A THANKSGIVING MEAL TIP FROM VIANA
Although most of us will have a small Thanksgiving dinner this year, we are still likely to overeat. That’s part of feasting! I don’t know about you, but by the time dessert arrives I’m full! I feel stuffed — a little to a lot uncomfortable, depending on how much I overate. Although I love pumpkin pie, pecan pie and apple pie, even better with whipped cream, my stomach is just not ready for it. But for a number of years now, I have solved that dilemma!
I serve Royal Chanca Piedra as a separate course, after the turkey and vegetables and before the dessert. I make the tea ahead of time and that takes about 20 minutes. It has a fresh, grassy smell, and a soothing tummy feel. Perfect to serve with nothing added to it, or you can add a squeeze of lemon. So you warm up the tea while you are clearing the table and then serve everyone the tea. It’s a great conversation interlude as well.
In 15 or 20 minutes, the teacups will be empty and the liver will be revitalized, and ready to take on the job of digesting some more rich food. Your appetite will return, the heavy feeling gone. And everybody will be genuinely smiling! So Bon Appétit again, as you relish the sweet ending to your meal.
If you don’t have the Royal Chanca Piedra tea on hand but you do have the Royal Chanca Piedra liquid extract, you can always add 30 drops to a cup of hot water and you will have an instant cup of Chanca Piedra tea.
WWB HONORS NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH
Painting by Shipibo artist, Roldán Piñedo (1905)
Did you know that November has been named as the Native American Heritage Month? Whole World Botanicals honors this designation as a way of calling attention to the dignity and value of the cultures of the native Americans, both in North and South America, as well as highlighting the historical injustices visited upon these peoples. Both Elena Rojas-Martinez and Viana Muller , cofounders of Whole World Botanicals, have a strong connection with Native American peoples which predates their founding of WWB. Elena’s mother’s first language that she grew up with was Quechua, the principal language of indigenous people of Andean culture in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. She passed down her intense respect and gratitude to Mother Earth as a living entity which is such a generous provider for all living beings. Elena recently discovered through a DNA test that she is 38% Zuni, an indigenous people who are related to the Hopi and the Navaho and live in the Four Corners area of the western United States. WWB has recently sent gifts of Royal Desmodium Tea and Royal Cat's Claw Tea to the Zuni people to help them cope with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Zuni reservation in New Mexico.
Viana’s strong connection to native North American peoples began when she had the honor of receiving in her home 12 adults and a baby who arrived in New York in 1992, from all over the country, with no place to stay. They spent the night and had breakfast before they participated in the United Nation’s ceremonies marking the quincentennial “discovery “ of the Western Hemisphere and the native people whose home it was in 1492.
Representatives of the North American native people converged on the UN to protest all of the broken treaties which European Americans made with native peoples and to demand representation at the United Nations. “It was an amazing experience,” Viana said. “Although they were all extremely tired from traveling for so many hours to get to New York and although they were all 'strangers' to each other when they arrived, they pulled together with such ease and organized a sweet grass ceremony in which sweet grass was burned. The exquisite fragrance of the sweet grass was used to purify and bless each other, including me. Each person made a speech for several minutes, which was really a prayer, in which each expressed his or her gratitude that we had all been brought together for this momentous occasion. Each gave blessings on the entire group. There was such gentleness of spirit, such dignity of purpose, and such a feeling of strong presence in the room. I felt I was receiving so much more than I was giving.”
With gratitude and a blessing for you and yours,
Viana Muller and Elena Rojas-Martinez
Co-founders of Whole World Botanicals
