Czech folklore leads to sublime eating.
3 min video | 10 minute read | Slowraft Editions #02
Teachings from the Green Witch
Jana Brunolikova is a qualified naturopath and herbalist living in the Northern Rivers. A mother, friend and sensational cook, Jana has published two books and creates a stunning array of delicious earth cakes for weddings, parties, events and more, all while looking after the community through consultations on how to best look after our bodies.
Raised in the Czech Republic during communism, Jana’s love for medicine has come from many years of folklore, witchery and wisdom passed on by her grandmother.
Tell us about your upbringing?
I grew up in the Czech Republic during communism. It truly shaped me into who I am now. Having to grow our food, not because it was trendy, but because we had to, was just part of the culture at that time. In the Czech Republic, the folk culture of herbalism has vast roots and wisdom in medicinal witchcraft, which sparked my love for food.
I learned all from my grandma in early childhood. She always took me to fields foraging flowers, telling me about herbs and drying herbs. She would make weird potions that time for us when we had colds and flu. So, she was one of the biggest influences. With my grandma, my memories are beautiful. I learned the art of foraging, potions, and witchery from herbalism, turning them into medicine or potions, like balms or syrups for coughs. It was fascinating at the time and shaped me into who I am now because I pursued my passion in that childhood, and it became my job.
What of these learnings do you bring to your work today?
My core principle about eating well is not necessarily the eating, but the whole picture of how you eat with family in peace. It's a complete, almost metaphysical approach to eating, adding herbs you grow, going to the markets to support local farmers, and eating from regenerative farms to support our old picture of Mother Earth.
The Secret Kitchen combines my passions for naturopathy, herbalism, healthy eating, and cooking. It's a little experiment of infusing nature and herbs and medicinal properties of the herbs into daily life, cooking, and savoury or healthy treats.
Eating in the bigger picture nourishes your body from many angles, not just the nutrients you consume. My favourite cooking is in the wilderness, where you can go and find your own and cook it on the fire. Recently, I made a cake for my son for his fourth birthday whilst camping; we brought flour, eggs, and a healthy sweetener (canned apricots); we fired up a Dutch oven and put the cake into the cake tin and baked it slowly. The conversation that it made made it even more special. And in a few minutes, "voila," it was ready.
You create stunning cakes - almost art. What sparked these creations?
Earth Cakes is my passion for proving that you can make healthy treats infused with nature and medicinal herbs. That's why I called it Earth Cakes, just because there is so much more than creating healthy cakes. It's the medicinal properties of the cake.
My new book ranges from baking simple treats to giving recipes to people who want a bit of a challenge with their treats. The book is not to scare people; it's to inspire them to experiment with healthy ingredients in their kitchen. The "Green Witch" who features regularly, is someone who mainly protects Mother Earth. A witch grows her herbs but also looks at the bigger picture; she protects the Earth and does many spells. I like to include these spells in the book mainly because they help people in times of sorrow.
“Deep breathing is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which you can do easily in nature and suppress the fight-and-flight nervous system. So nature, for me, is medicine; it's the easiest way to look after ourselves.”
This is your second book, showcasing the variety and enjoyment of cooking from sourced natural foods. How have you found it being a publisher, author, and cook?
I have self-published two books, one in 2018 and one at the beginning of the year. Self-publishing meant I could work with environmentally-minded businesses to produce the best end product for consumers and my earthly goals.
My second book, Earth Cakes, showcases medicinal plants in daily life and baking; it aims to introduce people to herbs, like witchcraft, in their daily lives and inspire them not to be scared to use them in their kitchens.
These books have been huge to make - dreams almost. I have worked hard towards my dreams. I've used visualisation in my life because I love to dream. Still, I have also experienced that whatever you visualise, you have to sometimes work hard towards your future to reach those dreams.
How do you balance the daily patterns of your life?
Finding a balance between motherhood, work, and creativity takes patience. I jump into the ocean or find time in nature and do activities that naturally bring me that deep breath in the body, which creates release. I enjoy surfing; I love sunrises or sunsets because they bring that feeling of deep breath and relaxation to my body. Honestly, though, I enjoy cooking; it brings me a sense of meditation.
If I'm not in nature for some time, I get in a bit of trouble. I love walking barefoot; I love trying to find and forage different herbs or wild food and experimenting with that in the kitchen as a part of my meditation and medicine. So nature is for me medicine, which I teach and I preach.
As a naturopath, what advice can you give?
If we look at our body system, we have two parts of nervous system. One is called "fight and flight", and one is called "rest and digest". Many people know about it. Fight and flight is the one that's turned on when we do lots of exercises when we are stressed. It's an excellent nervous system; it's the one that gets us going.
The other nervous system, rest and digestion, at the time of 'fight or flight' is not working because it's in the background, and the body system turns it off. It's our subconscious mind, which is our digestion—immunity, breathing, how our intestine moves, etc. In nature, it's proven that five minutes of deep breathing exercise a day can change physiological responses in your body without taking any supplements within 30 days. Deep breathing is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which you can do easily in nature and suppress the fight-and-flight nervous system. So nature, for me, is medicine; it's the easiest way to look after ourselves. A couple of deep breaths naturally turn off your fight-and-flight nervous system, bringing up your rest and digest nervous system.
It's not about supplements. Supplementing is there to make you feel better at some point. For example, if you are stressed-weak, you take the erotogenic herb to survive the stress, but you also, because you feel better, have to change your life so this situation doesn't appear again. So we are trying to find the root of the disease, change it, and support you when you change the root or the disharmony in the body.
We still need to learn how our brain works. We have a 9% understanding of the science of what's happening. No one still knows how telepathy works. No one knows about how frequency happens in the body entirely when you immerse yourself in nature and distract your body from technology, concrete, and the blockages of your kind of metaphysical field—it fascinates me.
SLWRFT. Living here and sharing days away teaching our kids what do you hope to see as we all grow older?
I look forward to passing my knowledge on to my kids so they can foster Middle Eastern European Herbalist traditions. I would love to see that blossoming. I look forward to getting old and seeing the new life creations and what they are there to offer, and I hope to be able to support them along the way. It's superficial, but it's true, you know, like mom, you want your kids to be happy and see them thrive, and hopefully, they take on something from what you do to be the generation that will make a change because it's essential.
I always think about living in this area and how fortunate we are to be exposed to so much information from like-minded people. I hope future generations will see the beauty and protect this Earth - after all, we have just one.
