HBC & Bulk Herbs Update & Recipes

This year, it seems that maybe May showers bring June flowers? I cannot remember such a cool and rainy May here. Everything is so lush, but I’ve heard many gardeners in dismay over their peppers and tomatoes. It seems that we plant people just have to take the knocks as they come, replant, hope, and see what happens. We still have seeds if you are the hopeful and tenacious type. And produce already has the first arrivals of my favorite season…stone fruit season! Cherries and peaches and apricots, oh my!

If you, like me, are wishing for sunnier, warmer days, here is a recipe from one of my favorite websites, The Nourished Kitchen:

Melted Apricots with Fresh Raspberries

(View original recipe with image on The Nourished Kitchen)

• 2 Tbsp. salted butter
• 1 lb. apricots, cut in half and pitted
• 2 cups fresh raspberries
• 2 Tbsp. finely ground pistachios

Melt the butter in a non-reactive skillet over medium-high heat. When the butter melts into froth and foam, toss in the apricots, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. Cook until they just begin to soften. Spoon the apricots and juice into a bowl and top with fresh raspberries and pistachios. Serve immediately.

And for those of you lucky enough to have your own peach trees and/or raspberry bushes (or wineberries, which can replace raspberries in this recipe), here is some herbal goodness with those plants:

Peach leaf tea is an old Appalachian remedy for grief or sadness. The tale goes that if someone gives you peach leaf tea, bad news is coming. It makes a lovely tea—bad news or not. Do make sure to dry your leaves fully before using them for tea. Peach leaf is so abundant and lovely for nausea, wounds, anxiety, and so much more! It is both calming and moistening, so if you are a nettle tea lover like me, adding a pinch of peach leaf will help moisten it and prevent overdrying. Peach leaf also pairs well with wild rose blossoms—yup, the invasive ones. So pick the flowers, use them, and reduce seed spread. I think utilizing more invasive species is a great way to keep them in check.

As for raspberries, many of us have drunk red raspberry leaf tea—especially us mommas. It is astringent and toning to the body, especially the uterus. Many of us drank it during pregnancy to prepare for birth, and as a mineral-rich tea, often blended with nettle leaf, alfalfa leaf, and oatstraw. Most berry leaves, such as blackberry, have similar properties and can be used for diarrhea, wounds, and as a nutritive tea. Personally, I have lots of wild blackberries around, and I harvest not only the delicious fruits in season but also the leaves for tea and the roots for a tincture. Foraging for free medicine from your landscape is kind of magical.

In HBC, we have several new products:

• The Appalachian Goat – Local and woman-owned goat milk lotions, soaps, bath salts, and lip balms
• Wehrloom Honey – Local honey, soaps, functional honey beverages, and lotion
• Great Lakes – Grass-fed collagen and gelatin, new SKUs
• Absolutely Natural Suncare Line – New SPF lotions ranging from 8 to 50
• Soursop Bitters – Y’all have asked, and I finally found a source that I trust. Sadly, the initial order I placed is already sold out (it lasted 4 days), but I have reordered and added soursop leaves, so check back if you missed it.

And check out our gardening items—hori-horis, beautiful cast iron twine dispensers for the home and garden, and we have citronella candles, tea lights, and incense to keep your outdoor time mosquito-free. The Barebones harvesting bags are on sale. I must say, I love mine. I am typically a basket girl for my harvests, but I really love this bag to keep in my truck for those surprise harvest events. It is compact and has several compartments for herbs, or a mesh bag for mushrooms.

We are restocking our general merchandise shelves with bottles, canning jars, cleaning products, and kitchenware to keep your kitchen stocked for the summer harvest and canning season, as well as sprouting and fermenting goodies. Keep an eye out when you come in, and let me know if there are any items you would like to see.

An update on bulk herbs

Tulsi is finally back! That was a long couple of months with no tulsi—a darker time, to be sure. Hopefully, we will be tulsi-abundant again soon. Many of the Chinese herbs are still out of stock. Jujube fruits and seeds, white peony root, and schisandra are still out of stock, with no ETA yet. We have lost sourcing completely for violet leaves, apricot kernels, and wintergreen. I will continue to search and find other sources, but for now, we cannot find them.

Several teas have been out, including the Frontier Se Chung Oolong. We do have a new oolong from Two Hills Tea—Osmanthus Oolong—as well as a Silver Needle white tea. Those should be out in the next week for you tea lovers. The Osmanthus Oolong is my new favorite. Usually, we see a dip in bulk tea sales during spring and summer, but not this year. Maybe it’s the cool and damp weather, or maybe many of you love teas all year round, like me.

Don’t forget that many of your cold weather favorites make lovely iced teas for summer. I usually make a green tea with foraged mint iced tea, matcha freeze with milk and maple syrup and ice, and vanilla rooibos with a splash of cream makes a lovely cold tea. Feel free to ask for advice or guidance from our staff—we will gladly assist you.

To end, I wanted to share an old tea formula from Paula Hatley, who was the co-op herbalist for a couple of decades before she passed. She taught me so much when I first arrived at the co-op, and I miss her still. This recipe is for lymph stagnation and is the best I have ever used:

Paula’s Lymph Tea

• 2 parts red root
  Cover and decoct in clear water for 30 minutes
  Take off heat and add:
• 1 part self-heal
• 1 part violet leaf
• 1 part cleavers, fresh (if you do not have fresh cleavers, replace with calendula flowers)
  Let steep for 30 minutes, strain, and enjoy warm or cold. Great for moving lymph congestion.

I hope you all have a happy spring, forage much, and may your gardens be bountiful!

Until next time,
Melissa