6 hard boiled eggs, chopped
2/3 cup chopped chickweed greens,
1 tsp horseradish
2 tablespoons fresh chives
½ cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Stir  mayonnaise, chives, and spices together.  Mix this mixture into the chopped eggs and chickweed.

Salad Dressing

2 cups fresh chickweed greens
½ cup plain yogurt
½ cup olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp honey
¼ tsp salt
3 garlic cloves
fresh ground black pepper

Blend all of the ingredients in a blender or with an immersion blender.  Serve over your favorite salad.   I am experimenting with making the dressing except for the yogurt and freezing it in small containers.  Then when you want to make it, you can just thaw it out and mix in some yogurt.

]]> http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/05/17/chickweed-salad-dressing/feed/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/05/07/a-personal-post-of-great-sadness/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/05/07/a-personal-post-of-great-sadness/#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 04:01:23 +0000 Stephany Daily Life http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/05/07/a-personal-post-of-great-sadness/

I rarely do something like this but this is an unprecedented moment in my life.    My daughter’s lost their baby brother today to SIDS.   Please join me 8 a.m. CST on Mother’s Day morning in a ritual to send the baby’s mother,  the girls and  my ex-husband  peace and emotional healing.

1. Choose a quiet place that you can use as your healing sanctuary. Light a candle if you like, or burn some incense.

2. Stand or sit facing towards Iowa if you can.

3. Raise your hands up, with your palms facing outwards.

4. Be very still and go within.

5. Using your powers of concentration, visualize a white light flowing from the palms of your hands and from your heart center, which is situated just in front of your breastbone.

6. Breathe deeply and summon a feeling of calm, peace and strength. Then simply visualize that  healing power flowing to the girls and their family.

7. When you start to feel this power flowing in you, then say out loud the girls’ names. The energy will then flow to them.

8. Let the feeling flow through you, your hands and your heart center, for a minute or two. Realize this feeling and really feel this love and compassion filling you and flowing through you. You may then carry on sending healing to more people, or you may finish.

9. When you have finished, end with a simple blessing on the family and or  prayer to the Mother Earth/the Universe/Buddha/God (whatever floats your boat) to send Riley, Darian and their brother’s parents, strength, emotional healing and peace.

10. Then place the right hand over the left hand in a sweeping motion.

]]> http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/05/07/a-personal-post-of-great-sadness/feed/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/04/26/traditions-in-western-herbalism-conference-update/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/04/26/traditions-in-western-herbalism-conference-update/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:47:58 +0000 Stephany Herbalism http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/04/26/traditions-in-western-herbalism-conference-update/ Still working on classes but I thought I should pass this along.  I am so excited to see the list of classes and intensives available.    For more information about this conference visit: http://www.traditionsinwesternherbalism.org

Featured Speaker Class Descriptions

7Song

Adventures in Wildcrafting -Tales of gathering plants around the United States. This will be a combination storytelling class as well as practicalities of gathering plants. Tales include run-ins, injured body parts, and the exultation of finally finding a gatherable amount of the plant one seeks

How Herbalists can Integrate with Integrity - Herbalists are one of the last health care modalities that remains unlicensed. This has both positive and negative attributes associated with it. This class explores some of our options as herbalists to bring our unique set of skills and medicines to a wider audience. It will draw heavily from my 5 years working at a mixed modality (conventional and holistic) free clinic in my hometown as well as other places I have volunteered. A large piece of this class will be devoted to answering attendee’s practical questions about their personal situations and how they can bring their skills forward.

Plant Walk -On this walk we would meet local plants and discuss the importance of botanical characteristics (an examination of their individual parts), the plants’ relationships with other plants, ethical and practical ways of wildcrafting species we see, plants from other areas that have similar uses, and real-life clinical applications. Plus any good story that comes to mind.

Paul Bergner

Vitalist Principles of Herbal Medicine - Description Coming Soon

The Vitalist Actions of Herbs - Description Coming Soon

Howie Brounstein

Skullcap, A Tonic Nervine - A discussion of nervines in general will begin this class. This will lead into Skullcap’s specific indications and contra-indications illustrated with colorful case histories, as well as the ecology and specifics of a number of western Scutellaria spp.

