MOTHER EARTH NEWS February-March 2014

From soothing aloe to spicy horseradish, subtle-sweet marjoram to savory thyme, discover the exceptional flavors and gentle healing capabilities of more than 40 of the plant kingdom’s finest in our Directory of Culinary and Medicinal Herbs. This tour of the herb world is your one-stop shop for reliable information on cultivating, cooking and healing with these special plants. Herbs crown the cook’s glory, and each plant’s profile will show you how to harvest and store it for optimal quality, plus furnish you with recipes showcasing the ingredient’s knack for improving or complementing flavors, such as Rosemary-Almond Biscotti, Sage-Cheddar Bagels, and bundles more. Many herbs are also valuable in the medicine cabinet, whether you’re looking for natural relief for a cold or headache, or trying to ease more chronic ailments, such…

Have you longed to meet likeminded homesteaders and wiser-living advocates in your area? Have you wanted to find out about neighborhood seed swaps and harvest parties, read local environmental action alerts, and seek or share gardening advice? Maybe you’ve pondered how to sell your surplus garlic or hope to find a new home for that tractor you no longer use? Good news: Now you can do all of those things in one place, via the 60 state and province Facebook pages Mother Earth News has created for you, our readers. Minnesotans can strike up chats with other Minnesotans, Alabamians with Alabamians. Beginners can ask questions; local experts can offer answers. Expect humor and, sometimes, spirited debate. We invite you to join the fun! To find your area’s page, go to…

You are growing, and we are growing, too. Last year — in fact, for the past 10 years — Mother Earth News has been the fastest-growing major magazine in the country. Thank you for supporting what we do. We’re proud to serve you for many different reasons. A company called Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) measures magazine audiences for the advertising industry. They confirm that, among the 211 largest magazine audiences in the country, none has grown faster than the Mother Earth News audience — that’s you — over the past 10 years. During that period, our total audience has quadrupled. Overall, magazine audiences have been shrinking lately. But not at Mother Earth News. Over the past six years, total magazine newsstand revenues across the country were down 37 percent.…

From Passion to Profession I have always loved MOTHER EARTH NEWS, but I feel compelled to tell you just how much I appreciated your December 2013/January 2014 issue. It was so packed with information and inspiration! The article “Herbal Antibiotics: An Effective Defense Against Drug-Resistant ‘Superbugs’” pointed out such a pressing health concern that I found myself considering a new career path: that of an herbalist. I’ve been circling around the idea for some time, and reading Stephen Harrod Buhner’s message about increasingly ineffective antibiotic drugs may be just the final push I need. Also, Publisher Bryan Welch’s piece about the new terrain being forged by inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk was magnificently presented (“Human Ingenuity: Never Underestimate Its Transformative Power”). Musk’s work is opening up new and hopeful horizons…

To draw out difficult-to-access reserves of gas, crews drill thousands of feet into the earth and pump in highly pressurized, chemical-laden fracking fluids. This allows them to get the gas out — but the process leaves a mess in its wake. Fracking wastewater contains acetaldehyde, ammonium chloride, arsenic, benzene, formaldehyde, lead, mercury, radium and hundreds of other chemicals. The controversial practice pollutes water supplies and land with these toxins — which are so substantial that, in the most affected areas, household tap water can sometimes be set afire as if the water were gasoline. (Check out the 2010 documentary film Gasland for footage of this.) In addition to reportedly making people sick from polluted water supplies, fracking may now be tainting our food supply. Because of the presence of chemicals…

You’ve likely heard how healthy the Mediterranean diet is, replete with fish, vegetables, whole grains and legumes — all dressed with olive oil. But you may not have heard the complete truth about how to use olive oil. First, realize there are differences in how to use olive oil if you’re choosing it for flavor rather than cooking with it for health. Extra-virgin olive oil is expensive, but fresh-pressed, unfiltered extra-virgin olive oils can contain at least 30 beneficial phenolic compounds. These strong antioxidant phenols neutralize dangerous free radicals in your body. You can tell an extra-virgin olive oil is rich in phenols if it’s slightly bitter and astringent, peppery, and has a “bite.” The most healthful extravirgin olive oils taste this way. Light, heat and oxidation damage phenols, however,…