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.

The not pretty but quite serviceable dryer is something I’m more proud of due to NOT having cut off any digits or limbs with power tools than the fact that it works. So far I’ve been drying apples as they fall (Granny Smith and Macintosh) from what were supposed to be 10-foot tall single-limb “columnars” that got planted too deep and are now 20 feet tall and multi-limbed. Can’t get at the fruit with the ladder because most is too high, so must wait until they fall. They’re right outside the front porch, so I check a couple of times a day. Promptly cut off the bruised part from falling, core, peel and slice, dip in lemon juice (helps preserve color) and dry. Takes a day of full sun, or two of intermittent. Which is the story of the summer, and just my luck since I made a solar dryer. It just HAD to be a cool, wet, cloudy year. So far I’ve three quarts of dried apples and one of peels, which I’m going to powder and make applesauce, then dry into leathers strips.

So between apple batches (still waiting for ‘maters and pears, eggplant, leeks, peppers and pumpkins), I can dry the onions. The colander you see in the pic is full of cut greens. The very best thing about drying instead of canning is that nothing much goes to waste. I’ll cut and dry all the good onion greens crisp, jar them for now, then when I’m putting together powder mixtures for, say, veggie bullion or instant V-8 or potato soup or making salts and/or salt-free mixtures, I’ll blender-ize them into powder. Rather than just tossing them into the compost as usual, where they either rot or get eaten by da bear.

Greens shouldn’t take more than a day to dry, I’ll know by this evening because this is one of our rare full-sun days. If they aren’t quite dry by sundown, I’ll retrieve them and finish in the oven at 150º, which I’ve found works quite well. Dried food needs to be fully dried hard to store, as moisture will cause mold and rot. Half-dry stuff needs to go into freezer bags and frozen. The dry-dry will keep for years!

Figure I’ll half the grape tomatoes and dry those too, sort of tomato-raisins that can be added to all sorts of stuff, including a sourdough veggie-loaf I’m planning. The herbs (basil, rosemary, sage, oregano, tarragon, parsley, etc.) are doing great this year, so I’ll have plenty to add. Will let you know how that turns out! Harvested the bulb onions a couple of weeks ago, put some into storage and will slice the rest to dry and crumble into “instant onions” to add to soups and stews during the winter.

Figure after tomatoes (or during) I’ll dry sliced ‘taters too. Make scallop mixture and bottle that all up too. Have taken to saving coffee tins as well as miscellaneous jars and lids, since dry food only needs an airtight container stored in a dark cabinet, so those will hold a lot.

The very best thing about my summer project – the solar dryer – is that I’ll be able to put up most of the food grown, use almost all of it, and have a lot of good organic food on hand all winter. So much usually goes to waste! Now I’m planning a drying rack to be suspended above the wood stove, since judging by weather so far this year it’ll be getting cold enough for a fire by late September, the solar dryer’s not that big, and I’ve fall crops that should also be dried.

Stay tuned for developments on that end, and Happy Harvest!

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.”

There are several decent websites with ample enough disclaimers to get around the FDA, which I’ll list at the end of this article. But in addition to the immune-boosting, maybe anti-viral tea (cold or hot), there are some dietary things we should think about doing before we ever get sick. First, a good helping a white rice cooked with turmeric every day is a good idea. Turmeric contains curcumin, which imparts the bright yellow coloring. It’s an excellent anti-inflammatory (for any inflammatory condition), and may be helpful in mitigating the cytokine storm of flu as well as allergies like hay fever in general. Add an equal amount of cayenne or other pepper powder to the pot, as this pepper enhances absorption of the curcumin. Buy fresh powdered spice, store in the ‘fridge door – your new, improved spice rack! Or in a cool, dark place away from kitchen range heat.

