Originally broadcast on: http://radiosoapbox.com Radio Soapbox
Women's Hour broadcasts live every Sunday at 7:00p.m. uk time.
Good evening, ladies and the occasional gentleman tuning in. Welcome to Women's Hour on radiosoapbox.com, also streaming live on Rumble. Today is Sunday, 4th August 2024, and we have an exciting show lined up for you with two inspirational guests. Our first guest is Kellina Powell, a dynamic deaf coach, advocate, international speaker, best-selling author, and passionate entrepreneur. Kellina shares her incredible journey of becoming deaf at the age of four due to an ear infection and how she overcame numerous challenges to become a beacon of hope and inspiration for young adults with disabilities. She discusses her advocacy work, her books, and the importance of representation in the deaf community. Kellina's story is a testament to resilience and determination, and her insights into the deaf experience are both enlightening and moving.
kellinaempowerment.com
instagram DeathQueenBoss
Our second guest, Amelia South, is a professional foraging herbalist and instructor. Amelia shares her journey into the world of foraging and herbalism, starting from her early experiences with natural remedies for her daughter's colic to her extensive education in herbal medicine. She discusses the importance of gut health, the benefits of grounding and barefoot hiking, and the fascinating world of mycelium and tree communication. Amelia's passion for nature and holistic health is infectious, and her practical tips on incorporating natural remedies into daily life are invaluable.
tik toc amelia_makes_incsene
tik toc theoriginalmealchan
www blacksunfarmct.com
Join us for an evening of inspiring stories, practical advice, and a deeper understanding of the incredible women making a difference in their communities.
[00:01:03]
Unknown:
Good evening, ladies out there and to the odd man that's listening. You are listening to women's hour on radiosoapbox.com. I'm also streaming live on Rumble if you'd like to join in with any chat. Today's date is Sunday, 4th August 2024. It's good to have your company. I've got 2 excellent guests lined up this evening. 2 very inspirational women indeed. Was just up until a couple of minutes ago, a bit worried that we couldn't get the 1st guest on because of Skype playing up and stuff, but we have figured out a way. So my first guest is Kalina Powell, who is a dynamic a dynamic deaf coach and advocate. She's an international speaking, best selling author, and passionate entrepreneur dedicated to helping young adults with disabilities achieve their dreams.
She has done a lot, written books, you name it. Anyway, let's get this wonderful person on the show. Let's go on to Facebook. Sorry about this. I've got all these tabs open. Things are more exciting. Hello? Good evening, Galena. Hello. How's it going? It's good. Thank you. Thank you for coming on the show. Yes. No problem. Thank you for having me. No. You're welcome. So let's get into your story. I've had a little look on your Facebook page and stuff, and, oh, you're an interesting lady, aren't you? You're very busy speaking and spreading the word.
[00:02:43] Unknown:
Yes. Yes. Definitely. And there you guys can hear me okay? Yeah. I can hear you fine.
[00:02:49] Unknown:
Okay. Perfect. Just wanna make sure. Yeah. No. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. So take take us Yeah. Take us to the start of your journey, sweet, and let's, yeah, let's have a little caption of what's going on.
[00:03:01] Unknown:
Yeah. No worries. No worries. Thank you for having me. I want the guys to. No. You're welcome. Okay.
[00:03:09] Unknown:
So you were born. Tell us your story. How right from the beginning.
[00:03:15] Unknown:
Okay. Yeah. For sure. So it all started actually when I became deaf at the age of 4, due to an ear infection. And, so I just struggled a lot in terms of understanding what is going on, as I got older because I didn't know, who I am. Right? Yeah. Because, you know, everybody in my family is hearing, and I didn't understand what was happening in terms of how how do I why me? Right? And everybody around me is hearing. Other people are not hearing. And so, you know, while growing up, I realized that I was different from everybody else around me. And that's when I knew I wanted to make a difference in in my walls. Right? In the depth of media. And I realized that when I got older, I didn't have anybody that looks like me or represent me. And that's how I started my entrepreneur journey to become, international speaker, become an author, and, lastly, a coach.
[00:04:20] Unknown:
Wow. Wow. So you could hear up until the age of 4. Right? Yes. Yeah. So just suddenly just lit well, lose your hearing must have been well, I can't imagine it, especially as a 4 year old child.
[00:04:35] Unknown:
Yeah. So when I actually so what happened was I went to, and that's when I actually became deaf. So long story short, I I had an ear infection. Right? But the thing is I had a ear drop for my ear. So I that same day, I went through daycare. They give me my ear drop. And that same day I went home, I just completely became deaf. I was in front of the TV, watching a show. My mom tapped me on my shoulder and she said, Kalina, I've been calling you. And I looked at my mom and I said, wait. I can't hear you. My mom looked confused. I'm just confused. I didn't know what to expect, what to say.
And then that's when I like, family realized because my mom was calling my grandmother because my grandma was a nurse at the time. And my grandma, rushed home from the hospital. She did some assessment with me and she's like, oh my god. Like, what is going on? And then that's when we went to my doctor, and my doctor said, I'm so sorry. She's unfortunately deaf.
[00:05:37] Unknown:
So what was the reasoning behind this then? Pardon? What was the reasoning behind this? Was it the airdrop that you had or the infection?
[00:05:49] Unknown:
I'm they could have put the hot plate in the water too much for the ear infection. I'm not too sure. I don't remember. My family spoke to to this day. Like, it's very uncomfortable for them to tell me what happened, unfortunately. But all I know is that it was I was cleaning up the water, something with the day care environment, unfortunately.
[00:06:07] Unknown:
Wow. Wow.
[00:06:09] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:06:09] Unknown:
So what age did you get to when you realized it's, you know, I need to help other people? What what was it like your schooling years, you know, being that person? So I'm asking you too many questions at once. What was it like being that person at school that couldn't hear?
[00:06:26] Unknown:
Yeah. So for me, like, it just the transition of it was very difficult because I was trying to hear all over again, had a 4 year old. Right? Like, I already know how to talk. I already know I could hear, but the transition of it was very difficult because I had to find out how do I do this all over again. Right? And as a 4 year old, you don't know what's happening to you, and so it was very difficult, and especially being in the hearing school full time. Right? I went to the deaf school in the afternoon, and I went to the hearing school in the morning. So that was a huge transition for me to really understand that I'm I am in 2 different community and 2 different personality for myself.
[00:07:13] Unknown:
Right. Yeah. I can imagine that. So as time went on, how long do you think it took? I mean, I presume now, have have you got hearing aids or have you got better?
[00:07:25] Unknown:
Can you repeat that again? Have you got sorry.
[00:07:30] Unknown:
As as time has gone by, how have you regained your hearing? Have you are you using hearing aids, or did your hearing just improve?
[00:07:40] Unknown:
No. So my hearing hasn't changed at all since I was 4 years old. It actually remained the same, and I wear hearing aids both times, 247. The only time I don't wear it is when I'm sleeping.
[00:07:53] Unknown:
Wow. Wow. So without those hearing aids, you can't hear anything? At all. Wow. It just goes to show how strong they are, doesn't it? You know? Because I'm just you know, we're not lip you're not lip reading. Do you do you use lip reading a lot as a source to get by?
[00:08:11] Unknown:
So I do a lot of closed captions. So closed caption is literally my best friend to go by through everything, especially if I'm watching something on the screen or TV or podcasting. I need, closed caption 100%. However, if we are face to face or if I'm in a crowd, I do rely on the breathing a lot. Right. Would you prefer if for me to put the video on, Kaleena? Yes. So I use, like honestly, I'm using my closed caption on my phone to hear you.
[00:08:42] Unknown:
Right. Okay. I put my face sorry. Do you know it didn't even enter my head to use video. Bless you. Oh, it's nice to see your face now anyway.
[00:08:53] Unknown:
Yeah. So last time I did it for me. So a lot of times people don't understand how important it is. I will. And people will ask me, they're like, how is your advocacy, and how are you always, like, telling people that? And sometimes I don't, and sometimes I do tell people. Again, it really depends
[00:09:09] Unknown:
on who the person is. Right. Right. And where are you now? I know you're not at home. You're outside somewhere.
[00:09:17] Unknown:
Yeah. So I'm just at a restaurant with my best friend, so we're just doing a little catch up. So she's just like so because I told her the whole situation that happened with the Skype, And then she's like, oh, just do the Facebook coverage. And I'm like, okay. I will do that.
[00:09:31] Unknown:
There's always the way, isn't it? But that's alright. It should've been prepared, but no worries. We've got you. We've got you. So when you go out and talk to people now, what is the main subjects that you discuss?
[00:09:42] Unknown:
I use it's again, it's a part of my environment. So for example, I used to go through networking and branch and stuff. Networking and branch, so you just talk about how can I collaborate with people in terms of how do I, I can help them in terms of their community? How can we be more inclusive? Right? I feel like a lot of us don't understand how we can do it and how to be consistent. I think that's a lot of major problem a lot of people are facing. They don't know how to be consistent because they don't know. Right? And not everybody don't know. So that's why I do have
[00:10:15] Unknown:
a with people. And, again, they need to be facing me.
[00:10:19] Unknown:
I need to read your lips all the time. So
[00:10:22] Unknown:
Wonderful. Wonderful. I'm careful now how I use my lips and make sure I'm using them properly. I mean, presumably You're doing great. Thank you. You're doing great. It it reminds me well, my nan, bless her. She she was very deaf, towards the end of her life, and we were all speaking slowly and clearly. And, you know Really? I know. And I here I was with the video off. I feel awful. Anyway, never mind. Never mind. So you you look pretty young, Colleen. How old are you? I'm only 27. Yeah. You're a baby. You're the same age as my first daughter. Yeah. I think I'm old. Periodic. Some people are like, no. You're a baby. You are a baby. Trust me. Trust me. 27.
Yeah. The same age as my daughter. Wow. So, I mean, just Okay. Okay. Good. And where are you based to now? Where am I speaking to you? Yeah. I'm in Canada, Toronto. Canada. That's what I thought. Yeah. I seem to get a lot of contacts from Canada. I think the next lady from Canada too must just be attracted to the
[00:11:30] Unknown:
UK. Wow. I don't know. I get a couple UK people, but not so many.
[00:11:35] Unknown:
Oh, right. Right. No. It's good to have these contacts. So tell me a little bit. I mean, presumably, when I can't imagine anything worse than hearing everything and then just silence.
[00:11:50] Unknown:
Yes. Exactly. Just silence.
[00:11:52] Unknown:
And for a 4 year old to just experience that, even when it's quiet now, I don't like it. I like the noise, you know, behind the background and stuff like that. What was that like for you? I mean, could you hear your own voice, you know, like, shouting for help on the inside? Could you hear yourself kind of talk it? I know it's difficult because you're, like, 4 years old.
[00:12:13] Unknown:
I, honestly, I don't remember. I really didn't remember when I was younger. But when I got older, I can't hear myself talking, like, right now. But I just know that in my brain, I have to prepare when I'm talking. And I don't know if it's just me, you guys, but I think I just, like, I just talk. I don't think about it. I just talk. So, like, for me, it's just I don't know. And I was a very active little girl, very athletic. So, like, for me, I was always on the go. So I never really think about hearing myself talking. Unless I'm talking to myself at the only time. But other than that, there's nothing else. So you can't hear yourself talking now? I'm talking now. Yes. And now I know.
[00:12:56] Unknown:
Right. Right.
[00:12:57] Unknown:
Yeah. But only if, like, I'm hear I don't know. If only if I talk to myself, yes. But I do not know. I don't know why. People ask me that. I'm like, no.
[00:13:07] Unknown:
That's why because I often say to people that speak 2 languages. Do do they think in what language do they think in? You know?
[00:13:15] Unknown:
Exactly.
[00:13:16] Unknown:
And what about your friendship groups? Are you amongst others that are also deaf or just you know, that sounds like a stupid question, but it just So my friend group are very multicultural
[00:13:28] Unknown:
people. I love it. And, very multicultural, very mixed, very blended. There's some friends who are hard of hearing, there's friends who are completely deaf, and there's friends that are, who does only sign language. So it's very variety of different friends I have, which I love it because I can balance balance between the 2 people. The community, I would say. So it was very cool to see and network with people that can actually kind of relate to your story. So Oh, yeah. So I presume you do sign language as well. A little bit. Not too much. I'm not interested in sign language, but I'm really trying to keep up, but there's always something new. Yeah. Yeah. Because the I don't know. There's a couple of different types, isn't there? The well, I know over here, we've got the Macaton sign in and the English British sign language. Exactly. It's like so much that, like, keep up. So I know it's I was like, I can't keep up. So I'm only strictly learning American sign language for now.
