elilla& com pomba-gira de frenteit's funny to see these things with gringo eyes. The Ethnobotany of Candomblé with Dr. Bob Voeks
YouTube
my balcony edelweiß has flowered even more this year than 2025 btw. #humblebrag
the linarias and the silene are interweaving this year, it's a pretty combination
haven't posted my terrarium in a while but it's suffering from success as usual. I should probably prune this pepperomia at some point but I don't have the heart for it, it's pepperomia the cuttings are… *viable*, it feels wrong to discard them. plus the sprawling tropical covering up my decorative skull is such a mood, check out the roots inside the eye cavity
what's funny about this is that I could never grow this pepperomia—no mater what type of soil and watering regime I tried, no matter how much sunlight I got, she was always just like, hanging in there, half-dead. throwing a few sad branches into the terrarium was a measure of last resort. turns out the humidity and/or temperature of my house just wasn't enough for her I suppose
meanwhile the original pepperomia pot is now spontaneously growing something that appears to be tomato? S. pimpinellifolium from the other year? or a pepper? dunno but I grow them now I guess
Dr. Camille
> Rue is used to flavor coffee in Oromia. You simply cut small sprigs of rue leaves from your garden; wash it and deep a sprig in a hot cup of coffee and drink. It gives the coffee a very nice refreshing lemony flavor.
> Rue is used along with many other herbs and spices to prepare an important spice known as “berbere” made of red hot Oromian peppers. For these Oromiaans use the dried rue berries. The dried berries can also be added to roasted coffee bean and grounded together to flavor the coffee. Oromians call rue “Ciraakota or Cilaakota”. The direct translation is Tree of Health or Tree for Life. It means that this herb gives health to life and humanity. It seems the opposite of what the West says about this forgotten herb.
hmm is that Oromo? it's hard to find information
it's not on Mawadza's English-Oromo dictionary 
for "life" it gives jireenya. I won't get anywhere like this, let's switch gears and search articles
for "life" it gives jireenya. I won't get anywhere like this, let's switch gears and search articlesok so immediately it's clear that rue is widely used all over Ethiopia for many food items including a fermented porridge taken by lactating mothers—but it seems to be mostly Ruta chalapensis not R. graveolens
> Culturally specific remedies for the evil eye, involving Asparagus africanus var. puberulus in
combination with Allium sativum and Ruta graveolens, were novel to our study, despite previous
reports of these plants for uses such as hematuria, hemorrhoids, malaria…
come on, study, R. graveolens for evil eye has been documented for at least 2 thousand years
> In traditional coffee rituals, a spring of rue (Ruta graveolens; Local name: “Tennadum”) is usually added to a cup of coffee (Figure 2F). It improves the flavor of a cup of coffee. People add sugar to coffee all throughout the globe to make it taste better, but in Ethiopia, the traditional coffee ceremony is served with rue. Fresh rue leaves provide health advantages and are said to ease headaches, in addition to adding flavor to a cup of coffee. In some parts of Ethiopia, it was combined with butter (known as "Nitr kibe" in Amharic) in a coffee cup.
I find plenty of attestion for tennadum in this context, but no other reliable sources for ciraakota/cilaakota. I'll keep the name with a grain of salt, but I'm convinced to try a sprig of tennadum from my balcony with cofe this morning :3
if there's one people in the world I'll trust about coffee, it's Ethiopians