​If you go to the mountains or in a city in Switzerland and walk into a café with a bakery, you may get a warm drink and, order a zvieri, a snack like Apfelstrudel with cream or vanilla sauce. Or you may take home something from a mountain bakery, like a Birnenbrot, perhaps a Zimtschneken from a regular city bakery, or make Swiss traditional Christmas cookies like Zimtstern, never giving it a second thought. We may associate these with Switzerland but never really realized that one key ingredient which has become traditional food, does not have its roots here but in faraway places. I am referring to Cinnamon. It sits in the spice cupboard of most households in Switzerland and probably Europe but we don't give a second thought about where it comes from, what it actually is or what it does to our bodies. Europeans went in search of spices in the 15th century, which were previously lacking or expensive if they actually managed to get them. This led to colonization of lands, so that the supply of spices became commonplace, as it is today.
 
Cinnamomum has 2 varieties: Cinnamomum verum and Cinnamomum cassia. C. verum means "true cinnamon," which comes from Sri Lanka and is more expensive, as it is rarer. C. cassia or just Cassia is originally from China and has multiple varieties that is now grown in Indonesia, Vietnam and many other South-East Asian countries. Most of the Cinnamon that we get in our stores is actually Cassia, which has a stronger, pungent scent than true Cinnamon and is obviously cheaper, as more countries grow and produce it. If you look at the picture above, you will the see the 2 quills with many thin layers on the right, packed together to create 2 thick quills. This is Cinnamomum verum, true Cinnamon from Sri Lanka. The other 3, which are one thick bark curled to form the quill, are Cinnamomum cassia. In Malaysia, which also grows Cassia, we call Cinnamon Kayu Manis - Sweet Wood. It is often used in curries but seldom in sweet foods.
 
In Chinese Medicine, we use Cassia regularly. In fact, it has many classical formulae In the Chinese Materia Medica with Cassia as a base. In the Shang Han Lun (Treatise on Cold Disease) written in ca. 200 CE by Zhang Zhong Jing, Cassia-based formulae are some of the most important formulae to treat cold conditions. We have 2 forms of Cassia that we use: Guì Zhī, Saigon Cassia Twig and Roù Guì, Saigon Cassia Inner Bark. Both have spicy and sweet flavors, but their temperature differs; the twig is warm and the bark is hot. It makes sense that the younger twigs would be less hot than the inner bark of an older tree. Their organs and functions slightly differ too. Guì Zhī enters the organs of the Heart, Lung and Bladder, while Roù Guì enters the Heart, Kidney, Liver and Spleen. Both will warm and enter the Heart, as such a very important herb in treatment of issues that affect the chest, like chest colds, palpitations or even circulation issues. They can also be used for edema, or swellings in the body, which is often an issue of the lack of circulation of Yang in the body. If you are experiencing any of these themes, talk to your practitioner about using Herbal Medicine.
 
There is a school of thought in Chinese Herbal Medicine called the Fire School. The basic precept of this school of thought is that humans come into the world with a strong Yang capacity, i.e. the capacity to self-heal. As we get older and/ or drain our Life Essence, this capacity to self-heal diminishes. One of the herbs that this school of thought favors in its treatments is Cinnamon, as it is seen as an herb that will replenish the Yang in the body.
 
Cinnamon is one of those underrated herb. We use it in so many dishes and desserts yet we barely give it our attention as a medicine. But we also know that as a spice, if we put too much of it in a dish, it can be unpleasant and even nauseate. As stated in previous blogposts - Food is Medicine. Use Cinnamon sparingly in a dish but use it regularly. Drink the Indian Chai Masala regularly on cold days; it contains Cinnamon and Ginger, as well as other herbs that warm the body. Put a dash of powdered Cinnamon in your oatmeal, or in your apple compote. It brings a little zing into an otherwise plain food, in terms of flavor, but supplements warmth that we are lacking at this present moment in winter.  
 
