The Gift Economy

All of this Whole Food bending-over-to-GMO talk inspired me on this,

as well as the general path our lives have been traveling on this past year.

My mission has always aimed towards promoting self-reliance.

5 years ago when I was drawing "ideas" the food forest in Minnesota,

I was NO WHERE NEAR the concepts that Ive been blessed to come across

in the past few months. Things are getting better SO much faster:

-Ideas (and REALLY good ideas) are spreading at a faster rate than EVER,

-We have access to the best possible foods and resources to free ourselves,

-AND we have the opportunities to make real connections with

like-minded souls from across the planet. Some will manifest physically,

and others will stay on the computer and possibly have an even larger

effect on our overall lifestyles...who knows? Its all opening up.

Im envisioning a life where most (very likely ALL) of the things we need

will be of our own, and our community's (local and online) love and giving.

Picture yourself in your ideal paradise garden - it can be anywhere

on the planet that you desire...tropical, pine forest, your heart's desire...

Food and life flourishing EVERYWHERE. Birds and insects buzzing about.

You see your kids filling up their drinking jugs with crystal clear water

from the storage tanks you happily bought in 2011...it still rains regularly

again and youve never gone under 50%, but you're always so thankful its there.

All your food comes from your space or the nearby areas...friends still

mail things to your home and you do the same.

You received 50lbs of almonds last fall from your friend in California

and still have well over 60% left.

She uses your dried persimmon fruit-rolls to reward her kids for

scooping up goat poop for the compost pile.

Its the smell of pee that bothers them more than anything.

No more grocery stores? This is happening for people NOW.

They will go to farmer's markets and buy insanely nutritious

foods DIRECTLY from the person that fostered it's growth.

They will collect water from SPRINGS,

They will become a part of the ecosystem again and wild-forage.

They will grow so much that when they ferment, can, and put the

rest in the root cellar, they will have enough food for the next 5 months.

This is happening now. The gift economy...like bartering, but with more love :)

Produce and forage as much as you can (while still ENJOYING IT),

get whatever else from farmer's markets, good online products,

and bartering with love. Your heart should be smiling when you do it. :D

Do we REALLY need to go to grocery stores anymore on a regular basis?

Is the common grocery store becoming obsolete

in this new economy and consciousness?

More and more people are floating away from ANY grocery store and buying

everything they need either online or at farmer's markets.

How...wonderful??? I think so.

When will the paradigm shift away from this mentality?

I get emails from this group...tell me what you think -

I feel that this is just a waste of money?

All that cash for a stupid ad?

As if the monsters in power even care or read the paper...

maybe im being a little too negative,

but Im just thinking if there is another way instead of giving

THAT MUCH MONEY to a NEWSPAPER (SPREADER OF LIES)

instead of using it to plant maybe 10,000 edible trees and shrubs???

Dear Anthony,

Amazing - thousands of us chipped in to get our Save Our Forests ads in the papers.

We raised £20,000 in 6 hours!

Now we've just heard that on Wednesday there's going to be a vote in

Parliament on the government's plans to sell our forests.

If we can raise £40,000 we can get huge Save Our Forests ads in national newspapers on the day of the vote. Imagine what MPs will think when over breakfast they see our huge people-powered Save Our Forests ads! They'll know we won't stand for their plans to flog our forests.

Can you donate now? You can make a secure donation here:

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests-ads

Thanks for getting involved,

David, Hannah, Johnny and the 38 Degrees team

***IS THIS A WASTE OF MONEY? DOES THIS ALL SEEM NAIVE??***

WHY NOT RAISE MONEY TO REFOREST A PLACE WITH A FOOD FOREST?

INSTEAD OF BUYING A STUPID AD IN THE PAPER???

Here's a video talking about roughly the same thing-

Michael Reynolds is a genius.

Permaculture in the Wintertime

Permaculture and deep winter weather seem to be in conflict,

but I have to say there are so many benefits to wispy cold air of these months.

Besides the free time to take a few trips to the tropics,

winter is a prime time to take advantage of the changes in your landscape.

