A small pharmacy in her kitchen.
Rosa was born in a stone village outside Polignano, on the heel of Italy. Her great-great-grandmother taught her grandmother. Her grandmother taught her mother. Her mother taught her. For five generations the women in Rosa's family kept a small pharmacy in their kitchen — a paste for stiff hands, a tea for restless nights, a broth for the days that ache.
None of these recipes were written down. They lived in the rhythm of the day: a spoonful before breakfast, a wrapped warm cloth at dusk, the soup pot that simmered while the children played outside.
The book she finally wrote.
At 78, Rosa decided it was time. Her four children had grown. Her grandchildren were starting to feel the years in their own bodies. A friend in the village had gone to a doctor for stiff joints and come home with three pills — none of which worked. Rosa wrapped her friend's hands in her morning oil and the stiffness eased by the second day.
She started writing. Recipes she had cooked her whole life. The reasons each ingredient mattered. The small touches she had learned from her own mother — the trick with the lemon peel, the pinch of bicarbonate, the way to know when the broth is ready.
One hundred recipes and remedies, gathered from a hundred years of kitchen medicine. Tested in her kitchen. Refined for yours.
Why this book.
Most of what's sold today as "natural wellness" is expensive, complicated, and made by people who have never raised a child or cared for an aching parent. Rosa's recipes are the opposite. Familiar ingredients you already keep on the shelf. Methods that take a few minutes a day. The reasoning behind every choice, so you understand the medicine instead of following blind instructions.
This book is for anyone — men and women alike — who'd rather reach for the kitchen than the medicine cabinet. Who'd rather understand their body than be prescribed for it. Who senses, quietly, that what their grandmother knew was probably right.
con amore, Rosa ♡