 
 
 
Image Cinnamon by Elaine

​A few days ago, I looked into a book that was passed on to me and extremely invaluable as I attended university in the 1990s - an English dictionary. Since my last post about Sweet Potatoes and Roots, I have been contemplating this word "Root." So I looked in to find the definition of Root and I find 12 different possibilities as a noun and as a verb. Most of them have something to do with having a "base" or "core" or "source," whether referring to human, plant, language or mathematics, and even to encourage. Fascinating, isn't it? 
 
Many of the Herbal Medicines in the Chinese Materia Medica are Roots. One that particularly stands out is Ginger and is listed in a few different forms. They are fresh Ginger (Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, 生姜 Shēng Jīang), Ginger peel (Cortex Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, 生姜皮 Shēng Jīang Pí), dried Ginger (Rhizoma Zingiberis Officinalis, 干姜 Gān Jīang) and quick-fried Ginger (Zingiberis Rhizoma Praeparata, 炮姜Páo Jīang).
 
In its fresh form, just like we get them here in the normal grocery store, Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, 生姜 Shēng Jīang, is a food-grade herb. As such, one can cook it with other ingredients to enhance the taste of that particular food, like fish, meat or vegetables. In some Asian supermarkets, you may find young ginger, that which is yellowish in color with a green stem protruding out of the rhizome. This form is a little less warming than the older brown version. Herbal decoctions regularly containing multiple Herbs, prescribed by a Chinese medical practitioner, often includes Ginger to harmonize the Herbal Formula combinations; aiding better absorption of the Herbs into the body and to prevent possible toxic side-effects from other potent Herbs. In fact, I have read that Ginger can be used as a remedy for food poisoning, and in fact is cooked with fish in order to neutralize toxins in many traditions. 
 
In the everyday, we can grate it, make an Herbal infusion out of it just by adding hot water and letting it steep for 10 minutes just as a beverage. This can be very helpful too if you had symptoms like chills and/or fever caused by the common cold virus. In fact, making a foot-bath or a whole-body-bath with this infusion till one gets warm and sweaty would also help expel what we call "Wind-Cold Invasion" in Chinese Medicine. If you wanted to enhance the digestive effect of Ginger, then you can throw in a couple of slices of Ginger into a pot with water and cook it for at least 15 minutes. This infusion would be less spicy but more warming for the Stomach, good for stopping nausea and vomiting in pregnancy or otherwise, help relieve bloating and digestive distress. Shēng Jīang enters the Lung, Spleen and Stomach, is spicy and warm. In contrast, Shēng Jīang Pí, Ginger Peel is spicy-cool and is good for edema and promoting urination. 
 
As with anything, too much of a good thing transforms it to a hindrance. If you tend to heat in your system, then too much Ginger will overheat you. A spicy flavor will circulate Qi and too much circulation will dry out the body. Use moderately or speak with your practitioner, if Ginger is appropriate for you. I find that this is one of the many simple Herbal foods that I almost always have at home or with me when I travel. One of our favorite meals is rice with chicken, cooked with Ginger, soya sauce and Sesame oil; a simple but scrumptious recipe passed down to me from my mother. Like so much around the world, people have used food as medicine since time in memorial. It is only us modern urban-dwelling, city-folk, who are often times disconnected from nature, who question the validity of food as being able to affect our health or never really realizing that what we put into our bodies might affect who we are. Just because something doesn't come in a form of a pill, doesn't make it less potent. In fact, it is this that I challenge; something in its purest form, like the Ginger Root, may be the strongest medicine as it is whole. In its wholeness, it helps us to find unity in ourselves, to reconnect us to our source, to our core. 
 
 
 
 
Image Ginger Root by Engin Akyurt on pexels.com
 

​​We just passed the phase of the Autumnal Equinox, around the 21st of September here in the Northern hemisphere. The "change" from Late Summer to Autumn has reared its severe head. Here, we have been presented with 20-degree temperature difference overnight; warm and sunny in the day hitting mid-20s, then down to 5 degrees in the night. Our bodies, with pores wide open like windows of our houses in Summer, were shocked into closure. If not, we got sick with a cold or digestive distress, forcing us to stay in bed under warm covers, which in a way is a form of drastic closure. 
 
