How did you come to know and love tea?

I grew up with a mom who always created an herb garden wherever she has lived and helped me develop a taste for herbal brews early on starting with spearmint sun tea and catnip.I learned so much about tea in the town I lived for medical school – Portland, Oregon. They actually have tea shops and tea shops within Chinese gardens. My Chinese Medicine teachers always packed their traveling suitcases with tea and spices. The ah too true joke with them is that packaged teas that we drink in this country are the sweepings off the factory floors from their country. I choose bulk tea from high quality vendors and use a tea pot with strainer or french press.  I add hot water until the liquid is near to colorless. Any extra tea can be stored in the fridge for 3-4 days.

What is your favorite tea or tea blend for Winter?
My go to winter tea is chai or a spiced bone broth

Click to learn how to free the medicine in leaves, roots, barks and berries in this week’s Cultivating Wellness blog http://drsaritaelizabeth.com/brewing-teas-free-their-medi…/

Below is an easy Bone Broth preparation for you to enjoy.

Simple Slow Cooker Bone Broth

Crockpot, Pruning shears, Ladle, Skimmer, Mesh strainer, Freezer containers

Instructions

Fill crockpot ¾ of the way full with bones. Add dried spices/herbs. Add salt/seaweed. Add vinegar/lemon juice. Add just enough filtered water to cover the bones. Cook on low 18-72 hours

Add vegetables, skins/ends/stems at any time during the cooking process. Skim fat/gelatin and retain for later use. Fill containers with broth. Freeze for later use.

Soup = cooking liquid for gains, vegetable simmers, tea, gravy

Five Element Analysis

Soups, especially broths are Water Element nourishment. Each type bone directs the energy to more specific Elements

Pork, Deer, Turkey or Duck to Water to nourish the Kidney, Bladder & Adrenals

Chicken to Wood to nourish Liver & Gallbladder

Beef to Earth (and Water) to nourish Stomach, Spleen & Pancreas as well as Kidney, Bladder & Adrenals

Base for 7 soups:

Onions: sweet, white or yellow – 7 medium

Garlic: 2-3 heads

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Alternate base:

Bone broth, Vegetable stock. favorite tea bags: chai, ginger, etc

7 days of soup (Fresh Vegetables)

Lung/Large Intestine

• 1/2 head Cauliflower
• 1/2 head Green Cabbage

Stomach/Spleen

• one large Butternut Squash

Heart/Small Intestine

• bunch Asparagus
• 5 Turnips

Bladder/Kidney

• 1 cup Lentil
• 1 bunch Cilantro

Gallbladder/Liver

• 3-5 Parsnips 
• 3-5 Beets 

Triple burner/ Pericardium

• 1 large bunch Kale, Spinach or Chard

Lung/Large Intestine

• 5 Carrots
• 2 Leeks
• knob Ginger

Liver/Gallbladder 

• 3-5 Parsnips 
• 3-5 Beets 

Spices:

Sea Salt, pepper, chili, cardamon, rosemary, nutmeg, etc

Optional toppings: miso, almonds, ground flax seeds

Earth: Limit raw foods 

To bring balance and wellness to the organs ruled and expressed by the Earth Element, we focus on how to optimize digestion and personalize nutrition, regulate blood sugar and strengthen the muscles during Late Summer as well as the 18 days around each equinox & solstice.

I am a huge fan of fresh food.  I am more skilled at chopping than cooking. I love to chop, so food prep is super fun for me and therefore a strength. I am also aware that food is freshest at soon as I harvest it from the yard, bring it home from the market or buy it from the grocery store. Food prep is critical to those of us that have day after day commitments.  I highly encourage you to chop and blanch as soon as fresh food enters your kitchen.

But……the next step isn’t my gift: cooking. I have, however, for the sake of my digestive system and nutrition learned some short cuts that allow me to care for my precious body.  I hope these tips help you too!

1. Keep it simple
2. Create a fun atmosphere in my kitchen: play some tunes, diffuse essential oils
3. Keep glass storage containers & re-use canning jars for stackable storage
4. Invite the kids to help
5. Consider a mono meal – yup, only green beans for lunch (mono) or green beans with toasted sesame seeds (mono-ish)
6. Cook in bulk & freeze individual meals
   

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Cook or no?

Look in the mirror.  If your tongue is larger or thicker than average, has tooth imprints, and a thick white coat, you have dampness.  Raw foods will generate more dampness. Dampness weakens the body’s ability to digest. Raw foods add cold to the nature of the food. If however, you look in the mirror at your tongue and see a thin, red, dry tongue.  You have the digestive fire to cook raw foods in your digestive center. Enjoy! 

