Meet Alexandra

My fascination with plant-facilitated healing stems from a childhood immersed in nature - for much of my childhood, Yosemite was our second home, and the mountains, creeks, flora and fauna were my greatest delight, though I was unaware of their potential as healing aides.

After finding plant medicine in the midst of a healing crisis in 2012, I directed my life towards forging relationships with the plants that brought me such profound, multidimensional healing. My practice of getting to know the plants involved working with them on every level I could, from gardening and tending to the plants in their home, to taking every class I could with my hometown herbal teacher Leslie Gardener, to making medicine and developing my relationship with food as medicine. In 2015 I began studies at the Berkeley Herbal Center in Berkeley, CA, where I developed my craft in the Foundations, Therapeutics, and Clinical programs under the guidance of master herbalist Pam Fischer. In Spring 2019 I began to serve as a supervisor for first year clinicians, meanwhile offering classes to the public and through BHC’s long-term programs.

Much of my process in the last decade of study was guided by questions of resourcefulness and community & individual resilience. What is true wealth and how can I cultivate a life that is profoundly rich on all meaningful levels? I explored the story of economics and the distribution of wealth in my studies at UC Berkeley before graduating in 2010 with a degree in Political Economy. Swiftly after graduation, I realized my most meaningful experiences would be created with my sweat and hands. I turned to gardening, handicraft, herbalism practice, sharing archetypal stories, learning and sharing stories of the place I live, learning stories of my ancestry and their daily & seasonal rituals - all in a rewarding effort to become more inextricably linked with the life that grows through and around me.

I am a strong advocate of self-awareness, nurturing, and love as keystones to personal health. I would be honored to work with you on this plant path. Send me a line for inquiries; email and text message are preferred, and I will get back to you as swiftly as possible.

Alexandra Hudson
Los Gatos, CA 95030

AlexandraEvansHudson@gmail.com
510.816.3468

Writing

Bay Nut Truffles

In the height of midsummer’s plump heat, little green orbs begin their biennial-ish sprout from the branches of the California bay laurel. Over the following months, these baby nuts mature into their avocado-green-and-maroon–fleshed fullness. Come fall, they drop in prolific bounty throughout the coastal redwood and oak forestlands all up and down the West Coast. This year marks a windfall season for the bay nut, and for those familiar with this local blessing, the time for nut collection is upon us.

Bay nuts are a traditional food of our region’s Indigenous peoples, who have enjoyed them through the centuries in dishes spanning savory to sweet. The nuts’ bittersweet mocha flavor provides a dark, dusky undertone similar to cacao and coffee, and their buzzy caffeine-like effects give the nuts coveted status as a stimulant. Exercise caution as you try the nuts, since the energizing effect is a welcome relief for some but overstimulating for others.

Bay nuts are collected mostly as ground scores over the course of autumn into winter. The fleshy fruit that encases the nut is edible but acrid and is often discarded in the quest for the nut. When harvesting, prioritize nuts with flesh that is free of rot in order to reduce the chance of mold during the drying process. Prized nuts are plump enough to peel easily, which you are advised to do as swiftly as possible since the skin is more difficult to peel away once it has dried on the nut. Give the nuts a solid rinse to remove any remaining skin, and dry fully in a spot with good air circulation. It can be helpful to lightly dry the nuts on baking sheets in a low-temperature oven to minimize potential for mold.

The antimicrobial activity of the nuts’ volatile oil content ensures that once they are dried, they can be stored in a cool, dark place for several years. These oils are irritating to the mucosal lining of the throat, and for this reason, bay nuts are not typically eaten raw. Roasting destroys the oils and also gives the nuts their characteristic toasty notes, but fully roasted bay nuts no longer have the oils that promote shelf life, so they are best processed into a paste shortly after roasting. Once you crack and remove the hard shells, you can enjoy the nuts in your favorite recipes.

Modeled after Robert Linxe’s famous chocolate truffles, this recipe has a special California flair. The substitution of bay nuts for cacao paste in a 1:1 weight ratio works because the two have a similar waxy fat makeup.

Makes 50 1-inch truffles

• 500 grams raw bay nuts (350 grams roasted and shelled)

• 200 grams coconut sugar or raw cane sugar

• 300 grams heavy whipping cream or coconut cream

• 100 grams cacao powder

• Pinch of salt

To roast and shell the bay nuts: Preheat oven to 425°. Roast dry bay nuts on an unlined baking sheet, checking at 20 minutes for flavor and color. Some people prefer roasting the nuts to the color of dark caramel even though the volatile oils may not be fully destroyed at this point. Others—myself included—prefer the nuts to be roasted up to 30 minutes. Remove nuts from the oven and let sit until cool to the touch.

