Sourcing Your Essential Oils

People often assume I am involved in a multi-level-marketing (MLM) company when I talk about using essential oils, but I have never been part of one. I get most of my essential oils from Aura Cacia which can be found at Whole Foods and other natural foods/products stores, and online or brick and mortar, or directly from their site.  They are part of Frontier Co-op whose sustainable practices are worthy of supporting. The essential oils are high quality and despite a common misconception, they are just as pure if not more so (because of sustainable practices) than MLM versions even though they do not advocate ingesting the essential oils as MLM companies often do. For one thing, ingesting essential oils can be harmful and should only be done under the guidance of a qualified naturopath or aromatherapist. Essential oils can dry out mucous membranes when taken internally and can cause other issues, some quite severe depending on the essential oil and the health/condition of the person. Second of all it is not in any way sustainable to use essential oils internally in a casual manner. Many plants, such as sandalwood, are already endangered due to essential oil production. Making essential oils is the most material-intensive way to use herbs, when there are often more eco-responsible and respectful ways to work with the herbs. Don’t get me wrong, I love essential oils and use them often as the only choice for certain herbal crafts, but I’m always conscious of what I’m doing and using. Companies that advocate dropping a drop or 2 of essential oils into all the glasses of water you drink, the teas and juices, the cakes and cookies and cocktails, etc, are really disconnected from the reality of what essential oils are. (You can make an herbal tea, water, shrub, etc without using the essential oil of the herb.) If you think about the fact that it takes 10,000 rose petals to fill one 5ml bottle, or 60 roses to create one drop of essential oil, you can get an idea of how special and potent essential oils are and how using them casually is not sustainable at all.

I also get essential oils from Mountain Rose Herbs which has all your herbal crafting needs covered, but that is all online, unless you are Eugene, Oregon, and I like knowing I can get high quality essential oils at my local natural foods stores at any time. I do order straight from them as well and they actually sent me some holiday inspired essential oil recipes to share which I intend to make into videos this season, but thought I’d go ahead and post a recipe or two today for Thanksgiving hostess gifts. These are fun projects to do with kids too, but always be careful with kids since essential oils should not go directly on the skin so gloves are recommended. Here’s a holiday tree inspired room mist recipe from Aura Cacia:

4 drops sweet orange essential oil (e.o.)

8 drops balsam fir e.o.

8 drops pine e.o.

1 Tbsp. fractionated coconut oil

2 fl oz distilled water

2 oz glass bottle with a spray top

Mix together the ingredients and shake before spraying for a woody, sweet aroma

And here are Candy Cane Diffusion Salts

1 drop spearmint e.o.

1 drop vanilla in jojoba oil

2 drops peppermint e.o.

2 drops sweet orange e.o.

1/2 cup sea salt

Mix together and add to a festive bath, or set into a bowl and let the scent diffuse into a room.

Thank you for reading and good luck staying sane as the holidays approach.

 

 

 

Easy Homemade Hostess Gift: Vanilla Extract

I have another post on making Vanilla extract if you like to read more than watch, but even so this quick video will show you how to pick out the right vanilla beans. You can often find these in bulk bins at natural foods stores such as Whole Foods, or they might be sold in the spice aisle in ones or twos in a glass jar or plastic bag. To be certain you aren’t buying old beans, make sure they are the texture in the video.

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The basic recipe is at least 4 Vanilla beans per cup of alcohol. For the alcohol, vodka, rum, brandy, or bourbon will work, but I always use vodka because I use my extracts in perfume making and vodka imparts the least amount of scent. Let it sit at least 6 weeks but really 10-14 weeks will be better, and the longer it extracts the more the vanilla scent/flavor will develop. Be sure to shake the container each day for the first week, then at least every other day after that, and you want the alcohol to completely cover the vanilla pods so if they want to stick up out of the liquid, use a wooden chopstick to push them back down.

As far as making holiday gifts goes, this is about as easy as it gets. Put the finished extract in a pretty glass jar and it doesn’t even need to be finished~ just keep the vanilla beans in there and let the recipient know they can take them out in a month or however much longer they need. For real vanilla lovers, you could give them vanilla oil too for body and/or baths. Vanilla is a luxurious product in any form as the pods are the second most expensive herb (after saffron) and have a long history known as an aphrodisiac, so these herbal crafts also make a superb Valentine’s gifts! Keep that in mind if you start your extract too late to gift for the holidays and don’t want to give unfinished extracts.

May your November be full of gratitude and your holidays be full of peace. Every year I make an effort to not get caught up in the frenetic pace and overwhelm of the holidays and this year is no different. So far I have not made it through an entire holiday season without the stress seeping in, but I’m holding out hope that this year I can stay centered. Be well!

Green Beauty

Daylight savings time just ended last night as I write this here in the U.S. and although it’s much easier to deal with than March’s ‘spring forward’, it has the annoying effect of making me want to eat lunch at 10:AM for a week or two. Anyone else? I couldn’t figure out why I was so darn hungry this morning until I remembered that it was *actually* an hour later than the clocks were telling me. Apparently Washington and the entire west coast has voted to keep DST all year, but it needs to be approved by congress before that change actually takes place, and no one knows when congress will rule on it. Seems like congress is currently otherwise occupied with a few other more pressing matters. Go figure.

