Mama Bean

10/16/2026

Hi friends, John here just hiding out in the garden 😉
Whether you like to learn about plants and the environment here, or if you just enjoy some related art and poetry, I hope that my posts bring you some comfort and inspiration in an often weedy and frenetic world.
If you enjoy this page, please comment, share or recommend 'The Heirloom Gardener' to friends...or consider bringing me to give a talk and host community conversations for a civic group where you live *(message me to find out more about live or zoom bookings).

As I write in my book: "Old ways help us to roll up our sleeves and get things done. They help us to draw upon all the learning in the universe and the fifteen billion years of compost, in order to advance civilization and soil" I appreciate that as gardeners and seed savers, we know how to roll up our sleeves and get things done, and I find some comfort knowing that our Heirloom Gardener community of half a million gardeners here on fb and many more beyond are making a difference one back yard at a time. Thanks for following this page and for the difference you make! www.jforti.com
Artist Georges Rochegrosse - The Knight of the Flowers, 1894

09/18/2026

MY WORK IS LOVING THE WORLD - by Mary Oliver
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird -
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,
Which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the mouth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

*Teeny-tiny nest of spiderweb, moss and lichen by

05/05/2026

Deep Sleep tincture is back in stock! 💜

Also I will be making up another batch of elderberry so let me know if you need some 🙌💜🪄

02/22/2026

🌞"Becoming a person of the plants is not a learning process, it is a remembering process. Somewhere in our ancestral line, there was someone that lived deeply connected to the plants, and that connection is within us, waiting to be remembered." —Liza Weitzman. Artist - Matt Walford
🌝*Who do you know of in your own ancestral line?
After you recall your influence, consider who mentored them..and each ancestor before them, as far back as people and plants have been intertwined🌿
We have all of that in us too💚

02/14/2026

Who will feed you? WHAT will they feed you ? Support your local farms and know where your food comes from 💚

The homestead and the small farmer are being forced out, at alarming rates.
Every village, every town, every county, every state is cracking down on our given right to produce and grow food.
A fee for this.
A license for that.
An inspection for this.
Show your paperwork.
Now we can fine for that!
Comply, or get out….
Did we collectively forget about how fragile our food system is?
Surely we all remember leaning on our local small producers during 2020!
Or has convenience erased your memory?
Someone has to grow the food that feeds us and it takes a lot of someone’s.
But we are unfairly penalizing our farmers, homesteaders, producers or whatever label is thrown on them, in the blanket name of “safety”.
I can’t believe we are living in a world where feeding your neighbors and community is illegal and punishable.
When the compliant farmer is finally pushed out, who will feed you?