[00:14:23] Unknown:
Right. Right. Yeah. Just just as well, isn't it?
[00:14:25] Unknown:
It's easy to use different languages. Yeah. Exactly.
[00:14:30] Unknown:
So what are you doing with yourself then when you're not, like, out partying at restaurants? And is this your, like, career, so to speak, going out and speaking to people? And is it a job for you now?
[00:14:43] Unknown:
Yeah. So my speaking is literally a job for me now, and that's why I'm coaching being offered. I had a 3rd work that a collaboration book that just came out 4 days ago with a lot of the deaf, community, which is very fascinating. And yeah. So that's what I do full time, speaking, coaching, providing workshop for organization as well. And I also do a partnership with, Black Mental Health Canada as well just to coach their disability department, which is very cool.
[00:15:12] Unknown:
Wow. Wow. Is the mental you know, can you relate to that, I presume, because you were growing up? Exactly. What what age do you feel is, like, the hardest age?
[00:15:24] Unknown:
I was middle school.
[00:15:27] Unknown:
Right.
[00:15:28] Unknown:
Because the bully, peer pressure, you don't know who you are, how to person, especially learning how to advocate for yourself was very hard for me in middle school because I didn't understand, well, what type of person, my words, like, being okay, not fitting in. I think everybody wanted to fit in when we're younger in middle school. So I think middle school would definitely be the hardest one. Were you bullied?
[00:15:54] Unknown:
Yes. I was. Oh, bless you. That's my son's gonna go to, well, secondary school, we call it, over here. And I just he's such a gentle little soul, and I always worry about him being bullied and stuff. It's like they say, being an advocate for yourself and learning to well, you know you're different, but you're kind of not different if you know what I'm saying. I'm just contradicting myself there. But getting through that, it's quite, you have to be very courageous.
[00:16:26] Unknown:
Yes. You have to be, and you have to have a very strong support system. And that's when I realized a lot of time, us young kids, we don't feel comfortable going to our family even though they know they they have their parents to support them and help them guide through it. But, you know, for me, luckily, I was able to speak to my family. I did have a strong, solid relationship with my family. My family came to the school, advocate for me every day. Every time I get bullied, like, no tomorrow was never a problem for my family to show up to the school.
[00:16:58] Unknown:
Oh, good. Good. Oh, bless you. So what did you do after middle school? Did you go on to more did you train for this at all? How did you suddenly come out? Did you wake up one day and say, do you know what? This is what I wanna do.
[00:17:12] Unknown:
So I actually started when I used to work at a big park called Canada Wonderland. And with a little boy that pushed me, I said, I am one second. So it's so there's a little bird push me and he was also deaf. And I had my hair in a ponytail like this, and he came to me and he said, miss miss, look, I'm deaf too. And the mom came to me full of joy, and she's, you're deaf, and you have your hair in a ponytail. And it was so sweet because she was not expecting to see someone who was deaf in the hearing community like that. And she was just open and join. She was like, thank you so much for making my son to build him stone for him because she was trying to treat the son. Nothing's wrong with him. He's normal.
And so for him to see me, I was just, oh, and then the mom literally said, you may not know this, but I think you're gonna make a change in the world just by putting your hair in a ponytail. And that's when I knew right there, I wanted to make an impact to the younger generation.
[00:18:09] Unknown:
Oh, that's oh, that's made all my hair stand up on end. I love things like that.
[00:18:14] Unknown:
Yes.
[00:18:16] Unknown:
Yeah. Story to get you going. Yeah. One little boy. So do you go into classes now with, like, younger children and talk to them?
[00:18:25] Unknown:
Yes. So I do I go to school. I go to a lot of school, and, secondly, I do a lot of speaking. I do a lot with the school. So I do workshop and speaking.
[00:18:35] Unknown:
Wow. Wow. And this, like, you say, wearing your hair in a ponytail. Is this specific then? Because I suppose lots of people would be trying to cover up a hearing aid. But you wore the ponytail, and it's like, this is who I am. I'm deaf, and I'm gonna own it, basically. Exactly.
[00:18:53] Unknown:
Exactly.
[00:18:54] Unknown:
Wow. So how do you wanna tell us a little bit about the book that you've written?
[00:18:59] Unknown:
Yeah. For sure. So I have 3 books. So the very first book I've written was 2 years ago. It's called Everyday I Am Just Deaf. And it's about me being deaf daily basics. What is it like to be deaf in the Harry's community? It's a big poetry book, you guys. It's not a chapter book. Believe me. I don't always like reading chapter book. But it's a very poetry book. It's very short and brief. It's really letting people understand what it's like to be deaf once again, but also to to understand what is it that we can do better for the deaf community to be a better place for them. That's the whole purpose of my book, to really educate the hearing community.
[00:19:43] Unknown:
Right. And what about your other books that you've written? You've been busy. So the second written 3 by the age of 27.
[00:19:52] Unknown:
So the second book is young, young math young changers. So that one is with the collaboration book with all the young adults who are entrepreneurs. So we always talk about our story. How did we get here? Why are we doing this? What is our message? So that's what we talked about all of our stories, which is very unique because we have people from all over the world, India, the medical public, me, myself, Canada, United States. It was very, very cool. And then the United States. It was very, very cool. And then the third word that just came out with with all the deaf actors, kadutur.
And it was very cool because we actually the same thing again, we talk about our story and what we do.
[00:20:29] Unknown:
Wow. Wow. So when you go into these classes with these young children, are they all really quite amazed that you walk in and they can see somebody else with a pair of a pair, hearing aids? That's the right word?
[00:20:44] Unknown:
Oh, yeah. They were they have made because for them, they always one of them told me that. It was funny. A kid told me the same thing he said that, so he was telling me he's like, Lina, you know what's so funny? You're the first young person that I meet. I always meet older people, like, old people. Again, kids are young. They don't know what old is. So when they see me, they're like, oh my god. It's so true. Like, I can do it. You can do it. So I was very forced to see that smile on a lot of kids' face. And for them to see that, you know, we're not that far apart. Right? I tell them straight up. I'm 27.
I'm not too far from you guys. I was just in your shoes. And so if there was so, like, it's it's just off a lot. So yeah.
[00:21:34] Unknown:
Oh, pretty awesome. I'm really touched, actually. Really touched. Thank you so much for coming on and having a chat. Can can you guide us to a website of yours, Kalina? Do you have a website? Or Yes. Yeah. So I do.
[00:21:49] Unknown:
Okay. So my website is kaleena empowerment.com. You will find all the information about my story, my coaching package, and how to write my book. And second, you can always find me on social media. People always ask my social media. I am so my social media is Deb Queen Boss. So you can find me anywhere.
[00:22:07] Unknown:
Wonderful. Right. Well, I will share your details in the write up for it. Thank you so much. It's been a real privilege. Really nice to hear that story. You have a nice evening at the restaurant. You're welcome. So much. Take care. Bye bye. Bye. Oh, bless her. That was lovely. I can't believe it didn't enter my head that I would need to do a video. I love stories like that. I love stories, and she's living the dream. It looks like she's out with her friends. Very good on her phone. If somebody walked by, she'll quickly mute it. These young people, they've got all this control, haven't they? And I'm here with all of these, tabs and panels open on my Mac, and I'm like, oh. Anyway, we have another great guest lined up in a few minutes.
But just before she comes on, I will play a little tune if I can find it. It's a song that I was going to use actually for the theme for the women's hour radio show. And I don't know about you guys, but I am terrible at making decisions, and I probably spent about 3 hours in the end. And every time I went on to YouTube, I was downloading more downloading more songs I like, and they're all like the vintagey era. So I really liked this one, and, I will give it a play before our next guest comes up. See you in a couple of seconds. If it's gonna work.
I just need to laugh these days. There's no point in stressing this there. No point at all. Told me that you love me. That was the song. Bear with me. You know what will happen? I'll forget all about it, and I'll just randomly start playing. Let's try this one. And if this one doesn't work, we'll just forget this one and go straight onto the next guest. I like this one. Dinah Shore, buns and bones.
[00:24:19] Unknown:
It's too easy, and west is west and the wrong one I have choked. Let's go where I keep on wearing those frills and flowers and buttons and bows. Rings and things and buttons and bows. A I don't bury me on this prairie, take me where the cement grows. Let's move down to something town where they love bug gal but they cut her clothes and I'll stand out in buttons and bows. Yours in buttons and bows. Get in the Eastern trim and wear,
[00:26:00] Unknown:
That was different.
[00:26:02] Unknown:
Now let's quickly find the button to turn it off. I think I've done it. Right. Let's get our next let's guest on the line. I'm here with all these tabs. I don't think we're going live through Rumble. Anyway, no problem. One week it'll week. One week it'll work. The other it won't. Anyway, right. Let's get our next guest on the line. We've got Amelia Self. She is a professional foraging herbist herbalist and instructor. She sounds off awesome, the things that she gets up to. Right? Let's give Amelia a call. Good evening, Amelia.
Hello. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. How are you doing?
[00:26:57] Unknown:
I'm alright. I it is this is the first time I've used Skype in a few years, so I'm sorry if this is a little awkward. No. No. No. That's fine. Well, we are live on radiosoapbox
[00:27:06] Unknown:
dotcom. So, Yeah. Great. So, Amelia, oh, you're a busy lady, aren't you? Oh, I'm crazy busy. Yeah. No. I love it. So tell us a bit about yourself. How did you get to be, like, a farmer or a forager? How did you get to, like, where you're at now?
[00:27:23] Unknown:
Oh, gosh. I don't know if we've got
[00:27:28] Unknown:
enough time for all of that. In brief. Give me the the cliff notes versions. Yeah.
[00:27:31] Unknown:
So I I the first time I ever really foraged on purpose was in 2006. I was, like, 22 living in a really crappy apartment out in Washington state in, the United States, obviously, and, there was in the area that I lived, there was a lot of blackberries, along the sides of the roads, like, to the point where there's a there's a very specific variety of blackberry out in that part of the country that is, like, almost to the point of being invasive, I guess. They have a festival all around it and everything, and I I just said, you know what? Look at all this free food. And I took a bowl from my kitchen, and I went out and I picked a whole bunch of berries, threw them in the bowl, and I went back to my apartment I time I said, hey, I can do this kinda thing.
And, so I I started with fruit because the fruit is the easiest thing to to start with, I I think for anybody. Then around, in 2009, I had my daughter and, she, at about 2 weeks old, started getting colic. And, if anybody that's listening that's ever had a child knows darn well you can't give anything to a baby. There's, like, nothing safe you can give to a baby until they're, like, at least 6 months, maybe a year old. So a 2 week old, they'll they just say good luck, you know, let it cry. Yeah. Gonna drive in the car. That's pretty much it. Yeah. So I I I was exhausted in trying to deal with that as a new mom and, I had this this, little book, for of herbal remedies for children and whatnot, and I looked up and they said try chamomile tea. Said it's very safe. You can try that with a baby and it's okay and, you know, just don't make it super strong and that's what I did and it helped.
So I said, well, there's something to this, you know. So that that kinda started me getting really interested in herbal medicine because I, you know, I tried that and then, you know, later on, a few months later, she had a stomachache and I tried gripe water which mainly made with fennel, and that helped a lot. So I I was, like, yeah, this herbs herbs are my jam now. And and so, you know, I I between that and and when I I was a stay at home mom for about 4 years, maybe four and a half years, and, you know, I'd I'd push the the kids in a stroller along the side of the road, and I'd be trying to looking at all the plants on the side of the road or off in the woods and, like, what is that thing? What is that thing? Starting to get into it more and more. And I just back in 2018, because this is America, I lost my health insurance, and, I I basically had had the choice to either, put $500 into an online class that I found, like a school, an herbalism school and teach myself herbalism, herbal medicine making, and all that stuff or I could attempt to, pull $400 out of nowhere a month a month to pay for the insurance. And I just decided that I couldn't afford that, so I invested in an education. And so that's basically where I've been at.
