Balance Your Holiday Menu With Ayurvedic Six Tastes
Ayurveda teaches that all things in nature are made up of some combination of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. This means that our bodies, the food we eat, the herbs that we benefit from, and even colors and aromas—are made of some combination of the five elements. This five-element paradigm is…
How to Harvest and Prepare Prickly Pear Cactus
The prickly pear (Opuntia spp.) cactus is synonymous with the American West, and what a gift she is to desert dwellers. The name prickly pear refers to a group of around one dozen species in the Opuntia genus (Desert USA, n.d.). Every part of this plant is useful, and prickly pear serves a wide range…
Botanical Vegan Tamales Recipe
This vegan tamales recipe is a fun twist on traditional tamales. I love how the edible flower colors and shapes appear to be painted on the masa after steaming. The spiced and hibiscus-infused jackfruit is a pleasing plant-based close companion in taste and texture to carnitas. You might find it more refreshing as a light…
Adaptogen Bliss Balls Recipe & Video
Adaptogens are a category of tonic herbs that are often used to keep the general terrain of the body healthy and functioning properly. While there are many types of tonic herbs, adaptogens are often classed as endocrine system tonics, though they can have an effect on other body systems as well. While we’re not going…
How To Make A Kid-Friendly Mother’s Day DIY Herbal Hand Cream
With Mother’s day right around the corner, many children are busy crafting lovely gifts for the most treasured of people, their mommy. Children love to make gifts for sharing, and moms adore each precious gesture from their little ones. This year help the children in your life make mom’s day extra special with a batch…
Bedtime Herbal Bath Recipe with Linden, Catnip, Lavender, and More
In the very depths of winter, the world becomes sleepy. This cold, dark season is a time for introspection and resting before the life bursts forth again in the spring. Taking good care to get healthy sleep is an important part of self-care. Use this herbal bath recipe which is filled with relaxing herbs to help provide gentle…
Herbalicious Homemade Granola
Crafting a big batch of homemade granola is such a treat. Pans thinly layered with the goodness of rolled oats and nuts slowly roasting in the oven is wonderful and homey. This not-to-sweet recipe uses only dried fruits along any goodies that you choose to include for sweetness. It is rich in fiber, whole grains,…
A Recipe For Family-Friendly Herbal Chai
Making and drinking herbal chai together is a wonderful way to enjoy herbs with the whole family. After all what could be better than a big mug of sweetly-spiced steamy goodness on a chilly day? Chai is full of healthful herbs that aid digestion, warm the body, and gently boost the immune system. This recipe…
Guts to Marrow, Gelatin is Easy to Swallow
The latest food fads are all about the grizzly bits of the animal, so it’s maybe a relief to a lot of folks that some of the most nutritious grizzle of all — gelatin! — can come in pretty colors topped by pastured whipped cream. Gelatin, perhaps you’ve heard, is making a comeback, and nobody’s…
Japanese Knotweed Recipe and Monograph Excerpt
“In addition to its medicinal properties, Japanese knotweed shoots have been used as a common food in China as well as Japan, where it is known as itadori-kon or just itadori, which means “removes pain.” Itadori is traditionally prepared by preserving the shoots in salt for up to 10 days, or may be cooked fresh…
The Benefits of Elderberries Sambucus nigra and Sambucus canadensis
Across the country, the elderberries are turning dark purple or black and herbies everywhere are harvesting them, drying them, and formulating their favorite elderberry preparations for the seasons ahead. In my blog in June, we talked about the plant, the flowers, and some of the wonderful lore and magic that surround the elder. The flowers…
Arugula, Peach, Radish & Corn Salad
Summer produce is still plentiful, even as we head towards September. There are lots of healthy, plant-based meal choices to be created with ingredients like bell peppers, fresh herbs, zucchini, tomatoes, and peaches. And this super corn salad includes lots of them! A sweet, crunchy, savory, peppery salad base pairs perfectly with a cumin-spiked zesty…
Refreshing Basil and Mint Smoothie Combinations
During the height of summer, cooling smoothies are especially welcomed by families as a tasty snack or light meal. The abundance of fresh produce available makes it easy to take advantage of the best of summer by blending up a tasty treat! Fresh herbs are a surprising and delightful addition to smoothies. Favorites include a…
23 Ways to Use Chamomile
Chamomile is one of the most recognized and used herbs in the western world. Many people think of it first for anxiety and insomnia, but it’s far more than a gentle nervine. From tea and tinctures to salves and soap, chamomile’s versatility and aroma have long-been welcomed into our lives. To read about chamomile’s use throughout the…
9 Ways To Use Valerian, Valeriana officinalis
Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) is a lovely garden plant with pinkish-white aromatic flowers. A perennial to Zone 4, valerian thrives in sun to partial shade, is easily propagated, and requires little care. Plant it in the back of your garden, though, since it can grow up to six feet tall! Valerian is more than a garden…
