Picking Sumac All sumac shrubs with red berries (Rhus spp.) are safe to eat. Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) is a rare plant; it grows in swamps, bogs, and wetlands in the eastern United States and has loose, hanging clusters of white fruit. Stick with red-berried sumac … Read More

When you can use weeds in your cocktails, it’s a win-win. You eradicate a few pesky plants and you get a delicious adult beverage. Most people don’t realize that the purslane they pull out of their garden beds is the same purslane you’ll see at … Read More

Like many common culinary herbs, cilantro has been used for thousands of years as a digestive aid. This herb has also been shown to help the body process and utilize cholesterol, most likely due to its effects on the liver: cilantro … Read More

The barrel is one of the barbarians’ finest gifts to humanity. The invention of the barrel is variously attributed to Bronze Age Celts, Vikings, or similar hairy, fur-cloaked tribes. It is a testament to the cleverness of these forest folks that, save for the introduction … Read More

Why beer cocktails? First and foremost, they taste good. In addition, they expand the range of beer’s possibilities and can be especially useful in those places that have limited beer variety. Just as spirits cocktails are hot these days because of their creativity, house-made authenticity, … Read More

Why would anyone want to forage for cocktail ingredients? It’s so much easier to go to a liquor store, or a grocery store, or a farmers’ market. Why would you choose to tromp through the woods, hunt down some edible plants, carry them home, clean … Read More

When people approach me to learn how to experience more wellbeing in life, I always tell them it starts with food. When we eat a pure and wholesome diet, we can experience perfect digestion. Our mind, intellect, and ego are able to start to become … Read More

As Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver is fond of telling audiences, cheese is grass processed through a cow and modified by microbes. Beer is also grass processed through a microbe — yeast. So it is not surprising to find a wide range of common flavors from … Read More

When it comes to Irish stouts, everyone knows Guinness (for some people, it’s the only ale they know), yet rarely do we stop to appreciate its quirks. The standard Irish stout is pub-strengthened at around 4% and meant to be drunk in sessions. And yet … Read More

Digestive woes are incredibly common — there’s a reason the chapter on the digestive system is the longest one in my book, Body into Balance. One of my favorite ways to soothe and help heal the gut is with tea. Tea delivers the … Read More