I am attending The Herb Society of America's 2010 Educational Conference & Annual Meeting of Members this weekend; this year the conference is being held in beautiful Nashville, Tennessee.

Last night we gathered at Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tennessee. The plantation, which was built in 1826, features gardens filled with medicinal and culinary herbs and heirloom varieties of vegetables, fruits and ornamentals. Here are some gorgeous pictures from my experience at the conference. And this is only day one!

Photos by Allison Martin

Stay tuned for even more beautiful photos, live from Tennessee!

Although I’m not a mother, I find myself worrying about my future children’s health.

When I was a student—both elementary and high school—I ate a lot of hamburgers, crispitos, chicken fried steak and pizza. In kindergarten we took a milk break every day and I remember always choosing chocolate milk because I was never allowed to drink it at home. Throughout elementary school I never enjoyed eating my vegetables (as many kids don’t) and I remember hating the few teachers that made me eat a bite of my vegetables before I was allowed to leave the lunchroom. By high school my palate had changed. I was finally starting to enjoy foods that were healthy and not necessarily deep fried, but my bad habits were easy to feed with the four different lunch options my school offered. These included:

1. The main dish. This offered the choice between two main dishes. (Today’s meal at my old high school served a soft taco or a chicken fajita along with rice, refried beans, a selection from the fresh fruit and vegetable bar, and milk.)

2. The salad bar. This offered salads, dressings, soups and crackers.

3. The pizza bar. This offered the pizza of the day, which more often than not was pepperoni.

4. The a la carte line. This offered snack foods such as nachos, hot pockets, pre-packaged burritos and chips.

Many students patiently waited in the lengthy a la carte line every day to eat snack foods for lunch, such as nachos, hot pockets, Pop Tarts or simply a soda and a bag of chips.
Photo by debaird/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debaird/

When I was a student, I never thought much about lunch. I usually ate the main dish but if I truly detested that day's options I would make my way to the pizza or the a la carte line. These were by far the two most popular of the lines—it took almost the entire lunch period to get through the a la carte line in particular.

Should kids be given these many choices, or rather, temptations? Could I still eat the lunch my old high school offered if it was the only option I had?

Courtesy Fed Up With Lunch 

I recently discovered a very interesting and educational blog titled Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project. The premise is simple: an elementary school teacher, who identifies herself as Mrs. Q, made a 2010 new year’s resolution to eat a school lunch every day she was at school—the same as her students.
 
I was appalled by how bad other students around the states have it. I’ve never seen a school lunch look this horrible. Some of her posts are absolutely depressing.

Courtesy  Fed Up With Lunch  

Yes, The Herb Companion is a magazine devoted to growing, cooking and healing with herbs. But as such, we are also a magazine that believes very strongly in nutrition and its proper education. We use herbs to stay healthy and hope to teach others how to do the same. For some healthy, easy-to-make lunch options, read our 2001 article "Healthy Workday Lunches."

What was school lunch like for you? Are you as appalled as I was by Mrs. Q’s lunch? Do you (or will you) pack your children’s lunch to remove their unhealthy temptations?

Stay tuned. I plan to talk more about school lunches and Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution in an upcoming Herbalista blog. 

If you've been keeping up with this year's Winter Olympics, you may have noticed the strange bouquets being handed out to Olympians. The bouquet is made up of a combination of spider chrysanthemums, hypericum berries and aspidistra leaves, according to Slate Magazine. 

According to The Vancouver Sun, Just Beginnings Flowers and Margitta's Flowers won the contract to produce the 1,800 Winter Olympic bouquets. The floral company created a hand-tied bouquet made of native salal and boxwood mixed with blue and white flowers but the design panel was not impressed "They wanted it gone" June Stradberg from Just Beginnings Flowers said in the article "No Native B.C. Flora in Olympic Bouquet."

Courtesy Canadian Florist  

For two years the floral designers submitted 23 design samples using flowers native to British Columbia. The design panel chose an all-green bouquet tied with a blue bow. The inspiration, according to Canadian Florist Magazine, is to showcase flowers and greenery grown in British Columbia. Although the flowers chosen do not bloom in British Columbia during winter months, they can and do grow during summer months. The bouquets are meant to be taken home by athletes as a keepsake.

One of the newest people that I follow on Twitter is Michelle Phan. (Follow her on Twitter @RiceBunny.) She creates a series of how-to beauty videos. One of my favorite videos she has created is her recreation of one of Lady Gaga's looks in her music video "Bad Romance." Her latest video? Create kissable cheeks with hot chocolate. (Visit her YouTube channel.) This video, although one of her more simple compilation of instructions, poses an interesting question: Would you ever use chocolate in your daily beauty routine?  

In our January 2009 issue we published an article about chocolate spa treatments. Did you know that chocolate is good for your skin? Recent studies have discovered that chocolate can contain more antioxidants per cup than red wine or green tea. Janice Cox, author of EcoBeauty: Scrubs, Rubs, Masks, and Bath Bombs for You and Your Friends, recommends choosing commercial products or recipes with chocolate, cocoa and cocoa butter as the main ingredients. Also, dark chocolate seems to be much more effective than milk chocolate or white chocolate. (In The News: Dark Chocolate for Health.) 