After the Autumnal Equinox passes, the light of the sun diminishes every day; over a minute at sunrise and over 2 minutes at sunset. What does this do to living beings on this hemisphere? It makes us, animals and plants, focus more inward; our energies begin to be more Yin concentrated. It is then not surprising that we modern humans stay more indoors, as it is colder, darker and we feel less active, possibly even tired. If you have been feeling this way these past few weeks, there is nothing wrong with you. Nature and the weather affects us because we are a part of nature. What we can do is to honor this connection by taking time to do quiet things, to rest and sleep more. Also, to eat certain foods that will help the process of moving inward, such as with root vegetables. There is this idea in Chinese Medicine and other forms of Complementary Medicine that "like treats like"; if we want to feel more rooted, we should ingest roots, as they will guide our energetic body to create more "rooted connections."
 
One of my favorites is Sweet Potato, 番薯 Fān Shǔ, Ipomoeas batatas in Latin. That's the plant pictured above. For the past few years, we have been planting this wonderful vegetable in our garden as it is a plant that almost all parts - leaf, stem, flower and root, are edible. Its leaves are heart-shaped and they creep and hang off the edge of our veggie-raised-beds, with its blossom so like the Morning Glory. They can propagate by leaf-cuttings but if you had a root that was sprouting, like many root vegetables, you can put this root in a bit of water to allow the sprout to grow leaves and then place them in the Earth. One can boil the roots in water with a little salt, add them to curries, fry/ bake them like Sweet Potato fries or make Sweet Potato pie with walnuts, like they do in the US for Thanksgiving. In East Asia, we make Rice Congee with Sweet Potato roots, deep fry them with a batter to make tempura in Japanese cuisine or in ball-form as a sweet snack in Malaysia (fān shǔ dàn) or served in a sweet soup in China. We also eat the leaves and stems, in the Spring-Summer seasons, as a stir-fry like you can with spinach, with a little garlic and soy sauce. They are beautiful beings that thrive in sunny, warm conditions, but are very sensitive to frost, as they are originally from Central/ South America like the regular potato. As such, it is now soon time to harvest the roots in our garden.
 
In Chinese Medicine, Sweet Potato is sweet in flavor, neutral to cooling in temperature and, affects the Spleen, Stomach, Large Intestine and Kidney meridians. When a food or herb is naturally sweet in flavor, it often will tonify Qi. As such Sweet Potato's functions include strengthening Spleen to promote Qi, increase mother's milk production, as well as helps support bowel movements, remove toxins from the body, builds the Yin in the body, which then treats dryness and inflammation. From a Western nutritional perspective, its orange color already suggests that it is high in Beta-Carotene, Vitamin A. Sweet Potato is also high in Vitamin C and E, potassium and fiber. Its natural sweetness and being a root vegetable, versus fruits, has a low-glycemic index and can help stabilize blood-sugar imbalances such as diabetes. Hence, one can eat it as a dessert without having any processed sugar or fructose. I know people who do not tolerate night-shade vegetables, such as potatoes and tomatoes, but Sweet Potatoes are not night-shades, as such very agreeable with those who have these issues. As often the case with most things, too much of a good thing transforms it to a hindrance. Eat it or anything with consciousness, LESS IS MORE.  
 
I find the Sweet Potato plant so versatile and resilient, taking root all over the world; from the Americas to Asia-Pacific, Africa and Europe through the Columbian Exchange, but also it has been found that Polynesia had cultivated this plant before the British came to the islands. We can learn a lot from this plant in being adaptable yet being able to root almost in every continent on the Earth. Best of all to go inward to find our own roots at this time of year.
 