I thought I’d share a bit about what I make vs. what I buy in terms of green beauty, because I definitely don’t make most of what goes on my skin even though I love to craft herbal bath and body goodies. The truth is that I barely have time to make dinner most days, so although the idea of making all my own skin care items is appealing, it is not a reasonable undertaking at the moment. Last evening I went out to dinner with a friend who postponed our meeting up by half an hour right before I was about to leave the house, so with nothing else to do, I applied more makeup than usual. I don’t wear much makeup b/c it tends to look strange on me and I’m not the only one who thinks that. I’ve had makeovers three times in my life in an effort to learn how to put on makeup without it looking odd, but each time the feedback I got from everyone besides the aesthetician was overwhelmingly not positive. I like the idea of makeup though and everyone once in a while try my hand at it beyond the under eye concealer and mascara I often use, but what I forgot last night when prepping for bed was that extra face cleaning was needed. This morning when I did my typical (DIY) toner cleaning, I saw how much more was on my cotton pads than usual and figured I better do a deep clean mask (also DIY). clay mask1The mask is french green clay with powdered lavender, and I added lavandin hydrosol for the liquid. To get powdered lavender, I just put dried lavender into an old coffee grinder and whirled away for about 30 seconds. The proportions were 2 parts clay to 1 part lavender. I used a little over a tablespoon of the dry material and about a tablespoon of the hydrsol mixed together for my face. Always use non metal containers and mixing tools with clay (and henna) such as ceramic, wood, and plastic. For other homemade mask ideas, here are a few. It takes a while to dry so you can either treat it as an opportunity for more self care like a warm bath or long mediation, or you can do like I did this morning and clean the bathroom. Either way, let it dry for 20 or more minutes, and then rinse off with a warm washcloth. ‘Rinse’ is a soft word implying the mask will come off easily, and that’s misleading. The taking off of a clay mask is an exercise in exfoliation, which is part of the magic, so don’t be surprised or discouraged, just use your wash cloth starting at your chin and working up in long arches outward for best skin health circulation. You will reveal glowing skin, guaranteed!

Afterwards I put on a serum, eye cream, under eye concealer, and a moisturizer combined with a CC cream~ all bought, not made. There are many great natural beauty products out there made with health-promoting herbs, essential oils, and other natural ingredients and I love supporting them. The other cool thing is a far larger proportion of these businesses, as opposed to businesses in general, are women owned and I love that! I’ve heard that if you use non-natural products and switch to natural, it takes a couple of weeks for your skin to adjust, so that’s important to know. I’ve pretty much always used natural products so I never experienced that, but I’ve talked to enough people in the industry to know that can be a real thing and it’s likened to a ‘healing crisis’ which is what some people experience when they begin a new herb or some other natural protocol and seem to get worse before getting better. The other thing to keep in mind is that non-natural skin care can actually create sensitive skin. Once your skin is treated with natural ingredients, it becomes a lot less ‘sensitive’. Imagine eating non-natural food all of the time and what that would do to your stomach vs. eating natural foods, and you can understand how that would be the case. In other words, give your skin some time to heal and it’ll be not only healthier and glow-ier, but also more resilient.

In case you are interested, here’s a list of 35 women owned natural industry businesses. This list was provided by New Hope Network. As a reminder, I am a member of the New Hope Influencer Co-op, a network of health and wellness bloggers committed to spreading more health to more people. I’m not paid or otherwise reimbursed to share this information.

Cali’flour Foods – Amy Lacey, Founder & Owner
Michele’s Granola – Michele Tsucalas, Founder
Miyoko’s Kitchen – Miyoko Schinner, Founder & the Big Cheese
4th & Heart – Raquel Tavares, CEO & Founder
Shanti Bar – Ashanty Williams, COO, and Lauren Feingold, CEO
NuttZo – Danielle Dietz-LiVolsi, Founder
Piggy Paint – Melanie Hurley, Owner
Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Co. – Marygrace Sexton, Founder, Natalie Sexton, VP Marketing
Noosa Yoghurt – Koel Thomae, Chief Aussie Officer
Caulipower – Gail Becker, Founder & CEO
My Brother’s Salsa – Helen Lampkin, Founder
Lucky Nutrition – Jamie Oberweger, Founder
Siren Snacks – Elizabeth Giannuzzi, Co-Founder & CEO
Purely Elizabeth – Elizabeth Stein, CEO
Bohana – Priyal Bhartia and Nadine Habayeb, Co-Founders
NoBull Burger – Crissanne Raymond, Founder & President
Nixie Sparkling Water – Nicole Dawes, Founder & CEO
Bobo’s – Beryl Stafford, Owner
Siete Family Foods – Veronica Garza, Co-Founder & President
P.S. Snacks Company – Nikki Azzara, Founder
Dream Foods International – Adriana Kahane, Owner
Cool Haus – Freya Estreller and Natasha Case, Co-Founders
Remedy Organics – Cindy Kasindorf, Founder
Simple Mills – Katlin Smith, Founder & CEO
Shining Light Deodorant – Sara Salter and Kristi Joynt, Co-Founders
Rule Breaker Snacks – Nancy Kalish, Founder
Green Goo – Jodie Scott, CEO
Crazy Richard’s Peanut Butter Co. – Kimmi Wernli, CEO
Carlson Laboratories – Carilyn Anderson, President, Kristen Carlson, VP, and Susan Carlson, Founder
Lifeway Foods – Julie Smolyansky, President & CEO
DeeBee’s Organics – Dr. Dionne Baker, CEO & Founder
O’My Dairy Free Gelato – Allison Monette, CEO, and Julie Bishop, COO, Co-Founders
Thaiwala – Heather Howitt, President
Joy Organics – Joy Smith, Co-Founder & CEO
Uplift Food – Kara Landau, RD, CEO & Head Dietitian

I can add some natural beauty lines as well: Evan Healy (I love this line!), Juice Beauty, Tata Harper, Moon Juice (I know some people can’t stand her vibe but I think she’s a hoot), and Indie Lee are the first that come to mind, but there are plenty more. What are your favorite green beauty products to make or to buy?

Thanks for reading and as always, please share with any green beauty lovers in your life!

How to Make a Body Butter (Reblog)

I was in the mood to make a body butter and share it here, so I decided to look at the recipes I’ve made before and decided that I would just reblog the one I followed most closely, otherwise it’d just be a repeat anyway. I love making body butters because of the way they change from solid, to liquid, to a creamy consistency. It’s like true alchemy at work. They are decadent too, and so perfect for this time of year when heaters start cranking and skin starts cracking. These butters are perfect for the skin that gets driest, such as feet and elbows and hands, but I use these all over my body and my legs seem to especially love the highly moisturizing texture. They make lovely gifts too, just heed the warning below about using a tight-fitting lid such as a screw top if you or your lucky giftee have a prying pet. Below is my blog from February of 2018, and here is another one on making body butter complete with video.

