​One of the most satisfying things I make is skin cream! I learned how over 30 years ago because my face was full of rashes and bumps from the chemical chaos of commercial creams. Once you learn this skill, like anything else, it becomes an integrated healthcare thing that's easy. I have a basket dedicated to my cream making things that sits in my apothecary. We need some basic kitchen equipment, great music, and uninterrupted time. 

There's a large more detailed PDF in my ElderMoon School herbal medicine course, Birthing an Herbalist In 13 Moons - (DETAILS HERE) - with more on making cream, the chemical chaos of commercial creams out there, and other remedies for supporting healthy glowing skin. Yes, rest, clean eating, plenty of good water, meaningful work, play and relations all affect our largest organ of elimination, OUR SKIN. 

This post gives you the recipe and basic instructions to just get started and get some experience with simple ingredients and the technique.

Enjoy. XO - Jen

This recipe given with weighs and exactly how I make it now.  Use a kitchen scale that has a tare button so you can subtract the container for super accurate weight measuring. This ensures more consistency and success with your recipe. 

WEIGH YOUR "WATER" INGREDIENTS

• 3 oz. distilled water, or hydrosol
• 1 tablespoon of aloe gel – optional but include in the weight of the ‘water’ part
• 1 pinch of Borax mineral*

WEIGH YOUR "OIL" INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 oz. EACH organic Calendula and organic Rosemary infused Olive Oil
• 3 oz. organic Grapeseed Oil
• ½ oz. Avocado Butter OR Cocoa Butter
• ¼ tsp Vitamin E Oil - prick a few gel caps open with a pin if need been 
• 1/2 oz. Beeswax (1 tablespoon Beeswax pastilles)
• 8-15 drops each of essential oil of Rosemary or Lavender

​

Optional Preservation Help: Add a homemade Grapefruit extract as a small swirl to finished whipped cream. Not too much or your emulsion will break like the way lemon can in hollandaise sauce making. Check out the video in our video section on how to make an easy batch of grapefruit extract that will last years in your apothecary and why it helps with many other thungs related to our health. If adverse to this then you can add Calendula or Rosemary Tincture (30 drops to "water" part of recipe).

*Optional - Pinch of Borax - natural mineral crystal that softens water and helps emulsify – often used to soften water for the laundry machine and that's where you find it, in the laundry soap area at grocery store; one box will last your whole life for this and costs a few dollars. We have hard water so I add this to my laundry and have it around already.


INSTRUCTIONS - read through before you begin so we can imprint your brain on the steps as you go. 

1. In a double boiler, melt weighed beeswax first and then add other oils and warm until all is just melted.

2. Measure on zeroed (press the tare button) scale the water part(s) and drizzle into warm oil part whisking gently. Decide if your using Calendula or Rosemary tincture too as this needs to be added here in the "water" part. 

3. Continue to gently whisk. Remove from the heat once uniform in texture. Do not over heat!

4. Begin the cooling process with placing this bowl with your warmed ingredients into a cool water bath in a larger bowl in your sink and keep gently whisking until you see it beginning to solidify on the edges. Scrape the edges and keep whisking the solids into the center. It will look opaque as it starts to emulsify with cooling down. 

5. Whip until cooled a few minutes and then add essential oils and grapefruit seed extract if using. Whip a little more until cool by hand or with a hand mixer.

6. Do not over whip or your emulsion will “break” and separate. Do not add too much essential oil or it could break with these too.  
​
7. Spoon into wide mouth jars immediately and cap. It will set up more in a few hours. Do NOT wait on this step or it will be too thick to transfer well to your jars. You can double this recipe.

We fill 4oz. jars and distribute through the house, one to each person plus one in each bathroom. Extras are stored in the frig until needed. We make enough for 2-3 months at a time. 

Here's an archived video of me giving a demo from years ago. 

​And if you're needing some cream without the strain of learning just yet, I have ya covered. 
​
LINK: ​ELDERMOON's CREAM TO ORDER.  

ENJOY. Much Love, Jen

It is an ancient practice making its way back into our care of the sick.

Fever never stopped being a source of healing.
What changed was our relationship to welcoming it. To stop a fever is often not wise. Something is physically, emotionally, mentally, or metaphorically being incinerated. It’s about the internal fire that transforms. Tending any fire takes some skill, practice, and a deep humble presence of bowing to a force that is mighty and can destroy many things.

Have a listen and take notes, if called, to for your apothecary notebook. Here are few facts to also read through about fever so you will walk as the wise keeper of knowledge on how to manage fever and tend the internal fire for health and healing.

AUDIO LINK: Wise Fever Management - 78m
​​
This is a talk for my herbalists in training at ElderMoon School of Herbs. I share because embracing fever takes some umph today with so many medical folk in medical settings believing it must be stopped. Truth is what is making us sick can be stopped faster if we learn what our grandmothers and great grandmothers knew on how to dance with fever for supporting health and well being.
Be sure to listen to the “$500 Bath” story - a funny in hindsight Jen learning curve.

Why? It’s all about energy reserves. You will run out of viral reserve energy and the body will collapse and succumb to other microbes present if we go too hot hot or too long. This can be a life threatening situation if left unchecked. It's good to stay in bed and ride out a fever with your focus on being well hydrated. It is also good to be checked on every 2-3 days to be sure you have the reserves and to see if there is a microbe that needs more aggressive boundary work.

Modern medicine says this: “99 degrees is NOT a fever. And 100 degrees F really isn’t a fever either. Medically speaking, a fever is not a fever until the temperature is greater than 100.4 degrees F or 38°C. Although some sources vary by a tenth or two, this is the general rule of thumb for all humans, children and adults alike. What route you take the temperature in matters too.” We talk of this in the recording.
Another important thing to remember is that body temperatures fluctuate throughout the day. It’s called diurnal variation. Our temperatures are lowest in the morning and highest in the evening. The same goes for children. So 99 degrees F at night is not the same as 99 degrees F in the morning.

Physiologically, febrile seizures result when the body experiences a very rapid rise in temperature over a short amount of time. The neurological system gets a little confused by this, and responds with a febrile seizure.

No doubt, febrile seizures sound terrifying, but they really aren’t as scary as they seem. In fact, they are harmless. They do not result in permanent brain damage, neurological problems, or death. They can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, and they rarely last as long as fifteen minutes. They usually occur between the temperature range of 101°F-103°F.

If your child has a febrile seizure, even though most are benign, it is still important to get him or her checked out by your pediatrician.

If you’re reading this, you certainly don’t need to worry about getting a febrile seizure the next time you let your fever ride it out— febrile seizures only occur in kids ages 6 months to 5 years old. For those parents with children ages 6 months to 5 years old, you need to know this:
*fever reducing medications like Tylenol/Acetaminophen products or Motrin/Ibuprofen products do not prevent febrile seizures.*

Although fevers are a crucial tool of a healthy immune response to infection, there are fever numbers of concern.

• Fevers around 105°F-106°F usually indicate a severe bacterial infection.
• Damage to neurological tissue - the brain - is more likely once a fever hits 107°F.
• A fever in a baby less than 3 months old is always abnormal. Call your baby’s pediatrician if this occurs.
• High fevers in pregnant women are of concern. Consult your doctor or midwife if you get a high fever during pregnancy.
• Fever runs too long. So what is too long? My rule is by day three you need to dig deeper for the cause if it's not known. If you have a flu, sometimes the fever can run 5-6 days. But if you have just fever or rigors – the violent, uncontrollable shaking with fever spikes – then often blood work may be needed to discover the culprit, which often is bacterial. A good clinician will monitor one for reserve energy to keep going, educate the care taker on how to proceed with what is most important to get them through, and decide when it is time for more aggressive actions.

