Handmaiden's Kitchen

Foraging!

2012-01-09T15:25:00.002-06:00

(That's a pix of what tempts Claire into the stream--watercress!)

Found this description of a woman foraging in colonial America in a novel I'm reading (An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon. This series of Gabaldon novels make wonderful reading, by the way. I love the Claire and Jamie books. :) Claire is an herbalist and a doctor (and a time traveler).

Excerpt

Spring had sprung, and the creek was rising. Swelled by melting snow and fed by hundreds of tiny waterfalls that trickled and leapt down the mountain's face, it roared past by feet, exuberant with spray. I could feel cold on my face, and knew that I'd be wet to the knees within minutes, but it didn't matter. The fresh green arrowhead and pickerweed rimmed the banks, some plants dragged out of the soil by the rising water and whirled downstream, more hanging on by their roots for dear life, leaves trailing in the racing wash. Dark mats of cress swirled under the water, close by the sheltering banks. And fresh green plants were what I wanted.

My gathering basket was half full of fiddleheads and ramp shoots. A nice big lot of tender new cress, crisp and cold from the stream, would top off the winter's vitamin C deficiency very well. I took off my shoes and stockings, and after a moment's hesitation, took off my gown and shawl as well and hung them over a tree branch. The air was chilly in the shade of the silver birches that overhung the creek here, and I shivered a bit but ignored the cold, kirtling up my shift before wading into the stream.

That cold was harder to ignore. I gasped, and nearly dropped the basket, but found my footing among the slippery rocks and made my way toward the nearest mat of tempting dark green. Within seconds, my legs were numb, and I'd lost any sense of cold in the enthusiasm of forager's frenzy and salad hunger.

End excerpt

Oh, gads. I know JUST what that feels like! Foraging frenzy! It's so true. And here's I've got to wait two months (at least). Sigh.

Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

HM

Statin Drugs Linked to 300+ Adverse Health Problems

2012-01-07T11:33:00.000-06:00

Good grief. And then there's this article discussing how statin drugs--you know, those cholesterol lowering miracles--are basically poisoning people. Americans really have to wise up. If they do not, or refuse to pay attention, they are bound to end up sick and diseased if not outright dead.

The importance of good nutrition and good basic health habits (you know the drill--exercise, good diet, sunshine, cheerfullness and positive thoughts) are increasingly important in this poor country where what's called food ISN'T and what's called "medicine" isn't either.

Seems like these megacorporations are out to kill you, with the help of the government in the form of the USDA and FDA to boot.

I better stop for today. These two blog posts are making me ill. Time for this one to head out into the glorious sunshine and take a walk through the woods and fields, or at least down one of our dusty ol' roads!

Take care, everyone, and be sure to eat REAL FOOD. Oh--and don't take statin drugs.

HM

Cheeseburger Remains the Same After a Whole Year??

2012-01-07T11:13:00.000-06:00

Urf! You will want to think twice about eating a fast food cheeseburger after reading this! What a horror story this is. I recall reading somewhere about researchers leaving a small bowl of margarine out on a windowsill for a couple of years. You'd have thought that something--flies or other bugs, bacteria, mold--would have eaten or dissolved the margarine, but you'd be wrong. After two years, the stuff was still sitting there, as fine (and as plastic) as when the researchers put it there.

What IS this stuff they're selling as food? As the blogger asks--What should we call this stuff they sell as food, which ain't food? I love her idea--"plastic chew toys for humans." Because whatever else the stuff is, it ain't food!

This is the kind of thing you need to keep in mind when you're out and about and feeling tempted by the fast food chains. Oh you can buy and eat the stuff, but it isn't food, it isn't remotely nourishing and it is contributing to ill health and eventually death.

YUCK!

Note, I haven't done this myself, so I don't know if this story is true or not. But somehow I don't doubt it....

HM

Herbal Extracts

2011-12-28T12:13:00.000-06:00

Recently I found a fascinating book called Herbal Extracts: Build Better Health with Liquid Herbs (Supplement to the Copyrighted Work) by Dr. A. B. Howard. I want to share a few excerpts with you.

The first is from the introduction:

The work addresses a host of physical problems from the standpoint of what to use and how to fix them. This is a practitioner's book about how to use herbs to get the body healthy and strong and keep it that way. The word herb is used here with a meaning of: a plant food substance that helps you more than it hurts you when you eat it. You may not find many familiar plants that you regularly eat for food in this work, but then some problems you have require some very special herb foods that you can make part of your regular diet. After all, what gets you well, usually keeps you well. It might not normally occur to you to eat a purple sea vegetable called Dulse for breakfast. But if you do, your hands and feet and the tip of the nose may warm up. The choice of herb or herbs that are given here to correct problems, focuses on the real cause of a problem. In the case just mentioned, this is a gland in the neck, known as the thyroid, that needs some decent nourishment to "set your thermostat on warm and comfortable" by increasing the rate at which your body burns food.

Herbal Extracts has a list of human ailments and then a list of herbs for the treatment of those ailments. I've been reading in it, and learning a lot of very useful information. Whoever Dr. A. B. Howard is, he or she certainly knows her stuff! The doctor writes with an eye for cure, not just treatment.

Here's another bit from the introduction:

Stop eating "junk food." We cut too many corners in this country in food production, even when we know it is wrong in terms of how it affects health. Is your cheese not yellow enough? No problem, inject it with Yellow #5 dye. Want volumes of rich-looking, long-lasting and unnatural foam on your beverage? No problem, here is a chemical compound that will make it foam like a fire extinguisher and make the foam last for 2 days in the glass after the beverage is gone. And, while we are at it, here are literally 56 other chemicals to alter your beverage in other ways to save money or time or both. Don't want to grow or pick lemons or squeeze the juice? What something that tastes like a lemon, smells like a lemon, has a lemon color and is real sweet and has never seen a lemon? No problem. We have a chemistry set and we will give you some delicious, convenient to use chemicals instead, and who your child's favorite cartoon characters laughing and drinking it and telling your child to drink it too. It tastes just like real lemonade, boys and girls! Never mind what happens to your children's blood stream with the stuff in it, or if they get sick on it. You get the idea?

And the good doctor is exactly right, in my opinion. Eating and drinking chemicals is simply NOT GOOD for human beings or animals. Chemicals make us fat, sick and worn out before middle-age. It takes work to avoid the chemicals so deeply embedded in food production in America. It's a wonder when you find a can of a simple vegetable that simply lists "pumpkin" in the ingredient list. Just pumpkin, that's it.

In my view, this is why most everyone in this country is so sick. We eat pills instead of food, drink Lord-knows-what in our beverages (as in flame retardant chemicals in soft drinks) and then wonder why cancer, obesity and high blood pressure are epidemics. And of course, the "treatment" for these ills consists of more pills and chemicals, thanks to the FDA and most allopathic medicine.

To regain and hold on to health, eating real God-made nutritious food is essential. Drink water or herb teas instead of flame-retardant soft drinks. I'll be sure to share some of the doctor's prescriptions from this book with the blog. Ok, I'll share one more now. This is for one of the Doc's combination of herbs, plants and other foodstuffs that provides a complete vitamin combination in a whole food form that the body recognizes right away as useful nutrition.

Vita-Lixir

Is an all vegetable source, liquid multi-vitamin supplement. Vita-Lixir contains no artificial flavorings or synthetic vitamins. Vita-Lixir is produced from foods in liquid form without heat. In this form, it is available to the cells of the body for immediate and easy absorption. This provides a distinct advantage over a tablet or capsule. Vita-Lixir does not need to work its way through 25 feet of digestive tract in large quantities, and maybe get digested so it can be absorbed. Vita-Lixir can even be applied externally for absorption, as on the soles of the feet or under the ribs for babies or those who can't or won't swallow. The rationale of Vita-Lixir is to take our vitamins from foods, as we should, if we were able to eat a proper diet and digest it properly. Therefore, we use those selected foods most appropriate as a source to provide a rich, natural supply of specific vitamins. Organically grown Carrot Roots and Dandelion Leaves give us a non-harmful, rich supply of Vitamin A for healthy skin and eyes. Dandelion Leaves also provide a gentle and highly effective vegetable iron for energy and healthy blood. We use Rice Bran (the exterior covering of rice grains before they are turned into "lifeless" white rice) for the properly balanced ratio and entire complex of B vitamins for steady nerves and normal, healthy cell division. Vita-Lixir is especially helpful for babies and people who do not chew each bite 32 times and do not have whole grains in their diet. The Wild Rose Hip (a rounded structure or "protective cradle" under the petals of a wild rose which contains the baby roses known as "seeds") supplies a complete source of Vitamin C complex and all its naturally associated substances. This type of Vitamin C, just as it works to protect the seeds or "babies" for the next generation, can and does raise our immunity levels, promotes longevity, acts as a poison antidote, antibiotic and strengthens all connective tissues in the body. Raw Sunflower Seeds provide a non-harmful Vitamin D for strong, healthy bones and joints. The Vitamin E spectrum of vitamins is derived from fresh, raw Wheat Germ (the part of the wheat which sprouts and is alive). The Vitamin E complex of vitamins makes sure the oxygen which circulates through the body is more efficient, and provides for proper oxygenation of cells and tissues. This Vitamin E complex of vitamins also devours poisons known as free radicals. Dandelion leaves contribute Vitamin K for proper blood clotting properties and hemorrage prevention. Liquid Bee Pollen, which contains all the elements of new life, is included for quality protein lift. The herb Gentian supports the organs of digestion as a digestaid. For those of us who have always wanted an all vegetable, full spectrum source Multi-Vitamin liquid, Vita-Lixir answers this desire. Please note, when dealing with natural vitamins (those produced by Nature and not in a chemistry laboratory), what is desired is their dependable activity and effectiveness, not how many grams or milligrams of vitamins they contain. The activity level of vitamins from Nature whould not be confused with the manmade or coal tar source "high potency" type vitamins which are needed in large quantity to get any type of affect.

Combination: Dandelion Leaves, Organic Carrot Roots, Rice Bran, Wild Rose Hips, Raw Sunflower seeds, Raw Wheat Germ, Gentian, Bee Pollen

End excerpt. Hmmmmmm. That sounds great to me. I'll have to try my hand at combining these items and see what kind of extract I get. Most of the herbal extracts described in this book are the basic alcohol extracts. It should be relatively easy to either combine all of the above, add enough vodka to cover, then let the extracting process work for a few weeks. I'll give it a shot and let you'all know how it turns out...

By the way, by "carrot roots" I think the doctor means simple carrots, as carrots are roots.

Onwards!
HM

Bromelain in Pineapple a Cure for Cancer?

2011-12-25T06:37:00.001-06:00

Wow! I know it is Christmas and all (Merry Christmas!) but when you get the time, check out this article at Activist Post, entitled Research: Pineapple Enzyme Superior to Chemotherapy in Treating Cancer. It's incredibly good news. I hope and pray that sometime comes of this research.

Unfortunately, I'm cynical about allopaths adopting something relatively simple and inexpensive, even if the FDA allowed it, but then it IS Christmas, and I'll be hopeful instead. All is in God's hands and I can rest easy in that.

Blessings to everyone this and every day!
HM

Nettles for Medicine and Nutrition

2011-12-23T13:12:00.000-06:00

Lately, I've been daydreaming about nettle gathering come spring. It's only late December and much too early for tasty, slightly bitter but oh-so-good-for-you spring greens such as stinging nettles or wood nettles. The pix above shows a young wood nettle, which grows in shady areas near flowing water.

If you're thinking of getting into wild food foraging this year, try to familiarize yourself with the nettle plant before spring hits. Get a good foraging book, one with color photographs and read up on stinging nettles, which is the usual variety of nettle described. Around here, I mostly find wood nettles, but since their nutritional and medicinal profile is the same, I harvest them and am grateful to find them in such abundance. I wrote about nettles once before...

Early in the spring, young nettles make excellent eating in any number of preparations. Saute or boil them for a few minutes, top with olive oil or butter, a touch of salt and you'll have one delicious and nutritious dinner. Or make a soup with onions, garlic and nettles. Add some to scrambled eggs...ah, the list is endless.

Harvest young nettles when they are four to eight inches tall. If they get much taller than that, they'll be a bit tough. Still tasty, still nutritional, but a bit tougher. Even so, I've harvested nettle at about a foot tall and they still tasted great to me. The trick is to find them when they're young and freshly popped out of the ground. Around here, that's early spring, in late April or so. Then later, I harvest nettles throughout the summer, but these I'll dry for use as a wonderful medicinal tea or as an extract.

Nettles are the green of chlorophyll, which naturally they contain, as well as iron, calcium, silicon, sulphur, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. Rich in vitamins too: A, C, D, E and K and a few of the B vits as well. Nettles also have trace elements or more of zinc, cobalt and copper. I think nettles are so healing because of these vital nutrients. If you've read much of this blog, you've read how our food today has lost much of its nutritional value due to industrial agriculture and overall processing. One fine way to counter that is to eat wild foods like nettles (and lambsquarters, purslane, red clover....).

I found a couple of very informational articles about nettles. One is from Ingri Cassel, from a few years ago. Europeans down through the centuries have employed nettles in a variety of medicinal uses and treatments. Its a terrific article.

The other is from the University of Maryland Medical Center, which for some reason has lots of good herbal information. As you'll see from these articles, nettles can be used for many different ailments in a variety of forms (extract, tea, capsules and so on).

I mostly use nettles for a wonderful spring tonic--either as greens or simmered in a broth with other young spring greens (dandelions, clover leaves, wintercress, garlic mustard, plantain). I usually make two nettle extracts--one of the leaves and stems, one of the roots. And of course, I dry lots of the leaves for use as tea throughout the year. Whenever I'm feeling a bit under the weather, nettle tea is one of the first things I turn to.

It is definitely worth your while to learn to identify and harvest nettles. They grow worldwide, where ever rich soils are found. Both stinging nettles and wood nettles can sting, so wear gloves when harvesting. Once cooked or dried, they no longer sting. Nettles make a great fodder for animals as well. Once cut and dried a bit, nettles can be fed to horses or cattle, especially if they need a nutritional boost themselves.

During these months of winter (while I'm daydreaming longingly about these plants...), I'll describe as many as I can. I hope this will spur some of you to start foraging and boosting your family's nutrition. Foraging free, wild plants is an ancient skill--but one we should learn again.

Onwards,
HM

2011-11-07T10:18:00.002-06:00

Hey Folks,

What's below is an announcement from Natural News about a new video series they have on harvesting wild foods. If there's any time we'll be needing these wild plants for our food and medicine it is NOW. Times are tough, prices at the store are rising even as I write this. Everything has gone up in costs. It is harder and harder to afford the foods we're used to eating. And all we eat are basics--hardly any processed foods. Anyway, this series on free, wild foods should be good. I don't know if they're charging for access to the videos--just saw the announcement and thought you'all would be interested.
HM

(NaturalNews) The most powerful food and medicine on the planet is free, and it's growing right outside your door and around your neighborhood.

Did you know that wild local plants and foods are far better for you than organic produce from a supermarket? They're naturally loaded with plant-based medicines -- phytonutrients -- and you'd be surprised how many are growing near your home right this very minute. In fact, no matter where you live, there are an astounding number of wild plants in your region that have been used for thousands of years as FREE food and medicine.

ALL plants have a purpose
You've probably been driving right past them every day without even knowing it... wild weeds and plants that can be used as liver cleansers, menstrual health support, prostate health enhancers and even for digestive remedies. Some wild plants are even powerful cancer fighters. It's just a matter of learning how to identify and harvest these amazing gifts from Mother Nature.

Unfortunately the average person today has virtually no knowledge of wild plants. They think food comes in a plastic container from the grocery store and medicine comes from the pharmacy -- it's a disturbing sign of total detachment from the natural world. We've all become so dependent on the commercial food system that we're not even aware of the edible plants that commonly grow in our own yards. This is truly astonishing considering how much expense and suffering we could all be spared if we just made use of the natural resources the earth has given us for food and medicine.

That's what this course is about: "Free Food and Medicine" teaches you how to find an astounding array of health-enhancing foods and medicines literally right in your own back yard!

You'll not only be surprised at how many edible wild plants are growing within walking distance of where you live right now, but also how many of these plants have incredible healing properties -- WAY more than the so-called "organic" produce at your local grocery store.

Yep, it's better than organic. It's better than non-GMO. It's 100% local, wildcrafted, and FREE for the harvesting!

Get instant access to this entire course right now through NaturalNews.TV:
http://premium.naturalnews.tv/Free_...

You'll get instant access to 21 videos totalling over 350 minutes of instructional (and inspirational) wisdom.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/034079_wild_foods_plant_medicine.html#ixzz1d2KRyd4Y

Eat Those Onions!

2011-11-06T11:41:00.000-06:00

Did you know that sulphur is in every cell in your body? I didn't, until this morning that is, when I was reading a Natural News article about it. It is one of those essential minerals, which do all the marvelous invisible things that contributes to your overall health.

Excerpt:
Sulfur is a mineral that is present in every cell of the body. It plays a key role in liver metabolism and the function of the joint cartilage and keratin of the skin & hair. It is also critical for metabolism and anti-oxidant defense systems that protect the aging patterns of the brain. Some of the healthiest cultures in the world have the highest levels of sulfur in their diet while the US has some of the lowest levels.
Industrial farming, that speciality of huge agribusinesses, depletes the soil of sulphur. Chances are, unless you are eating lots of a certain vegetable family, you may be sulphur-depleted.

And guess what vegetable family that is? Of course, the alliums! Onions, garlic, chives, leeks, shallots are all members of the allium family.

At our house, we eat garlic every day (or nearly every day--some days I forget until the Gruff Lord growls that he's being deprived of an essential health ingredient...). And I can't even imagine cooking without onions. I ran the dehydrator ragged last summer dehydrating onions, just to make sure we'd always have some around.

I have a wonderful cookbook, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Cookbook. If you think Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic is a bit garlicky, take a gander at this cookbook! All the recipes have lots of garlic: breads, soups, meat dishes and appetizers. All made with huge amounts of garlic. Here's one of my favorite recipes from the book:

Garlicky Tomato Saffron Soup
6 cans (10.5 oz. each) chicken broth (I use my homemade broth...)
1 cup boiling water
1/4 gram Spanish saffron threads
1 lb. Roma tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped in bits
1 bunch leeks (3 medium or 1 1/2 cups), white part only, well-cleaned
4 tablespoons virgin olive oil
5 large cloves fresh garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
6 whole fennel seeds
8 large fresh spinach leaves

Place canned chicken broth in the freezer so the fat will rise to surface for easy removal. (Personally, I like a bit of chicken fat in my homemade broth so I skip this step.)
Bring water to boil. Add saffron threads and let steep, uncovered, off heat.
Skin tomatoes by putting them in boiling water for 1 minutes. Skin, seed and chop.
Chop leeks fine. Heat olive oil in soup pot over medium heat. Do not let oil smoke. Add chopped leeks and saute until limp but not brown. When leeks are limp, squeeze garlic cloves through press into the leeks and mix over medium heat for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Remove chicken broth from freezer and remove fat clumped at the top. Add chicken broth, saffron water including threads, tomatoes, thyme and fennel to leeks in soup pot.
Simmer mixture, partially covered, for 30 minutes. Five minutes before soup is ready, add spinach leaves.
Serve hot, room temperature, or cold with hearty, crusty bread. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Sounds good, doesn't it? It's one of my favorite soups for when I feel like I'm coming down with a cold. Delicious and it will beef up your sulphur intake too.

2011-11-02T07:27:00.000-05:00

What is Garlic Mustard?

Garlic Mustard (Alliaria officinalis) is a hearty, dark green herbaceous plant. Its leaves are arrowhead to heart shaped, scalloped-edged and deeply veined, growing up to 5 inches across. A cold weather plant, garlic mustard flourishes from late fall to early spring. It can be seen in fields, ditches, disturbed soils, near creeks, on trail edges and in open woodlands. A biennial, garlic mustard spends its first year as a basal rosette, with leaves growing close to the ground. In its second year, it sends up a flowering stalk that grows to about 3 feet. The leaves have a strong garlic odor when crushed.

Garlic mustard is considered an invasive, noxious weed. The Plant Conservation Alliance posts it on their Least Wanted list, maintaining that it poses a severe threat to native plants and animals in forest ecosystems. Basically, garlic mustard out-competes other plants, using up available light, moisture, space and nutrients from the soil, leaving less for native plants. As deer don’t care for the garlic taste, they won’t eat garlic mustard. It is prolific and can take over large wooded areas.

On the other hand, garlic mustard provides a nutrient-rich somewhat bitter green that can be eaten raw in salads (a few leaves at a time as it is bitter) or steamed, sautéed or lightly boiled. Garlic mustard contains high contents of vitamins A and C and it is rich in folic acid, vitamin B6 and manganese. It is a good source of potassium as well. Old time mountain folks used to gather fresh wild greens and used them as spring tonics to spruce up their health after a long, torpid winter. That is still a good idea and garlic mustard fits the bill as a healthy, nutritious wild green.

While many people won’t care for the slightly bitter flavor of garlic mustard, others love it. A good use of this wild herb is in making pesto. Gather a good bunch of garlic mustard when it is at the young basal rosette stage, wash it and chop it up. Mix it with olive oil, chopped garlic, parmesean cheese and pine nuts or walnuts for a surprisingly delicious pesto. Freeze the pesto in ice cube trays and use the pesto cubes to flavor soups and stews. Or simply keep it in jars in the refrigerator. The garlic mustard pesto loses its bitterness prepared this way, but remains pungent and flavorful.

Medicinally, garlic mustard is antiseptic. Juice from the leaves can be used to cleanse skin ulcers or wounds. Garlic mustard tea contains most of the plant’s vitamins and minerals and gives a definite nutritional boost to anyone who feels depleted or slightly ill.

High Food Prices? Look Around Outside...

2011-10-27T15:33:00.000-05:00

The cost of food just keeps going up and up. Just the other day we heard about peanut butter going up by 40%! (A national catastrophe! as my brother says.)

I was heading out on my normal afternoon's walk and took a look around. From where I stood outside the door, I could see plantain, dandelion, lady's thumb (pictured), a few remaining lambsquarters, now gone to seed, a bunch of some kind of mint, a really nice healthy looking mullein plant, lots of mugwort, some curly dock plants, a few red clovers, and a bit of wood sorrel.

Walking down the road, I saw walnuts galore from the black walnut tree, and some Queen Anne's Lace. And persimmons from the persimmon tree. And pine trees across the road.

While the cost of grocery store foods have surged ever upward, all of the food plants mentioned above are still free and available for the harvest with a wee bit of work on my part.

While I find plantain a bit too fibrous to eat, if I needed or wanted its nutritional value, I'd add it to a pot of water for a vegetable broth. Ditto with all the plants I just mentioned. If you're feeling run down and sickly, pick a bunch of these wild vegetables and green and make yourself some healing broth with them.

Some of these plants are greens for eating, some have medicinal uses, but all have a lot of nutritional value, full of vitamins and minerals.

It can take a while when you're new to identifying plants in the wild. But I will tell you this--I first starting learning this stuff about 5 years ago. While there's still zillions of plants I don't know, there's now a lot of them that I recognize easily. Once you're had that EUREKA moment and identify a plant--you'll then see it everywhere for a while. And you'll know it from then on, like a good buddy.

With grocery costs spiraling higher, consider learning to forage some of these green plants, nuts, berries. Learn which have edible roots (like Queen Anne's Lace--but be careful, there's some toxic lookalikes of Queen Anne's lace, so leave this one to experts). Learn which greens are better at what times of year. When you learn some of this, you can start harvesting and cut your grocery bills.

We all love lambsquarters here. It's a spinach like green and quite tasty. Highly nutritious--better for you than spinach, actually. So when it is flourishing, growing wildly everywhere, I harvest it, blanch it, freeze it, and we eat this lucious green instead of the $1.70 package of frozen spinach or $1.99 to $2.99 bags of fresh spinach from the store. See what I mean? That's money I don't have to spend, I can keep it (or more likely, spend it on something else...)

I gotta go, but I'll be back. I think for a while, I will focus on various plants ...

Time to Start Blogging Again

2011-10-23T11:14:00.000-05:00

I figure by this time, all who used to read this blog have departed for other blogs/websites. Can't blame them one bit. So, I'll just start up again, keep the focus on herbs, foraging wild foods and all my usual chatter about things consequential and not-so.

It's funny--I've gone back to read some of my old posts, and find that the information is good stuff. I'm pleased with what I achieved here, as there's good information that can stand the test of time. But now I plan to do more.

I won't be able to post every day, but there'll be a good post every week.

Thanks, everybody. Y'all come on back if you wish!

Side Effects

2011-04-12T19:24:00.004-05:00

Oh Lord, this is a hoot! Seen on the back of a Tshirt at Secrets of Natural Health blog: I take aspirin for headaches caused by the Zyrtec I take for the hayfever I get from Relenza for the uneasy stomach from the Ritalin I take for the short attention span caused by the Scopederm Ts I take for the motion sickness I got from the Lomotil I take for the diarrhea caused by the Zenikal for the uncontrolled weight gain from the Paxil I take for the anxiety from the Zocar I take for my high cholestrol because exercise, diet and regular chiropractic care are just too much trouble. PS Just so you're warned, Secrets of Natural Health does try to sell you stuff. But there's some good info there. HM

Iodine for Radioactive Fallout

2011-03-31T19:42:00.001-05:00

Ok, found the article I was talking about in my last post. Iodine for Radioactive Fallout by Donald W. Miller, Jr. MD. Whew!

If You Don't Have Potassium Iodide. . .

2011-03-31T18:56:00.005-05:00

I don't know if a huge radiation cloud is coming our way, but I suspect that's the case, considering the news. I've learned to listen to Mike Adams, the Health Ranger. I never trust *anything* I read 100%, of course. I've a skeptical nature after all. But on this and many other health related topics, Natural News picks it up, reports on it, analyzes it, takes it apart and dissects it, often with wit, sometimes with disgust at the current government-mandated medical paradigm (we're here to make money off of you peasants, so just shut the hell up and do what we tell you) deal. So check out this Natural News report, check other sources and make up your own minds about it.
I'm not telling you to do anything. That's up to you as always. It is driving me nuts that I can't find the article I am looking for. This was an article posted on Lew Rockwell's excellent libertarian news and commentary page a week or so ago. Written by a doctor, it was about radioactive iodine, and how to prevent your thyroid from absorbing it. The trick is to get enough good iodine to your thyroid first, and then your thyroid will basically ignore the radioactive crap. But if your thyroid is hungry for iodine, it will take up the radioactive stuff.
If you haven't gotten ahold of any potassium iodide pills (130 mg) here's a rather simple thing you can do that's cheap and easy. Head to any drugstore and get that wound-cleaning iodine stuff called Povidone (at least that's the generic I bought). It is a 10% iodine solution for use as a topical antiseptic/batericide/virucide. The doctor's article that I haven't managed to find a link for said if you use a cotton ball and spread a goodly patch of this stuff over your stomach and chest, your skin will take in enough iodine to protect you 95% or so from your thyroid uptaking any radioactive iodine.
Now please, folks. I'm NOT giving you medical advice. I'm simply repeating something I read. However, I'm a bit uncomfortable relating even this as the fed.nasty.govs might want to smash anyone causing panic among the sheep. However, I rather doubt that any sheep would be reading this, as I'm sure Charlie Sheen and Britney and all those other otherwise useless celebrities MUST be doing something dumb enough for the media to be lamb-basting them. (HAH! Pun stumbled upon serendipitiously!)
I'll see if I can find the damn article. In the meantime, consider at least getting some of that 10% iodine stuff. If nothing else, you can use it to clean wounds with. Again, I am not a medical person of any variety, not an X-spurt, not an academic, not anyone important enough for you to listen too. :)
Onwards, take good care, wash all produce before eating, and live prayerfully and as well as you can. And don't worry about stuff you can't fix. ONLY worry about things you can do something about and even then, dinna fesh.
HM

Surviving Radiation and March of Cambreadth

2011-03-18T09:49:00.003-05:00

Ok, here's for a really *timely* piece by Susan Weed on handling radiation naturally. Please do read it. I was getting ready to write something about it, but then found this article and thought it better than anything I might have cobbled together. And if you need to get your blood heated up and your spirit high, watch this youtube. I first saw this song posted at Mayberry's blog and it is terrific. Both the Gruff Lord and I get tears in our eyes and roused like all hell was breaking loose when we listen to it. Bagpipes are the best! Take care, all Handmaiden

Important Article on Vaccination

2011-02-18T06:27:00.003-06:00

There's a very interesting article on vaccination and how it works (or doesn't work) at the Veterans Today website. I stumbled across it while looking for something else. It definitely caught my eye and explained a whole lot about the dangers of vaccines (and about the benefits for some) as well. The article, How Vaccinations Work by Dr. Philip Incao starts about halfway down, after many pleas for understanding and care for veterans who got Gulf War Disease back in the 1990s after the first Gulf War. Check it out--it's a damn good article.

As for us, no colds, no flu this winter. We've been eating our clove of garlic daily (as well as lots of other garlic in various dishes) and while we've had the occasional sniffles, there's been no other real cold/flu problems. If there was, we'd bring out the elderberry extract.
Onwards!
HM

Two Excellent Articles on What's Wrong with Current Medical System

2011-01-16T08:53:00.002-06:00

Wow. This month two national magazines published two important articles that would blow your mind about Big Medical as it is practiced in the US and elsewhere. If you care about your health, read them.

Deadly Medicine in Vanity Fair

Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science in the Atlantic.

You know, most of our ancestors didn't bother much with doctors. They knew doctors could be quacks and behaved accordingly by not trusting them. And here we go again. Use the Western medical system at your own risk. There's a lot of quackery out there, and they make a ton of money from it. Beware for your own good.

