Lip Sumacin Good

The other day we were meandering along checking out the wild edible situation right under everyone else’s noses. We came up with about 4 different varieties of apples, currants gone wild, raspberries, hops (didn’t eat those) and staghorn sumac. John picked off 5 bunches of the sumac for us to take home. The lemony tang was finger lickin good.

I knew that sumac was used for a drink likened to lemonade so I whipped out “Stalking the Wild Asparagus” by Euell Gibbons to see what he had to say.

I put the 5 clumps in a bowl and covered them with water. Then I mashed and pounded for 10 minutes with my potato masher. I strained it through several layers of cheese cloth as the man instructed and added about 1/3 cup of sugar and a little more to the juice. Oh no not another one of those talked up wild treats. It was very refreshing. So I can talk it up. Definitely lemony. It’s a keeper.

This is the time of year to be using it. If there is a heavy rain then wait a day to pick it as the rain washes the good stuff off. But it comes back. And there is another sumac by the way that is poisonous. But it is totally different looking and has white berries and is low to the ground. No worries.

Don't Leaf Me Alone

The “healing leaf", as John’s mom called it, is growing strong in this neck of the woods. Actually it grows just about everywhere man has put his foot. The plantain is a major ingredient in the salves I make.

Primarily plantain is used for all disorders of the respiratory organs. It is used for those with weak kidneys as well as treating eczema, liver and bladder disorders and the list goes on.
I have concentrated on the skin healing abilities of course and have used it for over 30 years now. And in the last few years I have been making salves and selling them and getting good reports.

Yesterday I went out and picked some to make my oil infusion today. If the plant is clean I don’t bother washing it, but these leaves had sand on them from one of the areas on our property. I gently washed them then put them in the salad spinner to get the left over sand and most of the water off.

I then lay them out on a cotton towel and let them dry overnight to get rid of a good amount of water. I will chop them up, put them in a quart jar and pour olive oil over them, making sure to get the air bubbles out and the plant under the oil. Then I let it sit for about 4-6 weeks, strain the herb off and bottle it. I keep it in the fridge until I am ready to combine it with other herbs to make my salves.

People have used my salve for babies butts to a regular skin care routine at night. Or it's used on cuts, scrapes, etc. I make no claims. But......they do.

How to Make Fresh Herb Tea

When you think of tea what do you envision? A little bag with a string attached? A teaspoon of loose leaves dancing in a pot of boiled water? Chances are you will only be seeing a once fresh herb in its dried state.

When John serves up a pot of fresh picked nettle tea on his herb walks sometimes someone will say, “I thought you had to dry it first”. Nope. If it’s available it's even better fresh. That goes for mint leaves as well as other herbs. If it’s there use it. Dry the excess for those cold winter nights or days.

Here is how I make my tea:

Go out in the morning and cut a bunch of mint and nettles. I use the stems and leaves. The amount I figured on was enough to loosely fill a 1/2 gallon canning jar.

I cut my herbs up as I put them in the jar. I think you get more out of them that way.
Boil up some water. Pour it over the leaves to fill the jar.
Just put the cap on but don’t screw it down.
If you’re going to drink it hot then strain off the leaves and drink in about 15 minutes.
For iced I leave them steeping a little longer and strain and refrigerate. You will be amazed how wonderful, soothing, refreshing it tastes. And if you have a bit of intestinal upsets it is very therapeutic.
A note; it is best not to ball up your herbs in those tea ball things.They need to float freely to release their full affective strength. As a matter of fact...so do we. Ahhhh Fweedom.

It's Salad Days for Weeds by the WSJ.com

Did you know that US supermarkets sold over $2 million of dandelion greens last year?
Did you know dandelion greens selling for as much as $9 a pound?
Even the Wall Street Journal is talking about the benefits of eating weeds. Check out their recent article called It's Salad Days for Weeds.

Along with this article is a video A New Respect for the Lowly Weed by of one of my hero's, James Duke. He one of the most knowledgeable people on earth about wild edible and medicinal plants.


Two of his books that I have are

1. A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guide Series)
2. The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Everyday Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing.

A Sappy Story

Once upon a time a friend gave me some pine salve to try. She said her daughter used it to help clear up the skin problem she had. Well ever since I set my eyes and nose on it I have wanted to make some.

I came across some places that had information on it and took what was worth keeping. So now I will attempt to concoct my own version of it.

First you start with a glob of pitch from a pine tree. As I looked expectantly to the tree in our yard I envisioned myself scaling the sappy thing in search for that pungent treasure.

In the meantime I had to get the doggy do up and out of the ways of unsuspecting shoes. As I attacked it with my shovel, I noticed it was a bit different looking. What had my dog been eating? I pocked it. It had a bit of a spring. I, well, smelled it and to my surprise it was a big chunk of pine pus.

