Read the unedited computer generated transcript here:

12s

Michelle Harris

It was about, I think the mocktails and also my animal rescue group, I said, I'm guessing you're an animal person.

18s

JackieMarie Beyer

I am an animal person. Awesome. Well, because I was trying to figure it out yesterday and I couldn't find the original email. And I was like, could we book us through her publisher? Did we book it through her? Where did it come from? Did you write a book? Like I was trying to figure out how we connected to,

40s

Michelle Harris

I host a television show called alive and well, and we're a wellness oriented lifestyle television series. So of course eating fresh, organic fruits and vegetables, a big part of that. We had done something recently. I think that's what it came from on the trend of mocktails.

1m 2s

JackieMarie Beyer

Awesome. Okay. Like, where are you located? Are you in California? Are you on the Pacific

1m 16s

Michelle Harris

Los Angeles

1m 16s

JackieMarie Beyer

Los Angeles. Awesome. You know, I went to Los Angeles in 2016 and just like, it was like walking around in a perfume bottle. It was just so amazing. I couldn't get over the smell and just, I had the best trip. I only went for the weekend. I went

1m 34s

Michelle Harris

For a Jasmine's blooming. It

1m 36s

JackieMarie Beyer

Was, it was totally in the spring. It was April, it was Easter weekend of all things. So it was kind of weird. It was very quiet. I booked this like Airbnb just completely crazy right by Venice beach. So I could bop to the beach. It was right. The workshop was halfway between the beach of my Airbnb. I like got there on Friday, left on Sunday morning, but had the most amazing time. And yeah, it was definitely, it was beautiful. It was funny because everybody had these locked gates and all these beautiful gardens, but they were behind only clock gates.

2m 18s

JackieMarie Beyer

Anyway,

2m 21s

Michelle Harris

Unfortunately living in a big city, that's kind of par for the course, but yes, I love the spring here because it does smell wonderful.

2m 34s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. It was so interesting because my very first trip to LA back in like the early eighties, I w I was miserable and it was just like, we drove and there was so much traffic. It was like a completely different experience. This was like, I flew in and took a bus to my Airbnb and walked, didn't have a car. And just, it was a totally different thing. But anyway, I know you're busy. So we're going to just kind of, I'm just going to, mostly you talk because I get kind of watched without my questions, but do you have a guard?

3m 7s

Michelle Harris

I, well, I live in Los Angeles. We do not have a lot of space in most of the city. So my backyard is extremely small, but I am an avid grower of herbs because I cook. So I love having fresh herbs and I have a lot of plants, indoors and outdoors, because as you know, being a gardener, those indoor plants really help to purify the air and they just make me feel better. I like bringing that outdoor feeling inside and anytime we can connect with nature, but I do let you grow herbs for cooking and do so. Both indoors and outdoors.

3m 48s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. Well, I'm going to throw the questions in the chat just for you to kind of know, because especially if I get lost, I ended up going back to them,

4m 1s

Michelle Harris

Email you, my mocktail peace Responded to I'm going to send it right now. Just give me a second. I, let me, let me see. Let me get your email. What's your email, Jackie

4m 27s

JackieMarie Beyer

O R G podcast@gmaildotcomorgpodcastatgmail.com.

4m 38s

Michelle Harris

That's what you responded to.

4m 48s

JackieMarie Beyer

That definitely sounds like me.

4m 52s

Michelle Harris

Okay. Well, who doesn't love a good mock tail, right?

4m 57s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. Okay. Wagner III mall. Okay. I have it here. Actually. I think it's an email Wagner maybe there. I finally found it. Oh, cool. Yeah. And awesome. All right, well, I'll introduce you and we'll wing it. And if I get lost, I do tend to go back to those questions that I just threw in the chat for you.

5m 38s

JackieMarie Beyer

And, but my listeners are always like, don't be so structured script. So I love that you talk about

5m 47s

Michelle Harris

I'm all

5m 47s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yours liking to cook in the herbs because that's kinda my, like, I didn't really garden. When I first started my show. This is six and a half, almost seven years. It'll be seven years in January. I've been doing it. My husband was the gardener. And I always say, I'm the organic eater. And I have always grown herbs and I do cook with a lot of herbs and always fascinates me. People that don't cook with herbs. My mom cooked with herbs. So I love that. And, and I've had some challenges. So we might get to some questions where like, because there are some herbs that I struggled to grow. So you might have some answers there. And then, yeah, I'm so into the mock tails this year.