HM

And Now for Some Really Cheery Info...

2010-10-05T09:59:00.004-05:00

The following is from Sally Fallon's wonderful Nourishing Traditions cookbook. The liner notes in this book are incredible. She's stuffed more important research findings into this cookbook than you'd find in a year in most other sources. This is about your breakfast cereals. Be prepared to ditch them forever....

Excerpt from the chapter on grains:

Four sets of rats were given special diets. One group received plain whole wheat, water, vitamins and minerals. Anotehr group received Puffed Wheat, water and the same nutrient solution. A third set was given water and white sugar, and a fourth given nothing but water and the chemical nutrients. The rats which received the whole wheat lived for over a year on the diet. The rats who got nothing but water and vitamins lived for about 8 weeks, and the animals on a white sugar and water diet lived for a month. But [the company's] own laboratory study showed that rats given vitamins, water and all the Puffed Wheat they wanted died in two weeks. It wasn't a matter of the rats dying of malnutrition; results like these suggested that there was something actually toxic about the Puffed Wheat itself. Proteins are very similar to certain toxins in molecular structure, and the puffing process of putting the grain under 1500 pounds per square inch of pressure and then releasing it may produce chemical changes which turn a nutritious grain into a poisonous substance . . . I was shocked, so I showed the report to Dr. Clark, who shared my concern. His predecessor, Dr. Graham, had published the report and begged the company not to continue producing Puffed Wheat because of its poisonous effect on animals. Dr. Clark . . . went right to the president . . . "I know people should throw it on brides and grooms at weddings," [the president] cracked, "but if they insist on sticking it in their mouths, can I help it? Besides, we made $9 million on the stuff last year."
Paul Stitt, Fighting the Food Giants
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Also from the chapter on grains:

In 1960, researchers at Ann Arbor University performed an interesting experiment on laboratory rats. Eighteen rats were divided into three groups. One group received cornflakes and water; a second group was given the cardboard box the cornflakes came in and water; and the control group received rat chow and water. The rats in the control group remained in good health throughout the experiment. The rats receiving the cardboard became lethargic and eventually died of malnutrition. But the rats receiving the cornflakes and water died before the rats who were given the cardboard box--the last cornflake rat died on the day the first box rat died. Before death, the cornflake rats developed schizophrenic behavior, threw fits, bit each other and finally went into convulsions. Autopsy revealed dysfunction of the pancreas, liver and kidneys and degeneration of the nerves in the spine--all signs of "insulin shock." The startling conclusion of this study is that there is more nourishment in the box that cold breakfast cereals come in than in the cereals themselves. Loren Zanier, designer of the experiment, actually proposed the protocol as a joke. But the results are far from funny. They were never published and similar studies have not been repeated. If consumers knew the truth about breakfast cereals, vast fortunes would be jeopardized. (Sally Fallon)
*********************************
Don't know about you, but this tells me all I need to know about Big Food and cold cereals. The poisonous aspects seem to be due to the processing methods of the grains--changing them from nutritious foods into...well...what can we call the stuff? I haven't eaten cold cereals (except homemade museli) in ages, but I know I ate a lot of it before. Live and learn. And don't trust Big Food!

HM

For a Good Laugh...

2010-09-24T14:40:00.002-05:00

Read this hilarious article from Mike Adams, the Health Ranger over at Natural News. Besides showing what total idiots the mainstream media can be, Adams has a real talent at showing them at their outrageous, stupid worst. Read and enjoy. Laughter is good medicine. :)
HM

3 "Weeds" to Leave in Your Garden (Until they're big enough to eat)

2010-06-08T11:39:00.008-05:00

(lambsquarters close up)

There are common garden weeds which are not only edible, but are highly nutritious whether served in salad or cooked lightly as one would spinach. The trick is to learn to recognize them at all stages of their life--as tiny young plants or as flourishing adults. That's a young one is the pix above.

We live in southern Indiana, so I'm talking about my bioregion, which would include a lot of the Midwest (though maybe not the prairie areas). If you live in the Northwest, Southwest, your biogregion is no doubt quite a bit different. But if you're in most of the continental 48 states, then you could find lambsquarters in your garden, since it is common pretty much all across the country. Lambsquarters likes disturbed soil--as you find in gardens and other border areas where mankind lives. It grows in cities, in the country, and is one of those ubiquitious fellas who are found all over the place. Once you learn to identify them, you'll see them everywhere.

So check your garden! We're lucky to have lots of little lambys growing. I'm letting them get big enough to eat and then I'll pick them. But for now, they're welcome to grow. In former posts, I've written about lambsquarters here and here as well as lots of other places in this blog. Just look under the category lambsquarters. They are highly nutritious and tasty (not to mention, grow without any effort on your part and FREE).

A few days ago, I "weeded" our Amish friend's garden, which had a whole slew of lambsquarters. In fact, the LQ basically covered the area where they had planted celery! So I was lucky enough to pick all that. I processed it all by taking the leaves off the stems (edible but tough), then blanching or scalding them in boiling water, then drainging, cooling, and packaging them up for the freezer. So far I have 7 quarts in the freezer, with one more big batch of lambsquarters left to go. If you're lucky to find big areas of lambsquarters, do freeze them. They keep well and they're very welcome in the wintertime.

Purslane is another "weed" I let grow in the garden. I've talked about purslane in both the links I posted above for LQ. Also highly nutritious, purslane has the added benefit of being a great plant source of Omega-3. I like these as a salad green and we eat a lot of it in the summer. They don't freeze well, but you can pickle the stems. I haven't tried to dry it, but I might try that this year. You can find lots of pictures of purslane by going to Google Images and typing in purslane. That's what I do when I need to see a pix of a plant--very useful for identifying plants. It grows in gardens mostly--that's where I've seen most of it anyway. It's another plant that grows all over the country, north to south and east to west. It's very tasty and makes a really nice addition to salads. You can eat it as a potherb too, but I prefer it in salads. In Turkey, it's a national dish. Try it in a dish of browned ground beef, pork or lamb, rice, tomatoes and add a bunch of purslane. YUM.

The other of the three weeds I mentioned that I leave in the garden is woods sorrel. It's a light, lemony kind of plant. You can find a good pix of it, as well as other edible wild plants in this article of Wildman Steve Brill's. Check it out! This article includes mushrooms, berries, and a bunch of wild greens. I've written about woods sorrel here (among other plants). I find it in the garden all the time. And it is one of those I definitely leave til it's big enough to eat.

When it comes to weeds, if you can't beat 'em, eat 'em! These three, lambsquarters, purslane, and woods sorrel are all delicious and very good for you. If you keep an organic garden, as we do, then you don't have any worries about pesticides, herbicides, etc. Just wonderful, free food. As the world crashes down among us, these are good guys to keep your eyes open for. They'll help keep you alive and healthy.

Onwards!

Old Fashioned Spoonbread

2010-06-06T07:34:00.002-05:00

Michael says that folks have been asking for a good spoonbread recipe. Back story is I get cookbooks out of the library for us to drool over. If something looks good, I make the recipe to see if we'll like it. We saw a recipe for spoonbread and Michael said he'd been wanting some for years. I'd never had any, so it was time to make some! The recipe in the cookbook called for stuff I didn't have, so I did a google search and came upon this recipe. The spoonbread was delicious. Try it, you'll like it!

Old Fashioned Spoonbread
3/4 cup cornmeal, stone or water ground if available
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup boiling water
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons baking powder

(I added some shredded cheddar cheese and a can of yellow hominy for fun)

Combine cornmeal and salt in mixing bowl. Stirring constantly, slowly add boiling water, keeping cornmeal smooth. Mix in the melted butter. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until they thicken, add the milk and beat to combine. Add eggs and milk to cornmeal and mix in the baking powder. (At this point, I added the cheese and can of hominy. Creamed corn would be good too...) Turn in to a square 8 or 9 inch well-greased baking pan. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until firm. Serve with plenty of butter. We had ours with our wonderful cranberry beans.

This was delicious, and a fun break from corn bread--it is a bit more pudding like than cornbread. You can eat it with (ahem) a spoon.

Enjoy!
HM

Gardening by the Signs

2010-04-23T13:32:00.005-05:00

Moon Waxing, Moon in Taurus

I planted much of our small terrace garden in the past week or so. With the moon in Taurus, a very fertile sign "number one for all root crops; second best for plants bearing above the ground" according to T.E. Black's Planting by the Signs chart (found in Foxfire, volume 2, I think). Well, the plants I put in were of the "bearing above the ground" variety, but I didn't want to wait until moon in Cancer rolled around. I transplanted cabbage and lettuce that I bought from an Amish lady, then planted a bunch of rows of spinach and finally a long row of Swiss Chard. I do love my greens! I also planted some herb seeds: dill, cilantro and rosemary.

The plan is to pay close attention this year to what I plant when, whether the moon is in the first and second quarter, full, third and fourth quarter, new moon, and what astrological signs are prominant on those days. I'm curious to see if this works. I expect it will and hope it will as well. I started a garden journal to help me keep track of it all.

What I'm wondering is what to plant underneath the black walnut tree, if anything. Right now, I've left the weeds in that section of the terrace garden, but I want to plant something there. I did a quick google search and found a webpage that discuss this, plants that will tolerate the jugalone of the black walnut tree: lima beans, snap beans, beets, carrots, corn, onions, melons, parsnips and squash. Hmmmmm. I might put a couple of melons there and see what happens, melons or beets, I think. The next really fertile days will be the 28th (which is also the full moon) with the moon in Scorpio. We'll shoot for then.

I've also been foraging, this being a wonderful spring for it. Since poor Fred is still recovering from his broken leg, I've been making him dandelion broth regularly. That is, I gather lots of dandy leaves and roots, yellow dock leaves, chickweed, plantain, clover leaves and wild onions and brew them up in a pot of water, simmering for 30 minutes or so and then straining out the greens, which go into the compost heap. Good dandelion broth and also some bone broth, is bound to help by providing lots of minerals and vitamins for his body to heal with. We see the doctor on Monday and hopefully he'll start having Fred put weight on the leg and getting his muscles back into shape. Lord knows, the poor guy is really TIRED of sitting around and reading. People need to move around--it is how our bodies know we are still alive :)

I've also been harvesting that marvelous garlic mustard and making pesto with it. That's what most foragers tend to recommend doing with garlic mustard as the plant is quite pungent, a little more than most folks will appreciate in a plate of greens. But it makes a superb pesto--here's the recipe I use, from Prodigal Gardens, one of my favorite foraging sites. I just noticed some horsetail growing on the other side of our little lake here, so I'll be gathering that as well for tea.

Spring has been absolutely lovely so far. Nice warm days, cool nights, lots of sunshine and now some rain to water those little plants in the ground. It's a blessing to be alive!
Onwards,
HM

Whoops!

2010-03-27T13:39:00.004-05:00

A post or two ago I cited wintercress (barbarea vulgaris) as "creasy greens." Turns out that's not so, as I found by reading Wildman Steve Brill's entry on it in his Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and not so wild) Places. The form of wintercress grown in the South and called creasy greens as actually barbarea verna. I didn't see this bit earlier in reading his book. My apologies for any confusion!

The Purpose of Cats

2010-03-26T14:02:00.003-05:00

If you hang with cats, you've seen this pix a kzillion times. Cats snooze up to 18 hours a day, whether they need it or not. Especially in a warm patch of sunlight. A cat can't walk through that patch without a fatal attack of the sneeps.

Ok, so cats sleep a lot. What does that have to do with the purpose of cats, you ask. It's easy. If you're sensitive to the catzone, you can easily see the little balloon over this cat's head, can't you. Right. And in that little balloon are lots and lots of zzzzzzzzzzs. You've got it! Cats produce zzzzzzzzs. Billions, trillions, quadrattaillions of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzss. They good-naturedly, selflessly produce scads of excess zzzzzzzzzzzzzssssssssss just so I can catch the extra wink or two when I need it. Or for that matter, when you or anyone else needs it.

For example, I woke up too early today. About 4 am. I got up as I always do since I hate "trying" to sleep. I went back to be later, and thanks to my cats' production of excess zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs, I was able to drop back off in Morpheus' arms and catch another 40 winks.

From now on, whenever you see cats snoozing, napping, lazing about with their eyes closed, smile at them and thank them. With maybe a dose of melatonin, a cat's excess zzzzzzzzs are all you need for a good night's sleep. Hell, my two cats even make enough to let the Gruff Lord snooze in naps daily!

Spring Greens and God's Green Tonic: Medicine for Body and Soul

2010-03-26T11:28:00.005-05:00

A day or so ago I wandered around our hillside below our balcony and gathered many new and flourishing spring greens. There were three or four great growths of wintercress (barbaria vulgaris), also known in the south as creasy greens. I found numerous dandelions, not yet flowered (and thus not as bitter as they get later in the season), mats and mats of chickweed, wild chives and wild onions. There's also a whole slew of plants I haven't yet identified, so I don't know if they are edible or not. I gathered up about 3 of my plastic grocery bags worth and started grinning. I remember a post just like this one about a year ago. . . yup. Here it is. This hillside of ours is very fertile for foraging. I have to remember to ask that it NOT get weed-wacked. My neighbor is an industrious type and half the time I'm about to go harvest a ton of red clover flowers and BAM, he's out there weed-wacking them. Ah well. Have to do better this year.

Our elderly neighbor Fred broke his leg back in January and has been in and out of hospitals and nursing homes since. We brought him home last Saturday, where he gets around in his wheelchair, waiting for his leg to heal enough for him to walk again. He's one of those tough, wiry guys who is basically healthy as a horse but for his fragile bones and the rheumatoid arthritis. He's never taken pharmaceuticals, or rarely. It's funny when docs or other medics first talk to him. They always ask him what medications he's on and he always says "none." He does take nutritional supplements, but no drugs. Compare this to many elderly folks who take umpteen meds every day from killer statin drugs to blood pressure meds to this and that and then this one to combat the side effects of the others.... Anyway, Fred.

I put all the dandelion greens, some of the creasy greens, a bunch of the chickweed and a lot of wild onions and chives into a big pot of cold water with a couple of onions, some heads of garlic that were going soft and time to toss 'em, some cayenne pepper, a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar and set it to boil. Once it got a hard boil going, I turned it to simmer for an hour or so. The cider vinegar will help extract all the rich vitamins and minerals from the veggies into the broth. To finish it before straining, I added a tablespoon of some powdered garlic and onion and herbs that I'd made a while back from veggies and herbs I dried. Not bad, if I say so myself. This is a powerful spring tonic, this broth.

Vitamins and minerals in dandelions: beta carotene (more than is in carrots), calcium, iron, vitamins B1, B2, B5, B6, B12, C, E, P, D and biotin, inositol, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc. And lots of all of those. Plus, in this broth, it's tasty and easily absorbed in the body. It'll do wonders for Fred. Wintercress is also highly nutritious and at this early stage in spring, quite tasty. Later it gets bitter as hell, and to some, it'll be too bitter even now, but not for me or Fred. We know that bitter is medicine for soul and body. You can see a good picture of wintercress here. Once you find this plant and ID it, you'll notice it every spring from now on. My eyes simply know now to look for it in early spring. The bright green lobes of the leaves will catch your peripheral vision easily.

I got three quarts of the broth--good for a start! Tonight I'll cook up the mess of creasy greens with some onion and bacon, and the chickweed, bless its soul, is going to be salad with some red onion and hard boiled eggs. This is fine eating, and free!

Do make some vitamin rich broth for your family. This is easy, simple to do, and your body will much appreciate its cleansing and healing properties.

Onwards,

Why I Don't Coupon

2010-03-17T09:22:00.003-05:00

I've been reading some articles lately about women who use grocery/drug store coupons and how much money they save when they shop. I admit, I kinda envy them. They put in the time and effort, and they get the reward of having to pay less money. Good for them.

However, I can't do it. Well, yes, I could do it, but I don't and won't. You see, I'm a cook-from-scratch kind of handmaiden. I always have been. It's only recently that I've even used many canned veggies. If I can afford it, I'd rather buy either fresh or frozen, and wait til the produce is in season. There are some things I use that I don't make from scratch, pasta for instance. I know you can make pasta at home, and it doesn't have to be fancy or require a pasta machine. There's ways of doing all of it by hand, because that's how it was always done in the past. And I will use of cream of whatever soup instead of making the soup from scratch. But mostly, I cook using basic foodstuffs that don't come with a long line of chemicals in the What the Hell IS This Stuff ingredient list.

For the past few years, I've been trying to de-chemicalize our household. Instead of multiple cleaning products, I've switched to using white vinegar for the most part. Occasional use of a pine-sol kind of cleaner is OK, too, but most cleansers are just too strong and chemically-smelling for me. They make me feel ill, so I don't like 'em. Vinegar suits me just fine and does a decent job of cleaning. I tolerate the vinegar smell far more than I can Super-Douper Floor Cleaner that costs six times as much.

I've been trying to de-chemicalize us because I think most of that stuff is why we have so many degenerative diseases. That and all the chemicals in our diet. Going to basics means turning your back on all the synthetic chemical products made by the Beast and sold at high cost.

In the past, I'd sit down with a grocery store circular and look at the coupons. I'd think about couponing and saving money that way, but the truth is, I don't buy fancy processed foods. Oh, a few years ago I might buy a package of frozen Salisbury steaks or something like that. But we'd gotten so used to eating real food that the last time I served it some time ago, my husband said "Oh that wonderful chemical taste!" jokingly, but not really. We could both actually taste the chemically flavor of it. And that was that for processed foods.

On the other hand, I'm not a purist about this. If I find a coupon for real butter I'll clip it and use it. Ditto for flour and other goods used for baking or cooking. As I said, I'll use store-bought pasta rather than make my own and there may be coupons for it. If there's a coupon for meat or fruit or some other REAL food, I'll go for it.

But that's the line in the sand: I don't want to eat chemical-laden not-really-food type food. And that's a huge market in this country where people have forgotten what real food is. High fructose corn syrup isn't food, it's a chemical. (I could be wrong here, I'm not exactly sure what the hell it is, except something I avoid.) Food is the stuff around the edges of the grocery store: veggies and fruit, bread, fish, meat, dairy. Almost everything in the middle aisles of a typical grocery store probably isn't good for you, and shouldn't even be called food. Most of it has been so processed and gobbed up with chemicals that I'd bet my body wouldn't recognize it as food.

We do use canned fruits, vegetables, and meats. And we'll can it or freeze it here at home as well. That's about as far as I want to get with processing. I don't like, respect or trust our food-processing industry. They lie. They make their products look good and even taste good through their use of chemicals. They take actual real ingredients and twist them and fiddle them and turn them into something that cannot provide nutritional value to a human being. But it'll taste good. How weird is that?

I'm not expressing myself very well here. I should probably erase this post because it seems I haven't really gotten to what I want to say. But I'll leave it. The point is, if it ain't real food, made by God, then don't eat it. It doesn't matter if you can get it for free through using coupons, what you've obtained is still crap. Free crap is still crap.

Onwards,
HM

Some Great Recipes for Everyday Stuff

2010-03-11T11:40:00.002-06:00

You gotta love it! I've been reading around the blogs and found Ready Nutrition. It's a very interesting place to visit. While there, I found a blog entry for making your own condiments with recipes for Pickle Relish, Mayonaise, Mustard, Ketchup, etc. And there's also some recipes for making deodorant, shampoo, furniture polish and other everday items.

What I do when I find nifty and useful recipes for stuff like this, I copy it over to a document I started in the past year called "Survival Recipes." I suggest you might want to do that yourself as well. Then I print out my document and save a hard copy in the big notebook I have for recipes for all kinds of foods, herbal salves and tinctures, how to make Garlic Syrup, etc.

Sooner or later, the entire net might go down or be so tightly controlled by government that it is purely useless or just a simple time-waster. That's why I print and keep hard copy of certain items. Highly recommended!

It's a lovely day and I'm about to head out for a hike and see what all I can find wild. I'm still hungry for that chickweed salad! I'm beginning to feel that frisson of excitement that means spring is here, nettles will be up soon, garlic mustard will start appearing, and wild alliums are ready for harvest. Dandelions too, this time of year, are a wonderful treat and a real ass-kicker to break your body out of the winter blahs. Go out and look for some dandelions and get those greens before it flowers--they're not bitter until it flowers. It's a great spring tonic. Last year I gathered lots of wild onions and garlic and dandelion greens and brewed them up as a green spring tonic. Wonderful stuff.

Onwards,
HM

A Forager's Hunger

2010-03-03T11:27:00.004-06:00

Man, am I ever hungry for a wild salad. Chickweed and dandelion and woods sorrel, with some wild onions and garlic. Maybe add to that some of my marinated dried tomatoes and garlic. I've got my eyes peeled for new, fresh, wild foods every time I go outside, but I'm afraid it is still too early. My foraging journal from last year says that March 5th was too early. Only some wild alliums were around. The next date is March 20th, and now we're getting somewhere, for that's when wintercress showed up.

There are a few mats of chickweed around, but they're not looking all that spunky. The plants look tired and crushed by winter's cold. Yes, they'll spring back and start growing, getting lush and ready for a hungry harvester, but not today. Probably not for a few weeks yet.

If you start foraging wild foods, I highly recommend keeping a foraging journal from year to year. Last year I kept one faithfully, right up until July 24th and then I quit. I imagine I was awfully busy with harvesting, drying, canning and whatnot, but I KNOW I kept foraging until November. I'll just have to do better and make journal notes all year. There's nothing in last year's journal about all the jerusalem artichokes, black walnuts, evening primrose roots, etc. Sigh.

Anyway, in your journal, keep track of the dates when you first notice wild plants. Write about where you found them, for there's a good chance they'll be there next year as well. Describe the scents, the colors, the greeness, the redness of the berries, etc. Describe all you can. Also mention what you do with the plants you harvest. Do you dry them, freeze them, can them? Take notes on how you process the food, how you cook it, the flavor etc. You'll certainly be glad you did. These notes--even scanty, discontinued ones like mine, are invaluable in coming years foraging. If you are teaching the skill, your journal can help your students learn about the plants and their habitations.

Right now, I'm wishing there was a nice, big, fat journal entry about a wonderful meadow where I found a huge patch of lucious chickweed and wild alliums, with the first tender dandelion leaves growing nearby. I'd be off like a rocket to that meadow! Daydreams, my dear, just daydreams.

I guess what I'll do is get some lambquarters out of the freezer for dinner. I'll have a taste of some wild greens at any rate. And I'll be watching for lady chickweed, you betcha!
HM

Germ vs. Terrain, Free Radicals, Tumeric!

2010-03-01T12:18:00.004-06:00

My what a mish-mash of topics, eh? But don't worry, they do tie together. My friend Fred got this advert for a free-radical busting proprietary blend of herbs and spices from the Journal of Health and Longevity, concerning the above. I'm going to share some excerpts from it with you.

Excerpt:
Germ vs. Terrain

Mainstream infectious disease medicine practiced today is based on the "germ theory" as put forward by Louis Pasteur (1822-1985). His theory viewed the body as a sterile machine that will operate properly unless a foreign substance is introduced. Therefore, it is thought that when specific microbes enter the body, they produce a specific disease. In an attempt to correct the imbalance, antibiotics and other medicines are used to destroy these organisms. No microbes, no disease. It was believed that health is restored only if there are no germs present that might cause disease.

In contrast, the famous French physiologist, Claude Bernard (1813-1878) focused on the importance of the body's internal environment. In contradiction to the then current doctrine of Pasteur, he taught that microbes (e.g. bacteria, viruses) could not produce disease unless the body's internal environment was unbalanced and susceptible for the development of disease. Bernard's theory was that the whole must be sick before any germ can make us ill.

[As an example, I was reading about this big debate these two disparate sides in France, between proponents of Pasteur and Bernard. The propronent of Bernard, to prove his point, that if his body's environment was clean and healthy, he would not get ill, actually drank a glass of water containing cholera germs in front of the audience! Cholera can kill quite quickly--but the man did NOT get ill. Must have truly believed his theory to put it to the test like that! I was amazed then, and remain amazed. However, I can't remember where I read this anecdote, so consider this mere anecdote until I can find the source. Thanks, HM]

Renowned microbiologist, Rene Debous agreed with this basic principle, saying, "Most microbial diseases are caused by organisms present in the body of a normal individual. They become the cause of disease when a disturbance arises which upsets the equilibrium of the body." Debous, like Bernard, thought it is not the presence of bacteria or viruses that cause disease, it is the imbalance of the body's normal functions that fails to hold the microbes in check. Even today, more and more doctors and researchers know that microbes are always present. Some of these are harmless and others have harmful potential. Some of these are absolutely necessary to allow the body to function properly; they are only able to cause disease if the body is in a weakened or upset state. Although some microbes with harmful potential can cause disease in even the healthiest persons if a significant dose of the microbe is contacted, those with strong immune function may completely resist infections manifestations or develop only mild infectious symptoms.

Furthermore, an improperly balanced bodily environment may lead to a compromised immune system and more serious disease. Degenerative diseases that lead to chronic failure of body tissues or organ systems result largely from an unstable condition of the internal environment. One the body is in a weakened state, the tissues can be secondarily affected by disease-causing microbes. Interestingly enough, even Pasteur himself condemed his own theory on his death bed, saying, "Bernard is right. The microbe is nothing. The environment is all important."

[Another editorial comment: As a student of medical history and the battles between various schools, it makes sense to me that allopathic medicine (typical American medical system) would latch onto Pasteur's theory rather than Bernard's. With Pasteur's, they can "heroically" use invasive drugs and surgery to "cure" the patient and the drugs/surgery can cost big bucks. With Bernard's, they would have been stuck with the boring preventative stuff like fasting and good nutrition. Where's the glory for the doctor in that, not to mention the money? HM]

The Free Radical Theory

"We know that most degenerative diseases are linked to free radical damage." James F. Balch, M.D.

Even more importantly, in 1954, Dr. Denham Harman described his free radical theory of aging and disease. He said, "A single common process, modifiable by genetic and environmental factors was responsible for aging and death of all living things." He also went on to say, "Aging is caused by free radical reactions which may be caused by the environment, from disease and intrinsic reactions within the aging process." At that time, Dr. Harman's work was, for the most part, ignored by the entrenched medical establishment. They were still convinced that disease must come from outside of man as represented by Louis Pasteur's germ theory.

The Dangerous World of Free Radicals

Think of them as internal terrorists roaming your body, looking for cells to destroy, depriving tissues of blood flow, preventing the removal of plaque and fats from your system. They're unstable oxygen molecules that come with every breath you take and, like terrorists, they can be hard to find and even harder to destroy.

Free radicals damage the body's DNA (the body's genetic code) by injuring or breaking the chemical bonds between the DNA molecules. As more damage builds up in the DNA strands, the DNA coded messages begin to be improperly translated and cellular function goes awry. It doesn't help that oxidation is caused by everything from the air you breathe to the foods you eat to environmental chemicals that can't be controlled. A body in the grip of free radical damage is susceptible to a host of life-threatening diseases and premature aging.

Free Radicals and Aging

"As antibiotics in the last fifty years of the twentieth century helped cure many infectious diseases, so antioxidants will affect a cure of many supposedly incurable diseases in the twenty first century and slow the aging process dramatically." James F. Balch, M.D.

Research by biogerontologists indicates that aging takes place because of destructive cellular changes brought on by free radicals. Professor Rajinjdar Sohal of the Department of Sciences at Southern Methodist University in Dallas concluded, followint the examination of recent free radical studies, "There is enough evidence to give good credence to the free radical theory of aging."

Meet the Free Radical Killers...the Curcuminoids!

To fight a strong enemy, you need an even stronger weapon, and one has been at hand for over a thousand years. In ancient times, it was used as a dye and spice as well as a medicine. Its use in Chinese medicine dates back to the 7th century. It is listed as a medicinal plant in an Assyrian herbal codex dating 600 BC and was one of the herbs mentioned by the first century Greek herbalist physician, Discorides. You probably have a bottle or tin of it on your spice rack. In fact you may have used some to add a little zing to your food lately without realizing you were helping to protect your cells in the process!

You know it as tumeric (or, as we will refer to it in this article, curcumin) far beyond its piquant flavor and brilliant yellow color. The real force in curcumin is in the beneficial phenolic compounds known as curcuminoids. There are three curcumonids that scientists have identified, curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin.

Besides these highly valuable phenolic compounds, tumeric also contains a very potent antioxidant peptide identified as tumerin. In at least one experiment, this incredible little peptide has been shown to exhibit more antioxidant fire power than the curcuminoids.

Antioxidant Functions of Curcuminoids

"Tumeric and its active constituents, the curcuminoids, have antioxidant properties that effectively inhibit free radical damage in both in vitro and in vivo conditions." Vladimir Badmaev, M.D., Ph.D.

Curcuminoids have been scientifically proven to perform the following several antioxidative functions:

Anti-inflammatory action
Antimutagenic
Antithrombotic action
Hepatoprotective action
Antimicrobial action
Antiviral action
Antiparasitic action

Anticancer Benefits of Curcumin

"The anticarcinogenic activity of tumeric extract and curcuminoids may be in part explained by their well-researched ability to prevent genetic mutation, or mutagenesis." Vladimir Badmaev

Curcumin is a powerful antioxidant that effectively prevents precancerous changes within DNA and may prove to interfere with enzymes needed during cancer promotion. Since curcumin reduces inflammation by increasing production of natural cortisone produced by the adrenal glands, it may also inhibit cancer formation in the colon. Recent animal studies showed a significant decrease in tumor growth with the long-term administration of curcumin. Moreover, clinical studies have shown that curcumin-based ointments were very effective in helping to treat the effects of skin cancer.

