Health and Hearth

04/18/2024

Spring is here! I'll be out foraging later for dinner. Dandelions and violets from the yard and garlic mustard by a wooded area. Had spicebush ice cream last week, which is a favorite.

01/26/2024

It seems like everyone is coming down with something this past week. Here in NE white pine is everywhere. Besides being beautiful and fragrant it is great for congestion and coughs.

Pine Needle Tea
This has a delicate taste and is high in Vitamin C.
On top of drinking the tea you can breath in the steam to help
with congestion.
Steep a large handful of needles in 2 cups of boiled water for
about 20 minutes.

(Use only 1 cup of water if you like a stronger taste)

Strain.

Add honey or maple syrup to taste.

Tea from pine needles, twigs & small branches
This is a stronger brew and can be used as an expectorant and
decongestant.

Chop 2 large handfuls of pine needles along with their twigs
and small branches.

Simmer chopped pine in 2 cups of water for about 20 minutes.

Strain

Add honey to taste.

Alternatively, you can pulse pieces of pine with the water in a
blender until pine is chopped into small pieces.
Pine Honey Cough Syrup. #1 (Based on Euell Gibbons recipe.)
Take 1 cup of strongly brewed pine needle with
twigs/branches tea.

Add ½ c. whiskey and ½ c honey to tea

Stir.

Pour into a 2 cup jar with a lid. Cover.

Store in cool dark cupboard.
Pine Cough Syrup - Oxymel
Chop 2 large handfuls of pine needles along with their twigs
or small branches.

Place in a pint jar and cover with vinegar.
Close the jar with a plastic or glass lid. (You can also place wax
paper or plastic wrap over the top of the jar before closing
with lid. Vinegar can corrode the metal ball jar tops.)

Leave in a dark cabinet for 2 weeks.

Strain.

Measure the amount of strained vinegar. Add an equal
amount of honey to the vinegar.

Pour into a bottle or jar. Close.

Store in a cool dark place or in the refrigerator.

01/16/2024

I'm excited to be teaching a class Thursday evening at Beaver Brook.
register at: https://www.beaverbrook.org/education/
for the Waste Free Cooking class.

01/08/2024

It’s January and people are thinking about ways to build habits for health. So I’m posting this again.

How do you build healthy habits that will stay with you? Here's a a technique that has worked for numerous clients!

Still a good way to do things even with backwards letters. lol

Set realistic, doable goals and create healthy habits using S.M.A.R.T. GOALS.SpecificMeasurableAction orientedRealisticTime frameAlso see a fun way to do aer...

11/01/2023

Ashkenazi Herbalism: Beyond the Bagel happening tomorrow evening. I'm excited to share information and recipes!
To register for classes: https://healthnhearth.com/program-about

With the winter coming, you may be thinking about how to support your immune system and help keep your respiratory system healthy. Here is a deep dive into garlic and some of its wonderful healing properties.
About Garlic
Garlic is a powerhouse in the kitchen for taste and for health.

10/26/2023

Putting up sauerkraut tomorrow. Fall has the best cabbage for fermenting.

Sauerkraut Makes 1 quart

Ingredients:
2 lbs. cabbage (Fall sauerkraut cabbage is often juicier then spring cabbage.)
1 oz sea salt = about 2 tablespoons sea salt,
If you like it less salty, use 1/2 oz or 1 tbs salt. (I’ve never done it this way. Mine is an old Eastern European recipe.)
1 tbs caraway seeds

Instructions:
1. Peel and cut away any bad areas of cabbage.
2. Weigh out 2 lbs of cabbage.
3. Shred cabbage with large knife into small pieces or use a mandolin set half way between1/8" and 1/4”.
4. Put in deep bowl or pot.
5. Stir in salt and caraway.
6. Let it sit for awhile until you get back to it. (Not less than an hour not more than a few hours.)

Options for drawing out liquid:
1. Pound with mallet until cabbage releases juices and turns a darker color green.
2. Mash/squish with hands. ( my favorite)
3. Have child with clean feet stomp on cabbage.

Press into jar with hand or small wooden mallet.
Press until there is about a 1" of liquid at the top.

Ferment at room temperature upstairs in winter, downstairs in summer for 2-3 weeks. Temperatures should be between 60-75 degrees. Taste to see when ready.

Store in fridge

10/24/2023

Can you see the steam coming off the bread? I know you're not supposed to cut into a loaf right out of the oven but couldn't resist! Buckwheat bread was a bread made traditionally in the shtetl. It is full of fiber and good taste. I added some herbs for stress into the dough as well.
This is one of the recipes I'll share during the Ashkenazi Jewish Health series starting on Thursday.
You can still register: https://healthnhearth.com/program-about

10/17/2023

Chamomile and fennel tea. Sorrow and fear can both be felt in the digestive system and the lungs. Chamomile is relaxing and helps settle an upset stomach and fennel intersects with the lungs and digestion. These are both herbs that appear in a traditional Russian herbal.

Speaking of herbs that would have been used in Eastern Europe…..

Ashkenazi Jewish Herbalism and Health Practices
Come join the conversation.
These zoom courses are for anyone curious about traditional Jewish Healing practices. We’ll be
looking at them from a traditional view in a 21st century context.

