing. And she's a master's in public 00:11:31.086 --> 00:11:37.255 - health, which speaking of, and I didn't have this on here, but we have congratulations to Whitney, our 00:11:37.255 --> 00:11:39.710 - double doctorate. She got her doctorate. 00:11:45.218 --> 00:11:52.068 - Thank you. And thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for being part of this journey. And I have one 00:11:52.068 --> 00:11:58.784 - more comment about Justice. We were actually classmates during the Masters of Public Health program 00:11:58.784 --> 00:12:05.836 - at IU Bloomington, and she's a human being and a great public health professional. So I was very excited 00:12:05.836 --> 00:12:13.022 - when I found that she was, she's Miss USA. Yeah, totally. She brings the Miss Universe to the US. To what? 00:12:13.474 --> 00:12:20.704 - Hopefully she becomes Miss Universe. Oh, there you go. There you go. Go big or go home. I like that. 00:12:20.704 --> 00:12:28.148 - So no, I mean, she and she's running the philanthropical arm. I think it's St. Jude's. So I mean, she's 00:12:28.148 --> 00:12:35.449 - she's the real deal. So that's amazing. So anyway, then I got a text from Dave and Cynthia Cynthia at 00:12:35.449 --> 00:12:42.750 - Merida and they are going to Rotary meetings and they actually had an induction ceremony they attend. 00:12:42.850 --> 00:12:48.928 - Our induction ceremonies aren't quite so glamorous. I'll just say, Mr. Baker, we can work on that. 00:12:48.928 --> 00:12:55.253 - But hey, that's pretty cool. Again, in the spirit of international, there's a lot happening out around 00:12:55.253 --> 00:13:01.699 - the world. All right. And with that, I will turn it over to Lynn Schwartzberg, before you put that bread 00:13:01.699 --> 00:13:04.094 - in your mouth, to introduce our guest. 00:13:13.858 --> 00:13:21.172 - Well, thank you, President Tracy. Today, I am delighted to bring something a little different to this 00:13:21.172 --> 00:13:28.700 - club. I'm happy to introduce Monique Philpott. She is the president of Soulcraft, a local non-for-profit 00:13:28.700 --> 00:13:35.870 - and member of the Folk Education Association of America. There are many, if you go to the Soulcraft 00:13:35.870 --> 00:13:43.614 - website, I was fascinated. There are many people that I know that are instructors and conveners with a huge 00:13:43.746 --> 00:13:51.678 - variety of skill sets. Monique is a facilitator, storyteller, crafter, ceremonialist, amongst many other 00:13:51.678 --> 00:13:59.460 - community building attributes. It sounds like a Rotarian. I first became acquainted with Monique while 00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:04.446 - researching a story for Bloom that I did on a four-part series of 00:14:04.706 --> 00:14:12.051 - on foraging that Earth Eats was going to have on the radio, and I thought, oh, we'll write about that. 00:14:12.051 --> 00:14:19.397 - What is foraging? What can we forage here? And I found Monique. She shares Earth-based traditions with 00:14:19.397 --> 00:14:25.886 - students here at IU, and also they get very dirty. She has built playscapes through rotary 00:14:26.082 --> 00:14:33.960 - from natural materials for children in many parts of the world including Africa, Central America, and 00:14:33.960 --> 00:14:42.302 - Mongolia. She currently works with IU students discovering hidden wild places so they can cook up delicious 00:14:42.302 --> 00:14:49.022 - wild edibles. She has drunk, hold on, fermented horse milk. She said it was delicious. 00:14:49.186 --> 00:15:03.445 - And interestingly, is very nervous speaking in front of people. So let's give a warm welcome to Monique 00:15:03.445 --> 00:15:17.566 - Philpott. Thank you. First, I would just like to say thank you to all of you. I was very much welcomed 00:15:17.890 --> 00:15:27.478 - just from walking in the room and I find that Rotarians have really big hearts and are naturally or 00:15:27.478 --> 00:15:37.832 - not naturally maybe taught to be curious and open-minded and always growing and so I just really appreciate 00:15:37.832 --> 00:15:45.598 - everyone and what you bring to the world so thank you for having me. So foraging 00:15:46.306 --> 00:15:53.535 - was thinking a lot about what I would say here and really like what is the point of foraging because 00:15:53.535 --> 00:16:00.764 - foraging is going out and looking for food in in the landscape in the in the wild places it can also 00:16:00.764 --> 00:16:08.065 - be in your garden though in between maybe the plants that you're putting there on purpose. We do have 00:16:08.065 --> 00:16:09.854 - grocery stores though so 00:16:09.986 --> 00:16:17.524 - Why would I forage when I could also just, I could actually just do it all online and have it delivered 00:16:17.524 --> 00:16:24.990 - to my house. I could have food delivered to my house. So I was really thinking about this. And I, this 00:16:24.990 --> 00:16:27.454 - past Friday, I took a field trip. 00:16:27.586 --> 00:16:34.386 - Every Friday I have a kids class. Some kids have been coming for years and some are new faces and it's 00:16:34.386 --> 00:16:41.187 - an all day long program. Some kids are missing school to come out and be with us on Fridays. Some kids 00:16:41.187 --> 00:16:47.855 - are homeschooled. Some kids, they're all from all different places. And we took a field trip just to 00:16:47.855 --> 00:16:54.127 - forage. And so I was really thinking about this on this field trip and what I would say today. 00:16:54.127 --> 00:16:55.646 - Let's see. Next slide. 00:16:57.602 --> 00:17:03.929 - Oh yeah, that's who I am. We have lots of different classes in Soulcraft, all different kinds of traditional 00:17:03.929 --> 00:17:09.734 - skills. Forging is one of them, but there's lots of different things. This past Sunday, we just had 00:17:09.734 --> 00:17:15.596 - a class on sharpening, sharpening all your tools and how to do it. So all of our classes involve all 00:17:15.596 --> 00:17:20.414 - different ages and all different traditional skills, doing things with your hands. 