Green and Growing

Updated Beans, Fermented Garlic Honey, and Chive Blossom Vinaigrette

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 00:36:00 +0000

So I almost never do this: post an update for a post barely a week old. But, I had to. Especially after I just made another batch of those beans last night; especially when the original post was so long, and especially when hubby started snapping a few pics while I dished up dinner. What made this version potentially a bit better than the last had nothing to do with pictures. I did what I did last time, used what I had on hand, so that didn't change. But, what I had on hand: fresh garden greens, fermented garlic honey, and Bushel and Peck's Chive Blossom vinegar.

Every time the pantry changes, I'm not going to do an update. But I wanted to highlight the idea that using a good, heirloom bean as the foundation of your recipe, along with good ingredients, will guarantee that every time you venture into the kitchen will be a wonderful adventure. Cliche, but true. I also wanted to share another kitchen staple: fermented garlic honey.

I didn't use any animal protein this time. It wasn't just that I didn't have anything that was already defrosted. I didn't have anything that would pair well with the other ingredients without being obtrusive. The Royal Corona beans are so flavorful on their own, any animal protein would need to be used like a condiment instead of a foundation of the dish. I made this again, so quickly after the last bean dish, because I wanted to take a break from animal protein after having had a bit of overload lately. I'll post the recipes another time, but I made my first ever batch of boar meatballs, just finished another round of Elk chili, and discovered a local hoagie shop that just reopened. So in the last fortnight, I've had way more animal protein than I normally eat. So we're going veg for a few days at minimum.

This bean recipe follows my last recipe, which itself follows the Rancho Gordo Basic Beans recipe.

Using what I had on hand meant I didn't have much besides the beans. Nary a fresh carrot or potato in sight, and I had only 1 onion on hand. Even my mainstay, fresh garlic, was in short supply. So I had to improvise, rummage the pantry, and started on a plan when the doorbell announced my newly arrived B&P's Chive Blossom Vinegar. Coming back to the kitchen, I spied my freshly decanted fermented garlic honey along with 2 lonely radishes hubby had brought in from the garden. I decided to save my last fresh garlic cloves for another dish and went on a different route, which made this version more ideal for our heatwave, less stew-like and light enough to be paired with a fresh green salad.

In the foreground, the carrots and radishes. The back are the beets with the brassica hitchhiker.

The previous version was spectacular, but last week, the temps were almost a good 20 degrees cooler and I had to calmly explain to mom that no sane person would put the heat on in June. Funny, as in ironic and sad, despite her feeling cold, she refused the brilliant stewy pot of beans I had cheffed up, opting instead for her quasi-food staple: pork and beans with hot dogs. So, more Rancho Gordo beans for us. Last night, as this batch of beans were finishing off, covered, on low heat, I toddled off to the garden to find some fresh greens for that salad. I say toddled, because I'm still recovering from what had to be the worst sunburn I've ever had. I'll post my remedies for that another time.

Our golden and chiogga beets

Soon enough, I had an armful-- well a 2 quart container full-- of beet greens (from chiogga and goldens), carrot tops, some arugula even if it was bolting (along with its flowers), some mystery brassica leaves and flowers that we just let go nuts in one corner of a bed, horseradish greens, and of course the lonely radishes along with their greens and the tender stems.

The other thing that added a nice pop to this dish was my go-to ingredient when I run low on fresh garlic: my honey-preserved garlic or fermented garlic honey that I had just decanted a few days ago. Garlic cloves preserved in honey may not sound spectacular, but once you make it, it'll be very hard not having some in the pantry. It's got a robust, sweet flavor that reminds me a little of roasted garlic. The honey's sweetness takes the bite out of the garlic, and yet the flavor is so robust it's a forward note in any dish.

I've been making this for years, and honestly I can't recall where I first heard about it. Probably during that event in Brooklyn where I got my scobie, the event where I first learned about wild fermentation-- both the book and the deed.

Fermented garlic honey is a wonderful ingredient in everything from salad dressings to chili to marinades. It's spectacular on fish, poultry, and in vegetarian recipes. I've even used it to replace regular honey in some bread recipes. It's also a good cold prevention and hubby swears by nibbling on the preserved cloves, even though when he does I find it a little hard to sleep through the night without waking up after nightmares about salami sandwiches and warding off vampires.

Here's a straightforward recipe from the Cultured Foodie which uses honey to peeled garlic in a 1:1 ratio. The recipe used 1 cup of honey to 1 cup of peeled garlic cloves. I follow the same general guideline, but with a few variations.

Latest batch with Treebeard our Kitchen Guardian

Fermented Garlic Honey

Mass amounts of raw, peeled, trimmed, and of course washed garlic cloves (A word on amounts and preparation below)
Raw honey, preferably local; the same amount as the cloves (See below)
Hardware: Glass bottle, preferably with a wide mouth, and either a balloon or flip cap that fits on snugly (See below)

The first thing I'd change about the linked recipe is the container. The original recipe calls for a basic jar. Plus, the recipe isn't specific about what to do other than shake around the ferment every so often and place the honey and garlic filled jar on a plate so it doesn't leak. Although there's some good general info on the fermentation process and I like the pictures.

I don't like using a regular ball jar to ferment in, mainly because I've lost a few ferments when there's too much off-gassing that builds up inside the container. One hot day or one missed burping of your ferment and the glass can crack. Instead, I use either a bottle fixed with a balloon, or I use a heavier weight bottle-- like an old wine jug-- that I have a flip cap that's easy to open, but which also will pop open if the pressure is too intense. You can also use an airlock or a jar with one of those grommeted lids that could fit an airlock. Don't fall prey to the gimicky ads for them on Social Media. Because I make in bulk, I like using larger vessels. From a brewer's supply place, I just found a case of 4 gallon-sized jars for a little over $13. Grommeted lids and airlocks a few extra bucks. Shipping was the only problem, but I'd rather pay the extra than give my business to Amazon.

The fermentation line-up: tinctures, turmeric soda, and garlic honey.

When I made my first batch of garlic honey since the move, I noticed that the cap from the honey bottle fit perfectly on the wine jug. So I used the cap instead of the balloon I used to use, pictured here from the old apartment. Yes that's wallpaper on the wall behind the fermentation line-up; our old apartment was a nice illegal one in NYC which had turned the house's master bedroom into a kitchen; our kitchen was the only room in the house with wallpaper and carpeting. This cap though has seen me through 2 batches of honey and probably will see me through several more. Since I've been using the bottle method-- which is a pain to decant-- I haven't lost a single batch of fermented honey, to either cracked glass or spoilage. This batch was made in early February.

About a day or two old. Note the bubbles and how the cloves float.

Before filling your vessel, make sure it's clean and dry. It may sound counterintuitive, but don't do the canning method of sterilizing your glassware beforehand. Absolutely do NOT use a wet container to make your fermented garlic honey. Any water introduced to the ferment can cause problems. Make sure your glassware has been cleaned and is bone-dry. I usually wash the bottle a day or two before, using a little bleach as I wash to make sure it's sanitized.

The other thing I'd change about the original recipe I link to above is the quantity. Since fermented garlic honey is a staple in my house, and since it takes so long to ferment, don't just settle for 1 cup. That'd be gone in no time. I make it by the gallon and a gallon will be enough for the next year or so. The last batch I made used a gallon jug, filled halfway with garlic, topped off with honey. I used all told about half a gallon of honey and 2 quarts of garlic; so both 64 oz or thereabouts. It's the same ratio of 1:1. If you haven't tried garlic honey yet, try the small batch first, but be prepared to scale up.

A final note on the garlic. Like the vessel, the garlic must be dry. It saves time to find already peeled garlic. Not to mention it saves my carpal tunnel. Even so, I make sure the garlic is clean by giving it a quick rinse and then pop it in a salad spinner or towel lined colander to get the excess water off. Then, line a dish with paper towels and spread out your garlic cloves to again make sure they're all perfectly dry before slicing each one in half and popping them all in the bottle.

When you top off the bottle with honey, leave about an inch to 2 inches of headspace at the top of the bottle. Cap it or fix your balloon on top, securing in place with a rubber-band.

Every day, sometimes two or three times a day, for the first month you must gently agitate the bottle. Don't shake it. You'll notice the honey will bubble as the garlic ferments. That's the reason you don't want to shake it; unless you want a honey explosion. Just roll the vessel around to get the cloves coated with honey. They'll float and the honey surrounding them will get liquidy. If using a flip cap, burp it both before and after you agitate. You want to try to mix the thinner fermenting honey with the thicker honey that tends to sink to the bottom. If using the balloon, make sure the balloon doesn't get too massive or it might burst. Burp it every so often; maybe once a week. It all depends on the heat in your kitchen. The warmer it is, the quicker this will ferment. Don't place your fermenting honey in direct sunlight or near a heat element, like the stove or a radiator. I try to leave the somewhere prominent in the kitchen, like the middle of our counter, so every time I walk by, I check to see if it needs to be agitated, burped, or if it's sprung a leak. Once, when I didn't leave enough headspace, the honey began oozing out around the bottom of the balloon. If you have enough headspace, this won't happen. But, you can place your vessel on a plate or tray to catch any leakage just in case.

Find a good flip cap. Treebeard approves :)

After about 4 weeks, you'll notice the cloves no longer float and the honey no longer bubbles. It's ready to be decanted and used. Or just keep it as is, put it in a darker place in the kitchen and check to make sure there's no spoilage. I've had mine for the last 4 or 5 months without a problem, but decanting into smaller jars makes it easier to use and less likely that the main batch of honey will get contaminated.

Bushel and Pecks: You'll never leave your kitchen without some.

This is the other ingredient I want to shout from the rooftops. When I made my last post, I noticed that I was just about out of my newly found staple: Cherry Bomb hot sauce from Bushel and Peck's. So I had to restock. If you haven't checked them out yet, go find them on Etsy. I haven't been paid or received any freebies for mentioning them. I haven't even told them I've been shouting their hot sauce from the rooftops. But, once you try their hot sauces, there's no going back. I'm sure you've got your favorite hot sauces. Bushel and Pecks isn't about the heat of the chilis. It's about their flavor. I've never had a hot sauce that's so flavorful. Because each chili pepper itself is so unique, each of their varieties are limited in terms of ingredients in order to highlight the flavor of each ingredient used. My favorites, thus far, can boil down to the ones I've tasted. Seriously. In my last post, I noted the 12 variety pack I ordered. I'm still only halfway through that pack, with a full 6 varieties I haven't yet tried, but of the ones I have, I've had to reorder 3 because I can't do without them and I already went through the bottles from the pack: Jalapeno Lime, Tomatillo, and the Cherry Bomb.

As I noted earlier, these Royal Corona Beans are delicate despite their being a massive bean that holds it's shape and bite even after hours of cooking. With this recipe, as with the last one, I wanted some heat and a bit of acid, without using something too hot or too acidic.

Step in Bushel and Pecks Jalapeno Lime and a dash of their Tomatillo.

When I was restocking on the Cherry Bomb with Monday's post, opting for their larger sized bottles, I saw their nifty seasonal vinegar, Chive Blossom, and I confess: I got greedy. I saw a message that only half a dozen or so were available, but they were in 20 people's carts. Zoink. I nabbed myself a trio of this delightful vinegar. It's subtle, so save it for a dressing or drizzle. It gave a nice finish to my overall dish and paired really nicely with the garlic and beans.

Royal Corona Beans Variation

I also didn't have as many of the beans as my last recipe, so I only used half a pound, which was a perfect meal for hubby and me. In the freezer, I found some dill in a cup of home-made chicken stock. I said I scoured the pantry. Use any fresh or dry herb you have on hand-- sage, dill, rosemary, parsley, thyme, or a combination. I can't say it enough: use what you have. Adapt your recipe to fit your pantry, especially now when, depending on where you live, a trip to the local market may not be feasible.

1 cup Royal Corona Beans, sorted, rinsed, and soaked for at least 3 hours; strained but retain the soaking liquid
1 large onion, cut into crescents
4-6 honey fermented garlic cloves, minced (remember each clove was cut in half, so about 8-12 pieces total)
4 tbsp fermented garlic honey, divided in half
1 cup chicken stock
Dill, a generous half a cup or 1 minced bunch of fresh dill (or any herbs you have on hand)
Jalapeno Lime hot sauce
Tomatillo Hot sauce
Chive Blossom Vinegar
Mixed greens
Extra virgin olive oil for cooking
Robust extra virgin olive oil for dressing
salt and freshly cracked black pepper

As with the other recipe, saute the the onions to the point of charring. To promote some caramelization, drizzle in 2 tablespoons of the garlic honey, being sure to stir the whole time so the onions don't burn.

When the onions have a nice color, reduce the heat to medium. Add the minced garlic and drained beans. Saute for a moment or two. Add the herbs and chicken stock with the soaking liquid from the beans. Lower the heat a bit more, slap on the cover and cook until the beans are about halfway cooked.

Then add the hot sauce to taste. I used a good tablespoon of the Jalapeno Lime and about 2 teaspoons of the tomatillo. At this point add salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. If necessary, add a little water. Slap the cover back on and allow to continue cooking.

Of course, when I turned around there was Lunabean on her perch wondering if beans and greens are good numables for kitties.

If you haven't considered accompaniments, consider as you rummage in the pantry. That way, if you want bread, but don't have any, you'll have time to bang out a loaf or two. (Recipe on that coming and that recipe took as long to make as the beans need to cook). You can serve the beans, over rice, over wheatberries, or on their own with a bit of bread. They might even go with pasta, over some mashed potatoes, amaranth. See what you've got and go for it. I used farro because it' my thing at the moment.

After putting on some farro to cook, I went out to the garden and came back with some brilliant fresh greens, which were quickly washed and dried in a salad spinner. If you don't have a garden, you should. Gardening helps save lives and not merely because of the whole food aspect. I only wish I had more physical ability to get out and weed or dig. Still, I had to get these when I saw them for hubster and moi. Sort of drives the point home.

This was followed by a quick vinaigrette of robust extra virgin olive oil, chive blossom vinegar, and the remaining 2 tablespoons of garlic honey.

I tried to keep the greens as whole as possible, quickly tossed them with the dressing, and served a nice pile ontop of the farro and beans.

Enjoy!

Pandemic Pantry, Royal Corona Beans & Einkorn Farro

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 19:49:00 +0000

While we've been hunkered down since campus was closed, hubby and I turned the smallish one-floor ranch home that we share with mom into a full-on homestead in the burbs. He's in charge of the victory garden and I've taken the lead on stocking the pantry.

One of the odd things about all this-- besides being in a global pandemic that's killed thousands, sickened millions, impacted billions while requiring massive stay-at-home orders for most of the world's population? Except for the distance learning, the masks, the deaths, and being told by our governors to stay home, I'm used to having to stock up.

Since I'm a contingent employee-- read: adjunct-- I'm often out of work. I only get paid for 8 months each year, so to keep afloat during the lean times, I have to time my pantry purchases when I get income. So, I'm always stocking up, either to prepare for a long stretch of summer vacation without pay or to restock once I get back to work. My restock times are at the beginning and end of my semesters and this year was no different. February's first paycheck went to the pantry-- both food and herbal. My first purchase was to replenish one of our pantry staples: Rancho Gordo Beans. My review from last year.

I made a large order of the basics: Yellow Indian Woman Bean, Christmas Limas, Eye of the Goat, and

Ayocote Morado

Scarlet Runners. Then I noticed a few other gems that were never in stock were finally in stock. I ordered the new beauties, adding a few pounds of some gorgeous purple (Ayocote Morado), white, and green beans (Flageolet) to my purchase, making what had to be an order of about 30 pounds of beans, lentils, and popping corn. For us, that's about a 6 month supply of food for about $175. Even though things are relaxing, in terms of state rules and people's common sense, I'm still trying to limit my store visits, so I'm trying make everything stretch a bit. I'd say from this one purchase have easily 8-12 months of beans.

Less than a fortnight after my restock, the lock-down came and the bare supermarket shelves. I had started an article focusing on alternatives to grocery shopping, but distance teaching and quarantine, all on top of being a full-time caregiver to a woman who just had a stroke the week before Memorial Day, became more than overwhelming.

Back in April, which seems a lifetime ago, when there were no time-slots available for supermarket delivery, back before frost dates passed and before local produce markets re-opened with curbside pickup, hubby and I were going a bit batty sans fresh veggies. Granted, this sounds really trite and shallow. Particularly when thousands have had to wait on food pantry lines, when millions are facing food shortages due to lack of work and because of the impact coronavirus has had on our food supply. I mean food is food. My usual yearly cycle of feast and famine turned into a bit of a personal blessing precisely because I had already done my stocking up for the Spring right before we all took a walk in the Upside Down. Then, the week before lockdown, I managed to get what had to be the last Peapod delivery. But, even with that order, aside from one cabbage, a bunch of bananas, and a bunch of parsley, none of the other veggies I had ordered arrived since they weren't in stock at the time of fulfillment.

What I'd love my larder to look like...

We aren't vegans, but we try to have a plant focused diet and nothing is better than fresh. That's a given. So what do you do when you can't find fresh veg? Start a garden, which we did almost immediately because of our frost dates. Even after the garden was started, we're only just now taking advantage of some radishes. Otherwise? Surf and look for options. Hubby found an article, which led us to a fresh juicing company that also sells 25 pound boxes of fresh fruit or fresh vegetables. This recipe used my last lonely onion, last 6 carrots, and the 4 glorious potatoes left from that order.

Another thing I came across, sort of accidentally, sort of belatedly, was Einkorn. Einkorn is considered the first wheat ever grown by humans. Einkorn is essentially the wild wheat that became the first domesticated wheat. I had heard about it from Michael Pollan's work, smattered somewhere between In Defense of Food, Cooked, and his interviews. I found and bookmarked the only Einkorn vendor I could find, at the time. Then my dad was diagnosed with and died from cancer, hubby and I moved to be mom's caregivers, and the world melted into authoritarianism, economic depression, and plague. I forgot about the einkorn until I couldn't find any flour.

Gorgeous green Flegeolet beans

Right as my college was being closed, the Tristate area was being placed under lockdown, and I got the last Peapod order, I noted that mom binged one of what might have been the two loaves of bread in the word. Well, our world. They had come with our Peapod order. Hubby and I don't eat supermarket bread, but that's all mom eats.

While embarking on the Great Pandemic Restocking, I realized I didn't have enough flour in the house, especially not if society was coming to an end and I'd have to bake bread. I managed to order yeast, but flour was as hard to find as toilet paper. One night, when trying to order from Walmart-- the only place that wasn't Amazon that would deliver mom's most prized of foods, besides the supermarket bread: pork and

beans-- I found that every time I added some type of flour to my cart, by the time I went to check-out, mere moments later, that flour had already sold out. Note: my mom is an 80-yr-old toddler in many ways. I love her to pieces but her food choices are limited, and her most vegetarian option is pork and beans. 100k+ dead, but as long as she's got a can of pork and beans in the house, she's happy. No cans, chaos will reign. Harsh, I know. But being a caretaker for someone who thinks modeling the president's contempt for wearing a mask in public is the way to go has been a test of my own endurance, patience, compassion, and sheer force of will. And that was before she literally stroked out the day after she screamed vitriol for a quarter of an hour at the tele when even Hannity told her to wear a mask.

But, not a bag of flour was to be had. While hunting around online, I came across einkorn from a company called “Ancient Grains.” I shamedly admit, I found them on Amazon when I couldn't find any flour elsewhere. But, their flour was out of stock and all they had was farro, which I was also out of. So I bought I did, figuring I'd grind it myself while having whole farro to cook with. I have plenty of wheat berries, thanks to 50lb of organic, Montana red wheat I bought, no joke in March 2012. But, farro cooks up more delicately than wheat berries and in some recipes, I much prefer the texture of farro. It also helps that I einkorn has higher, more robust nutrition level than modern wheat.

I'll post my einkorn flour recipes in a bit, but the flour and the farro are in a word, spectacular. Honestly, einkorn is the best I’ve ever used-- both farro and flour. I had read some articles which noted how fussy einkorn is, particularly with moisture (both humidity and in the recipe itself). So I was cautious about using it at first. I had nothing to worry about. I used the whole wheat in several recipes– bread, coffee cake, and banana bread. All were incredibly light, easy to work with, and some of the most flavorful I’ve ever used. My entire household struggles with diabetes– mom and I are pre and hubby full blown. When he tested his blood sugar the next day, we were expecting it to be off the charts. If anything, it was lower. Einkorn is a resistant starch. It doesn’t spike blood sugar. And, when included in a balanced diet, like beans, einkorn can lower blood sugar. It’s also got a decent amount of protein in it, so for the first time ever– one slice of anything einkorn baked is enough. It’s satisfying and filling and I can’t recommend it enough and I'm not going back to regular wheat. Well, I'll use what I have in the larder, but after that, I'm not buying any more regular wheat-- flour or berries.

Massive Royal Corona Beans

I also decided on trying my pre-pandemically aquired Royal Corona beans, the white bean I finally managed to get my hands on from Rancho Gordo. When I made this recipe, the name slipped my mind completely. I'm not one of those people boycotting products that happen to share the name, but I have to confess the inner cringe when I looked in the pantry to see what beans I had used for what turned out to be a truly spectacular recipe.

When I made my pantry selection, I thought the beans just looked like a nice meaty option. Royal Corona beans are really a crown of the legume world. The following recipe makes enough for 4 hearty servings, with the beans as the star of the show. Feel free to adjust. When I make this again, I might have to try some Double Brook Farm Guincale (from the Brick Farm Market) or maybe a little Wild Boar from Force of Nature Meats-- both phenomenal alternatives to factory farming and those “meat processing centers” responsible for so many COVID hot-spots in the midwest. I also have to post my Force of Nature recipes. Thus far Elk & Venison chili and meatballs using their pork and wild boar. I'm making myself hungry while posting....

I'd also bump up the fresh herbs. I was limited to what was growing and I didn't want to use dry. Again, feel free to experiment with what you have on hand.

2 cups by volume of dry Royal Corona beans, rinsed and sorted
6 medium carrots, cut on a bias
4 large potatoes (You can use any potato, but if you use baby potatoes or fingerlings, don't cut them; leave them whole otherwise they'll melt to nothing)
1 large onion, sliced into crescents (I used vidalia, but use what you have; if you use a sharper onion, add about 1 tsp of sugar to the recipe)
8-12 large garlic cloves, smashed and minced fine (I picked up some amazing locally grown garlic and used only 4 cloves, but each one was so massive they count as 2-3 regular cloves)
2 rosemary sprigs, minced
8 sage leaves, minced
black pepper and salt
2 tsp Jalapeno Lime hot sauce*
2 cups einkorn farro, rinsed and sorted
Robust Extra Virgin Olive oil for drizzling
Extra Virgin Olive oil for sauteing
Culinary salt for a serving sprinkle
Optional: about a cup of peppery fresh baby greens such as radish, arugula, mustard or horseradish

Soak beans in about 6 cups of water. Overnight is best, but I soaked them for 3 hours and the dish was spectacular. When you're prepared to cook, drain off and SAVE the soaking liquid.
If you use a thick-skinned potato, peel them. A thin-skinned potato just needs a good scrub. Cut them into coarse chunks. Optional: take about ¼ cup (about half of one potato), and dice. You want this to break down and thicken the dish. If you want more of a brothy dish, leave the potatoes in larger pieces and add an additional 2 cups of water.
In a heavy-bottomed saute pan (with a tight-fitting lid), saute the onion in about 1 tbsp of good extra virgin olive oil on high heat. You want a nice color on the onions; bring them to the point where if you blink they'll char. So DON'T walk away or they'll char. Have everything prepped already so you can watch the onions.
As soon as the onions are brought to the brink, reduce the heat to medium and toss in your potatoes. Leave them for a moment to color slightly and then saute for about 2-3 minutes before tossing in your minced garlic, carrots, and beans. Then add your diced herbs and a nice amount of freshly ground black pepper. I used a ½ tsp to start and added more later in the cooking time.
After 5 minutes, add the soaking liquid to the pot. Stir, reduce heat to medium low, cover and allow to simmer in glorious beanness until the beans are half-way cooked. Then add your hot sauce, taste, and add about 2 tsp of kosher salt.
In the last half hour of cooking, in a separate pot, cook the farro. 1 cup of grain to 2 cups of water. Add 1 tsp salt per cup of grain. Bring up to a boil, covered, reduce to a simmer and cook covered for about 10 minutes. Watch the pot carefully so it doesn't foam over. Once it starts to get foamy, uncover and allow to cook until tender. All the liquid should be absorbed when it's nice and soft, but still toothy. If the grain is a bit too al dente, but the water cooks off, just shut the pot and cover. Let it sit on the burner while the beans finish off.
Serve the beans over farro, topped with the baby greens, a drizzle of a robust olive oil, and a sprinkle of culinary salt-- (we used some stunning Black Lava Salt from Mountain Rose Herbs)

I'd love to hear your variations. I think this dish would pair really nicely with a crusty bread if you want to forgo the farro. If you decide to use animal protein, I think something porky would go well like the aforementioned Guincale or Boar. If you opt for the fatty former, render it off before doing the onions. If you opt for the latter, make sure you add fat since the Boar is so lean.

*Ok. Hot sauce. It was the other thing, besides flour, that I didn't in all my prepper wisdom stock up on before the pandemic lockdown. Over the winter, I ran through just about everything I had left in the pantry and was down to a few precious jars of my own habanero, scorpion, and ghost chile concoctions. I also became addicted to Cholula Green Pepper hot sauce. Once I realized my predicament-- having no options except my own pickled hot sauce of nuclear proportions-- I surfed to see if I could find any of that Cholula green online. Some hideous profiteer was selling a small bottle for $28 on ebay and I thought, are you insane? Me. Not so much the profiteer. That's a given. Me, for not looking at local or handcrafted options. I went to Etsy and became a devotee of Bushel and Pecks. The most amazingest of Hot Sauce artisans full stop. Inside of a week, I was staring at a truly gorgeous sight: a dozen bottles of the most spectacular hot sauces I've ever tasted. Less than a month after receiving them, I had to restock on the Jalapeno Lime. It's one of my favorites. Particularly in cooking. And, I haven't even gone through tasting each of the 12 variety pack yet. After I made this recipe, which calls for a delicate heat, I tasted their Cherry Bomb and I now know why it's the only sauce they sell in extra large bottles. It's that addictive. (And while posting and getting my links in order, I saw they not only sell the Cherry Bomb in larger bottles but Bushel and Pecks have a limited chive vinegar. Both ordered.)

Taste the Rainbow...

If any silver lining can come out of what's happened to our world regarding Covid-19, then perhaps it will be that there will be a food rennaissance. This is a bad situation with the virus; that can't be overstated. But, it's exposing the faults, fractures, and inequities in our world-- from civil rights to healthcare to food insecurity, just to name a very few. We're going to be in for a long recovery, but perhaps we can start our own recovery in the kitchen. Since our lockdown, hubby's dropped almost 25 pounds and over 100 points on his blood sugar. I've lost a good 10 pounds and I'm hoping my own pre-diabetis has reversed, or is starting to. Finding more wholesome options to food isn't available to everyone, but it should be. A cornerstone of our recovery is for each of us to support small businesses-- from Rancho Gordo to Ancient Grains to Force of Nature Meats to Bushel and Pecks (all linked earlier). We can also help our own recovery by shopping local, for me it's the Brick Farm Market and Double Brook Farm.

Be well and thank you for reading!

Tetramode: Looks nice but don't expect to get what you purchased...

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Fri, 29 May 2020 21:33:00 +0000

This wasn't the post I had wanted to make after so many weeks. My final grades were just filed yesterday and I'm in the middle of a few recipes and yet this is a review that's needed. Not just to warn folks about a company, but to highlight all the other small business owners struggling right now. Some are struggling to stay afloat and others are struggling to keep up with demand. Yet, so many of them are doing the right thing.

Tetramode is a company that may be struggling to stay afloat. They most certainly are facing some internal struggle to do the right thing. They may be trying, but as Old Master Yoda tells us...

Brief background. My husband is the social media guru. I can barely fenagle Facebook, let alone Twitter or the horrors of Instagram. He's been a fan of the art of Samuel and Cate Farrand for a few years. Despite my experience with their company, they have some spectacular visionary art and according to their About Us page, they are community activists and “recently have taken a stand against Ocean Pollution.” Whatever that means....

Way back on April 3^rd, at the height of the pandemic in NY and NJ, when we were trying to make sure we had enough to eat, when I was trying to figure out wtf distance learning was, when I was sending food bank and suicide prevention information to my students, my husband saw Tetramode's ad posted to social media. The company was offering their cloth face masks at cost. Until he saw their ad, the masked reality we're all now living in never occurred to us (well, except for those Liberate folks but the rest of us rational people who now wear masks to protect each other).

We decided to order some for us and for my toddler nieces, the eldest of whom is immunocompromised. We ordered a total of 8 masks, 5 adult and 3 child-sized. This was our first order of something that wasn't food or toilet paper in some time.

Massive pile of adult masks. All clearly marked 8 inches.

We knew at the start that Tetramode had gotten slammed by orders. There were messages online and a note in our order confirmation that because of the high volume, there would be delays in processing. We were so pleased with the idea of our order and were so appreciative of the company that when we got our stimulus check, we again made a purchase from them, this time of clothing. That order was in mid-April.

Consistent readers and those who know hubby and I know we aren't made of money. If anything, we're working poor-- and that's before the current depression we're all standing on the brink of. I'm the sole income earner in my household and I'm an adjunct lecturer. When we do have extra cash to use, we try to lend support to local businesses, artists, and other folks like us-- trying to get by, trying to do a little more than just survive. To plunk down the money we did for masks and then, when we saw we could use a few items of clothing, we went back to Tetramode to do our shopping. For what we spent, we should have gotten a little more courtesy and accommodation. So disconnect #1 with the Tetramode team, which according to their About Us consists of just the artists Samuel and Cate:

“The couple works night & day to offer their customers the very best quality in clothing, customer service and and to give their users an enjoyable web experience. Tetramode is ran & operated entirely by Sam & Cate.”

Writing teacher that I am, I have to say: is RUN and operated. Or just remove the clutter entirely and say Tetramode is operated by Sam & Cate. Don't get me started on all the random capitalization and yet, when they say “entirely” I think-- it's them, with weaving and sewing machines and all that. I can understand a team of 2 taking weeks to fullfill orders.

Nucleus design. I thought it was so cool I ordered pants to match, still haven't received them yet...

But according to the emails I received regarding my order, they have a manufacturer. This is of course possible. Hubby and I ourselves are small business owners with our micro-micro indie press Myth Ink Books. Since we don't own a printing press, we rely on manufacturers for that. But then we don't make claims to be the elves making the books. But, I'll step back from that because after all, the Tetramode team thought “is ran” was just swell.

Finally, after weeks of waiting and watching the production status-- which we were able to view on our account on the Tetramode site-- the masks were received April 30^th. All 8 masks.... 8 adult masks. There were no child-sized masks in the order.

That began a saga of emails, from me politely pointing out the error and querying the company's mistake, followed by emails from them-- vaguely signed with their form signature:

“Much love, Samuel and Cate Farrand www.tetramode.com”

– emails that started well but devolved over the next several weeks into what I can only describe as gaslighting.

The first email was appreciative of our business, humble, and apologetic for the error, but I was told:

“As a temporary fix you can just tie a knot so the masks can fit comfortably, meanwhile we will get you out a replacement ASAP.”

That was on April 30^th. More than a week went by and no replacement masks were received. So disconnect #2 for Sam and Cate. I emailed on May 11^th for an update and in their reply, they questioned my ability to understand the difference between 5 inches and 8 inches, questioned my truthfulness in having received incorrect masks, and told me the only difference between the size of the adult and child-sized masks had to do with the elastic.

Right. That's what I really appreciate, the condescending tone and questioning my ability to know shapes, sizes, and measurements. So Disconnect #3.5 for the Tetramode team.

After a few email back & forths, where I my polite tone became more straightforward and defended the fact that yeah, I know how to measure things and no I'm not confused about the different sizes. I had sent pictures of everything I received. I repeatedly asked who I was communicating with and asked for confirmation that I'd be sent replacements, with a request for a tracking number. They refused to address me as anything other than the first part of my email address, (so what are we on, Disconnect #9.75?). They refused to respond to any of those specific queries, but I did get an email, sort of in the same tone as that very first one-- apologetic and appreciative. I was offered a refund for the 3 child-sized masks I didn't receive, along with a promise that I'd get replacements anyway.

I didn't expect to receive any replacements. But, they sent something. Hubby opened the package to find 2 masks, one adult and one child-sized, with a packing slip that clearly has the child-sized information, with a repetition of Quantity 1 three times. Maybe that slip was filled out by the “is ran” person.

Latest packing slip

I again emailed, but noted there really was no point in prolonging this. I enclosed images of what I received with the packing slip. But, their reply, addressed to “jessicaburke23”, pointed to the second order (the hoodies) which we might expect in the next week or so-- almost 2 months after we ordered them. So their confusion and inability to review prior communication, make that Disconnect #42 just for a nice round number.

What we received were sort of decently made. I mean they look cool-- but that's the design-- and they do wash ok, but only on cold, handwash, low heat or drip dry. I have noted that although the adult masks all say 8 inches, some are larger than others and they leave gaps, so I'm not sure how protected I am when I'm wearing them. So, the one time I wore one in public, I had a bandanna as backup. There's an inconsistency in some part of their manufacturing process, along with inconsistencies in their ability to communicate with customers, plus their verb tense agreement issues. I do hope the hoodies are better.

I know in the scheme of all the chaos and loss this isn't even small potatoes. I can't call this company fraudulent, just overwhelmed and somewhere someone seriously dropped and then decimated the proverbial ball. Maybe they can learn and do better. Their art is still amazing, although I'd like to know what more they're doing aside from just taking a stand against Oceanic polluting. They do have some fundraising with each purchase, and make the claim on their site that:

I'm fine with the first 2. But the others I'm not sure about since anyone can make a claim about anything. I mean, purchasing our latest book supports 2 small businesses-- Myth Ink Books and Crytpocurium, but I could also say by purchasing our book you're helping to defeat Flat Earthers and bring forth the Elder Gods. But whatevs.

We have yet to receive any refund, but maybe that will take a few days to process.

I have to take a moment to thank all the incredible, wonderful brilliant small business owners who have shouldered some serious burdens in all this chaos that we've been facing. We wouldn't be the country we are without them and I do hope that all those who've folded can manage to resurrect themselves. As I said before, there have been many that we've relied on-- from simple household goods to a few simple pleasures. There were some problems with orders-- like a smashed bottle of honey from Florida and delays in herbal supplies. But, each time the company was helpful and accommodating. In all my years of buying local and from craftsmen and women, I really haven't had an experience like this. The last issue I had with a company, Holy Clothing, which I wrote about a few years back, turned into a positive experience and they're now my go-to place if I have need of a new flouncy bit for my wardrobe. I corresponded with that company, including their CEO, expressed my concerns, and they in turn became more transparent regarding their own efforts (which were already in place just not visible) to be sustainable and support their workers by providing healthcare and competitive wages in a world that often uses sweatshop labor.

Again, I wish Tetramode the best. Maybe they can learn from this. But, regardless, I won't be a customer again and they've soured any pride I might've taken in wearing any of their designs-- which I have yet to receive. Like I said, we made a larger purchase from them, but that was 6 weeks ago and still nothing. Crikey, I ordered a hand-tailored fleece jacket from a seamstress in England and that got here quicker than 2 hoodies that should be shipping from one state away.

Just on the off chance that they do an edit...

Pandemonium

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 21:35:00 +0000

So I started this yesterday on Friday the 13^th and we're in the middle of a panic-- both foreign and domestic-- and a pandemic. I had planned on posting a nice recipe or review for the 10^th anniversary of Green and Growing sometime last week, but I was dealing with fallout from that student I mentioned in my last post....

...then fallout from a supervisor's lack of attention paid to an email. Note: a typo can literally mean the difference between someone's ability to work or not. Because of a mistake, the adjuncts in our department thought, for a good chunk of last and part of this week, that we were being even further limited on our schedules for next term, which would mean (for me) being out of a job altogether. Not a good thing when you're the only one earning salary in your home... even if that salary is an hourly wage.

Then we received our first notice that our university system might decide to move classes into an online format. I teach at the Staten Island campus of the City University of New York. My campus alone has an estimate of about 15,000-20,000 people in its community, probably more. The University system has almost 300,000 students currently enrolled; then add faculty and all the staff that makes a college run. We have 26 campuses in our system spread all throughout one of the largest cities in the world. And on a Thursday night our college president did something our CUNY chancellor couldn't: he told us that there might be a possibility of moving classes online if the virus gets worse. But he didn't do more. Especially in light of an update sent last night that noted there was a student in our community who tested positive yesterday.

