Category: Herbalism

Convalescence Soup

My North American answer to the kitchari of India and the congee of China is this soup.

A Tempeh Tutorial

The basics to making your tempeh at home: finer flavor for a fraction of the price.

Incorporating Herbs into Daily Life: Herbal Soups, Broths and Porridge

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the word for herbal tea and the word for soup are the same: tang.  This isn’t surprising since the herbal decoctions of that system of medicine are indeed quite thick, heavy and broth-like when they aren’t being cooked directly into meat or water-based soups or rice porridge – both of which…

Read More

Herbal Stimulants Part 3: Crazy Caffeination – Guarana & Kola Nut

To close the section on caffeine-containing herbal stimulants, we’ll look at the powerhouses of caffeination best used on a very occasional basis.  These are the herbs that you take out when life offers you no choice but to pull an all-nighter or a fifteen hour day behind the wheel.  These are the legal solution when…

Read More

Herbal Stimulants Part 2: Other Caffeine-Containing Herbs – Tea, Maté & Cacao

Although coffee is the best known and doubtless one of the most popular of the caffeine-containing botanicals, it isn’t the only contributor.  Many other plants have caffeine in their compositions, most of which are consumed for both medicinal and recreational reasons in the regions from which they hail.  Nowadays in the global village, most are…

Read More

Herbal Stimulants Part 1: Coffee and Coffee Alternatives

When a client comes to consult for the first time and I ask for a dietary profile, more often than not the first thing I hear is, ‘’I’m not giving up my coffee.’’  People are personal about their coffee and there’s an assumption that the first thing an herbalist is going to do is ban…

Read More