6m 29s

JackieMarie Beyer

Granted, I haven't made as many as I should have. These are tortious, the hyper Fiscus raspberry symbolical, black elderberry infused tea with mint blue-grey ice cubes,

6m 42s

Michelle Harris

Symbol,

6m 43s

JackieMarie Beyer

Orange

6m 45s

Michelle Harris

Fuze tea with mint, blueberry ice cubes. I'm like really into creative ice cubes. I know that sounds strange, but it's so much fun.

6m 54s

JackieMarie Beyer

Cool. Well, let me just introduce you and we'll just get right back to this. Ready. Here we go. Welcome to the green organic garden. It is Friday, September 3rd, 2021. And I have a guest on the line that I always feel like we've connected and we just had a little pre-chat. It's just been super fun. She hosts a TV show called the, and well, I reached out to her because she did a thing about month tails. She also runs an awesome animal rescue and just, I know we're going to have fun chatting today. So from Los Angeles, welcome to the show. Michelle Harris.

7m 29s

Michelle Harris

Thank you, Jackie. I'm so happy to be with you.

7m 33s

JackieMarie Beyer

We are so happy to hear from you today. So tell us, we're just starting to talk about ice cubes. Tell us, well, tell listeners a little bit about yourself first.

7m 43s

Michelle Harris

Well, I'm the host of the television show alive and well, and it's a wellness oriented lifestyle television series. You can see it nationwide. We do reach about 90 million households. So just to give it a plug check your local listings. But when

7m 59s

JackieMarie Beyer

I was just gonna say like, how do people find your show?

8m 2s

Michelle Harris

We are everywhere and we are syndicated. So we're in different stations in different areas. So if you have one of those cool remotes where you can just talk into what you say alive and well, and we will pop up

8m 17s

JackieMarie Beyer

Remote that you just talk into,

8m 21s

Michelle Harris

That was their awesome, my remote, you hit a button and you say the show you want, and it pops up. I love that,

8m 27s

JackieMarie Beyer

But my role could have it. I don't even know. We just switched to DirecTV. And I saw that. It says you're on DirecTV. So we're going to have to find that

8m 35s

Michelle Harris

So you can find us on DirecTV. That's one of the places where you can find a live and well,

8m 41s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah, I'm excited to check that out because I watched a bunch of your videos, like are in Vimeo. I like I went to your website and watched them and like my new thing with direct TV now, or actually we got a TV for anniversary is I can probably from my computer, from my phone from anywhere, just, it plays on the TV without having to deal with a bunch of remote. So that's like been my new, big thing the summer I'm excited about. So I just did that. I just went to your website and popped it up on the big screen.

9m 12s

Michelle Harris

Cool. And yes, we do have some segments from the show on our website as well.

9m 17s

JackieMarie Beyer

So I always start out the show asking about your very first gardening experience. Like, were you a kid, were you an adult? Who were you with? What'd you grow? Like, did you grow up in Los Angeles?

9m 29s

Michelle Harris

No, I grew up in the east coast and some of the early things that I grew, especially when I lived in Florida, because anything will grow in Florida is I literally threw seeds out and things would just grow. It was crazy. I got like these giant Marigold seeds and grew four feet tall, married girls. And because I do animal rescue and I have bunnies, I grew carrots and bunnies actually like the top of the carrots, I didn't have to do anything and I didn't know what I was doing. And I just put out the seeds, the literally it was the craziest thing and carrots grow. I didn't have to start them. I don't recommend that to the people who listened to your show because as you know, you have to start the seeds first, but somehow because Florida just has this amazing climate things grow very easily.

10m 21s

JackieMarie Beyer

Were you like a kid when you were doing this? I have to say some of my fondest memories as a kid and my mom and I were just talking about this. The other day was going to this farm stand and more, she was shopping. We can take the character rings back and feed the rabbits. And like, I loved that so much

10m 39s

Michelle Harris

And well, it's just so you know, my bunnies are spayed and neutered, of course, and they are litter box trained and my bunnies and my office right next to me now, there they are house bunnies.