Now it's up to you. Is this bogus or would you color your cheeks with hot chocolate? Where do you draw the line on chocolate indulgences?

Check out these chocolate spa recipes from our January 2009 issue:

• Mocha Facial Mask
• Chocolate Walnut Body Polish
• Chocolate Lip Balm
• Hot Cocoa Bath
• Cocoa Butter Cuticle Cream
• Cocoa Mint Foot Scrub
• Chocolate Massage Butter 

Put a spooky spin on deviled eggs and transform them into deviled eyeballs. You’re your deviled eggs blood-red eyes by topping them off with centered black olives and bits of red pepper.

Our favorite deviled egg recipes…

• Lucie’s Deviled Eggs 
• Deviled Eggs with Dill 
• Colorful Coriander Deviled Eggs 

Photo by riptheskull/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintagehalloweencollector/

Wrap miniature sausages with bread dough to make them look like mummies. Dot their eyes with bits of dough as well.

Our favorite sausage recipes…

• Turkey and Pear Sausage 
• Italian Sausage with Fennel and Garlic 

Craft a witch’s broth. Green soup with fresh mint can easily serve as a tasty (and healthy) Halloween dish.

Photo by Katrina Hall/www.shesinthekitchen.blogspot.com

Our favorite witch’s broth recipe…

• Wicked Greens Soup with Fresh Mint

Mix a bloody concoction for your Halloween guests.

Our favorite cocktail recipe…

• Le Cilantro Rouge 

Create a terrifying punch. All you need is a tasty punch recipe, water, food coloring and a disposable, rubber glove. (Note: Make sure the glove does not have powder inside.) A few days before you're ready to serve your punch, mix water with 1 to 2 drops of food coloring (the color is your choice, but I suggest blood red or witch green). Fill the glove with the water mixture about 2/3 full. Use a rubber band or string to tie at the wrist. Let the glove freeze for 1 to 2 days so that it forms a solid ice cube. Once you're ready to serve to guests, carefully remove the disposable glove from the newly formed frozen hand and float it to your punch bowl for a terrifying treat.

Our favorite punch recipes...

• Cantaloupe and Strawberry Mint Fruit Punch 

• Ginger Minted Sparkling Punch 

• Hot Mulled Apple Cider with Cranberry and Rose Hips 

What are you going to do in the kitchen this year to celebrate Halloween? We want to hear your creative ideas!

During my early childhood summers, I loved to forage for wild edibles with my best friend. We didn’t go the traditional route of gnawing on fruits and veggies from the garden but instead ate whatever green, leafy plants smelled somewhat appealing and weren’t too bitter. I marvel that we never got sick since our only tenet was a warning from our moms to stay away from the bush with the round, red berries. I guess our saving grace was eating only the plants that we were familiar with, such as clover, honeysuckle, watercress and sometimes grassy.

Occasionally, even expert foragers mistake tasty tidbits for potent poisons. My reluctance to forage on my own doubled after watching the scene in “Into the Wild” when [SPOILER ALERT] McCandless mistakenly eats the wild sweet pea thinking it was wild potato, which inevitably leads to his death.

Photo by Roger B./Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roger/

Now scientists have determined that another camouflaged plant, the hemlock water-dropwort, might have been the toxic ingredient in the Phoenician potion used to execute Sardinian criminals and the debilitated elderly. Its deceit lies in the sweet wine-like nectar of its flowers and its resemblance to water parsnip or wild celery.

The faces of its ancient victims revealed the toxin’s presence to scientists because of muscular contractions that resulted in a post-mortem smile. Imagine if this had been the same type of hemlock used on Socrates. I’m sure Plato’s account of his noble death would have been ruined by the presence of this “sardonic” grin.

Photo by shallowend/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shallowend24401/

Despite the plant’s historical propensity to tighten the facial muscles of its unfortunate victims, researchers are hoping to put a positive spin on its toxicity and use it in Botox-like cosmetic procedures to relax muscles.

I’m sure many of the foods and plants we ingest have toxic properties when used in excess, but it seems implausible that directly injecting poison into our sensitive facial tissue, even in diluted doses, doesn’t have carcinogenic or otherwise fatal risks.

I know, I know, Botox experts proclaim that the technique, when applied by licensed professionals is completely safe. Just the same, I think I’ll celebrate my wrinkles and stay away from cosmetic procedures that paralyze my muscles into a relaxed stupor, or worse yet, a sardonic grin.

You don’t have to abandon your love for herbs to stay up-to-date with the latest technology. Keep herbal knowledge at your fingertips with the new iPhone and iPod Touch application “Natural Cures.”

Created by Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, the author of Pain Free 1, 2, 3—A Proven Program for Eliminating Chronic Pain Now (McGraw-Hill), “Natural Cures” is a free application that combines natural and prescription schools of thought. Alphabetically presenting more than 100 health conditions, this application is more or less a travel-friendly guide to treating every-day ailments with natural remedies. It has been placed in the top ten “Top Free Apps” list for the Healthcare & Fitness iPhone category.

The Herb Companion has not been lucky enough to test this application, so we really would like to hear your thoughts! Have you used this application? Was it helpful? Did it offer a comprehensive list of herbal treatments for common health conditions? Go try it out—it’s free!

Click here to purchase the application for your iPhone or iPod Touch.