…

Almond, Lemon, Poppy Seed Bites

As a certified clinical herbalist and holistic educator with a passion for combining therapeutic and pleasurable experiences, I like to find ways to make recipes more nutrient dense. To start, I note which parts include a fat or liquid, as herbs are easily infused into both of these. If a recipe includes flour, I might substitute part with raw powdered herbal roots such as maca, eleuthero, or ashwagandha. For seeds, I might include medicine-rich nettle or poppy seeds for a portion of the total seed volume. It’s a matter of pairing various parts of a recipe with medicines I seek to utilize.

As fall arrives, there’s so much that needs doing, and anxiety can run high. To help with this, we can incorporate herbs that are both nerve-tonifying and soothing into our food, playing with small doses to ensure the effect is desirable, and remembering that a little can go a long way. Some nerve-supportive herbs that will extract well into oil include chamomile, rose petals, fresh lemon balm, lemon verbena, wild lettuce, kava root, passionflower, and lavender blossoms, among others.

For this recipe, I infuse coconut oil or ghee with nerve-soothing herbs. You can use the following folk method for quick extraction: Melt 1 cup coconut oil or ghee in the top of a double boiler over low heat. Then stir in either 1½ cups of chopped fresh herbs or ⅔ cup dried herbs. Cover to keep in the aromatic volatile oils as the mixture warms over barely simmering water for a half hour, stirring every five minutes or so. When the oil is rich with flavor and scent, strain it through a cheesecloth or nut milk bag into a bowl and squeeze to press out the oil. The herb oil is now ready for use, or it can be saved in a jar to add to dishes that otherwise call for plain, unseasoned oil. If you used fresh herbs, a little water may remain in the final herbal oil, so it should be stored in the fridge to prevent spoilage.

Makes 20 1½-inch cookies

• ¼ cup herbal-infused coconut oil or ghee, melted

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• ½ teaspoon almond extract

• ⅓ cup maple syrup or honey

• 1–2 tablespoons lemon zest

• 1⅓ cups coarse ground almond flour, or nut flour mix of your choice

• 2 tablespoons coconut flour or herbal root powder of your choice such as ashwagandha or maca

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• ½ cup poppy seeds

• Edible flowers, almonds, or little pieces of dehydrated fruit for decoration

In a medium bowl, combine the melted herbal-infused coconut oil or ghee with the vanilla, almond extract, maple syrup or honey, and lemon zest.

In a separate bowl, stir together the nut flour, coconut flour or herbal root powder, salt, baking powder, and poppy seeds, then add to the oil mixture and stir until smooth. Refrigerate dough about 20 minutes to make it more workable.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and set 1½ inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. If the warming dough gets too tacky, splash some water onto your hands. This will keep the dough easier to work with.

Press edible flowers, almonds, or little pieces of dehydrated fruit lightly into the tops of the cookies for a delightful finish.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to develop a kiss of light brown and tops appear a bit dry. Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet. If the cookies do not get eaten right away, store in an airtight container.

Featured in Edible East Bay 2019

Inspiration

ODA A LA JARDINERA, BY PABLO NERUDA

TRANSLATION BY BEN BELITT 

Yes: I knew that your hands were a blossoming clove and the silvery lily: your notable way with a furrow and the flowering marl; but when I saw you delver deeper, dig under to uncouple the cobble and limber the roots, I knew in a moment, little husbandman, your heartbeats were earthen no less than your hands; that there you were shaping  a thing that was always your own, touching the drench of those doorways through which whirl the seeds.

So, plant after plant, each fresh from the planting, your face stained with the kiss of the ooze, your flowering went out and returned, you went out and the tube of the Alstremeria there under your hands raised its lonely and delicate presence, the jasmine devised a a cloud for your temples starry with scent and the dew.

The whole of you prospered, piercing down into earth, greening the light like a thunderclap in a massing of leafage and power. You confided your seedlings, my darling, little red husbandman; your hand fondled the earth and straightaway the growing was luminous.

Even so, your watery fingers, the dust of your heart, bring us word of fecundity, love, and summon the strength of my songs. Touching my heart while I sleep trees bloom on my dream. I waken and widen my eyes, and you plant in my flesh the darkening stars that rise in my song.

So it is, little husbandman: our loves are terrestrial: your mouth is a planting of lights, a corolla, and my heart works below in the roots.