Medicine Art for Fall Seeds

I'm designing a Medicine Art practice that I can teach and share, that will open the doors of creative healing to anyone, any age, any ability. The goal for my practice is to heal our connection to the earth and Creation. 

We are all (de facto) connected because we are a part of nature, but we have built walls to keep nature separate, because our culture is human focused; we've been taught that we are more important than other parts of nature, and that's a hard lesson to unlearn. And when we begin to care more about nature it's easy to become overwhelmed, and then we need more walls to protect ourselves from feelings of anger and guilt.

Each Medicine Art step is a normal action that we do all the time. For example, let's say today you plan to make vegetable soup: You run out to the store or your garden to collect veggies, you prepare them by washing and cutting, you create the soup, and you share it with your family, perhaps giving thanks. With a little extra effort, the soup-making can become an intentionally healing process. When we do each action as a meditation, a prayer, everything we do in life can be a way to heal.

Today I want to share some Medicine Art practices and projects with fall seeds.

Agenda:

1. Collect seeds as a sacred activity
2. Observe seeds (with kids)

3. Dry seeds with care

4. Make seed packets

5. Bird seed Thanksgiving

1. Collect seeds as a sacred activity:

I've been collecting seeds to save for next year's planting, and to eat or share. Medicine Art collecting has four parts - intentions, listing, exploring, and gathering. 

My intention this weeks is to "gather and preserve fall seeds in a sustainable and loving way, that honors the embryo of the plant in each seed, and the birds and animals that find sustenance with seeds; and use my creative fire to forge a stronger connection between me and the seed spirits."

I made a list of the seeds I want to save: Nasturtiums (from a very prolific and wonderful plant my daughter gave me), beans, pumpkins, sunflower seeds, and any other seeds that birds eat. These are my Medicine Art supplies this week.

Next comes exploring: When I set an intention to "explore for seeds," my walks take on a new kind of focus: They become a meditation - I move slower and look at every plant with new eyes (walk like a little kid).

That leads to sustainable gathering: I packed some envelopes and a pen in my basket and in my fanny pack, so I'm prepared. Since I'm not wild-harvesting my seeds, I don't have to worry about taking too many. My garden is all for me, right? But I'll try not to be a greedy human. As I gather my seeds, I always try to leave some pods on the vine or stalk for the birds, squirrels, and the insects. (The other part of sustainability is to remind myself of the economics; collecting my own seeds saves me money, and lets me always grow my favorite varieties.)

2. Observe seeds (with kids):

Once you have gathered your seeds, you need to take a crucial pause: Sit down, take a breath, and look at the seeds, to really notice them, and recognize them as being amazing and significant.

It's always helpful to look through the eyes of a young person. my young person is only two, so our observation is very tactile.  Some ideas:

• Chop the top off a pumpkin and pull out the seeds.
• Open a bean to find the seeds.
• Examine the head of a dried sunflower, and pick some seeds out - open some seeds to see the kernel inside.
• Play with already dried seeds and beans (stick them into play dough to make a pattern)
• Put some seeds into a clear plastic jar to make a shaker.
• Fill a bin with sunflower or bird seed to play in (best done outside).

Don't try to do all of these on one day!

3. Dry seeds with care:

I use the French cooking phrase mis en place (pronounced ​mi zɑ̃ ˈplas) to describe the Medicine Art way to prepare your collected supplies; it means "putting in place," and refers to the setup, chopping, and arranging you do before cooking, and also a state of mind of being prepared: Do all your preparation, including preparing yourself, before moving on to creation.

I have collected some bean and nasturtium seeds to plant next year. These seeds need to be lovingly and properly dried so they will grow next year. Each seed contains an embryonic plant; the outer seed coats are designed to keep the embryonic plant and its food source well protected, but they can crack if the seeds are kept too dry, or rot if kept too damp. The trick is to dry them well, but not completely. For home gardeners, it’s an educated best guess.

A note about beans: It's best to let beans and peas dry on the vine, then collect them when they are starting to turn brown, with the seeds rattling inside. However, since this is a rainy season here, I generally try to collect the biggest beans about now and let them dry indoors.

Supplies: Shallow cardboard box, wax paper or screening, collected seeds, sticky notes, pen.

 

Mis en place for drying seeds: 

1. Prepare yourself: Take a few minutes to gather your supplies and clear a drying area in a cool, dark room; in my case, a counter in my studio. Then set an intention to honor each seed by giving it what it needs to survive. (If you create a love connection between you and the seeds, its got to help them grow better next year!)
2. Choose a small cardboard box for each type of seed, and put a layer of wax paper or screen mesh in the bottom (not paper towel or anything they may stick to).
3. Spread out the seeds so they don't touch - leave beans in the pods until completely dry. (If your seeds are wet, such as from a tomato, you will need to ferment them first - I have't tried that.)
4. Label and date each box, and leave to rest for a week to ten days before gently stirring them with your finger. (If you are like me, you will need to set reminders on your phone or calendar.)
5. Let them dry for another two to three weeks. At this point, they should be dry enough to put into storage for the winter.
6. Pack and label seeds with name, variety and the date you collected them. (Use saved seed within one year.)
7. Store in glass containers, tightly sealed, in the refrigerator.

5. Make seed packets:

Seeds are Falling - acrylic, 2017

The supplies (seeds) are all ready now to use, but in this case we won't use them until next spring. That doesn't mean some Medicine Art creativity can't take place.

At the start of the week, I set an intention to "use my creative fire to forge a stronger connection between me and the seed spirits." 

When I did some searches online I found some amazing work that artists have done with seeds, including Seeds of Hope by Michele Théberge (which was an interactive art installation in support of immigrants), Sunflower Seeds by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (porcelain seeds that represent the Chinese people), and Botanical Boxes by Shilin.

I decided to honor my seeds with hand painted seed packets, which I will give to friends and family. 

6. Bird seed Thanksgiving:

The culmination of a Medicine Art project is to give thanks, and share. Today, as I wrap up this week of fall seed activities, I feel a great gratitude for the plants that produced these amazing seeds, that will provide food and beauty for me and my family next year. 

My grandson and I hung this bird feeder near our back porch and filled it with seeds from a sunflower we grew.

I also hung some stalks of mullein from our clothesline pole.