[The pamphlet goes on to say that curcumin can help in oral cancers, useful in preventing and treating colorectal cancers, and in precancerous leukoplakia.]

Curcuminoids can also lower cholesterol, especially the "bad LDL" cholesterol. It can aid in cutting Alzheimer's Disease risk--the pamphlet discuses the very low incidence of Alzheimer's in India, perhaps because the Indian diet includes lots of tumeric in curry spices. And, of course, tumeric and its curcuminoids are anti-inflammatory, which can certainly help in arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

To sum up: "All of the research and clinical trials seemed to provde what ancient medicine has known for centuries: curcumin may be a major defense and treatment for everything from small wounds to life-threatening chronic degenerative disease."

*****************************

That's more than enough excerpting, though only small sections out of an 8 page booklet. If you are interested in the proprietary blend of herbs and spices marketed by the Journal of Health & Longevity, the number to call is 1-800-218-1379 or write to Institute for Vibrant Living, PO Box 3840, Camp Verde AZ 86322. The product, called Pain and Brain, is a blend of curcumin 95%, 1350 mg daily dose, Boswellia Serratta 65%, 600 mg, Ashwagandha Extract, 450 mg, Guggul Extract, 150 mg, Bioperine, 15mg daily dose. If I had the money, I would consider purchasing this product. However, I don't, so I'll merely continue taking my tsp of tumeric daily in a glass of water. This is probably NOT a clinically therapeutic dose, but I'm thinking that some is better than none and every little bit helps.

I've written about tumeric before, which you may want to check out. The thing is, these spices were (and are!) considered highly valuable, not only for their marvelous effects in the kitchen, but also for their medicinal uses. No wonder they were worth their weight in gold. They're still mighty expensive, but oh so worth it. Let's see, a double latte at Starbucks, or a fresh tin of good organic tumeric? Decisions, Decisions....

Hodge-Podge

2010-02-28T15:05:00.003-06:00

I want to point out a couple of interesting places I've visited recently. Andrea of Chicky-Bit Run (in itself a most interesting blog) turned me on to a great soup page, Soupsong. On this page you can find tons of soup tales, soup jokes, soup this and soup that, including hundreds of recipes for... you guessed it, Soup! As soup is one of my all-time favorite things to eat, I think I'll be spending lots of time here. As I mentioned to Andrea, even though I almost never make a soup exactly as a recipe describes, I have maybe 4 or 5 soup cook books. I even love pictures of soup. Here's a link to a duck soup I'll definitely want to try. I once made a stew out of duck, sweet potatoes and wild rice. It was one of the best things I'd ever made, since the textures and flavors melded together into a heavenly dish. Makes my mouth water to think of it. YUM.

The other site I stumbled upon the other day, I'm not sure how. Probably through following links from other blogs. Anyway, it is called Pretty Smart Natural Ideas. It's not a huge blog with lots of posts, but check the past months and the links. You'll find lots of interesting herbal creams and ointments, lip balms, cleaning formulas and other useful and interesting ideas. The author lives in New York City, but is certainly up on natural ideas! Worth checking out. I'll be back to blogging tomorrow, it was a busy week!

Onwards,

A Couple of Devastating Articles from NaturalNews

2010-02-23T08:31:00.003-06:00

Whew. I just got done reading a couple of really informative articles from Natural News. If you are concerned at all about your well-being and health, then check these out. The first article is about how GlaxcoSmithKline hid the fact that its diabetes drug Avandia can lead to heart attacks and death. The FDA, of course, knew about this and DID NOT pull the drug from the market, even though its own scientists had recommended it. This one should scare you. Here's a quote from the article:

Do the math on this: if Avandia is linked to 83,000 heart attacks, and 50% of those are fatal (that's just an estimate) then Avandia could concievably be the cause of 40,000 deaths. The terrorists attacks of 911 killed roughly 3,000 Americans and yet just one drug that has been kept on the market by the FDA appears to have killed more than 10 times as many Americans as the terrorists.

My brother Terry is a type II diabetic. He is no longer insulin dependent because he eats right. When he got here we all went on an Atkins style diet--low carbs, high protein, high good fat (butter, olive oil). He still has to watch his blood sugar levels, but he lost a lot of weight and is far healthier today because he switched his diet. Cheap and effective, food as medicine. He could have been killed by BigPharma, but instead is healthy.

The second article is just as bad: Big Pharma researcher admits to faking dozens of research articles, articles that were published in peer-reviewed, respected medical journals. This researcher, Dr. Scott Ruben managed to conceal his fraud for 13 years! And this guy is only one "researcher" for Big Pharma. There must be lots of them. And as Health Ranger Mike Adams says, how are we supposed to know the difference between a real scientific study and these made-up fake ones if they all appear in "peer-reviewed" and "respected" medical journals?

Now, I haven't trusted the American medical system for years and years. But I'm still shocked by these articles. I mean, I knew it was bad, fraudulent and fairly idiotic, the medical system in this country, but even so, these kinds of articles are devastating. What the hell are they talking about when they say "evidence-based medicine"? By evidence I guess they mean those "scientific studies" but now, just like the global warming frauds, we can't trust them an inch. Be careful out there folks. If your doctor wants you to take some pharmaceutical, then do some research on the web and find out all you can before you take the damn pill.

In the Handmaiden's Kitchen

2010-02-17T08:17:00.002-06:00

From my last post, y'all know we've been snowed in for the last bit of time. Oh, the 4 wheel drive trucks can get out, and the snow plow has been through, but my brother's van only has wet pavement tires and they don't handle snow at all, let alone snow on top of ice. So here we be. Yes, cabin fever has set in amongst most of us, potentially making us irritable and nasty, but so far we've avoided that.

So I've been in the kitchen cooking and baking. I had a bunch of onions that were just beginning to get soft and then sprout. I needed to find something to do with 'em. I turned to my trusty pile of cookbooks (I love reading cookbooks in the wintertime), and found a recipe for slow-cooker carmelized onions. Hot damn! Just the thing for these onions. And it could not be more simple: cut up a bunch of onions (I did about 8 or 10 of them), toss them in the crockpot, toss in 1/4 pound of butter (that's a stick of butter to you), and let them cook on low for 12-14 hours until they turn a rich, deep brown. Use them to make a carmelized onion soup, use as flavorings for stews and soups, use the butter juice in them in rice, use them however you want. They're great! I used to make carmelized onions on the stovetop, but believe me, the crockpot method is superior as you don't have to worry about them at all, they won't burn or scortch.

Then Michael got on to batter breads, lord knows why. He found a recipe for Oatmeal Batter Bread and I made it. Man, this is a tasty bread! Very healthy for you too iffen you don't pig out on it. Michael found the recipe online, so I'll pass it on to you thataway. If you are like me, and while a good cook, immensely capable of screwing up yeast breads, try batter breads. You don't have to knead them, but you are using yeast--at least it is sort of an introduction to baking with yeast. And do make this recipe--it makes a delightful flavorful loaf of bread. For fun, I'll also be trying this recipe, English Muffin Bread. I love English muffins but have never made them.

Then, because I was reading a novel about a Chilean woman in San Francisco during the gold rush who made money by selling her empanadas to hungry miners (Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende), I decided to make empanadas using a recipe I found in Craig Claiborne's New York Times Cookbook. While the filling was delicious, the dough was tough and hard--entirely my fault as I'm the world's worst dough-maker. I have never made a good dough, ever. But a snowed-in February means I've got the time to at least learn more about making dough, even though the husband and brother might have to suffer through it. :) Anyway, I won't share that recipe with you, there's other ones available on the web here. Claiborne's recipe called for 3 TBS of raisins in the filling, which, along with the garlic, onions, tomato, ground beef, black olives and spices, made such a savory filling. YUM.

I wanted to make something with some of the fruits I dried this summer: peaches, nectarines, apples, apricot-plums, raisins, blueberries. Good grief, just typing in those lovely fruit words made my mouth water. In my How to Dry Foods book I found a recipe for German Pancake which sounded like just the thing for a light lunch. It turned out to be delicious and wasn't overly sweet until we put some blueberry syrup on it. :) Here's the recipe:

German Pancake

Boiling water
1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped dried apples, apricots, cherries, dates, figs, pears, raisins or dried currants
6 TBS butter
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
Lemon juice and powdered sugar or berry jam or jelly, if desired

Pour boiling water over dried fruit to cover. Let stand to soften 5 - 15 minutes; drain. (DON'T throw away this water--it makes a wonderful fruit tea!) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In preheating oven, melt butter in a 13" by 9" baking pan, checking frequently to avoid scorching. (Or melt butter in the microwave, high for one minute.) In blender, combine eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla. Blend lightly to mix. Add flour. Stir in softened dried fruit. Pour into baking pan on top of the melted butter. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until puffy and golden brown. Sprinkle with the lemon juice and powdered sugar or serve with jam or jelly.

This was a delectable treat, heavenly with the blueberry syrup. We each had a piece or so and Michael had more of it for dessert after dinner.

Besides these treats, for dinners we've had barbequed ribs, venison stew with carmelized onions over brown rice, and parmesean chicken. We ain't all about beans and polenta, though that's one of my favorite meals.

Today it'll be back to some soup or another. I love soup and could basically live on the stuff. I don't know what soup I'll make yet--but something bean and bacony would be delicous. Cooking is fun, messin' in the kitchen is fun. Most of the times, things turn out not only edible but healthy and delicious, but there have been times when I've had to compost the results. Par for the course, since we don't learn without making mistakes.
Onwards,
HM

The Winter of Our Content

2010-02-15T08:50:00.003-06:00

That's what the huge pine trees across the pond look like this snowy morning. It's basically white out there, all visuals hazy with a mist of snow blowing over all. Wow. It's beautiful! I don't think I've even seen a 4 wheel drive truck go by on the roads this morning. We're all sitting tight.

I haven't been blogging in a while, this computer was in the shop with virus problems. Got it back late last week and we can get back into the swing of things again. With the snow, there's not much else to do anyway!

I don't know why I called this post the Winter of Our Content--I suppose, lifting it from Shakespeare ("Winter of our discontent") but to express the mixed emotions of this particular wintertime. I've had many setbacks the past few months: wrecked a car, been snowed in for a week at a time, computer down and out, friend Fred broke his leg and is in the hospital, aggravating sinus problems, not to mention major doom and gloom predictions from the Gruff Lord, Michael of Staying Alive. All the news has been horrible. So why am I not depressed as I usually am in winter, with seasonal affective disorder (SAD)? Damned if I know, but I'm not. I think it is because I'm getting better at letting go of non-essentials. What I would have considered essential a few months ago, say a functional auto, a working computer, somehow just didn't seem so necessary to me. I could work around it. If I needed a ride to town, I could ask a friend. And my sense of independence wasn't wounded by that. I could relax and let it be. In other words, I wasn't stressing out over all the problems. Some switch in me got flipped and I could look at the reality of what was, but not necessarily call it "a problem."

How did that happen? How did not having a functioning car become a non-problem? I'm not sure--there's no magic pill or herb for this one. But rather than be upset and nervous, twitching my nights away worrying about it, I've somehow moved it from the category of "awful problem" to a new category "we'll solve that one when we have more options." This is somewhat unfamiliar territory to me and I'm in the process of wondering about it, trying to figure it out. But it's interesting at any rate. Feels like one of those big changes people go through every ten years or so--a new psychological stance of some kind. I feel more adaptive, or rather, more able to adapt to what it without demanding that Reality conform to my desires. I suspect this change will stand me in good stead. I hope anyway.

Well, enough blathering about inward landscaping. I think maybe I'll get dressed up in all my deep snow accoutrements and go out and play. :) (I can barely see across the pond...will I be able to find my way home if I go to a neighbor's house for a cup of coffee? Hmmmmmm)

Enjoy your days in all the ways you can!
Onwards,
HM

Tumeric for Allergy/Sinus + Health Drink

2010-01-28T10:32:00.003-06:00

A while back I posted on Earth Clinic's January newsletter. In that, there was a lady who said that a daily dose or two of tumeric in water helped cure her awful sinus problem, which lead in her case to migraine headaches. Since I'm prone to both awful sinus issues as well as migraines, I started using the tumeric in water. But I was already taking a "health drink" so I added the tumeric to is. Here's what I take: In a glass of water, 6-8 oz, I add 2 T of apple cider vinegar, a tsp of brewer's yeast, tsp of diatomaceous earth, and a heaping tsp of psyllium husks. To that I now add a tsp of tumeric and a drop or two of Iosol Iodine (an iodine nutritional supplement).

Since I've added the tumeric, my sinus problem--nasty post nasal drip, tickly throat, massive buildup of phlegm in my system, etc.--has cleared up. For the most part. I still get the sniffles and have to blow my nose, but that is not a problem. Very interesting, and what a blessing! That allergy/sinus thing was driving me nuts.

So, if you've got some nagging physical problem, you might want to check up on it at Earth Clinic and see if there is some simple, inexpensive already-in-your-kitchen spice or herb you could use. In all my reading there, I've seen very little that could harm you, and quite a bit that could help!

Keep in mind that this is not medical advice. This is just kitchen advice. :) Even though we have the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, the FDA feels competent to regulate speech that might interfere with the profits made by Big Pharma and Big Medicine. The FDA has not approved of this message, and probably won't in our lifetimes.
Onwards!
HM

More on Planting by the Signs

2010-01-26T12:01:00.003-06:00

In Foxfire's first volume, there's a chapter on Planting by the Signs. I've posted about this already. In that chapter, there is a really neat chart from T.E. Black's Lifetime Planting, Business and Fishing Guide: Information in regards to everyday affairs compiled from 13 years experience. While I cannot reproduce the chart in this post, here's a few tidbits to help you get a little more info:

3rd Sign, Gemini, The Arms
This is an Air sign. I find it one of the second best signs for planting and transplanting All Crops, root crops and crops that bear above the ground. Favors talking things over with people. Also favors making jelly, preserves and pickles.

1st Sign, Aries, The Head
Known as a very fiery sign. Hot, dry and barren. Very good for planting beets, onions and tobacco. Not good for planting and transplanting other crops. Favors welding, getting hair waved, all cooking, making preserves, pickles and jelly. Also destroying weeds and bushes. Good for hunting, fair for fishing.

2nd Sign, Taurus, The Neck
An Earth Sign. No. 1 for all root crops. Peanuts, potatoes, and etc. Transplanting all plants, second best for all crops bearing above the ground and all flowers. Favors buying, attend sales, deal with creditors. Very good for fishing, making pickles and canning.

4th Sign, Cancer, The Breast
A Water Sign. No. 1 top sign for all flowers, planting and transplanting all crops that bear above the ground. When I say bear above the ground I mean cotton, corn, cane, tobacco, peas, beans, peppers, watermelons, squash, cucumbers, okra, wheat, rye, oats and etc. all cover crops, all grasses, all leaf crops. This sign also No. ! for all root crops. Biddies hatched in this sign for laying hens, pigs born for males and brood sows. Good for all cooking, changing jobs, momving, cut hair to stimulate growth. Good for fishing, making potato beds and seed beds.

6th Sign, Virgo, The Bowels
An Earth sign. Doesn't favor planting nor transplanting no crops. Barren sign, but very good for business.

8th Sign, Scorpio, The Loins
This is known as a Water Sign. No.1 for all crops that bear above the ground. Also for flowers. Second best for all root crops. When I root crops, I mean all potatoes, peanuts, chuffas, onions, beets, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, etc. Setting out plants, biddies for laying hens, pigs for males and brood sows. Set out fruit trees. Flower bushes and vines. Good for fishing and hunting.

10th Sign, Capricornus, The Knees
Known as an Earth Sign. No. 1 for all root crops. Second best for all flowers. All crops that bear above the ground, all transplanting. Pull teeth, mark hogs, prune trees and vines. Good for business. Fair for fishing. Canning.

12th Sign, Pisces, The Feet
Water Sign. No. 1 for planting and transplanting above-ground crops. And all flowers. Second best sign for all root crops. Biddies hatched for laying hens, pigs for brood sows. Best for pulling teeth, makring hogs, prune and set out trees, bushes and vines. Good for fishing. Wean babies and animals.

11th Sign, Aquarius, The Legs
Air sign. Very good for planting crops that bear above the ground. Except that seeds are apt to rot. This is a friendly sign. Exchange ideas, seek help from friends, favors dealing with all types of people in all types of business. Favor sports and pleasure.

5th Sign, Leo, The Heart
Fire Sign. Barren Sign favors no planting nor transplanting. Good for destroying bushes and weeds and deading trees. It favors sports, pleasure, love and romance. Ask for jobs. Good for hunting. Get hair waved, baking cakes.

7th Sign, Libra, The Kidneys
Air Sign very good for crops that bear above the ground. Favors friendship and business.

9th Sign, Sagittarius, The Thighs
This is a Fire Sign, fairly good for planting onions and cucumbers. Favors all business affairs. Ask for jobs, deal with lawyers, judges and bankers, work on future plans. Good for hunting. Get hair waved, bake cakes, make candy, preserves, jelly and pickles. Don't transplant anything.

***********************
At The Gardener's Calendar, you can always check to see both the phase of the moon (which quarter, waxing, etc.) and the moon sign. So check first, then pull those teeth! :)

And if any of you are going to try planting by the signs this year, keep in touch and let us all know how it turns out. I'll be reporting on my success and failures here as well.
Onwards,
HM

The Lord Giveth, and the Lord Taketh Away . . .

2010-01-26T11:31:00.004-06:00

Just want to let you all know that my computer was attacked by a nasty virus. I thought I had a strong virus protection program, but apparently it disappeared. So, bereft of protection, I got hit. That's why I haven't been blogging lately. Today, I'm writing this on my husband's new-ish computer. Yep, his computer was a goner too and he was out a computer for a couple of weeks. A new friend then generously donated a computer to him, one not new, but nevertheless a nice machine.

What a winter. Car Crash, car's a goner. We were down to just my brother's van. Then it had mechanical problems and was stuck over at someone's house for nearly a week. We finally found a friend to get the van working again, but today the roads are very icy and naturally we got it stuck on the ice (on a hill). Jeez!

I'm learning strongly this winter to do without. For two weeks around Christmas time, a pipe in our building sprung a leak and we had to turn the water off to an apartment upstairs from us, our bathroom, and my brother's room downstairs. So we went without functioning (easily flushed) toilets for two weeks. We hauled water from our kitchen sink in a five gallon bucket to manually flush the toilet. And I was glad we could do that! No running water at all would have been a REAL pain. As it was, it was tiresome and inconvenient, but we could do it. We gritted our teeth and did it.

Items, customs we're used to, convenience, all these things I'm learning that I can do without. The trick is how to remain relatively cheerful and non-complaining while doing without. Grumbling or getting angry does not help the problem; it makes it much worse. It is worse because with a complaining attitude, you focus on the problem so much more than if you simply accepted it and went about your business. I've learned to give thanks to the Lord for all of our blessings. And one of those blessings is learning ahead of time how to do without. If you can learn this trick of ACCEPTANCE IS CONTENTMENT before the coming collapse, crash, or depression, then you will adjust to your situation much better.

Daniel Wright, the man who founded the valley community we live in, had Acceptance is Contentment carved into the mantel over his hand-built fireplace. I've learned the wisdom of that statement this winter. No car? We'll work around it. Broke-down car? Ditto. No flushable toilets (without hauling water)? We've got a five-gallon bucket and running water elsewhere. No sweat. AND I was grateful that I didn't have to haul that water out of the pond!! Items getting lost or disappearing? Make something else do what that item did. No sour cream for a recipe? Make some by adding vinegar to cream, or as I did, to ricotta cheese. It won't be quite the same, but it will do.

In his wise and witty blog, Dimitri Orlov suggests that Americans should learn this semi-detached attitude in order to deal with the slow collapse of their standard of living, and indeed, the collapse of their country and the world as we all knew it. The "American Dream" is gradually turning into the American Nightmare. Rather than a rude and panicky awakening to this reality, learn to deal with it now, slightly ahead of everyone else. If you can let go of stuff, of convenience, of your expectations of what life should be, then you will be much happier and better adjusted to whatever our new reality will be. Most of all, make the effort to enhance your attitude. Accept what IS, and learn to be content with it. Cheerfully.

Why? I'll tell you: it is simply a helluva lot less stressful. Major unaddressed stress can and will make you sick and even kill you. Over time, if not quickly. Adjust your attitude, adjust your expectations, learn to do without and still be cheerful, if not happy. You will not only live longer and better, your companions will love you for it. All of us prefer being with positive folks and we tend to avoid negative complainers and other unpleasantness.

OK, enough sermonizing for today. I will blog when I can, so please stay tuned. And I'll try lots of home remedies to help my computer get over the virus. :)
HM

Foxfire: Planting by the Signs

2010-01-18T08:26:00.006-06:00

This is all excerpted from Foxfire, called The Foxfire Book. I believe it was the first one, published back in 1972. My copy cost $3.95 new back then, if that tells you anything about inflation. :)

Anyway, this is from a chapter called Planting by the Signs. There are a couple of charts that I can't reproduce here, unfortunately. I'll try, but can't guarantee anything on one of them.

Sign Symbol Body Part Planet Element
Aries Ram Head Mars Fire
Taurus Bull Neck, Throat Venus Earth
Gemini Twins Arms, Chest Mercury Air
Cancer Crab Breast, Stomach Moon Water
Leo Lion Heart, Back Sun Fire
Virgo Virgin Bowels Mercury Earth
Libra Balance Kidneys Venus Air
Scorpio Scorpion Loins Mars Water
Sagittarius Archer Thighs Jupiter Fire
Capricornus Goat Knees Saturn Earth
Aquarius Waterman Legs, Ankles Uranus Air
Pisces Fish Feet Neptune Water

OK, well I just took at look at the Preview function, and the charts a mess to read. But if you read across the first line, you see the headings: Sign, Symbol, Body Part, etc. The signs line up under that and you can sort of read it. Best I can do here I guess.

Here we go. Begin Excerpt.

How it Works
Every day of the month is dominated by one of the twelve signs of the zodiac. Each of the twelve appears at least once a month, and then for a period of either two or three days. All good planting calendars label each day with the sign that rules over it (depending on which constellation is foremost in the sky at that time), the part of the body and the planet associated with the sign, and the element it is most closely akin to. The chart (above) summarizes this information. The signs always appear in sequence, beginning with the Ram or Head and working their way down to Pisces, the Fish or feet. Following Pisces, the Ram appears beginning a new sequence.

Each of the signs is known as being either masculine, feminine, airy, dry, barren, fiery, earthy, moist, watery, fruitful, or very fruitful. In general, any activity that requires a dry atmosphere, such as painting, should be done in one of the dry signs; and an activity requiring moisture, such as some planting, should be done on one of the moist or fruitful signs.

The best time, of course, to conduct any activity is when a day falls on both an ideal sign and a good phase of the moon.

Over the years, a most specific set of rules has grown up around the zodiac which governs such activities as planting and harvesting. These rules take into account both the sign governing the day and the phase of the moon on that particular day. At the beginning of the planting season, for example, the farmer consults his calendar, picks out one of the fourteen favorable days that occurs every month, and plants only on one of these fourteen "fruitful" days. Should he miss and plant his crops on one of the unfruitful days, his crops will not produce at half their ability, say the believers. T. E. Black even goes so far as to say that a few hours can make the difference between success and failure, and many of his followers agree.

The Rules
The following rules were gathered both from interviews (with the older folks in the community), and wide reading. They do not represent a complete set, but they should serve to give the reader a good idea as to the nature of this system. We also included rules for butchering, cutting hair, killing weeds, pulling teeth, and others to give some grasp of the scope of the subject.

Planting---Planting is best done in the fruitful signs of Scorpio, Pisces, Taurus, or Cancer (when the signs are in the loins, feet, neck, or breast).
Plow, till and cultivate in Aries.
Never plant anything in one of the barren signs. They are good only for trimming, deadening, and destroying.
Always set plants out in a water or earth sign.
Graft just before the sap starts to flow, while the moon is in its first or second quarter, and while it is passing through a fruitful watery sign or Capricorn. Never graft a plant on Sunday as this is a barren, hot day (the sun's day).
Plant flowers in Libra, which is an airy sign that also represents beauty. Plant them while the moon is in the first quarter unless you need the seeds, in which case use the period between the moon's second quarter and full.
Corn planted in Leo will have a hard, round, stalk and small ears.
Crops planted in Taurus and Cancer will stand drought.
Plant beans when the signs are in the arms (Gemini).
Root flower cuttings, limbs, vines, and set out flower bushes and trees in December and January when the signs are in the knees and feet.
Never transplant in the heart or head as both these signs are "Death Signs." (Aries and Leo)
If you want a large vine and stalk with little fruit, plant in Virgo "bloom days."
Don't plant potatoes in the feet. If you do, they will develop little nubs like toes all over the main potato. The best time is a dark night in March.
Plant all things which yield above the ground during the increase or growing of the moon, and all things which yield below the ground (root crops) when the moon is decreasing or darkening.
Never plant on the first day of the new moon, or on a day when the moon changes quarters.
In the fourth quarter turn sod, pull weeds, and destroy.

Reaping and Harvesting
Pick fruit like apples and pears in the old of the moon while it is decreasing or shrinking. This will cause the bruised spots and blemishes to dry up rather than rot. They will rot if the fruit is picked on the increase or rising of the moon, or on the new moon.
Harvest most crops when the moon is growing old. This will cause them to keep better and longer.
Dig root crops for seed in the third quarter of the moon. They will keep longer and are usually drier and better.
Gather root crops in the last quarter of the moon when the signs are in the knees or feet.
Can vegetables, cook preseves and jelly, and make pickles in the right sign during the last quarter of the moon.

Miscellany
Cut timber in the old of the moon. It will dry better and not become worm-eaten.
Set fence posts in the old of the moon to prevent loosening.
The part of your body governed by a particular sign is more sensitive when the moon is in that sign. People with heart trouble, for example, will have more trouble in Leo's sign, and lovers are more successful at this time. In Taurus (throat) an operation on this part of the body will be unsuccessful. Conversely, if tonsils are removed and teeth pulled when the signs are in the knees or feet, there is less soreness, loss of blood, and danger of infection. You can easily figure out others for yourself.
Paint houses or cars in a dry sign like Leo or Aries.
Wean a child or animal when the moon is in a sign that does not rule the vital parts of the body (Capricorn, Pisces, Sagittarius).
Set eggs to hatch in a fruitful sign like Cancer. The chicks will mature faster and be better layers.
Quit habits on the second day that the moon is in Sagittarius, or on the new moon, or in Pisces.
If you cut your hair in Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius, or Pisces, it will grow stronger, thicker, and more beautiful.
Purge will pills in Pisces and with liquids in Sagittarius.
Bake and cook in Aries.
Hunt in Taurus.
Lay foundations in Capricorn.
Don't nail shingles or boards on the growing side of the moon, or the ends will draw up and curl and go crooked.
Destroy weeds, kill trees, turn sod in the barren signs of Gemini, Leo or Virgo (especially if the moon is in the last quarter).
Slaughter while the signs are in the knees or feet, and in the last quarter of the moon.

************************************ End Excerpt.

Hmmmmm. Guess if I really want to do this, I'll need to get my hands on the Old Farmer's Almanack. You can find the Ol' Farmer's Almanac online, and Best Days info here. You can find more info on planting by moon signs at the Gardener's Calendar. Keep in mind that this is a UK website, so the info on planting in January may not work for where you live. :) Me, I'm going to get a copy of the Old Farmer's Almanac, so I can have the info at my fingertips if the Web goes down. I'm very curious to see if this works as well as I think it might.

The Foxfire book then goes on to talk about those who believe (older mountain people, etc.) and those who don't (agricultural school grads, etc.) but it is an ancient "science" handed down wisdom from our ancestors and we might just want to give them a listen these days. Obviously, our new-fangled shiny knowledge has been enough to really screw up the world as we know it. Might as well listen to other folks who just might know better after all.

I'll be looking into this more. If any of y'all have any other info or good websites or books, please let me know via email or comments. Thank you!
HM

Planting by the Signs

2010-01-15T12:32:00.004-06:00

I've got a question for you all out there. Does anyone out there and reading this blog know anything about planting by the moon signs, i.e., whether the moon is waxing toward full or waning toward new moon. Or planting such and such when the moon is in Cancer or Taurus, etc. Foxfire 1 has a fascinating article on it (which I'll share excerpts from one of these days), and I'm thinking I want to plant our garden by the signs this summer, see if this stuff works.

You see, the moon goes through a bunch of moon signs every month--hell, maybe all of them for all I know right now. As you can probably tell, I'm about to research this in depth, but haven't done so yet. And I'm curious. Some of the mountain folk in Foxfire swore by it, others say it is old wives tales. It'd be interesting to know if it does work, because if it does, it sure could improve garden productivity and yield. Anyway, any of you have any experience with this?

I'll try to post the Foxfire info tomorrow to let you all know a bit more about what I'm talking about. Thanks!
HM

Earth Clinic's posts on Tumeric

2010-01-15T11:09:00.004-06:00

A while back I signed up for Earth Clinic's randomly appearing newsletter, and recently one showed up in my mailbox. There were two interesting reader-supplied commentaries on tumeric. I thought I'd share them with you.

Earth Clinic is a site that takes in home remedies that are supplied by readers from around the world. It's a great website to research some of these cheap but effective home remedies. I've written about some of the home cures from Earth Clinic in the past. This is another one like that. Anyway, tumeric. I've never gotten into Indian cooking much so I haven't used much tumeric in my cooking, though that may change! I've used it not only for its flavor, but many times also for it's lovely yellow coloring of foods, especially rice dishes. After reading all I have about tumeric as a medicine, I'll probably start using it a lot more.

