Just a couple of cool summer-appropriate offerings. Sign up while you can.
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July 2022 HerbWalks & OjaiHerbal Newsletter
In part because it's the perfect place to escape the Ojai heat, the Carpinteria Salt Marsh Herb Walk may become an annual summer tradition. Case in point: the expected temperature on Sunday in Ojai will be 93° while the forecast for Carpinteria is 71°. Click on the photo, this link, or see the article below to learn more. It's filling up!
This is artist Chris Chapman's pastel painting of Arroyo Hondo Preserve's Hollister Meadow. All images of this place are now "impressions" since the Alisal Fire changed the landscape for some time to come. We're going back on August 6 to see what remains and observe the amazing process of natural regeneration, already well underway. Click here.
If you've already purchased my book, thank you! Remember, local authors and independent outlets appreciate when you buy direct from them in person or at their websites. I always have books with me at my events. And you can order the book on my website by visiting this link or clicking on the photo above. (Use the “Order notes (optional)” field at checkout to request a simple autograph or a book signed to your name.)
You also can find them in Ojai at Bart's Books, Crystal Corner, Farmer & the Cook, Ojai Valley Brewery, Ojai Valley Museum, Poppie's Art & Gifts, Rainbow Bridge, Sespe Creek Collective, Shangri-La Care Cooperative, and Wheeler Gorge Visitor Center; in Ventura at Ema's Herbs, Green Thumb Nursery, and Ventura Spirits; in Santa Barbara at Chaucer's Books; in Solvang at The Book Loft; and, hopefully, wherever fine books are sold.
Please see the article below, revised and reprinted from last month's newsletter, about the hyperlinked bibliography I created as a free online supplement to make the sources of information cited in the book easily accessible.
Booksigning at Ojai Valley Museum in February.
Photo by Don Edwards
Hyperlinked bibliography for
Medicinal Herbs of California
Do you own a copy of my book, Medicinal Herbs of California? Have you noticed that it has over 350 citations referencing the sources of information I present? Those citations required 176 bibliography entries for books and online journal articles to back them up.
As you know, URLs are long and there's no convenient way to transfer them from the printed page to a web browser. So I created an online, hyperlinked bibliography for you, my loyal readers. You can find it on my website at this link. Please share with others you know who have the book.
The Ojai Herbal Symposium logo is yet another artistic creation by Jess Starwood.
Ojai Herbal Symposium postponed one more time
Alas, due to a confluence of factors － technical, personal, and otherwise－I must ask for your patience as I postpone the return of the live, in-person Ojai Herbal Symposium for one more year. The target date is now November 11-12, 2023, at Krotona Hall in Ojai.
Shovelnose Guitarfish and Round Sting Rays at Carpinteria Salt Marsh Herb Walk, July 2021.
Photo: John Brant
Carpinteria Salt Marsh Herb Walk on July 17
On Sunday, July 17, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. we will visit the Carpinteria Salt Marsh Nature Park, also known as El Estero, a rare salt wetland in Southern California. Nearly destroyed by development, the remaining estuary was restored in the late 1990s by a group of concerned citizens along with the City of Carpinteria, UCSB, and the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County.
The park includes walking trails and interpretive signage. It is home to hundreds of migrating birds and other wildlife, including exotic sharks, rays and native fish when conditions are right. This event is scheduled to coincide with the right time of year and tide level to be able to see the marine wildlife we saw last year. We shall see if the best laid plans of mice and men prevail. No guarantees.
Richard Flowers of Green Thumb Nursery, Ventura, also my frequent Herb Walks assistant on the trail
So...Native vs. Tropical Milkweed not demystified after all
Last newsletter (June) I boldly claimed that a Green Thumb Nursery video had "demystified" the debate over native vs. tropical milkweed by explaining that the tropical species was safe for monarch butterflies on the west coast as long as you pruned it back once or twice a year.
Barely a day went by before the state banned the sale of tropical milkweed!! Then Richard Flowers, a frequent assistant on my hikes and a Green Thumb employee, wrote an eloquent defense of tropical milkweed for the Ojai Valley News.
Despite his research and passionate position on it, I am going back to my previous opinion that the safest thing to do for the monarchs is to plant the native narrowleaf milkweed (
Asclepias fascicularis) and to encourage growers to bring more of it to market as soon as possible.
Alisal Fire approaching Arroyo Hondo Preserve: October, 2021.
Photo: The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County
The return to Arroyo Hondo on Saturday, August 6
The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County’s Arroyo Hondo Preserve has always been an amazing example of California’s biodiversity. The Montecito Journal describes it as “one of Santa Barbara’s most significant treasures.” Now that the Alisal Fire swept through it in October of 2021, it also serves as an example of the amazing regenerative power of Nature. On August 6 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., please join me as I return for the first time since the fire to observe how the land is regaining its legendary status as “the jewel of the Gaviota Coast.”
Click on the USFS logo above or the hyperlink below to visit the newly redesigned Ojai Ranger District webpage for the latest info on trails, campgrounds, closures and more.
PLEASE NOTE: Summer fire restrictions are now in effect throughout the Forest. These restrictions will affect the use of campfires, stoves, smoking materials, and internal combustion engines, and will remain in effect until January 31, 2023.
Are you interested in collecting small amounts of plants in the National Forest for personal use? Contact Forest Botanist Heidi Guenther at heidi.guenther@usda.gov.
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