August becomes September, petals fall in the garden, and the trees prepare to shed their leaves. Our bodies and energy systems are feeling the changes in weather and in food. The fresh foods and light dinners of summer are giving way to warmer, slower foods. Cold and flu season is approaching. It’s a wonderful time for a gentle detox. My favorite way to do this is through tea.
Tea with the seasons – Easing the Autumn transition Read More »
There is much that is outside of our control, but raising a garden is one small thing we can do to nourish the part of the world we live in right now, right here. The modern world seems to be ever-increasing in its speed and demands and disconnect. Perhaps growing a garden is one of the things that will counter this.
As Wendell Berry said, “A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world.”
Healing Gardens. Healing World. Read More »
My grandmother’s greenhouse was one of the first places my little roots passed through on their way to becoming the woman I am today. I feel her memory in every greenhouse I walk through today. It rests on my shoulder like a warm presence, and I am taken back to that first greenhouse I knew and the woman who filled it with plants. It is a place and a woman who would be absent for the majority of my life. Yet it is a place and a woman who left its essence forever entwined in my psyche.
When I share the potential health benefits of the herbal teas I blend, I do so with a bit of hesitation.
Sometimes I choose to share the practical, physical attributes of a plant. Other times I mention its energy personality, or focus on how it has featured in stories and mythology.
None of it is set in stone, but it all plays a part.
Plant medicine can be a powerful ally in our search for wellness and vitality. Other times, however, it seems as though it does nothing. What gives?
One Cup of Tea Won’t Fix Me Read More »
Watching loose leaf tea steeping is a beautiful thing. Yes, you can use a disposable tea bag if you like. I get it – sometimes that’s easier. But when you first see those curled tea leaves unfurling, and flowers opening in your water, there’s no going back.
Brewing Guidelines For Loose Leaf Tea Read More »
I know
summer is falling
and the geraniums are fading
and the basil’s gone to seed, but
the sedum is greening
by the back fence
and I’d like to show you
how purple it will be in autumn….
Go gentle with your heart
as the tea leaf, which does not release
its treasure to demanding hands.
I think some tea purists would shudder at my love of tea blending. And I understand. I understand that there are some teas that need to be enjoyed on their own, without additions. I love the simple elegance of a quality jade green tea sipped from beautiful china. I also love the humble kitchen-garden herbs
A Tea Blending Life – Behind the Scenes Read More »
To keep track of these lives we live is not just a means of enriching our understanding… but a truly sacred work…Our secrets are human secrets, and our trusting each other enough to share them with each other has much to do with the secret of what it is to be human. – Frederich Buechner
The Power of Story and the Healing of Creative Work Read More »
“We are not simply the users of creation; we are, all of us, called to be its offerers.” – Robert Capon This is the essence of Robert Farrar Capon’s book, The Supper of the Lamb. Part cooking, part philosophy, part theology, it is a book like none other. It is a serendipitous fusion of poetry,
The Supper of the Lamb – A Culinary Reflection [book review] Read More »