Herbstalk – Mega groovy!

Posted on May 13, 2013 by

There’s something groovy and magical in the air.   No it is not the Groovie Goolies*, but it is the Boston area’s own groovy, magical urban herbal festival – Herbstalk!

herbstalk2013posterLast year was the first year it came to be and this year we’re doubling it to be two days of pure awesomeness.    So come on down to the Arts in the Armory in Somerville, Massachusetts on Saturday, June 8th and Sunday, June 9th and get your RDA of Peace, Love and Herbs (no actual RDA of which has been established but really can you ever have enough?!?)

(Last year, I got to be one of the very first teachers, teaching one of the first classes and this year I’m coming back to teach an expanded version of my Healing with Honey talk. Yay!)

This year,  leading up to the festival we’re running an Herbstalk blog, which I’m editing, with contributions from the organizers, teachers and vendors for the festival.   So in anticipation for the festival it’s the best place to get a sneak preview for the magic to come.  Check it out as you count the days to Herbstalk.  :-)

*Any resemblance between the Herbstalk organizing committee and the original Groovie Goolies:

is purely coincidental! ;-)

Posted in Events, Uncategorized, Urban Herbalism | 4 Comments

Dem Bones and more – Anatomy fun with a yoga focus

Posted on May 7, 2013 by

I’ve been a kick lately of studying anatomy mainly coming out of my yoga studies but it is, of course, very applicable to herbalism as well.  So I’d thought I’d share the random collection of resources I’ve gathered and have been working with.

Online:

  • BioDigital Human.:  I’ve recently fallen in love with this site, with its interactive 3D rendering.  It’s worth the time to study the controls and features and learn to work them well it will pay off really quickly.  The free version will do most folks but the paid is relatively cheap and includes some nifty features.   One of the things I really wish they would change is how they handle the quiz function.   You can limit the body the system (muscles, skeleton, etc.) but not focus on a particular section of that system in the body.  And it only really quizzes you on ID and not form and function aspects.  But still a great site.
  • Anatomy Zone:  a great collection of videos which are also on their youtube account, but I like using the website for easier navigation.

Both go really well together but I do wish they had more of showing the body in motion as they describe the actions of things.

Smart Phone Apps (all both Android and Apple!):

  • Learn Muscles – very nice app with surprisingly good graphics.  I love that the quiz section lets you do a varieties of things like focus on particular areas of body, ID, origin, insertion and actions.   I do find that extra features come at  price that sometimes it crashes mid quiz and it doesn’t shuffle the questions as well as I’d like.  But still a great little app.
  • Visual Bones and Visual Muscles by Education Mobile.   Not quite a nifty as Learn muscles but still pretty great.  These two apps give you the basics in a pretty good form.  The quizzes are only IDing but still useful.
  • Speed Muscle, Speed Bones and Speed Anatomy by Benoit Essiambre. A level down by comparison to the above and just basic quizzing on ID.  The navigation is a pain since it shows you the whole body rather than a part during the quizzing and it grades you by how close you are to the exactly location – which is hard to do on a small screen.  But basic and gets the job done.

Books – General:

  • Concise Book of Muscles by Chris Jarmey. Great overview of the muscles of the body.  I routinely come back to it as a quick reference.
  • Know Your Body: The Atlas of Anatomy by Emmet Keeffe. Nice simple basic reference to fully human anatomy and surprisingly readable.
  • Anatomy and Physiology for Dummies (and workbook). Always a good place to start.  I actually like Know Your Body better, because it is more anatomy and less physiology here at the cost of the anatomy.  But still worthwhile.
  • Trail Guide To The Body by Andrew Biel.  If you can find a good used copy.  It is totally worth having.  More oriented to massage student but useful for many folks.
  • Medical Terminology for Dummies.  You’d be surprised how useful this is to have around.  Some of the anatomy books are not the best at defining the terms they use and this comes in more than handy to make up the difference.

