I was catching up on my blogging friends and noticed an entry on Veg Blog about the health benefits of flax seed.
I grind a quarter-cup of flax seeds with no problem, then put it in a container in the fridge and over the course of a week or two, spoon a tablespoon or two a day onto my cereal, into my sandwiches, or into pasta sauce after it finished heating. The flax adds a very slight nutty flavor, but the consistency is fine enough that you don't even notice it in most things.A week or two? Holy Hanna! I go through a little more than a quarter cup every single morning in my shake! Want my super-secret recipe?
- Evo's Morning Glory
1 big or 2 small organic bananas. Freeze 'em if you like a thicker shake
2 cups organic frozen blue berries
2 heaping tablespoons of almond butter
1 single-serving of good quality yogurt, any flavor
1/8 - 1/4 cup freshly ground flax seed
1 teaspoon freshly ground milk thistle seed (Silybum marrianum)
Chai tea, orange juice and apple juice
Add all ingredients to a blender, cover with the juice mix in any ratio you like. Blend away until smooth and enjoy! Should make about 32 ounces, plenty to get me through until lunch time!
So I've been wanting to buy this book for some time now. Yesterday, I had the good fortune to meet up with a wonderful lady and fellow plant lover Mairie and her wizened friend Jamie for a quick jaunt up their favorite gulch in Jerome, AZ. Jamie has lived in the area for over 30 years and was invaluable in helping me to identify several medicinal herbs that grow in the area.
We saw alfalfa (Medicago sativa), Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), Elder (Sambucus nigra) and others on our journey up the gulch to the nettles (Urtica dioica) "motherload" at the end of our journey. Beautiful scenery which I had planned to share, but neglected to charge the battery on my digital camera.
As such, you're stuck with a book on making herbal beer. Why? Because Jamie and Mairie are quite good at it! We sampled a variety, including nettles, elder and ginger (Zingiber officinale). It sounds like such a simple process! I encourage anyone interested in new and tasty ways of making herbal medicines to get this book. Mine is on the way from Half.com now!
This just might be the strangest thing I've seen relating to herbalism on the web. I was doing a quick search on Blogdex (query = "herbalist") and stumbled across the photo you're seeing now. It's from a site called material culture, and I think I need to borrow $575 from someone to buy it. Click the image to make it bigger... if you dare!
According to the description, it's a painted signboard from Ghana entitled "Herbalist Sign". And it just goes to prove once again that every thing and anything can be found on the net if you look hard enough. Think my clients will mind?
Chilopsis linearis, or as it is more commonly known Desert Willow. It grows in abundance in my area, and with the good rains we had over the winter, it's blooming a tad bit early this year as the monsoons haven't even started yet.
Chilopsis is a great ally against rampant fungal infections, both internal and external. Our local scourge Valley Fever responds quite well to Chilopsis, as do recurrent Candida infections that tend to linger.
I discovered an interesting little blog the other day called The Holistic Health Preak. While not specifically about herbalism, the writings are often intriguing to those of us interested in broader aspects of healthcare.
The folks over there have commissioned a survey of practitioners, both holistic and allopathic, on the changing face of health care in both the short time and the distant future. The results are very interesting. Futurism is an often (and by definition) inexact science, but some of these scenarios are quite appealing. We'll see if western culture has it in them, and if western medicine can adapt for these changes...
Driving home last night, I heard the report of two well-known and very popular manufacturers of coral calcium coming under fire. It seems that the FTC was tipped off to some of their claims which were, how shall we say, somewhat exaggerated?
No, this post isn't to light into the FTC, FDA or even to rant on the hype surrounding coral calcium. Instead, I wanted to give you my take on supplements. Keep in mind that I'm an herbalist, not a nutritionist.
When taking any substance, there are some obvious concerns. It's no different with drugs, herbs, vitamins or even your morning coffee. But with natural health products and especially with supplements such as vitamins and minerals, there are additional concerns on should have.
What am I taking? Are you completely certain the product on the label is the product in the bottle? I've read enough stories and heard enough first-hand accounts to know that there are less than scrupulous people in our field who are looking to turn a buck more than they are interested in your health. Anyone selling Arnica (Arnica montana) to you outside of homeopathic remedies from Europe is automatically suspect, as the remaining stands of this wonderful first-aid botanical are strictly controlled by the industry. Chances are, your Arnica tea is really "Mexican Arnica", which is most likely Heterotheca. Mexican Arnica, or Camphor Weed, is a wonderful botanical in it's own right, but it is not Arnica, and it will do little or nothing to reduce the pain and inflammation of an injury.