Blanch: key to time management. Try blanching an entire head of broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts for a couple of minutes (retain the bright color). Strain. Cool. Package. Ready to roast, bake or stir fry!

Steam: adds moisture to nature of the food. Check out this chart for steam times of many vegetables.  I also steam tofu, tempeh or reheat protein. 

Pressure Cook: fantastic quick method for grains and legumes. Add broth to increase protein & flavor. Soak overnight in the stainless instant pot vessel to optimize nutrition and denature those pesky lectins.

Stir fry: dries the nature of the food. Try cooking vegetables separately to retain the best flavor. Ginger and garlic are mainstay spices.

Spices: warming and aromatic herbs and spices help to balance the nature of foods – allowing us to personalize our nutrition. For example, ginger and cardamom reduce damp and cold. 

I leave you with two very easy ways to put these tips to work for you right away:

Autumn Bake: Rosemary Sweet Potatoes Recipe Here

Very Simple Soups: Soup Cleanse Recipes Here

I simplify my personal meals during this mini season between gatherings, events and celebrations.  Simple whole food sides are a form of self love and sometimes a full mono meal.

I bring a simple, whole foods dishes to gatherings.  They are time savers, stress reducers and super foods! Believe it or not, it starts a lot of conversations. One of my all time favorites is Roasted Rosemary Sweet Potatoes. 

ONLY 2 main ingredients

1. Roasted Rosemary Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small branch fresh rosemary
• 3-4 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed and rough chopped with skins on
• Chunky sea salt, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Combine oil and chopped, crushed rosemary leaves in a small bowl. Pour 2 tablespoons of rosemary oil mixture in the bottom of a 2-quart covered baking dish. Drizzle the remaining rosemary oil on the top. Toss in dish. Season generously with salt.
3. Roast for 1 hour, covered, until potatoes are tender (test with fork). Increase oven heat to 450 degrees F. Remove cover and roast another 10-15 minutes, until tops of potatoes are browned and crisp.

WHOLE FOODS SUPPORT

When I work with my patients, we co-create wellness plans. We are dynamic and our needs change as we change. These are best modified every season. I spoke with one of  my patients this week regarding her prescription.  She was astonished that her prescription provided such an immediate change in her energy levels.  What was it? A whole foods multi-vitamin. 
She was curious if they also made them for men for her husband. Yes! They do and the kids.  All supplements are not created equal. My professional Fullscript pharmacy provides practitioner grade, highly vetted support direct to your door.
Click on the image below to access the full catalog via my Fullscript account. 
Search, click and purchase. 

Clicking the grey ‘follow’ envelope above will deliver weekly health and wellness tips to your inbox via our weekly cultivating wellness blog.

We are dynamic beings.  We change.  We change under influences such as the seasons, life situation, and our current physical, mental, emotional and spiritual states and even the aging process.  Typically we have main constitution element and a secondary constitutional  (which may be the same or different as the main element). As we become more and more self aware and heal our imbalances, we will manifest and move more freely from one elemental state to the next during the natural generative cycle represented by the seasons.  Come back and take our quiz again in another iteration of yourself!

The 12/12 full moon illuminated our final earth transition phase for the year.  In Traditional Chinese Medicine the transitional time between the changing of the seasons, is referred to as the ‘Doyo’. Each season corresponds to a specific element and the seasonal transition periods relate to Earth element(click to read Return to the Earth post). As we approach the Winter Solstice (December 21), we are currently in the transitional period between Autumn to Winter from the end of Metal to the start of Water.

Earth element is the transitional time between the seasons.

The Earth element is associated with times of change throughout the year, which happen between each of the seasons around the two solstices and the two equinoxes.  Solstices and equinoxes are astronomical event of the Sun reaching its highest position in the sky as viewed from the North or South Pole, one day to mark the onset of the winter season and one day to mark the onset of the summer season of 72 days each . On these days the tilt of the axis of the Earth (with respect to the Sun) is the maximum at 23° 26′. A transition phases begin about 7 days before each solstice and equinox and continue for about 7 days after, which constitute an approximate three-week period of adjustment between the seasons. Totaling 72 days, the Doyo, or Earth, is its own “mini-season”. It is a time of transformation and balancing, as well as a time of fluctuating temperature and weather before completely transitioning to the next season. It is common for people to get sick or have health complications during these transitional periods. It presents an opportunity for us to fortify our own internal Earth, to claim or reclaim our central and rightful position between heaven and Earth, and to allow the proper flow of energy (qi) and healing light through us.

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HERBAL INFUSED VINEGARS starring pepper sauce on greens!