Books – Yoga anatomy specific:

To go even deeper into the yoga poses I live by this series of Ray Long books:

Such a great resource to look up any individual pose and how the the body works in them.  How to get into them, tips, focus, etc.

I hope this random overview of resources I’ve been gather helps.  :-)

And, of course, I have this song running through my head:

Posted in Path of the Healer, Yoga | Leave a comment

No Magic About It

Posted on April 29, 2013 by

I wanted to share a thought that has been bubbling in my brain about herbalism gone wrong or perhaps misused.   I recently had a couple of encounters with what I sometimes call magic pill herbalism or thinking of healing as a magic pill.   Something I’ve always been a bit suspicious of.

Suspicious Cat (Photo by Michael Blackmore - Mad Crow Herbalism)

Suspicious Cat (Photo by Michael Blackmore – Mad Crow Herbalism)

Suspicious Cat is also suspicious of such things!

Not too long ago I had a couple of people tell me about their stress problems, adrenal fatigue and how they were taking adaptogens and licorice to help out with that but how they were still having problems.   And in parallel to that was remembering the seasonal rush in the fall by folks to use herbs that stimulate the immune system during cold and flu season and when they felt something coming on.

But as I mentioned to a couple of people – that’s a classic case of the cart before the horse.  What you really need to be doing is give the body something to support it in doing all these things.   Don’t forget your nutrients – the vitamins and minerals your body needs to deal with the losses caused by stress and to support a ramping up of the immune system.

Otherwise, all you’re doing is flooring the gas pedal and not filling the tank and you’re just speeding up the time until you completely crash.

I think that is one of the things I see happen a lot with folks who go crazy with immune stimulating herbs intending to prevent getting sick.   They keep revving the immune system without increasing the things the body needs to do that, then when they get sick they get sick bad.

As a rule of thumb we in the US don’t have a problem with too little protein or calories in our diet, but we generally have a chronic one with vitamins and minerals – which gets accentuated by stress and illness as the body uses these even more quickly and they were already in short supply.

Now I’m not going to go into a whose diet is better debate or advocate a particular diet – but I do think a parody of West Side Story with Paleos and Vegans would be rocking and I may someday write it.   I will just throw out some things both sides could deal with.

Don’t neglect seaweed in your diet if you can deal with it.  Seaweeds (nori rolls do not actually count since they are so processed the seaweed goodness is essentially gone!) are packed with awesome collections of vitamins and minerals – one of the true superfoods.

In the classic world of herbalism you can’t go wrong with stinging nettles which are practically the next best thing and probably overtaking your yard if you look!  Steam them like spinach, throw them in soups – but probably not  raw salad unless you like a numb tongue. ;-)

Even just making sure you get a wide variety of different colored fruits and vegetables in your diet is amazingly important in general, but especially if you’re sick, stressed, etc.  Think soups.  Seriously it is not an accident soups are so helpful when you are sick – it’s probably the largest variety of vegetables most Americans get in their typical diet.  Which is incredibly sad.

Really, all I’m saying is I love herbs…they’re great, but step away from treating them like magic pills and remember about eating right.    Don’t just go for herbs when you are under stress, tired, sick or taking things to up the immune system, remember that is the best time to add more vitamins and minerals into your diet through eating a variety of good foods too.  Use the herbs to support you while you work to provide the body with what it needs to work with them! :-)

Posted in Food and Cooking, Healing, Random Musings | 9 Comments

Skullcap, so happy together

Posted on April 15, 2013 by

In a way, I’m shocked that I haven’t written about Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora; Family: Lamiaceae, Mint) yet. Seriously one of my favorite herbs and my special nervine partner.

I just love it.

So much so that I can’t think of it, see it or hear about it without the Turtles song “Happy Together” running through my head.

 

Heck, I think my herby friends have a lottery going to see how long before I start humming the tune after someone says Skullcap.