Its the easiest time to clear brush. No poison ivy, no mosquitoes.

Most of my brush clearing time is in the very early spring.

Im able to see everything much better and its far easier to walk around.

In the greenhouse (which is unheated) I laid dozens and dozens

of logs inoculated with edible mushrooms. When the temp drops under

freezing, the mycelia will slow down, but in the greenhouse on sunny days,

the temps will greatly exceed this, so the mushrooms eat their way through

the wood MUCH faster...about 5 months more than outside.

This really isnt an advantage of winter, but a tip to keep your shroom

production way up and will speed down the decomposition for your soil

under your trees...trees LOVE LOVE LOVE wood broken down by shrooms.

Winter is a good time to stay inside and LEARN more.

Spring and summer are the times to act, but the cold seasons are

the times to delve deep into research so your arsenal is well equipped

when the temps rise again. In the summer, I RARELY read. There is just

too much to do outside and by the time I come in at night, Im tired and

just want to relax and go to sleep. But the darker winter months make for

great reading and video time...take advantage and learn as much as you can!

If you plant certain varieties like winterberries, hawthorn, seaberries,

and others, you can continue to harvest throughout the season.

Think about this...most of these varieties will be known as wildlife friendly,

which means that they will stay on for extended periods of time.

Anyways...dont let the cold get you down.

There are plenty of good opportunities to grow YOURSELF

in these months...take advantage my cold weather brethren!!

A

Mitja is the MAN!

Like an angel from Heaven, Mitja comes to the rescue and

fixes the header...my friend - I cant express my gratitude enough.

I was in the garden all afternoon and this was constantly on my mind.

Let me know how I can repay you! Thank you endlessly....

A huge weight was lifted off of me just now by you.

THANK YOU FRIEND!!!!

How to restore the header?

Someone emailed me earlier saying that the pull down

menu was messed up, so I decided to delete the facebook

option and instead deleted the whole pulldown menu.

That was the thing that made it look really legit, and now

I have no idea if I can restore it. Any ideas???

Im searching google now to see what I can do..:(

Honestly I dont fully care, Ive become less and less attached.

Let me know if anything can help - thx everyone :)

Matt and Angela plants our Superfood Seed Collection!

I was smiling from ear to ear while watching this...

its such a pleasure to see a young, happy couple starting their own

paradise, and to know that some of our seeds are a part of that wonderful

space gets me right in my heart...to think that these seeds will multiply

by the tens of thousands in the next few years and provide so much

nutrition and beauty for them and their loved ones is just too cool.

Thank you so much you two...Im so happy to see everything evolving so

quickly and cant wait to see how everything looks when we come down to

visit in person! Biggest hugs ever...tons of love and thanks for the

dedication to Selim - he was probably my closest male friend this past

year and not having him around really left an empty spot in our hearts.

Knowing that his memory lives on in these Spaces of Love gives

me such a good feeling inside, and Im honored to be friends with you both.

Thanks for the care package too...Alexandra is HOOKED on the chlorella

tablets and I personally thanked Steve Adler for making such amazing almond

butters just last night...a funny synchronicity to learn that he made it!

Anyways, thanks again and know that youre loved by all of us here and

let myself and the princess warriors of blackbird know if we can ever do

anything to help your space and your vision of Paradise on Earth :)

Biggest hugs ever :)

Anthony

Naked Body Butter available now :)

Alexandra has come up with an amazing body butter

that she actually makes herself...

because we all love how it turned out, we decided that it would

be a great product to offer to everyone.

She makes it herself at home in small batches,

and she was very adamant about not skimping on ingredients.

Being a guy, Im not as tuned into the body butter scene lol,

but after using this, I have found it to be really nice while

being in the sun and I use it on my lips and hands as well.

She cuts open the vanilla beans herself and gently melts all the butters

until everything marries perfectly - once you simply SMELL this product

youll know that there is something special about it.

We DEEPLY have to realize that what we put on our skin gets absorbed

into our bodies...LOOK AT THE LABELS!!!