Here's the two threads on tumeric from the EC January newsletter:

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR AND TURMERIC FOR MULTIPLE CURES

07/08/2009: Chris from Dighton, MA writes: "I use 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegarin 5 oz. of water per day.I also use 1 teaspoon of turmeric in 5 oz. of water per day.*I had extreme diarrhea, it has gone away.

*My stomach upsethas gone away.

* My blood pressure was 145/90, now it is 120/80.

*I had cholesterol of 260. HDL of 42 and LDL of over ahundred. It is now 190 total and a HDL of 89 and LDL of 100.

* My lower back pain is gone.* My long distance eye sight has come back and I no longer need glasses.*

My tinnitus is still with me though. I am 68 years old."

And the other, which is longer and more interesing:

MULTIPLE CURES WITH TURMERIC

06/08/2009: Pcline from Springfield, Ohio writes:

"Turmeric has controlled almost all of my health issues! I am amazed! It was given to me by a relative when I fell on the ice, to prevent swelling and inflammation in my injured knee, and while it appeared to make a difference (I continued to be able to walk, and the pain and swelling abated quickly) the most wonderful thing that emerged was that I realized about a week later that the my whole sinus/allergy issue was clearing up. I had been taking at least one Zyrtec and often either more Zyrtec or other sinus medication every day for over 18 years to keep the ever-lurking migraine away. I could not have gone more than 24 hours without taking the Zyrtec or a headache would start creeping up and my sinuses would begin to swell shut. First I saw, after taking turmeric for about a week, that I did not need any "back-up" medication, then I tried missing a Zyrtec, and to my complete amazement, I felt GREAT! No headaches!I can breathe! I cannot believe it.

I take at least a heaping teaspoon of turmeric (from the spice section of the grocery, although I am looking for it in bulk now) stirred in water as soon as I get up, and one in the evening. If I begin to feel any swelling during the day, such as when I am exposed to household dust, I take another teaspoon right away, and it eliminates the "headache creep". I stay ahead of the allergies this way, but if I cannot get turmeric when the swelling starts, and it begins to cause headaches, when I can get to the turmeric, I may have to take several teaspoon doses before it alleviates, leaving a half-hour or so before I take each additional dose, but IT WORKS! It has ALWAYS EVENTUALLY WORKED. I have not had to take more than three additional doses to stop what used to be RAGING migraines, causing me to have to go to bed and be debilitated for hours afterward.

I feel marvelous, but the additional benefits have been that I realize that my arthritis in my knees is all but gone! I can walk up stairs most of the time without noticing any discomfort at all! Finally, most astonishingly, I (and everyone I know who has begun to take this) have begun to LOSE WEIGHT! I determined after a bout of intestinal virus to eat less food at a time. (After all, I had not been able to eat anything for 3 days, so this was a good time to break a habit) This was just before I started taking turmeric. With the addition of the turmeric, I feel, I was able to eat less. Nothing else has ever made a difference in my being able to eat less and not feel ravenous and deprived. In just over 3 months, I have lost 48 pounds!!!! And I feel energetic, fabulous, lively and alert! I cannot say what actual physical role turmeric plays as a weight loss aid, but I don't care. I am 53 years old and feel better than Ihave in YEARS!

I have begun to try turmeric on everything that occurs. I got a spider bite and it began to itch and sting immediately. I washed it right away and put a band-aidwith moistened turmeric on it and in minutes, the pain and itch left, no sign of any bite. My family jokes that I would try to revive the dead by sprinkling some turmeric on them, but I cannot believe what a difference just taking turmeric has made with me."

************************

End of excerpts. Now, keep in mind that no home remedy works for everyone. There's no guarantees here, but if you start reading some of this information, you may want to try some of these yourself (and send your comments to Earth Clinic while you're at it). But for me, I'm certainly willing to give many of these home cures a try. After all, they're usually far cheaper than anything doctor-prescribed, many of them involve items you probably already have in your kitchens, and they're usually easy to administer to yourself. And with the hideous monster "health" bill working its way through Congress's ugly intestinal process, we'll all need safe and effective remedies we can use when no one can ever afford allopathic medical care again. As P.J. O'Rourke says, "If you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it's free!"

Onwards,

Make Your Own Witch Hazel Extract

2010-01-14T10:08:00.005-06:00

Someone had dropped off a bunch of old herb magazines at the barn. We use old magazines and newspapers to light fires in the wood furnace there. Anyway, Fred grabbed a bunch of them for me and I've been enjoying reading them. This recipe for Witch Hazel Tonic is from The Herb Quarterly (Winter 1994).

First, here's a few paragraphs from the accompanying article on Witch Hazel:

Witch Hazel has a long history of medicinal use, primarily as an antiseptic and an astringent. The herb was listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia of 1882, and it was still listed in the National Formulary as late as 1955. Native Americans applied the leaves and bark as a poultice on painful swellings and tumors and to reduce inflammation. According to James Duke (Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, 1989), the fresh leaves are highly astringent, and were used in tea form by the Cherokee "for colds, fevers, periodic pain, sore throat, and tuberculosis, and to wash sores and wounds." Other tribes used the herb to treat bruises, scratches, bad backs, and sprains, and in a steam bath to relieve rheumatism.

Many of these treatments passed on to the American colonists. In the 19th century, witch hazel extracts of various kinds were used internally and externally to treat myriad conditions, among them burns, diarrhea, dysentery, inflammation, phlebitis, wounds, and ulcers. Witch hazel is still used externally to treat hemorrhoids and varicose veins, and very dilute distilled witch hazel can be used in eye lotions.

Pure witch hazel extract, available in many drugstores and supermarkets, is the most frequently used form of the herb--more than a million gallons are sold each year. Useful as an antiseptic, astringent, or make-up remover, and even providing relief from hermorrhoidal pain and bleeding, it is a all-purpose first-aid lotion and cosmetic aid.

********************

Witch Hazel is an oddball shrub. It flowers from October to April, when all other shrubs and trees lose their leaves. The leaves turn yellow in the autumn and stay that way throughout the winter. "Witch hazel flowers have four-inch long golden-yellow strap-shaped petals that are tinged with red at the base." Hamamelis virginiana is an attractive shrub. You might want to get a tree/shrub identification book and see if you can find some near you. I know of two of them in the valley here, but hadn't thought to harvest any of the twigs. If I can still ID these two to my satisfaction, then I'll see about making some of the following extract. You can see images of witch hazel bushes by using Google images and typing in witch hazel. Sometimes that can help you ID what you are looking for.

Here's the recipe:

Although the Pilgrims' tonic is not as potent as the commercial extract, you can follow this easy recipe to have fun brewing your own witch hazel remedy:

Prune one pound of fresh twigs from shrubs as soon as they have flowered. This practice produces the strongest tonic.
Strip off the leaves and flowers (save these for sachets) and chop the twigs into a coarse mulch using either a mechanical mulcher or pruning clippers.
Place the chopped twigs into a two-gallon stainless steel pot.
Cover the twigs with distilled water (available at the supermarket) and bring the contents to a boil.
Reduce heat to simmer, then cover and cook for at least eight hours; add water as needed to cover the mulch.
Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
Pour the witch hazel tonic through a funnel containing a cheesecloth filter and into clean plastic squeeze bottles or other suitable, tightly-capped containers.
Use the tonic within a week unless it is kept refrigerated. You can preserve your tonic for long-term room temperature storage by adding nine ounces of vodka or grain alcohol to 23 ounces of tonic. Yield: one gallon.

Warning: Do NOT use internally! Keep out of the reach of children.

I don't know about you, but witch hazel is one of those common household things I've always kept around. I use my commercial witch hazel extract to clean my skin at times. Or, in summer when I tend to sweat, I use it on my face. Or I swab my armpits with it to kill the bacteria there (I don't use deodorants). Also good for cleaning wounds, etc. It's useful stuff and I'll enjoy making my own.

Onwards,

Witch Hazel

Sassafrass Wine

2010-01-06T10:42:00.004-06:00

Sassafrass Wine? Whoever heard of such a thing! Sassafrass tea, yes. Sassafrass as a flavoring for root beers, sure. But sassafrass wine?

Well, yes, Matilda. And it is good stuff (or at least I like it :). Last spring I dug a lot of sassy roots. I love the tea, and found the recipe for the wine over at Jack Weller's amazing wine-making page. I won't bother to copy the recipe over here; just click on the link and you'll come to the recipe.

Wine-making isn't difficult to do, although getting a really fine wine takes time and some effort and good ingredients. I made about 10 gallons of different kinds of wine last spring/summer. Now that it is January, it was time to taste and enjoy at least some of them. When I first tasted my sassafrass wine (probably a month or two into the process) it didn't taste very good. With these 7 months later, though, it has mellowed into a really tasty wine (once you get over the surprise of a wine tasting like sassafrass). I've been enjoying a glass every once in a while. I also made wines from nettles, strawberries, blueberries, raisins, dandelion flowers, peaches, and a few others I can't remember at the moment. All of them using the recipes at Jack Keller's page. And some of them turned out better than others.

Jack Keller has some recipes for wines made out of the strangest things. He's also a forager and enjoys making wines from wild plants and herbs. Here's a few of those I thought rather odd, but definitely fun to make. Wines from turnips, ginger root, eggplant, jalapenos, corn, chicory, leeks, even garlic wine. It's a very interesting page overall. Check out his list of requested recipes. What a hoot! And yes, the sassafrass wine is very tasty. Wish I could share a glass with all of you!

Onwards,

Herbs for Cold and Flu Season

2010-01-06T09:09:00.004-06:00

I happened to see this article in an old magazine in some waiting room I was in. Thought I'd share bits of it with y'all. There's a bunch of good herbal allies herein.

15 Natural Remedies for the Season

Echincea (echinacea pupurea and e. augustifolia)

A go-to herb for colds, echinacea may help support your immune system to fight viruses. The root, leaves and flowers are all medicinal. To Use: Take 1/2 teaspoon of tincture every two hours until symptoms are gone. Echinacea also comes in tea bags.

Elderberry (sambuca nigra)

As a syrup (elderberry's classic form) this remedy is tasty and effective. European studies have shown it to be helpful for seasonal flus (talk to your doctor before using it of H1N1 or swine flu). To Use: Follow package directions for the syrup at the first sign of symptoms.

Goldenseal (hydrastis canadensis)

For short-term use only, goldenseal can help to clear up bacterial infections and restore the respiratory system lining after a bad cold. To Use: Goldenseal is very bitter so stick to tinctures or capsules. Use small does of this potent herb. Safety Note: Pregnant women and those with hypertension should not use goldenseal.

Astragalus (astragalus membranceus)

Astragalus, which has been used for centuries in Traditional Chinese Medicine, may help to strengthen the body against illness when used over time. To Use: Take astragalus in tincture or capsule form thought the cold and flu season. You can also incorporate dried astragalus slices into soups or rice; remover the astragalus before serving.

Eucalyptus (eucalyptus globulus)

With antibacterial and expectorant properties, eucalyptus can loosen congestion and help you breathe easier. To Use: Pour near-boiling water into a pot. Add a few drops of eucalyptus essential oil, turn off the heat, and drape a towel over your head and the pot. Breathe for five minutes. Safety Note: Do not use essential oils internally.

Eleuthero (eleutheroccus senticocus)

Also known as Siberian ginseng, this well-studies herb can help your body resist the effects of stress and boost your immune system. To Use: Take in tincture or sapsule form, or make an immunity chai by blending eleuthero with cardamom, ginger, and cinnamon. Simmer for 20 minutes and strain; drink two or three cups daily.

Mullein (verbascum thapus)

Mullein's expectorant and soothing properties make it a cough treatment supreme. To Use: For coughs, try mullein tea. Pour a cup of boiling water over a tablespoon of mullein leaves; let steep for 20 minutes and strain. Add honey and lemon to mask the bitter taste. Treat ear infections with drops of oil infused with mullein and garlic.

Elder Flower (sumbucus nigra)

The flower form of the elder plant can induce sweating, which may help reduce fever. To Use: Look for elder in cold formulas. To make a tea, pour boiling water over a teaspoon of dried elder flowers. Steep 10 or 15 minutes then strain. Drink up to three cups per day. Or make a tea that combines elder, echinacea and a pinch of peppermint.

Ginger (zingiber officinale)

A cup of ginger tea can help ease congenstion and warm the body, which helps your immune system fight infection. Its anti-inflammatory properties make it a good sore throat remedy, too.

To Use: Simmer fresh or dried ginger for 20 minutes; strain and add a touch of honey and a squeeze of lemon, if desired. Incorporate ginger liberally into stir-frys and soups.

Slippery Elm (Ulums rubra)

A sore-throat-soother extraordinaire, slippery elm products are high in "mucilage" a substance that coats the throat and help relieves coughs. To Use: Look for slippery elm lozenges at health food stores; follow package directions. To make a tea, simmer one tablespoon dried slippery elm bark per cup of water; strain and drink.

Thyme (thumus vulgaris)

Loaded with antibacterial compounds, fresh or dried thyme is a cold-season powerhouse. To Use: use fresh or dried thyme in stews and soups. To make a steam, pour near-boiling water into a pot. Add a pinch of thyme or dried thyme, turn off heat, and create a tent by draping a towel over your head and the pot. Breathe in the steam for five minutes.

Tulsi (ocimum santcum)

Believed to boost overall health, tulsi (also known as holy basil) contains antiviral and antibacterial compounds. It may help prevent illness when used over time. To Use: Tulsi makes a delicious tea; look for it in packaged form or brew your own with loose tulsi. Aim for two to three cups daily.

Yin chiao

This centuries-old Chinese formula stars a number of immune-boosting herbs and can help ease cold symptoms such as sneezing and congestion. To Use: Use at the first sign of illness; follow package directions or consult with a TCM practitioner.

Sage (salvia officinales)

Common culinary sage can help to ease a sore throat and dry up sinuses. To Use: For a sore throat, make a strong tea. Cool to room temperature. Gargle with the mixture is gone.

Licorice (Glycyrrhica glabra)

Licorice's immune-boosting and throat-soothing properties make it an excellent addition or coughs and cold formulas. To Use: For coughs, make a tea that combines licorice and mullein leaves. Safety Note: People who have high blood pressure should avoid this herb.

*******************

End extract of article.

I imagine that many of you would have a few of these herbs in your kitchen, at least the thyme, sage and ginger. These are all good herbs for the cold and flu season. I would also up my Vitamin C, D3 and zinc intake and take a bunch of Echinacea caps. Chew up a couple cloves of garlic. You know the rest: lots of liquids (water is best), rest, stay warm and be peaceful.

Wrecked...

2010-01-01T11:16:00.003-06:00

My brother and I were in a nasty car wreck on Monday. We survived, thanks to seat belts and airbags, but the car didn't. I've been a safe and careful driver for 30 some years, but somehow I managed to drive into a big truck. Little car, big truck, big truck won. Now we have the fun of paying all our medical expenses out of pocket because the insurance company sneakily makes you *buy* medical expenses coverage extra, but somehow neglected to mention it to me when I purchased the coverage. Oh well. Life and learn.

I could easily get into a huge snit over this and be angry and bitter and hurt and all of that emotional tirade crap, but you know what? If you do one HUGE thing for your health and sanity, it would be to circumnavigate the swampy morass of emotional self-pity. It would ONLY hurt me if I got all angry and bitter, etc. So, I am going to focus on the positive (both Terry and I are OK, sore but OK). Getting an airbag in your face is quite an experience though, I tell you. POW, just like in the cartoons. But to my surprise the things worked and for that I am grateful!

So, no fretting. Accept what is, look at reality straight and deal with it. Our lives did not end in a bloody awful wreck and that is a huge blessing. I think--don't know what with what sounds like a horrible future coming soon to your neighborhood and mine, but I'll take whatever blessings the good Lord sends my way.

Onwards, the only direction there is,
HM

Baking Soda for Colds and Flu

2009-12-24T11:00:00.002-06:00

I'm sending you over to Dr. Mercola once again. He reports on using baking soda for colds and the flu. Apparently it was used back in 1917-18 for the Spanish influenza to good effect. I haven't personally tried this yet (I'm waiting til I can get some of Bob's Red Mills baking soda, which does NOT have aluminum in it).

If you're interested, read here. It's quite interesting, and if it works, then it certainly would be a great thing to have around.

You can get your Bob's Red Mills baking soda at some stores, or order online here.

Excellent Article on Homeopathy

2009-12-23T10:35:00.002-06:00

Jeez. Can I go forever without a blog post or what? It's embarrassing to be such a slag, but there you have it. My apologies to those who would rather I blog more often. I would, but then Real Life happens and the next thing I know it is a month or so later.

Anyway, have any of you ever wondered what exactly homeopathy is and why some folks swear by it (the Royal family in Britain for instance)? I have. I mean, I'm conscious of its existence and have been for years. Occasionally I will buy a preparation of some homeopathic medicine and use it, usually to good effect. Sometimes. The article I'm going to send you to explains this healing path well, and it also explains why some of the preparations I've purchased don't always work. The answer there is that each patient is different and a good homeopathic doctor would spend a lot of time figuring out exactly what I need, might, indeed, try out a few different preparations til we found the right one--the one that would cure me. Not just suppress my symptoms, but actually cure me.

I found this article on Dr. Mercola's site, in his email newsletter. You might want to sign up and get his info in your email as I do. If you're interested in alternative therapies, you might want to check this out. Like I said, it explains homeopathic medicine really well. It clarified a lot of what had been small mysteries to me about homeopathy. It's a good read.

Check it out!

Mullein Root?

2009-11-11T10:47:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago I came across a really interesting article on various uses for mullein. If you live in a similar bioregion to mine (southern Indiana) this is a good time to gather some first year mullein. I'm seeing it sprouting up in lots of places. I've been gathering both leaves and roots of these sprightly plants, harvesting what I can before the snow comes.

You can read this fascinating account of mullein over at Jim McDonald's website, Herbcraft. I had never heard of people using mullein root, just its leaves and flowers. So I was game, and made a tincture of the root, those first-year roots of the young plants, before they send up their flower stalk. I think the roots get too woody after the flower stalk blossoms. Anyway, I haven't had any issues with my spine, nor has anyone I know, so I haven't been able to test whether this tincture is as excellent for backs and joints as McDonald says yet, but I will.

I also have a lot of the leaves currently drying for various cough preparations (teas or tinctures). I expect we'll have uses for it this winter if/when colds and flus become a problem around here. I've posted on mullein in earlier posts, if you're interested. Do check out McDonald's article though. Very interesting!

I'll leave it up to you to read McDonald on using the roots for spine problems, but if it is as efficacious as he says, then there's lots of times this tincture would be useful. I scarcely know anyone who doesn't occasionally hurt their backs, whether it is muscle spasms or slipped disks. Backs, knees and joints are usual problem areas in the human body, quite common for any older person to have aches and pains with these.

I'm still suffering with the whatever I have, the excess mucus problem, but now my body is readily expelling the stuff. Yesterday I had lots of energy, the day before none at all, and today I'm doing OK. Not all better yet, but OK. Enough to get some things done, which is nice. It is HARD to sit around being sick as a dog when there's a lot of work to do.

I don't know about where you are, but here it is a glorious Indian Summer kind of day. Crisp, cool, warm in the sun. I think I need a hike outside, do a little foraging.
HM

Heinerman: Cinnamon, Cold and Flu Fighter

2009-11-09T11:33:00.003-06:00

Here's a bit from Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Healing Herbs & Spices:

Cold and Flu Fighter

To make an effective French folk remedy for colds and flus, combine 2 cups of water, a small stick of cinnamon and a few cloves together is a saucepan and bring to a slow boil for about 3 minutes. Remove and add 2 tsp. lemon juice, 1-1/2 tbsp. dark honey or blackstrap molasses, and 2 tbsp. qood quality whiskey. Stir well, cover, and let steep for about 20 minutes or so. Strain. Drink 1/2 cup at a time every 3-4 hours. It's pleasant tasting and really breaks up the fever and congestion accompanying either the common cold or influenza.

I doubled the recipe to make about a quart. He's right, it's a nice-tasting brew, the touch of alcohol is just right. I've been fighting some kind of nasty bug for a while now. A few days ago I stopped all over-the-counter meds for allergies and sinus. I had been just suppressing the symptoms and it wasn't helping me either fight the bug or allowing my body to do whatever it needs to do to get rid of it altogether. So now I'm just doing some herbal extracts and suffering all the symptoms--loads of mucus, coughing, some vomiting, diarrhea, feeling achy and tired. Is it a flu? I dunno and don't much care. It's low-level stuff, nothing that'll kill me. Yet, anyway.

We'll see how the cinnamon brew works out! Sure tastes good. :)

Reduce Your Risk of Flu

2009-11-09T11:27:00.002-06:00

Came across a nifty little article on some basic simple things you can do to help reduce your risk of getting swine or any other kind of flu. You can read it here. All the suggested items in the list strike me as very sensible, cheap, easy to do and very common-sensical advice. Check it out!
HM

Recommended for Flu: Boneset

2009-11-04T11:25:00.002-06:00

Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Healing Herbs and Spices has many recommendations on which herbs work well for colds and flu. One of these is boneset (eupatorium perfoliatum). I'll quote you his section on using boneset for treating the flu.

Knocks the Flu for a Loop

Silena Heron, N.D. of Sedona, Arizona promotesa great "recovery therapy" during cold and flu season. Her standard recommended treatment calls for boneset, equal parts of yarrow, elderflower and lemon balm or peppermint to be made into a warm tea.

Heron encourages her patients to drink a cup of her special brew, get into a hot bath and then drink a second cup of the "flu brew" while still in the tub. After drying off, the patient should go straight to bed and cover up first with a sheet, then with a heavy wool blanket, followed by plenty of quilts. This will promote heavy sweating for an hour. Then the individual returns to the tub and sponges the body off with apple cider vinegar.

Edward Sieracki of Detroit, Michigan, who followed Dr. Heron's detoxifying regimen, reported that "twenty minutes after drinking this boneset blend tea, I started to sweat profusely. I drank another cup of the tea and went to bed. By the next morning I was fully recovered." Make the tea according to previously given instructions.

To cure a sore throat accompanying a cold or flu, just mix pinches of salt and cayenne pepper with the juice of half a lemon or lime and gargle. It may briefly burn your throat, but the soreness will quickly leave.

End extract.

I haven't tried this therapy yet, but if I get the flu, I will. It can't hurt and it is always good to detox. Your body will appreciate it.

In other posts, I'll run Heinerman's flu/cold recommendations here as well.

Homemade Hand Sanitizer

2009-11-01T08:48:00.001-06:00

Friend Charli down in Alabama sent me this via email. I thought you all might like to read it.
It's from an article that appeared here.
HM

It's quick and easy to make your own natural, waterless hand sanitizer.

Gather Your Ingredients

1 cup aloe vera gel
1 tsp rubbing alcohol
2 tsp vegetable glycerin
8-10 drops tea tree essential oil or lavender essential oil

Simply blend all of the ingredients together and store.

Decide Where You are Going to Store Your Sanitizer

Be creative! You can recycle old liquid soap or hand sanitizer dispensers. You can also purchase a beautiful glass jar with a pump top to store and display your sanitizer. Think out of the box. If you find some nice glass jars and then add your own label, you can give home made sanitizers as gifts to family and friends!

Choose Essential Oils Carefully

The original recipe calls for tea tree or lavender oil, but you can be creative and use other types of essential oils as well. I like to pull out a list of oils that have antibacterial AND antiviral properties and make a blend that suits the season. Look at the properties of citrus oils, especially. Use oils that suit your likes as far as scents are concerned but will still add the cleansing properties appropriate for a hand sanitizer.

Use Sparingly

Your home made hand sanitizer will not dissolve into your hands as quickly or effectively as the commercial hand sanitizers you buy in the store. It is better to err on the side of too little than to end up wiping excess sanitizer off of your hands later. Waste not - want not!

Wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium)

2009-10-29T08:45:00.004-05:00

I've been reading in Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Healing Herbs & Spices lately. This is something I'm always doing with my various herb books. And I find out interesting items all the time. I thought I'd pass this section on Wormwood on to you.

I haven't found wormwood in the wild here yet. But I happened to see some at the wine supply store I visited recently. They had some wormwood there for flavoring for beer, I think. Or to make absinthe with perhaps. So I bought a couple of packets since the herb looked nice and green.

Here's what Heinerman's had to say about a few uses for this herb:

Overpowering Relief for Pain

The team of Simon, Chadwick and Craker in their Herbs--An Indexed Bibliography (1971-80) mentions that "wormwood has been used as a pain reliever for women during labor and against tumors and cancers." An alcoholic tincture of the same applied externally often has a profound effect in relieving the soreness of aching muscles, the hurt accompanying swollen, arthritic joints, and the terrific pain felt with a bad sprain, dislocated shoulder/knee or fractured bone.

The following episode was related by the eldest son of the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr. The prophet's son was a teenager residing in Nauvoo, Illinois at the time he had his experience with wormwood.

"Our carriage had stopped by the roadside for lunch and to rest the horses. Upon getting back into my seat after the brief interval, I thoughtlessly put my hand around one of the carriage posts, and as the driver closed the door, two of my fingerts were pretty badly crushed.

"The wounds bled freely and Mother (Emma Smith) bound them up with some cloths from her bag, and we traveled on. My fingers became very painful, and after a while we stopped at a farmhouse. Mother unwrapped them, soaking the temporary dressing off with warm water and rewrapped them with fresh cloths. Taking from her trunk a little bottle of whiskey and wormwood, she turned the tips of my fingers upward, and poured the liquid upon them, into the dressings--at which, for the first time in my life I promptly fainted! It seemed as if she had poured the strong medicine directly upon my heart, so sharply it stung and so quick was its circulatory effect.

When I returned to consciousness I was lying on a lounge against the wall and Mother was bathing my face most solicitiously. I soon recovered and we proceeded on our journey, reaching home in good time and without further mishap."

To make an effective tincture for relieving excruciating pain, combine 1 1/2 cup of finely cut herb or else 8 tbsp. of the powdered herb in 2 cups of Jim Beam whiskey. Shake the jar daily, allowing the wormwood to extract for 11 days. Let the herbs settle and then pour off the tincture, straining out the powder though a fine cloth or paper coffee filter. Rebottle and seal with a tight lid until needed. Store in a cool, dry place. When using this tincture to relieve external pain, remember that because of its strong potency a little bit goes a long way! Wormwood oil used externally can relieve pain too.

End Excerpt

Hmmmmmm. Now that sounds like a handy tincture to have around, doesn't it? So, I used the wormwood I had purchased from the wine supply store and made a tincture with it as directed. I'm not sure of the quality of the wormwood purchased, so this one may not work out, but I'll let you know. If wormwood grows around you, you might want to give this a try. Heinerman also says that the wormwood tincture can be used internally to rid people of intestinal parasites: "Using an eyedropper, put 10 drops of tincture in with 1 tsp. of honey or molasses. Mix well before eating. The honey or molasses helps to alleviate the bitter taste of the tincture."

Onwards,

"Our Vanishing Landscape"

2009-10-26T10:39:00.005-05:00

This is just a few meandering thoughts. There's a conservation organization in a city near us. You don't need to know the name--but you know the type, the kind that asks for donations of land for them to hold in perpetituity in order to escape the dread evil of "our vanishing landscape." That line has always made me laugh--WHAT vanishing landscape? Hell, I live out in the sticks and we got veritable TONS of landscape and as far as I can tell, it is all still there. So, like, what's the problem?

I mean, it sounds like you'd be driving along, and all of a sudden, you wouldn't see fields or farms or woods or trees, you'd just see gray blank walls of nothingness. Right? The landscape would have "vanished." That's what makes me laugh.

I'm poking fun at this silly environmentalist thinking, of course. And I have to say, it seems to me that most "environmentalists," especially those who consider themselves tree-huggers, that they all live in cities. They see sidewalks, streets, buildings--in other words, lots and lots of cement. And that apparently causes a bit of brain dysfunction, because they will believe things like "our landscape is vanishing." They also probably have no idea exactly how much work it takes to maintain cement, to restrain rampant vegetation from simply taking over.

Because, folks, it WILL. All you have to do is STOP all maintainence work on roads, highways, bridges, etc. and pretty soon the whole damn mess of it will simply disappear from view. All you will see is a plethora of, well, "landscape." Vines, trees, loads of my buddies, the weeds, grasses, you name it. Vegetation alone will easily overcome anything we might call a city. Just look at those ruins of cities and temples in South America, easily returned to the jungle by victorious landscape.

If you live out in the country, you've seen dandelions poking their bright, yellow heads right up through pavement on a back country road. In the cities, you see dandelions poking out through cracks in the sidewalk. Of course you have, if you're alert. There's your landscape returning, folks. And if you're a city environmentalist, come out into the country. Hell, we'll be happy to show you that landscape ain't disappearing nohow. It'll rule in the end.

Well, OK. I AM thinking about the "national emergency" Obama just declared to handle the not-a-big-deal-government-produced-and-directed swine flu. And that's bad news. But I can't think about bad news all the time. That's my husband's department. But crisis or no crisis, world-ending or no world-ending, dinner still has to get to the table somehow, and since the sun is shining and it is a beautiful October day, I'd rather be grateful and cheerful, and nothing cheers me up more than to think about dandelions taking over the world after us damn-silly human beings have done ourselves to dirt.

Dandelions Uber Alles!

