Onions, Onions Everywhere!

At right is the first rush of the bunching onion harvest, prepped for drying in my wonderful (but quite ugly) solar food dryer! These are just the whites – grown from seed – that have been seriously overrun by volunteer grape tomatoes. I decided to let the volunteers grow because the celeriac I’d put where they are all got washed away by torrential rains all spring. Unlike my Abe Lincolns up top, these actually are turning red about a month late. Rain and cool weather all the way through July has kept the Lincolns green-green for way too long, don’t know if they’ll ever ripen.

Seems that’s the story up and down the Eastern Seaboard this year. Cooler than normal, and wet enough to make swamps. I hear New Jersey and other states are having tomato issues, as are all my neighbors, so I’m not alone. Potatoes are taking a big hit as well, rotting in the wet ground or turning black with blight. Both crops may be total commercial losses this year, which means it’s even MORE important that mine come in and get preserved. That’s where my food dryer comes in!

I have so looked forward to not having to buy lids, boil jars, hard-prep and then water-bath this year. We don’t have AC in the cabin, since there’s no point for the perhaps 3 whole weeks of summer when it’s so hot we have to go sit under a tree instead of stay in the house, but it does get sticky and uncomfortable in the extreme when canning, even though I’ve learned to do the water-bath out on the gas grill.

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A Delicious, Immune-Strengthening Herbal Tea

Concerns about how the fall and winter are going to be shaping up with the “Novel H1N1″ version of swine/avian/1918 human flu is going to turn out. It’s already full-fledged pandemic, is less deadly so far outside of Mexico than originally feared, but is unstoppable and there is no effective vaccine on the horizon. It could do an instant replay of the 1918 pandemic, from which the human DNA elements of this novel strain are derived, meaning it will incubate as not-too-deadly all summer, then come back when the seasons turn to wipe out tens of millions.

That’s not guaranteed, of course. It could as easily piddle out and mutate itself into something not even infectious. Yet so far, that isn’t apparent either. I figure it’s better to be safe than sorry, so I’ve gone looking for the most effective natural ingredients for an immune-booster with likely antiviral properties that will also make a good day-drink just because it tastes good and is good for you generally. For regular cold viruses, bronchial/lung inflammations, sore throats, coughs, fevers, chills, etc. High in vitamins and minerals and antioxidants, plus some indications of anti-tumor agents.

Now, medicinal claims for natural herbs and such are strictly illegal per the FDA these days, so take it all with a grain of salt. Yet at the same time, many traditional herbal remedies have been and are being studied because they do appear to be effective. Many modern medicines are based upon traditional herbal remedies, even if they’re just the alkaloids artificially synthesized. First thing I did was go Googling for herbal “antivirals.”

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Fun With Heirloom Tomatoes

Now that I’m over that nasty bout with salmonella-laced foreign tomatoes, I must say I’m delighted that my own heirlooms are finally turning red in the garden, providing the sweetest, meatiest, most desirable fruit/veggie on the planet. Since the FDA rescinded its warnings due to the sudden availability all over America of actual locally-grown tomatoes, we can talk about what to do with all that juicy incoming bounty.

Processing tomatoes for preservation (or just for making dinner) is a messy job. That’s why I planted varieties this year that are known more for their usable inner ‘meat’ than their juice and seeds. Plus it’s been a bit dry this season, so too much water definitely isn’t their issue. When it comes time to do the processing, you may wish to do what I do and use the back deck grill instead of the kitchen stove to boil those large amounts of water. No air conditioning here, it’s usually not necessary and is a total waste of ‘trons. But when you’ve got big pots of water boiling in the kitchen for long periods of time, even the most mellow of summer mountain weather can quickly become unbearable.

Here are the basic prep steps for processing fresh tomatoes:

1. Wash all your tomatoes in running cold water. Even if you never use pesticides or pepper spray on them, washing is always a good idea (unless you’re eating tomatoes while out there picking them).

2. Put tomatoes in rapidly boiling water for 10-20 seconds, until you see the skin split. Remove quickly and put them in cold water (I fill up the sink with cold water ahead of time). This stops the cooking and further loosens the skins.

3. Cut the parboiled tomatoes in half and cut out the stem-end core, pull off the skins. Then quarter, squeeze out the seeds, seed membranes and juice into a compost container or bowl (from which you can later extract seeds to save and juice to drink).

