Summer Solstice 2011

This was an extraordinary time coming up to and during this year's summer solstice. The energy flowing around was very very strong and seemed to many to be coming from many directions. Intense? Dysfunctional? Disorganized? Telling? An Alert? Encompassing? Overwhelming? Enveloping?

This year seemed different! Did you spend anytime honoring the change in seasons? Or listening to a message or two? Did you peer inside to see your own reactions and feelings? If not, you still can because we are still under the influence of this change of nature.

Some people have reported unusual events prior to the solstice. Unexplained events that must be presenting us with a message, but opening the key to these messages can be difficult. Some events don't fit in with the normal laws of nature that we embrace. How could that have happened? What other explanation is there? None? How can I take that into my psyche? How can I understand? Why was this event or events presented to me?

I have pondered how and why these events are occurring in different places around the world. I cannot explain the events. I can say that they occurred for a reason. Strong messages like these may be the only way to get the attention of the recipient. They are a gift that needs to be opened, investigated within ones heart, experienced. HONOR THESE GIFTS - even if you don't completely understand the full potential of the message.

So, how do we honor them, other than a ceremony or spending time really looking at the message?

An important way, is to honor oneself, to honor your friends and family, and the other beings living on this earth together with us. This includes all life, from your pets, to the fish in the sea, and the plants as well as the microorganisms in the soil.

Yes, this is and was a powerful summer solstice event!

Red Clover - infusion

Susun Weed talks about the wonderful herb - red clover.
She shares about its immune healing abilities and many important uses for it. It is easy to make a nourishing red clover infusion as you will see in this video.



Susun Weed makes red clover nourishing herbal infusion. Red clover blossom infusion is one of the world's best remedies for infertility, no matter what the cause. It nourishes the health of both eggs and sperm, opens blocked fallopian tubes, adjusts hormones, and generally makes the entire body more receptive to pregnancy. It is also highly regarded as an anti-cancer remedy. It is considered safe for consumption by pregnant and lactating women. The high vitamin content of red clover blossoms, combined with the folic acid in the leaves is especially helpful to sperm and egg production and helps prevent birth defects. Red clover's high mineral and trace mineral content helps restore and maintain good production of hormones. Its profuse and exceedingly absorbable calcium and magnesium help rejuvenate and repair the delicate tissues of reproduction.

An infusion is a large amount of herb brewed for a long time. Typically, one ounce by weight (about a cup by volume) of dried herb is placed in a quart jar which is then filled to the top with boiling water, tightly lidded and allowed to steep for 4-10 hours. http://herbshealing.com/How_to_make_Infusions.htm

Join Susun Weed in the Catskill Mountains near Woodstock NY, view complete schedule of events at http://www.susunweed.com/ join the free ezine, register for the free online course Nourishing Herbal Infusions the Wise Woman Way, view the holistic links directory, ask questions at the Wise Woman Forum, join Herbal Healing Email group, visit five weblogs with Women's Health Q&A database, and so much more...join us at http://www.herbshealing.com

What Are the Health Benefits of Garlic?

5/31/2011 9:25:53 AM
By KC Compton

I’ve heard garlic is good for you, but what exactly does it do? Are there any specific health benefits that come from eating a lot of garlic? 
  

My initial reaction to this question is that even if garlic weren’t healthy, my diet would still be full of the stuff. Just considering that aroma and flavor are part of what makes life worth living, I’d say that garlic is exceptionally good for you. But yes, it does have specific medicinal uses.

Ethnobotanist James Duke, Ph.D., one of the world’s leading experts in medicinal plants, places garlic among the best all-around plant medicines in the world. According to Duke’s seminal book, The Green Pharmacy, garlic is effective for alleviating conditions ranging from high cholesterol and high blood pressure to yeast infections and clotting disorders. Garlic compounds have the potential to help treat more than 200 ailments, Duke says. It’s the best overall plant for stimulating the immune system, the best anti-clotting herb, one of the best anti-fungals, and potentially useful for preventing heart disease and cancer.

When I’m learning about any herb, what gets my attention isn’t the amount of advertising it garners on late-night TV or even in the pages of magazines, but how long it has been in the human medicine cabinet and what its uses have been through the ages. Garlic passes that test with the highest marks. Cultures throughout the world have recognized garlic’s healing abilities. The first-century Roman scholar Pliny the Elder cited uses for it from treating snakebites to dealing with dizziness and intestinal parasites. In China, records show garlic was used as early as the sixth century to treat conditions such as colds and digestive ailments.

For specific information on how much garlic is recommended for a particular condition, check out the articles at The Herb Companion, or read about garlic in The Green Pharmacy, a welcome addition to any home library.

Note: Because garlic is a powerful anti-coagulant (prevents bloodclotting), don’t take it in large amounts if you have a clotting disorder, and consult with your health care practitioner if you take anti-coagulants, such as Coumadin, or therapeutic doses of aspirin. Stop using garlic two weeks before any scheduled surgery.
 Photo Credit: Fotolia

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/ask-our-experts/health-benefits-of-garlic-zb0z11zphe.aspx

The Mayan New Dawn

This is a new video from Ian Lungold's website mayanmajix.com.

Carl Calleman interviews Don Alejandro, a Mayan shaman about the much anticipated end of the Mayan calendar.

Don Alejandro is traveling the world spreading his message of a new dawn - the new dawn of a time of peace and happiness for all mankind.