When you’re food shopping, look in the fresh produce section for those nice bags of fresh cranberries. Buy as many as possible, freeze them. Not only can you make scrumptious whole cranberry sauce with these (do so, eat often, use raw honey if you can instead of sugar, 3/4 cup honey to 1 cup sugar), you can also make high molecular weight, high Non-Dialysable Material [NDM] with them. Just boil them about 5 minutes in good water, strain. Either drink a few ounces of this strong juice every day, or dilute it with more water and sweeten a bit with honey or maple sugar and drink as juice. If you’ve a blender and food dryer, make mush of the solid leftovers and turn it into fruit leather. Add blueberries (reconstituted dried or frozen) to increase the antioxidant value and enjoy like tart candy snacks!

If you can find good elderberry wine or brandy, get a bottle and drink 2-4 ounces every day as well. Elderberries are among the most ancient and valued of herbals, and may reduce the risk of contracting influenza. Do, but don’t overdo. If you can get a good organic basalmic vinegar (I make my own 1-year aged with native muscodines), take a tablespoonful every day – a healthy dose of basalmic and virgin olive oil dressing on a lunch salad will do. Throw some raw spinach and other actually valuable food-greens in while you’re at it. Good whole grape juice (with sediment) is also recommended, I bottle a couple of gallons of it every year. You’re going for your daily dose of supplements in the form of things you actually eat or drink, not taking a host of capsules or pills over the course of a day. If you’re like me, you get way more value from the real thing rather than somebody’s possibly questionable – and often expensive – supplements, and those generally go right through me.

The point of herbals and natural food-based remedies, in my opinion, is to get you to alter your daily consumption habits toward things that really are whole and good for you, as well as get you involved in preparing them for yourself. It’s a wholistic deal, this natural thing. Your thoughts, intents and actions all count toward the prevention/cure. Pretty soon you’ll find yourself healthy in spite of yourself, looking forward to your next meal or snack! Don’t forget alfalfa sprouts (grow your own) and nuts/seeds and hearty multigrain sprouted or seeded bread. Big on vitamin E.

Now for the great tasting tea with all the antiviral, antibiotic, anti-cancer and immune-strengthening ingredients! I start with peppermint, mostly because not only is it high on the list, it’s what grows like crazy in my garden. Have tons of it, always put it in my summer iced teas and winter hots. Lemon balm is the second ingredient, it’s got even stronger immune stimulating properties. Wild and red rose leaves, wild strawberry leaves and fruit, grape leaves, muellin, Japanese honeysuckle flowers and new leaves, pineapple mint, some ground spicebush twigs. I dry thoroughly and carefully, mix it up well and put it in a well-sealed jar, keep it in a dark place. When I brew a family-size couple of green tea bags (always good for you), I toss a handful of this dry mixture into the pot. Let it steep 5-10 minutes (10 if you’re dlluting), strain into a 2-quart pitcher. It’s still hot, so add honey now, preferably local and raw. I don’t like my tea very sweet at all, so only use half a cup or less for half a gallon. When this is mixed well, add pure water (we have mountain spring water out of our tap!) to fill the pitcher and stir. Refrigerate, drink over ice. I usually have an insulated cup with a lid that keeps it cold, sip on it all through the day.

If it’s cold, you have a cold, or you just want a hot tea, use a rounded teaspoon of the herb blend with a single-serving green tea bag, strain, sweeten with honey and drink hot.

I always fluff the dried mixture to mix it well before using, as some of the ingredients will tend to sink to the bottom of the container. That way you get all of it, and you’ll want all of it. You could add more exotic ingredients like St. Johnswort (good relaxer if you’re sick) or dyer’s woad or some other favorite, even mix with that hearty cranberry juice or whole grape juice. Any way you like it, it’ll help you fend off colds and flu as well as keep you refreshed!

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.

That’s it. From there, once the tomato pieces are well drained, you can put them into freezer bags to freeze, you can dry (in dehydrator or in the sun), you can go ahead and cook up some sauce to can or freeze, or you can simply can them by packing jars, attaching new lids and putting them into a rapid water-bath boil (over the top of lids) for a full 20 minutes. Don’t forget to check your seals before putting them away.