GI Tract Protocol - The GI tract protocol can be used for normalizing varied types of chronic digestive problems. Many clients have compromised GI tracts from a fast food vegan or other extended elimination diets, protein deficiencies, or multiple nutritional deficiencies. Symptom pictures range from full-blown chronic fatigue symptoms to multiple food sensitivities and brain fog. I will discuss the details of the protocol sprinkled liberally with case histories.

Charles Garcia

Hispanic Herbalism - The Hispanic healing traditions of California, incorporating the herbal use of other cultures within the Latino experience. California Hispanic herbalism differs from the Mexican or Tejano, or Southwest traditions due to the various native and foreign cultures which helped form it. It is unique in herbal use and in some spiritual concepts of healing.

Guerilla Herbalism - Street herbalism through helping the homeless, impoverished, and under insured, often under dangerous conditions. Can you devise a small but comprehensive herbal kit? Learn how. Do you know what conditions the homeless generally suffer from? Learn how to stabilize and treat it. Afraid of the street? Learn what time of month is the safest. Can you make allies? Who are they. Are you too idealistic? Find out. Street herbalism. It is not romantic, but it can be a rush.

Rosemary Gladstar

Foundations of Women’s Health - Description Coming Soon

Giving Back - Rosemary Gladstar, renowned herbalist and founder of United Plant Savers, talks at length about the importance of giving back to the natural world that provides the plants we use for medicine, and that imparts the wisdom needed now more than ever in these trying times. Recounting the very personal story of her own life and work, experiences and revelations, this fairy godmother of herbalism encourages us to ever more sweetly love what we do, as well as to act powerfully on behalf of the people, plants and planet that we love

Jesse Wolf Hardin

The Calling - with Jesse Wolf Hardin and Carlos Lomas- A brief tribute to the diverse western healing traditions, to the many generations of empowered community healers, and to all of us who any way heed the heart’s call to help and to heal…

Into the Green -Jesse Wolf Hardin will be joined by the musicians of Arborea and/or Rising Appalachia in weaving a special evocation of our heartful and biological connection to the wondrous plant world, telling the tale of this amazing relationship while musically delivering us to our personal place of wonderment and purpose

An Ecology of Healing: Health as Wholeness and Balance - Taught by Kiva Rose and Jesse Wolf Hardin, this class will be an in-depth exploration of healing as the body’s natural effort to be whole and in balance. Special focus will be placed on of the body as a dynamic ecosystem instead of a battlefield. Included are foundational elements of working with the whole person and the whole plant rather than isolating or compartmentalizing either human or herb. Tips and practical information will be provided on how to integrate the ecological perspective into an herbal practice and how to work towards healing based primarily on nourishment rather than intervention or conflict.

Phyllis Hogan

Secrets of the Sisterhood

For women only! We want to feel comfortable and uninhibited in this sharing circle so we can fully embrace our femaleness: from maiden, mother, to crone. We will discuss changes we experience as we journey through this life, and the plants that assist us along the way. We will learn about women’s traditions in Southwest cultures, and the important roles they play. We’ll talk about spirit plants and how they relate to feminine healing, and burn aromatic smudges and smokes, discovering how their daily use can empower us. We will learn and use herbs for everything from luscious skin, to lustrous hair, to yoni health. We’ll discuss herbal bathing and experience facial steams, fruit and honey face-masks, hair care vinegars and oils. Join us for laughter, prayer, frivolity and especially flowers, roots, seeds and stems at this full on experience for women healers from all tribes and walks of life.