So, last Thursday, I emailed my students. I pointed their attention at the email from the college president, in case they did what I normally do, which is skim and delete. I started a conversation about the resources to move our classes into an online format. Then, I started looking around in various discussion groups for faculty in my university system. When I started seeing some very confusing messages posted by the university on twitter of all places and I asked for clarification-- from the university, from other faculty, from my own campus' department and program: I was basically slapped down and told I was being “reactionary”... that it was all a panic and it wouldn't impact my students. Essentially that my being prepared and trying to prepare my students was going to cause pandemonium. This was noted when I pointed out concerns from contingent colleagues that our contracts stipulate in-person classes and in-person office hours, and we work in a system that's notorious for cutting budget costs at the expense of contingent workers. Forget about all the work putting classes online for those of us with little to no training or experience. Forget about students who are already stressed, but then the thought of not having the in-person guidance from their instructors?

Then I was told I was taking advantage of an emergency situation. When I noted that I was still holding classes and would until the university or college made a decision to go digital, I was told I should “give up” because no student would be in attendance, that no students cared.

I held class with 75% of my students showing up. Those that didn't, emailed me. I was able to speak with them for what turned out to be the last time in-person this term, because between my first and second class, New York's Governor made a decision my university and my campus refused to make. All CUNY schools would go online after a mandatory recess during which faculty would transition to an online format. This decision was made after several students tested positive throughout the system, and after several members of the university community were themselves exposed. Because the university was playing pass the buck with the decision making. Last week we were told in my program that it's up to us, the individual instructors if we wanted to move classes online. What contingent faculty member would make that decision with zero guarantees that you'd be paid for your time, zero guarantees that your health insurance wouldn't be interrupted (if you're in the small number who get health insurance), and zero guarantees that this decision wouldn't impact our in-person observations or our rehiring next term?

The chaos that this entails pales to what's happening in Italy or Washington state or in New Rochelle New York where everyone is under mandatory lockdown.

But why weren't we more prepared? Not just at the federal or state or for myself, at my university's level? There are a lot of answers, potential reasons, lots of politics, lack of oversight, lack of concern, lack of whatever.

So what do you do? Besides rant in cyberspace? Besides speak to your prepper neighbor (or friend or brother) who tells you you should have known Society would Break Down! You Should Have Prepared!

In the spirit of Douglas Adams: Don't Panic. It's a good rule that I try to pass on to my students.

There is a run on supermarkets and not for food-- at least not yet. Announcing an end to the sporting season in the US will translate to fights over bread and pasta. Since I'm a care-giver for a recovering hoarder, hubby and I go to the supermarket a LOT. And of course when mom started freaking out a few weeks ago about the idea of this virus, she only relaxed when she saw we had ample supplies of food and water. Having paper products was a plus.

Like I said, I started writing that yesterday. Then we went to the store for the last time. As I wrote yesterday and gathered resources to add links, I thought of some of the advice I was reading: Consider things you can't do without if you're told to self-quarantine. To be brutally honest, the 2 things that popped into my head were weed and corned beef. I had forgotten to pick it up the other day and mom had asked for her traditional corned beef and cabbage. She's Italian. So I checked with the dispensary and hubby and I went for a final supplies run.

There weren't fights over bread and pasta. There wasn't any to be had. It's very hard to play Monday morning quarterback now and tell you all the things you should have had on hand. I learned my lessons with Superstorm Sandy. So I always try to have at the barest minimum a week's worth of supplies in the house for everyone in the house-- me, husband, cats and now aging parental unit.

My first post about storm preparedness is a good place to start. But there are some changes.

First, know where you stand.

Unlike a storm, with a pandemic it's not very helpful to know about evacuation zones. For this you'll be sheltering in place pretty much because you don't want to go into crowds. The very last place you want to be-- especially in the US which has more cases than we know about because we aren't up to par on testing!

Social Distancing vs. Quarantine

NYC Mayor deBlasio asked for “social distancing” for New Yorkers. But, what exactly does that mean as opposed to self-monitoring or an outright quarantine? This is a great piece that gives some sound advice on the differences between some of these terms that are brand-new for so many of us.

Waleed Javaid, director of Infection Prevention and Control at Mount Sinai Downtown in Manhattan, told MarketWatch...recommends taking the opportunity now to calmly plan ahead for a possible quarantine; think about some basic necessities you will need if you can’t go out for two weeks. And consider daily chores and habits that would be disrupted, and find work-arounds for them. Can you work from home or stream classes online? Can you send out your laundry, or leave your dog with someone who can walk it each day?“Do you have enough food and clean clothes for 14 days?” he asked. “Do you have drinking water? Probably the biggest mistake that people make with self-quarantining is underestimating the problems they are going to face if they can’t leave home.”

It was after I read that that I thought of the weed and corned beef. Then we went for a last run.

Social distancing is something we should all do at this moment. Stay away from crowds. Have situational awareness when you are out. Do your best to avoid being on top of someone else and keep something else in mind: everyone is in panic mode. You can almost feel it when you're in public. So be mindful, be kind, and be courteous. Everyone is dealing with some of the worst stress they've faced. It's not just the actual virus, but fears and what ifs? You don't know if that person on line eyeballing your paper towels because you got the last pack is a small business owner who's facing bankruptcy as more people start implementing their own social distancing methods, or is of those people who had their SNAP benefits cut off in December and is dealing with just an escalation of stress.

If you haven't yet done it, do what I told my students last week: speak with everyone in your household and get a game plan. If you live with someone who's at risk, then tell your relatives now is not a good time to fly up for a visit. Mom is almost 80 and hubby is diabetic. We love seeing the nieces (for mom granddaughters), but even though it will hurt, we had to say no visits now. And I'm glad we did because as of this morning 38 of their father's (my brother's) fellows in the FDNY are under self-quarantine.

What do you do if you are on lockdown? If you've been exposed, suspect you've been exposed? Check out the above links and also consider it's not just a matter of physically being prepared with the sanitizers and water. There are emotional considerations too, as if physical health and financial health weren't enough.

Then what about kids? I've got my husband and mom. I can't imagine what my sister-in-law and brother might have to deal with if he's also told to self-quarantine, with 3 girls, under the age of 5, who have grown accustomed to doing doing going doing? I was just remarking to mom maybe two weeks ago that I love that my brother spends one-on-one time with each of his girls, taking them for walks, making memories. It's something my dad never did with me and I love that my brother is doing that with his girls. But, now when they can't make memories at the trampoline park or the zoo? Make memories at home. As a person who's not a mom, but a long-time teacher, there are so many things that you can do with kids that you might never have thought of doing. I loved making play dough, cooking, or starting an indoor garden with the kids in my Pre-K classes. Check out some tips and ideas if you get stuck.

I also understand that now may not be the time to chef it up with the kids or make play dough (sorry cooking is still the best recipe I've found). The impulse might be to simply turn on Peppa Pig and leave them to their own devices. But, don't forget the little ones will understand more than you could possibly imagine, so please don't leave them out of the family plans either. They're as stressed as you are. Perhaps more so because kids like their routine. This has radically changed their routine. We woke up to the news that half of all school districts in our current state, New Jersey, have closed to in-person learning or closed for the near future. Other tips on talking to the kids about this situation.

If they're able, which might be easier if the kids are older, include them in as much as you can, so that some of the activities you have to do you can accomplish with them. Giving kids something to do isn't just about keeping them busy. It might make them feel more secure, especially if they think they're helping in a time like this.

If you're still in social distancing mode and haven't yet moved on to self-monitoring or self-quarantining, then please consider doing so. By the time this is posted, we might all be in self-monitoring mode since this has far exceeded any idea of containment.

So, take stock.

Check over your essentials-- and no, toilet paper isn't the top priority. It's up there, but if you run out of TP, you can do what millions of women have done since time immemorial: use cloth. Cut up a few old undershirts or bed-sheets. If you have a washing machine at home the idea of using cloth is much easier and less disgusting. But, read a bit on using cloth baby wipes. Yeah, like I said: women have been doing this for a long time. Toilet paper is a new invention. So what did people do before?

Then you want to see what you have in terms of food. Ideally, for a basic emergency, you should have enough for 72 hours: 3 days. For this, we're being told 14 days. That doesn't help folks who have stuck with the 3 day rule. My original tips hold true: make sure you have higher energy foods, proteins and fats, and don't forget the kitties. Keep in mind your animal companions and make sure they won't go without either.

Once the food and water are situated-- 1 gallon of potable water per person per day--then consider other things. In my original list, I noted medical supplies, but here again we need to shift focus. Here we'll all be dealing with cold symptoms. While everyone is going nuts over not enough hand sanitizer-- and you have stories about making your own-- a serious concern would be how to treat the virus should you get it and you'll be treating it at home: provided the symptoms are mild.

Doing a basic Google search, you can see anyone and everyone selling antiviral remedies, but before you start administering the latest fad –be it a bleach gargle, eating animal dung, or violet oil anal plugs-- look in your spice cabinet.

Most of us have something on hand to help us fight off a cold. Ginger, Garlic, Rosemary, Oregano. All are good herbs with antiviral properties. The first two I made sure I had plenty of fresh on hand to bump them up in our food this week. The latter two I have dry in the pound, plus plenty of essential oil of rosemary and oregano. When hubby worked for a local hospital, I made a sanitizing spray that incorporated those oils because at the time I read a few articles (by experts in the medical field) and saw a news story that talked about using these on surfaces to tackle antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Now, when doing a search all I can find are DIY lysol articles, which are great but not from experts.

I'm not sure about their ordering, since ginger should be toward the top, but here's a list of some herbal antivirals that many of you may have at home already.

I've got several remedies up for other immune system boosting remedies-- from soup, to tea, to fire cider. But if you don't have the ingredients on hand, then they won't help you. So start off with what you've got. Try to eat whole foods also, things that won't further compromise your immune system. So refrain from ordering fried chicken and binging on Doritos.

This is also much easier to tell you to do without understanding what your situation is. I'm not telling you that brewing up a tea will cure coronavirus. But, if you're home and already stressed, keep in mind stress reduces the body's immune system. Being stressed means you're less likely to fight off any infection and cortisol actually hinders the body's ability to fight off a cold.

So see what you have to bolster your immune system, in addition to looking to activities to help reduce or mitigate your stress. For me, it's writing. For hubby it's reading (since we only have one computer with which to write). For mom it's watching a cooking show or an old movie. Once you have your situation situated-- you know what you've got in the house, you have what you need, you're in self-monitoring or self-quarantine mode, then try to relax.

Also arm yourself with information. Don't consume the news ad nauseam. Be informed, but also know when to cut it off. Sanjay Gupta's podcast Coronavirus: Fact vs Fiction is broken into easy to digest segments and clearly labelled, so you don't have to listen to a 2 hour podcast to understand why this is called a pandemic, what the problems with testing are or what testing means, or how the authorities are handling the issues inside a containment zone.

It's unfortunate though that it takes a pandemic for many to realize how “social welfare” programs or “social justice” programs truly impact everyone. Just 2 weeks ago I was having a discussion in class about the need for basic programs like healthcare. When a student complained that “Medicare for All wouldn't be free,” I agreed with him. When he continued that the rise in taxes wouldn't be “worth it,” I posed a simple question: “Taxes are already high if you're a member of the middle and working class, so wouldn't you prefer that your taxes go towards programs that would directly benefit you?”

Having guarantees to healthcare means that the fear of the cost of the treatment or the test won't prevent someone from seeking help. Having guarantees to sick time or family leave means you won't go to work and risk exposing others if you know your job isn't at risk if you stay home to self-monitor, or to care for a family member who's had to stay home. Remember if you're self-monitoring then everyone in your household is as well. If you're under self-quarantine, then so is everyone else sharing the same roof. And it's taken all this for our administration to promise expansions to Medicare for those impacted by COVID-19. And it's taken this for a Federal judge to block the massive cut-off to SNAP so that in this crisis, our most vulnerable members of society aren't made more vulnerable-- and that just as Congress passes a massive aid package that will help families. But the Senate went home without voting on the bill.

Could this all have been prevented? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But, looking ahead, we need to keep all this in mind when we go to the ballot in November. And I'm sure we'll continue, we'll move forward, we'll have an election. This administration must be cowed by this because their efforts to undo everything that came from the last administration put us here. By eliminating the safe-guards put in place by having a pandemic response team-- the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense-- in place meant that there were eyes watching for this eventuality.

So, please take care of yourselves. Drink plenty of fluids. Wash your hands. Watch your Netflix. Be mindful of each other. Remember we're all in this together.

This Aggression Cannot Stand, Man...

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 01:26:00 +0000

I'm not sure what to say. I don't know how to react to what's been happening over the last days, weeks, months. Not to the fires in Australia or the Amazon. Not to the 50° February day I'm experiencing in my little patch of ground in New Jersey. Not to the email I got from my department supervisor notifying me (and my colleagues) to the increased homelessness and hunger we can expect in our student population this term. Not to the idea that a decorated soldier was escorted off his post today for doing nothing more than telling the truth and protecting his country. Not to the freshmen college student who screamed vitriol at me for telling him that it's inappropriate to wear earbuds in class. Not to the lone member of his party who stood up to them all and spoke his conscious, which happened to coincide with his oath before his god, which happened to be within his first amendment rights.

And yet, the fires have largely been ignored (at least in the US media). The warm day in February will be chased by an evening of wind gusts and winter temperatures (today's high of 59° will dip to a low of 25° with a wind chill in the upper teens). My department supervisor told me that since the vitriolic student continued to act “appropriately” after his verbal abuse, then I should essentially put up and shut up, and that was after I filed a report with the college to request the college see if the student was in any distress; for all I know he could have been one of the 700,000 people who were cut off of SNAP in December, or he could be one of the 1.5 million homeless students. Or he could be gearing up for his own version of Virginia Tech. And the talking heads on Trump T.V. (aka Fox News) are decrying the Vindmans as traitors (both of them, since Alexander Vindman and his twin brother Yevgeny were both fired and escorted from their White House posts today) along with Romney and Pelosi, Schiff, anyone who said anything “not loyal” to #IMPOTUS.

Where are we heading as a country? As a species? Are we in our final days?

I don't like to think of this blog as political. I don't want to ostracize any of my readers. I don't want to offend anyone. But, then I think back to how Green and Growing began. March 4^th2010 was my first post. Hard to believe almost 10 years ago.... Yeah, it was a bit ranty, but it was a critique of how close Hillary Clinton was (and probably still is) to Monsanto. Shortly after I penned that, I wrote to Mother Earth News, more than upset that while Michelle Obama was planting a fantabulous organic garden, it would be horrifically impacted should Clinton's food safety act be adopted into law. A law President Obama showed support for.

Then for Independence Day 2010, Anthony and I shared a semi-rant about how big corporations seek to limit our freedom regarding everything from the food we eat to the water we drink.

Like the GOP TP image above, another Jim Carrey original.

I'd say to date I've had more critique on this blog of the Obama administration and the Clintons than the current one, who like Voldemort has remained nameless. Until now.

I can't help but be political when posting about things like food fascism, preparedness, herbal medicine, and entheogens. To push against the machine, to try to take back control over simple things from making bread to making soda (if you choose to drink it), to refusing to prostrate myself and buy corporate bullshit (be it hair conditioner, cough syrup, or bug spray), those are all acts of subtle resistance, subtle defiance, subtle politics.

What does it mean to be political? I'm no etymologist, but to be political, doesn't that mean to regard the people? To be involved or connected to civil or state affairs? From the Greek polis: the citizens. Yes, city-state (my past life as a Classics major surfaces in my mind). But when speaking to people-- my fellow citizens-- about life choices, be they DIY or product reviews-- that's all political, right?

It's not that I thought the Impeachment trial would end with IMPOTUS being removed from office. But, it's the sinking, creeping, horrible feeling that we are in the final days of our great Republic. It's the lies of the State of the Union that we're being force-fed. We're told the economy and job market is The Best Ever! We're supposed to believe that an act of moral courage, not to mention observing his religious freedom on the part of Senator Romney is an act of a traitor, when his party fought for the rights of medical professionals (and others including bakers and random state pencil pushers like Kim Davis) to take full advantage of their own first amendment rights.... but only when using those rights to subvert the rights of others.

So I ask, in all honesty, where do we go from here? Can we permit this aggression to stand, man? Are we to just make our kombucha, pet our fur babies and hope there are more morels come spring?

Remember that they ignored the signs in Germany in the 1930s. Remember that the first concentration camp in Dachau was for political dissenters. Remember the Night of the Long Knives may repeat itself.

To my American readers: register to vote. Your vote counts. Never think it doesn't. Little more than half of eligible voters actually voted in the 2016 Presidential election. The same can't happen again. But that's even assuming our votes will actually be counted between voter suppression and the lack of security with the actual voting machines.

To all my Republican readers (if there are any left after getting this far): remember your party is the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. You are the party that started the concept of civil liberties and environmental conservation when there were Democratic Senators (the Dixiecrats) who were standing up for deviants in white hoods. That's not an insult to my fellow Dems, nor is it an agreement with the vicious social media allegation that the Democratic party started the KKK. It's a reminder and a reflection. Party allegiances change. Party ideals change. If they change so much that you can't recognize them, then leave. Change. Separate yourself from the party machine. Remember your values and your roots and your humanity.

A facebook friend (who happens to be a real-world friend if that matters at all whatsoever) posted this in her feed today. It's old, but it's relevant-- even though it's a commercial for a television channel. It inspired this post.

I'm not ready to give up on a country I love and I hope you aren't either. Make sure you vote. Make sure your larder is stocked and you have your papers. Dark times are ahead but with hope, we can weather the storm.

The Food has Weed in It: A Cooking with Weed Primer with Recipes for Weed Roasted Garlic, Caramelized Mushroom Risotto, and A Bean Ragout

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Sun, 19 Jan 2020 01:26:00 +0000

I'm guessing this will be a new feature on Green and Growing: dosed meals. Consider this the next installment of my Healing with Cannabis series, particularly since one of the best ways to promote healing is through the food you eat. The recipes featured below star some of my favorite things: Rancho Gordo beans, Smiling Earth Mushrooms, and some primo cannabis from the fine folks at Garden State Dispensary.

Eating cannabis-- more delicately referred to as “edibles”-- is an excellent way to incorporate the medicine into your life. Adding cannabis to meals has become normal in my house and often I have to remind my family when they visit not to randomly sample the food in the fridge because most of it is dosed. Now, the challenge is trying not to automatically reach for the weed sprinkles when I'm cheffing it up for guests, especially my brothers, my nieces, and my nephew. I've got several containers in my spice cabinet that I routinely use like I would my Herbs de Provence in everything from eggs to smoothies, from oatmeal to soup to desert. You can put weed in almost any food.

The Primer

Cooking with cannabis can be difficult, especially if you're new to the idea of cooking with marijuana or are a new user, either recreationally or medically. Everything can be a challenge from where to get your supply (especially if you want to chef it up in a prohibition state or your medical cannabis doesn't include flower like in the great state of New York), to the quality of the weed (especially when some recreational and pretty much all black-market weed has some level of contamination from mold to heavy metals to grow chemicals being in the harvested bud). Then say you get your mitts on some primo, culinary grade weed-- then what strains go with what food? How much do you use? And so on.

Before settling down with your frying pan and your bud, I'd recommend getting your hands on a really good weed cookbook for guidance. They're everywhere. Dozens of canna-cookbooks. Lots of those questions and concerns about cooking with marijuana are discussed in what has to be my favorite cannabis cookbook: Bong Appétit: Mastering the Art of Cooking with Weed. I should review it with more detail, but suffice it to say that it's got some really good overall info on culinary applications of cannabis, the best general guideline on Decarboxylation, and a fair formula for getting your dosing right.

I'd also recommend reading as much as you can online and absolutely don't wing-it. Make a plan for how you're going to start bringing cannabis into your kitchen. A bad experience can turn you off from using cannabis this way. A good cannabis cookbook will be an indispensable guide using cannabis in your favorite dishes, making infusions, and making new-favorite dishes, with weed, of course!

So after you get your cookbook and start to formulate a plan, the first challenge is dosing. Be advised: eating your weed is NOT like smoking or vaping it. Edibles can be very strong, too strong for some folks, and the effects last hours. Sometimes days if you over do it or pair an amount that you thought was ok with a canna-loving fat or another food that can amplify the effects of the THC. My first try at making my own pot brownies had me well stoned for more than 24 hours and my first experience with cannabis ever was a nefarious brownie bought covertly on a Negril beach the night before I was set to return home. I was tripping for the first 12 hours and I felt the effects for more than 36 hours.

So, go slow. It's worth repeating: start slowly. Use a small amount of cannabis when you're new to ingesting cannabis and/or new to cooking with it, for yourself and especially for others. You wouldn't want a freakout at a dinner party, would you?

Knowing the exact dosing is more than helpful. But, dosing is different for everyone. When you search online for dosing guidelines, some folks recommend doses that vary wildly. I have no idea what was in that nefarious gangja brownie I got in Jamaica, but my calculations tell me my own pot brownie had between 4-6mg of THC and I was out there for half a day, with full body effects felt into the next day. That was a year ago, before I became a habituated cannabis user, so now that 4-6mg might not even blip the radar for me.

Since I'm just making dosed meals for my husband and myself, I don't have exact milligram dosing. Yes, I'm cooking for mom too, though she's not as keen on our healthier concoctions so she gets maybe half of what my husband and I get. Dosing has been something of an experiment and while there were 2 backfires, (maybe 2 and ½), on the whole, I've got a decent idea of how a measurement of cannabis in what kind of food gives me what effect. I see how my husband reacts, so I know what kind of a dose is good for both of us. Early on when I wasn't as comfortable with cooking with cannabis, I was in the mode of being obsessive about dosage. Now, I'm more relaxed about it, but I can afford to be. My medical condition isn't as life threatening as compared to some folks that need specific dosages. I know what's too much. But, even that changes as I titrate my overall dosing. And, then you have to consider THC tolerance, so that will cause the amount of cannabis used in cooking to change as well.

If you need exact dosing, sharpen your pencils and make sure the calculator is handy because you'll need to do some math to determine what the amounts of THC and CBD are in your meals. Check around online and you'll find several THC calculators, which range in accuracy. Decarboxylation again is the process of exposing your cannabis to heat in order to activate the THC and CBD. If you don't need a specific milligram dose, then mark a day or two on your calendar and experiment. Make sure you have someone with you in case you need a sitter. In my worst freak outs, I did need someone to sit with me. You don't want to have anything important scheduled in case you get a case of couch-lock. Ignore most of the dosing guidelines you'll find in forums like Reddit. Even some of the dosing proposed by Bong Appétit (both the cookbook and the show) I think are too high, or at least too high for me. I made a coconut oil infusion of Bubble-Gum and using a mere ¼ tsp in a cup of hot cocoa was my sweet spot. The only way to discover your starting dose is to go slowly and remember something vital: you won't die from too much weed. You may think you'll die, but there's no evidence that an overdose of marijuana will kill you on its own.

In the meantime, there are more than a few ways to infuse cannabis into your food. Most of them center on infusing a fat and many of those focus on butter or an oil (coconut and olive being most common). Routinely though, cannabis is paired with fat. Why? Because THC and CBD are fat soluble. They won't be utilized by the body unless you're ingesting them with fat.

The absorption will vary depending on the type of fat. But, I've also seen that the quality of the food and fat contained therein also comes into play. I got way more stoned by a simple meal of field greens, multi-grain rice, and seared salmon than I did by a bowl of minestrone, the former having far less weed added to the recipe than the latter. Then, as noted before, certain foods can increase the euphoria from ingesting cannabis.

The biggest challenge though, hands down, is cost. I don't know anyone who's got access to a cornucopia of weed-- as they did on the first incarnation of the Bong Appetit show. So what's a good way to use weed in the kitchen without breaking the bank?

ABV weed. Already Been Vaped.

Before I give the weed purists and culinary cannabis gurus the vapors, I'll stress that weed is one of the most expensive herbs in the world, even though it doesn't make the list. Cannabis is easily as expensive as saffron, the queen of the spices, which clocks in at anywhere from $500-$2000 for the wholesale price per pound. Cannabis ranges from $900-$2200 per pound, but that may be retail. I know what I pay at my dispensary: $62.50 + tax for 3.5 grams of flower. Do the math. With tax, that's just about $8400 per pound. That's not as much as saffron, but still. I don't know about you, but the idea of getting more use from something that expensive? Recycling is cool and now it can get you well toasted.

The more surfing I do, using ABV weed isn't uncommon, though some of the applications and suggested dosing sound dubious. There's one recommendation circulating on Reddit for slathering the a shocking 5 grams of ABV on peanut butter, toasting the sammich, and imbibing. Scrolling down the page, the picture I noted of was enough to give me the jitters. It's a LOT of weed and I know how I felt with a fraction of that dosage. Nope.

ABV weed is what many folks who vape whole flower cannabis normally throw away. It's the cannabis that's already had the good stuff (THC, CBD, terpenes) vaporized. I got the idea from the counselor at my dispensary and I am forever grateful to him for that-- otherwise I would have never thought to use vaped material and I would have never been brought to vaping whole plant. I would have struggled with butters and infusions and wasted a lot of weed. I'm sure some karmic debt was paid in full with that info because it's been life changing.

When you vape your bud, you're essentially decarbing it-- which is to expose your weed to heat in order to activate the phytocannabinoids. (Here's a great guide to decarboxylation if you're still a bit vague on what it is, how to do it, and why it's needed). The herb that's left in your whole leaf vaporizer after you vape a bowl is still full of THC, CBD, and even some terpenes. Several articles and that Reddit thread claim all the THC is vaped off, so you won't get stoned and ABV weed can be used liberally. Don't. Unless you're vaping at the highest setting for your device, there are still phytocannabinoids to enjoy in that bud. After experimenting with ABV weed for a few weeks, I started separating out my ABV weed into 2 categories: daytime and evening. Being the efficient herbalist, I had some opaque glass jars on hand. Slapped a label on them and proceeded to experiment, using the Daytime salad for the morning oatmeal, lunchtime smoothies, and anything eaten during the day. I even carry dram-sized vial with me and use it to sprinkle on meals far from

ABV OG Kush on my Americone Dream. Mm good.

home. The Evening is used for anything eaten later in the day-- dinner and beyond.

When saving your ABV, make sure it's clean. Don't save anything that's too dark. If your weed is scorched and the color of asphalt then it's toast; dump it. It almost goest without saying: don't save weed that's been contaminated with anything from pipe-cleaner fibers to cleaning solvents. When I clean my PAX, I have my ABV weed container, do a quick dump. Cover and put the container aside while I do any intense cleaning. That keeps the ABV free of contaminants.

Speaking of contaminants: use top notch weed in your cooking. Use top-notch weed period. Make sure what you're using is free of all chemicals, that it's been flushed properly and is completely free of anything-- except your terps and phytocannabinoids. According to one of the growers at my dispensary, improperly flushed weed or weed that hasn't been flushed at all, gives you an off-tasting bud. That will impact the flavor of the weed when you cook with it.

Maybe 3 or 4 months ago, I started further separating out the varieties of ABV weed. Now I have ABV containers divided into strains, so I know I can be a bit heavier-handed with my ABV Haleigh's Hope on days when I need a little more CBD. I can even experiment with a fresh strain alongside the ABV of the same variety, which I tried with both recipes I'm including below. (So, yeah this is a mammoth article.) Separating out strains isn't so much about flavor but effect. I find that for me an ABV salad can be a bit jarring, especially if you have too much. The onset can be a rush, sort of like being on the first plunge of a roller coaster, and I'm left wondering if I had too much and this was the start of a freakout. Using a single strain of ABV gives a more gradual, less roller coaster onset, which for me is optimal. I'm not a fan of roller coasters.

ABV weed has some pros and cons in terms of flavor. It depends on your perspective. If you want the flavor of cannabis, I'd say it's a con since it really has none of the funk particular to cannabis. It's also got none of the smell since most of the terpenes were already vaped. But, that can be a pro if you don't want to taste any of that cannabis funk. And, since it's essentially not altering the flavor of a dish, you can use it in pretty much anything. ABV weed has a slightly nutty taste, but even that disappears pretty quickly. ABV weed is subtle enough that I've used it in homemade cannoli cream with zero change to the flavor.

Right now, I know when I made a pot of something, I use about ¼ tsp of ABV cannabis. For the entire pot. When I went over that, thinking ½ tsp was ok-- I made a batch of beans that were just way too strong. Not freak out strength, but almost. I'm at the threshold of pushing the envelope, so again my measurements are for me and my family (hubby and mom). So please, use your judgement when dosing for anyone eating your dosed meals. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. So read up and keep three rules in mind, you'll be good.

First: go slow and start small. Don't throw a handful of weed in anything. I started with a pinch (maybe 1/16 tsp at best, probably smaller) and after a year of cooking with weed, I've only graduated to ¼ tsp. So a little goes a LONG WAY. Especially with edibles, as already discussed. And, I've found that ABV weed is much stronger than many on the interwebs give it credit for, as long as you don't vape it to death-- which you won't be inclined to do if you know you aren't “wasting your weed”.

Second: LABEL YOUR FOOD! If you infuse, make sure everyone in the house knows and always mark your leftovers. Clearly. Especially if you put anything in the freezer for a future meal. No. You won't remember wtf is in the container, much less whether it's dosed. So mark it.

Third: if you ignore rule #1 or haven't titrated enough to figure what the sweet dose is for you and you're a bit heavy handed (as I was a few months back, add to that I hadn't marked my leftovers and forgot what I added more ABV weed to had already been dosed), remember rule #3: No one has died from too much weed. You can overdose, but that won't kill you. Not unless you intend on getting behind the wheel or climbing on a highwire. And, as the brilliant Vanessa Lavorato (of Marigold Sweets and co-host of Bong Appétit) says: You're not going to die. Just relax with a comedy.

Now that the primer is done, relax with this meal. It's how hubby and I kicked off the New Year. Roasted Garlic, Caramelized Mushroom Risotto, and A Bean Ragout.

Oven Roasted Garlic

Ingredients:

1 cup peeled garlic cloves
1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
¼ tsp ABV weed (or more, depending on your preference and dosage requirements).

I find it easier to use already peeled garlic, but only if you get it from a produce market or ethnic store. The overly packaged stuff in the produce aisle in the supermarket is old and has so much packaging it's ridiculous. If you don't mind peeling your own, then get 2 large heads or 3 medium heads peeled-- enough for 1 cup of whole garlic cloves.
It's perfectly fine if you want to peel using the smash method, just don't smash them beyond recognition. You'll want mostly whole cloves if at all possible. Trim the ends off your cloves and make sure they're dry.
While you're peeling, pre-heat your oven to 350.º Add your garlic to an oven-safe glass or ceramic dish; I used a loaf pan. Cover with about 1 cup of olive oil. Tightly cover the pan with aluminum foil.
Bake for about 20-30 minutes, until the garlic is golden brown. Take it out of the oven and let it stand undisturbed for a while. Don't immediately remove the foil or you risk the oil splattering in your face.
When the pan is cool enough to touch, using a slotted spoon remove all the garlic from the oil, and place in a glass jar. A smallish wide mouth, canning jar works best. The oil should go in its own jar. Don't be tempted to put your oil in a bottle. It'll be hard to extract since it will be refrigerated. The cold oil will solidify, so it won't be pourable. In a jar, it's easier to measure out a tablespoon.

Enjoy in any number of recipes like the Caramelized Mushroom Risotto and the Bean Ragout. Try some as a quick snack. Simply smash a clove on a piece of crusty bread with a little drizzle of the oil and a sprinkle of a nice gourmet salt-- Himalayan, Red Alaea, or Black Lava are spectacular favorites. Nummy.

Caramelized Mushroom Risotto

Here's something that I dreamed about on New Year's Eve in anticipation of making it the next day with the stellar fresh mushrooms I picked up from Smiling Earth Mushrooms. I used fresh and ABV Pine Soul OG. Use whatever you have on hand and keep the aforementioned rules in order regarding the amount of cannabis to use.

Ingredients:

1 pound gourmet or wild mushrooms; for this recipe I used only chestnuts and pioppinos
2 cups of arborio rice (raw, rinsed and drained)
8 cups of chicken stock (if using pre-made and not homemade, see note* below)
Light-green bottom of 1 large leek, cut into crescents (reserve the green tops-- all the green tops; see note** number 2 below)
1 medium yellow onion, minced
1/8 tsp ABV Pine Soul OG
About the same of fresh cannabis, not decarbed, chopped fine
4-5 cloves of cannabis roasted garlic, minced
½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp roasted garlic infused cannabis oil
½ cup grated Gruyère
½ cup grated Pecorino Romano
½ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1 cup white wine
kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

*Chicken Stock: If you're not using homemade, that's fine. Use a store bought stock that you're familiar with in terms of taste. You want something that has a decent flavor. Ditto if you're using Vegetable stock. You can add to the flavor by bumping up the flavor profile. To 2 quarts of stock, add the cleaned green leek tops-- use the really tough bits, so the top 2 inches or so of the leek, the cleaned celery tops, cleaned parsley stems, and 2 tsp of whole black or mixed peppercorns. Simmering your stock covered on medium for 20-30 minutes. Strain and return to low heat for the risotto.

**Wash your leek carefully. I like to use all of my leeks. The longer the cook-time of a recipe, the more time for the green tops to soften; I like to use whatever isn't tough. The tough bits save for stock. The tender, greener bottoms do well in recipes with shorter cook-time and in recipes with a more delicate flavor, like the risotto.

Clean and trim your mushrooms. Separate caps and stems.
Mince the stems and set aside.
Chop the remaining mushrooms. If the caps are small enough, leave them whole. Anything larger than your thumbnail is too large.
Into a heavy-bottomed pot (not cast-iron and not non-stick), caramelize mushrooms on medium heat in butter and garlic infused canna-oil, using 1 tsp of each at a time. Do this in batches and set aside the browned mushrooms in a covered vessel.
Once the mushrooms are removed from the pot, return the pot to the heat and deglaze with 1/3 cup wine. Pour off deglazed wine and set aside. You will use it later in the cooking.
One the mushrooms are caramelized and removed from the pot, saute the onion and leek in more butter and infused oil until translucent. About 5 minutes.
Add minced garlic and the weed-- both fresh and ABV. Stir to combine.
Add the arborio rice and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir to make sure nothing sticks, raise the heat to get a little browning
Deglaze the pan with the all the wine.
Once the liquid is absorbed, start adding the warmed stock. Reduce the heat to medium. When the liquid is absorbed by the rice, repeat, adding no more than ½ cup of warmed stock a time. Stir gently and consistently, but this isn't merengue. You don't need to add air and make a gloppy mess. (Here are some perfect risotto tips)
Halfway through the cooking process, add ½ tsp of kosher salt and a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper, about ½-1 tsp.
At the midway point, switch to a ¼ cup scoop or ladle to add your broth. Keep the dance going: ladle, stir, absorb, ladle, stir, absorb until the rice is almost al dente. How do you know? Taste. If the rice is undercooked, you'll instinctively want to drink something to flush out the gritty taste. If it's al dente, it will have a firmness; a “bite.”
Add the mushrooms and any of the mushroom juices (which won't be much since you didn't
salt your mushrooms) just before the sweet al dente mark, when your rice is still undercooked. If your rice went too long and is al dente, don't despair. Just turn off the heat, add your mushrooms without any of their liquid. Reserve it for another dish (like the Bean Ragout). Absolutely Do NOT add broth at this step. If your rice isn't quite done yet, you want to allow the rice to absorb any of the liquid from the mushrooms. Once it has, if the rice isn't perfectly al dente, add a bit more liquid, but a scant tablespoon or two at a time.
When the rice is al dente, turn off the heat. Add your cheese, a sprinkle at a time so it won't ball up, stirring gently. Finish with parsley and eat as soon as possible.

A Bean Ragout

This may be the last recipe on the list, but start this before the Risotto. Since I'm using Rancho Gordo Beans, a long soaking isn't necessary. At the very least, I soak my beans about an hour or two before cooking, as I'm prepping my vegetables, so I get a nice soaking liquid to use in cooking. This is especially helpful when I'm making a vegetarian dish and don't have veggie stock on hand. Always use your soaking liquid. It's full of nutrients from the bean. Don't think of the soaking liquid as the washing liquid. You've already sorted and washed your beans well BEFORE soaking. Using the soaking liquid also deepens the flavor of the dish.