Kitchen Gardeners International: Canning Tomatoes

Or you can use them fresh for my absolutely favorite summertime tomato dish: Good Ol’ ‘Mater Pie. Here’s the Super-Secret Recipe:

Summer Fresh Tomato Pie

6 cups processed fresh tomatoes, slightly salted and well drained
1 cup mayonnaise
1.5 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (or mixed Italian pizza cheese)
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Mix tomatoes, mayonnaise and basil in a bowl. Layer one large (or two small) pie crusts with mixture and cheese, ending with cheese on top. Cover with top pie crust, seal edges and cut slits to let steam escape. Bake until crust is golden brown, about 35-40 minutes in a 350º oven.

‘Mater pie can be served hot, but my family loves it even better after it’s been refrigerated. One of the best breakfast delights since watermelon! And speaking of watermelon, mine are starting to fruit at the low end of the garden. Already made 5 quarts of pickles from the first rush of cukes, more on the way. Corn is starting to tassle too, summer squash and okra and new potatoes are in plentiful supply.

It’s times like these that dedicated homesteaders love most, when all that hard work in the garden when it was still cold and muddy pays off with the most delicious of foods. Foods that don’t come complete with pesticide residues or gnarly bacterial poisons that can do great harm to human beings.

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.

Ketchup is so amazingly wonderful when it’s home made that you’ll never go back to store-bought again once you’ve got the knack (and chosen your favorites). Home made ketchup uses up a lot of tomatoes, so you may want to go ahead and buy a couple of pecks at the local farmer’s market (natural/organic section) when they’re abundant and cheap, saving your own crop for salsas, ‘mater pie, slicers, salads and sauces.

Rule of thumb is that a half-bushel of tomatoes makes 1 gallon of ketchup (you can make different kinds, and some for your friends!). Ketchup requires lots of vinegar, so don’t judge taste by the smell when you’re cooking it – it should be aged at least a couple of weeks, at which point the true taste will amaze you. The project is a big one, so pick a day and have everything ready. For such projects I fire up the backyard grill. I can boil water and cook sauce all day and not heat up the house, fuel is cheaper than electricity, and I can sit in the shade and read a good book during lulls.

They probably don’t sell tomatoes by the peck at your farmer’s market, but by the basket – a wooden basket with handle, holds ~12-14 pounds of tomatoes. This will work out to something like 40-45 tomatoes, depending on size. You’ll want two of these. Put your water bath canner on the grill and fill it half full of water, bring that to a roiling boil. Use this to parboil the tomatoes until the skin splits, dip them out and put into a 5-gallon bucket of cold water. Have an empty bucket on hand for the cleanings, which will go into the compost pile (save seeds if you’ve grown heirlooms!) or to make juice when you’re done.

Peel, core and seed the tomatoes, roughly chop and put into a large pot. This project takes awhile, don’t hurry. You can cook down a peck at a time on the grill at a slow boil, so that you end up with 2 quarts.

Sweet Ketchup
2 quarts thick tomato sauce
2 ripe sweet red peppers, finely chopped
1 sweet green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 medium sweet onions, finely chopped
2 cups local honey (or brown sugar)
3 tablespoons salt
3 cups apple cider vinegar

In a cheescloth bag:
1 stick cinnamon, broken
1.5 tsp. allspice
1.5 tsp. whole cloves

Simmer everything except the vinegar in a large pot, stirring often, 2-4 hours until thick. Add vinegar and cook for 15 minutes longer. Remove spice bag and ladle sauce into clean pint canning jars (~5 jars). Process in water bath for 10 minutes.

Spicy Ketchup
2 quarts thick tomato sauce
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp. powdered allspice
1 tsp. ground pepper
3/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 minced red pepper
Couple dashes hot pepper sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

Simmer uncovered until thick, about 3 hours. Ladle into pint canning jars (3-4 jars) and process in water bath for 10 minutes.