I I started learning there. I started learning as much free stuff as I could online. I took classes with, the Center of Excellence. I, I think that's out of England actually. And then, Heart of Herbs Herbal School. I've taken classes with the Commonwealth Center For Holistic Herbalism and the School of Evolutionary Herbalism and the Northeast School of Medicinal Herbalism oh, sorry. No. Sorry. Northwest School of Medicine and the, Northwest School of Aromatic Medicine. So I I am I'm an, official, certified artisanal incense crafter now too, which is a little bit different than an aromatherapist, but I yeah. So I and I have a 1,000,000 books and I've read a lot of books and I listen to podcasts almost everyday on on all kinds of stuff. You are high energy, aren't you? I can see. Yes. I am very entertaining. That's why I have a following on on the Internet.
Oh, well, no. It's just your energy is, like, woo. I love Well, I love what I do. Hopefully, that comes across. I really do love Absolutely. I love this.
[00:31:35] Unknown:
What is your what is your favorite part out of it now then? I mean, lots of your videos. I've seen a few on, YouTube, like little shorties on stuff and things like that. But what do you really love
[00:31:46] Unknown:
doing? Being barefoot in the woods. Hiking barefoot in the woods. And, it's it's super exciting if I come across a mushroom or a plant that I I like, I've seen pictures of but I've never actually seen in person before. That's like my holy cow, you know, amazing moment. But I I'm really finding this year a lot of joy in, I guess, taste and trying new new plants even if they're not like it's a plant that I knew what it was and I've seen what it was and I've told people, hey, this is what this plant is and this is what this plant can do. But this year, I'm trying to, like, push myself to do it more. Like I've I have tasted at least a dozen new plants, that like I'd heard of them or I'd seen them before, but I'd never tasted them until this year.
So, that that's that's fun for me. Like, I'm trying to do more experimenting with with cooking and making different, preparations with things that I that I haven't experienced.
[00:32:44] Unknown:
Wow. I get you with the, like, the whole toadstool mushroom thing. I've recently been going down a couple of rabbit holes with the whole fungi and gut health thing. I watched the Fantastic Fungi on Netflix. Yeah. I was like, woah. What a whole new movie. That movie's great. Yeah. That movie's great. And the mycelium, oh, the did I pronounce that right? Yeah. Mycelium.
[00:33:09] Unknown:
Yep. Or the mycelial network between trees. That's that's how they communicate. Yep. Yeah. I just find that absolutely fascinating,
[00:33:16] Unknown:
and I need to delve more into that. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
[00:33:20] Unknown:
I can tell you well, first off, the thing to to explain to people, because I don't know, if anybody's listening, what their level of understanding is. So this is just like the basic basic thing that you're looking for. For the newbie. Yeah. For for the newbie, for mushrooms, if you close your eyes and picture a mushroom, you're probably picturing, like, either a little, anita mushroom or some little button mushroom from the grocery store or something like that. What you're seeing is called the mushroom's fruiting body. Okay? That's the fruiting body of the mushroom. So mycelium is basically like the roots of the mushroom that go down into either the wood chips or the wood or the whatever it's growing in. Mycelium is the roots.
And so if you were to see a picture I I don't know if you've ever seen a a picture of what, like, a, a tree, a maple tree or something looks like above ground and then below ground, and there's just as many roots Yes. Below the ground as there are branches above ground. Mushrooms are kinda like that except you see this tiny little, you know, couple inches big mushroom above the ground and then below the ground, there's a mycelial network of, like, 10 feet 10 or 15 feet. It's, like, everywhere. It's huge. So and then just along this mycelial and it it they continue to spread. So the mycelial, sorry, the mycelial network is basically just a whole bunch of roots and then the mushrooms just keep spreading and spreading and along along the route, the the the fruiting body will come up, and sometimes it will spread spores from the fruiting body, which then travel on the air, and, you know, then they they move somewhere else. And sometimes they become interconnected with each other, but most of the time, they start they have these little colonies of, mycelium with little teeny weeny mushrooms all over the place. And then over time, they just spread out enough that that, different different mushrooms can speak with each other and the the mycelium from one mushroom can talk with another mushroom, and it's just a really cool network. And that's basically the trees kinda tap into that, that network of mushroom mycelium underground and use it to communicate signals with each other. It's not like a walkie talkie or like people talking.
It's more of like a like maybe pheromones or something. I think they've studied it and I I haven't studied it enough. All I know is that I I can I do talk with trees, so there's my hippie dippy moment? Oh, love it. Love it. Gonna not believe me, you you don't have to believe me, but I believe you. You need to talk about that as well. Yeah. You you can absolutely communicate with trees. You can communicate with most plants, honestly. You can probably talk with your house plants. I, my some of my houseplants are really cranky because I don't water them enough. But, I'm that happens to everybody. The I feel like if you're gonna try to go out into nature and communicate with something that is a plant, a tree is gonna be the easiest thing to do because the way I the way I feel the way I see it is that trees are just like a human with roots in the ground. Honestly, they're they're so and they're ancient, they're wise, all that good stuff, but, you know, the younger ones have a little bit more energy and are will more willing to communicate with you. Do you want me to explain how to do that? Yes. Okay. Please do.
So I I I don't know what the trees are that you've got over over on your side of the water. Over here, there's a lot of pine in my area. So there's a lot of white pine, and I I have noticed and if you talk with any anybody else that has, that communicates with trees has they've always agreed with me on this. Like, white pines are so friendly. They're ridiculously friendly. And I think I feel like most pines I think it's because they're one of the oldest varieties of trees on the planet. I mean, I know, like, ginkgo is older, but pine is really one of the most ancient varieties of trees on this on this planet because they're pollinating through the wind and any of those trees that pollinate with wind are really, really old because it you know, they've been around since long before bees came about. So pine pine trees, I feel like they're so they're so ancient, they're just so ridiculously happy to have people talking with them again. It's it's talking with a pine tree is like talking with a golden retriever, wagging its tail, like, hey, hey, how's it going? Yeah. Yeah. You could talk with me. Let's do this. Let's do that. And then they get, like, upset when you walk away. So what you need to do is, the the easiest way to do it, put your hand on a tree on on on the trunk of the tree, and and then imagine there's, like, a little string tied around your heart connected to a little string tied around, like, just imagine the heart the tree has a heart inside, and you're you're, like, just feeling the emotions back and forth between you and the tree. The trees obviously don't have a mouth or vocal cords. They can't speak. So what the way to communicate is to trust your intuition.
That's the hardest part, honestly. So many people don't trust themselves and don't trust their intuition. They could meditation. It can be. Honestly, meditation honestly is a crapshoot. Sometimes sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's not. With with the trees, it's more, you're you're just feeling you're you put out that's why I say close your eyes when you do it because if you close your eyes, it's easier to picture yourself, saying something or doing something. You could you could be touching the tree and just picture yourself hugging the tree and you might get a smile on your face or you might feel like it's smiling at you. And I I always introduce myself before I talk or if I'm gonna if I'm gonna harvest something from a tree, I I never ever harvest bark from the trunk. I'll I'll just cut a branch or something off, but if I want to cut a branch off, I talk with that tree for a minute first and then I say, you know, I just ask it, would it be okay if I cut this branch off? And the way I do that is I just picture in my head, I look at the branch, I picture that branch and me with snippers cutting off the branch, And 9 times out of 10, the tree is very friendly and giving and helpful, and they're like, yeah. Absolutely. Go ahead. You know, you're gonna make medicine with me? Sure. Totally. They want to share themselves with you. Once in a while, you'll come across a tree that maybe it's sick and you just can't tell, maybe it's not it's not in good shape for some reason or maybe you didn't introduce yourself enough and it's really annoyed with you and it just says, no, f off and it tells you to go away.
I've only had that happen a couple of times and it was my own fault because I'm like, you know, it's like walking up to a person. Walk walk up to a complete stranger and shake their hand and say, you know, hey, can I have the shirt on your back? And they're like, no. Go away from me, you crazy person. But if you have a talk with them and tell them just I really, really need this shirt. It's driving me. I I just I need it to survive. I need it to help myself. Maybe you'd be more inclined to give them your shirt, you know? So it's, I know that's, like, the worst analogy probably, but No. I get it. I get it. I was trying to give Yeah. Be respectful.
Exactly. Yeah. Because they're they're
[00:40:12] Unknown:
they have hearts and minds and spirits just like we do. So I'd love to see the things that they've seen, to be fair, even though they haven't got eyes. But what they've seen Oh, I know. Right? Yeah. Because I presume then that well, when you when you're walking barefoot, you're grounding yourself at the same time with the energy and stuff?
[00:40:31] Unknown:
Yep. Absolutely. The only time I'm not barefoot is in the dead of winter when it's too cold. It's because it gets really cold here. So, like, probably late March through pretty much the end middle middle of of November, maybe the end of November, I'm barefoot, and it's great and I love it. You you do feel you can even if you're not, like, standing there concentrating to feel the energy from the ground going into your body, it still feels you and it still helps, like, it it grounding lowers your inflammation overall. It calms you down. That's why saying you this is this experience has been very grounding is is synonymous with, you know, calming your body down or feeling better or feeling more energized because that's what it actually does for you. I just do it so often now.
It doesn't even bother you. I just do it so often now, it doesn't even bother me other than when I step on a bee and that sucks. I've done that a couple of times. Yeah. I was gonna say, surely, you had a couple of accidents. I have I have stepped on a thorn, I have stepped on a bee and it's not fun, but but to be fair like when I've the the cool thing about hiking barefoot, number 1, I'm not hiking like the Alps. I'm not in the Rocky Mountains. I'm in New England. So it's the the the hills and trails, they can be kinda rough, but it's, it's not like mountain climbing barefoot or anything. So it the act of going barefoot in the forest, you really have no choice but to pay attention to where you're placing your feet. You know, you have to be a little bit more Yeah. I want you to go in. Pick up the leg, put down the foot. Pick up the leg, put down the foot because if you're not paying attention, you're gonna stub your toe, you're gonna kick rock, you're gonna step on a thorn or something and it hurts.
So, and I've noticed that as as I've I've only been doing this for about a year and a half, the barefoot I've been hiking for years, but barefoot hiking for about a year and a half, and it it actually works your muscles more. So anybody out there that's interested in like the whole exercise part of this, it's it's really not as crazy as you think because you're exercising the muscles in your feet and your legs and it goes all the way up your hips into your back. You're you're you have to be, a just a little bit, the tiniest fraction of a second slower and more mindful of where you're putting things, and it works your muscles a little bit harder. So I've actually I think I've lost weight since I started doing this because I'm just, you know, hiking a little bit more slowly.
[00:42:56] Unknown:
So Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that sounds awesome. You've got so many topics I'd like to delve into, but I'm aware, like, we've got 17 minutes. Yeah. But can we talk a bit a bit about healing your gut, unwelling to gut health, and stuff like that? Finding it fascinating.
[00:43:10] Unknown:
Oh, yeah. For sure. I I can say that probably most people that come to me with, problems, they they think it's their skin. They think they have this rash. They think they have rosacea. They think they have dermatitis. They think they have eczema, and it's really gut health. It's a gut problem. Or they think they've got brain fog. They think they've they've got, or they're they're having fibromyalgia,
[00:43:34] Unknown:
and it's all related to your gut. It's your microbiome and whether you are or are not absorbing your gut.
[00:43:41] Unknown:
It's your microbiome and whether you are or are not absorbing the vitamins and minerals from your diet and whether you're not you are or are not getting the vitamins minerals that your body needs to function. That that actually causes a lot of hormonal issues too. So the gut health is related to hormone health. So when people, come and ask me, hey, what do I do about this, this or this? And it's all, like, my hormones are out of whack. My hormones are out of balance. I don't know what to do about PCOS or endometriosis or even the the guys come up, I've got erectile dysfunction or whatever it is. They they they're coming and asking me for help, and I'm like, the first thing I say, what's your diet like?