00:17:22.882 --> 00:17:32.249 - So this is what I wanted to talk about first. This is what we did on Friday. So these pictures are a 00:17:32.249 --> 00:17:41.802 - few years old, those kids. So we went out to this place. It's a swampy area. It is a place that really 00:17:41.802 --> 00:17:51.262 - most people, I think, would never choose to go. Maybe you would choose to stand on the edge and look. 00:17:51.650 --> 00:18:00.451 - but with foraging you you can't just stand on the edge and look you have to get into the places you 00:18:00.451 --> 00:18:09.340 - have to go walk and you have to reach and dig and this place is no exception it's to me this is this 00:18:09.340 --> 00:18:18.142 - food highlights why i forage and why i think people come back to foraging and this is also like the 00:18:18.142 --> 00:18:20.606 - golden egg of foraging like 00:18:20.866 --> 00:18:28.847 - This is not an easy thing to get, but when you do, the satisfaction that you feel is, is visceral in 00:18:28.847 --> 00:18:36.907 - your whole body. So it's called a mud banana. Has anyone heard of a mud banana? Okay. Mud bananas are 00:18:36.907 --> 00:18:45.046 - delicious and amazing. And they're the, they're the thing that the kids are holding. And they're also, 00:18:45.046 --> 00:18:50.814 - when you slice them open, um, they are being cut open here, right there. 00:18:51.298 --> 00:18:59.756 - So that's a mud banana. And to get a mud banana, you have to go to a swamp and you have to get prepared. 00:18:59.756 --> 00:19:08.054 - You can't wear shoes to get mud bananas because the swamp eats your shoes. And if you go in, you might 00:19:08.054 --> 00:19:16.834 - not come out with them. Or if you do, you'll be missing some straps. Maybe the sole of your shoe disappears. 00:19:16.834 --> 00:19:20.862 - So you gotta go barefoot. So that's already like, 00:19:21.058 --> 00:19:30.024 - Oh, and, and it's a little stinky, you know, it's like where all the leaves have collected and the water 00:19:30.024 --> 00:19:38.904 - isn't that deep. It's maybe, maybe actually like the water is only a foot deep. But when you first step 00:19:38.904 --> 00:19:47.442 - in, you sink in to like clay and leaf debris and you kind of get that anaerobic smell of, you know, 00:19:47.442 --> 00:19:48.894 - decaying things. 00:19:50.242 --> 00:19:57.223 - and you step in there and you know you can't see because in Indiana the water isn't pristine like the 00:19:57.223 --> 00:20:04.273 - previous side where it's nice and blue it's kind of murky and you don't know what you're stepping into 00:20:04.273 --> 00:20:11.117 - and you know I have to convince people to do this so I so I'm telling them about it and and you got 00:20:11.117 --> 00:20:16.798 - to get in there and you can't see anything and then to you know you you have these 00:20:17.026 --> 00:20:23.527 - These beautiful leaves that have this little deer hoof pattern on them. They're like lily pads, but 00:20:23.527 --> 00:20:30.613 - they're not lily pads. Um, and these beautiful flowers that are just absolutely gorgeous. The most beautiful 00:20:30.613 --> 00:20:37.115 - flowers I've ever seen. Lotus flowers. Um, Lotus grows in our area and they are a mud banana is the 00:20:37.115 --> 00:20:43.681 - tuber of a Lotus and Lotus is phenomenal. And most people don't even know that Lotus flowers grow in 00:20:43.681 --> 00:20:45.566 - our area. They're beautiful. 00:20:45.954 --> 00:20:53.699 - And then you also have these seed pods. And I actually brought some to pass around because they're so 00:20:53.699 --> 00:21:01.292 - alien-like. They're just bizarre. And so you actually have to ask them and follow them. You have to 00:21:01.292 --> 00:21:09.112 - go up to these lotus pods, which look like shower heads above the water. And you have to hold them and 00:21:09.112 --> 00:21:15.870 - reach down into the water. And then you hit the clay and you have to push the clay away. 00:21:16.290 --> 00:21:22.472 - And it's like a rope. And you have to follow this rope without your eyes. And you have to just use your 00:21:22.472 --> 00:21:28.713 - fingers. So you're digging, and people at first, they just try to do it with their hands and their butts 00:21:28.713 --> 00:21:34.657 - out. And then at some point, your back is killing you, and you're like, forget it. And you just get 00:21:34.657 --> 00:21:41.017 - in there. And sometimes the water is right here in your head. The rope is taking you deeper. And sometimes 00:21:41.017 --> 00:21:43.870 - the rope splits. So there's a fork in the road. 00:21:44.706 --> 00:21:51.085 - And you don't know which one to do. Which way do you go? Like most forks in the road, right? Well, the 00:21:51.085 --> 00:21:57.526 - best thing is to just get a friend and each of you take one of the forks. And then, so you're splitting 00:21:57.526 --> 00:22:03.843 - and then you go deeper and eventually you feel something kind of like a banana. It's kind of hard and 00:22:03.843 --> 00:22:09.726 - longer than the rope that you've been following. And then you keep going and you break it off. 00:22:10.114 --> 00:22:16.792 - And then you, you still don't, you haven't seen anything. You can't use your eyes. You're, you're just 00:22:16.792 --> 00:22:23.665 - seeing little spiders on the water all around you. You, you see the muskrat den over there and you think, 00:22:23.665 --> 00:22:30.149 - I wonder where that muskrat is right now. Uh, I'm not sure. And, and you also might see a heron fly 00:22:30.149 --> 00:22:37.022 - by, um, some deer poking out. So you get this, you get, you get the mud banana and then you break it off. 00:22:37.442 --> 00:22:48.717 - You clean it off and you hold it up. And if it looks like a banana, then it's, it's a banana. And then 00:22:48.717 --> 00:22:59.774 - you hold it up in the air and you got a shout. And then everybody else who is with you is like, Ooh, 00:23:00.226 --> 00:23:06.206 - I want one of those. Okay. So we just spent, you know, it depends. Sometimes you get lucky in five minutes 00:23:06.206 --> 00:23:11.850 - along a rope and you get one. Sometimes you can be there for hours and you never get one. And so you 00:23:11.850 --> 00:23:16.991 - just don't know. But the hunt, it's like that hunt, you know, you just, you want the thing, 00:23:16.991 --> 00:23:22.692 - you want it. These people I take typically have never had a mud banana before. They have no idea what 00:23:22.692 --> 00:23:28.504 - it tastes like. They don't know what it even looks like. And you have no idea what you're doing. You're 00:23:28.504 --> 00:23:29.342 - just in there. 