4. Put the peeled and seeded tomato quarters (or pieces, if you chop further) into a colander or sieve to drain more moisture. I usually sprinkle salt on them at this point, it helps to get the moisture out.

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Preservation: Home Made Condiments

Now that summer’s [almost] officially here, there are some goodies coming in from the garden. Peas and salad and greens are about done from spring, tomatoes and peppers and melons aren’t in yet, but soon will be. Along with the herbs, which means now’s a good time to think about what you’ll do with all those tasty goodies. First, there are the herbs – and yes, weeds – and various perennials that can be partially processed now until the rest comes in.

Mustard, for instance. Like most people around here, my garden grows great mustard. As a weed, not a crop. When the flowers are done and seed pods are set (late April or early May), I pull up the whole plant prior to preparing the bed for whatever I’m planting there. I put them head-first into brown paper bags, tie around the roots and hang upside down in the shed to dry. Sure enough a couple of weeks later I rub the seeds free and sift them through a sieve – the seeds are small. I grind those in my little Braun coffee grinder. That doesn’t exactly powder them, but it does get them grainy. If you like your mustard smooth, you can mortar-and-pestle them

I like fresh ground peppercorns (red, white and black) some cinnamon and bay leaf, but anise, fennel, caraway or dill seeds can also be used to flavor up a good mustard. If you’ve got half a cup of ground mustard seed, simmer all your other spices in a half cup of water, covered, for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add the mustard. Replace cover and steep for an hour. When that’s done, blend the whole concoction until smooth. If it’s too thick add a little cider or wine vinegar to thin. Put this into sterile small jelly jars. Keep refrigerated or water-bath can it with new lids for cabinet storage.

You can use pickling spices in mustard, or anything your family likes a lot. Honey is good as well if you like a sweetish taste, and white wine is good as well.

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Herbal Recipes for Tea and Medicine

Part 2: More Herbs and Their Uses

Part of homesteading in the country or in the city is to become familiar with the land and make it work for you. We grow as much of our own food as we can, and many of us will also (attempt to) grow as many useful plants as possible for various medical and/or income purposes. In the two terraces beneath the grape vines at the top of my garden we grow culinary herbs. The perennials have their beds and spots, the annuals are usually scattered in amongst the vegetables farther down the hill.

But there are other useful plants growing elsewhere on the property. There is blue flag growing at the edge of the driveway and bordering the disc golf fairway (orris root). There are large thickets of wild roses above the cabin and trained to a welded rebar ‘tree’ in the back yard (rose hips). There are small flower beds sporting yucca and yarrow, joe pye and wild sunflower. Our forest is thick with dogwood, tulip poplar and maple, growing in the shade in rich forest loam are ginseng and goldenseal and black cohosh and Mayapple. I can gather purslane and chickweed and cleavers galore, all are great in a muslin bath bag for a hot soak, soothes and moisturizes skin.

Becoming familiar with the useful plants that grow on your property – whether they grow wild or are managed, or you plant and tend them in beds, is a long-term project. You should know how to identify them in all stages of their growth through the year, as well as what parts are most useful when, and for what. For instance, the poplar buds in spring are known as “balm of Gilead” and make a fine ingredient in skin salves for cuts, scrapes or just dry, itchy skin. The winds of March blow them down by the basketful from the tops of 100-foot trees, I gather them as soon as the wind stops blowing. In fall the dogwoods sport bright red berries that are excellent tonic ingredients, rich in vitamins and flavinoids but only available in the fall. The wild rose hips have to freeze before they finally turn red and are ready to harvest, usually in November. Mayapple roots are best gathered in May, they’re pretty much invisible and impossible to find after that, once the above-ground plant has died back to nothing.
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Herbal Recipes for Tea and Medicine

Part 1: Who Needs the Knowledge?

I’ve been drying some herbs my youngest daughter requested from me to make some good-for-breast feeding tea when she was here with hubby and 2-month old daughter Sunshine for the Memorial Day weekend. Seems she’s tried to stay as ‘natural’ as possible while living in the city and being a new mother, and has been steered a bit astray by the not-so know-it-alls at her local herbal/natural food store, who have supplied her with some useless, some highly questionable, and some downright dangerous herbal teas that have of course had their poor effects on the baby’s digestive system. She named a few, I was horrified!

