Editor’s introduction: This review is written in the first person by Raven, who spent months living with the Air Tea Kettle before sharing her experience. Her words reflect a personal learning process rather than a technical evaluation.

The Air Tea Kettle—another gadget for the countertop, or something I would grow to love?

It took me months to digest the information. I realize now I was resisting seeing the Air Tea Kettle’s true value. I didn’t want to write something that just repeated the company’s language. I needed to feel it for myself.

Honestly, if the ebook I subscribed to (twice!) had arrived earlier, the learning curve would have been gentler. Once I finally emailed my how-to questions to Jeremy Krause and received the ebook, something shifted. I could relax into it.

This is a very different feeling than drinking tea. More euphoric. More aromatic. More immediate.

What caught my attention is that at lower temperatures, plants release scents they don’t give up at higher heat.

What caught my attention is that at lower temperatures, plants release scents they don’t give up at higher heat. I’m not a herbalist, so I can’t fully explain the chemistry, even though I can feel the results.

I can’t remember exactly what’s in my current blend (it’s in the ebook), but it’s heavenly. I’ve learned that mixed herbs are more pleasant than single herbs on their own.

The ebook includes guidance for herbs that support the nervous system, with precise temperature recommendations. That precision matters.

Air Tea is a new technology. Instead of drinking tea, you inhale herbal vapor through warm air extraction. There is no water and no combustion. The warm air releases essential oils that are often lost in hot water and digestion.

Watch: Air Tea Kettle demonstration video

I grow gardens full of herbs, but I am not a trained herbalist. Reading the ebook is essential. It explains the color-coordinated temperature system and how specific plants respond to heat.

The clearest and most grounded instructions I found were from herbalist Amanda Crooke, especially her Vaporization Masterclass (Part 1).

The device itself is surprisingly simple. There are only three buttons. The center button does most of the work. Plus and minus let you manually change the temperature.

Originally, I couldn’t locate the tweezers. They are a small square tool that slides in and out of the base. These are important for removing the hot stainless steel pod unless you want to burn your fingers.

One small but useful trick: if you prefer Celsius, hold the center and minus buttons together for about three seconds.

Even though it appears simple, I still needed time to understand the different components. Today I feel a real sense of relief about the effort I put into demystifying the Air Tea Kettle.

It sits on my countertop, and confidence makes me want to use it.

And I have to say, the presentation and packaging are ingenious.

Editor’s Notes: about the herbal guidance behind the Air Tea Kettle

The Air Tea Kettle places strong emphasis on education around temperature and plant preparation. Herbalist Amanda Crooke provides instructional material focused on safe, plant-specific vaporization, particularly for users who are not formally trained herbalists.

Why this works as a Valentine’s Day gift

Editor’s note: This is not positioned as a fast or flashy product, but as one that rewards patience, curiosity, and ritual—qualities often associated with meaningful gifts. Herbalism and working with herbs can be a life journey.

::Air Tea Kettle

The post The Air Tea Kettle creates a new way to meet plants and herbalism appeared first on Green Prophet.

Beloved, fortunate, sweet, and royal; an herb with a long and storied history in Asia and across the world. Called by many names, basil has featured in previous Green Prophet articles, so enjoy another serving, a brief history of basil. Humble yet vigorous, after Greek basilikon phyton or in English “royal plant”. Or basilikon okimon, which is the root of the Latin scientific name Ocimum basilicum.

Tulsi: Revered in India, Embalmed in Egypt

Yet the historical origins of basil are literally “matchless” among plants, the Hindu goddess Tulasi’s name means just that. She’s the namesake for the plant tulsi or as many know her, “holy basil”. Ancient Indians cultivated the peerless plant intensely, seeing her as the goddess Tulasi. Then she spread her roots and legends in every direction out of India. Rooted in romance and royalty, Tulasi is the beloved of the deity Vishnu who Vaishnavites see as the Supreme Being. Just like humanity, basil herself has a deeper origin as plant medicine in the mother continent of Africa.

