tammy February 23rd, 2008

I will never ever eat anything heavy near bedtime again!  I had an extra couple of bites of our yummy dinner casserole as I was cleaning up the kitchen last night, and then had god awful indigestion the whole night.  Miserable.

My poor digestive system was pulling an all nighter trying to deal with that pasta, sausage, tomato sauce and cheese.  When it should have been resting and repairing, it was instead working.  It was not happy to say the least, and it was not very efficient either.  The food sat like a brick all night, causing bloating and pain.  I slept lightly, couldn’t relax my racing mind, had vivid anxious dreams when I did sleep.  Just an awful night.

Today I’m trying to undo some of the damage with gently nourishing foods and herbal allies, especially geared to sooth the tummy and aid digestion.

For breakfast, I’m having some chamomile tea with a little peppermint, along with some oatmeal with butter and cinnamon and a little brown sugar.  Both chamomile and peppermint are excellent digestive aids.  The oatmeal will provide good nourishment and plenty of mucilage to sooth and help the digestion along. 

I always add cinnamon when I eat this healthy high carb food because it lessens the effect on my blood sugars, as does the added butter.  Plus the cinnamon is warming and the oatmeal is moistening, both of which I seem to need right now.  I’ve been very cold and dry all over this winter, especially with regard to digestion. 

Later, I’ll have some wild greens with my lunch and dinner to help stimulate the digestive juices.  I saw a lovely patch of bittercress out in the yard earlier… think I’ll go get some of that for sure.  I’ll make a nice wild green salad with them the bright green chickweed growing nearby.  I’ll splash on some olive oil with dandlion leaf vinegar that I made last fall.

And about a half hour before my next meals, I’ll also take a dropperful of my dandelion root tincture.  It’s a bitter that stimulates digestive juices and is very helpful for indigestion, acid reflux and other stomach problems.  It also nourishes and tones the kidneys and liver.  Wish I had some fresh dandelion greens for my salad, but haven’t seen any new growth outside yet.

I’ll keep the meals a little lighter today, and drink lots of helpful herbal teas and infusions in between meals.  I think I’ll make oatstraw infusion to sip on today, with some marshmallow root added in for its moistening mucilage.  That should be nice.

Hopefully, all will be better by the end of the day. I hope so!

• Food as Medicine , Herbal Remedies
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tammy January 23rd, 2008

Clearing up tough skin conditions is one of burdock root’s many specialties, but as I recently discovered, it is also very good at stabilizing blood sugars. As I was taking burdock root tincture recently as part of a regimen to address a mysterious case of eczema, I got the unexpected benefit of glucose/insulin stabilization with this deeply healing root.

While I was taking the burdock, I noticed after a while that some skin tags that I had on the back of my neck began to spontaneously crust over and drop off. Hmmm…. I wondered what was going on, but I wasn’t complaining. I hate those things and was glad to see them going. Then soon after this, someone whose herbal wisdom I highly respect and who has done extensive research on the topic of insulin resistance (Paul Bergner), mentioned in an online herbal forum that skin tags may be a specific indication of insulin resistance. Soon after that, I read that burdock is often used to regulate blood sugars. Now it was coming together!

In case you don’t know, insulin resistance is often one of the first indications of an imbalance in blood sugar levels and often leads to the onset of type II diabetes. As far as I understand it, insulin resistance occurs when the body repeatedly makes excessive amounts of insulin in order to deal with frequent spikes in blood sugars. Frequent spikes in blood sugars occur with diets too high in certain carbohydrates (especially refined carbs like cane sugar and white bread). Over time the cells become resistant to the excessive insulin and its action of transporting glucose from the blood into the cells. As more glucose remains in the bloodstream, more insulin is made to try to force it into the cells, which equals more resistance over time, and more insulin production, and more resistance, etc… a very vicious cycle that eventually could result in diabetes or other serious health complications if it is allowed to continue. With diabetes, the insulin production system becomes exhausted from all the sugar spikes it has dealt with over the years and is finally no longer able to keep up, leaving blood glucose levels chronically high. There is more to the pathology than I am able to explain adequately here, but these are the broad strokes of the disease process.