This particular dish, the beans had soaked for 4 hours. What can I say, I had a lot of prep to do in the kitchen that day, hence the need for a nicely dosed meal. 😉

Ingredients:

½ pound gourmet or wild mushrooms. Again I used my Smiling Earth Mushrooms. Shiitake, Blue Oysters and Lionsmane; cleaned and trimmed
1 cup sorted, washed Yellow Indian Woman Bean (If you can't find this particular bean, use something that's creamy but hearty; something that won't melt away in the pot and something that won't compete with the mushrooms in terms of texture. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES use canned beans. Order something from Rancho Gordo. Since they're out of Yellow Indian Woman Beans right now (along with my first substitute for them, Eye of the Goat) try their Santa Maria Pinquito Bean or their Lila Bean
1 large onion white or vidalia, sliced, set aside from the other onions
2 medium yellow onions, sliced
4-6 medium carrots, chopped fine
3 stalks celery, chopped fine
4-6 cloves of roasted infused garlic, minced
½ head of flat leaf parsley
1/8- ¼ tsp ABV Haleigh's Hope
No I didn't use all this bud in my beans. I used a piece a little smaller than a nickle, chopped it, and measured out 1/4 tsp.
¼-½ tsp fresh Haleigh's Hope bud, not decarbed, chopped
3-4 tbsp butter and 3-4 tbsp weed-infused garlic oil
Green tops of 1 leek, sliced into crescents (again see note** above)
2 cups chicken stock (+ more if needed; see note* above)
2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste

In a heavy bottom pot, cast-iron is fine, caramelize the large onion in 1 tbsp butter and the same amount of the weed-infused garlic oil. After 3-4 minutes, when the onions go translucent, add the 2 tsp of sugar and let the onions caramelize.
Mince the fresh weed and add to the caramelizing onions. When golden and jammy, set aside.
Meanwhile, in another heavy-bottomed pot, on medium-high heat, saute the remaining onions, leeks, and ABV weed until translucent in the remaining butter and infused garlic oil. About 5 minutes.
Then add the minced, roasted infused garlic, carrots, and celery for another 3-5 minutes.
Meanwhile, pour off the soaking liquid from the beans-- but set aside! You're going to use it.
Add beans to the pot with ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper. Saute quickly, making sure to coat the beans in the pan juices and oils. Add reserved soaking liquid and 2 cups stock. Stir to combine. Cover with a tight-fitting lid, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer.
Every 15-20 minutes, check for doneness and to make sure the liquid hasn't simmered away. When beans are midway, add 1 tsp of salt (or to taste). You don't want the beans floating in a soup, but you want to make sure there's about 3 cups of liquid in the bottom of the pot. Add broth if necessary. The consistency of this dish is a thick, stew: a ragout.
Meanwhile, using a super sharp knife-- I was more successful with a sharp, serrated bread knife-- slice your Lionsmane into steaks or large chunks. Set aside. Cut your oysters and shiitakes into large, 1-2 inch pieces. Set these aside separately from the Lionsmane.
When the beans are nearing done, place a cast-iron pot or skillet on medium-high heat. DRY. Do not add any fat. Sear the Lionsmane on each side until golden. Set aside.
Reduce the heat to medium. Add some of your butter and infused garlic oil. Begin browning sliced shiitakes and oyster mushrooms in batches. When one's done, set aside, and start the next batch. When all are browned, return all the mushrooms to the pan, add in the caramelized onions you made earlier. Gently fold. Add the lionsmane. Gently fold to combine. Turn off the heat.
When the beans are done, remove from the heat. Finish the beans with chopped parsley. Stir to combine. Check seasoning. Adjust salt and pepper if necessary.
Serve beans topped with caramelized mushrooms.

Serve your duo of risotto and bean ragout together. Or alone. Either way, they're both spectacular and quite filling.

The dosing for this meal left hubby and I nicely toasted, with full-body relaxation and no jitters. Feel free to experiment with strains. Use what you have. Experiment with measurements of your weed, but stick with the basic rules in the primer.

Review: Smiling Earth Mushrooms

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 21:18:00 +0000

I supposed we're kicking off the New Year right and I'm hoping we'll keep up posting regularly. To our readers: thank you for sticking with us despite our not-too-regular schedule. Your constant support has been an inspiration to keep moving ahead. Thank you!

So, as I mentioned in my review of Fantastic Fungi, the amazing individuals at The Showroom Cinema told hubby and I about the mycological wizardry happening at Smiling Earth Mushrooms in Long Branch. A short journey from Asbury Park took us to a great little shop a stone's throw from where my mother grew up. If you blink, you'll miss the shop. It's right on the corner of one of New Jersey's crazed little streets.

For a New Yorker, used to straight lines, even corners, and the wonders of Street Signs, navigating the wilds of New Jersey can be treacherous. Unfortunately we rely on Google for help and occasionally – no, often times, Google leads us astray. Recently it almost caused an accident by having the navigation voice shout: “Boo! Gotcha!” as we tried finding an Indian Restaurant in Woodbridge on a dark and rainy night just before the end of this past semester. It was so startling that I shrieked. I'm lucky I wasn't in the driver seat. But, I digress....

We found Smiling Earth without much interference from the Google Overlords. Smiling Earth has a small parking lot to accommodate customers and we're grateful for that. It'll make shopping there more convenient. The shop itself is small, which is wonderful. We were the only customers there, although they were about 20 minutes from closing. It was also New Year's Eve. But, as the Smiling Mushroom Lady behind the counter noted, they're a new shop and have been hopping since they opened (little under 3 months ago now) from word-of-mouth primarily.

We were winded as we entered, both from the cold and from our race from north Jersey. Even though it was New Year's Eve, we thought to make a quick stop at the dispensary since supply was running low. Mistake. We were counting the minutes which stretched to hours and thought there was no way we were getting to Smiling Earth before they closed. Despite the frustration and a day that had so far left us feeling more than a bit verklempt, that little shop was just the boost Anthony and I needed. Not just for that day either. Finding this shop has put a few of our goals for the new year into perspective and within our reach. So between Fantastic Fungi and using mushrooms as medicine, finding a reliable source for fresh mushrooms to use culinarily is something I didn't realize as important until we found Smiling Earth.

Our first impressions? Smiling Earth Mushrooms reminded me of a cross between my favorite hippy herb shop and a butcher's shop or delicatessen. This was a bit of a surprise. I wasn't exactly certain what we'd find at the shop and it isn't immediately clear from the Smiling Earth website that they offer the freshest, most locally grown mushrooms that you can get, short of growing or foraging for them yourself.

How? Smiling Earth Mushrooms grows them on site. They are a mushroom farm with one spectacular growroom that can be seen from the storefront.

I was immediately drawn to the counter and display, which, like I said, reminded me of a deli or butcher shop display. I thought it brilliant. A vegan meat counter. There were tinctures and remedies along the wall and a display with something I didn't know existed: mushroom jerky.

It sounds weird, admittedly, even for someone who has had several brushes with veganism and tries to operate as a mostly vegetarian (well, lacto-ovo-vegetarian who's also pescatarian if you want to get specific). Once, when I had so many kombucha scobies that I didn't know what to do, I tried making a scoby jerky which tasted like sour cardboard. The texture of the mushroom jerky had a momentary textural note that reminded me of that scoby jerky. But, that was short-lived. Mushroom jerky is ridiculously good. To quote the hubster: fuck that's delicious. (Sorry for any trademark infringement). We've tried all jerky varieties Smiling Earth makes-- BBQ, Spicy, and Ginger Teriyaki. I'm not sure which one I like better, but they're all distinct. Generally, I like jerky, both traditional (animal) and seitan jerky. I'm not a jerky nut, though, because a lot of it tastes the same. I also don't like the overly sweet, overly sticky jerky, or anything that tastes like peppered shoe-leather. I haven't gotten around to making my own, but now I might just have to-- using Smiling Earth mushrooms. But, since it takes a crazy amount of fresh mushrooms to make jerky, for now, I'll stick with what they make in house. The flavors are nuanced and each is like no jerky I've tasted before. I think we plowed through the BBQ too quickly to pick up anything more specific than good barbeque. But the other two? You can taste quality spices, a real punch of ginger on the Teriyaki and a finish of fennel which is really nice on the Spicy. My complaint? The bags are too small. Must have more shroom jerky.

Another plus on Smiling Earth, the shop itself isn't kitschy. Sometimes when going in some shops that cater to a more eclectic clientele – whether it's a headshop or an herb shop – I find the décor a bit too woo woo and by that I don't mean esoteric, occult, or whatever term you want to call it. As a witch, that doesn't bother me. I am bugged by kitsch, though. Smiling Earth has some really cute mushroom accents and an amazing little wooden shroom seat that I'm envious of, but the mushroom theme isn't overwhelming like the Guinea Pig Café from Fleabag.

My only mission when going the first time was to see if Smiling Earth had some maitake tincture. After some revamping of our supplement regimen (which I'll post about in the next few months once we're done tweaking and titrating), I came across a supplement complex for blood sugar from Fungi Perfecti, Paul Stamets' company; this in turn led me to maitake for blood sugar regulation. Before making the tincture myself, I always try to find a reputable source to use first, monitor any reactions, and then if all goes well, get the raw ingredients to make myself.

I did a once-over of the store, grabbed some of their Maitake tincture as Anthony sampled the jerky, and I came back to that spectacular display brimming with mushrooms. I was also pretty impressed with myself, a neophyte when it comes to mycology; I was able to identify most of what was on hand except two: chestnuts and piopinnos. But, then knowing the difference between lionsmane and oyster mushrooms doesn't take a mycological genius. Still. I have never seen so many fresh mushrooms before. Not even at farmer's markets.

Of course they had to come home with me and as I looked at the display, the mushrooms whispered to me of possibilities. I decided on our meal for New Year's Day: mushroom risotto.

Our bounty. Top: lionsmane (center), shitake (bottom), oysters (top); Bottom: lighter brown are piopinno and golden are the chestnuts.

The chestnuts were a stellar golden brown and the piopinnos reminded me visually of shiitakes but with a more delicate texture. There were an abundance of oysters –which looked to be blue, pearl, and phoenix oysters– shiitakes, some lionsmane and one lonely maitake. There were also some bowls of mixed mushrooms. I nabbed the mixed bowls and got a half-pound of each the chestnuts and piopinnos. The prices are fair, ranging about $16 a pound for most of the varieties. Each mixed bowl was about $6, which made those a really good price for about half-a-pound of mushrooms. All told, I spent about $25 on shrooms and I made two brilliant dishes for New Years Day: the aforementioned mushroom risotto and a bean ragout with carmelized lionsmane. I'll post those recipes next.

Alongside the jerky, Hubby nabbed a great shirt with the Smiling Earth logo to add to his collection.

Fresh mushrooms don't taste anything like what you get in the store. While the flavor is mild, taking on the flavors of whatever dish or cooking method you choose, there is a distinct flavor and texture completely unlike your average white button or even your portobellos (baby or otherwise). They all have a meaty flavor that itself varies. This is really the first time I got that from the taste and even the smell while cooking. When searing off the lionsmane, my mother got excited thinking I was making her a steak. She wasn't thrilled when I told her I was searing mushrooms, but whatever. More for us.

I found several references to Lionsmane tasting like lobster or crab. It's not the taste but the texture. Lionsmane has to be the meatiest textured mushroom, very much like chicken breast or lobster tail. But the flavor is mild, not bland, but very subtle. It stands up to light seasoning or heavy equally well. It's one of the mushrooms Smiling Earth uses in its jerky blend and it's spectacular.

Overall, fresh mushrooms like this need a bit more care since they're more delicate. You won't find chestnut mushrooms, lionsmane, or piopinnos in your local market. They don't travel well and chestnuts actually start breaking down rather quickly. Lionsmane and piopinnos will go next. The heartiest are the shiitakes, but even then, you don't want fresh mushrooms lingering. So when you get your fresh mushrooms, plan on cooking them within 24 hours of purchase. They won't store in the fridge well at all like what you'd get from the supermarket, so cook your fresh fungi as soon as you can. And keep them dry! Do NOT stick them in plastic either. The moisture will degrade your shrooms. Since the weather has been reasonably cold and since our fridge is so damned small, we use our garage as a pantry. That kept them pretty nicely until it was risotto time. Keep your mushrooms in paper bags, keep them dry, and keep them cool but not ice-cold. Clean them gently with a dry brush. Since the Smiling Earth mushrooms aren't grown using soil or any funky medium, they really weren't dirty. I used a large pastry brush and made sure I used a razor sharp knife. Anything less would've crushed the delicate shrooms.

Sorting the haul before cleaning, trimming, and cooking.

Since I first penned this, we've been back to Smiling Earth, to take more pics for the review but to get more mushrooms, of course. The Smiling Mushroom Lady was there. Steph and her other half, Paul, run the farm, which has been catering to local restaurants and CSAs. The storefront is relatively new and it might just be the only one of its kind in New Jersey. After doing a few searches for buying fresh mushrooms, I really came up with nothing except a few wholesale places and the grocery chain Whole Foods. If you're in the area, then I'd highly recommend popping in to Smiling Earth.

Now, instead of blowing our money on eating out –and we're not junk-food junkies but we do like our good eats– I'm opting to save for some fresh mushrooms, not just for the health benefits, but they are delicious! Thank you Steph and Paul for being there. We'll see you soon.

Mushroom Magic: Commentary with a Review of Fantastic Fungi by Louie Schwartzberg

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Sun, 05 Jan 2020 02:58:00 +0000

This is a piece that morphed from an essay into a review. It's something that's been germinating for a while, but I think after watching the documentary from Louie Schwartzberg Fantastic Fungi, it finally bore fruit. As I try to formulate my thoughts, finally writing what is a difficult topic, my elderly mom shouts from the next room, asking a question that's already been answered more than half a dozen times, interrupting my flow yet again. My being a full-time caretaker has certainly brought a few things into focus, things that until last Friday, I had trouble putting into words. But, watching an eagerly anticipated film in the great little Showroom Cinema in Asbury Park, I'm finally able to gather the words together and perhaps move forward, finally, with intent and compassion.

It's not that I'm not compassionate, but it's been running low lately, and I find, alongside what might be caregiver burnout, my old childhood fears have started creeping forth again. Fears I thought had been forcibly stuffed away were merely incubating there beneath the surface. Of course, that's common sense. My fears are also common, but I suppose it's better to work this all out now, while I have “time” instead of be in the position my father found himself in 3 years ago: facing a terminal prognosis with a resolute, almost absolute refusal to believe it, even when his body was shutting down, even when he stopped functioning. My father's subconscious insistence that This Wasn't Happening granted him what has to be one of the worst deaths I could imagine. After months of chemo and only 1 radiation treatment, my dad went on hospice, kicking and screaming. I still hear his accusation that merely suggesting hospice was the collected effort (on the part of my mother and myself) to plan his “demise”. After only a handful of days on hospice, eating, drinking, and speaking ceased. Yet he continued to breathe, lingering for almost 2 full weeks. I never understood the phrase “death rattle”, so common in the dark fiction I read and write, until I sat there at his beside listening to that sound, persisting against all reason for 12 days. That and being my mom's caregiver brought my fears up from the depths.

So, as with most people, I have the fear we all share: a fear of death. Fine. But, ever since I was a child, the fear of death and decay bordered on phobic. When I first became aware of this “malady of mortality”, I became obsessed with the idea that I would go to sleep at night and just not wake up. More than that, I would die and immediately rot away so that when my mom discovered me in the morning, I'd be an unrecognizable lump.

I wasn't yet in kindergarten at the time, which I started a few months later, just before my 4^thbirthday. I had been having a series of dreams about a baby fighting to live, her arm a grotesquerie, swollen, screaming; doctors and nurses swarming, my mother, shouting. I could see her through a window. These dreams were my first brush with insomnia, which was the natural result since I decided the only way not to have the dreams and not to have any spontaneous decomposition was not to sleep. Just imagine the dreams that I did have when I finally succumbed to sleep, especially those that plagued me after I heard about spontaneous combustion and saw an image of Mary Reeser's remaining leg, obscenely poking from a pile of ash? I didn't know which was worse –spontaneously decomposing while I slept or spontaneously combusting while I sat quietly reading? In a rare moment of parental prescience, when my mother wanted to know

“Mommy, why aren't you sleeping?”

After I described my dreams, she told me the nightmares weren't dreams; they were memories of the night I had died. At the time, I didn't know the story. I just knew that I had a scar, Frankensteinian, bisecting my abdomen in a bizarre denticualtion. No one else had such a scar.

Mom divulged most of the tale, one summer night on our back porch. I remember looking at the stars as she told me I had been a premie, born with pyloric stenosis, undetected. Failure to thrive was still a thing back then. But my mother's gut refuted that idea–along with my violent inability to retain any nourishment beyond a few moments. That led me to a race in my uncle's GTO, my father cradling me in his hands, his comb comforting in his back pocket slicing into my uncle's new leather backseat. Midway to the hospital, my father told my uncle not to stop for any more lights.

“Jessie's not breathing.”

Dad told me years later that he felt my heart waver and cease to beat. It was a few days before my first Thanksgiving. I was little over a month old.

The scenes from my dream ensued, as did the priest who refused to grant last rights since I hadn't yet been baptized.... as did a surgeon who said my chances of survival were slim in response to my mother's horror at the mouth-like incision he had dispatched across my midsection. I probably wouldn't live out the year, so my parents shouldn't worry about a teenage me being too embarrassed to don a bikini. The last four decades have done wonders for the bedside manner. What followed were years of infection, the dreams, and my first fear, that one day I would just stop. Again.

What I didn't know at the time, nor did my parents, my surgery and post-operative care didn't include anesthesia or pain relief. Yes, you heard me correctly. Even now, surgeons and many in the medical community in the US, believe babies can't feel pain, therefore anesthesia isn't administered during surgery, and for premature babies especially, even today in many NICUs across the country, analgesics aren't used for other, non-surgical procedures like inserting chest tubes, infant circumcision, and the placement of IVs or catheters. Yesterday, when my mother conversed with her friend over my niece's surgeries (to date 4), the topic of what pain the baby felt –the first surgery was performed when the girl was 4 months old– was quickly dismissed by my mother's friend: “Oh, you know babies don't feel pain none, and even now, she's too young to understand what pain is, so she'll forget.” This attitude is what stamped me with the fear of death and with what's been a lifetime of physical pain.

My other fear is more nebulous. I don't have a precise moment as to why or when I became aware of it, but I suppose with one comes the other. This fear of decay may have gone full throttle after I attended my first funeral, when I began to wonder what happened after the casket was closed for the last. My bent toward horror movies, along with the tales of Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King taught me enough about our earthly clay to ensure my insomnia continued through til puberty and beyond. The fainting spells started when I discovered a round ball of undoubtedly alien origin growing in the fields where my brothers and I adventured unsupervised during school vacations. It was as if overnight, the ground birthed a variety of smallish fleshly soccer balls which spewed smoke when kicked. Because of some episode of Night Gallery or a forgotten Creep Show comic, I connected that species of Calvatia –and by association other fungi I observed on our adventures– with what comes after burial. This was reinforced unwittingly on a woods walk with the Junior Rangers and the explanation that fungi break down all decaying material, all organic material...which is what the Ranger had said: All Organic Material. So naturally I lay awake in my tent during that camping trip thinking any second a Giant Puffball would erupt anywhere on my body, seeking to break down my organic material. Is it any wonder I became a horror writer?

As Stamets says in Fantastic Fungi (yes, I didn't forget what brought me here): fungi are nature's garbage and waste disposal units. Our recyclers. Our rehabilitators of toxicity. Our exculpation for so much pollution.

The idea of being broken down by bacteria was bad enough. But then I learned– also in the Junior Rangers and from case of mold in our basement after a flood– about spores, (not puffball smoke after all) and all the myriad spores we breathe in on a continual basis.

Around this time I discovered HP

Lovecraft and Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, so “The Color out of Space”, Mi-Go, and zombie ants further shaped my insomnia, my abject terror of death and what comes after. It's been a terror so profound that I had a healthy drinking habit by the time I reached my sweet sixteen, not to mention anorexia-bulemia. An undercurrent to everything was this seeping horror of being consumed by microbial and fungal ecosystems. Hooray.

So all this baggage sat with me in The Showroom Cinema in Asbury Park –which has to be the tiniest theater I've ever been in, so every seat is a great view. (My thanks to them for telling us about Smiling Earth Farm, a local mushroom farm which I'll be writing about).

My fears sat with me in that theater. But I didn't sit there in phobic terror, even though my fears were at phobic levels when I was a kid, which itself is a recent admission –like 5 minutes ago recent. I never wanted to think I had been thanatophobic, but the way it impacted my functionality when I was younger? The way I have found myself so many times since that conversation with my mother on that back-porch 42 summers ago, encapsulated in a depression so profound that you'd think I'd been given a terminal diagnosis? In a way, I had and it's one we all share. One mode of coping was fiction, reading and writing, the darker the better. Another was to simply stuff it and think my fears were nothing but what a doctor of mine called First World Fears. Other folks in the world have worse things to fear than the inevitable, so my fear was a luxury fear.

Aside from death, decay (and clowns), I don't fear many things. I don't fear mushrooms. Mold freaks me out and I have a concern about it invading my space (unless you're talking about the organisms responsible for cheese and fermented foods). On the contrary, mushrooms have fascinated me. Ever since my own take on Farmer Maggot's specialty, bacon and mushrooms was a staple at our holiday meals. And ever since I came eyeball to fruiting body of a blonde Morchella esculenta while volunteering in a local park about a decade ago, I've been fascinated by the idea of foraging for them.

A gorgeous blonde from our secret foraging grounds.

Add to this stumbling into mushroom tinctures that have helped in my struggles with arthritis, chronic pain, immune system issues, and seizure disorder. Add to this my husband's psychonautics and my own knowledge of entheogens (see my articles on Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind).... Fantastic Fungi was as close to perfect as I've been privy to a long while.

The visuals were considered and reminded me of a quiet walk in an old-growth forest, brilliant of hue and hushed in tone. I've seen what has to be a dozen or more documentaries about entheogens, psychedelics, plant medicine and associated shamanism, and visually Fantastic Fungi is something that surpasses everything I've seen before.

I will give one critique though and it's not with the film itself, but the film's current website. When preparing for this review, I scoured the site for information about the film itself. From the film's website, it's a little difficult to decipher whose brainchild this film is. Also, there isn't a strict “About Us” kind of page, but an odd graphic which ticks across their homepage. Overall the website is visually stunning, but lacks information about the project. Paul Stamets is listed as “The Mycologist” sandwiched between Schwartzberg “The Director” and Michael Pollan “The Author”. Other than that though, I don't see the film's credits or history. There's a companion book so perhaps that information is there, but without the book, without this word-of-mouth that has been buzzing about this film on social media, I don't have much to go on.

An aside, which I thought pretty neat, “The Narrator” is none-other than Captain Marvel herself, Brie Larson. In some reviews, like the dismissive one from The Times, there've been outright accusations that Larson's involvement was merely to garner her massive online following. But, Larson is an avid member of her local mycological society. This past year, hubby and I also discovered that she's a major Tolkien fan, too. Who knew Captain Marvel was a hobbit?

Captain Marvel herself admiring The Professor's art at The Morgan's Tolkien exhibit

One of the most successful elements in the film, something which certainly helped me come to what I can only describe as my epiphany, is how this film speaks to its audience. In addition to Larson's narration, this perhaps stems from one of the film's main speakers: Paul Stamets.

I first heard about Paul Stamets from my husband some years ago, but I recognized him as the mushroom guy that I had seen in assorted documentaries like Dirt. Aside from reading about his work in numerous articles and Pollan's How to Change Your Mind, we listened to Stamets' Tedtalks and appearances on Joe Rogan (the most recent from this past November). Stamets does for fungi what Neil deGrasse Tyson does for the Cosmos. If I had either of them as teachers when I was a kid, not only wouldn't I have struggled with depression and thanatophobia, but I would have become either a mycologist or an astrophysicist. Maybe even both.

Stamets does what he does best in Fantastic Fungi: bring the importance of nature home, make conservation comprehensible, all while bestowing knowledge that isn't always easy to understand. Not only is Stamets a brilliant mycologist, he's also a brilliant teacher, which is brought to the fore in this film.

Stamets doesn't focus on one fungal variety in Fantastic Fungi, but looks at fungus as a whole and our symbiotic relationship with this phylum. As I said before, the film is a work of art to behold. The cinematography is enlightening. Cliche but breathtaking nonetheless. I don't believe fungus has ever been portrayed in such a familiar, spiritual, and ultimately heroic way. The “voice” of the mycellium, after all is Captain Marvel.

Stamets and Schwartzberg do something else that's vital for this moment in time: they don't distance the audience from concepts about climate change and environmental conservation. While we very much live in a house on fire, we're also in a world of warring factions, binary modes of thinking, Us vs. Them. There's something to be said for tackling an issue head-on. A downside though, is when someone's deep-seated beliefs are challenged; they only further entrench themselves in that belief. We see this with confirmation bias, the whole climate change “debate”, and the fact that much to the chagrin of any number of rational-minded people there are still Flat Earthers. I was forced to referee one of these discussions in my own classroom, having to curtail by succinctly stating: “Science is not a matter of belief. It's not like God or Santa Claus. You don't have to believe in science for it to exist. You don't have to understand something for it to be true.”

Confirmation Bias in action

Stamets and Schwartzberg capture the attention of a mainstream audience, but they also draw in the cadenced, OG mycolologists and psychonauts. Overall, their audience is invested with information encapsulated in a story, which shows the importance of the film and the care that went into the telling of it. Fantastic Fungi make fungi available, approachable, and they make the story of the humble mushrump a story that intersects our own and further connects us to the wellbeing of the very planet itself.

Watching the story unfold, Stamets and Schwartzberg delve my old maladies, my twin fears of death and decay. Stamets probes a related fear only made more acute since my father's diagnosis and demise: cancer. Cancer links both of my fears at a primal level. Stamets shares the vital role of Turkey tail in his mother beating Stage IV breast cancer and in that sharing of her story, an avalanche of emotions unleashed in that intimate little theater. It wasn't just a “feel good” anecdote used to push some woo-woo esoteric alternative therapy. Stamets discussed how vital Turkey tail was in conjunction with his mother's treatment, which may have been palliative since she was deemed not a good candidate for surgery; a drug combo was her therapy and Stamets decided Turkey tail wouldn't hurt. Check out his article “Trametes versicolor (Turkey Tail Mushrooms) and the Treatment of Breast Cancer” In fact, it may have allowed the therapy to push beyond merely making his mother comfortable in what could have been a losing battle. Stamets writes about his discovery and talks more in depth about it in his Tedtalk.

Fantastic Fungi also tackles the concept of decay and why decomposition is of importance. In a way being taken into a mycelial network is a form of immortality. Becoming one with the world on a visceral level. This may sound a bit trite, but this was and is mind-blowing for a person with a phobic fear of death and decay.

I mean Hubby and I toyed with the idea of those pods tree thingies on the return trip home from his cousins wake a week or so ago. In the back of my head I had the familiar thought, or rather that low static scream which brought me back to my childhood dreams. But, on the ride home from The Showroom Cinema? We talked about it again, sans mental screaming. This was the first time I really thought about being committed to the earth instead of a crematorium– despite related anxieties about my loved ones not getting all of me or having my ashes mixed with someone else's or related horror stories about unethical crematoria. Despite Neil deGrasse Tyson complaining that cremation wastes our essence into the vacuum of space, thereby severing us from the web of nature and even the cosmos. But Stamets gave me pause and by the end of the film, my misgivings and the nightmare visions of melting away, of being digested by slime molds and fungal bodies like in the X-filesepisode “Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose” just that. Melted away. I felt uplifted and not terrified.

After the words from Roland Griffiths and his terminal patients at John's Hopkins' psilocybin studies and the lessening of my collective fear of death, I'm eager to read the companion book to the film, alongside titrating my own dosing of psilocybin– both micro and visionary dosing.

After the film, we found some fantastic fungi scattered about Asbury Park.

It's time to put my fears to rest and start living. Needless to say I recommend Fantastic Fungi heartily and I'm scheming for my own amadou hat. Messieur Stamets I wouldn't turn one down.

What if Psychedelics Could Heal?

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 01:59:00 +0000

Review 92^ndStreet Y Event

So, Wednesday night my husband and I braved torrential thunderstorms, trekking into NYC to hear Michael Pollan speak at the 92^ndStreet Y. It was an event we heard about several months ago and, since we had the $$ at the time we jumped on tickets, despite the event being billed as a “Conversation with Hamilton Morris.”

As I've said before, Michael Pollan has been one of my intellectual heroes-- not quite on par with Tolkien and Gaiman-- but certainly up there with Graham Hancock and Dennis McKenna. As I was knee-deep in his latest book How to Change your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, we snagged tickets. I thought it would round out a nice triptych; hubby and I saw Dennis McKenna at a half-day seminar at COSM (the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors), hosted by psychonauts Alex and Allyson Grey back in the winter of 2015, and then in the fall of 2016 we got to see Graham Hancock in conversation with Anthony West in Middle Collegiate Church. And, I'm not sorry we went last night despite the horrid commute, despite the chaos that is Manhattan during rush hour at Penn Station, despite Hamilton effing Morris sitting there all pouty, privileged, and supercilious. It was fitting; when we saw McKenna, we braved an ice-storm and fishtailed in white-out conditions on a particularly winding road in upstate New York. When we saw Hancock, I almost lost a shoe down a storm drain and the weight of the rain (not the wind) destroyed a favorite umbrella not to mention our mood, especially when the storm and the lights at night brought on a few seizures on our homeward journey, and then I spent the remainder of the year battling a nice bout of bronchitis that turned into walking pneumonia by January of 2017. In preparation for last night's endeavour, I repaired my kraken umbrella, wore appropriate shoes, upped my vitamin C, made sure I had my cannabis to the rescue, and kept a stiff upper lip, chaos and assorted crankiness notwithstanding.

Me and my favorite umbrella.

When we arrived at the 92^ndStreet Y, I recalled having seen Neil Gaiman there some years ago with the re-release of American Gods. Without googling it, I couldn't recall how long ago it was, but I did remember it was another “conversation” event. Google told me it was 2011, with Lev Grossman as host, which had slipped my mind. As a contrast to the evening with Morris, check out a brief video from the 92^ndStreet Y's archives. There were a few points worth noting: Grossman took the time to introduce his guest; there was a certain flow to the conversation, punctuated by Grossman playing to one of Gaiman's strengths, reading his own work. They weren't there to directly sell books because everyone in the audience, as with the Pollan event, got an autographed copy, but there was a focus on Gaiman's text as a running theme of the evening. There was an attention paid to the audience largely absent with the Pollan-Morris conversation, especially in the questions Grossman asked-- questions that were complex but also reflected questions many people may have about Gaiman's work. And, for someone who had seen Gaiman already, who had been an active reader of his blog (as well as his fiction), I learned a lot about an author I already knew quite a bit about, but I also learned about storytelling-- an invaluable thing for a storyteller. But, something else. Grossman wasn't just a moderator. He has his own writing chops as author of The Magicians Trilogy and yet, time and again, Grossman's own expertise wasn't a focus of the talk. He was there to host a talk with Neil Gaiman. At the time, I wasn't familiar with Grossman as an author, but I was familiar with him as a journalist. Either way, he was cognizant of his own status within the realm of storytelling in the way he conducted the talk.

Gaiman reading at Grossman's request.

This wasn't the case with this week's event since I came away feeling unsettled and even a bit angry. Not at the subject, but as to how it was handled by the host and by the fact that they chose Morris to be the host, the venue.

As I soggily waited on the queue in the lobby just outside the theater, there were two women in front of me, an elderly woman and a woman about my age, maybe a tad older. They were resuming a conversation from earlier and it seemed to be about whether or not programs like the one we were about to attend were at all open to “the poor.” The older woman had asked the younger if the 92^ndStreet Y made certain programming accessible to people who couldn't afford the steep prices. People like my husband and myself maybe? People worse off without those periodic windfalls that make attending events like the ones I noted above possible? I'm certain between the Pollan, Hancock, and McKenna, my husband and I easily spent one of my paychecks and it's something we do even when we (financially) probably shouldn't. We have very few vices, but attending talks is one of them.

The younger woman's response seemed to set a certain tone for the evening for me. She launched into a semi-diatribe noting how poor people and anyone without “means” really couldn't understand or benefit from the information or the experience. She made comparisons to yoga practice and how horrible her daughter has it in today's world-- especially being well-off and unable to manage money; being a rich kid in today's world is so very hard was the message I got from this yuppified, middle-aged twit, who obviously considered herself a good liberally minded person (politically, too). She lamented how hard her daughter's generation has it – “Today's kids suffer so much more danger than any generation before” – to a woman who more than likely has memories of the last World War, a woman who in her golden years decided to attend a talk that promised discussion of a subject and a book that focuses on new approaches to dying, a woman who in her prime was probably taller than me but now is about the shape and size of Master Yoda. Who has it hard? I suppose we haven't moved very far from Swift's A Modest Proposal.

As I said, this conversation left a mark on me as I entered and looked around the auditorium to see a sea of white faces. There were few exceptions and most of the time I saw someone of color, he or she was a 92^ndStreet Y employee. On top of that, I couldn't help but doubt that many of these people attending had made much of a financial sacrifice to attend and I wondered how many of them agreed with that younger woman: that people like me and people worse off than me were somehow by Fortune determined to be useless, irrelevant, ignorant by nature. That people of lower income brackets didn't deserve the benefits not only such a talk could bring, but didn't deserve the benefits of psychedelics. The social injustice issue of cannabis arose in my mind and I couldn't help but think, rightly or wrongly, this issue and this superiority complex has contributed to cannabis – and indeed psychedelics – remaining Schedule I. If they are finally reclassified, then cannabis and psychedelics, like opioids and SSRIs, would potentially be covered under health insurance. Then the poor can better afford to use these medicines. Then Big Business would potentially lose their profit margin in industries like the Cannabis Industry – and any similar industry that will pop up around psychedelics. I wondered how psychedelics could be a key to chipping away this idea, this alienation of each other and this lack of compassion, lack of empathy for those who struggle, who suffer, who endure, whatever the hardship. Myself included.

It was also a thought I keep coming back to in light of exactly who the audience of Pollan's books is: the mainstream. By the fact that Pollan notes, both in his book and in the conversation at the Y, that he made a decision not to travel to South America to participate in psilocybin or ayahuasca ceremonies – or travel anywhere outside the U.S. to participate in any psychedelic experience precisely because it's a means not open to most people. While there is yet another Renaissance happening with psychedelics, there are so many in the psychedelic community who are in the same scope at that 92^ndStreet Y audience: privileged people of means. I don't deny them that, but when there's something so auspicious that it can heal not only our culture, but our society and our very species? Then it should be open to everyone. By Pollan seeking out the psychedelic underground in the US to guide his experiences, he approached the topic like any person in the mainstream could approach it. Even when answering an audience question Morris reluctantly was forced to ask (at Pollan's prodding), Pollan joked about how he himself found avenues to pursue a psilocybin experience in the US: everyone knows a guy who knows a guy.

Perhaps this superiority concept is what made the Hamilton Morris side of the Y's “Conversation” so cumbersome. I know next to nothing about this person, except that he's a correspondent for VICE, has had 2 seasons of VICELAND's Hamilton's Pharmacopeia, is a chemist and is the son of documentarian Errol Morris. After seeing one online note on his education, which listed an elite private high school, after realizing who his father is, and having Google show me a list of popular searches on Hamilton Morris which included his net worth, I realized he was in that privileged class.

My husband and I saw his Sapo Diaries when it aired on VICELAND and I've since noted it's now been billed as sort of a pilot for Pharmacopeia. It was a horror show about a privileged kid who wants to trip balls in the Amazon. (When we saw it though, I don't recall the seizure-inducing intro which I'm reeling from after finding the right link on YouTube.)

Morris is exactly what Pollan feared about the term “recreational” as in “recreational use of psychedelics.” In How to Change Your Mind, Pollan notes being taken down a peg by psychonaut Bob Jesse: “As Bob Jesse is always quick to remind me whenever I use that word, 'recreational' doesn’t necessarily mean frivolous, careless, or lacking in intention. Point taken” (Pollan, 228). But, when you read the companion piece to the Morris' Sapo Diaries much less watch it, that's exactly what Morris is doing, using substances without a care, being frivolous. I can't say he was “lacking in intention” but maybe his intention was merely to trip balls.

When Morris decides haphazardly to include ayahuasca in his “Sapo Diaries” (Day 10), he brews aya which he drinks before deciding to “eat a Ritalin” and wander the streets of Tabatinga, Brazil, alternating between lying in the road and eating bubble-gum ice cream. Maybe he decided his pharmacologist status allowed him to mix Ritalin and ice cream with ayahuasca, but that in and of itself encapsulates his attitude as an insufferable know-it-all: as someone who thinks his privilege (and his technological knowledge) makes him superior to other cultures. I have to wonder if he became a pharmacologist to make his own ball-tripping substances himself and cut out any middle-man (or woman).

This privilege is reflected in his discussion of the tribe he stays with in the Amazon in his “Diaries”. Perhaps Morris thinks he's on par with Herodotus, but Morris notes that he was told the “Mayoruna Indians practiced cannibalism, breast-fed monkeys, and stole white women as sex slaves” which is followed by a comment that his can of bug spray was as complicated as a “Rubix cube” with the implication that his guide was too dumb to understand how to spray it. Morris' disgust about where he travelled in Brazil and the tribe he initially stayed with, smacking with racial overtones, gives another facet as to why he's so dismissive of and disrespectful toward shamanic healing and earth medicine. After reading the “Diaries” I'm more than a bit angry that he was the host at the 92^ndStreet Y and irritated that Pollan sat down with him, though perhaps Pollan was unaware of this tone in Morris' Diaries.