Sending Your Voice Singing

“The Original Divine Sound, which originated from the Supreme Sovereign, continuously without break reverberates throughout the hearts of the entire macrocosm and microcosm.” — Maharishi Mehi Paramahansa Ji

All of life is energy, vibration, light and sound. Let’s send our voice singing so the plant spirits hear us! Bring your favorite instruments, songs, offerings, prayer satchels, and voices to this interactive workshop where we will share with each other our Sacred Songs. We will start off talking about how to approach collecting our own plant medicines- with a clear heart and good intentions. We will learn about how different native tribes collect plants in respectful and honorable ways, with songs and prayer. We’ll look at plants the way traditional elders do- as living spirit entities who are eager to communicate with us. We’ll conclude with group sharing of our favorite songs that honor Mother Earth and Father Sky, the rivers, mountains, and plants. Aho!

Phyllis Light

To Be Announced

Jim McDonald

Foundational Herbcraft & Talking With Plants (with Kiva Rose) - A common sense look at how plants speak to use through our senses, and what they’re communicating. Jim and Kiva will explore the underlying elements of traditional western herbalism, including sense-based herbal energetics, primary herbal actions and ways of integrating these essential components into an effective healing practice.

Differentiating Diaphoretics - While people commonly think of diaphoretics as “herbs to use during fevers to make you sweat”, this is a limited understanding of an immensely important class of herbs that is as, if not possibly more, important than other classes of immune herbs that boost while blood cell production or kill microbes. Join Jim McDonald in an exploration of the fundamental role of diaphoretics in immunity, and how they can be used to support and enhance the body’s vital response to infections from influenza to the common cold. Special attention will be paid to the differentiation and use of diaphoretics that stimulate, relax or do both at once.

Kiva Rose

Foundational Herbcraft & Talking With Plants (with Jim McDonald) - A common sense look at how plants speak to use through our senses, and what they’re communicating. Jim and Kiva will explore the underlying elements of traditional western herbalism, including sense-based herbal energetics, primary herbal actions and ways of integrating these essential components into an effective healing practice.

An Ecology of Healing: Health as Wholeness and Balance - Taught by Kiva Rose and Jesse Wolf Hardin, this class will be an in-depth exploration of healing as the body’s natural effort to be whole and in balance. Special focus will be placed on of the body as a dynamic ecosystem instead of a battlefield. Included are foundational elements of working with the whole person and the whole plant rather than isolating or compartmentalizing either human or herb. Tips and practical information will be provided on how to integrate the ecological perspective into an herbal practice and how to work towards healing based primarily on nourishment rather than intervention or conflict.

Matthew Wood

Clinical Skills - Learn to evaluate energetic conditions (hot, cold, damp, dry, tense, relaxed etc.,) by complexion, tongue and pulse examination and simple questions. How to take a case, where to begin, what to treat. The four pillars of evaluation and treatment - 1) energetics, 2) organ systems, 3) action and 4) specific indications.

Herbs for the Muscular & Skeletal Systems - Herbal treatment of locomotor injuries, problems of aging, arthritis, gout, lyme disease and more.

]]> http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/04/26/traditions-in-western-herbalism-conference-update/feed/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/04/09/food-energetics-and-nourishment-online-intensive/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/04/09/food-energetics-and-nourishment-online-intensive/#comments Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:52:48 +0000 Stephany Herbalism Health Eating Your Herbs http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/04/09/food-energetics-and-nourishment-online-intensive/ I am so excited to be registered for the following course and thought I would share the information with readers.   Be sure to contact Darcey if you are interested.   I would love to take a class with you…

Join Herbalist, Nutritionist, and food lover, Darcey Blue French of Brighid’s Well Herbs for a 6 week online intensive course on the energetics of food, true nourishment, nutrition, relationship with place and food, nutritional healing and more. www.brighidswellherbs.com

