Cannabis as a vegetable is a completely, 100% sober culinary experience.

Cannabis as a vegetable is a mainstay in my home. I grow often, and many plants I grow only as a green vegetable. When you grow cannabis as a green vegetable you don’t have to worry if your seed is male or female, or if it’s going to produce good quality cannabinoid content because you are only growing it as a culinary vegetable. And when you grow for this purpose, cannabinoids are not the focus, flavor and freshness are.

The part of the plant we use for culinary purpose are fresh, green, young fan leaves. We don’t use buds or pre-buds, stalks or roots. This means that when you are growing a cannabis plant as a vegetable that you don’t have to worry about sexing, light timing, nutrients, and all the other fuss that we have to worry about when we grow it for cannabinoid content. We can grow in a simple pot, with regular nitrogen-rich potting soil in a sunny window or under a regular houseplant light. All we are concerned about when we grow cannabis as a vegetable is the amount and quality of leafy greens it produces. Like lettuce!

If you can grow a leafy houseplant, you can grow cannabis as a vegetable.

The caveat here is that we grow our cannabis plant for its fresh leaves only for about a four weeks, tops. This is because after that point it may start to show some sex characteristics and begin building more cannabinoid content. Once this begins to happen it’s no longer used for our culinary-only purposes and you’ll want to harvest the whole thing before then and start a new plant. For culinary purposes we want a young, bushy and very leafy cannabis plant only.

What sort of nutritional profile do cannabis leaves have?

That’s a good question and there have been some scientific studies on the nutritional profile of cannabis leaves like this one: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2024.1501484/full

The most basic information about this is that cannabis leaves have a similar nutrient profile to other bitter leafy green vegetables. They contain some cannabinoid pre-cursors and acids which have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. This is similar to a lot of other bitter leafy greens which also have their own unique chemistry.

Essentially, cannabis leaves are going to have the rich nutrient profile you would expect in a leafy green vegetable.

What do cannabis leaves taste like?

Cannabis leaves are “bitter green” and you’ll want to use them in recipes that would call for this kind of green. Think of bitter leafy green vegetables like radicchio, seaweed, kale, endive, arugula, mustard, lettuces, dandelion, etc. Bitter greens are renown for flavor and their properties in balancing flavors and promoting digestion. And all bitter leafy greens have their own sorts of flavor profiles.

Cannabis as a bitter leafy green can taste different depending on the preparation. So, for example, Cannabis Leaf Miso Soup, one of my favorite ways to enjoy cannabis as a leafy green vegetable, cannabis leaves replace seaweed in the final step of the soup preparation.

How is the cannabis leaf prepared to use in recipes?

We start with the younger fan leaves leaving the older, more fibrous leaves on the plant. These will be mature leaves, but less fibrous.

When we use cannabis leaves as a culinary vegetable, it’s always more tasty to remove the single “finger” leaves from the main stem of the whole leaf, which is the most fibrous part of the leaf. Unless you are using the fresh leaves in a smoothie, or something like that where the texture of the fiber isn’t a taste issue.

The use of these single “finger” leaves is featured in the recipe for today.

Can anyone grow this as a vegetable?

Keep in mind that even though you may be growing your cannabis plant for vegetation purposes only and never allow it to reach sexual maturity that you are still bound by the laws of your locale. For example: If you live in a state where any adult can grow four cannabis plants for personal use, such as the state I live in, my vegetation only plant not grown for any psychoactive purpose still counts as one of the four plants I am allowed to grow. If you live in a state where growing cannabis is completely illegal, then as stupid as those laws are, they still apply to your vegetation-only plant, unfortunately. Illegal vegetables are illegal vegetables.

And now for today’s recipe!

As an author and co-author of six books, not counting ghost writing and other projects I’ve worked on, I’ve got some strong opinions about the conditions that we are forced to exist under right now, and probably going forward in the future. I think that those who have invested their money purchasing our works for themselves or others have a right to know about what has happened to not just me, but to many of us.

I guess you could call me one of the lucky ones. When I was awarded my publishing deals I insisted that my literary agent include mandatory registration with the US Copyright Office, completed and paid for by the publisher in the publishing contracts. This registration affords me monetary recovery rights of $150,000 per willful copyright violation. Anyone who publishes a creative work owns the copyright whether or not they register, but it is only the formal registration with the US Copyright Office that entitles you to the rights to recover financially.

At the time I battled a lot of intellectual property thievery online, in particular, thievery of my photographic works. Certain cannabis businesses, content creators, and some of these were large and established companies, felt entitled to take my images and use them to promote their own content or businesses. I have filed hundreds of DMCA takedowns over the years. A few times individuals or companies have actually paid me for licensing. But, typically I dealt with a lot of “can’t bleed a turnip” cases where the DMCA was my only course of action.

But I wasn’t the only one going after the thieves. My publisher and their distributor, Simon & Schuster, were also filing these takedowns and attempting to enforce my copyrights. Thieves easily got their hands on my intellectual property with the advent of the electronic book, and any time I used my photographic works from my books to promote my books on my website.

Then came AI.

Fast forward to 2025. I receive a legal notification in the mail that I have been identified as an author who has had their books used in the unauthorized training of an AI model, in this case, the Anthropic AI, Claude. And that I have been identified as a class member of a settlement, of which I may choose or not choose to participate in.

Later, what I discovered was that it wasn’t just one of my books that was pilfered and used to line the pockets of a billionaire, it was three of my books. My three most popular titles, in fact.

Anthropic AI had downloaded my books from a well known book piracy server and used my books to train itself. And it did this with thousands of other books too.

But I was one of the lucky authors. The titles that the billionaire pilfered were officially registered with the US Copyright Office. Thousands of other authors had no such luck, as their publishers had either forgotten to register their works, or they didn’t have contracts that specified registration, or they were self-published authors who did not understand how to protect themselves against intellectual property theft. In this settlement with the billionaire, there is no recourse for those who did not register their works with the US Copyright office. Not even a pittance. Not one cent. Because if the billionaire isn’t forced by the government to pay something, he will pay nothing.

Let’s talk about the pittance.

Because if you thought for one second that I or any legal representation would be able to enforce $150,000 x 3 copyright settlement against a billionaire you exist in some other interdimensional timeline.

As a matter of fact, this “settlement” allows the billionaire to admit to no wrongdoing whatsoever. Keep in mind that copyright violation is not just a civil matter, but it can also be a criminal matter.

The pittance for those with US Copyright Office registrations looks like this: $50,000 each goes to the three authors who brought the class action. And everyone else gets $3000 per each work that was pilfered by the billionaire.

No, I’m not even going to get $9000 for the three registered works of mine pilfered by the billionaire. Half of this goes to my publisher and then what is left of my half, 15% goes to my literary agent. And there may yet be more lawyer fees to pay from this, so if I am lucky, and being one of the lucky ones as I mentioned before, I am looking at a final settlement for me in the neighborhood of $1500-$3500.

So roughly less of 1% of what I am actually entitled to for willful copyright violation.

And like I said before, everyone else who did not have their works registered with the US Copyright Office, which runs into the thousands and thousands of books and authors, they get nothing, even though, technically, they own the copyright to their own works.

And here is the moral of the story:

The next time you see the cops or “asset protection” taking someone out of Walmart in cuffs for shoplifting, remember that no one takes the billionaire out in cuffs for pilfering anything from anyone. No one drags him before the court to pay the fine and reimburse you for what you are fully entitled to under the law the way the law is enforced for someone shoplifting from the billionaire.

So right now I am in the process of working out what is going into my gardens this year, including the cannabis I am going to be growing since I just got some awesome seeds for CBG-rich cannabis that I am excited to try out. I’m going to be growing CBD again this year too.

But I’ve got other plans and literally hundreds of seeds for every vegetable, herb and flower you can imagine. I think that this year is going to be the year I grow a lot of flowers for my watercolor still life painting projects too.

