Pine Knoll Herb Shop

03/06/2024

I'm hoping this post will encourage you all to look at a challenge as a learning opportunity and never give up. I have a cat that has a chronic ear infection in one ear. This has been going on for years. Since January I was told she has Rods. It's a bacteria that responds to only one medication. Of course it didn't respond in my cat's situation. So the vet said there was nothing else she could do. In determining what antibiotic works on what bacteria they test the bacteria in a lab against pharmaceuticals but not herbs. So I did some research and made an infusion of olive oil, Garlic, Frankincense, Myrrh, and Goldenseal. After 48 hours, we have improvement ! When cleaning out her ear it is much drier. It was literally filling up with fluid and pus before. I'm hoping this will cure her of the infection. It's a chronic thing so I don't know how long this will last, but I'll keep you posted.

02/29/2024

I'm going to be getting quite a few new teas in the shop. To do this, I will be discontinuing quite a few of the old ones that have fallen off in popularity. If there are some you really like, make sure to message me to see what's available. That's the old. Let's move forward to the new.
I want to REALLY encourage you to try some new things with your tea. I had an earlier post about putting salt in your tea. It can change the flavor in a most unexpected way. Everyone is familiar with coffee shops and all the additional things they can add, to give you different flavors. Tea is the same way. This is just an example. Take a cup of vanilla tea. I love vanilla tea but some may find it boring. But that's the perfect base for a much larger creation. To that base you can add, heavy whipping cream as the creamer. Then maybe a few shakes of cinnamon. Or add hazelnut creamer. Of course sugar is wonderful. You can make those special teas for much less than you can buy them in a specialty shop. It's no different than baking or cooking. You start with something basic and the more you try it, the more you can experiment and you come up with creations you love.

09/27/2023

Hello all ! I have a tip for my tea drinkers out there. When drinking black tea, try using a little salt in it. I say black tea, because I haven't tried it with green or white tea yet. I noticed that some of the tea I sell in the shop had salt in it. So I thought why not add a little to other tea and see if it made a difference. Wow ! Did it ever ! You don't want the tea to taste salty. That's too much. But when you add a little salt it completely rounds out the flavor and enhances the flavor that drew you to the tea in the first place. Now I add a little salt to every cup I make. I have caramel creme brulee tea. You can actually add a little more salt to that one and it makes it salty caramel. Treat your tea brewing like you would a cake or cookie recipe. When you brew a cup of tea, you can have the flavor of what's in the tea the manufacturer put in there. Then you can add to it, depending on your taste and make it even better.

10/28/2022

Good morning all !!! Today and tomorrow is our Christmas open house at the shop, for all you locals. Stop on our and see all our Christmas items. Of course there's food (that is all free) for you to munch on as your browsing. We'll have popcorn, a variety of donuts from Allie's Sweet tooth and hotdogs. Of course we'll have tea and coffee as well. Hope to see you.

08/28/2021

This wonderful bowl of green oil will become my Comfrey salve soon. This is the time of year when we restock the freezers and pantry with canned goods to prep for the winter months. It's also the time to stock the "medicine" chest.

03/19/2021

One of our new seasoning blends is Garlic Bread Seasoning. I love good garlic bread, and this mix will give you that for sure. But you can use it on more that just bread. I made some pasta, drizzled olive oil on it, then added this mix in and stirred. It makes a wonderful pasta dish as well. The ingredients are garlic, paprika, dill, oregano, thyme, basil, and red pepper.

03/13/2021

Did you know we are now carrying different flavored salts ? Currently we have Applewood smoked sea salt, Hickory smoked sea salt, and Mesquite smoked sea salt. All are wonderful to add an extra layer of flavor to any dish. And of course we carry Himalayan salt.

03/10/2021

Got Bay leaves? We do. Think about the weight of one Bay leaf. This is a one ounce bag. That's A LOT of Bay leaves.

03/06/2021

One of our new spice blends, is Wonderful World seasoning. It lives up to it's name. The ingredients are : Salt, Cinnamon, Bay Leaves, Allspice, Black Pepper, White Pepper, Celery Seed, and Onion. This is the dish I made with it. I took 3 boneless, skinless, chicken thighs, rolled them in a gluten free flour mix, and browned them in a skillet. While they were browning, I took a can of cream of chicken soup, and 1/3 c. sour cream and mixed them together with 1/3c. milk. then I added approximately 1 teaspoon of wonderful world seasoning. After I browned the chicken, I put it in the dish with the cream sauce mix, and made sure the chicken was covered in the sauce. I baked it uncovered in a 400 degree oven for around 30 min. I served it with rice. My husband typically will turn his nose up to any type of meat, with cinnamon added. He LOVED IT ! He said he would like that dish again. Winner, winner, chicken dinner !!

03/04/2021

We are expanding once again in the herb shop ! This time I am adding to our culinary line. We have numerous new spice blends, but the old ones are still fantastic as well. One of my favorites is Berbere spice blend. It is an Ethiopian mix. Has some heat to it, but not so much it's uncomfortable. I make Doro Wat. It's an Ethiopian spiced chicken stew. It is WONDERFUL on a cold day. I know we're going to be getting a few warm days soon, but we still have our share of cold ones left this winter. The Berbere in the shop, as like most of my spices, come in a 2 oz. bag. In the recipe that I use, it will make 2 batches of Doro Wat. There are many recipes on line. You can look them up to see which one you like. The recipe I use was gotten off of www.DaringGourmet.com. I did not have all the ingredients they called for so I used some substitutions, It still turned out wonderful. I hope you all start trying some new spice blends. It's good to open your mind to new experiences. Even if Covid has put a damper on physically traveling to have new experiences, your taste buds can still make the trip. Don't deny them !

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