So, you know how we all have that list of “things we want to do before we die”? Well, I am very happy to say I marked one thing off my list tonight! I did Karaoke!!! And it was a blast!! I’m so proud of myself. For some odd reason, once I got out of high school, I developed a pretty strong stage fright. I don’t like being up in front of people. But, I have always loved singing and really wanted to give karaoke a try. Plus, if I am going to be teaching this year, I need to get over this introversion. Plus, plus, I don’t want K to be afraid of being up in front of crouds just because mom and dad are. So, I did it! I got up there and belted out RESPECT by Aretha Franklin. And I did a good job if I do say so myself 🙂 When I was done, K said “Mommy, you are a great singer!” pause… “That was terrible!”
Weekly Herb Review #11 – Red Root
Common Names: Red Root, New Jersey Tea, Wild Snowball
Scientific Name: Ceanothus americanus
Land??!! Maybe…
OK, we may have found some land! I am trying not to get my hopes up too much, but it is hard when the search has been so fruitless so far! Instead of trying to find land that is already up for sale, I went onto the city mapping system and just searched for property that looked like it might be a good place to live. Then I sent out ~16 letters to people asking if any of them would be interested in selling some land. I got one phone call with a “No”. So, I decided to call some people up and after a bunch of “no’s” got one guy who said “actually, we’ve been thinking about it. Why don’t you come out and take a walk around and we’ll talk” So, we went out to his property on Saturday to look. He owns 22 acres. Most of it is wooded. They have a small farm and house, which they will keep. The property has a beautiful stream, a mix of hardwoods and pine trees, it’s rolling land, and it backs up to a 180 acre wilderness/park owned by the city (which is bordered by the French Broad River!). And it is a 10 minute bike ride for Toby to get to work. It’s basically just outside of the downtown city! It would be absolutely perfect!! It’s an older couple and he wasn’t feeling well when we were there, so we told them to think about how much land they would want to part with and at what price and we will call them in the next few days. I really hope this works! I can already see where the chicken coop will go, how the picnic table will sit right by the stream, blah, blah, blah….. Oh, I need to stop day dreaming until I know this is for sure! Wish me luck!
Great Grandma Carmella
Have I mentioned that my great-grandmother was an herbalist? I found out a few years ago after I had already begun my herb business. Since we moved away from the family when I was 2 and my father died when I was 14, I haven’t had much contact with my father’s side of the family. So, I didn’t know much about my great-grandmother. Anyway, it turns out she came over to the US in the early 1900’s with her family. She started an herb garden and had a small vineyard. She would harvest her herbs and make tinctures, then use the grape press to extract the alcohol when the tinctures were ready. She ran a company called the Aerostromo Tonic Company. (I know aero is air in italian, but I don’t know what the whole name means). People would show up at her door for her medicine. Cool, eh? I talked to my uncle today and he said he is going to try to find any paperwork that there might be left so that I can have it. I’m not getting my hopes up, but wouldn’t that be amazing if there were old recipe books with her formulas??!! Oh, and her name was Carmella Tromentozzi Cedrone. Isn’t that at awesome name!
Happy Chrisolstikwansakkah!
Seasons Greetings to all of you! I hope that your days are filled with joy and love, whatever holiday you celebrate!
Three things…
Ok, first – watch the david letterman show tonight at 11:30! My good friend’s brother’s band, We Are Scientists, is going to be on there! Cool, eh?
Second, I am trying to get into the habit of saying ‘thanks’ before eating a meal. I want K to learn this ritual as a way to calm down before eating and to thank the earth for the food. A friend of mine taught me this great little blessing and I really like it:
Ths silver rain, the shining sun, and fields where scarlet poppies run
and all the ripples of the wheat are in the bread that we do eat.
So, when we sit at every meal, with thankful hearts we always feel
that we are eating rain and sun in fields where scarlet poppies run.
Isn’t that sweet!!
Third, I tried this amazing tea the other night by Tazo called Passion!! It is this fantastic mix of flowers and sweet roots and barks. Anyway, I had to figure out how to make it and I think I have got it. So, give it a try and let me know how you like it!
6 parts Hibiscus flower
3 parts Orange peel
3 parts Licorice Root
3 parts Cinnamon bark
3 parts Rose hips
2 parts Lemongrass
2 parts Food Grade Citric Acid (which you can get at some health food stores, or online)
(a part is by weight measurement, like ounces or grams. So, if you use one ounce of Hibiscus, you would use 1/2 ounce of the rest, except Lemongrass which is 1/3 ounce.)
Use 1 teaspoon per cup of water. Boil the herbs in the water for 15 minutes, strain out the herbs and add honey. After tasting this tea, you will be prone to saying “MMMmmmmmm, OOOOoohhh, that’s gooooood” in a somewhat orgasmic way!