Making a body butter or cream is an especially magical process because the mere act of whipping the concoction creates the luxurious feel of the product and also the opaqueness. It’s really easy to do and there are so many ways to do it that I very rarely repeat the same process twice in the exact same way. That being said, I don’t always get the proportions exactly right for a proper whip to the recipe so do follow the ingredient recommendations closely of whatever recipe you choose at least for the first time or two. Even if the whipping doesn’t make your butter quite creamy, you will still end up with a soft balm that is just as good for moisturizing, and considering all these ingredients are natural, healthy, and non-toxic, you can use them on any part of your body that needs a little lotion-y love. Use whatever essential oils you like, but just know if you are using the recipe below the cocoa butter gives the finished product a decidedly chocolate-y scent, so figure that into your scent profile. For example, orange and chocolate might be good, cedarwood and chocolate though….maybe not.) I used vanilla absolute to round out the chocolate scent and the lavender to make sure it didn’t smell completely like food, plus lavender has so many skin benefits.

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Body Butter

1/2 C Cocoa Butter

1/4 C Coconut Oil

1/8 C Shea Butter

1/8 C Rose Oil (Olive Oil based)

20 drops Lavender

10 drops Vanilla Absolute

Put all the ingredients, except for the essential oils, into a measuring cup that can go into a pot of water that will heat up to a simmer. 3756C7C8-FDB6-4FEB-B5E5-051F1F1C9E5A[1]Let the solids completely melt, then take the measuring cup out of the water and let the liquid cool. You can put the measuring cup on ice, or put it in the fridge or freezer with a clean towel on top of it. It takes a while to cool, anywhere between a half hour to an hour depending on how it is cooling (freezer or on ice or just sitting out or whatnot). If you lose track of time and find the measuring cup hours later rock solid, don’t worry, just melt it again. When the liquid feels room temperature to the touch, add the essential oils and start whipping it with an electric mixer or in a blender until it turns creamy and opaque. This could take 5-10 minutes, depending on how cool the liquid is upon starting. Pour the butter into a clean jar and keep it out of heat and light for storage. This is a very emollient body butter, good for hand or foot cream, elbows, or any part of the body that is very dry. It isn’t recommended for the face though because those hard oils and butter can be pore clogging. It smells decadent and it is really fun to make something that starts off mostly solid, melts into a liquid, then whips into a totally new texture.

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Store in a clean glass jar with a tight fitting top, in a cool, dark place. Preferably a cool, dark place up out of nosey doggie territory. I was going to give this body butter to a friend so I had it down on the bottom of my shelf of herbal things where I knew I wouldn’t forget about it, but see that cork there…? My dog took the cork out of the jar (it does smell heavenly, and very much like food despite the lavender, I have to admit) and the jar hardened to a decidedly non-butter state. Definitely not gift-worthy anymore although I’ll still use it. Now it’s back to the stove top to make another batch, this time with a screw-lid jar.

This does harden a bit over a couple of days even with a properly closed container, so don’t be surprised if that happens. It still melts right onto (and into) your skin. We have all heard how skin is our largest organ and whatever we put on it goes into the body, so make sure you are only using the best, purest, products. You are worth it and your body will thank you. Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.

 

Reining in Climate Change Starts with Healthy Soil

This is a lengthier post than usual, but I think it’s important information. One of the reasons I feel compelled to share in this blogging format at all is because I care deeply about the earth and the global climate change that now (finally!) I think everyone admits to. Even if there are still people who deny that humans are a factor, no one can deny the fact that it’s up to humans to change their ways in order to slow down the degradation, or else humans will soon no longer exist and then earth can heal herself. Although I care about individuals’ health, sense of beauty, and quality of life, an even bigger motivation for my sharing is to create real connections to nature and natural products that lead to less chemicals, less plastic, less artificiality, less waste, and less pollution. There are so many green options out there for people to choose, from herbs instead of pharmaceuticals, to organics instead of artificial ingredients, and green beauty products that offer countless layers of healing and long-term benefits instead of chemicals and short term cover ups. This connection is not only deeply fulfilling to the humans who embrace it, but the entire earth benefits as well. No connection is too small because it all adds up, and the earth needs all the humans making healing choices now.

The following portion of this post was provided by New Hope Network and written by Bill Giebler. I am a member of the New Hope Influencer Co-op, a network of health and wellness bloggers committed to spreading more health to more people.

It’s barely May, but Aspen Moon Farm is bustling with fall harvest-like activity. The inclusion of seedlings in its offerings makes today’s farmers’ market preparations hum. At least half a dozen helpers line the long dirt drive up to the house, where owner Jason Griffith breaks for a sandwich in his enclosed patio. At 45, Griffith has been farming this plot of land in Hygiene, Colorado, for just a few years—but long enough to expand to 10 acres and learn some critical lessons.