Ive found veeeerrrry few products that dont have some weird additive in it,

and most manufacturers use water and fillers to stretch out their product.

Check out ingredients and youll see she made no compromises.

Full lipid goodness...your body will thank you.

Awesome stuff...check out the rest of the details HERE.

And again, we are using the profits to plant food forests and spread

the word about replanting paradise...this is catching on like wildfire.

Wild Food Foraging...FOR OUR CHICKENS!

Take your foraging to a new level...it just doesnt have to be for you!

This was a breakthrough for me...we are putting in so many wild nutrients

into our hens and they are just soooo happy...the yolks are getting better

and better everyday. My mind is racing with possibilities!

Prickly pears into chickens into eggs into us :)

And they LOVE the seeds...which we cant eat. So happy about this.

So think about it...grass clippings, leaves, stuff that we might not want.

I plan on taking this to new levels - who knows where it can lead?

And the spines havent been a problem as far as I can tell,

when I put them in the coop I step on them so they get right to the good juices.

So think about this if you are teaming up with animals,

your options can be greatly expanded and their nutrition will surpass

any junk sold in a bag at the grocery store.

Don't Worry...Olive

A big thanks to my buddy Noah to inspire me to jump up that wall!

Daniel Vitalis - Building up the Jing Energy

You thought camping was a bit rustic?

Without a doubt, this man has always come with integrity

and pushed the limits. Accepting no boundaries despite

the CONSTANT attacks for expanding people's horizons,

Daniel has really brought this community to the next level.

The information he has shared has literally changed my life,

and the products that he offers are some of the most potent

and effective I have ever tried...

I dont think he would release sub-par ANYTHING.

Think about this for a second - he gets a huge following in the

Raw Vegan community, and without blinking an eye he begins

to branch out and SPEAK OUT (RARE) about his new omnivorous path.

How many people would have just kept quiet in order to keep fans?

How many people would be scared of losing sales?

He left that worry to others and blazed new trails in our

community and I KNOW we are all the better for it.

Pine Pollen, SPRINGWATER, COLOSTRUM, CHAGA...SERIOUSLY -

who among us even had these words in our vocabulary before?

Keep up the good work Daniel! Thank you for all you do brother!

Check out the cutting edge offerings HERE and continue to

check out his great vids both HERE and HERE.

Here is a great vid with Arthur Haines

This book WILL change your life if youre ready for it.

Check it out HERE.

People will ALWAYS talk shit when you are pushing the limits -

it comes with the territory - yet the man continues to share his

knowledge and experience, and for that...huge props.

Cold weather makes one tough - NO DOUBT.

I cant wait to read this book!

Wild Water in Ojai California...

The vid says it all -

HERE is the link from Findaspring.com

Harvesting our own water, fruit, nuts, greens...

growing as much of our own as possible...

the self-reliance is getting closer.

If only we could power the car up to the spring with our own energy!

EdibleGoddess.com

(blue manna icy! WHAAAT?????)

Im putting a big shout-out to Bethanne Wanamaker

of the great site EdibleGoddess.com.

I met Bethanne at the Longevity Now Conference a few months

ago and her radiating kindness was felt by everyone.

She has a wonderful Ebook out titled Superfood Beauty Elixirs -

HERE are three free recipes from that book.

She is a wonderful soul and if you can support her mission in any way,

myself and everyone at Blackbird would really appreciate it.

Her site has so many goodies on it -

check out this insanely good pumpkin pie recipe that we made a couple

weeks ago for the holidays! TOTAL FRIGGIN HIT!

We love you B!!! Keep up the lightwork!!!

-Anthony and the Ladies of Blackbird Naturals

Hardcore Chickens

These little feathered dinosaurs roam our desert food forest...

The black one above ate a fatty scorpion the other day as we

were building our vegetable patch.

I lifted up a large rock and saw so many little critters underneath it.

I grabbed one of the girls and brought her over to the scene and pointed

at the bugs for her...little did I know that I was also pointing at a

really plump bark scorpion that was overwintering under that rock.

