Nourishing Veggie & Mushroom Broth

As Fall starts to transition to Winter, it’s a great time to make medicinal broths to support our immune systems. As a vegetarian, I like to make a nutritious veggie stock with the support of powerful medicinal mushrooms. One of the great things about making a big stock of broth is that you can freeze some of it for later and add the broth to lentils, rice, future soups, or anything else that can be cooked in water or broth. It’s a great way to get nourishing medicinal support on a daily basis through food.

Making a medicinal veggie & mushroom broth can be affordable and easy to do. I keep a bag in the freezer for veggie scraps like onion skins, carrot tops, bell pepper tops, etc. Many veggie odds and ends scraps are great for broths, though you might want to avoid veggies such as cauliflower, brussell sprouts, and kale stems as their taste can be overwhelming in a broth. 

I keep a supply of mushrooms to add to the broth. Mushrooms are incredibly medicinal and stimulating to our immune systems. I’m partial to working with Reishi (Ling Zhi in Chinese), a woody mushroom that my ancestors have worked with for thousands of years. Known as a great healer mushroom, Reishi is often used in tonics to support immunity and overall health. Reishi is slightly bitter, which supports your liver and digestive health. Working with Reishi over time can also help relieve anxiety, reduce stress, and relieve fatigue. Unlike certain herbs that you might take as soon as you get a cold or flu (like elderberry or echinacea), I work with Reishi proactively over this season to strengthen my overall body. Other mushrooms like Shiitake and Maitake have similar properties, and if I have them on hand, I’ll add them to the broth as well. You can find Reishi at Chinese medicine and/or herbal stores. I encourage you to make some nourishing medicinal broth for yourself this season!

Medicinal Veggie & Mushroom Broth

Ingredients

• Veggie Scraps (Onion skins, garlic skins, carrot tops, broccoli bottoms, bell pepper tops, etc.)

• Reishi Slices and/or other Medicinal Mushrooms (One large dried Reishi slice per cup of water)

• Water

Instructions

• Add all ingredients to a crockpot, cover with water, and let simmer for approximately 8 hours.

• Strain, and you have a delicious broth! 

• If you don’t have a crockpot, you can simmer on low over a stovetop for several (approximately 4 hours depending on heat strength.)

Other Tips

• I thoroughly wash my veggie scraps before adding them to the freezer for storage. It’s okay to use veggie bits slightly past their prime, but I won’t add anything that is moldy or far past it’s prime.

• After straining the veggies and mushrooms and storing the yummy broth, I sometimes put the veggies and mushrooms back in the crockpot, cover the water, and make a second batch of broth. The second round comes out less strong than the first round, but I find still makes a tasty and nutritious broth.

• To freeze the broth for future use, I pour into ice cubes trays and then place in freezer. Then I pop out the ice cubes and add to soups, rice, lentils, etc.

Do you have questions about this broth, or did you try making it? I would love to hear what you think! Feel free to email me.

Thanks to my teacher Elokin Orton-Cheung of Shootingstar Botanicals for first teaching me how to make this delicious broth, and for singing the praises of crockpots until I finally got one!

Launching Red Autumn Apothecary

*I sent this email out to friends on September 19th, 2019.

Hi all,

I’m writing to you all on my 30th birthday with exciting news - I am officially launching the start of my herbal practice, Red Autumn Apothecary! It's also the eve of an exciting week of climate strikes and I am feeling a mixture of hope, optimism, and deep sadness. The world needs deep healing right now and stepping in to my practice is one small way I show my love for the earth and for you all, my community.

When I first started taking herbal classes and workshops five years ago, I had no intention of starting a practice. Even after I enrolled in Cecemmana, a three year clinical herbalism program at Ancestral Apothecary, I wasn’t sure where that path would lead - I just knew I wanted to keep learning about the plant world. As I continued learning and spending time with plants, I saw how working with herbal medicine can really support lasting and meaningful changes in people’s lives for the better. Now that I have graduated from my program, it’s important for me to step into the role of a community herbalist to help facilitate the deep healing I know is possible. I’ll be doing this through teaching classes and workshops, offering herbal remedies, and as of today, I’m launching my practice where I’ll support people through one-on-one herbal consultations. 

I’m grateful for the synchronistic timing of launching my practice as I enter my third decade. This shift is only possible because of the path I walked in my twenties - with the support and care of many of you. I believe healing is circular and while I have more to walk on my own journey, I am emotionally available and ready to take on this role because of the healing I have sought and found in my own life, particularly in the past decade - through the blood, sweat, tears and joy of it all.

As I walk this path, I also want to ask for your support. As I support others and will be reminding them to reach out to their communities, I remind myself to reach out to you all and to ask for the abundance I know exists within our communities in many forms. I also want to share my gratitude with you all - many of you have shared kind words, gifts, beautiful letters and more that have lifted up my spirits these past few months of transition. The following are other ways you can support me as I launch my business. 

Ways to support me:

1. Know anyone looking for health and/or herbal support? Please share about my private practice in your community. Are you personally interested in seeing me as an herbalist? I would be honored! Learn more.

2. I love to teach! If you know of opportunities to provide herbal/health workshops in your workplace, schools, and other communities, please get in touch! I already have plans to offer free community workshops, so I am particularly looking for paid gigs. :) 

3. Sign up for my mailing list if you haven’t already! I’m going to transition from email blasting all my friends to sending herbal love notes through my email newsletter. I’ll share upcoming events, info about plants, and local happenings.

Thank you for being a part of my life, reading this far, and for celebrating with me. If there is any way I can support you, please let me know.

With gratitude,

Bekah