I am not currently a diabetic, nor a hypoglycemic, but I do have skin tags. If this is in fact a specific indicator for insulin resistance, as I believe it is, then this says to me that I need to take some steps NOW to reverse the process. The possibility of developing diabetes in the future is nothing to play around with. Diabetes can be a very ugly and devastating disease as it progresses.

The good news is that in most cases insulin resistance is completely reversible with close attention to the diet and regular, gentle exercise. In some cases, even type II diabetes can be reversed in the same way, or at least managed so the impact is less severe. There are many herbal helpers and painless ways to change the diet, both of which are easy to implement and can make a huge impact. Below I’ve listed some simple and safe wise women ways that can help control blood sugar spikes and thus insulin resistance. But please also consult your health care provider if you have blood sugar/ insulin problems. This is really nothing to play around with.

Consume Burdock Root. Burdock is a deeply healing root. It heals from the inside out, digging deep all the way to your core. It can be consumed like food, as often as you like. Asian markets and some health food stores sell them under the name “gobo”. You can also dig your own; it is a very common weed in most places. It can be used like potatoes in soup, or cut up like carrots in stir fry. It can also be taken as a medicinal infusion or tincture. Burdock has been recognized by many herbalists as effective in controlling blood sugars, and there has been some scientific research that suggests the same thing. It is thought that the inulin in the starch of the root is the active ingredient that controls the blood sugars.

Add cinnamon to your food whenever you can. Studies show that cinnamon is effective at reversing insulin resistance in the cells. It can also dramatically reduce blood glucose levels in the diabetic, so check with your health care provider if you are on medication for diabetes, as using cinnamon could change your dosage. Sprinkle it on your toast (whole grain of course), put it in your tea, make your own cinnamon capsules and take them before a meal. Use your imagination!

Add vinegar to your food whenever you can. My grandmother often talks about how when she was young and she wanted to lose weight, she would drink vinegar. This provoked a yuck! response from me whenever I heard her say it. But studies show that this is effective at preventing blood sugar & insulin spikes when consumed before a meal (2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar is recommended), so I can see how it could also help in weight loss. Having a salad? Use a vinaigrette dressing and eat it at the beginning of your meal. Having collards or kale or spinach? Splash a bit of vinegar over them. This will help your blood sugars and release the minerals in the greens to make them more bioavailable to your body. Eat pickles. Take a bit of vinegar in a glass of water as a pre-meal drink. Be creative!

Eat more non starchy vegetables, and incorporate more nourishing herbs. These increase your vitamins and overall nutrition so you don’t crave the unhealthy stuff as much. I talked about using herbs as a vitamin supplement here, if you are interested in my thoughts on this.

Eliminate refined carbohydrates & reduce unrefined carbohydrates. Refined carbohydrates comprise most of what you find on grocery store shelves these days. Pastas, white breads, cookies, noodles, crackers, chips, pizza rolls, white flour, juices, sugar, syrups, sodas… the list is endless. Unrefined carbohydrates, on the other hand, are as close to the whole form in which nature created them as possible. They are for the most part whole grains and starchy fruits and vegetables, such as oatmeal, corn, carrots, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, most whole fruits. Some natural sweeteners are also unrefined carbs, such as unprocessed honey. Refined carbohydrates usually come packaged up with lots of other ingredients on the label. Unrefined carbohydrates have no ingredients; they just are themselves. Both of these categories of carbs can raise glucose levels faster than protein/fats and non starchy vegetables, but the refined carbs will send your glucose soaring up much, much faster than the unrefined ones. In contrast, the whole food synergy of the unrefined carbs slows glucose conversion somewhat. A certain amount of unrefined carbohydrates is needed in the diet, however, you need NONE of the refined junk.