Regardless of how many times I see certain people I admire in documentaries, hear them on podcasts or broadcasts of talks, read their work, there's something unique about seeing them in person. I'm not a fan-girl either, so I'm not talking about just seeing them on the street. Maybe it's the academic, but I truly revel in hearing people I admire on paper speak in person about their passion, their field, their thing. And, over the years, hubby and I have seen a lot of folks. We've hosted talks ourselves, being two people who have been organizing conferences and the like for nigh on 20 years now. (See what we do at The New York Tolkien Conference). I've sat in chairs on both sides-- interviewer and interviewee.

That said: Hamilton Morris is one of the worst interviewers I've ever seen. Hands down. Prior to that, when Anthony and I attended Star Trek: Mission New York for the 50^thAnniversary of Star Trek back in 2016, I thought the interviewer who hosted the Voyager panel was bad – but I see now maybe it was just a nerdgasm that dissuaded the host from doing a comprehensive interview, leaving the panelists to hijack the show. Last night? Morris came off as he did in the “Sapo Diaries” from 2009: elitist, condescending, disinterested.

It was a conversation of course, but it didn't feel like the audience was part of any of it. Since I have the Gaiman conversation with Lev Grossman as a direct comparison – I can say that perhaps was the intention by the 92^ndStreet Y: to have an interview that feels like a casual chat with the audience included. Sort of like Inside the Actor's Studio, but for other artists and thinkers that aren't on stage or screen.

There was an introduction of the evening by Sue Soloman, Associate Director of the 92nd Street Y Talks, but then Pollan and Morris walked out on stage as though they're equals. Despite Morris' show and his degrees and his penchant for tripping balls, he is not the equivalent of Michael Pollan, who can run rings around Morris on writing alone. I'm of the opinion that someone behind the scenes at the Y decided, “You know what would be cool? Having HAMILTON MORRIS interview MICHAEL POLLAN! It'll be Pharma-copeia meets Omivore's Dilemma and it will rock!” Maybe that person was Soloman herself.

They were banking on Morris as an “influencer” and I'm certain a number of the audience, were there because of him. But he wasn't the headliner of the event and he certainly carried himself as though he was. When he sat down, Morris didn't open the conversation with any preamble. There was no introduction of Pollan, no recognition that we were here to hear Pollan discuss his new book and his findings from that investigation into psychedelics as a tool – both medically and culturally. It was as though the two men had been in conversation back stage and just decided to sit in more comfortable chairs on stage, which we lowly mortals were granted eavesdropping rights. Morris rarely deigned to look at the audience and when he did, he made a show about how bright the lights were, shading his eyes, with an expression that said “Oh, there are people here? What a bother.” Of course his fans laughed.

Here Pollan's skill as a speaker, a journalist, and an educator came to the fore. He spoke eloquently, with candor, and inclusivity, while Morris was exclusive. Pollan carried himself as is his wont: as a storyteller who wants to invite the audience along. For Morris, we were a burden. I lost count exactly how many times Pollan paused to ask or cajole Morris to explain a particular phrase, term, or mode of thought.

Dennis McKenna, Alex and Allyson Grey at COSM February 2015

Morris reminded me of the element in academia that I, an academic and faculty member at a leading university, detest in academia: the alphabet-soup elitists that conform to the traditional ivory tower modality. It's tired, false, and needs to be eliminated. Morris is a pharmacologist, so he's got his alphabet-soup. But, this wasn't the case when I heard Dennis McKenna speak. Forget about McKenna's infamous brother Terrance and the work the two did together on psychedelics, that alone gives him a certain level of expertise. McKenna has a doctorate in botany and post-doctoral work in pharmacology and neurology. Plus as a founding member of the Heffter Research Institute? I'd say McKenna knows quite a lot more than Morris. If anyone has a right to be egotistic, McKenna's position in the field of ethnopharmacology has earned him that. But, he wasn't. Hearing him in documentaries like Neurons to Nirvana and hearing him speak at COSM, he discussed the complexities of the science, didn't shy away from terminology, and was careful to unpack concepts for his audience despite that audience being an in-the-know group of assorted psychonauts, artists, seekers, and researchers. Morris disdained from doing so and often Pollan did the unpacking for those of us without that alphabet-soup, or those of us whose soup deals in different ingredients.

Allyson and Alex Grey

It seemed that since Morris has his influencer mode with VICE, he seemed to think he is Pollan's equivalent – since they're both bringing the psychedelic conversation into the mainstream. I can't deny that Morris has done that – but he wasn't the first and his focus is on the freedom of doing the drug (whatever that drug is) and not the benefit of the substance, be it a health, spiritual, creative, or cultural runs counter to the very notion of a psychedelic as sacrament. Both the McKennas and others like Alex and Allyson Grey are firmly in the camp of recreational use – but as Bob Jesse noted: with intention, with care, without frivolity. This is the very basis for COSM. Spirituality, personal peace, creativity, the betterment of “healthy normals” is a key concept Pollan comes to in his book and something he was very much highlighting at the talk. Set and setting are key concepts he had to come around to understanding, but they're things he winds up believing in firmly by the end of his journey in How to Change Your Mind. They seem irrelevant to Morris who wants to have a good time, casually smoke his JWH-018 cigarettes and eat his Ritalin (both substances he mixes freely with sapo and ayahuasca as noted in his Diaries).

The 92^ndStreet Y conversation touched on many topics, but often Morris disregarded the microphone and spoke directly to Pollan, leaving the audience out completely. Maybe Morris forgot the etiquette of speaking into a microphone, but I doubt it. There were so many moments where Pollan had to remind the interviewer that there was an audience that he (Morris) was leaving behind. There were moments when Pollan noted something-- in the news, in his book, whereever-- and Morris gave no comment or an unaudible mutter that served to diminish that aspect of the conversation. When the evening turned to audience questions, Morris seemed unwilling to touch them, often tossing them to the side, between his leg and the chair as though they were dirty tissues-- and there weren't many questions, so the 92^ndStreet Y staff certainly waded through the stacks of index cards they had collected from the audience. Morris skipped over several questions without explanation, asked a question about Pollan's “profit margin” of psychedelics, which got audience laughter-- reminding me again of the earlier comment about the poor being unable to comprehend such a program by that dithering woman in the hallway.

Morris wanted to ditch the scant handful of questions as being overly “basic” when Pollan stopped him. “There's nothing wrong with basic.”

That spoke volumes. That comment reflects all of who Michael Pollan is-- most especially his background, from a middle-class family in Long Island, and his position as both a journalist and professor, at Harvard no less. Morris has his own pedigree, but without the middle-class underpinnings. I'm reminded that as a pharmacologist, his grounding is in a lab and not a waiting room or a classroom. I'm reminded that as a rich kid, easily worth 10 times what Michael Pollan is worth (yeah, I looked through the Google list out of sheerest effing curiosity) he never had to understand what working for a living is. Pollan is what I would call weathy and of a privileged class, but one that worked up, that earned his position. What's more, Pollan has advocated for those less privileged than himself. The common person, the working person is someone valued and regarded by Pollan. That's clear in his books and throughout his career, as a journalist and a professor.

Morris was equally dismissive of the medical questions he received, but perhaps that wasn't his fault but the venue's. Morris perhaps was the one on stage perhaps more qualified to answer several of the questions since he does have a medical degree, but Pollan is not. He's a journalist and makes no allusions to his credentials. But, instead of insult the questioner, Morris could have actually been a host. He could have made a statement to tell the audience that neither he nor Pollan are in a position to give medical advice. He could have acknowledged an important fact: that in a world of prohibition, when there's the possibility of a treatment that can help you and your loved ones, you will do anything. When Anthony and I attended a talk in early 2017 tracking updates to New York State's Compassionate Care Act, one of the host's noted that while medical conditions were to be discussed and that while medical use of cannabis will also be discussed, the audience should refrain from asking overly personal or medically specific questions. It should have been something noted in the introduction to the 92^ndStreet Y discussion if Morris felt he was above making such a note. Again, this was something Pollan himself had to steer the conversation around. While he did laugh, Pollan strikes me as someone who might laugh not to detract or seem disingenuous, but if anxious or uncomfortable. I'm certain getting medical questions plagues him, just as people turn to him to tell them how to eat. He's said in his myriad writings on food that he is not a nutritionist. But, as he reluctantly admitted on stage that at this point in time, despite his initial naivete on the topics, after his investigation into food and now psychedelics, he is an expert. But his expertise doesn't grant him the ability to dole out medical advice.

“Onadas de La Ayahuasca” by Pablo Amaringo

There was one point that Morris made that I do find interesting: why must a substance be deemed medically useful to be acceptable, socially and legally? But, it's part of our conversation in a world since the Controlled Substance Act. And Pollan addressed this aspect, but also the concept that healing isn't limited to medical use. Healing and wellness is so intimately connected with psychedelics stretching back to their earliest uses. (See Steve Beyer's brilliant blog companion to his book Singing to the Plants and his post on ancient use of ayahuasca or the many discussions by Graham Hancock in his myriad writings on ancient cultures.)

There were a few moments early on that I got the sense that both Morris and Pollan were laughing at the expense of the psychedelic community and the psychonauts that started the whole ball rolling, particularly Timothy Leary and the nay-sayers to Pollan's recent op-ed in The New York Times: “Michael Pollan: Not So Fast on Psychedelic Mushrooms.”

But, Pollan spent ample time clarifying that if it wasn't for Leary-- and the host of others like Bill Richards and Roland Griffiths both of whom were mentioned-- then we wouldn't be having this conversation, nor would the folks in Denver have voted to decriminalize psilocybin, regardless of how small the passing margin was. Since How to Change Your Mind is a journey Pollan already took, he approached the Y's conversation without the contention for ideas like entheogens, psyconauts, and so on which I note in my review of the book.

He also spent a fair amount of time defending his position and somewhat addressing the controversy around his New York Time's piece, particularly noting the exaggerations surrounding Denver's so-called “legalization” of psilocybin – which isn't legalization as many on social media claim, but decriminalization. It's not to say Denver won't legalize, but not just now. Pollan also brought up another ballot initiative that I wasn't aware of all the ins-outs and what-have-yous of, again hearing on the interwebs that Oregon was to “legalize” psychedelics. Again, no, but psilocybin therapy, yes – so like with the Native American Church and the UDV União do Vegetal (the “ayahuasca church”) – there will be paths to use, provided the seeker is willing or able to follow those paths.

There's an aspect of this entire conversation that I'm left with, one which I found a bit contentious in Pollan's book, one which I've inadvertently wound up arguing about with my husband (inadvertently because we're both on the same side of the issue so how can we be arguing): the quantifiable vs. the numinous. At one point, perhaps while they discussed the “placebo effect”, Morris said something to the effect of, “I want these things to be true, to be real.” Without getting all woo-woo, define truth? When discussing psychedelics, define real? As in the book, Pollan spent some time defining the “placebo effect” and came to the same essential conclusions that he does in the book: “And yet as long as it works, as long as it heals people, why should anyone care?” (Pollan, 159).

It's what I note in the first part of my “The Cure is You series when Dr. Andrew Wiel”, who ironically enough “brought down Timothy Leary” (as Pollan noted in the conversation and in his book (pg. 201-203). Weil, however, uses a term I personally like more than “the placebo effect.” Weil calls it spontaneous healing as outlined in both his book of the same name and in his 8 Weeks to Optimum Health:

“When illness persists, the healing system is blocked, stalled or overwhelmed and needs help. The true purpose of medicine is to facilitate healing; the aim of treatment should be to unblock the healing system and allow it to do its work. Please keep in mind the distinction between healing and treatment: treatment originates from outside, whereas healing comes from within. ...The best treatment is the least –the least invasive, least drastic, least expensive—that activates spontaneous healing (Weil, pg. 17-18)

Perhaps his background as a pharmacologist means that essentially all Morris deals with is the quantifiable, that which can be weighed, measured, and administered. It was evidenced in his utter dismissal of microdosing. While on one hand, Pollan dismissed it as well – but his dismissal wasn't because he doubted the validity of microdosing. Pollan seemed to dismiss microdosing because of the lack of respect implicit in those microdosing “bio-hackers” in Silicon Valley taking psychedelics in these micro-doses because of ideas about increased productivity in the workplace. Pollan notes this aversion subtly in How to Change Your Mind “As I write, the practice of microdosing—taking a tiny, 'subperceptual' regular dose of LSD as a kind of mental tonic—is all the rage in the tech community” (Pollan, 175). He delves how Myron Stolaroff introduced psychedelics to Silicon Valley but that introduction doesn't discuss micro-doses (Pollan, 176-177). Steve Jobs and others in the tech world used and use psychedelics much in the same way that artists like Alex and Allyson Grey do. I don't

think that's Pollan's objection, nor do I think he objects to microdosing for this effect – to enhance creativity. But as a regular dietary supplement no different than a vitamin pill? It's the disrespect, the disregard, the dismissing of set and setting that I think Pollan objects to.

Allyson Grey in her studio

Morris seemed disinclined to discuss it and was irreverent, insolent when merely mentioning it. Maybe because with the clinical approach, the doses are too small and too woo-woo for Morris. But isn't that the point? To take a does that would be considered “sub-perceptual” by the default mode everyday thinking, but noticeable by the subtle mind, even at the cellular level? Microdosing, especially psilocybin, as I've understood it isn't an everyday supplement, but something done every so often and has shown promise in studies for treating depression and anxiety as touched on in this piece from earlier this month in The Guardian.

Overall, as I've said before, I appreciate the conversation and don't regret attending. I didn't learn more than I did reading Pollan's book, but I came away feeling that this is merely an introduction, for me into this topic. After my husband suggested I do a follow-up to the book review, especially since I found myself stewing over Morris' cavalier approach, when we came home, he handed me a stack of other books to delve. Just last week he gave me a copy of the anthology Psychedelic Mysteries of the Feminine by Papaspyrou, Baldini, and Luke, with an introduction by Allyson Grey, knowing that my background in women's studies alongside my spiritual path and herbalism practice made the book perfect for me to explore. Several weeks ago, we watched the brilliant documentary From Shock to Awe which examines psychedelics, legalities, and our veterans, which we'll review when it's released to the public – and we can rewatch it. The documentary was made available to rent earlier this year for a short time. We followed that by watching Rosyln Dauber's A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin and I can't help but wonder if having a society supportive of psilocybin – and other psychedelics – instead of prohibitive might have made my father's death more bearable. He might not have lingered in a semi-comatose state for almost a fortnight – with neither food nor water, lingering in a state worse than death because he was terrified of dying. I'm certain despite my perceptions of them as privileged, many in the audience at the 92Y this past Wednesday harbor similar notions about what psychedelics could open for them.

So I hope, despite all the misgivings and winging and hurt feelings that Pollan does for psychedelics exactly what he did for food security: make them household concepts and open the doors to self-education. And yet, when we were leaving the 92^ndStreet Y, after the storm had literally passed, I found 2 copies of Pollan's book sitting on a trash can. Hubby and I looked around to see if the person would be coming back to retrieve the books, but there was no one around. I could only suppose that the topic was too uninteresting for the individual who tossed the information aside. Or maybe they were Morris fans, who thought Pollan – without his alphabet-soup – was too mainstream, too common-place to know what he was talking about; or, even worse, were Morris fans who had no qualms about eating a few Ritalin before drinking some ayahuasca tea or scarfing a few shrooms before heading out on the town.

WATCH THE INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL POLLAN Via the 92nd Y Below

Bug off!

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Tue, 28 May 2019 20:21:00 +0000

So the term has ended-- finally. While I recuperate, gather my thoughts, and finish the next installment of my cannabis series, here are 2 bug repellents that have kept my husband and I free from critter attacks for several years now. After perusing facebook with my morning tea and vape, I came across an insect repellent recipe that will certainly keep off critters, but will also burn your skin since it called for 1 part essential oil to 2 parts water. That's a ridiculous amount of essential oil and if you use the required cinnamon or tea tree in combination, you will suffer skin irritations.

The first two recipes are my go-to recipes, so much that my husband and I carry a bottle at all times, year-round. I use my blend not only to repel insects, but since it has a high alcohol and anti-bacterial content I use it as a hand-sanitizer. Mine also works in a pinch if and when my deodorant fails. Both my blend and my husband's blend are great as “febreeze”. His is wonderful at getting rid of smoker's funk. I can tell when he hasn't sprayed liberally or has run out when he comes in the house smelling like an ashtray. My blend is a bit more floral.

The third recipe I use only in the summer and after my niece has developed her father's allergy to mosquito-bites, I'm going to see if I can turn it into a salve for her. I developed this oil-based spray for the summer because it doesn't need to be reapplied constantly and is a good foundation. If you use moisturizing oils like jojoba and almond, you can use it as a moisturizer after the shower, which I often do since it smells so nice.

A few notes... First: the essential oils

Note, I use a lot of different essential oils. Many recipes you find out there in the ether use a few mainstays like tea tree oil and lavender. Those are great, but not at repelling all sorts of biting critters. Years ago, when I was in the process of developing a comprehensive recipe that repels anything that might want to bite you, I had a pretty decent blend. Until I went for a walk on the beach and was

assaulted by biting flies. I could not figure out what to add to my already complex recipe to deter those damned flies. Until I was at some event with vendors and happened upon a soap vendor that also sold his girlfriend's insect repellent. I toyed with the idea of buying it, until I saw the price tag: $20 for a 2 ounce bottle. Then I saw the ingredients used a water base and I put all thoughts of purchase from my mind, but I noticed one oil I hadn't thought to add to my own blend: patchouli. I asked the vendor about it and he said his girlfriend swears by it since it repels biting flies. Sure enough, adding patchouli to my blend fends off the little buggers. So, to date, my formula repels mosquitos, fleas, ticks, and biting flies. When my kitties had an attack of the fleas a few years ago, the blend kept the critters from bothering hubby and me while we de-fleaed our apartment.

Second: safe for clothes?

The oil formulas are only safe for skin. Don't spray your clothes with them. Spray on your skin directly and rub in-- preferably before getting dressed. They're safe enough to use on the face, but allow a few minutes to absorb before layering on the sun screen or makeup. I've even used it as a hair oil on days when I pull my hair back completely or when I'm hiking with my hair in braids.

The alcohol-based formulas are safe for skin and clothes. I'd recommend spraying your clothes liberally, especially shoes and bottom of your pants if you're going for a hike. Just be careful around your face. And don't forget to spray your ears. If I ever forget to spray an area, that's the place the critters will chow down. If you do get chomped, the spray helps relieve itching and swelling. I've only been bitten in areas where I forget to apply the repellent-- ears, hands-- or just a spot that didn't get a good coating.

Be careful when applying the alcohol-based sprays, especially around the eyes, open wounds, children, and with any substance that can break down when exposed to alcohol. Also, don't spray it around open flames. It will sting any open wounds or cuts, but it's a disinfectant and I often use my batch in school to disinfectant paper cuts. I keep a bottle at my bedside since it also acts as a great bug spray to kill the critters that I might find crawling around baseboards or flitting up walls. It's enough to stun the little buggers before they get smashed.

Third: How much to make?

The quantities of essential oil in the alcohol based recipe depend on the size of the bottle you use. I generally make a massive batch and keep it in reserve to fill smaller 2-4 ounce spray bottles from. I'll give you a bulk recipe and a small batch recipe as well. For the oil-based, a little goes a long way and I often make a bottle only once a season. Both recipes use the highest quality essential oils, which I get from Mountain Rose Herbs. You can get by with using lesser quality oils in the alcohol spray, especially the tea tree oil since the recipe calls for so much of it, but never use fragrance oils and always try to get oils from sustainable sources. The oil recipe, since it will sit on the skin more, use only the highest quality, organic essential oil.

Fourth: Base-Oil Infusions

Finally, for the oil recipe, since it calls for a base oil, I use a combination of infused oils, which will take time to make-- unless you do a heat-infusion. This heat-steeped method tends to smell like cooked oil, in my opinion, so I prefer to put on a few oils to infuse or steep several months before I'm going to need them. I also use the oils for other recipes-- my CBD liniment, salves, and moisturizing oil-- so it's helpful to have them. Just don't let them steep too long-- not longer than 4-8 weeks otherwise they'll spoil. Make sure you use only sterilized, dry glass canning jars-- wide mouth works best-- to steep them in and make sure the steeping oils are in a light-free, cool environment. A cupboard or closet works best. But, in a pinch, if you're in a tight spot, put the steeping oils anywhere where they'll be cool and dark. I've put a line of steeping oils (and my steeping tinctures) behind books on an especially deep bookcase, and behind clothes in linen cupboards. Also, don't make so much infused oil that you can't use it all before it spoils, after you've decanted and strained it of course.

Generally, if kept in dark and cool conditions, your decanted infused medicinal oils can last for 1-2 years; sometimes longer. After we moved last year, since my oils weren't in ideal conditions, quite a few spoiled in a matter of weeks. Those that spoiled were old, older than 3 years. Now, I have to put on quite a lot to infuse, but have been waiting until I can better organize our kitchen and our garage/pantry for fear that anything I infuse now will spoil before it's decanted.

Note-- these are all topical oils and never to be ingested. I also only use dry plant material since fresh material needs to be handled differently and can breed bacteria. I also limit the carrier oil to something with a long shelf-life: olive oil.

Bug Repellent #1: Alcohol-base

This is the blend I make my husband. It's a great insect repellent and a wonderful fabric refresher, or “febreeze”. It has a woodsy, spicy, slightly medicinal scent. Don't omit the Rose Geranium. It's my #1 mosquito repellent. I don't have a lot in this blend because my husband doesn't like smelling like a flower shop. I use more in my blend which I'll put next.

Since we go through quite a lot of this particular blend, I make this bulk batch and just fill up smaller, 2-4 ounce spray bottles.

Large Batch: Into a 32 ounce bottle add the following essential oils:

1 tsp Tea tree oil (about 20-30 drops)

20 drops Lavender

15 drops Lemon Eucalyptus

15 drops Eucalyptus

10 drops Lemongrass

10 drops Peppermint

15 drops Citronella

15 drops Patchouli

15 drops Oregano

10 drops Rosemary

10 drops Sage

8 drops Rose Geranium

2 drops White Camphor

4 drops Clove

4 drops Basil

After the oils are in, fill the bottle 1/3 with vodka. Don't use a good quality vodka, of course, and don't omit the vodka or substitute it for water. Vodka is essential since it evaporates so cleanly and has no scent. Water will work, but only in small batches since it will spoil. I don't like using water since it sits on the skin instead of evaporate.

Then fill the bottle 1/3 with witch hazel. Witch hazel is itself an insect repellent. It has a strong aroma so don't go more than 1/3 of the bottle.

Finally, top off the bottle, which should be the remaining 1/3 with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. I use between 70 and 90%, though the higher the percent alcohol, the rougher the aroma. The last batch I did, I used a 90% alcohol, which smells pretty caustic. So I think I'll go back to 70%.

Here's a scaled down recipe for a 4 ounce spray bottle:

10-12 drops Tea tree oil

8-10 drops Lavender

4 drops Lemon Eucalyptus

4 drops Eucalyptus

4 drops Lemongrass

6 drops Citronella

3 drops Patchouli

2 drops Oregano

2 drops Rosemary

2 drops Sage

2 drops Rose Geranium

1 drop White Camphor

1 drop Clove

1 drop Basil

Bug Repellent #2: Alcohol-base

This is my blend. It's a bit stronger on some floral notes. I'm just giving the larger batch recipe, but note it's not as large as my husband's.

Into a 16 ounce bottle add the following essential oils:

1 tsp Tea tree oil (about 20-30 drops)

20 drops Lavender

15 drops Lemon Eucalyptus

15 drops Rose Geranium

10 drops Lemongrass

12 drops Citronella

12 drops Patchouli

4 drops Oregano

4 drops Rosemary

4 drops Sage

8 drops Basil

Again, top off the bottle with vodka, witch hazel, and rubbing alcohol in a 1:1:1 ratio, or 1/3 bottle each. Then fill a 4 ounce spray bottle. If you carry this around in your bag, pop it in a zip lock to prevent leakages.

Bug Repellent #3: Oil-base, Adult formula-- Infused oil Base

First, the infused oils, which aren't required, but they do give your overall mixture a nice punch. I use a mixture of olive oil infused with catnip, patchouli, and bay. You can make a single infusion of course, but since I use these in a few other blends, I like having oils infused with a single herb.

Pint sized wide mouth jar

Into a clean, dry, canning jar-- wide mouth works best-- pack 1/3 of the jar tightly with your plant material. Then, fill the jar about halfway with good quality olive oil, cap, and wait about 30-60 minutes. Extra virgin isn't necessary, but don't use an olive oil blend that's mixed with anything like sunflower, safflower, corn, or canola oil.

Filling the jar halfway and allowing the herbs to swell ensures that you don't overfill the jar. Then, give the jar a good shake, allow it to settle and top off the jar with your olive oil, making sure you leave at least an inch of headroom. Place a square of wax paper over the jar and cap it with a clean, dry, 2-piece lid. Be sure to mark your lid with the contents and date. Don't put the jar to steep yet. Leave it out of direct light for at least 8-12 hours. Make sure the jar hasn't leaked (if it was overfilled) and check to see if you need more oil. Sometimes the oil line will fall below that headroom space. Once you're happy, put the jar in a cool dark place to steep for 4-8 weeks. Shake it up every few days. After 4-8 weeks, using a piece of muslin, linen, or fine cheese-cloth, strain out your plant material and bottle your oil in a dark, glass bottle-- brown, green, or blue work best. A clear bottle may look pretty, since the oils take on color from the plant material, but they'll spoil quickly. Again, cap and label your oil. Type, date decanted, and length of time steeped all should be clearly marked on the bottle.

Quart sized wide mouth jar

The size of the jar you use to make your oil infusion is up to you. It all depends on how much you'll be using over whatever period of time. If you're not likely to make other recipes, use a smaller, pint size jar. Since the herbs will swell, don't use anything smaller than a pint. If you're planning on using this oil for a host of other topicals, use a quart size jar. A wide mouth canning jar is the best since they're easier to pack, easier to decant, and easier to clean. Most of them also have a headroom mark which is a wonderful guide so you don't overfill your jars. Use 2 piece lids and a piece of wax paper to seal the jar. Don't opt for the plastic lids since they aren't perfectly air-tight and don't use anything larger than a quart size jar, not unless you're going into business. And even then, smaller batches give you less waste and less headaches.

Onto the repellent.

Make sure you use a spray bottle that's capable of getting a nice spray from oil. This is the only oil that I've broken my glass rule-- always use glass-- because I couldn't find a sprayer compatible with my myriad glass bottles that would spray oil. I used an old plastic spray bottle that was left from an old bug spray. You could certainly use a plastic bottle but make sure it's free from BPA.

2 piece canning lids

Bug Repellent #3: Oil-base, Adult formula

Into an 8 ounce spray-bottle:

1/8 tsp Neem oil

½ tsp Tea Tree oil

12 drops Lavender essential oil

10 drops Peppermint essential oil

10 drops Rose Geranium essential oil

10 drops Citronella essential oil

9 drops Patchouli essential oil

9 drops Lemongrass essential oil

9 drops Lemon essential oil

9 drops Lemon Eucalyptus essential oil

9 drops Eucalyptus essential oil

9 drops Rosemary essential oil

5 drops Sage essential oil

4 drops Pennyroyal essential oil

2 drops White camphor essential oil

After adding the oils, add your base oils:

1 ounce catnip infused oil

1 ounce patchouli infused oil

1 ounce bay infused oil

Top off the remainder of the bottle with a light oil like olive or almond. I like to add a tiny bit, no more than 1 tsp of jojoba oil especially since I use this as a moisturizer during the summer months and apply it right out of the shower.

The infused oils are optional. If you don't use them, then just fill the bottle with a light oil or a blend of light oils like olive, almond, and jojoba. Again, never use a cheap, filler or byproduct oil like corn, sunflower, etc. And, unless you're going to pop this blend in the fridge, don't use anything that needs refrigeration like avocado or hemp oil-- both might sound nice, but they're apt to spoil quickly and are a bit thick for a spray-bottle.

Bug Repellent #4: Baby formula

This is virtually the same as the above recipe, except I made it for my nieces and I made an essential oil blend first which my sister-in-law could use in an alcohol-base, oil-base, or even in water. It's pretty mild, so be careful about increasing the amounts unless you test a spot first. Unlike the adult formula, only use the highest quality essential oils. For this, even with the tea tree oil, I only use Mountain Rose Herbs.

There are similar products on the market, but be careful. One I saw recently had horrible reviews online, is expensive for only 6 ounces, and not only contains essential oils that I think are too harsh for babies (cedarwood oil) but uses a carrier oil, soybean which is probably an industrial byproduct and loaded with GMOs.

I made this blend and put it in a ½ ounce essential oil, drop-by-drop bottle with instructions for using it in a spray-bottle. I know when I babysat and used the blend, my nieces didn't get a single bite. When I used it, I took a small, 2 ounce spray-bottle, added 2 tbsp of witch hazel, about 20 drops of the blend and topped the bottle with water. It worked great, but had to be regularly applied if the girls got really sweaty. You could also use the blend in an oil and use it like a moisturizer, just do a spot test to make sure there aren't any irritations. When I make the blend for my nieces and the salve I'll post an updated recipe.

Into a ½ ounce essential oil bottle or a dropper bottle add the following essential oils:

10 drops Peppermint

10 drops Lemongrass

20 drops Lemon Eucalyptus

40 drops Rosemary

10 drops Patchouli

10 drops Citronella

20 drops Sage

½ tsp Tea Tree oil

Fill the bottle with Lavender 42/40 essential oil

Armed with one of these blends you'll be set this summer. I'd love to hear how the blends worked for you and if you have any tweaks to the recipe. Feel free to increase or decrease any of the essential oils, but be aware that decreasing certain oils might reduce the efficacy of the blend. Omitting any oils might open up your blend to other critters.

What my mom says I look like when I'm brewing up my remedies.

Wear your Mushroom Hat Please!

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 21:55:00 +0000

Review: Michael Pollan's How to Change your Mind

It almost goes without saying that Tax Season is stressful, but this year, it was made even more so by the fact that I hadn't done my normal preparation and was really under the wire. Since my husband and I moved in with my elderly mom last summer, to be her caretaker, you can say that stress has been my default mode. Normally, when prepping taxes, I'll put on music, catch up on things I have been meaning to watch, and so on. But, I wanted something to relax to and I had just finished another read/listen of American Gods, so I scoured our digital bookshelf for something and discovered the latest from Micheal Pollan, How to Change your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.

Two things off the top. First, I've been a Michael Pollan fan since hearing him discuss our food insecurity in Food Inc. Between my husband and myself, we've read all his books, watched all of the documentaries he's been involved with, and just got ourselves tickets to hear him speak at the 92^ndStreet Y at the end of May on the book tour for How to Change your Mind. Of our (living) intellectual heroes, he's probably the last that we haven't yet heard speak in person.

Second, I'm maybe a rung above layman in terms of psychedelics. Maybe two or three rungs since I've had some experience with psychedelics beyond reading about them, which consists of one successful ayahuasca session and one where maybe I didn't drink enough of the brew, along with being slipped a bit of LSD while at a high school party. While in college, some genius tossed a few “shrooms” on a pizza. I had a few bites before I was told the mushrooms on the mushroom pie, which had the consistency of desiccated baby ears, were the magical kind. I had been feeling nauseated

already and promptly purged myself of the mystery fungi. Since no one in the group had any visionary experiences, the desiccated baby ears were probably shredded shiitake. Being epileptic, I've shied away from pursuing psilocybin and I've never had an interest in MDMA. Ayahuasca though is on my list of medicines to go back to, particularly since when I had used the medicine, I was an uncontrolled asthmatic. Anthony recounts the story in his article, but before using the medicine, I did a bit of a dieta and stopped all my medications. Three months later, while having an argument over something, I remember shouting at him, “I thought this f**king medicine was supposed to help me.” We laugh about it now, because it was only then that we both realized I hadn't used my asthma medications since the dieta and it's been more than a decade since, nigh on two, and I still haven't had a resurgence of asthma.

For me as with my husband, when talking about medicines like cannabis, ayahuasca, psilocybin, any herbal or plant medicine, the term medicine is more applicable than the term drug. I know for many people the difference is mere semantics, tomayto tomahto. But, as Anthony discusses in his the article cited above, his introduction to Earth Medicine “Healing with Earth Medicine: Part 1” plant medicines like psilocybin, cannabis, and ayahuasca (to name only a few) have been used as medicines by native peoples for millennia. A drug on the other hand has a different association, usually pharmacology based, usually a chemical and not food, and often something addictive, habit-forming, and not something grown in the earth.

As the psychedelic newbie, I have a passing familiarity with the totemic individuals in the field: Terrence McKenna, Timothy Leary, and Richard Alpert (though I never remember his name and he's been the guy that worked with Leary in my brain). So, the first thing I truly appreciate in Pollan's How to Change your Mindis how intimately and clearly he lays out the history of psychedelics, going back to the indigenous roots for medicines like psilocybin and ayahuasca. Essentially, Pollan does for psychedelics what he did for food with In Defense of Food. He approaches the field with full disclosure about his background (as a journalist not an expert) and his own personal connection to the topic, complete with humor, reflection, and candor. There's a disclaimer in the frontspiece regarding the legalities of psychedelics, which serves as a shameful reminder about the stance the US has regarding these substances being used as either a drug or medicine; namely that they have no use for medical applications. Thank you Richard Nixon. Read the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 here.

There were a few moments when Pollan was laying out the history that I felt my eyes glaze a bit, but that wasn't a failing on Pollan's part. Remember, as I was listening I was prepping my taxes-- and I finished Pollan in 2 days. The audiobook is 13 hours, 35 minutes. Because I was so behind on my work, I broke the first rule of doing work that I lay down for my freshmen comp students, the 45/15 rule. For every 45 minutes of work, take a break for at least 15 minutes. I was cramming for Uncle Sam, so the eye-glaze was from lack of sleep and all that math. I think on day 1 of listening to Pollan (who reads the audio, which is a plus) I began at 10 in the morning and didn't take a break until after 5 pm.

Once I recovered from my momentary lapse, I was eager to finish the book. It was making my work easier and I was finally getting a crash course in psychedelics. I appreciate Pollan making what could have been a dry, detached catalogue into a personal journey. Alongside the history of psychedelics, he freely tracks his own history. I can't call this an autobiographical account, but Pollan does something similar with In Defense of Food and with Cooked-- tracks his own connection to the topic, which becomes the foil by which the reader is taken along on the journey. In his introduction, “A New Door”, he tells us exactly what his intention was:

...How to Change Your Mindapproaches its subject from several different perspectives, employing several different narrative modes: social and scientific history; natural history; memoir; science journalism; and case studies of volunteers and patients. In the middle of the journey, I also offer an account of my own firsthand research (or perhaps I should say search) in the form of a kind of mental travelogue (Pollan, 17-18).

While I would heartily recommend the book, especially to those wishing to learn more about psychedelics-- either for simple edification or in order to determine if a specific psychedelic would be beneficial, as a therapy or a betterment tool (or both)-- there are a few points I'd like to note. If I have a few critiques of Pollan in How to Change Your Mind, besides his misguided use of the semi-colon, it's his liberal use of the term “drug” and his use of quotation marks.

I wouldn't say How to Change Your Mind is or isn't for those well-versed psychedelics. It seems like it's more of a primer for newbies, especially since there are moments in the introduction that could turn off people Pollan describes as “Psychedelic aficionados”, people more familiar with psychedelics than he or I. The use of such terms as “Psychedelic aficionados” combined with his liberal use of quotation marks (without sourcing) seems a bit diminutive, not quite condescending but a bit. He uses quotation marks so much so that I'm left wondering if he's actually quoting or just using quotations stylistically to show a demarcation. The terms he sets aside in quotations are terms like “aesthetic experience”, “experience of the numinous” --which could refer to any number of theologians, philosophers, or theorists from Kant to Otto to James, but unless he's specifically quoting, I'm not sure the quotations are necessary. But, the quotations, like the term drugs, seems to set the mystical, the shamanic, the spiritual components of psychedelics to one side. I'm not sure that was Pollan's intention, but as I said it may be something that turns off some folks that could benefit from exactly the information Pollan presents.

He opens a discussion about the various terms for psychedelics early on, noting that he's somewhat uncomfortable since the term “psychedelics...carries a lot of countercultural baggage” (Pollan, 18-19). I found that initially a bit disconcerting, wondering if he felt that way about the term psychedelic, what about other terms like medicine, entheogen, or the term used to describe psychedelic pioneers and experimenters: psychonaut?

Pollan gives a little elaboration about this particular term about midway through the book, when describing a 2010 Bay Area conference organized by MAPS (The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), he notes the definition of psychonauts as “people of all ages who make regular use of psychedelics in their lives, whether for spiritual, therapeutic, or 'recreational' purposes” (Pollan, 228). Again with the quotations (though here I've used single quotes since I am actually quoting Pollan.

