Spring is upon us. We mostly made it through winter. Some are still experiencing those last minute surprise snow storms and chillier weather but it is still moving towards us. This is the season when we get out of our houses if we aren’t into the cold and rain activities. We want to get moving
Winter. It is the Yin season. If fact it is the Yin within Yin season, the most Yin. Surrounded by the dark and cold. The perfect time to get deeper into our caves for warmth, protect our energy and actually restore the energy we used up all last year. It is not about total disconnection, though. The
Today we talk about Shiitake mushrooms. That does not mean it is the least important. It just presented them as I ran into them. Shiitake, maitake, and reishi mushrooms (see previous blogs) are widely referred to as “medicinal mushrooms” due to their long history of medical use, particularly in oriental medicine traditions. The earliest written
Grifola frondosa. Isn’t she lovely. The beautiful dancing mushroom. Classified as an adaptogen helping the body recover from stress and resist infection. Maitake is another mushroom that has been used for hundreds of years. It was historically used more in Japan but is easily grown anywhere. The name “dancing mushroom” is not from it’s beautiful
Coriolus contains polysaccharide peptide (PSP) and polysaccharide-K (PSK, krestin), which may be able to fight tumor growth as well as boost the immune system. It is widely used in China and Japan in treating chronic and serious immune challenges. It provides a chemo protective defense to healthy cells while sensitizing cancerous cells. In Japan Krestin
Reference to this herb goes back thousands of years in Tibet, China and Japan. Because of its rarity it was reserved for use by the emperor and royalty. The literal translation of Dong chong xia cao is “winter bug summer herb” or “summer grass winter worm”. It was described as transforming from animal to plant and back
I will be offering a short series on 5 magic mushrooms. Some are considered adaptogens. Many have been used for thousands of years and are rare in the wild. It has taken centuries to discover how to grow them ‘in captivity’ and still obtain a product that provides the same healing properties. This is true
A few weeks ago my office partner said he was going to make elecampagne honey. I said let’s do it together. I’ll take pictures as you show me how to do it. Really it was “something to put in my blog”. Elecampane is great to nourish the Spleen to resolve dampness so it makes it
I ran across this in my documents and thought it would be a good link to share. I goes into a fair amount of detail about the intricacies of using Chinese herbal medicine and why I make comments like “See a licensed acupuncturist” for a prescription. We want to keep you safe and get you
I’m sure your turkey carcass has long been decimated. Perhaps you’ve already made bone broth with it. What? No, you made turkey soup. Hate to inform you but you made bone broth if you used the bones in the pot. Here you thought this new latest trend was actually new. Nope. Been doing it for