May 3, 2010 - June 21, 2010*Learn about the ways traditional healing systems such as Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine see food energetics, and use food as healing tools on a day to day basis.
* Explore your relationship with food, your body, what you eat and why.
* Discover your natural physical constitution, and how you can use food to help you stay balanced.
* Be prepared for a deep exploration of food and our relationship to it, this can be uncomfortable and emotional, as well as enlightening and sensual. Food is a deeply influential factor in our psyche, social interactions, and cultures. All students are expected to be sensitive to others and compassionate and respectful.
*Appropriate for food enthusiasts & practitioners alike.
*Very HANDS ON, expect to be preparing foods, meals and weekly assignments for the duration of the course. This is an EXPERIENTIAL class, not just book work. I will provide resources and readings, but the bulk of the work will require the actual preparation and consumption of food.
* This is not a cooking how to class. You should feel comfortable cooking and working in your kitchen. There will be recipes and ideas shared during class discussion, and pointers and questions are always acceptable.
*Requires access to e mail and the internet on a weekly basis. Class discussion is a part of the learning process. Arrangements may be available for those with limited access. Please inquire.Sliding scale $60-$80 per student, payable by check or paypal. Payment in installments is available by request.Please register by emailing Darcey at shamana.flora@gmail.com

About the Instructor:
Darcey Blue French is an herbalist and food lover, who has over the years explored various ways of eating, interacting with food and preparing food. Educated as a Clinical Nutritionist at the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism in 2008, she has been in private practice since that time. She has experience in Ayurvedic Cooking, Vegetarian, Allergen Free, Primal/Paleo diets and the philosophies of Dr. Weston Price. Food is far more than fuel, and Darcey is passionate about food that not only nourishes the body, but also the spirit, and tastes wonderful too. She works closely with plants, both wild and cultivated that provide both food and medicine. She is an avid forager of wild foods, gardener of organic vegetables, and is passionate about local and sustainable food systems, and how our relationship with the land, nature and wilderness impacts our physical and spiritual health and wellbeing. She truly believes that one cannot separate the health of the people from the health of the ecosystem in which they live.

Intense, vibrantly wild and alive!

]]> http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/04/09/food-energetics-and-nourishment-online-intensive/feed/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/04/06/paul-bergner-on-sugar-high-fructose-corn-syrup-and-agave-syrup/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/04/06/paul-bergner-on-sugar-high-fructose-corn-syrup-and-agave-syrup/#comments Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:59:42 +0000 Stephany Herbalism Health http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/04/06/paul-bergner-on-sugar-high-fructose-corn-syrup-and-agave-syrup/ Due to the fact that I am working on my last three weeks of the semester while my husband is on a business trip,  I have decided to re-post articles worthy of being passed along. This was originally passed along in an e-mail but I felt it was important to share, and Paul said that it was okay to “circulate freely” I  know many people reading my blog are just beginning to think about making lifestyle changes and I thought this offered some insight as to why you might want to start cutting back on your sugar intake.   According to Paul,  the average American takes in 160 pounds of HFCS a year!  We cut back our sugar intake drastically and eliminated HFCS from our daily diet years ago, and after reading this I am sure we made the right decision .
For those who are not familiar with the name,  Paul Bergner is the director of the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism in Boulder, Colorado which  offers introductory, advanced, and clinical training in medical herbalism and clinical nutrition in the vitalist tradition.   Distance Education classes are also available.  NAIMH also publishes a quarterly journal for clinical herbalists:  Medical Herbalism
For those interested in more information,  please check out the websites above you will find a wealth of information.

http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/03/30/everything-old-is-new-again/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/03/30/everything-old-is-new-again/#comments Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:39:18 +0000 Stephany Gardening Herbalism Daily Life http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/03/30/everything-old-is-new-again/

      1940’s Local Foods Poster

I was listening to an NPR report recently on the cyclical nature of these “credit crises” in the history of the US economy and was struck by something the expert being interviewed mentioned.   He spoke at great length  about the “short attention span” of the collective American public which is something I have watched over my lifetime with great interest.

I like to think that my childhood was unique but honestly there are a great number of folk out there who grew up in a very similar manner to me.   However,  I do think that I might be unique in the fact that I fairly young to have grown up churning my own butter and stoking the woodstove to bake the bread and stay warm.  My family is a bit of an anomaly.    My grandparents, my parents and myself really haven’t cycled through many of societies fads, especially where food is concerned.      Until I was fifteen and we moved off the farm,  I don’t think I had ever eaten much food that we didn’t raise  and prepare.    Even  though that changed a bit when my parents moved us to town, my family hung on to a great deal of that lifestyle.   We bake most of our own food from scratch,  we garden and we preserve
what we grow.   Any given August you will find all of our households bustling with the activities of harvest and preservation.  I have really never known anything different.   So it is with a little bit of bemusement that I watch the latest explosion of the back-to-the land movement because I really never left it.

