I had the opportunity to spend six months in Niger from September 2007- March 2008 working towards improving access to safe water and developing positive hygiene practices with the people of Niger. I participated in the Canadian International Development Agency/Samaritan’s Purse Water for Life Internship Program.  I set off with another Canadian, Trudy Naugler, for one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world (Niger is 177 out of  177 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index) to be a part of the household water filtration project. The people of Niger gained their first source of clean, potable water but I gained equally, if not more from my experience and from the people of Niger I encountered.

During our time in Niger we worked in two villages: Firgoune and Koutougou. Both of these villages are located on islands in the Niger River. In each village we worked alongside a Nigerien Water Technician and Assistant Water Technician.  We were able to participate in the construction and installation of 100 BioSand water filters in each village. One water filter provides enough clean water for one household. The people of Firgoune and Koutougou have no wells in their villages. This leaves them with the contaminated river water as their only source of water for drinking, bathing and cooking.

As a result of bathing in and ingesting the river water, many people in the villages were sick with diarrheal disease. The BioSand water filter became the first opportunity to access safe, clean drinking water. With the help of their filters, the people of Firgoune and Koutougou are able to remove 99% of harmful disease causing pathogens. The people of Firgoune and Koutougou are not alone in their lack of access to clean water. The world over, 1.1 billion people share this existence.

While we were there we also got to work with some of the young women in both villages. We developed a children’s health and hygiene education program. We met in the schools in both villages with all the girls between the ages of 10-15. The young women in the communities are responsible for much of the cooking as well as looking after all the younger siblings (there is often up to 10 children in a family!).

The young girls and the women were shining examples of real women on the run. Their days were spent working: harvesting millet, working in the rice fields, processing grains into flour, cooking, cleaning, carrying water from the river to their homes and looking after young children. They are most often seen multi-tasking, taking on a combination of jobs at once while carrying a baby strapped to their back. I rarely saw women resting and the girls as young as 9 or 10 were put to work.

During our health and hygiene classes we were able to share some knowledge about germs, health, hand washing, food safety, personal hygiene and sanitation.  As a result of clean water the villages of Firgoune and Koutougou are seeing a decrease in sickness, skin problems and diarrheal disease, which has also increased the attendance of children in school.

If you would like to know more about the Samaritan’s Purse BioSand water filter projects or if you would like to donate to the project please visit www.turnonthetap.ca. The cost of a filter which provides clean, safe water for a houseshold is $100.

“Water and Sanitation is one of the primary drivers of public health…. once we can secure access to clean water and to adequate sanitation facilities for all people, irrespective of the difference in their living conditions, a huge battle against all kinds of diseases will be won.”  - Dr Lee Jong-wook, Director-General, WHO

What inspires you? Authentic transparent people who are doing what they love.
Your Dream Job?  Many! Professional baby holder, travel photographer, professional tri-athlete and working internationally in community health and development.
Your daily moment of joy? Breakfast and coffee! 
Favorite article of clothing in your closet right now? A great pair of jeans I found at a little consignment store.

Favorite way to relax? One of many forms of exercise: running, biking, climbing and swimming are my favorites. Road-trips, going to the lake, spending time outside and hanging out with family and friends.
Diamonds or pearls? Neither. My sisters make fun of me for one day wanting an engagement kayak. 
Who is the ultimate RWotR that you know? The young girls and women I met in Niger!
Biggest lightbulb moment? Joy and satisfaction in life comes through relationships.

How do you stay healthy? Sleep well, eat well, enjoy satisfying relationships and exercise.
What will you be doing this July and August? Working for a lab called Quantum Genetics during the weekdays and trying to be outside as much as possible in the evenings and on the weekends.
Favorite book of all time?  “The Urban Halo” by Craig Greenfield

Favorite quote?  Right now it is:  “Remember what I said about finding a meaningful life? I wrote it down, but now I can recite it: “Devote yourself to loving others devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” - From “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom
Short term goal?  Finish the triathlon I am in this weekend.
Long term goal?  To work overseas in community health and health education.

~ Article submitted by Hayley Turnbull, July 2008 (Update: Hayley has since been accepted into med school at the U of A and will graduate in 2014 – Big Congratulations! I’m certain you will find her advocating for the health of women, girls and families worldwide, sometime in the not-so-distant future…)

Less Garbage To The Landfill

Depending on the day, our household averages a gallon of compostable waste per day.  An added bonus – less odour in your kitchen garbage container.

