NOTE: We never trade products for mentions in our blogs or our published magazine. We do receive free samples and will mention them only if we like the product or find it especially effective. 

A few weeks ago the employees in our office were saddened to hear that the little granddaughter of one of our co-workers had been badly burned in an accidental encounter with a teapot. The toddler had pulled on a tea towel hanging down from the kitchen cabinet and part of the tea pot, which had just been filled with boiling water, was resting on the towel. The hot water went down the little girl’s back, giving her second degree burns on most of her scalp, back and shoulders.

After spending time in the burn unit, she came home and underwent a couple more weeks of unpleasant recuperation. By this time, the open wounds had healed over and I knew it was time for our herbal secret arsenal. I contacted one of my friends, Gayle Bousman, who is an herbalist in the Ozarks and sells an amazing salve she creates on her farm in Missouri, Evening Shade Farms. Though it’s sold as a facial cream, thanks to FDA regulations that prevent it from being sold with any medical claims, Gayle’s Elder Cream is an amazing salve for healing skin that’s been burned or damaged. I used some when I had surgery on my hand and my doctor was simply amazed at the near-disappearance of the scar by my second follow-up visit. Gayle has given the cream to friends who’ve been treated for breast cancer and it helps heal up any skin damage due to radiation burns.

The bark of the elder tree, known for its skin healing properties,
is the main ingredient in Gayle’s Elder Cream.
Photo by Kpjas/Courtesy Flickr

I also called our friend Virginia DeSimone at derma e and asked what she could suggest. She overnighted a jar of derma e’s Cracked Skin Relief Crème and Scar Gel. Derma e is one of the companies whose products I use regularly and in whom I’ve never been disappointed. The quality of ingredients is superb and their formulations are thoughtfully done and actually accomplish what the company claims (not all that common in today’s market, sadly).

I knew that I could recommend any of these products for use on the baby’s scars because I trust the companies and products themselves. And I am so thrilled to report that Kelly, our co-worker, reported enthusiastically on Monday that she thinks the way her granddaughter’s scars are healing is just about miraculous.

I love hearing stories like this. Once again, we find in the plant world the stuff of miracles—or at least of dramatic healing with no side effects or additional pain.

Many, many thanks to Gayle and to Virginia for their kind contributions to the healing of a part of our office family.

What have you used for healing of scars and burns? And why aren’t these salves and creams used in every burn unit in the country?

I could barely believe my eyes yesterday when I opened the latest from Consumer Reports—a source I usually trust—to read an article about dietary supplements. Although the article did have some good information, it seemed to me to be poorly researched and mostly to have missed the mark. (Report: Dietary Supplements Pose Health Risks) 

Anyone who pays attention knows there are some very bad players in this industry (And if you don't know that, I worry about what you might be putting in your body). The whole issue of quality is part of what complicates our job so much here at The Herb Companion. I’d love to wholeheartedly endorse any plant medicine that comes down the pike, but that would be foolish and wrong. Some companies use the wrong ingredients, some don’t use enough, some don’t use the correct variety of an herb that can be healing if you use A, and strictly ornamental if you use variety B. (Echinacea is one very common example.) And don’t even get me started on the medicines and supplements that come to us from China. Remember melamine in infant formula, anyone?

Some companies use the wrong variety of echinacea in their dietary supplements,
but that doesn't mean that all echinacea is ineffective for immune-boosting.
Photo by Peter Rosbjerg/Courtesy of Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterrosbjerg/

So those of us who care about plant medicines also care about the regulatory environment. If I had my way, we’d follow Germany’s lead and set up our own version of their Commission E to test and regulate herbal medicine. I certainly wouldn’t follow the lead of the FDA, which these days routinely rushes approval of pharmaceutical drugs that later prove to be costly and even deadly failures. Vioxx, anyone? Oopsie!

I wish medical doctors could be relied on to give us accurate information about pharmaceutical drugs and also about plant medicines, so we could work in partnership with well-educated health-care practitioners to choose what's best in each situation according to what's best for our individual bodies and life situations. Sadly, that is not the case. A handful of medical doctors take the time and trouble to sort these issues out, but far more are as dismissive as this Consumer Reports article—and as poorly informed.

