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28-Jan-2010

about us

We're just a bunch of outdoor nuts who love the idea of living off the land despite the fact that we still reside in a big city. Do you get weak in the knees when you see a log cabin and a wood stove or dig up veggies from your garden or balcony pots?

You have found your people, come learn with us...

Laurie Varga, Founder

I started Seed + Stone because I've always dreamed of living a simple life as close to nature as possible. As a kid I used to pretend I was a pioneer making it through a long, cold night on the prairies and I would imagine being able to go back in time and experience life in a log home with a stone fireplace. I'm sure not all kids dreamed of living in the wilderness or homesteading on the ranch but if you happen to be one of those people, welcome! If you get excited about roughing it or you want to live off-grid in a remote area or maybe you want to live a more self-sufficient life in the big city then sign up for our newsletter and join the community.

Over the coming months we'll be adding lots of interactive content to help you learn and connect with other people who share your unusual fantasies about eating local wild plants and making flour from pine cones or building a house with your own hands and starting a fire from friction.

In addition to learning more about our environment and traditional skills we'll also help guide you through dealing with emergency situations and developing the survive and thrive mindset so that you can handle anything that comes your way with serenity and peace of mind. Our goal is to help you find happiness and security in this insanely complex and demanding era of human development.

In case you haven't noticed there are a lot of crazy things going on these days and we might, just might, find ourselves standing at the entrance of an exciting new era for humanity and perhaps even the planet. No one knows what's going to happen in the future but we do know one thing... luck favours the prepared.

Feel free to write me a quick note, I'd love to hear from you.

- Laurie

Michelle Johnston, Co-Founder

Being in touch with nature and observing natural law is my passion. As a child I had the fortune of spending summers at our family cottage in the Kawarthas. It was there where my Dad first taught me how to fish, trap, make shelters, use a compass and read the environment to predict weather and to track.

As I got older I would find myself “lost” in the woods and day dreaming about life in Ontario prior to European contact. I pondered the lay of the land, navigation without sophisticated equipment (like a compass) and what the settlements would have looked like and where they would be found.  I dreamt up scenarios and solutions to being lost in the woods in the winter and would challenge myself to come up with ways to survive. I knew exactly the type of shelter I would make and out of what materials, what I’d eat and how I’d keep warm.

Being the daughter of a survivalist certainly helped mould me into who I am today. As a child my Dad would get me to try the crayfish he would catch or to taste the bulrush roots he plucked from the swamp across the road or to eat the dandelion salad he would serve at dinner.  I was challenged to try things, even if I didn’t want to. I didn’t know it then, but my Dad gave me such a great gift, and he may never really know how grateful I am for the time he invested in my natural outdoor education as a child.

I feel it is important that each of us find our roots in Mother Earth, remain humbled by her many mysteries and remember to always be grateful for the effortless gifts and bounty she supplies humanity with.

Thanks for finding us here at Seed+Stone. We hope your journey into natural education and natural living is as fun and exciting for you as it has been and continues to be for us.