I want to hear from you if you don’t mind taking my poll to find out what kind of content you would like to see here on my substack. As you may or may not know, I also have a youtube channel, but they restrict videos from any sort of monetization that have cannabis content, so that topic is going to be just for this substack.

Tell me what topics interest you the most here on my substack and I will promise to front load those in the coming year!

Stay Calm. You’ve got your CBD infused blanket!

I had to do it.

Plus I had to go back to the grocery store for the coffee I forgot to buy yesterday—and when I went back guess what was still there staring me in the face?

Yes. I bought the thing. I needed an extra blanket for the dog in my art studio anyhow, so the CBD Infused Sherpa Throw it is, for $9.99. All of the other sherpas, better quality fabrics of course, were $15.99 and up so this being the cheapest option, and an opportunity to actually try and launder this “CBD-infused” “Made with CBD Technofusion patent-pending” fiber.

So first, let’s get into the challenges of purchasing this sherpa throw in the packaging the company chose to put it in:

uh huh. That’s dirt you see right there on the corner. And every one of these CBD-infused sherpa throws had dirt on them like this, some worse than others.

Someone at the CBD infused blanket and sheet company was not thinking this through. Or if they were, the thought process was on how many rubes were going to purchase this no matter how they packaged it, so why spend money on the necessary packaging to protect the infused blankets?

And by rubes I mean the rubes that paid $59.99 for this throw:

And of course me. I’m a rube too. I brought one of these home. But for the low low price of $9.99.

This thing had to be laundered before use. Not a chance in hell that I would snuggle it next to my body or allow my dog to have it without washing it first due to the packaging. So to give the “CBD infusion” the best chance of surviving laundering I used my hippy soap and instead of fabric softener I used citric acid in the softener cycle along with a little Lysol Laundry Sanitizer to kill whatever monkey pox, measles, covid, ecoli, mold spores, and other diseases I have no clue about that could be hanging out on this throw due to the way it was packaged. And I dried it on medium heat in the dryer.

So while that is making it’s way through the laundering process let’s have a look again at what the company says about this this sherpa throw and the manufacturing process for the CBD infusion:

The sherpa manufacturing is a little different from the CBD infused microfiber sheets. Instead of adding CBD to the fibers like they do with the sheets, they manufacture the sherpa throws with 5% hemp fibers that have not been stripped of their CBD. And according to this that means the CBD remains forever in the fiber.

I feel like I’ve lost brain cells just reading this again. But let’s continue.

If you’ve ever owned anything made with hemp fiber you know that in order to manufacture hemp fiber for cloth the resins and oils have to be removed. The outer portion of the hemp stalk where the oils and resins are is removed and it is the inner fiber then used to make the cloth. Otherwise you could not make the cloth. But, let’s go ahead and put our thinking caps away like the company would like us to do here. They’ve defied the laws of physics with their patent-pending process and no matter how many times you launder this 5% hemp fiber and 95% polyester sherpa throw, the CBD remains forever!

Now for the laundered results:

Well here are the laundered results.

The blanket did not pill into hard little piles after the first wash; and usually it takes a few washes before cheap sherpa does that anyhow. It came out soft, but I suspect it would have been softer had I used a fabric softener sheet in the dryer.

The dog seems to like it. And soft sherpa is something that calms her down anyhow so I don’t know if the CBD content, if it is indeed defying all known laws of physics and chemistry, remains after the laundering process. For that I would need to send it off to lab for testing and like many of you I don’t have $300 to set on fire.

Is this 5% hemp and 95% polyester sherpa throw worth $59.99? Absolutely not. There’s really no difference between this sherpa and all of the other cheap sherpa throws I have around the house. Was it a decent buy for $9.99? Considering that comparable sherpas can go for $15.99 at this discount grocer I shop at, sure, for $9.99 it’s alright. Doggie approved.

Today I happen to run across these:

On the front of the label as you can see, they claim to have a special process called “CBD Technofiber” and “CBD Technofusion”.

Naturally, because I am a huge enthusiast of external-use cannabis products, topicals and all that, in fact, I actually wrote the first book ever written in the history of the entire world exclusively on this topic, lol, one might say, yeah, Sandra, you are quite enthusiastic and maybe even knowledgeable about this topic, but I digress…

This product baffled me.

What in the heck is “CBD Technofiber” and “CBD Technofusion”?

Well, on the back side of the product they provide the marketing explanation for this process. Of course, I wasn’t expecting a scientific explanation, I’m not that naive, but let’s take a look at what they have to say on the back of the product:

Down at the very bottom in small print there is of course the obligatory “Not evaluated by the FDA, not making claims blah blah.” Okay, well these days most CBD products are going to be labeled like that so they are in compliance so that part is to be expected.

What they explain on the back of this product is what CBD oil does, not what “CBD Technofiber” is or what it does or even how well it holds up to laundering.

On the label they list the fabric as “microfiber”. Microfiber is typically a poly-type synthetic fabric. The sherpa blanket had a similar label indicating it was made with a synthetic fabric. And I would note that the sherpa blanked was extremely thin compared to other regular sherpa blankets I have owned. I would not consider this product to even be a high quality synthetic sherpa blanket. I could tell that the minute that thing went into the washer it would have turned into hard little pill piles.

So okay, these are standard lower quality synthetic sheets and sherpa blankets somehow infused with CBD oil via some sort of special process I have yet to determine what exactly it is.

Now, let’s see if they have a website that explains the science behind their product and how these are going to stand up to laundering. Because, like, what happens to the CBD oil in these sheets and blankets once you wash them?

This is from their website. They did not provide a link to the patent which would have provided us with the scientific information we need about the way this product is made. However, they do briefly explain in layman’s terms about the fabric infusion and make the claim that the CBD oil infused into the product lasts for up to 30 washes.

Did you get that part? UP TO 30 washes.

So no guarantee, really, on how many washes this infusion will last for, only that it can last up to 30 washes. And I suspect this depends a lot on detergent and temperature factors if in fact CBD is actually infused into this product, which it probably is, because that is the selling point of course. I suppose the real question is, then, what do you do with the sheets after 30 washes? Or when do you know that all of the CBD has washed out, or even, what kind of detergent do they recommend to extend the life of the infusion?

One would think that if they want to provide the customer with the maximum amount of use from this CBD infused fabric they might give fabric care tips including suggested detergents and washing temperatures.

Okay here comes the part I really choked on:

$99.99

Regular microfiber sheets at the local big box retailer are about 1/4 of that price.

And when I ran across their product at my local grocery discount outlet the sheets were marked at $14.99 and the sherpa blanket for $9.99!

Okay now for my verdict:

If you would like to use CBD oil as an external or topical product, make a lotion or salve yourself from fresh cannabis, or purchase a reliable brand from a dispensary where the product is fresh, dated, and complies with local laws listing the amounts of CBD.

CBD oil can be infused into cloth at home and wrapped around your neck or even a painful area and then a hot moist towel as a wrap or poultice and I explain how to make these in my books.

Where the science doesn’t science:

CBD, like other cannabinoids, degrades over time, exposure to temperature, and even air itself. Just because someone has a “patent pending” of “infusing CBD oil into fabric fibers” doesn’t mean that they have figured out how to defy physics or chemistry of cannabinoids. CBD will not remain stable when exposed to the high temperatures of laundering, air, and detergents. Especially modern detergents with enzymes that are designed specifically to break down oil and proteins.

Sure, I’ll bet they do actually apply CBD to their fibers, but that’s not even the important part, the important part is the stability of the CBD after sitting on a retail shelf for extended periods, exposed to a variety of temperatures and environments, and of course the laundering. Oh the devil is in the details with the laundering for sure.

I feel like this is a product for the uneducated or the fearful of cannabis. The uber-religious housewife in the midwest who is terrified of the devil and actual REAL cannabis. Not trying to stereotype here, but let’s face it, a product like this has a market for sure, but hopefully it’s not anyone on my mailing list.