He dismisses another term which Anthony and I use, along with most current psychonauts and psychedelic researchers like Alex Grey, Dennis McKenna, and Graham Hancock: entheogen. Pollan says:

Hoping to escape those associations and underscore the spiritual dimensions of these drugs, some researchers have proposed they instead be called “entheogens”—from the Greek for “the divine within.” This strikes me as too emphatic. (Pollan, 19).

He's again referencing the aforementioned “cultural baggage” of psychedelics and perhaps his attitude may stem from Pollan's place as a journalist, or, without trying to psychoanalyze the author, from what he called his “impatien[t]” personality (Pollan, 254). Being dismissive of a term that seems too touchy-feely or woo-woo is exactly the sort of thing a journalist, an unbiased researcher perhaps should do. But, it's this dismissive stance that again may turn off readers, or at least mar what is otherwise a valuable volume in the vast psychedelic library.

Another issue Pollan may have is with coining of the term entheogen, which Pollan doesn't dive into.

Had he, perhaps he might not have felt the term too “empathic”. In their 1979 article “Entheogens”

Carl Ruck, Jeremy Bigwood, Danny Staples, Jonathan Ott, and R. Gordon Wasson note the reasons for choosing this term over others, hallucinogen and psychedelic, both of which have their own baggage for the authors. Entheogen is a term they crafted from the Greek, as Pollan notes, to denote a substance used for ritual, shamanic, purposes, or to create enlightenment via an altered state of consciousness.

I'm unsure why such an “empathic” term is off-putting for Pollan. Perhaps it comes from what he called“countercultural baggage” and some aesthetic disorganization in Paul Stamets' “mushroom conferences” (Pollan, 102). The last conference Pollan watched on VHS with Paul Stamets, replete with his quotation marks: “'Conference' might not do justice to what now appeared on Stamets's television” (ibid). Pollan describes the eventin which Ott spoke about entheogens: “The proceedings looked more like a Dionysian revel than a conference” (Pollan, 102-103). I can see why Pollan may want to shy away from using entheogen in an effort to 'legitimize' psychedelics, since he is presenting a text which states the case for psychedelic therapy for a host of concerns (as noted in the text's subtitle). However, I still feel dismissing the term entheogen is a bit sticky.

I find it problematic that he's dismissive of a term because it seems “empathic.” As I stress with my students, empathy is something we need more of in order to be truly functional individuals. As another intellectual hero of mine, Neil Gaiman said in his brilliant talk, “Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Daydreaming” (which I assign to my incoming freshmen every term since Gaiman gave the talk): “Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals.” Gaiman was talking about the need for reading and reading fiction as a means of people-building and problem-solving (amongst other reasons), but isn't the argument in favor of psychedelics trying to say the same thing? Psychedelics help build empathy. When you use psychedelics you have the ability to experience that element Rudolf Otto called the numinous-- that which has an other-worldly, awe-inspiring, life-changing quality which cannot be translated into words. That experience lends to the sense of being more connected with the world around us, with people and nature and the very fabric of the universe. So, try as he might distance himself from these woo-woo terms, entheogen is an apt term I wish Pollan was more embracing of precisely because these substances build empathy. They allow us to experience something beyond ourselves which many spiritual and non-spiritual people have described as divine.

He's a bit more comfortable with the term psychedelic, despite it having a bit of a “downside” for him, Pollan sticks to the term consistently, despite peppering the text with the aforementioned “drug” references. He notes that psychedelic “...is etymologically accurate. Drawn from the Greek, it means simply 'mind manifesting,' which is precisely what these extraordinary molecules hold the power to do” (Pollan, 18-19).

I also wish Pollan was more embracing of the term plant medicine. He doesn't much refer to the latter term, except in passing. He doesn't explore the term, but merely uses it perhaps in quoting others' use of the term. In “A Rennaissance” when discussing the 2006 US Supreme court case (Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal), as Pollan outlines the reasoning behind why the US ruled in favor of the UDV (the União do Vegetal a Christian sect which uses ayahuasca as their sacrament), he refers to “plant medicine” (Pollan, 27). However, this may refer specifically to the case. Later, when discussing the experiences of volunteers in the John Hopkins experiments with psychedelics and recounting the experience of “Amy Charnay, a nutritionist and herbalist” the term “plant medicine” is used again-- but only in a quote from Charnay herself (Pollan, 66-67).

The separation again may be rooted in Pollan's origins-- as a journalist, as an outsider looking in, someone hitherto unattached to the topic. He's also speaking to an audience that has needed some convincing: psychotherapists, psychologists, doctors of Western Medicine, scientists, even lawmakers and perhaps those in the position to re-classify psychedelics and remove the Schedule I stigma; the same journey that cannabis has been on. How to Change Your Mind may be the text that helps nudge the nay-sayers into a direction that will change their mind about the value of these medicines. Noting a difference between Western Medicine and Earth Medicine, without using the latter term, Pollan reminds us the Western Medical audience will need convincing. He says:

This hall of epistemological mirrors was just one of the many challenges facing the researchers who wanted to bring LSD into the field of psychiatry and psychotherapy: psychedelic therapy could look more like shamanism or faith healing than medicine (Pollan, 144).

This is a theme Pollan comes back to, particularly when noting the contributions of Sidney Cohen, psychiatrist and “dean of LSD researchers in Los Angeles”; Pollan notes how by 1959, “Cohen was made uncomfortable by the cultishness and aura of religiosityand magic that now wreathed LSD” (Pollan, 158). And yet Cohen himself felt despite his own personal misgivings, those conducting the research, doctors, psychiatrists, scientists should persevere. Pollan quotes a 1959 letter where Cohen tells a colleage that LSD “opened a door from which we must not retreat merely because we feel uncomfortably unscientific at the threshold” (ibid).

Cohen was a unique individual, hitherto unknown to me, who may serve as an inspiration for Pollan because Cohen was “an open-minded skeptic” regarding the use of psychedelics, at the time LSD (Pollan, 159). The use of psychedelics and the suggestibility of study participants, researchers, and patients presented a problem in Cohen's studies which Pollan notes “takes psychotherapy perilously close to the world of shamanism and faith healing, a distinctly uncomfortable place for a scientist to be. And yet as long as it works, as long as it heals people, why should anyone care?” (ibid). Later, Cohen called psychedelic therapy essentially“'therapy by self-transcendence' suggesting he saw a role in Western medicine for what would come to be called applied mysticism” (ibid).

Ultimately, Pollan shows a progression in terms of his own mindset about psychedelics. Midway, in Pollan's “Travelogue”, when discussing the myriad underground applications of psychedelic therapy by trained therapists and delving the term psychonaut, Pollan shows his own change of mind in an aside on the term recreational, as in recreational use of psychedelics: “As Bob Jesse is always quick to remind me whenever I use that word, “recreational” doesn’t necessarily mean frivolous, careless, orlacking in intention. Point taken” (Pollan, 228).

So his use of terms, his style that may have been a bit on the patronizing side in the beginning shifts towards the end. He incorporates a more internalized mode, especially as he closes his discussion of psychedelic therapy and recounts aspects of his ayahuasca experience, shying away from the term “drug” and employing italics rather than quotation marks, which serve as a kind of integration and show the reader knowledgeable in psychedelics that Pollan has been integrating not only his psychedelic experiences but his experiences as a researcher.

The information presented also helped answer some questions I have been hitherto unable to find answers to, despite my reaching out to individuals in the field like Rak Razam, Chris Kilham, Joe Rogan, Dennis McKenna, and even Pollan himself, alongside trying to get more than raised eyebrows from my own doctors. Perhaps Pollan never responded because the answers are in this book. I didn't want medical advice, but information about psychedelics and epilepsy, psychedelics and neurology. I wanted to be pointed in the direction of research, articles, books, et cetera to help me formulate a decision before trying other psychedelics, or even pursuing ayahuasca again. My ayahuasca experiences were before my epilepsy diagnosis and before I suffered a mini-stroke in 2009. I've had concerns specifically about psilocybin and possible contraindications. While discussing his own diagnosis of atrial fibrillation and discussing psychedelics with his cardiologist, Pollan noted that with the exception of MDMA most psychedelics “concentrate their effects in the mind with remarkably little impact on the cardiovascular system” (Pollan, 236). Does it mean I won't have a seizure while on an ayahuasca or psilocybin experience? No, but having dinner with my mother can trigger a seizure. My use of cannabis, as I've noted in other articles, has helped control my seizures and the benefits from using ayahuasca and psilocybin outweigh the risks. My bigger concern wasn't a seizure, but sparking another stroke.

I can't help but wish that by the end of his journey, Pollan decides he's comfortable enough to wear one of Paul Stamets' genuine mushroom hats. If Stamets gave me an amadou hat, I'd certainly wear one, regardless of how silly it may seem.

Overall, is this a text I would recommend? Without a doubt. Is it the final word on psychedelics? No, nor is it intended to be. As I said before, Pollan does for psychedelics what he did for food and concepts of food security. How to Change Your Mindan invaluable resource that I will most likely reread this summer.

Amazing Beans

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 17:56:00 +0000

You haven't tasted beans until you taste heirloom beans. And if you haven't gotten them from Rancho Gordo, then you still haven't tasted beans.

Several years ago, when Anthony and I started moving towards more food security, food independence, and homemade food, one of the first things we got our hands on were dried beans. Beans are pretty much the number one food recommended to stock up on when you're prepping your pantry. But, since I wasn't exactly prepping my pantry with longterm goals in mind, I decided it was more cost-effective to get dried beans. And, since I was trying to eliminate canned goods entirely from our stores because of uncertainty about any BPH-lining in said cans, dried beans were the answer.

For years, I never even considered heirloom beans-- not because I didn't want to try them, but because I didn't even know such a thing existed. The more I educated myself about food, the more I learned about heirloom and heritage varieties of a number of foods. I found a place that sold heirloom beans after I began the hunt for Canary Beans and Jacob's Cattle Beans, two varieties I kept finding recipes for. When I read recipes for each I had to try them. The result? It's really hard to describe, but they were nothing like the beans you buy in the supermarket-- and even these beans, as good as they were, were nothing compared to Rancho Gordo's beans.

And no, I have no connection to Rancho Gordo. Nor have I ever gotten any complimentary beans to review-- although I wouldn't be opposed. 😊

I won't name the place I originally got the heirloom beans at, because I had a major problem with them, after being a customer of theirs for about a year. They were awesome, initially, in terms of having what they called heirloom varieties of legumes, rice, and quinoia. But, after making a pretty large order, never getting the few items that had been backordered, and never getting the credit for those backordered items, I had to fight for a refund with my credit card company.

I was pissed, not just at losing money, but I lost my hook-up to heirloom beans. So, I went back to the supermarket and when I wanted some organic black beans or organic chickpeas, I found some reasonable prices on Amazon. Then I started thinking bulk preps and ordered 25 pounds of pinto beans from Honeyville. While all those beans were decent, they weren't heirloom. They were missing a quality and a flavor I was longing for. So, I kept hunting around for another place.

Steve Sando: the Bean Guru

What is an heirloom bean? A pretty decent discussion can be found here on Jamie Geller's The Joy of Kosher. And, she highlights the only game in town on top notch heirloom beans: Rancho Gordo. Heirloom beans, like any heirloom seed, have been passed down from generation to generation, usually in family farms or gardens. Because of industrial farming, many heirloom and native food plants have been wiped out-- either intentionally or because of cross-pollination, which contaminates the heirloom plant line. Many folks like Steve Sando the founder of Rancho Gordo, sought out small farmers with these prized family gems in order to revitalize heirloom beans, legumes, and corn.

Keep in mind, when I started my search this was quite a few years ago. Rancho Gordo isn't a brand new company, but they really didn't start kicking off until maybe 2007 or so. When I first started looking, this was a few years earlier. Now, if you do a Google search for “heirloom beans” Rancho Gordo is at the top of the results and you can pretty much get anything heirloom from the Amazon juggernaut, but sometimes the true heirloom nature is dubious.

After coming across a recipe for an heirloom variety I'd never heard of before, the Scarlet Runner

Scarlet Runner Bean

Bean, I stumbled across Rancho Gordo, a small farm network based in Napa, California, which as I said, specializes in heritage bean varieties and seeks to preserve rare, at-risk, heirloom varieties. And, with their Rancho Gordo-Xoxoc Project, they're seeking to preserve traditional and indigenous farming techniques as well. Read more about Rancho Gordo and their story-- and get your mitts on their beans.

I did find another heirloom vendor, Elegant Beans and Beyond, which also has some good legumes, but Rancho Gordo is my mainstay. Elegant Beans has some good beans, but I'll save them for varieties I can't get at Rancho Gordo, like Black Garbanzo or Jacob's Cattle.

I can share a basic recipe that's useful for any of the beans, but go to Rancho Gordo's blog section of their site and they are the experts. I've tried several of their recipes and most are pretty simple. I just fell in love with one I'm planning for tonight.

The key with making beans is use the best beans, use filtered or bottled water (especially if you have hard water like I do in my new abode) to soak the beans, don't toss the soaking liquid, and always make sure you have Rancho Gordo in your pantry, along with the basics for a mirapoix. Any mirapoix will do, French (carrots, onions, celery), Italian (garlic, onion, parsley, celery, carrot), or Creole (onions, celery, bell peppers). Any cook worth her salt should have a few of these on hand, fresh, in the fridge. Mix and match. Use what you have.

Another life-saver for cooking beans, and a whole host of other scrumptious delectables is a good stir-fry pan. I ordered one from Amazon and promptly returned it-- the lid was a nightmare and it looked like someone had already used it and returned it. I found one in a store which I have completely fallen in love with: Cook's 13 inch stainless steel with a stainless steel cover.

I found it for about $40 and it was the best $40 I've spent. Cooking greens in this is a cinch and cooking amazing beans? In as little as 40 minutes-- without soaking.

Basic Beans

1 pound package of Rancho Gordo heirloom beans
2 stalks of celery, minced
2 carrots, peeled and minced
1 large onion (yellow or vidalia, but any will do)
3-4 minced garlic cloves
2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cups of filtered or bottled water
Extra virgin olive oil
Crusty bread, rice, pasta, or some carb nummy that you can serve with the beans. This is optional. You can devour the beans as is with nary a carb in sight.

Rinse and sort the beans, making sure there isn't any foreign material in the beans. Rancho beans are usually pretty clean, but every so often you might find a stone.
Soak the beans in the filtered water. This part is optional. I've soaked beans overnight, or soaked them for maybe an hour-- or enough time to prep my other ingredients.
Prep vegetables.
In your stir-fry pan, on medium high heat, saute your onions in your olive oil until slightly translucent. Add your garlic, celery, thyme, and carrot. Saute for about 5 minutes.
Strain your beans but RESERVE THE SOAKING LIQUID!
Add your strained beans to the pot, stir to coat them with the oil and vegetables, maybe 2 or three minutes. Then add your liquid and slap the cover on the pot.
Lower the heat to medium-low and let the beans simmer for at least 25 minutes before checking them.
Once the beans are halfway cooked, then add your salt, pepper, and any other seasoning you desire. The key to getting tender beans is waiting until they're at the halfway mark before salting or adding acid to the pot.
Slap the lid back on and check again in another 15-20 minutes. Once they're near done, depending on how much liquid is left, you can simmer for the final moments with the lid off, in order to reduce the liquid further, or leave them a little brothy, especially if you're serving them over rice, pasta, whole grains (quinoia, amaranth, wheatberries, and farro are amazing with beans).
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil.

The possibilities are endless depending on the type of bean and what you have on hand. I became a fan of lima beans because of Rancho Gordo. I grew up hating lima beans, probably because the only ones I had ever come across were the frozen horrors my mom would force us to eat. My husband loves lima beans and after initially discovering Rancho Gordo, I got him a package of Christmas Lima beans for Yule. I thought he'd appreciate the irony and he had just given me a mess of beans for my birthday a few weeks earlier. I'm not a jewelry and frills kind of girl. One year he gave me a Cherokee style war-club and I gave him chainmail; this particular year I got a mess of beans and I reciprocated.

Christmas Limas

The meal I developed around those Christmas limas was spectacular. I prepared them similarly to the recipe above, but I had some top quality, grass-fed jowl bacon from a local farm. I rendered the fat from that bacon and used the fat to saute the vegetables, first removing the bacon from the pan. Then, in the final 20 minutes of cooking, I added crushed red pepper, lots of black pepper, a small dash of ground and toasted cumin, chopped dinosaur kale-- cleaned of course-- and the previously rendered bacon. It was served with crusty bread, a squeeze of lemon, and shaved Parmesan cheese. I've had dreams about those lima beans.

Another memorable bean dish was something called Eye of the Goat, again following the basic recipe above, minus the carrots and celery, double the onions, which were allowed to caramelize first. They were served over amaranth and topped with lightly fried morels. To die for.

I haven't restocked from Rancho Gordo in some time due to budget, but I'm making plans to do so as soon as humanely possible. I want to see how a dish of beans with some of my adult sprinkles (already-been-vaped cannabis) goes down. Sweet I imagine.

Eye of the Goat

Adopting a Cat: Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 20:12:00 +0000

Like a new baby, you need space dedicated to the new member of the family. So, ask yourself again, do you have an isolation room or a space that can be devoted to the new kitty for anywhere from a few days to a few months? Regardless of any past experiences you may have taking cats into your home, you must have a special space-- spare bathroom, spare bedroom, a crate – set up for the new feline. It has to be a space that kitty doesn't have to share with anyone.

And, yes, you read that correctly: a few months. As I said in the previous installment, regardless of your past experiences with cats, regardless of how experienced you are with cats, each feline member of the household is and should be different. With Luna, her isolation lasted about 2 weeks, primarily because she had fleas when she adopted us; she had been abandoned in the street. With Sage, her isolation was only a few days, because she kept escaping the room. By not having her isolated and not integrating her properly, the first 5 or 6 months was a bit bumpy as Luna got used to Sage as the new member of the house. There was quite a bit of distance between them for the first year.

With Potato? She was a different case entirely and as I said before, she was a cat that needed rehabilitation alongside integration. I made a lot of mistakes with her and had I known what I know now, what I'm sharing in these articles, her isolation time might have been shortened radically. And, the time might have had a lot less stress, for her, for my husband, and for me. As it is, she was in isolation, with the door shut to her room for a full 6 months, then with gates blocking her room for another 6 months. After that, we put up gates when we weren't home and she “lived” in her room until we moved last year. So, in our last home, she was in some form of isolation for almost 2 years. Now, her home-base is our bedroom, but she does wander around the house, when the other 2 are sleeping. There are some minor quibbles, but they can all share space together for hours with no supervision and without any problems.

A supervised visit, one of the first, a year after we adopted Potato. These typically lasted 5 minutes or less.

Isolation Room or Crate?

One of the problems I had with all the other articles and resources I read, they all discuss having an isolation room. I advocate for that whenever possible. A dedicated room was doable in my last apartment. But, when we moved to our current house? Despite it being a larger place, there was no isolation room option.

If you're living in a one-room apartment or a situation like I'm in now (a living space without an “extra” room), then consider getting a large crate, pet-safe playpen, or cage. You'll need something much larger than a carrier so kitty can move around freely; something to house a full-sized litter box; something with enough room to give kitty food and water at least a foot or two away from the box. (I learned the hard way that cats won't eat in the same area that houses their litter box.)

Luna eating outside Potato's room, with Potato watching from inside the doorway.

It may sound inhumane to crate or cage your new family member, but it's more inhumane to bring a cat into your home with no safety zone for her. When we moved last summer, we were moving from our medium-sized apartment to a comfortably sized house. Potato was still not fully integrated into the family and we had to consider the other 2 cats as well. Despite having a moderately harmonious household, moving put us all back to the beginning because we had to introduce the cats to their new home and reintroduce them to each other. I was also concerned that being in a ranch house with several entrances at ground level, where before our apartment was on an upper floor with no direct access to the outside, any of the cats might try to escape. Several years ago, when my mother cat-sat Luna in this same house, Luna escaped out the front door and wandered the woods around the house for a while until she decided to let my mom tackle her and bring her back inside. Twice in the space of 3 days. Now living in the same home with my aged parental unit, we have an array of neighborhood wanderers (Felidae, Leporidae, and Sciuridae) alongside a scattering offerals who often sit in the front or backyard with the express purpose of checking out the new kitties on the block..

So, to keep the girls more secure, I opted for a portable, soft-sided pet-safe playpen. One per cat. It was perfect to house a kitty and litter-box with enough space for food and water at a comfortable distance from the box. I'll share more moving tips in another article. This brand came in 2 sizes. The smaller size was perfect for Potato with a kitten-sized litter-box, which is all she needed in that space, but it was also a good size for Sage, a full-sized cat with normally sized litter-box. Granted, the disposable box Sage was using while she was in the crate was just a bit smaller than her regular one, and the space was a bit tight for her, but as I started opening up her crate to give her some time to explore, she seemed to adjust better. But, again, it took time. For our largest and eldest kitty, we opted for the larger sized crate by the same company. It was perfect for Luna and her large litter-box. On retrospect, I probably should have gotten the same size for Sage because it took her a few more weeks to feel completely comfortable in the home; that larger crate might have saved her some of that stress. In all, the isolation for the girls in their crates lasted about 2 months and then once out of their crates, another month in their shared space, our bedroom. Luna, the most confident of the 3, was the first to explore the house and oddly, Sage was the last. But now, they all move freely and comfortably about the space.

Isolation Room: Gates & Doors

Ideally, the new cat's room needs to have a door that closes. If you have a room, but no door, consider installing a door (see Jackson Galaxy's suggestions about installing a screen door which he mentions on many an episode of My Cat from Hell as well as his article “Do's and Don'ts of Introducing Cats”); or get a few baby and pet gates. Be careful about what kind of gate you get. Initially, I got a standard baby gate, but had to return it because Potato is so tiny, I was afraid she could squeeze through the bars, which did happen to a full-sized cat on an episode of My Cat from Hell last season. Iopted for the My Pet wire mesh dog gate. It has a cross-hatch wire mesh that even the tiniest kitten can't

squeeze through. It was also much sturdier than a baby gate. Although, no single gate will do it. Cats can jump and depending on the cat, they can jump pretty high. So I got a baby gate of a similar style to stack on top of the dog gate. Then to block the view, I hung a curtain in the doorway.

When I first brought Potato home I used the gates and curtain, despite having a door to the room that could close. I didn't think it through and had initially thought what worked for the previous kitty, would work for Potato. It took me almost a full month before I hit the reset button, removed the gates and curtain, and closed the door. Several missteps on my part made Potato's rehabilitation that much longer.

Once you determine how you're going to close off the room, door or baby gate, the space needs to be baby-proofed. You are essentially bringing a new baby into the house, regardless of that baby's age. Make sure you leave nothing in the room that can hurt kitty. No furniture that will easily topple if kitty jumps on it. No knicknacks or chatchkas that kitty can choke on, break, or urinate on. Bookcases and bureaus need to be stable. Books on shelves need to be stable as well because kitty will climb. Breakables and family heirlooms need to be put away. And make sure there are no spaces that kitty can crawl into and get stuck. Block off under furniture. If there's a bed in the room, block underneath. If there's a closet, make sure kitty can't get inside. Also make sure if the room has a window, the screen and window are secure so that if kitty sits on the sill, she won't risk falling out. Again, keep in mind simple things like your new cat is not like your old cat. Just because Fluffy never eats plants or knocks over gammy's prized Hummel, doesn't mean the newcomer won't. I'll say it again: make sure there is nothing in the room that can hurt kitty or would devastate you if there's a catastrophe that destroys that object.

Food & Litter

The room also needs to have water, food, and litter readily available. Both the food and litter should be the same brand, or as close as possible, to whatever kitty's been used to at the shelter or rescue. If a shelter or rescue doesn't give you a sample of food, don't be afraid to ask for the brand name they used. Ditto on the litter. While cats might be more accepting of different food brands, litter is something they'll be more finicky with. Once she's adopted you and your home is her forever home, if you want your cat to use a different litter or food, you can transition her to it-- slowly after she's transitioned to the house first.

Food is the easiest thing to transition, if the cat is young enough. Older cats and cats with special needs may have more difficulty. When I adopted Sage, our middle furbaby, there was no transition time at all. On Day 1, she refused the bag of dried kibble the rescue gave me and devoured the bowl of higher-quality wet food I had prepared. Even though the rescue told me their cats were fine on dry kibble, I only give high-quality dry food as a treat or food topping, not as a main food source. I make food from scratch, using human-grade ingredients with supplements designed for feline nutrition.

I'm about due for a homemade kitty food recipe update but there are several comprehensive recipes posted already. If you have the gumption, homemade is the best. Over the years, I've managed to streamline my process and with aging kitties, their dietary needs have changed. With homemade, you have the most control over the quality and it's far cheaper. But, if you don't have the time or inclination, just make sure whatever you feed kitty has high-quality protein, no by-products, no fillers (like ash, silica, wood-pulp, or clay), and nothing toxic to cats.

Foods cats should never eat can be found here and here.

Ideally, you'll make sure the food is made in the US or Canada. Many manufacturers of petfood outsource ingredients overseas, ingredients which can be contaminated. The most trusted brand for me, was Candidae, until all three became violently ill. I switched to Blue Buffalo, until there was a recall, and now use Merrick, but only certain formulas. There are a lot of mixed reviews on Merrick, but thus far I've had no problems with it and they are made in the US. Check out pet food recalls at Petful and the FDA.

In many ways, litter is more difficult than food. If the litter and the box aren't exactly what a cat is looking for, kitty will find a better alternative. But, better for kitty is not better for you. We found this out, also the hard way.

Litter should be exactly what kitty was using in the rescue, or as close as possible. If you're able, get a sample from the shelter or rescue, or at least get the brand they used. I'd highly recommend NOT using any litter with deodorizers. But, if that's what the rescue used, use it until you can get kitty using something else. Any litter with an added deodorizers can cause health issues for cats. Anitra Frazier, in The New Natural Catclaims deodorizing crystals in cat litter can cause everything from kidney failure to cancer. Many of the additives found in those litters are toxic. Several formulas have household cleaners as litter additives. Things like baking soda, perfumes, and pine sol can cause organ failure. Why add baking soda to a cat box if baking soda is toxic to cats? Phenol, a main ingredient in many pine-scented litter, in many cleaners, and in pine litter that is not kiln dried is highly toxic to cats.

The gates and playpen are still up in this pic, taken a little under 2 months after our move.

There is a LOT of controversy about cat litter. Should it be self-cleaning? Should it smell nice? Should it biodegrade? My decision not to use regular clay litter wasn't an environmental one-- even though clay litter is an environmental disaster. I had to find an alternative because Luna is horribly allergic to clay litter. Again, it took a year or so to figure it out, but after the vet told us to keep her on allergy medication to control horrible hives that swelled her eyes shut and after I saw a story about how clay litter is the product of strip mining, I thought about finding an alternative. I also thought about the silica dust from the litter after I had a horrible asthma attack while changing the litter. It took me a little while to find something else she would use and that I felt comfortable about using, but once she acclimated to a new litter, there was no going back. I initially tried a litter that I thought was made from wheat hulls. I was told by the pet store it was made from the byproducts of making flour. Actually, it isn't. Most of the wheat and corn litters are industrially grown for litter. I was horrified at the concept of our society being so wasteful as to allow our pets to use foodstuffs for a toilet. Then in a matter of a day or so after this discovery, I found a weevil infestation in the kitchen with the wheat litter as the source. Now, we use Feline pine litter and so far haven't had problems. Feline Pine kiln dries their litter, which removes harmful phenols, and they don't use virgin trees in their litter, but only reclaimed wood.

The litter box is another issue. In all honesty, if you have cats, you have to get used to a box kitty will crap in. Don't hide it. Don't make it pretty. And don't train kitty to use the toilet. Thinking we were doing a good thing, I bought the same litter box that Potato used in her rescue-- basically a closed box that looked like a rubber-maid tub with a hole in the cover. I thought she'd be more comfortable. But, she refused to use it and thus started the saga of her peeing on the bed instead of in the box. It was one thing that could have broken my resolve. Especially since she peed on the bed once while I was sleeping in it.

But, detective work and more education helped me to translate what Potato was telling me. She didn't like her box. It smelled and she was afraid of being ambushed while using it. And, peeing on me was her messed up, frightened, confusticated way of telling me that she wanted to mingle her scent with mine. She wanted to be part of my family.

Most cats don't like the closed in space of a covered box. A closed box provides no line-of-sight and while using the box, a cat needs to feel secure. If she thinks she'll be attacked mid-use, she won't use that box. In Potato's isolation room, there was a twin daybed along the far wall. It was a high-point in the room, topographically speaking, and since it was along a wall, no ambush could take place from behind. It was Potato's litter box for about 6 months. Keep in mind, her actual box was on the floor near the doorway to the room. Since the room was a semi-storage room, it was home to our chest freezer and several bookcases. So we didn't have any other place for a litter-box except where we placed them, just inside the door. But, after we ditched the covered boxes, kept the door closed, and stopped feeding her near the boxes, she stopped using the bed as her go-to-potty-place. We also started feeding her on the bed, which helped immensely.

When Luna started having litter-box issues several years ago, again detective work told me that as

she was aging, arthritis started settling into her hips and she wasn't able to position herself properly in her regular-sized box. She kept missing the box, even though she stood in it to go. After switching to the Smartcat Ultimate Litter box, which is shaped sort of like a child-sized bathtub, Luna has never had a litter-box mishap again.

Here are some helpful pieces if your kitty develops litter-box problems, or some things to keep in mind to prevent future litter-box problems: from the ASPCA and from Cats International.

While on the idea of litter, a related issue is what gets deposited in the box and how to clean it. It almost goes without saying that before you bring kitty home, make sure you have an enzyme cleaner in the house, along with plenty of paper towels, and garbage bags. You may want to get a black light to help in the detective work should you have any urination outside the box. The black light helps see urine. Also, you'll want something handy to bag up solid waste, so biodegradable pet waste bags are good. Do NOT flush cat feces down the toilet. Cats can harbor pathogens that we really don't want in our water supply like Toxoplasma,which can wreak havoc in the environment, kill sea life, and cause serious neurological harm to human fetuses (hence why pregnant women shouldn't clean cat litter-boxes.). And, if you use conventional litter it can seriously mess up your plumbing.

Many folks I know who opt for deodorizers in their cat litter do so because they feel the scent helps control the cat-box odor. Ditto for most folks with covered litter-boxes, any of those litter-boxes masquerading as planters, or self-cleaning litter-boxes. If your cat has special needs, like CH, a covered box can help kitty stabilize herself in order to use the box. (Read all about CH kitties here in this awesome piece by Potato's rescue daddy Christopher Mancuso )

Deodorizers, as I said earlier, can slowly kill your cat. Ditto for cleaners. Again, as noted before: do NOT under any circumstances use any pine sol, lysol, Mr. Clean, ammonia, or any similar cleaning agent around any cat. The chemicals in those cleaners will build up in your cat's system. As she uses the box, walks on any surfaces where you used that cleaner-- hint hint: the floor-- she'll lick it off her paws and ingest small amounts of it. Multiply that by the number of times a cat cleans herself daily. Multiply that by every day in the week and you get the idea. I lost a cat to liver failure and another to kidney failure because the damage was already done before I knew I was causing the damage with the cleaners I used on and around their boxes. Now, I only use natural cleaners, mostly DIY and I only use dish-soap on their litter boxes. Yes. Dish-soap on litter-boxes.

If you clean your cat's boxes routinely, at least once a week, if not twice, then no smell will infiltrate the box itself. If you scoop the waste throughout the day-- at least two or three times-- and stir around the litter to help absorb any standing liquid, the stink won't infiltrate the rest of the house. We have 3 boxes which have to be cleaned every 4 days.

Catification

Catification is a big step and it has to be done BEFORE kitty comes home. Most of the stuff I just went through can be considered part of the overall catification process, but after the basics of setting up the space as a safety zone for the new arrival, think beyond food, water, and litter-box.

Potato's Cat TV in the apartment.

Cats will need territory to own and to help them truly master their space, to feel comfortable, to feel they belong and the space belongs to them, that means snuggle spots, activities to keep them stimulated, and vertical space. Have an array of toys, interactive games, shelves, perches, and so on. You want the room totally catified. Any quick Google search can give you ideas and a more in-depth search can help you catify without spending a fortune. Cats need a lot of stimulation. Even devout cat guardians may not realize how much energy cats need to expel, and unlike dogs, you can't easily take any cat out for a walk. I've tried with mine without success. Having perches and places to lounge in high places gives cats stimulation, especially if situated near a window. Cats can spend hours staring outside, watching whatever happens to be on “Cat T.V.” Having vertical space allows scaredy cats to become confident kitties as well.

Potato prefers live Cat TV in our new abode.

In Potato's isolation room, we already had 1 large shelf installed, so we cleared our junk from that and added more shelving. We had plans to complete the circuit around the room, but we moved before that goal was realized. Throughout the apartment we had perches in every room, enough for each cat should they all converge on the same room at once, which never really happened in that apartment. Once Potato was in the room, it was too stressful for her to do any kind of intense catification (shelf installation, moving furniture). In the new house, we weren't able to catify before they moved in. (That's what happens when you move in with an elderly hoarder and need to deal with the overall living space, as well as get the feline living space up to standard). But, we do have perches, shelves, and snuggle spots for all the girls throughout the house, and the shelves in the bedroom, their main base of operations, is nearly complete. We're hoping to finish it this weekend.

For ideas about how to catify on a budget check out this Pinterest page. I got a lot of ideas from this. Check out these simple tips and here are some shelving ideas from Hauspanther's Pinterest page.

So, the room needs to have a snuggle spot for kitty set up. You can use the carrier she comes in as that snuggle spot, just make sure it opens securely enough that kitty won't get stuck inside. But, if kitty is anything like Sage or Potato, the carrier might be a source of fear instead of comfort. Before you bring kitty home, put a towel or small cloth inside the carrier. Once kitty is home, use the cloth as a sent source for new kitty. I did this when we brought home Sage and Potato, and was happy I did so because neither wanted anything to do with the carrier once I opened it to let them out. I removed the cloth and placed it in what would become their snuggle spot of choice. If possible, see if you can get the bedding kitty used in the shelter or rescue. When I took Sage home, the rescue gave me that option, but I declined. I shouldn't have. Having that might have saved her some stress. When bringing home Potato, because she had never really integrated into her foster home and never really settled on a place that she could claim as her own while she lived there, there wasn't any bedding or item that properly had her scent on it.

A word on toys, make sure they aren't dangerous and don't have bits that can be easily chewed and swallowed. Also make sure they aren't too large. I made the mistake of offering Potato a toy style that Luna loved and she freaked. It wasn't that the toy was Luna's, with Luna's scent on it. It was a brand new toy, but it was simply too large. Potato is 1/3 the size of Luna and it took me a little while to realize that while Potato was finding her mojo, toys for her needed to be smaller than toys I might use for the other cats. An amazing book is Playtime for Cats by Helena Dbalý Stefanie Sigl. If you can get it, it's worth it and gives you ideas about how to entertain kitties, again without spending a fortune.

At the very least, get some interactive toys-- cat wands are the best-- as they could help establish trust, which would increase new kitty's confidence. If I had the insight to use play earlier and more consistently, then Potato might have been more easily integrated into the house.

Still on the room. If there's a bed in the room, prepare the bed ahead of time. Get a waterproof, zippered cover to protect the mattress from accidents. A really good one-- breathable, washable, and cheap is by LinenSpa. The material is lightweight. It does make a mattress retain heat a bit, but it does protect against insects as well as liquids. Don't put blankets, pillows, or anything that you will freak out over if kitty pees on them. If you do have any pillows that must be on the bed, get one of the pillow protectors from LinenSpa. They're as durable as the mattress protector, inexpensive, and usually sold 2 in a package.

But, be prepared, if kitty is a hider, you might want to remove the bed or mattress and box-spring so kitty won't have a hiding place like this. Having a comfortable place-- a snuggle spot-- isn't the same as a hiding spot. You want kitty to feel safe, but hiding will make kitty less confident and ultimately

feel less safe. This was one of the things I realized was a mistake on my part because Potato spent the first week hiding under the bed in her room. In the scheme of things a week doesn't seem like much time, but considering everything with her, that week could have been a major factor.

And, it took us way more than a week to realize we needed a mattress cover. Initially, we seized the opportunity to ditch the old, funky mattress and box-spring that had been in that room for the last decade. We bought a new-fangled foam mattress with matching mattress foundation-- only to have her decide to start peeing on the new mattress. Again, playing Monday-morning quarterback, moving the mattress and foundation in and out of her room, repeatedly over several weeks time was more than harrowing. It basically set us back to zero, over and over.

You could also opt for starting off kitty with a pheromone to make the overall transition smoother. Again, the pheromone wasn't something I even considered until we were almost at a breaking point. After the flea infestation started, on a really bad day that included breaking up 2 cat fights, cleaning up multiple urine spots (in her room), and finally combing over Potato's room with a black-light and then enzyme cleaner to get everything,

I actually considered returning this kitten who had already been returned to the rescue. I didn't think about it long, but the thought had crossed my mind as the urine, cat fights, and fleas began to erode our lives. But, after I regained my composure, and after Potato sat within arm's length from me for the first time every, I was not going to let a little urine –and a few fleas-- deter me.