10m 55s

JackieMarie Beyer

So are they like in cages or they run around your house All over your house?

11m 2s

Michelle Harris

Yes, they are in litter box trained.

11m 5s

JackieMarie Beyer

How do you train a rabbit to be litter box training?

11m 8s

Michelle Harris

Well, first of all, you definitely want to spay and neuter them, but rabbits are actually very clean animals and they usually take to it pretty quickly. You have to use a special kind of litter, not cat litter, nothing do the training, just cat litters, bad for them, but they usually put them in the box and they kind of get it for the most part. They're very good. I'll my moneys are, you know, litter trained and I just have to be careful. You have to be careful. Cause I do like to chew, you know, chords and things and keeping them out of mischief. So, you know, at night they have these kind of really big four feet by eight feet pens in my house that I just kind of shot like a puppy gate kind of thing.

11m 50s

Michelle Harris

But other than that, they run around the house and they like to be with people, all realize like a cat. They just like to be with people. They love treats. They know their names are really smart.

12m 3s

JackieMarie Beyer

Aw. I love that.

12m 7s

Michelle Harris

So I recommend, and you can go to anyone who's interested can go to rabbit.org, which is the house rabbit society website to find out more about rabbits and having them in your home because yes, they are part of the family.

12m 20s

JackieMarie Beyer

And how do they find out about your animal rescue? They go to the alive and well website

12m 28s

Michelle Harris

With the best place to go is our Facebook page, which is animal Angeles TV. And we post all kinds of tips about animals on there. And of course fun animal videos. But a lot of it is networking animals who are up for adoption. And that's what we try and do is we try and find homes for animals here locally. We'll do adoption events in Southern California, but we do post animals from all over the country that people ask us to post and we encourage people to, to adopt and not buy animals. And also to foster. That's a really great way. If you want to see if an animal's a good fit for you is to foster them or work with a rescue and foster before you decide to adopt.

13m 16s

JackieMarie Beyer

Aw, that's awesome. I know. So we're in, I'm in Northwest Montana. You didn't know that. And it's weird. Like our little animal shelter brings in animals from all around the country. She's like an amazing ability to place the animals. And like she connects with like these airplane pilots that bring up animals from places. Like we just got a whole, there was a plea motive, animals, dogs, and that were brought in that people had like adopted over the, during the pandemic. And then for whatever reason, we're either getting evicted or moving or like, I don't know, for some reason they ended up with like this whole and they didn't last in our shelter very long. I mean, she just, she has this knack for adopting getting animals adopted, but that's awesome to be able to, cause I know like a lot of people, sometimes they can't find the animal they want locally.

14m 7s

JackieMarie Beyer

And so it's nice to be able to see other animals around the country, but I, yeah, totally rescue, you know, I don't even understand people that buy dog.

14m 16s

Michelle Harris

No, you don't need to get any kind of dog cab bunny that you want To. I highly recommend them.

14m 27s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh, I like you have no idea how many times I've tried to keep rabbits and like, but I have this hard time with like keeping them in changes and then they let them go and then they, like, it's not a good scene. So

14m 41s

Michelle Harris

I think I need to do a video because people don't keep them in cages anymore. You keep them in your house and not keep Mike bunnies or have never lived in a cage ever.

14m 52s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh, I love that. Okay. Well, let's talk about the mocktails and the ice cube. We were just starting to talk about ice cubes in the pre-chat. Tell me about that.

15m 2s

Michelle Harris

Yes. Well, as you know, mocktails are a really big trend right now. People want fewer calories, which is one of the benefits of having a mocktail as opposed to a cocktail. There are far fewer calories in it and also just feeling great. Not having to worry about having a hang over there. A lot of reasons why people are drinking mocktails. And so one of the things I like to do with my ice cubes in your you're seeing this as kind of a trend as well, that they're selling these crazy shape ice cubes. And I like to do fun things like put fruit in them or put herbs in them. Like one of the things we were discussing was my high viscous, rubber raspberry Sandberg called black elderberry and fused tea with mint, blueberry ice cubes.