Various African cultures traditionally use basil for both magic and medicine by various cultures. Herodotus the Greek historian documented her as a component of the embalming process for Egyptian mummies. Despite the proximity to Northern Africa, Greeks basil isn’t from the Egyptians. Note that off the coast of Tanzania in Eastern Africa, basil is mrehani on the island of Zanzibar. Mrehani is a Swahili word, Swahili being an Arabic-flavored Bantu language.

Pho Cups in Vietnam

Instead basil traveled east from India to Southeast Asia. This includes the common use of tulsi in Thai cuisine where it’s called krapow. Thailand also lends its brand to the strongly anise-flavored “Thai basil” called horapha. Horapha and related cultivars are used in Vietnam as well in the popular soup called pho. While tulsi is locally known as selasih in Indonesian, there is a lemon-flavored variety called kemangi. Both kemangi and selasih are common in Malaysian and Laotian cuisines as well.

Tokhm-e sharbati, a Cool Summer Drink

Traveling west through what’s now Pakistan, where sweet basil is niazboo in Urdu. Basil seeds are tukhmalanga soaked in water, creating a widely regionally-popular “cooling” beverage. Basil seeds as a beverage in Iran is tokhm-e sharbati, tokhm-e means “seeds” in Persian much like tukhmalanga in Urdu. Sharbati means a sweet drink like juice or syrup; this is a traditional and popular summer drink. Persia brought basil to West Asia, including the Levant.

In the Levant tulsi took on a new name from the Aramaic word ריחא or richa, meaning “smell” as in a scent. This became the basis for calling her rayḥān (Arabic), rayhān (Persian), and many other variants in Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Hebrew, Tajik, Turkish, and mrehani in Swahili as mentioned above.

You should not confuse rayhan with “Arabic basil” or habak, which is a mint plant from the mint genus Mentha. Both mints and basils are a part of Lamiaceae, somewhat confusingly called the mint family. Yet basils are from the genus Basilicum, the Latin for basilikon. Most of what we think of as mints are part of the Mentha genus. The wider Lamiaceae family contains many well-known herbs including rosemary, sage, oregano, hyssop/zaatar, thyme, lavender, perilla/shiso, catnip, bee balm, and many more.

From Moorish Romances to Pesto

From the Levant, rihan came to the beautiful volcanic island of Sicily where it became part of local magic, legend, and decor. Basil became basil there through Greek occupation as a calque the Greeks directly translated the Persian name meaning “kingly herb”.

Later on the Sicily, a custom rooted in old legends arose from the later Moorish occupation. Though often gruesome, the Moor’s Head is retold in many forms with both tragic and noble romances. In one such story a local girl falls in love with an invading Moor who turns out to have a family back home. She jealously beheads him, places his head in a decorative planter, then basil grows from it. In another story he’s still an invader but converts to the local religion and settles down to live happily ever after. There are other stories, some more tragic and others less so. Regardless of the story this is why you will find these oddly charming ceramic planters of a North African man and an Italian woman all over sunny Sicily.

And Pistare to Pistou

Emanuele Rossi concocted  pesto alla Genovese in 1852 CE, just over 170 years ago, the first common pesto to use basil as an ingredient. In Italian pesto simply means “paste”, a sauce properly made with a mortar and pestle to bring out the full flavor, based on the ancient Roman herb and cheese spread known as moretum and a more recent Ligurian garlic and vinegar innovation called aggiada. Likewise this is where French pistou originates; whether in French, Italian, or Sicilian we can see the common Latin root pisto/pistare that means “I pound”/”to pound”.

Two More Servings to Come

Delightfully, basil keeps growing vigorously wherever we plant her seeds, even in our heads! In each land the way basil spices up recipes varies as much as basil cultivars themselves.

The post A Brief History of Basil From India to Italy appeared first on Green Prophet.