In further posts I’ll offer some great recipes for mayonnaise, salsas, pesto, hot pepper sauce, barbeque sauce and horseradish. By the 4th of July, picnics could be spectacular!

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.

Here are recipes for some useful herbal teas that can be made with ingredients a homesteader either grows right near the house or can grow somewhere in the yard. As always, any serious condition should be treated by a doctor (if you’ve got one or can afford one). Until the access situation gets worked out one way or the other, millions of people will have to rely on themselves.

Migraine Headaches

Migraines can be life-crippling, and there just aren’t any “cures” or even treatments that aren’t themselves debilitating for sufferers. Herbal teas for the condition stimulate the sense of smell and help to calm nerves, and are gentle enough to be most useful well before the headache appears. Here is a good ‘breakfast tea’ that stimulates vasodilation (opens vessels and promotes peripheral blood flow)…

6 parts rosemary leaves (needles)
4 parts peppermint leaves
4 parts balm (bee balm) leaves
4 parts sweet violet leaves
3 parts feverfew flowers
1/2 part sweet violet flowers

Some of these ingredients are available for only a few weeks a year, so should be gathered and dried when they are available and kept in a tightly closed jar in a dark cupboard until all ingredients are gathered, then the tea should be well mixed and stored in its own container.

Colds and Flu

I get a good old cold twice a year, spring and fall. My husband seems to avoid colds and can go for years without getting one. But when you’re head is stuffed full of snot and you are coughing and you have a fever and ache all over, a good, soothing herbal tea can make you feel much better than just a couple of aspirin can. The best action of an herb for this purpose is to strengthen your immune system, allowing your healing powers to heal your cold.

For adults:
3 parts elder flowers
3 parts rose hips
2 parts willow bark
2 parts linden flowers
2 parts chamomile flowers
2 parts hawthorn leaves with flowers

For children:
4 parts linden flowers
4 parts mullein
4 parts elder flowers
4 parts rose hips
4 parts thyme

You don’t want to give the willow bark or chamomile flowers to young children, otherwise the ingredients are fairly interchangeable. Sweeten with a little honey and the tea is soothing, will promote sweating, and the hot liquid helps break up head and bronchial congestion. For coughs you’ll want anti-inflammatory herbs and those that will coat and protect inflamed mucous membranes.

For coughs:
8 parts plantain leaves
8 parts coltsfoot flowers
2 parts marshmallow root
2 parts mallow

To make a decongestant you can purchase a half-ounce of camphor crystals from a pharmacist or natural herb shop and mix it in a Pyrex pot with a cup of cottonseed oil (sweet oil, from a pharmacy or hardware store). Heat slowly and stir until the crystals dissolve completely. Remove from heat and put into a glass container with a tight fitting lid and allow to cool. Rub this oil on throat and chest when congestion is present.

Congestion can also be treated with vapor. Put a big handful of fresh-cut peppermint in the stoppered bathroom sink, fill basin with hot water. If your water heater isn’t set to scalding (and it shouldn’t be), fill the sink half way with hot tap water and add a quart or two of water brought just to a simmer on the stove so there is plenty of steam. Drape a towel over the head and lean over the sink catching as much of the rising steam as possible. Breathe deeply through nose and mouth to break up the congestion.

Calming Nerves

Life is stressful in the modern world, so a nice soothing and nerve calming tea at the end of a long day is a delightful luxury. It can help you get a better night’s sleep and that is certainly a useful quality!

6 parts hops
4 parts chamomile flowers
3 parts peppermint leaves
3 parts hibiscus flowers

If there is some general depression present along with the stress, replace the chamomile flowers with St. Johns Wort herb (aerial parts of the flowering plant). Sweeten with raw honey and add lemon if you like.

In the next installment of this series I’ll talk about further uses of common herbs for treating relatively minor health conditions and injuries.

