Educator Chuck Stead with Ramapo College students at the Torne Valley Medicine Garden braiding newly harvested ceremonial Sweet Grass.

Add the fresh aroma of newly cut Sweet Grass to your list of good Fall things.

Chuck Stead hosted students from a Ramapo College Stream Assessment class for a bit of fall harvest fun at the Torne Valley Medicine Garden, dedicated by Ramapo Town Supervisor Chris St. Lawrence in June 2014. Students took a break to braid bunches of the ceremonial grass into three strands that represent love, kindness and honesty.

Box of sage growing at the Medicine Garden which was part of the overall Ramapo Saltbox reclamation project — continuing in parts of Torne Valley.

Part of the overall Ford Motor Company clean up in Torne, the Medicine Garden is a half  acre site is fenced in by large, raw-posts — the Sweet Grass, which will be used for basketry and smudging. Sweet Grass is one of the four sacred medicines used by Native Americans, which also include sage, cedar and tobacco.

A braid of Sweet Grass from the Medicine Garden — Sweet Grass is one of the four sacred medicines used by Native Americans that also include sage, cedar and tobacco.

The Ford Motor Company has continued its meticulous clean up of paint sludge around Torne Valley, both a symbol of the reclamation of the valley and also an important protection of Rockland’s, the Town’s and Suffern’s water wells. The Medicine Garden itself is surrounded by water well fields.

The Ramapo Saltbox Environmental Research Center (ERC) is currently undergoing clean up that has dredged down some eight feet to uncover discarded industrial paint sludge.

Stead said that the clean up agreement made by Town Supervisor St. Lawrence with Ford Motor contained a “follow the paint” language that has resulted in a much more extensive clean up in the valley.

Some of the Medicine Garden Sweet Grass harvest will go to members of the Ramapough and Mohawk Nations, both of which were on hand in June of 2014 for the Medicine Garden opening. In all, some 350 young Sweet Grass clumps were planted — the plants were brokered by Arden Hill Nursery in Sloatsburg.