What's your diet like? And you can tell when somebody knows that it's their own fault when the first thing they say they they they, like, their head droops and they say, well, it's not very good. And it's, like, okay. So we have established that it's your own fault. But now I don't I don't wanna be mean to people, but at the same time Like, well Yeah. It is. It's your own fault. So we we have to I then I have to work, like, alright, well, these are the kinds of foods that you want to actually eat. These are the ones that you want to avoid, because all the food that you're putting into your body is either going to help you or harm you. If you don't have a good balance of, most you you wanna have mostly good gut bacteria and very little of the bad, you know, angry guys that are causing problems, if you don't have that balance and you're not feeding those good bacteria, then it it's gonna cause a problem. It's gonna cause an imbalance, and an imbalance that happens in your gut spreads to your skin or your hormones or your brain. So your gut health is so critically important. It's like the central thing every human being, you know, needs to be paying attention to and a lot of them either don't or they don't think they can.
[00:45:34] Unknown:
So that's that's where I I do my best to help if I can. Right. And I'm presuming, like, we're talking all the bacterias and stuff because I've only been looking into this for a couple of months now and realized as well that certain things we eat actually destroy something else that we eat for goodness.
[00:45:50] Unknown:
Mhmm.
[00:45:51] Unknown:
Yeah. Just for easy, it's like, well, what do we eat? And someone's been saying about all of the, like, sauerkraut and things like that, fermented foods and stuff. Fermented foods are are excellent. So the only the only thing caveat that I will give
[00:46:03] Unknown:
to that is that, unless you're the kind of person and there are some of these people out there. Unless you're the kind of person that makes a lot of fermented foods, makes and eats a lot of person that makes a lot of fermented foods, makes and eats a lot of their own fermented foods, like, you've got 17 crocs up on your counter, and I know somebody out there has that, you know, and they're all fermenting all of the things and you're eating it. If if you're doing that, then then you're probably in pretty good shape. But for the majority of people, even if you're gonna, you know, make your own pickles or make your own sauerkraut now and then, you're not necessarily gonna have the time to be doing that all the time.
You might not even have the the, resources to be able to, like, go and purchase it all the time, And that's why I I usually just, in modern modern America or modern world, suggest that you get on a probiotic supplement, poorly, if you're eating a lot of processed foods, you're eating the Doritos and ice cream and and Oreos all the time, that's a big part of your diet or the ramen and, basically, stuff that we know is junk food that we really probably shouldn't be eating a lot of. If that is making up the majority of of your diet, no amount of probiotics are gonna help you because the those kinds of foods don't feed the probiotics. You gotta understand probiotics are alive.
They're basically little organisms, that that live in your gut, and if if you don't feed them what they want to eat, they die and you poop them out and then they're gone and they're not doing any good anymore. So it's it's it's a vicious cycle of of you you really do. Once you realize what the problem is and you decide that you want to start making your gut a little healthier or get better and better and better, you look for a good quality supplement, and then you say to yourself, listen. This isn't gonna help unless I start eating more vegetables. Find whatever vegetables you want, and I will say right now, do whatever it takes to get those vegetables in your mouth. If the if the only way you're gonna eat some, you know, broccoli or cauliflower is by smothering it in cheese, then do it.
I I mean, I I've had I've been a farmer for 10 years. I've had so many people customers come up to me at a at a farmer's market and say, oh, beets beets are gross. I I don't know how anybody can eat beets. And I'm like, excuse me. How are you eating beets? And 9 times out of 10, they're, like, well, I boil them, and I say that's why they're gross because boiled beets are gross. I say take beets and you slice them up nice and thin and you saute them in some bacon fat. Fry a couple of pieces of bacon, saute the beets in the bacon fat and every single person that I've told this to looks at me and says, well, of course, it tastes good then, And I say, do you hear the words coming out of your mouth? Yes. Of course, it tastes good then. So that's how you eat it. Oh, my god. That's really interesting
[00:49:02] Unknown:
actually, because, only today, I was saying I I made a we're, like, really trying to get off all of the processed foods here and stuff, and I made a lasagna and, all fresh ingredients and stuff like that. And then it got to the cheese sauce, the part, but I made it with raw milk. And, you've got to counteract. I think there's lots of foods I don't eat. Like you say, they taste boring, and you think, well, if I eat it that way, I'll have to add a load of cheese and stuff. But like you say,
[00:49:32] Unknown:
it if it works, it works. If it if it works, it works. And, honestly, the the worst part of the lasagna is is the noodles rather. Yes. Yes. I suppose so. It's not the cheese as much. Although it depends. And, again, you're you're in the UK, and and it's your, food system is a little different than here. Like, here, I absolutely don't trust the wheat here. And some of the dairy it depends on where you get your dairy and where it was made and what was in it kinda thing. Sure. Dairy products are, can be questionable. Plus me for I magically became lactose intolerant about 2 years ago, which sucks. So I'm kind of just I can't do that anymore. I'm like, oh, I would love a lasagna but it would, put me in the bathroom for hours.
So, but you have to deal with whatever you're dealing you know, whatever you are dealing with with your own life, your own allergies, or however you want to eat. If you're in the United States, pretty much stay away from wheat. That's just my general recommendation. Out out where you guys are, I think you you probably have a little bit better, wheat, but but there's, there's a famous guy, a famous food critic out here named Michael Pollan. I don't know if you ever heard of him. He he has, he has a very simple saying and he says, eat food not too much, mostly plants.
And it's it that does not mean you have to be a vegan or a vegetarian, it's just think about how simple that is. Eat food not too much, mostly plants. So most of your your food that you intake into your body should be probably fruits and vegetables, and then, you know, nuts and seeds, and then you eat meat or dairy or whatever sweets and things that you want. But but but that's the plant kingdom has the largest amount overall
[00:51:19] Unknown:
of foods that are gonna be healthy to eat, like, in the in their whole state like that. They don't have to be processed into anything. I'm waiting for the time. It's gonna be about 10 years or so, I think. Just a small hold ins. I want a cow. I want my own milk. Nice. I want my own chickens. All of that sort of stuff. And I've just, we've got a vegetable plot outside. Quite a big one, actually, and it's, yeah, it's now getting interesting, but reality wise, I think you need to be a full time homekeeper to make everything from scratch. You've got me thinking now about if I do a lasagna again, I'll just have to make my own pasta.
[00:51:53] Unknown:
Yeah. Yep. I've I've made pasta I've made gluten free pasta, actually. I think I I did some of that this spring, and, I added stinging nettle to it, and it was really nice. That was good. Nice. So that was really good. And making your own cheese, like, the kind of cheese you would want in a lasagna, is not that difficult. It's like a gallon of milk and some vinegar. It's really not that hard. But then, you know, if you want if you wanna keep goats or keep a cow or keep any of that kind of stuff, chickens are easy. Chickens are ridiculously easy, and just don't don't let anybody scare you away from from keeping some chickens. Duck ducks are a little bit more difficult. Geese are a little bit more difficult, but chickens, like, I swear, anybody could have chickens. If you've got half an acre or a quarter of an acre or any anything, any little tiny plot of land, you could have some chickens. You just have to be aware that if you're gonna try to free range them, they will walk probably at least a half mile away.
You can you can think you lost your chickens and then they'll show up the next day. They're like they went on vacation in the neighbor's yard 3 towns over something. They're ridiculous. But I and and then there's there's good things and bad things about chickens, but chickens overall are probably the easiest,
[00:53:03] Unknown:
farm animal to keep Right. I I I will have to say. Yeah. I'm gonna have to wait a few years. I mean, I made my home my own, sourdough starter a couple of weeks ago and then the bread, it it tasted really yeasty. That's all I can say. I gave it to the birds.
[00:53:20] Unknown:
Oh, jeez. I used to make sourdough back when I when I was not afraid to eat wheat. I used to make a lot of sourdough and, yeah, I just you as long if you are fermenting it, that is absolutely the best way. Just just like I said, fermenting your your fermenting your dough, fermenting your milk into kefir or a fermented cheese is great. Fermenting tea into kombucha is great. Fermenting your vegetables into kimchi or sauerkraut or pickles. I mean, real fermented cucumber pickles, they're really easy to make, and they're absolutely amazing. Like, if you've ever just eaten a pickle out of a jar and you're, like, you know what? This is this is great, but try making your own fermented pickles. It takes, like, 3 or 4 days on the countertop, and it's so amazingly delicious. Every single time I make them, they're gone in, like, 2 days. Yeah. My whole household just we just devour them. They're so good. So it's totally different.
[00:54:13] Unknown:
Oh, so yeah. There's something about homemade food, though, isn't there? I mean, I've got into baking as well, but the problem is I'm although I can see what's going in and it's in all the processed shop stuff, I'm still aware, like, it's sugar. I don't know where it's come from, and I use butter now. I don't know. I'm trying to make positive changes all the time. That's excellent
[00:54:31] Unknown:
excellent. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, that's healthy fats, that's one thing that holds a lot of people up. I get I think somebody asked me this morning about, like, what are the best oils to cook in? And I'm like, most almost all of my cooking that I do at high net because I cook pretty much everything, that I eat. If I need to to cook something in a pan, I'm either cooking in, bacon fat or butter because I save all my bacon fat in a jar that I can Oh, okay. So I I save bacon fat and I or I cook with with butter, you know, full fat butter. And, I do cook with olive oil occasionally.
I do keep a few other oils. Like, if I'm gonna bake, if I made it if I wanted to make banana bread or something, I would probably use, walnut oil or coconut oil or something like that. You want the the healthy healthy fats, the whole fats. Like, I tell people if you're gonna eat a pork chop, eat the fat on your pork chop. Don't trim all that fat off. That's delicious. That's what gives us the best part. Absolutely. And your body likes it so much because your body is craving those healthy fats, you know. You you gotta think of of human history. Humans evolved eating animal fat and eating bone marrow and things like that, and so many people just don't eat that way anymore.
[00:55:47] Unknown:
And we were like to, weren't we, a long time ago that all of these good fats are actually bad fats, and even people now are like, oh, I won't eat that. I won't eat that.
[00:55:55] Unknown:
They're they're still trying to teach you, oh, saturated fats are all bad, and I'm like, no. A small amount of saturated fat in your diet is actually really good because it sates you. It's, satiating. It stays in your belly longer. So if you eat, I mean, if you if you made a piece of toast and you tried to put olive oil on it, it would I mean, it would be it would probably last in your belly belly okay. If you put margarine on it, it tastes like plastic. It's disgusting. If you put butter on it, on that piece of toast or butter and jam or something, you've got that that healthy saturated fat. You know, you're not you're not putting a pound of butter on your peanut toast. No. That's too sweet. But that that that extra fat, just like coconut oil, if you put that in some people put coconut oil in their coffee now, and that extra fat in your food, in your drink or whatever it is, sits in your stomach a little longer because it takes a little bit longer to digest and it keeps you full longer. So you don't get hungry, and you're not constantly snacking as much. You know? Yeah. That's what I need. Healthy fats are good. Yeah. I well, I notice sometimes,
[00:56:57] Unknown:
well, you know, obviously we'll take note of what we're eating and stuff, but, you know, quite often I get hungry in the evenings and I think should've eaten more, shouldn't eat, should've eaten more. You know? Just, but what does fill you up. Yeah.
[00:57:08] Unknown:
Yeah. Eat eat the eat the fats or the proteins or whatever is gonna actually stay in your belly because, you know, I want I should have eaten more and then you go eat a candy bar, you're in trouble. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Weighing it all up. Anyway, we've got to round up, Amelia. That went so quick.
[00:57:24] Unknown:
Yeah. It it happens. Yeah. We'll have to do it again because, my god, there's so much to talk to you about. Where can people find you, Lovely?
[00:57:32] Unknown:
So, I'm on social media, and I'm on on TikTok. I'm at the original meal chan, which is I hope I don't know if maybe you can write that down. Yes. The original meal chan. Yeah. And and it's I'm I'm the only I've got, like, a 100 and 17,000 followers and I have to say that because, some other people have randomly on TikTok, like, taken some of my videos and they pretend to be me and they change, like, one one letter in my screen name, and so don't get confused by them. I have a pretty big following on there. On YouTube, it's also at the original Mail Chan.
