I've been looking for a good basic Hot and Sour soup recipe for years. A couple months ago, I found one and decided to try it out and tweak it once the weather turned cold.  Well, here we are. I was expecting this to be too sour and spicy for my kids, but lo and behold they ate it!  They especially liked the mushrooms and chose to eat them first.


Hot and Sour soup is one of the 3 elements that I judge every chinese restaurant I go into by (the 2nd is their eggrolls, and the 3rd is how well they handle their seafood dishes). I'm picky and I've had A LOT of different variations.  The recipe that I'm sharing here is very mild.  Only slightly hot and sour... I'd call it more of a "warming" soup.   You can always add more rice vinegar and chili oil at the table (which Mark and I did and it created a gorgeous, fresh, bracing experience).  The Chinese traditionally use this soup medicinally as a starter course to help get the immune system moving and, with enough chili oil, to get the sinuses cleared. 

It's perfect for cold season and, in my opinion, for every other season as well.

A lot of people plant Calendula or Pot Marigold (Calendula officinalis) in their veggie gardens to keep the pests away.  It definitely has a potent, but not unpleasant scent to it and has both astringent and antibacterial properties. These healing properties make it a perfect candidate for drying and using as a healing "gardener's salve" to put on hands that have been digging in the garden without gloves, or have perhaps been a little overzealous in a blackberry patch.

It's the equinox and from here on out the days will be shorter than the nights here in the northern hemisphere.  The weather has turned cooler and the leaves are starting to change color.  Everything that is going to set fruit this season is doing so and herbs and flowers for winter remedies abound.  This is going to be a photo roundup of what we've been doing and seeing around here lately.

Hope you enjoy!

There is a Native American herbal legend that says whatever grows in excess during the growing season is an indication of what kind of a cold/flu/viral season it's going to be.   See lots of  random "volunteer" Coltsfoot?  Expect croup to show up.  See lots of Mullein? Bad upcoming hayfever season... Etcetera.  I see no reason to doubt this theory, it seems as plausible as any.  And this year I see lots and LOTS of Purple Aster and Goldenrod (there's always lots of goldenrod, by the way). New York (Purple) Aster (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii) is known to be a fairly strong nervine and is sometimes prefered over Valerian for sedative and sleep-promoting purposes.  It is also traditionally used to help counteract asthma and other bronchial irritation.  So, traditionally, the abundance of purple aster is telling us to expect a very "bronchial/sleep deprived" cold and flu season.  I believe it!  My asthma has been abnormally terrible the last couple of weeks and there's a story all over the news about some new virus that's causing fairly severe bronchial distress.


Granted, we still have our humidifiers and antibiotics and Doctors and, in my case, albuterol inhalers, but wouldn't it be great to have to use that stuff less?!


I had a great time harvesting 2 gorgeous flowering weeds today and they often grow together:  Purple Aster, and Goldenrod flowering tops.  I made a tincture out of the purple aster and added some elderberries to the mix for extra "cough" help, and I made an infused oil out of the goldenrod which is supposed to work really well when rubbed externally into sore muscles. Can't wait to try the oil when I decide after the Holidays that it's time to shape up a little (this happens every year! HAHA!).

I was busy over the weekend with several little projects.  Among them was that I brought home the season's first tiny apples from the  (long forgotten) old apple tree at my mon's house... and then my kids brought home the season's first cold.  JOY!  Inevitably a house full of little kids is going to be full of bugs and this year I'm going to fight back with homemade Fire Cider!   Fire Cider is a traditional remedy for colds and flu with congestion and calls for all organic (EXPENSIVE) ingredients, including Apple Cider Vinegar with "the mother" in it.

I had a pile of apples that I wanted to make sauce with, so I peeled them and used the peels and cores to start a batch of my own homemade Apple Cider Vinegar.  I'm gonna need it now that I've poured most of the contents of that $8 bottle of my organic storebought stuff into my (amazing) jar of Fire Cider.  HAH!

I'll start with the recipe for making your own Apple Cider Vinegar, because it's really, exceptionally easy.

My youngest daughter is currently potty training, AND has switched into a big girl bed... in the last week and a half.   She woke me up at 5:00am this morning.  The sun was up, the birds were singing and she was excited!

I decided to take a meditative "weed walk" this morning at 6:00am.  Yesterday, I had brought my daughter to the swimming hole, and had seen a lot of weeds.  Most notably, to me, was a huge abundance of stinging nettle...




As a child, I grew up on the same creek that I bring my girls to on our hikes.  One time, when the neighborhood boys and I went down there to look for newts, we got into a patch of stinging nettles.  Our legs were on FIRE for the rest of he afternoon.  We spent the next several hours pool-hopping, hoping that the cool water and the chlorine would somehow help ease the sting... it didn't.


