We continue our series of posts about dandelions. Today Sergey Boutenko, a herbalist and raw food expert from the Raw Food Family will show you this plant in nature and will tell first hand about dandelion’s nutritional and medicinal properties. You know, as one saying says, “It’s better to see one time than to hear many times.”

Want to have all year around fresh organic herbs that can compliment your home cooking? Watch this video and start your own hydroponic garden right on the windowsill in your home kitchen.

object width=”425″ height=”344″>

Many healing herbs, plants and flowers have been traditionaly used for centuries in our homes to treat a variety of minor illnesses and injuries. What if you’ll put together your 2010 Green Pharmacy of safe and useful herbs that can be used to treat different ailments and conditions during New Year.

1.  Raspberries are my favorite berries, a good source of vitamin C. I love to eat them fresh, to put into my hot tea. When one of the members of my family has cold or flu  –1-2  teaspoons of raspberry preserve in a cup of tea helps to get rid of fever  and magically promotes fast recovery.
2. Nettle, a blood tonic and cleanser is diuretic, tonic , and astrigent. Nettles are  a good source of iron, and especially good for people with anemia. This herb can be drunk as an infusion. Some people cook nettles like spinach. Experts don’t recommend to inhale the nettles’ steam because it contains the formic acid that gives this herb its sting burning your skin. The nettles are also thought to be good for the scalp and hair.
3. Chamomile is a favorite calming and relaxing  herb for adults and for children’s complaints.  Make hot chamomile tea to help cure sleeplessness and soothe  digestion.   Chamomile lotion or cream is useful for inflammatory skin conditions, and chamomile shampoo is beneficial for healthy hair (more…)

by Svetlana Konnikova, MA, AN

Now is cold everywhere. Ugh! Definitely we need not only warm cloth, but a hot cup of vitamin-rich tea to heal and rejuvenate our body and mind. What can be better and healthier than sipping hot, natural, herbal tea several times a day?

It is very important to load your body with vitamins, especially now, in winter time. To take vitamins hidden in capsules in powder form is boring. Do it by drinking hot teas. It’s really joyful and exciting. This centuries old tradition became a pleasant ceremony and entertainment in many countries around the world. You can do it alone or while socializing with your friends or business associates.

Here are several herbal compositions widely used in Russia and other European countries that will help you strengthen and clean the immune and respiratory systems from toxins so viruses and bacteria will not find a beneficial envoronment in which to “blossom” into colds, flu, cough, sore throat and other diseases.

Method of preparation is the same for all three compositions:

Combine in a pot or a glass jar two tablespoons of the mixed herbs with two cups boiling water. Steep 10 minutes. Drink one to two cups hot herbal tea daily. You can add one teaspoon organic raw honey.

1. Four and a half tablespoons rose hips
One tablespoon black currant
Four tablespoons nettle leaves
One and a half tablespoons cranberries

2. Three tablespoons rose hips
One tablespoon black currant
Three tablespoons minced carrot

3. One tablespoon rose hips
One tablespoon blueberries
One tablespoon nettle leaves

Tea parties were a Friday tradition and always a perfect get-together at our home. We would meet as usual in our garden or family room when it was cold. Tea was considered to be an essential part of l’art de vivre. We sat down to tea many times–the same party around the same table on our patio or inside the house. In summer time we enjoyed the view of Grandma’s multicolored garden with in array of flowers that greeted us with sweet and pungent aromas while the strains of Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” filled the air. In winter time we listened to Vivaldi’s “The Seasons” while sipping the delicious, spicy, hot steaming cuppa of tea to cure our body and mind, cold, cough, sore throat or relieve a pain or stress.

There are so many different hot herbal teas that you can enjoy and drink for your well-being. Would you like to see how these natural, healing beverages are made? Watch what a ‘Wise Woman’, herbalist Susan Weed, tells you from her kitchen about herbal teas and how she brew them.

