I love experimenting with fruit sorbets – so when I stumbled across some research regarding the expansive health benefits of tart cherries – it wasn’t long before I discovered and requested a product called CherryPharm Cherry Juice – an all-natural 100% Juice (with tart cherries, never made from concentrate).

In about a week, I received 8, 8 oz. bottles and was excited to try it out.  The flavor was immediately rich and overpowering – like drinking a cherry pie – at first, sour.

Cherries contain anthyocyanins, the reddish pigments in berries that are high in antioxidants, which are best consumed in an unadulterated form (not from concentrate or in supplements).  Recent studies suggest that consistent exposure to anthocyanins may reduce levels of cancer, aging, neurological diseases, inflammation, diabetes and bacterial infections.

CherryPharm’s Web site also boasts the benefits of “precovery” providing a full list of potential benefits of a daily serving of tart cherry juice, such as lessening pain and speeding recovery after exercise and improving sleep quality.  Read why Tart Cherries.

The downside?  CherryPharm isn’t cheap – 8, 8 oz. bottles sell for $19.99 while 24, 8 oz. bottles go for $49.99.  But while, financially, CherryPharm may seem too rich for your blood, nutritiously, it ultimately isn’t.

And, as an Herb Companion reader, you are entitled to a 10 percent off coupon!  Just enter the code CPHC at checkout to collect your savings – and start getting healthy.

CherryPharm’s rich flavor is intense, and if you cannot enjoy it straight from the bottle, here are some great recipes to benefit from its library of nutrients – with a twist:

Recipes:

Taylor’s Super-Simple Spiked Cherry Sorbet

· 1 pkg. frozen cherries
· 2-3 8 oz. bottles of CherryPharm cherry juice
· 1/4 cup rum
· A bit of lime juice to taste

Blend on high, or mix in a blending food processor until texture is smooth.  Garnish with a cherry and/or whipped cream.

Collin’s Cherry Cocktail

· 1 ½ oz. CherryPharm cherry juice
· 1 ½ oz. Vodka
· ½ Lemon or lemon juice
· Club soda (as much or as little as you like)

Mix and pour into a tall Collin’s glass half-filled with crushed ice and fill in with club soda.  Garnish with a lemon slice and a cherry. 

Belizan Cherry Punch

· Orange Juice
· Apple Juice
· 2, 8 oz. bottles of CherryPharm
· White Rum to taste

Fill ¼ punch bowl with orange juice.  Fill another ¼ with apple juice.  Mix in CherryPharm and add rum to taste.

Click here to order.  

I don’t like tea.  I hate the taste of tinctures.  And I’m terrible at chefing (but trying to get better).  You could understand how these are ironic traits for an employee of The Herb Companion (I garden. That’s what makes me helpful).

So when my boss offered to share an immune boosting tincture with me for this terrible cold, I grimaced.  It was disgusting (no offense, KC).  But, then I remembered a product sample on our shelves – CAPSULINE – and wondered if that could do the trick.   

I dropped a pipet of tincture into a Capsuline flavored capsule (G-Cap, which are grape flavored empty gel capsules) closed the pill and swallowed – problem solved!  So, I used it for Meadowsweet to treat my heartburn (read my blog: Healing Heartburn [and yes, it's working]) then, I started thinking of other uses – powders, crushed herbs, other medicines, etc.  Because tinctures are liquids, you obviously can't fill them in advance, so sitting at a restaurant table filling a drug capsule with a mysterious brown liquid is bound to cause a few eyebrows to lift.  But it makes for a great prank.

When we first got the Capsuline flavored capsules, I winced at their display of “100% Bovine Gelatin” – not appetizing.  Searching their site, I found that the gelatin is Kosher and Halal certified and inspected, uses natural dyes and comes only from BSE-free (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) countries.  Bascially, from cows that are not mad.  Fish gelatin and vegetarian alternatives are also available, made from Kosher-certified preservative free materials that do not contain starch, sugar, corn, soy, wheat or dairy!

You can even get DOGCaps and CATCaps in various meat flavors, to make giving meds easier (and taste better) for all your animals.

Way healthier and animal-friendly than the meat I consume in my daily diet – (chefing [or fancy cooking] is the next goal on my action-item agenda).  I think I can give up hot pockets, but I just can’t do tea.*

I really recommend Capsuline flavored capsules - specifically the G-caps!  It’s much healthier using fresh herbal tinctures or powders from your local CO-OP, rather than those preservative-packed supplements.  And they come in other flavors too:  Strawberry, lime, berry, orange …. coffee.