Vinegar is a health tonic with multiple medical uses.

For centuries, healers and households relied on vinegars to both preserve foods and supplement diet and medicines.  Vinegar is a household staple as a health tonic with multiple medical uses. It is used as a treatment for allergies, flu, sore throat, acid reflux, gout, and other ailments. Some of the more common uses include:

Antiseptic

Vinegar is an antiseptic that is used to treat a variety of infectious and noninfectious conditions including the treatment of boils, acne, and minor cuts, scrapes and burns. Since it is antibacterial and antifungal, taking apple cider vinegar orally or applying it to your skin topically can help to stop the growth of a yeast infection or athlete’s foot. Raw vinegar has a probiotic effect and our skin has its own mircobiome. A second interesting research link here!

Supplements

Apple cider provides supplemental minerals including potassium, calcium, copper and iron. One of the benefits of taking apple cider vinegar, as an iron supplemental is that unlike cooked red meats, vinegar contains no cholesterol, sodium, or saturated fats.

Diabetes

Studies indicate that regular vinegar consumption may help control diabetes as well as decrease body mass and triglyceride levels. See links below.

diabetes control:

Small study with positive morning fasting levels after nighttime use of ACV

ACV Increases Insulin-Stimulated Glucose Uptake with Type 2 Diabetes

body fat and triglycerides:

Vinegar intake reduces body weight, body fat & triglycerides obese subjects

Arthritis

Apple cider vinegar may help in the treatment of arthritis, particularly gout. You can try mixing a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar with a teaspoon of honey and take three times a day and notice. This mix of apple cider vinegar and honey can break up the deposits of uric acid crystals that form between the joints and in muscles, which cause rheumatism. Taken over a long period of time, this mixture may also help to dissolve bone spurs. Most gout can be managed with reduction of foods that are high in purines like seafood, wild game, organ meats, red meat and foods that increase uric acid concentration like sugar, alcoholic beverages (particularly beer), fruit juices and fructose sweetened beverages.  The exception being the amazing tart cherry, which can actually lower serum uric acids and offer prevention from gout flares.

Indigestion/Heartburn

Vinegar is commonly used to treat indigestion and heartburn. Because the human body typically produce less hydrochloric acid as it ages, the symptoms of too little acid in the stomach can result in the symptoms which appear the same as too high of acid levels. As such, vinegar can aid digestion of food and relieve the painful symptoms of heartburn and indigestion.

Sore Throat

For the treatment of a sore throat, mix a tablespoon of vinegar with 8 ounces of warm water. Gargle this mixture every hour before being swallowed. Also, to break up mucus in the throat associated with cold and sore throat, swallow one tablespoon of equal parts vinegar and raw honey. This treatment is not for infants as their immune systems are developing and raw honey may (very rarely) contain bacterial spores that cause botulism.

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) has become a popular natural remedy during the past few decades. Numerous online articles are to be found that praise ACV as a treatment for a wide range of health conditions including: acid reflux, allergies, strep throat, high blood pressure, common cold, diabetes, obesity, PMS and more.

Natural ACV is brownish in color and is murky with cob-web-like substances that is called the “mother”. The “mother” in ACV is a complex structure of beneficial acids that have great health benefits. The “mother” in organic, unfiltered ACV is rich in proteins, enzymes, antioxidants and beneficial bacteria. Filtered ACV lacks the “mother” and also lacks the health benefits of natural ACV with “mother”.

The most common vinegar on the market is heated through pasteurization. It appears clear and looks like water. It tastes like vinegar but has no health value as it does not contain the nutritional and health values of natural, apple cider vinegar. Pasteurized apple cider vinegar doesn’t have the same benefits as raw apple cider vinegar. Valuable vitamins, probiotics, and enzymes are destroyed by the heating process. Also be aware that many “apple cider vinegars” on the market, are nothing but distilled, white vinegar with added flavors and colors. It is not the same as natural, unfiltered ACV with the “mother”. The distilled, clear vinegar is excellent non-toxic cleaner for your kitchen and home, particularly fabulous for streak free windows and mirrors!

GREENS!

Did I mention that we Southerner’s love our greens? Well it’s the time of year to plant seeds for a fall crop. Fall gardens in the South are often preferred because we don’t have the daily struggle of weeds, bugs, and heat. Try a mix of green seeds including rape, kale, turnip, mustard, swiss chard and collards. Broadcasting with radish seeds deters the bugs! They all grow well through the fall and into the winter here in our temperate planting zone. With increased attention to health benefits of kale, it has become a more important cash crop and increasing levels of pesticides on its green leaves have, sadly, also increased.  It is one of the ‘dirty dozen’.  along with peppers. So it is best to grow your own or purchase organic kale and peppers whenever possible.  Also check out the ‘clean fifteen’ vegetables as ranked yearly by the Environmental Working Group.

