Speaker 1: It's Maria's MutS and Stuff.
Speaker 2: What a great idea.
Speaker 1: On iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Maria's Mutts and Stuff.
Speaker 3: And with me today is herb farmer and author and
Speaker 3: gardening expert Bevin Cohen, and we're going to talk about
Speaker 3: his I love this book, Herbs in Every Season, So Bevin,
Speaker 3: thank you for taking the time out to talk about
Speaker 3: your book.
Speaker 2: It just came out recently, correct it did.
Speaker 1: Maria, thank you so much for having me on the show.
Speaker 1: It did. The book came out March twenty five, so
Speaker 1: it's very brand new.
Speaker 2: It's very brand new. Well, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: I you know, I live in an apartment, but I
Speaker 3: love to garden on my terrace in my you know,
Speaker 3: in flower pots, and I do like to grow herbs
Speaker 3: here and there.
Speaker 2: But I just found it very educational.
Speaker 3: I love that you have it in four parts according
Speaker 3: to the seasons. So what made you just like what
Speaker 3: made you decide to write the book?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I've written a number of books out
Speaker 1: plants over the years, some herbs specifics, some fruits and vegetables,
Speaker 1: all sorts of different variations of topics of plants. And
Speaker 1: you know, I was working with Timber Pressors, my publisher,
Speaker 1: on this book, and we were kind of just knocking
Speaker 1: some ideas around and I thought, you know, back in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, I had written a book called The
Speaker 1: Artists and Herbalists, and we'd explored thirty eight different herbs
Speaker 1: throughout the book, and I thought, Man, I would really
Speaker 1: love to kind of revisit that and dig a little
Speaker 1: bit deeper into the concepts that we explored in that book.
Speaker 1: But I'd really like to do it from this seasonal lens.
Speaker 1: You know, that's the way that you know nature on
Speaker 1: folds is through through these seasons and these cycles. And
Speaker 1: I thought, to help people understand plants and the way
Speaker 1: that we interact with them, we need to really approach
Speaker 1: it through these natural cycles. Actually, you know, they were
Speaker 1: on board with the concept, and you know, we're kind
Speaker 1: of unfolded. It's those books, but many years in the making,
Speaker 1: most certainly, and I'm just so excited to get it
Speaker 1: out there and to share it with folks and to
Speaker 1: help people learn to observe these seasonal cycles of nature,
Speaker 1: whether they be the seasons for the plants or the
Speaker 1: seasons that we experience ourselves. You know, the seasons of
Speaker 1: our lives.
Speaker 2: These sure, you.
Speaker 1: Know, the as we change the plants that we need
Speaker 1: changes as well. So we really had this opportunity to
Speaker 1: explore that, and it was just it was such a
Speaker 1: fun process, I'm sure, I mean.
Speaker 3: And that's also a very unique way to do it,
Speaker 3: because I mean we always talk about seasons of life, like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: that person's in the fall of his life, you know,
Speaker 3: So it just it makes sense to have a book
Speaker 3: about herbs in the same way, because you're right, we
Speaker 3: all live through seasons, whether it's through gardening or just
Speaker 3: through our lives.
Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite season?
Speaker 1: Well, whatever season I'm in the middle of, I know
Speaker 1: it would be hard to pick a favorite. I think
Speaker 1: that I really enjoyed the energy of spring. Spring is
Speaker 1: a really special time, you know, everything's kind of coming
Speaker 1: back to life. That's very exciting as you can feel
Speaker 1: the energy in the air. But on the same side
Speaker 1: of that, I really appreciate the winter season, you know.
Speaker 1: I love the rast and reflection. You know, all of
Speaker 1: those seasons I think are special because of the other
Speaker 1: seasons around them. Right. We appreciate spring because of winter, sure,
Speaker 1: and we appreciate fall because of summer, and so I
Speaker 1: think that that relationship between the seasons is important too.
