I was informed last night that the Cannabis article in the current issue was copied and pasted from a PubMed posted research paper. It just didn't cross our minds that we needed to research submissions to be sure they were original, and I am deeply sorry for that oversight.
Proper credit and the complete article can be found HERE
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Also, stay tuned for a subscriber-only benefit coming up next month.
Field Notes from the Editor, Tina Sams
I’ll miss the plants outside, but then again…
About the Cover
Photo by Signe Sundberg-Hall
Cannabis Root MedicineRyz NR, Remillard DJ, Russo EB (2017) Cannabis roots: a traditional therapy with future potential for treating inflammation and pain, Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research 2:1, 210–216, DOI: 10.1089/can.2017.0028.
There’s so much talk about the cannabis leaves and flowers,
but there’s a lot to say about a deeper medicine.
DIY Natural Spa Days, Jackie Johnson
Easy to follow general instructions for lots of treatments.
The Art of Entertaining with Tea, JB Schaffer
Do you put on a pot of tea when guests are expected? Get
some tips for making people at home with various herbal teas.
Elderberry Toxicity, Rebekah Bailey
A peek into to some soon-to-be published new research!
Holiday DIY - Gifts, Marci Lautanen-Raleigh
Wow! Recipes and instructions for gifts, décor, and special
culinary touches to use in entertaining or gift giving.
Move over Turkey - It’s Stuffed Pumpkin, Theresa Koch
Mmmm… a delicious vegetarian main course.
Nutmeg Gets Noticed, Kristine Brown
Do you ever think, “I wonder who was the first person to
try this thing?” How about nutmeg? How did that happen?
Cranberry Nut Bread, Nancy Reppert
Festive and seasonal bread perfect with tea or as a gift.
Book Excerpt: Evolutionary Herbalism, Sajah Popham
The Vital Force Within Plants
Home Weeds Home, Lalanya Bodenbender
Sometimes it takes a while to settle into a new plantscape.
Keeping Herbs, Rita Richardson
You don’t have to miss herbs during the winter.
Conifer Forest Soap, Marci Tsohonis
This one is on our list of things to make!
CO2 Extracts: What are They & How Do I Use Them? Liz Fulcher
Sometimes I hear terms but don’t really recognize that I don’t
know exactly what they mean. CO2 extracts fall into that category,
so I figured I wasn’t alone. Liz graciously agreed to tell us.
Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream & Double Berry Wine Cooler, Nancy Reppert
Two delicious and elegant - yet fairly simple – recipes.
Herbal Oddities, Kathy Musser
Less common, but interesting plants at the herb farm.
Moving, Sandy Michelsen
Checking in after a long absence, a new place to learn and get
to know.
Subscribe Now
Friday, October 04, 2019
Autumn Projects for the Still Room
Sept/Oct 2015 issue, Essential Herbal
Catherine Love
www.stillroomherbs.com
I love
autumn. It is my favorite of all the
seasons. Though it is harvest season for
many, it is also planting season for me (Texas).
Autumn is the best time of year for planting perennial herbs here, and
many of the cool weather loving herbs thrive in our typically mild winters, so
they are planted in the fall as well.
Once the
brunt of the hot weather is over, I begin harvesting and cutting back the
heat-loving herbs such as rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram, and mugwort, in
order to make room for other less heat hardy varieties like cilantro, parsley,
dill, nasturtium, and calendula. These
are less aggressive in growth as well, and they do nicely tucked in between
perennial herbs that will grow more slowly in the fall and winter.
Once the
garden is planted, it is time to have fun stirring and stitching up some things
with the herbs that have been recently harvested and dried. This fall I will be making:
·
Sweet Lavender Rose sachets- Just a simple blend of dried lavender,
rose petals, and corresponding essential oils tucked into pretty patterned
sachets that I sew from fabric scraps.
Sometimes I forgo stitching altogether and simply cut small squares of
fabric with pinking shears, gather the herbs into those and finish with a
ribbon tie. To make things even simpler, I buy premade muslin bags from my
local Natural Grocer. With those all I have to do is fill, pull the drawstring
and tie. If I want to dress them up a
little, I stamp them with an herb leaf or design before I fill them.
·
Sweet Dreams pillows- These are great for putting the
abundant mugwort harvest to good use by blending it with other relaxing or
dream inspiring herbs such as: rose petals, lavender, and lemon verbena; along
with a few drops of lavender and rose geranium essential oil. I make these as flat muslin pillows to tuck
into a pillow case. When I make them for
gift giving I use a pretty floral fabric or something that will correspond with
the recipient’s décor.
·
Rosemary needle pillows- These make a simple but useful gift
for the seamstress. Sew a small rectangle bag, fill it tightly with dried
rosemary and stitch closed. The rosemary
is said to help keep your sewing needles sharp when they are poked into these
bags. At the very least, they make a
fragrant spot to store extra pins and needles.
·
Moth repellant bags- Sew small bags with a hanging loop
(those premade muslin bags work well here) for draping over a clothes hanger in
the closet or to tuck between sweaters and other clothing that moths tend to ruin. A mixture of cedar chips, lavender, rosemary,
southernwood, and wormwood are mixed together with a few drops of lavender
essential oil for these.