Some of the other commons names for it are: Blue Skullcap, Hoodwort, Virginian Skullcap, Mad-dog Skullcap. Mad-dog Skullcap being the most amusing for its dubious use in the past for rabies.

Skullcap is a classic nervine, sedative, a bit of a bitter and mild antispasmodic. It is high in minerals useful for the nervous system, so it nourishes and supports it to help calm stress and anxiety. It’s a very commonly used for insomnia and pairs particularly well with Chamomile for sleeping issues in general.

Different nervines have different affinities and are better suited for some folks than others depending on their nature and the nature of the issue they are working on.   I tend to think of Skullcap as best for when you’re finding your nervous system is over stimulated and needs help to tone down.

My first flush of love for Skullcap was when used to have a dreadful time sleeping at night and it was a regular part of a tea blend to help me sleep. Nowadays that isn’t so much an issue for me and my regular use of Skullcap fell by the wayside, then I re-discovered it in another way.

Skullcap ties nicely with releasing tension in skeletal muscles, and helps ease muscle tension in general – especially related to stress as well as general physical or emotional exhaustion. It’s not a full on muscle relaxant, you’d look to something like Kava for that, but I’ve been finding it particularly adept in supporting my after yoga practice issues.

Sometimes when I’m working in new asanas or beginning to really have conversations with muscles long dormant and make demands on them they’ve never felt before. They get cranky and carry a bit of specific nervous tension to them for a while.

During those times I will often drink more Skullcap tea generally paired with Nettles for the extra minerals punch which cranky muscles love. Or eat more seaweed for the same mineral awesomeness. (And, of course, extra quality protein in building those muscles!) I’ve been finding the combination incredibly supportive in my yoga work.

So Skullcap has become a big part of my life again in my yoga practice.
In general, in Western herbalism we use the aerial parts (leaves, stems, flowers) which is an interesting contrast because it is originally a Native American herb (used mainly by the Cherokee) and they tended to use the roots and in somewhat different ways – more as a women’s herb. Where it was used in purification ceremonies associated with menstruation. Decoctions of the root were used to stimulate menstruation and ease breast pain. And it was also used to flush the kidneys as well as for diarrhea. None of which are uses we follow with in contemporary Western herbalism. But sound like interesting areas to explore….

Anyway, Skullcap has proven a twice blessed herb in my life first for aid in for sleeping problems I used to have and now again it support of my yoga practice.

Who knows what the future holds for us…

“Me and you and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it has to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together…”

Posted in Herb(s) of the Week, Plant Friends, Yoga | 5 Comments

Troubles ahead and troubles behind – a tale of my yoga struggles

Posted on April 8, 2013 by

Ever notice how people love posting wisdom sharing bits to demonstrate how wise they are?  Or tales of initial struggles and challenges turned to triumph or valuable self-realization?  This post ain’t one of those.  Instead, it is about an in process struggle in my yoga practice – surprise!

Right now I’m in the midst of comical struggle with a pose, and as I work toward it all these emotions keep coming up for me.

So what’s the pose? Adho Mukha Vrksasana, aka Handstand.  Yeah, really.   I’m fine when I get into it, and can be aided into it and have kicked up into it by myself a handful of times over the past year or so.  But kick up into by myself on demand – not so much.    (But kicking up into headstand so not a problem.)

And shush any yogic B.S. like “you just release your spirit and fly, etc.”  Not only is that not remotely helpful it is vaguely condescending when yoga folks fall into such yoga-speak.  It’s kind of the yoga equivalent of a thin person telling someone trying to lose weight – “Oh, I just eat whatever I want and never gain a pound.”  Which I think is legal grounds for smacking them with a clue 2″ x 4″ in at least 12 different states.

Which makes it great fodder to work on right now,   so my teacher is having me just spend part of my regular daily practice just focusing in on it.  Then to up the anty she says don’t get so frustrated doing it…..