 
 
Image Sweet Potato Plant and Blossom by Elaine
Image Sweet Potato Roots by Suanpa on Pixabay

 
I wondered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
 
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
 
The waves beside them danced; 
but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
 
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon the inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
 
 
William Wordsworth (1804)
 
 
It is a cool Spring day; the sky is blue and the sun is shining. Yesterday, the sky was grey and it was snowing. On the ground the snow is gone but the coolness prevails. Last week, it was dry, warm and sunny; all the plants were blossoming. I heard the exclamations of joy from people around me of how beautiful and warm it was, but also the apprehension of how dry it was for the plants. I listen and observe. I note that it is Spring, a time of extreme change. The weather of this time of year can change from one end of the spectrum to the other in a day, which we experienced this past week. 
 
What has caught my eye and my consciousness are the Daffodils; those yellow, golden rays of sunlight that have burst through the Earth and prevailed through sun, dryness, rain, snow and cold. As a young student in a former British colony, I learned the poems of the British Romantic poets, such as William Wordsworth, which I could not really understand then since I lived in the tropics and had never experienced real Daffodils growing in the early Spring. What a wonder they are!
 
Daffodils or Narcissus are bulbous plants, that stay dormant for more than half the year. Then at some point in time in late winter, they manifest their first green, pointy shoots out of the Earth. Every ray of sunshine nurtures their inching-shoots out of this fantastically-designed bulb, that not only nourishes with food, but also protects this being like a cocoon as it develops its bud into flower. We admire how humans design and create intricate things but look at this "simple" bulb that keeps growing and receding year after year, even if we do not really put much attention or care to it, in the most extreme of temperatures (between 30-35 degrees Celsius difference). Through its long leaves, this being gets enough food and energy to go into dormancy from Summer to the end of Winter. I read that bulbous plants, including the Daffodils, have been in existence since the Miocene geological epoch, between 23.03 to 5.33 million years ago, as a result of the decrease in global temperatures. Crazy, amazing ancient technology that is still functioning! 
 
Now, every time I pass by a troop of daffodils dancing in the breeze under a tree, I recite this lovely over-200-year-old Wordsworth homage to some very ancient beings, who not only impress me with their bell-shaped-flair-skirted fair blossoms but every aspect of their existence, most especially their resilience to the snow, the heat and the changes of Spring.
 
 
 
Image by Elaine

Spring is here! When I look outside I see not only blossoms but "spring green" leaves, sprouting out of previously leafless brown branches. It is the time of leaves. When I think of leaves, I think of a very common leaf that most of us have in our homes or have at some point came in contact with but have no idea of its story; the Tea leaf.  
 
Growing up in Malaysia, I drank Tea often, even as a child. When I say Tea, I mean Black Tea or Wu Long Tea. When we went to a Chinese restaurant, they always served Wu Long or Pu Er Tea in a pot for the whole family to go with the meal. We had Afternoon Tea, around 4 to 5 o'clock, with some snack or pastry, something we learned from being a former British colony. It would often be a Black Tea, Orange Pekoe, which the British set up plantations for in the highlands of peninsula Malaysia. I only began to drink the classical Chinese style of Tea, Gong Fu Cha, when I was in the US. A Tai Ji brother (how we call a fellow student in Tai Ji class) was a student of a master calligrapher as well as of Tea. In Gong Fu Cha, we drink, smell and experience Tea in a ritual, that requires a certain state of calmness as well as introspection; this style of Tea drinking is more relaxed and is less elaborate than the Japanese Tea ceremony. Speaking of Tea rituals, my husband and I were married by performing a (semi-) traditional Tea ceremony, where elders of the family were served Tea; in their acceptance by drinking the Tea served by us, they symbolized their acceptance of us as a couple.
 
