No, this post does not have to do with herbs giving you gas 🙂 …
We had another mini snow on our land. It seems that weather always hits our mountain harder than anywhere else around here. When it is windy, the wind blows harder on us. When it rains, we get an inch more. When it snows, it will have melted everywhere else and we will still have 2 inches on our ground. So, this whole winter, Toby and I have talked about getting a 4-wheel drive to be able to manage the road up to the house. Now, it’s almost spring and we may have made it through the worst of it. Still those subarus are tempting. I really didn’t want to get a gas car, ’cause it feels like going backwards. We run both of our vehicles off of bio-diesel, and straight vegetable oil when we can. Then I thought, well, if we got a subaru, we could run it off of ethanol. Still, if we look at the even bigger picture, even if ethanol is ‘better for the environment’ pollution-wise, it is still made from big business, mono-crop, pesticide infused corn. And even if Biodiesel is less polluting, it is still made from big business GMO, mono-crop, pesticide infused Soy. So, what is the best way to travel distances (if walking and biking aren’t an option)? I may look into a solar car in the future. At least for around town.
I’ve got two classes to teach this week. One is at the herb school. We have a 6 week “intro to herbs” class going right now and I am teaching the section on Women’s health. I’m also teaching a class for the Asheville Garden Club! I’m really excited about this one. They want me to come and talk for 30-45 minutes about my favorite herbs to grow in the garden and make teas with!! I’ve really gotten to enjoy teaching, but this will be a fun and welcome break for teaching A&P, and advanced herbalism. I want to do this again in the summer when we can actually get out in the garden and see, smell, and taste the herbs.
The weather around here, other than the snow today, has been amazingly warm. In the 50’s and 60’s and sunny! So, I took a walk around the land to see what has started peeking out of the ground, and guess what… I found the nettles that I planted last year. I didn’t think it made it through the summer. Not only did it make it, but it repopulated a large area of my stream bank!! I’m so excited! I can’t wait until it gets big enough to make some nettle casserole! I also found my comfrey, valerian, and some mushrooms peeking out. Yay for spring! It’s almost here!!
Hey, have any of you gotten into that new NBC show ‘HEROES’? Toby downloaded the first few episodes and now we are hooked!!
Hi, I’m pregnant with twins and I seem to recall a very nauseated, tired evening lying in bed watching a “Heroes” marathon while my DH graciously bathed and bedded my other two daughters (Lily 5 and Ginger 2) That show is very engaging and I am curious what’s going on. (Since then I have fallen asleep with the girls before showtime)
I have been lurking around your blog for about a month, perhaps you can tell from my email address and my daughters names why I might have been curious when I discovered you. (I found you when I Googled “herbal expectorant recipes”) Let me say I am very excited for your accomplishments, opening an herb shop and teaching classes. I hope do do some of those things myself in the future. It seems like Asheville NC has a very interesting and vibrant sustainabiliy community. (My garden club is engrossed in scheduling an event with Sandor Katz, who’s from that area, and seems to have a lot of really cool events planned in Asheville)
It’s funny I was just looking up Phenology activities to share with the kids (we homeschool) before I checked in and here you are looking just as hard for the signs of spring. We heard spring peepers on a warm day this week here in central VA. I guess we’re all excited about the arrival of spring!
yours,
Sarah H