Always pair unrefined carbohydrates with protein/fat. Protein/fat (usually they come together in natural whole foods) tends to slow the carbohydrates converting to glucose, and prevents sudden spikes in blood sugar. Eat some protein with every meal or snack, as almost every meal contains some carbs. Meat, fish, cheese, yogurt, nuts, beans, eggs, some soy products, all are good choices. (I try to stay away from processed meats and unfermented soy; I don’t think they are good for you). Also make sure you eat high quality fats like real butter, olive oil, coconut oil, fish oil; stay away from seed oils and fake butter — they are usually rancid and full of harmful chemicals.

Try to eat your unrefined carbohydrates toward the end of your meal. Eat the protein/fat and non-starchy vegetables first to further reduce the impact of the carbs on blood sugars. Having a salad, baked potato, and steak? Eat the salad first (with its viniagrette dressing!), the steak, and finally the potato. Actually, make that a sweet potato (more nutrient dense then white potatoes) with some of that wonderful cinnamon sprinkled on top!

Remember that carbohydrates, especially refined, tend to be addictive because of the glucose/insulin spikes they cause. Insulin is also known as the hunger hormone, for good reason. Being addicted to carbs can cause overwhelming hunger that undermines the best of intentions with your diet. It will make you want to eat and eat and eat the carbs, but yet never feel satisfied. I know from first hand experience.

I’ve been taking my own dietary advice, as described above, and was doing quite well until about a week ago. A few days of not planning well for meals, eating bread or potatoes that I didn’t need because that was what was there, and the next thing I know I’m rationalizing extra servings of carbs at every meal, craving them between meals, and eating more and more of them. My hunger was suddenly out of control again, along with my insulin/glucose balance.

The only way out of this viscious cycle is to go back to step one and begin again. Reduce the carbs and eat more protein. Use the herbal helpers, along with the other suggestions listed above. As you successfully cut back the carbs and use the helpers to reduce the hormonal spikes they can cause, you’ll find your craving for them steadily decreasing. When the cravings are under control, it is a very good sign that your insulin and sugars are balanced and stable. You may also find that you begin to lose weight naturally. These are all good indicators that you are headed in the right direction for optimal health!

• Case Studies , Food as Medicine , Herbal Remedies
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tammy January 7th, 2008

The cold, flu, and upper respiratory bugs have been persistent so far this season!  Almost everyone in my immediate circle succumbed at one time or another during the month of December.  And these were nasty bugs!  Creeping crud, complete with sinusitis, tonsilitis, bronchitis, and probably a few other ‘itis’s I’m forgetting.

Everytime someone fell ill, I just knew it was going to get me next.  But I managed to stave it off for most of the month of December.  Each time I thought I was getting ill I would increase my daily nourishing herbal infusions and pay extra attention to what I was eating.  I would also take my miracle cold defense remedy — fire cider –  any time I felt the slightest sniffle or tickle in my throat, and ta-da!, within a few hours no more symptoms! 

Before I tell the rest of the story, I’m sure you want to know more about this fire cider.  I’ve seen a few different recipes out there for this, but what it essentially is is apple cider vinegar infused with a bunch of hot vegetables such as garlic, onion, horseradish root, ginger root, hot peppers, etc – all well known for their immune enhancing effects, and are good to add to the diet during the cold months; think chili and long cooked soups and stews. 

To infuse the vinegar, you just chop or grate a bunch of these vegetables and fill a glass jar with them, pour apple cider vinegar over them, cap and let them steep for a few weeks, then strain and rebottle the vinegar.  I keep my fire cider in the fridge and take a spoonful of the vinegar with a spoonful of honey mixed in water as needed.

I swear this stuff really works.  Several times I began to sniffle and had that sore tickle in the back of my throat that told me a cold was trying to move in.  I would then take the vinegar/honey and literally within a few hours all symptoms would be gone.  Every time.

That is until later in the month, as holiday stress began to build up and I kept eating this cake, and that brownie, and cookies, and pumpkin rolls, and so many other delectable sweets that were so easy to grab.  At that point even the fire cider couldn’t protect me, and I finally came down with a cold during the last days of December.  This experience spoke volumes to me about what a big part stress and diet play in illness.  No matter what good things you usually put in your body, or what remedies you use, if you are overstressed and eating too much sugar and other crap, you are vulnerable.