I’m not anti-regulation by any means. I’m just against testing and regulation that’s paid for by very large corporations with a very large stake in their drugs being pre-approved while inexpensive, nature-based remedies are marginalized or even banned. We just have to find a better way than this.

Here’s what the Natural Products Association had to say about the article:

NPA Calls Consumer Reports Article ‘An Attack on Supplements’

Story’s data are questionable

The Natural Products Association (NPA) has issued the following statement concerning the September 2010 issue of Consumer Reports magazine:

• The latest edition of Consumer Reports is an attack on dietary supplements -- including a call for additional regulation of the industry -- that presents a far from balanced and accurate representation of the industry or the laws that regulate it.

• For example, a number of the mentioned products are actually illegal drugs – not supplements, and only available from those violating the laws. (See: FDA: Dietary Supplement Alerts and Safety Information)

• The NPA questions the data Consumer Reports are using to suggest the dietary supplement industry suffers from inadequate quality controls. In actuality, evidence from the government suggests the contrary. Earlier this year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) tested a number of products finding only trace amounts of contaminants, leading the FDA to testify before Congress that “we do not believe these levels represent a significant risk to health.” It is curious that Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports and also a witness at that hearing, did not mention this testimony in the article.

• The U.S. supplement industry has an enviable safety record, especially when compared with other FDA-regulated sectors, and the industry has supported and continues to support measures to make supplements even safer.

      + NPA supported enactment of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).

      + NPA supported enactment of the legislation creating the Adverse Event Reporting system.

      + NPA supported implementation by the Food and Drug Administration of Good Manufacturing Practices, even launching our own GMP certification program in 1999.

• NPA supports the full implementation of DSHEA - including providing additional resources for these agencies. To that end, NPA endorses S. 3414, the Dietary Supplement Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2010, introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).

I have never been able to imagine my Baby Boom age cohort happily embracing the retirement paradigm of the two or so American generations just before us. Why should we? We’ve never embraced anyone else’s paradigm a day in our lives. Why start now?

Since the late 1960s, we have been enthusiastically in the conversation of how we can live better on this earth. How can we be healthier, happier and more fulfilled human beings? Why do we have to do X, Y or Z just because that’s what everyone else is doing or, heaven forbid, what those in authority would rather we do. We’ve been questioning, inventing and making it up as we go along for the past 40+ years, and something tells me when we find ourselves actually and truly over the hill, we’ll probably just start seeing what will grow there.

Grist  magazine has a wonderful article about elderly Vietnamese gardeners in New Orleans who garden for health and profit, keeping themselves and their communities vital in the process. It provides a thoroughly desirable and useful retirement option as far as I’m concerned. I can’t imagine myself in a gated community, living for tee time and wearing plaid, but I can sure see myself growing food for my community and then teaching the young ‘uns how to cook and heal with it. I wouldn’t want to have to garden as someone else’s employee, but to be able to garden and share the products as a gift? That would work for me. (Vietnamese gardeners in New Orleans offer much food for thought via Grist.)

A Vietnamese Community Garden located in eastern New Orleans.
Photo by cracked & hooked/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crackedandhooked/

Check this article and see if you find it as inspiring as I do, and imagine a useful, playful future for all of us.

I love the surprise of finding a truly delightful restaurant when I had not even been considering food. I found one here in Washington, out on a walk with my daughter-in-law, and it was such a delight we ended up having one of our best “mother-daughter” lunches ever. Not that we have a lot of them, given that she lives on the West Coast and I’m smack-dab in the Heartland, but still…

909 Coffee & Wine is on the main drag in Burien, Washington, where my son and daughter-in-law live, and it’s one of those cozy, comfortable and utterly delicious places I could return to again and again. It doesn’t offer free wi-fi or television because it’s intended to be a place where food, wine and companionship are shared. Imagine that! It feels like a throwback to a much more easygoing, deeply real time, and as soon as Jeanna and I wandered in, I had a sense of comfort and care.