Posts to This Series:

Part 1: Who Needs the Knowledge?
Part 2: More Herbs and Their Uses

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.

So I hiked the half-mile driveway gathering the goodies. A whole lot of nice new black/raspberry leaves from developing canes, some brand new kudzu leaves for bulk and general nutritional value, then raked the garden for peppermint, apple mint and pineapple mints. I’d have added some wild rose hips, but my harvest last winter got thinned seriously when #1 daughter cut the bushes back so we could drive past them. This year I’m merely roping them and staking them back toward the hill, so by October there should be plenty.

Anyway, the berry leaves are excellent sources of vitamin C, and are also great tonic toners for bladder and urinary tract as well as a fair regulator that tends to even out the hormone levels so you don’t get big swings. The kudzu is a highly nutritious legume that is about the highest protein green in existence and would make excellent cattle fodder if it weren’t so prone to eating the cattle first (it grows about a foot a day). Goats are the only critters that can keep it at bay, and right now we have no goats, thus have plenty of kudzu. The mint is for flavor and as a stomach calmative, it’s an excellent tea ingredient in every kind of herbal tea. When the leaves are dried and ready to crush and mix, I’ll add some shaved citrus peel (orange, lemon) as well. Brew it in a ball and add some honey and it should work fine and have no adverse side effects (such as colic in the baby or hormone swings in Mom).

It got me to thinking about how little actual knowledge too many herbal suppliers in cities actually know about herbal things. Worse, some herbs are seriously NOT indicated for certain conditions, or for when people are taking actual pharmaceuticals that will clash. Damage can certainly be done, as not all herbs are “harmless.” Most pharmaceuticals are in fact synthetic versions of compounds that occur in natural herbs and roots, as traditional knowledge of these remedies has faded through the years since Big Pharma patented the alkaloids and compounds.

I’m lucky in that I learned quite a bit about various medicinal herbs from my Father-in-Law, who as a child helped gather and prepare herbs with his grandmother who raised him out in Oklahoma. She had learned at the feet of her grandmother, who was Medicine Woman for the tribe long before Indian Territory became a state. Father-in-Law got to be her apprentice because there were no granddaughters, the knowledge usually passed granddaughter to granddaughter. I learned about other herbs (more serious ones) from my older sister, a Ph.D. plant physiologist who specialized in plant alkaloids and was for a time the world’s foremost expert on American Mandrake as a treatment for cancer.

My sister is retiring from world-hopping this year and has built a log home near here, so we’ll finally get the chance to write the book we’ve been planning since we were teenagers – the definitive herbal Materia Medica for the 21st century. She’ll offer the chemical knowledge, I’ll offer the practical lore (and illustrations). Should be a big hit…

So in several upcoming posts I’ll offer some of the knowledge I’ve gained per the various medicinal herbs available at your local herb shop, but which the sellers of those herbs may not know enough about to properly prescribe. I’ll note that Great-great-grandma-in-law was famous for curing skin cancers caused by sun exposure, and that I once concocted a cream that my mother used on her basal cell carcinomas that flat cured them in between allopathic treatments she’d been getting from her doctor. He was so amazed that he requested a jar and planned to have it analyzed.

So stay tuned for upcoming recipes for various herbal concoctions useful against a range of semi-minor health issues and concerns. With the increasing price of pharmaceuticals and complete unavailability of regular health care in 21st century America, a little knowledge about traditional remedies can go a long way. Trick is not to have so little knowledge as to be dangerous. If in doubt, avoid all herbs with notable (and/or patented) alkaloids and hormone precursors!

Posts to This Series:

Part 1: Who Needs the Knowledge?
Part 2: More Herbs and Their Uses

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.

