By Adam Haritan
Continue reading “Learn Your Land” →
Cooking for Health
By Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs
Serving medicine for dinner may not seem terribly appetizing, but most cultures traditionally eat much of their medicine. It may not be a coincidence that nature has provided so many of our medicinal needs in herbs that taste good. When you want to take herbs over a long period of time – either to treat a chronic problem or to fend off disease – incorporating medicinal plants into your meals makes a lot of sense.
The next time you add a pinch of this or that, consider that you are doing far more than flavoring your meal. Throughout these posts and other websites, you have seen many familiar kitchen herbs and spices mentioned as medicines. For example, ginger relieves pain, garlic is “nature’s antibiotic” and ginger and turmeric, two of the main ingredients in curry powder, improve liver function.
Almost every cookbook is filled with recipes that rely on herbs…
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Edible Spring Greens {Recipes}
By Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs
Spring Green Salad
It’s time to renew. This applies to our outer worlds as well as to our inner worlds. Spring has traditionally been a time to jump-start the liver and gently cleanse our bodies. The natural world, with its infinite wisdom, provides us with every opportunity to do just this. Bitter and nutrient-packed greens come to life, and for those of us paying attention to nature’s hints, provide us with delicious and nutritious Spring tonics.
Dandelion greens are packed with vitamins and minerals, and also, provide a bitter kick that helps support liver function. This is important during spring because the hepatic function can become naturally a little sluggish after a more sedentary winter filled with rich seasonal food. Violet-greens and chickweed are super-packed with nutrients, making them just the spring pick-me-up your body needs. Young greens of dandelion and violet especially are ideal, for both texture and taste reasons. You’ll…
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Mexican Mint Marigold
By Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs
This very ancient herb goes by a variety of common, but somewhat confusing names. ‘Mexican mint’ marigold is the most common, but you’ll also find it listed as ‘Texas’ tarragon, ‘Mexican’ tarragon, cloud plant, Coronilla, winter tarragon, sweet mace, sweet marigold and ‘Spanish’ tarragon. It isn’t, however, related to ‘French’ tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus ‘Sativa’) at all.
Don’t confuse ‘French’ tarragon, which is used for cooking, with false or ‘Russian’ tarragon, A. dracunculoides, because it is somewhat invasive, grows well in hotter climates, and is grown from seed.
The Latin name, Tagetes Lucida, refers to its other Tagetes relatives, the marigolds. ‘Mint’ marigold is a perennial, native to Central and South America and has been used as a seasoning herb, tea plant and medicinal in native cultures for more than a thousand years.
The flavor is anise-like, a bit sweeter than ‘French’ tarragon, but used in some of…
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Habits
by secretsoftheserpent
Plant Profile: Red Clover {Trifolium pratense}
By Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs
Family: Fabaceae
This all-around wellness herb and blood purifier is a key ingredient in herbal blends popularized during the early 1900’s and used in cancer treatment, including Essiac, Dr. Christopher’s Red Clover Combination, and the Hoxsey formula. Red clover has been an Old World symbol for luck and abundance since ancient times. And when it arrived in America with the colonists, its use quickly spread among American Indian tribes.
Description:
This stout clover has deep pink – not red – plump, round flower heads that contain numerous, small, pea-type flowers above a three-leaved bract. The leaves are marked with a single pale chevron. The lax stems trail up to 2 feet, creating a soft green mass.
Preparations Infusion:
Make a strong infusion or tincture of red clover tops, and drink 1/2 to 1 cup two or three times daily. Commercially available red clover preparations include tinctures and concentrated and often…
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Pisces New Moon Crystals
We entered the Pisces new moon phase this morning at 9:12am ET, and I’ve been feeling the energy all day: dreamy, contemplative, quiet
This moon is said to be one of deep healing, guiding us to face our inner darkness, acknowledge our truth, and what we’re willing to let go so that we can move forward in a positive way
This is a time when new projects started will be blessed with beneficence, provided the intentions and goals you set are done so with mindfulness and consciousness about what you’re seeking to (co-) create.
At this time, you may be feeling moody, blue, insightful, drawn inward, or guided to make some healing decisions in your life. It’s best to honor those feelings.
