Review: Rosemary Gladstar’s Hot Ginger Balls

In my quest to become greener and crunchier, I have peddled around in educating myself on the use of herbs for medicinal purposes. Some people swear by herbs, saying that if you use herbs you’ll never have to go to the doctor–ever. Me, I see herbs as a first line of defense. If we use herbs properly, then we are more likely to be healthy individuals. However, when you-know-what hits the fan and you catch that superbug or get that ear infection or need that life-saving antibiotic or procedure, doctors are te way to go.

Rosemary Gladstar’s recipe for Hot Ginger Balls, from her book Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide, is one of those “I don’t need to go to the doctor but I want relief for something in a natural way” sort of recipe. It is a recipe for making ginger pills to use for upset stomachs, be it general nausea, motion sickness, or those lovely monthly womanly problems. They are made using ginger root powder, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and honey, and the recipe makes about thirty tiny sticky pills (whose stickiness reduces dramatically once they dry).