Facebook, Black Sun Farm because my farm name is Black Sun Farm. So Black Sun Farm CT, and CT is short for Connecticut. If you're not familiar with the US, that's just our, you know, we abbreviate our states. So, Connecticut, Black Sun Farm on Instagram,
[00:58:30] Unknown:
in. Pop them in all of I'll pop them in the write up after this, Amelia, and I'll send it to you. Well, thank you so much. I wish you luck, and I look forward to watching more of your videos. Thank you. Yeah. You were nice.
[00:58:44] Unknown:
I I will keep I will keep doing it. Yep. You can find all my I think everything has a a link to my website and every one of my social media profiles too. So Wonderful. I'll put it in. Alright, my lovely. Well, you have an amazing day. Thank you too.
[00:58:57] Unknown:
Thank you so much. Bye. Great. Have a good night. Bye bye. Bye. Wow. And that is it for this week. I will be back the same time, same place.
[00:59:19] Unknown:
Is
Good evening, ladies out there and to the odd man that's listening. You are listening to women's hour on radiosoapbox.com. I'm also streaming live on Rumble if you'd like to join in with any chat. Today's date is Sunday, 4th August 2024. It's good to have your company. I've got 2 excellent guests lined up this evening. 2 very inspirational women indeed. Was just up until a couple of minutes ago, a bit worried that we couldn't get the 1st guest on because of Skype playing up and stuff, but we have figured out a way. So my first guest is Kalina Powell, who is a dynamic a dynamic deaf coach and advocate. She's an international speaking, best selling author, and passionate entrepreneur dedicated to helping young adults with disabilities achieve their dreams.
She has done a lot, written books, you name it. Anyway, let's get this wonderful person on the show. Let's go on to Facebook. Sorry about this. I've got all these tabs open. Things are more exciting. Hello? Good evening, Galena. Hello. How's it going? It's good. Thank you. Thank you for coming on the show. Yes. No problem. Thank you for having me. No. You're welcome. So let's get into your story. I've had a little look on your Facebook page and stuff, and, oh, you're an interesting lady, aren't you? You're very busy speaking and spreading the word.
[00:02:43] Unknown:
Yes. Yes. Definitely. And there you guys can hear me okay? Yeah. I can hear you fine.
[00:02:49] Unknown:
Okay. Perfect. Just wanna make sure. Yeah. No. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. So take take us Yeah. Take us to the start of your journey, sweet, and let's, yeah, let's have a little caption of what's going on.
[00:03:01] Unknown:
Yeah. No worries. No worries. Thank you for having me. I want the guys to. No. You're welcome. Okay.
[00:03:09] Unknown:
So you were born. Tell us your story. How right from the beginning.
[00:03:15] Unknown:
Okay. Yeah. For sure. So it all started actually when I became deaf at the age of 4, due to an ear infection. And, so I just struggled a lot in terms of understanding what is going on, as I got older because I didn't know, who I am. Right? Yeah. Because, you know, everybody in my family is hearing, and I didn't understand what was happening in terms of how how do I why me? Right? And everybody around me is hearing. Other people are not hearing. And so, you know, while growing up, I realized that I was different from everybody else around me. And that's when I knew I wanted to make a difference in in my walls. Right? In the depth of media. And I realized that when I got older, I didn't have anybody that looks like me or represent me. And that's how I started my entrepreneur journey to become, international speaker, become an author, and, lastly, a coach.
[00:04:20] Unknown:
Wow. Wow. So you could hear up until the age of 4. Right? Yes. Yeah. So just suddenly just lit well, lose your hearing must have been well, I can't imagine it, especially as a 4 year old child.
[00:04:35] Unknown:
Yeah. So when I actually so what happened was I went to, and that's when I actually became deaf. So long story short, I I had an ear infection. Right? But the thing is I had a ear drop for my ear. So I that same day, I went through daycare. They give me my ear drop. And that same day I went home, I just completely became deaf. I was in front of the TV, watching a show. My mom tapped me on my shoulder and she said, Kalina, I've been calling you. And I looked at my mom and I said, wait. I can't hear you. My mom looked confused. I'm just confused. I didn't know what to expect, what to say.
And then that's when I like, family realized because my mom was calling my grandmother because my grandma was a nurse at the time. And my grandma, rushed home from the hospital. She did some assessment with me and she's like, oh my god. Like, what is going on? And then that's when we went to my doctor, and my doctor said, I'm so sorry. She's unfortunately deaf.
[00:05:37] Unknown:
So what was the reasoning behind this then? Pardon? What was the reasoning behind this? Was it the airdrop that you had or the infection?
[00:05:49] Unknown:
I'm they could have put the hot plate in the water too much for the ear infection. I'm not too sure. I don't remember. My family spoke to to this day. Like, it's very uncomfortable for them to tell me what happened, unfortunately. But all I know is that it was I was cleaning up the water, something with the day care environment, unfortunately.
[00:06:07] Unknown:
Wow. Wow.
[00:06:09] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:06:09] Unknown:
So what age did you get to when you realized it's, you know, I need to help other people? What what was it like your schooling years, you know, being that person? So I'm asking you too many questions at once. What was it like being that person at school that couldn't hear?
[00:06:26] Unknown:
Yeah. So for me, like, it just the transition of it was very difficult because I was trying to hear all over again, had a 4 year old. Right? Like, I already know how to talk. I already know I could hear, but the transition of it was very difficult because I had to find out how do I do this all over again. Right? And as a 4 year old, you don't know what's happening to you, and so it was very difficult, and especially being in the hearing school full time. Right? I went to the deaf school in the afternoon, and I went to the hearing school in the morning. So that was a huge transition for me to really understand that I'm I am in 2 different community and 2 different personality for myself.
[00:07:13] Unknown:
Right. Yeah. I can imagine that. So as time went on, how long do you think it took? I mean, I presume now, have have you got hearing aids or have you got better?
[00:07:25] Unknown:
Can you repeat that again? Have you got sorry.
[00:07:30] Unknown:
As as time has gone by, how have you regained your hearing? Have you are you using hearing aids, or did your hearing just improve?
[00:07:40] Unknown:
No. So my hearing hasn't changed at all since I was 4 years old. It actually remained the same, and I wear hearing aids both times, 247. The only time I don't wear it is when I'm sleeping.
[00:07:53] Unknown:
Wow. Wow. So without those hearing aids, you can't hear anything? At all. Wow. It just goes to show how strong they are, doesn't it? You know? Because I'm just you know, we're not lip you're not lip reading. Do you do you use lip reading a lot as a source to get by?
[00:08:11] Unknown:
So I do a lot of closed captions. So closed caption is literally my best friend to go by through everything, especially if I'm watching something on the screen or TV or podcasting. I need, closed caption 100%. However, if we are face to face or if I'm in a crowd, I do rely on the breathing a lot. Right. Would you prefer if for me to put the video on, Kaleena? Yes. So I use, like honestly, I'm using my closed caption on my phone to hear you.
[00:08:42] Unknown:
Right. Okay. I put my face sorry. Do you know it didn't even enter my head to use video. Bless you. Oh, it's nice to see your face now anyway.
[00:08:53] Unknown:
Yeah. So last time I did it for me. So a lot of times people don't understand how important it is. I will. And people will ask me, they're like, how is your advocacy, and how are you always, like, telling people that? And sometimes I don't, and sometimes I do tell people. Again, it really depends
[00:09:09] Unknown:
on who the person is. Right. Right. And where are you now? I know you're not at home. You're outside somewhere.
[00:09:17] Unknown:
Yeah. So I'm just at a restaurant with my best friend, so we're just doing a little catch up. So she's just like so because I told her the whole situation that happened with the Skype, And then she's like, oh, just do the Facebook coverage. And I'm like, okay. I will do that.
[00:09:31] Unknown:
There's always the way, isn't it? But that's alright. It should've been prepared, but no worries. We've got you. We've got you. So when you go out and talk to people now, what is the main subjects that you discuss?
[00:09:42] Unknown:
I use it's again, it's a part of my environment. So for example, I used to go through networking and branch and stuff. Networking and branch, so you just talk about how can I collaborate with people in terms of how do I, I can help them in terms of their community? How can we be more inclusive? Right? I feel like a lot of us don't understand how we can do it and how to be consistent. I think that's a lot of major problem a lot of people are facing. They don't know how to be consistent because they don't know. Right? And not everybody don't know. So that's why I do have
[00:10:15] Unknown:
a with people. And, again, they need to be facing me.
[00:10:19] Unknown:
I need to read your lips all the time. So
[00:10:22] Unknown:
Wonderful. Wonderful. I'm careful now how I use my lips and make sure I'm using them properly. I mean, presumably You're doing great. Thank you. You're doing great. It it reminds me well, my nan, bless her. She she was very deaf, towards the end of her life, and we were all speaking slowly and clearly. And, you know Really? I know. And I here I was with the video off. I feel awful. Anyway, never mind. Never mind. So you you look pretty young, Colleen. How old are you? I'm only 27. Yeah. You're a baby. You're the same age as my first daughter. Yeah. I think I'm old. Periodic. Some people are like, no. You're a baby. You are a baby. Trust me. Trust me. 27.
Yeah. The same age as my daughter. Wow. So, I mean, just Okay. Okay. Good. And where are you based to now? Where am I speaking to you? Yeah. I'm in Canada, Toronto. Canada. That's what I thought. Yeah. I seem to get a lot of contacts from Canada. I think the next lady from Canada too must just be attracted to the
[00:11:30] Unknown:
UK. Wow. I don't know. I get a couple UK people, but not so many.
[00:11:35] Unknown:
Oh, right. Right. No. It's good to have these contacts. So tell me a little bit. I mean, presumably, when I can't imagine anything worse than hearing everything and then just silence.
[00:11:50] Unknown:
Yes. Exactly. Just silence.
[00:11:52] Unknown:
And for a 4 year old to just experience that, even when it's quiet now, I don't like it. I like the noise, you know, behind the background and stuff like that. What was that like for you? I mean, could you hear your own voice, you know, like, shouting for help on the inside? Could you hear yourself kind of talk it? I know it's difficult because you're, like, 4 years old.
[00:12:13] Unknown:
I, honestly, I don't remember. I really didn't remember when I was younger. But when I got older, I can't hear myself talking, like, right now. But I just know that in my brain, I have to prepare when I'm talking. And I don't know if it's just me, you guys, but I think I just, like, I just talk. I don't think about it. I just talk. So, like, for me, it's just I don't know. And I was a very active little girl, very athletic. So, like, for me, I was always on the go. So I never really think about hearing myself talking. Unless I'm talking to myself at the only time. But other than that, there's nothing else. So you can't hear yourself talking now? I'm talking now. Yes. And now I know.
[00:12:56] Unknown:
Right. Right.
[00:12:57] Unknown:
Yeah. But only if, like, I'm hear I don't know. If only if I talk to myself, yes. But I do not know. I don't know why. People ask me that. I'm like, no.
[00:13:07] Unknown:
That's why because I often say to people that speak 2 languages. Do do they think in what language do they think in? You know?
[00:13:15] Unknown:
Exactly.
[00:13:16] Unknown:
And what about your friendship groups? Are you amongst others that are also deaf or just you know, that sounds like a stupid question, but it just So my friend group are very multicultural
[00:13:28] Unknown:
people. I love it. And, very multicultural, very mixed, very blended. There's some friends who are hard of hearing, there's friends who are completely deaf, and there's friends that are, who does only sign language. So it's very variety of different friends I have, which I love it because I can balance balance between the 2 people. The community, I would say. So it was very cool to see and network with people that can actually kind of relate to your story. So Oh, yeah. So I presume you do sign language as well. A little bit. Not too much. I'm not interested in sign language, but I'm really trying to keep up, but there's always something new. Yeah. Yeah. Because the I don't know. There's a couple of different types, isn't there? The well, I know over here, we've got the Macaton sign in and the English British sign language. Exactly. It's like so much that, like, keep up. So I know it's I was like, I can't keep up. So I'm only strictly learning American sign language for now.
[00:14:23] Unknown:
Right. Right. Yeah. Just just as well, isn't it?
[00:14:25] Unknown:
It's easy to use different languages. Yeah. Exactly.
[00:14:30] Unknown:
So what are you doing with yourself then when you're not, like, out partying at restaurants? And is this your, like, career, so to speak, going out and speaking to people? And is it a job for you now?