Please, if you are a youtube person, check out my channel, like, subscribe, hit bell notifications, click the thumbs up, all the things!

I’ve started doing youtube again after a big flop a few years back when my channel started picking up some steam with one of the first videos about my books and cannabis that I posted before being demonetized and restricted by youtube.

You can guess why. And I explain a little bit about that in the new video. Certain plants and fungi, no matter how tastefully presented, get restrictions and demonetization on youtube. wah wah….

And this is why those discussions will be limited to my substack, where unrestricted freedom of speech is permissible. Without being demonetized or suffering some other sort of penalty.

You may notice in this video in the lead bumper, for about six seconds, I briefly show all of my books. We will see if or how long youtube tolerates that without restricting or demonetizing me. Since it’s very brief, and show not tell. and these are just the books and no other cannabis content and “cannabis” is not even spoken of, I am hoping that six seconds is not going to be problematic because being a published author of several books that feature still life art that I have created is an important aspect of what I do. Very important.

If you have an interest in the artistic production aspects of my books, watercolor painting, still life art, flower arranging, landscapes, as weIl as the permissible gardening topics that youtube will allow, I think you are going to enjoy the direction that I am taking my youtube channel. I’ll be featuring my artistic works and tutorials, etc, on the channel.

Thanks for being a substack subscriber of mine!

It’s been ten years since my first book, The Cannabis Spa at Home, was published. I’d love to say I don’t feel old, but I feel old!

In the last decade I managed to churn out five more cannabis books, including one book I co-authored with Dr. Rachna Patel, The CBD Oil Solution.

But my greatest love, the love of my life, will always be The Cannabis Spa at Home.

And after ten years I’ve learned so much, both in my kitchen and from all of the devoted readers of this book, that I’d love nothing more than to do a second edition, a new volume combining all of the original love with everything I’ve learned over the years. Until then, I savor the memories of my old kitchen in Fremont California and all of those incredible moments with what I can only describe as a muse who came to visit me from the aether to deliver something I can only describe as otherworldly inspiration as I created what was to become my first book.

In all of my books, the art of cannabis has always been one of the most important elements. Very few states had legalized cannabis for medicinal or adult use purposes and it was still the wild west, so to speak. I believed, and still believe, with every ounce of my soul that the portrayal and use of this plant should be elegant, meaningful, and healing. And I strived for that portrayal in the art and photographic still life I produced for all of my books.

My last cannabis book was published in 2023, Your Cannabis Experience. It’s a book about cannabis education, a topic I feel that is of great importance. It’s also my last cannabis book, meaning, the last cannabis book I will ever write. My work is done here. Unless the other books, like The Cannabis Spa at Home, have newer editions of course!

The herbs and fungi of the forbidden gardens hold a special place in my heart and I have cleared space for more artistic visions and a new muse.

Last year I began painting again. I’ve got some lovely watercolor bookmarks that I have painted and will be putting in my Etsy store this week! I’ll post more about that in the coming days.

Would you like to see a forbidden gardens calendar or garden planner? Because I have those ready to go into rotation in the coming year!

Ironically, balms and support of balm usage was expressed by Trump recently, as noted in this article. Regardless of what you think of the sitting President, (and we do not do politics here beyond cannabis politics, so FYI for the comments section) support of topical, external-use, cannabis spa coming from this President is a pretty big deal, I’d say.

Some of you may remember the hullaballoo that was tipped off eleven years ago when Maureen Dowd went to a dispensary and found herself tripping balls after consuming cannabis candy. The article I just referenced also talks about this. Everything blew up about how “potent” cannabis is these days compared to the 70s, which is what Maureen was counting on when she consumed too much of that candy.

Potency isn’t what many people think it is. There were very potent cannabis strains in the 70s and 80s that rival anything found in dispensaries. But you had to know people back then. The average college student? Low potency dirt brick weed from Mexico or Canada that you had to smoke a lot of just to catch a buzz.

Today’s dispensary cannabis is the equivalent of “knowing people” back then. And if you knew people back then you also knew that the cannabis you had access to was very potent, “one hit” wonder stuff. No one in their right mind would have smoked a mile long joint of it or used an ounce to make a pan of brownies.

Just like no one in their right mind would drink a fifth of Jack Daniels.

But, here we are. The drug warriors blame cannabis for every ill in society these days just like they did in the 1930’s when Reefer Madness the movie was released.

In fact, in this article, head cannabis drug warrior Kevin Sabet, cites the correlation of cannabis with mass shootings. You know what else correlates with mass shootings? Coffee. Alcohol. And mental illness. And personality disorders. Hell, maybe even eating pizza the night before the shooting correlates with mass shootings.

It’s the nonsense of Sabet and this article that is the reason I wrote my last cannabis book.

Relying on a dispensary to dispense good sense about using cannabis in a moderate and graciously Epicurean way is like relying on the liquor store to dispense good sense every time someone walks into buy Bacardi 151.

Most Americans have had some sort of alcohol consumption education by the time they turn 21 years old. This is not the same for cannabis. But it should be.

What happened to Maureen Dowd eleven years ago is still happening today and it wasn’t her fault, and neither is cannabis to blame. Prohibition is the foundational reason as to why Americans do not have the same education in cannabis use that they do with alcohol. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Sabet.

And meantime, if cannabis education is important to you for whatever reason, whether it is for the cannabis spa space or to educate family members before they make a trip to the dispensary or try cannabis for the first time, my educational book covering a wide variety of topics from the ancient history of cannabis use, learning potency and moderation, basic gardening, and the recipes you’ve always loved are in this book. And it makes a perfect gift for grandma, your conservative uncle, your college student, or just a friend in need of cannabis education.

Sassy Canna Tea

Ingredients:

1 heaping tablespoon of sassafras root bark

Your desired dosage of CBD or other cannabinoid oil

1/2 teaspoon of acacia gum (you can use something like Heather’s Tummy Fiber for this)

2 cups of water

1 regular black tea bag (If desired. Some people like the flavor of black tea combined with the sassafras tea as opposed to sassafras tea neat. I like both ways, so whatever your tastebuds desire is the rule for this. Also, black tea gives this a bit of a caffeine boost since sassafras does not contain caffeine.)

Sweeten if desired. I like my sassafras tea without sweetener but you can try it both ways and see what you think!

Instructions:

1. In a small bowl combine the CBD or other cannabinoid oil in the desired amount with the acacia gum and mash this together until well combined. Add about a tablespoon of boiling water and whisk vigorously until everything has infused together.

2. Boil the sassafras root bark in the water for 20 minutes. Strain.

3. Add the acacia gum/cannabinoid oil mixture to the hot sassafras tea and whisk vigorously.

4. Enjoy while still piping hot!

The story of sassafras

When I was growing up (and I am old, so…) as a child my grandfather introduced me to his favorite kind of tea, sassafras tea. This was a popular herbal tea in the Ohio Appalachia where he was from. Sassafras shrub grows wild and was harvested by scraping the bark from the roots of the plant. This tea was traditionally consumed in the spring time for releasing the stagnation of the winter. It’s a fine herbal tea for relieving the doldrums and creating a cheerful and motivated disposition, which is exactly what you need to get busy on your gardening tasks for the upcoming growing season.

But in the late 70’s and 80’s something darkened and tainted this much loved tradition of Appalachia and that was the “just say no” era of the drug war.

You see, sassafras contains safrole, an essential oil compound that is used to manufacture Ecstasy otherwise known as MDMA, a powerful stimulant type of psychedelic. Even today, if you attempt to purchase pure safrole essential oil you may find a few government agencies at your door.

Then came the FDA who declared that sassafras “causes cancer”. And was “unsafe” for consumption. Sassafras root bark and bagged sassafras tea disappeared from American retail shelves for two decades after this. The only way you could get it was to go out in the wild and forage it yourself.