15m 51s

Michelle Harris

Wow. That's a long name of a drink. But what it essentially is is that I'm using a hibiscus raspberry tea that I'm infusing with some sandbox called black elderberry. So I'm just adding a little bit of Samuel called black elderberry syrup and sample called block elderberry syrup is a natural immune booster. So that way you're getting the benefit of the immune booster, but guess what? Black elderberry tastes amazing. So you add that to the tea and all of a sudden you have this incredibly healthy mocktail.

16m 32s

Michelle Harris

And then by making these ice cubes and in particular for this one, I was doing round ice cubes instead of square, just a little bit of a fun twist and freezing them with freshmen and blueberries. So you add that in and you can see that through the tea mixture and it just looks beautiful and just add something to make it feel so much more special.

16m 57s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh, and I even like, so I grew a bunch of Memphis year and I've been trying to find things to do with the mint. So that's perfect. And then for some reason, blueberries have been on like super sale near in Montana the last month, like I bought bunches of blueberries. My husband makes a lot and he goes a lot with baking with blueberries. And so that would be fun to put blueberry, blueberry, mint ice cubes. And it sounds like easy. I like that part. Like it's adding this huge burst it's easy and could also like make you dream of summer in the middle of winter and elderberries are so popular

17m 37s

Michelle Harris

And it elevates it to make the drink feel even more special than just, you know, this wonderful ice tea with a sand book called black elderberry in it.

17m 48s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. And I think with pandemic, like everybody was drinking a lot more and now this summer people are like, you know, out together more, a little and just like, you know, I think people are trying to get away from the alcohol thing as much. I've met a lot of people that are certainly, and I for one and one of them too, that needs to cut down on my alcohol. So that's kind of been part of why I've been excited about the mock tails just to have something else to drink in the evenings that kind of satisfies that. But doesn't, you know, like you said, it doesn't give you a hangover, doesn't make it. So you can't like pay attention to your kids or cook dinner, do all the things you want to do later in the day, but also gives you a feeling of like, almost like pampering yourself kind of, or just like taking the, I mean, why do people drink?

18m 37s

JackieMarie Beyer

They want to take the edge off after a long day. And it kind of gives you that same burst without the alcohol. And you can probably always put alcohol in these if you really want it to.

18m 50s

Michelle Harris

Yeah, exactly. If you prefer to have a regular cocktail, you can add the alcohol of your choice into any of these. But one of the fun things about mocktails is a lot of companies are coming up with non-alcoholic versions of your favorite alcohol

19m 9s

JackieMarie Beyer

That's for sure. Well, tell us about one of the other ones.

19m 14s

Michelle Harris

Yes. Which, which one do you like? One of the things that I think is really fun is we did an almond, an orange pomegranate Sandhu call black elderberry teeny again, we're keeping it healthy with the same book called black elderberry, because that helps to support a healthy immune system. And, but made it kind of feel like a martini. And one of the things that we used, and it is one of those non-alcoholic with cores, I was telling you about, and it's called Lear and they have an orange liqour that is similar in taste to like , liqour like that type of orange, of course.

20m 0s

Michelle Harris

And so what we did was we took pomegranate juice. We took the sample called black elderberry syrup added in the Lear non-alcoholic with core and just put it into a, into like a martini shaker with ice, use a strainer. And I actually liked to put it into a martini glass. And for fun, you can use edible gold sugar on the rim. So how much does that feel like a martini to you, but it's not, it's super healthy.

20m 38s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh, and I love that cause I have never been a martini drinker, but I think the classes are fancy. And like when you're out with the martini drinkers, it gives you something that you can have. Or if you're having, I bought this book called shake for my niece, turn 21 this year. And I just thought it was like this book about like being a host and like, instead of going out to drinks, cause one drinks are super expensive, but also like entertaining at your house. And it just taught you about making all these drinks and it was so fun. And so many of them seem like, you know, you could make either the real version or you could make like the mocktail version. And just like, so I bought her like the, the shaker thing, which was hard to, it was funny.

