A Seasonal Zine by The Rooted Wisdom
Sage
A living record of what the season teaches
Essays · Recipes · Plant Studies · Making · Everything That Moves Us
The rain comes back and the plants begin drawing their medicine down into the root. This issue lives in that turning — the gathering in, the putting by, the slow work of carrying summer's light into the dark half of the year.
Plant Ally of the Season: Chicory
Chicory is the plant ally of the fall issue — the ragged blue flower of every roadside, a bitter root dug in autumn, and the plant that kept the coffee cup full when the ships stopped coming. A mini study, a practice, and a plant walk for wherever you live.
Borrowed Fire
Coffee doesn't make energy. It borrows it from later in the day, and the day after, at interest. An essay on what the cup takes, the two people who drink it, and a bitter root that gives the morning back without a loan.
The Morning Cup
Roasted chicory root with rooibos and ashwagandha, warmed with ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom, finished with milk. A pint of dry blend that scoops like coffee and borrows nothing from tomorrow.
Plant Ally: Okra
Okra is the plant ally for the dry months: a slippery green pod that cools and moistens a body the furnace has parched, carried across the ocean in braided hair and kept alive in every pot of the diaspora. A mini study, a daily practice, and a plant walk for wherever you live.
Praise Song for Okra
I never knew okra growing up, or never knew I knew her. A remembering told through my grandmother's callaloo, my father's okra and tomatoes, a smoky Seattle summer, and the seeds braided into hair for the crossing.
When Summer Feels Like Fall
The first cool morning is the signal, not the calendar. An episode on making elderberry syrup at the turn of the season, before the colds arrive.
Plant Ally: Elder
Elderberry is the plant to reach for when cold and flu season arrives — a dark berry cooked into syrup and taken daily to keep the body steady through the wet months. A mini study, a daily practice for protection, and a plant walk for wherever you live.
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Summer 2026 · Issue No. 1
Summer 2026
Bloom & Root
3 pieces · Complete
Winter 2026–2027 · Forthcoming
Next season begins December
In Print
The Collected Sage
Each season's writing, gathered and printed. A physical record of what the year taught us — to keep on your shelf, press herbs between its pages, pass on to someone who needs it.
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