What do I do With All That . . . Mint

What do I do With All That . . . Mint
By Amber Royer
June 3, 2011

I just had a gardener give me some very healthy mint plants today. She said she used her mint for making tea, but didn’t know quite what else to do with it. “There’s just so much of it,” she lamented. Sound familiar? Mint is one of those aggressive herbs that tend to take over, if not checked. One way to keep it in its place is to cook it in as many ways as are possible.

One of my favorite ways to use mint is in making chocolate ganache for frosting a cake (or a slightly thicker version for truffle centers, which can then be rolled in nuts or cocoa powder). You need equal amounts of heavy whipping cream and chocolate (add a couple extra ounces of chocolate if you are making truffles) - and a whopping bunch of coarsely chopped mint. Melt the chocolate slowly in the top of a double boiler. Meanwhile, heat the cream in a saucepan together with the mint. When the cream is warm to the touch, turn it off and let the mint steep into the cream, for a minimum of ten minutes. Taste the cream. If the mint flavor isn't strong enough, put a lid on it and keep steeping. When it is done, strain the cream through a sieve into the chocolate mixture, and whisk to combine. Discard the mint leaves. This works with any variety of mint, but you get really nice effects from orange mint (Mentha x piperita f. citrata) and lemon mint (Mentha dulcia citreus).

A traditional way to use mint is in jelly. Take your favorite apple jelly recipe, and add 1 ½ cup of peppermint (Mentha x piperita) or spearmint (Mentha spicata) leaves when you start cooking down the apples. Mint doesn't have the natural pectin required to make jelly on its own, and the apples have a mild enough flavor to blend in behind the mint. Adding the leaves at the beginning of the process will allow plenty of time for the mint flavor to suffuse through the juice coming out of the apples, and when you strain out the solids you don't have any leafy bits to disrupt the texture of the jelly.

If you're having Indian food on the menu, don't forget to turn some of your mint into chutney. It tastes very "green" but goes exceptionally well with kebabs and chicken tikkas. Use either a mortar and pestle or a food processor to grind the following ingredients into a paste:

1 small bunch cilantro (stems removed)
1 whopping bunch mint (stems removed)
1 hot green pepper (stem and seeds removed)
Couple cloves garlic
Salt (to taste)
Half an onion
Juice of 1 lime

Mint is cooling (which may be why the above recipe is so nice with super-spicy Indian cuisine), and the Greek culinary tradition capitalizes on this by adding another cooling vegetable - cucumber - to make tatziki sauce. This can go over gyros, or can be used to dress a salad, where it will add a creamy taste without adding a load of fat. Start with a 16 oz. carton of Greek-style yogurt, and add a peeled, seeded, diced cucumber. Mince a handful of mint leaves together with a couple of cloves of garlic, add that to the yogurt mix, season to taste with salt, really good olive oil (I like using some in which I've infused lemon) and your favorite vinegar. You'll want to refrigerate this for at least a couple of hours to let the flavors mingle before you use it.

Mint also goes really well with both strawberries and pineapple, so try making a minted fruit salad. Add your other favorite fruit (whatever's in season), a handful of finely diced mint leaves and a syrup made by boiling down 1/2 cup lime juice and 1 cup sugar until it is syrupy (which will seal your fruit and prevent it from turning brown - but make sure you let the syrup cool before adding it to the fruit).

Don't forget mojitos! One of the most refreshing ways to enjoy mint is to drink it. Steep the mint as for tea, strain it, add a bit of sugar and an optional shot of rum, and serve over a lot of ice.



These are just a few ideas to get you started. Once you see how the herb works in the kitchen, you'll be making mint pesto, minted lamb dishes, tabouli, mint ice cream, and minty herb seasoning mixtures. Take the time to dry some for later, and to sprinkle a few dried leaves at the back of your cabinets to keep bugs away!

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/3280/

St. John's wort - a powerful healing herb

St. John's wort tinctures and oils have a long history of healing a variety of physical ailments. Susun Weed told me about the powers of St. John's wort for sunburn many years ago.

St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) tincture is well known as a remedy for depression. The oil, though less well known, is one of the best medicines for regaining and maintaining healthy skin.

Hypericum oil is made by infusing the fresh yellow flowers of St. John’s/Joan’s wort in oil until it turns red. It is not an essential oil. If you live where hypericum grows, you can easily make it. If not, you can buy it at any store that sells herbs.

Because hypericum oil heals burns, I honor it with the name St. Joan’s wort. It is the only one-hundred-percent chemical-free sunscreen I know of. I apply a generous amount to all exposed skin every few hours to prevent sunburn and skin cancer.

Over the last fifty years, the rate of skin cancer in the USA has risen as fast as the usage of sunscreen. Commercial sunscreens encourage us to stay in the sun too long. St. Joan’s wort oil allows a slight reddening of the skin, so we are alerted to the need to get out of the sun, and it protects the lower levels of the skin from mutations that lead to cancer.

Hypericum oil carries its anti-viral activities deep into the nerve endings. Applied at the first sign of an outbreak, it prevents eruption of herpes and cold sores. It eliminates shingles, and eases the pain of chicken pox. Repeated use kills the herpes simplex virus and prevents further eruptions.

St. Joan’s wort oil also helps those with scaly skin conditions ranging from dry eczema to psoriasis. As an added benefit, hypericum oil eases muscle aches.