What is kombucha? An effervescent fermented tea made from regular black/green tea, sugar and the starter culture, also known as the Scoby. What is that alien-looking thing and why do I want it in my tea? Scoby is actually an acronym for “symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast”. The bacteria is Acetobacter (a genus of acetic acid bacteria). The yeast eats the sugar in the tea and excrete alcohol. The bacteria in turn eat the alcohol and create acetic acid. If …

Last weekend I participated in a 20-hour CERT training course taught by Scott Paul, CERT Bexar County, and organized by The Human Path. CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Teams, and is a national program for individuals who want to help out in case of a disaster in their community. In basic CERT training you learn the basics of personal safety, search and rescue, first aid, hazards, and leadership and organization. The training prepares people to form teams that can …

A small group of herbology and primitive engineering students from The Human Path and the Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine will be joining the non-profit organization Missions of Grace to travel to remote communities in Nicaragua in November 2012. In Nicaragua, in partnership with local communities, we will be participating in health care clinics along with working on projects such as water treatment. To offset the significant costs of such a trip (which is currently being financed by the individual …

A woman with an idea. That was me in November, 2009. At the University of Texas at Austin, they had launched a new platform to solicit feedback and ideas from the University community. On the day it launched, I happened to walk by two large raised beds, filled with flowers that were being dug up so that Landscape Services could replant them with winter-hardy annuals. It was a ritual the University had engaged in as long as I had worked …