“There are numerous ways in which the body rids itself of harmful materials, metabolic products and radiation. The liver, kidneys, intestine, skin, lungs — all work in concert to rid us of everything harmful and superfluous. Anything that strengthens these organs is also strengthening the capacity of the body to detoxify itself.” p146 Moon Time: The Art of Harmony with Nature and Lunar Cycles by Johanna Paungger

Read more ...

I am not a huge fan of expensive supplements when herbs and other helpful natural things are available, and this is probably all a big economic war between Big Pharma and the High-Cost Supplements Industries again, so I am not advising you to sign, unless you read it and really agree. I got ripped off joining EQUINOX in the late 90’s so I know about expensive supplements and there should be a way to avoid people selling total bulls–t, but if restrictions get placed on our ability to freely use herbs as a result of their battle (see my article on Codex Alimentarius) I will really not be impressed!

In any case it is just good to be aware of what is going on. Let me know what you think. I generally try not to get involved too much in all of the legal smoke and mirrors that goes on. The legal jargon in such things seems to mainly be used for covering up stuff and wasting time. But in the hopes that I am wrong, I have signed this letter!

The following is from the Citizens For Health website:

Introduced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) on February 4th as the “Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010,” S. 3002 is designed, according to the bill preamble, to “more effectively regulate dietary supplements that may pose safety risks unknown to consumers.”

Read more ...

Last month I got a great email in my inbox from Out of The Box Sampler inviting me to share a sample for their monthly box. This was great news and I started trying to figure out what in the world I could make 25 of that wasn’t gonna take me a whole month, but that would also be a sample of the items that I have in my handmade store Hella Delightful.

There isn’t much there, but I hope to add to it as projects show their faces. At the moment I am in a new location and need to find some wild spots that are forage-able, so all the stock I have is it. Anyway I thought of making bundles of half-sized yarrow stalks, but I found the size too small to be usable counting the I Ching.

I had collected a bunch of cherry blossoms during the spring this year and had taken photos like mad as well and was really wishing I could find a good way to share these photos. As a kid I used to make boxes out of old Christmas cards to look like miniature Christmas presents to hang on the tree as decorations, I used to love doing it, so I decided to try making some tiny boxes out of the photos of cherry blossoms. I may have made them too small in retrospect, but I didn’t really collect that much of the cherry blossoms.

Read more ...

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 out the nectar, “Ummmm yummy,” you say as you reach out to pick another one and give it to your younger sibling (nephew, grandchild, daughter), “try that.” You watch the expression of happy surprise on the face of the child as they eagerly reach out and pick their own colorful nectar filled funnel. This simple act has occurred for generations around the globe ever since the colorful nasturtium flower was first brought back to Europe from their native habitat, the Andes. Very easy to grow and a wonderful companion plant for gardeners, the zesty Tropaeolum majus quickly circumnavigated the globe and can now be found in every country.

The multicolored flower we know as nasturtium is said to have gotten it’s name from the family Nasturtium which is a genus of the Brassicacea (cabbage) family. Watercress (Nasturtium officinale) is the edible plant of this family and contains the same mustard oil (Benzyl isothiocyanate), which causes the tangy taste in the nasturtium flower. The properties and therapeutic uses of these two plants are therefore very similar. One difference is that the bright colors of the flowers also contain the powerful antioxidant anthocyanin, which we have heard a lot about over the past couple years as a highly effective free radical scavenger and cancer preventer.

Read more ...