August 5th, 2011 | Herbs and Spices, Our Food, Ag, agriculture, Codex Alimentarius, EU, Germany, global, harmonization, herbs, industrial, laws, pharma, regulations, supplements
February 20th, 2011
This summer, while shopping at the Trout Lake Farmer's market, I came across a rare find--a sack full of fresh Lemon Verbena for only $4! I have tried growing lemon verbena on two occasions now, but both times they haven't made it through the winter--or that's what I thought. The woman who sold me t ...
July 9th, 2009
Published in Healthy Options Magazine July 2009
Tucked away in my memory lies a happy scene which we probably all share: a patch of bright yellow and orange nasturtium flowers surrounded by their round dollar leaves. Squatting down you reach out and pick the long funnel off the back end of t ...
June 1st, 2009
--Recipe for Rose Hip Soup--
Unlike people, roses probably do not consider themselves as having a purpose in life. But if a rose bush did have a mission, I expect its greatest sense of achievement would come from creating, not just a whole lot of beautiful flowers, but the grand array of round, r ...
May 6th, 2009
Refreshing recipe for Fenugreek and Fennel Salad
Fenugreek: (Trigonella foenum-graecum) called methi in the Ayurvedic tradition, has been a trusted friend of mankind for a long time, perhaps even before crops were cultivated. It is widely used in Ayurvedic medicine and cooking, which dates back a ...
April 4th, 2009
Published in the column A Flirtation With Herbs in Healthy Options Magazine, New Zealand, April 2009
I was away for much of the summer, helping my sister with her newest addition to the family. As a result, my balcony garden didn't do so well. My spaghetti squash died, my nasturtiums were ...
January 27th, 2009
I remember the first time I had a chance to get to know wild fennel. It was growing tall and wild behind an empty lot I walked through every day on my way to work at an Italian restaurant in the Viaduct harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. It's funny to look back on that period in my life and realize t ...
July 12th, 2007
Golden Spice of a Golden Land
I developed a deep respect for turmeric the last time I was in Myanmar (Burma). Not paying close attention to where I was putting my feet, I had stumbled on a hole in the sidewalk while walking the streets of Yangon and sprained my ankle. Several Burmese friends ad ...
May 15th, 2007
Originally published in Healthy Options, July 2004, New Zealand
Perhaps the oldest seed utilized by man, sesame has been used for thousands of years as medicine, food and to light lamps. Although the first written record of sesame is 3,000 BC, Assyrian mythology gives sesame a role in the or ...