Perfect Soil Conditioner 

Plants rob the soil of nutrients. Compost replaces lost nutrients, improves drainage and soil texture (i.e. sandy, powdery, hard).

All Natural and Basically Free Fertilizer

Ideal ‘Renewable’ Resource 

Not only does peat not add nutrient value to your dirt, it takes bogs and wetlands years to recover from being mined for peat.

What can be composted?

Greens – grass clippings, weeds, leaves
Browns – dried leaves, straw, dead plants, nut shells, newspapers
Kitchen waste – veggies and fruit (meat/bones stink and attract unwanted critters)

Obtaining or Making  a Compost Bin

Most hardware and home improvement centres carry moulded plastic compost bins. They are designed for proper aeration and are usually black to attract heat which aids in decomposition. Try to find the largest container possible to allow for a full season of yard and garden waste. Place it in an inconspicuous place. If you have a larger yard, acreage or farm, you may want a couple of bins. The most simple bins can be made by screwing together old pallets for sides and chicken wire or lattice for a lid to keep out the birds. 

How to Compost

Start with your browns and greens. It is beneficial to have saved a couple of bags of dried leaves from the fall or, if you are like me, leaves you raked in the spring. Buy a small bale of straw from a local farmer or inquire at a garden centre. Begin layering in your compost bin, starting with 6 inches of browns (dry) followed by 6 inches of greens (wet).

After a couple of layers, wet the pile down. Give a new or slow pile a kick-start with compost accelerator, also available at hardware stores and garden centres. Over the summer, continue layering wet and dry. Stir occasionally and keep moist.

If you do not have a bin that allows you to remove completed compost from the bottom, you may want to start a separate bin for the winter. Freezing temperatures will not allow for decomposition, however continue layering wet (kitchen wastes) and dry (leaves or straw) throughout the winter.

Troubleshooting

(taken from You Grow Girl.  A Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening. by Gayla Trail) 

Sometimes compost piles go wrong.  You know you’ve got trouble if your pile has a nasty rotten stink or is just plain not decomposing, period.

Smells Like Evil Too wet, too much nitrogen, and/or lacking in air circulation.  Add more dry browns to the pile, mix it in, and fluff it up.

No Action Could be too dry and/or overfilled with browns.  Add a bit of water, fluff it up to promote good air circulation.  If your brown to greens ratio seems off, add some more green kitchen scraps or fresh lawn cuttings.

No Critters in the Pile Good, healthy compost should attract critters such as worms, slugs, earwigs, and other creepy crawlies.  Let them get in there and do their thing.

~ Leah Richardson, B.Sc., H.Ec Leah lives on a lovely piece of property with husband and three kids and is an exceptional interior design, home life and re-purpose expert for all things domestic. She is a master seamstress and specializes in the ‘lost arts’ – sewing, quilting, canning, baking, landscaping, gardening and now, writing. She also coordinates and oversees all At Home With Leah projects and photo shoots. 

Proof the World will be Okay

Recently I was asked by a woman, “Do you work?”

I could end the blog here and you could probably fill in the blanks as to how I handled this question, but seeing as how I “don’t work”, I have the time to let you know exactly how it went down.

I was grocery shopping in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day with both girls in tow. One screaming that she wanted to walk and not be in the cart, the other “helping” me shop by loading the cart with all the “healthy” food she could find.

It wasn’t really a moment where I felt like chit chatting with strangers and it wasn’t a good moment to be asked questions by the Wal-Mart credit card person who was trying to get me to fill out the application as she followed me down each aisle.

At first I politely ignored her, but she was a persistent little bugger and decided that she would be” helpful” by asking questions as I shopped and she would fill out the application for me.

“What is your name?”

“Mommy”

“Oh, no your legal name.”

“Mommy.”

“Okay, what is your date of birth?”

“I can’t remember it was so long ago.”

“Hmmm….okay well, do you work? What is your occupation?”

And that is when I could no longer play nice…….it got ugly…..and fast.

“Yes as a matter of fact I do, and you are interrupting me as I do it! My occupation is Mommy, as I stated in my name. Imagine that, my name and my occupation are the same damn word! I work from 6:30 am until 10:00 pm every single day including holidays. Holidays require a double shift, and if someone is sick I’m pulling an all nighter!

“I do dishes, laundry, clean bathrooms and toilets, make meals, vacuum, kiss the boo boos away, scare the monsters back to where they came from, and wake up the next day to do it all over again. My income is less than you make here, but what I lack in income I am rewarded in love and hugs from these two right in front of you.

