Dr. Dr. Dr.

Hauschka Hauschka Hauschka

If you haven't ever used Dr Hauschka before, here is an opportunity to become aquainted with them: by looking at their website after you've read our store profile!

http://www.drhauschka.com/events/featured-store-spa/

Unfortunately, here at the Asheville store were being busy bees and were unable to give our 2 cents about the Dr Hauschka line for their website. But here on our blog, deadlines are thankfully a little more forgiving!

Here's what some of us have to say about the line (this is for you, Allison!)

"Christa gave me a sample of this lotion and I just love it!" Evelyn says as she's slathering it all over her arms.

Amy exclaims "Mom! That's like $40 lotion for your face and you just used it like it was Avon!"

"Well...it was a sample!" Evelyn replies.

(My mom loves the rose day cream and has since realized how precious it is and only uses it on her face. She's also in love with the rose body moisturizer)

"I think Dr Hauschka is a Leo with Leo rising because they think they're the only face care line in the industry."

"No, they are Pisces with Pisces rising. They just have their heads in anthroposophical clouds."

Customer asks: "What's your favorite bath stuff?"

C: "Well, it depends on whether I'm in a salty mood or not."

customer: "I'm not in a salty mood..I want something more heavenly."

C: "Oh, well then try this bath kit. It's a great bathroom accessory. When you pour in the bath oils, pour it in a figure eight shape into the water and you create a vortex of energy that just charges your bath with cosmic goodness!"

customer: "ooooooooohhh"

All in all, we have always been Hauschka apologists. Yes, it is expensive. But once you look into the intentional steps of the bio dynamic processes that everything goes through, you realize that we are lucky to even have a face care line with that kind of homeopathic, rhythmitised energy. And then, once you use it and use it correctly (!) then your skin is the one that feels lucky.

For those of you who have never tried Hauschka before, come into the store and we'll send you home with a few days' worth of samples so that you can become a follower of Hauschka like the rest of us. We love to infect others with our cosmetic obsessions!

Juliette de Bairacli Levy

Juliette de Bairacli Levy is one of the modern grandmothers of western herbalism. An Englishwoman who attended veterinary school in Manchester, left college to travel and study natural herbal therapies. She traveled and lived throughout the mediterranean particularly in Kythira, Greece where she lived in natural dwellings and abandoned villas with her pack of dogs. She authored many books focusing on animal health as well as child and mother herbal health. She has been a source of inspiration for herbalists such as Rosemary Gladstar and Susun Weed. During the second world war, she tended wounded soldiers with sphagnum moss while she worked in the Women's Land Army in England and was praised for her actions that saved entire flocks of sheep who were deemed "incurable" by conventional veteranarians.

She lived in Israel with her two children in the 1950's where they raised many animals including owls, hawks, dogs, goats, donkeys and bees. Juliette became famous for saving her hives of bees from shell attack during the six day war. She moved to Greece and raised her famous Afghan hounds and continued her research for herbal remedies for humans and animals. She spent many years traveling and learning the folklore and herbal wisdom of peasants and gypsies in Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, Israel, Turkey, Greece and France. Many of the remedies and stories she learned, she documented and published in her books. Her most well known book is her Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable (1951) and it was the first veterinary herbal book to be published, the art of gypsies and peasants had only previously been passed on through spoken word.

Her knowledge and wisdom have been a gift to the world of herbalism and natural pet care. She passed away in a home in Bergdorf, Switzerland at the age of 97. She will be missed.

Medicines From the Earth

Appalachian herbalist and storyteller, Doug Elliot, convincing a group to play with local herbs: wild cherry (Prunus avium) , sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) and tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera).

Also, here are some tulip poplar blossoms. In the spring, each blossom can hold up to 1/3 cup nectar! Free for the drinking by humans, bees, birds and other thirsty creatures.

Doug Elliot reminded the group that there are so many wonderful herbal partners in our surrounding woods. Aside from those mentioned above, he sang a song about Dandelion (Taraxacum off.), demonstrated how to make a carrier pouch out of poplar bark and hickory bark, told a story about his friend, a Ojibwa-Cree Native American who calls wood sorrell (Oxalis acetosella) "its all here" because the three heart shaped leaves remind him of the six directions: north, south, east, west, sky, earth. Elliot gives fun, informative walks and you can sometimes catch him on the radio telling his stories, singing his songs and generally being delightfully ridiculous and informative.