What is Tea? There are many misconceptions about Tea. Technically, when you say you are drinking Tea, then you are referring to the infusion of the leaf of the Camellia sinensis plant. All other teas, such as peppermint or chamomile, are not teas but "herbal infusions." Tea is the most widely drunk beverage in the world after water. Camellia sinensis originated in China but has spread all around the world and enjoyed, as well as adopted as their own. My research into Tea has revealed that we can trace how Tea came to that particular region or culture by the terms, Cha or Tey or even La. If the plant came by land through the Silk Road or from northern China then the term Cha or Chai was adopted, such as in Russia, Japan, Turkey or the Middle East. However, if the plant came by the water route from the South of China, by ship mostly brought by the European traders, then it was/is called Tea, The or Te, with the exception of Portugal, which uses the word Cha. The term La was passed on through South-West China to the neighboring countries like Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.
 
The Chinese believe that Tea was discovered by Shen Nong, The Divine Farmer or God of Agriculture; he is also the mythological emperor who taught the Chinese to farm and use plants as medicine. He passed down his knowledge through his tasting and testing of the herbs on himself through the The Classic of Herbal Medicine, Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing. Shen Nong is said to have used Tea as an antidote to counteract any poisonous plants. In old pottery found in the Tian Luo Shan region in Fu Jian province in China archaeologists believe Tea was being cultivated almost 6000 years ago; that would be around 4000 BCE. But it wasn't until China's flourishing golden age of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) that Lu Yu wrote Cha Jing, The Classic on Tea, that drinking Tea became an art, a philosophical pursuit practiced by the cultivated scholarly class. It was the Cha Jing that also influenced the spreading of Tea into Japan, who then in turn created their own manner of drinking Tea, which is more well-known in the West. Chado, The Way of Tea, is influenced by Zen Buddhism and has become not just a cultural ceremony but a meditation, as well as a way of life.
 
In Chinese Medicine, in the lineage of Shen Nong, we use Tea as medicine. In the Materia Medica, we have 2 types of Tea. One is Lu Cha (Folium Camellia sinensis), Green Tea. It is bitter and cool, affects the Stomach organ. It harmonizes the Stomach, sinks the Qi down in cases of nausea and vomiting. A classical usage is to clear the head; Green Tea has an effect to clear headaches due to its circulatory effect. However, one has to be careful with Green Tea, as it can be too strong for people with weak digestive systems, those who have cool systems; this may result in digestive issues such as nausea and too stimulating for people with sleep issues. Green Tea has become a trendy drink due to its ability to aid in weight-loss and metabolism, as well as being high in anti-oxidants. In the Chinese medical point of view, it helps to dispel dampness in the body, as such aid in weight-loss. But no amount of Green Tea without dietary changes and increase in movement  can stimulate weight-loss. One common mistake that many make with Green Tea is to brew it with boiling hot water (100 degrees Celsius). As these leaves are not oxidized, one has to use 80-degree hot water, so as not to burn the leaves. If you have found that your Green Tea was too bitter, it is because it was burnt from 100-degree water, which stimulated too quick a release of catechins from your Tea or that it was left too long to steep. So, to make good-tasting Green Tea, use no more than 80-degree (spring/filtered) water, 30-90 seconds brewing time and use good quality Green Tea leaves; often teabags do not contain good quality Tea. 
 
When you drink a cup of good Green Tea, it should taste like a cup of Spring; like liquid fresh spring leaves or grass in your mouth. That's why the best Green Tea is harvested in Spring. The Chinese and Japanese grow as well as produce the best Green Teas. They have made Tea not just a beverage but an art.
 
 
 
 
Image Tea Plantation by Dendhy Halbaik on Pixabay
Image Green Tea in Gai Wan by apple deng on Pixabay
​Image Shen Nong/Shinno from Wikimedia Commons

I remember my first meeting with Echinacea in the late 1990s. I was at the end of my Bachelor's degree in the US. I recall being totally stressed out, as many students (and other people) are, having exams, papers due, part-time job and just worrying about life. I was also involved in dance and one of my dance professors/ choreographers, who I was working closely with on a performance, introduced me to Echinacea. She gave me her bottle of almost-finished Echinacea tincture to try, when she heard that I was having another bout of sore-throat which would progress to a cough, that I often had when I was stressed out. But that didn't help my throat and I went on to have a cough.
 