This PDF: Garden to Table: Leafy Greens  from NDSU Extension Service offers delicious recipes, crop descriptions and images, crop, soil and pest information.  I highly recommend that you click and enjoy!! You will definitely be inspired and well informed to give seeding a fall crop a go.

Southern pepper sauce on greens is a tradition, and many people take pride in their pepper sauces and share with friends and family. This wise combination actually increases the bioavailabity of the nutrients in the greens. Harvest those peppers left in your summer garden, place them in a pretty bottle or jar, add hot vinegar, and infuse. Homemade kitchen goods make great holiday and just-for-the-heck-of-it gifts!

ACV in Traditional Chinese Medicine

From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, vinegar is both sour and bitter and works on the liver system to reduce accumulations of stagnant bile, fat, and toxicity. In contrast, lemon juice also helps the liver but it has a more cooling effect. The warming nature of vinegar helps with the all too common American diet of ‘cold’/yin beverages such as iced drinks, alcohol, and caffeine. ACV’s sour properties stimulate digestion and help to break-down and absorb nutrients including minerals and alkaloids that are often harder to digest. In TCM, vinegar helps to circulate and dry out the “damp” conditions in the body that present as symptoms of a feeling of heaviness, swelling or water retention, distended/bloated abdomen, excess mucus, nodular masses/acne, sluggish energy, inflammation, and weight gain. For nausea and depression, add 1 tsp raw honey (not for infants) into your lemon ACV water. In addition to ACV stimulating the digestive system, it has a draining effect that is similar to an expectorant. For these reasons, ACV is used to clear or cleanse and reduce cholesterol. ACV, infused with a variety of herbs or just on its own, is used as a general preventative.

In addition to being sour, vinegar is also bitter from an energetic perspective of the properties of vinegar, and not necessarily its actual flavor. According to Chinese medicine, rice vinegar is bitter, sour and warm. The Nei Jing states that when bitter and sour come together, the collective function is to drain. Taken as a whole, therefore, vinegar warms and drains, and this explains most of its functions in Chinese medicine and food therapy.

1. Vinegar stimulates the blood, dispels blood stasis, and stops pain. In addition to taking internally, vinegar applied externally can treat external forms of blood stasis. Used alone or formed into a paste with da huang powder, it can help with the early stages of boils. This same formula can be used as a salve for first-degree and second-degree burns. Plain vinegar wash helps to heal bruises and contusions due to external trauma. As a mouthwash, vinegar can relieve toothache pain. 
2. Vinegar supports the liver, regulates qi, and moves stagnation. Pre-cooking in vinegar enhances the qi-regulating and pain-reducing properties of herbs such as xiang fu, qing pi and xiao hui xiang. Combined with cooling herbs, the draining properties of vinegar can be used to treat headaches due to liver fire or ascending liver yang.
3. Vinegar detoxifies the body. Vinegar can be used as a topical wash to prevent insect bites, or as a treatment for insect bites. Boiled vinegar may even clear toxins from the air and prevent colds and flu.
4. Miscellaneous uses: Diluted in water, vinegar relieves the symptoms of a hangover from excessive alcohol consumption. Patients with blood stasis, qi stagnation or liver yang rising should take a little more vinegar in their diet. One sign that your liver qi may be stagnated is lack of appetite in the morning after waking. Consider drinking vinegar through a straw to reduce contact with tooth enamel because of the erosive nature of vinegar.
   

“Vinegar is warming. It creates a temporary warming circulation of energy (qi) in the body, and removes stagnant blood. It can quickly alter emotional stagnation as well, especially in children— bad moods will usually disappear a few moments after taking or eating something with high quality unpasteurized vinegar.”

– Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition

ACV in Ayruveda

In Ayurvedic practice, vinegars, and ACV in particular, is considered rajasic, which means that it contains loads of Pitta or Pitta-stimulating properties. Rajasic foods and medicines are beneficial in small doses to stimulate digestion and heat-up or fire-up the body’s systems. Rajasic foods stimulate the fire element, outward motion, creativity, aggression, and passion. Common rajasic foods include chili peppers and garlic. As a Pitta-increasing food or medicine, ACV helps get the digestive system moving and stimulates the liver and gallbladder, increasing the digestive system’s fire and ability to break-down foods.