“A little word of advice my dear would be that you rephrase your question to Do you work OUTSIDE the home? You just may get a better response, and when someone ignores you that means they aren’t interested in your credit card!”

“Right…..sorry about that…..”

I am not going to start a war over who is more overworked – a working outside the home mom or a stay at home mom - I believe we are equal in our endeavours. I’m sure both kinds of moms are a little envious of the other. One would like to be home more and the other would like to get out more. But my days get just as busy as the next mom’s and sometimes they all mesh together.

The credit card lady caught me on a really stressful, busy day. I’m sure I could have handled her differently, but I did not. Yes, she was just doing her job, but so was I. My job requires me to be an annoyance to my family; her job requires her to be an annoyance to the public. Either way we were both annoying to each other.

Catharine Freeman Jack, Guest Blogger ~ I stay home with my girls and for the most part enjoy it, sometimes though, I understand why some mammels eat their young! You can read Catharine’s Blog at The Jack Files

The Pressure to be Pretty

Knowledge may be power – but choose your sources wisely.

“We speak worlds into existence.” That was the last quote I read in my ‘Monday Morning Memo’ this morning. Then, I absentmindedly continued to click on links with news headlines like Comparisons to the Great Depression keep popping up and Doomsday: How BP Disaster may have triggered a ‘world killing’ event.

Why would I do that? You’d be justified to ask…  Those news stories were links posted by someone I follow on Twitter, an internet aquaintance named @ChrisLaBossiere, listed under ‘Politickers’ because of his capitalist brains and forthright ability to intelligently comment on current events. (I’m not a progressive or a capitalist.) Thankfully, a few more clicks led me to, aside from a wasted hour of my life, the temporary reassurance provided by a complete stranger (@stimms) .

Depending on your internet committment level, you’ll either click on the links and read other newstories, become sidetracked from my blog and follow all kinds of random links to other stories and other tweeters and eventually get caught up reading @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher’s tweets) – ooorrr – you’ll read this post, feel complete indifference and click out as fast as you clicked in. 

There is no denying the power of internet and social media.

The challenge is – how do you sort and separate the garbage from the goldmine and not let your time on Facebook suck the hours out of your life? Every minute I spend chasing headlines about people, places and events that haven’t happen, may never happen or are happening in a parallel universe called California, I miss my own life.

And I am disconnected from reality.

Right now, in the middle of this gloomy, drizzling July 19, 2010, 
a day that will only come one time, I am using my own precious moments to read about what a total stranger thinks about world events, and other people’s drama.

I feel pulled.
Addicted.
It’s one of the first things I do in my day.
Grab a coffee, check my email. Then Facebook.

And I read stories like that of Doomsday and the end of the world, and I wonder why I feel panicked?
Worried. Hopeless. Agitated. 
Depressed.

Sensory Deprivation

From Wikipedia, Sensory deprivation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses. Short-term sessions of sensory deprivation are described as relaxing and conducive to meditation, however, extended or forced sensory deprivation can result in extreme anxiety, hallucinations, bizarre thoughts and depression.

Maybe my connection to a world outside myself, leads to the failure to connect with myself.
With my own life.

Every moment that I spend
seeking, clicking, reading,
competing to be heard, trying to say something important,
trying to be seen as valuable and relevent…

Every moment that I waste
trying to catch up with a revolving stream of information, news and opinion that doesn’t affect me, doesn’t apply to me, and doesn’t interest me, 

is a moment that I could have spent doing something of value for me. For my family. For my children. In my own. In my community. In my business. Every moment I stay plugged in to the world outside me, I ignore myself.
And I deprive myself of the magic of living  my own reality.

Maybe that’s why so many of us plug into the digital world of escapsim – because it appears far more interesting that our own boring life.

Allowing ourselves to stay hypnotized by the internet allows us to focus on something other than what we believe we are missing, don’t have or are not. It keeps us from examining our own lack. It’s like day use lidocaine, keeping us asleep to the beauty of our own life.  

Maybe we don’t trust ourself, our own knowledge, our own power to create the world we want – the life of our dreams. Maybe it’s because we just aren’t smart enough to see that we are bit by bit dulling our senses to the beauty of life.

Trading vivid colours, potent taste, exquisite music, heavenly smells, languid touch for a 2D world of images and stories created by someone else. Someone I’ll never meet. Someone who doesn’t know me. Someone that doesn’t love me.

But when I shut it off and pay attention to my own world, I find it far more interesting, real and wonderful.