Oh, but that is not so easy, because as I throw myself toward it or throw my legs to the wall and it just ain’t happening…I get oh so frustrated.  Little bits of self doubt try their best to nibble at my consciousness.  And I get annoyed with myself.

And I get annoyed with the cats…

kitten_headstand

(Found on the internet…)

Uber flexible show offs!  But so cute!!!!

But wait isn’t his back rounding too much?  Or is that just the pot calling the kettle black?  Yeah sometimes I do round my back in yoga when I shouldn’t.   ;-)

It’s okay though.  The thing about feelings like those in practice is that they aren’t as “bad” as portrayed.  We have all kinds of feelings flitting through us at all times.  When we come up against something in a yoga practice a whole range of feelings can come roaring up.

But too often we get so condemning of some feelings as being negative or “unyogic” while allegedly cultivating others as being positive or “yogic.”

Feelings are constantly flowing over you but what matters is if you get too possessed by them or possessive of them.  And what you do with them is even more important.   In this case, I’m just taking all that and am motivated to keep trying and working on my practice but don’t attach too much to them.  When I feel frustrated I just put the energy into trying again and then let it go when I’m done.   (It’s only a problem if instead I was diving into it and avoiding my practice by wallowing in those feelings.)

So no resolution yet.  I practice, stuff comes up, I work with it and keep practicing.  Sometime that asana won’t be the mysterious problem it is now.  (And no doubt there will be another one to take its place down the line. )

Crap.  I guess there is some wisdom in here and growth from even an unresolved practice story.  Sorry about that.  :-)

Posted in Yoga | 4 Comments

Book Review (Herbal): Backyard Medicine – Harvest and Make your Own Herbal Remedies by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal

Posted on March 25, 2013 by

While I’ve used it as one of my references for years, only recently did I sit down and read Backyard Medicine – Harvest and Make your Own Herbal Remedies by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal cover to cover – and what a rewarding experience it is.

What can I say but this is one of my favorite general herbal books.   It doesn’t cover everything, but the 50 plants that it covers it covers well.

You might think, oh I know my herbs and I don’t really need a book that appears to be aimed at a general audience, but you’d be wrong. ;-)

I suspect almost any plant lover will find something to love about the book and probably learn something new to boot.   It is a wonderful blend of facts, folklore, history, uses, botany and how-tos.   And it is filled with some of the best pictures of any herbal books I’ve seen.   Heck, I think the photos are frame-able bits of beauty for any plant friend.

I particularly like how they blend in bits of fun real life like this one about Meadowsweet:

Everybody says the smell is full of summer echoes, but some do find it rather overpowering.  Matthew is one of these, and says:  “I owe a lifelong debt to meadowsweet as this was the very first long word I uttered.  At about three years old, according to my mother, when I was saying almost nothing else, out pops this word I’d heard on family walks in the Trent marshes.  These days I’m more likely to swear, though, as I get hay fever if I’m too close to the flower.”

or one of my favorite folklore bits from the book about Blackberries:

But folklore dictates that you should not gather the berries after Michaelmas, because that is when the Devil spits or urinates on them.  Or, we’d say, the frost has got to them.

There are many ideas for preparations and uses of the plants discussed – not all of them work for me as my first choice of how to work with them – but there was always some use, preparation or combination that caught my interest pretty regularly.  Offering nifty things to explore in the future.

It’s not a treatment oriented herbal with a dedicated section organized by conditions , but it does have a fair index at the back with many conditions listed.   Instead it is a wonderful exploration of the plants you would find most commonly around you and is filled with love for them.

Definitely worth getting.  ( And it may change, but as I write this it appears to be almost half off at Amazon.com – I linked to their listing in the title of the book at the start of the post.)

Posted in Book Reviews | 2 Comments

Yoga – now I get it!

Posted on March 19, 2013 by

I had a shift in my perspective about my home yoga practice that really opened up something amazing for me.  You could say everything I knew was wrong!