I often forget when someone spends hours demonstrating how to make a loaf of bread that this really is a skill that has been lost somewhere along the way, not just something people don’t do because they don’t have time.    I giggle when we make homemade macaroni & cheese to take someplace and it is viewed as some sort of accomplishment because in my family that is pretty standard fare.

There is a point to all of this.  Herbalism is newer to me than the natural family living.   I  suppose I started the path about fifteen years ago although I have only been studying seriously about six years (around the same time I started blogging).   But as soon as I started reading,  I recognized it as kindred to the way I grew up and was familiar with a lot of the teachings although they hadn’t been presented to me as “medicine”.   The  connections were there and as I read through the history of herbalism,   I recognized how the little resurgences in the “natural living” movement always coincided with a new generation of herbalists.   I have also  seen throughout my parents’ lifetime and mine what a short attention span the American public has for lifestyle changes that require effort.  I can’t help but wonder what this generation of herbalists can do to keep this “resurgance” alive.

Some acquaintances of mine discovered permaculture within the last fewyears and they spread the gospel according to Toby Heminway from the rooftops.  Their intensity and passion  is inspiring although I think they tend to put the cart in front of the horse.   Society is not going to move from the Big Mac to “fruit tree guilds” as their main source of nutrition without some sort of transition stage.   So, while  I  think that the intensity is wonderful,   at the same time I have seen that  radical change tends to intimidate people into inaction.  How then do we slowly edge people towards positive, permanent change?   How do we keep the message of the websites of today from being lost in a internet archive in the same way the poster above was lost in a file cabinet?

I honestly am not sure of the answers but I thought I would throw the question out there as it is rumbling around in the back of my brain.  What have you been thinking about today?

]]> http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/03/30/everything-old-is-new-again/feed/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/03/17/brotchan-foltchep/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/03/17/brotchan-foltchep/#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:09:52 +0000 Stephany Recipes http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/03/17/brotchan-foltchep/

3 leeks
1 ounce butter
3 ounces flake oatmeal (rolled oats)
600 ml / 2 1/2 cups “white stock”: vegetable stock, or if preferred, chicken stock
300 ml / 1 1/4 cups milk
Salt and pepper to taste
A pinch of mace
Chopped parsley
2 tablespoons single cream

Wash the leeks thoroughly and chop into chunks. (Save one chunk and slice into rings as a garnish, if liked: put these aside until the soup is done.)

Melt the butter gently in a saucepan, not allowing it to brown. Add the oatmeal and fry it in the butter, stirring until golden brown. Still stirring, pour in the stock and milk.

Add the chopped leeks, salt, pepper and mace. Bring to a boil; then lower heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the broth is thick. Remove from heat, allow to cool slightly, and then either liquidize the soup in a blender or with a “stick mixer”, or push it through a sieve.

Reheat gently without allowing it to boil again. Stir in parsley: serve and garnish with a swirl of cream.

]]> http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/03/17/brotchan-foltchep/feed/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/03/09/eating-your-herbs-nutrients-for-your-nervous-system/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/03/09/eating-your-herbs-nutrients-for-your-nervous-system/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:18:51 +0000 Stephany Recipes Herbalism Health Eating Your Herbs http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/03/09/eating-your-herbs-nutrients-for-your-nervous-system/ I always notice a bit of a change in the air this time of year.   We are slowly but surely edging towards Spring but we aren’t quite there yet and it always seem as though nerves fray just a little bit more easily.   I thought I might offer a bit of advice as to how to eat your way to a healthier nervous system.
Nutrition plays a vital role in a healthy nervous system but before you even think about what foods to eat, you should look at your eating patterns.   Are you skipping meals while taking in large amounts of stimulants or sugars?   These eating patterns need to be addressed before you can move on.   You need to eat enough to provide your body with the foods you need.  It is almost impossible to do this with two meals a day so your body begins to crave foods that will give it that quick energy fix. Unfortunately in our society,  candy bars and coffee are far more available than a leafy green salad or a whole-grain snack.  You have to plan a bit more to provide yourself with healthy alternative but it is completely worth the effort.   Once you address your eating patterns, you can begin to look at the nutrients your body needs to properly support your nervous system.

