To understand recent crack-downs on cowshares, private food clubs and herbal remedies it is important to know about the set of food regulations called Codex Alimentarius which are now in play in both the EU and North America.
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Louiza tea or Berber Whiskey. More commonly known as lemon verbena tea, which is drunk by the Berber's of the High Atlas mountains of Morocco.
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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 the flower and suck [...]
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–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, red rose [...]
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An interesting property of fenugreek is it's affinity for certain wild yeasts, which are beneficial to the digestive tract as well as being useful in the fermenting process of making traditional dosas or idlis, by attracting wild yeasts to the batter. Fenugreek is a great adaptogen.
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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 killed in an aphid [...]
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The ancients believed all knowledge was transmitted from the gods via the lacy branches of fennel. This plant family forms a bridge between ether and earth, and may be the reason that fennel is used to assist digestion and balance the nervous system.
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Turmeric turns everything it comes in contact with gold, not only your fingers, clothes and countertops but your health as well. It is a very powerful antioxidant, very good for your digestive system, micro-flora and much, much more.
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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 origins of our world. In this [...]
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