Blingo
I just found out about this new search engine, powered by Google (so you get the same great results), but the first 10 searches you do everyday enters you in a sweepstakes to win lots of prizes. Cool, eh? If you want to join up (there is no fee or anything) just click the link below and become my blingo friend. (then, everytime you win, I do too!!)
Parties and Pageants
Last Sunday, the North Carolina Chapter of the American Herbalists Guild had a holiday party and fundraiser. The party was great! We had live music, lots of amazing donations for the silent auction, and drew in a bunch of great people! We raised well over $400! Now we just have to think of what herby things we want to do with the money!
Also on Sunday, K’s preschool had a little Christmas pageant. We didn’t get the greatest footage, but it is pretty funny. I was proud of them for doing a little skit on the history of Christmas customs, and I think it’s pretty funny that I know of at least 4 pagan-y types who have their kids in playschool there. I think it’s because they don’t push religion down your throught. (If you don’t have Quicktime on your machine, it’s pretty easy to download it from the site.)
Weekly Herb Review #10-Yopo
This week, I am working on an ethnobotanical herb review…
Common Names: Yopo, Hisiomi, Cohoba, Angico Rosa, Parico, Niopo
Scientific Name: Anadenanthera peregrina
Memories
If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now (even if we don.?speak often), please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE-UP, FICTIONAL ..mory..f you and me. It can be anything you want – good or bad – BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE.
When you.? finished, post these two paragraphs on your blog and be surprised.? mortified.?out what people DON.?ACTUALLY remember about you.
Thanks for this one, Steph
Gingerbread Man
We headed out to the Grove Park Inn this morning to see their annual Gingerbread House Competition. People from all over the eastern US bring in gingerbread houses for this, and there are usually a few hundred to look at. Everything they use to create the houses and scenery must be a food! Keep that in mind when you look at some of these pictures!! Continue reading
Weekly Herb Review – Devils Club
Common Name: Devil.?Club (Alaskan Ginseng)
Scientific Name: Oplopanax horridum (Fatsia horrida, Panax horridum, Echinopanax horridum)
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The Many Faces of K
Weekly Herb Review #8- Osha
Common Name: Osha (Porter’s Lovage, Porter’s Licorice Root, Colorado Cough Root, Chuchupate)
Scientific Name: Ligusticum porteri
Painting by Willow Arlene
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Chai Elixer
Since I have been remiss (is that how you spell it?) in my Herb Review duties, I have decided to publish a recipe for a Hot Chai Elixer! I am lovin’ this stuff! (It’s from Teresa Boardwine’s Cordially Yours:
2 cups of fresh ginger root
1/2 cup of cinnamon chips
1/4 cup of cloves
2 Tbsp. Cardamom pods
Place all of this in 20 oz. of Rum (I like Spiced Rum), and let sit for 2 weeks, shaking daily.
After 2 weeks, strain out the herbs and add 4 oz of Honey and 4 oz of Maple Syrup. Mix well, bottle it and add a couple of Almonds to the bottle to scent it.
You can drink it straight, heated up like a hot totty, put in in tea, or coffee, or how I like it is to heat up a cup of milk (rice, soy, cow, whatever) and put in a tsp. or two of the chai elixer. MMMMmmmm, Yummy!! It’s great for bitter, cold winter days!
Rollin’ in the dough
I was walking through a parking lot last night and saw some money on the ground. First I thought, “cool, a couple bucks!” Then I looked closer and realized that it was a $50 dollar bill!!!! I picked it up and when I did, I saw another bill laying just beyond the first. Again, I thought it was a $5, but it was another $50!!! $100 just laying on the ground. I looked around to see who might have dropped it, but there was no one around!! Cool, eh? So, I’ve rented a hot tub up at the Hot Springs tonight to pamper myself a little!!
Harry Potter
So, of course, being the die-hard Harry Potter fan I am, I went to see the 4th movie on opening night. I think the books are far superior to the movies, but I still have to go! Anyway, I don’t know why I am surprized, because it happens everytime, but I just can’t get over how many parents bring their little kids to see these movies. I saw kids ages newborn and up. I know it is marketed as a kids book, but it’s not. And the older Harry Potter gets, the more evil and violence there is in the books. The first half of the movie was fairly lighthearted, but the second half was scary, violent and dealt with a lot of devilish people. I just don’t get it. Our world is scary enough without subjecting our little ones to things like this. At least reading the book, they can create their own images, but the movie does it for you and it was something like Alien vs Poltergeist. I heard three kids on the way out who said they were going to have nightmares! Poor things!