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 3: And I just I like the way you like you
Speaker 3: said you made notes about what happens in the season,
Speaker 3: like when the winter comes and things die, and it's
Speaker 3: also a RESTful time.
Speaker 2: But I feel like it's the same for humans as
Speaker 2: it is for gardening. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: It is? Yeah, Oh absolutely, there's so many parallels. You know,
Speaker 1: we tend to think of ourselves as like separate from
Speaker 1: the natural worlds for some reasons, right, or that's obviously
Speaker 1: not the case, right, Yeah, not at all. This is
Speaker 1: just kind of a fun way to explore that. When
Speaker 1: I teach people about plants, you know, I've been I've
Speaker 1: been teaching people about gardening and growing and working with
Speaker 1: plants for many years now, and at the heart of
Speaker 1: the teacher is really this concept of relationships, you know,
Speaker 1: the relationships that we have with plants, the relationships that
Speaker 1: plants have with each other, whatever it might be. And
Speaker 1: I think that by slowing down our busy lives to
Speaker 1: find the time to make these observations as really integral
Speaker 1: part of developing these relationships, and it helps us to
Speaker 1: see the world around us and at the same time
Speaker 1: ourselves in a whole new way.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, absolutely absolutely, And you know what I really enjoyed
Speaker 3: about it too, is I for many, many, many years,
Speaker 3: as I'm sure at you as well, I would prefer
Speaker 3: to use homeopathic cures for rather than take medicine when
Speaker 3: it comes to say, an injury, Like I learned about
Speaker 3: arnica a million years ago from a friend of mine
Speaker 3: in like a boot camp gym, you know, And I
Speaker 3: had an injury and my friend was like, oh, go
Speaker 3: get Arnica, which and this is years ago, which of
Speaker 3: course I had never heard of it. And I went
Speaker 3: to the health food store and found it, and it's
Speaker 3: like a miracle drug, but it's not a drug. So
Speaker 3: it's it's I love the fact that you explored and
Speaker 3: let people know about all these different and all these
Speaker 3: different remedies for things that probably like our great grandparents
Speaker 3: did as well.
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely. But even if we want to think about
Speaker 1: modern medicine, many of our modern medicines originally were derived
Speaker 1: from plants.
Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, some of.
Speaker 1: Them still are, and now there's maybe are like synthetically
Speaker 1: creative now or whatever it might be. But originally all
Speaker 1: medicine came from plants. So yeah, you're right, we did
Speaker 1: want to explore that in the book as well. We
Speaker 1: wanted people to see that nature and in this case,
Speaker 1: in this book, herbs specifically can provide us for almost
Speaker 1: all of our needs, whether it be for our health
Speaker 1: or for our beauty. But also we explore the uses
Speaker 1: of the herbs in the kitchen as well. Yes, you know, so,
Speaker 1: it's really it's it's a lifestyle, is what. We're exploring,
Speaker 1: a lifestyle.
Speaker 2: With herbs, right, And as you said, it's a love
Speaker 2: letter to Mother Nature. As you said, you.
Speaker 1: It's sure, sure, you know. I mean, if it wasn't
Speaker 1: for her, we wouldn't have much would.
Speaker 2: No, we would not, We would not.
Speaker 3: So when you were I mean, and of course it's
Speaker 3: hard to ask you this only because you're an I
Speaker 3: feel like you are I feel like but you are
Speaker 3: an expert when it comes to herbs and all that
Speaker 3: they do. Was there anything as you were preparing the book,
Speaker 3: And the answer is probably going to be no, that
Speaker 3: you you learned that you didn't you never realized.
Speaker 1: Oh, actually so much, okay, I learned so much working
Speaker 1: on the book. You know, there's a lifetime of learning
Speaker 1: to be had, and I've been working with plants for
Speaker 1: so long now that folks do refer to me as
Speaker 1: an expert. But oh no, there's always so much more
Speaker 1: to learn. There are so many things to learn about plants.