Over-the-counter medicines are getting more expensive and harder to obtain. Think how much you regularly pay for mouthwash and pills for indigestion and flatulence. Natural mint infusion (long-steeped tea) helps keep your mouth and digestion sweet, and costs laughably little compared to OTC remedies. Here we’ll tell you how to use fresh or dried mint to save money and make your presence more agreeable in society.

Note: This post discusses the use of fresh or dried herb only, not oils, capsules, or other commercial products.

The two most commonly used mints (out of hundreds of varieties) are peppermint and spearmint.
Peppermint is the stronger, with more medicinal menthol and methyl salicylate, the active ingredients that sweep bacteria, fungi and virus out of the mouth and reduce them in the gut. It’s also the more antispasmodic of the two mints, relieving diarrhea and stomach cramps. Peppermint flavors many brands of toothpaste and commercial anti-acid remedies for those reasons.

Spearmint shares peppermint’s properties, but in milder form. It’s the safe mint to give to kids. Half a cup of tea every few hours is safe for children as a soothing warm drink when they’re down with a cold, or to control diarrhea; or, as a rinse after brushing teeth. NEVER give peppermint, in any form, to infants and young kids. The menthol content of peppermint may cause them difficulty breathing.

Swishing the mouth out with mint infusion after brushing (with an SLS-free toothpaste) completes daily dental care by treating teeth and gums to an antibacterial bath. Adults use peppermint infusion, and kids get spearmint. Most kids, by the way, enjoy the rinse-and-spit routine.

A bonus from mint infusion when combined with sage is as a mouthwash that prevents cold and flu viruses from latching on. Although safe to rinse and spit, it’s not to be swallowed. Mint/sage infusion won’t keep Covid or similar life-threatening viruses at bay, but with its antimicrobial properties, it’s amazingly effective in helping to evade the common cold. Think of overheated, crowded, under-ventilated classrooms and work spaces: hotbeds of illness. It’s worth the twenty minutes to steep the infusion and the few seconds to rinse the mouth. Recipe for mint infusion below.

Bad breath sometimes has other origins. Post-nasal drip can make the breath unpleasant. An inhalation of strong mint infusion opens nasal passages and can help relieve the condition.

Either mint, but especially peppermint, relieves indigestion, nausea and flatulence, as tea or even by chewing on a couple of fresh green leaves. Being antispasmodic, peppermint soothes stomach muscles and improves digestion, so food passes through more easily.

If you’re worried about flatulence before a social occasion, drink mint tea or chew on a mint tablet, or pluck a couple of fresh leaves off that mint plant on your windowsill and and chew them up. You’ll be worry-free for hours afterward.

Some caveats with regard to peppermint: if you suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), peppermint may make your heartburn worse. This is because peppermint, in relaxing the muscles of the gastrointestinal tract, might allow more stomach acid to escape into the esophagus.

In other words, a bout of heartburn after overindulging in spicy, greasy food can be safely treated with mint tea, but if you suffer from chronic heartburn, forgo peppermint and talk to your doctor.

Related: Relieve Flu Symptoms with Kitchen Remedies

Peppermint may interact with certain medications. It should not be taken with cyclosporine, a drug taken by organ transplant patients. It may also reduce the effect of medications metabolized in the liver or drugs that reduce stomach acid.

Parsley and Mint Mouthwash
Blend:
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh mint
1 cup of filtered water
1 tablespoon of vodka.
Strain. Keep the herbal refrigerated between uses: can be kept for 3 days.
Rinse the mouth with 1 tablespoon of the herbal mouthwash. Do not swallow; spit it out.

Mint tea with fresh herb:
Boil 2 cups of water.
Put a handful of fresh mint leaves in a teapot or saucepan.
Steep, covered, 5 minutes.
Sweeten to taste.

Mint tea with dried herb: Use 1 tablespoon dried leaves. Or use a commercial mint teabag, keeping the tea covered until you drink. Check the production date on the box: if the tea’s over a year old, the mint will have lost most of its properties.

Drink mint tea hot in the winter and cold in the summer. Add a healthy slice of lemon, either way, for lemony tang and added vitamin C.