Wrong-Way-Sign

For a long while I did my daily home practice in the morning.  But since I work for a living this involved getting up way, way too early.  Tragically early in fact, so I would have time practice get ready for work and get to work on time.    Partly this was because my then new practice felt still fragile and I believed at the time I wouldn’t be able to keep it going if I did it when I got home after the struggles of the day.

Then with time as I both felt more confident in my practice’s stability and growing annoyance with getting up so blasted early -  I shifted my practice to when I got home from work, but pretty much right when I got home then went on with my evening – eat, work, prep for the next day and bed, etc.

But in time that began to feel off and vaguely unsatisfying.  It gnawed at me how I seemed to be running from task to task.  Like an overly caffeinated ferret running about – not very yogic or even fun at all.

At first, I thought I needed to pause a bit by having a bit of herbal tea when I got home before I dived into practice.  Which helped but it felt like I was getting closer while still not quite there.

Then I realized there’s a rhythm to my time home and I was working against that and creating unnecessary disharmony.

A good yoga practice is opening and helps to shift one’s energies and self profoundly.  So it was great that I was practicing when I got home and removing all that running about frenetic energy.  But then I was re-building that energy as I going about my work at home.  Instead I needed to shift it and have my yoga practice complement my day.

So starting last week I changed it all about:

  • I come home and change, cook, eat and do the work I need to do.
  • Then when I’m done with that working energy, I do my yoga practice to release and shift out of my working day.
  • My time after yoga is spent strictly relaxing, unwinding and easing to my time of sleep.

I’ve found that profoundly changed my practice.  I stopped treating my yoga practice as another task of the work day and instead made it the pivot point of change from that frantic, rushing self to the calmer, restive open self.

Took me long enough to realize that.  But really I think it was my developing yoga practice that helped me to understand what my yoga practice truly was and let go of what I thought it was.

Now it’s time for some yoga….

:-)

Posted in Yoga | 7 Comments

Oak is the word

Posted on March 11, 2013 by

I have to admit Oak was never one of my OMG herbs.  Setting aside the fact it’s a tree and not and herb, it just never resonated me for healing magic.   Other magic, oh my yes.  They are wonderful trees with a great spiritual power and resonance.  But as teas, tinctures, etc.  it was never on solidly on my radar.

Then once I found a special magic to it where it worked so much better than traditional herbs you might use that I grew fascinated.

Before we rush there how about the basics of Oak?

"Tell me more, tell me more..." (From the movie Grease)

“Tell me more, tell me more…” (From the movie Grease)

Oak (Quercus spp.) Family: Fagaceae (Beech)

The classic species used by herbalists are Q. rober (English)  – a mainstay of UK herbalism and Q. alba (White)  – a mainstay of US herbalism.   But frankly most of the common Oak species have similar medicinal properties.  Northern Red Oak (Q. rubra) is one of the most common around species around my area in Boston and is a pretty popular urban tree in the US in general.

A couple of ID tips:  Oaks are broadleaf trees with distinct lobes and sinuses which are alternately placed rather than side to side.  Leaves are longer than wide and asymmetrical (distinct from Maple for example which is symmetrical and shorter.)   Only Oaks have acorns.  Black/Red Oaks have pointed lobes while White Oaks have rounded ones.

Generally you use the bark (and preferably from young twigs) to make medicine – be it teas or tincture because that is where the main medicinal magical element tannins lay.  In fact the bark can be 15 – 20 % tannins!

Whenever you see tannins think astringent actions (like the action of really strong tea in your mouth), thus toning of tissues and fluid leakage.  Because  the primary action of Oaks is based around Tannins which the majority of Oaks have prominently, you can use Oaks reasonably interchangeably, but in the US you’re more like to find White Oak offered by herbal stores.