“When I first started farming I was gearing all of my production toward ‘how many crops can I get out of this bed or that bed and how intensely can I plant?’” he says. That approach—despite organic and biodynamic cultivation—resulted in soil degradation, evidenced by diminished plant health and increased pests. Griffith reassessed his multiple annual harvests.
“We realized we were going to wear that field out quickly. It was interesting to see how fast it could happen.” Wearing out the field is not unique—modern agriculture relies on synthetic chemicals for fertility, too often viewing soil simply as an inert growing medium. What’s unique about Griffith—as with other small-scale organic farmers dependent on nutrient- rich soil—is he chose to do something about it.
Doing something about it is indeed the recommendation of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Its 2015 report states that “33 percent of land is moderately to highly degraded.” In fact, the report reads, “the majority of the world’s soil resources are in only fair, poor or very poor condition.”
For Griffith, the solution unfolded by re-framing the farming effort. “It’s really just about changing the focus from the crop to the soil and what does the soil need so we don’t have to add a ton of fertility every year.” Reducing added fertilizers—natural or otherwise—meant giving scheduling priority to soil-building crops above revenue-producing ones. “Instead of setting up my schedule and saying, ‘I need to plant carrots, beets and all this stuff where I want, whenever I want,’” Griffith says, “I’m basically saying: ‘I need to have a cover crop in this field by this date.’” Then he determines what vegetables work in rotation. The result is a productive farm with a year-round focus on maintaining or improving soil fertility.
This emerging awareness often comes in three words: Soil is alive. And with that comes the breadth of reasons to take care of it. Hint: It’s not just about food.
THE DIRTY TRUTH
It would be difficult to find a more passionate soil advocate than Tom Newmark. The former CEO of New Chapter supplement company, Newmark is co-founder and board chair of The Carbon Underground and co-owner of Finca Luna Nueva lodge and biodynamic farm in Costa Rica.
By phone, Newmark launches into a landslide of daunting truths. “Because of the worldwide destruction of between 50 and 70 percent of the fertile soil in which we grow our food … ” he says, also citing the FAO, “we have only 60 harvests [years] left before the world loses its ability to produce any food.”
Beyond dwindling food production, Newmark lists impending dangers, such as desertification—or drying up—of farm and range lands and a water cycle “so warped and distorted that much of the planet is whipsawed by either drought or flood.” If you’re concerned about the devastating weather extremes that have become far too common, he says, “You have to be concerned about soil.”
He explains how soil carbon correlates with soil organic matter: the rich, decomposing material and microbiology of the soil ecosystem. Acting as what he calls “the soil/water battery,” each percentage point of soil organic matter is able to hold between 20,000 and 70,000 gallons of water per acre. “When you don’t have the top soil, when you don’t have the organic matter in the soil, then the soil can’t store the rain, and plants can’t handle climate extremes because they don’t have water reserves in the soil,” Newmark says. The ripple effect of this includes local relative humidity, which distorts cloud formation and rain. “The destruction of the planet’s soil therefore has an immediate and direct effect on drought, crop failure and desertification.”
Possibly the biggest and most overlooked ecological service soil provides, however, is its role in climate change—via carbon sequestration. Global soils are, in fact, massive carbon storehouses—yes, that carbon: the temperature-raising, sea level-raising stuff of inconvenient headlines. The opportunity to lock this excess atmospheric carbon into the ground is at the root of a movement called regenerative agriculture. But with this comes awareness of the inverse impact: the vast release of carbon by agricultural means. “In fact,” Newmark says, “somewhere around 40 percent of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere comes directly from the soil.” That’s astounding in a world where human solutions to human-caused climate change tend toward the cars we drive and the lights we turn off. Newmark’s 40 percent is difficult to substantiate.
A U.N. paper puts it closer to 30 percent. But, says Newmark, that doesn’t account for the soil organic matter oxidized due to tilling or nitrogen fertilization.
Regardless, in the broad view of climate change there’s a double win that comes from carbon-rich soil. In addition to slowing or even reversing atmospheric carbon, soils richer in carbon (read: sticky, quenched) are also more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
This is good news, and it sounds even better the astonishingly simple way Newmark puts it: The soil lost its carbon, it wants it back and it knows how to get it. “There’s actually technology that is time-tested, safe and available worldwide for free that will take all the carbon we have irresponsibly let loose in the environment and bring it back to earth. That technology is called photosynthesis.” There’s a third win, too. Getting that carbon into the soil is synonymous with the soil fertility Griffith is looking for.
“The bad news is, we’ve absolutely botched things up with agricultural malpractice in the last 50 years,” Newmark says. “The good news is we can put the carbon back in the soil, recreate fertility, recreate the soil/water battery, recreate food stability and reverse climate change by using agriculture that is in accordance with the laws of nature and not at war with the laws of nature.”
FIXING NITROGEN
“The number-one thing we absolutely have to do is to stop using synthetic nitrogen fertilizer,” Newmark says. “It’s just that simple, and the research worldwide is clear: The use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer corresponds with the destruction of soil organic matter and the release of CO2 into the atmosphere.”
We have long known the dangers of nitrogen fertilizer. Its rampant use has been linked to coastal dead zones, fish kills, groundwater pollution, air pollution and even “reduced crop, forest and grassland productivity,” according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). What is newer to the dump on nitrogen is its direct correlation to carbon release and climate change. But, hold on: Nitrogen is a necessary plant nutrient, and the now 100-year-old ability to synthesize nitrogen from thin air is a key part of the agricultural “Green Revolution” that brought more food, more quickly, to more mouths in the mid-twentieth century. The need for nitrogen is what makes synthetic fertilizer so effective, and effectiveness is what makes its use so widespread.
What Newmark describes, though, is a distorted ecosystem, starting with an artificial growth factor—synthetic nitrogen—that stimulates a “rapid, wild cascade of growth of soil microbiome in an almost cancerous form.” Microbiological aliveness is a measure of soil health, but its unchecked growth creates an imbalance. It all comes down to complex underground trade negotiations, Newmark explains. In order to uptake nitrogen naturally, plants undergo an elaborate exchange with soil bacteria. Although both carbon and nitrogen are amply available in the air, they are inaccessible depending on who’s asking for it. Plants can’t get at the nitrogen; bacteria can’t get the carbon. “But,” says Newmark, “the bacteria have the nitrogen and the plants have this carbohydrate [carbon in the form of plant sugars] so at the tip of the root of every plant there’s an exchange that can happen, where the plants can swap their carbon-rich sugars for the biologically available nitrogen that the bacteria have. Brilliant!” And natural.

Until the introduction of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, that is. With it the plant has received biologically available nitrogen without having to put forth the effort of feeding the bacteria. A conditioned laziness ensues, closing a trade that includes not just nitrogen, but a host of micronutrients, too. “The whole underground economy shuts down,” says Newmark, “because we’ve been giving crack cocaine to the plants.”
What needs to happen, Newmark says unequivocally, is “all agricultural systems that rely on synthetic nitrogen fertilizers have to be abandoned, and they have to be abandoned quickly. We don’t have time to debate this issue.”
The second thing we have to do, Newmark says, is leave the carbon in the soil when it gets there. “If you have carbon that is in a relatively stable form in the soil, you have to leave it there, leave that structure undamaged.” But, he says, deep and repeated plowing, or tilling, breaks apart soil structure and releases CO2 back into the atmosphere. “We have to stop doing that,” says Newmark. “We have to stop ripping apart the thin layer of topsoil that covers much of our land surfaces on the planet.”