[00:14:43] Unknown:
Yeah. So my speaking is literally a job for me now, and that's why I'm coaching being offered. I had a 3rd work that a collaboration book that just came out 4 days ago with a lot of the deaf, community, which is very fascinating. And yeah. So that's what I do full time, speaking, coaching, providing workshop for organization as well. And I also do a partnership with, Black Mental Health Canada as well just to coach their disability department, which is very cool.
[00:15:12] Unknown:
Wow. Wow. Is the mental you know, can you relate to that, I presume, because you were growing up? Exactly. What what age do you feel is, like, the hardest age?
[00:15:24] Unknown:
I was middle school.
[00:15:27] Unknown:
Right.
[00:15:28] Unknown:
Because the bully, peer pressure, you don't know who you are, how to person, especially learning how to advocate for yourself was very hard for me in middle school because I didn't understand, well, what type of person, my words, like, being okay, not fitting in. I think everybody wanted to fit in when we're younger in middle school. So I think middle school would definitely be the hardest one. Were you bullied?
[00:15:54] Unknown:
Yes. I was. Oh, bless you. That's my son's gonna go to, well, secondary school, we call it, over here. And I just he's such a gentle little soul, and I always worry about him being bullied and stuff. It's like they say, being an advocate for yourself and learning to well, you know you're different, but you're kind of not different if you know what I'm saying. I'm just contradicting myself there. But getting through that, it's quite, you have to be very courageous.
[00:16:26] Unknown:
Yes. You have to be, and you have to have a very strong support system. And that's when I realized a lot of time, us young kids, we don't feel comfortable going to our family even though they know they they have their parents to support them and help them guide through it. But, you know, for me, luckily, I was able to speak to my family. I did have a strong, solid relationship with my family. My family came to the school, advocate for me every day. Every time I get bullied, like, no tomorrow was never a problem for my family to show up to the school.
[00:16:58] Unknown:
Oh, good. Good. Oh, bless you. So what did you do after middle school? Did you go on to more did you train for this at all? How did you suddenly come out? Did you wake up one day and say, do you know what? This is what I wanna do.
[00:17:12] Unknown:
So I actually started when I used to work at a big park called Canada Wonderland. And with a little boy that pushed me, I said, I am one second. So it's so there's a little bird push me and he was also deaf. And I had my hair in a ponytail like this, and he came to me and he said, miss miss, look, I'm deaf too. And the mom came to me full of joy, and she's, you're deaf, and you have your hair in a ponytail. And it was so sweet because she was not expecting to see someone who was deaf in the hearing community like that. And she was just open and join. She was like, thank you so much for making my son to build him stone for him because she was trying to treat the son. Nothing's wrong with him. He's normal.
And so for him to see me, I was just, oh, and then the mom literally said, you may not know this, but I think you're gonna make a change in the world just by putting your hair in a ponytail. And that's when I knew right there, I wanted to make an impact to the younger generation.
[00:18:09] Unknown:
Oh, that's oh, that's made all my hair stand up on end. I love things like that.
[00:18:14] Unknown:
Yes.
[00:18:16] Unknown:
Yeah. Story to get you going. Yeah. One little boy. So do you go into classes now with, like, younger children and talk to them?
[00:18:25] Unknown:
Yes. So I do I go to school. I go to a lot of school, and, secondly, I do a lot of speaking. I do a lot with the school. So I do workshop and speaking.
[00:18:35] Unknown:
Wow. Wow. And this, like, you say, wearing your hair in a ponytail. Is this specific then? Because I suppose lots of people would be trying to cover up a hearing aid. But you wore the ponytail, and it's like, this is who I am. I'm deaf, and I'm gonna own it, basically. Exactly.
[00:18:53] Unknown:
Exactly.
[00:18:54] Unknown:
Wow. So how do you wanna tell us a little bit about the book that you've written?
[00:18:59] Unknown:
Yeah. For sure. So I have 3 books. So the very first book I've written was 2 years ago. It's called Everyday I Am Just Deaf. And it's about me being deaf daily basics. What is it like to be deaf in the Harry's community? It's a big poetry book, you guys. It's not a chapter book. Believe me. I don't always like reading chapter book. But it's a very poetry book. It's very short and brief. It's really letting people understand what it's like to be deaf once again, but also to to understand what is it that we can do better for the deaf community to be a better place for them. That's the whole purpose of my book, to really educate the hearing community.
[00:19:43] Unknown:
Right. And what about your other books that you've written? You've been busy. So the second written 3 by the age of 27.
[00:19:52] Unknown:
So the second book is young, young math young changers. So that one is with the collaboration book with all the young adults who are entrepreneurs. So we always talk about our story. How did we get here? Why are we doing this? What is our message? So that's what we talked about all of our stories, which is very unique because we have people from all over the world, India, the medical public, me, myself, Canada, United States. It was very, very cool. And then the United States. It was very, very cool. And then the third word that just came out with with all the deaf actors, kadutur.
And it was very cool because we actually the same thing again, we talk about our story and what we do.
[00:20:29] Unknown:
Wow. Wow. So when you go into these classes with these young children, are they all really quite amazed that you walk in and they can see somebody else with a pair of a pair, hearing aids? That's the right word?
[00:20:44] Unknown:
Oh, yeah. They were they have made because for them, they always one of them told me that. It was funny. A kid told me the same thing he said that, so he was telling me he's like, Lina, you know what's so funny? You're the first young person that I meet. I always meet older people, like, old people. Again, kids are young. They don't know what old is. So when they see me, they're like, oh my god. It's so true. Like, I can do it. You can do it. So I was very forced to see that smile on a lot of kids' face. And for them to see that, you know, we're not that far apart. Right? I tell them straight up. I'm 27.
I'm not too far from you guys. I was just in your shoes. And so if there was so, like, it's it's just off a lot. So yeah.
[00:21:34] Unknown:
Oh, pretty awesome. I'm really touched, actually. Really touched. Thank you so much for coming on and having a chat. Can can you guide us to a website of yours, Kalina? Do you have a website? Or Yes. Yeah. So I do.
[00:21:49] Unknown:
Okay. So my website is kaleena empowerment.com. You will find all the information about my story, my coaching package, and how to write my book. And second, you can always find me on social media. People always ask my social media. I am so my social media is Deb Queen Boss. So you can find me anywhere.
[00:22:07] Unknown:
Wonderful. Right. Well, I will share your details in the write up for it. Thank you so much. It's been a real privilege. Really nice to hear that story. You have a nice evening at the restaurant. You're welcome. So much. Take care. Bye bye. Bye. Oh, bless her. That was lovely. I can't believe it didn't enter my head that I would need to do a video. I love stories like that. I love stories, and she's living the dream. It looks like she's out with her friends. Very good on her phone. If somebody walked by, she'll quickly mute it. These young people, they've got all this control, haven't they? And I'm here with all of these, tabs and panels open on my Mac, and I'm like, oh. Anyway, we have another great guest lined up in a few minutes.
But just before she comes on, I will play a little tune if I can find it. It's a song that I was going to use actually for the theme for the women's hour radio show. And I don't know about you guys, but I am terrible at making decisions, and I probably spent about 3 hours in the end. And every time I went on to YouTube, I was downloading more downloading more songs I like, and they're all like the vintagey era. So I really liked this one, and, I will give it a play before our next guest comes up. See you in a couple of seconds. If it's gonna work.
I just need to laugh these days. There's no point in stressing this there. No point at all. Told me that you love me. That was the song. Bear with me. You know what will happen? I'll forget all about it, and I'll just randomly start playing. Let's try this one. And if this one doesn't work, we'll just forget this one and go straight onto the next guest. I like this one. Dinah Shore, buns and bones.
[00:24:19] Unknown:
It's too easy, and west is west and the wrong one I have choked. Let's go where I keep on wearing those frills and flowers and buttons and bows. Rings and things and buttons and bows. A I don't bury me on this prairie, take me where the cement grows. Let's move down to something town where they love bug gal but they cut her clothes and I'll stand out in buttons and bows. Yours in buttons and bows. Get in the Eastern trim and wear,
[00:26:00] Unknown:
That was different.
[00:26:02] Unknown:
Now let's quickly find the button to turn it off. I think I've done it. Right. Let's get our next let's guest on the line. I'm here with all these tabs. I don't think we're going live through Rumble. Anyway, no problem. One week it'll week. One week it'll work. The other it won't. Anyway, right. Let's get our next guest on the line. We've got Amelia Self. She is a professional foraging herbist herbalist and instructor. She sounds off awesome, the things that she gets up to. Right? Let's give Amelia a call. Good evening, Amelia.
Hello. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. How are you doing?
[00:26:57] Unknown:
I'm alright. I it is this is the first time I've used Skype in a few years, so I'm sorry if this is a little awkward. No. No. No. That's fine. Well, we are live on radiosoapbox
[00:27:06] Unknown:
dotcom. So, Yeah. Great. So, Amelia, oh, you're a busy lady, aren't you? Oh, I'm crazy busy. Yeah. No. I love it. So tell us a bit about yourself. How did you get to be, like, a farmer or a forager? How did you get to, like, where you're at now?
[00:27:23] Unknown:
Oh, gosh. I don't know if we've got
[00:27:28] Unknown:
enough time for all of that. In brief. Give me the the cliff notes versions. Yeah.
[00:27:31] Unknown:
So I I the first time I ever really foraged on purpose was in 2006. I was, like, 22 living in a really crappy apartment out in Washington state in, the United States, obviously, and, there was in the area that I lived, there was a lot of blackberries, along the sides of the roads, like, to the point where there's a there's a very specific variety of blackberry out in that part of the country that is, like, almost to the point of being invasive, I guess. They have a festival all around it and everything, and I I just said, you know what? Look at all this free food. And I took a bowl from my kitchen, and I went out and I picked a whole bunch of berries, threw them in the bowl, and I went back to my apartment I time I said, hey, I can do this kinda thing.
And, so I I started with fruit because the fruit is the easiest thing to to start with, I I think for anybody. Then around, in 2009, I had my daughter and, she, at about 2 weeks old, started getting colic. And, if anybody that's listening that's ever had a child knows darn well you can't give anything to a baby. There's, like, nothing safe you can give to a baby until they're, like, at least 6 months, maybe a year old. So a 2 week old, they'll they just say good luck, you know, let it cry. Yeah. Gonna drive in the car. That's pretty much it. Yeah. So I I I was exhausted in trying to deal with that as a new mom and, I had this this, little book, for of herbal remedies for children and whatnot, and I looked up and they said try chamomile tea. Said it's very safe. You can try that with a baby and it's okay and, you know, just don't make it super strong and that's what I did and it helped.
So I said, well, there's something to this, you know. So that that kinda started me getting really interested in herbal medicine because I, you know, I tried that and then, you know, later on, a few months later, she had a stomachache and I tried gripe water which mainly made with fennel, and that helped a lot. So I I was, like, yeah, this herbs herbs are my jam now. And and so, you know, I I between that and and when I I was a stay at home mom for about 4 years, maybe four and a half years, and, you know, I'd I'd push the the kids in a stroller along the side of the road, and I'd be trying to looking at all the plants on the side of the road or off in the woods and, like, what is that thing? What is that thing? Starting to get into it more and more. And I just back in 2018, because this is America, I lost my health insurance, and, I I basically had had the choice to either, put $500 into an online class that I found, like a school, an herbalism school and teach myself herbalism, herbal medicine making, and all that stuff or I could attempt to, pull $400 out of nowhere a month a month to pay for the insurance. And I just decided that I couldn't afford that, so I invested in an education. And so that's basically where I've been at.
I I started learning there. I started learning as much free stuff as I could online. I took classes with, the Center of Excellence. I, I think that's out of England actually. And then, Heart of Herbs Herbal School. I've taken classes with the Commonwealth Center For Holistic Herbalism and the School of Evolutionary Herbalism and the Northeast School of Medicinal Herbalism oh, sorry. No. Sorry. Northwest School of Medicine and the, Northwest School of Aromatic Medicine. So I I am I'm an, official, certified artisanal incense crafter now too, which is a little bit different than an aromatherapist, but I yeah. So I and I have a 1,000,000 books and I've read a lot of books and I listen to podcasts almost everyday on on all kinds of stuff. You are high energy, aren't you? I can see. Yes. I am very entertaining. That's why I have a following on on the Internet.