Because of that wonderful toning aspect you can use a decoction or tincture internally for diarrhea or  dysentery.  While externally you can use decoctions or tinctures for hemorrhoids (in salve form would be way easier and more pleasant) and wounds while using it as a mouthwash or gargle for  sore throats, nasal polyps and oral inflammation.    The Cherokee just chewed the bark for mouth sores, which works pretty well too, but will never be a taste sensation.

One caveat, since tannins interfere with the absorption of nutrients (one of their functions for plants is to impair the ability to absorb nutrients in the herbivores that attack them)  and can interfere with the actions of other herbs, please do use Oak internally by itself and for limited times (a few days.)

That’s the basics.  Nice, good and useful but there are plenty of plants you can use that way.

Here’s what caught my interest though….

Several herbalists I know swore that White Oak bark tincture is the best thing for Poison Ivy which I’ve read nowhere.  And being the type who loves to check things out, I made a bunch of tincture and gave out some bottles of it at a talk I did on tree medicine as well as giving them to some herby friends.   Then I got reports back that yes it worked really well.

I thought that’s interesting and kind of useful since a tincture is way easier to carry around than some of the other ways to deal with Poison Ivy.  And it makes sense it would work given the alcohol would help deal with the oils and while the tannins would help calm the rash reaction.

Then I decided to try it on a rash that I sometimes get in the depths of winter.  Last year when I got it the more traditional herbs worked okay but nothing spectacular (Aloe Vera worked the best) but it still took a week or so to get rid of it.  But with the Oak bark tincture I saw it decreasing in hours and was gone in a day or two.  Now that’s nifty and put Oak on my healing map.

In a pinch, given you might not have Oak bark about and tannins are part of the magic, a really strong black tea would help as well since it is high in tannins.  Either make a strong infusion or a poultice with it.   Hey remember tea is just as much herbal medicine as more mainstream “herbal” teas!

Keep in mind not all rashes are alike – some are irritant based (chemical or physical), some are infection/fungal and some come from more internal issues.  So try it first on a small area and see if it helps.

In other words don’t make any rash judgments…  ;-)

Sorry I  couldn’t resist.

Well, I could have resisted but I didn’t really want to okay?

So Oak and I now…well….:

We go together like
rama lama lama
ke ding a de dinga a dong
remembered for ever like
shoo bop shoo wadda wadda yipitty boom de boom

Posted in Herb(s) of the Week, Trees | 4 Comments

Killing Creativity by Should and Empowering it by Could

Posted on February 27, 2013 by
creativity

creativity (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

I’d become stuck in my blog writing the past month because I had been planning to review an herbal book that I read recently. Part of my resistance was my disagreement with the book but part of it was me having a bad case of Should (I should do this; I shouldn’t do that, etc.)….

As I read the book, I found my hackles rising. They had so many exact, seemingly arbitrary rules to their brand of herbalism it just struck me as soulless or at the very least very stifling. It was filled with rules that you Should only use one kind of alcohol for tincturing and no others were good, you Should only press out your tinctures at exactly x number of days and not sooner or later. Beyond feeling that was just plain wrong, it felt so undermining of the creative aspect of herbalism that I relish – of course, they had a bad case of Should too!  The result was that I felt very uninspired about reviewing the book, but I couldn’t let go of planning to review it because I Should…

I had also been really busy in my life the past month or so.  Heavy BASS (Busy Annoying Stressful Shit.) Sometimes when that happens I get into crisis mode where I become very seemingly calm and organized. This is great in an actual crisis (no panicking!) but very limiting and stifling to my creative self because it is all about what I Should be doing instead of what inspires me.

We all do this from time to time and in different ways.  When life gives us stress or chaos we try to impose order.  Ranging from full almost OCD rituals to subtler rationalizations – “I did it this way last time and things worked out, so I Should do it again the same way.”  Or when we feel out of control in one, or more, parts of our life we try order to impose order in others or actively avoid change and focusing on what we should, or should not do.