Teasel for Lyme Disease

2009-10-25T09:18:00.004-05:00

Teasel basal rosette--first year plant

First of all, my apologies for not blogging much this past week. I was under the weather as they say, dealing with various physical problems. And I was busy researching Lyme disease, as Joaz, our Amish friend and farmer, had been diagnosed a few weeks ago as having Lyme. He'd been ill for 2 weeks, going on the third week, which is quite a long time for a very active, usually healthy young man. He had all the usual symptoms for early Lyme, headaches, fatigue, bright lights hurt his eyes, fever and chills, muscle and joint pain, swollen glands, etc. And Fred and I were worried and praying for him and his family.

Lyme disease is rising in the US, and it can be a devasting disease. Google Lyme Disease to find out more than you'd ever want to know about Lyme. In fact, you can read up on it here, but there is lots of information out on the web about it. A few years ago, I had a tick bite and it had gotten infected--the bite was on my back and while I was aware of it itching, I couldn't see the damn thing and so didn't connect it with a tick bite. Anyway, a quick search around the web for info on Lyme disease and I called my allopath MD for an appointment. While I normally avoid antibiotics (not to mention doctors), this time I thought I'd better get right on it; my doctor agreed and I did a course of some sort of expensive antibiotic that did the trick. I did NOT want to have to deal with lyme disease. Fortunately for me, the antibiotic therapy worked. Other folks are not so lucky, or they don't have the rash and the lyme gets diagnosed as something else or it goes untreated and all hell breaks lose.

So, Joaz and Lydia and their kids believe in natural health, herbs, and use naturopathic doctors, chiropractors, massage, etc. and avoid the general allopathic medical world as much as they can. Since Fred, Michael and I do pretty much the same, that makes sense to me. But in this case, for lyme disease, I told them my story with lyme and what I did and suggested that a course of antibiotics might be a good idea.

I don't know if they did that (I don't think so but I didn't ask) but yesterday when Fred and I were there for our normal Saturday morning visit, Joaz was feeling much, much better. He looked better, more energetic and almost his normal self. Thank you, Lord! I gave them some materials on herbs and alternative therapies for lyme, with a list of herbs that some herbalists had recommended. I'll be bringing a few that I have on hand for them next week.

We discussed teasel root tincture for lyme. I am most emphatically not a doctor, nor even a certified herbalist--just an ol' wild food/medicine forager, but I feel OK about mentioning various herbs/plants to people as perhaps being helpful, and if they are interested, I can mostly find the plant and make some sort of simple preparation for them. I had not known teasel until this summer when I noticed this interesting plant growing down by the pond, and what seemed to be the basal rosette of it growing on our hillside, which, upon on a closer inspection and checking all my herbal books and using google, etc., turned out to be the mysterious teasel himself.

Yesterday afternoon was so glorious, I couldn't stay inside, so I went out to see if I could get some teasel roots for Joaz. I found the old dried plants from this summer, and then, to my delight, I saw the basal rosettes just across the road on the hillside. Perfect! Ok, it IS on a hill and it won't be easy digging out the roots, but certainly I could get some. Eureka!

While I was there, I saw some young mulleins starting, so I sat by them for a while too, asking for their help and feeling so grateful to live in this place where so many herb friends grow and thrive. Then I took some leaves and dug up some roots as well. Also harvested some black walnuts, to use the hulls for a decoction for diarrhea and a few other things. It was a short, but blessed, foraging trip.

You can find out more about using teasel for lyme disease at Lady Barbara's website. Clicking here will tell you how she used teasel root tincture to cure her nasty case of lyme. Or do a google search on teasel root for lyme disease and you'll get all the same links I did. To dig the roots, you want to find the basal rosette (pictured at the top). You'll find them near the older, dried teasels of the summer or close nearby. Dig roots in the spring or fall.

Happy foraging!

Flu Vaccines: Pure Quackery

2009-10-16T07:01:00.004-05:00

There are 3 or 4 alternative health sites I visit regularly. I always read Bill Sardi if an essay of his shows up at LewRockwell.com. He's excellent. Then there's Dr. Mercola, also excellent. And Mike Adams, the Health Ranger of Natural News. Each of these are good, reputable critics of our current medical system.

Lately there's been some very interesting articles on flu vaccines. If you're interested, read the following articles. In my not very humble opinion, we HAVE to be interested in our health, because it takes effort to keep it these days. If you're the sort of person who runs off to the doctor, takes whatever pill or potion they give you, believes in their diagnosis without question, takes whatever test is recommended, then I'd say you are in Big Trouble and your health will suffer greatly. We must question "authority" on this and everything else. Frankly, I lost trust in the medical system years ago. Like most people who lose trust in the system, I think I was more harmed than helped by their treatment. That lack of trust has served me well since.

Anyway, the first article on this list is from Mike Adams, of Natural News. In his piece, he summarizes and explains/comments on a current article in The Atlantic. Mike is biased in favor of natural medicine, and opposed to the medical system as it is. With that in mind, however, here's his take on the topic of flu vaccine:

http://www.naturalnews.com/027239_vaccines_flu_vaccine_.html

Then, if you are like me and have the time, you'll want to read the original article in The Atlantic. The authors did a great job of showing the empty science behind the vaccine industry:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/brownlee-h1n1

And last, over at Dr. Mercola's website, you find this article on how getting a seasonal flu vaccine doubles your chances of getting swine flu:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/10/15/People-Who-Get-a-Seasonal-Flu-Shot-Are-Twice-as-Likely-to-Catch-Swine-Flu.aspx

Pretty amazing, isn't it? In the past few days I've seen the hordes of people lining up to get their seasonal flu shots at $24 or $30 a pop. My bet is most of those folks get a flu shot every year. They probably and reliably get the flu every year as well. Sigh. Well, there are good people challenging this vaccine "science" this year.

I want to leave you with a paragraph from the Atlantic article. It is a real eye-opener. It will show you exactly how deadly modern medicinee can be:

The annals of medicine are littered with treatments and tests that became medical doctrine on the slimmest of evidence, and were then declared sacrosanct and beyond scientific investigation. In the 1980s and ’90s, for example, cancer specialists were convinced that high-dose chemotherapy followed by a bone-marrow transplant was the best hope for women with advanced breast cancer, and many refused to enroll their patients in randomized clinical trials that were designed to test transplants against the standard—and far less toxic—therapy. The trials, they said, were unethical, because they knew transplants worked. When the studies were concluded, in 1999 and 2000, it turned out that bone-marrow transplants were killing patients. Another recent example involves drugs related to the analgesic lidocaine. In the 1970s, doctors noticed that the drugs seemed to make the heart beat rhythmically, and they began prescribing them to patients suffering from irregular heartbeats, assuming that restoring a proper rhythm would reduce the patient’s risk of dying. Prominent cardiologists for years opposed clinical trials of the drugs, saying it would be medical malpractice to withhold them from patients in a control group. The drugs were widely used for two decades, until a government-sponsored study showed in 1989 that patients who were prescribed the medicine were three and a half times as likely to die as those given a placebo.

Keep in mind: when dealing with the medical system, it is definitely Caveat Emptor!
HM

Diatomaceous Earth

2009-10-14T12:07:00.003-05:00

I got the pix above from a website that sells DE for ridding birds of parasites. And I got the idea for researching DE from Kellene Bishop's nifty and useful blog Preparedness Pro. She discusses using DE in your food storage; that is, when you go to store a 5 gallon bucket of wheat or rice or beans or whathaveyou, you add a tablespoon of DE to kill insects. We've been using DE in our food storage for about a year now and we have very little bug problems, if any. We also use bay leaves. I highly recommend it for this purpose. However, Kellene also mentions that DE can be a good source of trace minerals, it absorbs nasty heavy metals and toxins in your system (and disposes of them), rids you of worms and other parasites, regulates digestion and elimination, and gives you stronger, healthier skin and hair. Wow. Sounds like a good deal!

Since I didn't know any of this prior to reading Preparedness Pro on the subject, I thought I'd better do a bit of research. Let's look at each of the benefits separately.

Absorbs Heavy Metals and Toxins

Diatomaceous earth (DE) Fossil Shell Flour has been reported in scientific literature to absorb methyl mercury, E. coli, endotoxins, viruses (including poliovirus), organophosphate pesticide residues, drug residues, and protein, perhaps even the proteinaceous toxins produced by some intestinal infections. Pyrethroid insecticide residues probably also bind to diatomaceous earth, since pyrethrins from Chrysanthemum flowers bind to and are stabilized by this material.

This excerpt is from an article on the benefits from a website that sells food grade DE from Canada. I haven't checked prices at various vendors, but I would before I buy. However, this website includes a lot of useful information, and I always like that. I'd certainly consider buying DE from these folks if the prices were equivalent to other vendors. The entire article is very good. Apparently, DE binds to all these toxins, including pharmaceutical drugs and other poisons, and takes them out of the body via elimination. Activated charcoal and benntonite clay can do the same, however, DE has so many other uses and benefits to make it even more attractive.

Trace Minerals

DE is essentially silica, which performs a host of good things in the body. You can't easily absorb calcium without the presence of silica. See this article on the benefits of silica/DE on health. It all sounds great, although I take everything I read with a grain of plain old sea salt. DE contains calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper, zinc....well, check it out here. That's a LOT of trace minerals, which, lord knows, are difficult to get from our basic foods these days (see my previous entries on the nutritional value of food--and look under the label for it).

Kills Worms and Other Parasites

DE is used to rid animals, both livestock and pets, of worms and parasites. Of course, it works for humans as well. I have read that 80% of the entire human population on earth has parasites, which can cause a host of nasty diseases. The parasites in your gut will eat YOUR nutrition, eliminate their toxic waste in your gut, and cause many other problems, even kill you. Frankly, I don't know if I have worms, but if I do, I'd want to get rid of them. I don't like any parasites, including lawyers and politicians, but at least I can take DE to rid myself of the less evil kind (HAH!).

Over at Wolf Creek Ranch, they feed everyone DE: humans, kids, pets, livestock, feral rescue animals, birds, etc. You may want to read all the information on that page, it's excellent stuff.

On final note on this topic: if you care to read one woman's diary of how she uses DE to rid herself of worms, read here. A word of warning: it's not very pretty. But it is very enlightening.

Regulates Digestion and Elimination

If you read all of the articles at the links mentioned here, you'll find a lot of mention how DE helps nearly everyone with constipation and other digestion problems. You'll find more here.

The upshot of all this is that food grade diatomaceous earth is very beneficial. One website even includes some nifty household uses (besides ridding the house of pests). It cleans metal, you can use it as a face mask and toothpaste, etc. With all this good stuff going for it, I think incorporating DE into your normal healthy routines is a great idea. I just started taking it a few days ago. I will let you know how I feel in updates (although I don't think I'll share all the worm elimination details if it is all the same with you :).

If anyone currently uses DE and has good (or bad) things to say about it, I'd like to hear about it. Thanks!

Update on Canned Butter

2009-10-13T10:49:00.002-05:00

Reader Andrea emailed me to ask if the butter we canned was of good quality, that is, worth it. Did it taste the same, was it the same texture as regular butter? Here's some observations:

We opened one of the jars of butter. The three of us (husband, brother, self) agree that it tastes fine and the texture is about the same. That is, it is not gritty or gravelly or crusty. The butter stays solid at room temperature, but it is a bit more runny/moist than what we were used to. See, I keep our butter normally in the fridge when it is not in use. When I take it out, the butter is hard until it warms up and softens. The butter in the jar is soft and melty. As I said, it tastes just fine, just like normal butter. I haven't noticed a difference.

Keep in mind that we just canned that butter a week or so ago. I don' t know how the butter will be 1 year, 2 years, 5 years out. Can't tell til we get there. However, the reason we canned the butter in the first place is so we would have butter to hand if our regular supply wasn't available. Lower-quality butter would be acceptable if it was the only butter around, I think.

Normally we get our butter either from the Amish farmers (purchased as "pet food") or I buy some from a store. I love the Amish butter as it is fresh churned from a cow milked that morning, but store butter is OK too. I have never used margarine or oleo or any of the fake butters. For me, I'll take the healthy if a bit fattening butter over whatever margarine is (one molecule away from plastic) any day.

Folks who have been canning butter for years using the method we used say it is fine at 3 years down the road, and fine at 5 years too. I'll take their word for it until I have another opinion to go by. So if you're wondering whether to "can" butter, I'd say go ahead. That way you have some in hand if supplies dry up.
Onwards,
HM

Oil of Oregano for Flu

2009-10-11T11:13:00.004-05:00

A friend sent me this in an email:

Everybody, remember to get your Oil Of Oregano to protect yourself against the swine flu (and any other illness) this season. It's not expensive ($20 for a month's supply) and can be found online or at Good Earth in Broad Ripple. It's an extremely effective antiviral, antifungal, and antibacterial agent that you just drop 2-3 drops of into your mouth twice a day- just like taking a vitamin (which I presume everyone already takes). It can be a little strong tasting, but you'll get used to it. It's just a concentrated oil that's made from a certain type of Mediterranean oregano (similar to the Italian spice) that comes in little one ounce bottles, anywhere from $18-40, depending where you go and how strong it is. I urge everyone to at least look it up and read about it, and you'll see what I'm talking about. I've been taking it since April, when the first round of swine flu hit, and haven't been sick since!

I have some oil of oregano, an essential oil from Young Living. It is very expensive ($40 or so). Yet I've had this same little bottle for years and years, since I only use a drop at a time. It is also very strong, almost too strong-tasting to use straight. I usually will put a drop in a glass of water and take it that way. I take my cayenne tincture that way too.

Other items recommended for flu in general: Netti pots for washing out the sinuses (you see these in regular drug stores these days), cold season teas, humidifers. All will be beneficial if the flu season gets bad this year.

On the other hand, part of me feels this whole swine flu thing is just another government sideshow, meant to keep our little minds busily terrified and thus not thinking about the sticky hand in our pockets, or bailout ripoffs. CDC has certainly blown what seems a mild flu all out of proportion. I imagine most readers are familiar with all the funny business of this "swine flu" "pandemic" and I won't get into it here. Suffice it to say I find the whole thing suspicious, possible big gov/big pharma driven (gov gets more control, potential martial law, big pharma gets billions with no responsibility for safety of vaccines), CDC/media collusion in calling the thing a "pandemic"--it all seems crazy to me.

And of course, the govt will never tell us to do the sensible things, the common sense things or to look for nutritional aids to help our bodies prevent disease or cope with disease if we become ill. No, for what profit in that? Well, this whole point has been discussed by much better writers than I. Read Bill Sardi's archives at LewRockwell.com. There is a great deal of very useful information there.

In the meantime, do some research on oil of oregano. It is another beneficial tool for your own flu protocols.
HM

Fred's Foot Infection

2009-10-11T09:14:00.006-05:00

Fred, our 81 year-old friend, had a sore on his foot that became infected about 3 weeks ago. That's where this saga begins. His foot was slightly swollen, with what looked like an infected corn that had been aggravated by being rubbed against with his shoe. First step, change the shoe so the corn is no longer aggravated.

Second, clean the infected area really well. He used hydrogen peroxide. Then Fred spread moistened clay on the sore, hoping the clay would pull out the infected matter and then it would heal.

He called me a few days later. He was keeping the clay on his foot at all times. His foot was now swollen, toes swollen, hot, and very tender to the touch. Now, I'm not a doctor, or trained nurse, or trained anything but a wild food forager who has read a lot about herbal and alternative medicines. I didn't have any suggestions, really, but it seemed to me that the clay treatment wasn't doing much for him. I suggested letting the clay dry out a bit, see if that changed things.

Fred then decided to try using activated charcoal on the sore. Activated charcoal can be used as a compress on wounds, so it seemed a worthy idea to me. And the foot seemed a bit better, but not really healing. I brought over plantain tincture to see if that would help. So Fred used a few drops of the plantain tincture with the charcoal. The foot started looking worse.

Oh dear. In fact, the next day, his foot looked so bad I told him to call a doctor or that I'd take him to emergency or the walk-in clinic. I told him it was far out of my ken or abilities at this point. But Fred is very stubborn and dislikes the allopathic medical system as much as I do. Besides, the medicos charge an arm and a leg for those without insurance. We joked that at this point, Fred might well lose a foot to them. Hah. As much as I dislike the system, I argued with Fred that he needed some professional help at this point. I said I'd settle for him calling Anna, a nurse who lives in the valley. And I said that if a red line started up his leg from the sore on his foot he was in big trouble and then must go to a doctor.

I called Anna. She went over that night and also told him to get to a doctor or the clinic, but that she didn't think the infection was systemic or in the blood (yet). Fred still refused to go to a doctor. She told him to keep his foot elevated, so he did.

Next day I went and gathered plantain leaves. We soaked his foot in Epsom salts, then put on a plantain leaf poultice, and stopped with the charcoal, clay, and plantain tincture. Finally, his foot swelling went down, the foot became less red and hot and Fred became a bit more comfortable. But the sore still wouldn't heal. In the midst of all this, regular life went on of course. I had lots of home and garden chores, food preservation to accomplish, meals to cook, rooms to clean, work to do. Anna also came by a few times and said she thought Fred's foot was getting better.

But I kept fretting about it. I remembered reading somewhere that raw honey was effective on wounds of all kinds as an antibiotic dressing. I quickly did a bit of research, and then Fred and I put a small amount of pure raw honey on the sore. Fred said that at first it stings, then it feels better. He still would get shooting pains from the foot occasionally, but the honey was helping the sore to heal.

And that's where we were yesterday when we went to the Amish as we normally do on Saturdays for our "pet food," and other produce. While there, we asked Lydia if she could think of anything else we could try. Lydia's niece and nephew were visiting and helping out because Joaz had been ill. Lydia's niece (also named Lydia) said to try the tonic bitters that her parents make. She said it can heal sores and is very useful in any number of ways. This tonic bitters is made by the recipe for Swedish Bitters. So Lydia gave us about an ounce of what she had and we made arrangements to purchase some from the niece next week. I've also found the recipe at the link above, but it would take time to gather the herbs and other ingredients.

So we get Fred home and soaked a gauze pad with some of the bitters and put that on the sore. By this time, with the plantain leaves and the raw honey, Fred's foot was looking almost better, but still a bit swollen and warm to the touch. Fred agreed that he'd alternate using the raw honey and the bitters and see what that does. He had the bitters as a dressing last night and reported that his foot hurt all night. I suggested he use the honey at night instead, as the honey helps with the pain.

So, what's with this long, drawn-out story, HM? I've told you all these details to show a picture of what many of us might have to deal with IF there is no medical system for us to rely on (and complain about or avoid). There will be many people dealing with situations outside of their limited medical experience in a time of chaos or disruption of normal life. This somewhat confusing story presents some ideas you might find useful in the future. This saga of Fred's foot isn't over yet, but I think we're past the danger point. It'll heal, if slowly. There are no miracle herbs or tonics--although at times some herbs and tonics can seem a miracle.

So far, the raw honey has worked the best. In this case, I don't think the clay or activated charcoal helped much, although both are excellent treatments for other situations. Here you have two people basically stumbling around trying to figure out what to do, what might work. And both Fred and I have read extensively about alternative health treatments and medicine. We have ideas of what might work, not what WILL work. And that's not bad, at least since this situation wasn't life-threatening. We came up with other ideas, a garlic foot bath, for instance. (Before I googled it, I didn't know that bit about a garlic foot bath helping the lungs clear from mucus!)

I'm sure this post doesn't show me in the best light--but that's good. It is TOO easy to think that someone is an "expert" because they are a bit knowledgable about a subject. I've always said in this blog that I'm a beginner, an amateur, more a forager than an herbalist. In the future, however, I expect that many of us will be called upon to stretch our skills and learning, and by stretching, to become more skilled. The doctors I have respected most are those who still consider themselves students, that is, they are still learning.

Who was it who said that the more you learn, the more you learn that there is ALWAYS more to learn?

I'd love to hear from any of you who have dealt with stubborn infections, especially in the elderly. Thanks for tuning in...

Our Flu Protocol

2009-10-02T14:15:00.005-05:00

My husband and I have decided to do these things every day (or as near as possible), in order to give ourselves a growling good immune system and to combat whatever flu bugs might accidentally wander into our environs.

Take:
Vitamin C (1000 mg base amount, more if needed)
Vitamin D3 (1000 - 50000 mg base amount)
2-4 droppers of elderberry extract (more if needed)
Multivitamin/mineral mix (Michael takes this; I skip it as I prefer to get my nutritional needs met via eating wild plants. I just go outside an nibble on whatever I find--wood sorrel, plantain leaves, yellow dock leaves, gnaw on some sassafrass leaves, a couple of spice berries here, couple of wild grapes there, the classic nibbler diet)

Eat:
Clove garlic a day
Kimchi at least one serving a day
The usual good diet of meat with veggies galore, a minimum of sugar or white flour products, very little to none processed foods

If necessary/as needed
Goldenseal/Echinacea extract with a Cayenne extract for booster

And getting out into sunshine, getting some exercise, swinging our arms, praising God's gifts. The last mentioned is without a doubt the most important, praising God and being grateful. And if by chance we get a flu--we normally don't, nor have we ever taken flu shots, then we'll live with it and let the elderberry extract deal with it.

Another fairly important element in this is to avoid those who are ill. Be very careful when you go to stores, wash your hands so often you'll feel obsessive/compulsive, all the usual stuff.

I put by a lot of elderberry extract this year. I filled quart jars 1/2 to 3/4 full with elderberries, then add vodka to top it all off. The six weeks I usually allow for extracts is nearly over. I have offered the extract to everyone in the valley, and I hope they'll use it and wisely. I don't charge $$ for this, but donations will be accepted to cover the cost of the vodka.

I've also laid in some OTC pharmaceuticals--mucinex and sudafed in particular. Someone who'd already had the swine flu recommended those. So, on a just in case basis, I got a few of those. We also have gloves and masks, and somewhere I have a whole biochem suit (complete with gas mask) that someone once gave me. It'd make a great Halloween costume...

So that's our basic flu protocol. I don't know if we'll need it, but it can't hurt to give your body extra nutrients for combatting illness. It's very important also to detoxify--try to get rid of the crap in your system, fast one to three days every once in a while, take hot baths and sweat out toxins, don't eat processed "food" poisons, and move around a bunch.

If anyone has other/different ideas, I'd be glad to hear them. Thanks,
HM

Kimchi Soup

2009-09-30T06:42:00.002-05:00

I wrote about making kimchi a few posts ago and the kimchi has now fermented into its hot, tangy, spicy, lovely self. Sauerkraut it isn't--but I love the mix of the hot, the garlic, the ginger with the cabbage, onion, and scallion. It is now part of our "flu protocol" which we'll start today (more on the flu protocol later) because of its reported action against SARS and respiratory illnesses.

It has gotten cold here, at least, chilly in the mornings. And there is nothing nicer on a cold day than hot soup. So I made kimchi soup--not an authentic Korean recipe, although you can find those with google. I knew what I wanted: something hot and tangy, spicy, a touch sour and brothy. I figured the kimchi I made last week would work great as a base.

I used four or five BIG tablespoons of kimchi and sauteed that with some more garlic and onions. Then I added some chicken broth and tossed in some other veggies, celery and carrots and a tiny potato. Got all that to a boil, then backed off to simmer. Added some hot pepper flakes and sea salt. Ummmmm, now we're talking. Then--and this may sound as awful to you as it did to me when I first thought of it: sardines. Yes, a can of sardines. It was a total surprise--and very, very good. I recall thinking I could always toss the soup on the compost if it was awful because of the sardines, but man, I wish I'd been doing this for years. The sardines work great in a soup. They stay firm, add a lot of flavor, and are mild in the midst of hot garlicky pepper broth. I added some noodles to it and voila, a wonderful kimchi soup!

For me, this soup is a winner, and a very pleasant way to eat the kimchi. See, food IS medicine. Your body requires nutrients--and doesn't require synthetic chemicals, which is what all drugs and most processed foods are. Give your body the nutrients it needs and you'll feel good and healthy. Deprive your body of nutrients (by taking drugs and eating processed foods) and you'll get sicker and sicker. Simple. More simple than it is, of course, but that is how I think about foods and medicine.
Onwards,
HM

Canning Butter

2009-09-30T05:07:00.005-05:00

We canned butter yesterday. Well, it isn't really canning, but it does get the butter in the jars and the jars seal and so you can keep your butter on the shelf with your other stored foods with no refrigeration for a few years. That's the theory. Lots of other folks have done this and presented all the info, so I'll skip typing out the actual steps but give you the links so you can go and read what they did, and what we did. It is nice to have 12 pints of butter stored (that's about 10 pounds worth). If you do this, you can buy butter when it's on sale and get a good price.

Michael's been after me for months to do this, so finally we did it. And it isn't hard or difficult, just messy. You can find clear instructions at Our Plain and Simple Life, or at the Just in Case blog. Both are similar with clear steps to take. Basically, the idea is to get both the jars hot in the oven, and the butter melted to boiling, then simmered, so all ingredients are hot. The jars are hot and must be handled carefully. The butter is greasy, and will spill out of the jars before they seal, but the jars must be shaken many times to get the butter to congeal, mixing the separated milk solids from the butter oil. If that's not clear, please go and read the instructions at those blogs and then what I've said here will make more sense.

We put the jars in a roasting pan in the oven, heated to 250 degrees. They have to be in there for 20 minutes before you start to fill them. During that 20 minutes you'll be melting your butter on the stove. Use the big pot you use for chili or stews, because 10 pounds of butter is a LOT of butter. The lids and rings go in a pot of simmering water on the stove. Once the butter has come to a boil and then simmered for 7-10 minutes, you fill the jars. Use a canning funnel and try not to spill the butter all over the place. Wipe the tops of the jars, then put on the lid and tighten the ring. Move the jar to the central shaking area (kitchen table) and ask the husband to shake them for you while you keep filling the jars. If you don't have an assistant, then you'll have to keep shaking the jars whilst filling the others. I imagine that could be a bit complicated.

Anyway, keep shaking the jars every few minutes. If/when butter spills out of the not-yet-sealed jars, wipe it off with a clean cloth (I used white vinegar on my cloth to help cut the grease of the butter). When jars are almost room-temperature, move them to the fridge, but keep shaking. Gradually the butter congeals in the jars and the jars seal. Leave the jars in the fridge for a while--hour or so. And that's it. You've "canned" butter.

Is it safe? I'm not entirely sure. According to the USDA, there are potential problems. Read about it over at an LDS forum here--scroll down a bit and you'll see the warnings. We went ahead and did it anyway, but I'll have those warnings in my mind and I'll be careful with that butter. The choice and the risk are yours too, if you choose to can butter.

I go and visit with Amish friends and farmers every week. They can food a lot, and don't always use mason jars and lids. And none of them seem to have problems with stored food spoilage. So I'm a little more relaxed about it having witnessed many friends canning and having done it myself. So keep in mind that there may be food spoilage issues. On the other hand, the same government agency that warns us about canning food problems can't seem to do anything about e coli on spinach on agribusiness farms, so what the hell. There are plenty of problems with foods you buy at the store--and thus any food has the potential to make you sick. You have to use your own judgment and discernment in this, as in all things.

Onwards, the only direction there is,

From the book, Joy of Pickling

2009-09-27T16:58:00.003-05:00

Here's an interesting pull quote for you. This is from The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich, the book I've been enjoying (from the library). I haven't gotten around to buying it yet, but I probably will. I've used a lot of the recipes and though I have some nits to pick with some of them, it's over all been fun. It has some fun quotes about pickling sprinkled throughout the text. Here's a curious one:

"I've once asked my grandmother, then seventy-two years old, how she kept her skin so wrinkle-free. The secret, she explained, was a daily dose of the fermented brine from the pickle barrel, rubbed into her skin. This treatment explained the unusual smell I'd always associated with my grandmother, but the astringent quality of the brine did seem to work wonders."

--Darra Goldstein, A Taste of Russia

Well, who knows? Has anyone else heard of this? If I were still wrinkle-free, I might give it a try, but as it is, I like my wrinkles. They fit my face, tell the story of my life and all of that. At any rate, just another tidbit.

Onwards,

Short Foraging Walk

2009-09-27T15:01:00.005-05:00

I forage constantly, and I always try to be ready to harvest whatever might present itself to me. Thus, even for just a short stroll with my brother, I have a plastic grocery bag or two folded up in my pocket and a small useful many-blade knife in my pocket as well. Our first stop was at the black walnut tree at the bottom of the small hill we live on top of. Only found 1 walnut to have fallen so far. I snag it--I want to make an extract of the hulls this year. Black walnut hull extract is good for ridding oneself of parasites and for skin diseases, funguses (fungi?) and such. I need to do some further research before I make the stuff, but I know where to look.

Our next stop was the persimmon tree, now laden with lucious fruit. You simply HAVE to wait for persimmons. If you bite into an unripe 'simmon, you'll get the puckiest dry mouth in the world. When ripe, the persimmon is a sweet delicious treat, just bursting with flavor. But unripe? Yuck--horrible! The 'simmons still on the tree were not ripe and we left 'em there. We fought off the yellowjackets for the ones on the ground. And believe me, those bees love ripe persimmons as much as we do. This year I bought a new tool--sort of a french food mill thing--that makes it really easy to extract the pulp from the seeds and skin of the persimmon. I used that and got about a cup's worth of sweet pulp. I'll freeze it and add to it when more persimmons come ripe, until I have enough for a persimmon bread or pudding recipe.

If you want, you can store unripe persimmons in a container in the fridge with some unwaxed apple--the gas from the apple will help ripen the persimmon. I'll try that this year too.

Steve "Wildman" Brill says that persimmons "are one of the most caloric, filling fruits. They're a great source of potassium and Vitamin C, and provide lots of calcium and phosphorus. Persimmon leaf infusion is very high in Vitamin C and tasty too." That bit about the leaves is good to know. I'll gather some leaves before they all fall off to use in flu season.