Calcium intake is key to  healthy nervous system functioning  due to the fact that Calcium molecules are vital to the chemical reactions that take place in your body to transmit nerve impulses and muscle movement.    Thankfully calcium is easily found in many foods and herbs.   Obviously dairy products contain a good deal of calcium but you can also find calcium in many non-dairy products.  Seaweeds contain the highest level of calcium available; even more than dairy products.    In fact, most dark leafy vegetables such as broccoli, kale, spinach and parsley also contain calcium.    Oats and almonds are high in calcium which is one of the reasons I use those two ingredients when making homemade oat milk.  Sesame seeds and tahini are good sources, as well.  Herbal sources of calcium include: nettle, comfrey, horsetail, oatstraw/milky oat tops, dandelion greens, and chickweed.
B Vitamins are also important to a healthy nervous system but it is important to note that there is too much of a good thing.  Taking large doses of B vitamins (specifically B12)  can lead to anxiety attacks and panic disorders.   In other words, taking those high dosage “stress tabs”  may lead to an increase in symptoms you are trying to alleviate.    It is also important to note that B vitamins are best taken in as a “complex”.  High dosages of one B vitamin invariably lead to a deficiency of another.  I think that the complexity of B vitamin supplementation may be one of the main reasons I choose to eat my vitamins rather than take pills.  Nature seems to naturally understand what our bodies need and nutrients present in foods are often combined more precisely than we could ever hope to accomplish with supplements.   Thankfully B vitamins are present in so many wholesome foods that I rarely worry if I am getting enough.   Whole grains such as whole wheat, brown rice, oats, and barley are wonderful sources of vitamin B, as are dried beans.  Yogurt, molasses, wheat germ and kefir contain.   Vegetable sources of Vitamin B include most leafy green vegetables,fresh sprouts, and seaweeds.  There are a few other specialty sources of B vitamins that can be included in your diet such as bee pollen, spirulina and nutritional yeast. Bee pollen is an amazing nutrient which I should devote a whole blog entry to, but I do worry about our dwindling bee population and the availability of this nutrient.   Consequently,  I use it sparingly and with a great deal of respect for the creatures who created it in mind. Herbal sources of vitamin B include:  comfrey, parsley, dandelion greens and nettles (Do you begin to see why nettles are always a part of my nourishing infusions?)

Vitamin C mixes with vitamin B-6 to create serotonin so it is important to make sure that you are getting an adequate supply.  Papaya, bell peppers, citrus fruits, strawberries, raspberries, Brussels sprouts, cantaloupe, broccoli and cauliflower are all good food sources of vitamin C.   My favorite herbal source of Vitamin C is rosehips but there are many others.
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin necessary  for calcium absorption which is created in your body when you absorb UVB rays.  These UVB rays are most readily available between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.  Exposure times no longer than 10-15 minutes two or three times a week are adequate.  Still, many Americans don’t get outside as much as we should during the mid-day hours so dairy food is often enriched with vitamin D.    The body does store vitamin D for use during the winter but how much vitamin D your body produces is entirely contingent on the amount of UVB rays your skin absorbs and how much you get in your daily diet.   This can be tricky because there is no plant source of vitamin D.   Sources of vitamin D,  we incorporate into our DAILY diet include:  tuna, eggs, salmon, organic milk and yogurt.  Regardless, of what you might hear, cheese  and butter do not necessarily have Vitamin D so check your labels.    In  the Northern Hemisphere where the UVB rays can’t penetrate the atmosphere well, if at all, from November to February,   it is important to think about Vitamin D supplementation.   For all that I am not a fan of supplements, there is a time to be wise.  If you get little exposure to UVB rays and you are not eating foods which contain Vitamin D,  you might want to consider a supplement.  A good source of vitamin D is cod-liver oil which just goes to show that Grandma might have known what she was doing, after all.