Mint infusion:

Chop a handful of fresh leaves or use 1 tablespoon dried mint.
Put the herb into a teapot or saucepan.
Boil 1 cup water. Pour it over the mint.
Cover the teapot or saucepan. Steep 20 minutes before straining.
Take 2 tablespoons every 2-3 hours.

The infusion is excellent, reheated, as a decongestant inhalation. Place a bowl of steaming tea on the table. Lean over the bowl and cover your head with a towel to trap the steam. Inhale the tea for 5 minutes. Take a breather out of the tent if it’s too hot, but return to the steam for 5 minutes’ inhalation.

Interesting fact about mint nutrition: mint has as much vitamin C by weight as oranges. While no one expects to eat that much mint at once, here’s a good winter salad with tender spearmint leaves (peppermint is too strong):

Orange and Mint Salad
2 fresh, juicy oranges, peeled and sliced
1 large tomato, sliced
Small handful of spearmint leaves, coarsely chopped
Your favorite salad dressing
Intersperse the orange and tomato slices on a flat dish.
Scatter the chopped spearmint over the orange and tomato.
Drizzle your favorite dressing over all, and serve.
Can’t find tomatoes at this time of year? The salad’s good without them too.

And a mild, minty note for next summer: Steep a healthy handful of whole mint leaves, plus a thinly-sliced lemon, in filtered room-temperature water for an hour. Refrigerate before serving, or serve over ice. Many like it just as it is, without sweetening.

Image of mint tea by jaida-stewart-Bmek6EYG9Uk via unsplash 

Image of mint leaves by anna-hliamshyna-VDR-uVIHP_8-unsplash

More cool herbs and how to use them:

5 ways to eat iron-rich nettles

7 Natural Herbs that help with Anxiety

The post Banish Bad Breath and Save Money With Natural Mint Infusion appeared first on Green Prophet.

CBD of cannabidiol is one of dozens of healing molecules found in the cannabis plant. We know the marijuana plant for its psychotropic effects of getting high, but that’s another molecule altogether, known as THC. 

With shifting cannabis laws and a choice to not play with one’s sanity or mind during working hours, a number of people have found that just the CBD from the cannabis plant can help with a night’s sleep, reduce period pain, calm anxiety and back inflammation. It offers a whole host of therapeutic effects that mainstream companies that produce water and cola are even trying to find ways to extract it and add it to beverages and food. 

If growing and using cannabis is legal in your state or country, like Canada, you can simply order seeds online, choosing a variety of cannabis that is known to be bred with little THC and a lot of CBD and from there you can go into the decision to create oil from the plant. It can be an important part of the therapeutic process, rearing those cannabis plants and extracting the oil, but it’s time consuming and definitely requires know-how possibly beyond a few YouTube videos. Start your search with  CBD websites online if you are ready to skip ahead of the growing process.  

What to look for when buying CBD of any natural remedy online

Cost point

Anyone can open a CBD oil shop these days because there is little regulation in the business. There are multiple ways and processes for extracting CBD from the plant. Some processes are more costly because they use “cleaner” methods that may pull out more material from the plant. Some CBD oils may be highly diluted with a carrier agent. Speak to a friend who is in the know and see what works for her. Try to find something that fits your budget and try it out. Consider that if it works for you the cost you paid will be a recurring price –– so be sure it’s something you can afford. 

Types of CBD

CBD can come in endless packaging but at the end of the day it’s still the same molecule. You can find it in oil drops, gummies, capsules, brownies, vape liquids, CBD drops. Again the speed at which it enters your system can be affected by the carriers that come with your CBD so start by trying it in a way that makes sense to you. 

Look to the source

Before you buy from any website, dig around a little bit on Google. Do they have good reviews? Do they have socials and an updated Instagram and Facebook page? Products must be tested in a lab that is trusted and which as authority and should be a place you can find on the internet –– and even call if you have concerns. 

Just because cannabis is not yet a widely accepted medicine in pharmacies doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be treated seriously like any other medicine. Go to a reliable source, with well tested products that are available in multiple formats for you to try. 

