Blog Student News Trainees/Teacher News

Dear Yogis,

Here we are again, another Monday.  This new normal is hard to get used to.  Because people have been locked down and now let free, with more freedoms every day, nothing is set.  Appointments are no longer appointments, classes are no longer classes – life is a moveable feast.  It is “interesting”, but difficult if like me you are self employed and trying to organise the week in front.  It is always a catch up – for me too.

I like communities and all that implies.  Everything is in flux, even your Doctor is no longer YOUR doctor, they come and go, and every appointment is a different doctor, dentist, etc.  It’s lovely for students and I know they have to train, but I can read a computer screen, I don’t need a student doctor in order to do that.  They don’t know me, they only know the screen.  Time was when a student was accompanied by your usual doctor, now a student is all you get.  What do you think?

SCHEDULE
YOGA STUDIO> Monday 1pm, Wednesday 5.30pm Restorative, Friday 6.30 Hatha
ZOOM> Monday 6.30 Gita, Tuesday 7.30 Herbal Workshop, Friday 6.45 Tarot – I am going to record these (please remind me) so that you can rerun it anytime.  I am not madly keen on this, but many people don’t read or know how to take notes, so it will cover this).

FRIDAY YOGA LUNCHEON. Our usual Monthly get together (interrupted by Covid), Friday 25th February,  12noon Mt. Macedon Hotel. Please email me if you would like to join us. All welcome.   yogafirst2@bigpond.com

HERBAL WALK – learn how to forage and how to cook with what you have collected.  Tuesday 1st March 10.30 start at the Studio.  Winter is around the corner. Let’s get a backup store of produce before winter.

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN MAKING

I have been exploring my WIX site to learn the ins and outs.  Not easy.  But I have got it up and running and I now can do a lovely blog, I just need the time to get the list in order……  Please go to www.jhwilliams.online

Over the weekend I have been gathering, making and storing.

Dock is beautiful around my way at the moment.  You will notice from the picture that there is no potting mix under these beauties.  The ground is hard, and you would scarcely think anything could grow, but it is. Big patches of Dock.

I picked the young and juicy early shoots and have put a few bags in the freezer.  Last night I made a herb omelette and sprinkled it with dock, it was delicious, and hugely nutritious.   It doesn’t keep its colour when you cook it, so you have to mix it with other greens – parsley or nettles (or my favourite Herb Robert) keep their colour in cooking.

MAKING BOOZY HERBAL GINS, VODKA AND WINES – the easy way I must add.  I gather and then infuse.  I don’t actually have a still (and you probably don’t either) and you need a still to actually make alcohol.  I buy vodka, wine and gin, and I infuse it with herbs.  The result is herbal tonics, drinks and vinegars.  I am going to put a small book on Etsy and on my herb web site www.jhwilliams.online so you can make them too.

It is so easy and even if you haven’t got access to somewhere to forage, you can buy the cheap fruits and veggies at the grocer and use those.  

The picture on the right is the beginning of my APPLE CIDER VINEGAR.  It is so easy to make.  All you need is apples and patience.  Even if you buy apples from your grocer when they are cheaper, you can make your own vinegar much more cheaply than buying a good quality vinegar with a “other”.  All the directions will be in my little booklet.

THE FREEDOM OF SIMPLICITY.  Finding, foraging and making is all about living simply.  Not making as many visits to the store, getting the family involved in all stages of food and eating.  Living responsibly. Learn to eat sensibly and sensitively.  Reject products full of chemicals and colours. Eliminate pre-packaged dinners. Eat foods that do no violence to the balance of things.  Get in on the joy of the garden, even if this means pots on a window ledge. Forage, dry, freeze and ferment your foods.  Compost all you can. Recycle all you can. Grow all the fresh items you can. Eat out less and when you do, make it a celebration.  Buy less food rather than food replacement drinks or diet pills.

