Chamomile: Herbs We Love For Summer
German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) is a delicate, apple-scented member of the Asteraceae or daisy family, and makes one of the most popular teas in the world. A cooling and calming herb, chamomile is beloved by herbalist and lay person alike! Chamomile is an antispasmodic, relaxing the smooth muscles throughout the body including the digestive track. When…
Asparagus Crepes Recipe
The recent cold snap (80 degrees instead of 100) gave me an opportunity to fire up the stove and experiment with a yummy looking recipe I’d been eyeing in The China Study Cookbook, by Leanne Campbell, PhD. The whole foods recipes are based on the research findings of Campbell’s father, T. Colin Campbell, who promotes a…
Hibiscus: Herbs We Love For Summer
Hibiscus, also known as Jamaica flower, is one of our very favorite herbs for summer because, like spearmint, its flavor is easily infused into cold water—heating up a tea pot is unnecessary! Hibiscus is a showy member of the Malvaceae (mallow) family native to subtropics and tropics around the world and appears in a variety…
Basil: Herbs We Love For Summer
Culinary herbs are so often overlooked as medicine. But great power lies in our humble spice jars and kitchen windowsill plants, including basil! Loaded with carotenoids as well as vitamins K and C, basil is also antibacterial. It’s used to ease nausea and cramping, and for irritability, depression, anxiety, and sleeping problems. Externally, basil repels…
Nourishing Weedy Tea
Herbalists have an eye for beauty and worth, seeing usefulness inside what others consider useless. Often reviled plants like nettles, dandelions, burdock, plantain, chickweed, lambs quarters, and red clover often grow nearby in favorite fields or woodland paths, or even on our lawns, and make delicious and nutritious teas as well as herbal vinegars, soups,…
Greens and Roots on a Bed of Warm Quinoa
There is nothing more delicious than vegetables right out of the garden. With this quinoa salad recipe you can use whatever you have on hand from your latest CSA pick up, your garden or the vegetable crisper. The satisfaction you feel from eating this salad comes from the texture, taste and temperature. This mixture of…
Outrageously Delicious Homemade Jam
Making a delicious jam is easier than you think! Here are three of our favorite recipes.
Berry Bok Choy Chia Smoothie
My go-to smoothie these days has a little secret: bok choy. Now, I love me some leafy greens, but since even I find it challenging to fit in the recommended servings all in one day, I fancy finding places for them wherever I can. Bok choy is in the cabbage family and is high in…
Fancy Oatmeal
Sometimes my favorite cereal grain can feel a bit bland. Oatmeal for breakfast again? It’s the equivalent of khaki pants. Yawn. What about raisins? No offense to raisins, but again…yawn. The other day I ladled some oatmeal into a bowl and looked at it, all pale and lumpy, crying out for a splash of color. …
Spring Tonics
Despite the snowy view from our windows, it’s the official first day of spring, the Equinox, so called because the earth’s tilt is balanced in such a way that day and night are about equal lengths. Yes, there is snow, but the robins and snowdrops I spotted last week promise us: Take heart, friends. Warmer…
