Welcome to the Lady Wisdom Podcast!
Hello Beautiful Soul, and welcome to the second episode of the Lady Wisdom Podcast. I’m Clara Moon, your guide on this journey through HERSTORY and deep ancestral wisdom.
In today’s episode, we delve into the theme of "Roots"—exploring our origins in Southern Appalatchia featuring HERSTORY of Stacie Marshall of Mountain Mama Farms, who is dedicated to racial restoration and regenerative agriculture, bridging the disparity gap in her community and honoring her ancestral roots.
Dear Reader/Listener,
I am wishing each of you who are tuning in a blessed Harvest Full Moon & Equinox portal. Equinox portals are my favorite times of transition & being that I am currently in the Northern Hemisphere I’ve been contemplating all the lessons in this year’s harvest, and all that I am ready to release in this new season. The theme of this episode is called Roots. Sometimes in life, life draws you back to your roots, your origin points for that deep ancestral healing, returning back the people and places that impacted you as a child.
I never thought I would live in North Georgia again. If I had it my way I would be an expat traveling the world, but here I stand back on the soils of my own origins, wondering what (the heck) am I doing here back in Southern Appalachia?
Oh Southern Appalachia, only the valleys of the Blue-Ridged Mountains truly can know how much the heart can hold. I’ve been alchemized by Appalachia, died and birthed my soul over and over again in the woods, on mountain peaks, married beside her sacred waters. This land is ancient & the longer I lay within her bosom of her valley the more Grandmother Applachia reveals her own story. As wildly romantic as it may sound, it's difficult to walk through the woods of North Georgia without still smelling the fresh scent of blood that lingers from past trauma of slavery & Civil War. Some towns here have more battlefield gravesites than homes. I have to acknowledge this painful history because it’s part of our American story. So much of this painful past is still so saturated in the culture of Southern appalachia. In our quest to dig up the roots of the past we can find ourselves face to face with the good grief of our families , of ourselves, but the roots are what has sustained us, what has survived through countless winter seasons. These roots represent how our ancestors have survived.
As my mentors have taught me the Yoruban (Africa) traditions, Before we start or do anything we grant “Iba se” ( I give reverence to) to our ancestors, our inspirations, our roots that ground us.
In my preparation for the soil of this “Roots” Episode I discovered a book by Leah Penniman, called “Black Earth Wisdom” at a nearby elixir bar. Something inside my soul cried out when I read this passage, ““A true calling to the land invites us to be in genuine service, it is our birthright to be in service to the land and is the only way we can heal our trauma. –Alsie Parks & Whitney Jaye
Leah further shares in her book that, “Part of our work of healing our relationship with soil is unearthing and relearning the lessons of land reverence and agrarian innovation from the past. Part of healing racism and classism in America is to give credit where it’s due to Black, Indigenous, & Asian peoples for their contributions to the regenerative ways of tending agro-ecosystems.”
Upon moving back to North Georgia, naturally I wanted to find my community here & in my quest for authentic sisterhood, I met Stacie Marshall through the muscadine vines of community connection. I had heard about the racial reparative genealogy & regenerative agriculture she was doing on her farm & I felt already magnetized to meet this woman and her family. Of course it was not long until we finally crossed paths in town. Eventually Stacie Marshall invited my & dear friend Amber to her land for a good ole fashioned tea party. I was eager to get to know Stacie deeper & see Mountain Mama Farms so even though it was a rainy spring day, we put our mud boots on to go walk on the land, accompanied by the cutest baby sheep. The land was vast, nestled into the Dirt town valley of the Appalachian mountains. I witnessed this land just open up to tell it ALL
–all the stories it held onto
–all the remains of the past–
from old farming equipment, horse drawn tractors to the old sharecropper house that somehow still stood hanging on by its nails. As we walked, I listened to Stacie’s story & the land started to tell me its story. While we were walking I noticed two plants near the old sharecropper house that felt auspiciously significant at the time.
The first plant, Milk Thistle, was fiercely spiky and beautiful with a soft pink middle that looked like a breast bud of nature. As a doula, I know this plant well in its power as a galactagogue in assisting milk production for breastfeeding women. Milk Thistle represents to me the innate connection we have to the "Milklines," of maternal nourishment and resilience because it has been said to be the embodiment of Mother Mary’s milk. Her milk is thick & her spikes are fierce, as she also protects our body from poison and toxicity. I’ve witnessed Milk Thistle as a powerful detoxifier especially for individuals diagnosed with cancer. As a child my dream was to “cure cancer.” which later down the road lead me to study Nutrition & Dietetics. In my early twenties I would volunteer at the Atlanta Cancer Support community teaching cooking demos on clean eating & diet change for those who were fighting for their life and had survived the war on their own toxic cells. Suddenly the wisdom sprung forth from this plant , “Whatever you aren’t changing, you are also choosing.” Iba se Milk Thistle.