 

I will see you on the mat,

NAMASTE. JAHNE

 

Dear Yogis,

I have been making “herby” stuff for my new book (I even have an interested publisher).  I have to try these recipes and ideas out, and write them down in a way you will understand, instead of just throwing things together until the taste test is right.  I hope you are working hard at making from the garden –  soon it will be winter and a lot of the yummy stuff will be replaced (temporarily) by the bitter herbs that mother nature gives us to prepare our gut for the next season, we skip them at our peril.  If we don’t prepare with these herbs,  then we get all the gut issues that modern man is prone to.

So, eat away, keeping in mind you will be saving heaps at a time when things at the shops are getting more and more expensive and will continue to rise as interest rates go up (this effects everything).

Here a recipe to be going on with…  APPLE CIDER VINEGAR (there are lots of self-seeded apple tress around – find one). Although this is a longish recipe, it is easy – I have just broken it down into a step by step process.

Ingredients
*organic apples and apple scraps (left over from jelly or tarts)
*2 Tablespoons cane sugar – you can use other sugars but they don’t ferment as well.
*2 cups water

Instructions
Clean and dry a 1 litre (or larger) jar.
Fill the jar 3/4 full with apple scraps.  If you are using whole apples chop roughly and put them in the jar.
Dissolve the sugar in the water.

First Fermentation:
*Pour the sugar water over the apples until they are covered (adjust according the the size of the jar, but always make sure the apples are covered), always add additional water to make sure the apples are completely submerged.
*Weigh down the apples with a fermentation weight or a small glass jar (Any apples that are not under water could mould)
*Cover with cheese cloth or coffee filter and secure with a rubber band
*Store in a dark place at room temperature (for the first two weeks I store mine on the kitchen bench because it needs stirring frequently – some people call it “the beast” because it is yeasty and alive)
*Leave it for 3 weeks, check stir, and make sure that none of the apples are getting mouldy.
*Bubbles will form, just keep stirring – it will settle.

Second Fermentation:
*After 3 weeks, you will notice it will smell fairly sweet.
*Strain the apples out  and return the liquid to the jar.
*Some cooks compost the apples, some use them in salads or baking – you decide.
*Put the cover back on the jar and leave it in a dark place for three weeks, stirring gently every few days.
*When the vinegar has achieved the desired strength for you, take off the mother which you can use again- I save them in a jar of water in the fridge.
*The lid can be replaced tightly at this stage and you can transfer some or all of the filtered vinegar to a bottle and start using it.   You could use half a cup of this ferment to add to the next batch which means it will ferment more quickly.
*Keep in the fridge otherwise it will keep getting stronger….  I am told that stronger vinegars are very good for weight loss (this applies to Kombucha too).

Yogis, I hope you enjoy making this... it is so much more satisfactory than anything you can buy.

I have just had a corner of my kitchen re-modelled by a lovely man (sorry girls, married to someone else).  I have wanted this small change completed for years, and now I feel there is so much more room in the kitchen, and so much bench space.  What a difference a new cupboard can make!  No, I won’t be getting a stove or a dishwasher or a Thermomix although I can see that each of these things have a reason and a purpose, but at the moment, I like doing things the hard way, it brings me closer to the whole process. Buying non-essential equipment opposes my idea of simplicity.  If I can enjoy my day and time in the kitchen without BUYING something to remove the process from me, then I will.

 

See you on the mat (or in the kitchen),
NAMASTE – JAHNE

 

 

 

 

DEAR YOGIS,

Don’t forget our MONTHLY YOGA LUNCH on the 25th of February at 12 noon at The Mount Macedon Hotel.  It was such a joy to be able to go out we “tested the water” for you last month – it was GREAT, we had a table by the door in the “Bird Room” where we usually go.  You do have to comply with covid requirements, but I think we are getting used to this aren’t we?  The staff wear masks right through service… everyone is “safe”.

TURKEY TAIL SUPERFOOD MUSHROOM.

So-called for its incredible likeness to a turkey’s plumage, turkey tail is a magical mushroom so rich in immune system boosting health benefits that cultures around the world have used it in traditional herbalism since ancient times.