Oh, well, no. It's just your energy is, like, woo. I love Well, I love what I do. Hopefully, that comes across. I really do love Absolutely. I love this.
[00:31:35] Unknown:
What is your what is your favorite part out of it now then? I mean, lots of your videos. I've seen a few on, YouTube, like little shorties on stuff and things like that. But what do you really love
[00:31:46] Unknown:
doing? Being barefoot in the woods. Hiking barefoot in the woods. And, it's it's super exciting if I come across a mushroom or a plant that I I like, I've seen pictures of but I've never actually seen in person before. That's like my holy cow, you know, amazing moment. But I I'm really finding this year a lot of joy in, I guess, taste and trying new new plants even if they're not like it's a plant that I knew what it was and I've seen what it was and I've told people, hey, this is what this plant is and this is what this plant can do. But this year, I'm trying to, like, push myself to do it more. Like I've I have tasted at least a dozen new plants, that like I'd heard of them or I'd seen them before, but I'd never tasted them until this year.
So, that that's that's fun for me. Like, I'm trying to do more experimenting with with cooking and making different, preparations with things that I that I haven't experienced.
[00:32:44] Unknown:
Wow. I get you with the, like, the whole toadstool mushroom thing. I've recently been going down a couple of rabbit holes with the whole fungi and gut health thing. I watched the Fantastic Fungi on Netflix. Yeah. I was like, woah. What a whole new movie. That movie's great. Yeah. That movie's great. And the mycelium, oh, the did I pronounce that right? Yeah. Mycelium.
[00:33:09] Unknown:
Yep. Or the mycelial network between trees. That's that's how they communicate. Yep. Yeah. I just find that absolutely fascinating,
[00:33:16] Unknown:
and I need to delve more into that. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
[00:33:20] Unknown:
I can tell you well, first off, the thing to to explain to people, because I don't know, if anybody's listening, what their level of understanding is. So this is just like the basic basic thing that you're looking for. For the newbie. Yeah. For for the newbie, for mushrooms, if you close your eyes and picture a mushroom, you're probably picturing, like, either a little, anita mushroom or some little button mushroom from the grocery store or something like that. What you're seeing is called the mushroom's fruiting body. Okay? That's the fruiting body of the mushroom. So mycelium is basically like the roots of the mushroom that go down into either the wood chips or the wood or the whatever it's growing in. Mycelium is the roots.
And so if you were to see a picture I I don't know if you've ever seen a a picture of what, like, a, a tree, a maple tree or something looks like above ground and then below ground, and there's just as many roots Yes. Below the ground as there are branches above ground. Mushrooms are kinda like that except you see this tiny little, you know, couple inches big mushroom above the ground and then below the ground, there's a mycelial network of, like, 10 feet 10 or 15 feet. It's, like, everywhere. It's huge. So and then just along this mycelial and it it they continue to spread. So the mycelial, sorry, the mycelial network is basically just a whole bunch of roots and then the mushrooms just keep spreading and spreading and along along the route, the the the fruiting body will come up, and sometimes it will spread spores from the fruiting body, which then travel on the air, and, you know, then they they move somewhere else. And sometimes they become interconnected with each other, but most of the time, they start they have these little colonies of, mycelium with little teeny weeny mushrooms all over the place. And then over time, they just spread out enough that that, different different mushrooms can speak with each other and the the mycelium from one mushroom can talk with another mushroom, and it's just a really cool network. And that's basically the trees kinda tap into that, that network of mushroom mycelium underground and use it to communicate signals with each other. It's not like a walkie talkie or like people talking.
It's more of like a like maybe pheromones or something. I think they've studied it and I I haven't studied it enough. All I know is that I I can I do talk with trees, so there's my hippie dippy moment? Oh, love it. Love it. Gonna not believe me, you you don't have to believe me, but I believe you. You need to talk about that as well. Yeah. You you can absolutely communicate with trees. You can communicate with most plants, honestly. You can probably talk with your house plants. I, my some of my houseplants are really cranky because I don't water them enough. But, I'm that happens to everybody. The I feel like if you're gonna try to go out into nature and communicate with something that is a plant, a tree is gonna be the easiest thing to do because the way I the way I feel the way I see it is that trees are just like a human with roots in the ground. Honestly, they're they're so and they're ancient, they're wise, all that good stuff, but, you know, the younger ones have a little bit more energy and are will more willing to communicate with you. Do you want me to explain how to do that? Yes. Okay. Please do.
So I I I don't know what the trees are that you've got over over on your side of the water. Over here, there's a lot of pine in my area. So there's a lot of white pine, and I I have noticed and if you talk with any anybody else that has, that communicates with trees has they've always agreed with me on this. Like, white pines are so friendly. They're ridiculously friendly. And I think I feel like most pines I think it's because they're one of the oldest varieties of trees on the planet. I mean, I know, like, ginkgo is older, but pine is really one of the most ancient varieties of trees on this on this planet because they're pollinating through the wind and any of those trees that pollinate with wind are really, really old because it you know, they've been around since long before bees came about. So pine pine trees, I feel like they're so they're so ancient, they're just so ridiculously happy to have people talking with them again. It's it's talking with a pine tree is like talking with a golden retriever, wagging its tail, like, hey, hey, how's it going? Yeah. Yeah. You could talk with me. Let's do this. Let's do that. And then they get, like, upset when you walk away. So what you need to do is, the the easiest way to do it, put your hand on a tree on on on the trunk of the tree, and and then imagine there's, like, a little string tied around your heart connected to a little string tied around, like, just imagine the heart the tree has a heart inside, and you're you're, like, just feeling the emotions back and forth between you and the tree. The trees obviously don't have a mouth or vocal cords. They can't speak. So what the way to communicate is to trust your intuition.
That's the hardest part, honestly. So many people don't trust themselves and don't trust their intuition. They could meditation. It can be. Honestly, meditation honestly is a crapshoot. Sometimes sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's not. With with the trees, it's more, you're you're just feeling you're you put out that's why I say close your eyes when you do it because if you close your eyes, it's easier to picture yourself, saying something or doing something. You could you could be touching the tree and just picture yourself hugging the tree and you might get a smile on your face or you might feel like it's smiling at you. And I I always introduce myself before I talk or if I'm gonna if I'm gonna harvest something from a tree, I I never ever harvest bark from the trunk. I'll I'll just cut a branch or something off, but if I want to cut a branch off, I talk with that tree for a minute first and then I say, you know, I just ask it, would it be okay if I cut this branch off? And the way I do that is I just picture in my head, I look at the branch, I picture that branch and me with snippers cutting off the branch, And 9 times out of 10, the tree is very friendly and giving and helpful, and they're like, yeah. Absolutely. Go ahead. You know, you're gonna make medicine with me? Sure. Totally. They want to share themselves with you. Once in a while, you'll come across a tree that maybe it's sick and you just can't tell, maybe it's not it's not in good shape for some reason or maybe you didn't introduce yourself enough and it's really annoyed with you and it just says, no, f off and it tells you to go away.
I've only had that happen a couple of times and it was my own fault because I'm like, you know, it's like walking up to a person. Walk walk up to a complete stranger and shake their hand and say, you know, hey, can I have the shirt on your back? And they're like, no. Go away from me, you crazy person. But if you have a talk with them and tell them just I really, really need this shirt. It's driving me. I I just I need it to survive. I need it to help myself. Maybe you'd be more inclined to give them your shirt, you know? So it's, I know that's, like, the worst analogy probably, but No. I get it. I get it. I was trying to give Yeah. Be respectful.
Exactly. Yeah. Because they're they're
[00:40:12] Unknown:
they have hearts and minds and spirits just like we do. So I'd love to see the things that they've seen, to be fair, even though they haven't got eyes. But what they've seen Oh, I know. Right? Yeah. Because I presume then that well, when you when you're walking barefoot, you're grounding yourself at the same time with the energy and stuff?
[00:40:31] Unknown:
Yep. Absolutely. The only time I'm not barefoot is in the dead of winter when it's too cold. It's because it gets really cold here. So, like, probably late March through pretty much the end middle middle of of November, maybe the end of November, I'm barefoot, and it's great and I love it. You you do feel you can even if you're not, like, standing there concentrating to feel the energy from the ground going into your body, it still feels you and it still helps, like, it it grounding lowers your inflammation overall. It calms you down. That's why saying you this is this experience has been very grounding is is synonymous with, you know, calming your body down or feeling better or feeling more energized because that's what it actually does for you. I just do it so often now.
It doesn't even bother you. I just do it so often now, it doesn't even bother me other than when I step on a bee and that sucks. I've done that a couple of times. Yeah. I was gonna say, surely, you had a couple of accidents. I have I have stepped on a thorn, I have stepped on a bee and it's not fun, but but to be fair like when I've the the cool thing about hiking barefoot, number 1, I'm not hiking like the Alps. I'm not in the Rocky Mountains. I'm in New England. So it's the the the hills and trails, they can be kinda rough, but it's, it's not like mountain climbing barefoot or anything. So it the act of going barefoot in the forest, you really have no choice but to pay attention to where you're placing your feet. You know, you have to be a little bit more Yeah. I want you to go in. Pick up the leg, put down the foot. Pick up the leg, put down the foot because if you're not paying attention, you're gonna stub your toe, you're gonna kick rock, you're gonna step on a thorn or something and it hurts.
So, and I've noticed that as as I've I've only been doing this for about a year and a half, the barefoot I've been hiking for years, but barefoot hiking for about a year and a half, and it it actually works your muscles more. So anybody out there that's interested in like the whole exercise part of this, it's it's really not as crazy as you think because you're exercising the muscles in your feet and your legs and it goes all the way up your hips into your back. You're you're you have to be, a just a little bit, the tiniest fraction of a second slower and more mindful of where you're putting things, and it works your muscles a little bit harder. So I've actually I think I've lost weight since I started doing this because I'm just, you know, hiking a little bit more slowly.
[00:42:56] Unknown:
So Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that sounds awesome. You've got so many topics I'd like to delve into, but I'm aware, like, we've got 17 minutes. Yeah. But can we talk a bit a bit about healing your gut, unwelling to gut health, and stuff like that? Finding it fascinating.
[00:43:10] Unknown:
Oh, yeah. For sure. I I can say that probably most people that come to me with, problems, they they think it's their skin. They think they have this rash. They think they have rosacea. They think they have dermatitis. They think they have eczema, and it's really gut health. It's a gut problem. Or they think they've got brain fog. They think they've they've got, or they're they're having fibromyalgia,
[00:43:34] Unknown:
and it's all related to your gut. It's your microbiome and whether you are or are not absorbing your gut.
[00:43:41] Unknown:
It's your microbiome and whether you are or are not absorbing the vitamins and minerals from your diet and whether you're not you are or are not getting the vitamins minerals that your body needs to function. That that actually causes a lot of hormonal issues too. So the gut health is related to hormone health. So when people, come and ask me, hey, what do I do about this, this or this? And it's all, like, my hormones are out of whack. My hormones are out of balance. I don't know what to do about PCOS or endometriosis or even the the guys come up, I've got erectile dysfunction or whatever it is. They they they're coming and asking me for help, and I'm like, the first thing I say, what's your diet like?
What's your diet like? And you can tell when somebody knows that it's their own fault when the first thing they say they they they, like, their head droops and they say, well, it's not very good. And it's, like, okay. So we have established that it's your own fault. But now I don't I don't wanna be mean to people, but at the same time Like, well Yeah. It is. It's your own fault. So we we have to I then I have to work, like, alright, well, these are the kinds of foods that you want to actually eat. These are the ones that you want to avoid, because all the food that you're putting into your body is either going to help you or harm you. If you don't have a good balance of, most you you wanna have mostly good gut bacteria and very little of the bad, you know, angry guys that are causing problems, if you don't have that balance and you're not feeding those good bacteria, then it it's gonna cause a problem. It's gonna cause an imbalance, and an imbalance that happens in your gut spreads to your skin or your hormones or your brain. So your gut health is so critically important. It's like the central thing every human being, you know, needs to be paying attention to and a lot of them either don't or they don't think they can.