One website suggested you infuse it in olive oil for a few weeks in a very warm location. Another said to put it in a crock pot with the oil on low for a few hours. I voted for that method and it is infusing as I write this.

I will strain it to get the needles etc. out and then will use it for the oil part of a salve recipe. I’m customizing the recipe and will be on the look out for a few good guinea pigs including myself, to test it out on.

Pine has drawing powers similar to plantain. As one person put it, it is a powerful counter-irritant which means that it stimulates local blood flow and aggravates the local immune response into revving up. As a result it may cause a temporary increase in discomfort or
inflammation in the area in order to speed healing.

The immediate bonus is that it makes my kitchen smell real nice when I open the lid to check on it.

Finished Eye Cream

So here is the finished Eye Cream. Next time I'll add a bit more lavender essential oil and this being spring heading into summer I will add extra beeswax. They do that with chocolate you know. More or less wax according to the season.

John headed out to his first edible plant walk of the season at Kohler-Andrea State Park. I loaded him up with the thermoses of hot water, cups and his favorite teapot. He makes nettle tea for the people to sample. It is a very easy tea to like. We try to have it every morning while we can.

The horsetail is getting bigger so I need to get gathering for future use. And I need to get some eye cream over to a neighbor who has been asking for it since last winter. And on and on...

Eye Cream Fixins

Fresh horsetail drying

Let's continue the eye cream conversation. The recipe called for fresh horsetail. I am sure you will recognize it now. I harvested it in a more swampy area. Drying overnight gets rid of some of the water content before I infuse it.
Same with the violet leaves and flowers also pictured.

So tomorrow I will add this all to olive oil and infuse for about five hours in a little crock-pot.

More to follow on the progression of the eye cream.

Rhubarb Nectar

It's rhubarb time again. And once again it is time to wow the friends and family with my getting to be famous nectar. Simple as pie. Wait a minute,I never thought pie was simple.

Anyway, get yourself 12 cups of chopped up rhubarb and put it in a pot with 2 1/2 quarts of water. Heat it up and cook the rhubarb 'till soft. Strain it through a fine mesh strainer (as pictured) . To the strained juice add a cup of honey and 2 cups of unsweetened orange juice. Chill and serve.

Oh and don't forget to secure the vault you will have to store it in as it is much desired by most and to fight for.

Ah Spring. Time for that sweet little beauty that claims a good part of our property. Not only is it gorgeous, it is tasty and medicinal and a great ingredient for an eye cream I make.

First the edibleness of it.It goes well in salads. By "it" I mean the leaves and the flowers. The leaves are mild, sweet and slightly peppery (as stated in Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants by Steve Brill).

The flowers and leaves are blood purifiers and detoxifiers. They contain rutin and vitamin C.

The neat thing about their properties is that they are really beneficial in the eye cream I make.They strengthen the capillaries on that delicate skin.

So whether you eat the violet or put it on your skin....it goes in. How wonderfully poetic.

Foraging for Food by John

Many people want to live off the land or learn to be more self sufficient. In other words they want to be prosumers. As I have mentioned in my other writings very few can survive off the land and those who can don’t want to. They know it is very hard work just to maintain a subsistent level of living.

It’s fairly easy to pick out those people who have very little “survival” or self reliant skills. I know. I was one of them. They want to head for the wilderness and “live off the land”. Ha! Most of these people would starve if I dropped a dead deer at their feet. They would have no idea how to butcher or preserve it.(I learned this skill one very rainy cold night by lamp light with the how to book in my hand and a knife in the other). Vegetarians would have to wait for spring to eat.

No offense to vegetarians as when situations permitted I have gone vegetarian for years. But you can’t be a vegetarian in snow country without depending on Wal-Mart and diesel guzzling trucks to bring your fresh produce from down south. Not exactly my idea of a self reliant life style!

Because I am better than average on collecting wild food I know I can’t live free and abundantly just on that. So where do I forage for my food? In the woods, peoples yards, grocery stores, farmers markets, etc.

Here's how I foraged at a sausage company outlet store: For some reason the company had lots of turkey brats that were close to outdated and were selling for $4 for a 12 pound box. That’s 33 cents a pound. I can’t even process free venison for that price. The bags and freezer paper cost more than that. We’ve enjoyed countless turkey brat meals with friends who happen to drop by. Along with a pot of rice you can feed 5 people for the less than the price of a big mac.

So what do you do when the freezer fills and you still have 20 pounds of turkey brats left? Think like a Frugal Prosumer. Slice them up or take them out of their casing and run them through a jerky press (or cooky press) and dehydrate them. These got eaten so fast we didn’t even have to store them.