​Yes, we can make tea, honey water, ginger, cough or immune syrups, sipping broths, and simple electrolyte replacement drinks. Here’s my family’s recipe.

RECIPE: Homemade Electrolyte Drink

• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup orange or pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• pinch of baking soda

Mix together, stir well, and drink to replace vital electrolytes after much sweating, vomiting, or runny bowels. I offer dilute 1 teaspoon of honey in warm water for active vomiting and offer this after the vomiting has stopped and the GI tract is settling down. Even if they continue to vomit again, once done take tiny sips again and again. This will help hydrate and kill GI gut germs too.

Consider some of the sipping broth recipes sprinkled throughout your days when tending the sick. They always help. Fever needs fluids, not food.

Fever is a liquid fasting practice to minimize symptoms.

I consider this a friendly pubic service announcement. Spread the word. Thank you for traveling through 💚Jen

We humans are subject to injury and overuse of these powerful yet at times fragile bodies. We can wrestle with the laws of physics at times and yet when we come up against the very edge of what our bodies can handle, we have the opportunity to learn just how firm these laws govern our world. And injury can happen when the edge is pushed. 

And so, we must be able to repair damage to the connective tissue, fascia, tendons, ligaments, bones, cartilage, and joints – and true Solomon’s seal root is one of the very the best remedies to help.

Polygonatum multiflorum of the Asparagaceae family, also called True Solomon's Seal.

Solomon’s Seal is a member of the lily family. Various species are native to Asia, Europe, and North America, where they have been used as food and medicine. The soft, sweet white to yellowish rhizomes look like bones and vertebrae, while the leaves wrapping around the stalk look like tendons and ligaments wrapping around bones, so Polygonatum has been used to strengthen the bones, marrow, and tendons. The “seals” on the rhizomes, where the stalk rises up, look like the  It is one of the plants known in Afro-American herbalism as ‘High John the Conqueror,’ in reference to magic or ‘conquering.’ It is worn as a mojo or chewed for ‘conquering.’

True Solomon’s Seal is used in Asia, Europe, and North America as a sweet nutritive for tendons and joints. Freshly dug roots, once washed and sliced, can be eaten and has a mildly sweet, radish kind of crispness to it. It holds for itself a nutritive starch for surviving long winters, and so gives this as a beneficial demulcent nutritive influence to soothe the irritation of the mucous linings. Hence it can be helpful in the upper respiratory system, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and the reproductive system.

​The rhizomes look like bones, knuckles, and vertebrae, the leaves clasp around the stem, looking very much like a muscle attaching to a bone, and the flowers appear at the joints and hand down below the stem. Solomon’s seal is considered to have a tonifying effect on the sexual system, both male and female. It contains small amounts of cardiac glycosides, like its cousin Convallaria majalis (Lily of the Valley), but not enough to make it a toxic plant as Lily of the Valley is. Indeed, it was an important part of the 1st Nations Indian diet and remains today a trail food for energy and sustenance.

​​Anti-Inflammatory:  One of the constitutions in Solomon's Seal is allantoin and may counteract the inflammatory response for injuries related to the muscular-skeletal systems.

Anti-Rheumatic: eases pain, infection in the joints, inflammation.  On connective tissues it works on stiffness, injury, overuse, underuse and lack of nourishment and detox to the connective tissue.

Demulcent (mucilaginous herb meaning it’s slimy and coating): it is cooling, soothing and moistening for throat lungs and skin. Indications specific for dry coughs (as a tea). 

Diuretic & Mild Laxative: increases the secretion and flow of urine by flushing the body of toxins and excess water, provides kidney support.

Immune System: it helps the immune system to adapt internally to the needs and healing of bones, connective tissues, and joints. It also directly “feeds” the irritated joints and cleanses by reducing inflammation. 

​Mild Sedative: soothes nervousness, distress, irritation and inflammation associated with muscles and connective tissues, bursae, menstrual cramps

Tonic Herb: toning the kidneys, heart and reproductive organs and is soothing on the digestive system, can be beneficial to the skin. 

Vulnerary (wound healing): Solomon's Seal works on sprains and strains inflamed tendons, ligaments, muscles and joints.

Matthew Wood speculates that Solomon's Seal might stimulate the body to produce cortisone, and my current belief is that it acts on the synovial glands, improving the production or quality of synovial fluid in some way and thus lubrication in the joints.  Often you can clearly perceive a notable lessening of friction in the joint shortly after a dose is taken. When matches with the right persona nd right condition it is quite miraculous at times.

While we continue to ponder these mysteries, we can also continue to trust the ancient stories carried through time of a remedy still in use today. 

Thank you for traveling this far. If your apothecary stock needs fresh root tincture, I have you covered. Much Love, Jen 

​There is plenty.

I had only enough luck to score one plant this year. One little organically cultivated plant costs 4-6$. It’s getting harder to find and for good reason. Growing your own is easy and insures there is abundance. At anywhere from 3$ up to 8$ for one stalk in wintertime at the grocery stores, you can understand why. Scoring two plants makes me happier to be honest but there will be enough.

Harvest time? It takes 2-3min per plant. Move carefully around it. You can see how I “comb it back”, the leaves are quite sharp at the edges and give little paper cuts if we move without awareness. You can always wear long sleeves too. The rest of the prep includes clipping the tops for making tea rings or cut with a scissor to 1 inch pieces and dry, clean off dirt at the bottom, cut off any roots, separate and cut stalks into workable pieces that can be frozen.
​
When I pull pieces out of the freezer for tea or cooking, I smash it along the stalk a bit with a kitchen mallet to open it up, or peel it down to the soft, aromatic inner core, and then prep as you’ve been taught.

Lemongrass, Cymbopogon citratus of the Poaceae family, is native to Sri Lanka and South India, and is now widely cultivated in the tropical areas of America and Asia. It’s an aromatic grass and gives amazing visual texture to your garden landscape.

For us in non-tropical regions, it is grown as an annual with spring planting and fall whole plant harvesting as it will not tolerate winter temperatures.

Let’s Brush Up - Medicinal Action Terms for Lemongrass

This plant is woven into many things as a fragrance (essential oil) and flavoring agent as well as being part of our oldest folk medicine systems as an antispasmodic (relaxes muscle spasms), hypotensive (reduces blood pressure), anticonvulsant (reduces seizures), analgesic (reduces pain), antiemetic (reduces vomiting), antitussive (relaxes spasmodic unproductive coughs), anti-rheumatic (reduces inflammation in joints and connective tissues to the joints), antiseptic (anti-microbial) and treatment for nervous and gastrointestinal disorders and febrifuge (reduces fevers). The plant is also used as an antibacterial, antidiarrheal and antioxidant, but the mode of action for these different bioactivities has not been studied in detail. I find it to be a potent mood enhancer too. It soothes our internal systems so they work together well and we just feel better internally. This elevates us on my levels.

AND new research is showing Lemongrass administered as an aromatherapy remedy is stopping cell replication in glioblastomas, the most aggressive of brain cancers.

Impressive.

Lemongrass contains various phytoconstituents such as flavonoids and phenolic compounds, terpenoids and essential oils, which are surely responsible for the different biological activities.
It’s easy to make and easy drink and accepted by even the most finicky of folks.
I add it to broth / stock making, simple tea on its own, deserts, medicines and infused vinegars.
Lemongrass Tea Making:

• Rough chop or smash lightly with a mallet one 4-6 inch stalk or 2 TB dried leaves or one tea ring.
• Simmer slowly in 2 cups of water for 5-10 minutes with pit lid on.
• Strain and sip. It’s so delicately delicious that it needs nothing else. Enjoy.