But, having a pheromone like Feliway or ComfortZone (both the same manufacturer) are helpful. Having the Diffuser was the final puzzle piece in solving the urine issue and it has been the saving grace during our move to a new home. As I said, we did have to do some serious detective work. After I discovered that the litter box style was wrong (covered litter-boxes trap urine odors which can deter cats), the position of the litter-box vs the food station was wrong (cats won't eat where they urinate or defecate so the food station must be on the opposite side of the room to the litter-box), and a host of other things including too much stress (new home for her, cat fights, and fleas), and a preference for peeing on fleece blankets as opposed to kitty litter, we were able to reduce the number of incidents from daily to weekly to monthly to nothing. After our move, Potato has urinated outside the box exactly once and that was a warning sign to us that her litter-box needed a better location. Once we found where she wanted it, she hasn't had any issues.

Now, going on 3 years with Potato, I have very few regrets, and those revolve around how I approached the situation-- as though she would be like the other cats I've adopted before. I was over-confident and didn't consider her as unique. Had I done that, had I been a little more prepared, I think I could have sidestepped a good many of the more stressful moments. Now, my day is not complete without this forever kitten) who couldn't stand being touched in the beginning) perching on my shoulder to snuggle during TV-time. Now, I can appreciate the milestones as they happen. A scant day or two ago, she let me clip her nails, for the first time.

Stay tuned for some tips about moving & fighting fleas without chemicals.

The norm: Sage and Potato hanging out. They'll do this for hours without a problem.

Adopting a Cat: Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 21:33:00 +0000

I've had cats in my life for the last 30 years, almost without interruption. I am more “in tune” with cats than most cat guardians I've met, but I am by no way, shape, or form a cat behaviorist. Adopting my most recent kitty, Potato, in the fall of 2016 really opened my eyes in many ways. I have always had a profound respect for Animal Rescue organizations (as evidenced from our collection Tails from the Other Side: Pets & the Paranormal)and the folks who do the rescuing.

But, until adopting little Potato, I supposed I didn't fully understand the level of work, dedication, and fortitude necessary in rescuing and rehabilitating. I did understand, but from a more academic perspective. While I've always adopted, I've never had to truly rehabilitate a cat.

At the time I first began this article, in 2017, Potato had been with us for 7 months and she still was not integrated into the house. At the time, we lived in a modest apartment, she spent most of her time in “her room,” and we had to have baby-gates up to keep the peace. When I first began thinking about writing this piece, a mere 2 months after we adopted her, it was daunting because it seemed that there had been absolutely no progress. By that time in the process, I did understand it wasn't just integration, but rehabilitation and I thought perhaps Potato may have started to understand she wasn't in a place that would dispose of her. Despite a lot of chaos-- peeing outside the litter box, biting and scratching (me), a flea infestation-- in retrospect, I can see there had been some movement forward, however minuscule; she was vocalizing to us, was making eye contact, and was not trying to escape via an inter-dimensional portal located behind our deep-freezer at the rear wall of the house.

We adopted Potato from a local superhero kitty rescuer, Christopher Mancuso, who was director of a local shelter, the foster dad to about a dozen cats, and the cat daddy to about a dozen more. He and his brilliant wife have together, single-handedly, saved hundreds of cats and with volunteers, saved thousands of cats, Potato being only 1. Potato had been the product of the Animal Care Centers of NYC and from my understanding was on the kill list when she was a kitten. She had been adopted and returned because she wasn't considered “friendly,” more than once. By the time she came home with us, she had been in at least 4 different 'homes' (if you count whatever was before ACC & ACC as a 'home'). And she was in the Hotel Mancuso twice.

Potato around when she was rescued.

I have to admit after the first 2 months, I wasn't sure if I had made the right decision, but I wasn't going to give up. At that moment, when I sat with my laptop, on Potato's bed, with her watching me from a shelf about 3 feet above my head –which was where she would spend most of her days, curled up with her back to the wall, the ceiling about 6 inches above her, and a full view of the entire room and half the apartment so as to prevent ambush-- I wasn't sure if our home was the right one for her. She wasn't as terrified, but having a flea infestation on top of everything else certainly made her backslide a bit.

But after 7 months? I thought that even by that time, an experienced Cat Mama like me would have had a harmonious household kitty-wise. At the time, while the journey with Potato was still new to me, I thought I I had a bit more of an understanding if someone with lesser kitty skills gave up and put a cat up for adoption. Now though, sitting here in our new home with Potato curling against my legs after she let me actually pick her up and cuddle her a few minutes ago? Now, I'm not as understanding. When we live in a world where dogs and cats die in the millions because of irresponsible humans? When people buy cats because of visual aesthetics? It's almost a given that not everyone has the patience or the commitment a cat, let alone a homeless cat or a cat with special needs. But, those folks shouldn't place themselves on that path at all. If you don't have the fortitude and aren't going to commit yourself to an animal, then don't bring one into your home. Period. Hopefully this piece will give some folks ideas about how to approach a hard-to-integrate kitty into the home while also giving other folks a little pause before committing themselves, their families, and their homes to integrating and rehabilitating a cat.

This piece isn't to dissuade anyone from adopting a cat, dog, ferret, or Shetland pony. If you have the means, the wherewithal, and the heart-- save a life and adopt. However, there are some definite do's and don'ts, along with some stuff that even a tried and true Cat Mama like myself needs to know before adopting or during the first stages of adoption, in addition to the basics.

There are scores of articles out there giving the basics of how to introduce a cat to a new home. All the basics are very similar, but there are lots of things to consider BEFORE kitty comes home. A really good resource is Jackson Galaxy's Total Cat Mojo: The Ultimate Guide to Life with Your Cat.

In it, Galaxy outlines everything you need to know about what motivates a cat, how to catify your life to make having a cat as harmonious as possible. I am a believer in Jackson Galaxy's strategies, but I also am skeptical about how easily he achieves wins on his show My Cat from Hell. It's not that those wins are concocted or aren't achievable; it's just the timing that makes me doubtful. With Potato, a cat who I would classify as being borderline feral when she came home with me, rehabilitation took a lot of time. But, I have noticed that Galaxy has been a bit more transparent in the more recent seasons and has noted that rehabilitating a cat is an investment in time.

Step One: Consideration and Education

First, to quote another cat behaviorist Pam Johnson-Bennet: “Cats are not dogs.”

Yes. It does sound silly, but as Johnson-Bennet notes that “many people expect cats to act like dogs and then become disappointed when they don't.” Cats don't do what you expect. Cats are more intelligent and are very prone to boredom. Cats aren't spiteful and don't act poorly to piss us off, but cat behavior should be taken as a communication tool. So be ready to communicate the minute you meet your new kitty.

But, even before you meet him or her and bring that newbie home, as with any of my guides, the first

Luna sleeping on my bed.

step is to educate yourself. Read what you can. This article is a good start, but it shouldn't be your only resource. Don't jump into adoption as a whim. It's like having a baby. You don't just wake up one morning and decide you want to come home with a child. Adopting a cat is exactly like having a child, just one you don't have to clothe and put through college.While you're reading up on cats and deciding that adopting a cat is for you, give some serious consideration to who lives in the space with you. While you're still in the search stage, well before you bring home the new kitty, consider who will be sharing the home with the new cat. Do you have other cats? Dogs? Animals? Children? What are the ages? Genders? And then consider the space. Are you in an apartment or habitat with limited space? Or will you have a room to devote to the newbie as his or her safe zone or isolation area? All of that will dictate different approaches to the introduction process.

Sage and Potato in a calmer face-off.

Even if you're like me, someone who has had cats forever and always, careful consideration is needed. Don't just introduce the new cat cold and let everyone work it out. If you want to minimize problems, and have a harmonious household, a certain amount of preparation has to be done. And, as any cat guardian knows, no two cats are the same, so no two cat introductions will go the same. Just because one cat seemed to acclimate to the house immediately, that doesn't mean the next cat will. That was a source of frustration with adopting Potato-- that it took so long to acclimate and assimilate her to us and to the home. But, the minute I realized she was unique and a case not so much of assimilation but rehabilitation, my frustration eased, and her personality blossomed, albeit slowly.

Introductions aren't uniform. You don't introduce cats the same way to other cats, to small children, to dogs, to parakeets, and to the space that will be her new forever home. Cats are sensitive to high-pitched sounds, so there are preparation techniques for introducing cats to small children and babies. Cats are sensitive to sound, period, so be mindful about ambient sounds from outside. It took a while for me to realize that since Potato had been living in a space that was in a busier neighborhood, with more street traffic and more ambient noise, moving to our home, in a quieter neighborhood, actually made her more frightened because the noise wasn't constantly in the background. That made the noise less predictable for her.

Also, cats are small and, while it may sound obvious, we aren't. Cats react differently to us than dogs do-- and believe it or not, the sheer size, volume, smell, and clumsiness of humans might be enough to make cats feel uncomfortable, frightened, and defensive. As a vertically challenged person, I never thought my size would be enough to frighten a cat until we brought Potato home. And, if she was scared of my 2-apple-high self, my husband who towers over me terrified her. Had I considered the world from her perspective and prepared accordingly, we might have had a better rapport earlier on. At the time of her adoption, Potato was only 4 pounds-- and she was fully grown. Now, she's still the size of an 8 month old kitten and she weighs about 5 pounds.

There are a lot of resources out there for helping you to introduce a new cat or kitten to your home, and there are lots of resources for helping you introduce new cats to old kitty residents, canine residents, and human residents. A great resource is Cat vs. Cat by Pam Johnson-Bennet and of course Jackson Galaxy who in addition to his Total Cat Mojo, has dozens of articles and clips to help you prepare for introductions.

If you're considering a new adoption-- to a catless household or a catfull household, I'll say again: please read as much as you can to glean as many ideas as you can. Educate yourself regardless of how much or how little you know about cats. And, no matter the situation, know there are resources to help you and help the kitty. If you have difficulty assimilating a new cat to your home-- speak with the rescue or adoption center, speak with your vet, or find a local rescue that can provide some advice. If money is no limit, speak with a reputable cat behaviorist. Some tips on finding one can be found in the article I quoted from earlier.

Read all about introductions to the house here, introductions to other cats here, and check out what the Cat Daddy, Jackson Galaxy, says about kitty introductions here and here.

As you consider, think about the cat specifically. Do you want a specific breed? If you do, then do more homework about that breed. Many people want the latest fad, and unfortunately, the breeds that are “in” are high maintenance animals. Shelters and rescues are inundated with Bengals and Himalayans. The former need a lot of stimulation and the latter are prone to respiratory complaints.

Sage, a few weeks after we took her home.

After adopting my middle girl, Sage, I had suspicions that she might have some Bengal in her. After adopting Potato, I know she has some Bengal in her and more than Sage. It's not that I think every tabby is part Bengal, but as I started reading some of the introduction articles specific to Bengals, I learned about something I had been suspicious about for some time: Backyard Breeding (ByB). One article lamented how unscrupulous persons wanting to make a buck off his or her purebred Bengal tries to breed that cat with a tabby (or another specific breed to try to create something new). The article didn't do more than note ByB in passing. But, after doing more research while editing our book Tails from the Other Side: Pets & the ParanormalI discovered that not only is this unofficial breeding going on, in some areas, it's at epidemic proportions. And, then consider that when you have “official breeding” what do those official breeders do with unwanted kittens from a litter? Where to these “misfit kitties” go? Dump them in a shelter or foist them on a rescue. The cats resulting from ByB often may have uneven temperaments and health problems. I first became aware of this phenomenon before I knew it had a name. An acquaintance bought a white Toy Tiger from a “local” breeder. I'm no expert on all the new-fangled breeds, but aren't Toy Tigers orange and black with a white tummy? It seemed that a local resident had started breeding white Toy Tigers and my acquaintance found them so irresistible that she plunked down several thousand dollars to purchase a kitten for herself and one for her sister. Several weeks later, her sister's cat was diagnosed with several cancerous tumors and had to be euthanized. My acquaintance's own cat had some health issues, as well as some instability in terms of mood, well beyond simple kitty aloofness.

The best bet is to go to a shelter or rescue. If you truly must have a specific breed, there are many rescues that specialize. Please don't think of these rescued pure-breeds as rejects. Many of the animals given up or those rescued have temperaments typical of their breed. Many of those that buy a cat because it's fashionable or neat have no idea about the needs of that breed.

Another thing to consider are the costs of having a cat in your life. Again, it's like having a child-- a forever toddler. Like with a child, you have the basics to think about: food, shelter, and medical care, all of which cost money. Make sure you won't make the mistake I was forced into when I was a kid. One of my cats from childhood fell desperately ill and my mother refused to take on the expense of a vet visit for something she thought was the cat being spiteful. Being a child, I had no resources of my own and I was forced to accept that a member of our family wouldn't be getting medical treatment. Ultimately, after doing the only thing I was able to do-- pitch a fit that included my going off food as well as going off any communication with my mother. But it was too late, our Pattycake went into liver failure, and even though she lived for another 2 years, with lots of care, the damage was done. Had we gone to the vet immediately, she might not have progressed into liver failure and would have lived a longer, healthier life. I have 3 cats now and don't have ready money for medical insurance for them, or for a vet visit. But, there are options like vets who take installments in payment (very few do, but there are some) and Care Credit, a credit card that can be used for medical expenses, for humans or animals.

Consider food and other recurring expenses like litter, but you also have to consider the emotional life of the animal as another investment of a kind. A really great site despite the small text is Messy Beast run by Sarah Hartwell. It's chock full of articles, advice, and resources. Some excellent resources are Hartwell's pieces on Cat Communication.

As you consider and educate yourself, make a plan, include your family in the process and, once the wheels are moving toward bringing a kitty home, move onto Step Two.

At this ponit, Spring 2018, Potato was still opening up. She was comfortable leaving her room at times, but I couldn't touch her, except in her room, and under specific circumstances. But, just sharing space was enough. Here, she sat with me while I graded end-of-term student papers.

Healing with Cannabis Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 01:08:00 +0000

After being a medical marijuana patient for over a year now, I've realized that many people I meet don't know much about this medicine. Even the recommending doctors I went to, in New York and New Jersey, really don't know much about marijuana –as a plant, as a “drug”, or as a medicine; those terms are not mutually inclusive. Many doctors are still not on board with cannabis used as a medicine and, like the federal government, consider it a Schedule I drug with no medicinal value. Many lawmakers and administrators of medical cannabis programs are no different. When I applied for the MMJ program in New Jersey, I had to essentially sign a legal document telling the state that I understand marijuana has “no known medical benefits...” So, the idea of marijuana as medicine isn't truly integrated into some medical cannabis programs. Then, consider the idea of a plant as medicine for a traditional doctor who's gotten used to handing out pills? That's too esoteric for many of them.

#1 Find a cannabis certifying physician... hopefully a good one.

Finding a physician isn't easy, but it's easier now than it has been. Finding a good one-- one that will do more for you than just certify that you have a condition that your state considers eligible to receive medical cannabis-- is near impossible. Many will only certify you, and that isn't bad, but it helps to have a doctor that can guide you. However, most won't because cannabis is a Schedule I drug. Because of its listing at the federal level, doctors can't give a proper prescription, only giving a basic recommendation. My doctor in NY just gave me a recommendation for any cannabis offered by the NY Medical Marijuana program. She didn't give any other recommendation than that. My NJ doctor did essentially the same, recommending me for cannabis and allowing me the maximum quantity available in the NJ program, a whopping 2 ounces a month. (Which isn't much, especially if you want to make homemade remedies like Rick Simpson oil).

My NJ doctor said: “How you use it is up to you.” On my subsequent visits, for his paperwork, he did ask me how I was using it: smoke, vape, or edibles. He didn't want any other information than that. A good article from “Practical Pain Management” gives some other tips about medical cannabis and your healthcare provider.

It's also a plus if the doctor that certifies you is one that actually understands cannabis as medicine. The NY doctor that ultimately certified me for the NYMMJ program was a pain-specialist who had been part of some NY state council on opioids. She only became certified to recommend cannabis in order to compare her patients' experiences on cannabis, which she didn't think was as effective as opioids. She said she was doing it for personal/professional research purposes. She and I did have a laugh when I asked if I was to be her guinea pig. But, that's essentially what I was because she was convinced I would do better on opioids.

She wasn't the first doctor I had seen in New York about cannabis either. The first one happened to be a neurologist I had initially seen almost 10 years ago, after I had had a mini-stroke, and he was one I had gone back to several times over the years. He was one of the many neurologists who had missed my epilepsy diagnosis. During the last round of visits, he wanted me to repeat all the tests I had had because he didn't believe my diagnosis of epilepsy. He wanted me on another cocktail of anti-seizure medications in addition to yet another round of opioids. It didn't matter that I had already done all that to no effect. Finally, after having a few tests and lots of turmoil, I confronted him, asking if he had any intention of ultimately recommending cannabis-- even if I were to do the 6 months on new meds. He said no because he had no faith cannabis would work for me and he had no confidence in my diagnosis-- and yet he was prescribing a cocktail of anti-seizure medications. Neither doctor gave me much assistance, though the pain management specialist did give me the certification.

I often tell folks when I speak with them about cannabis: if you don't have a doctor that will even entertain the idea, then find one who will. It's hard to do, especially considering insurance. But, if you want to try a medicine that can improve your life, then it's worth the trouble. Try Leafly for help finding a doctor near you. Another resource is Marijuana Doctors.

Sometimes you'll come across a doctor that does cannabis certification not because he or she believes in cannabis as a medicine, or because the doctor understands cannabis, but because it's an easy money-maker. Cannabis certification can be expensive. So...

#2 Find a doctor that accepts insurance.

If you're lucky, you can find a decent doctor that will accept health insurance and will drastically cut down on your out-of-pocket expense. Both doctors I got certified by accepted my health insurance for the visit. Not all do. Sometimes it's also a measure of how reliable the doctor is and is an important thing to keep in mind depending on your state's program. In NY, I only needed certification once a year, but in NJ, I need it every 3 months. If you use an online service, and there are several where you have an online visit with a physician in order to get the certification, or if you find a doctor who will only take cash for certification, then that's a cost that will rack up as you move forward in the program. In NY, at the time I was certified, most doctors charged about $400 for a visit and online resources were similarly priced. A fair number of those NY doctors accepted cash only for the certification. As I said, the doctor I saw took my insurance, though had she not the cost would have been over $400. The NJ doctor charged far less, but ultimately took my insurance as well. Had he not, the first visit would have cost $125 and follow-up certification visits would cost $75. For a year's worth of visits, had I paid out of pocket, it would have been comparable to the average cost of NY certification.

#3 Be your own doctor, your own cannabis advocate, and educate yourself.

This is perhaps the most difficult. Many people want a doctor to write a script, a pharmacist to hand them a pill that all they have to do is consume. It's far easier for people to hand off control over their own health to doctors and Big Pharma. As more people are familiar with plant medicine, there's more of an understanding about regaining that control over your own health and your own wellness regimen. I discuss this at length in the series “The Cure is You Dealing with Chronic Illness”, which ran for 7 installments.

This is particularly pertinent when regarding cannabis as medicine. (And, I'm a believer that “recreational” cannabis is actually medicine and folks who turn to cannabis for so-called recreation, are doing so because of a need to self-medicate, even if it's only to “relax” or “unwind.”)

The NJ doctor I saw a full 180° turn in favor of medical cannabis because he saw how effective it could be for his patients. But, he confessed he had no understanding about the plant and no real knowledge about its medical use. He may take my insurance, but he does nothing more than recertify me every 3 months. After speaking with my current physician – as well as my mother's lawyer, several assorted family members, and friends-- I realized how much I've had to learn on my own about cannabis as medicine. After finally turning my mother into a cannabis patient, I realized how very intimidating cannabis can be for anyone coming to cannabis from a prohibition mentality. So, as I noted in my “Cure is You” series, educate yourself. Here's my Crash Course on Cannabis.

There are several things to know about cannabis from the start.

Cannabis can be used to treat a variety of ailments.

Cannabis has different properties, comes in different types (called strains), and is consumed in several forms.

Cannabis has minimal side-effects, but there are side-effects, which sometimes depend on the form you use it in and the strain you're using.

Because of our Endocannabinoid System, cannabis can be used to treat lots of conditions and research is being done all the time to expand our understanding of what cannabis can be used to treat. Researchers are also trying to understand how many conditions –from Parkinson's to migraines-- may be the result of a deficiency in our endocannabinoid system.

Cannabis contains compounds called cannabinoids. Of the myriad cannabinoids present in marijuana, most people are familiar with only two: THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol). Research is promising regarding cannabinoids, pointing to CBD as a powerfulmedicine with anti-inflammatory, anti-seizure properties, as well as properties which protect the nervous system, work to combat tumors, and help improve mood. Both THC and CBD help pain, but THC also can help with sleep and appetite. But, in addition to THC and CBD, we have terpenes, fragrant oils present in all plants. The terpenes in cannabis have medicinal properties as well.

It's the combination of cannabinoids and terpenes that give different strains different properties. Oh, yeah-- and marijuana isn't a one-size-fits-all plant. You can't go into a dispensary and ask for marijuana. It would be like going into a wine shop and asking for wine. That sounds counter-intuitive. Of course you'll get wine in a wine shop, but what kind? What variety? Where was it bottled? Are you looking for a sweet dessert wine or a dry chardonnay? Are you looking for a primo champagne or will a bubbly moscato do? Just as each grape has its own profile, each strain of marijuana has its own profile. One of the best resources for strains and their properties is Leafly. But, since dispensaries and growers constantly experiment with cross-breeds, landraces, and specialty varieties of cannabis, creating new strains, Leafly doesn't have everything.

Then, as if that's not enough, cannabis can be consumed in various ways. I already noted in my previous part that different medical cannabis programs have different rules. Get to know what the rules are in your state's programs. New York, at the time I was a patient there, prohibited any plant material from being in the product consumed by the patient. So, it was only available in pill or capsule and oil products, which would be vaped or used sublingually. Certain dispensaries offered variations, sublingual sprays, and at the time I left the program, my dispensary had plans on introducing topicals.

In states like New Jersey, where whole flower is permitted, that may be all you have access to: the flower. Many dispensaries in these states may not offer any other products except the bud in flower, shake, or pre-rolled joint (cigarette). If you're going to a recreational dispensary, that's a different story. The possibilities are virtually endless-- smoke, vape, edible, topical are categories. If you're going to smoke it, how: bong, pipe, joint? What are you going to smoke: flower, dab, shatter? If you vape, are you going to go for a vaporizer that uses whole flower or an oil? If you're going to do an edible, how: tincture (Glycerin? Alcohol? MCT oil [medium chain triglycerides]?), gummy, brownie, chips, soda? Topical oil, liniment, lip balm, moisturizer? It gets a bit overwhelming. (Some helpful information about cannabis terms.)

I appreciate that my herbalism background along with my adventurousness in the culinary arts have been invaluable on this journey. If you don't know your way around the kitchen and don't know some basics about herbalism, cannabis can be daunting –which may be a reason so many people just smoke it. Smoking the herb is simpler. But, it's debatable about whether or not smoking cannabis is as dangerous as smoking tobacco. Leafly has an interesting article about the controversy and gives some helpful information regarding the proper temperatures to vape at.

Aside from that, you're left on your own. The dispensary agents –pharmacists and counsellors –are there to help you determine what strain and what form will work for you. But, you should have more than a passing idea of what you want and how you'll use it before going into the dispensary.

When I went to my NJ dispensary, Garden State Dispensary, I sat with a counsellor for an initial intake session. The counsellor was floored at how prepared I was. I had a notebook with scads of information about what strains I wanted to try. In order to prepare, I used the dispensary website and the MMP directory as a guide on what strains offered at Garden State Dispensary (GSD). Unfortunately both sites are sorely outdated. GSD has new strains in their daily menu but, despite my emails and social-media pleas, they have so far failed to update their website with information on these strains. Ditto for MMP, which lists strains no longer offered by GSD and has skewed information about THC and CBD ratios in each strain. While I was gathering my information, I often found myself cross-referencing strains, looking at what the dispensary had on offer, finding some guidance from the MMP directory, and then rounding out what information regarding uses and side effects from Leafly. When I went to the dispensary, I had a list of my ailments and which strains I thought would be helpful in tackling them. This list was an indispensable foundation in my cannabis regimen and helped me not be swayed by a pharmacist who I wasn't sure could have been trying to push a particular strain that the dispensary needed to unload. (For tips about first time dispensary visits, check out Leafly's article.)

The folks at GSD are really exceptional, despite their lack of website updates. The counsellors and pharmacists are there if I have a question. They're pleasant, knowledgeable, and don't push anything on customers. While I wish they offered more flower, what they do offer is top quality. I got a crash course on vaporizers and after discussing the idea with my counsellor, I opted to add vaping to my regimen. I also learned that if you use a whole flower vaporizer, you can save the material, called ABV (already-been-vaped bud) to make edibles. I use it to add some medicine to everyday food. In future installments, I'll talk more about personal vaping.

But, keep in mind that all resources on cannabis strains, their medicinal uses, and their side-effects are anecdotally based. Meaning, Leafly, MMP, and any dispensary posting information about their strains gets their information from the people-- and only customers that share their information. They gather anecdotal evidence, so it's not like reading a pharmacist pamphlet that comes with your doctor's prescription from your local pharmacy. That kind of information comes from studies, research, corporations, and FDA guidelines about the medication. No such information exists about cannabis. Partly because cannabis as a medicine is still being understood, partly because of the Schedule I classification, but mostly because cannabis as a plant isn't something that can be patented the way the latest high blood pressure pill can be patented. Although, that is starting to happen.

And, you can't rely on anecdotal evidence. My experience with Bubble Gum, a high THC strain, is case in point. Bubble Gum has really positive reviews on Leafly. It has great properties and hit several of my needs medicinally speaking. It was supposed to give a boost of energy. The counsellor cautioned me that it's a high THC strain so it would make me feel like cleaning the entire house in one go. Not so. It put me to sleep. I got muzzy-headed and had the worst case of couch-lock ever. And, when I used some Bubble Gum infused coconut oil in a batch of brownies, I was stoned for about 30 hours, with the dizzy spins and the giggle fits. Luckily, I didn't get any of the anxiety or paranoia I had experienced from my Jamaican brownie experience.

Last on the list are the side-effects. One problem I have with uneducated herbalists and mainstream views on herbalism is the notion that because you're dealing with a plant, there aren't any side-effects. This is false and dangerous. All medicines have side-effects. Cannabis is no different. Granted, the side-effects from many herbs, cannabis included, aren't as devastating as those from pharmaceuticals, but still side-effects are possible. I want to caution you against just looking up “cannabis side-effects” because much of what you'll get in an average Google search stems from prohibitionist websites and causes. There are lots of articles that hold to the old Reefer Madness mentality and use scare tactics.

Most cannabis patients experience dry mouth and dry eyes, but there are other side-effects including: anxiety, paranoia, dizziness, confusion, and headaches. There are some cautions about people with certain psychological disorders, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorders, taking cannabis. There are instances of THC psychosis in users of cannabis with very high levels of THC, but even the articles I found noting the links between cannabis and psychosis are dubious. Some were dated, others aren't clear about their stance-- are they prohibitionist? Still, it's helpful to read up on this if you have a serious mental disorder that can be exacerbated by cannabis use. This is one of the better articles since it also points out that cannabis has shown promise in treating mental disorders. The information about cannabis inducing psychosis is unclear. What strain are they talking about? What dosage? What form? This is another reason a doctor's guidance is necessary.

Stay tuned for recipes and vaping information.

Healing with Cannabis: Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 18:46:00 +0000

Settling in after the move took longer than expected, and while we're still making our home, I wanted to make some changes to Green and Growing, the first being: start posting again. Some of our plans for the blog from last year & the year before have been put in stasis, but I'm hoping 2019 will help revive some of that.

So, weed.

I'm not a long-time user of marijuana. I know a fair amount about the plant, but by comparison to others who've lived their lives around cannabis? I'm a complete newbie. My intention for this piece, and others in this series, is for folks like me: new to using cannabis (recreationally or medically), and in need of some guidance. There are hundreds, thousands, millions of articles about cannabis. There are sites, books, institutions devoted to cannabis. I've read scads of articles, dozens of books, piecing together a patchwork of information in my own cannabis journey, and if I can save any of you some headaches, I'll be happy. I'll post tips on what to look for in both weed and in a dispensary, recipes, and generally try to point you in the right direction on your own journey of healing with cannabis. So for now some background.

As I said, I'm new to marijuana. While most folks have their first brush with marijuana in their formative years, I really had no exposure to it while in high school. Alcohol was more readily available; while I had a acquaintances that used pot, they weren't the sharing kind and I didn't pursue the issue. Not even in college. I went to a relatively serious commuter school and no one sat around getting stoned, especially when you had to navigate the NYC subway system. There was the odd second-hand encounter at concerts and clubs, but that was pretty much that. Until, while on a trip to Jamaica just after I graduated college, I ate a ganja brownie procured from a shady, machete-wielding trio who stood in a stand of almond trees by the beach near our hotel. It wasn't a large brownie, so I ate the entire thing. I figured what the hell.

Exactly.

Inside an hour, the sky spilt open, the stars started melting, the beach felt alive, and I thought my toes were drowning. Being an anorexic-bulimic as well didn't help since that was my only food for the day, except for a drink made with Meyer's 151. Before the sand could consume me, I ran back to the hotel and willed my bulimia to bring back whatever wasn't yet digested. I sat on the edge of the bed and tried to still my mind enough to think if anyone had ever died from an overdose of pot. Time seemed to loop on itself and my friend had to then sit on me for about 4 hours to stop me from jumping out a window. To say it was not a good experience would be a gross mischaracterization. I was tripping balls for the next 12 hours. The cosmos seemed to still for a bit while we packed the next morning, since we had to catch an afternoon plane homewards. In grand total, the entire experience lasted about 36 hours from end to end. I struggled with audio and visual hallucinations during our flight and had some of the time-looping hours after I was finally home. I was sworn off weed. Who would want to experience that?

Of course, it almost goes without saying that I had zero understanding of dosage and despite my novice understanding of herbs, I knew nothing of cannabis as a plant, much less a medicine. I was 23 and living a life with far less pain than what I experience now. I did have problems with arthritis and I was an undiagnosed epileptic, but my pain was nothing. And, whatever I had been sold on that beach contained Goddess knows what. Was there cannabis in that brownie? Maybe.

After that, I had a short-lived brush with being a “pothead” about a decade later (and a decade ago), which was kicked off by my first experience on a trip to L.A. I suppose it's fitting my first cannabis was grown in the mythic Emerald Triangle.

It was nothing like the Jamaican “ganja” brownie. Smoking cannabis in L.A. was a revelation. In the decade since my Jamaican experience, I had started experiencing chronic pain-- brought on by a series of falls from my undiagnosed seizures and had been injuries sustaied while I had been an active participant in medieval re-enactment combat. During my only participation in the annual Pennsic War my wrist was probably re-fractured when a fellow Tuchux used me as a human shield. So yeah, I was in pain in L.A. I can't remember if that was why I smoked, but after a few tokes (once I learned the proper way to smoke weed), I felt pain-free for the first time in a while. The next morning even the world seemed more vibrant. I wasn't still stoned, as with the Jamaican brownie from hell, but I just seemed more observant and more present. I was able to enjoy the world around me more. I also have to say that one of my other struggles, besides pain, has been depression. That's something I've dealt with since I was a kid, literally. I remember getting depressed years before I got my first period and it always lurks around the edges of life. After that L.A. joint? I was depression free for several weeks, which is very unusual for me.

Heading back to NY, we were able to get weed, but there was no comparison in quality and the strength. For me? Lightweight didn't even cut how I reacted. Whatever I had had in L.A. had been a mellow, happy strain. Back in NY, what we were getting was stronger, less happy, less tasty. After toking one evening about 5 or 6 months into my life as a pothead, I saw the Great Goddess Kali standing knee-deep in a bloody pile of bodies in my TV room no less. My brush with potheadedness evaporated. I had been so out-of-my mind, I insisted that my husband ring the guy he'd gotten the weed from to find out what it had been laced or mixed with, or what kind of ditch-weed we had been sold. That was a high that lasted for about 6 hours and was one of the worst experiences of my life. Anxiety and panic like nothing I've ever experienced.

The last experience has been the reason why, for quite a long time, I shied away from cannabis as a medicine for myself-- although I have always been an advocate of it for others. That experience also reinforced some fears that had been lingering from the Jamaican experience. I was terrified of having any kind of anxiety or panic and I was convinced that THC was my enemy.

Those familiar with this blog know the story, but being diagnosed with epilepsy was the proverbial game-changer. The doctor had prescribed an array of pharmaceuticals-- several of which I refused to try because of the side effects alone. I am reknown for getting whatever side effect possible on pharmaceuticals. My husband and I both detest big pharma because whenever we've used that type of medicine, we wind up getting sicker instead of getting better. The doctors couldn't get me on a regimen that helped my seizures. I've already written about my struggle with epilepsy and my use of an herbal regimen to tackle the disorder. But about 2 years ago, right before my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and during his losing battle, my seizures began to crank up again-- and my pain was unmanageable. I needed something to help. I had already tried all the pain pills and muscle relaxants pre-diagnosis. Nothing helped to take the edge off the pain except ibuprofen-- which I began consuming like candy, taking 4 at a time. Some days that were really bad, I remember far exceeding the daily maximum dosage.

By the summer of 2015, the ibuprofen stopped working and I was often walking with a cane. My husband was the one that brought up cannabis. As someone well versed in ethnobotany and plant medicines, he started putting books and articles in my path. Over the years we had both shared an interest for plant medicine. Me being an herbalist focused on mundane plants for health and healing and he being more focused on entheogens, plant medicines used for spiritual health and healing. We watched documentaries, read articles, and went to talks focusing on entheogenic plants. As we again reboot the blog, he has plans on finishing the series he started last year on Green and Growing, “Healing with Earth Medicine.”

As my seizures worsened, he happened to be focusing his study on cannabis in an effort to work in the budding cannabis industry. Last year, I posted about my journey with CBD after having come to it initially as a possible treatment for my father.

It took some doing, but I was able to find a doctor to recommend cannabis and I ultimately became a NY patient. As I mentioned in the previously noted article, “DIY CBD Salves”, my first go at medical cannabis was a bust. I tried the “tinctures” for a few weeks and had to stop completely because of some pretty intense complications, partly because the medicine available in NY at the time was highly processed. No plant material was permitted in the medicine. During the time I was a NYMMJ patient, cannabis was only consumed via pill/capsule, oil-based “tincture”, or vaped in an oil. All of the products were also processed blends of different strains. The processing methods varied with each dispensary, as did the other ingredients in the finished medicines and the dosages. Anyone with any herbal knowledge knows that whole plant medicine is better. Whole plant medicine is adeptly explained here. When considering cannabis, whole plant medicine is even more important.

But, it was something I didn't fully understand at the time, nor did those lawmakers behind the medical cannabis program in New York. Perhaps things will change and the NY program will embrace whole plant cannabis as medicine. Despite the work of cannabis advocates in New York, dispensaries thus far have been hampered on what can be offered. Medicines in New York, being processed blends don't give patients the benefit of the whole plant and don't use what's called the entourage effect, which gives patients the seemingly limitless range of benefits of all of cannabis' hundreds of medicinal compounds, THC and CBD being only 2.

I had had zero success with medical cannabis until Spring 2018 when my brother told me that Etain opened up a dispensary in Union Square. Once becoming their patient, I got to experience the possibilities of cannabis as a medicine. Granted, the medicine from Etain is still highly processed, it wasn't whole plant, but it actually smelled and tasted like weed, where the stuff from Columbia Care bore no resemblance to marijuana whatsoever. While bound by the NY program rules, Etain's labels only gave THC and CBD information, but from the smell and taste, it's a good guess that their medicines contain more therapeutic compounds.

By the time I discovered Etain, we were already planning on a summer move to New Jersey. I was grateful for Etain because it helped me get through the move and helped my seizures reduce in number, though the intensity wasn't affected. I was able to stock up on the medicine enough to get me into the Fall, when I was able to get into the New Jersey MMJ program. Everything changed with the New Jersey program. I saw how radically different the NY program is from cannabis everywhere else. I saw the amazing benefits of medical cannabis-- and how daunting being a medical cannabis patient can be for folks going it alone.

The next instalment (which I'm working on now & will be posted in the next few days) will be a primer on what you need to know when you're tackling medical cannabis solo. I'll give recipes, resources, and tips on how not to waste your weed when making edibles.

The Perfect Handbag

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 23:46:00 +0000

I won't even apologize for not posting. But, hopefully after the move, when life settles a bit, we'll get back to a state of sanity, and I can do all the updates I've had planned for months.