Around the mid to late 2000s you could find it again, the total ban being lifted, and by about 2015, vendors from the areas where it grows wild started selling it on Etsy. It doesn’t grow where I live on the west coast, but I do order mine from a farmer on Etsy who sells the root bark there.

So what is all of this controversy really about? Does it really cause cancer? Should we all be afraid of catching a giant Ecstasy buzz when we drink it? Are we going to get cancer?

When sassafras tea is prepared by boiling the root bark and consumed in moderation, in the spring time, as the old timers of Appalachia did and still do, sassafras is safe, delicious, and non-intoxicating. You might notice a little extra “spring in your step” when you drink this tea, much like consuming caffeine.

If you’ve added something like a THC containing cannabinoid oil to your sassafras tea, then no, I would not suggest driving or anything requiring strict sobriety. But if you are just drinking the tea plain, or with CBD, you will feel just as sober as you did before you prepared and drank the tea. It’s about as psychoactive as any cup of regular old Lipton tea in my opinion.

The controversy over this plant medicine, just like any other plant medicine that offends the authoritarian sensibilities, was really just another witch hunt. Just the usual busy bodies who are always looking, always seeking, always handwringing over what someone else is doing that is none of their damn business.

Happy Spring!

Pine shavings or fir and pine shavings used for horse bedding.

Now, just a caveat, I’m using this product and the technique I will describe here in Zone 8b / 9a, depending on the microclimate you are in this area. My garden beds are filled with red wigglers (compost worms) and red wigglers don’t survive the colder winters. But, you can try this technique in any of your raised beds, maybe keeping the beds covered will be enough to keep them alive if you are in one of the cold zones. I suspect this technique will work up to zone 7 or maybe zone 6 depending on how well you keep your beds covered in the winter.

But even if you are in a cold zone or don’t want to use red wigglers in your beds this technique still works for conserving water in the summer, keeping the roots cool in the summer, and preventing weed growth in all seasons.

The pine shavings pine/fir shavings for horse bedding comes in these big compressed bales and compared to mulch or even bales of hay or straw (which always have a bunch of weed seeds in my experience) it’s a very economical and clean product for use in the garden. I paid $11 for a huge 3 cubic foot compressed bale last year and used it in 8 garden beds and still have fresh shavings left over from last year.

So before I get into the details on using this product let’s talk about the worms because it’s the worms that create the nutrition in the soil and till the soil naturally.

Even if you are in a cold zone 6 - 3, you can still use red wiggler worms in your garden beds throughout the growing season before the winter kills them off. Now, I’ve tried to run worm composting barrels and while that does work, it’s actually much easier for me just to have the worms living in my beds and doing all of the composting there. And as long as I keep this layer of shavings on top of the bed the red wigglers always have something to compost.

Worm casings are the gold standard in gardening, and with this layer of shavings kept on top of my beds all season long the worms always have something to compost. And let me show you the absolutely stunning results of leaving my beds covered with this all winter long:

That, my friends, is black gold otherwise known as worm casings. A layer of black gold produced by the composting worms from the decomposing pine and fir shavings. This is a highly nutritious food for plants.

But that’s not all!

When the shavings are brushed away to reveal the lovely black gold underneath, something else has appeared as well: a vast network of fungal mycelium. This is white gold! The fungal mycelium also creates it’s own nutrients for plant roots that live in harmony with the mycelium during the growing season. Black gold + white gold = healthy soil. And healthy soil is what you need to grow a lush garden.

Focus on feeding the soil instead of feeding the plants and you will have the garden of your dreams. The soil is the living organism that takes care of the plants and feeds them.

The only thing you need to do with the shavings in the spring is brush them off to reveal the prizes underneath. You can put the old shavings in your compost bin and let them compost further, (which is what I do because over the growing season they tend to collect weed seeds distributed by the air) and replace them with fresh shavings after your plants are at least 2 inches tall.

After I remove the shavings I then top the beds with a fresh layer of compost from the compost bin and that will be what I plant my seeds in. You will want to remove the majority of the shavings, but it’s okay to leave a little if it’s stuck to the mycelium like it is here. You don’t want to mix up too much of the shavings into your soil because it will tie up the nitrogen until it breaks down and that may result in slow plant growth. Once my seeds come up or I plant starters I will then put down a fresh layer of the shavings.

Here is one more caveat about this: These shavings tend to make the soil more acidic. You can remedy that with natural wood ash or a bag of commercially produced potash. I have used both and when I don’t have wood ash to spread a cheap bag of commercial potash works just fine to bring the soil back to a less acidic PH or to make the soil more alkaline for plants that like that, such as beets.

The combination of using these shavings, red wigglers, plus homemade compost, and two small cheap bags of potash and phosphorus for the entire growing season has cut my fertilizer bill into pennies. Feeding the soil is certainly a lot cheaper than feeding the plants!

Stay tuned for my next fertilizer tip that I haven’t included here. It’s a doozy and deserves its own article. Happy gardening 2025!

I’ve always recommended this type of hemp grow for people who, for various reasons, don’t enjoy or like THC in edibles or extracts or for vaping.

So what is hemp exactly, and how does it differ from “marijuana”?

The answer is fairly simple. They are the same plant. Cannabis sativa. Hemp is just a classification of vanities of Cannabis sativa that are typically used for fiber purposes or as low/nill THC plants that mostly produce the non-intoxicating CBD and CBG cannabinoids. Depending on how the hemp is grown, such as the picture here, it can have the same physical characteristics as a plant high in THC such a lush flowers sticky with resins, non-intoxicating but beneficial and healing resins!

Okay so that is really the short answer. It’s easy to buy hemp seed and I suggest that if you want to grow hemp that you make it easy on yourself and purchase feminized seed so that you can have beautiful lush flowers right out of the gate.

One of my favorite things to do with hemp, and even any male cannabis plant regardless of the variety (males do not make the lush resinous flowers that female plants make) is to use cannabis like a green leafy vegetable. Check out this recipe I posted on youtube a few years ago: (And if you are vegan you may omit the bonito flakes called for in this recipe, the result will still be delicious!)

Cannabis Leaf Miso Soup Recipe

You gotta grow if you want to use cannabis as a vegetable! I’ve never known a dispensary that sells frozen leaves or fresh leaves for that matter as a produce vegetable, so growing your own is the only way to enjoy the non-intoxicating benefits of cannabis leaves as a leafy green vegetable. And with the price of organic produce these days, growing your own cannabis plants can provide a wealth of nutrients for soups, salads, smoothies and more.

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Especially if that rub is the perfect warmth for aching joints.

And late winter/early spring is the time for warming joint salves like this one especially if you are spending time getting your vegetable and fruit gardens ready for the season.

This is an easy cannabis salve recipe because it only requires exactly what you have in your kitchen cabinet right now. There are no extra ingredients you have to buy like beeswax or emulsifiers.

In my first book, The Cannabis Spa at Home, I pioneered a cannabis salve making technique called freezer salve. It uses the inherent property of olive oil to turn into a hard salve by processing in the freezer or a softer ointment if processed in refrigeration. No other fat or additional ingredient is required to accomplish this and it’s shelf-stable as an oil if it’s left out of the freezer or refrigeration.

So for this recipe, you truly only need ingredients from your spice rack, some cannabis flowers or concentrate, and plain pure olive oil. The caveat here being that the oil must be pure olive oil in order for this to set up properly in the freezer.

This cannabis salve, when prepared in the freezer and used from the freezer has the unique property of not being greasy, so if that’s something that has turned you off in the past I think you are going to like using this salve.

So what’s up with ginger?

Ginger is one of those herbs that complement cannabis in so many ways. First, like turmeric it is anti-inflammatory but unlike turmeric it’s not going to turn your skin yellow. It’s warming and it pairs well with the other spices we’ll add to boost the pain-relieving effectiveness of both the ginger and the cannabis. And also, it tones down the odor of the cannabis so that the fragrance of the salve is more herbal and less like the dispensary you can smell from the block over, lol.