EASY DOES IT
While Newmark’s recommendations are satisfyingly simple biologically, they are not easy to apply within the existing industrial agricultural system—especially without consensus. In fact, many believe abandoning synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is akin to ditching the internet or stepping away from the car. Rob Saik, founder and CEO of Agri-trend, whose mission is “to help farmers … produce a safe, reliable and profitable food supply in an environmentally sustainable manner,” specializes in soil chemistry, plant physiology and crop nutrition, seeing GMOs and agri-chemicals as critical tools. “I think there’s a lot that can be done to make better use of nitrogen fertilizers,” he says. “The goal is not to reduce them but to use them more efficiently.”
Jeff Pizzey is a fifth-generation farmer in western Manitoba, Canada, and one of Saik’s clients. Pizzey says it’s synthetic fertilizers that allow him to grow as effectively as he does—as effectively as the world needs its farmers to. “What part of the population are you going to decide is not going to eat?” Pizzey asks about discontinuing synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. “There is absolutely no way that our world could sustain itself without it.”
Further, Pizzey says he’s able to employ a no-till approach because of synthetics. “That’s the one thing organic farming has not moved on from. Tillage is the only tool they have in their toolbox to kill weeds.” Because of genetically modified crop strains and their accompanying herbicides Pizzey can run his farm with minimal tilling.
“We use a disk drill, which basically cuts and slides the soil in a small band about three-quarters of an inch wide, places the seed and covers it back up again.”
Even the Rodale Institute, a world leader in practical organic farming research, agrees that no-till, by “relying on herbicides for weed control … cannot be directly adopted for use in organic production systems.” Rodale is researching and teaching methods to make no-till and reduced-till organic farming possible.
Aspen Moon’s Griffith does what he can as an organic farmer. “There’s not a lot of vegetable farmers that are no-till per se. We all have to turn in that vegetable residue to be able to get ready for the next crop.” The chisel plow Griffith uses to aerate and break up the soil is indeed more disruptive than Pizzey’s disk drill, but less so than a rototiller. “We don’t use a rototiller because … it inverts the soil.” Different microbes live at different levels in the soil, he explains, “so when you invert that soil every time, you basically kill the life of the soil that now has to rebuild.”
As for yields, Rodale differs markedly from Pizzey. Its 30-year trial reveals organic yields equal to or greater than conventionally grown controls—especially in drought years when organic soils show greater resiliency. Even studies that report lower organic yields show more nutritional value per acre. Newmark leapfrogs the entire argument. “Tell me,” he says, “how will conventional farms produce food with no topsoil?”

REVERSING THE DAMAGE
Agriculture, by nature, captures nutrients from the farm and exports them to market. With nutrients constantly being removed from the ecosystem, farmers need to manage soil fertility. How they do so is a defining characteristic. “We’re not trying to buy fertility to create a product,” says Griffith. “We’re trying to create fertility within the farm.”
There are two keys to that for Aspen Moon Farm. The first is cover crops.
With cover crops, nutrients collected through photosynthesis are captured and kept within the farm system. A cocktail of cover crops stocks the soil with different nutrients—including nitrogen. “A good cover crop should be able to feed next year’s crop,” Griffith says.
Griffith’s second key to building fertility is the inclusion of animals—not as product but as part of the operation. The best rule, Griffith says, works from cover crop through cow (quite literally) to chicken on the way to planting. “So the cow eats all that cover, which goes through its stomach process, turning it into almost compost right into the field. Then the chickens come by afterward, eat the bugs, eat the weed seeds, scratch it all up, spread it and then we’re ready to go.”

RUMINATING ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Bringing animals into—or back into—the farm system is intriguing, but counter-intuitive considering the well-documented negative impact the meat industry has on climate. Confined in large, dirt-floored feedlots, they poorly digest grain shipped from a thousand miles away and gas up the atmosphere with the resulting methane—a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than CO2. Indeed, a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences report released in early 2016 states, “Transitioning toward more plant-based diets that are in line with standard dietary guidelines could reduce … [2050] food-related green-house gas emissions by 29–70 percent.”

But recent research suggests that large grazing ruminants—like cows—can be climate heroes as well. Leading the drive on this is the Savory Institute, a nonprofit organization promoting “holistic management” as a top effort to revitalize soil health and lock atmospheric carbon into the earth.
Holistic management is a carefully timed system of growth, rapid grazing and regrowth, says Savory’s Chris Kerston. Regrazing, too, but not too soon. Here’s why: As the grazed grasses start regrowing above ground, their roots retract, sloughing off dead root material—which is critical. “When that piece of root dies off down there … you actually just injected organic matter into the soil,” says Kerston. Essentially, the plant—through photosynthesis and root sloughing—is pumping solar energy into the soil. In this way, “you can build depth into the soil much deeper at a much faster rate.” After the grasses regrow, the pasture may look fully recovered, but more time is required to allow the roots to regrow. Only then is it time to graze again. “What ranchers often don’t realize,” Kerston warns, “is if you don’t wait long enough for the root to also regrow, then we have an unsustainable situation—we’re going into the negative in our bank account.” The soil is missing its carbon deposits, and the plant, with insufficient root regrowth and excessive withdrawals, is suffering. Eventually the grasses stop regrowing up top, too, taking the grass out of grassland. Hence, desertification.
“So what we want to have happen,” Kerston continues, “is we want our animals bunched and moving, but we want them to be gone long enough that the land fully recovers.” That nuance is the basis of holistic management, and it, says Kerston, “makes all the difference in the world. Quite literally.”
Bunched and moving is exactly what herds of large ruminants have been for millennia. The grazing was rapid, thorough and unselective because the animals were bunched and competing for limited grasses. They were bunched—and moving—because of the omnipresence of stealthy predators. “So in our sedentary ranching systems, when we started putting up barbed wire fences it was one of the worst things to happen to agriculture,” says Kerston.
Fortunately, bunched and moving can coexist with property lines, and this is where Savory’s holistic management comes into play: teaching ranchers how to choreograph the moves (and bunches) in a way that mimics the natural world, and teaching farmers how to create a beneficial mixture of flora and fauna working together, says Kerston. “If we put animals back on the land that is growing corn to feed animals thousands of miles away, that whole broken cycle stops.” Instead of eating bought feed, “the animals can eat crop residues, they can fertilize soils, they can actually break up the soil surface getting it ready for planting.”
Texas A&M’s Richard Teague, PhD, is among those to document the benefits of this specialized rotational grazing. Teague performed a large-scale multiyear study of regenerative agricultural practices. His study compared similar plots of land and employed different grazing methods on each, tracking the vegetation on lands with no grazing, continuous grazing (studying both light and heavy continuous grazing separately) and rotational grazing, “using light to moderate defoliation … followed by adequate recovery before regrazing.” Rotational or “multipaddock” grazing, he concludes, “had superior vegetation composition, higher soil carbon, and higher water- and nutrient- holding capacities.”
Returning key biological processes to their natural state seems to be at the core of transferring excess carbon from the atmosphere—where it’s a liability—to the soil, where it’s of vast benefit. That’s good news because it means soil loss and climate change have a common solution, and all we have to do to harness it is step aside. “We have 470 million years of experience of the ecosystem producing food: converting solar energy into calories available for biology to consume,” says Newmark.
When asked how quickly damaged lands begin to heal, Newmark’s response is short and cheerful. “It’s instantaneous!” It takes longer, he admits, to completely reverse the damage, but the healing starts on day one. Citing Teague’s research, he speaks of rivers that had disappeared or become seasonal during the downward spiral of desertification. In Teague’s study, he says, “those ephemeral streams became permanent streams. And this was in just 10 years!”
“I wake up hopeful every morning,” Newmark says, “because the solution is literally right beneath our feet.” (End of article.)