Fast forward 10 years later and I had finished studying Chinese Medicine, became a practitioner, moved to Switzerland and my children have already been born. I wasn't so prone to getting sick but when it came, it would begin with the throat. I knew how to treat it with Chinese herbal formulae but I somehow felt that I needed something simpler, a single herb. I am often aware of my throat, how it feels and the subtle changes that occur before I actually get a cold or flu. I started to experiment on myself, I tried Echinacea tincture on myself, which isn't in the Chinese Materia Medica, by the way. It is now over 10 years that I faithfully carry my Echinacea tincture in my medicine bag when I travel or have it always in my home. My kids have grown up taking the Echinacea tablets when they had a runny nose or when we got on planes, as an immune system strengthener and instead of candy to relieve ear pressure. I have grown Echinacea now in my garden for a few years and finally this year, she is thriving in a pot at my front door, grown from seed. She hasn't been simple to grow since the slugs and snails have feasted on her in my garden every year and she never could survive.
 
Echinacea purpurea or Purple Coneflower is a native of the Great Plains of North America and is a member of the Asteraceae or Sunflower family. The name Echinacea is Greek, meaning "Spiny One," referring to spiny sea urchins and purpurea to the reddish-purple color. There are a few other species of Echinacea some have yellow or white petals, E. purpurea, E. augustifolia and E. pallida are the ones used in medicine. She, I experience her as female, is a hardy plant, with a beautiful orange-yellow-green spikey cone-shaped head in the center and a skirt of light-purple petals. Amazingly beautiful! Sometimes when I stare into the cones from above, I get a trip, observing the formation of the spikes that form the cone - spiraling clockwise, anti-clockwise in never-ending complexity inward and outward. She attracts bees and butterflies (and slugs too!). Like many perennials, she blossoms only from the second year on, if planted from seed, from July to September.   
 
The part of the plant that is often used for medicine is the root but all parts are used. As I stated before in other posts, Chinese Medicine categorizes food and medicine by temperature, tastes, organs it affects and functions. Echinacea has a cool temperature, with spicy, bitter and slightly sweet tastes. She affects the Lungs but I have found some sources that also state that she affects the Liver, Urinary Bladder and Stomach. She helps to clear Wind-Heat (TCM diagnosis for some colds and flus) and Lung Heat, where the heat has passed deeper into the Lung manifesting bronchitis symptoms like fever and yellowish nasal secretions or cough with yellow-green phlegm. I have never tried her for Bladder themes or insect/snake-bites but she has been documented to be used by the Native Americans of the Great Plains, like the Cheyenne, Kiowa and Lakota Sioux, for various ailments for over hundreds of years. 
 
It is my experience that Echinacea should be used as an individual herb only in acute situations for a short period of time, about 3 but no more than 10 days, at least 3 times a day. I have heard experiences of patients, who used Echinacea daily for over 2 years and found that it wasn't effective anymore. I can understand this; it's like overusing any substance over an extended period of time will reduce its effectiveness for acute issues. Use of Echinacea over a longer period of time should be in combination with other herbs, such as with other Wei Qi (Defensive Qi) tonics, in order to strengthen the immune system.
 
Echinacea has been my doorway-opener into Western herbs. Literally, she helps me protect my body's doorways, my throat and Lungs from invasion from bacteria and viruses. Lots of scientific research is being done on Echinacea in this field. As with all herbs and with nature, use with respect and honor them. They will respond to us as we to them.  



​Images by Elaine    

"An apple a day, keeps the doctor away," is a common English adage. I recall as a young student in school, where the girls used to pass on friendship books to write details of ourselves as a remembrance and this was one of the little adages included. I thought it funny and cute. We don't have apples growing naturally in tropical Malaysia; all our apples came from China, Australia, New Zealand or USA. They weren't always the crunchy, juicy, sweet apples we have here in Switzerland. Sometimes, they were soft and powdery on the inside but outside was bright red. No wonder, as they had to be shipped a couple of thousands of kilometers to get to me. The first time I saw an apple tree laden with fruits, ready to be plucked and crunched into, it felt like a dream, like something from a fairytale. What I did not realize then is that apples are very special fruits and symbols of life and bearers of nourishment, holding the power of spring and summer in its flesh.
 