I picked some small white flowers that I don't recognize--it is sort of a tiny daisy flower with lots of petals, maybe 18-20. I'll have to start looking through the plant books to find out what it is. This is time consuming, but it is a fun project in the winter.

I didn't pick the plantain or dandelions or other things I saw--I have both plantain extract and salve already, and dandelion extract. Don't pick what you don't have a use for. Of course, plantains and dandelions are ubiquitious, but still. Leave 'em be if you aren't going to use them.

On to the crabapple tree of my neighbors. I had pickled a small batch of these earlier and I thought the taste would go wonderful with a venison roast. In the hopes that my stepson comes home to visit (and gets me a deer :), my brother and I gathered a bunch more. These I'll pickle as I did before and look for other recipes. Maybe a crabapple chutney? Or crabapple wine. I'll dry some to use for winter tea. This is really just an ornamental crabapple tree, and the fruits are gorgeous on the tree, but they're not the tastiest thing in the world. But pickle them in sugar, water, vinegar with a spice bag of cinnamon, allspice berries and cloves, and you'll get a fairly nice tasting fruit--good for cooking with, if not for eating outright.

Then, as we returned, we saw a bunch of walnuts down by the pone. We went down and got a bunch of those which I'll use for the extract. I also saw some little berries that look like small grapes, and yep, they grew on a vine. But I recall some warning from Brill's book on a poisonous lookalike, so I'll just take a few and look that up before proceeding to nibble on them. Caution is a good thing in this business.

Some foraging walks are more productive than others of course. But it helps to be prepared and to look around you. I'm planning a longer hike soon--I want to get some sumac berries and sundry other goodies before fall starts getting truly wintry.

Onwards,

Odd's Condiments: Butternut Squash Marmalade

2009-09-24T11:43:00.005-05:00

Lately I've been making little jars of tasty condiments, something to liven up a diet of beans and rice or beans and mush. We're not eating that way right now, the menfolk are on the Atkin's diet so we eat a lot of meat and cheese, eggs and low carb veggies. But the garden put forth a goodly quantity of butternut squash and we have to use that too. I can't do strict Atkins--I love my vegetables too much to give up the higher carb ones, but I'll cook the Atkins for the guys.

So my problem was what do I do with all this butternut squash? Michael and Terry don't want to eat it right now (which is insane, since butternuts are so delicious, even if a bit high carb). I started looking for recipes for using the squash in interesting, if odd, ways. Butternut squash is a terrific food, very tasty and nutritious. If you check the link, you'll find it is very high in vitamin A. And ever since I read about it over at Stealth Survival, I've gotten into eating "rainbow veggies, that is, veggies of all different colors. Nothing looks prettier on a plate than say, pureed butternut squash and a serving of nettles or spinach. Anyway... back to the topic at hand.

I found a recipe for butternut squash marmalade of all things. It's simple and delicious, and if you have the same plethora of butternuts in your garden that I do, you might want to give it a try. Since I found this on the web, it's only fair I direct you over to it and you can watch the video and read the recipe for yourself. This is really good: sweet and yet the flavor of the butternut comes though loud and clear. Yum!

Then, in the Joy of Pickling that I mentioned the other day, I found a recipe for a crisp pickled pumpkin or winter squash. Perfect, I thought. I'll pickle a bunch of it. At least we'll try it and see if we like it. My husband and brother tend to prefer the ordinary foods we've eaten all our lives, but I confess to liking the weird and out of the way. So here's a nifty recipe for the butternut squash pickle. I've got to wait a few weeks before eating it to let the pickle flavor develop, so I'll let you all know later if I like it.

Crisp Pickled Pumpkin or Squash

(makes 4 pints)

3 1/2 pound pumpkin or winter squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 3/4 inch cubes (about 9 cups)

2 tablespoons pickling salt

4 whole cloves

8 whole black peppercorns

1 bay leaf crumbled

2 cups cider vinegar

1 cup sugar

4 thin slices fresh ginger, slivered

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1. In a bowl, toss the pumpkin or squash with the pickling salt. Let the cubes rest for 2-3 hours.

2. Drain the cubes, rinse them, and drain them again. Pack them into pint mason jars.

3. Tie the cloves, peppercorns and bay leaf in a spice bag or scrap of cheesecloth. In a saucepan, combine the spice bag with the vinegar, sugar, ginger and garlic. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer the liquid 10 minutes.

4. Remove the spice bag from the pan and pour the hot liquid over the pumpkin or squash, leaving a 1/2 inch headspace. Close the jars with two piece caps. Process the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Store the cooled jars in a cool, dry, dark place for at least 3 weeks before eating the pickle. After opening the jars, store in the fridge.

And there you go. The pickle sounds like it would taste good, and it certainly would be a break from a steady rice and beans diet. You might want to try making some different condiments to supplement your stored foods as well.

Why Odd's Condiments in the title? Well, simple. If I get to making a bunch of weird condiments and foods (weird at least for Indiana), then Odd's Condiments would be a great name for the lable. :)

Onwards,

Oh, one last note--I canned the butternut squash marmalade. The recipe didn't say to do that--you could probably just store your jar of it in the fridge--but I had a load going in the canner anyway, and if you want to give these as gifts to friends, can it. Boiling water bath, 10 minutes.

Kimchi!

2009-09-22T09:10:00.004-05:00

It's only been a million years or so since I last blogged. My friend Charli Gribble down in 'Bama has been quietly yelling at me to get with it and get blogging again, so Charli, here you go! I've been busy as hell all summer growing, foraging, fermenting, drying, canning, wine-making and otherwise preserving food for our family. In fact, I've felt an almost primitive need to preserve food. Wild foods, garden goodies, produce from the organic Amish farm, you name it. I snagged as much of it as I could and preserved it in some manner. It will ALL come in handy and probably be necessary. I'm sure many of you have felt the same way--this is not only sort of a hobby, but an absolutely necessary project.

So I've been primarily gardening, foraging and drying in the dehydrator. What a wonderful tool! I had misplaced mine last year so I sun-dried, but it is much easier in the dehydrator. And fun. My brother makes fun of me: "She can't see a veggie without wanting to suck all the water out of it!" Me, I love seeing how the apples, peaches, berries, tomatoes, onions, rutabegas etc. all shrink down into little bits, only to plump back up again with the addition of hot water. It's all MUCH easier to store for us as we live in a small space. The vacuumed bags of dehydrated veggies, fruit and meat (jerky) now all live in some big popcorn tins I got cheap at the local thrift store.

Anyway, on to our topic of today: Kimchi. A national dish/icon of Korea. I was reading in The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich about fermenting veggies, especially cabbages and came across this bit:

Kimchi as Medicine
While more and more Westerners are turning up their noses at sauerkraut, Koreans and other Asians are eating more kimchi. This is at least in part out of fear of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), the deadly pneumonia that left Korea virtually untouched while sickening people throughout most of Asia in 2003. Many inside and outside of the country believe that kimchi kept Koreans safe from the disease.

(As an aside, this is my current interest in food as medicine: keeping us safe from any damn flu virus the government/vaccine industry can throw at us. Thus the quarts of elderberry tincture, the goldenseal/echinacea tincture, etc. And Kimchi!)

As Korean scientists have proven, beneficial microbes in kimchi can overpower bacteria such as Helicobacter pylori, Shigella sonnei, and Listeria monocytogenes. Scientists are now cultivating kimchi microbes in hopes of using them for mass production of a new kind of antibiotic.

Besides killing bacteria, kimchi may fight viruses. A team at Seoul National University reported in 2005 that an extract of kimchi helped in treatment of chickens infected with avian flu. After further studies, the team hoped to distribute the remedy to poultry farms across Korea.

In guarding human health, kimchi battles more than microbes. Scientific studies show that high consumption of cruciferous vegetables reduces the risk of breast cancer. Korea has one of the world's lowest incidences of this disease.

Here's another interesting bit about kimchi (and why we should make and eat it):

Korean scientists have studied kimchi at least as thoroughly as their Western counterparts have studied sauerkraut. The scientists have found that fresh cabbage kimchi is actually more nutritious than unfermented Chinese cabbage. When kimchi tastes best--before it becomes overly sour--its levels of B1, B2, B12 and niacin are twice what they were initially, and its vitamin C levels equals that of fresh cabbage. Scientists have also found that undesirable bacteria and parasites are destroyed during fermentation.

So I made some, using sort of a combination methods/ingredients from Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions cookbook and The Joy of Pickling. First I went off to the store because there were some items I was going to be needing for various pickling/fermenting projects. On this day I couldn't find napa cabbage OR daikon raidsh, so I grabbed some savoy cabbage and some regular red radishes. It won't be the real thing, but then, I'm not a real Korean so it won't hurt. Here's the basic recipe:

Cabbage and Radish Kimchi

3 tablespoons pickling salt
5 cups water
1 pound Chinese cabbage (1/2 large head), cored and cut into two inch squares
1 pound daikon cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
5 scallions cut into thin rounds
1 1/2 tablespoons Korean ground dried hot pepper (or other mildly hot ground red pepper)
1 teaspoon sugar

(I used the whole head of cabbage, a bunch of scallions, more ginger and garlic than called for; also, I used hot cayenne pepper flakes rather than the ground hot pepper--my kimchi doesn't look red for that reason.)

1. Dissolve 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of the salt in the water. Combine the cabbage and daikon in a large bowl or nonreactive pot and cover them with the brine. Weight the vegetables with a plate and let them stand at room temperature for 12 hours.

2. Drain the vegetables, reserving the brine. Combine them with the remaining ingredients, including the remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Pack the mixture into a 2 quart jar. Pour enough of the brine over the vegetables to cover them. Push a food grade plastic bag into the jar and pour some or all of the remaining brine into the bag. Seal the bag. Let the kimchi ferment in a cool place at a temperature no higher than 68 degrees F for 3 to 6 days, until the kimchi is as sour as you like.

3. Remove the brine bag, Cap the jar tightly and store the kimchi in the refrigerator, where it will keep for months.

Nourishing Traditions calls for pretty much the same ingredients, but no brine, just sea salt and whey added to the veggies. In this version, you'd pound the cabbage/radish mix with a meat hammer to free up their juices, then put them in a jar with their own juices covering them. Again, let it ferment.

(I didn't use the brine bag, just covered the veggies with the brine and left them to ferment. Both Michael and I tasted it and it was salty, spicy and good. I think it is going to be addicting!)

Kimchi is only one of the fermenting projects I've got going. There are lots of gallon jugs of wine, pickled beets, brined green beans, fermented tomatoes (then dried, rolled into balls, and stored in olive oil) fermented zucchini, fermented dill pickles, etc. The nice thing about fermenting is that the lactic acid formed by the fermentation process means that you don't have to water-bath can the jars. The veggies will keep, stored in a cool place, for months. I've used the Joy of Pickling, Nourishing Traditions, and Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning books for basic recipes.

Some good, basic info on kimchi can be found here, and here. The first link is a fun but bawdy romp about kimchi goodness. Enjoy!

Onwards,
HM

Nettles!

2009-06-04T09:42:00.005-05:00

(The picture above is of a young wood nettle.)

I've been meaning to write about the wonderful nettle plant for a while now. Nettles are one of those miracle plants that are ridiculously good for you, as well as also providing the human family with cordage, cloth, and tasty beer or wine. However it is getting close to when the wood nettles I gather will flower, and then they are not so good to eat. I've read that after stinging nettle (urtica dioica) and wood nettles (larportea candadensis) flower, that consuming them could cause kidney damage. Plus, they get pretty tough and gravelly so they're just not as good as in the early spring. So, I want to go harvest more nettles while I can! Of course, you can harvest nettles in the summer and use them dried for a terrific tea or infusion.

Wood nettles grow in profusion here in our valley. Strangely enough, I have yet to find stinging nettles here. Wood nettles are just as packed with nutrition, vitamins and minerals, as the stinging nettle, so if you find wood nettles, feel free to use them just as you would stinging nettles. Wood nettles sting just as much as stinging nettles, so beware!

Wood nettles like to grow by forest streams or rivers. Stinging nettles prefer sunny areas. If you have a creek or stream or river near you, look along the banks for nettles. If you get stung by the nettles, jewelweed is usually growing nearby. Cut the stem of the jewelweed and it will ease the nettles sting. So do dock and plantain leaves. Stick some plantain in your pocket before heading out to gather nettles.

So, rather than read me trying to give you a full appreciation of nettles, read this article at Susan Weed's Wise Woman's Herbal Zine, here. I just read it this morning, and it will tell you all I would have said about nettles only better. Corinna Wood does a great job. The herbalists who write for Susan Weed's ezine have a habit of referring to their favorite plants as "she." That's fine by me, the info is there and well-presented.

If you are feeling run-down or under the weather, an infusion of nettles is invaluable. It's very healing. Expressed nettle juice has been used to good effect with convalescing patients in many countries. The infusion is green and very tasty. It even tastes green. I use a tiny bit of sea salt in mine and the infusion, warm or cold, is welcomed by my entire body.

I have many quarts of nettles frozen already, a gallon or so of nettle wine, and a quart jar of nettle tincture. But I need more! Both for eating and drying, since I want to have a good supply of it dried for winter-time tea.

I'll leave you with "The Glory of Nettles," then, and I'll go do what I really want to do: harvest more nettles!

Here's a couple of paragraphs from Wood's article, just as a teaser. Do read the entire article:

So why would you want to meddle with nettle? She is a veritable cornucopia of nutrients: calcium, magnesium, iron, B complex vitamins, C complex, vitamins A, D and K. She has protein, cobalt, trace minerals, potassium, zinc, copper and sulphur.

Nettles are especially rich in chlorophyll, which is only one molecule removed from hemoglobin, so they feed the blood. Add in nettle’s bounty of iron and it adds up to a fortifying tonic for anyone who is anemic or for pregnant, lactating, or menstruating women.

Nettle has also long been revered for its benefits to the kidneys and adrenals. The kidneys allow us to expel toxins and the adrenals help us to respond to stress (think adrenaline), so given the challenges of modern life, most folks can benefit profoundly from nettle’s medicinal properties. Additionally, she offers relief from seasonal allergies, strengthens the bones, hair and nails and nurtures the lungs, nervous, hormonal and immune systems – that covers a lot of ground.

One of the wonderful things about nettle is that her nutritional benefits are delivered in a very balanced form and are easily assimilated and absorbed into our systems.

Nettle is one of my favorite foraged foods. As such, I'll come back to it later. In the meantime, enjoy the article!

Simple Medicines in the Making

2009-05-26T08:16:00.003-05:00

I've been busy gathering wild plants and making simple (but effective) medicines for my family's use. These extracts, infused oils and wines are easy to make, really no trouble at all. All you need is the plant: flower, seed, leaf, twig, root, bark; clean jars; alcohol; extra virgin olive oil and/or lard; and water, sugar, maybe a few other ingredients.

For the extracts, or tinctures, all I do is wash and chop up the plant, put it into a clean and sterilized jar, cover it with alcohol (usually vodka or rum or brandy), label it and put it aside for six weeks. After the six weeks, I strain out the herb (which goes into the compost), rebottle the extract, and label it again with contents and date. Then I store it until I need it.

For salves, I was and lightly dry the plant material. Then it too is chopped and put into a clean jar and covered with olive oil. This waits its month or six weeks, then it is strained. The oil is then warmed slightly in a double boiler on the stove, beeswax is added and when it is all melted, it is poured into little (clean, sterilized) jars. It will cool and become solid, voila, a medicinal salve.

Wine is a little trickier, but not much. The plant material is put in a big pot, so much water added, and boiled for a short time, depending on the recipe. Then sugar is added, and the mix is cooler to room temperature. Yeast is then added, along with yeast nutrient (if called for in the recipe). For me, for these simple wines, I have used baker's yeast and a small piece of toast for the nutrient. I am planning on getting the real wine-making stuff, but that's waiting on a trip to town.

Here's what's in the works:

Extract/Tincture
Nettle--for its vitamin/minerals and general nutritional properties
Horsetail--for the silica, for bones, skin, nails, hair and maybe calcium (see earlier post)
Roots--a combo of dandelion roots, burdock root and yellow dock root--all excellent for the liver
Red Clover Blossom--blood cleansing, nutritional
Catnip/Skullcap/Chamomile--my sleepytime nervine, for tense times
Jewelweed--for poison ivy (use the extract with clay to dry the rash, draw out the poison)

Infused Oils
Jewelweed--for poison ivy (for a salve)

Wines
2 gallons of dandelion wine
1.5 gallon of nettle wine
2 gallon of sassafrass wine

OK, so the wines aren't strictly medicinal. :) The recipes I used, all of them from Jack Keller's fabulous wine making page at www.winemaking.jackkeller.net. I'm an absolute beginner at this, and I don't know if the wines will be palatable or not. Last year's dandelion wine was very tasty so we'll see. I'm betting they'll be drinkable. If they're good or even really good, that'll be a plus! And like I said, making these products doesn't require much time, money, special ingredients, or even effort. Take a baby step and try a few things.

I've been foraging and gathering so many things that I see I've neglected to write about some of them, nettles for one. So stay tuned, I'll get to it.
Onwards,
HM

A Foraging Morning

2009-05-24T13:38:00.003-05:00

Today is Sunday, and I took some Amish strawberries down to the barn to see if Fred and I could sell them. They are higher in cost that the berries currently selling in our local grocery stores, but these are organically grown, freshly picked lucious strawberries. They sold, no problem.

Once home, I went down to harvest some of the asparagus that grows wild at the bottom of the hillside. There was a goodly bunch of it, so I picked it to give to a neighbor. I've been harvesting lots of asparagus, so it was time to pass some on.

Then I picked a bunch of lambquarters, growing wild nearby at the top of the hillside. Got enough for dinner tonight. I also picked a lot of wild horsetail, to dry some for tea, and to make a tincture with the , rest. More on horsetail in a bit.

Let's see, then I saw a slew of red clover blossoms and naturally enough, went all over hill and dale getting a bag full of them. As a forager, I ALWAYS carry plastic bags, a Swiss Army knife, and all the rest of my foraging tools are in the car (shovel, hand trowel, root digger thingy, zillions of plastic bags, etc.).

In about an hour, I gathered enough horsetail for tea and medicine; enough red clover blossoms for the same purposes; and enough lambs quarters for a hearty side dish. Of course, processing it all takes a bit more time. Everything gets washed and rinsed, then cut up if that's part of the deal, and processed (i.e., putting out to dry or putting in a jar with vodka poured over to make tincture, chopped to eat, etc.). This all takes another hour or so. But it is work I enjoy, so I can't even really call it work (unless I'm talking to my husband, whereupon I rely heavily on the concept of all this activity being work).

I also gathered a bunch of melilot (melilotus officinalis), which I recognized for the first time today. YEAH. In early spring, the leaves are tasty and quite edible. Being as it is a bit later in spring, I didn't harvest it to eat, but to dry. I'll use the leaves in tea, as well as make a nice toilet water with it and some other herbs. Melilot has a wonderful vanilla scent to it, smells like you'd want to put it in cookies and such. I'll probably powder some dried leaves and do exactly that.

On horsetail, I've written about this herb a while ago. It is a rich source of silicon, a necessary and important trace mineral. One day, I was reading another blog and what books the blog author recommends, and I came across this bit:

Louis Kervran was a biological researcher who discovered decades ago that biological creatures routinely transmute chemical elements. He's still almost completely unknown, and scoffed at by people terrified of the changing their thinking even a tiny bit. One of many implications of his work: to build calcium in your body, you do not eat calcium, but organic silica, which your body changes to calcium. Kervran's book is Biological Transmutations.

I have yet to find and read Kervran's book, but that bit was really interesting. My thanks to Ran Prieur for his fascinating blog! Anyway, if you need more calcium (and who doesn't?), horsetail tea or tincture might be the thing for you. When Fred broke his elbow last fall, I made him lots of horsetail tea and comfrey tea. He healed readily, at least from the break. His arm is as good as it was prior to the break--but with his Rheumatoid Arthritis, I can't say his arm is "as good as new." Wish I could.

Foraging wild plants for foods and medicines is as old as anything. In a couple of pleasant hours, plants for both food and medicines were easily gathered. Honestly, folks, if you're not already foraging, please consider adding it to your repertoire of skills. The exercise is good for you (walking, bending, twisting, stretching), falling on your butt when your foot slipped on the hillside is good for your character, and certainly, eating and drinking the dishes and drinks you made from God's own free produce is good for you. It's win-win all the way.

The Amazing Hemp Plant--Part II

2009-05-24T06:42:00.006-05:00

The "Marihuana" Trick: A Brief History of the Federal Campaign to Destroy Hemp

by Doug Yurchey

Part II

(Part I here)

The campaign against hemp begins. In the 1930s, innovations in farm machinery would have caused an industrial revolution when applied to hemp. This single resource could have created millions of new jobs generating thousands of quality products. Hemp, if not made illegal, would have brought American out of the Great Depression.

William Randolph Hearst (Citizen Kane) and the Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division of Kimberly Clark owned vast acreage of timberlands. The Hearst Company supplied most paper products. Patty Hearst's grandfather, a destroyer of nature for his own personal profit, stood to lose billions because of hemp.

In 1937, Dupont patented the processes to make plastics from oil and coal. Dupont's annual report that year urged stockholders to invest in its new petrochemical division. Synthetics such as plastics, cellophane, celluloid, methanol, nylon, rayon, Dacron, etc. could now be made from oil. Natural hemp industrialization would have ruined over 80 percent of Dupont's business.

Politics and special interests. Andrew Mellon became Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury and Dupont's primary investor. He appointed his future nephew-in-law Harry J. Anslinger to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Secret meetings were hald by these financial tycoons. Hemp was declared dangerous and a threat to their billion dollar enterprises. For their dynasties to remain intact, hemp had to go. These men took an obscure Mexican slang word "marihuana" and pushed it into the consciousness of America.

Media manipulation. A media blitz to poison the public mind against the use of hemp while renaming it marihuana raged in the late 1920s and 1930s. Hearst's newspapers ran stories enphasizing the horrors of marihuana. The menace of marihuana made headlines. Readers learned that it was responsible for everything from car accidents to loose morality.

Films like "Reefer Madness" (1936), "Marihuana: Assassin of Youth" (1935), and "Marihuana: The Devil's Weed" (1936) were propaganda pieces designed by these industrialists to gain public support for the passage of anti-marihuana laws.

Reefer Madness, the best known of the three films, characterized marihuana as "a violent narcotic" that compelled people to commit "acts of shocking violence," caused "incurable insanity" and had "soul-destroying effects." The film even depicts a man who, while under the influence of the marihuana, "killed his entire family with an axe" and explained that "the menace of marihuana" is "more viscious, more deadly even that these soul-destroying drugs (heroin, cocaine)!"

Reefer Madness did not end with the usual "The End." The film concluded with these words plastered on the screen: "TELL YOUR CHILDREN."

In the 1930s, people were very naive; even to the point of ignorance. The masses were like sheep waiting to be led by the few in power. They did not challenge authority. If the news were in print or on the radio, they believed it had to be true. They told their children and their children grew up to be parents of the baby boomers.

On April 14, 1937, the Prohibitive Marihuana Tax Law, the bill that outlawed hemp, was directly brought to the House Ways and Means Committee. This committee is the only one that can introduce a bill to the House floor without it being debated by other committees. The chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Robert Doughton, was a Dupont supporter. He insured that the bill would be passed by Congress.

Dr. James Woodward, a physician and attorney, testified too late on behalf of the American Medical Association (AMA). He told the committee that the reason the AMA had not publicly opposed the Marihuana Tax Law sooner was that the association had just discovered that marihuana was/is hemp.

Few people, at the time, realized that the deadly menace they had been reading about on Hearst's front pages was in fact passive hemp. The AMA understood hemp to be a MEDICINE found in numerous healing products sold over the last hundred years.

In September, 1937, hemp became illegal. The most useful crop known to man becaem a drug and our planet has been suffering ever since.

Congress banned hemp because it was said to be the most violence-causing drug known. Anslinger, head of the Drug Commission for 31 years, promoted the idea that marihuana made users act extremely violent. In the 1950s, when America was preparing to fight the communist threat, Anslinger claimed the exact opposite: marijuana will pacify you so much that soldiers would not want to fight.

Today our planet is in desperate trouble. Earth is suffocating as large tracts of rain forests disappear. Pollution, poisons and chemicals are killing people. These great problems could be reversed if we industrialized hemp. Natural biomass could provide all of the planet's energy needs that are currently supplied by products made from crude oil. Hemp could be the solution to soaring gas prices and petrochemical pollution.

The wonder plant. Hemp has a higher quality fiber than wood fiber. For fewer caustic chemicals are required to make paper from hemp than from trees. Hemp paper does not turn yellow and is very durable. The plant grows quickly to maturity in a season where trees take decades.

All plastics should be made from hemp oil. Hempen plastics are biodegradable. Over time, they would break down and not harm the environment. Oil-based plastics, the ones we are very familiar with, help ruin nature; they do not break down and are causing great harm. The process to produce the vast array of natural (hempen) plastics will not ruin the rivers as Dupont and other petrochemical companies have done. Ecology does not fit in with the plans of the oil industry and the political machine. Hemp products are safe and natural.

Medicines should be made from hemp. We should go back to the days when the AMA supported hemp cures. "Medical marihuana" is given out legally to only a handful of people while the rest of us are forced into a system that relies on chemicals. Hemp is only healthy for the human body.

World hunger could end. A large variety of food products can be generated from hemp. The seeds contain one of the highest sources of protein in nature. ALSO: They ahve two essential fatty acids that clean your body of excess cholestrol. These essential fatty acids are not found anywhere else in nature! Consuming hemp seeds is the best thing you could do for your body. Eat uncooked hemp seeds.

Clothes should be made from hemp. Hemp clothing is extremely strong and durable over time. You could hand clothing, made from hemp, down to your grandchildren. Today, there are American companies that make hemp clothing; usually 50 percent hemp. Hemp fabrics should be everywhere. Instead, they are almost underground. Superior hemp products are not allowed to advertise on fascist television. Kentucky, once the top hemp producing state, made it illegal to wear hemp clothing. Can you imagine being thrown in jail for wearing quality jeans?

The world is crazy...but that does not mean you have to join the insanity. Get together. Spread the news. Tell people, and that includes your children, the truth. Use hemp products. Eliminate the word "marihuana." Realize the history that created it. Make it politically incorrect to say or print the M-word. Hemp must be utilized in the future. We need a clean energy source to save our planet.

The brainwashing continues. Now, the commercials say: If you buy a joint, you contribute to murders and gang wars. The latest anti-hemp commercials say: If you buy a joint...you are supporting TERRORISM! The new enemy (terrorism) has paved the road to brainwash you any way THEY see fit.

There is only one enemy; the friendly people you pay your taxes to; the war-makers and nature destroyers. With your funding, they are killing the world right in front of your eyes. Half a million deaths each year are caused by tobacco; half a million deaths each year are caused by alcohol (and nearly a million people each year die from pharmaceutical drugs).

Ingensting THC, hemp's active agent, has a positive effect; relieving asthma and glaucoma. Hemp tends to allieviate the nausea caused by chemotherapy, causing people's appetites to return so they can take on nutrients and being feeling better so the healing process can begin.

There is physical evidence that hemp is not like any other plant on this planet. One could conclude that it was brought here for the benefit of humanity.

Hemp is illegal because billionaires want to remain billionaires.

End of part II.

The Amazing Hemp Plant

2009-05-23T15:51:00.007-05:00

The "Marihuana" Trick: A Brief History of the Federal Campaign to Destroy Hemp

by Doug Yurchey

(This article was published in the February 18, 2009 issue of the Idaho Observer, a 24-page newspaper published by Don and Ingri Harkins. I asked for and received permission from Don Harkins to repost the article in my blog. Because of the article's length (and the limit of my typing) the article will be posted in two sections.

This is an amazing history. I knew of hemp and its many benefits to the human family. I was not aware of how extensively it was grown and used, nor of the machinations of Big Government and big Business to outlaw it. It is an excellent illustration of exactly how stupid and evil are Big Government and Big Business, especially when they act in concert. HM)

Part I

And I will raise up a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land. Ezekiel 34:29.

Where did "marihuana" come from? In the mid-1930s, the M-word was created to tarnish the good image and phenomenal history of the hemp plant. The facts cited below, with references, are generally verifiable in the Encyclopedia Britannica which was printed on hemp paper for 150 years.

All schoolbooks were printed on hemp or flax paper until the 1880s; Hemp Paper Reconsidered, Jack Frazer, 1974.

It was LEGAL TO PAY TAXES WITH HEMP in the 17th and 18th centuries from 1631 until the 1800s; LA Times, August 12, 1981.

REFUSING TO GROW HEMP IN AMERICA in the 17th and 18th centuries was AGAINST THE LAW! You could be jailed in Virginia from 1763 to 1769; Hemp in Colonial Virginia, G.M. Herndon.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson GREW HEMP; Washington and Jefferson Diaries; Jefferson smuggled hemp seeds from China to France then to America.

Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills in America and it processed hemp. Also, the War of 1812 was fought over hemp. Napoleon wanted to cut off Moscow's export to England; Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer.

For thousands of years, 90% of all ships' sails and ropes were made from hemp. The word "canvas" is Dutch for hemp. Webster's New World Dictionary.

80 percent of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linens, drapes, bed sheets, etc. were made from hemp until the 1820s with the introduction of the cotton gin.

The first Bibles, charts, maps, Betsey Ross's flag, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp; US Government Archives.

The first crop grown in many states was hemp. 1850 was a peak year for Kentucky's production of 40,000 tons of hemp. Hemp was the largest cash crop until the 20th century. State Archives.

