u/igavr

People keep asking me for natural energy boosters. I deal with herbs for many years and constantly get this questions.

Meanwhile ginger has been sitting quietly in grocery stores for thousands of years pretending to be soup ingredient :)

If herbs had job titles:

Chamomile >> HR department.

Lemon balm >> therapist.

Peppermint >> IT support.

Ginger? >> rocket engineer.

It's funny because ginger doesn't contain caffeine...

VERY IMPORTANT: It doesn't borrow tomorrow's energy.

Instead it seems to improve some of the systems that make today's energy actually available:

• increases thermogenesis
• improves circulation
• supports digestion (which is where quite a lot of your energy budget disappears)
• may improve glucose handling
• activates TRPV1/TRPA1 receptors (the same family that responds to heat and spicy compounds)
• and somehow manages to make cold mornings feel less gloomy.

The most underrated trick?

Many people think of ginger as a winter tea.

I think of it as a launch sequence.

Especially before:

• long walks
• workouts
• mentally demanding work
• heavy meals
• cold weather

No, it won't replace sleep.

Neither will coffee ;)

Ginger anybody? Fresh? Tea? Powder? Juice? Fermented? Candied? I'd love to hear your tips and tricks. Also, please do not feel shy to object and argue, if you feel like sharing counterarguments

Once in a while I make this slow-braised sprouted beans. Usually such dishes are made of overnight soaked beans 🫘, but I always cook with sprouted legumes.

Water comes first, of course. But if you had to choose one gentle herbal tea, which herb would you trust most—and how would you prepare it?

No known food allergies or specific health problems that might create obvious limitations.

I'm curious what different cultures and families use.

Every spring I admire these beautiful purple flowering trees and this year I decided to follow them till the fruits.

Apparently they are ornamental crabapples (Malus sp.).

I started looking into scientific papers and was surprised how little attention these fruits get considering they seem to contain anthocyanins, chlorogenic acid, quercetin derivatives, procyanidins and plenty of other polyphenols.

Has anyone here actually made herbal tea from them?

Fresh or dried?

Simply infused or simmered like rosehips?

Any good in blends?

What about the flowers? Anyone tried them?

These trees are planted in plenty where I live and I don't remember ever seeing anyone collecting the fruits. Makes me wonder whether they are one of those forgotten herbal resources or whether there is a good reason nobody uses them.

Would love to hear your experience, recipes or any scientific papers I may have missed.

Thank you!

Every spring I admire these beautiful purple flowering trees but this year I decided to follow them till the fruits.

Apparently they are ornamental crabapples (Malus sp.). I started digging into scientific papers and honestly I was quite surprised.

These tiny fruits seem to contain quite an interesting cocktail of compounds:

- anthocyanins (the color speaks!)

- chlorogenic acid (learned from a scientific article)

- quercetin derivatives (claimed by lab reports)

- procyanidins (scientific article)

- lots of other antioxidant polyphenols (logically)

They are edible (quite sour - the bite at the last picture is mine :), yet I almost never see anyone mentioning them in herbal medicine.

So now I'm curious...

Has anyone here actually harvested ornamental crabapples?

Did you use them as food or as herbal medicine?

Tea? Oxymel? Vinegar? Tincture? Jelly? Fermentation? Something completely different?

Do some cultivars have much higher medicinal value than others?

And finally... are they just another forgotten edible tree growing in our parks or do they deserve much more attention?

I'd love to hear your own experience, traditional uses from your country or any interesting scientific papers I may have missed.

Thanks!

This picture is from last year and I'd love to prepare for the season by knowing what I'm going to do with the different parts of the plant.

I know that root decoction makes a traditional medicine like many berberine-containing plants. They have a long history of use as:

- Digestive bitters

- Antimicrobial herbs

- Liver and gallbladder support herbs

- Skin-support herbs (especially psoriasis and eczema in traditional herbalism)

Though I'm extremely interested in berries for their antioxidant value and I assume a few standard recipes of root decoction I know are a tiny portion of what there is on this plant in the world. Please share your thoughts, tips, recipes, warnings, predictions. All are welcome 🌿

What would you guys do with such a beauty? And which medicinal purposes would you recommend that for? For now I'm enjoying eating a thin slice chewing it slowly ang giving my taste buds enough time to read it and love it before it goes down my digestion system :) Yet, there are tons of usages but I want to collect opinions from herbal medicine fans - real people, not the AI or websites 🤓☝️

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A friend of mine contacted me recently with a question "How do I recover memory which deteriorated immensely after years of smoking weed?". ​

Disclaimer: I never smoked myself, but I am a 4th generation herbalist, so I decided to take a look what experts have to say about this from my area of interest: herbs and herbal tea. ​

After the study I made I'd rank common tea ingredients roughly like this: ​

1. Lion's mane (not exactly a herb, but it is claimed to be useful when the mushroom used was properly grown, dried and stored). Btw, I'm a big fan of mushrooms, too. ​

2. Rosemary - traditionally used for memory and mental clarity, and some studies suggest it may support cognitive performance. ​

3. Gotu kola - in most supplements today it is used for focus, circulation, and nervous system support, wach of which directly affects memory quality ​

4. Sage (Salvia officinalis) — often overlooked but has surprisingly good evidence for memory and attention. I read a study about improved cognitive function in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease - for me it is an impressive result and I see no reason for ignoring it ​

5. Peppermint - doesn't sedate people the way lemon balm, chamomile, or passionflower can. Instead, it usually reduces mental fatigue while increasing subjective alertness - quite a combo in my pov ​

6. Cinnamon - my fave, frankly, though it turned out it does have a reputation for supporting memory and cognition, but the evidence is not as strong as for lion's mane or as extensively studied as some other nootropics. I've personally been using cinnamon on a whole lot of people, starting with myself, for a stimulating "memory massage" ​

Eventually I recommended this tea blend to my friend: ​

Rosemary +

sage +

cinnamon +

peppermint +

lion's mane ​

Pictures: I've prepared a cup for myself (all ingredients except for rosemary - I ran out of it when I cooked Bolognese sauce a few days ago :) ​

Please recommend your variants and blends of tea for someone recovering from cannabis-related brain fog and memory problems 🤯🍃☕️

This container is always very attractive for our birb! Guess her favorite nut!

Hi, I was experimenting with coriander and it grew into this! :)

I know that many of you will say that from the hygiene point of view it is not a perfect setup, yet this bird lives in the family fir quite some time and it is really hard to ban her out from the places and objects she truly loves. You know what's interesting about cockatiels? They consider themselves equals with us, humans, and they know what good food is :) Her ever favorite foods are microgreens and sprouts ;)

​

I usually soak my harvest in a solution of apple cider vinegar or sometimes in hydrogen peroxide solution for sanitizing the greens no matter whether the birb touched them or not. But for me the fun of sharing the green treasures with the family pet is really worth it! 🌱