K’s experiment
We did a little experiment today and styrofoam “peanuts” vs. starch “peanuts”. I have to say, I was very proud of myself for thinking this one up! We put them both in water and watched the starch ones dissolve. Then K and I talked about how the starch ones were easier for mama earth to turn back into dirt and that the styrofoam ones took a really long time and kind-of give mama earth a belly ache. It was fun! It must have been peanut starch, ’cause they smelled like peanut butter when they dissolved
catch up
Sorry I’ve been falling behind on my herb reviews. It’s been really busy around here and that was one of the things I let go of. I hope to start again next week. We are having lots of visiting friends during November, so right now I am enjoying my socializing!
We have gone out to do some land searches, but haven’t found anything that’s right, yet. There have been a few beautiful pieces, but they were way too far out, and those that are closer to town are too expensive, or too trashed.
Our house in Chapel Hill is set to close in one week! (yeah!) And we just sold one of our cars (the gas powered one. Now we are left with two bio-diesels). All of that will help ease financial woes a bit! Toby and I don’t lead an extravagent lifestyle by any means!! So, it’s very frustrating when you always feel like you are barely making ends meet. I guess the one place we really do spend money is food. I buy mostly organic foods and preferrably local, so, it bumps the price up.
Speaking of foods, I have been thinking about adding meats back to my diet. I have always felt better when I am eating animal protein as opposed to soy or bean or grain proteins. I am also learning a lot in school about nutrition and diet and how so many people have reactions to grains because we eat such a high carb. diet, that our bodies are reacting to it. (It’s much more indepth than that.) But, I feel like, if I am a part of the cycle of birth, life, and death, and I have known the animal, or atleast know the people who have raised it, and the animals have been treated well, and are not fattened up with hormones, or over loaded with antibiotics, then maybe I could feel better about eating meat. I have been eating poultry since I got pregnant with K, and it’s only hormone/antibiotic free and free range. It’s hard though, ’cause Toby is still vegetarian, and I don’t want to have to cook two meals. I am the type of cook who throws everything into one dish anyway, so it’s not like there would be side dishes for him to eat. So, I don’t know. I’m just thinking about it…. I did order 5 pounds of hemp seed, though, so that will help add some protein and Essential Fatty Acids back to our diet!
Where in the world?
OK, I’m joining in too! I think this is pretty cool. So, all you readers out there make your mark on Maria’s Peeps Map. If you don’t want to put your exact location, use your state capital or something like that.
Why?
Mark this day in history! Today is the day that the “why’s?” began!
“Mommy, why do we walk on the sidewalk?”
“Well, there are fast cars are on the road so we stay on the sidewalk.”
“Why?”
“Because we could get hurt if we walked in the road.”
“Why?”
“Because cars drive on the road.”
“Why?”
“Well, the cars need somewhere to drive, so they drive on the road.”
“Why?”
“Because someone made a law that said cars drive on the road!”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, I guess it just made sense at the time!!”
“Why?”
“Because I said so!!”
“Why?”
“Because you are a nut-nut!!”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
………
You get the idea!
Hemp car
Did you know that some cars of the 1920’s didn’t only run on Hemp oil, but were actually made of hemp fiber!! Yes, that is Henry Ford beating his Hemp car with a crowbar to prove how sturdy it is!!
Until today, I had no idea how important hemp was to our world history and how many uses it has had before it became to be just a recreational drug!!
And I had absolutely no idea that hemp seeds were even edible, much less so extremely good for you. They are very high in digestible protein, Essential Fatty acids and amino acids. And I didn’t realize that Hemp has no THC in it. So, you can actually buy the seeds from our local health food store. They are legal cause you can’t get high off of them! Wierd, eh??
Weekly Herb Review #7 – Motherwort
Common Name: Motherwort (Lion.?tail, Lion.?ear, Throw-wort, Roman Motherwort)
Scientific Name: Leonurus cardiaca
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Halloween
We had a nice dinner last night… pumpkin soup, home made cranberry sauce, apple cider, and pomegranites. I felt really weak, though. Toby was thinking that it could be Carbon Monoxide from our heater, but we just got a monitor and that doesn’t seem to be it. Maybe I just need a break…
Here are some pics of K’s costumes
Last friday we went to a festival at the library and she wanted to go as a “pink fuzzy bunny with a fluffy tail. And my name is Cottontail”
Then yesterday, she decided to be a “ghost who goes in the dark and goes ‘boo boo'”
And, here, just for the fun of it, are the “hands of fate’!!
Ideas please!
OK, guys and gals! I have to come up with an idea for a 1000 word (minimum) paper by next week. It has to be related to herbs. I am having a mental block. I can’t think of anything to write about. The paper has the chance of being published, too, so I want it to be a good, interesting topic. Please, feel free to throw out any ideas that pop into your head!!!
Weekly Herb Review #6 – Wild Yam
Common Name: Wild Yam (Devil.?Bones, Colic Root, China Root, Rheumatism Root)
Scientific Name: Dioscorea villosa
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Chocolate!