Oldest known records of hemp farming go back 5,000 years in China, although hemp industrialization probably goes back to ancient Egypt.

Rembrandt's, Gainsborough's, Van Gogh's as well as most early canvas paintings were principally painted on hemp linen.

In 1916, the US Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees needed to be cut down. Government studies show that 1 acre of hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans were in the works to implement such programs. Department of Agriculture.

Quality paints and varnishes were made from hemp seed oil until 1937; 58,000 tons of hemp seeds were used in America for paint products in 1935; Sherwin Williams Paint Co. testimony before Congress against the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.

Henry Ford's first Model-T was made to run on hemp fuel and the CAR ITSELF WAS CONSTRUCTED FROM HEMP. On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his hemp fields. The car, "grown from the soil," had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel! Popular Mechanics, 1941.

Hemp was called a "Billion Dollar Crop." It was the first time a cash crop had a business potential to exceed a billion dollars; Popular Mechanics, Feb., 1938.

Mechanical Engineering magazine (Feb., 1938) published an article entitled "The Most Profitable and Desirable Crop That Can Be Grown." It stated that if hemp was grown using 20th century technology, it would be the single largest agricultural crop in the US and the entire world.

The following information comes directly from the US Department of Agriculture's 1942 14-minute film "Hemp for Victory" encouraging and instructing "patriotic American farmers" to grow 350,000 acres of hemp each year for the war effort:

"...(When) Grecian temples were new, hemp was already old in the service of mankind. For thousands of years, even then, this plant had been grown for cordage and cloth in China and elsewhere in the East. For centuries prior to about 1850, all the ships that sailed the Western seas were rigged with hempen rope and sails. For the sailor, no less than the hangman, hemp was indispensable.

"...Now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp in the hands of the Japanese...American hemp must meet the needs of our Navy and Army as well as of our industries.

"...the Navy's rapidly dwindling reserves. When that is gone, American hemp will go on duty again; hemp for mooring ships; hemp for tow lines; hemp for tackle and gear; hemp for countless naval uses both on ship and shore. Just as in the days of Old Ironsides sailed the seas victorious with her hempen shrouds and hempen sails. Hemp for Victory!"

Certified proof from the Library of Congress, found by the research of Jack Herer, refutes claims of other government agencies that the 1942 USDA film, "Hemp for Victory," did not exist.

Hemp cultivation and production do not harm the environment. The USDA Bulletin #404 concluded that hemp provides 4 times as much pulp as wood with at least four to seven times less pollution.

From Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1938: "It has a short growing season...it can be grown in any state...the long roots break and penetrate the soil leaving it in perfect condition for the next year's crop. The dense shook of leaves, 8 to 12 feet above the ground, chokes out weeds. Hemp, this new crop, can add immeasurably to American agriculture and industry."

End of Part I

(Note: This post concerns the entire hemp plant; I'm not discussing medical marijuana here, but in case you're wondering, OF COURSE medical marijuana should be legal and available. Marijuana, hemp, has been in the materia medica for thousands of years, materia medica being all plants used medicinally.

For more info on hemp, you might want to read this. I snagged the pix at the top of the post from here. Stay tuned for Part II, maybe tomorrow. HM)

The Cost of American Lawns

2009-05-13T12:11:00.004-05:00

This is an excerpt from an article in the May/June 2009 issue of Countryside & Small Stock Journal. The article is "Edible Estate: Trade your grass lawn for an edible garden," by Susan M. Osborn. It's a wonderful article on how a older lady, Margie, tore up her dumb lawn and created a urban garden that supplies 35-40% of her food. How cool can it get?

The article has a section on the environmental benefits of discarding your grass for a garden. This is the part I thought you might want to read:

Approximately 70% of American residential water is used for landscaping. The average lawn needs 10,000 gallons of water each summer. To irrigate 45 million lawns in the U.S. requires 200 gallons of water per person, per day. Margie waters only three times a week for five or ten minutes.

Lawnmowers use 800 million gallons of gas each year. Gas-powered lawn equipment produces as much as one-tenth of the smog-forming pollutants from all mobile sources. In one year, a gas mower produces as much air pollution as driving 43 new cars 12,000 miles each. The pollution emitted from a power mower in one hour is equal to the amount from a car being driven 350 miles. Margie uses no gas-powered equipment.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, over 70 million pounds of pesticides are applied to lawns each year. This is ten times more per acre than the pesticides that are applied to agricultural crops. Some 40-60% of the nitrogen fertilizer applied to lawns ends up in surface and groundwater, contaminating these waters. Manufacturing pesticides and synthetic fertilizers requires fossil fuels and contributes to global warming. Margie uses no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.

Yard waste makes up over 50 percent of the nation's landfills. Margie recycles kitchen and yard waste through a compost pile.

NASA photographs indicate 32 million acres of US land are covered by lawns. This makes grass the nation's largest irrigated crop. If we're going to devote precious natural resources to cultivating a crop, shouldn't it be edible?

****************end of extract********

As for me, I've always thought lawns were a dumb idea. I've never owned a home, so never had to figure out what I'd do, but if I had, I have torn up a lawn and at least planted some ground cover that I wouldn't have to mow. This article goes on to explain some background and history of lawns. Lawns might have made some sense in England where there is abundant rain, but here in the States, it's an idea whose time has long gone.

In this issue, there are also articles on making a simple feta cheese from goat milk, and a very interesting article on how Middle Eastern countries use sumac as a spice. Apparently, the sour-lemony taste of sumac makes it a highly regarded condiment, used in a lot of dishes. Recipes are included. If you've got to spend money on magazines, this is a fine one to get!
HM

HM

Keep a Foraging Journal

2009-04-19T09:17:00.002-05:00

Sorry for not writing the past week, folks. It gets busy now that it is full-blown foraging time.

I've been foraging. Bags and bags of garlic mustard. I've mentioned already that this plant is a "foreign invader"--the worst part about it is that garlic mustard will take over from other native plants and drive them out. Deer don't eat garlic mustard, and they lose the native plants that deer do eat, so yes, it is a problem. So I'm doing my part by harvesting as much garlic mustard as I can and using the leaves in pesto and drying the roots (they have a slight horseradish zing to them) to add to my mix for vegetable bouillon.

This year, I'm keeping on top of what I've been doing by keeping a foraging journal. If you are new to foraging wild foods, as I am, it will benefit you greatly by keeping track of what you see, where it grows, the date you first see it, how much you harvest, recipes, etc. Last year, I didn't keep a journal and I'm regretting it--I can't remember when the horsetail finally showed up, or the plantain, or the best times and places to harvest evening primrose roots, etc. Which means that this year, I simply have to keep watching and checking. It'd be a helluva lot easier if I'd kept good records last year. Ah, the joy of living and learning!

Here are some excerpts from my journal. If anyone has a better idea of how to keep track, please let me know.

March 5: Long walk down to the old lake. Didn't see much of anything except for some wild garlic, or maybe wild onions. Got a small bag ful of them.

March 20: At the garden: wintercress (creasy greens), dandelions roots and leaves, yellow dock roots and leaves, wild onions. Washed and cleaned all the roots, chopped them up and set them to dry on the windowsill. Cleaned all the greens, and put aside the wintercress. I'll use that for our dinners this week. The dandelion, yellow dock and wild onions went to make a big pot of "spring tonic broth." I added a vegetarian boullion cube for some extra flavor and some garlic and hot pepper. Made a delicious broth, very healthy.

March 25: More wintercress from the big field south of the garden. Wild onions and chickweed too.

April 4-10: Coming back from the Amish, a big patch of garlic mustard. Yeah! Didn't find any last year. Two huge bags of it. Will make pesto and boil some greens up for dinner. Been harvesting dandelion roots for Kathy, since she's switching from coffee to dandy root coffee for now. A book she's reading says to avoid coffee if you have arthritis. That's a tough one, but the dandy root coffee should help. There's some farmer's fields on the way to Williams that are full of dandelion, yellow dock, wild onions, violets, chickweed, yarrow and lots of stuff I don't know yet. I pulled up some very big dandelion roots. Kept the leaves for broth, figure I might boil these twice as they're a bit bitter. Got some yellow dock roots and leaves too. The greens jar for this year is getting packed with dried greens. I'll grind these up with some sun-dried tomatoes, dried onions and garlic into a powder and cover them with olive oil. That'll preserve it and keep it and make a tasty, vitamin rich addition to soups, stews and casseroles. Picked a huge bag of dandelion blossoms for wine. Got enough for the first gallon anyway.

April 13: Made 3 batches of garlic mustard pesto. 3 cups packed garlic mustard leaves, finely chopped, 4 cloves garlic, 1/3 cup parmesean cheese, 1/3 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup walnuts chopped finely. (Can't afford pine nuts.) I don't have a food processor, so I chopped everything up as much as I could then used my little hand-held immersion blender to make it all into a paste. Wow! Does this stuff make GREAT pesto. Gave some to Jennifer and she loved it too. YUM.

April 14: Picked a bunch of redbud flowers. The redbuds are glorious this year. This is a nice tasting flower, a lovely bright pink color. I'll get some chickweed and orpine and make a salad with them. Pretty.

April 15: Saw a huge field of what looked like black mustard (brassica nigra). Pulled over and got out to check. Yep. Little yellow flowers with four petals in the shape of a cross. Narrow, hairless, wavy-toothed upper leaves. Brill says very nutritious vegetable, full of vitamins and minerals. Gathered a bag of leaves, but mostly I'll wait for the seeds to show up. I want to make my own mustard this year.

Plantain just coming up, this year's plants. No horsetail yet, at least not in the huge patch where I found it last year. I'm seeing a lot of plants I don't know--have to get my guides down in the car and my backpack where they belong so I can start figuring out what they are.

April 17: Back to the dandelion fields for more roots and blossoms. The leaves are getting too bitter for me so I'll focus on other spring greens. The roots are now chopped and drying, the blossoms are now in the second gallon of dandelion wine. The first gallon is bottled in an wine jug with a balloon with pin-pricks in it as the air-lock. I'll keep making wine from everything I can. There's some great recipes for making wine from wild plants here:

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/plants.asp

Wines from nettles and chickweed. What a hoot. :)

April 18: More garlic mustard for more pesto. This is probably the last batch of the garlic mustard I'll get. It's flowering already and about to go to seed.

*******************

As you can see, I've been busy. I'll try to show up more here, though. I hope I can keep up. Next month we get to gardening in earnest.
HM

Garlic Mustard

2009-04-09T07:26:00.003-05:00

Last week, coming home from the Amish farm, the car was moving along the quiet, not-often-used roadway when it suddenly came to a screeching halt.

"What?" said Fred, startled.

"I think that plant back there is garlic mustard," said the Handmaiden.

The car backed up slowly, as HM carefully watched the ditch that was bordering the road. "There it is!" sez HM.

HM apologized to Fred, "See, I've been looking for garlic mustard for a while, and I think that's some right there," she said pointing to a luxurious green growth on the side of the woody, viney ditch. And sure enough, when HM got some leaves to sample, it tasted garlicy and spicy. Beware of traveling with a forager; you'll be subject to stops and starts and other strange behavior when the forager think she sees a particular plant.

Garlic mustard is considered an awful invasive plant by those folks who think in such terms. It is on the Plant Conservation Alliance's Least Wanted list. It even has a poster, just like a murderer has a poster in Post Offices and such. However, for a wildcrafter or forager, it's a good find for both food and medicine options. And I'm not so sure that getting all het up about a plant being "invasive" is a great idea. The wonderful Rose at Prodigal Gardens has a very thoughtful and thought-provoking essay on "invasive" plants. I found her writing on this topic very interesting and I suggest if you are interested in foraging and other like topics that you read that essay. Here's a couple of paragraphs from it:

It may be no accident that these same weeds that are busily working to restore the land are also some of our most powerful healers. “Noxious weeds” like dandelion, burdock and garlic mustard are nutritional powerhouses that offer themselves to us humans in super-abundance to help us to nourish our depleted bodies, leach environmental toxins, and otherwise help us to cope with our industrialized world. Yet instead of receiving the gifts these plants bring with them, alien species are villanized and portrayed as terrorists, competing with crops, threatening to reclaim fields, re-route waterways, starve the herds, the list goes on.

Most of the charges being leveled at invasive plants have to do with their disruption of human activities and land management practices. . In one brochure I picked up it states that invasive plants “reduce agricultural yields, decrease gathering opportunities, and hinder recreational activities. Eurasian watermilfoil chokes waterways and restricts boat access, while the toxic properties of wild parsnip deter hiking and other land-based activities.” It would seem as though these plants were declaring war on us! From a Gaia perspective these might be considered intelligent strategies for protecting the land, but from a human perspective it is a major threat.

The economic impact is calculated at some 138 billions of dollars per year. These figures factor in the cost of research, conservation projects, labor, crop losses, devaluing of land, and the high price of chemical and other eradication programs. Fortunately, herbicide manufacturers are willing to help shoulder the burden of getting rid of invasives. Monsanto, for example, has been instrumental in the formation of the Exotic Pest Plant Councils.

Garlic mustard greens are very nutritional, having goodly amounts of Vitamins A, C, E and some of the B vitamins, potassium, calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and magnese. Check it out here. It's very pungent/spicy and a bit bitter. I steamed a good bunch of the greens and we've been eating them in various dishes. This is how I handle most wild greens, since Michael doesn't particularly like them just plain. I add them to soups, stews, rice dishes, casseroles, omlets and the like. In other dishes, he doesn't notice the slight bitterness as it is balanced by other, usually milder or sweeter flavors.

For every one page on edible or medicinal uses of garlic mustard, you'll find hundreds of the "horrible invasive weed" type. Still, thank goodness there are some, such as Wildman's, on garlic mustard.

I'm about to make some pesto from the other bag of leaves I reseved from the steamed greens. I'll use the recipe from Prodigal Gardens. If you find some, but don't care for the pungent/bitter flavor, do try it in a pesto. A little pesto added to a minestrone or Tuscany bread soup is wonderful, adding a lot of flavor and nutritional richness.
HM

Quote from Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds

2009-04-02T14:27:00.003-05:00

Charles has an interesting blog for April 2. Near to the last paragraph I found this:

Thus we have evidence that children prescribed powerful drugs for hyperactivity responded positively to a lifestyle stripped of sugar, junk food, TV and video games. Imagine the immense reduction in profits if drugs, sugary snacks, junk food, TV and video games were no longer "consumed" by American children. Cui bono indeed.

Ain't that the truth! That's why people need to turn off their TVs permanently. The TV was not created to entertain you or educate you. It was created to control you. It works extremely well, especially with a population crammed full of sugar, junk food and nasty drugs.

You might like the whole article, which you can find here. This blog never fails to provoke thought. And man, can that guy write!
HM

Other Uses for Dandelions

2009-04-01T09:02:00.001-05:00

Make a rubber band from dandelion sap? Think I'm crazy? Need proof? Read this. :)

Gallimaufree on Cache Gardening

2009-04-01T08:42:00.002-05:00

Well, she did it again! I mentioned yesterday that I was going to spread around our wild plant buddies by planting them in other areas and helping them propagate as much as I could. And today I find an excellent article on cache gardening by Gallimaufree! Cache gardening is stealth gardening--planting your garden plants out in the wild and helping them go free and wild. This will ensure that food is available to you in odd places, i.e., not in gardens, per se, but out in the fields, woods, on land that isn't otherwise being used for crops or gardens. It's a terrific idea. Check out this well-written and insightful article.
HM

Beautiful, Tasty Orpine, Live-forever

2009-03-31T10:11:00.003-05:00

Orpine (sedum purpureum) is a wonderful, tasty wild plant that is also grown in gardens and as an ornamental plant. If you are lucky enough to find it growing wild and in abundance, you'll have found one of my favorite salad greens. At least the young and tender leaves are great in salads or raw as a trail nibble. But you can also boil the older leaves for 5 to 10 minutes, and its tubers are edible as well, cooked for 20 minutes or so.

So far, I've only found this plant in a couple of places, neither of them wild. Fred has some growing by his doorway, and another friend has one in her edge garden. So, after asking these folks for their permission, I'll take some of the leaves, but never enough to harm the plant. The leaves are mild, a bit peppery, and very pleasant. With chickweed and wild onions, they make a great salad.

I'm on the lookout to find them wild here, which is reasonable, since they're a garden escapee. But from my reading, they seem to grow profusely in mountainous areas. I'd love to find a huge batch of them so I'll check the hilly areas.

This is a distinctive plant; once you see it and recognize it, you'll know it from then on. It has pretty pink/purplish flowers in the summer. Seems it grows in a lot of places in the country, even out west. Wherever it has escaped from gardens and landscapes, I guess.

There's a host of sedums, some of them edible. Sedum telephinum for one. I don't know all the others, if they're edible or not. Check it out before you snack on 'em, and make sure you ID properly. And ask, if you see it in a garden. :) Don't give foraging a bad name by snarfing up someone's plants without their permission.

But if you find a bunch of them wild, try the tubers. Wildman Steve Brill says they're crispy and tasty raw, like water chestnuts. I'd like to try some.

You can read more about orpine here and here.

I'm going to get a cutting from Fred and see if I can get more of these growing wild. They come back each year and if I could get lots of live-forever patches going, the valley would have another delightful free food to supplement our diet. In fact, I will try to spread as many of our wild plant friends around as possible. Not that these plants need my help; most of them are incredibly hardy survivors with many ways of propagating themselves.
HM

Weeds of the Northeast: review

2009-03-31T08:33:00.002-05:00

(I received this book review in an email from Jim Hadix, Thanks, Jim! This review came from Pratical Primitive, a website on primitive living skills. Check out that list of books on edible wild plants. Looks like an excellent list. I have many of those books and I'd recommend them too. HM)

Weeds of the Northeast
-- Richard Uva, Joseph Neal & Joseph DiTomaso

I Love This Book.

Though not remotely why the authors would think I do! I originally discovered this book quite by accident while searching on Amazon for a field guide that was more specific to plants in New Jersey. While reading the mediocre reviews for another book we had been considering, I came across a reviewer who recommended purchasing this book instead, and when I checked it out I was hooked. One of the most unique and helpful plant books I have ever come across, Messrs. Uva, Neal & DiTomaso would probably be mystified and horrified to find out why everyone we've shown it to loves their book so much!

Written by Specialists of Weed Science, this is actually an invaluable book for all foragers in the Northeast U.S., southern Canada, and beyond. While it's true purpose is to assist horticulturists, agronomists, landscape managers and pest specialists to identify and remove/destroy all those pesky weeds that are out to ruin their crop/garden/lawn, it is, in fact, a wild plant lover's dream. So why am I giving such glowing praise to a "let's kill those blasted weeds" book? Two words: "Seedlings" and "Seeds".

For almost every plant listed in this book there is not only a photo of the full grown plant and the flower, but a photo of the seedling stage, and of the seed itself! And let me tell you, these are GREAT photos. Carefully and beautifully taken, the photos make it easy to see and discern the minute details required for proper plant identification. Additionally, the identification key does NOT rely on any flower characteristics, as is common to almost every other field guide. The authors have developed a completely structural- and vegetative-based identification key that will allow you to identify any of the multitude of edible, medicinal and utilitarian plants and grasses (yes, grasses!) outlined in the book, at any stage of their life cycle.

Meaning that you no longer have to wait until a flower appears in order to discover what that mystery plant might be. Instead, you can take this book and go out right now and identify any of the 299 common "weeds" in this book. Among the "undesirables" listed are Wild Garlic, Wild Oats, Foxtail grass, several varieties of Millet and Amaranth, Milkweed, Yarrow, Chamomile, Burdock, Chicory, Jerusalem Artichoke, Chickweed, Lambs Quarters, Velvetleaf, Woodsorrel, Pokeweed, Plantain, Purslane, Mullein, Violets and many more.

We purchased this book back in December and have been impatiently waiting until March to share it with you in the hope that you will be as excited as we are by the opportunity to head out now, at the very beginning of the spring green-up, and begin marking those tiny seedlings to remind yourself where NOT to mow as the grass begins to grow.

Personally, I rather like the idea of taking a book designed to destroy plants and increase the monocultural agri-industry, and instead using it to find, nurture and fully enjoy those wonderful, healthy, helpful and delicious "Weeds".

***********************

Man, I'd love a copy of this book. It is still early spring, and I'm having trouble identifying a lot of the little plants that don't have all the identification things I will look for later in the year. The bit about seeds and seedlings is a mighty draw for this book. Hmmmmmmm.

Beware of Drugs!

2009-03-29T12:43:00.003-05:00

Wow. Read these two articles. I haven't done any further research as yet on the author of the articles or on the validity of the information, BUT when I clicked on these two articles I didn't expect to see such fearsome info either. Check it out.

ARE ANTIDEPRESSANTS, BONE DRUGS, AND STATINS CAUSING HEART FAILURE?

Newer Drugs Twice as Likely to Injure

My advice is do NOT take just any old drug your doctor recommends. Do a little research yourself before you take that script to the pharmacy and get it filled. It's a terrible situation.

We tend to avoid doctors and the whole allopathic trip. And so we're pretty healthy, both of us with some health issues which we deal with by eating good foods, some herbs and dietary supplements. What those articles tell me is what I've known for many years: the FDA and Big Pharma are not your friends.
Onwards,
HM

On Baking Soda

2009-03-29T07:19:00.001-05:00

(This is an excerpt from an article in the recent issue of Countryside & Small Stock Journal, March/April issue. This isn’t the whole article, just some highlights. Good ideas, though, for getting by and spending less for nasty chemical crap. HM)

Baking Soda: Dirt Cheap, simple, amazing
By Shannon Summers

Save your skin, save money, save space on the counter, save on the aggravation of all that stuff that doesn’t work and you can’t take back.

It all really started with a little brochure about baby care products. At the time I didn’t have any babies, but it got me riled up about all the dangerous chemicals in all our toiletries. It got me going, and I haven’t been able to get off of it, even to the extent that my husband’s side of the family calls me the “chemical Nazi.” Check the labels--all the stuff boggles the mind. Take just one for instance, propylene glycol. Go look it up. Then you decide. I listened to Dr. Nancy Snyderman on the Today show. Yeah, it’s bad. (Same stuff as anti-freeze in your car.)

******

I remembered hearing about baking soda as an alternative shampoo so I began to look into it. Basically I stopped using shampoos, cream rinse, toothpaste, deodorant, hand lotion, body lotion, body oils, soaps . . . Just about everything. I gave up hair dyes, make up . . . I used to have bottles of hand lotions of every size and price. I never wanted to be without some. The more I read about all the chemicals the more convinced I became to stop it all.

My husband’s armpits were always raw and he had dry, flakey, itchy skin on his arms and legs. He quit using the underarm sprays and it has cleared up. He uses a little baking soda or corn starch, but at least he has stopped with the butane on his arm pits. Think I’m kidding? Read the labels.

******

Part of the problem was I was getting a little vain about my wrinkles, and I wanted to try something, but so much of it is beyond my purchasing power. Besides, I knew from past experience it either wouldn’t work for me, burned or both. We are not poor but we are not independently wealthy either.

There is an extremely cheap alternative to all the chemicals out there and it is baking soda. I don’t need convincing, but oh how I wish I had “before” and “after” pictures. I know from what other people tell me that it did make a difference in the wrinkles. The other plus is the expense--almost nothing.

I use baking soda for everything: I shower exclusively with it, wash my face with it, brush my teeth only with it . . . I even use it for shaving my legs.

After at least a year I still find it amazing that my skin is great. If it do get a little itch or feel a little dryness I just reach for a tiny drop or two of olive oil and rub it in. A 50 cent box of soda in the shower is good for a week or longer and it keeps the soap scum reduced in the tub.

So here is a list of the things I do to get my youthful skin.

Face. Once a day in the shower, take a tablespoon or less of baking soda, and make a slurry with a little water being extra gentle--no rubbing, just pat, rinse, and pat dry. If you must have moisturizer use a very tiny drop of olive oil.

Feet, elbows, knees. You can be a little more aggressive here but not much at first. I rub my feet like a little massage, no luffas or scrubbers needed.

Teeth. Forget the chemical poisons in the tube. For about two years I was having trouble with abcesses--a $125 dentist visit, the pain and then a round of antibiotics. Now sea salt is for me. Dissolve ¼ cup sea salt in 8 oz. of pretty hot water. While it is hot, rinse vigorously (or gently if it’s very painful) and gargle too. Do’ this several times a day. If you don’t like the taste go to a health food store and get something else good. Read the labels on the moth wash and nix on that too.

Shaving. For shaving legs, just use a little dab of baking soda watered down. Try this at first--put one cup in the tub and then just use the water to shave.

Shampoo. Wet hair first, and again use a small amount (tablespoon or so), rub it mainly next to the scalp and leave it in for a few minutes. At first your hair will really cry foul. Again, be gentle. It’s okay, take a deep breath and keep going. (Coloring your hair makes it worse, but you can do it. Don’t use on your hair everday unless you really have oily hair and even then it’s not recommended for everyday use. For an added treatment at night before bed, take a small amount of olive oil, rub it into your scalp and hair, and cover with shower cap or something to protect your bedding. Do this for one week. It does wonders for your hair.

******

One of the best things about baking soda is it’s so cheap. Here are some other products that are great.

My husband spent $20 or so a month on sprays and powders for athlete’s foot. I hated when he sprayed it because it stunk up the place and the powder made a mess. Someone told me about vinegar, so I got him to try it. At first it’s instant relief from the itch. Sometimes there’s a little burning if you just scratched the heck out of your skin. Pour it straight out of the bottle or get a little spray bottle to keep handy in the bathroom or bedroom.

For sinus drainage, take ¼ to ½ teaspoon of baking soda in 1/3 cup of warm water. Add a very small pinch of sea salt, shake or stir, and squirt or spray up each nostril once a day for a day or two. It does basically the same thing as the stuff you buy from the store for $6.99.

In the dishwasher I quit using Jet Dry and just fill the little rinse cup with white vinegar. My dishes come out clean and spot free no matter how cheap the soap powder is.

We have a grandson with psoriasis and we were using olive oil on it. It helped a lot, but then we heard about emu oil. It’s kind of pricey but great--you can see the difference overnight.

Baking soda is worth the 50 cents for an eight ounce box, versus all the other chemical stuff.

*****

End of article. There, how’s that for a tip for the day? Save some money and try baking soda instead of all the hugely expensive, terrible chemical crap you are now applying to your skin and on your delicate mucus membranes. These chemicals are absorbed into your skin and who knows what they are doing to you? We all need to pay more attention to the chemical pollution we live in. We can avoid using chemical pollution as our toiletries, at any rate!
HM

Gallimaufree on Edible Flowers

2009-03-27T07:14:00.002-05:00

I was thinking of writing about this myself, but Gallimaufree has done a wonderful job of writing up how to use and eat edible flowers, including some recipes. This is a very interesting and useful blog, so you might want to check out many of her other articles. In the first entry she tells you how to eat flowers. In the next entry she discusses edible gardens--with a lot of great ideas for blending beauty with pratical, with a list of flowers that are edible and which aren't. Check it out!
HM

PS. You might want to read how Gallimaufree got a duck stuck in her thigh. :) It's a remarkable story!

Harvesting the Hillside: Wild Onions and Dandelions

2009-03-26T14:00:00.003-05:00

(wild onions)

It's a lovely day and I decided to put off housework once again and head out and do some foraging. I noticed that the hillside under our balconey going down to the road is plumb full of dandelions and wild onions. I brought my digger tool and my clippers and set to work. Digging up the wild onions wasn't a problem and I got a bag of them. And I dug up loads of dandelions as well, roots and leaves. Well, as much of the root as I could get.

I foraged for about an hour. The real work starts when I got everything home. Every thing needs to be washed. The dandelions went into a 5 gallon bucket that I half filled with water. This is for their first cleaning, mainly to get all the mud off. The wild onions went into a big pot of water in the kitchen. I let everything soak for a while and got my cutting board, knives, and colander ready.

The wild onions didn't take too long to process--just wash them and cut them up, ready for use. I got about 3 cups worth. They'll be used in a lot of dishes I'll be making. I chopped them up into little bits for adding to casseroles, soups, rice dishes, whatever. I love onions and they are very good for you. You can read more about wild onions at the Wild Food Foragers site, here. If you want, you can also freeze them: just put the chopped up bits in a ziplock bag and plunk them in the freezer.

Once I was done with the onions, I next washed all the roots of the dandelions out in the bucket, scrubbing them with a little brush I have for that purpose. The cats found this a very interesting procedure and watched carefully. July kitten snatched a dandelion from the ones I was washing and took it off to investigate more thoroughly.

The next step was to separate all the parts I would be using. I cut the roots from the plants, then took off any flower buds (these are small and round, don't use the bigger ones that are beginning to elongate to become a flower). Finally I cut the leaves from the crown of the plant, putting all the leaves into a big pot to be washed again. The buds can be used as a vegetable on their own or in other recipes. The leaves can be sauted, steamed, or if they are too bitter for you, boiled in some changes of water. Unfortunately, if you do that, you will lose a lot of the vitamin content when you toss out the water. It is worthwhile to try to cultivate a taste for a slight bitterness. Nutrition scientists are finding that sour and bitter tasting plants are more protective against disease. Read more about bitter herbs at Prodigal Gardens.

Finally, the roots are chopped and put on the drying shelf on my windowsill. These will be used for tea. Or, you can roast them and use as a coffee substitute. I also make a roots extract with dandelion, yellow dock and burdock roots. I like wine, but I love my liver, so I take this extract daily. A friend with non-symptomatic hepatitis C also uses the extract with good results (he gets his liver enzymes checked regularly I guess).

The leaves are then chopped and put in a big plastic bag in the fridge for use throughout the week. I'll probably saute a bunch of them tonight with some of the wild onion and some carrot in olive oil and a bit of soy sauce.

