Sassafras is a richly nuanced medicinal tree that also has a distinctive place in the culinary world. Sassafras root bark is responsible for the flavor of root beer, but it is no longer used due to a Food and Drug Administration ban. The reasons for this fortunately do not transfer to sassafras leaves which have a long history of being essential to classical Southern gumbo. I think sassafras falls into the category of underutilized herbs. Despite questions about safety and bad publicity, sassafras is distinctive and very much worth getting to know.

Links to Gumbo Mentions:

Toni Tipton Martin

Jubilee Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking: A Cookbook by Toni Tipton Martin

Lena Richard

New Orlean”s Cookbook by Lena Richard

My favorite sources for gumbo file:

Red Stick Spice Co.

Mountain Rose Herbs: dried sassafras leaves

Join me in this episode for more on sassafras…the unique features of its leaves, its medicinal qualities and some safety concerns. Sending you warm winter wishes and thank you for joining me!

---Deepest gratitude to Andrea Klunder, my podcast boss. Find her at thecreativeimposter.com.

Original music by Dylan Rice

Please send me your comments, requests, or feedback. Send me a message, voice or write an email, my email is dina@theherbalbakeshoppe.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Episode Website

To get herb inspired recipes, plant profiles and read more about herbal medicine, visit my website at: theherbalbakeshoppe.com

Join me on Patreon

Connect with me on Instagram

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe where ever you like to listen to podcasts! And if you have time, kindly share with your friends and family.

ABOUT DINA

Dina Ranade is a Registered Herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist. She is also a mom of three humans - two daughters and one son all now living their young adult lives - and one sweet Pomeranian named Maci.

What makes a fruit or vegetable easy to find in grocery stores? While there are many answers to this question, a lot of edible medicinal herbs are not, herbs like nettles, burdock root and elderberries. To this list, I am adding sumac berries. Sumac may not give us delicious fruit, but there is good reason to get to know it better and I am doing this in my kitchen. And in case you are wondering, this is a totally different plant than toxic poison sumac.

My favorite sources for dried sumac:

Mountain Rose Herbs

Burlap & Barrel

Join me in this episode for more on sumac…its uses as a culinary spice and as an underutilized medicinal herb and also the difference between sumac and poison sumac.

Sending you warm summer thoughts and thank you for joining me!

---Deepest gratitude to Andrea Klunder, my podcast boss. Find her at thecreativeimposter.com.

Original music by Dylan Rice

Please send me your comments, requests, or feedback. Send me a message, voice or write an email, my email is dina@theherbalbakeshoppe.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

To get herb inspired recipes, plant profiles and read more about herbal medicine, visit my website at: theherbalbakeshoppe.com

Connect with me on Instagram

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe where ever you like to listen to podcasts! And if you have time, kindly share with your friends and family.

ABOUT DINA

Dina Ranade is a Registered Herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist. She is also a mom of three humans - two daughters and one son all now living their young adult lives - and one sweet Pomeranian named Maci.

What makes a tree medicinal? The answer to this question depends on the medicine we are searching for. Especially in spring, trees can be medicine for our eyes. After the grayness of winter, glorious flowering trees like dogwood and magnolia are sweet visions. Aside from landscaping decoration, both dogwood and magnolia along with many other trees,have long been used for strong medicines derived from their bark.Tree bark has phytochemicals that make it bitter, astringent, and highly antimicrobial. Bark is a tree’s protective layer, helping it to survive through winter cold and other dangers like bacteria, fungi and troublesome insects. The same phytochemicals in tree bark offer much medicine to humans as well.

Join me in this episode for more on tree bark and the medicine of dogwood and magnolia trees. Sending you lovely spring thoughts and thank you for joining me!

---Deepest gratitude to Andrea Klunder, my podcast boss. Find her at thecreativeimposter.com.

Original music by Dylan Rice

Please send me your comments, requests, or feedback. Send me a message, voice or write an email, my email is dina@theherbalbakeshoppe.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

To get herb inspired recipes, plant profiles and read more about herbal medicine, visit my website at: theherbalbakeshoppe.com

Join me on Patreon

Connect with me on Instagram

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe where ever you like to listen to podcasts! And if you have time, kindly share with your friends and family.

ABOUT DINA

Dina Ranade is a Registered Herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist. She is also a mom of three humans - two daughters and one son all now living their young adult lives - and one sweet Pomeranian named Maci.