Keeping it brief. 

Be sure to look in our archived videos on how to make the lemongrass tea rings and how to harvest as an annual in colder climates. 

Much Love 💚Jen

The mysteries of the brain and nerves remain elusive even with all we are uncovering today in the name of science. The truth is we know far less than we "think".

My curiosity with brain function and the endocrine system connections to our nervous system is an old interest of mine. I do hold a hunch that the nervous system reads our environment far beyond the physical body, both internally and externally, through electrical impulses and these impulses are translated into chemicals via the endocrine system for circulation via our blood internally.

This inquiry on how it all works causes that fall down the rabbit hole kind of syndrome, right? It does for me. It involves learning more about GABA as a master neurotransmitter that helps to organize our serotonin, dopamine, and other neurotransmitters and hormones regulated by our brain. It does this through relaxation and downregulation. 
​
I include herbal treatments and yoga here to help us in understanding a wider picture of what is currently known about the bio-physiology of our human production and regulation of GABA.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a naturally occurring amino acid produced and regulated by the body in ideal circumstances.

GABA is a neurotransmitter, which means it delivers a message through our nervous system from one neuron to another throughout our entire body. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, so it blocks other messages and regulates, or controls, the speed at which information travels through the nervous system.

We might think of GABA in our nervous system as the brakes on our car. The right amount of pressure on the brake pedal slows our car down. Similarly, the correct amount of GABA slows information in your nervous system to keep us from getting overwhelmed. And so it is easy to hold a general understanding of what happens when the “brakes fail or are not in good working order” in both scenarios. 

GABA Levels Affect on Health
There are many areas of health affected by GABA level production and regulation to be aware of. The purpose here is to understand the broad reaching effects of this neurotransmitter without necessarily pointing a finger at it being the cause of many conditions. It seems to provide a measurable effect within some more serious conditions. Scientists appreciate this. And as a scientist, I do too but let’s keep perspective here as science is limited to measurable matter we understand. There’s still so much mystery to the workings of these bodies. When we focus on supporting health overall, it is wise to consider that there are many underlying conditions that can cause GABA dysregulation, rather than simply seeing it as a sole cause of such conditions. 

1. Mental Health: 
Low GABA levels are associated with most mental health conditions. While researchers aren't clear on why, it seems that most people diagnosed with a mental health condition also have low GABA activity. Conditions associated with low GABA include schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and major depressive disorder.

GABA functions to calm the nervous system and help your nerves process sensory input in an organized way. In many of these disorders, the body tends to confuse sensory input or be overwhelmed by the senses which is something higher levels of GABA could keep from happening. Low GABA can cause difficulty concentrating and memory problems, which are often symptoms of many mental health disorders. 

2. Sleep:
GABA helps your brain slow down and relax in preparation for sleep. Once you drift off, GABA helps regulate rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep, especially slow-wave or "deep" sleep. There's also evidence that GABA plays a role in modulating your circadian rhythm via the pineal gland deep in the center of the brain and keeps our overall sleep-wake cycle in balance. Good sleep patterns affect all aspects of health, including the internal regulation of GABA.

3. Calmness:
GABA helps slow down messages being sent by other neurotransmitters, which allows your brain to process that information at a more relaxed pace. This keeps you from becoming anxious or overwhelmed. To understand how GABA works, imagine you're out with friends having dinner at a busy restaurant. GABA steps in and slows down the stream of input all around you so that your brain can prioritize the conversation with your friends over the background noise. It provides us with a way to filter and reduce overwhelm, at least for a little while. Some sensory deprivation time after such experiences is also a helpful skill to help our systems recalibrate. 
​
4. Metabolism and Appetite Control:
As an inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA helps ensure that your body has the energy it needs to function. It does this by controlling when you feel hungry and letting you know when you've had enough. Once you're full, GABA blocks the hunger signal so you don't overeat. Research on GABA's role in appetite and weight control is ongoing and could prove significant in developing a better understanding of how our body works to maintain healthy eating and weight.
​
5. Inflammation and Immune System Support: 
GABA reduces your body's inflammatory response and also helps lessen existing inflammation, which enables damaged tissue to heal more rapidly. GABA can also suppress the immune system to help make over reactive allergic symptoms a little easier to deal with. People with autoimmune conditions and diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), also have low GABA levels. Researchers are focusing on ways that these conditions can be treated with drugs that increase GABA production. (Whisper… start yoga today.)

6. Protection Against Nerve Damage:
When nervous tissue is damaged, your body produces various chemicals as part of the inflammatory response to bring healing to this damaged tissue. These chemicals can actually cause further damage to nervous tissue and pave the way for degenerative neural diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's if left unregulated. GABA interferes with these chemicals to protect your nervous system from further damage. GABA also suppresses degeneration of the nervous system generally and supports cognitive function in the brain. This helps prevent neurological diseases and disorders from taking hold in the first place.

7. Blood Pressure: 
GABA is a natural internally made ACE / Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor that helps lower and regulate your blood pressure through a complex chemical process related to the kidneys. Since researchers determined ACE plays a significant role in increasing your blood pressure, ACE inhibitor drugs have become a front-line treatment for high blood pressure. It is possible for some people to lower their blood pressure to healthy levels without taking ACE inhibitor medications through lifestyle, dietary and exercise changes. However, there may be a genetic component that requires one to be on a BP medication even with all of these healthy changes. 

1. Green tea, white tea, and oolong tea naturally have high amounts of GABA. Some tea companies also add GABA to their tea blends for an additional boost, which I would not recommend. Nature already provides GABA sources in these teas, and through other plants.  L-theanine, one of the key amino acids found in tea, might also stimulate the production of GABA in your brain. Scientists are still researching this.

2. Yoga naturally increases GABA activity. 
During one study, participants practiced yoga 60 minutes a day 3 times a week for 12 weeks. Functional MRI brain scans showed an increase in GABA in their brains. Participants also reported improved mood and decreased anxiety and depression symptoms. This will be discussed in more detail below. 
 
3. Practice meditation and deep breathing pranayama every day. 
Research is beginning to show that meditation can increase the production of GABA in your brain, as well as boost its activity. To get this boost, meditate and practice deep breathing or pranayama for at least 20 minutes every day. More is discussed below.
 
4. Engage in vigorous exercise to stimulate GABA production.
Moderate exercise is great for your health, but it takes a little more effort to stimulate GABA production. Exercise at about 85% of your maximum heart rate, to be exact. Research shows GABA production in your brain increases after an 8 to 20 minute session of vigorous exercise. You can alternate vigorous exercise with moderate exercise to make it more doable. You might also try high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which alternates brief bursts of vigorous activity with low-intensity exercises, such as walking.

