"Caring for the Earth as we care for ourselves"
Relearning the Old Ways
All of us would do well to listen to California's native elders who, when asked why the plants that were so abundant in the olden days have disappeared, tell us, "it is because people no longer use them". At the point of European contact, California's First People were actively using hundreds of California's native plants; their physical world reflected their knowledge and values, as our world reflects ours today.
Like anything else we value, plants can become known to us with ease and pleasure through gentle repetition, quiet contact, and a practical interest. Indeed, we humans have a gift for knowing plants built right into our bodies. Compared to many other animals, humans have relatively large livers and consequently can eat a wide variety of plant foods, benefiting from the marvelous array of phyto-nutrients in them.
Developing our familiarity and depth of knowledge about the plants we eat and use can give us a country-competence and confidence. Experiencing the abundance and bounty of the Earth around us can bless us with an indigenous sense of place.
Learning Structured for Today's World
Designed for the ways we naturally learn, but mindful of the constraints in our individual lives:
Open Workshop: Meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, 3 PM to 7 PM in downtown Davis; come anytime during the open period and make your visit long or short depending upon your day.
Multiple Approaches: Plant specimens to see and touch; organized easily-referenced written notes; short, informative essays and articles; samples of teas, cosmetics, foods, medicinals, etc. to take home; recipes and remedies both written and displayed; oral discourse; special guests; horticultural support.
Scientific Grounding: Comfortable, progressive development of botanical, medical, nutritional, and horticultural vocabulary; library of relevant scientific articles and reference books.
Individualized Pace: Curriculum supports both those whose lives don't allow for study outside of the meetings as well as those who have the time and energy to devote to more intensive study.
On-Going Program: Join the group on the first Thursday of any month and renew on an on-going monthly basis; miss a meeting and your material will be waiting for you when next you come.
This Program is of Special Interest :
To those interested in health: Plant foods and medicines support our health; our 30 year-plus background as organic growers and insiders in the organic world provides special insight.
To beginners including young people: Diversified curriculum with something for everyone is appropriate even for children accompanying a parent or relative, learning Native American-style, in the context of their families.
To practicing herbalists: Supportive continuing education for health care providers whose busy practice puts them at risk of becoming "UPS herbalists", who are familiar with the plants only in their processed, packaged forms.
To locals as well as out-of-towners: The workshop location in downtown Davis is within walking distance of the Davis Train Station served by the Capitol Corridor Amtrak commuter trains.
To those with long-standing interest in plants and food: Like a knitting circle for knitters or a book-club for readers, regular meetings will get you organized, inspired and progressing.
As a nurturing gift: This program makes a special gift for someone interested in ethnobotany, new to the area, or perhaps at a transition in life.
Ethnobotany, the study of plants in relationship to humans — their use for food, drink, medicine, fiber, construction materials — is, of course, world-wide and reaches back to the earliest times.
We are volunteering our time and resources for this project with the intention of developing and assuring the continuity of our rich ethnobotanical culture. Your fees and donations will be used to cover expenses — purchased materials, equipment, books, paper, building space — for the sake of:
The Plants: Known and valued plants are most often cared for and protected.
Our Community: It is through relationship, and the time, space, and attention that takes, that culture is born and transmitted.
Our Future: Our knowledge base and that of our community's youth determines our future.
Coco Ranch is the House family farm near Davis, where we grow certified organic cherries, peaches, apricots, and apples. We have seen the organic production concepts and systems, which we and so many of our organic farmer-friends have labored decades to develop, move into the mainstream with the National Organic Program. The value of these concepts and systems are today being validated by increasing numbers of scientific studies. Now we are turning our attention and efforts to ethnobotanical traditions in food and medicine, bringing a new set of alternatives forward.
Ethnobotanical Traditionsis Jennifer's particular project, out of her long relationship with the plant world and her years of experience as a teacher, teaching plant taxonomy for arboretum docents, agricultural economics at UCD, foods for Culinary Arts Agricolae, arts and crafts for Davis Chinese School, as well as homeschooling her son. She is ably assisted in this endeavor by her family, Greg and Henry, and her student, Ting-Ting Li.
You can contact us at:
Telephone: 530.753.3361, call any time
Mail: Coco Ranch, 1105 Kennedy Place, Suite 1,
Davis CA 95616
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