The Essential Herbal - November December 2024

porterstavern@yahoo.com

porterstavern@yahoo.com

We got to work very early on this issue so that we could take care of some stuff around the farm.  As we worried about filling it up, it grew and grew until we had more pages than we normally do - and they're all great!  This issue finishes 23 years of publishing, and there have been a very few issues that almost magically publish themselves.  It happens when we are stretched too thin due to circumstances beyond our control (AKA life) and are considering surrendering and being late. Miraculously, it comes together and *POOF* we slide in under the wire.  In fact, just as I was starting to stress over a cover, Carolina appeared with this stunner!  Once again, we are reminded just how wonderful our contributors are, and how they make the magazine what it is.  Thanks, everyone!  We are so grateful.

Here it is:
 

Get yours here: 
SUBSCRIBE
or
SINGLE ISSUE

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Cover, Carolina Gonzalez
“Nightfall” is original artwork that takes us into the next season.  Warming and mysterious, the darkness awaits outside the circle of light.

Crossword Puzzle – Here Come Holidays

Field Notes from the Editor, Tina Sams
The Notes were written a little early because of some activity here on the farm.  A week later, Helene crashed through the South East of the US.  Everything can change so quickly!

Chinese Star Anise, Jackie Johnson, ND   
The lure and lore of this delicious and beautiful seedpod!         

Gifting Your Herbs This Holiday, Marcy Lautanen-Raleigh 
A fun and varied selection of herb-crafting for gift-giving.

What Does AHG Membership Mean? Ruth Glass & Sabrena Gwin
Gather your herbies and learn together.

Perfectly Persimmon, Alicia Allen 
10 ways to serve persimmon that you probably never considered.  Pancakes, Barbecue Sauce, Salad Dressing, and more!

Theme Gardens, Kathy Musser
Would you like a little inspiration for a new garden?  Themes can be a lot of fun.

A Year of Foraging - October, Rebekah Bailey 
Wander through the woods with Rebekah (between her new college courses) and find nuts, mushrooms, and fruit!

Winter Skin Salve, Connie Byers 
Completely natural ingredients come together to give you a moisturizing, soothing salve to combat the cold, dry winds of winter.

Grief and Herbs, Amy Jeanroy 
Some help for wandering through the wilderness of grief, both herbal, and  self-nourishing, and a wonderful tea to help.

Hot Tea Toddies, Susanna Reppert Brill
A trio of variations from the basic (provided) hot tea toddy recipe.  An uncommon yet fascinating herbal winter beverage that could become your new tradition!

Word Search  - What’s In This Issue?

Peanut Butter Dog Cookies,
Rose’s Hot & Spicy Apple Chutney,
and Canned, Spiced Apple Rings, Marci Tsohonis
Three delicious treats for man and beast from Marci’s kitchen.  Apples for us, peanut butter for the pup.

Sage Advice, Kristine Brown, RH(AHG)
Sage offers us so much!  Mind, Body, and Spirit are all fed by this herb.

Blossoms & Oatmeal Facial, Tina Sams
Take care of that face with this soothing and firming facial treatment. 

Excerpts from “Herbal Medicine for Modern Life”, Ruth A. Blanding
A couple of great excerpts from this book releasing in November.  Ruth talks about why we should try herbal remedies, and then provides some herbal COVID help.

Meet Our Contributors
Learn a little about each of those who made this issue possible!

Puzzle Solutions

For the Next Issue, ideas for writers and what to look forward to.

porterstavern@yahoo.com

In the olden days before the internet...

             
                               (photo from Wikipedia - but I did this job at one time)

The other day I was talking to a friend about an old gripe.  It's about people who were in business before the internet learned to either come up with original products OR do something to make them their own.  We'd learn enough about them to change the recipe, change the packaging, call it something different - something that made it our own.  We realize that is just not an actual concept for people who weren't around back in the olden days.  It's even starting to slide over to older people, and why not?  Why should we keep coming up with ideas that we can only hang onto until the first time we promote them?

We talked about a reel that's been going on where a kid asks an old guy how he figured out things before.  I personally mumbled about the Dewey Decimal System under my breath, but the old guy said, "We didn't!"

                 

You know, that's a fact.  You may have called friends who might have an idea.  In college I learned to call people who were renowned in specific fields on the phone while my knees knocked, and ask questions - which were almost always answered kindly.

Tonight a recipe landed in my email for gnocchi made with purple sweet potatoes, and it took me back to a great example.  

                                  Get the recipe at The Spiced Chickpea

                         

Our very first herb conference, we went to SC for an IHA gathering, and Tom DeBaggio was one of the speakers.  His talk was about handing down knowledge and how easily it could slip away.  He described watching his own father trying to duplicate the gnocchi recipe from his childhood.  Grandmother was gone, and there wasn't a written recipe.  His father tried several different batches and just couldn't get it.  I believe that it eventually brought him to tears, and that really made an impression on Tom, perhaps leading him to become a writer.  

                            

I realized that this is where we are now.  This is reality now.  We can find anything at the touch of a key.  In fact we can find 100's of gnocchi recipes!  Lessons on forming them, along with pasta making tutorials abound.  There is nothing we can't learn if we want to!  This is great!

But this is my fear (and suddenly I'm hearing parents when they started letting us use calculators for homework...), do we actually learn, or do we copy?  I think it's important to understand the ingredients, why they work together, what purpose each of them serves, and how to improvise and change from the original (or 10,000th).  If everyone just makes the same thing, eventually we'll only need one person doing each item.  We can have a huge factory for every soap, every herbal tea, every shoe, every comb, every scarf...  You get the idea.  What we put into our work is what makes it special.  Part of it is also about pride and KNOWLEDGE.  Eventually the originators will be gone.  30 more years, I figure, unless in the next deadline AI turns this post into a giant joke.  Then what?  Challenge yourself now.  Be the future.