[00:45:34] Unknown:
So that's that's where I I do my best to help if I can. Right. And I'm presuming, like, we're talking all the bacterias and stuff because I've only been looking into this for a couple of months now and realized as well that certain things we eat actually destroy something else that we eat for goodness.
[00:45:50] Unknown:
Mhmm.
[00:45:51] Unknown:
Yeah. Just for easy, it's like, well, what do we eat? And someone's been saying about all of the, like, sauerkraut and things like that, fermented foods and stuff. Fermented foods are are excellent. So the only the only thing caveat that I will give
[00:46:03] Unknown:
to that is that, unless you're the kind of person and there are some of these people out there. Unless you're the kind of person that makes a lot of fermented foods, makes and eats a lot of person that makes a lot of fermented foods, makes and eats a lot of their own fermented foods, like, you've got 17 crocs up on your counter, and I know somebody out there has that, you know, and they're all fermenting all of the things and you're eating it. If if you're doing that, then then you're probably in pretty good shape. But for the majority of people, even if you're gonna, you know, make your own pickles or make your own sauerkraut now and then, you're not necessarily gonna have the time to be doing that all the time.
You might not even have the the, resources to be able to, like, go and purchase it all the time, And that's why I I usually just, in modern modern America or modern world, suggest that you get on a probiotic supplement, poorly, if you're eating a lot of processed foods, you're eating the Doritos and ice cream and and Oreos all the time, that's a big part of your diet or the ramen and, basically, stuff that we know is junk food that we really probably shouldn't be eating a lot of. If that is making up the majority of of your diet, no amount of probiotics are gonna help you because the those kinds of foods don't feed the probiotics. You gotta understand probiotics are alive.
They're basically little organisms, that that live in your gut, and if if you don't feed them what they want to eat, they die and you poop them out and then they're gone and they're not doing any good anymore. So it's it's it's a vicious cycle of of you you really do. Once you realize what the problem is and you decide that you want to start making your gut a little healthier or get better and better and better, you look for a good quality supplement, and then you say to yourself, listen. This isn't gonna help unless I start eating more vegetables. Find whatever vegetables you want, and I will say right now, do whatever it takes to get those vegetables in your mouth. If the if the only way you're gonna eat some, you know, broccoli or cauliflower is by smothering it in cheese, then do it.
I I mean, I I've had I've been a farmer for 10 years. I've had so many people customers come up to me at a at a farmer's market and say, oh, beets beets are gross. I I don't know how anybody can eat beets. And I'm like, excuse me. How are you eating beets? And 9 times out of 10, they're, like, well, I boil them, and I say that's why they're gross because boiled beets are gross. I say take beets and you slice them up nice and thin and you saute them in some bacon fat. Fry a couple of pieces of bacon, saute the beets in the bacon fat and every single person that I've told this to looks at me and says, well, of course, it tastes good then, And I say, do you hear the words coming out of your mouth? Yes. Of course, it tastes good then. So that's how you eat it. Oh, my god. That's really interesting
[00:49:02] Unknown:
actually, because, only today, I was saying I I made a we're, like, really trying to get off all of the processed foods here and stuff, and I made a lasagna and, all fresh ingredients and stuff like that. And then it got to the cheese sauce, the part, but I made it with raw milk. And, you've got to counteract. I think there's lots of foods I don't eat. Like you say, they taste boring, and you think, well, if I eat it that way, I'll have to add a load of cheese and stuff. But like you say,
[00:49:32] Unknown:
it if it works, it works. If it if it works, it works. And, honestly, the the worst part of the lasagna is is the noodles rather. Yes. Yes. I suppose so. It's not the cheese as much. Although it depends. And, again, you're you're in the UK, and and it's your, food system is a little different than here. Like, here, I absolutely don't trust the wheat here. And some of the dairy it depends on where you get your dairy and where it was made and what was in it kinda thing. Sure. Dairy products are, can be questionable. Plus me for I magically became lactose intolerant about 2 years ago, which sucks. So I'm kind of just I can't do that anymore. I'm like, oh, I would love a lasagna but it would, put me in the bathroom for hours.
So, but you have to deal with whatever you're dealing you know, whatever you are dealing with with your own life, your own allergies, or however you want to eat. If you're in the United States, pretty much stay away from wheat. That's just my general recommendation. Out out where you guys are, I think you you probably have a little bit better, wheat, but but there's, there's a famous guy, a famous food critic out here named Michael Pollan. I don't know if you ever heard of him. He he has, he has a very simple saying and he says, eat food not too much, mostly plants.
And it's it that does not mean you have to be a vegan or a vegetarian, it's just think about how simple that is. Eat food not too much, mostly plants. So most of your your food that you intake into your body should be probably fruits and vegetables, and then, you know, nuts and seeds, and then you eat meat or dairy or whatever sweets and things that you want. But but but that's the plant kingdom has the largest amount overall
[00:51:19] Unknown:
of foods that are gonna be healthy to eat, like, in the in their whole state like that. They don't have to be processed into anything. I'm waiting for the time. It's gonna be about 10 years or so, I think. Just a small hold ins. I want a cow. I want my own milk. Nice. I want my own chickens. All of that sort of stuff. And I've just, we've got a vegetable plot outside. Quite a big one, actually, and it's, yeah, it's now getting interesting, but reality wise, I think you need to be a full time homekeeper to make everything from scratch. You've got me thinking now about if I do a lasagna again, I'll just have to make my own pasta.
[00:51:53] Unknown:
Yeah. Yep. I've I've made pasta I've made gluten free pasta, actually. I think I I did some of that this spring, and, I added stinging nettle to it, and it was really nice. That was good. Nice. So that was really good. And making your own cheese, like, the kind of cheese you would want in a lasagna, is not that difficult. It's like a gallon of milk and some vinegar. It's really not that hard. But then, you know, if you want if you wanna keep goats or keep a cow or keep any of that kind of stuff, chickens are easy. Chickens are ridiculously easy, and just don't don't let anybody scare you away from from keeping some chickens. Duck ducks are a little bit more difficult. Geese are a little bit more difficult, but chickens, like, I swear, anybody could have chickens. If you've got half an acre or a quarter of an acre or any anything, any little tiny plot of land, you could have some chickens. You just have to be aware that if you're gonna try to free range them, they will walk probably at least a half mile away.
You can you can think you lost your chickens and then they'll show up the next day. They're like they went on vacation in the neighbor's yard 3 towns over something. They're ridiculous. But I and and then there's there's good things and bad things about chickens, but chickens overall are probably the easiest,
[00:53:03] Unknown:
farm animal to keep Right. I I I will have to say. Yeah. I'm gonna have to wait a few years. I mean, I made my home my own, sourdough starter a couple of weeks ago and then the bread, it it tasted really yeasty. That's all I can say. I gave it to the birds.
[00:53:20] Unknown:
Oh, jeez. I used to make sourdough back when I when I was not afraid to eat wheat. I used to make a lot of sourdough and, yeah, I just you as long if you are fermenting it, that is absolutely the best way. Just just like I said, fermenting your your fermenting your dough, fermenting your milk into kefir or a fermented cheese is great. Fermenting tea into kombucha is great. Fermenting your vegetables into kimchi or sauerkraut or pickles. I mean, real fermented cucumber pickles, they're really easy to make, and they're absolutely amazing. Like, if you've ever just eaten a pickle out of a jar and you're, like, you know what? This is this is great, but try making your own fermented pickles. It takes, like, 3 or 4 days on the countertop, and it's so amazingly delicious. Every single time I make them, they're gone in, like, 2 days. Yeah. My whole household just we just devour them. They're so good. So it's totally different.
[00:54:13] Unknown:
Oh, so yeah. There's something about homemade food, though, isn't there? I mean, I've got into baking as well, but the problem is I'm although I can see what's going in and it's in all the processed shop stuff, I'm still aware, like, it's sugar. I don't know where it's come from, and I use butter now. I don't know. I'm trying to make positive changes all the time. That's excellent
[00:54:31] Unknown:
excellent. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, that's healthy fats, that's one thing that holds a lot of people up. I get I think somebody asked me this morning about, like, what are the best oils to cook in? And I'm like, most almost all of my cooking that I do at high net because I cook pretty much everything, that I eat. If I need to to cook something in a pan, I'm either cooking in, bacon fat or butter because I save all my bacon fat in a jar that I can Oh, okay. So I I save bacon fat and I or I cook with with butter, you know, full fat butter. And, I do cook with olive oil occasionally.
I do keep a few other oils. Like, if I'm gonna bake, if I made it if I wanted to make banana bread or something, I would probably use, walnut oil or coconut oil or something like that. You want the the healthy healthy fats, the whole fats. Like, I tell people if you're gonna eat a pork chop, eat the fat on your pork chop. Don't trim all that fat off. That's delicious. That's what gives us the best part. Absolutely. And your body likes it so much because your body is craving those healthy fats, you know. You you gotta think of of human history. Humans evolved eating animal fat and eating bone marrow and things like that, and so many people just don't eat that way anymore.
[00:55:47] Unknown:
And we were like to, weren't we, a long time ago that all of these good fats are actually bad fats, and even people now are like, oh, I won't eat that. I won't eat that.
[00:55:55] Unknown:
They're they're still trying to teach you, oh, saturated fats are all bad, and I'm like, no. A small amount of saturated fat in your diet is actually really good because it sates you. It's, satiating. It stays in your belly longer. So if you eat, I mean, if you if you made a piece of toast and you tried to put olive oil on it, it would I mean, it would be it would probably last in your belly belly okay. If you put margarine on it, it tastes like plastic. It's disgusting. If you put butter on it, on that piece of toast or butter and jam or something, you've got that that healthy saturated fat. You know, you're not you're not putting a pound of butter on your peanut toast. No. That's too sweet. But that that that extra fat, just like coconut oil, if you put that in some people put coconut oil in their coffee now, and that extra fat in your food, in your drink or whatever it is, sits in your stomach a little longer because it takes a little bit longer to digest and it keeps you full longer. So you don't get hungry, and you're not constantly snacking as much. You know? Yeah. That's what I need. Healthy fats are good. Yeah. I well, I notice sometimes,
[00:56:57] Unknown:
well, you know, obviously we'll take note of what we're eating and stuff, but, you know, quite often I get hungry in the evenings and I think should've eaten more, shouldn't eat, should've eaten more. You know? Just, but what does fill you up. Yeah.
[00:57:08] Unknown:
Yeah. Eat eat the eat the fats or the proteins or whatever is gonna actually stay in your belly because, you know, I want I should have eaten more and then you go eat a candy bar, you're in trouble. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Weighing it all up. Anyway, we've got to round up, Amelia. That went so quick.
[00:57:24] Unknown:
Yeah. It it happens. Yeah. We'll have to do it again because, my god, there's so much to talk to you about. Where can people find you, Lovely?
[00:57:32] Unknown:
So, I'm on social media, and I'm on on TikTok. I'm at the original meal chan, which is I hope I don't know if maybe you can write that down. Yes. The original meal chan. Yeah. And and it's I'm I'm the only I've got, like, a 100 and 17,000 followers and I have to say that because, some other people have randomly on TikTok, like, taken some of my videos and they pretend to be me and they change, like, one one letter in my screen name, and so don't get confused by them. I have a pretty big following on there. On YouTube, it's also at the original Mail Chan.
Facebook, Black Sun Farm because my farm name is Black Sun Farm. So Black Sun Farm CT, and CT is short for Connecticut. If you're not familiar with the US, that's just our, you know, we abbreviate our states. So, Connecticut, Black Sun Farm on Instagram,
[00:58:30] Unknown:
in. Pop them in all of I'll pop them in the write up after this, Amelia, and I'll send it to you. Well, thank you so much. I wish you luck, and I look forward to watching more of your videos. Thank you. Yeah. You were nice.
[00:58:44] Unknown:
I I will keep I will keep doing it. Yep. You can find all my I think everything has a a link to my website and every one of my social media profiles too. So Wonderful. I'll put it in. Alright, my lovely. Well, you have an amazing day. Thank you too.
[00:58:57] Unknown:
Thank you so much. Bye. Great. Have a good night. Bye bye. Bye. Wow. And that is it for this week. I will be back the same time, same place.
[00:59:19] Unknown:
Is