909 Coffee & Wine is on the main drag in Burien, Washington.
Photo by buriienundressedblog/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23898496@N08/

The food was perfectly prepared. I had a three-cheese ravioli that was the day’s special and I absolutely loved that, while the ravioli did have cheese as its filling, the sauce was simple and light, just a bit of olive oil, and the chef didn’t feel the need to saturate my taste buds with heavy butter and cream. Jeanna had some delicious chicken crepes with artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, ricotta and a fabulous basil-pesto cream sauce. But again, even though some cream was used in the sauce, it wasn’t heavy and screaming “We’ve got CREAM here!!!” Delicate and delicious.

The menu is full of delicious herbs, from the breakfast potatoes with red bell pepper and thyme to the fabulous-sounding dinner entrée of smoked salmon with horseradish aioli and pickled onions. That in itself is almost worth a return trip, never mind the kids.

A variety of delicious entrées fill the menu at 909 Coffee & Wine.
Photo courtesy 909 Coffee & Wine

I felt as though I were in Italy again, in one of the quiet, family-owned-and-operated bistros that are tucked away throughout the country. The love of ingredients and respect for the customer are so apparent, and from start to finish the experience is pleasant and fulfilling. I think we Americans would have a lot fewer problems with weight and poor health if we could enjoy more of these leisurely, lovely meals, thoughtfully prepared and enjoyed in pleasant company.

I am SO coming back to this lovely place. If the kids play their cards right, I might even bring them along.

This is a totally subjective list—let’s just get that out of the way at the outset. However, these are the herbs that I simply have trouble envisioning any kitchen garden living without. Feel free to correct and tweak my list, and to add recipes of your own (particularly for tarragon, my favorite, for which I have oddly few recipes). Here’s the list:

1. Basil: Is there a better flavor in the summer than fresh basil, tomato slices, fresh mozzarella and basil leaves, drizzled with a bit of balsamic vinegar? I can’t imagine it. And for sheer beauty and generosity, basil has to rank at the top of any gardener’s list. Even in my earliest, dumbest gardening days, I never killed a basil—which tells me it’s one fabulous, hearty plant. I know people can live without pesto, but really. What kind of life is that? Genovese remains my favorite variety, although I also love growing a purple basil (‘Opal’ or ‘Purple ruffles’), just because they’re so pretty. I haven’t grown lemon basil, but might try that this year if I get myself together to do a container garden.

2. Dill: The unmitigated joy of dill—other than the fact that it’s this year’s Herb of the Year—rests in its beauty, aroma, flavor and gardener-friendly growing habits. As Susan Belsinger wrote in her article “2010 Herb of the Year: Dill”, dill is “stalwart and accommodating all year.” You can plant it in the early spring with your first lettuces, and watch it bloom into beautiful umbrellas at summer’s end. And if you leave them be, those seed heads seem perfectly designed to catch the first snows of winter and arrange themselves artfully even after every green, growing thing has turned brown and called it a wrap.

3. French Tarragon: I don’t know anyone nuttier for French tarragon than I am. My friend, Cheryl Long, editor in chief over at Mother Earth News, is my tarragon pusher. I asked her eagerly last week if hers had started greening up yet. She said No, but she still had some dried from last year. The next morning, I found on my desk a bagful of the sweet-smelling stuff and I could have just buried my head in it then and there. Pure deliciousness. The odd thing is, I don’t like licorice at all, and tarragon has a little licorice-y under-flavor. But tarragon is one of those aromas that just make me swoon. Oddly, I have only two favorite recipes with it—Tarragon Chicken and Tarragon Vinegar. So if you have suggestions, I’m open.

A word of caution, however: Some nurseries don’t know the distinction between French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus L.) and Russian tarragon (A. dracunculoides L.), a weedy and not wonderful plant with a resin-y flavor. You need to start French tarragon from cuttings or live plants, as it’s very difficult (maybe impossible?) to start from seed. If you’ve tasted tarragon that isn’t happiness in your mouth, my bet is that you got Russian rather than French. Ptooie.

This kitchen garden includes parsley, chives, lovage, fennel, dill and lots of basil.
Courtesy Flickr/Photo by Lydiat
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lydiat/

4. Thyme: What a storied history this simple survivor has. It’s found in cuisines around the world and has been a part of the human experience for thousands of years, allegedly propagated by the Romans in their march to annex the world (and maybe they got it from the Egyptians, who used it in their embalming process). Thymus vulgaris doesn’t flop over if it’s somewhat neglected. It likes growing in sunny, well-drained and even somewhat inhospitable locations and tastes like nothing else in the world. It likes to stew a bit before it lets go of its flavor, so, unlike many herbs, it’s OK to throw it in at the beginning of a soup rather than adding it as a last flourish. It also has sweet little flowers that make me happy. 