21m 23s

JackieMarie Beyer

Cause it seemed hard to find I was in New York at the time buying a lot of the stuff when I went to visit my mom and then her birthday was the summer. So I came back to Montana and here in like my local grocery store and at the liquor store, I was able to find a lot of supplies in the book that I couldn't find. I have, like, I went to like six different liquor stores in New York. None of them had any of it. They were like, ah, you have to go to like bed bath and beyond or something. It was funny. But

21m 48s

Michelle Harris

How are you think they'd sell that? That's like martini 1 0 1

21m 52s

JackieMarie Beyer

I know. Right. I was like so surprised. I found one shaker thing and it w like came with like a big bottle. It was like $30 and came with like a bottle of whiskey or so, but I don't know what it came with. Some giant bottle of alcohol was the only one I found in all those liquor stores I went to in New York, but I bought her like a whole bunch of bottles, like, you know, the little mini airline bottles of booze. So she could have like to try with her friends for when she's first entertaining. I just thought it was a cute day. And I love that book that came with it. But because it was all about like being a happy hostess and it was much more about entertaining than it was about drinking.

22m 32s

JackieMarie Beyer

I don't know. But also the other thing I'd like, you talk about the edible gold sugar. I don't know what that is. That sounds fun.

22m 41s

Michelle Harris

Well, they have this edible, I guess I'd call it glitter. And I use it when I'm baking a lot of different things, but it's also wonderful for cocktails. You can put it in a cocktail or I have the edible gold glitter that I mix with a little bit of sugar and you dip the rim and it like you would a martini glass. And these days I kind of feel like because there's so many of these, you know, apple martinis has all these different flavored Martinez. Then it's almost at a martinis. Anything you stick in a martini glass. It's not the true, what you'd think of a long time ago as a martini that you know, has bought curmudgeon. But now they have all these wonderful, you know, coffee, martinis, all these flavored drinks.

23m 24s

Michelle Harris

And they're really just sweet cocktails.

23m 31s

JackieMarie Beyer

I know. And then in a Garten did that big thing this summer with most of our McCarthy where they have like those giant martini glasses and they were making the giant cocktails. I thought that, I don't know if you saw that those videos are really cool,

23m 45s

Michelle Harris

Not see them, but it sounds amazing.

23m 49s

JackieMarie Beyer

And then tell us the next one that you wrote about was the black elderberry vanilla cream soda.

23m 56s

Michelle Harris

Yes. And as you can tell, I'm a big fan of a black elderberry again, because it tastes great. But also these are mocktails that we're adding just a little bit more of a health upgrade. So we're getting that immune support, but because we wanted to also do a fun take on a cream soda and the block elderberries so delicious, we essentially just made a natural and I like to use something called Zevia, which is a Stevia cream soda. So it's zero calorie, but it's still natural. So you're not getting artificial sweeteners and being a gardener. I'm sure you're aware that Stevia, you can also grow it yourself.

24m 39s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. And it is amazing. You eat a leaf of that and like it's totally sweet. It's really cold growing Stevia.

24m 47s

Michelle Harris

No, I love Stevia, but I did not grow, you know, grow this in dry edge. But I do use that as my sweetener of choice, but you can buy cream soda with a Stevia in it. And then I love cashew ice cream and you can even find that, that they use, you know, no sugars. They use different types of sweeteners in there if you're looking to avoid sugar. And so you're just mixing the cream soda with this, the black elderberry of the same book called black elderberry syrup and putting in the non-dairy ice cream, using just a little bit of non-dairy whipped topping. And you have an amazing and delicious cream soda.

25m 32s

JackieMarie Beyer

No, I'm picturing like a root beer float, but is that now with this?

25m 36s

Michelle Harris

Exactly. But it's cream instead of root beer and the black elderberry is purple. So it also adds beautiful color to it.

25m 46s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh my gosh. I have to trial. Okay. And then the last one was the ice cold in Watson.

25m 57s

Michelle Harris

Yes. Are you familiar with golden lattes?

26m 1s

JackieMarie Beyer

No.