·
Mediterranean Medley potpourri- This is a refreshing blend of my
most hardy herbs- rosemary, sweet marjoram, thyme, lemon verbena, bay leaves, and
lavender; with dried pot marigold and blue bachelor’s button flowers thrown in
for color. A few drops of lemon and
marjoram essential oil will enhance the fragrance. No real recipe here, I tend to just mix as I
go adding more of this or that until it pleases my eye and nose. Use what you have on hand and
experiment!
These are
just a few ideas I have for fall herb crafting.
I hope they inspire you to create something new to you with the herbs
from your harvest.
My motto is: Have
fun and see what happens … with herb crafts, it’s hard to go wrong. I have had some funny flops, like the lavender
cookies that tasted awful. I posted the recipe on my blog before I taste tested them
because I was sure they were going to be delicious. When I realized the mistake I quickly named
those Bathwater Cookies, posted an update on my blog, threw that recipe out and
started over, posting a new recipe later.
It is ok to admit when we mess up, we’re all human and laughter (even at
our own expense) is good for the soul.
I encourage
you to continue exploring new ideas and trying new things with herbs. Share the successes and laugh off the not so
successful projects. There’s always
tomorrow and another herbal adventure to enjoy!
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Everyday Elixirs
It is harvest time and we are all busy storing away
this year’s bounty. While I am in drying,
infusing, and tincturing as well, one of my favorite ways to store my herb
harvest is to make elixirs. The idea of
making a concoction with minimal amounts of sugar that still tasted good was
very appealing to me. I’d seen many
recipes for elderberry syrup but they called for so much sugar and high heat;
two things I am never comfortable applying to herbs. I am
also a large fan of reducing the amount of time I spend standing over a
sweltering stove during harvest time.
The basic idea is to infuse dried herbs in a mixture
of 80 proof or higher brandy (or some other
tasty alcohol) and raw honey. I’d like
to give you exact proportions but a lot of it depends on your sweet tooth and
which herbs you decide to use. I
generally end up using around 4 oz dried herbs: 15 oz liquid ingredients in a
pint jar. How much honey, you use is completely up to you. I’ve seen people use as much as 50% honey, but
that is way too sweet for my liking. I
use very little honey and more brandy.
You will have to experiment to see what combination you like best. I have found it that it works better to
dissolve the honey in the brandy before adding it to the dried herbs.
Sometimes,
I warm the brandy ever so slightly before I mix in the honey to help dissolve
the honey. That step probably isn’t
necessary, or even desirable, if your honey dissolves without heating. The raw honey I get locally is thick and it
really helps. After you have the honey
mixed into the brandy, you place dried
herbs of your choice in a clean pint jar and pour the mixture over the herbs
until the herbs are covered and the jar is full. Cover
with a tight lid and let the mixture “brew” for at least four weeks before
straining and bottling. You may need to
top off the jars a bit the next morning and shake them around a bit from time
to time.
Tonic herbs are particularly suitable for
elixirs. I’ve never understood why so
many herb books recommend bland tonic blends when it is so easy to spice things
up a bit. If you
are going to sip on something daily, it might as well taste good. Because
my taste buds seem to be easily bored, I need variety in my tonics so I play
around to come up with different flavors, all the time. I’ve come up with some fun combinations of
dried herbs that I like to turn into elixirs and I thought I would share some
as a jumping off point.
Remember how an apple a day keeps the doctor
away?
Apple
Spice Elixir
½
cup dried apples
¼
cup true cinnamon
¼
cup dried elderberries
¼
cups dried rose hips
1
tsp dried cloves
This is an elixir geared toward the specific goal of
helping to balance blood sugar levels. Burdock root is a fantastic tonic herb for
so many reasons, one of which is being that it contains inulin which reportedly
helps balance blood sugar. Recent studies have also found that cinnamon and
fenugreek are useful for reducing serum glucose and improving glucose tolerance. I tend to take it really easy on the honey
in this elixir, so I am sure to use true cinnamon which is sweeter than others.
Burdock
Root Elixir
¼
cup dried true cinnamon
¼
cup Fenugreek Seeds
¼
cup dried orange peels
½
cup dried Burdock Root
Hawthorne is a particularly nice heart tonic herb that is rather uninspiring, as far as flavor goes. I know there are a good many herbalists out there who like to mix it up with wild cherry bark and that is a fine elixir. I’ve a bit of that put by in my herb closet, for evening because it is so relaxing. During the day, I might be more inclined to use one of the following blends.
Spicy Chocolate Elixir
1
dried cayenne pepper
½
cup dried hawthorn berries
¼
cup coarsely ground cacao nibs
In this mixture the cayenne acts to stimulate the
circulation, and the cacao nibs will contribute a lot of the wonderful benefits
of dark chocolate to the mix.
Chocolate
Orange Elixir
¼
cup dried orange peel
½
cup coarsely ground cacao nibs
½
cup dried hawthorn berries
Even though the orange is mostly for flavor in this blend, it still contributes Vitamin C and antioxidants.
