Order this issue

Issue #1: April 2004, Take the Leap

Covering It:
Take the Leap (read excerpt)

Whole Foods:
Risotto: It's all in the Wrist   Sweeping Solutions   Bring on the Bulgur   Can I Help, Mom?   Eat your Asparagus   The First Ingredient  

Treading Lightly:
Something About Seeds   Natural Garden Solutions   Confessions of a Novice Composter   Natural Products from Gardens Alive

From the Ground Up:
Save your Back: Mulch   Smaller Lawns for a Healtheir Planet

Everything Herbal:
Nettle: the Spring Sting   RavenCroft Garden

A Balance of Health:
Head it Off   Spring Cleaning w/ Dr. Ramaley

With Our Hands:
Welcome to Weaving   Weaving 101

Looking Within:
The Fool Within   The Rhythm of Spring

This Spinning Earth:
Creating a Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary

Backing Out:
I'm a Hypocrite   Just One Thing

Covering It:
Take the Leap, by Kylie Loynd
We all have times when our brains shut down, and new information is too overwhelming to even contemplate. Life is busy and there is only so much one person can do, right? I say, tell me the real deal, without the drama. Offer me some real alternatives, and give me some room. It doesn't take much for change to sprout wings-one small choice leads to another and things lighten up along the way…

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Whole Foods:
Can I Help, Mom? by Kylie Loynd
I've figured out how to buy healthy food, and I've collected a list of recipes that aren't too complicated and taste fairly good, but it doesn't take much to rattle my cage in the kitchen. By 5:30 p.m. my patience is not at its freshest, and those four sweet words sound like a death knell… "Can I help, Mom?" …

The First Ingredient,  by Alexa Robbins
What is it that makes food good? As with all things, training and experience can help a novice cook, but that is just the foundation. Sometimes the best food is not the most exotic dish, but the one made with kind hands…

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Treading Lightly:
Confessions of a Novice Composter, by Kylie Loynd
"Where is your compost?" our more ecologically-minded friends would ask, scraps in hand, ready to do the right thing. "I haven't set anything up yet," I'd mumble in reply, feeling embarrassed and trapped by their surprise. Have you ever had a reputation that you didn't deserve, a crown placed on your head prematurely? …

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From the Ground Up:
Smaller Lawns for a Healtheir Planet, by Marian Wineman
I knew the neighbors would hate us. Within weeks of moving into our Seattle home, my husband and I donned yellow rain slickers and battled bitter January rains to rototill our picture perfect front lawn into a working wildlife habitat. We then eroded a 20 cubic yard mountain of steaming compost and manure by shoveling it over our entire front yard…

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Everything Herbal:
Nettle: the Spring Sting, by Kylie Loynd
They know it's spring with that first nettle sting. At RavenCroft Gardens, EagleSong and Sally King say they feel their slow winter energy begin to stir when nettle announces the shift of season with its signature "Wake Up!" call. Nettle brings a quickening, both in body as well as in soil.… (read the entire article)

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RavenCroft Garden, by Kylie Loynd
As I look around the working kitchen and hear voices lift in enthusiasm, it hits me-it is not knowledge of traditional ways that sets the them apart, it's vitality. The whole place exudes health and well-being, right down to their eleven-year old cat, who leaps into Sally's lap with a grace that my own aging cat only dreams of now… (read the entire article)

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A Balance of Health:
Spring Cleaning, based on a conversation with Dr. David Ramaley
We all need to get outside, especially in spring. Like all animals, we react to light. The pineal gland in humans is the equivalent of the gland that tells birds when to fly south. Though ours isn't as attuned as a bird's gland, it still reacts to light and day... (read the complete article)

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With Our Hands:
Welcome to Weaving, by Khris Fruits
Living in southern California at the time-where distance is time-the closest shop that had the yarn I would need was two to three hours away. Choosing color and texture over the phone? Clearly I needed to hand pick my yarn. With another list of supplies, I was in the car, driving to Casa de las Tejedoras (House of the Weavers)…

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Life Out Loud:
Daycare Diaries, by Marie J. Nelson
I lifted the little girl onto the changing table, figuring it was just a case of diaper failure. Then I saw that it was all over her shoes. Horrified, I froze as my mind grasped what it meant. Slowly, I turned to look at the other five children happily playing in a room that I now knew was now a minefield. "Everybody freeze!" I shouted with more panic in my voice than intended…

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Who's Bringing Home the Bacon Now? by Kylie Loynd
He looked at me, I looked at him, both of us weary from a long day. The checkbook was open, bills scattered across the kitchen table. Coated in concrete dust and drywall mud, he sat down and we squared off.

The division of labor along traditional gender lines was never part of our plan…

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Looking Within:
The Fool Within, by Alexa Robbins
In my work I utilize tarot cards to unlock the unconscious mind. The Fool, numbered zero, illustrates endings or new beginnings. I sense a new collective awakening of Fool energy. We are all getting ready to put that pack on our backs and take a leap into some part of the self that wants to be expressed… Search your heart. What is it you'd like to be a Fool about? …

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The Rhythm of Spring, by Lee Revere
I adore summer, but in time it feels parched and stagnant. Fall is lovely, crisp and homey, though it forebodes a death of sorts. Winter is a time of deep reflection, yet those dark days stretch long. But spring, does it have a down side? Yes. I am tested by the cold, wind and rain, and above all, by my impatience. Can I remain optimistic, even when torrential downpours ruin my plans? …

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Creating a Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary, by Lee Revere
"I stood staring at a certificate posted next to the front door of my sister-in-law's house. It read, "Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary." My husband's family lives in an urban Seattle neighborhood. We live an hour north, in rural Snohomish County. Chagrined, I was determined to learn how to create a sanctuary of our own…"

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Backing Out:
I'm a Hypocrite, by Lee Revere
I've always had a fantasy that at some point we'd crawl back into those landfills, pull things out and reuse and recycle all the stuff that we really needed. Sure, it would be an ugly, Mad Max sort of place, but we'd survive…

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