What else is in this bottle? The FTC cited elevated levels of lead in the product of one of the two products under investigation. In herbal remedies, adulteration is unfortunately common in such ubiquitous plants as Echinacea and Skullcap (Scutellaria laterifola), as well as in the more rare and threatened American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolia) and Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis). In some case, the foreign matter is simply inert, but in several cases it can be down right harmful.
Can my body use this substance? Most people fail to realize that the majority of the vitamins and minerals sold are in preparations that are almost impossible for the body to absorb. Think about iron for a moment. Chewing on a magnet or eating metal filings won't do you much good, right? Your body has evolved over billions of years to extract iron from food, primarily animal protein. Free iron atoms floating around in your system are not what your body needs. The same holds true for calcium. Foods rich in calcium (no, not dairy. Unless you are a bovine...) are the green leafy veggies. Your cells take in the nutrients from the food, and the minerals (calcium or iron) attached get to come inside for the ride. But without that ride, like a big once a day iron tablet or chewing on a piece of chalk... the minerals are inabsorbable and wind up just passing through.
The moral to this story? Well, there are two actually... First, buy your herbs, vitamins and minerals from a reputable source; not a club store. Yes they are cheaper, but as we just learned-- cheap stuff ain't good. Second, be very skeptical of "new remedies" that are over marketed. All of the herbs I use in my practice have been used for many thousands of years and by many different cultures. If coral calcium is such a life saver, there would be much more historical evidence of its use by every single coastal fishing peoples around the world. With Yarrow (Achillia millifolium), every indigenous culture in every place it grows uses the plant to stop bleeding. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is always used as a blood builder and purifier, and even the various Artemisa species are always used in ceremonies to dispel negative energy. These uses occur without fail, and often times without any cross-culture exchanges between peoples. Don't you find that reassuring?
My not-so-little sunflower has decided to open up to the world. People often think of the large head as a single flower. It is not. Sunflowers are Asteracea (originally Compositae) family members, characterized by many tiny flowers making up one large (or small) head. In the detail photo, you can see the tiny individuals surrounded by the yellow sepals often confused as "petals".
Daisys, thistles, dandelions... many of the flowers most recognizeable to us are members of the Asteracea family. It's one of the largest!
Surfing around bloggerdom today while waiting on my Speed Fudge to set, I came across a few bloggers chatting and reporting on Aromatherapy.
Nichole from Harmony Blue just got back from a weekend 12 credit class on aromatherapy. She's posted a great little formula to help motivate you in the morning.
Michael at ZenBox is a posting mad man about aromatherapy. He's pointing to an article about the healing power of aroma, as well as a story about a teacher using aromatherapy in her classroom.
My fudge is almost done!
Caution: People with caffeine or other stimulant sensitives, heart disorders or other mitigating factors SHOULD NOT ingest massive quantities of guarana (Paullina cupana.) Massive headaches and depressive hangovers are likely with overuse.
OK. Enough of the gloom and doom. I found this recipe via one of the legends of botanical medicine, Michael Moore. To do this formula justice and to make sure you take it in it's full context, I'm posting it in it's entirety. Enjoy...?
Guarana Fudge - AKA Speed Fudge
by Michael Moore - Southwest School of Botanical Medicine
Mix together:
5 cups brown sugar
2 1/2 cups milk
salt
Add later:
1 cube sweet butter
6 ounces powdered Guarana Bean
Various nuts (if desired)
Boil to the soft ball stage. Remove from heat for 10 minutes, add 1 cube sweet butter. Mix in 6 ounces of powdered Guarana Bean, and stir constantly until the glistening surface starts to look like frosting and stiffens. Add nuts (if desired), scrape onto greased surface, cool until set, and cut. WARNING: This stuff tastes GREAT, but speeds like a mother. This fudge has no self-redeeming qualities...it's just happily perverse.
Dosage: start with a small square, and wait an hour before overlapping with another piece. Guarana is the Queen of caffeine plants (with some hypoxanthines thrown in) and will generally (to quote Dr. Donald Culbreth) produce gaiety, restlessness, quick perception and wakefulness, while slowing the pulse and impairing the appetite. Eating it slows absorption and can extend its effects well past the 3-4 hours you might expect from a similar amount of coffee. The fudge tastes good, the effects of Guarana are fun, but if you pig out on this stuff you can get to a level of pure caffeine jitters that will completely over-ride the subtleties that, at a more reasonable amount, make Guarana so nice.
For several years in the early 70s I manufactured this fudge, packaged and labeled it and wholesaled it to truckstops in the L.A. area. One time I madeup a huge batch to give to my sales reps to take to a Gift Show (I was making a line of herbal gift boxes...teas, spice blends, stuff like that). They passed it all out, the show ended up lasting until dawn, with vendors, representatives and buyers wandering around spending, ordering, chatting, dancing, giggling and kvetching long after the doors closed. The reps returned to L.A. only to find that they had walked off with someone else's order book, had lost theirs, and promptly slept for two days. I did not do this again. Neither should you.
