Month: July 2026

Coffee for liver health?

I hold all research about economically important commodities really lightly, but this report does make me curious because Western herbalists talk about coffee and liver health a lot. A warm, bitter, carminative drink every morning? Serious liver tonic.

I wish any other bitter plant was consumed enough to get a 13-year prospective study on 350,000+ people.

Re: @digyoursoul https://universeodon.com/@digyoursoul/116947484891480708

Mending Monday

I’m trying to make Mending Monday a habit instead of letting things pile up, and I have gotten off to a strong start by absolutely butchering this kids anthology 😂

At least the pages are in the right order?

Photo of my pale hand holding a closed handcover book, with the top edge visible to show a section of lumpy and uneven pages where they have been taped back in unevenly

An OT (of course) recently introduced me to phase change cooling clothing and the tech is so interesting!

Unlike water ice packs that take forever to freeze and then are so cold that you can only safely touch them for 10 minutes at a time, some genius made gel packs that freeze at 15C. So you can freeze them in the fridge and then wear them continuously for hours without frostbite.

They are pricey but there aren’t many other options for people who need to be outside in the heat.

One example of PCM/phase change material cooling clothes.

Promotional photo with several people standing in front of a neon sign that says EZ Cool Down: a cosplayer, a person in jeans, someone in motorcycle gear with a helmet, a construction worker, an older woman with a husky dog, a worker in a hi-viz vest, a fursuiter fox, and someone in athletic gear

I love that their product photos go construction worker, road worker, fursuiter.

A warm infusion method

Photo looking down into a speckled black canning pot containing a wire rack and 3 mason jars with old labels on the lids.

Feeling very pleased with my setup for warm-infusing herbal oils today. I find double boilers tedious and messy, and I wanted to do multiple jars at once. Glad I remembered the gadget I keep around specifically for heating up jars in a water bath.

The jars are not full and I’m not trying to seal them, so they are only submerged about halfway in water.

These are chickweed, calendula, and plantain oils, if you want to guess what I’m making.

(It’s the first test salve of my new area of curiosity — itch relief. Bug bites, autoimmune conditions, drug side effects… turns out once you start talking about it, a lot of people have itches. Including me this week, so i figured i could do some testing)