Journal
The herb library
Monographs on the plants we sell — what they are, where they grow, how they taste — and the kitchen notes that make them worth keeping in the cupboard. Written from the packing bench, not from a content calendar.
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Dried Lemon: How Much of the Lemon Survives the Drying
Vitamin C does not survive. The aroma mostly does. What a dried lemon slice is actually good for,…
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Kumquat: The Small Citrus You Eat Whole
You can eat the peel, the skin is thin enough, and that single fact changes how kumquat is…
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Citron: A Citrus That Nobody Eats and Everybody Keeps
Too thick to peel, too dry to juice, too fragrant to ignore. The citron is a fruit that…
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Pomelo Peel: The Strongest and Driest of the Chinese Citrus Peels
Hua Ju Hong is the peel of the pomelo, and it is a blunt instrument compared with chen…
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Buddha’s Hand: A Citrus Shaped Like a Hand
Fo Shou Gan has no pulp at all — it is a fragrant, segmented rind that looks like…
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Immature Bitter Orange: The Most Powerful Fruit in the Chinese Pharmacy
Zhi Shi is an unripe bitter orange, dried and cut, and it is the strongest of the qi-moving…
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Monk Fruit: A Sweetener That Is Also a Traditional Tea
Luo Han Guo is used in Chinese medicine as a cooling remedy for coughs and sore throats, and…
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Rose Hips: Two Species, One Family, and a Husk Full of Irritants
Ci Li and Ying Zi are both rose fruits from the Chinese pharmacopoeia, and both are covered in…
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Sour Jujube: The Seed That Calms, and the Fruit That Wakes You Up
Suan Zao is two different products. The fruit is sour and stimulating; the seed inside is the classical…
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Clove: The Flower Bud That Runs an Entire Trade
One dried bud carries more aromatic oil than a cup of most herbal tea. How to buy cloves…
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Cinnamon: Chinese Bark, Ceylon Quills, and the Difference That Matters
Two plants are sold as cinnamon and they taste nothing alike. Which one is in your cupboard, what…
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Star Anise: The Eight-Pointed Pod, and the One You Must Not Confuse It With
Real star anise is sweet and mild; Japanese star anise is toxic and looks almost identical. Here is…
One email a month, sent the day we pack.
What came in, what is running low, and one way to actually use it. No discount codes shouting at you.