The post Find therapeutic CBD medicine online appeared first on Green Prophet.

Given our current pandemic and overflow of information, it’s understandable for a person to feel some level of anxiety. Sometimes, a little anxiety can be beneficial. However, some people live with greater levels of stress than others. It gets to a point where anxiety sucks the joy out of life.

Consider reaching out to a licensed professional if you experience moderate to severe anxiety consider reaching out to a licensed professional. Often, our anxiety stems from deeper problems we may not recognize right away. BetterHelp can help you find a licensed therapist specializing in helping patients with anxiety. For more information about which therapies work best for anxiety, visit the link below:

https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/psychologists/what-is-convergence-psychology/

Many people turn to natural herbs and treatments to dampen their anxiety. Here are seven examples of natural herbs that can help manage your anxiety levels.

St. John’s Wort

St. John’s Wort is a yellow flowering plant that contains hypericin and hyperforin. This flower grows all over Europe and Asia and is easily accessible in pill form at most pharmacies. St. John’s Wort has been widely used for people with depression, but studies have shown it can also treat anxiety.

It is unknown which specific effect St. John’s Wort has on the body. Still, studies have shown that the flower promotes serotonin production. This hormone stabilizes our moods and happiness.

Valerian

Valerian is a perennial plant found in Europe and parts of Asia. Valerian is sold in tea form. Alternatively, its roots are extracted intend ground into pill forms. Valerian is used to treat people with sleeping disorders and calm someone’s anxiety levels.

Valerian has soothing properties that can soothe people who are feeling anxious or stressed out. The plant contains hesperidin and linarin. These chemicals have been shown to inhibit certain functions in the amygdala. The amygdala is the part of the brain that processes fear and emotional responses to stress.

Chamomile

Chamomile, or Matricaria Recutita, is a versatile daisy-like plant that has been used for many other ailments. Chamomile can help reduce anxiety, inflammation, blood sugar, menstrual pains and even help cancer patients. Chamomile plants are usually dried and infused into teas.

Studies have shown that chamomile taken over time can help reduce anxiety and increase overall well-being. Chamomile contains the chemical apigenin, known to bind to brain receptors that produce anxiety and stress.

Lavender

Lavender is another versatile plant that treats a wide array of conditions. Lavender can be ground as boiled in tea, or its oil can be used in creams and lotions to apply topically. Some of the symptoms lavender can help with are anxiety, sleep problems, asthma symptoms, and pain management.

Lavender oil contains linalyl acetate, which has been shown to affect the parasympathetic system by reducing anxiety levels and regulating hormone production.

Kava

Kava, or kava kava, is a bright green plant indigenous to the Pacific Islands. This plant is known for its psychoactive properties and can cause sedation, relaxation, and relief from anxiety. Kava is usually mixed with a beverage as a plant or extracted into a liquid. If taking kava plant in liquid form, be sure to only take a small dose as it’s very potent as a liquid.

Be advised that kava plants should not be taken daily. Their sedative effects could cause side effects like addiction and severe weight loss.

Passionflower

Passiflora Incarnata is a perennial, woody vine that grows in the Americas. Some species are also found in Asia and the Polynesian Islands. It’s a beautiful purple flower used to treat anxiety, depression, and panic disorders.

Passionflower has been known to raise gamma-aminobutyric acid levels. This compound helps you relax and sleep better by reducing brain activity.

Ginseng Root

Ginseng Root is a popular alternative to taking antidepressants and has been used in Asia for centuries for its curative properties. You can boil the root into a tea, eat the root raw, or take ginseng root in pill form.

Ginseng root contains compounds that help regulate the immune system. It can also help with inflammation and anxiety if taken for no more than 8 weeks. Studies show that after 8 weeks, ginseng root’s curative effects begin to wane.

Final Thoughts

Please keep in mind that herbal remedies are not exempt from side effects. Kava, for example, can become addicting over time. Always be sure to check with your primary caregiver about taking herbal supplements. If you feel severe symptoms, reach out to a licensed therapist for professional help.

