The Next Craft Cafe - THIS Sunday, June 24th, 7 - 9 PM

Hi Everyone!! It is time for the next Craft Cafe...

Calling all green thumbs…the next Craft Cafe project is a small indoor/outdoor herb garden. Herbs are easy and fun to grow, good for your body (aid in digestion) and give all of your meals that extra pizzazz. This is an awesome project for those of us in the Rockies that find a hard time growing herbs outside with our limited growing season. Herb gardens are perfect for small spaces too, and are a lot of fun to create, so bring your kids. Any old pots, vintage milk cans, tin cans or interesting glassware would be great options to recycle into cute herb garden containers.

This workshop is on Sunday,  June 24th, 7 - 9 PM, Wild Flour Cafe in Banff (211 Bear Street in the Bison Courtyard)

Cost: For $30 you can pick a clay pot, stones, organic soil & fertilizer, 3 organic herb choices (options will include mint, thyme, parsley, sage, basil, oregano, rosemary) and a few items to make unique herb markers and decorate your pot.

Please sign up and PAY at the Wild Flour prior to the class. Advanced registration only. Please contact Tiffany if you would rather register using Paypal or Interact E-transfer.

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Contact:
Tiffany oldesage@hotmail.com
Sheena sheenz6@hotmail.com

Special Tea for My Blossoming Belly

I made my own mix of tea yesterday. Raspberry leaf tea is recommended for pregnancy and I was given a recipe for one by my wonderful naturopath, Dr. Samantha Frey, of the Banff Naturopathic Medical Clinic. If you are looking for a naturopath in Banff, you should go to her. If you would like to know more about naturopathic medicine here is more info. Raspberry leaf is a uterine tonic and most of the other ingredients are rich in minerals.




I went to my local health food store to pick up the organic dried herbs I needed. There are several commercial raspberry leaf teas on the market but I wanted to try my hand at mixing my own. Nothing can be simpler than making tea. No cooking involved. You just get the ingredients and mix them together in equal amounts. I poured them all in a stainless steel bowl and mixed with clean hands. I love to do things with my hands when possible, instead of with a spoon. It makes me feel more connected. In the end for about $8 I was able to mix enough tea to overfill a medium sized canister, I believe it is about 110 grams of tea.
The ingredients are:
Raspberry Leaf
Nettles
Oats
Red Clover
Peppermint (some people add this on a cup by cup basis but I love mint tea)
Rosehips (these can be added if you want an immune boost, since they are high in Vitamin C)

Use 1 teaspoon per cup of water. The tea should be steeped for 15-20 minutes minimum, but can be steeped overnight for maximum mineral extraction. This is what I did, because I like strong tea and want to get the maximum benefits of it.

It is recommended by Dr. Frey that pregnant women start to drink this after 16 weeks. I am not sure why, since I have seen it recommended earlier. I am 13 weeks. I tried it, to make sure it is good, but will hold off on drinking it daily for a few more weeks.