00:23:29.954 --> 00:23:37.927 - And every time I go, I still get a little shaky and like the thrill of like, oh man, why am I doing 00:23:37.927 --> 00:23:46.059 - this? Whoa, I'm about to step into the swamp again. Hello, swamp. Hello, lotus flowers. Hello, funky, 00:23:46.059 --> 00:23:54.111 - weird shower head looking things that are nuts that we can actually eat also. But when you find one, 00:23:54.111 --> 00:23:58.974 - there's nothing like that feeling because you worked for it. 00:23:59.202 --> 00:24:06.514 - and it was exhilarating to get in. I also every time there is a creature called a toe biter in case 00:24:06.514 --> 00:24:13.973 - you don't know. It's a toe biter. It literally bites your toes and it lives in the water around here. 00:24:13.973 --> 00:24:21.577 - I've never experienced it. They say it's excruciating. I think it's more like a wasp. People exaggerate 00:24:21.577 --> 00:24:29.182 - pain, you know? So every time before I go in, I do say a little like, not today, toe biters, not today. 00:24:29.858 --> 00:24:37.028 - Not for these guys that are with me. This is the first time. On Friday, we collected 30 mud bananas. 00:24:37.028 --> 00:24:44.411 - Kids were shouting, I got one. And then all the other kids would be like, I gotta get one. I gotta find 00:24:44.411 --> 00:24:51.865 - one. You know, we're working so hard to get these. 30 mud bananas. I mean, some of them are three inches 00:24:51.865 --> 00:24:59.390 - long. They're like, you know, how much food is that? Not much. But it's just so fun. That's like the most 00:24:59.490 --> 00:25:06.414 - Epic thing you can search for as far as wild edibles, mud bananas. We don't, it's not necessarily what 00:25:06.414 --> 00:25:13.137 - I would go for right away. Some other things that we collect. Acorns, maybe you recognize that tree 00:25:13.137 --> 00:25:20.061 - on the left. It's right in front of the IMU. It's the oldest tree on campus, over 200 years old. Years 00:25:20.061 --> 00:25:22.750 - ago we named it Grandfather Experience. 00:25:23.522 --> 00:25:30.107 - We asked the kids, what do you think this tree's name is? And that was the name that they felt like 00:25:30.107 --> 00:25:36.824 - it was telling them. There is a child in that tree. They climb it. We talk about it. We check it out. 00:25:36.824 --> 00:25:43.870 - We look at it year after year. We collect acorns. We make acorn cheese. You can make cheese out of acorns. 00:25:44.290 --> 00:25:51.361 - We make candles, floating candles, art. We dye things. There's also ginkgo nuts on campus. You can make 00:25:51.361 --> 00:25:58.568 - things with black walnuts. There's a delicious liqueur you can make using black walnuts. Something called 00:25:58.568 --> 00:26:05.639 - dinosaur beans. Who doesn't want to eat something called dinosaur beans? They grow around here as well. 00:26:05.639 --> 00:26:12.574 - So there's other things that we can collect. These are all right now. But the reason why I forage and 00:26:12.574 --> 00:26:14.206 - I continue to forage is 00:26:14.626 --> 00:26:23.321 - this is that when I am going out and foraging, I don't just go for the mud banana. I'm going for the 00:26:23.321 --> 00:26:31.931 - full experience. I know that now. So when I go out to the swamp, I know that I'm also likely to see 00:26:31.931 --> 00:26:40.798 - migrating animals because it's always in the fall that you gather them, migrating birds. I also always 00:26:41.218 --> 00:26:48.135 - get to see the muskrat den or multiple of them. I see deer. There's other food. I see how much bigger 00:26:48.135 --> 00:26:55.052 - the trees have gotten since the last year that I was there. And sometimes you find little things like 00:26:55.052 --> 00:27:02.105 - the top left I found when we were collecting maple syrup, which is like one of the most exciting things 00:27:02.105 --> 00:27:06.174 - of winter is maple syrup. Of course, that's a frost flower. 00:27:06.914 --> 00:27:15.913 - And they only emerge from the earth during certain times of year when it's warm during the day and cold 00:27:15.913 --> 00:27:24.825 - at night. It's like when the sap is rising, you see frost flowers. The thing on the right is something 00:27:24.825 --> 00:27:34.430 - we find in water. It's called a freshwater coral. And it is funky, weird, jelly-like thing that is a creature. 00:27:34.722 --> 00:27:41.620 - It's amazing. People don't realize we have coral in our water here. The bottom left is called a glass 00:27:41.620 --> 00:27:48.518 - slug. It's a type of caterpillar that's about the size of a nickel. And it's very lacy and absolutely 00:27:48.518 --> 00:27:55.483 - beautiful. And then next to that are boogie woogie bugs. They're only out in the fall, and if you blow 00:27:55.483 --> 00:27:58.526 - on them, they dance for you. They really do. 00:27:58.626 --> 00:28:06.441 - And, you know, so when I'm going out to forage, I accidentally run into all these other things too. 00:28:06.441 --> 00:28:14.412 - And so all of a sudden I realize, oh, I always see these creatures when I go look for mud bananas. My 00:28:14.412 --> 00:28:22.462 - point was to get the mud bananas. But before you know it, I've met all kinds of other beings that live 00:28:22.462 --> 00:28:25.822 - in the swamp or near the swamp. Last year, 00:28:28.322 --> 00:28:37.194 - we got a lot of rain about the time that we would go gather for mud bananas and so that means that there 00:28:37.194 --> 00:28:45.643 - was actually too much water to gather them because you have to be able to dig into the clay and not 00:28:45.643 --> 00:28:54.514 - drown or I don't like to use scuba gear or snorkels so we didn't go and so last year I remember thinking 00:28:54.514 --> 00:28:56.542 - in the winter time that 00:28:56.802 --> 00:29:04.279 - I didn't really feel like I actually experienced fall in the way that I usually get to because I didn't 00:29:04.279 --> 00:29:11.829 - see the lotus flowers. I didn't get to see, I didn't get to feel the excitement of finding a mud banana. 