goldberryintern
Junior Member

About goldberryintern

Biography

I was born and raised in southern Virginia, where I was surrounded by different kinds of relationships with plants as a child growing up in a rural tobacco farming community. My parents are second generation plant nursery owners, providing a local family owned plant and landscape business for the community. Since graduating from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va with a degree in Philosophy and a minor in Anthropology, I have been traveling the east coast of the United States seeking how-to knowledge. My studies took me hiking across Spain with a professor, studying geography in Peru and spending time on the Appalachian Trail. My interests lied in the globalization of culture and identity; the effects of trading ideas across geographical, technological, cultural and religious barriers or passageways. This included the exchange of ideas about identity associated with plants as powerful vehicles for healing or communication across those barriers. I am still exploring those ideas post-undergraduate by learning hands-on instead of in a traditional classroom setting. I've worked on farms in New Hampshire, did a small herbal apprenticeship with UPS member Rebecca Golden in Vermont, and have dome some work on farms in Virginia. I am interested in the mission of the United Plant Savers as a vehicle for education towards the public about our indigenous plants; not just knowledge about their importance but why they need to be protected and respected. I am currently a Spring 2011 UPS intern at the Goldenseal Sanctuary in Ohio.

Location

The Goldenseal Sanctuary, Rutland, Ohio

Interests

art, sewing, herbalism, hiking, reading, growing food, ethnobotnay, philosophy, anthropology