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We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden.
Anonymous
Since we moved into our current home, we haven’t developed a serious vegetable garden. We’ve missed it, and every winter for the last 4 years, we have dreamed, planned, fantasized and even drawn pictures complete with fences (which are critical since we have a seriously hungry deer and critter population), vines, flowers and rows and rows of burgeoning edible vegetation.
The subsequent Springs have found these dreams beyond our capacity what with start up multi-media companies and other silliness occurring. However, we have managed to keep our perennial beds going and since I seem to have a flower addiction, these seem to expand a little every year.
For the last 3 years, we’ve been doing potted veggies and herbs on the deck, where our big scary guard dog (not), woody the wonder boy, our goofy golden retriever, keeps the critters from taking the entire harvest. We don’t mind sharing with the wildlife, but they tend to get greedy around here.
By Jennie Love •
May 19, 2008
Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes
designed to showcase produce gathered
from local farms or grown in my own garden.
It’s been brought to my attention that croutons aren’t “much of an entry” (this from a man that goes pale at the mere mention of his participation in the nightly dinner preparations), but I beg to differ. While making your own croutons isn’t hard, it’s something most folks rarely think to do. The recipes I post aren’t meant to be revolutionary. Rather, they are here to prompt you, noble Eat.Drink.Better readers, to embrace the freshest, local food you can find. Homemade croutons made with a fresh herb butter fit in perfectly with that scheme, don’t you think? I certainly do.
As promised in “Natural Remedies for Morning Sickness“, here is my recipe for pregnancy tea. My midwives always advised I drink a quart a day of this special blend instead of taking prenatal vitamins, as our bodies absorb the nutrients from herbal teas more readily than from vitamins; however, I did both. My favorite Rainbow Light prenatal vitamins included many of the same herbs as my pregnancy tea recipe. Of course, there are commercially available organic pregnancy tea blends, but I preferred harvesting and buying bulk herbs to make my own prenatal tea. This tea should also be drunk by breastfeeding moms.
Pregnancy Herbal Tea Recipe:
To make this tea, add about 1 teaspoon of each herb, except the yellow dock, to a glass quart jar. Use just a pinch of yellow dock, as it has a strong flavor and should be used in moderation. Add boiling water to the herbs, and let the tea steep for at least four hours for maximum absorption of vitamins and minerals. This tea tastes good at any temperature, and a quart should be drunk every day by pregnant women and nursing mothers.
- Raspberry leaf: This herb has been called “The pregnant woman’s best herbal friend” by Jeannine Parvati, author of Hygieia: A Woman’s Herbal. The foliage has long been used by native people and midwives, as it relieves morning sickness and eases birth. This herb can also aid infertile couples.
Editor’s note: Last week, we published a piece by our editorial intern Oscar Cardenas on the endangered status of many herbs used in alternative health practices. Today, we’re pleased to give you Oscar’s second piece on the subject, which focuses on the popular herb Echinacea.
Imagine an organism, native to the American prairie, whose value to people prompted wholesale hunting to fill the demands of a niche market. In the period of roughly a decade and a half, consumers managed to rediscover and exploit natural reserves of this species which had originally been utilized by Native Americans in the eastern United States. The organism, echinacea (not the American bison), consists of 9 species of plants, some of which are recognized as endangered by federal and state authorities.
What Is Echinacea and How Does it Work?
The blanket term echinacea usually refers to three species of this plant: Echinacea angustifolia, Echinacea purpurea, and Echinacea pallida. All three varieties are native to North America and are often packed into individual or homogenized mixtures that are marketed as immunity boosters and touted to either prevent colds or lessen their impact/duration. Echinacea can be used preventatively or post-exposure to shorten the duration of colds when the rhinovirus (the cause of the all-too-common cold) has invaded and incubated, causing symptoms (the sniffles). Doses are delivered orally and come in the form of tinctures, pills, or drinks with intake instructions specific to the product listed within the packaging.
About 50% of pregnant women suffer from morning sickness during their first trimester. If you have suffered from the nausea and vomiting like I did throughout both of my pregnancies, you know it isn’t really “morning” sickness, but all day sickness. My midwives were wonderful at suggesting natural remedies to ease my suffering. The following suggestions for herbs, foods, and lifestyle practices are from my own personal experiences and from a great list of natural remedies posted on Mothering.
Herbs that Alleviate Morning Sickness
Ginger is well-known for its nausea reducing qualities, and many women have had success with ginger tea for relieving their morning sickness. The herb I found most useful was peppermint. I drank my own blend of herbs for a pregnancy tea (I’ll be posting that recipe soon!), and the peppermint really made me feel better. You can drink the tea cold or hot, depending on what makes you feel better. Fennel seeds also relieve queasiness, whether in tea or simply chewing on the seeds. Slippery Elm is another herb that may calm your stomach.
Editor’s note: As part of his editorial internship with Green Options Media this Spring, I asked San Francisco State senior Oscar Cardenas to create a blog series that we could publish at the end of the semester. Oscar choose medicinal herbs and the environment for his broad topic — this post is the first of two on the subject. We’ve really enjoyed working with Oscar this Spring, and wish him well. The second post will be up next Monday.
If you’re a college student looking for an internship this Summer, we’re looking for web publishing and marketing interns.
A 2007 study of health practice trends cited in an issue of Alternative Therapies estimated that nearly 1 of 5 Americans reported using herbals for treatment of health conditions or for health promotion (Gardiner et al., “Factors Associated with Herbal Therapy Use by Adults in the United States,” 22-29). This translates to a multi-billion dollar industry that will probably only grow as public education and the cost of medicines continue to rise. This trend, which spells good news for herbal therapy retailers and users, does not come without its share of potentially negative environmental consequences.
Spring is sprouting – at least here in the North East. I love having some basic herbs and vegetables growing outside my kitchen, and I’m ready to get started, even if the weather isn’t quite there yet.
Some years I’m more organized than others, but I almost always have some combination of edible vegetation to harvest throughout the growing season.
I take over the sunniest room in the house and cover every surface with my little egg cartons filled with wonderful nutritious soil and the baby sprouts that will become salad and pesto among other things in only a few short months.
Because I live in the wild suburbs of Northern New Jersey, we have significant challenges in having vegetable gardens because the deer and other critters are abundant, confused, and starving! If you don’t build a Fort-Knox style fencing system, it is a wonderful exercise in feeding the local wildlife, but don’t expect to have anything for yourself or your family.
So, we opt for primarily container gardening and keep it up on the deck and our really scary (not) golden retriever, woody, patrols the perimeter. We lose a little to the chipmunks, which are kind of like mosquitoes and have gotten far more brazen than I remember.
Here are my favorite edible things to grow in my little kitchen deck garden containers:
