an inadvertent ode to Cascade Anderson Geller

I woke up with a pain deep in my lungs.

The pain was as if I had been running in the artic or smoking cigarettes made of ice.
The lung pain was my only symptom, but I got right on treating it, just in case.

I began with hot tea and *local honey with our basic family tincture **the anti-infection blend.

I added about 10 dropperfuls of this to my tea a couple of times the first day. That night I had a dream where Cascade was with me. I told her about my lung pain and she warned me that it could be very serious. I asked her what I should do about it. She looked at me with her head tilted to one side and said "you're the herbalist, you tell me"

"Elecampane" I said. She smiled and said "good".

I woke up the next day and started a pot of super bitter tea. I knew I would be flying in a few days and wanted to really nip this illness in the bud.

The tea I made was elecampane & dandelion root simmered on the stove for a good long time.

Elecampane is a true love to me, the only plant I ever wrote a song for. That's cheesy, I know, but Elecampane is complex, strong, bitter, sweet, rich and unlike any other taste around. Elacampane is in the sunflower family and quite closely related to the sunchoke and even though it's called elf wort or elf dock, I find it to be a plant related more to Gnomes.

I drank some of this brew with honey and then added more water and let it continue to simmer. I must have drunk a gallon of this uber bitter brew throughout two days.

My lungs got better quickly but the pain and sickness had moved up into my upper chest.

Bummer.

I was sicker than I wanted to admit.

I kept on with my treatment. Stay the course.
This is the part where you get to hear the mantra that comes back to me often from fabulous local herbal teacher Cascade Anderson Gellar who once said to me "herbal medicine is arduous"
Basically why everyone takes anti-biotics these days. Herbal medicine is arduous, it takes time and patience and patience.

Cascade was the one who taught me all about the anti-infection blend.

The "infection" as it seemed to be, moved up out of my lungs and then out of my chest and now had fully landed in my throat.
Jeeze.
I was trying to get things caught up at the store and make the million arrangements for the children, the house, the dog, the chickens etc.

I finally packed about 10 minutes before we had to leave for the airport.

At this point, I begin to feel better, with the illness mostly in my head, ha ha, not like that but in my physical head.

When the cabin of the plane pressurized my head began to seemingly swell with pressure from the inside that was threatening to burst. I was yawning and sucking candy and pulling on my ears while yawning, I was massaging my eustation tubes. I was dring sips of water. I was miserable. I was trying to be patient. I was using calming techniques. Breathing exercises.
The flight attendant came over to see if we were alright. My travel partner explained the problem because I could not hear very well, nor tell how loud I was talking at this point, and asked if she had any suggestions. She looked at me and said "did you try yawning?"
I honestly wanted to hit her.

So back on earth, I now had a killer head cold, plugged ears and still tons of pressure in my head.
This day was all about the runny nose.
The day consisted of putting salve on my nose where the skin was raw, finding kleenexes, sucking cough drops, blowing my nose, disposing of kleenexes, repeat.
Oh and did I say that I was at this point in Las Vegas at the World Tea Expo where I was supposed to be tasting and smelling teas all day.

to be continued: part 2 will include the second half of the super-fun week that was the tea fair which includes a double ear infection, oh joy.

**Anti-Infection Blend

Like all good recipes, it has guidelines and parameters, but is made differently based on the season and what tinctures I have on hand.

Here's a basic recipe:
each tincture is already made seperately then blended after they're complete.
25% echinacea root, dried
25% echinacea root, leaf and flower tinctured fresh
15% fresh ginger root
10% usnea
15% oregon grape root
10% licorice root
We go through about 32 oz of this throughout each year. It takes care of practically everything.
Thanks Cascade.

*a great book to recommend about the healing and magic of honey is Stephen Buhner's book Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers

***all of this is recommended for using your own judgment, I am not a doctor, I have no letters behind my name, I make no claims, this is my own experience.***

World Tea Expo

First of all, I know this sounds very exotic and beautiful and aromatic, however, the Expo was in Las Vegas and I was soooo sick.
I will write another post all about the illness and my treatment, stay posted.

We went to the tea expo thinking and hoping we would find the coolest teapots & cups, the most amazing lines of boxed & bagged teas and herb & tea infused chocolates.

Teapots: We found lots of almost lovely enough teapots and cups the first two days and on the third day we finally found beautiful teapots that we loved and they were available in an amazing array of colors.

Oh, but this is the line we already carry.

Beehouse Teapots made in Japan.

Chocolate: We have been carrying chocolate line from Belgium that is infused with flowers and spices that we adore, but we're always open to something new.

So, we tasted a dozen green tea candies, tea infused chocolates shaped like teacups, shortbread cookies infused with tea and on and on. Not one thing was even a consideration. Bummer.

Tea: so much tea, so many cups, I felt awful about all the waste.

There were so many poorly brewed pots of tea. Even the tea that I carry and the tea line that I picked up were brewed in a way that was not quite right.

Our hands-down favorite product was a jasmine tea non-alcoholic "champagne".

It was beautifully brewed and carbonated and not too sweet.

I will be serving it at events and offering it as a special order item.

We met some cousins who were representing their family tea plantation in India. One of the cousins lives in India the other in Los Angeles. They had lovely energy and amazing tea.

I found a grower selling my favorite jasmine tea: yin hao jasmine. Organic, even. I'm hoping to have that in the store and my teacup soon.

We went to the world tea expo, it seems, mostly, to realize what we are carrying is the best and yes we can add a few things here and there, but really, we're pretty dialed in.

San Francisco

I recently had a little personal getaway to SF. Sweet little town, a lot like Portland, but away from my chores.





These iridescent fish, I love.










I'm pretty sure these are
fern fronds,
but there were several things in Chinatown that no one would identify for me.
My curiosity would not rest, so I bought many odd things just to be told what things were.
Folks were more helpful when I was spending money. One of the things that was never able to be explained except to say in a long conversation where neither of us spoke the same language that it was made very clear that I should never eat it. The mystery item looked like a dried hoof but smelled of the sea and burning tires.





This is a mallow sanctuary apparently. An entire building site chained off for the love and preservation of the beloved malva neglecta.

Even an herbalist likes a nice cappuccino every once in a while.














This is an amazing piece at Anthropologie.













I would have loved to have brought this home, but besides the $12K price tag, there were no lids. How practical is that?