But what spoke even louder was what a good job my body did in handling this cold.  I’ve never had an easier time being sick and had it linger for so short a period.  I think that’s because it’s also been a long time since I’ve been as well-nourished and had such a strong immune system as I do now-a-days.  Thanks to my usual nourishing herbal infusions, mostly whole foods diet, and nurturing herbal remedies for minor ailments!  Read about some of my other experiences with colds and flu here and here and here.

Well, my cold started as a sore tickle at the back of my throat.  That lasted for a few hours.  Next I got some sniffles, also lasting for a short time, about a day all together, with some sneezing and a few nose blows.  Then the cold progressed to a sore throat and neck glands with some general fatique and achiness, which lasted for a few hours one evening and was gone the next morning. Then I developed a scratchy something on my vocal cords that felt croupy.  But a few good coughs cleared it all away.  Finally, the bug moved into my sinuses, which made them mostly dry and irritated, with very little stuffiness.  After a couple of days in the sinuses, the bug finally left me.

As you can see, I had the full blown progression of a nasty creeping crud cold that only lasted for a few days and had all the ferocity of a mouse instead of the usual lion.  I call it my “semi-cold” of the season. The only remedies I used while it ran its course were rest, hot soups, and hot teas. 

Some of the teas were more soothing and helpful than others.  In the beginning, anything hot and steamy felt very soothing.  When the cold progressed to sore neck glands, I had honeysuckle tea, since I had already experienced its rapid healing effect on sore throats earlier in the year.  Last summer, when the honeysuckle was blooming I had made some honeysuckle sore throat syrup and frozen it for just such an occasion.  I simply popped one of the ice cubes from the freezer into a mug, then poured hot water over it — instant honeysuckle tea. 

Toward the end my sinuses became slightly stuffy when I slept, but otherwise were mostly just dry and irritated.  At that time I found most teas just dried me out more and were not soothing at all.  This was true of chamomile, red clover, red rasberry, and to a lesser extent, calendula.  It was also true of the nourishing herbal infusion I was drinking at the time — red clover with burdock root.  After drinking any of my usual teas or infusions, the back of my throat would become very dry and my sinuses would burn. 

Many herbalists use the language of hot/cold, moist/dry to describe illness in the body and to know how to treat it.  It is an energetic way of understanding the body and its processes.  I’m just learning to use the terminology and understand how it applies.  With the cold, dry sinuses I was experiencing, I finally got a good inkling of how to use this energetic system.

I saw that the teas I was using were mostly cooling and drying, which only aggravated my sinus symptoms.  I realized I needed something warm and moistening to effectively sooth my condition.  It was an ah-ha moment for me.  Ginger, which I absolutely love, immediately popped into my head.  It is very warming and also moistening, especially sweetened with honey (also moistening).  This turned out to be exactly what I needed!  Hot ginger tea with honey.   I grated a small amount of ginger root (purchased from the grocery store), mixed in a spoonful of honey, poured boiling water over it, covered it for 10 minutes or so to let it steep, then sipped slowly and breathed deeply of its lovely, steamy fragrance.  I felt immediate relief even after the first cup, which only got progressively better with each additional cup until finally all symptoms were gone.

So, I learned a lot with this cold.  One, I felt entirely validated in my belief of the huge role that diet and stress play in immunity and illness, and two, I began to gain a real understanding of the language and application of energetics in herbalism.  I can’t wait to explore these concepts in more detail!

Next, I want to talk about some herbs to help regulate insulin and blood sugars.  Did you know that skin tags could be one of the first signs that you are insulin resistant and therefore prone to developing type II diabetes?  More on that in my next post…

• Food as Medicine , Herbal Remedies
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tammy December 10th, 2007

I’ve written before about how much energy you can get from drinking nettle infusions, but I don’t think I mentioned what a great replacement for synthetic vitamin supplements this (and other) nourishing infusions are.