References: Mama’s Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Life and the Pleasures of Natural Living by Svetlana Konnikova MA, AN, Aurora Publishers, 2008, pages 4, 97, 169; Photo of herbal teas by Petr Kratovchil; http://www.youtube.com

Copyright 2010

This post continues the previous which told you about our favorite products that can provoke allergies. Substitute one of them, strawberry yogurt (it has artificial color), with kefir, an ancient cultured, enzyme-rich beverage filled with friendly micro-organisms that help balance your “inner ecosystem” to maintain optimal health and joyful living.

Are you familiar with this amazing, fermented milk drink that originated in the Caucasus region? If you did not try it yet, you should. This must-have food is usually prepared by combining cow, goat, or sheep’s milk with kefir grains. The word ‘kefir’ comes from Persian words kef (foam) and shir(milk), but in Turkish the same word means “feel good.”

Centuries ago kefir became an every day breakfast, lunch and dinner drink in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Hingary, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. You can drink it plain, as many Europeans do, but if you find this taste too sour, add organic blueberries, bananas, strawberry, honey, agave nectar or maple syrup. Mix organic fruits in a blender and make a delicious, homemade smoothie.
(more…)

” I was thinking about the origin of the word pumpkin. It’s such a cute word. Kind of plump and friendly–and sexy in a farmer’s daughter sort of way.”–Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker

A couple days ago we said “Goodbye!” to the autumn with Thanksgiving celebrations and pumpkin pies. We can still enjoy this most generous gift of Mother Nature. As we all know, pumpkin has become famous in the form of the pumpkin pie, but there is so much more we can do with this squash that is harvested in the coolness of the fall. 

Fresh from the field, plump and friendly pumpkins can find smart use in our kitchens till New Year’s Day. Please don’t say that you can have your pumpkin pie in May, August or February. It’ll be a pie made with Libby’s canned pumpkins. You cannot compare it in taste with a pie baked with fresh pumpkins.

So many delicious meals can be created with fresh squashes. In summer time zucchini are my favorites. They are the most versatile and most loved of all squashes. These vegetables are easy to cook. They are tender, have delicate flavor, and are available all year through in stores. The winter squashes, such as acorn squash, kahocha, and onion squash are available only in season.  

So, if you love zucchini the most, buy only locally grown that are sold by farmers from mid to late summer. In summer you can make zuchini pancakes with fresh dill, stuffed zucchini with walnuts, feta cheese and basil, and zucchini with walnuts, fresh parsley and cheese gratin–all from fresh vegetables according to the season. Now don’t miss an opportunity to cook with fresh pumpkins and other winter squashes.

(more…)

Organic apple cider vinegar and organic honey are two the most important, natural products offered by Nature for very specific reasons. These great healing agents with both scientific proof and centuries of folk medicine supporting their use, are available everywhere and cost only pennies per day.

Both nourishing foods have a long shelf life, if properly stored; are safe, especially when compared to the risk you take with prescription drugs provoking serious side effects. Considering these facts, organic apple cider vinegar and organic honey are your buddies, and can help to resolve seemingly unrelated health problems.  So, if you want to stay healthy, start with cleaning up your body from toxins transfered from the  foods you consumed during a previous day.

When you wake up in the morning,

• warm up a glass of spring water,
• add one teaspoon organic  apple cider vinegar,
• add one teaspoon organic honey,
• mix all three ingredients and drink it,
• do it every day before breakfast.

Watch this video. It will help you to start on a right path.

(more…)

There is always a need for new, tempting salad recipes, especially during holidays when you want to surprise your family and guests with healthy, delicious meals. Fresh summer salad is a most versatile dish.

• It can be a centerpiece of the most sophisticated holiday lunch or dinner
• It can be served as a first course
• It can accompany a principal dish
• It can be a main course
• It can make a colorful point to any meal

Here are my family recipes of fresh, appetizing summer salads with health-giving qualities. Each is nutritious,  quick and easy to prepare. These original dishes with Eastern European flair can suit the busy women, Moms, cooks who like to save time, and with a little effort create natural meals for all tastes and occasions.

Summer Rainbow Salad

1 red onion, chopped; Capcicums: 1 large red bell pepper, chopped; 1 large orange bell pepper, chopped; 1 large yellow bell pepper, chopped; 2-3 medium size tomatoes, chopped; 2-3 cucumbers, skinned and cut thin,; 1 tablespoon Italian parsley; 1 tablespoon dill; 2 tablespoons cold pressed olive oil, 1 lemon, squeezed, sea salt.

