Welcome to the very first edition of Field Notes!
If you are reading this, you are part of a growing community dedicated to stepping back from modern quick-fixes and re-learning time-tested practices—from traditional herbal remedies and ancestral food preparation to practical wilderness skills.
Every two weeks, this newsletter will deliver quick, actionable wisdom directly from the field, along with recaps of our latest guide articles on the website.
3 Ancient Habits to Start Today
You don’t need a farm or decades of training to begin living more self-reliantly. Here are three simple practices you can start this week:
- Incorporate Bitters Before Meals: Traditional cultures around the world used bitter herbs (like dandelion leaves, burdock, or gentian) before eating to stimulate digestion naturally. Try adding a small handful of fresh bitter greens to your dinner.
- Master One Local Plant: Pick a single wild plant native to your area (such as plantain, chickweed, or stinging nettle). Learn to identify it in all four seasons, understand its traditional uses, and know how to harvest it ethically.
- Ferment a Simple Staple: Long before modern refrigeration, ancestral kitchens relied on fermentation for preservation and gut health. Start with something simple like homemade sauerkraut—all it takes is cabbage, salt, and time.
Recent Articles from the Blog
If you missed our latest updates on the website, here is what we’ve been working on:
- Willow Bark: The 6,000-Year-Old Secret to Aspirin: Long before sterile pharmacies or white lab coats existed, humanity reached for the forest to treat pain. The journey of the humble willow tree (Salix genus) spans millennia.
- The Swamp Tree That Saved WWII Soldiers: 40,000 Years of Melaleuca Secrets: We dive into the fascinating 40,000-year history of the Melaleuca tree (Tea Tree), its chemical superpowers, and how it went from traditional First Nations medicine to saving soldiers during World War II.
What’s Coming Next
In two weeks, we will be diving into seasonal plant identification and simple homemade tinctures.
Thank you for being here at the start of this journey. If you have a question or a traditional remedy you grew up with, leave a comment on this post or hit reply to the email!
To your health and self-reliance,
The Roots to Relief Team