00:29:11.829 --> 00:29:19.234 - So as we're finding all of these different foraged foods, we're also making friends with all the other 00:29:19.234 --> 00:29:22.398 - beings that live there. The last few years, 00:29:22.594 --> 00:29:30.243 - we have often had super dry weather and fall is my favorite time for gathering mushrooms but when it's 00:29:30.243 --> 00:29:37.892 - really dry we don't get any mushrooms that's been pretty common for the last so times are changing the 00:29:37.892 --> 00:29:44.798 - weather's changing as you can tell so as somebody who's been foraging for a long time i have 00:29:44.930 --> 00:29:51.727 - In my head, I have a map that relates to the seasons, where the best things are and when. And it's not 00:29:51.727 --> 00:29:58.325 - just a map of things. It's not just things that I go collect. It's like trees that I have connected 00:29:58.325 --> 00:30:05.122 - with over years that provide me with food. And I always take people with me. It's not a solo activity, 00:30:05.122 --> 00:30:11.985 - typically. And so I always have friends with me. I always have students or kids that I've grown up with 00:30:11.985 --> 00:30:14.558 - or that have grown up with me with me. 00:30:15.202 --> 00:30:22.039 - And you start to notice, like the last few years, there's a berry called a spice bushberry. This is 00:30:22.039 --> 00:30:28.944 - the first year I've collected spice bushberries in probably seven, five to seven years because there 00:30:28.944 --> 00:30:33.662 - hasn't been enough water during the summer to help them grow. And so 00:30:33.890 --> 00:30:41.031 - It's like I become, I become, these are all, these all become friends of mine. All the beings that live 00:30:41.031 --> 00:30:48.446 - nearby become friends, the birds are friends, the plant beings are friends, all the things that I discover. 00:30:48.446 --> 00:30:55.381 - And then also, I feel like my best friends are the ones that I've been able to do these things with, 00:30:55.381 --> 00:31:02.110 - along with family members who help me. So part of the reason that I continue to forage is because 00:31:02.402 --> 00:31:09.943 - these places have all become my family and I have to visit them even if I I mean secretly I could actually 00:31:09.943 --> 00:31:17.272 - just go to the international store and buy mud bananas I don't tell my students that you know from Asia 00:31:17.272 --> 00:31:23.262 - because they're very popular lotus roots are something that are eaten lots of places 00:31:23.490 --> 00:31:30.581 - But I would actually prefer to go and visit my friends, the lotus and all the animals that are there 00:31:30.581 --> 00:31:37.742 - because they're my family now. I visited them over and over. So foraging is a way that connects me to 00:31:37.742 --> 00:31:44.973 - the land in a way that I haven't found anything else to. And it increases my family. So wherever I go, 00:31:44.973 --> 00:31:52.766 - even if I'm traveling outside of the US or other places in the US, I still see similar animals, similar trees. 00:31:52.898 --> 00:32:03.486 - similar plants and I recognize them and they're kin. They're kin to me. So it gives you a sense 00:32:03.486 --> 00:32:14.515 - of groundedness and extended family like what I haven't felt with anything else. I will always also 00:32:14.515 --> 00:32:20.030 - say that people who forage or go out and actually 00:32:20.130 --> 00:32:26.925 - use the things that the earth is providing are willing to protect it because it is their family. So, 00:32:26.925 --> 00:32:33.787 - if I can go off trail and collect some things, those people are going to protect that area very, very 00:32:33.787 --> 00:32:40.784 - vehemently because they love it and they get something from it all the time. So, that's another reason. 00:32:40.784 --> 00:32:45.022 - Some people question whether foraging is actually sustainable. 00:32:45.858 --> 00:32:51.874 - And I've learned different things, you know, you never take you never take all of something that used 00:32:51.874 --> 00:32:58.244 - to be a practice. And I have been very active in reintroducing species that have been wiped out, especially 00:32:58.244 --> 00:33:04.378 - in Indiana. We've had a lot of things totally wiped out. So when I go to different places, I'm actually 00:33:04.378 --> 00:33:06.206 - planting along with collecting 00:33:06.754 --> 00:33:13.601 - I was also taught always to give gratitude before collecting something to recognize that this plant 00:33:13.601 --> 00:33:20.517 - is no bigger or smaller than me and that it wants to live just as much as I do. So I'm going to give 00:33:20.517 --> 00:33:27.433 - thanks before I collect it. And then also what we found is that the more people learn about foraging 00:33:27.433 --> 00:33:35.102 - and get excited about it, the harder it is to find things. There's just more hunting going on and searching and 00:33:35.266 --> 00:33:43.861 - it really speaks to the need of more green space. We need more green spaces, more wild spaces. There 00:33:43.861 --> 00:33:52.625 - actually is not enough for everyone to collect wild foods with the land and how it is used and divided 00:33:52.625 --> 00:34:01.220 - up right now. So we really need more wild places. There's also all wild food has way more nutrition. 00:34:01.220 --> 00:34:03.262 - They're nutrient dense. 00:34:03.362 --> 00:34:11.740 - So anytime you can just throw something in your food, even just a little tiny bit, or take a bite of 00:34:11.740 --> 00:34:20.533 - something, I liken it to taking a multivitamin. It's chock full of vitamins, and there's lots of medicine 00:34:20.533 --> 00:34:28.414 - and things too, and it's just in our backyard. To me, that's like a side benefit. So I have... 00:34:29.474 --> 00:34:36.320 - I was, my mother is German, my father is American. I grew up in a tiny little village outside of, on 00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:43.574 - the border of France and Germany. It's a tiny little village. And when we were there, we would, my aunties 00:34:43.574 --> 00:34:50.691 - and uncles and cousins and everybody would go walking through the forest, because whenever you're bored, 00:34:50.691 --> 00:34:57.470 - you go walking through the forest. And we would collect mushrooms and collect all different plants. 00:34:57.794 --> 00:35:05.759 - And then we would come back and we would give them to people like my Tante Maria there on the right. 00:35:05.759 --> 00:35:13.802 - She couldn't go with us anymore. She couldn't do the hikes. She couldn't carry all the things. So she 00:35:13.802 --> 00:35:21.688 - was like the ultimate check. So we would bring back all the mushrooms. She would look at them, tell 00:35:21.688 --> 00:35:26.814 - us what we did or did not do correctly. She'd clean the recipes. 