5. Eat more foods and herbal remedies that contain GABA or boost GABA production and regulation. 
​
GABA or its precursors are found in a number of foods and herbs that naturally support GABA production and regulation in our bodies. These foods and herbs include:

• Kimchi, sauerkraut, tempeh - many fermented foods
• Kefir
• Whole grains
• Fava beans, soy, lentils, and other beans
• Nuts, especially walnuts, pecans, and almonds
• Pumpkin, Hemp, Sesame, Chia, and Sunflower seeds
• Fish, especially salmon, shrimp and halibut (best to source wild caught fish if possible)
• Fruits and vegetables such as citrus, tomatoes, all berries, spinach, all leafy greens, broccoli cabbage, cauliflower, and all potatoes
• Cocoa, or better yet ceremonial grade cacao. 
• Valerian root, Kava Kava root (brewed traditionally with coconut milk and spices for Kava needs fat to assimilate through the gut)

​
6. Are there more herbs to support healthy brain function related to GABA production and regulation that just haven’t been studied yet scientifically? 
My educated guess is 'YES' and they may include Gotu Kola, Bacopa (also called “Brahmi and is an Ayurveda herb that has some good research on seizure management), Tulsi, Ginkgo, Skullcap, Rosemary, Passionflower, Linden flower, Cannabis, Lion’s Mane, Reishi, Cordyceps, Shiitakes, and all functional medicine mushrooms, plus Psilocybin, Amanita (proven), and other micro-dosed psychedelics that are from nature, and quite possibly the entire class of medicinal nervine herbs. 

Quite a supportive list here. Research is lacking, yes. Yet, if it is in our food as listed above, it is most likely present in medicine plants too. These remedies can be woven safely into our lifestyles with mindful consideration while we wait for science to catch up because our bodies have evolved on these plants, mushrooms, and trees for millions of years. We already have internal systems that speak directly to the substances these plants, mushrooms, and trees make. 

Inspired by a dream of an old woman asking me about being a farmer, “Growing things, you know? You do this?”

I said yes.

She was old with whispers of silver hair around her ears and chin with the kind of lines on her face that hint to enough smiling. She had a sparkle in the eye that implied wisdom earned hard, a serious deep whisper of a voice, and wore all black with a scarf around her head that had the edges embroidered with big fully blooming salmon-colored roses. She was cleaning wool for dyeing and spinning.

This is a skill on my desire list as my twin sister is a master knitter and a weaver since we were 14 years old. She taught herself. I tried what she loved but failed. But dyeing and using a gravity spindle is intriguing. We will be funny old women together. This is my prayer.

So my old dream woman in black with beautiful salmon roses around her face had a cast iron pot on the stove that was simmering. She told me to open it and give a gentle stir to the left first, then the right, and inhale deeply. I did this while she described where her Angelica patch grows by the “creek to the south” and why Angelica root was added to this pot of broth and so needed along with beets, leeks, mushroom and more. I woke suddenly trying to hold on to the smell and the dream, with a thank you for the recipe.

It’s not new for me to sprinkle Angelica root into broths. Often Chinese Dong Quai root was used but in the last 10 years I’ve shifted to the Angelica archangelica species. When I ran with my home birthing midwife, one of my tasks at each birth was to arrive with broth, meat/veg/vegan based the birthing mom’s desire. It restored her and all attending as we sipped together and tended to the baby coming through. I love the title she gave me, “broth maker” and it definitely belongs on a resume in my mind! Twice a year I gave a broth making class to the new or seasoned moms who did not know how. It was fun.

We also covered so much terrain about Angelica in our Monthly Herbal Council #80 - Angelica As Medicine - as we practiced sitting with one plant to share, learn, and grow.

I made the dream-inspired broth. Delicious! I’d love to share.

Always remember there is room to make this your own with what you have on hand. I give suggestions here and there.

A sipping broth is just that, you pour a warm mug full and sip. You can use it as a soup base too, but sipping broths straight has been a thing around here for decades. It’s a soothing and energizing thing the body loves. Trace minerals are extracted and delivered without the need for lots of digestive fire. Nutrient assimilation is easy. I usually have 2 mugs a day when a pit is made until it’s gone. There may be a pause, or not before the next pit happens. The purpose is for organ and immune system restoration and repair. The gut is also supported well with homemade broths for now we know that without a strong gut microbiome, nothing heals well.
​
As a toddler I remember going to my Sicilian great grandmother’s home and being told to enjoy my warm vegetable water always served at arrival (we children definitely balked sometimes beforehand). We were told to drink it anyway and say thank you or give your grandmother a hug. She always made these as an immigrant woman through the depression, mother of 9 children, feeding a household of 13 people daily from a small city plot that did nothing but produce food from every ounce of soil that existed around their home. Hmmmm… maybe the old woman in black with the big salmon roses around her face was her, or her great grandmother… returning to inspire and support… makes me smile.

​Yield: I got 3 1/2 quarts - a lot!

This is written as a vegan sipping broth. The fat is important for immune function so don’t skip that addition. You can add butter instead of olive or coconut oil or chicken bones as well if you love that. I love butter and went that way.

Yes, I know the ingredient list looks long but nothing is odd or hard to find. If you have no Angelica root right now, burdock root, dandelion root, or astragalus root are good substitutes while you get a few ounces of Angelica root in house.

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 medium beets quartered (with skins) + tops rough chopped
• 2 leeks - green tops only washed well and chopped rough or 1 onion onion quartered with skin
• 1 TB dried Angelica root (substitutes can be 2 TB astragalus root, burdock root, or dandelion root)​
  
• 1 garlic bulb sliced in 1/2
• 2 in piece of ginger roughly chopped or sliced thin with skin
• 2-3 cups mixed chopped vegetables and peelings - I used carrot peelings, red cabbage, mushrooms, and celery, kale or other greens.
• 1/4 cup dried nettle or 1 cup fresh nettle
• 2 potatoes quartered with skins
• 1 small sweet potato quartered with skin
• 1/2 c dried mushrooms or 1 cup fresh mushrooms (this batch has two slices of dried reishi and a small handful of dried lion’s mane + shiitakes too)
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground peppercorns
• 1 TB dried oregano, thyme, or rosemary - pick one or a combo of these
• 1 TB turmeric root powder - or sliced thin fresh root
• 2 star anise pods
• 1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoons fennel seed
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 TB kelps, alaria or dulse seaweed or a 4inch piece of dried kelp
• 1 TB olive oil or butter
• 1 TB coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon salt - taste before adding more after strained
• 8-12 cups water - cover your veggies with room to stir

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. So easy! Add everything to a large pot, bring to a boil, and simmer covered for 2-3 hours.

2. Turn heat off and allow to cool, covered, until warm when you hold the pot - maybe 1 hour - then strain into a large bowl using a fine mesh strainer, pressing liquid from the solids (compost solids). That’s it.

3. Serve immediately seasoned with more salt if needed, or cool for later. Store in the refrigerator and rewarm as you dose (2 mugs a day). You can also freeze in mason jars leaving 2-3 inches at the top for future use. Be sure to cool completely in the fridge before freezing to prevent the glass breaking.

May you experience the blood building, warming and blood moving effects of this broth that are perfect for most healing processes and for weathering cooler climates and seasons. Your immune system, gut and liver with be grateful and your mind and peripheral nerves will relax as healing energies get reorganized for more profound health.

Let me know how you shifted the recipe and how it turned out too.

Much love, Jen 💚

NOTE: use substitutions noted for Angelica root is you have an active bleeding condition, severe hot flashing / nights sweats or heavy menstrual bleeding. Angelica is so good at moving blood and fluids that these few situations ask us to make substitutions. This preparation is not at a therpurtic medicnal dose by any means, but it good to take note even at low doses even in broth. Plants heal!

Angelica Root Medicinal Actions: Alterative, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiseptic, anti-rheumatic, antiemetic, antispasmodic, aromatic, antioxidant, astringent, bitter, circulatory stimulant, carminative, diaphoretic, digestive, diuretic, emmenagogue, expectorant, hypotensive, hepatoprotective, nervine, rejuvenates, stimulant, stomachic, tonic, uterine stimulant.

