Nutrition: Steps to improve women's health

Nourishing Wisdom & Holly's Garden Products. Nutrition Counselor & Natural Skin Care Products

as featured in Poughkeepsie Journal June, 1, 2009

The excellence of herbs
By Valerie Dimond

Summer herbs - thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley, mint, basil and others - are easy to find, smell intoxicating, look beautiful in gardens and pots and certainly taste great. But that's not all they're good for. These herbs, often called kitchen or culinary herbs, have much more to offer.

Kitchen herbs also pack a lot of nutrition and can be used to for all kinds of healing purposes, according to Hillary Thing, a professional herbalist and founder of EarthBound Apothecary and Acupuncture Center in Kingston. Thing is also an expert in Chinese herbs and a faculty member at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York City.

"They all have benefits to the system, to the human body and spirit," Thing said. "All of the [kitchen herbs] are very gentle; yet, they also have certain specific effects, especially if you take more of them, not just sprinkle a little parsley on a salad, for example."

For instance, "Kitchen herbs are often used as a mixture, such as thyme, rosemary and sage, which is a really excellent herb formula that will aid immunity, has antiseptic properties and tastes great in a lot of different dishes," said Thing, who obtains some of the herbs she uses in her practice from the wild, local growers and her own land, the Earthbound Herb Garden in Accord.

Holly Anne Shelowitz, a certified nutrition counselor in Ulster County and owner of Nourishing Wisdom, uses garden herbs to make healthful meals and therapeutic teas, but some are also used to create natural, homemade body oils, delectable honey mixtures and decorative edibles that can be shared with family and friends throughout the year, even in the winter.

For an herb garden that will last throughout the season, choose a spot where the soil has good drainage, said Greg Draiss, general manager of the garden center at Adams Fairacre Farms in Poughkeepsie. He said if it hasn't rained in a week and your soil is still wet, use containers instead. Plant herbs in a hot, sunny environment where they will get at least five hours of full sunshine, give them a little water now and then, and walk away.

"Most herbs do better when you ignore them," Draiss said. "For the most part, herbs are just over-educated weeds. People just take too good a care of them. They over-water them and over-fertilize."

Next, sit back and watch them grow, snip the stems and leaves -and start getting creative. "[Kitchen herbs] are really an area where people can explore, follow their own intuition and sense of taste and aroma. It's OK to be experimental," Thing said.

Here are some innovative suggestions for what you can do with common garden herbs, which you can buy for a few dollars a piece at nurseries and garden centers, farmers markets, grocery stores and other retail outlets around the Hudson Valley.

Lavender

Lavender comes in several varieties and comes back on its own every year.

"The leaves are incredibly fragrant as well as the little tiny purple flower buds that come in June or July," Shelowitz said. When shopping for lavender, "just brush your hands over the leaves to see if you like that scent or not," she said, adding that French lavender is a little "sweeter and lighter" than some of the others.

Lavender can be used to make a luxurious body or bath oil. Fill a clean, dry wide-mouth glass jar (never use plastic) with lavender stems. Pour a good quality olive oil (first cold pressed) into the jar until all the herbs are covered. Cover and keep it on a sunny windowsill or other sunny place for one month. Put a plate under the jar to protect surfaces.

"You're warming the oil and imparting the fragrance into the oil. It's beautiful," Shelowitz said. "After about 30 days, just pull out the branches. Pour it through a strainer to get the flowers out. It's very gentle, very light. I pour a little in the tub or after bathing. It's good for massage. It's heavenly." Plus, "Olive oil has so many beneficial enzymes in it," she said.

Note, olive has a scent of its own, so if you prefer something lighter, Shelowitz suggests using almond oil, which is odorless. She advises using quality oils. "Our skin is very porous, and literally what we put on our skin is going into our body."

Similar to how the oil is prepared, you can also make lavender honey. Simply fill a clean, dry glass jar with lavender stems, fill with honey, cover tightly and let it sit for a month on top of a plate. Any spot will do, said Shelowitz, since it doesn't require sunshine. Just shake and turn the jar upside down periodically to blend the mixture. When you're ready to use it, Shelowitz said do not strain or remove the herbs, keep them right in with the honey.

"Lavender honey drizzled over vanilla ice cream is divine, magical - it's delicious," Shelowitz said. "Or drizzled over strawberries and cream. It's ridiculous how beautiful and delicious that is." Shelowitz said any of these homemade products would also make wonderful, inexpensive gifts, especially when transferred to pretty glass bottles and other containers. Again, just make sure they are clean and dry first. Then use ribbons and stickers to decorate and label your recipes. Shelowitz said inexpensive, attractive glass bottles can be found at various local retail stores.

Sage, rosemary and thyme

Sage is an herb widely used to flavor foods but also contains significant medicinal properties, Thing said.

"The garden sage is very good for aiding digestion and helping to digest fats and meats and cholesterol," she said.

Sage is also a good menopausal medicine. "It's very good for hormonal balance in women. You can drink a cup of tea daily for that," Thing said.

"People also use it as an antiseptic, for throat gargle for mouth sores or those kinds of infections."

When growing, Draiss said, "the best one for our area, which has a lot of clay soil, is the gray sage or basic garden sage - it's the most hardy."

That's good news because Thing suggests choosing the regular garden variety for best results, not the pineapple sage or those that are variegated, which she said are not going to be as strong medicinally.

Thyme does best in soil that has good drainage, but if you don't have good soil don't despair. "It does very well in containers," Draiss said.

"I dry it in bunches and use it soups and scrambled eggs. It's delicious," Shelowitz said. "I stick the bunches into big jars and just reach in throughout the whole year."

