Today we’d like to introduce you to Leesalyn Koehler.
Hi Leesalyn, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
During my work as a health & wellness educator for the past 25 years, I’ve witnessed an increase in chronic illness, as well as the cost of care – with my clients as well as my family. I had also noticed a decrease in the quality of food that we eat in our SAD – Standard American Diet and the soil that provides it. After the birth of my daughter in 2014, I knew that a shift needed to happen. Growing up on a small family farm, I felt the pull to leave the big city of Austin and return to my roots living closer to the earth.
Our 3 acre farm in Bastrop TX, 20 miles east of Austin, is modest enough that we not only grow and harvest our own food, but also many of the plants and herbs that are incorporated into the botanical medicine that my daughter and I craft. As a bioregional herbalist, we wild harvest seasonally as the plants are available and cultivate what else we can. Food often is our best medicine.
Our botanical medicine site:
www.Leesalyn.com
We have been vending at local Farmers Markets for 10 years and folks have expressed wanting to learn how to make many of the things that we offer. The skills to grow your own food and make your own medicine have been lost over the years through modernization. Fortunately, we aren’t that many generations removed from these old world skills – when this was an everyday way of life.
Rhizome Revival was created as a means for folks to return to their roots – grow their own food, make their own medicine, and get off a system that is quickly failing us as a society.
Rhizome, (noun): Unlike regular roots, a rhizome plant grows roots horizontal to the surface, sharing resources and producing new plants along the way. Philosophically, described as a non-hierarchical network or a system of decentralized ways. Think of the ways a ginger root is shaped and grows.
Rhizome Revival is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational farm providing free and low cost classes in permaculture/ regenerative farming, homesteading, and botanical medicine. We invite mentors from our community to share their skills and teach folks how to be successful in living a healthier, closer to the earth lifestyle. Unplugging from what modern society is selling us to grow and thrive as nature intended.
Our guest mentors have taught: Canning/ food preservation, Sourdough bread making, Strawbale/ cob building, Kombucha crafting, Fruit tree selection and propagation, Mushroom cultivation, Building soils naturally, Worm composting, Soap making, Bug identification, Rainwater harvesting and more!
Our farm site:
www.RhizomeRevival.org
Fall Class Schedule:
www.RhizomeRevival.org/event-list
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Farming and gardening ain’t easy – especially in these unique growing regions of central Texas. There is definitely a learning curve – as with anything. That is exactly what our classes are designed to address. How to manage lack of consistent rain, poor soil composition, extreme seasonal temperatures – snowstorms & drought, creatures eating your harvest, and so much more.
Because of our quickly shifting weather patterns, we are currently fundraising to build a weather protected, multi use classroom for year round learning. This space will serve as a hub for hands on learning in sustainable agriculture, homesteading, and botanical medicine to build greater regional resilience.
Link here:
https://www.rhizomerevival.org/fundraiser
We also have new industrial development encroaching on our local community and threatening our limited water resources and quality of living – SpaceX/Elon Musk, Amazon/Jeff Bezos, and Pacifico Data Center with a proposed gas burning generator- just to name a few in Bastrop County. ***my daughter and I returned from a protest this past Saturday about this very thing***
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a lifelong learner.
I’ve taught yoga, meditation and nutrition since 2001 – threading herbal medicine and natural living along the way. I’ve studied and served in several ashrams, trained teachers internationally, and travelled extensively prior to my daughter joining the path.
I volunteer and have taken courses in alternative natural building and sustainable living systems. My husband and I have both completed our Permaculture Design Certification and incorporate much of what we learned in our projects around the farm and our teachings.
I am a bioregional herbalist – integrating plant medicine that is local to central Texas and our unique flora. Most recently my focus is on Functional Botanical Medicine – addressing the body and symptoms as a systemic whole rather than a collection of its parts with the incorporation of natural medicine and healing modalities.
The programs that I offer through Rhizome Revival include: Seasonal Foraging, Intro to Herbalism, Infused Oils & Salves, Kitchen Herbalism, Tinctures 101, Sauerkraut Krafting, Elderberry Syrup, Fire Cider, and Crone & Sage – transitions of menopause.
I present locally to clubs & organizations, plant nurseries, apothecary shops, local businesses and wellness centers.
Not only do my daughter and I vend at the our local Smithville Farmers Market every Sunday morning, but I am also the President & Market Manager. Bringing local food from the farm to the table in more ways than one.
How do you define success?
Quality of life is the benchmark. Happiness is our true nature. Slowing down. Touching the earth. Being present. Listening.
Pricing:
- free
- low cost
- sliding scale
- work trade
- volunteer/ apprentice
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.RhizomeRevival.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rhizome_revival/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1414696752795083
