This is a wonderful video by a fabulous little company called Urban Moonshine. They make the best bitters that I've ever tasted. Truthfully, most bitters are tinctures (I say most because there are many on the maket that aren't naturally flavored) of herbs, plants and spices in a base of alcohol that are deliciously pungent and exceptionally good for the digestion. They also make Immune tonics , Energy tonics and Joy tonics that I know from first hand experience are really effective in promoting good health and extraordinary well being. If you'd like to try to make some yourself it's really not that difficult and it's alot of fun. Theres a brand new book out called "Bitters- A spirited history of a classic cure-all with cocktails, recipes and formulas" by a gentleman named Brad A. Parsons. It's really interesting, full of history and verve and the recipes are terrific. You can get it on your Ipad or Kindle as well. I've really been enjoying it and you will too!
This is the art of Herbalism the way that I've always practiced it. Of course I use many of the supplements available and I'm grateful that I live in a country where they ARE available, but when I can get my hands on them I'll always take my whole herbs over anything that I can buy.
I believe first and foremost that Herbalism is the peoples medicine and that this education should be made available to everyone, much like over a century ago every home had a stillroom, where the lady of the house crafted her homebrews and medicinal teas from recipes passed down to her by her mother and grandmother in a living notebook that continued to grow and be passed down through the generations.
I was taught the art of Herbalism by a very wise woman named LaWanna Rine whom I've worked with for decades. Her teaching was a vibrant blend of storytelling and science and she spent her days crafting effective simple remedies. I'd walk into her kitchen to find glass pots of herbs simmering on her stoves and jewel-toned jars sitting on her sunny windowsill. I'd get there and she'd have baskets in her arms for us and we'd go run around her property collecting comfrey , poke and elderberry and then we'd turn it into tinctures. She and our mutual friend Haas taught me to make (read grow!) Kombucha tea over 24 years ago because she was a firm believer in the importance of eating fermented foods. She grew almost everything herself and she would feed me salads of just picked vegetables with herbal dressings that she'd make with homemade herbal vinegars and infused oils. It all had a purpose....She's 85 years old, really heathy and still practicing!
This was "medicine" that I understood, because it was food and my body intuitively knew what it was. It was slow and gentle...not the one-two punch of a compounded pharmaceutical or an herbal supplement that is 6 degrees removed from it's original form. Her teas were effective because they were blended, balanced and alive..literally they'd been off of the stem no more than two hours by the time that you got to sit in the kitchen and enjoy them!
If you'd like to know more about LaWanna Rine, the articles on this site entitled "Love letters from Lotus Lodge" were written by her...
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