Patchouli: From Head Shops to High Demand
If you recognize the word “patchouli” it may conjure up visions of Grateful Dead concerts, hacky sack-playing hippies, drum circles, or perhaps a line from Al Stewart’s song, “The Year of the Cat.” This essential oil, derived from a perennial herb native to Southeast Asia, was embraced by 1960s counter-culture—whether for its reputed aphrodisiac qualities...
Hudson, NY: A River Town’s Renaissance
Walking the streets of Hudson, it might seem strange that this river town 100 miles away from the open ocean is graced with the images of so many whales. You’ll see them on hotel and street signs, shop windows, banners, even on the city seal. But Hudson owes its name—and really it’s very existence—to the...
Pharm to Table: Field Apothecary Invigorates Herbal Traditions
When I first started my radio show “Spice: The Final Frontier” I was planning to focus on interesting historical facts about herbs and spices along with some tips on how to cook with them. As I continued researching what I thought of as strictly culinary herbs and spices, I found that a long history of...
A Walk on the Wild Side
Second Installment in a Two-Part Series “Wildman” Steve Brill, who had an interest in healthful gourmet cooking, was out for a bike ride when he came across a group of ethnic Greek women dressed in black among the greenery in Cunningham Park, Queens. As he likes to tell it, “I asked them what they were...
Digging Deep: Foraging through History
First Installment in a Two-Part Series “A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” Ralph Waldo Emerson I was raised in the country and I wanted my children to have the benefit of a clean, natural environment as well—that was one of the major reasons my husband and I decided to...
An Heirloom Whale of a Tale
“She said she wanted to see beautiful things. I took her to where I planted my seeds.” —Darnell Lamont Walker When I was a girl growing up in California, whales fascinated me. It was the 1970s, the heyday of Greenpeace and knowing whales existed is inseparably entwined in my mind with the knowledge that these majestic...