Since I've not eaten the buds before, I'll either saute them in butter or boil them lightly in salted water.

So, foraging outside took me about an hour, maybe a little longer. The processing took about 2 hours. It is more work than you'd think, but foraging for wild foods is a great way to get more nutritious food and medicine. I love the process, myself. You just can't beat free, healthy food.

You all know how good dandelions are for you, don't you? If not, then read more about dandelions here and here. They are one of the most highly nutritious veggies on the planet. Needless to say, don't harvest them from lawns that have been sprayed with chemicals. They grow wild worldwide, nearly everywhere. God's gift, they are!
HM

An Interesting Thought on Health Care

2009-03-25T08:55:00.004-05:00

From Dr. Robert Jay Rowen’s Second Opinion newsletter, March 2009

(A friend passed this medical newsletter on to me to read, and there’s this interesting little article in it I want to share with you, at least part of it. It’s a good newsletter, with lots of alternative health news and research. You can get a subscription by calling 800-728-2288. It is expensive, and advocates nutritional supplements that might be as out of your financial reach as they are mine, but call if you‘re interested. This Doc knows his stuff. HM)

Why Less Health Care--Not More--Is the Solution to Our Health Care “Crisis”

Everywhere I turn, even in the midst of an economic calamity, I see calls and legislation for greater “health” coverage for everyone. Private employers are paring back health benefits to survive, but governments across the board are preparing to borrow to shell out billions that they don’t have.

According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 47% of Americans have put health care on hold in some way. Many avoid refilling a prescription or they skip a vaccination, checkup or other treatment.

But is this so foolish or dangerous? If the economy were to collapse entirely, and people were unable to get conventional medical care, I firmly believe the death rate would fall. “Huh!” you say. “Rowen, you’re nuts!”

Why? There are only four times in recorded history that the death rate actually fell. The first was in highly technologically developed Israel in 1973. During a one-month physicians’ strike, the national death-rate reached the lowest rate ever. According to the statistics by the Jerusalem Burial Society, the number of funerals dropped by about half.

The same thing happened again in 1976 in Bogota, the capital city of Columbia. There, the doctors went on strike for 52 days. The death rate fell by 35% (National Catholic Reporter and confirmed by the National Morticians Association of Columbia).

Similar events happened in California a few years later, and in the United Kingdom in 1978 (see Confessions of a Medical Heretic by Robers Mendelsohn, MD).

Let’s get back to Kaiser. People are not filling prescriptions and getting vaccines or checkups. Well, even American research has shown that prescription drugs are a leading cause of death. If you look closely at the scant research available (Pharma doesn’t like these studies), most drugs may suppress a symptom, but do nothing to lower the all-cause morbidity (injury) and mortality (death). Diabetes drugs are a great example. They can lower your blood sugar while simultaneously raising your risk of dropping dead of a heart attack.

And vaccines? There’s no proof that flu vaccines or even childhood vaccines do more good than outright harm. In fact, there’s significant evidence that flu vaccines induce Alzheimer’s and kid’s vaccines induce autism.

What about checkups? The dogma that you need a yearly checkup is just that, dogma. Research has disproven that yearly checkups save lives. In fact, they may speed up death by finding something that the doctor wants to treat with chemicals more dangerous than the disease.

What does a reasonable man conclude about the data on doctor strikes? I certainly would not go to a conventional doctor for anything but urgent/emergency care or for structural repair (which typically is required after an accident). I might end up a statistic!

Strange as it may seem, know that a loss of some of your medical coverage might actually save your life.

Early Spring Foraging

2009-03-22T10:50:00.004-05:00

Two days ago it was a lovely day--sun shining, warm with just a hint of crispy chill in the air. I headed down to the garden to see what might be coming up. A lot of the weeds I look for grow in disturbed areas--such as our big garden plot. It needs to be plowed again to get it ready for planting in May, but right now it is covered with dead weeds and the old vines and stalks of last summer's tomatoes and corn.

I found wild onions all over the place--in the garden, on various hillsides, back in the woods; this valley is full of them. I harvested a big bag of them. This takes some digging down to loosen all the roots, then brushing off as much dirt from them as possible. I found yellow dock growing too, although it doesn't have that lovely sour citrusy flavor just yet. I dug up the complete plants and got both the leaves and the roots. I want to make more yellow dock root tincture, which is very good for the liver.

Wintercress (barbaria vulgaris) was also present. This is a member of the mustard family and it is an early spring green. Down south it is avidly harvested and eaten as "creasy greens." That's a wintercress leaf you see at the top of this blog. The leaves are a dark, glossy green. It grows in a basal rosette and later it will send up a center stalk to flower, a pretty yellow flower. When you see a field simply glowing with yellow a little later in the spring, that's probably wintercress. It's a bitter green, but this early, it isn't too bitter. I got a big bag of these as well. Free food! And very nutritious food as well. There's a good description of wintercress at Prodigal Gardens, in the Herbwalk section for March.

Here's a bit more info on wintercress from Mother Earth News:

Winter cress—a mustard—is rich in vitamins and has a slightly peppery flavor that goes well in mixed salads. The young winter leaves are also excellent shredded, flavored with chopped green onion, vinegar, salt, and sugar, and topped with minced bacon (drippings and all). Later in spring the greens take on a bitterness which can be removed by boiling in two waters. When the bloom develops, the leaves become too bitter to eat . . . but the buds can be cooked briefly—no more than 5 minutes overall—in two waters and served like the broccoli they resemble. Lemon butter and Hollandaise sauce are good additions to this wild vegetable.

I plan on harvesting more of the wintercress while it is in it's not to bitter stage. In a few weeks, it will be too bitter even for me. When I got home, I rinsed the wintercress three times in a big pot of water, then cooked it only in the water that remained on this leaves, thus steaming it more or less. I greatly enjoyed mine, but Michael didn't care for it as much. He loves lambsquarters, as do I, but not all greens are a delicious as lambsquarters. I'll eat it and use it in casseroles and slip a few raw leaves into salads.

I also harvested a few early dandelions, roots, leaves and all. Dandelions are not bitter at this stage, in early spring before they flowers. So it is a great time to get all that you can find as dandelions are very nutritious. Here's what Wildman Steve Brill has to say about dandelion leaves:

The leaves are more nutritious than anything you can buy. They're higher in beta carotene than carrots. The iron and calcium content is phenomenal, greater than spinach. You also get vitamins B1, B2, B5, B6, B12, C, E, P, and D, biotin, inositol, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc by using a tasty, free vegetable that grows on virutally every lawn. The root contains the sugar inulin, plus many medicinal substances.

And here's what Euell Gibbons, master forager, has to say:

"Ridiculous as it sounds, we might be better off nutritionally if we threw away the crops that we so laboriously raise in our fields and gardens and ate the weeds that grow with no encouragement from us—indeed they grow despite all our strenuous efforts to eradicate them.”

“We spend millions on herbicides to kill the dandelions in our lawns, while we pay millions more for diet supplements to give ourselves the vitamins and minerals that dandelion could easily furnish.” Euell Gibbons in his essay on Just How Good Are Wild Foods?

So we ate the wintercress for dinner that night. The next day I put all the wild onions, curly dock leaves and dandelions in a big pot of water, added some dried cayenne peppers and lots of chopped garlic, and simmered it for an hour or so. This makes a wonderful spring tonic broth. Oh, I did add an organic, vegetarian boullion cube for a bit more flavor. This broth I will either use as a soup base, or I'll just drink it warm or cold. I'll give some to a couple of older folks here who could probably use some extra rich nutrition that the broth will supply.

It is still too early here for many of the plants I love, such as plantain. But it'll be coming up soon. I'm planning on harvesting as much wild food as I can--it'll help our food budget, and we'll get a nutritional boost as well. You can't beat that!

Cayenne-Tumeric Salve

2009-03-20T09:54:00.003-05:00

I got the idea for this salve from James Duke's The Green Pharmacy. In a section on arthritis, here's what Duke has to say about red pepper or cayenne:

Red Pepper (Capsicum, various species)

Red pepper causes some pain on the tongue, but ironically, it interferes with pain perception elsewhere around the body. The pain relieving chemical in red pepper, capsaicin, triggers the body to release endorphins, nature's own opiates. Red pepper also contains aspirin-like compounds known as salicylates.

You can make a red pepper tea by mixing red pepper into water, but it would be a whole lot more pleasurable to have your red pepper cooked in a variety of spicy dishes. for a quick hit, try a splash of hot pepper sauce in tomato juice.

Compounds in red papper can also help relieve arthritis when you apply the herb to the skin. Researchers have discovered that you'll get significant pain relief if you apply capsaicin cream directly to painful arthritis joints four times daily. In one study of this treatment, the capsaicin cream reduced RA pain by more than half. Osteoarthritis pain was reduced by about one-third.

Capsaicin creams are generally believed safe and effective for arthritis. Look for capsaicin in the ingredient list of over the counter pain creams such as Zostrix or Capzasin-P or ask your doctor for a prescription capsaicin product. If you use a capsaicin cream, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly afterward. You don't want to get it in your eyes. Also, since some people are quite sensitive to this compound, you should test it on a small area of skin to make sure that it's okay for you to use before using it on a larger area. If it seems to irritate your skin, discontinue use.

Well, I check the pharmacy prices for Capzasin-P and it was about $14 for a tube of it. That's too steep for me, so I decided to make some at home. I also decided to add tumeric to the salve, as tumeric is a terrific anti-inflammatory herb. I used lard as a base for the salve, since one of my favorite medicine women recommends it--that's Kiva Rose at Medicine Woman's Roots. You can read her blog on the Simplest Salve Ever here.

I put about 10 tablespoons of lard into my little salve-making pan and heated it to low on the stove. When the lard had liquidfied, I added 2 heaping tablespoons of powdered cayenne (I had just ground up one of my cayenne ristras earlier) and one heaping tablespoon of tumeric. I let it cook on low for about an hour, then strained it and poured it into little jars. Voila, cayenne-tumeric salve. I then gave two of the jars away to friends who also have trouble with painful joints. One of them is Fred, who suffers badly from rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and the other is Kathy who has the same knobs growing on her thumbs that I do on mine. They both find the salve helpful with the pain, but it doesn't make the arthritis go away entirely. It doesn't with me either, but the salve is useful to have when the ol' thumbs get achy.

I don't know if the growing, painful knobs on my thumbs is RA or what. I will probably get it looked at some time or another by a medical doctor, see if they can tell me what it is. At any rate, the salve is easy to make and you probably have all the ingredients you need in your kitchen, so give it a try. If you do, please let me know if the salve works for you. I'm very interested in finding what works for folks.

Duke also suggestes simply adding powdered red pepper to any white hand lotion you have around, add enough to make the lotion pink or reddish and apply a little to your skin. When I apply the salve to my skin, it doesn't sting--I thought it would, but it doesn't. The tumeric and pepper make the salve a reddish-orange and the reddish-orange stains your skin a bit. But hey, it's worth it to make the pain die down a bit.

By the way, I am always looking for little jars--baby food jar size. If any of you have a bunch you wouldn't mind getting rid of, I'd gladly swap you some nice sassafrass roots or other dried herbs I have that you might want. Feel free to email me for any bartering you might want to do--my email addy is patricianeill@hotmail.com.
HM

Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants by Steve Brill

2009-03-18T12:19:00.004-05:00

This is one of my favorite foraging books. It is not one I carry with me while foraging, but it's one I read in all the time. It's very well-written with lots of information about how to identify wild plants, where they grow, which season is the best for harvesting for food or medicine, and how to prepare them. The book comes with a whole section on how to cook them, including some excellent recipes.

I got my copy I think from Amazon--I can no longer remember, but Amazon is likely. You can also buy it directly from Wildman's webpage, where you will find even more information and pictures of the plants.

Brill writes will humor, intelligence, and loads of practical experience. He'll tell you of the time he wanted to find wild onions and couldn't find any. So he asked a friend who told him of a big patch in a park five miles away. So off Wildman goes to find the wild onions and finds them at the park. On the way back home, he sees them everywhere, and was surprised to find them growing in his apartment building's entrance. In other words, he lets you know he was a beginning forager too and is willing to allow us into his learning experiences. This is one of the things that makes the book so valuable to beginning foragers as well as to those with a bit more experience. We all have to start somewhere. In my opinion, this book is a great place to start.

There are no photographs, but the illustrations by Evelyn Dean are excellent. It is a good idea to study a plant before you go looking for it. Using this book and its descriptions and illustrations, and then check another one or two wild food guides, the kinds with photos, and checking for pictures of the plant on the web, you can get a pretty good idea of where you'll find a plant, whether in the woods or fields or roadsides, how to be sure it has all the identification details, and how and when to harvest it.

I read in this book all winter, reading about plants I already know and ones I want to know. I find I learn something every time I pick up the book, so I make sure I do it often. Right now, we're on the very edge of foraging season for early spring. There's some dock starting to show, wild onions and garlic are ready for harvest, wintercress will be showing up soon and so will dandelions, plantains, and poke. I can't wait! Reading in Brill's wonderful guide keeps me patient. There's so much yet for me to learn, but this year, I feel more ready and able, thanks to Brill's book.

If you're interested in foraging, I highly recommend getting a copy of this book. You sure won't be wasting your money. If you want to look before you buy, Wildman has enough excerpts from the book to convince even the most skeptical. You can find them here. So don't take my word for it. Go and read, then buy. You'll be glad you did.

Food Insurance by Harmon Seaver

2009-03-16T09:35:00.003-05:00

(This came to me in an email, and the article is terrific, so here it is for you. First, I needed a break from my computer, from the blog, from the winter blahs, from everything so I disappeared for about a month. I've probably lost all the readers who visited here, for which, I am sorry. But I'll be back posting now that foraging season is nearly upon us and spring is springing out all over. I'm refreshed and ready to deliver once more. Enjoy the article! Um, typos are in the original as posted on timebomb.
HM)

From http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=51900&highlight=Seaver

[Practical Survival magazine Feb-Mar issue 1992]

Food Insurance by Harmon Seaver

Planting a policy against tough times
They're rioting in Africa
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
and Texas needs rain.
They'r freezing in Siberia
There's strife in Iran
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow man.

Sound familiar? Even if you don't rememeber the Kingston Trio hit of the 60s, its message rings out endlessly on the front page of any daily newspaper.Try another headline which caught my eye recently - "El Nino is back!" Depending upon your locale, and the subsequent bane or blessing dropped in your lap by the last advent of that awesome atmospheric aberration, this declaration might be just enough to shiver your timbers. Or at least give pause to your current plans for next summers's garden.

Not only are we unable to control natural (or man-made) disasters, but we have little luck even predicting them. World-shaking phenomena like El Nino ( killing more than 1,100 pewople and causing an estimated $8.7 million in damage during its appearance) ebb and flow unhindered around the globe. Climatologists are just beginning to correlete the manifold vagaries of thsi global weather abnormality and have yet ot reallky get a handle on it. Predicatability seems unlikely.

Occuring on average four or five years, El Nino might recur in two years or not in ten. Its effect is definitely worldwide; while causing torrential rains and flooding in one area, this bizarre weather pattern concurrently brings devastating drought, famine and forest fires to another. Or opposite effects for the same period in subsequent cycles.

Airborne particulate matter -- volcanic smoke, dust and ash; smoke from industry, forset fires and slash-and-burn agriculture; dust from cleared land; exhaust from cars and aircraft -- can have a decided effect upon our weather, and consequently, our lives. Precisely what, however, is somewhat undecided. Climatologists and others debate whether these minute particles in the upper stratosphere warm our atmosphere by contributing to the "greenhouse effect" -- primarily caused by increasing CO2 levels (up more than 10% since 1850) - or cool the planet by reflecting and blocking incoming sunlight.

This latter scenario seems to hold the most water. Strong archaeological evidence suggests periods of intensified volcanic activity may have nurtured glaciers and triggered ice ages. Around the wrold, there has been a rise in volcanic activity since 1950, compared to the half century previous.

From 1850 to about 1940, particularly the Northern Hemisphere, went through a period of significant warming according to the National Ocenaographoic and Atmospheric Administration.But since 1940 there has been a distinct drop. England's annual goriwng season shrank by nien or ten days betwen 1950 and 1966. Sea ice retuned to Iceland's coasts after more than forty years virtual absence.

The only surety about weather is that it changes, and we have to change with it. When it rains we put on raincoats; when it freezes - longjohns. Likewise our gardening techniques are adapted to various weather patterns and seasons. Raised beds and plastic row covers work wonders in areas with cold wet soils, while irrigation becomes a must in sandy soil and periods of drought. Different types and varieties of crops can hold the key to success in climatic extremes.

In this age of uncertainty, prudent American families find it comforting to stock their larders with months, even years, worth of canned or freeze-dried foods. After all, agrarian societies developed from hunting and gathering tribes because agriculture is not only more energy-efficient, but provides additional security. Modern gardeners practice their art for often these very same reasons -- cost-efficiency and protection of both supply and organic quality.

Crop failures due to events beyond our control do occur however, and food supplies can become erratic or nonexistent given our current climate of social and economic uncertainty.

Even the master gardener, with the most well-developed plot of ground, cannot cope with some of the bizarre aberrations of El Nino, abnormally low temperatures from a nearby Mount St Helens, or the exigencies of war and civil unrest. In reality, most of our common food crops are relatively delicate, compared to wild plants. And if crop failure is extensive enough, those dependent upon commercial food supplies become desperate -- tremendous social upheaval results. The prudent gardener would do well to preapre now for such an eventuality by literally planting against misfortune.

Nature has provided a profusion of extremely hardy food plants. Compared to sissified garden and farm crops which needed to be pampered and coddled every step of the way, native food species (especially the perennials, trees and shrubs) are super plants. True many would cringe at the prospect of living all winter on a diet of beans from the Siberian pea shrub, Jerusalem artichoke tubers or duckweeds. But we'd live and we might even come up with some tassty recipes.

Not to suggest that everyone rush out and begin planting their hard won deep humus to shrubs, forgetting the okra, squash and melons. But most of us have some spare dirt, perhaps around the periphery of our yards. Some, like myself, have acres to root around in any way we please.

A hedge, just one form of our rainy-day crop might take, can provide privacy, windbreaks, shade, wildlife cover and feed; or even a secure, stiock-proff fence. All the while growing bigger and sturdier, ready to supply your family with emergency rations should the neeed ever come. Think of it as food insurance.

Can these trees, shrubs and hardy perennials really produce enough feedstock in small-area plantings to provide true alternative resources? Well, here's what Earle Barnhart said in Tree Crops, an article published in the Journal of The New Alchemists: "Tree crops can match row crops in both protein and carbohydrate yield per acre. Modern hybrid-grain crops such as corn, wheat, and soybeans only outproduce tree crops such as Persian Walnut, filberts, Chinese chestnuts, honey locust and black walnut if they are highly subsidized with fossil-fuel inputs such as pest protection, weed removal, nutrient enrichment and constant, adequate water."... "large fields benefit from being sheltered; the approximate 5% used for windbreaks is well-compensated by higher productivity from the remainder. Tree products such as acorns and honey-locust pods can match corn and oats pound-for-pound as winter feed supplements for livestock." Or us.

"Other woody plants do even better, such as mesquite. This small deciduous tree, native to our Southwest, is so hardy some folks claim it is related to the coyote -- indestructible.! Cows relish its seedpods, and so did the Indians. Pods, minus the seeds, contain much sycrse, about 8-12% protein and are rich in calcium, iron and phosphorus. Mesquite beans which must be ground for human consumption, contain a whopping 60% protein." In fact the whole tree was of vital importance to early natives of the Southwest. The mesquite gives shade, building material, firewood, food and its fibruous bark can be woven into fabric. The honey mesquite in particular is a favourite of honey bees, hence its name: and both it and the velvet mesquite exhibit exceedingly attractive foilage, often planted as ornamentals.

Like the eastern locust, mesquite is a nitrogen-fixing legume. And also like the locust it has many sharp spines, making it ideal for trimming into a dense man-or livestock-proof hedge. Growing to 20 feet tall, this plant provides security in more ways than one. Prowlers or potential looters can easily be disheartened by such a barrier surrounding a house. Nor would its wealth be evident to the gaze of the average brigand searching for food stocks and other valuables.

Honey and mesquite locust grow well south of northern Oklahoma, southern Colorado, Utah and central Nevada. They both tolerate a wide range of conditions: 100-150 days of frost per year, up to 30 inches of rain (or as little as 6 inches), and they grow in sand, gravel, rocks, loam or clay; with either alkaline, saline, acid or neutral soils.

Mesquites withstand full desert heat, and during drought conditions they reduce their transpiration rate and water useage. Growth declines or halts, and the trees enter a resting mode, which they may maintain without permanent ill effects for long periods. Mature mesquite is also fire-survivable - the tops may burn but dormant buds will survive underground to send up new shoots.

Of course, while the mesquite might even survive a nuclear blast in its native area, sub-zero Minnesota winter would be too much for it. So for colder climes, a better choice would be the Siberian pea shrub. Hardy to -50F degrees, it approaches the mesquite in drought resistance.

If trimmed as a hedge, the Siberian pea shrub grows into a spiny, impenetrable 24-foot-tall buffer covered with nutritious seedpods. The young green pods are eaten as a vegetable, while the mature seeds contain 36% protein and are used in recipes calling for dried beans or peas. If protected from livestock while small, pea shrubs will form an excellent cattle-and-man-proof fence, providing nourishing livestock and wildlife feed and cover - all the while awaiting to serve you with life-sustaining fare in hard times.

Another similar leguminous tree is the honey lcoust, named for the sweetness of its pods and its attractiveness to honey bees. Here again, once shaped into a dense hedge, honey locust makes a formidable fence, provides a generous bounty of tasty, nutritious pods and seeds for both animals and man, and is an attractive addition to any yard.

These three trees also are excellent candidates for the poultry yard, dropping their seedpods in late fall and eary winter to provide superb fodder you don't have to haul from the feed store. Many find the mulberry to be outstanding in this regard also. A fast-growing tree, the mature white (or Russian) mulberry can yield 400 pounds of collectible fruit, plus additional amounts taken by birds and squirrels. Dried mulberries are a staple in Afghanistan. Netting is spread on the ground under the trees, and over a 30 day period about 75% of the fruit is caught, which amounts to over five and one half tons per acre. US Dept Agriculture analyzed dried ppulp from Afghan mulberries and found it contaied 70.01% invert sugar, 1.2% sucrose,, 2.59% protein 1.6% fat and no starch.

The Afghans grind their dried berries and almonds, but the Japanese find even more edible produce on the mulberry tree. They eat the tender young shoots and leaves, cooked or raw. While their white mulberry is not native to the United States, it may grow hardy and drought-resistant all across our country. Also, there are US-native species such as the Texas mulberry for the southwestern states, and the red mulberry. These trees are also trimmed for hedges, either alone or with other species.

Many other fruit and nut trees can add significiantly to our larder, and some are very handy -- almost unfailing within their range. Because of size and formidable root systems, trees and shrubs generally have an edge over their punier garden brethren. But there are many perennial herbs, forbs and grasses which do nearly as well, bringing a quicker return on your investment. While most trees take years to become profitable, perennials can provide a substantial harvest their first year.

One of the most remarkable plants is the Jerusalem artichoke. Widely used by early American Indians, thsi native is extremely hardy throughout the country, and generally disease-and-pest-free. It spreads rapidly -- some consider this a problem -- and is marvelously productive. Yield is about 15 tons to the acre, five times more than potatoes, and once planted it is with you forever. And established plot crowds out out all competitiors (it helps to rototill the plot every year or so) and so needs no weeding.

This tall relative of the sunflower can be cut more than once as fodder, and Jerusalem artichokes have also found success as a fuel crop - fermented and distilled into alcohol. Its tubers - relatively high in protein, potassium and B vitamins, are also very high in a form of sugar called levulose. Tubers can be left in the ground for hog pasture, or just dug as needed, since freezing does them no harm. Even tiny slices of the tuber seem to sprout the follwiong spring, assuring an endles supply.

Chickory, dandelion, and winter cress are a trio which should be on everyone's "must" list for early crops, and for forcing in the basement during winter. Some might wince at the thought of actually planting "weeds" in their garden, but when you want hardiness - they don't come much tougher.

Dandelion's leaves have four to five times as much protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins as does lettuce; chickory is much the same, and both can be eaten raw or cooked. Roots can also be cooked like turnips or parsnips. Winter cress is even hardier, and sold commerically in some areas. Winter cress contains three times as much vitamin C as in equal amounts of orange juice, and as much vitamin A.

But why bother planting things which may be found wild almost everywhere? Simply because cultivation greatly enhances productivity and ease of harvest. Remember, our ancestors switched from gathering to growing for security and efficiency.

One more addition to our survival garden is comfrey. This lush green plant seems unkillable - as many have found when it spreads to where it isn't wanted. The early leaves are good pot herbs, and quite healthful. Up to 32% protein, with many vitamins, minerals, and a healing drug called allantoin is found in comfrey leaves and roots.

Allantoin is a valuable remedy for external and internal ulcers, and the only common source for the chemical is the fetal-ammoniac sac. Comfrey will grow in wet or dry climate, in the poorest soil. Its roots may reach down 20 feet or more to extract nutrients from subsoil, and comfrey can produce 60 tons per acre of green material. It is also very frost-resistant, being one of the first plants to come out in the spring, and one of the last to die in fall.

For those in dry climates, a necessary adjunct to the mesquite would be the tepary bean, long cultivated by southwestern Indian tribes. Although not a perennial, tepary is a true desert plant, often maturing after only one or two rains. The tepary bean is the most drought and heat-adapted food crop known. Far from being fit only for the palate of some grizzled desert rat, the tepary contains more protein than most commercial beans, and is mild flavoured and better tasting to boot.

Waterlogged? Enjoy the luxury of your own pond? Or even the possibility of making a shallow one? Then you can increase your organic food supply's stability and security onehundredfold. Homesteaders confined to a small city yard can still opt for a pond ala Rodale aquaculture experiments - a 12-foot plastic swimming pool. Work done by the New Alchemy Institute in this vein, with small-scale indoor aquaculture systems, is also worth investingating. Those fortunates who possess adequate land and water may well hold the key to a veritable garden of Eden.

Standard procedure for setting up a new household in some part of China involves digging a pit to mine clay needed for adobe blocks used in homebuilding. Afterwards, this pit is filled with water, and fish stocked therein. Pigs and chickens are usually penned beside or over the pond, and their manure used to fertilize the water, creating an algae bloom which feeds the herbivorous fish.

Subsequently, highly fertile water from this pond irrigates a garden which feeds the family --and the livestock -- so energy flows circularly, thus efficiently. A variant practice involves two ponds, each used alternately as fishpond-garden-fishpond. Or even with a third pond used for a rice paddy.

Whatever your aquatic possibilities or proclivities, pond culture opens a window of opportunity unparalleled in dry-land gardening. Even a shallow pond or paddy growing only cattails represents a backup food supply unequalled by any known farm crop. Here again, American Indians made wide use of this plant -- eating young cattail shoots, rootlets, flour made from its root stock, and even its pollen.

The Cattail Research Center at Syracuse University found yields of 140 tons of rhizomes per acre is possible -- with 30% starch content, this converts to 32 tons of dry flour. Rather incredible. If you do not favor the prospect of cattail flour three times a day, think how many hogs can be fed on 140 tons of starchy rhizomes.

Open your window of options a little more by deepening the pond. Wild rice, while not really a perennial, acts like one by automatically reseeding itself each year. With more protein and slightly higher fat-content than domestic rice, wild rice played a substantial role in filling dietary requirements of those American Indians blessed with it. Hardy up to northern Cnaada, freezing even to the floor of the pond will not harm it. However, yearly cultivation of the pond bottom or flowing water are necessary to control the spread of other aquatics. A strong erosional and/or depositional force of water current is nature's plow.

Rice will grow in as little as 2 inches of water or as deep as 2-3 feet, but will not tolerate large fluctuations, especially increases. Slowly decreasing water levels, all the way to the wet mud, are fine. Soil can be sand, gravel or mud. However, deep, oozy sediments of great organic content, where there is no current to stir up and oxygenate the substrata, will be too anaerobic to grow rice. Such environs suit cattails fine, however.

Deepen the hole a bit more, or at least one end of it, and fish farming becomes possible. At least 8 feet of depth is needed for overwintering in cold climates, unless there is an adequate flow of water to stop ice from forming solid all the way down. Warm-season-only fish crops require much less depth, of course, with three feet being quite efficient. Aeration is another possibility, but this adds complication, and we're talking about foolproof food here.

Another energy give-and-take can occur by "planting" duckweeds on your pond's surface. These tiny water plants are super durable, even living in the far north. Under good conditions they can double their biomass in three days to one week. Raked from a pond surface and fed to pigs and chickens - or people - duckweeds provide amazing amounts of food. And, of course, ducks forage their own. Duck potatoes, of the arrowhead family, are another aquatic edible, once a staple food, by Indian tribes and waterfowl alike.

The list could go on and on, but my point is made. The orthodox forms of agriculture we are most accustomed to are not the only ones - nor are they the most efficient or reliable. The idea of a traditional American farm as the ultimate in productivity and advanced technique holds little water in reality. Nor are customary food crops able to provide us with true nutritional security, however much we enjoy their taste.

Our agricultural system, our flagging economy - indeed, the whole entity - appears more fragile every day. We think of America as a corncopia of plenty, but how many of us realize that no city in our land has more than a three-day supply of food on hand at any given time?

El Nino is coming - El Chichon is rumbling.

Start today to plant a hedge against misfortune.

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On Baking Soda