I’m not niave enough to believe I can manage without any computer use.
But, a little more everyday, I’m trading a pixel image and electromagnetic pollution for the real deal.

My life. Whatever that looks like: sunshine or clouds, joy or tears, boredom or busy, love or loss and the beauty of the five senses.

I want to see, touch, taste, smell and feel everything.
To experience it all. And maybe that’s what I really need to know.

BFO = Blinding Flash of the Obvious
AFGO = Another F*cking Growth Opportunity*

It turns out, as a mother, I’m a meddler. 

When my teenage daughter and I started counselling together several months ago, I made an agreement with my daughter, in the presence of our therapist, that I would no longer attempt to solve her problems for her. I agreed to new boundaries. 

I agreed that I would no longer attempt to comfort, console and prevent or ‘fix’ her problems – including nursing her low self esteem, refereeing her relationship with her birth father, or monitoring her obsessive compulsive tendancies. My new challenge was to allow her the freedom to make mature decisions, practice self-discipline, make her own mistakes and feel all of her feelings. That boundary was not to be crossed. 

It would be difficult, but I was willing to do whatever it took to encourage her healing and growth at a pivotal point in her development. She did several sessions with the psychologist (who was extremely helpful, encouraging and empowering ) and we saw immediate, positive results in our daughter. Following our first session together (daughter and mother), I also committed to doing my own work. We each had homework to do. This included writing in a journal, looking only at ourselves, practicing self-discipline and extreme self-care.  

And then one day, without reason, without planning, it became less urgent to face our selves. I just didn’t go back. And neither did she. And with the cessation of our appointments, instead of maintaining our focus on new boundaries and new habits, over the period of two months we resumed our familiar roles.

By my definition, her as depressed and repressed victim and me as over-protector and self-proclaimed rescuer. 

Then, I crossed the boundary.

Twice, in one week. The first time with my 17 year old son, when I asked about his new girlfriend and proceeded to offer unsolicited motherly expertise. And the second, last night, with my daughter, when I proceeded to try to numb her pain, lift her up and help her through her drama.

Following an almost two hour heart to heart discussion, I went to bed consumed with concern for my daughter, re-living her sentences, plowing through my advice, ensuring I’d said all the magical motherly loving words of wisdom that would make her boo-boo better.

And in the process, smashed any remnant of our new healthy boundary to smithereens. How, you may ask, does offering comfort, assurance and compliments harm my daughter’s wellness?

AFGO!

Geneen Roth talks about facing our ‘issues’ – our truth, our emotions, our fears – as AFGOs.

If you’ve ever gained and lost the same 20 lbs over 13 years,
hated the way your breasts hang and the reflection in your mirror,
participated in a dysfunctional relationship,
had an affair,
stuffed your emotions with food,
used booze or pills to numb yourself
or used cigarettes to stay thin and destress,
then you know what it’s like to be uncomfortable
and what it’s like to avoid your stuff.

And generally, we will do anything to avoid our painful issues.

And so, every time my fears rise,
every time my worry increases,
every time I have anxiety,

every time I remedy my boredom with food,
every time I avoid my SELF
my issues
my pain
my truth

I push farther away from my healthy self.

Instead, I seek comfort, consoling and reassurance from my husband, my best girl friend, my own mother… and in desperation beg

“SOME ONE, SOME THING EASE MY DISCOMFORT.”

Because then I won’t have to.

And so my discomfort lingers under the surface, dulled by a well meaning friend, or a cookie in the cupboard or a hug from my man. And I can hang on for a little while longer. I feel better. For now. Until the next time my issue surfaces. Then, I simply repeat the process. ‘I can’t do this on my own. I need you. I need food. I need some thing. Someone, make me feel better.’

Major BFO!

By breaking our boundary and resuming old habits, I enforce the belief that someone or something else holds the cure for what ails her. I perpetuate the same, unhealthy pattern within her. I encourage her to avoid her Self – her emotions – by softening her reality, cushioning her pain.

Women, Food and God discusses the need to be present with our emotions and feelings,
the need to not abandon our self
and that healing can occur when we learn to console and comfort our self,
without leaning on food, friends or any other drug of choice to numb us.

Over the last two years, I’ve slowly recognized that the discomfort of living with my issues under the surface is far more painful that the work required to change. For twenty years I’ve stared at and sifted through my crap – and I don’t want to look at it anymore! I want to do it differently for me. And if at all possible, I’d like to model the fearlessness that it takes to stay present in my moments of loneliness, insecurity, doubt and false beliefs.