I just can’t overstate the value of deep nourishment for providing the raw materials your body needs to stay healthy. Most everybody these days understands this to some degree, and many think that if they pop a vitamin everyday that they have their nutritional needs covered. But there is just so much that vitamin supplements leave out, and so much of them that your body simply can’t use effectively and ends up just flushing out. And vitamins are expensive. What a waste!

A much better alternative in my opinion is to supplement with nourishing herbal teas and infusions.

Herbal teas can be made with either fresh or dried plants. Teas are steeped a short period, usually about 10 minutes or so, and then the plant material is strained out or otherwise removed. Depending on the plant used, teas can be quite medicinal and also provide many micronutrients.

But to get large volumes of nutrients from a plant, infusions are a better choice. Because infusions are steeped for a long time, usually 4-8 hours or so, for daily use they are always made from dried nourishing plants (ones that can be used like food moreso than as medicines) so as to avoid extracting large volumes of active ingredients such as volatile oils and alkaloids that could be harmful in large quantities. In dried plants, the active ingredients are less, but the vitamin and mineral nutrients are still very concentrated. You extract these nutrients by pouring boiling water over them, which breaks the cell walls and releases the nutrients into the water as they steep over a 4-8 hour period. Then you strain the plant material out and drink the liquid, which is really just a strong tea.

Nourishing herbal infusions are some of the highest quality supplements you could ever add to your diet. Unlike commercial vitamin supplements, the nutrition in an infusion is highly bioavailable, which means your body can actually absorb and use them. If you start drinking infusions, you will likely see a difference in your skin, hair, nails, and overall energy levels very quickly.

Different nourishing herbs have different levels of various nutrients and work as helpers to different systems of the body. For best results, find a few different types of infusions that you like, and then rotate them.

My favorite herbs for nourishing infusions are red clover flowers, stinging nettle, and oatstraw. All these herbs have many, many healthy benefits, too many to name them all, but here are a few reasons I use them.

Red clover blossoms work like a blood purifier in the body, help to balance the hormones, and have very strong anti-cancer properties. I like the taste of this one best of all because its flavor is very similar to regular Lipton black tea.

Stinging nettle has a strong nourishing action on the kidneys and adrenals, and is helpful for eliminating toxins from the body, which can boost energy levels and is helpful for those suffering from allergies or eczema. It gets rid of edema. It also has a lot of high quality, easily assimilated protein which helps to build beautiful strong hair and nails. It’s high mineral content builds strong bones. It is a uterine tonic and can help diminish PMS, cramping, and extremely heavy periods. I could go on and on about this one…

Oatstraw is high in calcium, helping to build strong bones, and it soothes and nourishes the nerves. It tastes really good too, almost, but not quite, sweet. It is really good hot with a little honey added.

To make an infusion, simply put about an ounce of dried herb in a quart canning jar (this is about a large handful) and pour boiling water over it. Stir and pour a little more water, then cap tightly. Leave it to sit for 4-8 hours. Strain out the herb and rebottle the liquid. Drink as often as you like, either hot or cold. Always store in the refrigerator so it doesn’t spoil too quickly. It will be good for about 2 days in the fridge.

If you find the taste of herbal infusions is too strong for you, try this. Fill your glass halfway with regular ice water, then pour in some of your infusion to finish filling the glass. This will dilute the infusion to taste more like a milder tea. This is a good way to get your daily nourishment and increase your daily water intake!

Also try drinking nourishing infusions between meals and see your cravings for junk food and between meal snacking virtually disappear!  Great for those who want to drop a few pounds.

Enjoy!

Get your dried herbs at Mountain Rose Herbs

• Food as Medicine , Herbal Remedies
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tammy November 24th, 2007

Out my back door there is a carpet of bright green right at the foot of the porch steps.  This herb tastes like everything I love about the color green and growing things.  It also happens to be a nutrition-packed super medicinal weed.  It is lovely chickweed.  Today I am harvesting some to make pesto and also a healing oil.  After all that stuffing on Thanksgiving, I need some wild greens in my system!