She doesn’t need milk thistle or motherswort or black cohosh or rue. My goodness, don’t these herb dealers have to do ANY homework before prescribing? A couple of these are downright dangerous to hormone levels, and because Sunshine’s a baby girl, will of course affect her as well. I tut-tutted and promised a nice batch of dried herbs that will actually work to help the quality of her milk as well as her (and Sunshine’s) digestion and sense of calm.
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Home Made Goat Cheese… Yum!

As we prepare to replace the fence posts and fencing around the garden, I’ve been considering a fenced area on the other side of the garden, or perhaps on the upper terraces, for a chicken coop, a little barn-shed and a couple of milk goats. It would be a big step for us to go into livestock (that’s not dogs, cats or doves), but with the food shortages expanding and the prices rising fast, it might be something that makes good sense.

The folks we bought this place from some 15 years ago raised goats and horses, also kept bees. I’d love to get some bee boxes, know right where to station them at the edge of the woods facing the garden. But we’ve plenty of wild bees and other insect pollinators for the fruit and vegetables and wildflowers. I’d be doing it for the honey! Chickens will have to be well protected from foxes (we have a couple of fox families on the property, and we don’t plan to kill them). We used to keep chickens in the fenced back yard of a house in town when I was a kid, they aren’t difficult if they’re protected.

My experience with goats hasn’t been so encouraging. Got our first goat in Virginia from a friend. She was half alpine, half Nubian, the cutest critter God ever made! All legs and full of energy. By the time she’d grown up enough to breed (yes, they have to be bred regularly in order to give milk), she was convinced she was a dog. Who ever heard of milking a dog? She made an great pet, but we never had her bred.

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Yet More Pharmacopeia

Links to the Series:
The Homesteader’s Medicine Chest
Homesteader’s Medicine Chest II
More From Nature’s Pharmacopeia

In this post I’ll offer some actual herbal remedies that some have found useful in treating specific ailments. There will be some herbs mentioned that haven’t been listed thus far, but they are all readily identifiable and available at natural food stores or herbal apothecaries if you don’t have them in your garden, on your property or in nearby woods.

High mallow (malva sylvestris), a.k.a. French hollyhocks. Garden hollyhocks may be substituted. Mallow is used to calm indigestion, heartburn, ulcers, gastritis and sore throats. Mallow is high in mucilage, roots can be crushed, boiled, folded into a damp cloth and applied to boils, sores or ulcers of the skin. For a medicinal salve powdered roots can be added to olive oil and warmed before applying.

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More From Nature’s Pharmacopeia

Sassafras Leaves

We’ve already covered wild medicinals like black cohosh, ginseng and goldenseal in The Homesteader’s Medicine Chest, and got the run-down on elderberries in Homesteader’s Medicine Chest II, so in this post I’ll round out with more useful medicinal herbs from forest and garden.

Leaves – I pick a sack full of raspberry, blackberry, goldenrod and sassafrass leaves in the fall to dry and put into tea. The berry leaves are good for colds, tonic, stomach aches and menstrual cramps. Goldenrod is also good for digestion and is useful to treat kidney and bladder problems, coughs and colds. It’s also anti-inflammatory and mildly sedative, good for the aches and pains of rheumatism and arthritis.

The dark red and gold fall sassafras leaves are dried and ground to make the Cajun spice (red) filé. Filé is used to thicken soups and gumbo and to tenderize meats by rubbing. Early spring leaves are dried and powdered for green filé.

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Weird Planter Ideas

In another [post] the idea of porch and kitchen gardens was introduced. Growing herbs and some vegetables in containers in your own kitchen (if it has a sunny window or two), on your deck, porch or patio can be a lot of fun, and can lend personality to your environment through the different types of containers you choose and arrange.

There are some great ideas out there, as well as some wacky ones. You can add height with hanging planters, accessibility with window boxes, depth with different size containers arranged in groupings. You can build your own, go ‘thrifting’ at your neighborhood garage sales and secondhand shops, or raid the shed, garage, basement and attic. Heck, you can even put those discarded fixtures from when you remodeled the bathroom to eclectic use!

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