26m 2s

Michelle Harris

Well, golden lattes are with turmeric and I love tumeric. You can grow your own again, kind of part of gardening. And so we are brewing a trimeric tea and adding cinnamon and ginger to taste. And as we're transitioning into fall right now, you can do this as a hot beverage as well. So for the summer you can pour it over ice. You can do this, a hot beverage, but you're also going to mix in half tea and then half almond or oat milk, and then can keeping with the mock tails, just add in a little bit of the alcohol free almond liqour and I was using liers again, and you just sweeten it.

26m 47s

Michelle Harris

Like you can use Stevia as it was mentioning any sweetener of your choice. And there you go, can serve a hot or cold and it's delicious. And turmeric is a really great natural anti-inflammatory.

27m 2s

JackieMarie Beyer

And then you say that you can put like a, like a garnish, either ice cubes made with fruit or edible flowers or some kind of herbs. And I love that part, especially like right now, I know in our garden, all our fruit is coming on and ready to harvest like the apples, the plums, the, the trees are finally, we are not giving as much fruit this year as we have in other years past. But the fruit that is ready to pick now is the time. So that's a good time to do that. I wanted to spell Lear for people it's L Y R E in case you're wondering how to look that up

27m 44s

Michelle Harris

And Google and order some it's it's just wonderful and it tastes great. And I do love adding these little elements, like you were saying about being a good host or hostess. It's just taking something that it's not going to have you in the kitchen all day, but making it feel that much more special for your guests in a little bit elegant and healthier. So if you're adding it to whatever kind of mocktail martini you're doing, you know, putting some fruit on a little skewer on the side of it and using maybe some edible flowers to float in the middle of your mocktail martini, and you could do that, do that with any of these mock tails.

28m 25s

Michelle Harris

And it just gives it a nice upgrade and nutritional boost.

28m 30s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh, that's so true. And I just I'm all about that. Like making things elegant when you have gap, like I think people, so I'm an elementary teacher by trade and I've met, we live in a pretty poor, so she economic area. It's interesting. I was just talking about that with some people I was walking around the local track this morning, and then also I taught in a reservation for years, and I know that a lot of people get really depressed and turn to alcohol when they feel like it's their kid's birthday or Christmas, or it's a holiday, then they can, you know, provide these huge expectations that they always put on themselves or society puts on ourselves.

29m 16s

JackieMarie Beyer

And it's amazing how something as simple as this is like a fruited ice cube really is what makes a difference in kids' lives and how they can be. Like, I remember when my stepdaughter was 16 and we had this like strawberry themed birthday party for her. And we made like, you know, strawberry placements out of, you know, what's it called construction paper and just like all these little strawberry homemade designs. And it was like one of the best parties. I mean, she's like 40 something now, you know, her kids are, your youngest kid is graduating high school. Like, but I still remember, and I know she still remembers like how special that was like, it's so amazing how something this simple can make or break a celebration for a family member.

30m 0s

JackieMarie Beyer

And I think we all need so much more of that right now, as we're like, you know, struggling to connect and, and we are getting to maybe see each other a little bit more and family reunions are happening or, you know, even a family reunion between like two people in your family to Evelyn scene, like little things like this can just make such a huge difference. And th and, and you've made them fun and easy and they're healthy and nutritious. And there are things people can grow in their garden. Like I've read so many things this summer about how easy it is to grow ginger and tumeric and all sorts of different climates. So I'm kind of excited to try to grow them.

30m 41s

JackieMarie Beyer

I know that I want to say it's pretty hard to get ginger. I don't know. Did it grow from starts to roots or something to actually be able, but if you can get your hands on some, I've heard that it's pretty easy to grow and tumeric too. And that, and the natural tumeric that you grow yourself has gotta be, you know, better than what you're going to get at the store. And like a spice jar.

31m 5s

Michelle Harris

Of course, anything you grew yourself is so much better, so much fresher, and you can use that to make your own tea with, to the S that's going to taste 20 times better than anything you can get. That's packaged. You can just brew with ginger and the turmeric and just, you know, put it in some cheese cloth and just boil it with water and create your own tea.