00:35:27.010 --> 00:35:34.561 - of how to cook up everything. And so that was a little bit about, that was kind of like how I grew up 00:35:34.561 --> 00:35:41.963 - there, understanding how everybody of all ages is involved in the process of food, of cooking food, 00:35:41.963 --> 00:35:49.662 - of promoting getting food. She probably also enjoyed a quiet house while we were out. That's definitely 00:35:50.946 --> 00:35:58.688 - And then also when I was older, I started to get curious about why when I was here in the US, because 00:35:58.688 --> 00:36:06.506 - I went to school south of Indianapolis, why no one knew any plants in their backyard. Like no one knew 00:36:06.506 --> 00:36:14.325 - anything. We had fruit trees growing up and we had gardens, but people just didn't know about what was 00:36:14.325 --> 00:36:19.486 - in their backyard. And so it kind of led me down a path to seek out 00:36:19.586 --> 00:36:27.314 - people from this land who know and understand plants and also culture and like why in some places do 00:36:27.314 --> 00:36:35.119 - they still know plants and why in other places do they not know about plants. And I love the example. 00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:43.001 - I realized how special it was to have my aunt as that person, the elder who would check over all these 00:36:43.001 --> 00:36:48.510 - plants because it included her in the activity. It was quite beautiful. 00:36:50.466 --> 00:36:58.781 - Um, let's see. So when I was in Germany, we learned about stinging nettle that also grows around here. 00:36:58.781 --> 00:37:05.886 - Just in case you didn't know, if you ever run into it, you will remember it. It stings. 00:37:07.202 --> 00:37:14.288 - I'll talk about plantain a little bit. That's a European plant, so when I was growing up, whenever you 00:37:14.288 --> 00:37:21.236 - were stung by a bee or a wasp or anything that's painful, you would go grab a piece of plantain, you 00:37:21.236 --> 00:37:28.184 - would chew it up, and you would stick it on your little sting. And so I just grew up doing that, and 00:37:28.184 --> 00:37:35.614 - I realized at some point, I was pretty old, that not everybody around here was doing that, and that I maybe 00:37:35.810 --> 00:37:42.496 - Kind of funny and and people were grossed out by it They were like you chew it up and then you stick 00:37:42.496 --> 00:37:49.116 - it on your on your body. That's disgusting And I remember when I was in my 30s I was beekeeping and 00:37:49.116 --> 00:37:56.266 - There was I was just every time I got stung by a bee which is something that happens when you're beekeeping 00:37:56.266 --> 00:38:02.886 - I would do this like all the time and it still would hurt. It's not like it just made it disappear, 00:38:02.886 --> 00:38:03.614 - but it did 00:38:03.810 --> 00:38:11.457 - There was a light sting there and I'd still get a welt of some kind, but then I'd move on. And there 00:38:11.457 --> 00:38:19.028 - was one time when I was beekeeping that it was at night, I was moving a hive, it was 95 degrees and 00:38:19.028 --> 00:38:20.542 - honey bees are very 00:38:21.058 --> 00:38:27.612 - angry when it's hot outside. They actually don't like it, just like me. Um, we were all kind of grumpy 00:38:27.612 --> 00:38:34.102 - and I got stung. Um, I had gloves on, I had full gear on, but they snuck their way into my gloves and 00:38:34.102 --> 00:38:40.465 - I got stung on my wrist, which is a very sensitive part of the body, um, five times. And normally I 00:38:40.465 --> 00:38:46.828 - would have been searching for the plantain, but I was so, I was just tired and hot and sweaty and I 00:38:46.828 --> 00:38:49.182 - just wanted to go home. So I didn't. 00:38:49.538 --> 00:38:55.953 - That was the first time in my life, in my 30s, when I did not put it on my sting. And by the time I 00:38:55.953 --> 00:39:02.432 - got home, my hand looked like someone had taken a latex glove and blown it up. My hand was blown up. 00:39:02.432 --> 00:39:08.975 - It was huge. It was like a balloon. And it was going down my wrist, and you could see the line. There 00:39:08.975 --> 00:39:15.326 - was a physical line. My hand was bright red, and it was just moving up my arm slowly. It was slow. 00:39:15.490 --> 00:39:21.934 - And it got to about here where my arm was just looked like a cartoon blown up so big. And I started 00:39:21.934 --> 00:39:28.377 - hallucinating and my husband said, okay, I think we're at a point where we either have to go to the 00:39:28.377 --> 00:39:34.563 - doctor or you need to take a Benadryl or something. And cause I could just guess it'll be fine. 00:39:34.563 --> 00:39:41.007 - It'll be fine. It's fine. And then I was like, not even there. So he just gave me the Benadryl take 00:39:41.007 --> 00:39:43.262 - this and everything ended up okay. 00:39:44.194 --> 00:39:51.362 - Since then, I've always used the plantain and I've never had a reaction again. And I learned that at 00:39:51.362 --> 00:39:58.460 - that time that I'm pretty positive I have an allergy to the venom of the honeybee, but I never knew 00:39:58.460 --> 00:40:05.770 - I had the allergy because I always use this plant. And this grows everywhere. It's in our backyard all 00:40:05.770 --> 00:40:12.938 - over the place. It's so easy. There's so many plants like that that are either medicine or food that 00:40:12.938 --> 00:40:13.790 - are helpers 00:40:14.178 --> 00:40:22.544 - and that are extremely efficient. Oh yeah, there's supposed to be another slide there somewhere, where'd 00:40:22.544 --> 00:40:30.034 - that go? Okay, whoops. That's where I would start. So I had, there's a missing slide somehow. 00:40:30.034 --> 00:40:37.923 - People ask, I would not start unless you're just super adventurous with searching for mud bananas. 00:40:37.923 --> 00:40:43.102 - I mean, if you want to, I'll take you out this Sunday, actually. 00:40:43.490 --> 00:40:49.539 - We're going out. We're going to the swamp. But it's very easy to just go into your own backyard and 00:40:49.539 --> 00:40:55.709 - learn what the plants are in your backyard. Just learn those plants so that we're not tourists of our 00:40:55.709 --> 00:41:02.000 - own backyard. A lot of the forage species that are super delicious are actually just growing in between 00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:08.291 - the plants that we plant or that we pull out of our garden that provide perennial food. There's a plant 00:41:08.291 --> 00:41:11.134 - called lamb's quarter that I love that is like 00:41:11.330 --> 00:41:18.361 - you can use it like spinach, but it just comes up on its own and I don't have to think about it and 00:41:18.361 --> 00:41:25.462 - it's edible and delicious and way more nutritious than spinach. And that just grows in our yards. So 00:41:25.462 --> 00:41:32.845 - it's very easy to just learn about, just start with your own backyard, take classes, and then eventually 00:41:32.845 --> 00:41:39.454 - maybe you'll be lucky enough to get a mud banana. So I'd like to offer time for any questions 00:41:40.450 --> 00:41:48.259 - in case anyone has one. I saw firsthand it was back there behind, either, right? I mean, Michael, 00:41:48.259 --> 00:41:56.307 - you go. Thank you for not only giving us this education, but also entertaining us. It was beautiful. 