My Mother called me a while back with a bad muscular ache and asked me what herbs or medication she could take to make it feel better, ibuprofen hadn’t been helping much. I asked her if she’d considered A535 or Myoflex rub. There was a bit of a stunned silence on the other end of…
Eating Organic Outside a City Center
Before getting into the heart of the issue on how to eat organic outside a big center, it’s worth mentioning that I haven’t always eaten organic (as much as possible). In fact, for most of my life it was far from a priority. In youth, spare cash was better spent on dying my hair a…
Black Chana Hummus
The first thing I learnt to make in the kitchen was hummus. It only involved the use of the food processor, a can opener and a knife: no crapping up my Mother’s oven range, no splattering the walls with the side effects of an enthusiastically but inexpertly wielded egg-beater. It was a perfect compromise in her…
Making a Killer Curry Powder
Let’s start by getting this out of the way: Curry Powder is not East Indian cuisine. Not by a long shot. In Indian cuisine, curry is a labour of love with a masala (spices) made fresh for a dish pretty much every time. The spice blends used will vary by dish, by region and by…
I’ll Take My Placenta to Go
I saved the best for last. Asking the hospital staff to avoid episiotomy was a pretty standard request; and to delay cord clamping after birth like I’d asked was becoming more and more common. The eyebrows arched when it came to keeping the placenta so that it could be taken to the specialized herbalist and…
Becoming a Garam Masala Gourmet
Depending on your source, garam masala is a typically North Indian blend of spices, a blend hailing from the Punjab region of India (which is in the North), or a blend of spices varying from region to region of India. Other spice combinations going by the name ‘’garam masala’’ are also made, modified by the…
Discovering Ras El Hanout
So what exactly is Ras El Hanout and where does it fit in the great spice world? It’s a signature spice of North African, and more specifically Moroccan cuisine, added to such dishes as mrouzia, tajine and couscous. Pretty much every blog and on-line spice vending site offers the same blurb on the subject, specifying…
Thoughts on Breastfeeding and Herbal Galactogogues
‘’That’s how you can tell who the Mothers are,’’ the nurse at the Children’s Hospital told her colleague in training, ‘’they’re the ones walking across the hall with a breast hanging out and oblivious to it.’’ The observation was made as I brought my own little one into the blood test area. I was that…
Crunchy Cooking 