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Sunday, October 28, 2012

Fun With Herbs!



These are some delicious herbal energy balls I made based on Rosemary Gladstar's recipe for Zoom Balls.  Here is her recipe and my variation on it.  Basically you mix your nut butter base and add powdered herbs, dried fruit, chopped nuts, coconut, etc.  it's very easy to make and last for a month or so in the fridge.

BASE:
3 cups Tahini
1 cup Almond butter (or any nut butter)
2 cups Honey

POWDERED HERBS:
4-6 ounces Guarana Seed
2 ounces Kola Nut
2 ounces Rhodiola
1 ounce Eleuthero (AKA Siberian ginseng)
1 ounce Ginseng (any panax species0
2 teaspoons cardamom
1/2 tablespoon Nutmeg

OPTIONAL MIX-INS:
1/4 cup goji berries
1/4 cup cranberries
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried or toasted coconut
2 ounces cocoa powder to thicken

You are supposed to roll the dough into golf ball sized balls and then you can roll the balls in coconut or cocoa powder.

I need more energy like everyone else but this recipe would put me in orbit!  I wanted a formula that would not only give us more energy but other health benefits and some added nutritious value.  So for my herbs I used Guarana, Rhodiola, Eleuthero, Hawthorne berry, Elder berry,  and Acai berry.  For my add-ins I used dried blueberries,  dried cranberries, chopped pecans and black walnut and toasted coconut (and the cocoa powder).  I only made a 1/2 batch since my daughter and I will be the only ones eating them.  You can certainly roll them any size you want and make them with any variety of herbs you like.  Astragalus is a nice adaptogen that would work well in this formula, it's not overly stimulating and it boosts immunity.

This is a wonderful way to incorporate herbs into your life.  Herbs are more about nourishment than medicine so this is perfect, especially for difficult "patients" like kids and husbands.  No better way to make them healthy than to make it taste like candy!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Reap What You Sow

  Now is the time to make use of all the wonderful plants we cared for in the Spring and Summer.  I have been infusing oil from my Comfrey.  As you can see from the picture, I am working with lightly wilted fresh comfrey leaves and I slowly heat them in a crock pot to infuse the medicinal properties of the plant into the oil.  This also allows excess moisture to evaporate out of the oil.  To the right I am straining the oil from my first batch of spent leaves.  Front center I am chopping more leaves to add for a second infusion.  This oil will be STRONG!  you can already see how the oil has turned dark green.  This takes a few days and I heat it for a couple hours on low and turn it off and let it infuse.  I repeat this process a couple times a day until no more moisture forms on the top when I cover the crock.  It takes a while but when I'm done I'll have at least a quart of strongly infused herbal oil.  Plenty to get me through until Spring when my beloved plants come back!