00:41:56.307 --> 00:42:04.833 - So I've seen a lot of, I saw a lot of plants, fruits. I've seen pawpaw, I've seen, but I've seen something 00:42:04.833 --> 00:42:09.534 - called, we call it as a kid, a hedge apple or sage orange. 00:42:10.114 --> 00:42:17.629 - And I imagine that not many people thought that you can eat acorns. So what's the process of preparing 00:42:17.629 --> 00:42:25.144 - these items to eat, to consume? Is there a special process or can you just pick them up and go to town 00:42:25.144 --> 00:42:32.658 - or not? Yeah, that's a great question. I wouldn't walk around just putting things in your mouth. Yeah, 00:42:32.658 --> 00:42:35.358 - not everything you can just grab and 00:42:35.522 --> 00:42:43.145 - eat and munch on there are processes to some of these things like acorns are a great example it's very 00:42:43.145 --> 00:42:50.546 - natural for someone to just kids go and they just open it and eat it and right away they're like oh 00:42:50.546 --> 00:42:55.134 - it's horrible because there's a process of having to you know 00:42:55.330 --> 00:43:01.401 - You have to soak them you have to dry them all you have to grind them. It's a long process It's very 00:43:01.401 --> 00:43:07.473 - easy, but you do have to do a process Some things like plantain I can just pick that and put that in 00:43:07.473 --> 00:43:13.664 - my salad So there are some things that you can pick right away There are some things that take a while 00:43:13.664 --> 00:43:19.736 - to process and I personally really like teachers and in-person Learning books are awesome, but there 00:43:19.736 --> 00:43:23.102 - are some false things written in books. They're not all 00:43:23.586 --> 00:43:30.634 - So I'd always check multiple sources and then also if you can find a class to learn how to do these 00:43:30.634 --> 00:43:38.175 - things. It's great. Hedge apples are fascinating because they are so funky. They look like brains. They're 00:43:38.175 --> 00:43:42.686 - like the green brains that are on the ground right now and they 00:43:42.818 --> 00:43:49.416 - I don't know that they're edible for humans. I see squirrels eating them, but we have used them for 00:43:49.416 --> 00:43:56.212 - glue. They have a white sap that is inside of them. So even if it doesn't have an edible use, it might 00:43:56.212 --> 00:44:02.876 - have a utilitarian use. And my acupuncturist in town, she takes them and puts them in the corners of 00:44:02.876 --> 00:44:09.342 - the office. And she says that it keeps bugs away. So yeah, hopefully that answered your question. 00:44:09.538 --> 00:44:18.325 - little. Thank you. I loved this presentation. When I was a kid, I used to go around and just eat everything. 00:44:18.325 --> 00:44:21.630 - I mean, I can't believe I'm alive. Yeah. 00:44:22.242 --> 00:44:27.860 - The poke berry, the poke berry. I know it's poisonous, but isn't it okay to eat one or two berries? 00:44:27.860 --> 00:44:33.758 - That's a great question. So poke berry is a plant that grows really tall and it has, you know it because 00:44:33.758 --> 00:44:39.375 - it has those maroon colored berries that squish super easy and kids squish them and you get the dye 00:44:39.375 --> 00:44:45.442 - all over your hands. And it's just natural to just want to like squish them and eat them. So interestingly, 00:44:45.442 --> 00:44:46.622 - it is just the seed. 00:44:46.722 --> 00:44:52.737 - the poisonous and you have to actually crunch down on them and open the seeds to get that poison inside 00:44:52.737 --> 00:44:58.810 - of you. So a lot of times people will call poison control because they see this dye on the side of their 00:44:58.810 --> 00:45:04.767 - toddler's mouth and they're like, Oh my God, my child ate this poisonous fruit. And the poison control 00:45:04.767 --> 00:45:10.666 - says, you know, it's, it's probably going to be okay because they didn't sit there and like munch it. 00:45:10.666 --> 00:45:15.582 - They've just got it down. Um, and actually it's, they're very medicinal. And so, um, 00:45:16.226 --> 00:45:23.570 - so there's times like if i have a cough that just will not go away like a something chronic that is 00:45:23.570 --> 00:45:30.988 - not leaving i will take a poke berry and eat it not the seeds i'll just take the the berry the flesh 00:45:30.988 --> 00:45:38.479 - of the berry and eat it maybe one a day cough goes away immediately yeah and the root is also very um 00:45:38.479 --> 00:45:42.078 - extremely medicinal so like you'd use it in like 00:45:42.402 --> 00:45:50.013 - for cancer, things like that. So it's actually an amazing plant and you don't need to be afraid of it. 00:45:50.013 --> 00:45:58.142 - Yeah, pokeberry, amazing. Yeah, thank you. Don't you have to be pretty careful when you're picking mushrooms? 00:45:58.562 --> 00:46:05.921 - Yeah, I would highly recommend learning mushrooms from someone. And I always say when you're first learning 00:46:05.921 --> 00:46:12.871 - mushrooms, aim for ones that do not have gills. So gills are, you know, if you flip a mushroom upside 00:46:12.871 --> 00:46:16.414 - down at like a portobello mushroom, those lines are 00:46:16.514 --> 00:46:23.139 - gills and they're very you you touch them and they fall apart and the majority of poisonous mushrooms 00:46:23.139 --> 00:46:29.894 - have gills and Are very bright colors, but there's also some delicious ones that are bright colors that 00:46:29.894 --> 00:46:36.583 - you can eat but It's pretty safe. If you flip a mushroom over and it doesn't have gills I do recommend 00:46:36.583 --> 00:46:43.403 - Having a teacher though for sure having a teacher because there are some mushrooms that could that could 00:46:43.403 --> 00:46:44.702 - really hurt you and 00:46:45.954 --> 00:46:53.619 - Mostly from, there's not too many things that will actually kill you. You'll just get diarrhea, 00:46:53.619 --> 00:47:01.602 - puke a lot. You know, we don't really want that either, but you know, as far as death is concerned, 00:47:01.602 --> 00:47:10.225 - it's not. Oh, we got a question. We got a question online. Nope. No questions online. I don't see anybody's 00:47:10.225 --> 00:47:11.742 - hand in the lions. 