Toggenburg goats give the most milk per capita. Had a friend in New Mexico who got one in payment for a debt, gave 2 gallons a day! Since he didn’t like goat milk that much, we told him we’d take all the excess. He’d deliver a gallon daily, and my kids went through it fast. It’s naturally homogenized (you have to mechanically separate the cream), more easily digestible than cow’s milk, tastes sweet and creamy, and makes some of the best cheese on the planet. My family loves cheese, and that is way more expensive than milk at the store. Worse, they don’t label cheese as to whether it comes from rBST treated cows, and unless you can afford organic, it probably is.

If we do get goats, I’ll be making cheese. And goat cheese isn’t difficult to make if you know what you’re doing. You don’t have to separate the cream for cheese, but a separator does allow you to make butter. Heat the milk in a double boiler to 80º. Be precise, get a good long digital thermometer. Because we are vegetarian I’ll be using a mushroom-based rennet alternative. Rennet is produced from cow stomach lining. Testing for pH is also recommended for making hard cheeses.

Cheese flavoring is introduced with the lactobacillus, which you can get from buttermilk or purchase online along with the rennet or rennet substitute. At home a gardener can flavor fresh cheese with fresh herbs, too. A good herbed chevre (goat cheese) can go for $50-$60 a pound, if you can find it. Here’s a simple recipe for chevre:

5 quarts goat milk
1/2 cup cultured buttermilk
2 tablespoons diluted rennet (or vegetable rennet)

Warm milk to 80 degrees. Stir in buttermilk and mix well. Let sit a few hours. Add rennet. Stir at least one minute. Let sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours. Curd is ready to drain when it looks like thick yogurt. There may be a thin layer of whey floating on the top.

Ladle curd into muslin bag and allow to drain for 6-8 hours, or until it’s the consistency you like. Freeze, unseasoned, in Ziplock bags, or add salt and herbs to taste and put in a wooden cheese mold. When set, remove from mold, bag and freeze.

Check out some of the recipes at GourmetSleuth or surf around for others. Find out if anyone in your area offers cheese making classes (extension service sometimes has lists). You don’t have to have your own goats to make cheese. Just hook up with a dairy!

Links:

Cheese Making, Milk, Dairy Home
GourmetSleuth: How To Make Cheese
CheeseSupply: Cheese Making Supplies
Cheese Making Ingredients

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.

Mallow tea: 1 tbsp. fresh leaves, stem, root, flower or all parts to 1 cup of tea. If using dried mallow reduce to a rounded teaspoon per cup. Most all herbal teas should be measured this way, 1 tablespoon fresh or 1 teaspoon dry.

Mullein (Verbasum thapsus), a.k.a. Soldier’s herb or Woundwort. An oil made with mullein leaves steeped in vegetable oil for two weeks in a sunny window makes a soothing application for small wounds or hemorrhoids. It got its traditional titles for its efficacy to staunch bleeding and dispell bruising when applied directly to wounds. A friend once badly twisted his foot while here, it immediately swelled and bruised badly. I wrapped fresh bruised mullein leaves to his foot and ankle, held in place by his sock and shoe. Within two hours the bruising was completely gone and there was no swelling. Mullein should not be taken internally, as the leaves contain rotenone and coumarin.

Horehound, (Marrubium vulgare). Tea made with horehound leaves and stems is an expectorant useful to treat coughs. You can also make a cough syrup by boiling the leaves and stems in honey (equal parts). Keep it refrigerated and it will last a year.

Purslane, (Portulaca oleracea). Native Americans and early colonists used purslane to treat burns, headache, insect stings and stomach ache. Purslane is a common garden weed with thick, succulent leaves and is tasty in salads, soups and in stir-fry. High in vitamins A and C plus calcium and iron, the whole above-ground plant can be harvested any time. Often found growing in tandem with chickweed, (Stellaria spp.) which can be boiled and applied as a poultice for boils and skin rashes or drunk to treat urinary tract inflammations.

Bilberry, (Vaccinium myrtillus), or blueberry. The ative constituents in ripe berries are anthocyanosides, bioflavonoids that are potent antioxidants. These support formation of connective tissue and strengthen capillaries, may also improve blood flow. British pilots during WW-II ate bilberry jam prior to missions to improve their night vision.

