tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3588422977745444343.post2422401061872786065..comments2023-04-02T01:56:05.613-07:00Comments on Yael Nehama: Bye, Bye BalmieVillage Wise Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16402125121347498327noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3588422977745444343.post-15935636436362449822010-05-31T17:57:27.788-07:002010-05-31T17:57:27.788-07:00Wow. I grieve with you about your herbs ... that ...Wow. I grieve with you about your herbs ... that is truly terrible. <br /><br />We live in the suburbs on a busy road, so I don't harvest what's in front for medicine, though I do regularly pluck roadside herbs and sniff them and rub them on my skin. Am I subjecting petro-chemicals to my body this way? I guess, but I'm so hungry to connect with these plants, and they perhaps may be hungry to connect with humans in this way. <br /><br />I would be heartbroken too and fiercely angry if someone decided to do me a 'favor' and weed-and-feed my plants!<br /><br />When I knew we were moving back here I requested to our renters to stop using chemicals in our yard. I think when we return this place to rental we'll just have it in the agreement: no chemicals! I guess we have to (politely, when we can) spell it out to people. These are my plants. I use them for food and medicine. I know you mean to help, but ... please leave them to me.<br /><br />As far as using these medicines oneself (if the spraying had never happened), I probably would have done so if it were me. I just feel that the intimate connection with a plant by nurturing it, living with it, can more than balance some of the exposure to other things, assuming that your road -- as you said -- isn't terribly busy (and folks aren't "helpfully" spraying them! sigh ...). <br /><br />We want to live sustainably, close to the earth, to be an expression of that wherever we are--especially in suburban and urban areas. So frustrating and discouraging when we face the harshness of poisonous presence in almost every direction ....Janehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02413301350052937388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3588422977745444343.post-81326001939447461642010-05-27T16:53:43.670-07:002010-05-27T16:53:43.670-07:00Oh that's terrible! I can fully sympathize bec...Oh that's terrible! I can fully sympathize because I just finished reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, which is basically about the harm of pesticides, insecticides, chemicals, and even herbicides, and writing an essay in favor of it. I hope you can somehow grow un-sprayed herbs!Katherinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09783512067759587136noreply@blogger.com