31m 32s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. And those things are so, like you said, anti inflammatory and just so healthy and beneficial for you. And I think that, you know, getting the natural, the whole, like actual, instead of like taking a vitamin, it's gotta be so much better for you. So Michelle, if this was the part of the show where you were going to call getting to the root of things, like you said, you have some herbs and things that you're growing indoors. Do you want to say something about that, about indoor plants indoors? Then we talk about that in the pre chat a little bit about how much plants indoors, like help your like, air and just make your home happier. Yeah.

32m 12s

Michelle Harris

Yes. Well, I have plants indoors and outdoors, but where I live in Los Angeles, we have a teeny tiny yard. So there's not a lot of place to, to grow things to eat, but I do grow herbs and I love my herbs because I cook. And like I was saying, you can use them just on the side of dishes as a garnish, but they also have tremendous value and the flavor profile and they're good for us. So I grow, you know, the common things I think most people would want to grow are beasel of course, and that's very easy to grow just about anywhere and you can grow it inside or outside.

32m 55s

Michelle Harris

I also grow Rosemary. I use all these fresh all the time and I grow time. That's another one of my favorite seasonings. And you can just use like a bucket and literally start a small outdoor garden with all of your favorite herbs. And then you have them and you just go clip them when you need them. It's so much easier than getting them at the store. Part of it is sheer convenience and they're just fresher.

33m 22s

JackieMarie Beyer

Right. And then like the more you prune them, the more they grow. And then you have fresh dried herbs and you don't have to either waste the money, or like you said, it's convenience. Or they just started like, even if I buy a Rosemary and it dies on my kitchen table, cause like a lot of times I'll buy those plugs and put them in dirt and try to get them to grow. But they don't. But even still, like, then you take that dried plant and put it in a jar and you have fresh dried Rosemary. That just makes everything I think tastes, you know, it just makes flavors pop. Like if you're making a soup in winter or even like, I'll take, like when I was teaching at school and I had this apartment that I had to stay in during the week, I would take the crock part and I would put like tomatoes, carrots, celery, and water.

34m 9s

JackieMarie Beyer

And then some of that fresh Rosemary and, oh my gosh, I would come home and my apartment would smell so good and it have this delicious, healthy dinner. And just, but the only thing I was going to say is like, I even called my mom last night. It was like, I feel like I'm in a spot sitting in my garden. I had this Rosemary plant and I would just like pick it up and lift it and just smell it. And it, just, to me, it just calms me. Just, it's like a room of therapy, but like the real aroma there, you know, it's like from this natural living plant next to me, you know, and just, it's not like this plugin thing I'm putting into my electric socket that I don't know.

34m 49s

JackieMarie Beyer

I just feel so much calmer when they breathe. Things like that in, or like I pick some Sage last night to make us Sage bundle and just different things. I just, I love herbs. I don't know how people survive without herbs.

35m 3s

Michelle Harris

When you cook with them, it just smells so homey. That's one of them, they taste amazing, but they make your whole house smell wonderful. And the Rosemary in particular, like you were saying, if you rub your hands just lightly across the oils from the Rosemary will come on your hands and they smell so great. I like to use that after I've been cooking onions.

35m 26s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh my gosh. What a great idea. Oh my gosh. I'm totally going to try that because I'm working in this restaurant, this, I just started in this fall and like, one of the things I have to do a lot is chop the onions. I'm a totally track that. Cause I feel like I can't get rid of that onion smell better. What I do, what an awesome idea.

35m 49s

Michelle Harris

Well, I always usually have, like you were saying onions or garlic on my hands because we like flavorful food in our home. And I cook a lot with both of those things and you're supposed to rub your hands on some stainless steel, so you can just use a spoon, but sometimes it all doesn't come off. That's where the Rosemary definitely helps getting that last little bit off your hands.

36m 11s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh, that was so awesome. I'm totally gonna do that. Do you have a favorite tool you like to use in my kitchen at all?

36m 22s

Michelle Harris

Oh, I, it varies right now. I'm totally loving this lemon ancestor that my husband got me. He surprised me with a lemon sester because of using a grater and it just was a big, yeah, the crater works just fine, but he went and splurged on this lemon zester for me. And I use it a lot when I'm making crust and different things that need lemon zest. So I just love it. And I'll always be like, can you taste that lemon zest? But lemon is especially the lemon zest is so good and a lot of baked goods and other things.