Speaker 1: So for me to write this book through this lens
Speaker 1: of the season, I had to do exactly what I
Speaker 1: was preaching Murray. I had to slow myself down and
Speaker 1: observe not only the things around me, but observe the
Speaker 1: way that I observed the things around me so I
Speaker 1: could properly write about them. And it was just it
Speaker 1: was such an eye opening experience for me to really
Speaker 1: take the time to say, practice what I preach, right.
Speaker 1: But I learned a lot of stuff about plants.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Through the book, there's so many different recipes for all
Speaker 1: of the aspects, the medicinal and the beauty in the culinary,
Speaker 1: And it was the culinary recipes that really pushed me
Speaker 1: outside of my comfort zone. Wow, all of these new
Speaker 1: different foods. I wanted to do recipes that were familiar
Speaker 1: to folks, things that they you know, they would know
Speaker 1: techniques that they might use. But then I thought, well,
Speaker 1: let's kind of really push the envelope here. Let's try
Speaker 1: some really outside ideas, let's really explore what these plants
Speaker 1: can do for us. So I was learning many new
Speaker 1: things in the kitchen to working as we developed these recipes,
Speaker 1: and it was so much fun to take a lifetime
Speaker 1: of experience and really challenge it and say, well, you
Speaker 1: know this much stuff, what can you do with it?
Speaker 1: And really make myself try something new, which is really
Speaker 1: another message at the heart of the book, right is
Speaker 1: to be to be confident and brave enough to try
Speaker 1: new things.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 3: So now when you tried these new recipes, uh, was
Speaker 3: it just you tasting them? Or did you put it
Speaker 3: out to your family too? And they had to experience
Speaker 3: it as well?
Speaker 1: Everybody?
Speaker 2: That's funny.
Speaker 1: I yeah, well, you know, I get in my own
Speaker 1: little bubble and you know, I might think something is great,
Speaker 1: but that only goes so far. I needed to see
Speaker 1: what other people thought about the recipes as well, you know,
Speaker 1: So not only tasting the recipes, but then take this
Speaker 1: recipe home and you try to make it, and the
Speaker 1: can you follow this recipe all the way through? Is
Speaker 1: it going to function for you? Is it easy enough
Speaker 1: to follow? Did the results work out for you? You know?
Speaker 1: So we could really test these recipes, sure on all levels.
Speaker 1: Sure that was a really important part of it.
Speaker 3: Of course, of course, And so I would assume that
Speaker 3: for all the recipes that are in the book, all
Speaker 3: of you are on the same page with say the
Speaker 3: simplicity of it, or it worked success.
Speaker 2: To make it into the book, right, you're on the
Speaker 2: same page.
Speaker 1: You got it? Yeah, absolutely, the recipes that I didn't.
Speaker 2: Make the cut, you know, oh really could you?
Speaker 3: Is there anything that you off the top of your
Speaker 3: head that didn't make the cut?
Speaker 1: Not off the top of my head. But you know,
Speaker 1: some of the recipes as you work through them, you know,
Speaker 1: they kind of have to maybe get tweaked to people's taste, sure, right,
Speaker 1: like I might be a little heavy on the spice
Speaker 1: or a little little light on the salt or whatever.
Speaker 1: It might be, right right, And we had to find
Speaker 1: a place where it was it was a recipe that
Speaker 1: could be agreeable for most palettes. That's very now. We
Speaker 1: can't please everybody all the time, but we wanted to
Speaker 1: make it as universal as possible. But again with that
Speaker 1: caveat that make this recipe, see how you feel about it,
Speaker 1: and then feel free to change it, make it your
Speaker 1: own experience. New things and just use this as sort
Speaker 1: of your starting point to a whole world of adventure
Speaker 1: that hopefully this book can unlock for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, I mean honestly, Like, for example, my grandmother
Speaker 3: used to make dandelions all the time when I was
Speaker 3: a kid, and you know, growing up, dandelions were weeds.