Are you ready to try this?

Spicy Ginger Cannabis Salve Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup of pure olive oil 

2 grams of your favorite cannabis flower, ground, or the equivalent cannabinoid content in concentrate

3 tablespoons of ground ginger powder

1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper powder (you may omit this ingredient if you don’t have it, but if you do have it, it’s highly recommended because it boosts the warming sensation of the ginger) 

Any closed glass container like a small canning jar or clean and dry salve container

Instructions:

1. Put all of the ingredients into a double boiler or slow cooker.

2. Set on low-medium heat and warm all of the ingredients, covered, for an hour so that they infuse into the oil.

3. Allow this to cool to room temperature on the counter. This is an important step to ensure there is no water condensation in the closed container you will be using!

4. After cooling, use a cheesecloth or another fine strainer to strain the oil from all of the solids into the final container you will be using for your salve.

5. After straining, close the container and place into the freezer. Allow this to set up until it becomes hard, at least one hour. From there you may store in the freezer for use as a hard salve or store in the refrigerator if you prefer a softer ointment-like texture.

Tip: If you leave the salve out on the counter for any period of time and it becomes an oil again, make sure to take off the lid and allow any water condensation to dry before closing it up again. You can re-freeze or refrigerate again and it will return to its salve or ointment state. 

From the freezer the salve will be hard and you can run your fingers across the surface to get a light dose to rub into a joint or muscle without that greasy feel. The ointment texture may feel more oily on your skin, so how you use the salve is up to you.

And that’s it! Enjoy!

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You’re probably most familiar with standard retail lotion formulations that you can find as an on-the-shelf product. There are a few differences between my lotion recipes and the lotion formulation of these off-the-shelf products:

1. My recipes include the use of cannabis and cannabinoids and are intended to be prepared in small batches and used quickly. Cannabinoids as compounds become unstable (that is, they change) based on temperature, age, and storage conditions. So for example, leave that THC-rich lotion lost under your car seat in hot weather for a couple of weeks or even a few days depending on how hot it is and the THC will begin to degrade into CBN. The same thing happens if you forget some lush cured flower in your hot car, the THC will degrade into CBN. This is just one example. Other cannabinoids also degrade with factors such as temperature, aging, or storage conditions.

2. My water-based cannabis lotions are preservative-free and are intended for storage in refrigeration or frozen and used quickly, like within a few days or so. My oil-based lotions which do not contain water are also preservative-free and may be stored outside of refrigeration, but must be stored in a cool area, such as a cabinet. Water-based lotions without a preservative should be thought of in the same way that you think of prepared food storage. Cooled on the counter after preparation, and then stored in closed conditions in the refrigerator for no longer than a few days, or frozen. My cannabis lotion should be prepared in a small batch, stored in this way and used quickly if it is a lotion preparation that contains water, such as my lotions that contain raw aloe vera juices.

   Oil-based cannabis lotion preparations without preservatives which do not contain ingredients with water content do not require refrigeration. But again, to preserve the integrity of the cannabinoids in these lotions they need to be stored in a cool area away from light in a tightly closed container. They are shelf-stable for up 3 - 6 months if kept in those conditions. Even then, my preference even for oil-based shelf stable lotions is small batches that are used quickly.

3. My cannabis lotion recipes are not a retail-based shelf product. They are formulated in a food-grade, small batch preparation style which can be used at home or even in a spa. They are not formulated for scaled-up mass production for off-the-shelf sales. So for example, if you would like to use one of my cannabis lotion recipes with clients in your spa you would prepare a fresh batch of these lotions daily, just like a restaurant prepares fresh food for their customers on a daily basis. These are fresh, raw lotion products!

Let’s talk about why I do not use preservatives in my cannabis lotion recipes

First, and foremost, cosmetic preservatives do not preserve the integrity of cannabinoids. Any cannabis lotion made with cosmetic preservatives that sits on the shelf long enough, eventually the cannabinoids in that lotion will degrade depending on ambient temperatures, light and air exposure.

Cosmetic preservatives only prevent the formation of microbial pathogens in water-based lotions and creams, they do not protect the integrity of cannabinoids.

This is why, if you are purchasing off-the-shelf cannabis lotions you may want to consider such factors as production dates and storage conditions prior to your purchase. Cannabis lotions and creams can sit on shelves for months in a dispensary—and depending on the dispensary you purchase these from you may or may not know exactly what the storage conditions or age of these preparations are.

Second, in my recipe formulations I take into consideration the sensitivities and allergies that many of us, including myself, bring to the table especially when it comes to cosmetic and hygiene preparations. Cosmetic preservatives are known allergens for some individuals, and in respect to my methods of preparation and use, they are unnecessary by design.

If you are seeking cannabis lotion recipes that you can scale-up as an off the shelf product for sale in your business ventures, my recipes would not be appropriate for this application. If you are seeking fresh, small batch preparation for home use, or immediate use with clients in a spa setting, then I think you’ll find these recipes useful and delightful even.

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The prices of everything these days are breathtaking. Like jumping off of a cliff. Back in the day we used to make jokes about Whole Foods supermarket and call it “Whole Paycheck supermarket”, now every shopping experience in almost every store is a whole paycheck. And forget about it if you are purchasing organic, that’s more like a whole bank account these days.

The beautiful organic vegetables and herbs that you see in this picture were free, or practically free as it were. I grew them in my garden and we lived relatively free as far as food is concerned minus the staples like organic dairy, grains, meats and vegetarian proteins over the spring and summer. I didn’t plant a winter garden this year due to just a lot of other life drama, but I plan to start up in the spring time again!

I’m what you call a front yard farmer. Because I have a home, I have an entire yard to do whatever I want in, (no HOA!), but most of my backyard is too shady for a big garden, so I grow food in the front yard instead of a lawn.

I hate lawns and the HOAs that enforce that nature killing bullshit.

Front yard farming is a controversial topic. But I will tell you from experience that these days, with food prices what they are, neighbors are not as petty about front yard vegetable gardens like they were 20 years ago, or even just 10 years ago.

Instead of complaining about how you are single-handedly responsible for lowering everyone else home value on the block, they now want to know how to do what you are doing, And that’s what happened to me when we moved into our house. I was the first person on the block to front yard farm and it was controversial for about 5 minutes before people started coming around and asking me about it. All of a sudden other neighbors started doing it too. Half of the homes on our block now grow vegetables in the front yard instead of maintaining a lawn. YAY for nature!! Yay for self sufficiency!

If you’ve ever grown a big garden like that you know it’s a lot of work, physical work and time commitment that can be challenging. One thing I have to admit that I miss about condo living is the tiny space I always had on a patio or balcony for all the vegetables and herbs I like to grow. Man…those were the easy days! Haha! I always dreamed of having this huge garden with all the things I could never grow on a condo patio and now that I have that space, I long for a condo patio garden again. Simple, painless (mostly) and easy to manage.

Well, next year I’m doing my big front yard garden again, but I’ve got this tiny sliver of direct sunlight in the back patio of my home that’s just about the size of my other patio gardens back in the day and this year I am going to do a spring-summer-fall patio garden back there. I’m growing all of the vegetables and herbs that are perfectly sized and manageable for a patio garden in that space.

If you’ve never done a patio or balcony farm, it’s all the fun of gardening minus all the work. Sure there is some work because you have to water things, fertilize things, manage pests, but in my opinion, it’s more joy for a lot less work, a whole lot less work!

Short on time and space and physical ability? Patio and balcony farming. Sure, you won’t have the same sort of harvest like a front yard farmer in terms of volume, but if you are looking for a way to save money and have some food self sufficiency, patio and balcony farming will do all of that for you and more.

What do you think those vegetables and herbs in that picture would cost you at the supermarket these days…that’s IF you could find them?

