If you use herbalism, you might ask yourself, what are the most sustainable forms of plant medicine? Sometimes, there is not the luxury of choosing; either you can only source one form of the herb (say, bulk dry) or you need a certain preparation for your purposes (you might need an alcohol-based extract to properly extract the needed constituents). If this is all new for you, there is a wide array of herbal preparations to extract certain plant constituents (chemicals). Teas extract water-soluble constituents; tinctures extract alcohol-soluble constituents; essential oils are a distillation process of volatile oils, and on and on. Not only do these preparations differ in what they extract, however, they also differ in the amount of plant material needed and shelf life.

Happy?

Sometimes I contemplate big questions. What is existence really? What does Aristotle mean by a good life? And how can I start my second drink without finishing my first? Other times I contemplate something humbler – and what’s humbler than the humble egg?