Homemade All-Purpose Seasoning
Familiar kitchen herbs are a sure bet when it comes to adding flavor and zest to any food preparation, but what about the more bitter wild or cultivated medicinal herbs that also help build immunity and act as antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory agents, just to mention a few of their actions? How do we get…
10 Elderflower Recipes and Uses
The elegant elderflower – if you’ve been noticing large, creamy blossoms on forest edges, then you’re probably seeing the flower of the elder. In this post, we are sharing an assortment of elderflower recipes to try yourself. Like us, we hope you find the flower an alluring early-summer resource! It seems appropriate that the elder is…
12 Nettle Recipes To Add To Your Cookbook
It is spring, and to many of us that means time to watch for the nettle. Long ago, our ancestors also watched for the first greens of spring after a hard winter with nutritional foods in short supply. As soon as they were able, they harvested nettle and incorporated its revitalizing nutrition into their diets. Nutritionally, nettle is one of nature’s…
How to Make a Delicious Dewberry Syrup
Each spring, one of nature’s gifts appears in the form of dewberries. Sometimes considered a weed by those unfamiliar with their benefits, dewberries grow on low, trailing brambles along fences, in woodlands, near roadways, and in other undisturbed areas. The vines are covered with small thorns, which can make it tricky to harvest dewberries. Forage…
Lemon Balm Lavender Scones
Today is a drip-droppy rainy Spring day here in Colorado. It has been raining for days which is strange for our little community. All this quiet persistent rain is bringing the world alive with vibrant greens of every shade. Dwelling in our yard is a luscious patch of fragrant lemon balm which showing it’s colors…
Refreshing Violet Lemonade
Wild violets are abundant this time of year, and they offer such wonderful benefits. The leaves are thought to support the lymphatic system, which is so helpful when we consider the strain put on our bodies by environmental pollution and toxins in food. Even those of us striving to reduce the number of toxins we’re…
A Family Herb: Violet Plant
Violet plants are a pure delight for the senses, enchanting children and adults alike with their lovely, sweet-smelling purple flowers and precious, bright green heart-shaped leaves. A seasonal springtime flower, violets are often among the first plants to peek their little flowering heads up towards the sun. Gather the flowers in the spring and enjoy…
How to Enjoy Green Matcha Tea
I am seriously obsessed with green tea—specifically, organic Matcha green tea. I just can’t get enough of it. Matcha comes from the shade-grown tea leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. The whole tea leaf is stone-ground into a fine powder. The highest quality Matcha is grown in Japan and is a deep, colorful green. Generally,…
Herbal Honey Recipes For Kids
Do you love honey? Believe it or not you can make honey even more tasty by infusing it with your favorite herbs. Making your own delightful herbal honey is great to try out with kids and share with family and friends. Herbal honey this is one of the most delectable ways to preserve and enjoy…
A Homemade Dandelion and Chicory Root Coffee
I love coffee. That wonderful aroma on a chilly morning, how it wafts its “wake-me-up” scent straight to my nose. I adore that delightful buzz that comes with sipping my brew on the back patio, while watching the sunrise. I admit, sometimes it’s more than love; it’s a bit of an obsession. Back in the…
Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Cashew Queso
Superbowl munchies might be over now that the Pats are officially champs, but fun, game-day food should be enjoyed all year long! Perfect for any sporting event, Sunday fun day, or just a creative, beautiful appetizer to serve when you’re hosting a party, these Southwestern stuffed sweet potatoes are easy to make and a healthy…
Love It Up With Herbal Aphrodisiacs
In herbalism, aphrodisiac herbs aren’t just a means to an end! Aphrodisiac herbs nourish the nervous, heart, and reproductive systems on both physical and energetic levels. Physically, they tonify the body and support balanced function, enhance physical desire (libido), and improve performance. Energetically, they balance and love up the heart and sacral chakras and increase…
Homemade Chocolate Recipes for Decadent Herbal Chocolates
Let’s be honest here. Chocolate is awesome. I could sit and eat chocolates until every last one is gone and everyone is wondering who ate all the chocolates. I never realized how easy it could be to make my own chocolates until I found a simple recipe in one of my mom’s chocolate cook books….
3 Herbal Recipes To Boost Your Energy
After a tough day at work, your only wish is to slip into your comfy pajamas and curl up in a snug blanket. When the brutal alarm clock snaps you out of a happy dream the next morning, you grumble about what a disturbed night you’ve had courtesy of the mosquitoes and the blaring music playing…
How to Make Bone Broth
Post by Ellen Demotses, aromatherapist, TCM and Western herbalist. She is a member of the American Botanical Council and the American Herbalists Guild and is developing a natural skincare line. Everything that’s old is new, and everything that’s new is old. – Stephanie Mills Bone broth is everywhere. Recipes, articles and “brothals” have emerged across…