Supermarkets, even high-end organic markets carry what farmers are growing for profit, not necessarily the tastiest or the most nutritious vegetables, fruits and herbs. The vegetables and herbs in the picture? I’ve never seen them for sale in any supermarket. They are heirloom and rare varieties that aren’t going to be profitable for a farmer growing for a supermarket, and not so profitable for supermarkets either since many of the most delectable varieties of vegetables, fruit and herbs don’t have great shelf lives in produce bins.

I feel like food self sufficiency is going to be one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your family in the coming year, even if it’s just the little things, like growing a flat of lettuce, or growing basil instead of buying it, or growing strawberries on a strawberry tower instead of buying them.

If disabilities and / or a constrained budget have previously made you shy away from gardening I think this is going to be for you. Gardening should not be expensive and it should not be only for the physically able. More than a decade ago when I was going through radiation and immune suppression therapy, I could still do my patio garden! Because when it comes to disabilities and gardening it’s always okay to accommodate yourself you don’t need to ask permission!

Next in my patio and balcony gardening series we are going to talk about seed varieties for patios and balconies. January kicks off seed catalog season, my favorite time of the year next to spring! I love getting all of those seed catalogs in the mail and I know I have way too many seeds at this point.

Hey. if you haven’t checked out my Etsy store it’s where I sell all of my signed books and a few other sweet things. Stop by for a visit!

I haven’t forgotten about you guys!

Sometimes life takes us on rides that are a little bumpy and that’s where I’ve been since summer of ‘23.

We have a lot of catching up to do and I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire—I’m going to share a few of those with you.

First, I finally have my Etsy shop for my books, botanicals, and art up and running.

Yes, you can now buy author signed and inscribed books directly from me if you are looking for a great holiday gift this is it!

Also in the store are some limited edition spa goodies made from herbs I grow in my own garden. When they are gone, they are gone, new batches of stuff like this won’t happen until next gardening season.

If you are into bitters, I just happen to have some stock of quinine bark from Mexico. If you like making bitter tonics or do witchy stuff, well I’ve got a limited stock of this and won’t be replacing it, so get it while it lasts!

I’ll be adding a few more things as we go along here, one of which is a favorite of mine, mugwort pillows. These are made with hemp or hemp blend fabric and are stuffed with mugwort herb from my own garden. Those will go up in December just in time for Christmas orders. I’ll be posting some more about these soon.

And I may decide to share some of my plant spirit gansai and watercolor paintings before the holidays are over so check back for those too.

I’ll be posting here on my site a bit more frequently now, and I’ve got some new recipes to share so stay tuned for that!

Cheers to a great holiday season!

Sandra

(Please note, the post is not intended to be medical advice, and you should always check with your doctor before introducing new herbal preparations into your health regime.)

Right now at Home Depot and probably other stores with gardening supplies is the time of year when all of the spring bulbs and perennial roots are put on sale as the summer solstice approaches in about four weeks. And it is at this time that you are going to want to stock up on one kind of root in particular: Herbaceous peony otherwise known as Paeonia lactiflora. But, in this instance you will be purchasing this root not for use right away, but for planting now and then harvesting for use in 2 - 3 years or more. Check the package to ensure that you are indeed purchasing the herbaceous peony, Paeonia lactiflora and not the bush peony. You must be in growing zones 8-3 to grow and harvest a good crop of this as it does need to have some cold winter temps to produce the lush medicinal root for use as an herbal anti-inflammatory.

Peony is not only my favorite flower, it’s also at the top of my list of favorite herbal anti-inflammatories. In my experience it works better than any other herbal anti-inflammatory I have tried (and I’ve tried a lot of different herbs for this). As someone with autoimmune disease, and the chronic inflammatory process taking place in my body even when I’m not an acute disease flare requiring medical attention, I have found that there are some plants that do a pretty good job at managing symptoms that can be treated with a home remedy. Peony is one I want to talk about today (but there are others that I grow in my garden and will be discussing here throughout the gardening season) because it’s not only very accessible for most people, but has a lot of scientific evidence for efficacy as an anti-inflammatory. So much so that the compound responsible for these effects, TGP or Total Glucosides of Peony in Chinese hospitals.

One of my favorite things about Peony is its safety profile. Again, you should always check with your doctor, but in the research I have gathered to discuss this plant with you, peony has an even better safety profile than turmeric (which can have effects on the liver when consumed in large quantities, and has very low bioavailability) and typically does not interfere with other medications. The biggest concern with peony is that it does contain phytoestrogens which may be good for some moderate menopausal symptom relief, but could also interfere with treatment for breast cancer patients who cannot use or tolerate anything with estrogenic properties.

Comparing turmeric and peony as effective herbal anti-inflammatories, turmeric would be a slice of an apple while peony is like an entire apple pie. Turmeric is more what I would describe as a comforting anti-inflammatory herb, effective in modest pains and strains when used judiciously like in traditional golden milk. Peony on the other hand packs a much bigger punch in terms of relief from the symptoms of chronic inflammation like fatigue and pain.

Peony root has been traditionally used in Chinese folk medicinal formulations for inflammatory conditions. Typically these formulations will include several herbs at once, but, peony by itself, brewed as a decoction, is also very effective. And as in the studies I have cited here, these studies have been done using peony as a singular source with the TGP or total glucosides of peony being of the greatest interest.

The worst part about peony root decoction is of course the flavor. It’s bitter and tastes pretty bad. It’s something I tolerate though because I like the effects so much that it’s worth gulping down a cup of the decoction and chasing it with some lemonade. Of course, who wouldn’t rather drink a tasty cup of fresh golden milk—if ONLY it were as effective as what I like to call “the terrible grace of God” my nickname for this horrendous tasting peony root decoction that is my go to when my symptoms have me flat on my back.

Peony flowers also contain some TGP, although not as much as the root, but the flower petals can be dried and used in a mix with green tea. They will add a slight bitterness, and have less medicinal effects than the root, but green tea also has its own very moderate anti-inflammatory effect so I think this is a nice blend too and the taste is tolerable.

If you look around on the internet you can find sliced and dried peony root packaged as “white peony root” (bai shao). This doesn’t necessarily refer at all to the color of the flower that those roots made, although some peony plants do make white flowers. What this refers to is the peony root that has had the outer bark removed. There is another kind of sliced dried peony root called “red peony” root, a subspecies of lactiflora (Chi Shao or Paeonia veitchii) which has a similar TGP profile. I’ve never used or grown this species so I don’t have any personal experience with it. It is herbaceous, but the flowers have a different appearance from lactiflora.

If you already have paeonia lactiflora growing in your garden, or in the garden of a friend, you are in luck because now all you need to do is wait until around Nov-Dec to dig up a big fat root to clean, slice, and dry for use making a decoction. But if you want to start growing your own, they are among the easiest perennials to cultivate. If you’d like to try it now, but don’t have access to fresh plants, you can purchase the organic sliced root from reliable vendors like Starwest Botanicals, which sells this product on Amazon. Please do not be alarmed when you see the product labeled as a product of China. Whole Chinese-grown herbs, when organic, are just as reliable as any other organic herb. The use of this herb originates in Chinese medicine so actually some of the best sliced, dried roots are going to be of Chinese origin. Just like the best teas in the world come from China, so the utmost care and attention are also given to the organic herbs that comprise the Chinese herbal medicine pharmacopeia.

As always, the best herbs will always come from your home garden, and this is exactly why you should be growing Peony if you can. There is nothing as good as fresh herbs you have cultivated in your own garden!

Making a decoction of this herb is the BEST way to experience the most benefits from it. Decoction is different from a tisane as it involves boiling the herb for an extended time (30 minutes) and then straining the liquid and drinking it. The best way to make a decoction is using a lab-safe glass beaker that can be used on your stove top to boil the roots as I do. Always try to avoid using metal pans for making herbal decoction. Put about 1/4 - 1/3 cup of dried peony root into the beaker, fill with water, and boil. Strain this and then you can fill it a second and third time until all of the compounds have been thoroughly released from the roots. I like to let mine cool and drink it very fast with a lemonade chaser. This is not a “tea” you will want to sip, as I mentioned, the taste of “the terrible grace” is pretty horrific. But, it’s something you'll grow accustomed to, and even look forward to, if you find this herbal decoction to be as helpful as I have found it to be.