Did you know that oil of cloves and cinnamon are more antiseptic than carbolic acid? Either of these oils can be applied to cuts and scrapes to kill germs effectively and prevent infection. You should probably keep clove oil around anyway, as it’s very effective for temporary relief of toothache or sore gums and relieving the sting of insect bites.

Garlic, Calamus and Nutmeg are also known for their antiseptic properties.

Sore Throat Gargle

Pour 1 pint boiling water on a handful of sage leaves, let stand for 30 minutes. Add 1/2 cup cider or wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons raw honey. To be used as a gargle followed by a swig.

Migraine Tea

6 parts rosemary leaves
4 parts peppermint leaves
4 parts bee balm leaves
4 parts sweet violet
3 parts feverfew
1/2 part sweet violet flowers

This is a tasty tea that should be made up a gallon at a time and kept in the refrigerator. It’s a good morning drink hot or cold because rosemary promotes vasodilation, peripheral blood flow and is generally tonic.

Links:

Simple Herbal Remedies Information

Natural Herbal Home Remedies

Guide to Herbal Remedies

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.

Black Cohosh

Roots and Bark – While we’re taking leaves from the sassafras, it’s time to take some roots as well. You may have to dig around the base to expose some peripheral roots. Don’t mess with any of the larger ones or you will damage the tree. Once you’ve cut a few finger-size roots from each tree, they should be thoroughly washed with a brush and rinsed, chopped into ~1/2 inch sections and dry thoroughly on newspaper. Grind it up and bag it to add to tonic teas. It adds a tasty flavor and pleasant aroma, is traditional as a tonic and blood purifier.

White Willow bark is the original source of salicylic acid – aspirin – and has all the properties we associate with aspirin. Painkiller, fever-reducer, anti-inflammatory. Here you’ll want to harvest stem bark, so cut the stems cleanly with clippers. Strip the leaves and rinse the branches, strip the bark with a pocket knife. Dry it thoroughly and grind. Its bitter taste might be hidden with a strong black cherry, mint and rose hip tea for coughs and colds, or you might just want to put it in capsules and take like regular aspirin. Salicylic acid from willow does thin the blood like pharmaceutical aspirin, but does not cause the stomach irritation.

Rose Hips

Black cherry bark is a notable expectorant useful in treating coughs, and it’s also digestive (settles stomach aches) and mildly sedative. These qualities make it a favorite for cold/flu teas and it’s a fine flavoring in calming nighttime teas with chamomile. I like to gather a lot, and luckily can do so because the black cherries on my property are big. I usually saw off a branch or two off several trees, an inch or so in diameter. These can be long and contain several side branches, Bring it all home.

Here you’ll want the inner bark, that thin layer underneath the dark outer layer. Cherry branch bark is thin, paper-like as birch is. I strip the bark with a pocket knife, then carefully scrape the inner bark off. This is dried and either ground or (if the shavings are small) just added as-is to tea. For a more potent cough remedy it’s best to make a tincture.

Seeds – Other than the mast crop nuts and acorns I gather, there is also a well-tended wild rose hip crop and the dogwood berries to gather in the fall. After the first freeze the rose hips turn red, which means they’re ready for harvest (if I can get to them before the birds do). They’re growing in a hedgerow on the high side of the driveway, so are convenient to the house. Harvesting is tricky due to thorns, I usually just clip off the hip trigs below the spray of hips and put it into a bag.

I sit at the kitchen bar with a bowl and dump the whole twiggy mess right on the bar, put the bag at my feet. Picking off the hips is a chore, but well worth the trouble. I just drop the stripped twigs back into the bag and add to the compost when I’m done. You can dry the hips, but I just put them into a jar and freeze them. They retain more of their delightfully tart taste and vitamins (rich source of C, B, E and K) that way, but for teas you’ll be bagging they should be dried. Either way, try to rub off the dark bud-hairs. They can be irritant.

