Great podcast episode...now you will make me want to get out and finish our perimeter herb beds in our vegetable garden this weekend. I'm itching to get some perennial veggies and herbs in those beds!

I'm glad you brought up the raspberry leaf tea....I'm almost out of my first trimester and there seems to be a 50/50 or 60/40 split on the tea's use while pregnant. Others say it is a great tonic others freak you out about it so I've been hesitant. I have a box (no raspberries to harvest my own) of tea at home just waiting to be opened.

I'm definitely curious on any opinions you may have on the matter Trish!

I'll leave that question for @Trish but I wanted to congratulate you!

As for the raspberries, we have never been able to grow them here despite numerous efforts. We've given up and we order the raspberry leaves bulk from, well, I can't remember where we order them from. Maybe Mountain Rose Herbs. Trish has a nice tea that she makes that includes the raspberries along with alfalfa and several other goodies.

Misti,

I've had several midwives who didn't recommend RR Tea in the first trimester, especially if you don't normally drink it. My current midwife suggests using it from the very beginning.

Personally, I'm usually (shamefully) out of the regular habit of drinking it when I get pregnant again, so I generally avoid it during the first 12 weeks, and slowly build back up to drinking up to 1-2 quarts per day before delivery.

I like to mix RR, Oat Straw, Nettles, and Alfalfa in my pregnancy tea, and add in a bit of mint for flavor. Before I got used to the taste, I also had honey as well, but I'm so used to the flavor now that the honey is almost too sweet. I also like to chug the tea after birth to replenish those vitamins and minerals as well as promoting healing.

Congratulations!!

Thanks for the information Trish and thanks for the congratulations from both of y'all! I'll definitely ask my midwife when I see her next month and if there's no problems I think I'll drink up! I'll check out the bulk selection at Mountain Rose herbs. I have their catalog but have never ordered from them.

We order quite a bit from Mountain Rose.
Also to check out is The Bulk Herb Store http://www.bulkherbstore.com/
and San Francisco Herb http://www.sfherb.com/

This is my favorite podcast that the two of you have done. Very information, genuine and entertaining conversation. Great job!!

Thanks!

Loved it! Great info/conversation regarding some of the most favorite herbs around!

Hope I'm not intruding on this thread, 'cus I sure ain't dealing with the worries of drinking red raspberry tea while pregnant, in any trimester or the like. However I have often used raspberry leaves - red and black - to cure scours in my goats and rabbits! (Not to insinuate ya'll pregnant folks have scours...just trying to fit into the conversation at hand.)

Ya'll sure covered some great herbs, cultivated as well as wild ones. Great idea, great info.

From plaintain to achillea (we use them both for bee stings and bites here) to yellow dock. I think it's great that our NC "weeds" grow out there in Texas, or vice-versa.

Trish, you spoke of trouble growing rosemary. I still have prostrate rosemary (referred to as creeping rosemary in the podcast, which is a term I like better) that you sent me years ago when ya'll lived in Tennessee. I should get off my duff and send you some cuttings and maybe it is magical enough to grow well in Texas. Heck, maybe it'll remember you!

I was happy to hear Dave mention the coriander/cilantro plant. I tell my market customers it is actually "three plants in one"-- the leafy growth cilantro, the seeds coriander, but in-between those the feathery growth is often referred to as Chinese parsley. The flavor changes slightly but is still highly favorable so don't give up on it just because the leaf structure/form changes.

Thanks again for a nice podcast.
And Dave, have fun at your next lecture(s) coming up...sounds like a good time for everyone.

Best,
Shoe (itchin' for mint to re-emerge)

I always appreciate your comments on our podcasts, Shoe! I know what you're talking about with that "in between" stage for cilantro but never knew it was called Chinese parsley. It makes sense because it really does remind one of parsley when it's in that stage. Several of mine are like that right now so I think I'll give it a taste tomorrow!

The lecture went great. There might have been 150 people in attendance and I got a lot of very positive feedback from it. In fact, a number of them came and signed up at ATP as a result!

Thanks for the rosemary offer but I'm declining it. We're satisfied with the upright ones we have right now and maybe one day we'll try again with the rambling ones but not this year, I think.

Wow...150 people at your lecture. GREAT! And of those that signed up to ATP I'm sure will get highly welcomed. Glad to hear it went so well. And I suppose you and Trish are glad you got to go to it, putting off the next childbirth til tomorrow, or the next day....

Hope your day went well.
Shoe

Sure did!!