This will be a series looking at 4 aspects of health through a Jewish lens.

Ashkenazi Jewish Herbalism: More Than Chicken Soup Oct.26, 6:30
Ashkenazi Jewish Cuisine: Beyond the Bagel Nov 2, 6:30
Ashkenazi Jewish Meditation, Mussar and Spirit: More than Prayer Nov. 9, 6:30
Ashkenazi Herbal Medicine: More than a Cup of Tea Nov 16, 6:30

After years of studying, thinking, cooking and formulating, and working as a healthcare practitioner, I'm going to be teaching a 4 part series on Jewish Ashkenazi herbalism and health.

Rivka Schwartz owner of Health and Hearth.

Register for classes at:

If you are curious and wish to learn about the use of herbs in your daily life and as remedies or about healthy cooking please join one of my classes.

10/12/2023

I know this is a business page but sometimes its not about business, its about the world and our hearts. So much suffering.

Someone sent me this poem today.

For the Sake of Strangers
BY DORIANNE LAUX

No matter what the grief, its weight,
we are obliged to carry it.
We rise and gather momentum, the dull strength
that pushes us through crowds.
And then the young boy gives me directions
so avidly. A woman holds the glass door open,
waiting patiently for my empty body to pass through.
All day it continues, each kindness
reaching toward another—a stranger
singing to no one as I pass on the path, trees
offering their blossoms, a child
who lifts his almond eyes and smiles.
Somehow they always find me, seem even
to be waiting, determined to keep me
from myself, from the thing that calls to me
as it must have once called to them—
this temptation to step off the edge
and fall weightless, away from the world.

10/02/2023

After years of studying, thinking, cooking and formulating, I'm going to be teaching a 4 part series on Jewish Ashkenazi herbalism and health.

This will run for 4 Thursday evenings starting the end of October on zoom.
You can get more information and register here:
https://healthnhearth.com/program-about

These courses are for anyone curious about Jewish Healing practices. We’ll be looking at them from a traditional view in a 21st century context.

Ashkenazi Jewish Herbalism: More Than Chicken Soup

Ashkenazi Jewish Cuisine: Beyond the Bagel

Ashkenazi Jewish Meditation, Mussar and Spirit:
More than Prayer

Ashkenazi Herbal Medicine: More than a Cup of Tea

If you are curious and wish to learn about the use of herbs in your daily life and as remedies or about healthy cooking please join one of my classes.

09/15/2023

There seems to be a rash of poison ivy in the community. (Sorry, couldn’t help it.)
Here are 2 recipes you can use with poison ivy.

Jewelweed spray.

Based on a recipe from Herbmentor

“This spray helps relieve the itching and cools the inflammation. It can help dry up blisters to increase healing and reduce the spread of the poison ivy. The best thing about this recipe is that it is in spray form, as rubbing the poison oak rash is painful and can cause the oil and thus the rash to spread.”

· 3/4 cup Jewelweed fresh. Jewelweed stems are even better than leaves. (Common plant in NH)

Can also add plantain or chickweed.

· 1 cup witch hazel

· 1/4 teaspoon honey

· Spritzer bottles for bottling

· 1. Gently crush the jewelweed leaves and place in a 2-cup mason jar. Pour the witch hazel over this. Cap the jar and shake.

· 2. Set this mixture aside to infuse for 2 to 4 weeks, shaking daily.*

· 3. After 2 to 4 weeks, strain the jewelweed out of the witch hazel; compost the leaves. Add honey to the liquid and mix thoroughly.

· 4. Now pour this liquid into spritzer bottles, label, and use as often as needed. I leave it in the fridge.

Yield: About 1 cup

*It is best to leave for the 2-4 weeks to reach full strength. If you need it sooner, put the witch hazel and jewelweed into the blender and blend for a few seconds and leave for a day or 2. It will have some of the properties of the fully infused mixture., though it is decidedly not as strong.
Jewelweed i.d.: https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/jewelweed-impatiens-capensis

I have 1 bottle of spray made.

Bentonite Clay Paste
Bentonite clay can help draw out the urushiol oil from the poison ivy and it is drying. You can buy it online or I bought some at Target.

Ingredients:
Bentonite clay

Liquid options:
Water, Witch Hazel, a little bit of aloe gel added to other liquids, some people add vinegar.

Instructions:
For every 1 tbs bentonite clay add approximately 3 tbs liquid. You want it to be a thick but spreadable paste.

Spread this onto the rash gently with a tongue depressor or wearing disposable gloves so you don’t spread the rash further.

If you want, a piece of gauze or a breathable bandage can be taped over this. It can also be left without covering.

The paste can be left on for hours. To remove the paste wipe off gently with water or witch hazel.

Jewelweed

With showy orange flowers, jewelweed comes into its own in late summer and fall. Growing in dense patches in moist, shady habitats, this native plant offers nectar for hummingbirds and other pollinators. Usually grown just as a wild plant, it can be added to rain gardens or to suppress weeds in appr...

08/03/2023

There is such an epidemic of isolation in our society. Here is a network that makes it easy for you to help and participate in your community in ways that suit your talents and interests.

Weavers are people who show up for others. They lead with love, building thick relationships. They are transforming their communities and their lives.