00:47:12.578 --> 00:47:19.126 - like just the flower or all of it because you know I mean I have tons of it in my yard I have a whole 00:47:19.126 --> 00:47:25.546 - garden so there's something called the blue zones if any of you have heard of the blue zone so blue 00:47:25.546 --> 00:47:32.030 - zones across the world are the places where people typically grow to be a hundred years old or older 00:47:32.162 --> 00:47:39.158 - um those are called the blue zones and what and they've studied these people what are they doing um 00:47:39.158 --> 00:47:46.154 - that helps them to grow healthy over a hundred years um and one of the things that they all have in 00:47:46.154 --> 00:47:53.220 - common is that they all gather regularly multiple times a week a plant that grows very close to them 00:47:53.220 --> 00:47:59.166 - in their backyards that is bitter that they either make a tea with or eat as a green 00:47:59.490 --> 00:48:05.953 - Dandelion would be ours, one of ours. We have a few, but dandelion greens are bitter. They're really 00:48:05.953 --> 00:48:12.480 - good for the liver. And so in the spring, you can very easily pick them and put them in a salad. When 00:48:12.480 --> 00:48:18.879 - I was growing up, we had some Greek friends. Greeks eat a lot of dandelions. And so we were always, 00:48:18.879 --> 00:48:25.662 - you know, eating dandelions because they were always having us go and pick them. You can eat the flowers. 00:48:25.662 --> 00:48:27.902 - I take the flowers and put them on 00:48:28.258 --> 00:48:34.841 - salads and stir fries. You can eat all parts of the dandelion. I highly recommend eating the dandelion 00:48:34.841 --> 00:48:41.679 - because of that bitterness, um, that's there and because, you know, it's been well studied, it's a totally 00:48:41.679 --> 00:48:48.070 - safe plant and they're beautiful. Um, they're part of the blue zone diet, which, you know, can't go 00:48:48.070 --> 00:48:53.694 - wrong with. So yeah, great. And we do have somebody online now, Martha, Martha, Martha, 00:48:55.426 --> 00:49:05.313 - And Martha, I tried to unmute you and I cannot. So you're going to have to unmute yourself. Right. Um, 00:49:05.313 --> 00:49:15.103 - in the 1960s, I lived in the Boston area and there were, I think they were Italian women because that 00:49:15.103 --> 00:49:22.878 - was in my area who gathered in the roundabout and picked dandelion greens, which 00:49:24.130 --> 00:49:40.288 - has made me think about what kinds of, how are we to be careful about what we eat and gather that it 00:49:40.288 --> 00:49:52.126 - isn't contaminated by automobiles? I eat poke greens in the spring. Yeah. 00:49:52.578 --> 00:50:03.288 - And how are we sure that they are safe? Yeah, that's a great question. Those rules have changed over 00:50:03.288 --> 00:50:14.315 - time. So they used to say only gather food a minimum of 100 feet away from any road. And then that made 00:50:14.315 --> 00:50:21.950 - urban gardening really hard. So they changed those rules. I don't know. 00:50:22.242 --> 00:50:29.443 - You know, it's hard to say because our environment is contaminated with a lot of things, especially 00:50:29.443 --> 00:50:36.860 - automobile exhaust travels over and that has heavy metals in it and it's settling in different places. 00:50:36.860 --> 00:50:44.421 - It's a good question. I don't eat. Indiana has some of the worst water in the country, so they recommend 00:50:44.421 --> 00:50:49.822 - really not eating anything from the local waters, which is a big deal. And 00:50:50.050 --> 00:50:57.013 - So I still gather from local waters, but I don't do it all the time. For me, it's still worth it to 00:50:57.013 --> 00:51:04.185 - go once a year and gather some food just so I can connect with the water and the plants and the action 00:51:04.185 --> 00:51:11.774 - of doing it. But it's not something that I would eat all the time. I recommend planting things in your yard. 00:51:12.002 --> 00:51:19.877 - I've moved a couple times to different locations in Bloomington and I take and collect the dandelion 00:51:19.877 --> 00:51:27.753 - seed heads and I blow them all over my yard, which most people do not do that. But I want dandelions 00:51:27.753 --> 00:51:30.014 - and I know my yard is clean. 00:51:30.178 --> 00:51:37.090 - and so as clean as I can you know have it and so that's one way for me to do it and I really recommend 00:51:37.090 --> 00:51:44.002 - we need more green spaces and we need more wild spaces but we also just need to learn about the plants 00:51:44.002 --> 00:51:50.713 - that grow naturally here which are often food or utilitarian so that we can have safe places um and 00:51:50.713 --> 00:51:54.270 - also fight for fight for cleaner cleaner land spaces 00:51:56.226 --> 00:52:03.328 - So technology has enabled us when we're outside, we can be on our phone, we can be listening to a podcast. 00:52:03.328 --> 00:52:10.297 - So as you spend time with the young people and you teach them, how do you try to get to them the message 00:52:10.297 --> 00:52:16.934 - of being present when they're out in nature and actually seeing and hearing and smelling instead of 00:52:16.934 --> 00:52:19.390 - being in their own electronic world? 00:52:20.418 --> 00:52:27.774 - Yeah, well, we have a rule that says no electronics, so that's one way. But also, 00:52:28.130 --> 00:52:35.407 - when I teach and the way that I was taught was by doing and so you you can't be on your phone if you're 00:52:35.407 --> 00:52:42.474 - in the swamp or if you're gathering the berries or if you're the one that's holding the container or 00:52:42.474 --> 00:52:49.961 - if you're cracking the the acorns you literally just can't be on your phone and also it is such a visceral 00:52:49.961 --> 00:52:56.958 - experience to be in the weather and you know tapping the maple trees or or boiling the sap together 00:52:57.218 --> 00:53:04.190 - they will choose the more visceral experiential activity, but sometimes getting them out the door is 00:53:04.190 --> 00:53:11.369 - the hard part. And that's more about gear and getting used to being uncomfortable and also knowing that 00:53:11.369 --> 00:53:18.686 - there's a treat at the end, which also the way that