So, I decided, to lift my spirits, I'd get myself another handbag. I have a massive collection; I lost count around 98 bags; and I pride myself on collecting truly unique bags. I am NOT a designer girl, as if you had your doubts. I hate labels or paying for a name. I also adore most anything handmade, especially if it's made in the US. I also refuse to pay scads for a handbag because not only do I not have that kind of cash, some of the more expensive members of my collection were simply not worth it. I also have a fundamental problem with a handbag costing the same (or more) than my car.

Over the last year, as my mobility has become limited and my pain has increased, I discovered much to my regret that much of my handbag collection is borderline unusable for me. I have a lot of cross-body bags that do horrors to my back and shoulder bags that wreak havoc on the arthritis in my shoulders, wrists, hands, and spine. What to do? I use a rolling bag for work, but I'm not about to saddle all my accoutrements in rolling luggage for a night on the town-- like those happen. But, when they do, my options have become limited.

Last year, while struggling with my dad on hospice, I was at an event, NJ Paraunity,

promoting our book Tails from the Other Side: Pets and the Paranormal.

In an effort to get my mind off things, I walked the con floor and on the far side of the gym (the event was in a local public school), I found what has to be the mecca of geekly handbags: Made by Pattie.

Just scroll through her Facebook gallery and you'll see what I'm talking about. Go on. I'll wait. :)

At the time, I was having mobility and arthritic issues-- but I didn't guess that some of the bags I was using might have been making the issues worse. So, I wasn't shopping with a mind toward physical comfort and my physical limitations. If something caught my eye and was reasonably priced, it came home to roost in my collection. To be honest, I've never taken to any of the so-called ergonomic bags out there. They were either uncomfortable, brutally ugly, or just not convenient.

As I perused the cornucopia of prints and styles at Pattie's booth, I was drawn to one particular style, the Bowler Bag. The dimensions are a roomy 14 inches wide (or long depending on how you're looking at the bag), 10 inches high at the highest point (or deep if you're looking inside). It's zippered closed, with 2 internal pockets, 1 of which is also zippered. It's fully lined and has a nice solid backing, which I often find is a problem with some of the handmade bags I've gotten over the years. Several of the Etsy purchases I've made look beautiful, but are a bit floppy because the outer material is directly on the inner lining without any support in-between. The Bowler Bag also has a heavy vinyl on the bottom, around the sides, and for the handles. It comfortably sits on your shoulder but can also be held by the handles. There are only 2 complaints-- which aren't really complaints. First, you have to make sure the zipper is completely closed, as Pattie warned me when I made the purchase. If it's open even a little, gravity will pull that sucker open and your life will spill out. I said it's roomy and you can fit a lot in it. Comfortably. Without losing anything. The second complaint? There isn't a label inside with the maker's information-- and after I made the initial purchase I lost track of who made the bag.

Two days after I brought my bags home, my dad died and the last year has been a blur. In that time, if there was a label on the bags, I lost it. Around Christmas, I tried looking around online for information about the bag and found a manufacturer in California with a similar bag. I emailed them, but I never heard back and after a little digging, realized this company wasn't the same one that I had made the purchase from at NJ Paraunity. Another several months passed before I realized that I have all but stopped using my other handbags. My go to bags are these two bowler bags. So, I HAD to find the maker and had to get bags with other colors. I LOVE my initial bags, but the palette was limited to black, white, and gray. I opted for 3 bags overall from the booth of wonderful handbags-- two of the Bowler bags and another simple tote style. All of them were black, of course, but with prints. Recently a friend attended the latest NJ Paraunity and I realized what should have been common-sense: check the con's site for a vendor list. Made by Pattie.

I found her online and on Facebook. Her line is called Twisted Little Halo, which has a Facebook group where she posts the latest on products, styles, and prints. I ordered 2 more Bowler bags for my collection: a Wonder Woman and a Star Wars, both with black vinyl. As with the original bags I purchased, the vinyl has a sparkle pattern. In some photos it looks like a plain, glossy black. But the sparkles are neat and remind me of a pair of shoes I had as a kid. Another plus. :p

Pattie was quick to email and apologize that the stock didn't match the store and she sent me images of what she did have on hand. I went with Star Wars with purple vinyl and Wonder Woman with red vinyl, which in the images looked like colors. They arrived today via postal fairy and they're gorgeous. My photos aren't the best, but I used a flash to catch the sparkles.

I can say of all the bags I've bought over the years, bags Made by Pattie are the best. I've used them a lot and there is little to no wear on either of the bowler bags. The other bag, the tote, I don't use as much, it's softer sided and was open at the top, but it's still a really well made bag. I just added a heavy duty snap to close it. I've gotten vegan leather and vinyl bags before, some smell weird, some started peeling, some just weren't comfortable-- the strap slipped or the bag itself had some odd feature that made it cumbersome. I found this especially the case with bags from Esty, bags with great Spoonflower prints. Pattie's bags look great, are comfortable, and last.

But, don't take my word for it. Check out Pattie's line for yourself.

Potato agrees. These are some pretty great handbags.

DIY CBD Salves

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Sun, 17 Sep 2017 05:44:00 +0000

Editorial note: Please see my update to this piece. I NO LONGER recommend CBD products from Healthy Hemp Oil. Read my update for the reasons. I've hence removed the links to these products in the original article, below.

I've been torn between what recipe to share next-- food or herbal. Since I'm still perfecting my sourdough bagels, I'll save that recipe until after my next batch. I might hold off until I get my order of einkorn flour.

But something that's been tinkering around in my brain for a long while, I think it's time I share. CBD. Cannabidiol or one of the major phytochemicals found in cannabis. For those unfamiliar, check out Project CBD for some basic information on CBD or watch any one of the last 2 seasons of VICELAND's Weediquette. CBD first caught my attention when I was diagnosed with epilepsy 4 years ago and have gone pretty much without Big Pharma treatment, not just because I detest Big Pharma-- but because nothing worked on my type of seizure disorder. Having undiagnosed epilepsy for the majority of my hitherto 42 years caused a host of other issues and injuries which resulted in pretty much 24/7 pain. Unadulterated, at times unbearable, chronic pain. While I could have gotten medically certified for cannabis use in New York for the epilepsy, I couldn't find a doctor who would do so, not without having to undergo the tests yet again for the upteenth time. I don't know about you, but doing a sleep-deprived EEG even once is too much. Wearing a halter monitor to work? Not happening. So, once New York added chronic pain to the list, I was able to find someone who would recommend medical cannabis.

From https://www.greenrushdaily.com/indica-vs-sativa-guide-cannabis-types/

But, my own treatment went on hold while my family fought my father's cancer and I tried to get him to use CBD to help manage his pain and the side-effects of his chemo. I found a decent online supplier-- decent in that while the CBD is from industrial hemp, the reviews seem positive and the product is tested free of solvents and chemicals. Because the CBD is from hemp, Cannabis ruderalis,it contains a negligible amount of THC so it's currently legal in the US and many other countries. I got a concentrated hemp paste from Healthy Hemp Oil with CBD, hoping dad would entertain the idea. Hubby also found some CBD gummies and a topical liniment at a local vape shop. After spending about $250, a lot for me but nothing compared to what other folks spend, dad refused to try any of it. The Hemp/CBD oil sat there in my fridge. Hubby and I tried the gummies-- which tasted vaguely fishy-- and really didn't have much of an effect. Then I tried the liniment, which seemed to help me-- but hubby had an allergic reaction to one of the ingredients, which I believe included lanolin. I no longer have the bottle but their website simply says “Pharmaceutical Grade Cream Base.” Right. Lanolin isn't something I want any part of since it's from rendered sheep glandular bits. I noticed that after using it, I did feel a bit relaxed and my pain was manageable. The daily joint swelling-- especially in my hands-- really was helped.

Then I tried the Hemp/CBD oil and it tasted like a fish died in some rancid soybean oil and then was fried in some other rancid oily something. To say it was awful would be an understatement. But I noticed something: while my pain wasn't gone, the joint swelling was even more radically reduced. The liniment, which cost us about $55 for 1.5 oz (a 125mg bottle), lasted maybe 2 weeks and that was with me being conservative. If you're someone in pain and use tiger balm or some other topical liniment, a grain of rice sized blob ain't cutting it. So then the herbalist in me-- the woman who made her own tiger balm and her own Absorbine Jr. style liquid liniment using real wormwood-- said: make it yourself. There was probably a few expletive deleteds, but you get it.

The CBD oil I had gotten for dad was in a pure Hemp oil base. Most of the other CBD "oils" I've come across are some sublingual mixtures in glycerin, coconut oil, or something else not specified. Those I can't use for a salve. Hemp is a common ingredient in many skin-care products. I already had some tiger balm made-- almost too much made actually, so I simply remelted it and added some CBD into the mix just to see the results. Which were? Wonderful. I don't believe CBD is a cure-all, but it certainly was something I needed in my tool kit-- along with all my other herbal remedies. It helped the pain, reduced inflammation, and helped me sleep through the night-- without having to wake up and pop ibuprofen every few hours.

It also helped me be as mobile as possible through dad's final weeks. After dad passed, after I took some time to get used to the new normal, I made the appointment with that doctor who would certify me for an MMJ card. After several weeks of some serious financial crises, I managed to scrape enough together to head down to Columbia Care to speak to a dispensary agent. New York has some of the strictest medical cannabis laws in the country. No flower. No plant bits. Limited delivery mechanisms. Everything highly processed. Very low dosages in very small amounts. Some states would consider even full NY doses microdosing. Columbia Care seemed like the most willing to answer questions online. Vireo did, but without much interest in garnering my business. The other company didn't even bother getting back to my queries. Columbia Care answered any and all questions I had-- and that was before making an appointment.

But, I'm not here to trash medical cannabis. In part this post is to vent my frustration with NY's Medical Cannabis laws, NOT medical cannabis as a whole, while sharing some more recipes. What I was sure would help my pain and possibly help ease my seizures, which had steadily worsened since my father's death, did nothing but make my life more unbearable. I'm not here to say there is no value to Cannabis or to give the nay-sayers their due regarding CBD. I'm of the personal opinion that because of the nay-sayers, because of those who are opposed to cannabis but want the political support of folks like you and me who support cannabis, the New York laws are so restrictive. I'm of the mind that the law makers wanted to sabotage medical marijuana and create a system where people would not see marked benefits in using these products. I don't think the lawmakers and lobbyists wanted to hurt people, but I never want to think that someone somewhere wants to intentionally hurt people. Then again, I write horror, so go figure.

Both medical cannabis and CBD work. I know CBD worked when I used it topically. But, in the form I used-- the highly processed, super low dose, sublingual form-- actually may have had the opposite effect. I became highly depressed, near suicidal, and my pain got worse. I couldn't sleep more than an hour or two because I'd wake up from searing pain down my spine and arms. The depression was strangling. It took me almost 2 full weeks to realize it was the medication that could be the culprit-- not menopause, not the stress of work, not some wasting bone disease. The only thing the medication helped was the seizures. Instead of having several pretty bad ones a week ontop of daily minor ones, I had maybe one minor one a day and no serious ones at all.

It was't a good trade off. Reduction in seizures for total madness? No thanks.

So I managed to scrape together a few more bucks and ordered another batch of the Hemp/CBD. Being an avid salve and balm maker, I already have coconut oil, beeswax, and a variety of infused oils, healing oils, and essential oils. Plus I have scads of ready-to-use glass jars. So I went back to the drawing board and came up with 2 recipes. One a tiger balm and the other sort of a homemade vaseline. Both with CBD. I don't have an exact dosage because I haven't logged how long each jar lasts me. But I'd say I go through about 2 oz a month, and I use it liberally.

The total cost? Far less than the CBD liniments and lotions on the market. The biggest investment is the CBD. But, if you aren't a salve maker, then it will be an investment in the essential oils, carrier oils, butters, and so forth. But, you'll be getting enough supplies to make a variety of balms, lotions, salves, soaps, moisturizers, and whatnot. Making your own, having that control and knowing what's in what you use is invaluable. Once you make one home-made salve, you'll find that nothing works as well as your own recipe.

I also have a large store of infused olive oils that I've made myself. I have calendula, lavender, and a special blend I use for tiger balm that contains cinnamon, chili, and a few other things. If you're in a pinch, you can use a plain olive oil, but it might not have the same result as using an infused oil. If you're in a rush, as I was the first time I made tiger balm, use crock-pot method to infuse the oils. You will need to do this the night before since it takes between 8-12 hours to infuse. For my tiger balm blend, I gave it the full 12 hours since the ingredients included barks. The best instructions that I've found is here. Sometimes recipes call for stovetop infusing, but the problem is it's very easy to cook the oil or burn it and the result is an infused oil that smells like an old fast food fry-up. If you have about 6 weeks, then do the infusion the old-fashioned way-- pop it in a jar and leave it in the cupboard for about a month and a half. Mountain Rose Herbs has a nice method for solar-infused oils (pop it on the window sill and leave it for about a fortnight).

Homemade Vaseline with CBD

Hardware:

Measuring cup
Heat-proof vessel-- preferably a pyrex style measuring cup with a pouring spout; a 2-cup works well
metal spoon to stir
small saucepan
digital scale capable of grams and ounces
pot holders and kitchen towls
wide-mouth shallow jars, clean and ready to use, enough to hold 17 total ounces of salve
jar lids
something to label the jars-- I use a sharpie written on a water-resistant mailing label, which tends to survive the oils. Sharpie written on the lid itself tends to wipe off after a few days of use.

Ingredients:

½ cup (4 oz by weight) coconut oil
32 grams beeswax (about 8 grams per ¼ cup of other oils-- not coconut)
11grams cocoa butter
240mg CBD
½ cup (4 oz by weight total) of carrier oil: 1 oz jojoba oil
1.5 oz calendula infused olive oil
1 oz. lavender infused olive oil
½ oz castor oil
.05 oz vitamin E oil

Essential oils:

20 drops lavender
15 drops rosemary
10 drops frankincense
10 drops patchouli
10 drops basil
15 drops rose geranium
4 drops myrrh

Note: feel free to use other essential oils tailored for you. These I've chosen with a mind toward my own and my husband's skin ailments. You can be really simple and just use lavender, or be luxurious and add a drop or two of genuine rose oil. Just don't use synthetic oils or fragrance oils. Be sure to use only organic, reputable essential oils-- and indeed all your oils. Everything I use is from Mountain Rose Herbs, from the carrier oils to the herbs.

Process:

Bring a saucepan, filled halfway with water, to a boil.
Meanwhile, measure out the carrier oils, beeswax, cocoa butter, and coconut oil. Add to your heat-proof pyrex measuring cup.
Put the pyrex cup into the boiling water, double-boiler style, reduce heat, and start stirring until everything melts. You can use a bowl in traditonal double-boiler style, but I find it more difficult to pour, and if you use a ladle or something else to get the mixture into the final glass jars, you're wasting a lot which coats the inside of the ladle or scoop. A pyrext measuring cup with a spout still has a little residue coating the inside, but it's much less waste than using a bowl. The melting process takes anywhere from 10-20 minutes, depending on how small the beeswax pieces are. If you're using beeswax pellets, maybe 10 minutes. Larger chunks of beeswax take much longer. Stir carefully and gently, making sure not to splash any water into the oils. Don't walk away either. The water in the double-boiler might bubble up, ruining the mixture. Don't forget to use a pot-holder. That pyrex will get hot!
Once everything is melted, remove from heat. Set the pyrex on a kitchen towel to catch any wetness and to keep stationary while you stir to incorporate the remaining ingredients.
Carefully add the CBD. Just be sure to stir and combine thoroughly.
Once combined, add the essential oils.
Carefully pour the hot mixture into your awaiting jars. Do NOT cap them for at least an hour, longer if you're working in hot conditions. You want a pretty solid consistency before capping. If you cap before it cools, condensation will accumulate and could ruin the batch.

This makes a total of 17 ounces. I used two 8oz wide-mouth ball jars and filled a third, 2 ounce jar halfway. I estimate each of the 8 ounce jars contain about 113 mg of CBD (112.5 to be exact) and the last jar with 1 ounce of salve is 15 mg. Granted this is far milder than the CBD liniments on the market, but this is meant to be used as needed as a hand and body balm. It even tastes decent as a lip balm and doesn't have a weird, body-lotion-on-my-lips feeling. It makes you relaxed without being comatose and it did help some screaming joint pain-- making it possible for me to tippy-tap this well after midnight on a day spent baby-sitting the nieces (12 months and 30 months respectively) AFTER I spent the day before cleaning the house.

Note on the jars: I used 8 ounce wide-mouth, half-pint Ball jars. They were the easiest to get your hand into. The caps are plastic and are the easiest to open with arthritis.

But, my pièce-de-résistance is my...

CBD Tiger Balm

Hardware:

Same as before

Ingredients:

28 grams menthol
58 grams coconut oil
57 grams beeswax
21 grams cocoa butter
31 grams calendula infused olive oil
16 grams castor oil
22 grams white willow infused olive oil
55 grams Chili infused oil* (See recipe below)
1 gram vitamin E oil
450 mg. Hemp/CBD oil (3 grams Healthy Hemp Oil Green Label )

Essential Oils:

20 drops rosemary
10 drops sage
30 drops peppermint**
10 drops eucalyptus**
10 drops basil
10 drops cajeput**
10 drops clove**
10 drops camphor**
10 drops cinnamon leaf oil**

**These essential oils are vital for proper tiger balm and aren't negotiable. The others I add to help moisturizing and healing properties. Alone the other essential oils might be a bit caustic, as I found store-bought tiger balms. I'm less prone to skin issues when I use my blend.

The Process is the same as with the DIY Vaseline:

Bring a saucepan, filled halfway with water, to a boil.
Measure out the infused oils, carrier oils, beeswax, cocoa butter, and coconut oil. Add to your heat-proof pyrex measuring cup. Also measure out the menthol crystals but put those aside. Don't add them at this stage to the mixture.
Put the pyrex cup into the boiling water, double-boiler style, reduce heat, and start stirring until everything melts.
Once everything is melted, remove from heat. Set the pyrex on a kitchen towel to catch any wetness and to keep stationary while you stir to incorporate the remaining ingredients.
Carefully add the menthol crystals. Stir carefully to make sure they melt. Don't put your face directly over the cup or you might be overwhelmed by the menthol fumes.
Then, add the hemp/CBD oil. Since it's in a syringe, it's relatively easy. Just be sure to stir and combine thoroughly. Since this is a raw oil, unlike the Gold, it takes a bit more to combine and the smell is pretty funky.
Once combined, add the essential oils. Again, do this carefully and without your head directly over the cup. The fumes can be intense.
Carefully pour the hot mixture into your awaiting jars. Do NOT cap them for at least an hour, longer if you're working in hot conditions. You want a pretty solid consistency before capping. If you cap before it cools, condensation will accumulate and again you'll have a ruined batch.

This made 12 ounces and I estimate 37.5 mg per ounce. I filled one 8 ounce wide-mouth jar and two 2 ounce jars. If you compare it to something like the Green Roads liniment with 100 mg per ounce, this is weaker. BUT you can certainly use more CBD. And, with Green Roads you aren't getting 100 mg per dose. According to the product info, since the bottle (1.5 oz) is 150 mg per bottle, they estimate per dose is "0.25g" which might be a mistake and might be .25 a milligram. But, like I said before, the doseage size isn't specified. How much product would contain that measely .25mg? For something that is small to begin with, it's probably a pea-sized dollop. Of my own tiger balm, I use anywhere from 1/4 to 1 tsp per day, depending on how bad the pain is and how diffused it is. I use more if I'm applying to all my major joints. Less if it's localized. Trying to get an idea of how many milligrams are in each teaspoon, you can make a guestimate. Comparing my salve to something else of the same consistency--butter, I was able to do a little math and get a ballpark idea of 6.25 mg per teaspoon.

According to culinary measurement, each 1/4 cup of butter contains about 4 tablespoons. Each tablespoon is 3 teaspoons. So for each 1/4 cup or 2 ounces of my salve, there are about 12 teaspoons which contain a total of 75 mg. If I were to use a 1/4 tsp, it's about 1.5mg of CBD. One full teaspoon, is 6.25mg. So overall, if you use something at home, you're getting a higher dose of CBD than with Green Roads and other pain creams on the market.

My whopping 8 ounce jar, I expect to last me a while. I've noted on the jar lid when I started using it. I'll have a better idea of exactly how much CBD you're getting per dose once I finish the jar. I'll make an update when that happens.

Again, this worked wonders. Inside of an hour after applying a small amount, the visible swelling on my left hand-- my pinky was so swollen in knuckle and joints that I couldn't bend it. Still a bit puffy, but I'm typing, so it's flexible and the pain is negligible. It did come back later in the evening, so I reapplied. Ditto for the back-- but as I said earlier, after several back-to-back days of non-stop activity, I've been paying for it in terms of pain. But, the CBD is helping me recover better and allowing me to be mobile. Still in pain, but it's manageable. I noted also that after such a long day yesterday, when I fully expected to have at least one if not more than one seizure due to fatigue, nada. Not a single one. I had applied the CBD salves earlier in the day as I made them and again later on, but no seizures.

Infused Chili-Oil for Tiger Balm

6 grams chilis, whole, dried. I used what I think of a medium heat chili. Nothing hotter than a cayenne or arbol chili. I'm a chili-head. If chilis aren't your thing, choose something lower down on the scoville scale. Use whole dried-- NOT chili powder or chili flakes.
8 grams white willow bark
6 grams cinnamon chips (either true cinnamon or cassia works fine)
4 grams rosemary
2 grams clove buds
8 ounces extra virgin olive oil, organic if possible.

Using the crock-pot method, steep for 12 hours.

My overall experience has been a bit harrowing, but I'm happy it's brought me back to making my own medicine instead of relying on a place dispensing what amounts to, in my view, a highly processed version that pales to whole-plant cannabis so many have benefitted from. I don't view my CBD as a whole-plant either-- because it's from industrial hemp. BUT until I become a hemp farmer or I move to a place where it's legal for me to grown and make my own CBD from another cannabis species, then I'm stuck with hemp CBD. But, the results have helped me manage my pain. If the doses were higher, not out of the realm of possibility for future batches, it's even plausible that this could help my seizures as well. Either way, it's far better than spending a fortune for medication that didn't work for me.

Chocolate Custard for Dad

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 00:02:00 +0000

Aside from my sorbet post, which was my way of easing back into the writing frame of mind, it's been some time since I posted on Green and Growing with anything resembling regularity and I'm sorry for that. Writing about herbs, discussing alternatives for health, wellness, food, and felines, and sharing recipes has been one of the things that I truly enjoy and take pride in.

But the last year has been unforgivably rough and the last six months were almost unbearable. My dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a week or so before Christmas and passed away on the last Monday of the Spring semester after withering away in home-hospice.

Watching the towering figure of my father fade, watching him fight and ultimately succumb has been the most devastating thing my family and I have gone through. Lately I've been spending time with my mom, making sure she's taking care of herself, while dealing with various dramas and gearing up to tackle some of my father's things.

During these last few weeks, I've rediscovered so many things that I feel have been integral facets of my being came from my father. Even things that are important to me but time and circumstance caused me to neglect these same things that helped me through some troubled times in my youth. My love of books and writing, my awe of fountain pens and looping, curvaceous, sinuous handwriting, my joy in photography with actual cameras, film, and developing-- and my adoration of dark chocolate.

Big Brother, Dad, and me

It's funny how spending time in my dad's office, sitting at his desk amidst his papers and massive toy collection (yet another thing I inherited from my pop) all these things came crashing back. Finding his cameras, I remembered that one of my first toys was my dad's old kodak Brownie, the Hawkeye in beautiful, awful bakelight. Seeing his writing on everything from checkbooks he wrote in weeks before he was diagnosed to letters he wrote home when he was a 19 year-old serving in Korea, I realized my love for a certain kind of penmanship came from seeing my dad's handwriting. I used to think he wrote like Thomas Jefferson. One of dad's early ambitions was to be a writer and it was by way of my father's bookcase that I stumbled across Middle Earth.

Me with Dad's 35mm film cannister

And dad was the first to expose me to dark chocolate. The treasures came home hiding in his pockets, wrapped in a white paper bag from at a candy shop he frequented after work.

Getting mom through this, I'm constantly reminded that neither of my parents had good food relationships. Dad was diabetic and mom floats in an unacknowledged pre-diabetic state. When shopping for mom recently she requested sugar-free chocolate pudding. Much to my regret mom hasn't embraced Michael Pollan's mantra to eat food -- not food-like substances.

But the pudding put me in mind of those dark chocolates dad used to bring home. We were the only two who liked dark chocolate. But going through mom's freezer, was shocked to find a few bars of extra dark chocolate. And my brain started to work....I've been trying to make use of what we find in mom's fridge. Since she was never a cook to begin with, since dad passed, she's totally stopped cooking. In the fridge were exactly 3 cups of whole milk and a mess of eggs. ...and seeing the imitation chocolate pudding I had a bit of a craving for chocolate pudding.... but the real kind. The custard kind that I never really called custard until I realized my mistaken nomenclature. And so here's a rich decadent chocolate custard that's simple to make. I think dad would have liked it.

Dark Chocolate Custard

3 cups whole milk
1/4 cup half & half (optional add to chocolate if it seizes)
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
6 oz oz dark chocolate (85% cacao; 15 squares godiva extra dark)
Hefty pinch of kosher salt
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped seeds only

Note: cut back on the sugar if you use chocolate that isn't as dark. I made a brilliant batch with 60% bittersweet chocolate and only half a cup of turbinado sugar

Scald milk; heat over medium making sure it doesn't boil; add sugar when it's lukewarm and whisk to combine.
While milk is coming up to temperature, beat eggs, set aside; melt chocolate either in microwave or double boiler; use a large enough bowl to mix everything.
Once milk is up to temperature, temper eggs and carefully add egg mixture back to the pot; over medium heat, stir constantly until thickened about 10-15 minutes. Don't overcook or eggs will scramble.
Remove from heat and pour in a thin ribbon into the melted chocolate, whisking constantly. Once incorporated scrape sides of bowl and make sure chocolate is mixed.
Spoon into individual serving vessels-- glass or porcelain please. Plastic or metal will impart off flavors. Refrigerate and serve when chilled. Whip cream a plus.

Optional variations:

add half vanilla bean to milk as it scalds
add dash of cinnamon and cayenne to milk as it scalds
do a combination of all three

Makes about 4 cups

Sorbet-- without an Ice Cream Machine...Take 3

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 03:48:00 +0000

Ages ago, I posted articles about making sorbet without a machine. (DIY Sorbet without a Machine and DIY Sorbet Redux) and I stand by those recipes, but have to amend them to include one machine that I've come to find indispensable in my kitchen: my Blendtec blender.

I'm not one to splurge on expensive appliances. Especially since I don't have counter space. I live in an apartment and my kitchen was once, in its youth, a bedroom. My kitchen not only has zero counter space, but zero cabinetry. My pantry is a refurbished bedroom closet and my only storage space are some open-faced shelves, rubber-maid tubs, a lop-sided island, and the top of my fridge. I would LOVE an ice cream maker-- but to purchase a one-hit wonder, in my kitchen? Not plausible. My most expensive appliances, aside from the fridge, are an Omega Juicer and my most recent acquisition, the Blendtec.

The Omega Juicer is, this past March, 8 years old and, knock wood, is going strong. It was an anniversary gift hubby and I got for ourselves and while it is primarily our juicer, it also is great for making purees, nut butter, and, we recently discovered, pasta. We got the juicer, marking not only our commitment to each other, but to our health. This year, as we decided to further that commitment to health, we delved Dr. Fuhrman's The End to Diabetes and Eat to Live, he suggested a high-powered blender. I've always wanted a professional grade, high-powered blender, but couldn't see spending

$400 on what I thought was another one-hit wonder. In Fuhrman's books, he discussed that getting velvety purees-- for dressings and smoothies-- was only possible with a high-powered blender. Then I found one online at half the cost. The same happened with the Juicer.

The real cincher with the Blendtec, besides the cost and the reviews? It could grind grain and dried beans for flout-- and it could make ice cream.

Sort of.

The Blendtec doesn't freeze, but it aerates your mixture so it freezes evenly.

My last sorbet recipe had one flaw. If you didn't eat the sorbet within a day or two, it froze into a solid block. Regardless of how much I whazzed up the mixture with the stick blender, the sorbet went from a perfect texture to rock hard in a matter of hours.

If you don't have a Blendtec, you can try this with a regular blender, but you might have the same problem that I had with the stick blender.

Like with the past sorbet mixture, this is a process. But one of the great things about these recipes, you don't need to babysit it. With the last recipe, every 30-40 minutes, it needed whazzing with the stick blender. This one is a 2 step process.

And it required, in addition to the blender, muffin tins.

Or ice-cube trays. But I found the muffin tin give me a little more control and is easier to work with. But, if you have some pliable ice-cube trays or even silicone chocolate molds then you can use those. If using silicone, then no need for liners. Whatever you do don't spray the muffin tin with any kind of oil or non-stick spray.

If you use liners, use something that's unbleached and BPH free. Because I went through about a hundred cupcake liners in the last week, I just ordered a mess of reusable silicone cupcake cups and a covered, freezer-proof baking pan.

Feel free to adapt the recipe, especially if this is for children or people who can't tolerate alcohol. The alcohol helps the overall texture.

The basic ratio is:

4 cups fruit

1 cup simple syrup

juice 1 lemon

2 tbsp vodka

The process is:

Combine ingredients in blender, like you would a smoothie.
Pour into lined muffin tins and freeze, solid.
Remove frozen mixture from tins, discard muffin liners, blend again. If using a blendtec, use the ice-cream setting. Otherwise use the smoothie setting, or blend like you would a smoothie.
The mixture will loosen considerably. Simply pour it into an air-tight, freezer-proof container; glass is preferable so you don't get any off flavors. Pop back in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

Blueberry Lavender Sorbet

1 cup honey
1 cup water
2 tsp food-grade lavender
4 cups fresh blueberries (you can use frozen, but allow them to thaw a bit; they'll be easier to use)
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp vodka

Into a saucepan, combine honey, water, and lavender. Stir until honey is thoroughly combined and the liquid comes up to just below simmering.
Cover, turn off the heat, and allow to steep for 30 minutes before straining.
Into your blender (Blendtec or high-powered blender preferable), add blueberries, lavender simple syrup, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Whazz up using the smoothie setting (or highest setting on regular blender).
Pour mixture into your trays, (lined muffin tins, silicone cupcake cups, ice cube trays, etc; if using lined muffin tins, double-up the liners), and freeze til solid.
Once frozen, unmold frozen sorbet cups. Remove liners. Pop into blender. Add vodka and whazz up. If using Blendtec, use ice cream setting. If using conventional blender, use highest setting.
Pour mixture into an airtight, freezer-proof container (again glass is preferable) and pop back in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

Enjoy.

Canteloupe Thyme Sorbet

1 cup honey
1 cup water
4-5 sprigs fresh thyme (½ to 1 tsp dried thyme)
4 cups cantaloupe
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 large or 2 small limes
2 tbsp vodka

Into a saucepan, combine honey, water, and thyme. Stir until honey is thoroughly combined and the liquid comes up to just below simmering.
Cover, turn off the heat, and allow to steep for 30 minutes before straining.
Into your blender (Blendtec or high-powered blender preferable), add cantaloupe, thyme simple syrup, lime juice, and lemon zest. Whazz up using the smoothie setting (or highest setting on regular blender).
Pour mixture into your trays, (lined muffin tins, silicone cupcake cups, ice cube trays, etc; if using lined muffin tins, double-up the liners), and freeze til solid.
Once frozen, unmold frozen sorbet cups. Remove liners. Pop into blender. Add vodka and whazz up. If using Blendtec, use ice cream setting. If using conventional blender, use highest setting.
Pour mixture into an airtight, freezer-proof container (again glass is preferable) and pop back in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

A few other blends to try....

Melon, Nectarine, Chili Sorbet

1 cup honey
1 cup water
4-5 sprigs fresh thyme (½ to 1 tsp dried thyme)-- you can use lemon thyme or fresh mint instead
2 cups cantaloupe
2 cups watermelon
1 large nectarine, pit removed
½-1 jalapeno or 2-3 tbsp of your favorite chile jam (provided it has no onion or garlic)
juice and zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 small lime
2 tbsp vodka

Into a saucepan, combine honey, water, and herbs. Stir until honey is thoroughly combined and the liquid comes up to just below simmering.
Cover, turn off the heat, and allow to steep for 30 minutes before straining.
Into your blender (Blendtec or high-powered blender preferable), add fruit, simple syrup, citrus juice, and zest. Whazz up using the smoothie setting (or highest setting on regular blender).
Pour mixture into your trays, (lined muffin tins, silicone cupcake cups, ice cube trays, etc; if using lined muffin tins, double-up the liners), and freeze til solid.
Once frozen, unmold frozen sorbet cups. Remove liners. Pop into blender. Add vodka and whazz up. If using Blendtec, use ice cream setting. If using conventional blender, use highest setting.
Pour mixture into an airtight, freezer-proof container (again glass is preferable) and pop back in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

Chili Raspberry Watermelon Sorbet

1 cup honey
1 cup water
2 cups watermelon
2 cups raspberries
juice and zest 1 lemon
2 tbsp vodka
¼ cup pepper jam (again, don't use one with garlic or onion)

Follow the same procedure as with other sorbet blends

Make simple syrup.
Whazz up fruit and syrup.
Freeze in muffin tins.
Add vodka and rewhazz.
Refreeze-- and enjoy.

I'll experiment with some frozen custards and frozen yogurt and update those in the next few weeks.

Healing with Earth Medicine: Part 1 Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 14:00:00 +0000

Healing with Earth Medicine: Part 1 Introduction

by Anthony S. Burdge

It's been some time since we updated Green & Growing. Our apologies to our readers. We plan on revamping and designing the site over the next several weeks. If you have any ideas or suggestions about articles, recipes, or sections don't hesitate to let us know.

In all of our articles, we have taken a multidisciplinary approach to presenting the information contained within each piece. Many of our readers will know that our articles concern our healing journey, our practices, our recipes, and our medicine paths while containing vital information from leaders in various fields. This is the approach we shall continue in this new series we have called “Healing with Earth Medicine.”

In this new series of articles will be a further look into additional healing modalities we incorporate into our practice, focusing on South American and indigenous medicines, the cultures from which they originate, how they're cultivated and used, and to science and application of these medicines in all our lives. Our broader goal is to document how these medicines have helped heal us specifically and how they continue to do so, physically, mentally, energetically, and spiritually, bringing us to a better understanding of our relationship with the planet. This piece in particular briefly touches on topics that will be highlighted in future articles in this series.

Jessie has written extensively here about her herbalism and work creating medicines to address our own ailments. We find it very important to educate yourself on everything you put into your body, especially when it comes to healing with plants and food. (See Jessie's series “The Cure is You.”) Our Healing with Earth Medicine series will continue exploring the integrative relationship between personal healing, food, and the environment.

We have always considered plant and animal medicines to be “Earth Medicine.” We first heard the term Earth Medicine in the first episode of Shamans of the Global Village

by Rak Razam. This new documentary “...series examines indigenous entheogenic medicines and the western shamanic resurgence." Rak Razam is one of the world’s leading ‘experiential’ journalists, and author of the critically acclaimed book Aya Awakenings: A Shamanic Odyssey , and and writer, producer, and co-director of the documentary Aya: Awakenings . A frequent lecturer on ayahuasca and the shamanic revival sweeping the West, Razam has been called one of the “leading spokespersons for the new paradigm.”

We have been planning this articles series for sometime, and are very grateful to Rak Razam for his highly informative podcast and inspiring correspondence regarding it. Shamans of the Global Village and the work of Rak Razam will be discussed in a forthcoming article

As cited by Razam, Earth Medicine comprises of “indigenous entheogenic medicines”: plant and animal medicines such as, but not limited to, Ayahuasca, Psylocibin Mushrooms, Iboga, San Pedro, Sananga, Rapé (phonetic: Ha-Pay), and secretions from toads and frogs such as the Sonoran Desert Toad and Phyllomedusa Bi-Color (Giant Waxy Tree Frog).

However, Jessie and I tend to add food under the umbrella of Earth Medicine: whole food, local and organic when possible, and above all no factory farmed or factory processed food. To quote Michael Pollan

in his In Defense of Food: “No food like substances.” Pollan's work highlights a main factor relating health and disease that's often overlooked in mainstream culture and medicine: food. Pollan says unequivocably: “Make no mistake: our health care crisis is in large part a crisis of the American diet -- roughly three quarters of the two-trillion plus we spend on health care in this country goes to treat chronic diseases, most of which can be prevented by a change in lifestyle, especially diet.” For those unfamiliar with the work of Michael Pollan, his WordPress bio says it best: “For the past twenty-five years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where nature and culture intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in the built environment.”

