Quick Permaculture Ritual Project
This is how you dry wild foraged sumac when your wife throws away any organic matter she discovers on her kitchen counter.
Earlier this week I harvested some red leaves of wild staghorn sumac to dry for smoking. After reading and looking around some, I discovered it's been historically smoked by indigenous people to induce lucid dreaming. I've not been dreaming much, so I figured why not.
Today, the leaves were deemed by me to be "dry enough to smoke." I've smoked much wetter tobacco (though I no longer smoke), and much stickier... Other things. One problem: I had nothing to smoke it in. Well, actually I have an old cob pipe, but it doesn't smoke so we'll, as it's damn near worn out. So I decided to make another one.
I used a piece of elderberry dead wood for the stem, and a small section of thick plum branch I pruned off of our overgrown plum tree for the bowl.
Using a paddle bit, I started the bowl hole. Then a smaller bit for the stem hole. Then I finished it out with a large drill bit going deeper in the bowl to join the two holes. The smaller bit for the stem was selected because it fit just a hair smaller than the stem wood. That makes for a good snug fit.
The result is an exceptional pipe, if I may say so myself. This pipe feels better in hand than any I've smoked. Cob, meerschaum, briar, whatever. And it sits too! I always wanted a sitting pipe. The fit of the stem into the bowl is perfect, nice and snug. The bowl is curved perfectly to my hand. And the stem angle is exactly what I wanted. Very glad I took a little me time this morning before heading to bed.
The best part? It's all grown and harvested from my permaculture garden, except the wild harvested sumac. It ain't all about food, folks. It's also about the life you want to live, and I just used it to connect big time with this place on Earth where I'm at. That's a big step in establishing rituals for my new culture of this place. More on that note later.
Check my Instagram post for the video of me smoking it for the first time!
Dream Report:
Today was a good day for sleep. Our first badass day of fall rains, and it poured all day long. The house was cool, the bed was warm, and the pillows were soft.
I need a dream interpreter. And a dream journal. The memory of my dreams left me quickly after I woke up, but I remember knowing I was dreaming. I remember orcs and adventure, and that's all I know. I remember knowing it was a new dream. I usually have similar themes in my dreams, and sometimes I even have the same dream multiple times, but this one was nothing I've had before.
Dream work is enticing to me because you can learn a lot about yourself through your dreams. They're one way your psyche heals itself as you sleep, so you can learn what your subconscious is needing in it's life. Guess I need to start learning more about the process and how to interpret things. Anyone know where I can start looking into dreams? Preferably a podcast or video series, as books aren't super convenient at this time. :)
All action for the good of all.
Nate.
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Wow man, I had no idea about the lucid dreaming thing with sumac... hmmm will have to try that. Awesome pipe too and I love the @naturalmedicine LOTUS banner, first time I see it.
Thanks for posting 😁
Ha! that's funny! I had the same sort of thing happen to me although it was my husband who through out some seeds I was extracting from bog cranberries. I had made a slurry and left it to dry on a plate - almost dry then he grabbed it and washed the dish! Yikes!
Although I do appreciate when he does dishes just have to get those signs out for do not touch!
Lovely bit of crafting your doing there!
Yeah I need to use those signs. I have lost drying whatevers too!!! Great idee
Yeah, I've lost garlic, Ginger, tons of seeds from bird of paradise and honey locust, and gobs of stuff that could have been chicken feed lol
Oh man, @nateonsteemit, if you have any seeds from honey locust in the future I'd love to have some!
I've been trying to source some locally, but so far, no such luck.
I've lost lots of seeds and other plant materials due to my overly diligent husband as well.
I use signs too, not that they always work. ;-)
How many do you want? I can't hardly go anywhere without seeing some.
As many as you can spare. I'd like to create a living fence with them, which hopefully, up the road, I can take cuttings from as fodder for goats and rabbits.
I understand that they are also beloved by honeybees, and I am hoping to set up a few hives, so that's part of my plan as well.
Nice job on the pipe! Fortunately I am the only one apt to both save and clean, so, knock wood, not lost anything yet...
Lucky! Lol
That top photo tho... is there a triple facepalm gif?!? Lemme check...
The pipe sees super rough in a good, rustic way! Never smoked a pipe myself... Doesn't it burn the wood when you smoke it? And the sumac leaves, that's something I never heard about! Here just the "seedheads" are used as condiment. Learned much from this post!
On your dream vector, last friday I dreamed about parasol mushrooms and even though I know they require quite a bit of rain and we've had the driest october in history, I still decided to go on a foraging trip with the family. Wife might be mad about showing her photos in advance but...
BOOM! Dreamworks :D
It's mushroom season! I'm headed out to look tomorrow. Lots of rain the last couple days, so I'm imagining the woods will be thick with fungal treats!
I hope my Dreamwork doesn't work that well though. I just dreamt, in an accidental four hour death nap, about Jurassic Park on a small scale at a massive McDonald's playground. Oh God.
I was somehow part of the development team, and there were drones and RC cars, and all kinds of badass tech. And dogs. And someone, the drone pilot, was absolutely fucking bonkers and made all the animals extra aggressive and we all got massacred. After all the dogs and the drones. Omfg, idk what happened.
I've actually had that dream before, but never like that. Crazy vivid, and I actually usually don't make it through all the gory scenes like that in my dreams. Like, when shit gets that hairy, I usually wake up or reach the end of a dream. This is going to be interesting, and I didn't even smoke today! That's still going on the smoke from over 24 hours ago, and it was only a small smoke! Back to bed!
Yeah, it burns a little bit, but that's part of the character of the pipe. This bowl, if I'd bought it this size from a professional, would actually be much thinner walled with a bigger hole bored out. It's really really hefty. It'll take a while, as most pipes are seasoned before they're carved out. I imagine this one will crack as the wood dries, but it's 100% made of this place, and there's about a meter of usable branch left for more pipes.
I was a bit late learning about the usefulness of the seedheads as good, but I did harvest one and spread some seeds around the front yard. :) I think they can be ground and used for flour too, and they supposedly make an awesome addition to lemonade.
Oh wow crazy dream!!! I'm gonna have to try some of this sumac now 😁!
And look into this flour you speak of too
ps: I hope the dream stays in dreamland
So much dream magic can be intensified and directed through our plant-spirit and funghi-spirit helpers. Awesome. What did it TASTE like?? I'm curious. :)
And I have ALWAYS wondered about how a cob pipe is made and now I KNOW! :)
Lovely to see your earthy self back in here. x
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The taste was awesome! Really smooth and sweet and light. Not spicy like tobacco. Though it did hurt my lungs a tiny bit, so a dry smoke that's maybe a bit harsh. I'll be pursuing some mullein to help do some healing, as mullein smoke is supposed to be very good for the lungs. Cool to be already concocting herbal blends :) now I'll just need to learn a traditional way of curing tobacco. It's a mild hallucinogen when cured properly ;)