I’ve written extensively about saponin producing botanicals in all of my books. These botanical saponins are particularly useful in emulsification of cannabinoids for baths and soaks and also aid in the penetration of cannabinoids through the skin.

But why do plants make saponins? Saponins, like other compounds that serve similar purposes, such as terpenes, provide defense from predators such as insects, vegetation-consuming animals, fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Saponins also contain a kind of plant steroid which contributes an anti-inflammatory effect to the saponin when prepared as a soap and used to cleanse the skin.

But what about the toxicity of saponins? Saponins are only mildly toxic (nausea, diarrhea, stomach ache) if they are ingested in sufficient amounts. Like the old chemist’s rule “it’s the dose that makes the poison” saponins are not toxic when used in food applications like traditional Halva or in topical applications to the skin or hair, or when used to clean fabric.

The saponin producing plant that I want to introduce and discuss with you today is Saponaria officinalis, pictured here as it grows in my personal spa garden. Sometimes called soapwort or crow’s soap, when in bloom the roots of this plant produce 20% or more saponin content. However, the entire plant produces saponin, including the leaves, stems and flowers. The saponins are most concentrated in the roots and the best time to dig those roots will be when the plant is in bloom, but you can dig them and make soap with them anytime. The flowers have a subtle but lovely sweet fragrance too, but this is difficult to capture when using the flowers or the rest of the plant for making the liquid saponin soap.

This plant is extremely easy to grow, so much so that if you aren’t planning on digging up the roots frequently I suggest growing these in a container because they can become quite invasive. If you live in a cooler environment, zones 8 - 3, this plant will die back in the winter and come back to life in the spring.

I’m putting up viable seeds from my own plants on my Etsy store soon, so if you think you’d like a packet of those, head on over next week and I’ll be happy to send you some.

Working with the roots of this plant are easy. Dig them, wash them really, really well, and then slice them up and put them in a blender with some water. Blend gently so as not to create a giant soap mountain, then strain the resulting liquid into a jar. Adding a little lemon juice will help preserve the liquid, but you will need to store it in the refrigerator. You can also add fresh aloe vera gel and blend that with the roots as well to create a moisturizing soap.

The soap you create can be used to wash your skin, hair, and it also makes a great detergent for washing fabric, especially fabrics that require gentle soap. It’s really amazing how versatile this soap actually is. I love using this as a shampoo because it cleans and softens hair just like the expensive professional shampoos out there!

The liquid soap you make will be neutral in fragrance—and this makes it quite different from some other soap plants like soap berries, for example, which have a slight cooked pineapple and vinegar type of fragrance. If you’d like to add a fragrance to your soapwort root liquid soap, you may also want to throw in some fresh lavender flowers, pine needles, or even rose petals!

Of course, one of my favorite ways to use plant saponins is outlined in several of my books. Using plant saponins as an emulsifier for cannabinoid-infused baths and soaks is shown in these photos. The top photo is the concentrated liquid made from cooking down the liquid soap preparation I just described and combining that with ingredients like epsom salt. This is a favorite foot soak of mine and adding just a couple of drops of eucalyptus essential oil makes this foot soak absolutely divine.

In my new book, Your Cannabis Experience, I detail a brand new, shelf-stable cannabis-infused bath salts recipe that includes plant saponin extract from soap berries to complete the emulsification process in the water that is essential for the resinous cannabinoids to distribute evenly in the water and make contact with every part of the body! In this application of plant saponin, the ingredients of the recipe are combined and then dehydrated to create a shelf-stable bath salt that can be stored on any shelf and has a much longer shelf life than my previous liquid formulation recipe that was detailed in my first book.

And you can make a recipe like this totally your own with the addition of whatever ingredients you desire in addition to the basic ingredients of the recipe.

Today, the FDA issued a very concerning statement about the potential for GMO foods to pose a safety risk as a food allergen. What happens when you splice fish genes into tomatoes and end up killing a bunch of anaphylactic people who are allergic to fish, for example? Apparently, this sort of scenario is going to be a problem with GMO after years of reassurance that GMO is perfectly safe for everyone. As an anaphylactic this is also of concern to me as it is for many people who subscribe to my mailing list—so I wanted to make sure I published about this today.

I like to think that I’m a science-based thinker. For me this means that I bring an element of skepticism to the table for any health claim I am exposed to—and I am an equal opportunity skeptic. For example, I’m as much of a skeptic of wellness industry health claims as I am of pharmaceutical industry health claims. Both need to be held to the same scientific rigor. When it comes to GMO I’ve never felt completely comfortable with the blanket assurances and hand-waving of the “science-based” community in regards to the safety of these foods. It’s turning out that at least in regards to medically diagnosed allergies, GMO is going to be risky.

But if I’m going to be perfectly honest here, I feel like the FDA doesn’t do enough in this regard. We are all aware of the kind of “regulation capture” that goes on with the funneling of people from the corporations into the FDA and the back and forth. So when the FDA issues this kind of statement all of a sudden you must know that SHTF. Someone’s corporate profits may be decimated by lawsuits from folks with deceased anaphylactic family members who were unknowingly exposed to allergens via GMO. So now an announcement has to be made and that’s exactly what has happened in this case. But make no mistake, GMO is probably a far dirtier deal than what is being disclosed by the government.

We can have a conversation about buying organic, etc. But, in today’s inflationary world this is going to be a problem for a lot of people. I want you to think about what you can do, starting now (It’s early spring so you’ve got lots of time!) to limit your exposure to corporate GMO. Even if you only have a patio you can have a small vegetable garden and that will not only save you money but limit your exposure to corporations who only care about the bottom line. If you live in a high-rise with no patio, start thinking about indoor gardening. Indoor garden lighting and equipment is more wallet-friendly today than it’s ever been. And of course, if you are like me and you have a yard and no HOA to boss you around, you can do as I have done and eliminate your lawn and turn that front and back yard into a vegetable and herb garden that can supply you with food year round if you are canning and preserving your foods!

I hope that you’ll join me here throughout the 2023 garden season as I share my gardens with you too! We’re having a delayed spring here in southern Oregon this year, but with the help of some indoor growing equipment and a little greenhouse outside I’ve managed to get about 100 vegetable starts well on their way. As soon as it warms up here there is going to be plenty to share with you in pictures, and some of my advice on growing heirlooms that will produce abundant crops.

I want you to think about (if you are growing outdoors) what will do the best in your particular growing area. I’ve learned through trial and error which vegetables and fruits produce the best for my growing region and microclimate. Microclimate is just as important as your growing region—what grows in your yard and produces the most bang for the buck may not be the same thing that will grow best for your neighbor even a mile away from you, so really put some thought into that.

Looking forward to an abundant and happily non-GMO gardening season this year for all of us!

In my new book, Your Cannabis Experience, I have dedicated a significant portion of the first chapter of the book covering the ancient history of cannabis and the human relationship with cannabis as both a medicine and spiritual tool. And some of the best archeological evidence we have for this relationship comes from the ancient Biblical lands.

Check out this excerpt from my book, and if you would like to try your hand at making the Holy Oil / Chrism during this spiritual season the detailed recipe and instruction are also included in the book!