Now the only question left is how to use your
elixirs? I tend to find that they work best when you
take them in small amounts throughout the day, so I add a dropperful of elixir
to mugs of my daily nourishing infusions. My
favorite thing to do with an elixir is to use it to jazz up oat straw infusions
or red raspberry infusion, which really
can be pretty boring when it gets right down to it. I suppose,
I might surprise readers by
suggesting sipping on booze first thing in the morning, but remember that you getting alcohol in a such small amounts. In
the evening you can sample a bit more heavily, if you are so inclined.
for more of this!
Friday, September 13, 2019
Botanical Nomenclature- It's Not as Bad as You Think!
by Kathy Musser, Cloverleaf Herb Farm
previously published in The Essential Herbal Magazine (Nov/Dec '18)
previously published in The Essential Herbal Magazine (Nov/Dec '18)
If you deal with plants long enough, either as a serious
hobbyist, or a professional, eventually you run up against botanical
nomenclature. I know people who have studied plants extensively, but stopped
in their tracks when it came to learning scientific names. My introduction came
during courses I took at Longwood Gardens. We had to learn the botanical name,
and correct spelling, for each plant we studied! And although, after more than
twenty years, I don't remember them all, I learned enough about the system to
make it easy to categorize many plants and also to understand the basis for
many scientific names. This article will be a primer for understanding the
system of botanical nomenclature, how to navigate it in researching
plants and some tips for recognizing recurring words and descriptions.
Botanical nomenclature is a uniform system for naming and
classifying plants. It begins with large groups of plants with certain similar
characteristics and gradually refines the classification down to a specific
plant. Why was this done? If you visit several greenhouses, you might see the
same plant listed under different common names. I have this experience nearly
every year. A customer comes in and asks for a plant by a certain common name.
If we don't have it, I ask for a description. Often, we have the plant although
we list it by an alternate common name. Sometimes, plants have different common
names in various locations or have an 'old-fashioned' name that has been
modernized. It can be confusing when the same plant has multiple names.
Across the spectrum of groups of plants, the importance of
using botanical names varies greatly. With many annuals, herbs and more
familiar perennials, common names often suffice. Using botanical names might be
more important in choosing trees or shrubs, particularly if you're looking for
a specific variety, identical plants for a hedge or windbreak or a plant with
definite characteristics.
The system of botanical nomenclature was developed by a
Swedish botanist - Carl von Linne, although his name is often written in
the Latin form as Carolus Linnaeus. Latin names for plants may denote
geographical distribution, cultivation, chemistry or even uses of a specific
plant. The system is uniform throughout the world, and a botanical name will
identify the same plant here, or in France, Brazil or Latvia. The system is
ever evolving, so there are periodic name changes to correct past errors or
based on new information.
Each plant is given a two part name. The first word refers
to its genus - a group that has common characteristics. The genus name is
capitalized. Following it is the species, or specific epithet, which begins
with a lower case letter. This part of the name is more specific to distinguish
plants within a genus from one another. Sometimes there is a variation within a
species, like a different color, a better flower or variegation. This name
would be written Genus species var.(for variation.) There are also cultivars or
cultivated varieties. These plants do not occur in nature, but have been
developed by man, and are maintained by gardeners. They can be designated by
cv., or more commonly by putting the cultivar name in single quotes. Hybrids
are a cross between two species and are designated by an X. For example,
Lavandula x intermedia 'Grosso' is a hybrid variety of lavender, commonly
called lavandins, with the cultivar name 'Grosso' describing a large plant with
long-stemmed purple flowers.
Even a limited knowledge of botanical nomenclature can be
helpful. Many gardeners are anxious to provide host plants on which butterflies
lay their eggs. Milkweeds are hosts for monarch caterpillars. If you recognize
that the genus Asclepias denotes varieties of milkweed, you'll know that
Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed), Asclepias incarnata (swamp milkweed) or
Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed) will all serve as host plants for monarchs.
When I was in high school, (a very long time ago) Latin had
fallen out of favor as a language to be studied. If I had known I'd wind up in
a horticultural career, I would have studied Latin. But even without that
background, there are recurring words used to describe many plants in the
system of botanical nomenclature. If you become familiar with them, it helps to
identify many common herbs.
officinalis/officinale-meaning the plant had commercial
value, generally as an apothecary plant
Rosmarinus officinalis=rosemary
Salvia officinalis=sage
vulgaris/vulgare-common or ordinary variety
Thymus vulgare=thyme
annua/annuum-an annual plant
Artemisia annua=sweet Annie
procumbens/prostratus-creeping type of plant
Rosmarinus officianalis
'Prostratus'=creeping rosemary
tinctorius-refers to plants used in dyeing
Carthamus tinctorius=safflower
graveolens-heavily scented
Anethum graveolens=dill
odorata-sweetly scented
Galium odorata=sweet woodruff
phylla-means leaves and other words or prefixes are added to
further describe foliage
microphylla=small leaves
Several words are used to describe foliage or flower color
and are repeated throughout the system
ruber=red
aureus=golden
virens=green
niger=black
alba or albus=white
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