Speaker 3: You know, people are always so those are weeds on
Speaker 3: your lawn. But meantime, my grandmother from Italy used to
Speaker 3: make them and eat them all the time. And then
Speaker 3: there they were dandelions in the spring part of your book,
Speaker 3: and I was like, yay, you can eat dandelions. So
Speaker 3: your book has actually given me the confidence. Now I'm
Speaker 3: going to make dandelions like my grandmother used to do.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's awesome. That's so cool, you know.
Speaker 1: And we did want to try to talk about some
Speaker 1: of those wild plants as well, because even like you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, you have a very small space for growing.
Speaker 1: You've got to grow things and containers or whatever. So
Speaker 1: of course we talk about cultivated herbs and many of
Speaker 1: which could grow a containers, but I also wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about wild plants. So you don't have to be
Speaker 1: a gardener, you don't have to have a space for
Speaker 1: a garden, and you can still have this opportunity to
Speaker 1: explore all of the wonders of the wild world.
Speaker 2: Sure exactly.
Speaker 3: And also for along that same line, for someone who
Speaker 3: doesn't have any of a green thumb at all, but
Speaker 3: they go to the supermarket all the time and they're
Speaker 3: in the area with all the spices, I think your
Speaker 3: book might give people the courage to go outside of
Speaker 3: their comfort zone, trying out spices that they maybe they
Speaker 3: might have seen or heard about but they never really
Speaker 3: used it. For example, Like, for example, I saw and
Speaker 3: I use coriander a lot, and I didn't realize it's
Speaker 3: good for bloating and gas because you had that in
Speaker 3: your book. So for the person right right, So for
Speaker 3: someone who is like, oh, I don't know, I never
Speaker 3: used that before, but your book kind of gives them
Speaker 3: the courage to, well, try something new. You might actually
Speaker 3: really like it and it's going to be good for
Speaker 3: you health reason as well. Well.
Speaker 1: I really hope that it does that, because that was
Speaker 1: ultimately what I wanted, was to give people the courage
Speaker 1: to try new things. We do talk about a lot
Speaker 1: of different spices and foods. The folks may already even
Speaker 1: have in the home, things like coriander, federal cinnamon green tea.
Speaker 1: These are things that like you might likely already have
Speaker 1: in your cupboard at home, and you don't even realize
Speaker 1: all the potential that this plant has for you. And
Speaker 1: you can get it out and you'll see it from
Speaker 1: a whole new perspective. That's it, right, a whole new
Speaker 1: recipe it. You know, it could be really eye opening
Speaker 1: and you know fun. Ultimately, that's what we want to
Speaker 1: do is have a good time. Absolutely, we want to
Speaker 1: be healthy, we want to experience the natural world, but
Speaker 1: we want to enjoy it and have a good time.
Speaker 3: No, for sure, that's exactly how I felt, because I would,
Speaker 3: like I said, with the dandelions, and there were other
Speaker 3: parts too that I.
Speaker 2: Was like, oh, I'm going to make tea with that.
Speaker 2: I never thought of that. Thanks Bevin.
Speaker 3: So you know, it's like it just it was very
Speaker 3: informative but also eye opening.
Speaker 2: So I think that's it's a good thing.
Speaker 3: And even for someone say who has no interest in
Speaker 3: gardening or doesn't have the space to do that, I
Speaker 3: think your book in so many ways is educational for people.
Speaker 3: So thanks for writing it.
Speaker 1: Appreciate that well, thank you and thank you to many folks.
Speaker 1: If we're going to say thanks, i'd like to say
Speaker 1: thank you Timber Press of course for allowing me to
Speaker 1: write it. And also we have to give a shout
Speaker 1: out to our photographer, Miriam Don't. Yes, yes, she came
Speaker 1: all the way to Michigan from Chicago, and I mean
Speaker 1: she did such an amazing job just to capture the
Speaker 1: magic and mystery of these plants in such a unique way. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think the visually what she was able to accomplish
Speaker 1: is a very big part of the final product, for sure.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, No, absolutely, the photos are just they're stunning actually,
Speaker 3: to go along with your descriptions and everything, it's just
Speaker 3: it's perfect. It's win win between the two of you.
