Gardening Archives - Essentrics with Susan

Fasting–Friend or Foe?

From WebMD to Susun Weed, clinical herbalist for over half a century, many of my respected resources say extensive fasting has many concerns–even dangers. Since the recent trend is to use fasting and “cleanses” as a weight-loss tool, let’s address that first. Is it really a helpful ‘jumpstart’ to rebalancing your weight–and keeping those extra…

Immune-Supporting Herbs

My last post included the Three Musketeers for immune function from a food point of view; let’s focus today on two herbs well known for immune support. One you may be unfamiliar with is astragalus root (astragalus propinquus) which looks like a tongue depressor when you buy it at the health food store. It’s been…

Service Berries

Service berries were something I knew nothing about, until moving to Steamboat Springs about 11 years ago. Since my discovery, it’s been an August goal to collect some to enjoy in a variety of ways. They look and taste a lot like a blueberry, though slightly less sweet and can be identified by a little…

California Poppy – to relax and more

Greetings! I’ve been fascinated lately with using relaxation to strengthen through Essentrics, which also made me think about the many medicinal properties of this beautiful plant, California Poppy, aka Eschscholizia californica L. In addition to helping us relax, this beautiful plant is also very helpful in assistance with: Circulation, helping to relieve high…

Remember…Rosemary and her Many Benefits!

Summer is a great time to remind you about the many benefits of rosemary, botanical name: Rosmarinus officinalis With Mediterranean origins, the woodsy-citrus-like fragrance of rosemary has added beauty to gardens, flavor to kitchens, and a great remedy in apothecaries throughout the world. Related to mint and resembling lavender, rosemary has many medicinal uses, in…

Wise words from Cascade Anderson Gellar

I’ve recently come across some wise words from my mentor and friend, Cascade Anderson Gellar who passed way too soon…I miss her and treasure her many lessons at many herbal medicine conferences. “Nature knows ahead what sickness there will be. What is abnormally abundant is what is coming.” “We need to wildcraft in order to…

Springtime – All the Time?

If you’re still not sure about global warming, you should have been in Steamboat this winter. As my husband and I were leaving the ‘Boat to join his family in San Antonio for Thanksgiving, we almost cried thinking about missing a potentially record opening day after a big dump. We love our ‘jobs’ (Webb is…

Fall Transitions

I love fall. My birthday is in the fall, Thanksgiving–my favorite holiday–is in the fall. I love the excessive beauty just before the frost, and end-of-season tomatoes allowed to ripen in a brown paper bag. Or cooked up as a delicious treat: Fried Green Tomatoes. [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid”…

Summer shifting into Fall

I love this time of year when the Reds come out just a little bit here in Colorado, and more so in Vermont where we are looking forward to visiting later this fall. This is part of what gives our little patio in downtown Steamboat some privacy But I’m still happily harvesting tomatoes from the…

First tomato of the season!

Here is my dear husband, Webb, who just plucked the season’s first tomato! Not bad for a growing season of only 59 days. ;-). I think the reason we get lucky with tomatoes is our small garden is in between two concrete driveways–We will use whatever we can to grow our own food in this…