Hey! Sorry most of my posts have just been my herb reviews lately. Things have been really busy around here and I haven’t had much chance to catch up on the blogging. I did, however, have time to try to make a little chocolate! I ordered cocoa nibs from Chocolate Alchemy and roasted them Sat. morning. Then I put them through my champion juicer to try to make a liquor, but it just seemed to be grinding it up and making them into a paste. Then, the juicer started to smoke, so I thought it might be a good idea to move on to another appliance. So, I put it all in my Vita-mix blender and added a little grain alchohol and maple syrup (thinking I could make a tincture for “chocolate medicine!”). Then, I poured it all into a bottle. But, when I checked it this morning, most of the cocoa seed pieces have expanded to take on the liquid and now it is a thick paste stuck in the bottle!! SO, I am going to let it soak there for a few weeks and then either try to scrape it out (it’s a narrow neck liter bottle!), or cut the glass in half!! I am not throwing my chocolate away!!!
I still have a pound and a half of the nibs left. I don’t know what I am going to do with those yet.
roasted nibs
ground nibs
Weekly Herb Review #5 – Cocoa!!
Oh, you all are going to love this one!!!
Common Name: Cocoa (Xocoatl, Cacao, Chocolate, Bitter Water, Food of the Gods)
Scientific Name: Theobroma cacao
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7 Meme
Tagged by Steph
7 Things I plan to do
1. Get another tattoo someday
2. Take a trip to Italy
3. Re-learn Italian
4. Start flossing
5. Dance more
6. Go on a date with my husband sometime in the next century!
7. Stop spending so much time at my computer 🙂
7 Things I can do
1. Make an italian red sauce from scratch without a recipe
2. Stupid party tricks with my double jointed arms
3. Be very cynical and sassy
4. Tie a cherry stem into a knot with my tounge
5. Grow almost anything
6. Spell my name in heirolyphics
7. Mumble alot
7 Things I can.?do
1. Hard core exercise (lung issues)
2. Be idle
3. Get off this damn computer!
4. Read fast
5. Stop my nose from running! (allergies)
6. Get rid of those last 10 pregnancy pounds!
7. Seem to finish this dang Meme
7 Things that scare me
1. Horror movies (Hate ’em!)
2. My daughter ever being in pain of any kind
3. Violent people
4. Bad drivers/being in another car crash
5. Missing the next ALIAS episode
6. Being in debt
7. Public speaking
7 Random facts about me
1. I have skydived – once
2. I have a tattoo (and am proud to say I got it before it was in vogue!)
3. I had strawberry-blond hair as a toddler
4. I actually know how to pronouce “Caed Mile Failte”!
5. I don’t drink or do drugs (other than my homemade herbal potions)
6. I did warpaint for the movie “Last of the Mohicans”
7. I use to want to be an opera singer
7 Things I say the most
1. “We need to….”
2. “Chill out!”
3. “Don’t have a cow!”
4. To my daughter – “Hey cutie patootie”, “Hey noodle butt”, “Hey snuggle bug”, “you are a complete nut-nut!”
5. “Shut it!”
6. “You never know.”
7. “Alrighty!”
Tag 7 people
How about you just volunteer to tell me a little about yourself!!
Love is in the air!
Hey! So, we are finally getting home after a wild last few days. (Well, a wild last few weeks if you count the whole time Toby has been gone.) Toby has been in Arkansas for two weeks helping a friend tear down their house. We are hoping to use the wood from the house to build our own, once we finally find the right land. K was so happy to see her daddy that she stayed up until 11pm Thursday night when he came home! It was very sweet!
Friday was the rehersal and dinner for my step-bro’s wedding. And Saturday was the wedding. My step-family is very Irish, and as a surprise to everyone, my step-bro’s fiance hired a bag-piper to play while she walked to meet him at the altar, instead of the traditional wedding march. Very cool! Then, for the toasts, instead of having champagne, they served “Buttery Nipples” (half Bailey’s Irish Cream and half Butterscotch Schnapps)!! When my step-sis was trying to make her toast, she kept getting choaked up and downed at least 5 shots to get through. It was hysterical! K was a flower girl and did a very professional job 🙂 Here she is practicing how to put on her tights for the wedding:
And throwing the flowers (first she started picking up all the ones that her cousin threw, then she figured out the deal and emptied her basket in 4 big handfulls!
And, of course, there is always the post wedding hide and seek with daddy’s head
Then on Sunday, we drove back down to Raleigh to our friends, Mark and Alisha’s wedding. Another beautiful event! It was outside at the botanical gardens and the rain held off just long enough to have a beautiful ceremony. After, the reception was at this fantastic vegetarian place with more great food! I think I gained 10 pounds this weekend!!
Anyway, blessings to all of you newly legalized lovers! May your beds stay nice and warm this winter, and for many winter’s to come!! 🙂