This has led to the decision to do whatever it takes to re-instate that healthy boundary between us so that I don’t appear an outside solution to an inside problem. 

I don’t want to be the chemical that creates an emotional time bomb.
I want to be a catalyst for positive change.   

* AFGO - credit given to Geneen Roth, author of Women, Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Everything

The Gift Of An Ordinary Day from Katrina Kenison on Vimeo.

An Always Evolving List of the Things I Love

Make your own. It’s a way of staying connected to the good stuff, a gratitude list of sorts. When I discover something new, or remember something I’ve always adored, I’ll add it to another Love List post. Be sure to comment and share your own loves below.

Apples

Pink Lady, Gala, Honey Crisp are among my favourites. Sweet and tart, vitamin drenched and sun-kissed. With cheese. With sea salt. (Don’t knock it til you tried it. I know the original was with seasoning salt and I don’t remember where I learned it.)

An apple a day keeps the doctor away and a really big sized one counts as two servings of fruits and vegetables!

Classic Country Music

Not much transcends time, and heart, and mind. A scent can rouse a memory. A place can be familiar. But music, for me, is powerful. A song can transport me through time like no other person, place or thing. It stirs emotions and can create a kind of discomfort - a melancholy, heartsick longing for something or someone that is no longer there.

When I miss my dad, John Conlee’s Rose Coloured Glasses and Charlie Rich’s Behind Closed Doors put him at my shoulder. I can remember what it was like to be little, when he was alive. Sunday mornings the stereo would play the Oak Ridge Boys, Kenny Rogers and Dottie West and Alabama’s Love in the First Degree while coffee percolated and pancakes cooked.

Inside me, when that squeezing, empty feeling of missing my dad occasionally surfaces, this shared love (the music of that lifetime) - provide me with comfort. Love. And connection. An unbreakable bond. It’s my proof that he was here.

Herbalist, Abrah Arneson

I’ve known Abrah (as in ’Abra’-cadabra) for a few years now. You can find her column, The Holistic Approach, under Articles at Real Woman Magazine. 

Abrah is a Clinicial Herbalist who offers traditional herbal treatments and therapies. In addition to providing opportunities for healing, Abrah’s greatest gifts are wisdom, humour, compassion and love.

Abrah is also a meditation expert, teaching classes to groups and providing one to one instruction. She is a master green thumb and someone I admire deeply, mostly for her brilliance. She simply shines. www.abraherbalist.ca  

Women, Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything

This book has received a great deal of praise among my friends and aquaintances. I bought it with the intention of gifting it to someone else, only to have my interest peaked by the bevy of tweets and facebook updates shouting Hallelujah! about the read. So I cracked the spine to have a peek.

What I love most about the book is that - although it was written for those with food and weight issues – I can substitute every other vice, addiction and compulsion (smoking, drinking, sex, shopping, etc.) that anyone has ever experienced or wrestled with into the book, like a fill-in-the-blanks and it still makes perfect sense.

I’ve spent many years loathing myself for everything from the size of my thighs to the mistakes made to the way I worry about things out of my control. Although I’m pleased to have made great gains over the years in the way of self care and surrender, something in the way author Geneen Roth writes is marvellous and new.

She speaks simple truth. And yet, the old saying the truth hurts does not apply. Instead the truth in Women, Food and God feels like healing balm, warm and fuzzy (without being fluffy), brimming with kindness and deep understanding. 

Among my favourite quotes thus far: 

Author: Geneen Roth

“The promise of a diet is not only that you will have a different body; it is that in having a different body, you will have a different life. If you hate yourself enough, you will love yourself. If you torture yourself enough, you will become a peaceful, relaxed human being.”

It was like a lightbulb went off in my head. I may intellectually “know” this, but to read it again and be able to link it to myself has been powerful.

For example: I walk/run because I believe that  – even though it is work and requires a great deal of discipline for me -  it helps to control my anxiety and depression and I use it to regulate my weight. It is still a way that I am hard on myself. However, if I don’t run, I berate myself for being ‘lazy’. If I run three times a week, I ’should be’ running four. And why, if am I running, am I not ‘thin enough’? Well, that’s ’cause I’m a pig at the dinner table, that’s why! Sound familiar?

But, if I apply what Geneen is saying in the book - if I like my body - love my body – I’ll spend time with it. Instead of using exercise to punish, control and regulate my body, I will exercise as a way to love my body. I will run as a demonstration of great care and blessing over what Geneen calls my “very own piece of the Universe.”