The use of cannabis in the Persian and Middle East was so common that it is mentioned often by scholars who have written about the botanical history of these regions. And these historical texts place cannabis in the regions associated with the Jewish Torah, Christian Bible, and Islamic Quran. The widespread use of cannabis among the cultures of this region of the world has been so well documented that it’s not at all an unusual or edge-case interpretation to include cannabis as one of the many herbs that appear in both canonical and non-canonical scriptures.1

“Indian hemp has been long known in India, Persia, and other Eastern countries as a medicinal and intoxicating agent, but was little known to Europeans until it was brought prominently into notice by Dr O’Shaughnessy of Calcutta, in the year 1839. [On Indian Hemp, &c.; Calcutta, 1839.]”2

In the creation story shared among all the Abrahamic faiths, a gift from God:

Genesis 1:29 “And God said, behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”

Sula Benet, a Polish anthropologist specializing in Judaism, has offered a compelling opinion based on the evidence of the widespread use of cannabis in this region; cannabis was a key ingredient in the anointing oil of the Old Testament priesthood,3

Exodus 30:22–25 Moreover the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: ‘Take thou also unto thee the chief spices, of flowing myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty, and of fragrant cane (kanehbos/kaneh-bosem) two hundred and fifty, and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin. And thou shalt make it a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil.

The King James and some other translations (but not all!) of the Bible translated the original Hebrew kaneh bosem םשב†הנק as another herb, sweet calamus, which is a plant that contains toxins that are both cancerous and have insecticidal properties. 4

Sula Benet and other Jewish scholars have disagreed with this translation. The sweet cane or fragrant cane of the Old Testament was actually cannabis. The latter translation actually makes more sense in light of the use of this anointing oil, which contained a significant concentration of kanehbos/kaneh bosem, as it was poured over the head in priestly rituals.

In the Living Torah, a widely used English translation of the Torah, Orthodox Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan explains the possibility of several plants identified as “fragrant cane” and cites cannabis as one of these: “On the basis of cognate pronunciation and Septuagint readings, some identify keneh bosem with the English and Greek cannabis, the hemp plant.” Rabbi Kaplan goes further to explain how this prescribed anointing ointment was to be made as a “blended compound” that involved one of two methods: cooking herbs with oil and water or cooking all of the herbs in oil. “The anointing oil was made by soaking the aromatic substances in water until the essential essences are extracted. The oil is then placed over the water, and the water slowly cooked away, allowing the essences to mix with the oil (Yad, Kley HaMikdash 1:2; from Kerithoth 5a). According to another opinion, the oil was cooked with the aromatic herbs, and then filtered out.”5

I can’t help but ponder on the former method of the herbs prepared by cooking in water and oil, because it sounds strikingly similar to a popular method I have personally used to prepare modern cannabis oil, with or without other herbs. This method is very effective for cleaning herbs of unwanted chlorophyll and fine plant debris in the final product.

Kanehbos or kaneh bosem םשב†הנק also sounds like cannabis linguistically because the word cannabis is a linguistic derivative from the Hebrew, according to Rabbi Michoel Green in his article about the translation of the Hebrew, “Cannabis and the joys of biblical Hebrew!”67

Modern evidence for other uses of cannabis by ancient tribes of Judah can also be found in two very important discoveries. In 1993, an ancient skeleton of a girl who died in childbirth was found in a Jerusalem cave with a container of ashes bearing the chemical signature of cannabis phytocannabinoids. This container contained the ashes of cannabis that were burned for the girl, apparently used as a medicament during childbirth. 8

Then, in 2020, a discovery of a Judahite shrine at Tel Arad contained evidence of incense offerings containing a dark residue with the chemical signatures of cannabis phytocannabinoids (specifically, THC, CBD, and CBN) and frankincense.9

In the Old Testament, we find that the holy anointing oil was strictly for the anointing of the priesthood and holy objects. But cannabis, as a stand-alone herb, was also used for medicine and as altar incense.

In the New Testament, Jesus and his disciples, who were also Jewish, carried forward the healing and worship practices that included cannabis by repurposing the holy anointing oil for personal devotion and to heal the sick.

King James Bible

Matthew 6:17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;

Mark 6:13 And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.

James 5:14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

In the last verse in this set of verses as read from the original Aramaic, the oil literally translates as “the meshkha,” indicating a specific oil set apart for the purposes of anointing. In the other verses, anoint and oil are translated as “meshukh,” the act of anointing the head (Matthew 6:17) and “meshkha” oil (Mark 6:13). Even more interesting, Jesus is called “Maran Eshu Meshikha,” Our Lord Yeshua, the Anointed One. All are references to the specific oil and act of anointment with this oil.10

For the early Christians, gnostic Christians, this holy anointing oil (chrism) in the scripture plays the most important of roles:

The Nag Hammadi

The Gospel of Philip

There is water within water and fire in the oil of chrism.

–

Through the Holy Spirit we are indeed begotten again, but we are begotten through Christ in the two. We are anointed through the Spirit. When we were begotten, we were united. None can see himself either in water or in a mirror without light. Nor again can you see in light without mirror or water. For this reason, it is fitting to baptize in the two, in the light and the water. Now the light is the chrism.

–

Philip the apostle said, “Joseph the carpenter planted a garden because he needed wood for his trade. It was he who made the cross from the trees which he planted. His own offspring hung on that which he planted. His offspring was Jesus, and the planting was the cross.” But the Tree of Life is in the middle of the Garden. However, it is from the olive tree that we got the chrism, and from the chrism, the resurrection.

–

The chrism is superior to baptism, for it is from the word “Chrism” that we have been called “Christians,” certainly not because of the word “baptism”. And it is because of the chrism that “the Christ” has his name. For the Father anointed the Son, and the Son anointed the apostles, and the apostles anointed us. He who has been anointed possesses everything. He possesses the resurrection, the light, the cross, the Holy Spirit. The Father gave him this in the bridal chamber; he merely accepted (the gift). The Father was in the Son and the Son in the Father. This is the Kingdom of Heaven.11

Hey subscribers I just got my author copies today from the publisher and I am so excited to share this new book with you!

This week our book winner will be notified and receive their free copy of the book!

There are lots of things that make this book really special. Of course the beautiful art work will inspire you in your own cannabis adventures, but also this book is printed in large print type which is something I have been bugging my publisher about for a long time based on the feedback I’ve had from my readers for a few years. Overall, the larger size of the book, the artwork, and the large print makes this a lovely coffee table book for sure.

There are many things about this book that are different from the other cannabis books I have written. First, I just want to tell you that there are the recipes that you’ve always loved as a fan of my books. There are brand new recipes, both apothecary and edible technique recipes. There are the much loved spa recipes and these are some brand new formulations not found in my other books.

One thing that was very important to me in regards to writing a book for beginners was a fair treatment of cannabis. This book outlines both the good and bad—and how to avoid the bad. Every cannabis experience can be a good experience if the principles of mindfulness and moderation are followed. I think the most important thing that everyone who is interested in trying cannabis for the first time, or trying it again after a not-so-positive experience is that finding pleasure or relief does not require intoxication. How important this message is in this day and age when prohibitionists are fighting tooth and nail to get the cat back into the bag after years of legalization here in the USA!

It’s a pretty book for sure, but it’s also a book that you’ll want to gift that friend or family member who needs perspective and education about cannabis that is fair and accurately cited with scientific information.

As we move to release date I plan on doing some readings from the book starting with The Fabulous Flower Life, the introductory chapter of the book that tells the story of why I wrote this book. I think you are going to find that very insightful into my own philosophy about cannabis and my cannabis books over the past decade.

It’s hard to imagine that it’s really been a decade since I wrote the first cannabis book about cannabis spa and topicals to be published anywhere in the modern world. Looking back from today to ten years ago on this date when I was shopping the manuscript to literary agents it seems like it was just yesterday. The time has flown by; and I have to admit to you that it makes me feel old. lol.

Anyways, right now you can purchase the hardcover on Amazon for $26.99 and the publisher has set that for pre-order, but if you pre-order now you’ll get it on or around the release date.

On April 4 I will be setting up a listing for signed copies on my Etsy store for $36.99 and that includes free shipping and covers my Etsy fees. If you decide to order from Etsy as a special gift for someone I will also include a lovely personalized handwritten card on hemp paper for your gift recipient. I will notify everyone when this listing is ready to take orders.

Cheers!