Monthly Archives: October 2006

Girl time

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It’s been a fun filled few days! Toby is away at a wedding, so Kaia and I have taken the time alone to do anything but house projects! We have played, gone to the mall(!), snuggled up in bed and watched movies! It’s been really nice for both of us to have a little down time. I will be at the AHG symposium next week and I hope Toby takes the time for some down time too!

We did have a great find for the house though. Kaia and I visited a building that use to house a marble/granite cutting school. The school moved and left all of their granite… free for the taking. SO, we loaded up the Jetta with everything I could carry (probably enough to do a marble kitchen counter top and bathroom sink) and plan to head back there when Toby is in town so we can get the heavy stuff! There were some pieces that are 6ft by 9 ft in perfect condition! It’s just that it would take a crane to lift them and very strong truck to carry them. I can’t wait to see what this house looks like when it is done!

We tried to turn the house plans in for code approval on Thursday, but there was one paper we still needed to fill out. So, hopefully next week!

Today I attended a class on 5 phase theory and how to apply it to my clinical practice, as well as in my own life. For those of you that don’t know, 5 phase theory is Chinese based and stems from the belief that everything in this world is a part of the ‘one’. Broken into 5 non-stagnant phases there is Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal. They are all a part of us, and often times we may have imbalances in them. This class really helped me see how they all embody certain aspects of life and that they are in constant motion. Hard to explain in a blog, but really cool stuff!

Roots Fest!

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Here is the info on the Roots Fest for those of you near the Asheville area:
Saturday, October 14th from 11-6 in the French Broad Food Coop lot. There will be a kids booth, interactive booth, free classes, vendors, and lots of herbal information.

And here are my recipes:
Scrumptious Root Recipes
(Taste tested and approved by Kaia, age 3)

Granny’s Root Beer:
-Place 2 Cinnamon sticks, 1 Tablespoon Anise seeds, 3/4 oz Sarsaparilla root, and 1/4 oz Sassafras root into a pot.
-Cover with 3 cups of water.
-Bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer.
-Simmer until the liquid is reduced by half (i.e. You have 1-1/2 cups left).
-Strain off the herbs and add 1 cup Honey to the liquid, mixing well.
-Store this syrup in an airtight jar and refrigerate.
-To use: Place 3 tablespoons of syrup in 8 oz of sparkling water, mix well and enjoy!

Old-Fashioned Ginger Ale:
-In a pot, add 2 cups fresh, chopped Ginger root to 3 cups of water.
-Bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer.
-Simmer until the liquid is reduced by half (i.e. You have 1-1/2 cups left).
-Strain off the herbs and add 1 cup Honey to the liquid, mixing well.
-Store this syrup in an airtight jar and refrigerate.
-To use: Place 2-3 tablespoons of syrup in 8 oz of sparkling water, mix well and enjoy!

June, I like your recipe! I use to use my juicer too, but now that I have to crank the generator for electricity, I decided it might be easier to make a syrup :-)

Homemade Marshmallows:
(From Lesley Tierra’s “A Kid’s Herb Book”)
-Preheat the oven to 275 degrees
-Separate 2 eggs, keeping the whites. Beat the whites until very foamy, and not quite stiff.
-Beat in 1/2-teaspoon vanilla.
-Slowly beat in 1/2-cup sugar, 1 teaspoon at a time.
-Beat in 2 tablespoons of Marshmallow root powder (Althea officinalis).
-Drop mixture using a teaspoonful at a time on the cookie sheet.
-Bake one hour.
-Remove from the sheet and let cool. Eat and Enjoy.
-To store, tightly cover and place in the refrigerator for several days.

A little Root with your sweets?

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Kaia and I spent today preparing for next weekends “RootsFest!” that I am helping with. In celebration of the first annual National Herb Day (Oct. 14th), we (the NC chapter of the American Herbalists Guild) are putting on a festival. I am working the kids booth for a little while and wanted to do more than just have them color or something. So, I made up some Ginger syrup, “root beer” syrup, and home-made marshmallows (with Marshmallow root). I am going to let the kids try all of them and talk a little about how marshmallows, ginger-ale, and root beer all use to be made from herb roots. I thought it would be fun. I will post the recipes when I type them up.

The storage building is going up much more quickly than the cabin did. It is also a 12×16′ structure. Last weekend Toby and Eric worked on the foundation.

This weekend, Toby and his dad worked on the walls. It’s ready for the roof and siding now! Yahoo!!

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We spent this weekend with some wonderful friends from Chapel Hill. They called last minute to see if they could come up, hang out, and help with the house! We really do have some amazing friends! We did a little of the siding, but Toby is getting really tired of it, so we decided to start on the storage building. We weren’t planning on building one, but Toby’s mom offered to help build one as Toby’s b-day gift. So, we figure, now we will have a space to keep our tools (which are getting rusty out in the elements), and put all of our stuff that we are currently paying to keep in storage. I’ll post pictures later. But for now, for your viewing pleasure, I have some lovely ladies who would like to say “hi!”


On the left is Faye, our Speckled Sussex. Ruby, the big ol’ mean Delaware is the white one


This is Honey, one of the Americaunas.


This is Sweety, the friendliest of our chickens, and the one who comes to get us when she wants to go to bed!


On the Left is Spike, our Buff Orpington, and Ruby again.
Missing are Rudy and Ralph, the black Australorps. They weren’t in a photographic mood.
Kaia said, and I quote, “We should name our Australorps ‘Black’ and ‘Black’, since they are black” :-)

I went out for a walk the other evening and spotted some new mushrooms. The first one was under a dead tree in a large orange patch. I believe it is called an orange peel cup fungus (Aleuria aurantia), also called “orange fairy cups”. It’s supposed to be edible, but I am too chicken to try it.

I think this is a Pigskin Puffball

I don’t know what this one is. I think it is a polypore of some sort. It was growing out of a dead tree and most of them had no visible stem, or offset stems.