The second plant on her land, Burdock Root, grows prolifically in big bushes outside the doorway of the old sharecropper house. Burdock is auspicious in American folklore known as a counter-magic, shielding its bearer against negativity and evil hexes of hurt. As a plant ally, it is known for its powerful blood purifying characteristics that flush and clean out the toxins from our body (and our lineages.) To me Burdock root symbolizes the connection to our blood, in how we can choose to clean out the old narratives of our lineages & restore/heal our bloodlines. Iba se Burdock.
I was greatly impacted by the wisdom of these two plants & for months it left a deep impression inside of me. These two plant medicines helped me to remember the healing and restoration work that is happening in the South & also within our own families; mending the blood and the milklines of the past through this deep ancestral healing work. For months I was consumed by these lessons and witnessing how it was playing out in our lives, in this human story. So I felt it was important to explore this thread and interview Stacie Marshall. Perhaps that's why I am here in Southern Appalachia , I’m here to excavate the herstories in the Deep South.
Her story: Stacie Marshall
Stacie Marshall is a Female farmer of Mama Mountain Farms who is building food sovereignty in Southern Appalachia. She is passionate about racial restoration by narrowing the disparity gap in her community and uniting people together around the table of gratitude. In North Georgia, She lives with her family on ancestral farmlands of her ancestors where she crafts her healing salves on the same counter where her grandmother once rolled the biscuits every morning.
Stacie is a truly remarkable human because she has been pioneering her way towards regenerative agriculture as a female farmer which is a rarity in these parts of the world. She is a mother to three beautiful girls, soon to be young women who are the pulse of joy that sprinkles across the horizon of a new era of femininity.
In addition to being a farmer and mama, she is the cofounder of Hester's heritage which is committed to reparative genealogy through community conversations and preservation of enslaved burial grounds and support of black farming initiatives.
Today I have the unique honor to sit in her kitchen on these ancestral Appalachian lands crafting this podcast on the same countertop she makes her tallowed be thou name balm & soaps on the same countertop her grandmother used to roll her biscuits.
I imagine if these counters could talk it would have many stories to tell! So let’s dive in. Let’s talk about roots!
Stacie’s Interview: (Listen to the episode to hear Stacie’s HERSTORY// 11:02 Roots & Ancestry
Share your Roots: Opening the story to her experience of being raised up in southern Appalachia.
Share your experience Becoming a mother and your experience with breastfeeding.
Who is Hester and why do you feel so connected to her? Share Discovery of Hester and the racial restoration work you are doing with Hester’s descendants.
Share some of the challenges you face as a female farmer and how you are overcoming these challenges.
What sort of legacy do you want to live and leave behind for your three girls?
Like Stacie shared, her family held onto those secrets of these roots and what I find inspiring about her story is that she had the courage to excavate the evidence of the slave documentation and decided to what she felt was right in her heart, to remember Hester & honor Hester’s lineage by giving her descendants access and the privilege to know where they originated from. Our origin points are significant parts of our human story, in understanding our own root systems that lay the foundation for the rest of our lives.
We all crave that connection to our lineage, our origins & roots. As we wrap up this episode, I hope Stacie’s story has inspired you to reconnect with your roots and honor the indigenous land and legacies we stand on. The power of healing our past lies in reclaiming these stories and building a more just and abundant future.
If you Live near the North Georgia area, Stacie Marshall is hosting a free community Heritage Dinner at her farm on October 12. Connect more with Stacie on her IG @mountainmamafarms or at mountainmamafarms.com
Special thank you to Kindred Fire for allowing me to utilize your song “Roots” on this episode. Kindred Fire is getting ready to release a new album called Appalachian Gothic, Album will be released on September 24th however if you live near Rome, GA they are going to an album release party at Cosmic Dog on Saturday September 21 right next to the confluence of the three rivers: Etowah, Oostanaula, & Coosa River.
This podcast was soul led, funded from the heart and if you desire to support this art of storytelling through my lens please consider becoming a paid subscriber to my Substack at ladywisdom.substack.com and receive more behind the scenes photos, bonus recordings & writings of this episode for only $5.55/mo.
All the Events I mentioned, Community Connections, and Virtual gratitude Jar will be linked in episode notes.
Thank Beautiful Soul for rooting in with me today under the glow of this epic harvest full moon. I wish you peace and ease as you transition into this next season of life. Always remember you are divinely rooted & we are interconnected my friends.
Share this post