SHRUBS

Drinking vinegar was popular during the 17th and 18th centuries, and it has experienced a come-back in recent years as shrubs. A shrub is a concentrated syrup that combines fruit, sweetner, and vinegar.  The vinegar preserves the fruit syrup and adds a tangy taste that, surprisingly, quenches the thirst. Shrubs are often topped with either cold water or club soda, ginger ale, or any clear soda. Combine 1 ounce of shrub with 5 to 6 ounces of water or soda over ice. In recent years, shrubs have become a popular cocktail and mocktail ingredient.

Try drinking vinegar by making your own shrub cocktail

Hot Method

Cold Method

In addition to increasingly locally grown herbs in their tea blends, Johnathan and Becca Gardner aka Tea Town Alabama offer seasonal shrubs for sale at their marketplace booths in various locations like Pepperplace in Birmingham.  They have recently relocated to Rainbow City from Tuscaloosa and you can keep up with their ongoing on Instagram and Facebook. Check out their website for connect and details.

INFUSED VINEGARS

With all of the known benefits of vinegars, it makes sense to increase its use in our daily lives. Infusing herbs and peppers with vinegar not only gives us the benefits of vinegar but also delights our taste buds with a variety of smells, tastes, and uses. It’s the end of summer and many of our gardens are full with an abundance of herbs and peppers. Infused vinegars are a wonderful way to not let our garden’s produce go to waste. Here in the South, we love our greens and a spicy, vinegar pepper sauce is a staple at many Southern tables. I’ve listed several tried and true vinegar infusion recipes. Note that vinegars are corrosive so be sure to use glass bottles with a cork, plastic or glass lids.

Method:

Heat method: heat vinegar in an enamel or glass pot until warm. Pour over chopped or crushed herbs/flowers filling container to top.  Tightly seal container and place in a sunny window for 2 weeks, gently shaking a couple of times each day. When vinegar has reached desired taste, filter through straining cloth. Pour vinegar into clean, sterile container and add fresh herbs and spices for ornament and taste.  Seal bottle.

Sun infused or diluted method: Vinegar does not have to be heated.  This is especially important for raw, fermented foods like apple cider vinegars.  A small amount of the vinegar can be heated to infuse herbs filling the remained of the bottle with raw vinegar. Place in windowsill as above.

Rose Petal Vinegar

2 c (tightly packed) fragrant organic red rose petals

1 ½ c white wine vinegar

Purple Basil Vinegar

1 c (loosely packed) chopped purple basil

1 ½ c white wine vinegar

Lavender Vinegar

3 T  lavender flowers

1 ½ c white wine vinegar

Most herbs can be used to prepare vinegar for salad dressings. White wine vinegar is more  mellow than cider vinegar.  Cider vinegar can be purchased fermented and raw. Try a combination of herbs; add a bulb of garlic and peppercorns.  Make small batches until you find your favorite.  Place finished product on a shelf away from sunlight.

Vinegar Based Dressing

Basil Salad Dressing
2-3 cloves garlic
2 T raw honey
2 cups fresh green basil leaves
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup purple basil vinegar
1 cup olive oil

Other oils and vinegars can be substituted for those listed.
Place all ingredients in a processor except the oil.  Blend until basil and garlic are finely chopped.  With processor running, slowly stream oil into mixture.  Chill a couple of hours, shake well before using.  This makes a great dip for fresh artisan bread.

Grow your Herbs for Infused Vinegar!

GROWING HERBS

Herbs should be grown in a sunny garden, well drained, with good soil.  It should not be necessary to add fertilizer.  Adding mulch (leaf, grass clippings) each season will inhibit weed growth.

Plants with a silver leaf need to be higher and drier (sage, thyme).

A spot for your herb garden should be chosen that is near your kitchen area.  Start with a few herbs that you will use and enjoy.

Annuals:  purple basil, basil, parsley (flat: flavor – curly: garnish), dill, and rose geranium

Perennials: chives (round, flat), sage, thyme, rosemary, lemon grass, lemon balm, lavender, mints, catnip, bay tree or red bay, rose geranium (can carry over and use as edible), marjoram, monarda bee balm

Make your own FIRE CIDER! 

Fire Cider is an Apple Cider Vinegar tonic infused with superfoods.

Also try a homemade oxymel for the upcoming cold and flu season.

Oxymel – from the Latin oxymeli meaning “acid and honey” has been made and used in many ways throughout the ages and it’s a recipe that can be adapted to suit your health and herbal needs. Traditionally, an Oxymel recipe is used to administer herbs that are not so pleasant to take on their own.  Additionally, some of the more pleasant herbs can become even more delightful after a bath in honey and vinegar!