So, I’m trying out this twitter thing, aka microblogging.

(Guido,  Kiva and Darcey have been doing it too, which makes it more fun — a little virtual herbalist party.)

I’m posting about the food I’m cooking and whatever herbal mischief I’m up to at the moment.

I’m going to try to put the feed on the blog, too, but that may take me a few days.

In the meantime, enjoy the minutiae!

PS: The May blog party theme is Spring Greens, hosted by Darcey. Posts are due May 15th.

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Welcome to the first ever guest post in the Herbwife’s Kitchen!

Robin Rose Bennett is a lovely plant person, herbalist, and teacher from the New York / New Jersey area. This post is her contribution to the Aphrodisiac Blog Party. (My own contribution should be up this evening.)

Here’s Robin Rose:

I’ve been teaching a class every February for years now called Herbal Love Medicine for Valentine’s Day. Each year I cook up a brand new Passion Honey, inspired by my own favorite aphrodisiac or sensually pleasing herbs, along with the input of the students after we’ve spent nearly 2 hours looking at, talking about, sniffing, and tasting the herbs and preparations I’ve brought in.

I’m always a tiny bit nervous that this new and different honey may not come out right — but it’s exciting, too, not to know what it will be like. It always comes out somewhere between really good and truly wonderful and delicious. The Passion Honey we made last week was off the charts!! I don’t actually measure anything as I’m creating, but these are my best guesses as to the amounts. As I go along, I stir and sniff, and stir and sniff. Highly recommended technique for cooking!

Robin Rose’s Passion Honey - February 2008

(All the herbs are organic and all are dried, unless otherwise noted.)

To 1 quart of organic dark buckwheat honey add approximately:

1/2 cup Orange blossoms*
3/4 teaspoon grated Nutmeg
2 tablespoons Damiana
3-4 tablespoons Vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Jasmine
2-3 tablespoons Maca root powder
3/4 ounce Rose glycerite**
1 teaspoon crushed up Cinnamon sticks***

We all tasted it and declared it amazing (as our knees grew weak). Normally I cook it on low for 30-45 minutes. We didn’t even do that as I’d run out of time. Now I have the pint that’s left steeping/infusing at room temperature at home, looking forward to what will happen to it as the flavors meld. Of course my sweetheart and I are sneaking in for tastes now and then because it’s simply irresistible.

Enjoy!

(For those who prefer things simpler — that’s usually me — one of my favorite past Passion Honeys was Roses and Vanilla beans in Linden Honey. It’s a yummy one, too!)

* Orange blossoms can be hard to get. You could put in crumbled or powdered sweet orange or tangerine peels instead — it won’t be the same, but still delicious.

** This rose glycerite was made with red (Rosa gallica), pink (Rosa centifolia), and Moroccan roses.

*** Cinnamon powder would be easier — I had sticks with me.

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Kevin over at Life has taught us… very sweetly gave me this:

As far as I can tell, this is how the “Thinking Blogger Award” works:

If someone gives you the award, you have the opportunity to name five blogs that “make you think.” In naming those five blogs, you are bestowing upon each of them a Thinking Blogger Award. And so on. (I don’t know much about memes. In fact, I’m a bit suspicious of such things. But I’m going to give this one a try.)

Here are five blogs that inspire me to look at things in new ways (as good a definition of “thinking” as any I know).

Ethicurean: new ways to look at food.

City Farmer: new ways to look at farming.

Pocahontas County Fare: new ways to look at the land I grew up on.

Henriette’s Herbal and Medicine Woman’s Roots: new ways to look at plants.

So that’s five. There are clearly more than that. But the rules of the game said five. There are more good blogs right over there —-> in my blogroll.

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What: An herbal blog party!

When: The last day of each month.

Who: Plant writers of all species.

Host for May: The Herbwife’s Kitchen.

Theme for May: Forgotten herbs.

Directions: Sometime during the month of May, write a blogpost about an herb that’s not commonly used by herbalists these days. It might be a regional herb, a neglected weed, or something that’s not generally thought to be “medicinal.” It should be an herb that you won’t find on a health food store shelf, or in popular herb books. Include this link—http://crabappleherbs.com/blog/category/herbal-blog-party/—and send me a note when your post is up—rebecca {AT} crabappleherbs.com.

On May 31, come by and join the party!

PS: If you’re interested in hosting an herbal blog party or if you have ideas for future themes, please email me!

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This from Henriette this morning:

Rebecca Hartman’s blog posts are outright shining. If you wanted to know the difference between different kinds of insomnia, head right on over to her Herbwife’s Kitchen. . . . If I were to do a “best herbal blog for January”, Rebecca would take the prize.

Oh my goodness! (Blushing.) That’s a lot to live up to, especially considering Henriette’s blog was what inspired me to start the Herbwife’s Kitchen in the first place!

(Do check out her rundown of herbal blogs. There’s a lot of good reading out there.)

Thanks, Henriette. I’ll do my best!

Coming soon: Homemade herbal lotions for winter skin.

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This is my spot on the web for cooking and musing and brewing up traditional herbal remedies. Coming soon: herbal chicken soup, remedies for “computer-daze”, and my philosophy of herbwifery.

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