I was taught to teach about these things and that was 00:53:19.330 --> 00:53:26.819 - those lessons were given to me by Native Americans that storytelling is huge. So before we go gather 00:53:26.819 --> 00:53:34.307 - or go in some uncomfortable place, I'm going to tell an epic story of, you know, being in this place 00:53:34.307 --> 00:53:41.721 - so that they're like, whoa, can we do that? And so it's also about the stories that we tell and how 00:53:41.721 --> 00:53:44.094 - I'm framing it in my, you know, 00:53:44.386 --> 00:53:49.777 - Am I framing it that this is going to be really hard and we have to go out in the rain and it's we're 00:53:49.777 --> 00:53:55.221 - going to be cold. I'm going to skip all that and maybe I'll mention it and say let's prepare for that. 00:53:55.221 --> 00:54:00.823 - But also there's this gold at the end and that's what that's that's what I want to aim for. But typically 00:54:00.823 --> 00:54:06.267 - you know they they choose they choose those things even my IU students. They all put their phones away 00:54:06.267 --> 00:54:10.654 - and you know participate in the class and the doing in the gathering and stuff so. 00:54:14.626 --> 00:54:21.678 - This has been amazing. I'm going to move away from foraging just for a moment. I apologize, but I'm 00:54:21.678 --> 00:54:28.942 - really curious about your work with Rotary Club on an international level and playground building. And 00:54:28.942 --> 00:54:36.135 - if you could just tell us a little snapshot of what that was all about and how you engaged with that. 00:54:36.135 --> 00:54:38.462 - Yeah, so there's an organization 00:54:38.658 --> 00:54:46.070 - that was started by a professor at IU, who was the father of some kids that I worked with, John Raychek, 00:54:46.070 --> 00:54:53.623 - if anyone knows him. And he started an organization called Play360. And he created designs for playgrounds 00:54:53.623 --> 00:54:58.494 - that were based on using local materials that were often very cheap, 00:54:58.690 --> 00:55:05.835 - or free and that were specifically educational playgrounds. And so we would go, we would travel to other 00:55:05.835 --> 00:55:12.640 - places and work with the community, work with schools or orphanages on building playgrounds for the 00:55:12.640 --> 00:55:19.445 - purpose of education and talk about why play is important and also like engage the whole community. 00:55:19.445 --> 00:55:26.590 - So parents were coming out and everyone was coming out to build these playgrounds often made of tires or 00:55:26.754 --> 00:55:32.455 - fence posts, which are very common and using the most basic materials. So that was what brought me to 00:55:32.455 --> 00:55:38.269 - different places. And some of those places we worked with rotary clubs because they had volunteers that 00:55:38.269 --> 00:55:44.026 - were willing to come out and help build the playgrounds, whether it's painting the pole, you know, the 00:55:44.026 --> 00:55:49.783 - fence posts or whether it was digging holes or any part of it. So that's when I actually first learned 00:55:49.783 --> 00:55:54.814 - about what a rotary club was. I had no clue what a rotary club was, but then I met people 00:55:54.914 --> 00:56:03.892 - in Ethiopia specifically, was the first time I worked with rotary and they were so kind and wonderful. 00:56:03.892 --> 00:56:07.902 - It just opened my heart to rotary. Thank you. 00:56:13.410 --> 00:56:18.900 - Monique, that was fantastic. And in honor of your program, we'll be donating $100 to C Jam for the quarter. 00:56:18.900 --> 00:56:23.984 - And by the way, Gus, you might want to check your meals and have somebody taste test before you eat 00:56:23.984 --> 00:56:27.390 - because Connie, I'm a little worried, a little worried about that. 00:56:27.778 --> 00:56:34.922 - I want to thank everyone who's helped bring today's program to fruition. Marilyn Wood, thank you for 00:56:34.922 --> 00:56:42.136 - greeting. Dr. Winston, thank you for introducing the guests. Lynn, thank you for a wonderful programs 00:56:42.136 --> 00:56:49.492 - and introduction. Leslie, thank you for on Zoom host. Heidi, what a wonderful reflection, really. Sarah 00:56:49.492 --> 00:56:56.990 - for doing reporting, Michael for camera as always. Alon, Peggy for photography. Thank you for that. Jill, 00:56:57.122 --> 00:57:03.372 - Just stepping right in there. We love it and Tyler much smoother this week than last. So thank goodness 00:57:03.372 --> 00:57:09.382 - for that. Our next meeting will be here in the Georgian room on October 6th. Will have the district 00:57:09.382 --> 00:57:15.813 - governor Matt Millies. He's going to be our guest. Our club secretary Liz Irwin will be hosting a fireside 00:57:15.813 --> 00:57:21.823 - chat and we need questions from all of you for the fireside chat. So it's not just us coming to him 00:57:21.823 --> 00:57:26.270 - with questions. We want everybody to give questions so in the roundabout. 00:57:26.370 --> 00:57:32.207 - Or if you want to email questions directly to Liz, that is fine. But we'd like to get everybody. This 00:57:32.207 --> 00:57:38.215 - is a different format than we typically do when the district governor comes, but it's much more relaxed. 00:57:38.215 --> 00:57:43.937 - It should be interesting, but it won't be interesting if nobody brings questions forward. So please 00:57:43.937 --> 00:57:50.174 - help us out on that. And yeah, Tyler, you had a question? I just wanted to mention if anyone's curious about 00:57:50.370 --> 00:57:56.516 - Uh, the dandelions, but is a little squeamish about picking them. Sometimes I see dandelion greens, 00:57:56.516 --> 00:58:02.846 - uh, at fresh time. So you can win at fresh time at fresh time. Yeah. Or you can come next door. I have 00:58:02.846 --> 00:58:08.992 - a neighbor who's got a yard full. Help me out. Just saying, I won't say which neighbor. Um, anyway, 00:58:08.992 --> 00:58:14.462 - and with that, if you're able, please stand, we'll do the four way test. Oh, Liz, sorry. 00:58:21.346 --> 00:58:27.655 - So in the roundabout, there is a link where you could submit questions to help us out with the fireside 00:58:27.655 --> 00:58:33.720 - chat. And with that, of the things we think, say, or do, first, is it the truth? Second, is it fair 00:58:33.720 --> 00:58:39.908 - to all concerned? Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial 00:58:39.908 --> 00:58:42.334 - to all concerned? And fifth, is it fun?