Shelowitz said thyme is also good for making tea to treat sore throats and coughs and said it can be made the same way you would make any tea, about a teaspoon of thyme to one cup of water.

Rosemary, delicious for spicing up foods, is also "considered very good for the brain, for stimulating memory, for nervous tension. It's also a good respiratory herb," said Thing, who suggested making rosemary tea with a little honey.

Shelowitz said a honey-rosemary infusion makes a perfect marinade when grilling fish and meat, particularly chicken.

Parsley and basil

Parsley is a versatile herb that seems to make it into practically everything. It's sprinkled on cuisine for an added splash of color and hint of herbal flavor, and fluffy sprigs of it are often found sitting on the side of a plate paired with a slice of citrus for decoration. However, using parsley this way isn't going to deliver the nutritional benefits this herb has to offer.

"I always say, eat your garnish because it's so high in nutrition," Shelowitz said. "Parsley is really high in calcium, really high. Also, magnesium and zinc." One of Shelowitz's favorite parsley recipes is Green Velvet Soup, a "very nourishing, deep green soup," that calls for two bunches of fresh parsley among other ingredients.

"Parsley is also very cleansing and is really best to use fresh. You get a lot more flavor and super nutrition from it than when it's dry," she said. "Chop it up for salads. Put with collard greens and kale."

Also, Thing said parsley is "very high in vitamin C, just like all the dark green leafy vegetables." Use it when juicing by blending bunches of parsley together with beets and carrots for a satisfying nutritional tonic.

When it comes to basil, "many species actually have immune and anti-pathogenic properties," Thing said. One of the healthiest ways to use basil when cooking is in a pesto sauce. Pesto is a minced mixture of basil leaves, olive oil, garlic, nuts and cheese, which Thing said makes for a very healthy combination. Every ingredient has healthy properties.

"There are 42 varieties of basil that are commercially grown," said Draiss, who prefers the 'spicy Greek' variety, which he uses in BBQ rubs and sauces. Try lemon, lime, cinnamon basil - the choices seem endless.

Garlic

We all know garlic is packed with nutrition. And if you decide to grow it, Shelowitz said to snip the tops (scapes) off to stimulate strong growth - but don't toss them away. Garlic scapes can be used to make flavorful, healthy vinegar. Just fill a clean, dry glass jar with scapes, pour the vinegar to the top (choose apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar). Be sure to place a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the jar before putting the lid on. Shelowitz said because vinegar is so strong, placing a liner between the liquid and metal lid ensures your mixture will not rust. Let it sit for 30 days and strain or remove any herbs and flowers before using to flavor salads or as a marinade for fish, meat and vegetables.

You might even add some rosemary or lavender stems to the garlic scapes and vinegar for an interesting twist.

"It's nice to combine herbs, but do them separately until you get to know the flavors," Shelowitz said.

For gift giving, transfer the vinegar to a pretty bottle, snip and drop a fresh stem into the vinegar, label and decorate with ribbon.

Mint, catnip and lemon balm

Mint is a fast-growing herb that spreads quickly and can easily take over your garden if you don't keep an eye on it.

"Mint is one that should definitely be grown in a container and then stick that container right in the ground because it a very invasive herb and will easily crowd out other plants," Draiss said.

Mint is also a very versatile and delicious herb that comes in a variety of flavors -even chocolate. "The mints tend to make you feel both relaxed and awake, which is a really nice feeling," Thing said.

"Peppermint, spearmint and lemon balm are great. They are very stimulating on the one hand, in terms of being very refreshing mentally, and they also have a kind of calming effect on the nervous system," she said.

Lemon balm, as the name suggests, gives off a strong, vibrant lemony scent when rubbed, and being a part of the mint family, it can also take over the garden if you let it.

Thing suggests using the mints to make tea - either hot or cold. She said the medicinal properties of herbs do not change when heated or chilled, so enjoy them either way. Shelowitz suggests chilling herb teas in the refrigerator and skipping the ice cubes, which she feels are too jarring to the body's system.

Catnip, also part of the mint family, has fuzzy green leaves and tiny white flowers and both can be harvested and used for cooking and medicinal purposes. Draiss said catnip is one of the few herbs that will tolerate a fair amount of shade, and of course, "it grows like a weed," he said.

"Catnip is known as a nervine. It means it is common to the nervous system," Thing said. "It is used a lot for insomnia and general calming of anxiety."

Thing said catnip is a good remedy to give kids, although it is not a great tasting herb. "You need something to hide the taste; use it with other mints, such as peppermint or spearmint," she said.

Chives, dill and fennel

Chives have a mild onion-like flavor with puffy purple flower heads, which when picked off can be used in cooking and to add color and light flavor to white vinegar. Just be sure to pick the flowers when they are dry or let them sit out overnight on paper to dry before using. Strain and remove flowers from the liquid before using.

Dill is an easy-to-grow tangy herb with delicate leaves, stems and yellow flowers.

"Save the seeds and use them in cooking or let it flower, collect the seeds and plant it next year," Draiss said. "It also self sows, which means if you don’t cut the flowers they will fall to the ground and come back again next year. They are very productive.”

Chop it up and add to soups, salads, marinades and vinegars. For healing, Thing said, “Dill is good for gas and infant colic. Make a strong tea and add a quarter cup to milk.”

Goat milk is the best, she said.

Fennel has light airy leaves, tastes of licorice and is used mostly in cooking. But it’s also a valuable herb for moms who are nursing.

"Fennel is actually a really excellent herb for breast milk. Once it goes to seed, collect the seeds and that’s probably the best herbal remedy for enhancing breast milk production," Thing said. Add a teaspoon of seeds to hot water and drink one cup a day.

Holly Anne Shelowitz Email: info@nourishingwisdom.com Phone: 845.658.7887