An Herbal Odyssey
Herbal Odyssey is more than a recipe book — it is a living testament to over 30 years of Maia Ballis’ plant-based wisdom, rooted in the fertile gardens and wildlands of Sun Mountain Research Center. Part seasonal guide, part medicinal reference, and part soulful reflection, this richly illustrated e-book honors the legacy of People, Food and Land Foundation.
What began as a handwritten binder of recipes and field notes blossomed into a vibrant digital guide. With over 375 herbal and garden-based recipes — wildcrafted teas, solar-cooked meals, flower facials, tinctures, salves, broths, and more — Herbal Odyssey bridges folk knowledge and modern herbalism through the rhythms of the seasons.
Inspired by mentors such as Rosemary Gladstar, Michael Tierra, and Juliette de Bairacli Levy, Maia weaves global herbal traditions including Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Western folk practices with permaculture, edible landscaping, and community-supported agriculture. At its heart, Herbal Odyssey invites us to slow down, engage the senses, and return to a way of living where food is medicine, gardens are teachers, and flowers carry stories.
This isn’t just about food. It’s about remembering our place in nature — harvesting with respect, cooking with care, and living with joy.
We can’t separate the sacred from the practical. Healing is in the tending.
Inside the Herbal Odyssey
Solar Cooking & Drying
Low-tech tools like solar ovens and dryers turn harvests into shelf-stable meals — honoring energy efficiency, seasonality, and the quiet wisdom of slow cooking.
Herbal Recipes & Remedies
More than 375 garden and wild-crafted recipes organized by season, featuring nourishing meals, tonics, teas, tinctures, and natural remedies drawn from decades of hands-on practice.
- Foraging & Wild Edibles
Field-tested guidance on identifying, harvesting, and preparing wild plants like mesquite, mulberry, and ceanothus — reawakening ancestral memory through taste and tradition.
- Herbal Body Care & Aromatherapy
Flower baths, garden facials, castor oil packs, and homemade tinctures crafted from lived experience and rooted in Earth-honoring care and teaching at PFL. - Kitchen Herbology
Learn the energetics, uses, and safety of everyday herbs and spices to bring ancient knowledge into the modern kitchen. - Edible Flowers & Plant Dyes
Explore a rainbow of uses for truly edible flowers and the vibrant pigments found in calendula, hibiscus, elderberry, and more on plates and fabric alike. - Food System Stories & Wisdom
Essays and insights from community agriculture, food co-ops, permaculture gardening, and wildcrafting — offering inspiration and historical context.
Download the Herbal Odyssey
Herbal Odyssey, the Sun Mtn Cookery is available as a printable e-book that lives beautifully on your desktop, tablet, or kitchen counter.
HERBAL ODYSSEY OF 30+ YEARS by Maia Ballis
Photography & Graphics by Maia & George Elfie Ballis
© 2004 Maia Ballis / People, Food & Land Foundation
Lavishly illustrated with over 375 recipes organized by season.
Suggestions: Print only the recipe pages you use. Store in kitchen safe protector sheets. Print Seasoning Recipes and tape on storage jars for easy refilling.