Put all prepared vegetables and herbs in a big glass bowl. Your salad looks colorful and joyful. Serve: 4-6 people. Preparation time: 15 minutes. 

 Add a pinch of sea salt and pour your homemade olive-lemon dressing on a top.  You can use this natural dressing for almost all salads you make.   

Brassica Salad

Cabbage is the main ingredient in this salad. In our family we gave it a fancy name, Brassica because it comes from the Latin name Brassica oleracea for cabbage.  This nutritious vegetable was cultivated in the West since at least 400 B.C. Since Dioscorides’ time cabbage was used in salads, as a digestive remedy, a joint tonic, and for fevers and skin problems. Over-indulgent Romans used to eat raw cabbage to prevent drunkenness.

1 lb (500 g) cabbage, chopped; 1 lb (500 g) carrots, peeled; 1 big green Granny Smith apple, chopped; a bunch of fresh green onions, cut small, Italian parsley and dill, sea salt.

Coarsely grate carrots into a bowl, add cabbage, green apple, green onions, parsley and dill. Pour olive-lemon dressing over vegetable and  mix well. Your tasteful, natural medicinal salad is ready to serve 4-6 people. Preparation time: 15 minutes.

Have a healthy, happy, safe and joyful Independence Day Weekend!

CHEERS!

Source: Photos of Summer Rainbow Salad and Brassica Salad, and recipes by Svetlana Konnikova. Copyright 2009.

by Svetlana Konnikova

Avocado is a vegetable fruit or a New World fruit native to Mexico. It has been known as butter pear because of its consistency, but in Spain it got the name–alligator pear, maybe because of its knobbly skin reminding an alligator’s leathery skin. Even it was discovered by Old World explorers long ago, it did not become a popular food in Europe until 1950s. But farmers in California started to grow avocados in the middle of the nineteeth century. The climate there is beneficial to do that, but the main reason to grow these unusual superfoods was in its rather remarkable properties.

The avocado is nutritious fruit, high in protein and carbohydrate, rich in potassium, Vitamin C, B, and E. It is one of the few fruits containing fat in form of oils, particularly vitamin E. It means that the avocado is not only useful as food, but it is good for our hair and skin. These facts were well known to the Aztecs and Incas a thousand years ago.

Avocado is a great product for babies because of its valuable vitamin and protein content. Kids love it, if it’s prepared right. Here are my recipes:

(more…)

 by Svetlana Konnikova  

For many centuries humans have developed a close contact with the world of plants, but even so we have strayed far from Mother Nature. Increasingly, as time goes by, we lose this valuable connection with the perfect world of trees and herbs. More and more our precious rain forests with their abundance of healing plants are being destroyed by the bulldozer’s bite. Each day we inhale the toxic fumes of gasoline and other chemicals and the living aromas of natural plants disappear from our homes in exchange for the so-called beauty of silk flowers.                                                        

Less and less we breathe in the marvelous natural scents of trees, earth, and snow that bring us health and energy. When I was a little girl, we always had plants, such as eucalyptus, or a branch of a coniferous tree in our home. Near our house grew a proud pine which we knew always gave us energy and oxygen. In our garden Grandma cultivated mint and lavender; the modest, but fragrant chamonile; oregano; and King’s clover or thyme. She sewed by hand small pretty cotton sachets, which she stuffed with fresh herbs and hung in our closets and on nails throughout our house. They emitted an intense aroma that made us feel as if we had come to change our clothes in a fragrant garden.

Now we have a great solution to get close to nature: Stream Garden.  Read my next post about it. You’ll learn how to start a real, green garden in your home or in your office. You can plant there so many herbs, berries, fruits and vegetables and save lots of money on expensive organics, start eating healthier, and go green with your environment.  Look at these pictures of the garden. Don’t you want to have the same or even better?!   

 Source: Mama’s Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living by Svetlana Konnikova, page 211. Aurora Publishers

Photos: Tiny Daffodills by Petr Kratochvil; Promenade in the Forest by Peter Griffin