My wife is throwing me a birthday party this weekend, while we simultaneously celebrate her being hired to teach 7th grade language arts next year. I'm not much of a birthday rememberer or celebrator, but I can't turn down the excuse for a good party.
I'm making something special this year for the party goers: Speed Fudge. Think "hash brownies", but without the illegal substances. (In Formulas...)
A closer look under the covers reveals a little bit more about this volunteer.
This is less than forty-eight hours after the last photo. Isn't if fascinating how quickly the colors change? Notice the swirled pattern of the flower head clusters (it's in the Asteracea family) in the three o'clock position of the head.
My lovely friend Kathreen blessed many of us a year ago with these wonderful recipes of Rose. And now, I share them with you. (In Formulas)
OK so these aren't the most medicinal items you'll find in this section. But rose does have beneficial aspects and has been consumed as a food for thousands of years. Enjoy! (Thanks to Kathreen for these...)
Rose Vinegar
Steep petals in white wine vinegar for 2 weeks in a warm place out of direct sunlight. Cook with rose vinegar or use as an astringent wash for the face body.Rose Petal Jam
You'll need the following:- 1/2 lbs. rose petals
1 & 1/4 cup of sugar
3 tbs. organic lemon juice
3/4 lbs. raw, unfiltered honey
Simmer petals in a small amount of water until tender. Add the sugar, honey and the lemon juice and cook gently until this mixture is a thick syrup consistency.
Allow the mixture to cool a little, then pour it into sterile canning jars and seal.
Rosehip Tea
Make an infusion of rosehips with a pinch of cloves, cinnamon and a slice of lemon.To make an infusion, add 1 cup of boiling water to 1 ounce of herb. Do not boil the herb in the water. That's how you make a decoction...Strain herbs out and serve the "tea" to restore and stimulate your vital energy.
Rosehip Syrup
For this syrup you'll need:- 1 & 1/4 cup of boiling water
1/4 lbs. rosehips
1/2 cup raw, unpasteurized honey
Pour boiling water over the rosehips, cover and leave to steep until it is room temperature. Strain the mixture in to a sauce pan, add honey add heat slowly to bring the liquid to a boil. Simmer gently until it thickens to the desired consistency. Cool and bottle.
Use this syrup as a topping for cake, ice cream or with other items of your choosing. Mixes well with sparkling water for a delightful beverage! Also does wonders for a sore throat.
Rose Water Mouthwash
Mix equal parts of rosewater and tincture of myrrh (Commiphora mol mol) for an alternative to OTC mass-marketed "green stuff".Candied Rose Petals
Begin by slightly beating one egg-white in a small bowl. Sprinkle a layer of sugar on a small plate. Dip the rose petals first in egg-white, then in sugar so they are coated on both sides.Dry these confections on a rack. Store the candied petals on wax paper, each layer separated by a paper towel or piece of cheesecloth.
Use these on candy trays, as a garnish for fruit cups, as a decoration on cakes and pies or to adorn a serving plater for a special meal.
Rose Petal Punch
A handful of strongly scented rose petals will delicately flavor a punch for a summer evening.2 - 3 hours before you wish to serve the punch, put a good handful of fresh, scented rose petals into a mixing bowl. Sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar over the roses and pour over it a large bottle of sparkling wine or apple cider along with the juice of one lemon. Chill.
When ready to serve, strain off the liquid into a punch bowl and add additional fresh rose petals and any berries in season. Serve in tall glasses.
Kathreen's Rose Petal Ice Cream
- 2 cups heavy or whipping cream
4 scented deep crimson rose heads
2 large brown eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. honey
a pinch of ground cardamon or seeds from a few pods
1 cup milk
- Put the cream, milk cardamon and rose petals in a saucepan and bring to just below the boil. Remove from heat, cover and leave to infuse until cool.
Whisk egg yolks in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Whisk the sugar and honey a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended.
Strain the rose-infused milk into the egg mixture and return to the sauce pan or a double-broiler. Cook very gently until slightly thickened, but do not let it boil.
Chill this mixture (custard now) and then freeze or process in an ice cream maker. Store in the freezer.
* Before adding custard mixture to the ice cream maker, I like to add a little rose water and fresh rose petals minced lightly
I love to eat Rose Petal Ice Cream along side soft summer fruits such as raspberries, cherries or strawberries topped with (of course) Rosehip Syrup or more rose petals.