The post 7 Natural Herbs that help with Anxiety appeared first on Green Prophet.

The mystery is such a mystery that even when botanists say they might have found clues, the secret, I suspect it will still be a mystery: the source of techelet, ancient blue used by Jews. The color blue was hard to come by in ancient times, and it was expensive, like the queen of all blues lapis lazuli, but like today it was revered especially in spiritual sources. The Jews used an ancient blue called techelet to dye their prayer garments, the four cornered clothing they wear to keep their minds and hearts on doing good deeds. The Bible explores how these strings on the prayer shawl should look, and that they should be dyed blue, it says.

But where does this blue come from? It’s important for religious Jews to be vigilant with biblical commandments, so to find the original source of blue is important to them. The Talmud names the source as a sea creature called the hillazon which many believe to be a sea snail known as the Murex trunculus.  But, while there is broad consensus for this identification, its acceptance in practice is not universal.

Europeans, also loved blue and artisans used it widely as a color in medieval times. One that came in favor was a blue called turnsole or folium, and as part of a research project researchers from Spain took ancient instructions on how to do it. They found the plant in a nearby village, collected the berries and went step by step to recreate it.

The researchers from Portugal reported their findings which included analysing the structure of the dye using modern equipment. It’s probably more complicated to make than sourdough bread. But I wonder, is the ancient blue used back then in watercolor dye any clue to the ancient blue used by Jews?

Published in Science Advances, the group has identified the molecular structure of the dye by following ancient preparatory techniques.

About 1000 years ago during Medieval times in Europe, a special blue was used called folium or turnsole to color paintings and illustrations. For a few hundred years, dye makers went into great detail to explain how this blue was made. The old books say the blue was made from the berries of the Chrozophora tinctorial plant—which is a small, grayish-green wild herb that grows in Europe.

Botanists on the team from Nova University scoured the countryside nearby and found the plant growing along the road in a town called Monsaraz in Portugal. The team then followed all the instructions from the ancient dye makers on how best to collect the berries and when.

They learned how to extract the pigment from the berries and then how to treat and purify it. They then soaked a small piece of cloth with the dye of the berries and when they needed to use the dye would take a small snip of the cloth, and added water to release the blue.

They then applied modern testing techniques to identify what it was made from and found it came from a hermidin alkaloid which they named chrozophoridin. If they know more about this dye, the researchers say they can be better equipped to preserve medieval work that uses folium.

A perfect forgery?

And what about this dye being connected to the biblical blue?  I contacted Mois Navon from the Ptil Tekhelet, an organization that manufactures blue dye from the Murex trunculus to make the biblical fringes, and he explained that the Talmud actually discusses a perfect forgery dye made from a plant called “kela ilan”.  This plant is known by its latin name Indgoferra tinctorial. 

The Talmud goes on, Navon explains, to forbid any blue dye not sourced in the hillazon.  So while plants have been a wonderful source of blue in ancient times, they have never been accepted for ritual use.

The post Ancient blue recreated by botanists in Portugal appeared first on Green Prophet.

Early summer, and the basil plant in my container garden is tall and bushy.  Karin gave us a great pesto recipe, and I’ve already blended up handfuls of fragrant, dark-green leaves to make lots of that pungent Italian sauce. After trimming the tops off the plant, it took only two weeks for another healthy crop to grow in. What am I going to do with it all? Now I’m pondering other delicious ways to use up the basil bounty.

Basil’s flavor is dominant, and pesto is really where you can allow it to shine. But it’s a surprisingly versatile herb, and many foods accept its unique, almost clove-like taste. For example…

Basil and orange peel vinegar.

Peel an orange, avoiding the bitter white pith as much as you can. Drop the fragrant swirls of peel into a jar of apple cider vinegar. Push a good handful of fresh, rinsed and dried basil sprigs into the jar and close it up. Keep the vinegar in a dark place for a week, then use it in any salad dressing. It will keep up to a year.