Benefits of Superfoods Australia’s Turkey Tail Mushroom Extract:

  • Beta Glucan Polysaccarides
  • Organic wild harvested (the photo is the mushroom in my back yard, but we don’t use mine – there is not enough).
  • Potent concentrated extract
  • Nutritional mushrooms to boost your energy

Turkey Tail: Discover the Best-Kept Health Secret of the Ancients.  Turkey tail mushroom (coriolus versicolor or trametes versicolor) has been a mainstay of traditional herbalism and remedies in Europe and North America, where it was used to treat various illnesses. In China, it was enjoyed as a soothing, herbal tea during the Ming Dynasty.

Turkey Tail Extract Is a Simple Way to Boost Your Overall Health and so many of our teachers and students are using it. I take it, sometimes three times a day.   Turkey tail is one of the most-researched mushrooms in the West. Much of that research confirms what ancient shamans and practitioners of traditional Chinese herbalism have known for decades – that turkey tail mushroom is an all-round superstar when it comes to maintaining your health:

  • Antioxidant Protection: combat oxidative stress and inflammation with an extract that packs a powerful cocktail of 35 phenols and flavonoids
  • Immune System Booster: assist your body with PSK and PSP that promotes an increased white blood cell count to fight off poor health
  • Gut Health Balancer: rebalance the bacteria in your gut by nourishing good bacteria and reducing the impact of bad bacteria

Get a Potent, Organic Turkey Tail Extract, Straight from The Source.   Our turkey tail mushrooms are organic and wild harvested,  is a 15:1 extract, with 15 kilograms of raw, dried mushroom (including mycelium) creating 1 kilogram of this highly potent turkey tail extract.

Order your turkey tail mushroom today and discover the potent health benefits that this prized mushroom has to offer!  PLUS a few of you are waiting for our TURKEY TAIL to come back into stock – we now have it again, and I can post it to you.  Buy two packets for $50 – I will pay the postage.

Pay via www.yogabeautiful.com and click on PayPal and I will post as soon as the receipt hits my inbox.  

 

HERBAL WORKSHOP/WALKS (THE YOGA OF HERBS)

Yesterday we walked along the Five Mile Creek and collected herbs and flowers to use later.  So many students don’t know that the green stuff they are walking over is edible.  This time there was a treat – a Granny Smith apple tree just waiting to be harvested.  The apples were beautiful.

Out of the herbs I gathered I made a gorgeous pesto with dock, lemon dock dandelion and the usual chick peas etc.  I wasn’t the only one to do this – here is photo of one of my student’s first “wild pesto” efforts with tomatoes, corn and potatoes/vegetable fritters.  Everything on the plate either grown or gathered.  What could be better!

HERBS AS MEDICINE.  I have told you before I use herbs to stay healthy.  The most powerful (and useful) for me are hawthorn and yarrow.  Both for heart health.  My blood pressure went through the roof after the first and second vax and i used those two herbs to bring it down (in three days).  I kept it under control with the herbs and the third vax went by unnoticed apart from the usual tiredness.  Yarrow is taking over my vegetable box and is lush, feathery and green.  Hawthorn is available most of the year on the highways and byways…

HERBAL WALK :  I am planning another herbal walk and herb demo on Tuesday the 1st March at 10.30am, and repeat on Saturday 5th March at 2pm. We will walk along the 5 Mile Creek – I think the apples will be gone by then – but there will be plenty to gather and to learn.  Then we will come back to the Studio and we will make something for a snack out of what we gathered.  It will also give you a chance to see the studio if you haven’t been before, and wander around the garden and see how I grow my herbs and vegetables.

ION KI SPA.  I am getting a second spa, so (when it arrives) I will be able to do two at the one time.  It will take some juggling, but I will learn.

 

SEE YOU IN THE STUDIO (and at ZOOM TAROT Friday at 6.45)

NAMASTE – JAHNE