Chickweed is most lush (and medicinal, I believe) when it is very cool outside.  It doesn’t like the heat at all and will die back during the summer months.  It likes cool, shady, damp soil.  Very early in my herbal studies, before I attempted to bring her into my kitchen, I spent a whole year observing the growth patterns of chickweed.  I had been so excited to find this much acclaimed weed in  my yard, and the first time I saw it die back I was very worried that I would never see it again, but chickweed is a prolific reproducer (as any gardner who hates it will tell you).  She leaves many many seeds during every growing season and as soon as the weather cools she comes right back, even greener than before. 

She is also a wonderful healing ally.  Susun Weed describes chickweed as a weed that makes available to your body “…the energy of the cosmos.” 

Chickweed Pesto

Eating fresh chickweed is a wonderful, low calorie way to get your vitamin C, a health dose of minerals (including high levels of calcium), chlorophyll, potassium, protein, and a host of other essential nutrients.  You can eat it raw right out of the yard, add it to fresh salads, or pile it on sandwiches.  You can also make pesto (see below). The following recipe is partially from Susun Weed’s Healing Wise and partially from the recipe posted at LearningHerbs.com, but an internet search will yield many other variations.

1 C fresh chickweed (packed) & 1 C fresh basil –OR–
2 C fresh chickweed (packed)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 C olive oil

Some also like to add cheese (parmesan) or nuts (pine nuts, walnuts).  These make it taste really good, but they don’t keep as long as the other ingredients so adding them reduces the shelf life of your pesto, which is fine if you plan to consume it fairly soon.

Put all ingredients in a blender and turn it on.  Blend until it looks like pesto.  If it is too thick and gets the blender stuck, add a little more oil until you get the right consistency.

I’m using the pesto I’m making today, along with some lemon juice, as a dressing for a pasta salad made with orzo.  Mmmmh, I can’t wait for dinner!

Chickweed Oil/ Salve

Chickweed is well known as a cooling, anti-infective drawing agent.  A poultice of crushed and/or heated fresh chickweed applied to a hot, infected wound will cool it and draw out the infection.  It is often used to draw out splinters.  It seems to have a particular affinity for the eyes and has been known to completely heal pink eye in a very short time.  An oil extract of chickweed retains these healing properties, and the oil can be made into a salve that is very effective against diaper rash and as a wound dressing. 

To make an oil extract, pack a clean dry jar with fresh chickweed, pour olive oil over to completely fill the jar.  Stir it to remove air bubbles and then pour more oil to cover again.  Cover with a tight fitting lid and let sit for six weeks or more.  Strain out the herb and enjoy the oil! 

To make salve, gently heat some of the oil on very low heat (high heat will damage the oil). Add about 1/4 cup grated beeswax to every cup of oil. Continue to heat gently until beeswax is completely melted. To test the consistency, dip a spoon in the mixture and then put the spoon in the freezer for a couple of minutes to harden the salve. If it is too hard, add some more oil to your mixture; if it is too soft, add some more beeswax. When it is the right consistency, pour into clean dry jars and let cool before capping. Store in a cool dry place.

Chickweed Tincture

I have not begun to use the tincture regularly, but it is said that a dropperful 3-4 times per day will aid with weight loss.  Chickweed is full of saponins that help dissolve fat cells, and also cleans metabolic waste from the other cells, boosting metabolism.  It thins cell walls and the mucous lining in the intestines, making your food more digestible and delivering instantly higher levels of nutrition to every part of your body. A more nourished body tends not to desire binging on junk food, which greatly helps weight loss efforts.

It also weakens the cells of bacteria in the body making them highly susceptible to destruction by the white blood cells, boosting your immune system.  It thins the mucous lining in the lungs to aid in clearing up lung ailments such as bronchitis. Used regularly it has been known to dissolve cysts and cancers in the body, especially of the ovaries.

