Your magazine has long been a bible for herb growers, but I'd not realized just how long until I received the Spring 2003 issue and read that HQ is celebrating 25 years of publication this year...Twenty-five years goes by quickly when you're playing with herbs. The Herb Quarterly and other herb organizations really help me "keep up."

Betsy Jukofsky
Hilton Head Island, SC

Hello,
Recently, a magazine that focused on herbs for your health has gone mainstream and its format is nothing like it was. I have been a faithful reader and a subscriber for a number of years and I am very disappointed in them. Because of going mainstream and not staying "herbal stream" they have lost their integrity as a real herbal publication and lost readership (at least mine). They are less true to the herbs and more into things like six pages of clothes fashion and advertising. If I wanted fashion I'd subscribe to a fashion magazine. I just wanted to Thank You for the devotion to herbs and all things herbal. I love your magazine with the health, history and lore, growing, recipes and all the hands on stuff you show that we can do outside of reading your magazine. You actually give your readers something to do and how to enjoy uses with herbs.

I don't mind changes in magazines if the content is pretty much the same. When The Herb Quarterly changed things like format or the information contained, you have asked us, the subscribers! You were curious enough to know before and after the change if we liked it or at least offered to listen to our input. That is pretty special and makes us feel like family. It really means a lot to me and I hope you never take a drastic change from what you are providing us with now. You are great and right on with what herbal customers want, I venture to say. Keep up the awesome work, I have appreciated your work and information you bring to me for about a decade!

Terrie Phillips, Toutle, WA
letter to the editor via email

In your Spring 2002 issue, the article on heart-healthy herbs was most interesting, and helpful, especially to some of your older readers like me, I imagine. I also found "The Gardens of Fort Ticonderoga" of great interest. The whole issue, I thought, was very informative and a nice balace of articles. My HQ file goes back to 1986 (although I'm missing a few copies) and I love the magazine. Keep up the good work!

Joyce Descloux
via email

We appreciated your article on sinusitis ("Sweet Relief for Sinus Pain," Winter 2001/2002). It's something my wife and I dread every year as winter approaches. After two, even three courses of different antibiotics, we get a month's reprieve, only to see things start up again. We look forward to trying the herbal alternatives that your author, Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa, suggests. We're especially eager to try chrysanthemum, since this is new to us as a medicinal. It's great to see HQ in our mailbox again!

Dom Hubert
Toronto, Canada

I picked up The Herb Quarterly on a whim and peeked at it all throughout the summer. When my large patch of scarlet summer beans became afflicted with powdery mildew (a constant problem here in Southern California), I remembered that The Herb Quarterly had mentioned some kind of organic remedy. Sure enough, I found the milk article (Miscellany, Summer, 2000) and tried a 50/50 solution. It worked. I sprayed the plant one day and there was virtually no mildew the next! Thank you.

B. James
Hollywood, California