Tulsi also goes by the name Holy Basil and is a basil but yes, it's uniquely and boldly different than culinary Basil (Ocimum basilicum). Although they do have some overlapping properties and applications. I find Tulsi is a bit more adaptable to the general and ever changing garden conditions than Culinary Basil from Italy. This is just a personal observation and experience. When all conditions are great for both, Tulsi grows faster too.  

Tulsi and Basil are both in the Mint family (Lamiaceae or Labiatae). For review, all mints have:

• Square stems, which can be easily discovered by rolling the stem between the fingers to feel the four sides meeting at right angles;
• Opposite leaves—each pair of leaves emerging from the same level, on opposite sides of the stem (unique to Tulsi is the fuzzy, hairy stem) 
• “Lipped” flowers—blossoms shaped like open mouths, the upper and lower lips of varying sizes, depending on the species.
• Most, but not all, mints are aromatic, with volatile oils that give the plant a strong aroma and taste (basil, thyme, rosemary, lavender etc). These oils are part of their immune system for defending themselves. And more!
• These fragrant volatile oils found in most mints are antibacterial, antifungal, antimicrobial, antiseptic. Volatile oils are easily transported from fresh plants to hot water, when steeped briefly as a tea, but not brewed for hours (sun tea or herbal infusion), because they become intense, altered, and bitter.   

THE MANY TYPES OF TULSI
There are at least three different varieties or species of Tulsi - Holy Basil, and while they can be used somewhat interchangeably, they also have their slight differences in appearance and taste.

TULSI RAMA (OCIMUM TENUIFLORUM)
Tulsi Rama is the most common species grown in India and easiest Tulsi to find in seed to grow.  It likes to grow in full sun with moderate water and fertile well-draining soils. Rama is known for its cooling and mellow flavor. The plant has green leaves, white-to-purplish blossoms, and a green or purplish stem.

TULSI KRISHNA (OCIMUM TENUIFLORUM)
Tulsi Krishna tastes peppery and has darker green to purple leaves, purple stems, and blossoms. It's has a sturdier stem for me in feel.

VANA (OCIMUM GRATISSIMUM)
Vana, aka “Forest-type” Tulsi, grows wild on roadsides and in waste places. It has large green leaves and stem, with white blossoms and the plant can easily attain 5 feet tall.  Vana Tulsi can overwinter indoors in a container with window sunlight. It can be transplanted in the garden when spring returns.

The most common way to prepare Tulsi is as a tea. Holy basil combines well with other herbs, such as rose petal, lemon balm, lavender, ginger, nutmeg, and other spices. It can be brewed in milk and added to Golden Milk made with turmeric. If you don’t grow your own, numerous kinds of Tulsi teas are on the market so you can still enjoy a cozy mug. Tulsi Rose is my favorite way to wind down the day!

TULSI TEA

INGREDIENTS & DIRECTIONS:

• Add 1-2 teaspoons dried Tulsi or 4 teaspoons fresh (small handful) to a heat safe container.
• Boil 1 cup water and add to container, place lid on.
• Allow the tea to steep, covered, for 15-20 minutes.
• Strain Tulsi from tea and enjoy daily.

JAY'S FAVORITE TULSI TEA - In Winter & Summer
Mix equal parts of dried Tulsi, Peppermint, Nettles Hibiscus flower in a jar and label. Add (optional) honey once steeped 20 minutes and strained. To make, use 2 teaspoons per cup of just boiled water. A few paper thin slices of fresh Ginger root work well in this too. There's always room to sway with your preferences.  

USE FRESH LEAVES
Add chopped leaves to culinary dishes just as you would basil. Freeze leaves in ice cubes to add to summer drinks.  Eat a few fresh leaves to get phytonutrients and boost your immunity.  Make Tulsi Pesto!

TULSI/HOLY BASIL TINCTURE (ALCOHOL EXTRACT)
I prefer using fresh Tulsi in tea AND tincture. I do dry 1-2 pounds for our for our family to get through the time of year that when Tulsi isn't growing. We refuse to live without Tulsi in the apothecary these days.

I snip the aerial parts (flower tops and leaves), coarsely cut the plant up, and pack a jar full. Usually, with tinctures, we add 80-100 proof alcohol (40-50% alcohol), such as vodka, to cover all the plant. Place lid on jar, label and date, and shake daily for several days. Store out of direct sunlight. Wait the 6 weeks shaking every now and then, and then strain off the plant material through cheese cloth, squeezing out any liquid from the plant, compost it if possible. Store this Tulsi Tincture you just made (!) in brown glass and dose 30-60 drops per day. Consult and herbalist if you need more support figuring your dosing. 

I LOVE making with an apple-based brandy I get from France for tinctures also, especially with Tulsi. 

TULSI ELIXIR
My favorites for this elixir are good brandy + honey. Tulsi Elixir is spicy, fragrant and delicious! Yes it's becoming a regular apothecary item here. ElderMoon must make this for the community because our Tulsi is divine and we have bees to complete it well with honey from bees who visit the Tulsi bed all summer long until frost (smile). 

INGREDIENTS & DIRECTIONS:

• Select jar size (1-pint jar or smaller for your 1st batch is good)
• Fill with enough fresh chopped Tulsi flowers and leaves to fill the jar loosely.
• Add 80 proof vodka/brandy to fill the jar 3/4 
• Next add Glycerine or raw honey to fill the jar (local raw honey best).
• Cap, shake well, label, date. Let sit for 4-6 weeks, shaking regularly. 
• Strain the plant material out with cheese cloth and squeeze all the goodness out.
• Rebottle (in a pretty one too), label + date and you just made a delicious TULSI ELIXIR!

QUESTION? Can you make this with good quality dried Tulsi? YES, simple fill your jar 1/3-1/2 full with dried Tulsi and proceed. Your dried Tulsi should be aromatic meaning it smells like Tulsi. If not then seek better quality. Your nose knows.

TULSI INFUSED HONEY (is divine!)
I LOVE Tulsi infused honey to take by the spoonful, add to tea, eat on baked goods, or as a delicate hint of flavor added to fresh cut fruits or drizzled on a fresh sliced in half grapefruit as you scoop out the pulp! It's great drizzled on hot buttered baked goods too. 

INGREDIENTS & DIRECTIONS:

• Choose you wide mouthed jar (based on available fresh Tulsi)
• Add fresh Tulsi leaves and flowers gently chopped to loosely fill jar
• Add good honey to cover the Tulsi completely 
• Stirring with a chopstick to remove air bubbles until the jar is full.
• Cap securely and label. Stir a few times each week. I leave in a warm sunny window and shake when I see it each day.
• Wait at least 4-6 weeks. You can leave the leaves in to eat or gently warm the honey just to facilitate straining the plant material off through a fine mesh sieve.
• Rebottle label and that's it. You just made a Tulsi Infused Honey!

TULSI VINEGAR
Again, super easy and great! This can be turned into a Tulsi Oxymel too. 

• Loosely pack a wide mouth quart jar about three-quarters full with chopped Tulsi leaves and flowers,
• Cover nearly to the top with raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar.
• Cap it, shake gently, and allow to infuse for 3-4 weeks and shake a few times each week. If you use a metal lid, place wax paper between the lid and jar, as vinegar will corrode away the metal and ruin your product.
• Store in the darkness of a cabinet to ease oxidation. 
• ​Once it’s ready, strain out the plant material through cheese cloth and squeeze well. Rebottle and label and date. Good for 1 year. 