That’s Should.  But Should can be oh so stifling because too many rules can undermine creativity and strict rules can kill creativity.  Yes that is a rule but let’s not look behind that curtain.  Thank you Dorothy….

I see this pop up in herbalism a lot.  I’ve had conversations where an herbalist wondered why I was thinking of trying different types of alcohol in my tincture making when the ones I make were so amazing.  “You found something that works so you shouldn’t change it.”

Why?  Because that is how you learn and grow.  Being willing to shift things about is a foundation of creativity.  (As it turned out one of the different kinds I tried was even better.)

It also drives me nuts when herbalists, or anyone, gets caught in the better/quicker/more (BQM) trap – just because a particular herb or menstruum may work/extract BQM doesn’t mean you have to use it.  Others will work just fine.   Just because something is familiar doesn’t mean you should keep doing it that way!

Should is often all about ruts.

I realized how it was showing up in my yoga practice as well.  In my home practice, I found that too often after a long day of work  I tend to just go back again and again to a combination of asanas I remember and feel “comfortable” enough doing. And so a rut is formed….

I know plenty of other ones (even if that I’m not so skillful in them), just somehow when I get home after a long day and I’m rushing around shifting things in my space to practice I find my brain goes on holiday. Brain: “Nope, other asanas. Never heard of them…”  I know these so I should do them, but I don’t know those so well so I shouldn’t do them.

But how else do you grow but by practicing and trying what you can’t do, or don’t know, well?

Sometimes you get stuck because you find something you can’t let go of.  I’ve always loved this Zen story:

Two Zen monks, Tanzan and Ekido, traveling on pilgrimage, came to a muddy river crossing. There they saw a lovely young woman dressed in her kimono and finery, obviously not knowing how to cross the river without ruining her clothes.

Without further ado, Tanzan graciously picked her up, held her close to him, and carried her across the muddy river, placing her onto the dry ground. Then he and Ekido continued on their way. Hours later they found themselves at a lodging temple.

And here Ekido could no longer restrain himself and gushed forth his complaints: “Surely, it is against the rules what you did back there…. Touching a woman is simply not allowed…. How could you have done that? … And to have such close contact with her! … This is a violation of all monastic protocol…” Thus he went on with his verbiage. Tanzan listened patiently to the accusations.

Finally, during a pause, he said, “Look, I set that girl down back at the crossing. Are you still carrying her?”

Which is a great example of Should as well as not letting go of what doesn’t work for you anymore.

This brings me back to how I was stifling my own creativity by getting too narrow in my vision from being busy and becoming caught up by Should.  But also not letting go of what didn’t work for me.  You see, my blog wasn’t reflecting all of who I was anymore.

Yes I’m an herbalist, but I actually spend just as much time, effort and self in my yoga practice and studies.  So I’m just as much a yogi.  Then it hit me, that is where my authentic self lay in herbalism and yoga and my blog Should reflect it.

I’ll still blog about my herbal explorations, but I’ll also blog about yoga explorations.  Heck in the time I hadn’t reviewed that herbal book I didn’t like – I had read several yoga ones that I did.  I’ll also blog about my particular intersections between my yoga and herbal lives.  (Neat post about that coming up soon!)

So time to embrace change and real creativity through playful exploration and doing things a bit differently – or in other words by embracing Could instead of Should.

Which is one of the overarching themes of this blog, ain’t it?  Somehow Should caused me to forget that.   :-)

Posted in Random Musings, Site News, Urban Herbalism, Yoga | 2 Comments

I’m a pepper ….

Posted on January 21, 2013 by

Hard to believe there was a time in my life when I didn’t like, or least care much about, Black Pepper (Piper nigrum)  – especially given my impassioned love for it lately.  Of course, given I grew up in the South where Salt and Sugar are less seasonings and more like food groups, it may be understandable.