Take time to journal, dream, or deep-dive into issues you’ve been afraid or unwilling to face.
Shadow self healing, acknowledging and addressing your wounded self and psyche, can seem like a daunting task, but it offers the ultimate reward: FREEDOM. Freedom from the same old patterns and mistakes, the negative opinion of yourself, the fear that holds you back, the resentment that keeps you tied down, and the thing that blocks your happiness.
It’s worth it, and the energy of this new moon in Pisces is supporting you in doing that work so that you’re prepared for a massive new change and fresh start coming your way.
THE QUALITY OF PISCES + CURRENT PLANETARY INFLUENCES:
- Pisces: intuition + psychic abilities, liberty, artistic + creative pursuits, sensitivity, empathy, healing, introversion.
- Chiron: the wounded healer, the gift
- Mars: initiation, action
- Jupiter: beneficence, auspiciousness, abundance
PISCES NEW MOON THEMES:
- setting new intentions that feel more in alignment with your true self
- auspicious timing for new projects
- becoming more conscious about what you’re cultivating or creating in your life
- deciding on what you’re ready to let go, so that you can start or receive something better
- putting firm boundaries in place with yourself and others
- recognizing what needs to be healed within on a deep level
- cultivating a greater sense of compassion for yourself and others
- surrendering the choices or behaviors that are holding you back
- having the courage to face things that are difficult for you
- acknowledging your own truth or owning your inner darkness
- completion
- taking time out for silence and introspection
PISCES NEW MOON CRYSTALS:
Hold and meditate, sleep with, or wear one or more of the following crystals for emotional support, inner guidance, to increase your intuition, deepen your insight, or to generate even more auspicious energy for a new project:
Plant Profile: White Clover {Trifolium repens}
By Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs
Also, Known As:
- Dutch Clover
- White Clover
White clover (botanical name Trifolium repens) is a clover species that is indigenous to Europe, West Asia and Northern regions of Africa. Extensively introduced across the globe, this species is cultivated in the form of a pasture crop and is currently even common in the grassland regions of North America as well as New Zealand. White clover is also known as Dutch clover, as this species was cultivated in Holland for the first time.
White clover is a herbaceous (herb-like) perennially growing small plant. It grows close to the ground and produces small whitish flower heads, which usually have a pink or creamy tinge, which may occur as the plant matures. Usually, the flower heads measure anything between 1.5 cm and 2.0 cm (0.6 inches and 0.8 inches) wide and appear at the end of the flower stalks or peduncles measuring about 7…
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Endangered Species: False Unicorn Profile
By Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs
Chamaelirium lutetium
Also, Known As:
- Blazing Star
- Devil’s Bit
- False Unicorn
- Helonias Root
During the colonial period in North America, people used false unicorn, also known as Liatris (botanical name Chamaelirium lutetium) as a medicinal herb. However, its current use is strictly limited to being an ornamental plant. In fact, false unicorn is preferred by florists while arranging cut flowers for any customer owing to the exquisite lavender spikes of the plant’s fluffy flowers. Dissimilar to the majority of the different spike blooms, false unicorn flowers are an omission from the rule. The flowers of this herb develop at the apex of the spikes in a descending pattern. The flowering spikes of the false unicorn may be about two feet or even longer and have either purple or lavender hue.
The false unicorn is a perennially growing plant that is indigenous to the United States and is found growing in…
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The Forager’s: Life Root Profile
By Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs
Senecio aureus
Also, Known As:
- Cocashweed
- Coughweed
- False Valerian
- Golden Ragwort
- Golden Senecio
- Liferoot
The herb known as the life root is a perennial wildflower species of the daisy family of plants – Asteraceae; it reaches about half to two m in height. A small rosette of basal leaves approximately six to eight inches across is found at the base of each plant. The basal leaves have blades that are normally two inches in length and two inches wide. The leaves are cordate orbicular in shape, possessing crenate, dentate edges without any hair on the surface. The length of the blades is matched by the length of the slender petioles of the basal leaves. Each rosette develops a flowering stalk from its center which grows up. Usually, two to three alternate leaves are borne along this flowering stalk. The size of the alternate leaves is smaller compared to the size…
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Paths I Walk 
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