Roasting an organic chicken or duck?

Separate the skin from the flesh with your fingers and carefully push basil leaves and slivers of garlic under the skin. Season the bird, dribble olive oil over it, and roast. This is especially tasty with duck.

Two-tomato and basil sauce.

This no-cook sauce tops pasta or lightly steamed vegetables, and is vegan. Drain 1/3 cup of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, but reserve the oil. Put the sun-dried tomatoes in the food processor or blender. Add 15 oz. (425 grams or 2 cups) fresh cherry tomatoes. Push 1 cup of fresh basil leaves onto the tomatoes.

Peel two cloves of garlic and add. Finish with the juice of one lemon. Whizz until you have the consistency you like, adding oil from the sun-dried tomato jar by tablespoons if needed. You can use dry-packed sun-dried tomatoes; then you’ll need to add olive oil to get a saucy texture. If you want a good, chunky texture, don’t process the tomatoes but chop them all up finely, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix it all up in a big bowl.

Summery herb cocktail.

Muddle (slightly crush) a healthy sprig of basil and an equally healthy sprig of mint in a glass with 1 teaspoon granulated sugar. Add 1.5 oz. Rum and squeeze some lemon juice in. Top with ice and seltzer or tonic water.

How about a salad with fresh basil?

Here’s our Caprese Salad.

More basil tips: Chop a small handful of basil and stir it into any marinade, for any food. Lay some basil leaves under the fish you’re about to bake. Make scented sweet cream according to our geranium-scented recipe, substituting basil for the geranium leaves. Pour over fresh fruit.

Get the picture? It’s amazing how many culinary uses basil has. Try some. You’ll feel good about using up your crop, and you’ll get a whole new view of its delicious flavor.

The post 5 Ways To Use Up Your Basil Crop appeared first on Green Prophet.

Another hot summer is now upon us and most people in the Middle East that have them are running their air conditioning units at full blast. Many people may not realize that their AC units are also producing large amounts of “run off” water that can be used to flush their toilets, mop their floors, and be used as a source of fresh water for house plants and gardens. Don’t let it go down the drain or evaporate in the sand!

The resulting water from air cons is very similar to rain water, which is produced by evaporation of water from the earth’s surface and later returned to earth when the water vapor forms into clouds that later turns to rain.

Buckets of fresh water from one small AC unit!

The cleanliness of AC water depends on whether it runs off directly when created, via a drainage hose; or allowed to collect underneath an older window type of unit that allows harmful bacteria to grow. The idea of creating water from the air is being studied by a number of people, including the military, where devices are now being used to utilize the run off water of air conditioners in military vehicles in places like Afghanistan.

The technology behind devices used for creating needed water for field troops is now being developed for devices that can be used for non-military uses as well.

I personally obtain as much as 10 to 12 liters a day from a small 1 hp AC unit, and use this water for plants as well as mopping the floor. A new shopping mall nearby is now using AC run off water for watering its outside landscaping.

One thing for sure is that most of the water created by condensation from AC units is still going to waste. If properly utilized, this water might eventually be able to provide for as much as 10 -15% of a community’s fresh water needs in the hot summer months.

How can you collect this water? Run a pipe from the air con run off pipe, and collect the water in a bucket for later use. Or if outdoors, let it irrigate your thirsty plants directly. Start a vertical garden: If you have no plants, plant some. Start with some herbs and then move on to bigger ideas, like trees, once you’ve committed to the idea.

Read more on utilizing Air Conditioner run off water:

Time to Drink Water From AC Units
Tap Into Auxiliary Water Supplies With Your AC
The Eco Army of Cyprus

Images by Maurice Picow

The post Cherish AC water runoff appeared first on Green Prophet.

Basil grows like a weed. That’s my conclusion after planting a sprig of it 4 months ago. It’s late summer, early fall now here in Jaffa, Israel, and the basil (or basilicum as locals call it) is ripe for the picking. But how many leaves of basil can you garnish your salad with? Or eat in pasta? I had a plan to make pesto.