Thank you for reading and I hope everyone who took the time to do so feels hopeful and empowered to do something for the good of the earth’s health, as well as their own.

Herbal Perfume Base DIY Part 2

This is a follow up post to the one about making herbal perfume bases. After the tincture sits for about a month, it is ready to be strained and used as a perfume base. It can sit for longer than a month and potentially get a little stronger, but if you are like me and get antsy to get crafting, a month is long enough. I actually strained mine this time slightly before a full month was up, but I could tell from the scent and the color that it was ready. A note about the color~ when you make an herbal tincture it will inevitably take on the color of the herbs which shouldn’t be a surprise, but it may seem strange to put colored perfume on your body. The color does not show up on the body and I’ve never had it stain my clothes either so you don’t need to worry about that. If you do not like the idea of colored perfume, stick to essential oils in straight alcohol, or make an herbal oil instead because oils take on a lot less color. Here’s part two of making an herbal perfume base:

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The final perfume I made with the 2 oz. spray bottle is the following:

50 drops ylang ylang

10 drops nutmeg

3 drops palo santo (because I’m out of sandalwood)

5 drops bergamot

This turned out to have a nice, fresh, gender-neutral, autumn day scent. If you watched the video you will know that I was thinking of adding jasmine but I’m just not really feeling jasmine-y this time of year. Nutmeg is a strong scent which is why there are only 10 drops while ylang ylang has 5 times as much, but the scent turned out to have a strong vanilla-nutmeg scent which just feels right for October. It could have really used some sandalwood but I improvised with the palo santo which is another essential oil that is extremely strong so only three drops of that one. The bergamot just gave it a light, happy finish as the only real top note in the mix.

Thank you for reading and please subscribe if you haven ‘t already for more herbal tutorials and wellness articles from the natural foods and products world.

 

Cinnamon Almond Granola

If you want to make your house smell exceptionally warm and cozy, I highly recommend making this granola. It is short on ingredients and easy to scale up or down or modify to your own particular tastes. I know some people who might want to add cardamom and nutmeg to the mix and honestly I would myself, but my kids tend to like cinnamon on its own so that is what I do. I used gluten-free oats from Bob’s Red Mill, but many celiacsbobs red mill gf oats and people intolerant to gluten cannot eat even certified gluten-free oats. This apparently has to do with the protein molecule being similar in structure to gluten, though it might also have to do with what/how the oats are grown and what has been sprayed on or near them. (Read more about this here or at least look at the graph and draw your own conclusions.) Whatever the reason, listen to your body about eating oats or not. I count myself very lucky to be able to digest oats because I love granola and using oat flour in baking. This recipe is a healthy combination for starting the day because of cinnamon which can help stabilize blood sugar, almonds for the protein and good fats, and coconut oil to keep one satiated longer. Here’s the recipe:

 

 

Cinnamon Almond Granola

3 cups oats (I use gluten-free)

Real Salt

1 cup slivered almonds

1 tbs cinnamon powder

1/2 tsp sea salt (I use Real Salt)

3 Tbs. coconut oil (Somehow didn’t make it into the pics, but very important ingredient!)

1/3 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla extract (make your own!)

Preheat oven to 350. Place parchment paper down on a large, rimmed cookie sheet. Combine the first four ingredients together in a large bowl and mix well. Melt the coconut oil and honey in small sauce pan or just use your microwave for about a minute. Add the vanilla extract to the melted mixture and stir, then pour over the dry ingredients and blend until well mixed. Pour the mixture onto the pan and spread it out as much as possible. Put in the oven for about 15 minutes, stirring every five minutes so that all sides of the granola are exposed at some point. When it turns golden and the kitchen smells mouth-wateringly delicious, it’s ready to cool down and be stored in a glass container, or munched all day long right off the pan.

This is a great addition to smoothies to turn them into smoothie bowls and will be nice to have as an after school snack all week too, if it lasts that long. The other breakfast food I’ve made for the week is a couple of batches of waffles. They are filling and the addition of chocolate chips makes the early morning wake-ups just a tad sweeter for my sons, especially my youngest who is naturally a late sleeper. Waffles are also easy additions to lunch boxes and if you’ve never tried peanut butter or nutella on waffles, you are in for a surprisingly good pairing. These can be especially nice go-to foods for those early days of switching to gluten free eating for newbies, especially for kids, when it suddenly feels like all the comfort foods are out of bounds. Waffles can save the day and I highly recommend employing any and all tactics for making the transition as emotionally comfortable as possible, because changing what you eat in a drastic way is truly life altering and that should be acknowledged. It’s a challenge in other words, and although challenges are necessary and generally for the greater good, so is honoring the emotions as one goes through them.