I made my first chickweed tincture last January.  At that time the chickweed was so very green and inviting, even though the temperatures were frequently below freezing.  I harvested a bunch of it for the very first medicinal tincture I ever made.  I was shocked to find when I got my harvest in the house and began chopping that those bright green leaves actually had ice crystals in them.  They were frozen!  I went ahead with the tincture anyway, not really knowing if I should or not.  I have to say that this is the absolute best tasting tincture I have ever made. It tastes like you might imagine the smell of a freshly mown yard or field of hay in the summer would taste – you know that wonderful aroma.  It is springy and green and full of buzzing zing zing energy.  You can barely taste the alcohol at all in this medicine. 

I think the cool, freezing weather is just how chickweed likes it best, and she makes her most powerful medicine during that season. I’m going to try another tincture next year during the warmer weather to test my theory.  I’ll keep you posted on how/if they are different.

So, go sample some chickweed… it’s probably right outside your door.  Enjoy!

Sources: Almost everything I know about chickweed I learned from Susun Weed (and my own hands-on experiments).  For lots more information and other recipes for this wonderful weed, check out Susun Weed’s, Healing Wise.

• Food as Medicine , Herbal Remedies , Wild Crafting
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tammy November 9th, 2007

Everybody knows that coffee and its potent caffeine rush is not good for you, but for those of us who love it, it is a difficult thing to give up. 

I find that it’s more than the caffeine that is addictive — the intoxicating aroma, the sweet childhood memories it arouses of my Nanny whose home always smelled of freshly brewed coffee, the snugly mornings I have to myself with my cuppa and my writing, the visits with friends and family sharing together over our cups of coffee.  These are a few experiences that make life so sweet for me.

I’ve decided I don’t want to give up coffee completely, and have instead compromised by limiting my consumption to only a couple times a week.  In between my real coffee days, I like to drink a healthy substitute that is satisfying in a different way.

Roasted dandelion root coffee has a similar color and bitter taste as does coffee and it can be sweetened and lightened with cream in just the same way, too.  Plus, in contrast to the way coffee can deplete the body of valuable nutrients and injure the stomach with its acidity, dandelion coffee actually nourishes your entire body, especially your liver.

To avoid a caffeine headache on my non-coffee days, I brew my dandelion coffee together with a bag of green tea, which contains a bit of caffeine in addition to a whole slew of anti-oxidants and other things that are good for you.  I really like the flavor this adds, too.

There are other healthful herbs that can be added as well, and I plan to experiment with some of them soon.  Roasted chicory root, I hear, adds a wonderful flavor, and there are other nutritious and medicinal root herbs that can be added to make the brew even healthier and/or to address specific health issues.  I’ll post different herbal “coffee” recipes here as I work with them.

Instructions for roasting your own dandelion roots

Gather dandelion roots, as described in my previous post.  Wash them completely to remove all dirt.  Then chop them into chunks and put in a food processor or blender.  Pulse the processor to chop the roots coarsely into a meal.  Spread this onto a cookie sheet and put into a 250 degree oven for several hours.  Leave the door of the oven slightly ajar to allow moisture to escape. 

This process will dry the roots completely and then they will begin to take on a rich color as they roast.  Stir them with a spatula every now and then to assure even drying.  When they are about the color of regular coffee, they are done.  Cool and then store the roasted dandelion roots in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid. 

Use a about a spoonful per cup of water to make your “coffee”.  Put into a tea ball, place in a coffee mug, and pour boiling water over.  Cover with a saucer and let steep for 10 minutes or so.  Remove the tea ball and enjoy as you would regular coffee, adding cream or sweetener as desired.

If you’re not quite ready to dig your own dandelion roots but still want to try this, you can buy dried dandelion root from a health food store or Mountain Rose Herbs.  They will already be chopped fairly small, and all you have to do blend them a bit finer and roast them to that rich coffee color.

Enjoy!

• Food as Medicine , Herbal Remedies , Wild Crafting
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tammy October 29th, 2007

Dandelion has been a great plant ally for me for some time, but yesterday was the first time I have ever attempted to gather my own dandelion roots. I found the experience exhilarating!

