[discuss] Dead Trees - Live Cultures

One root vegetable, the simple radish changed my life with a mystical plant communication. It happened while I was briefly hospitalized during February 2000. Earlier that winter, one balmy, sunny January day full of the promise of spring, I had decided to plant some radishes. Sowing seeds out of doors that early is largely a symbolic gesture, performed for the sheer life-affirming joy of seeing germination and growth in the winter, since any vegetables that might result are likely to be puny. Predictably enough, the weather turned cold and gray after this sunny day and I didn’t notice any seedlings emerge, so I gave up on the poor radishes and forgot about them. Meanwhile I was feeling a bizarre internal sensation in my abdomen, and landed in the hospital.

Such a contrast to my life in the woods, outdoors most of the time, the hospital is a totally denatured environment. The windows are sealed shut, everything is white and antiseptic, the food is all ultra-processed, and they fed me chemicals through my mouth, my veins, and even my anus. I was feeling scared and just wanted to go home, when one night in my dreams the radishes came to comfort me and I woke up with a vivid image of