Dogwood berries – those brilliantly scarlet, clustered berries that contrast so nicely with the dark crimson of fall dogwood leaves are good ingredients for tonic teas or teas used to treat fevers. I bag and freeze, they could be dried. Add 3 or 4 to the tea ball or bag. They’ve a bitter aspect, but this is easily counteracted by honey. For all my teas I like raw, unfiltered local honey as a sweetener. It mellows bitters and adds some medicinal value of its own (particularly for those who suffer allergies or stomach ulcers).

For cold teas add a few dried or frozen elderberries to the tea bag or ball. They have proven anti-viral properties and show good effectiveness in shortening the duration of a bout of flu.

Chamomile

And don’t forget that your garden-grown chamomile, purple echinacia, St. Johnswort and feverfew flowers, sage leaves, thyme and basil all make good herbal tea ingredients. The sage, basil and tyme are soothing to the nerves and stomach, camomile and St. Johnswort are calming, mild sedatives, and feverfew does just what its name implies. Echinacia (flowers and roots) has anti-biotic properties, as does thyme. Thyme oil is a good topical antiseptic.

For gifts to friends and family every year I bag up some good stimulant and sedative teas (be sure to label which is which) along with some general tonic teas that just taste good and are full of good vitamins and happy properties. There are some good sources on the web to get supplies like individual and pot-size heat-sealable tea bags and tea balls and tea strainers, so look around!

Or do what I do – make my own. I usually do 4-cup pot-size bags because individuals are a lot of trouble. That way a group of 4 can each have a cup of hot tea, or one person can refrigerate the excess and drink it iced or reheated later. For this I use those incredibly cheap unbleached paper coffee filters you can buy by the hundredlot. Simple in-out 1/2-inch chain stitch with 3-strand embroidery thread around the edge, measure your various ingredients into the center, then carefully pull, wrap and knot off the thread to make a tightly closed sack-bag. Use self-stick address labels stuck in half on the long end of the thread (so it can be kept out of the hot water by draping over the side of the pot.

Then enjoy your healthy, warming teas during cold winter nights and days, and thank Mother Nature for her bounty!

Links:

Gardens Ablaze: How to Make Herbal Teas

Make Your Own Simple Herbal Remedies

Grow Your Own Tea

Hand Made Naturals: Tea Brewing Supplies

World of Plenty: Supplies and Tools

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!

Old copper teakettles, worn out cowboy boots, old 55-gallon trash cans with holes (metal or plastic, cut short), old buckets, boxes and drawers… anything that will last awhile in the weather, can be made to drain water and will hold dirt can be made into a planting container or patio/yard conversation piece.

How about an old toilet with flowers growing in the tank and a bird bath in the bowl? An old claw-foot bathtub on the patio edge with a recycling fish tank water pump fall, water lilies and goldfish? That rusty old oil space heater can be sanded and painted, set in the kitchen or porch corner to hold that gallon-size copper kettle full of basil.

Old Easter baskets can be turned into hanging containers, just line with plastic and attach some chain or rope. Those 55-gallon plastic trash cans can be cut down and filled with enough dirt to grow tomatoes, peppers and herbs all planted together and trellised into nice arrangements. Paint them any color you like, add some decals or designs.

Coffee cans and cookie tins make excellent planters for herbs. Your kids’ old toys and wagons work nicely as containers, either for small succulents (in the bed of that big old Tonka dump truck) or a nice clip-able lettuce crop. An old chest of drawers can make a very nice kitchen planter, with drawers opened step-wise and sectioned with boards to hold dirt only in the space of their opening.

Check out some of the cool links below, and see what you can create from the ‘junk’ you’ve got sitting around!

Links:

6 uses for your old bathtub

Weird, Wonderful and Whacky Planters

Unusual Ideas for Planters

DIY Network: Container Gardening