Black Coffee

The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup. A Starbucks Americano and a great book thrills me. I love a deep, rich cup of coffee after the supper dishes are done. Or with a super sweet dessert.  I don’t need cream, milk or sugar. Just black.

Sometimes it’s the small things that bring you the most happiness. Joy. Love.
Most times, it’s the small things. The little things that we overlook and take for granted.

Don’t forget to share and leave some of your loves – but more importantly,
leave the WHYs behind your love.

Peace. K

A long time ago, every farm in England had a small brewery attached to house.

In the brewery common herbs such as dandelion leaf, nettles, meadowsweet and yarrow, were mashed, boiled and fermented. The end product was called Ale. Each farmer had his own special recipe. One day, a farmer wondered what would happen if he added hops (Humulus lupus) to his ale. Several months later, to the farmer’s surprise, the ale with the hops had not turned sour. It was as good as the day it was bottled. On that day, bitters was born.

Hops continues to a common ingredient in many bitter beers. The more hops used during brewing, the more bitter the ale. I recall, while working in long term care, an elderly English man, enjoying his bitter ale each evening. “Doctor’s orders,” he’d say with a wink, “it’s very beneficial for digestion.”

He was right. The bitter flavour of hops relaxes the digestion system and eases digestive complaints associated with cramping or spasms of the gut. But there is more to hops that easing digestion.

Once hops became a staple of the brewing industry, the wayside weed became a cash crop and in late summer, temporary workers were hired to harvest hop flowers. That is when unusual things began to happen. Women who picked the flowers would get their periods early. If they stayed with job, their cycles became shorter and shorter.  Everyone who worked with the flowers grew sleepy. It was then that hops medicinal properties were discovered.

Hops is one of herbal medicine most frequently used sleep aids. The fresh flowers of hops have small amounts of the chemicals which induce sleep. As the flowers dry, the sleep inducing chemicals increase. The flowers must be dried before the medicine will induce sleep. A traditional remedy is the sleep pillow.

Sachets containing hops, lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and mugwort  (Artemisia vulgaris) are slipped inside pillow cases to make good dreams and refreshing sleep. Hops and lavender are both famous for their sedative qualities, while mugwort is known for inducing beautiful dreams.

Generally, I combine hops in a tincture with other sedative herbs, such as valerian (Valarianna off.), motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) and California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), for an effective sleep aid.

The effect on a woman’s cycle is another matter. The yellow pollen, appearing as dust on the flowers when they are ready to harvest, affects a woman’s hormonal balance.   The pollen quickly looses its medicinal value once dried.  If used to increase estrogen levels in women, the medicine of hops needs to made fresh.  

I like to think I am hearing a collective sigh of relief among men at this point. Surely only the dried herb is used in brewing beer, negating its estrogenic effect. In herbal medicine, the difference between medicine and food, is often determined by the amount taken. So if a man is drinking large amounts of beer, it will have an estrogenic effect. This will lead to the development of what is commonly referred to as man boobies and lower sperm production. I’m sure this is not the effect the men featured with the six packs in the ad during hockey games have in mind.

As for women, hops is a perfect fit for menopausal insomnia when both the fresh and dried herb are combined.

The hops plant comes in male or female versions. The female plant of hops, the one which produces the flowers called stobiles, contains the medicine. The male plant does not have any medicine. I find it curious that female hops plant helps women with their hormonal balance, while it interferes with a man’s.

Let’s get back to the fact that hops is used to preserve beer. This means that it has an anti-bacterial effect. It is not the hard hitting herbal anti-biotic garlic (Allium sativa), but in a pinch, fresh hops flowers crunched up on cut or scrape will keep a wound free of infection until a better remedy can be applied.  Be careful though, some people develop a rash similar to the one caused by a tangle with a nettle plant.  Test it on a small patch of skin before applying it to the cut.

Hops loves to grow in Central Alberta. It will climb anything. On a summer walk in most communities, I spot a hops plant somewhere. Who knows, perhaps one day, local breweries will no longer be a thing of the past.

Abrah Arneson is a Clinical Herbal Therapist and has been a popular regular contributor to Real Woman Magazine since 2008. Abrah’s understanding of holistic medicine is complimented with her 20 year practice of meditation. For Real Woman, Abrah writes about herbal approaches to wellness for women and their families and is known and loved for her kind and peaceful nature and her fabulous laugh.