37m 2s

Michelle Harris

And it's just,

37m 4s

JackieMarie Beyer

It makes such a difference. Like, I don't know, I have this recipe that I was making this spring when I was at my mom's in New York. And I was like, ah, I'm going to, I'm just like, not going to worry about the lemon zest. And then they ended up, I can't remember why I ended up having to put it in it. Maybe they didn't have enough lemon juice or something. And I was like, well, I'm going to go ahead. I could not believe how much it made it pop. And like, so I've been way into the lemon zest this summer more than usual. So I'm going to have to look into getting one of those lemon dusters.

37m 34s

Michelle Harris

He's just a grater too, but the lemons a little bit more finally, but if you're a little bit clumsy, like I am, it gives you a thumb protector and I recommend you use it because that says is a weapon that sets to her

37m 50s

JackieMarie Beyer

When you use a greater it is anyway.

37m 54s

Michelle Harris

Yes. And this tester seems even more sharp to me. So just a word of caution.

37m 59s

JackieMarie Beyer

So what is your thumb protector?

38m 2s

Michelle Harris

They, you know, they sent me this disaster with this little thing that you're supposed to put over your thumb or whatever fingers are using when you're using your SaaStr so that you don't accidentally assessed fingers, a log with 11,

38m 16s

JackieMarie Beyer

Because that happens. It totally does. I'm totally on top of that. What other questions are in the getting to the root of things? How about a favorite reading material? Like, is there a book or a magazine or anything that you would recommend?

38m 30s

Michelle Harris

Oh, in terms of recipes and things. I kind of create my own, but oftentimes I'm inspired just like by classic dishes. I do plant-based cooking. So I don't cook with any meat, but I'll make versions of things. Like instead of beef, Wellington, I'll use say tan. And instead of the beef, you know, there's all kinds of fun things you can use in place of me. And I like to do whole food plant-based cooking. So I just take, especially for my husband, who's a big guy and he doesn't eat meat either. He is plant-based. So I kind of find a lot of fun foods that keep him happy and fallen healthy.

39m 13s

Michelle Harris

And I convert the conventional recipe to a plant-based one.

39m 19s

JackieMarie Beyer

Nice. Whoa, I don't know. Is there anything else you want to talk about that we haven't talked about today?

39m 27s

Michelle Harris

Well, I think we covered, covered a lot about mocktails and you know, one more thing going back to the mock tails, in addition to kind of addressing them up with the herbs and flowers. One thing that you can also do is use those things talking about as the holidays come up and making them feel more special, you can bring those things into your tablescape. So maybe if you don't have a very big budget, you can take things that you're finding outside of growing inside and use them to create a really beautiful tablescape. And how are you going to have a beautiful memory without a big price tag?

40m 8s

JackieMarie Beyer

I love that I've been like totally hooked on the fixer upper show would chip and Joanna Gaines. And I noticed that like a lot of the houses, she stages of the end, right before the people are going to come in and see it. And she makes so many things like that, where she cuts something from nature or like puts these, you know, visas on the table that have like, you know, greens and points. And you know, there's always herbs in the kitchen and parts and just, she, she does a lot of that too. I don't know if you know who she is

40m 41s

Michelle Harris

And yes I do. And it does make a big difference because the end of the day everyone's memories, like you're saying, it's not about how much you spend it's about how much fun you had with your family and friends. So make it easy, make it fun, make it healthy and just have a great time and, and create those memories that are going to last

41m 4s

JackieMarie Beyer

Well, Michelle, thank you so much for sharing with us today and I hope you have a wonderful labor day weekend and listeners make sure you check out a wive and well TV and the animal angels on Facebook and have a wonderful day.

41m 20s

Michelle Harris

You too. And you can go to a live in well.tv. That's our website to see more and check your local listings to watch alive and well. And also on Instagram. I'm Michelle Harris underscore TV.

41m 34s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh, cool.

41m 35s

Michelle Harris

Jackie, thank you so much for everything. It was wonderful speaking with you.

41m 40s

JackieMarie Beyer

No, thank you. I had a great time. Okay. I'm shutting the recording.