* When people say something is "...not your cup of tea..." I sigh and respond, "I don't even like tea."

iHola Taylor!  I’ve had a kalanchoe plant for several years, but I noticed today that I have all these little white and green buggy … THINGS … on the leaves.  And a LOT of them!  They kind of look like little crustaceans, but they’re so small it’s hard to describe them.  White, crustaceany, things, I guess.  How do I get rid of them? – Bárbara from Florida
                                  
I had a feeling about Bárbara’s infestation, and when I sent her this photo, she said, THERE THEY ARE! 

They’re aphids (Aphidius colemanii).  And aphid skin casts (observe the white shells).  Aphids come en masse between seasons and reproduce fast.  Also, they secret a substance called honeydew, which can attract both ants and sooty mold. 

CURE:  Bárbara, the first thing I would do is to take the plant outside and spray it off with your hose’s jet setting.  Or if you don’t have a hose, get one of those cans of air (that are so fun to play with) and knock off as many aphids and their casts as you can.

Then move the kalanchoe to an isolated location away from any plant close enough for an aphid migration via air current.  If you only have a garage or a dark location available, you can buy a compact fluorescent bulb which is labeled “natural sunlight” or “natural light” as a sort of make-shift grow light.

Next, mix some rubbing alcohol with water in a sprayer – 1 part alcohol, 2 parts water – and spray on the plant leaves daily in the morning, making sure to get under the leaves, in the plant crevices and on the stems without over-misting.

Aphids are attracted to yellow, so rub Vaseline on some Post-Its and circle them around the base of your plant. Change daily, and when you notice no more insects, you’re probably safe. 

WHY THIS WORKS:  In the US, what we call rubbing alcohol is also called isopropyl alcohol or more scientifically, isopropanol. 

Kalanchoes are succulents that don’t have a high tolerance for pesticides or humidity (both which can be super-effective for destroying infestations).  So isopropanol is ideal, because it’s cheap, doesn’t stink, dries quickly, is relatively non-toxic and it leaves the waxy shine so important in indoor ornamental kalanchoes.

Isopropanol cuts through lipophilic substances, like oil, which is why it’s so great at removing that smudgy gunk on your eyeglasses.  When bugs come into contact with it, the waxy cover of their skin is dissolved, and they are poisoned.

This poisoning works the same in humans, but only in much larger doses.  When the isopropanol hits the liver, it is oxidized into acetone (finger-nail polish remover).  Yikes, huh?  But, every year Americans use 500 million pounds of toxic pesticides wayyy worse than isopropanol.

Because it dries quickly, it’s diluted and you won’t be soaking your plants in it, misting will be safe for you and your kalanchoe – just not for your bugs.

(CAUTION:  If you notice other white or cotton-bally insects growing on your plants, it may be a sign of a more serious infestation.)

If you’ve got a problem, I’ve got a solution – shoot an email over to Taylor at tmiller@ogdenpubs.com.

About 100 million Americans suffer or have suffered from heartburn, with 15 million suffering daily. You may take a Zantac, Tums or maybe a Prilosec, but when the problem goes away you tend to forget about it.

Experts say you should be more concerned – not only with heartburn, but what you’re taking to “cure” it.

Call it what you want, heartburn, acid reflux or gastritis – stomach-to-esophagus problems can have serious effects such as swallowing problems, adenocarcinoma, cancer of the esophagus and chronic or violent cough.

There are three levels of heartburn treatment – antacids, h-2 blockers and PPIs.

When I was alerted to the issue, I’d been using Zantac, which is a histamine-2 blocker (as are Pepcid and Tagamet).  Histamine 2 is what signals the stomach to produce acid.  Supressing acid in this way can cause an alkaline environment in the stomach that is ideal for the production of the bacteria Helicobacter pylori. 

This bacteria can ultimately cause stomach ulcers, which, paradoxically, result in reflux problems. Proton-pump inhibitors (PPI) [Prevacid and Prilosec] can have an even more severe effect. Antacids have high concentrations of Calcium carbonate, which can potentially lead to kidney stones.

More frustrating are the contradictory suggestions made online for natural treatments.  But here, I’ve sifted through the suggestions to find the most consistent natural prevention methods and treatments.  Hope they help – both in your case, and in mine.

Prevention:

1.  Avoid carbonated beverages, coffee, alcohol, whole milk and caffeinated tea.

2.  Avoid tomatoes, citrus fruits, chocolates, onions and peppermints.

3.  Avoid fatty and fried foods.

4.  Eat smaller meals more often with plenty of water.

5.  Elevate your head at night with pillows or sleep on your left side.

6.  Avoid eating right before bed or exercise.

Herbal Remedies:

To absorb stomach acid try marshmallow root or slippery elm bark.  To decrease acid use chamomile, licorice root, or meadowsweet. 

For more information, check out these Herb Companion articles:

My husband has acid reflux disease. Help! ... (scroll down for article)
Treating Heartburn Naturally (scroll down)
Holiday Heartburn