Thank you for reading and please share with anyone looking for gluten free or just easy breakfast recipes.

Happy October!

spider web

 

 

Immune Support for School Days

School started less than a month ago and all three of us in this house have already caught a cold. It isn’t just us either, people all over are discussing their kids being out sick or they themselves are coughing and reaching for tissues. Schools are just bacteria and virus playgrounds and no amount of hand washing nor desk cleaning is going to suffice (though it can help) so it’s worthwhile to work some immune support into you and your students’ bodies during the school year. In addition to my sons being at school, I started a job at a school last week and was reminded very quickly that the other years I’ve worked in schools were always full of colds and once, a very bad flu, and that was when I worked at a college so it’s not just elementary through high schools. I don’t want another year of viruses and other issues, so I’m planning on putting some real focus into not only supporting my and my sons’ immune systems, but also making my little classroom as healthy as possible. Bailey (above) is not happy with the transition of summer to school days either. She likes everyone home, right where she can see them.

astragalus

Astragalus is an immune supporting herb that can be used continuously, as opposed to the more well-known booster, echinacea, which is used during an illness, then must be stopped in order to stay effective in the future. I use astragalus in powdered form and add it to the adaptogen blends I make for the boys and my morning protein smoothies. It’s a mainstay. One of my herbal teachers said that in China they put a slice of the root in soups all winter, then take it out before serving the soup. I can’t verify that myself, but it sounds like a reasonable way to take advantage of the herb. The slices are known to look somewhat like tongue depressors (pictured above), and although it’s a root, both the smell and taste of the herb are somewhat nutty (at least to me). Next time I make soup, I’m going to try throwing a slice in there, and I’ve also been known to take the tincture version when I’ve felt rundown and there is a kids’ tincture too that is free of alcohol. There are pill versions too of course, so whatever is easiest for the person taking it. Astragalus can also help when you have an overactive immune system, such as with allergies or rheumatoid arthritis. It’s category is immunomodulator, meaning it helps amp up the immune system when it needs amping, but also can turn it down when it’s gotten too riled up for its own good. Although astragalus can help you get over a cold or flu, echinacea is my go to choice for really boosting the immune system to fight those. Echinacea is a fighter you bring in when you really need it, while astragalus is a daily supporter. Here’s a kid friendly echinacea for when the sniffles start.

Elderberry is another herb to have on hand all fall and winter and now is the perfect time to make some elderberry syrup which is something I plan on doing in the next couple of weekends (although you can just buy it if herbal crafting isn’t your happy place as it is mine, and here’s a kids’ version). Elderberry has a long history of use for a wide variety of ailments from urinary tract infections to allergies, but it is most known for its anti-catarrhal  and immune boosting actions which make it a natural for fighting colds and flus. It will no doubt be easier to get your kids to take elderberry as opposed to other herbs so it’s nice in that regard as well. Hippocrates himself referred to elderberry as his medicine chest for its many uses, and there is evidence of it being cultivated by prehistoric Europeans and the tincture has also been found buried in ancient Egyptian tombs. Due to its extremely long historical use and the many ailments it treats, it of course also has garnered quite a mythical reputation with stories linked to goddess cultures revering it and it being a portal to fairy lands. If you are lucky enough to have one growing in your yard, you might want to try taking a nap under it because it is said that you will have vivid dreams of fairies and you just might end up in their land, perhaps never to return! And also if you do have access to fresh elderberries, don’t eat them. They need to be dried before consuming.

For some serious immune support I wanted to incorporate more mushrooms into my supplement regime. I happened to find a tincture on the “last chance” end-cap at a local Whole Foods which was exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to find. It’s Host Defense’s Comprehensive Immune Support and it has an extensive ingredient list that I’ll post below so you can see it for yourselves. Host Defense is Paul Stamets’ company whose video I shared a few posts back and he is a true visionary and pioneer when it comes to the fungal kingdom.

Also, in an herbal documentary series I recently watched, mushrooms were discussed as having the ability to completely overhaul one’s immune system, but it does take some time. I’m looking forward to seeing how I progress with mushroom supplementation and will let you know in about three months if I see a difference, because that is a reasonable amount of time to be able to note any changes. My own herbal education and training really didn’t delve into mushrooms much and I feel like they have just recently been rising in popularity as the powerhouses that they are. I really am excited to experiment more with these strange beauties.

For the room itself that I’m in at the school, I plan on bringing in some plants to not only freshen up the air but also cleanse the air. Herbs will of course be my first botanical additions to the room, and I will probably go with thyme as my inaugural plant-baby there due to its anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-microbial actions. The room is actually the

classroom windows
Lake Washington is in the distance.

best room in the building with tall windows that have a great view, but those windows don’t open and the space is fairly small, so the air feels dense quickly once a few students start rolling in. Today I’ll be making an air freshening spray to use between the groups of kids to hopefully put a stop to some of the germ transfers, and also to just keep the room fresh and a pleasant place to be for everyone. Again I’ll be reaching for thyme, although in this case the essential oil, to add to some distilled water for the spray. I might add some ‘thieves’ style essential oil to the spray as well, or at least use it in an essential oil diffuser that I’m bringing in. This little room is about to become a germ’s worst nightmare and a lovely dream for the students and I to be in.

What do you do during cold and flu season? Or is there anything you add to your health regimen either before or after when you will be in a germ fest such as a classroom or airplane?

Thank you for reading and please share with any students, teachers, or parents of students that you know fight the good fight against colds and flues all year.

 

Mind-Gut Health Connection

I wanted to share this short article from New Hope Network that shows recent findings linking gut health with digestive health. This is something that has long been documented by Ayurveda, the oldest healing system in the world, by linking both to the vata dosha. There have been other studies as well, and even products aimed at optimal health for both. If you suffer from psychological issues such as anxiety, depression, OCD, and/or others, it is worthwhile looking at healing your digestive health as well. Here’s the article:

(This part of the post was provided by New Hope Network. I am a member of the New Hope Influencer Co-op, a network of health and wellness bloggers committed to spreading more health to more people.)