Speaker 3: So I think you did an excellent job. So tell me, Bevin,
Speaker 3: what's next for you? I mean, I know your book
Speaker 3: just came out, but I have to ask you. I'm sure,
Speaker 3: because I don't think you sit still. So what is
Speaker 3: next on your agenda?
Speaker 1: You got that right. We don't have a lot of time.
Speaker 1: Its isstill around here. We're very busy. Well, so the
Speaker 1: book just came out, so I am actively on the
Speaker 1: road talking about the book, doing presentations. You know, we
Speaker 1: have a lot of educational programming that takes place in
Speaker 1: the spring, so I'm doing a lot of traveling right
Speaker 1: now to different places to talk about plans and then
Speaker 1: talk about the book and that sort of thing. It's
Speaker 1: also spring, so our homestead chores are just kicking off
Speaker 1: as well, So we're getting seed started, we're getting planting.
Speaker 1: There's so much happening right now in the moment that
Speaker 1: it's almost difficult to look ahead right to what is
Speaker 1: going to be happening right but we are working already
Speaker 1: on another book project that is more seed specific, a
Speaker 1: seed saving guide, So we're actually it's a very interesting
Speaker 1: predicament that we're finding ourselves in because we have to
Speaker 1: take photos of all of these different seeds, and what
Speaker 1: we're trying to capture is different flower structures, different different species,
Speaker 1: seed formations, and that sort of thing. So we're plotting, planting, designing,
Speaker 1: and planting a garden specifically to showcase as many different
Speaker 1: species of seed production as we possibly can for our
Speaker 1: photographer that's coming for the book. Yeah, so it has
Speaker 1: been quite an endeavor, I'm sure, but again, it's so much.
Speaker 2: Fun, you know, exactly we've been.
Speaker 1: Gardening here at Small House Farm. We're going on, Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, this may be a twelfth or thirteenth season. Wow,
Speaker 1: nice and yeah, had to be doing something completely different
Speaker 1: in the garden this year. It's it's invigorating, it's exciting.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's looks like a new season of our
Speaker 1: life exactly.
Speaker 3: And also it's because you love it. So it's not
Speaker 3: like it's work for you because you love doing it.
Speaker 1: Well, that's not bad, right.
Speaker 2: No, it's not. What's that old saying?
Speaker 3: I always tell people love what you do and do
Speaker 3: what you love, and you're a prime example, so more
Speaker 3: power to you.
Speaker 2: I think it's awesome. No, but it's true. And you
Speaker 2: can feel that in your book.
Speaker 3: You know, like the way you describe things, and you're like, oh,
Speaker 3: he just loves what he's saying. Right here, I can
Speaker 3: tell so I love this book, So Bevin, Where can
Speaker 3: my listeners get the book?
Speaker 2: Bookstores? Online? What's the best place for them? Oh?
Speaker 1: Most certainly. The book Herbs and Every Season is available
Speaker 1: absolutely anywhere the books are sold. So you can get
Speaker 1: it through bookshop, you can get in other online places.
Speaker 1: You can get it through your bookstores. Go to your
Speaker 1: local bookstore, ask them to bring it in if they
Speaker 1: don't have it, and they certainly will for you, and
Speaker 1: then if they wanted to connect with us, we have
Speaker 1: copies of the book that we offer to our website,
Speaker 1: which is just simply Smallhousefarm dot com.
Speaker 2: Perfect Well, Bevin Cohen, all the best to you.
Speaker 3: Thank you for chatting with me, good luck promoting the book,
Speaker 3: and I think we'll talk again with your seeds project next,
Speaker 3: So thank you.
Speaker 1: This sounds great, Maria, Thank you so much