Many of our readers may already be familiar with the information we will present in these articles, to others these topics may be entirely new. Therefore, we shall provide an overview and research information, as you should ALWAYS do your homework before introducing anything new to your body. The idea of our diet and medicine is integral our mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and energetic health, and further connections to the planet is not a new one. It is our hope to take the idea behind “The Cure Is You” a step further regarding our own healing journey.

"The plant-human relationship has always been the foundation of our individual and group existence in the world. What I call the Archaic Revival is the process of reawakening awareness of traditional attitudes toward nature, including plants and our relationship to them."

~~Terence McKenna, Plan, Plant, Planet.

Unlike my wife's formative years, during my childhood my parents always had a vegetable garden and instilled in me the importance, and power of, plants for food and health. For my wife, healing through plants and food was a solitary journey, embarked on separately from her family-- who while not completely under the sway of “food-like substances” still had a disconnect between food and health, even after her father was diagnosed with diabetes in the 1980s through to his battle with pancreatic cancer over the last several months. Food, whole fresh unadulterated food was a focus in my parents' home and their love of green and growing things was an inspiration to me. I took this inspiration a step further. I knew there was an even deeper connection, which I sought to discover via my love for Indigenous culture and spirituality. Perhaps this attraction stems from the minute Native American ancestral connection I have or a past life, I'm not sure, but my interest in Earth medicines like Ayahuasca, Psylocibin, and Sapo has grown in recent years.

After brief period of experimentation with LSD, Cannabis, and 'magic' mushrooms many years ago, my recent approach to exploring psychoactive plant medicines-- Earth Medicine-- is much more serious. Some of these medicines, also called sacraments, are broadly classified as "psychedelic," which means a visionary, mystical experience will be experienced during the ceremony where the sacrament is imbibed.

For many, the term psychedelic may cause alarm bells to go off as it is often coupled with the word “drugs.” Psychedelics to the mainstream modality constitutes tripping out, escaping from the everyday via a recreational drug. It's rather ironic that our society terms pharmaceutical, prescription medicine as drugs, and in the same breath uses the same term to describe any “illegal substance” --many of which have been the First Medicines of Indigenous peoples the world over. We need to look past the negative connotation of Earth Medicines, particularly psychedelics and see the benefit of plants, illegal or not, ultimately as medicine. For thousands of years healers from Indigenous cultures have made use of psychoactive plants and animals for a variety of healing practices from curing acute physical illnesses to healing what we might now term psychological diseases, or illnesses of the mind or spirit. Our Western culture looks down upon anything that speaks of visionary states, elevating consciousness, or our own subtle energy system. Many in the ethnobotanical field have commented on how mainstream society and mainstream culture try to control anything that allows the individual to embark on altered states of consciousness, which in turn lead to broader awareness and healing.

For more than 20 years I have additionally studied, experimented with, and practiced a wide range of systems of ritualized magick, occult ceremonies, yoga, and meditation, but it was only when I began more serious training, that I came to broader awareness of personal energy, connecting with it through a practice of rhythmic breathwork and Earth medicine. Once this awareness kicked in my own healing went even deeper. The various medicines and healers of South America examine not just the surface ailment, but drive deeper to get to the root cause as part of a unified system of healing. It is for this purpose that we study and work with practitioners so we can understand how to better heal ourselves. Jessie and I make use of herbalism to treat, maintain, and even cure our ailments, and we extend that practice with these sacraments. It is not about :getting high” or “tripping out.”

The process begins by declaring legitimate what we have denied for so long. Let us declare nature to be legitimate. All plants should be declared legal, and all animals for that matter. The notion of illegal plants and animals is obnoxious and ridiculous. ~~Terence McKenna, Plan, Plant, Planet

Photo by Zoe Helene

via http://www.medicinehunter.com/

“ I personally believe ayahuasca is...the greatest natural healing agent, period.”--Chris Kilham, Psychology Today

What is Ayahuasca? Read about Ayahuasca and the work of Medicine Hunter, Chris Kilham, his book Ayahuasca Test Pilots

by clicking here

“ The ayahuasca journey is a sacred and ceremonial experience. If you are going to engage in such a ceremony, do it right, or do not do it at all.”

– Chris Kilham, Ayahuasca Test Pilots

As Jessie noted in “The Cure is You” series cited above, I'm a diabetic. Additionally, for the last year and a half I have been dealing with cervical spine and nerve damage from a work related injury. What my wife experiences with her entire spine I now have in my neck, neither of us rely on the broken health care system for a variety of reasons. Not the least of which being the complete failure of routine, Western medicine to treat our pain. This isn't unique to us, as evidenced in the current, global opioid crisis which became the epidemic it is currently because opioids don't cure pain. They mask it, but only when higher and higher doses are doled out by our broken system. Our mindset, since Jessie and I have been together is not to rely, and in turn become dependent upon, prescription medicine or the circular doctor factories. We do not participate in corporate programs that want to keep you sick. The pharmaceutical and medical industries are not in the business to cure you. They're there to make profit off of illness and disease and a disconnect with a unified system of healthy living.

In addition to the herbal plant therapies we have utilized to treat my diabetes and our ailments, I have incorporated Kambo/Sapo, a secretion from the Giant Waxy Tree frog and a traditional Earth Medicine from South America. This medicine has helped to reset my pancreas and my vision, to detoxify my liver, and cleanse my cardiovascular systems. We have participated in local ceremonies, but in an effort to learn (and save money) I have since learned the art of self applying.

I owe my understanding of Kambo/Sapo to Peter Gorman who wrote Sapo in My Soul . I first heard Gorman via Rak Razam's brilliant podcast, In a Perfect World . Gorman has extensively written on Ayahuasca in Ayahusaca in My Blood another personal inspiration.

My brother from another mother and a teacher of mine, Bjorn, is a close friend of Gorman's and with luminary Alan Shoemaker.

For those unfamiliar with Shoemaker, he is another Ayahuasca touchstone, author of Ayahuasca Medicine (a highly valuable source) and founder of the Ayahuasca Medicine House and the International Amazonian Shamanism Conference .

No doubt you've noted my use of quotes from Plan, Plant and Planet by Terence McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000), perhaps the modern father of ethnobotany. McKenna was an American mystic, psychonaut, lecturer, author, and an advocate for the responsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants. He spoke and wrote about a variety of subjects, including psychedelic drugs, plant-based entheogens, shamanism, metaphysics, alchemy, language, philosophy, culture, technology, environmentalism, and the theoretical origins of human linguistics and consciousness.

Brother to Terence McKenna, Dennis McKenna is of great importance in understanding plant medicines and the science behind them. I highly recommend reading up on the presentations and viewing the live stream videos

via facebook from the Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs 50th Anniversary Symposium organized by a team led by Dennis McKenna, Founder of Symbio Life Sciences, PBC. In 1967, the “ Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs” was the first international and interdisciplinary symposium held so specialists “from ethnobotanists to neuroscientists” could gather “in one place to share their findings on the use of psychoactive plants in indigenous societies.” The intention of the conference was to reconvene every decade to continue the dialogue, “but the War on Drugs intervened.” Earlier this summer, thesecond symposium was held to celebrate the 50th anniversary.

The work of Peter Gorman, Alan Shoemaker, and the McKenna brothers will be further explored in future articles in this series.

Jessie and I have a very large home library that contains whole bookshelves devoted to Indigenous and tribal beliefs, herbalism, research into plant medicine and visionary states, philosophical and theological treatises, music and on. (The only room in the house without at least a few bookshelves is the bathroom.) Yet, as with learning any art-- from writing to fine arts to the culinary arts--books can only take you so far. To truly learn an art, you have to practice it. In addition to lectures, my wife and I have attended pow-wows, drumming circles, and ritual working with practitioners, participating in sacred plant ceremonies.
My education and healing regimen also includes working with shamans, Ayahuasca, and Peruvian Ayahuasqueros-- apprentices to Shamans of Ayahuasca. About ten years ago my wife and I participated in our first Ayahuasca ceremony. At the time, Jessie had uncontrolled asthma and was on several medications. At the time, even though she had been using herbs to treat other conditions, she hadn't had sustained success in treating her asthma herbally. To those familiar with Ayahuasca, it's vital to detoxify the system prior to partaking of the sacrament. I'll explore the concept, called the dieta, in future articles in this series. Part of the detox requires participants to stop all medications and supplements. Also at the time, Jessie was suffering from a serious bout of depression. Today we laugh about the realization, but during a bout of crankiness about two months after the ceremony, she yelled at me that she thought the Ayahuasca was supposed to help. It was only one ceremony and for many conditions, part of the healing comes through several ceremonies. However, I had to note that not once in the weeks since that one ceremony did she need her inhaler, not once did she take the myriad medications or steroids to treat her asthma. Today, ten years later, her asthma has not resurfaced. Future articles will survey of how Ayahuasca, Kambo and Psylocibin have greatly treated our personal ailments, along with expanding our consciousness and planetary awareness.

Bjorn cooking Ayahuasca

in Peru with Shaman

Regarding Ayahuasca, I've taken my healing education a step further by working closely with friends in Peru. A close friend noted above, Bjorn, lives between Peru and the US. In Peru he continues to train and work closely with shamans from various tribes, inviting them to his home to conduct ceremonies for those in need of healing. Since getting to know Bjorn, and working with him in ceremony, I have come to greatly respect and admire his life story and work. After suffering trauma, Bjorn has been able to turn his health and his life around with Ayahuasca, and is now paying it forward by training with local curendaros, shamans, and healers. It is through working with Bjorn that I have begun to see how in-depth Ayahuasca healing can be. In my article on Ayahuasca, I shall be discuss my own healing journey working with Bjorn and explore Bjorn's story, his personal healing journey, shamanic practice, plant medicine education and his goals to help and heal those in need. For anyone interested in learning more, check out his Ayahuasca/Sapo Center via facebook

However, before you run off to Peru or look for local ceremonies in the U.S., as with any medicne: Do your homework! One of the active compounds in Ayahuasca is DMT, Dimethyltryptamine, which is illegal in the U.S. DMT is a tryptamine molecule which naturally occurs in many plants and animals, which, interestingly enough, is also found in the pineal gland in the human brain. This means everyone, you the reader, me, my wife, and all of humanity are innate carriers of a Schedule I drug which has no medical benefit. So, that basically means your brain, like Cannabis, is illegal under federal law. But that also means that Ayahuasca, the actual brew that comes from a combination of the Banisteriopis Caapivine, and the leaves of the Psychotria Viridis(plants that constitute the brew) are illegal here in the U.S.

“ Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behavior and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.” --Terence McKenna

Regardless of legal status, these plants are not drugs. We can term them as such but to the worldwide indigenous cultures that have made us of them, long before our laws, they are medicine and remain as such to this day.

 “ DMT is, most simply, almost everywhere you choose to look. It is in this flower here, in that tree over there, and in yonder animal… And, it is a relatively short-lived psychedelic compound that has a record of ancient and revered use in many cultures in the world. To some users, it is a connection to a vivid world of magic and mystical beings. To others, it is a dark exposure of the most negative aspects of the psyche. And everything in between."

~ Alexander and Ann Shulgin. TiHKAL: Tryptamines I have known and loved.(1997)

Gavin Kaiser demonstrates at the New Mexico State Capitol
that after 500 years of prohibition our sacred sacraments
are legal for OMS NAC members to utilize

My journey lead me to become a member of the Oratory of Mystical Sacraments

a branch of the Oklevueha Native American Church. As a member I was provided with an education and coursework on proper ceremonial use of plant sacraments. I am very humbled to have been a part of these blessed courses, however I am extraordinarily blessed to have had correspondence and education via founder Gavin Kaiser. At the beginning of 2016, right when I had begun my training with OMS then suffered the work related injury. After a few weeks of my absence from the course, Gavin wrote asking how things were. In our correspondence via email and snail mail, I received further education and assistance in healing my nerve damage from Gavin. The work Gavin does with ONAC OMS is of great importance to reclaiming our human rights to work with sacred sacraments.

Art by Alex Grey

With all of this said, what does all of this mean? How do we connect our food and plant medicine practices with caring for and connecting with the planet? As I noted earlier, since my childhood, nurtured via my parents' vegetable garden and long trips to the countryside, I have always nurtured a deep love for Gaia, Mother Earth. My wife and I have long advocated for a broad awareness of issues affecting our planet. As we detoxify ourselves with a clean plant based diet we should concern ourselves at the same time on how those same toxins are affecting our planet. In working with Native Americans, indigenous plant medicine, and a clean diet this love, and connection has grown exponentially.

This practice of working with earth medicine tends to, as Terence McKenna notes in Plan, Plant and Planet, “promote what might be called a sense of Gaian Holism, that is, a sense of the unity and balance of nature and of our own human position within the dynamic and evolving balance. It is a plant-based view. This return to a perspective on self and ego that places them within the larger context of planetary life and evolution is the essence of the Archaic Revival.”

  It is our goal to have weekly articles posted in this series regarding the topics cited in this Introduction: Food, Ayahuasca, Sapo, Sananga, and Rapé. We hope you investigate these topics further beyond this Introduction and forthcoming articles via work of leaders in the field we have cited. In writing these articles and discussing our practice with Earth Medicine we realize that we have moved beyond the boundaries of the proverbial psychedelic closet. In doing so, we hope you will continue to join us on this journey whether you have been on the same path or just embarking upon it.

Art by Pablo Amaringo

“Every tree, every plant, has a spirit.
People may say that a plant has no mind.
I tell them that a plant is alive and conscious.
A plant may not talk, but there is a spirit in it that is conscious,
that sees everything, which is the soul of the plant,
its essence, what makes it alive.
I feel a great sorrow when trees are burned,
when the forest is destroyed.
I feel sorrow because I know that human beings are
doing something very wrong.
When one takes Ayahuasca one can sometimes hear
how the trees cry when they are going to be cut down.
They know beforehand, and they cry.”

– Pablo Amaringo

Green and Growing 2.0 Coming Soon!

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 17:35:00 +0000

Dear Readers,

Thank you so very much for the great comments, and attention to our past articles with concern to herbalism, Kombucha, clothing and kitteh care. We have been away for a while due to various reasons, but have a great amount of new content forthcoming. In our time away from posting articles here we have continued add to our knowledge base of and healing with Earth Medicine.
We shall be re-designing this website and adding new plant medicine articles, healthy herbal recipes and reviews. Thank you so very much for sticking with us and continuing to enjoy our content.

As a way to continue to interact with our readers, please comment and let us know what sections/articles you get the most out of.

Peace,
Jessica and Anthony

Pre-Order Tails from the Other Side & Support SI Hope Animal Rescue

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 19:16:00 +0000

Greetings Everyone,

We are very happy to announce that Tails from the Other Side: Pets and the Paranormal is Now Available for Pre-Order from our Independent Press Myth Ink Books

Edited by Jessica Burke, Anthony Burdge Christopher Mancuso Illustrated by Luke Spooner of Carrion House

Read Excerpts from our Guest Contributors (Click Here to Read)

The book will have 40 contributions overall from pet guardians, leaders in the paranormal field and a nationwide pet rescue directory.
This project is supported by, and will have contributions from Haunted Collector’s John Zaffis and Brian J. Cano, groundbreaking author/speaker & researcher Rosemary Ellen Guiley of Visionary Living, Inc. , leading authority on psychic and supernatural topics, author of Conspiracy of Angels, Michelle Belanger, “The Ghost Boy of Geneseo,” Chris DiCesare, Occult Researcher and Paranormal State’s Eilfie Music, Author, Photographer and Filmmaker Tim Shaw, Owner of the Grand Midway Hotel Blair Murphy, Haunting Evidence Paranormal Investigator Patrick Burns, and Paranormal Expert and Author Sam Baltrusis, read their bio, chapter titles and excerpts here.

To Be Published and shipped by Halloween 2016. Pre-Ordering Now you are assisting with printing costs and begin fundraising for Staten Island Hope Animal Rescue.

ALL PROCEEDS TO BE DONATED TO STATEN ISLAND HOPE ANIMAL RESCUE

ABOUT TAILS FROM THE OTHER SIDE: PETS AND THE PARANORMAL
At one time, we have all benefited from the loving nature of our animal companions. Whether cat, dog, bird or other, our pets have provided much needed love and support. However, it is a heart wrenching, devastating loss when our pet passes away. This project is dedicated to the paranormal experiences you may have had after your animal companion has crossed over to the Other Side. After our pets have passed, many of us can swear we have felt a familiar brush against a leg, heard a familiar bark or meow, or maybe we’ve been witness to another companion left behind play as she once used to with the companion who has passed on. Our animal companions also have a heightened sense of awareness and can track something which we cannot see. Sometimes we’ve been witness to a pet experiencing and reacting to the paranormal. Or sometimes the pet’s ability to sense something Other Worldly precedes our own paranormal pet experience. This book will highlight stories from our guest contributors and pet owners who have had paranormal experiences with pets.

Tinctures: When in Doubt DIY, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 23:10:00 +0000

Recently, my husband and I were at a farmer’s market in Woodstock, New York. While there we came across 3 tinctures that became new additions to our rather lengthy herbal regimen: a turmeric blend and two mushroom tinctures. When hubby first mentioned mushroom tinctures to me a few months ago, I thought the process would be a bit different from regular tinctures because of chitin, which is significantly tougher than roots, barks, and herbs. Mushrooms contain chitin, which is the same substance that makes up the shells and exoskeletons of a fair number of critters from lobsters to beetles to spiders.

In Woodstock, we came across the mushroom tincture vendor first and while hubby checked out the different tinctures available, I spoke with the vendor to get an idea about how the tinctures were made. The label said “triple extracted” and he began a complicated explanation of how the mushrooms go through this “triple extraction” method. Truth be told, I can’t repeat what he said because I didn’t understand him. It was a smile and nod moment. Then I asked what alcohol he used in the steeping and he looked shocked.

“Well, something with a high alcohol content,” he said.

“Everclear?”

He gave me a perplexed look that reminded me like a magician who’s just had his trick exposed. My husband told the man that I make my own tinctures. The guy actually shook his head and took a small step back. He seemed to tense up, like I was going to jump

Reishi

across the table at him. Hubby had settled on one tincture, Reishi, and I was interested in another, Lion's mane. I told the vendor that we would be getting those tinctures and he did visibly relax, even smiling at us. He then explained that since the chitin is so tough, Everclear is really the best alcohol for making a mushroom tincture. I thought to myself that that wasn’t so mysterious.

I still didn’t get the triple extraction thing. When I went home, I found information about mushroom tinctures, including this guideline for a straight tincture and a double extracted tincture. Some articles on making a double extraction notes that with a double extraction, the color will be darker and the tincture will be slightly thicker than normal because a decoction of the mushroom is made, then reduced to concentrate it, and that reduction is added to the tincture. (Read about double extractions at the MRH blog). I only found 1 article talking about triple extraction. This is from Susun Weed's ezine "Be your Own Herbal Expert part 4:"

Double and Triple Tinctures

An herbalist in Austin Texas shared her special way of preparing a tincture that helps her keep her cool in stressful situations. She tinctures fresh lemon balm, gathered before it flowers, for six weeks, in 100 proof vodka. She pours that tincture over a new jar of fresh lemon balm leaves. After that sits for six more weeks, it's a double tincture. She then pours the double tincture over another new jarful of fresh lemon balm and lets that sit for six weeks. After which she has a triple tincture....

The color of the tinctures I got in Woodstock was very light and they were of the same viscosity as alcohol. So, I tend to doubt that the manufacturer followed the double extraction method let alone any triple extraction. Unless they did something else entirely of their own creation? Such as steeping the mushroom for an initial extraction, then straining the material out and steeping a second batch of mushroom in the initial tincture, and then

Lion's Mane mushroom

repeating for a third time. Or doing a combination of that and the decoction method described above. Either way, I would have to guess that any kind of double extraction or triple extraction would be of a much darker color than the tinctures I purchased from this vendor.

I also found some more information about the positive effects of Reishi for diabetes and Lion's mane for epilepsy. To date, in the almost 3 weeks of using the Lion's mane purchased from this vendor, my seizures have radically reduced. In the weeks just before starting this tincture, I had noted an unsettling climb in the frequency and severity of my seizures. Despite my questions about the method of producing the tincture, I have noticed a positive result in using these mushroom tinctures—positive results that go beyond mere placebo effect.

So, I scouted around online and ordered both mushrooms, adding Chaga to the order because of some really good things I read about it. Hubby went to the store and came home with a few handles of vodka, for my other new tincture venture, and Everclear, for the shrooms, along with dill and black peppercorns, which I’ll get to in a moment.

As if to reinforce what I researched on the mushroom tinctures and the positive results we've had in the short period of time using the tinctures, hubby was in touch with another herbalist regarding hubby's recent work injury. Hubby has been recovering from a concussion and cervical damage. The herbalist friend mentioned a mushroom tincture blend he was working on to help cognitive function and nerve regeneration. The blend consists of lionsmane, reishi, and chaga. Score 1 for DIY Mushroom tinctures. To read more about how awesome mushrooms are, check out the work of Paul Stamets.

The other tincture that I discovered at this Woodstock farmer’s market was a turmeric blend. I had a similar experience with this vendor that I had with the shroom guy. When I asked questions: what alcohol, was the turmeric fresh, and so on—I was met with confusion and a little mistrust. When I actually made overtures to purchase their tincture, the attitude became more positive and when I purchased a larger sized bottle, they became actually friendly. All told we spent $75 on 3 2 ounce bottles of tincture. I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford that each month, that added to my already expanding herbal regimen.

I've already said that I’m not buying any more tinctures from anyone unless I absolutely cannot make the tincture myself, but this experience really cinched it. I have one caveat in terms of buying tinctures, which I noted already in the first part of this series. Buy the tincture from a reputable manufacturer first to see if it's something you want to add permanently to your regimen. If it is, then make it yourself; you will save money in the long run.

I totally understand the need to make money to support yourself and I have amazing respect for small business owners. I am one myself. I even can understand the attitude shifts when I speak to such business owners. I’ve gotten it before with some kombucha vendors as well. The minute they hear that you have some knowledge about what they’re selling, they know you aren’t their customer base, so they don’t give a flying fuck about you—which, in my book, pretty much guarantees that I won’t be a repeat customer of theirs.

My issues with the turmeric tincture came down to honey being listed as an ingredient and the total lack of flavor regarding several of the other ingredients. Turmeric is notoriously tough to make bioavailable, which means it's hard for your body to get the advantages of it. Curcumin (turmeric’s wonder chemical) needs additional chemicals in order to become bioavailable. Capsaicin, quercetin, and piperine are common substances used to make curcumin active. Here's some more info on turmeric.

The tincture I bought in Woodstock was a blend of turmeric, ginger, black pepper, and dill—plus the honey and a questionable “95% turmeric extract.” I tasted no black pepper and very little dill in the overall flavor of the tincture. Also, why honey? Granted my knowledge is limited, but why add honey to a tincture? It’s not as a preservative since the alcohol alone is both the menstruum (liquid used to extract the wonderful power of the plant material) and preservative. And, if it’s as a flavoring additive—then it’s just that, an additive. Honey in a tincture tells me that the tincture is in some way adulterated or watered down, which I don’t like. I also don't like seeing an extract added to the tincture without knowing how that extract was made— is it synthetic? Where is it from? Et cetera and so on.

So, I set about finding some information about what things to pair with turmeric to get the benefits of turmeric’s curcumin. I settled on black pepper, chili, and dill for the piperine, capsaicin, and quercetin respectively. I also happened to have a massive bag of organically grown, dried cayenne in the pantry and about 5 pounds of fresh turmeric root in the fridge. When hubby went out for the spirits, hence the fresh dill and black peppercorns he came home with.

My Lion's Mane (L) and Reishi (right)

It’s been a week since I put my mushroom tinctures and my own turmeric blend together to steep. I’ve noticed in this little period of time, already the color of my own tinctures, in their infant stages, are darker than what I bought from the farmer’s market. Even though I spent about double the money for the ingredients, that money got me enough mushroom on hand to make several large batches of tincture, and enough of the fresh turmeric blend to make about a gallon of turmeric tincture.

Some last words on tinctures before I share my own turmeric tincture recipe. When buying your material, make sure the source is reputable, not just for fair-trade reasons, but you want to make sure you're getting an uncontaminated or poorer grade product.

For example, if you're opting for a mushroom tincture and want to try something like reishi, make sure you're getting a potent variety, purple or red and not the more common black variety. If you're looking to cat's claw, make sure it's uncaria tomentosa and not uncaria guianensis. U. tomentosa is harder to get and MUST be fair-trade; it is the variety sold at MRH. U. guianensis is less potent, easier to harvest and used in fillers in many cat's claw products. Getting something that isn't potent will effect how the tincture works on you. It also might influence how effectively you see the product. If you use a tincture made with poor grade material, then it won't work. You might then get the idea that tinctures amount to nothing more than snake oil and you might miss out on what could be a game-changing treatment for what ails you.

Compare color of bought tincture in dropper and my tincture-- Lion's Mane.

Also, in my opinion getting a product that has been harvested in poor conditions, harvested to the detriment of the environment, or harvested in a way that's unfair to the people harvesting, does not provide a potent medicine. Do your homework and make sure you're getting a quality herb for a quality medicine—which will give you quality results.

Whatever tincture you settle on to try—give it time to work. Tinctures are magical remedies, but they are NOT magic bullet cures. I find that they help me manage my conditions. They haven't cured me of them. I can bounce back from a seizure more readily and my chronic pain is reduced since I've been taking the tinctures. I won't lie though. I still have pain and I still have seizures. I have little to no side effects from the tinctures. That coupled with a reduction in my symptoms equate a good treatment for me.

Again-- compare color. Bought tincture to my own-- reishi.

Recently, after my own success with chuchuhuasi and cat's claw, I offered to make some for my mother, who has her own debilitating back issues which causes chronic pain and sleep disturbances. She's been taking them for a little more than a month. She's also just recently kicked a pain meds habit that she's had for the last few years and has a attendance to make what I call cocktails to help her sleep. She combines several cold remedies or sleep aids to take her basically into oblivion. Not something I'd recommend. I wanted her to titrate her tincture dosage, start small and work up. By month 2 she would have been taking the full dosage. So in the last month, she's been at the medium dose. My mother is also radically overweight, so she would need more of a dosage than I would. I don't live with her and have no control over whether she's following my directions, thereby getting the right dosage. Despite her seeing a better quality of sleep and noticing that her pain increases when she misses a dose, she's made the decision to stop the tinctures because she doesn't think they've done anything for her. Read: she still has pain, she's not cured 100%, she can't run a marathon. All the extenuating circumstances don't matter, nor does she consider that she's nigh on 75.

If you try tinctures, keep in mind your extenuating factors. Are you on other medications? Are you taking the tinctures correctly—at the right time of day, at the right dosage, et cetera. Sometimes, the dosage on the bottle is not the correct one for you. When trying to determine dosage, I do research, read as much as I can online and in books, and start small. Why take a massive amount when a little will do? As with any herbal remedy, herbs are not a one-size-fits all remedy. Read my other herbal articles for more about this, especially part 2 and part 6 of my Cure Is You: Dealing with Chronic Illness series.

Turmeric Blend Tincture

Like I said, this is for a large batch. I used a ½ gallon wide-mouth jar and vodka as the menstruum. Here's my exact measurements, in ounces and using the simpler'smethod:

6 ounces fresh turmeric root, cleaned, trimmed, and chopped (or 3 parts of turmeric)
2 ounces fresh dill weed, cleaned, dried carefully, trimmed of all bulky stems and coarsely chopped (1 part dill weed)
2 ounces black peppercorns, dried (or 1 part peppercorns)
5 grams cayenne pepper, whole dried chili coarsely chopped (1/16 part); or ½ ounce fresh chili (¼ part fresh cayenne chili)

Note: fresh turmeric and fresh dill must be completely dry. I used a salad spinner and towels to dry them. You don't want to introduce any extra water to the scenario.

Layer herbs into jar: turmeric first, then dill, peppercorns, and cayenne.

Chopped Turmeric first

Then comes the dill-- also chopped.

Finally the peppercorns and cayenne.

Measure chili exactly, then chop. It might be easier to cut with kitchen shears.

Fill jar with vodka, cap and shake daily.

After 5-6 weeks, strain out the material and bottle the liquid, which is your tincture.

Bought tincture in dropper. My own tincture is in the dish.

This tincture will taste very strong. I tested it 2 weeks out and the flavor of the black pepper and cayenne is intense. One way to think about it is: tinctures aren't meant to taste good....which leads me to the last word on tinctures for now.

How do I take a tincture?

Most tinctures absorb well with a squeeze of lemon juice or acid to help the body handle the tannins. Sometimes I do just that, put my tinctures in a shot glass, squeeze in a bit of lemon and down it. Usually, when I'm taking my tinctures I have an herbal syrup that I'm taking as well. So, I put the tinctures in a shot glass, mix with a dash of lemon and the herbal syrup and shoot it. If you don't have lemon, raw apple cider vinegar works as well. It's another good addition to a daily regimen. Other people recommend putting the tinctures into a whole glass of water or adding to hot water and sipping like a tea. Since tinctures taste like the underside of a boot that's been dragged through jungle mud, I'm not keen on drinking an 8oz glass of tincture cocktail or an equally large mug of steaming tincture tea.

If I don't have a syrup I'm taking, I mix a little water or juice with the tinctures and shoot them. Fast and quick works for me. If the juice isn't acidic, remember to add a good dash of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar-- 1 teaspoon is fine. If the juice is acidic, like grapefruit juice, then no need to add more. Chase with a glass of water. Read more about tincture dosage by Jim McDonald.

Read as much as you can about using tinctures and tincture-making. My top choices are MRH and Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide or her Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health.

Tinctures: When in Doubt DIY, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Grow Gaia) — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 21:15:00 +0000

I have to confess, with all my kitchen witchery and all my DIY philosophy about just about everything I can make myself, I have had tincture fear for several years. Despite making salves, teas, oils, and hand-milled soap, tinctures are a recent thing for me. In the past, I’ve used them for emergencies, having calendula and chamomile tinctures on hand for kitty first aid, was essential. But for some reason I always thought they were more complicated and something out of my reach.

In recent years, as I incorporated tinctures into my own regimen, I wasted money buying them, thinking that in order to make tinctures I needed more equipment or more training. Reading Richo Cech’s description of making tinctures in Making Plant Medicine added even more trepidation with his complicated formulas. Despite my exposure to the work of wise women like Rosemary Gladstar and Kiva Rose, I still had some qualms about making tinctures.

Until last year when Anthony and I attended the Herbal Imaginarium in Brooklyn and we were exposed to chuchuhuasi tincture—which in and of itself is the topic of another article, hence the Part 1. Getting so much help from the first exposure to this tincture meant I needed to add it to my regimen. But, over the next few days, I couldn’t find this tincture anywhere online—so I knew I had to make it myself. I was able to get the material, not easily (again topic of my chuchuhuasi article) and the result, 6 weeks later was my first tincture.

Chuchuhuasi was literally my gateway to tincture making. At the time, I had been using tincture of wild yam regularly. I should have taken a picture of it, but when I was using that ready-made tincture, as I already said, I really hadn’t thought of making my own tinctures. The color was very dark, almost black. Regardless of shaking the bottle, about three quarters into the bottle, there was a tar-like sediment and needless to say the taste was awful-- like tar-water, really acrid. The smell wasn't much better. The tincture I was using was a mass-market brand. The cost also went up significantly and if a bottle of this tincture cost me more than $10, I considered getting the material in bulk from Mountain Rose Herbs (MRH) and making my own. But, when I first thought of it, MRH was out of stock on the bulk wild yam. I didn't want to make a special order of their wild yam tincture, so I thought I'd keep using what I already had of the mass-market brand with a mind towards making my own at some distant point in the future.

A quick talk about cost of tincture making, using the wild yam to give you an idea of the cost differential.

The cost of MRH's Wild Yam (wildharvested from the USA) is $23 a pound, but keep in mind 1 pound will make a lot of tincture. The initial cost for the bulk herbs, roots, barks, and fungi at first glance seem more expensive than buying a simple bottle of tincture. But, in the long-run, the cost is far less and the gain is more since you have total control over what you're making. I estimate that I was spending $10 a month on wild yam tincture, more or less, not including shipping, handling and tax. Let's ballpark that at $120 for a year's worth-- or $120 for 24 oz of tincture. I got my pound from MRH for $23 and a handle of vodka from the local liquor store for $16. Using that entire bottle of vodka, gave me just under 60 ounces of tincture when all was said and done-- and I only used half a pound of root, again ballparking the measurement. So, for about $30 I was able to make well over 1 year's worth of tincture, when it cost me quadruple that to buy it ready-made. The taste of my tincture is still bitter; it is a bitter root after all, but it doesn't leave me gagging.

Of course the cost changes radically depending on the cost of the material you're making the tincture from, your dosage, and how many folks you're making the tincture for. My chuchuhuasi tincture is what I go through very quickly and has to be the costlier one taking into account the cost of the bark itself. Chuchuhuasi tincture is now available via Herbs America, where I get my bulk bark. The Herbs America tincture costs $15.99 for 1 ounce. I use 1 ounce a week, for myself and my husband, and am making the tincture for my mother as well, so taking her into account-- I'd need about 1.5 ounces per week or 6 ounces a month, more or less. I can't afford $100 a month to buy it from Herbs America. The bulk bark is now $39.99 a pound and 1 pound is enough for several months of tincture. So again, the initial cost seems like a lot, but if tinctures are to become your thing (if they aren't already), in the long-run making your own will save you a lot of green.

The other tinctures I was exposed to at that Herbal Imaginarium were cat’s claw and pau d’arco. I tried cat’s claw and, like the chuchuhuasi, I saw a significant improvement in a matter of minutes. I didn’t try the pau d’arco, but, at the time, I had been reading up on other herbs to add to my regimen and pau d’arco kept coming up. As most kitchen witches will tell you, when you keep turning corners and discovering the same herb, the medicine of that plant is trying to tell you something about the benefits of that medicine for you. So when I ran into pau d’arco again for the umpteenth time, I settled on making an order from MRH of these herbs—only to find that they were out of stock on cat’s claw, pau d’arco, and still out of wild yam; they didn’t carry chuchuhuasi in any form. I did make my first MRH tincture order since they did have tinctures of cat’s claw, pau d’arco, and wild yam in stock.

I know from reading MRH blog and being a customer of theirs for more than a decade now, Rosemary Gladstar is a big influence on their recipes. Her tincture recipes use the simpler’s method and call for brandy, vodka, or Everclear. Since I don’t work for MRH, I don’t know what method they use to make their tinctures, so I’m not saying they use a Gladstar approach. However, they do note their tinctures are made in smaller batches and they’ve blogged about tincture making. Since their recipes are very much like Gladstar’s approach, I’d guess their products are likewise very similar in recipe.

When I received my MRH order of tinctures, the first thing I noticed was the radical difference in color between my mass market wild yam and the MRH tincture. The smell was also markedly different, there was zero sediment in the bottle, and the flavor, while still bitter, was also different, less tar-like. Since I now make my own wild yam tincture, I can say that my tincture is nearly identical in color, flavor, and effect to the MRH tincture. So in a pinch, if I can’t make my own for whatever reason, I trust their tinctures 100%.

Even though it's an excellent idea to make your own tinctures, I would highly recommend that before getting all the bulk material, buy a bottle of the tincture from a reputable company like Mountain Rose Herbs, or Herbs America (for more exotic tinctures like chuchuhuasi that aren't sold at MRH). The reason? Tinctures, like all medicines (herbal or otherwise), can have unique reactions to you. If you aren't keen on the reaction, you don't want to be stuck with half a gallon of a tincture you can't use, right? I'll give you an example. Gotu Kola. It's a life-line for my epilepsy. I've already blogged about how it's helped reduce the quantity and severity of my seizures since I've been using it. Primarily I use it in capsule form, which I make myself from the powdered herb, which I powder myself-- but I also have gotu kola in a tea blend I take most evenings. Recently, I was running out of my bulk dried Gotu Kola and MRH was also out of stock. I kept checking back but they were out of stock for well over 6 months. When I made an order a few weeks ago, I opted to order their Gotu Kola tincture. As I began conserving my own gotu kola, I stopped my tea and instead tried the MRH gotu kola tincture. Within 20 minutes, I had a small seizure. I figured I was tired and I didn't immediately make the connection. The next night, same thing and the seizure was a little more intense. This repeated for 4 successive nights and included restless sleep from being woken up by a seizure. I almost fell out of bed because of it-- and my epilepsy is not characterized by complex seizures. The last time I took the tincture, when I really added it up and realized a tincture of gotu kola had the opposite effect of a tea or capsule, I actually had the closest thing to a grand mal seizure that I've had in 8 years. I was seizing for 45 minutes with post-seizure effects that lasted into the next day. I'm happy that I didn't waste the bulk herb, the alcohol, or the time to make my own gotu kola tincture to have the same reaction.

Since this experience, tincture making is part of my routine. At any given time, I have over half a dozen different jars steeping and since hubby and I have recently stumbled across new tinctures that we’ve added to our regimen, the jar count has grown.

If I only had the space, I'd have a tincture pantry like this...