OTHER OPTIONS:
You can add honey, maple syrup, agave or molasses to make that syrupy sweet yet tangy edge you like.  Herb infused vinegars make popular mocktail concoctions, shrubs, switchels and oxymels.  A sipping vinegar or shrub is basically a combination of vinegar, honey, and your chosen plant with mashed fruit. Herbalists prefer to use organic apple cider vinegar because alone it has so many health benefits already. The herb-vinegar-honey-fruit (shrub) or herb-vinegar-honey (oxymel) is used as a mixer to flavor water, sparkling water, club soda, or mixed into cocktails. A "switchel" is an older term used when making with cider vinegar that's sweetened with molasses or pure Maple or Birch syrup. Call it what you like. These are good tasting and hold the healing abilities of the plants chosen delivered to the body easily. 

Thank you for wandering through and I pray this gives that nudge to get mixing and pouring, tasting, and planning for more as you stock your apothecary well with simple green medicines. Enjoy, Jen

Valentines Day. February 14th. The Moon is rising and we're preparing to sauna outside in the dark. My dearest friend was suddenly killed today. Yes, big sigh. Still. It happened years ago, and yet... So now it's like a full cup of 100% super bitter Ceremonial Cacao these days. Life will deliver it with no additions to temper the taste and yet every single morsel supports growth and love. We may sigh. We may cough a little. We can learn to work with the intensity of it. We can even get really good at it.

Each time this day rolls around I feel her so very close and shake off a bit more of the tragic trauma that called me to action back then, leaning on skills and strength I hadn't yet known I had. Her soul was as confused and stunned as mine and yet we worked it through as we guided each other like sisters do. She guided my actions for weeks and months to follow in tending to her two babies, then 8 months and 3 years old, who survived the accident she did not. I left my marriage 4 months after her death with my two babies clinging to me. Like any death, it was time. When the going seems really tough there's magic afoot in the form of service, connection, healing, and giving. We have choice.

What did you choose the last time you were called to action? Did you crumble and collapse? Spiral out and fall down the rabbit hole? Sit for a while? Or hide? This happens. Honesty and compassion for how we roll is a radical and refreshing thing. And maybe you rocked it? We get to receive more because it's life. What will you choose and how will you roll next time?

So what's the language you love today when we turn our heart and focus to Earth for healing, inspiration, and service? It's a give and take thing. Earth is a holy being. A divine one that is healer. A compassionate one we can sit with in our darkest of times. A supportive one with sudden death where all are held as one leaves between breaths in a blink. A nurturing one supporting the slow unfurl to the truth of being held and accountable to a larger unfolding because we are part of it all and belong. Comfort will not rule your day or time with Earth, but is can sometimes and damn it is so glorious when this happens! 

In feeling into the love I have for a sister who shaped my path long ago while she prepared to go, I made a spontaneous group of service actions that feed heart and Earth. Add. Edit. Make it yours. Pick one thing and do it well. At least try. We can only ensure failing if we don't try. Enjoy - Hand to Heart & May Your Weekend Be Blessed, Jen 

Well ya knew I had to start here!
​Grow what you can. Agree to fail in order to learn sometimes and jump ecstatically when you succeed. Learn about soil. Start seeds. Root your own clippings. Pick one thing and try. Support CSA farms for your local and not-so-local food, seeds, and medicine plants. Check out this SEED CSA class or Permaculture Course here: Indigenous Seed Sovereignty. Make it part of you and your political + existence fabric that requires the needs of plants be woven into all you care about as a priority for your daily life.

We have a few old shrubs and trees dying here that are sterile and ornamental. This kind of planting is something that was a trend long ago, and still is by some. We're choosing to create chemical free edible landscapes that feed us, the bees, birds, animals and plants, elements, and ultimately Earth through small-scale bio-diverse ecosystems. So we give a good death, honor, and invite change to who is here. 

Find a tree you feel close to. Spend time in its presence. Draw it, touch it, gaze at it, ask for help within from your tree. Imagine walking through a small door at the base of your tree and see where this tree takes you. Did you travel up to the canopy or down tot he roots and beyond? Journal. Do it again. Bring you concerns. Bring your questions. Bring your offerings in thanks for sharing this time and place together. You will feel changed. 

On a larger scale, the replanting of green corridors where clear cutting has devastated the tropical rain forests is so very close to my heart. TreeSisters funds the work of local communities in the devastated areas to seed, tend, and replant the trees they need to restore the land and keep the ecosystem alive. This supports Earth. And all of us. Some have said to me, "But my neighbor needs help too so why give to this?" and my response is give the same and give to two causes so you make ripples locally and globally. The embodiment of being a restorative species of human that thrives is our focus.  
​
Link here: ​TreeSisters classes and Monthly Moon Calls.

Water is Life. How will you connect with the waters that feed your life? How will you exchange your internal waters daily to feed your healing and evolution? Hydrotherapy, sweats, and drinking are considerations, but will you grieve and move the old tears petrified in your heart? Sit with water and sing and watch how gorgeous help comes your way to defrosting that which holds you bound-up and petrified. Make it a private practice to sing to water. Link Here: 'The WATER SONG'. Play it in the car and SING loud until you got it. I'm walking with you on this one!

The Earth has the equivalent of a heartbeat, which is a measurable frequency called the Schumann Resonance. Consider this deeply as things are measurably changing for us.
First, all life on Earth is calibrated to the frequency of the planet. Everything from our brain waves and biorhythms to our states of consciousness are directly correlated to the Earth’s frequencies.

Second, the Schumann Resonance has been steady at 7.83Hz until several years ago when it began to accelerate to somewhere in the 15 to 25Hz levels. The Schumann Resonance had reached frequencies of 36Hz+ for the first time in recorded history. This is a big deal. The Earth is rapidly shifting in vibration. It's measurable my friends. 

What this means for us is that since 2014 we are all being exposed to and required to re-calibrate to these accelerated planetary frequencies if we want to evolve and live with the evolving Earth as we know it. Scientists tell us that not only is the frequency of Earth accelerating, but changes are also in process in the sun and entire solar system.

So now what?
How do we "do this" re-calibration?
What if nature scares me?
And how does this help Earth?

​Get outside. (Say it again.)  Take off your sunglasses sometimes so natural light can enter your brain and pineal gland to re-calibrate your body. Lay on Earth. Moon gaze and track the phases and how you feel within them. Hike in forests, meadows, and mountains, and swim in oceans and streams 'just because' with no other agenda than 'I'm re-calibrating my system'. Google 528hertz music and listen often.

We can be our most authentic powerful expression when we upgrade regularly yet honor where we've been. To look back, to honor, while we move forward is the pace. 

Feeding your heart can be this simple and delicious. Make a batch and take 2 tablespoons daily in yogurt, oatmeal, on toast, with goat or cream cheese, tucked into pastries and biscuits. Make a double batch and give to a friend.

​Hawthorn-Rose Hip Ginger Jam
INGREDIENTS: 

• ½ cup Hawthorn Berries, fresh or dried
• 1 cup Rose Hips, seedless cut/sifted
• ½ cup honey
• 1 TB Lemon Juice
• Zest of 1 (Organic!) Lemon
• 1 TB Vanilla Extract
• 1 TB Cinnamon Powder
• 2 TB Ginger Root, finely minced fresh
• 2 Cups water

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Boil Hawthorn Berries for 1 hour at the lowest simmer, covered. Turn off and allow to it  for 1-4 hour covered. Strain and keep liquid, compost solids.
2. Return liquid to a simmer and pour over the Rose Hips in a bowl you can also cover and let sit for ½ hour. Place in the blender and reserve a small amount of liquid to thin as needed. Add all other ingredients and blend. This is like pudding and thick so add very small amounts of liquid just enough to keep the blender able to work.
3. Strain, or push through a sieve – not too fine – just to catch any stray seeds.
4. To Use: 1-2 TB/day is therapeutic for the heart. Stir into plain yogurt or use any way you use jam.
Yield 2 ½ cups – store in refrigerator and use up. You can make larger batches but freeze some for it will keep about 2 weeks in the frig thanks to the lemon, honey and ginger which are good for the heart and have preservative properties.  