Related: 5 ways to use your basil bush

Now when I cook, I rarely make sure I have the right ingredients. And I practically never use a recipe. You could say that I like to swing it. Most of the time, the food turns out pretty good, but often quite “wow” as my friends say (no I don’t pay them), so I urge you to take a little chance when cooking. In the worst case you can downgrade your stir-fry to a soup or mix it with eggs for a casserole (recycling right?). In the very worst case, feed it to your dog or compost heap.

Pesto isn’t something I grew up eating in my small town in Canada, but something I grew to love as a spread working at the Liberty Cafe on King West in Toronto. Later, in Switzerland, I admired how one of my co-workers Esther (at an environmental research institute I was working at), prepared small jars of pesto for all her friends when basil was in season. She didn’t give me one, so maybe some latent jealously inspired me to create my own last week.

Onto the recipe: Normally pesto calls for pine nuts. Those things actually grow on pine trees over here in Israel and I am assuming in Lebanon and Syria too — wherever conifers tolerant to this Mediterranean climate can grow. Pine nuts are really expensive, and not something that I normally stock in the kitchen. But we did have walnuts (egozim or California nuts as Israelis call them), so I thought why not. A substitute couldn’t hurt.

I went to the garden and twisted off a few branches of basil, and proceeded to soak it in salty water, using chunky coarse salt. Since my herb garden is organic (I am not using pesticides), there is no need to wash well. But keeping in the tradition of kashrut , or kosher for Jewish dietary laws, I soaked the basil in salt so any creepy crawlies in the basil would float to the surface.

Salting the basil to remove insects

When it’s possible to save them, I do –– releasing the insects outside. Most of the time the small flies in lettuce and other leafy greens are already dead, so they flush down the drain. I did find a dead 8-legged spider in the basil. So good I checked. Jewish dietary laws say that Jews can’t eat insects, and I think most of the rest of the world agrees –– Muslims and Christians alike –– that that this rule is not such a bad one to enforce.

Once I ate a whole bowl of my mother’s soup thinking the small bits were vermicelli. While pouring out a ladle for my cousin, I realized the soup was full of larvae. Probably beetle. Needless to say, I inspect all dried noodles and soup mix before adding them to the pot.

Religious Jews tend to be extra-vigilant with the insect thing, so if you are preparing even just a salad for someone who is religious, consider giving it a thorough check and salting (you can rinse it off), before cutting and chopping.

Onto the recipe:
Using a $25 hand blender, I stuffed the soaked, salted, rinsed and cleaned basil into a jar, along with 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of walnuts, 2 cloves of garlic, some salt to taste and started blending.

Remove the leaves from the stalks and use just the leaves in the pesto. I didn’t have Romano cheese, as some recipes call, but no matter. One of my friends can’t eat bad cholesterol food, and there’s nothing wrong with keeping it vegan to reduce our carbon footprint. So voila, a vegan pesto recipe was born. Easy to do, and great to eat.

I used mine as a spread on bread, and then on a big pasta meal I cooked for eating in our sukka.

Here’s a recap on ingredients. Feel free to add more or less of each depending on consistency and taste. I also like to top the pesto up with olive oil so it doesn’t oxidize. It should keep about 2 weeks in the fridge. Keep it in a small glass jar or give it away to friends.

Homemade Pesto Recipe:

• 3 bunches of basil (green or purple)
• 2 cloves of garlic (not frozen)
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of walnuts (or pine nuts)
• Salt to taste
• A large squeeze of lemon juice
• Make it extra delicious by adding in 100g of parmesan
• Make it extra healthy by adding in a handful of nettles.

Enjoy!

Want more recipes from Israel and the Middle East? 

Knock-out recipe for the tehina and eggplant spread Baba Ganoush (babaganoush)

Mahamarra recipe – a roasted red pepper spread from Syria

Middle East kibbeh (kubeh or kube) recipe – a bulgar wheat and ground meat Levantine delight

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