Malus domestica, is the Latin name for the fruit we now know as apple. It is an ancestor of Malus sieversii, which is a wild form of apple native to the mountains in central Asia, in countries like Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as Malus sylvestris, European crabapple, found all over Europe. Apples appear to have been around for over thousands of years and have over 7500 cultivars. What also is amazing about this fruit is that it comes from the family of Rosaceae, the Rose. All the relatives of plants that we had no idea of, native to an area and migrating from one place to another and then becoming almost natural to that place over a period of time, as we humans. Have you ever cut an apple horizontally? I normally don't but when I did, this is what I found, a star with five points. Wow! What a revelation for me! The pentagram is sacred in many cultures, the Celts, the ancient Greeks, Romans, Jewish tradition...to name a few. It is also relevant in mathematics and geometry. In Chinese Medicine, it represents the 5 Elements (refer to the diagram in my first post in February 2019). All these years, I have been eating my apple and was never ever aware it had this form within it.  
 
Now is the time of the apple harvest, late summer into autumn, the time of Earth and Metal in Chinese Medicine. As such, the apple affects the organs of the Spleen, Stomach, Lung, Large Intestines and also the Gall Bladder, by nature of its medicinal properties. All herbs and foods in the Chinese Materia Medica, have organs associated with it, a temperature, tastes, which also have connections to organs and its specific functions. Apple is cooling, as most fruits are, and has a sweet, sour taste. This means that apple will cool down warm conditions or heat in the body, its sweetness will nourish Qi and the sour will astringe fluid. So, when we look at its functions of reducing and clearing heat in the body, moistening dryness, stimulating digestion, as well as tonifying Qi and Blood, it all makes sense with the tastes and temperature. It also will cool down heat in the Lung, protecting it from cigarette smoke, stimulate appetite, help lower cholesterol and toxic metal levels in the body. You can grate apple and make a poultice for sunburn and conjunctivitis. Of course, be aware that if you have a tendency to feel cold and have sensitive digestion, like loose stools, you should not overeat apple. Cooking it may help that it be absorbed better, like in the case of babies, who have weak digestive systems. 
 
Remarkable isn't it?  Something so common, found in every grocery store at the moment, or somebody's yard falling to the ground as no one had time to pick it, can do all that. We take too many things for granted. Maybe the simple things in life, right in front of our eyes, hold the magic and the miracle of healing and health. For us in Chinese Medicine, we take the perspective that "Food is Medicine." What you eat in the everyday, affects how your body and mind functions.  Don't just eat apple, because someone told you it's good for you, eat it and sense how it makes you feel, in mind and body. With this, I propose a new adage,
"If you want to stay healthy, listen to your body (and mind ;-))".


Image: apple by Pixabay user bernwaeltz
Image: 5-pointed-star apple by Elaine

The extreme heat (above 35 degrees celsius) and the rains of this past summer has both helped our plants to grow and mature. Some plants like the Coriander have dried out, which I had expected as they are very fast-growing, short-living beings that need to be plucked regularly for their leaves to continue growth. They are beginning to grow their seed, which we will harvest for next year's growth. We have also discovered a stowaway Tomato plant, growing in our pot of Lupins. It grew late in the season so we will see if it will have enough time to fruit. The Garden Project adventure has gotten many of our team members on the balcony, watering and sharing in its growth. Looking up from Falknerstrasse to see living beings on our balcony is very satisfying. Not just that they are beautiful, green and blossoming, but also to know that life can thrive in the harshest of environments by adapting.   


​Photos by Elaine

Photos by Elaine.