Whether you have one already, never considered this for yourself, or have a deep want for one, do it. Dedicate a small space, like a cabinet or book shelf and just start. If it's a mess and growing then sit there and envision the next step on how the space will flow as an extension of Earth in your home. Make it functional. entice beauty, and maybe take a class to get your toes wet or do a full body plunge. Here at ElderMoon are several options for you: Our Birthing an Herbalist course is a bigger beautiful commitment but the Plant Diets and Monthly Herbal Councils can be great for giving little tastes with big returns as things evolve for you around turning to Earth first for healing and treatments. Tending your apothecary will teach you. Small steps. Say yes. 

While this has been circulating for a while, the heart needs constant circulation of goodness to nourish it. Let's read it again. 
​
“You have been telling the people that this is the eleventh hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the hour. And there are things to be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leaders.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

Aho. Sweet Gratitude My Hopi Elder

I used to work with clay years ago spinning amazing gifts and harvesting from clay seams along the Esopus Creek in the mountains where I lived. Quite spontaneous the love of my hands working clay surfaces again and again. So I received some red clay from New Mexico though one of those friend of a friend channels and made a simple pinch pot in minutes which I'm calling my "Prayer Pot for Earth". I left my first one out near my favorite Black Birch tree filled with Roses and Prayers for Earth. It's part honoring Earth through Earth magic ways and part prep work for myself for being close to Birch Tree. (DETAILS here for Plant Dieting with Birch Tree) I call it "Birch's idea" (smile) for it dawned on me while I sat by the stream with this tree and watched the sun rise while it snowed and was sooo very quiet. These are the kind of places where the heart can be heard clear. 

So what are you making with your hands? And what can you give to Earth as a healing medicine for Earth with prayers for connection?

(Psst...start with food you make if you draw a blank! Leave little plates outside or morsels tucked under bushes. Create paintings or poems and gift them privately. Make an outside garden altar. Offer tinctures or teas you made. Pilgrimage to sacred favorite local sites to deliver one flower you grew or a slice of homemade bread. What popped into your head just now? Follow it...

Sit with Fire. Honor how this element feeds our heart and keeps life moving. Cyrus, my third son, was burning 'things' he spontaneously knew he had to let go of one night as we sat with a Sacred Fire and Fire responded so noticeably (!) to his private heart spoken concerns as he faced his fears with all the changes of becoming a man nipping at his heels. 

Sitting with a candle alone and quiet can be just as potent. Beeswax candles are from Earth and made by the bees and humans working together. It's complicated, yes. We are right here now and I love to get or make my beeswax or soy based candles for moments when Earth work, medicine, and magic are called for. Travel inward to the core of Earth, The Heart of Earth, while fire gazing and bring your willingness to honor change. See how your heart feels after such an exchange and collaboration with Earth and Fire.  

On the practical side, support your local fire department in ways that feel heartfelt. We participate in they're fund raisers with community chicken dinners and bakes sales. Around here we may differ with politics at times but we're clear about what to do if fire comes to the land and our homes and is killing things. Donate resources and prayer time to wild fire causes that help the workers, people, animals and Earth. Fire has purpose but can be hard to align with sometimes. We're in this together. How do you honor Fire as a healing force with Earth?

Making our own cleaning products happened when my boys were young and I wanted to show them cleaning skills but they almost passed out from the fumes. We stopped using chemical cleaners that very day. All we use is a homemade soft scrub I call 'Earth Paste', a vinegar spray, and liquid castile soap around here + infused oils with a little beeswax for wood cleaning. What goes down the drain goes into Earth and our water and then back into our bodies. Simple searches for recipes are numerous and fun until you find what you like. 
​
​Earth Paste Soft Scrub Recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup baking soda
• 1/4 cup liquid castile soap or Sal Suds
• 1 TB hydrogen peroxide (vinegar works here too)
• 1 large wide mouth jar with a lid or Mason Jar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a medium-size bowl, combine the baking soda, castile soap or Sal Suds, and hydrogen peroxide. Stir until the scrub cleaner looks like thick glue.
2. Spoon the scrub cleaner in a large jar with a lid. Seal the jar well between uses. This cleaner will harden when exposed to air for a prolonged period of time. The scrub cleaner can be used immediately and kept at room temperature (in a well sealed jar) for several months.
3. Leave room at the top of the jar for expansion. The cleaner will expand within the first 24 hours. I leave 2-3 inches at the top of the jar for expansion.

To Use: Apply the amount desired to a cloth or scrub brush and apply to a dirty surface. Allow the scrub cleaner to sit for a couple of minutes. Wipe the surface with a damp cloth. Makes 1 1/4 cups of scrub cleaner

One of my favorite non-beeswax candles! Napping is a skill I re-learned from each of my babies and I decided not to stop with #3. I now remind Cyrus to nap when it seems he would benefit and forgets.

So how does napping help Earth? We become healthier and make our best decisions when we rest enough. We need less medicine too. And I know for me I make less messes of the emotional kind! Here's one of the many super-cool facts that stay with me always from studying our anatomy & physiology. Did you know that our hearts are in a state of rest more than they work in order to work as hard as they do? Yes! This is my best way to say it. Let's follow our hearts and how they teach through how they work and make restoration a necessary thing by honoring a better rest to work ratio. 
​
​How can we get to the root of the sleep troubles? Is it needing fresh air and natural light, exercise, more plant based calcium, stress management adjustments, more quality food, better water, or anti-angst skills? Name it. Make it happen. Learn about 1st and 2nd sleep cycles here as I work with my herbal students on what is needed for plants to work well as medicine. If you're sleeping 7-8 hours per night then you're sleep deprived! They have it all wrong but we can learn and change and follow what the body needs anyway. Implement changes in your way with the sleep these bodies require to be well.  

And for the record, let's burn better candles too. Plant based or beeswax with NO chemical-scents. Your body and Earth thank you. 

Altars are doorways to what we hold as sacred and divine. Created and tended, an altar space can inspire, ease tension and anxiety by changing our brain waves quickly with steady practice, and help us connect to a larger sense of self that knows the answers we seek and also knows how to deliver them well-timed. It can be a private practice or communal one. It's in these moments of standing before an altar that we can calm the body and mind enough to listen and speak well, on the inside, as we ask for help or pray for what is needed and desired. Make an altar for Earth. Tend it well.

Consider a simple web search for how-to guides if this is new to you and find one that resonates with who you are.

I guess my first thought would be to get educated. The relationship between bees, plants and our food and medicine is so intertwined. Did you know that 60% of all the medicine plants harvested go to labs making modern prescription drugs? Yes. We even need bees for the raw material to make the 'synthetics' meds.

We need bees. Period. We've literally evolved around how they live and thrive and shape this world with plants. We have a few thriving hives here at ElderMoon and the gardens are noticeably stronger and healthier with the bees here. The bees are healthier with the medicine plants around too. And while swarms happen and I get sad at first, I also find joy in knowing some of our bees are going rogue and repopulating the wild. 

