Cacao Dusted Peanut Butter Cookies
Mmmm, the warm, cozy smell of peanut butter cookies baking in the oven. What other scent is more beloved? Don’t let these healthy, almost raw cookies fool you – they spent not a nanosecond in the oven. They are also gluten and wheat free, without flour, refined sugars, eggs, or butter. What?? Not exactly like…
Oats: Herbs We Love For Summer
Oats (Avena sativa) and their versatile components have been used for everything from stuffing mattresses, poultices, facial scrubs, cereal, teas, and baths. This small wonder, native to Northern Europe, packs a powerful nutritional punch with its protein, B-vitamins, calcium, and other minerals.
Licorice and Ginger: Herbal Decongestants
For many of us, the worst thing about getting a cold is the seemingly interminable congestion that takes over our respiratory system. It’s distracting enough to make us miserable, but isn’t enough of an issue to allow us to call in sick from work or school. And not only does the offending mucus seem to…
How to Grow Fresh Basil
Whether it’s to cleanse the blood, act as an anti-inflammatory, or simply to make pesto for an Italian feast, basil can be a valuable staple of an herbalist’s kitchen and a delicious way to ensure continued health. Though it’s easy enough to buy fresh basil at the store, it’s an herb that’s incredibly easy to…
Catnip: Herbs We Love For Summer
Catnip (Nepeta cataria) or catmint, is probably best known as a stimulant for cats, inducing euphoria and friskiness. The scent alone is irresistible to most felines—my own kitty immediately darts into the kitchen the moment I open my jar of catnip. So as not to undermine her feline superiority, I share a pinch with her before adding…
Herbs for Prostate Health
It’s a scenario familiar to many aging men: he goes to bed, much as he has for decades, only to wake up two, three, or even four times to go to the bathroom to urinate. It’s difficult for him to urinate regardless of the time of day, for the urine dribbles out and is hard…
Rose: Herbs We Love For Summer
Rose. The Queen of Flowers has origins in the Middle East, and has been cultivated and cherished the world over since antiquity. The oldest known rose bush is believed to be at least 1000 years old, growing on the walls of the Cathedral of Hildesheim, in Germany. Subject of many a sonnet and poem, lauded…
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…
Making the Connection
Sitting down to eat breakfast, I began to look around. Showing prominently in the center of the table was the loaf of 7 grain bread used to make our toast, but there was also cereal of many grains, almond milk, coffee, half-and-half, orange juice, fresh berries, butter, jam, almond butter, honey, flax seeds, chia seeds,…
The China Study Cookbook Review & Giveaway
What one chooses to eat is often based on emotion and addictions, unconscious habits, and unquestioned cultural mores. Because how we eat affects not just our bodies, but the quality of our land, water, and air; human rights; and other beings, lifting food and diet out of the realm of the unconscious and into the…
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…
A Simple Solution for More Rejuvenating Sleep
Since we were young we have been taught the value of getting a good night’s sleep. Sleep does everything from helping us to rejuvenate our minds to ensuring that the cells in our bodies repair themselves. But while many of us are familiar with the benefits of sleep, what if there was a way for…
Garden Wellness
“[People have] has sought out plants with medicinal properties since time immemorial. Evidence of this are the-thousand-year-old traditions and records of popular healing. Even in this great age of great development and progress in the fields of chemistry [and] pharmaceuticals,…plants have lost none of their importance.” Botanical Wellness Herbalism is the oldest form of wellness….
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…
DIY Curtain Holdback
Items needed for the DIY Curtain Holdback: Door Plate of choice Door Knob of choice (must have threaded type for screw) 2 – 3/8” carriage bolts 3 ½” – 4” long 2 – 3/8” flat washers and 2 – 3/8” nuts Crescent wrench Electrical tape Paint brush Craft paint Tape over head and beginning threads…
Plantain: Herbs We Love For Summer
When I was a little girl, my parents, unlike our neighbors with their perfectly smooth “chem lawns,” never applied pesticides or weed killer out of concern for their children’s health and to minimize our exposure to toxins. Our yard was viewed not as a status symbol but a place to romp and play, and so play…
St. John’s Wort: Herbs We Love For Summer
The summer herb of the week is St. John’s wort, also known commonly as touch-and-heal, goatweed, hypericum, johnswort, klamath weed, rosin rose, St. John’s grass, and tipton weed. St. John’s wort is an herbaceous perennial in the St. Johnswort family (Hypericaceae). You will find it growing in the fields and meadows and along roadsides and forests from…
Spearmint: Herbs We Love For Summer
Spearmint (Mentha spicata) is one of our favorite cooling herbs for summer! When it’s 90 degrees out, firing up the stove to make hot tea can be unappealing. Fortunately, spearmint, as well as mint family cousins peppermint and lemon balm, are easy-to-grow kitchen herbs that impart their refreshing taste into cold water.
Herbal Academy of New England’s Summer Reading List 2013
NUTRITIONAL HERBOLOGY By: Mark Pedersen This is a lovely reference guide to herbs and their nutritional and medicinal values as well as folk history. THE CHINA STUDY By: T. Colin Campbell, Thomas M. Campbell ll, Howard Lyman and John Robbins If you haven’t read this one yet, don’t walk, run to your nearest book store….
Make It: Flower Water
At this time of year, I am often stopped in my tracks by a sudden sweetness carried by the wind. A quick look around will reveal a blooming delight nearby, spreading its fragrant essence through the air. Today I found the roses outside my house blooming after a long winter’s rest, unfolding their strong petals…
Sticks and Stones: Homemade Plant Markers
Many of us are transitioning into summer by planting our gardens. And there is nothing better than planting in style! These homemade plant markers are not only attractive; they are free, easy to make and very green. All you really need are sticks and stones from the backyard!
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,…
An Introduction To Phytobiophysics ®
Our good friends at Mossop Natural Remedies put this video together for our students and readers! Sit back with a cup of tea and enjoy the presentation, An Introduction to Phytobiophysics®, by Diana Mossop. http://youtu.be/keAFGx8DT-g&w=550&h=309 A little about Diana: Professor Diana Mossop has been studying natural remedies from plants for the best part of her…
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…
How To Make Herb-Infused Oils
If you have never made an herb-infused oil, you are in for a wonderful treat! These easy herbal preparations are a wonderful way to capture the benefits of herbs for many uses, from skincare to cooking. There are so many herbs you can choose from depending on your intended use, and there are so many…
Regrowing Your Kitchen Greens
Did you know you can extend the shelf life of your greens by simply putting them in water? It’s true; I’ve done it! I picked up green onions at the grocery store two weeks ago. It was sad seeing them go so quickly. So I experimented with a jar of water and sunlight and regrew…
Outrageously Delicious Homemade Jam
Making a delicious jam is easier than you think! Here are three of our favorite recipes.
Upcycling for the Herbalist
If you’re sentimental like me, you likely have a stack of greeting cards stashed away that you can’t bear to part with – not only because of the messages inside, but because they have lovely colors and designs.
Interview with Madelon Hope
April 10, 2013 In our “Herbalists we Love” page, we are going to give our readers insight into the lives of herbalists. Here we will introduce you to herbalists that are well suited as guides into this realm of healing and the passing on of knowledge. Our first herbalist is Madelon Hope who has been…