Many years later, I read about the health benefits of making teas and infusions out of dried stinging nettle. I used to buy it in bulk, prepared... so I didn't have to deal with the sting.

And now, there it was on my path... inches away from my toddler's legs...

What a beautiful opportunity.  I decided to take this day, the Summer Solstice, the lightest day of the year, to shine some light on my fears and negative thoughts through walking meditation... and I took a bag, gloves, and rubber boots with me to act out this light shining exercise by harvesting and becoming allied with stinging nettle.  I made a potato nettle soup, started a nettle beer, and hung up 10 bunches of nettle to dry for tea and infusions.

I sorted, washed, weighed and deligated nettle to 3 purposes.


2 of these containers full were used to make Nettle Beer.


This bowlful was used to make a potato-nettle soup


And these bunches are hanging up to dry.


And if that wasn't enough to keep me busy, we also went strawberry picking!




We got 6 quarts, and one last small harvest of rhubarb.  I'll be putting together a strawberry wine, strawberry rhubarb jam, and a fresh strawberry cake in the next few days. This week should be fun!

For as long as I can remember, I've been enchanted by everything Victorian (and Renaissance, and Medieval, and... old).  I have seen plenty of recipes calling for rosewater for both bath and body and for baking. When the wild roses bloomed this year is huge CRAZY amounts in the backyard, I couldn't help myself.  Making my own rosewater was so easy to do and a really fun project.  I can't wait to try it out in some recipes which I plan to share on here as I go.  The Rosewater from this particular recipe is supposed to keep for up to 1 month in the refridgerator.

About a week and a half ago I brought my 2-year-old to the far side of the neighborhood pond.  She threw rocks and sticks in the water and picked a few early Daiseys, and then came home for a nap.  While we were out there, I noted that the Red Clover were high and almost ready to blossom and when I got home, I made note that last year's clover stash was dwindling. 


Lets rewind a bit here.  Whatever prompted me to make red clover flower tea in the first place?  Well, I read up on it a while back and found out these things regarding the effect of  this flower's estrogen and isoflavones on women who were dealing with infertility and other menstrual issues (it took us a year to get pregnant with child #1 due to some of the imbalances I was dealing with).  The medical community finds many of the claims made for the usefulness of Red Clover to be inconclusive, but does note that women use it to control symptoms of PMS etc and to even out estrogen levels (as long as the quantities taken aren't in excess).   Susun Weed, my favorite herbalist, attests "Dozens of women have told me that they had successful pregnancies after drinking a cup or more (up to four cups) a day of red clover infusion"  and notes that "An infusion (not tea, not tincture, not capsules) of red clover blossoms, leaves, and stems is not only very high in protein, macro- and trace-minerals, and vitamins (except B12), it is an excellent source of phytosterols. Phytosterols are hormone-like substances found in many plants that can be bio-converted in the human gut into active anti-cancer estrogens and other helpful anti-stress hormones. Calling phytosterols phytoestrogens is confusing, as it implies harmful, not protective, effects."

Well, I ended up finally getting pregnant with baby #1 during the winter months, and didn't get to try out the Red Clover idea (not safe for pregnant women, btw).  

HOWEVER!  18 months after my first baby was born, I decided that if I wanted to have another child, fairly close in age to my first, I should start getting my body back to healthy/fertility mode sooner than later.  Also, it was June at this point and the Red Clover were out and beautiful.   I picked a bagful and dried it over the next couple of weeks.  I started drinking the tea and THAT MONTH I found myself pregnant with baby #2!   I didn't even get to finish my stash.   Now, whether this was complete coincidence, phytoestrogens, restored trace minerals or what, I don't know...but this is my personal experience with Red Clover.

It also tastes nice as a tea or infusion (think "grassy" or fresh mown hay), looks pretty, is nutritionally beneficial, and it's FREE and abundant!


So, yesterday I took a shopping bag over to the far side of the pond and it was a good thing that I did... here's what I found: 



I picked just the ariel parts ( flowers and top leaves). Brought them home and spread them out on trays lined with paper toweling to dry.

I'm convinced 1 single layer is key to drying.  I've had people tell me they have problems with their flowers molding, but I've never run into this issue.  Just make sure to dry them in a well-ventilated area.


Dry for 2-3 weeks and then store in an airtight container.   My favorite way to prepare these is to take a handful and put it in a teapot and then cover it with boiling water.


Let it steep for a while, then enjoy!

... And don't say I didn't warn you if you find yourself pregnant out of the blue ;-)