Three simple things you can do to support the bees:
First, learn where your local beekeepers are and find one you like that speaks lovingly about the privilege of what they get to do with the bees. Trust your gut and support a good beekeeper who ensures the bees are happy and have overflow always. Second, stop all chemical lawn and garden care products and support chemical-free farms that think and act with biodiversity at the forefront of all they do (not mono-cropping). Yes, the great move to almond milk drinking has created bee hive collapsing due to the increase in mono-cropping of almonds here in the southwestern US. So we think we're doing one great thing but then we see how nature responds and have to learn more. Bio-diversity is the way. Third, use honey as a medicine and honor it as such with conservation in mind. 

While today 2/14 is often associated with chocolate and has been for some time, not all chocolates are great for us or Earth. It has to do with us and what we've agreed to in the name of allowing chocolate manufacturers to call the shots. The farmers have suffered. The Cacao trees have suffered. So has the quality and health benefits. And so has Earth.

But we can make new agreements.

Right now. 

Can we agree to support the ecologically sustainable way of the Indigenous Ceremonial Cacao farming families and make this a lasting commitment. Support the farmers who are closest to Earth on this one. If a company does not share their sourcing and practices then I do not buy from them. Period. Transparency is part of my agreement. I want the trees supported and the I want the families that tend the trees supported, all in the name of supporting Earth. Will you join me on this? 
 
I've decided to leave the research to you here. Learn more. The cacao "industry" is becoming a bit disturbing with so many humans turning to cacao for support. Please be impeccable and conservative with how you source. Little bits go far. Connect with the cacao tree and learn. 

Thank you. What would you add or change here for you? I'd love to hear from you. So Much Love, Jen

I notice things. You do too. Maybe you haven't given much thought to Lemongrass, eh? That's surely because your mind and heart have other equally necessary things to consider and dance with.

For decades now I've been keeping Lemongrass close. I tuck 2-3 plants in each year in places where I can really see it due the stunning visual presence. Lemongrass looks so different from all the others in my garden and gives more depth and dimension to the space for me. Then I move in close and rustle the leaves around down to the base and the aroma spirals up and drops me to stillness. The effort is small to have this medicinal + nourishing plant close. It takes a small piece of garden space or a medium sized pot, sunlight, water you drink too, and a seedling easily found in spring with all the veggie and herbs AND only costs a few dollars. Once set up and planted, it's all about enjoying the growing season together before harvest time.

Buying Lemongrass bulbs in the store to cook with is great. Growing is easy and so much more vibrant and aromatic for your dishes. Cooking with it means "discarding the outer leaves and only keeping the tender inner core for dishes". I suggest putting all the discarded parts into a mason jar or tea pot with just boiled water, let it steep 20 minutes, and enjoy it as a tea while you enjoy your cooking. It's delicious! And it's a beautiful medicinal too with a broad range of benefits.

We'll drop into some of the medicinal applications here for why it's great to invest a few dollars and a bit of waiting in order to harvest and have hundreds of dollars worth a few plants at your finger tips for cooking AND medicine. Have you noticed the price of one stalk?

One Lemongrass plant provide many bulbs and mid stems that I freeze.

So I watch for the magenta colored stems at the base of the plant that come with the cooling nights of late August to September. I uproot the whole plant giving a fully honored good death that ensures I get all of the bulbous ends that are prized for cooking. If it winters over near you then you slice at ground level with a good sharp blade and you get regeneration stalks. Lucky you! 

With this massive clump of Lemongrass uprooted I then tease the stalks apart and begin the gleaning process. Shade or sun, with music, silence or singing, having lemonade or a beer is all up to each as you do the good work. I then separate into 4 working piles:

1. the long leaf blades for making 'tea rings' - dry for tea/infusions
2. the sturdy bulbs with about 10 inches of stalk - freeze for cooking and medicine
3. the mid ribs left about six inches long - freeze for stocks and tea/infusions
4. the loose leaf blades that don't fit in the other piles cut to a workable size for drying for more tea

Why do I freeze it?
Drying the two parts that I choose to freeze would be far more work with an increased chance of spoilage and loss of aromatic and medicinal potency. Have I done it? Yes. Will I again slice each down to drying slivers about 4 inches long? Yes. For now I choose freezing which keeps it fresh with strong aromatic oils that cook easy into food or mashed to a quick pastes or for making a Lemongrass Syrup. YES! (Add fresh ginger root to that too!) It makes an amazing addition to a martini. In fact I don't drink martinis much, or ever, unless it's a Lemongrass martini. This way gives me the best I can get for living where Lemongrass cannot for part of the year. Starting over again and again each growing season is our dance. 

Yield from this one plant is impressive here for the whole tray of bulbs and mid stalks frozen above, plus 1/2 pound of loose leaf for tea AND 50+ woven Lemongrass 'tea rings'. Each tea ring makes a pint to a quart of tea, depending on your desire for how strong, by placing in a mason jar, fill with boiled water and cap, steep 20 minutes and sip. So easy and sooo good! 

The making of Lemongrass tea rings. 

Lemongrass tea rings drying in my office. LOVE!

'Apothecary Time w/Jen' video - in the garden making Lemongrass tea rings just prior to digging up this beauty.

"Oak. Silence. Time. I bet it's not a far stretch for you to consider how well Oak, Silence, and Time know one another. It's an easy leap considering Oak can live a thousand years or more and stand in one place, sometimes deep in the obscured mystery of the forest. It is this very thing that strikes me first whenever I walk up to an elderly tree and I instantly, as if it's an innate reflex, enter silence and an altered sense of time. 

There is this syncopated rhythmic resonance orchestrated by Nature that still creates a vibrational hum in The-Silent-No-Time-Place-Of-Now. OAK is there. OAK knows the silence and the hum behind the silence. It’s behind the sound of birds, and insects, and animals as they sing with the trees on the wind. The human heart knows this resonance too. It trusts it instinctually and can follow the hum in pilgrimage to a destination unseen, even unknown, and yet like the migration of our genes in order to support life, the heart knows things. Inexplicable things like the silence and hum that OAK knows.

We’re all faced with the challenge of designing a life that integrates making plans and attempting to steer our own personal greatness while navigating by the stars and the planets as we attempt to find comfort within being guided by the mysterious. The modern mind gets distraught as it senses its limits. It relays this discomfort to the body sometimes too. Maybe it's a way to ease the intensity of the mind? But still the heart knows that resonant hum of a universal guidance system. We must slow down to make the leaps. It’s a paradoxical reconciliation that feeds our resiliency, our ability to show again, and again. There will be more on this from OAK on innate and cultivated resiliency..

Are you opposed to it? Do you seek it? What is it actually if truth reigns around the existence of a constant resonant hum behind it? To keep silent and to be in silence takes tremendous strength. We are the keeper and/or the seeker of silence depending on our conditions. What we hold while silent becomes mysteriously hidden and protected, out of sight or ear shot, away from scrutiny or judgement, and even thwarts disintegration and death sometimes which can be a necessary and good medicine. To retreat to silence and sit within the resonant hum brings another set of challenges. The psyche loves it, and yet not. It will test our resolve, our strength, and our ability to remain with silence by throwing iron monkey wrenches into the wind generated turbines of life just to see what happens.

There is this pivotal moment or that still point place at the very bottom of a ship where the sea-sick seek peace from the motions of the waves. That place for the seeker. And there's that place where the keeper of silence is challenged to stay silent too or honor the overwhelming urge to speak, to take a stand, to honor a confrontation, or ignite a worthy argument and even risk death. If we pilgrimage well with our soul in time, will the keeper of silence learn the path of least resistance from the resonant hum of Nature in The-Silent-No-Time Place-Of-Now, and speak well? I pray for this. The seeker of silence and the keeper of silence hold a similar set of challenges that at first appear to be different. I wonder if they are one in the same at the soul level? What do you think?
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