She ignored the little bugs and started attacking the scorpion.

Two hard pecks - one to the tail and one to the back put the scorpion

out but it was still wriggling in her mouth as she was walking away from

the scene...I was so worried that it was going to sting her.

Then she just tilted her head back and swallowed the whole thing.

She is still alive and very well...I swear they are feathered dinosaurs.

So....scorpion eats little critters.

Chicken eats scorpion.

Chicken lays eggs from nutrients of said scorpion.

We eat those wonderfully golden eggs.

We crumble up the shells and feed them back to the chickens.

Chicken poops out scorpion and we use it on our gardens for nutrients.

Loving it all...

More on this wonderful veggie patch soon!!!!

From Alexandra

From Alexandra...more to come - this is from the Replant Paradise community on Ning.

On Christmas Day we began the construction of our fenced in veggie garden!

We have had some frosts in AZ lately, so we are VERY excited to begin planting the garden this weekend.

We hope to be completely self-sufficient in 1-2 months.

Because of the recent death in our family, what was once a passion is now also very much a NECESSITY. Thank goodness for our beautiful chickens! They have been loving their time free-ranging every day in the garden, foraging for delicious bugs!

So eggs, veg, and fruit are taken care of now! Wow - the grocery bills are shrinking BIG TIME!!

Anthony, Andrea and I will film the planting of the garden. It is 16 feet by 16 feet....almost everyone can fit this into their backyard...we are also planting a few containers on the back patio. These are great for anyone who lives in an apartment.

We love it because this way we can plant up on our patios where critters wont find our delicious treats :)

Last but not least - We have been doing some major foraging lately! We found some grapefruit trees behind my bank the other day so we went back with our picker and gathered a few boxes worth. We have been juicing and mixing with our Ormus Greens and Vitamineral Green....yummm

AND Olives!!

Buckets of fresh olives from trees around the neighborhood!

We made a simple brine and placed them in the corner to ferment for a month or two...our last batch is delicious!

Yay for free food!!!

Much love to all of you here...we will pick a recipient for seeds tonight so stay posted!

XOXO

My apologies...

Been away far too long, and Ill explain why later on.

A sudden death in the family has rocked everyone here at Blackbird

and we are trying to make sense of the situation we now find ourselves in.

But above all...more clarity and purpose has shown through.

Growing our food is no longer a hobby but a necessity.

Here is a message from Max, a brother who has been inspired

to take Replanting Paradise into his own hands...

"I just want to let you know that you are living the vision which I am manifesting.

I realized from from the little teaser video that a lot of what drove you

in this direction is the same as what is driving me. I too have decided to fold on the

deck which is based on fear and frustration with the government, and to come at this from love.

I'm going to study permaculture and live on an eco village for 5 months in less than a month,

and I am really excited to come back with a wealth of knowledge to create an extension to this paradise.

How did you come into the knowledge yourself?

How did you decide where to get land, how to structure everything, etc?

It seems like you've been planning things out and doing so much yourself.

I'm really in awe and inspired.

I know we have lots of mutual friends,

and I look forward to the day we get to chat in person.

All blessing and love to you."

And 6 months later....

"Anthony! I wanted to give you an update.

I have a little over a month left of the permaculture course now.

The past few days have climaxed into this magnitude of realization of how much I learned...

the whole coming full circle thing...and it happened with two day intensives about food forests.

We watched the Geoff Lawton videos, and my mind has been blown out to new

proportions of what is possible. THEN I revisited your videos and realized how much you know.

I'm really amazed by everything that you're doing...

you've been touched by the light of knowledge and life.

When I get back to NY in mid-February, it looks likely that I will be able to take over a small suburban house property and start experimenting with a mini-scale food forest.

(I need time to figure out where I want to buy land for a bigger one,

but I want to get started right now!!).

Seeing what you're doing -even in colder weather-

gives me the strength of mind to know I can do it.

Thank you. Again & again."

Here is the reason why we must always aim for paradise.

No matter what happens in LIFE, our utmost goal on

the planet should be Paradise Restoration.