Student Spotlight
Janice Dinsdale, candidate for B.S. and M.S. in Holistic Nutrition
“Live simply, so that others may simply live” is the credo of native New Englander Janice Dinsdale. Since 1990, herbs have been the focus in her life and teachings.
As an organic farmer and greenhouse grower in Michigan, she was trained in psychology and spent years in the frenetically fast-paced entertainment business. In her quiet, more eclectic new life in Vermont these past 13 years, her homestead and school are part of Greenwood Wildlife Sanctuary, a certified wildlife backyard habitat through the National Wildlife Federation. Her nearest neighbors are 30 wild turkeys, fox, moose, deer, bear, raccoons, owls, coyotes, and mallard ducks.
Dinsdale considers herself a folk herbalist and a peaceful warrior. Northern Vermont’s relatively short growing season (June 1 – October 1) allows her the time to volunteer at Glacier, Arches, and Denali National Parks, to name a few. There she teaches Wilderness First Aid / First Responder courses, clears trails, and lobbies for roadless areas (no cars). Once, as she knelt at Denali’s Mt. McKinley to pull dandelions, a wild moose ran by and literally jumped over her. “In a car, you just can not be as close to nature, and nature can’t be as close to you,” she observes.
If you believe in something, Dinsdale says you should do something about it – if not on a global level, at the community level. “We take and take from nature. Very few of us give back anything to rebalance the damage.”
So in 1991 Janice Dinsdale established the Vermont School of Herbal Studies, where she teaches wilderness survival and apprentice programs. Her writings for herbal publications clearly affirm that herbs are her way of life, not just work.
She enrolled with Clayton College of College of Natural Health in order to enhance her personal and professional life, teaching students how to live healthier through better nutrition and healthy lifestyle choices. “To choose healthy, good foods is a statement of love; the quick fix is not. We need more clinics to help people avoid ‘the white death’ – sugar! Sugar addiction is worse than drugs.”
Except for rice and some grains, this organic farmer says she grows almost everything she eats. After growing season she starts canning fruits, vegetables, jams and juices; the harvest from some 180 medicinal plants is her labor of love. By her own example, Dinsdale seeks to encourage people to eat fresh, to eat simply, and to eat raw whenever possible. Her root cellar is a storehouse of delicious, organic, homegrown food. A constantly flowing underground spring is her water source, dead wood heats her home, and she cooks on a wood stove.
We should be very aware of how we fuel our bodies, she says. “To protect ourselves from environmental toxins, learn to eat what grows around you, in your own community. Support organic farming. Create a green pharmacy outside your door.”
But optimal health, she adds, is more than food. It is seeking out the bubbly fountain of life, she says with a lilt. “Hugging and laughing, learning how to play music and dance, making pottery, writing in a journal, skinny-dipping. I am learning how to talk less, listen more.”
Her greatest mentor for all of the above is the British-born Juliette de Bairacli Levy, an octogenarian gypsy herbal legend. Janice and Juliette will co-present at CCNH’s upcoming Natural Health Conference, May 15-18, 2003 at Callaway Gardens, a butterfly sanctuary in Pine Mountain, GA. For more information, call 1-866-699-2264.
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