Lately, I’ve been finding myself drawn to Black Pepper not just as seasoning but also in the herbalism sense and it has been finding its way into my tea blends adding a certain magic to them.  It has fast become my first herbal love of 2013, which is unusual given it is not one of the most talked about plants by herbalists.

Close up of Peppercorn (Image via Wikipedia)

Close up of Peppercorn (Image via Wikipedia)

You know Black Pepper close up looks kind of like an alien world?  Or perhaps like a valuable piece of ore?  Well, considering that Black Pepper (which is the dried fruit of a vine) was so valuable that it was used as money in some places – that’s hardly surprising!

I have to admit that I started getting more into Black Pepper as part of my shifting my tastes away from too much salt.   One great way to move away from one thing when you cook and eat is to stimulate the other primary flavors.  For example, if you wanted to use less salt, then cook with more sweeteners or more pungent seasonings such as curry and/or Black Pepper.  But then I began to appreciate how helpful Black Pepper is as an herbal ally.

Black Pepper, like the majority of classic kitchen herbs, found its way into our cuisines because of its anti-microbial properties.  It has been found that Black Pepper kills about 38% of the bacteria that causes food to spoil   (“Antimicrobial  Functions  Of Spices: Why Some Like It Hot” J. Billing and P. Sherman, Quarterly Review of Biology, March 1998, Volume 73, No. 1. )  But in particular, it is a synergist spice that when combined with other common kitchen herbs would effectively kill almost all said bacteria.   All of which goes a long way toward explaining why it is such a common staple of so many spice blends and part of the reason it is paired especially with meat (more on this, and that, in a moment.)

Some of its commonly used herbal/medicine/health properties include:

  • Antiseptic, anti-parasitic and antimicrobial
  • Antioxidant
  • Helps coughs (Take about a teaspoon of ghee or honey and mix in about a quarter teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.   Use about a couple of times a day for a few days.)
  • Digestive aid (especially with fatty foods and protein – it works by simulating pancreatic enzymes that help you digest fats and proteins, thus its frequent pairing with meat!) used to help with indigestion, diarrhea, flatulence and nausea
  • Diuretic (with minor kidney problems it can be an aid, but avoid with major kidney disorders – like most diuretics!)
  • Expectorant (just add it to tea to help with hoarseness and chest congestion)
  • Improves blood circulation
  • It’s a warming herb and as such is considered a stimulant as well as mildly analgesic and mildly antidepressant (I think most any warming herb is as well.)

That’s kind of nifty collection of uses but that’s just internally.  Externally the essential oil (never use neat but instead blend in a carrier oil) has been traditionally used for its warming, anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties to aid with arthritis, rheumatism, sore muscles and joints (makes a nifty muscle rub!), itchy skin and for toothaches and dental problems.

One of my favorite emergency uses for Black Pepper is for wounds.  In addition to the analgesic and antiseptic qualities, Black Pepper stops bleeding and stimulates cell healing.  In a pinch, you can put fresh ground pepper on a cut or wound.  It stings for a few seconds, but it works well.

Another nifty gift of Black Pepper, both for herbalism and cooking, is how it helps to bind ingredients and aids in their absorption by the body.  Studies have shown that it increases the body’s absorption of nutrients such as beta-carotene, selenium and B vitamins.  It has also been studied for its ability to increase the helpful health properties of Turmeric.  In Ayurveda it is used to bind herbal formulas and increase their absorption by the body.   This special aspect of Black Pepper  is one that I’ve grown to really appreciate as I make tea blends since I find it is not just warming, but powerful in how it enhances the effects of the blends in small amounts

So go and discover the pepper love, but don’t go wild with it – just a little bit goes a long way.   Grind a little into your food after cooking or thrown in a few peppercorns in your tea blends and that’s all you need for the magic to happen.   And magic it is!

Wouldn’t you like to be a pepper too?

Posted in Herb(s) of the Week, Kitchen Herbalism | 3 Comments