5. Marjoram: I prefer marjoram (Origanum majorana, Lamiaceae) to its stronger flavored cousin, oregano. It is another Mediterranean herb that loves sun and well-drained soil. It isn’t a beautiful plant like the showy basil and dill, but so tasty.

6. Garlic: I have to admit, I have never grown garlic myself. There you have it. However, many of my friends grow garlic and I will always take as much as I can get because I try to eat some garlic every day. I simply cannot imagine life without garlic.

7. Onion: Ditto onion, although I have grown onions from time to time. How can one cook anything savory without onion? I understand (somewhat, but not really) objections to the aroma of raw onions on one’s breath, but this is why God gave us mint. And I completely believe what my Grandmother Whetstone said when she used to eat onion sandwiches (between slices of Wonder Bread!) that you’ll never have colds if you eat plenty of onion. This could be because no one will get close enough to transmit the viruses (see “breath” above). Still, life without onions would be sad indeed.

8. Sage: Since I first discovered gnocchi in sage and browned butter sauce, I have been a big sage fan. It always reminds me of Thanksgiving because my mother made the best cornbread stuffing in the world and what set it apart from every other Southern cook whose stuffing I’ve tasted is that she really saged it up. But it was the gnocchi that really made me a sage fan.

Extra points: Pineapple sage. This is another one that I could just sit and smell all day. I have no idea why some aromas land harder in my psyche than others, but pineapple sage is one I’m completely crazy for.  I’m afraid I haven’t been very inventive with it—just use it in fruit salads, in vanilla yoghurt or on baked chicken. Anyone else have a better idea?

9. Flat Parsley: I hadn’t really developed a passion for flat parsley until I went to Italy a couple of years ago and found it in most of the dishes I really loved. Then I came back to the states, googled it and discovered how incredibly healthy it is. Now, my pasta in the summertime is more an excuse to serve parsley than a reason to eat noodles. I could eat flat parsley every single day. (Not so much the curly variety, for some reason.)

10. Ginger: Again, confession time: I have never grown my own ginger. I also have never turned it down when someone offered it to me. It is a beautiful plant and worth having around for no other reason than that. But it also is a medicinal and flavor powerhouse, able to perk up the taste buds, settle the stomach, lower cholesterol and ease the pain of arthritis, among multiple other uses. It, along with garlic, is one of my desert-island plants.

I could go on and on. Limiting myself to 10 is a challenge, and I find that I’m somewhat promiscuous where herbs are concerned: I tend to love the one I’m with, and find my affections quickly swayed by a whiff of something new or unusual. But at the very least, these 10 are the ones … no, wait … I left out lemon balm. And mint. And …

OK, maybe the top 20 herbs every gardener shouldn’t be without …

Check out my latest radio segment on Mother Earth News Radio with Andrea Ridout and Dan Lepinski.

Finish off your day with a warm cup of tea. "Chai", a traditional mix of dark black tea, indian spices and milk, means tea in much of the world. I share a bit of its history including hints for making the perfect cup. 

Interested in more chai recipes? Read our January 2010 article "Chai Times." We have recipes for Gentle Green Chai, Tulsi Chai and Basic Black Chai. 

Tune into Mother Earth News Radio every Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. Central Time nationally on The USA Radio Network, or subscribe to podcasts via iTunes.  

Photograpy by Howard Lee Puckett

Check out my latest radio segment on Mother Earth News Radio with Andrea Ridout and Dan Lepinski.

I offer instructions on how to make a very basic pasta. It is so simple—I don't think there is anything that tastes better than a bowl of freshly made noodles, a little butter, olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs. Listen to the segment to discover which two readily available ingredients you need to make my simple pasta recipe.

Interested in more pasta recipes? Read our March 2010 article "Homemade, Herbal Pasta Party," including our cover recipe for Chocolate Dessert Ravioli. 

Tune into Mother Earth News Radio every Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. Central Time nationally on The USA Radio Network, or subscribe to podcasts via iTunes.