It’s an overcast day in March, occasional clouds drizzling soft trills of rain onto the courtyard.
Optimistically, I set the alembic up in a corner, knowing that unless it pours, we’ll be safe under the cedar beamed edges of the open roof.
Continue reading “The Boiling Pot: Spirituality and Herbal Distillation”Morocco is famous for its tea.
Walk through any Moroccan market and you’ll find fresh fragrant mint being sold in huge bunches, piled high and sold for a dirham.
As you move around the medina of Fes, you’ll find carts laden with fresh herbs. Marjoram, Thyme, Rosemary, Verbena, Pennyroyal, Wormwood and Sage.
Continue reading “Brewing Soulful Moroccan Tea”You can ask the neighbours, they find it funny too.
Baby strapped onto my back (happy as a clam) and shopping trolley in hand, I swing the heavy iron front door closed and roll our way down the hill.
It’s already eleven in the morning because it takes us so long to get out of the house (we have a long breakfast!), and most of the neighbors are already on their way back.
Continue reading “How we Shop: An Homage to the Journey”Paper Title: Between the Lines of the ‘Traditional’ and the ‘Modern’: Meaning and Efficacy in Contemporary Fassi Healing
Continue reading “Research: Contemporary Fassi Healing”This is one of my all-time favourite recipes for foraged greens, one I learnt from my wonderful mother-in-law, which is really adaptable for lots of different seasonal herbs.
Continue reading “Healing Foraged Salad: Bacula”The path hasn’t always been easy, but it feels like I’m finding the way home now.
I turn the corner into the sun. Down the hill, lemon tree leaning overhead. Her fruit, not yet to be seen. I feel the heat against my skin until suddenly, perfectly, the breeze hits me with a deep inhale of fresh southern air.
Continue reading “The Journey Home”In this paper I look at the history of herbal medicine in the Fes medina. It is being made available here for anyone interested in the topic. Please contact me if you would like a translation.
Continue reading “Herbal Medicine in Fes: A History”General Information
One of our great trees, it comes in many varieties, it is sometimes called ‘al-Arez’ and this refers to both the masculine and feminine of these trees, all of which have a frilled leaf, some of which bare fruit and others don’t. Amongst those that bare fruit, there are big fruit and smaller ones, and amongst those with bigger fruit there are those like the ceder. And in this variety can be made a black paste because of its fatty nature, which is suitable to use in a lamp to bring soft light to the beginning of the day, just like beeswax or oil. It has many names, including ‘Baqam al-Quraysh’ and in Shaam, ‘Qantuandas’, and of this variety there is also the ‘Regina’. The cypress tree is also related to the pine.
Continue reading “Pine: A Translation from The Garden of Blossoms”General Information
A type of shrub that propagates itself a lot and extends branches from all sides, and it has white blossom like that of the dog rose or quince, and it has thorns like blackberry.
Continue reading “Caper: A Translation from The Garden of Blossoms”General Information
Divided into a number of different species, of which there are wild and cultivated varieties. We will turn our attention to the cultivated varieties. They come in many types: big, small, round, long, white and red, and they are well known so we will not spend long describing them.
Continue reading “Onion: A Translation from The Garden of Blossoms”
The Atlas Apothecary Sourcebook 