A Columbia University study has found that adversity early in life is associated with increased gastrointestinal symptoms that may affect children’s brains and behavior as they mature.
“It is too early to say anything conclusive, but our study indicates that adversity associated changes in the gut microbiome are related to brain function, including differences in the regions of the brain associated with emotional processing,” said Nim Tottenham, a professor of psychology at Columbia and senior author on the study.
The study, “Mind and Gut: Associations Between Mood and Gastrointestinal Distress in Children Exposed to Adversity,” was published online March 28 in the journal Development and Psychopathology.
“One common reason children show up at doctors’ offices is intestinal complaints,” said Tottenham, who is an expert in emotional development. “Our findings indicate that gastrointestinal symptoms in young children could be a red flag for future emotional health problems.”
Scientists have long noted the strong connection between the gut and brain. A history of trauma or abuse, even in the second through sixth weeks after birth, is associated with a higher risk of irritable bowel syndrome and more than one third of mental-illness diagnoses in one’s lifetime, according to previous research. This study was designed to determine when childhood adversity begins to affect the gastrointestinal system.
“The role of trauma in increasing vulnerability to both gastrointestinal and mental health symptoms is well established in adults but rarely studied in childhood,” lead author Bridget Callaghan, a post-doctoral research fellow in Columbia’s psychology department, said in a released statement. In addition, animal studies have demonstrated that adversity-induced changes in the gut microbiome—the community of bacteria in the body that regulates everything from digestion to immune system function—influence neurological development, but no human studies have done so, she said.
“Our study is among the first to link disruption of a child’s gastrointestinal microbiome triggered by early life adversity with brain activity in regions associated with emotional health,” Callaghan said.
The researchers focused on development in children who experienced extreme psychosocial deprivation due to foster or institutional care before international adoption. Separation of a child from a parent is known to be a powerful predictor
of mental health issues in humans. That experience, when modeled in rodents, induces fear and anxiety, hinders neurodevelopment and alters microbial communities across the lifespan.
The researchers drew upon data from 115 children adopted from orphanages or foster care on or before they were 2 years old and from 229 children raised by a biological caregiver. The children with past caregiving disruptions showed higher levels of symptoms that included stomach aches, constipation, vomiting and nausea.
From that sample of adoptees, the researchers then selected eight participants, ages 7 to 13, from the adversity exposed group and another eight who’d been raised by their biological parents. Tottenham and Callaghan collected behavioral information, stool samples and brain images from all the children. They used gene sequencing to identify the microbes present in the stool samples and examined the abundance and diversity of bacteria in each participant’s fecal matter.
The children with a history of early caregiving disruptions had distinctly different gut microbiomes from those raised with biological caregivers from birth. Brain scans of all the children also showed that brain activity patterns were correlated with certain bacteria. For example, the children raised by biological parents had increased gut microbiome diversity, which is linked to the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain known to help regulate emotions.
“We observed that early adversity was associated with gastrointestinal symptoms in youth aged 3-18 years (with the largest effects observed in late childhood),” the authors wrote. They also found that adverse caregiving experiences in the earliest days of life alters the gut’s biome; that variation affects how the brain’s emotion networks develop.
“The fact that early experiences of caregiving adversity increase the risk for both GI and mental health problems, as well as being associated with changes to the GI microbiome, suggests that the timing of this exposure (infancy to early childhood) coincides with the sensitive period for the maturation of each of these systems,” the authors wrote.
More research is needed, but Tottenham and Callaghan believe their study helps fill an important gap in the literature.
“Animal studies tell us that dietary interventions and probiotics can manipulate the gut microbiome and ameliorate the effects of adversity on the central nervous system, especially during the first years of life when the developing brain and
microbiome are more plastic,” Callaghan said. “It is possible that this type of research will help us to know if and how to best intervene in humans, and when.” Callaghan and Tottenham are working on a larger study with 60 children in New York City, New York, to see if their findings can be replicated. They expect the results later this year.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health, the Dana Foundation, the American Australian Association and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

(Me again) If you missed my digest blend DIY (above) a while ago, the link is here. Thank you for reading and please share with anyone who has digestive or emotional/mental issues! Best health to you and yours <3.

Herbal Perfume Base DIY

It’s really nice to have an herbal oil or herbal extract as your natural perfume base because it adds another layer of scent and benefits to your perfume. It also lessens the amount of essential oils you need in your perfume, making the end product more affordable and sustainable. Essential oils are wonderful, therapeutic, beautiful gifts from the earth, but they should be used sparingly as their production can and does take an environmental toll in some cases. Sandalwood, for example, has become endangered due to over harvesting and some other environmental factors, which is also why its price has been steadily and substantially increasing. It often takes an enormous amount of botanical material to make an essential oil, and the more material it takes the more expensive the resulting essential oil. Rose and Jasmine (link is to an absolute) are classic examples of this, and one way around the steep environmental and personal financial price, is to make an oil or extract from the flowers yourself. It takes 60,000 rose blossoms to make 1 oz of rose essential oil, and it takes even more Jasmine than that, but to make an oil or extract, you can use a lot less and end up with a great product although not as potent. Vanilla is another great herb to use as an oil or extract because vanilla can’t be made into an essential oil, it can be made into an absolute which is generally found already mixed with jojoba oil, so using it in an alcohol based perfume is not rose and vanilla in oilrecommended other than as an extract itself. I like to make my perfumes that are alcohol base with vanilla extract, then add essential oils to it. You don’t need to just pick one herb though, you can add herbs together for a unique, multidimensional scent as your base, then layer in the essential oils to create something completely your own~ a true signature scent.

Today I made rose vanilla oil and rose vanilla extract for my perfume bases. The extract will take 4-8 weeks to cure, but the oil is ready in a few hours (thanks to the quick method) so I can start experimenting with some fall scents right away. Below is what I did, but remember that you can do this with any botanical ingredient that you like. If you have something growing near you that isn’t found as an essential oil, I especially encourage you to try working with that and seeing what kind of special, local scent you can create full of originality and terroir. Go for it!

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Thank you for reading/watching and I hope you are inspired to create your own multilayered natural perfume or cologne with an herbal base. Let me know what your favorite combinations are~ I’d love to hear!