Firefly Gathering is a yearly coalescing of primitive skills experts and novices of varying degrees, coming together to share knowledge and community in the beautiful mountains of Barnardsville, NC. A highlight of this Firefly in particular was the visiting of Marc’s folks for part of the day on Friday.
This year at Firefly, over 700 people gathered for over 300 classes offered by over 100 teachers. Marc was there to facilitate learning on three topics: Woody Ethnobotany, Plant Sex, and Supernatural Sodas, Magical Meads, and Local Liqueurs.
Woody Ethnobotany explored some of the ethnobotanical applications of tree and shrub plant allies found around the Firefly Gathering such as food, medicine and craft uses .
Plant Sex was a class co-taught with Robert Eidus of Eagle Feather Farm. In it we explored the reproductive processes of plants and how we might aid especially threatened and endangered species such as Ginseng and Goldenseal to propagate successfully. Themes of how plants have played a role in human sexuality, such as aphrodisiacs throughout history, were presented.
Supernatural Sodas, Magical Meads, Local Liqueurs explored our relationship with the bacteria and yeast around us to make, you guessed it, sodas, meads, and liqueurs. The class began with a virtual plant walk. All of the participants took about 10 minutes to grab a small amount of any plant material that interested them that was not rare or potentially damaging to touch. Marc and I then organized this collection by family and sorted it from edible to poisonous.
Marc then espoused on each plant before adding the appropriate ones to tea to be made into mead or leaving it out pending future research on its edibility/medicinal uses. By the end of this immense sharing of knowledge, the group was ready to try out some sodas and meads.
Marc shared meads and he had made at the last four or so Firefly Gatherings, and a few tinctures and a soda, each with a unique flavor and story behind it. Each person left with a bit of cultural inoculation, both physically and intellectually, to go back to their communities and bring medicinal fermentation to the fore.
Later that night, a mead circle for the ages was held. A recent beekeeper named Eric provided a top-bar box as a central alter, and the mead flowed from start to finish. Vintages as old as 15 years were shared, and the range of flavors and herbs was truly spectacular. The many people who were responsible for influencing members of the circle and landing them there at that moment were called in and thanked throughout the evening. Great respect was also paid to the stars of the event: the bees. Without them, many of our crops would not be pollinated and we certainly would not have enough honey to make mead. Yet, despite the good they do for civilization, certain groups have fought tooth and nail to keep producing pesticides and herbicides for various uses that are certainly having detrimental effects on honeybee populations. So here’s to the bees and the fruits of their labors!
Skill sharing gatherings such as Firefly have been invaluable in the re-skilling of people with skills that have been lost since the industrial revolution. Knowledge of plants, tool making, physical, mental, and spiritual health, and all sorts of skills that were inherently passed down through the ages have dwindled in the past 200 years. Thankfully, these skills have not perished, but have rather been carried on by a range of groups and individuals, and are readily available to those who seek them out, or are fortunate to end up at gatherings such as Firefly. Hopefully, we’ll see you at one of these in the not too distant future and be able to share a little bit of the plant wisdom we’ve gathered!
-By Hayden Stebbins and Marc Williams