Here are a couple of quick recipes I enjoy which seem to take the edge off of a bad mood.   Many of the recipes I included in my Herbs for Energy post serve a double purpose of providing some of these nutrients as well.  Hopefully, I don’t use too many smoothie recipes for everyone but I find them to be the easiest way for most people to incorporate healthier foods in their grab-and-dash lifestyle.   Keep in mind that an insulated coffee mug keeps things cold as well as it keeps things hot.   Either one of these drinks would make a complete breakfast.

Stressbuster Smoothie

1/2 cup almond-oat milk

1/2 cup  yogurt

1/2 cup raspberries and strawberries

1/4 cup wheat germ

1 teaspoon bee pollen

Avocado Milkshake

1 ripe avocado

1/2 cup yogurt

1/2 cup almond milk

3 tablespoons honey or grade B maple syrup

1 tsp carob powder (optional)

]]> http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/03/09/eating-your-herbs-nutrients-for-your-nervous-system/feed/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/01/26/gardening-break-botanical-interest-seeds/ http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/01/26/gardening-break-botanical-interest-seeds/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:07:29 +0000 Stephany Gardening http://naturallysimple.org/blog1/2010/01/26/gardening-break-botanical-interest-seeds/ I thought I would take a break from the herbs to talk about one of my other favorite subjects: playing in the dirt.   It is the time of year when gardening enthusiasts are beginning to plan gardens and order seeds.   My friend, Tom, asked me for more information about this company on my “Safe Seeds” post so I went out and dug some up.  (tee hee hee -gardening pun intended).

First, I thought I would share my personal experience with the seeds.  I found Botanical Interests Seeds for the first time last year at a local nursery.  I should warn local friends who know where I shop that their selection is pretty limited compared to what is available online.

I admit that it was the artwork that drew my attention to the seed packets, originally.

As I examined the packets, I continued to like what I was reading and is there ever there a lot to read.  These might be the most informative seed packets I have ever run across! The fun doesn’t stop on the outside though, so be quite careful when opening your first Botanical Interests seed packet.

Of course, while all this information is nice, I only bought a few packets to “test them out” .  The seeds are suprisingly inexpensive for organics.
I had fantastic results!   My Trionfo Violetto Pole Beans outgrew and outproduced my Kentucky Wonder Beans.   I think my Dwarf Blue Kale  might still be alive out there under the piles of snow. My favorites was the Broccoli Di Cicco.  I started it indoors and was quite satisfied with the germination rate.   I am not going to claim 100% but we certainly had a lot of sprouts for a salad when it came time for thinning.   My transplants went in next to four nursery plants that were supposed to be my early producers.  Within a few weeks, the Di Cicco had out grown them and produced before they did.  In fact, it was still producing when we got our first snowfall.   My groundhogs adored it but that is another issue entirely.

Earlier in the month, when I started to think about  planning my garden,  I looked  around online to find the company.   I was pleased with the quality of the information on their website and blog.  I also enjoy the selection of heirlooms.  I found a lot of the varieties mentioned in my favorite gardening book:  Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden: Creative Gardening for the Adventurous Cook that I haven’t been able to find, locally.

So with my personal experiences out of the way,  here is some information about the company.  Botanical Interests is a family owned and operated business started by Curtis and Judy Seaborn in 1995.  Their business objectives are “to inspire and educate gardeners; to provide high quality seed to their customers; and to create an enjoyable work place for employees.” I included links to the companies blog and an article about the company at the end of this article.
All-in-all it seems like a good company and I plan on spending a good share of my gardening budget at their website.

Additional Reading:

California Garden Magazine Article

Botanical Interests Blog

Company Profile

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