I’ve been using dandelion root tincture that I purchased this past year for some indigestion and heart-burn issues I’ve been having since I turned 40. It calms that condition for me quite well. And I’ve enjoyed fresh dandelion leaves in a salad here and there. A few months ago I had a terrible stomach virus — nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, couldn’t keep anything down, just awful. At that time I steeped some of the fresh leaves in white wine over night and then sipped on the wine and chewed on a few of the wine-drenched leaves the next day. That was a great comfort and helped my condition tremendously. I also gathered dandelion stems regularly this past summer when I was using the white sticky juice from them to get rid of a wart. Now that it’s fall, the time was right to move on to harvesting the roots.

I found that dandelion roots are much smaller than I thought they would be! I guess I was expecting to dig up one or two roots that would be about the size of a large carrot. Not so. They were each typically about the width of my pinky finger, some very long and some very short.

And it took a while to figure out how to dig them up without breaking them off near the top. The root goes straight down and I kept dissecting them with my digging tool when I would push it into the ground at an angle. Once I realized I needed to dig straight down in a circle all around the plant to loosen it, and then use my hands to finish getting it out of the ground I was able to get them out nearly whole. It took me about 20 minutes to dig 20 roots.

Since it had been raining for 3 or 4 days straight, the ground was still quite muddy even though the sun was shining and the skies were clear when I was digging. That means the roots and leaves were also quite muddy. I’ve been told that it is not good to wash your wild harvest if you can help it, especially if you are going to dry the plants or make an infused oil, because the extra moisture contributes to mold, which you definitely don’t want growing on anything you want to eat later or use for medicine. But my harvest was so muddy with the dense red clay we have around here that I had no choice but to wash them. I don’t want to ingest mud either, if I can help it!

When I got back in the house, I cut the dandelion leaves from the roots and put them in one sink full of water in our double kitchen sink, and put the roots in the other, to soak them all clean. Then I laid the them out on towels to dry, also patting them with paper towels to speed the process.

Since I had washed everything, I decided to make an alcohol tincture of the roots, and a vinegar tincture of the leaves. As far as I understand, the extra water is not a problem with these because the 100 proof vodka I use is 50% water anyway (and the alcohol probably will not let mold grow) and vinegar is well known to kill most molds.

I chopped the roots into fairly small pieces, put them in a pint sized canning jar, poured 100 proof vodka over them to cover, and capped it tightly. I cut the leaves into small pieces, put them in a glass bottle and poured vinegar over to cover. I had to stir with a chop stick to remove the air from around the leaves and then poured more to cover again. I capped it with a plastic top (never use a metal top for vinegar!) and then labeled both the jars with the name and part of the plant, the menstrum for each (alcohol & vinegar), and the date.

Putting my tinctures up in the cupboard to let them brew for the next 6 weeks or so, I felt very satisfied and proud of my work. I’m very glad I’ll have my own root tincture this winter and won’t have to buy it, and I can’t wait to use my leaf vinegar in oil/vinegar salad dressings and splashed over my greens.

I’m going to harvest some more next weekend, because I want to make some dandelion root “coffee”. More on that next week!

• Food as Medicine , Herbal Remedies , Wild Crafting
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tammy October 8th, 2007

I have such wonderful childhood memories of playing with Plantain. When certain varieties of the plant are flowering (as they do for most of the summer), the stem can be folded around itself and engineered in such a way that you can pop the flower heads off and send them flying. My cousins, siblings, and I used to run all around the yard during the summer using these mini weapons on each other. It was great fun. In fact, I still do this whenever I get a willing kid to participate with me!

Back then I had no idea that Plantain was also a valuable herbal medicine. Even when I first learned of its medicinal properties, it was some time longer before I understood that what I was reading about was that same old friend from my childhood.

In my reading, it was often referred to as “the Band-aid plant.” I was first introduced to it as a medicine through a wonderful article I found on the internet about the author getting stung by a bee and how she quickly found this plant growing nearby, chewed it up and applied it to the sting, and got instant relief. How she taught her children to find the plant and apply it themselves whenever they got a sting or bug bite…

This and other stories I read stirred a deep yearning in me. A yearning for the simplicity of such a way of life, the self-sufficiency of it, the rightness of it. This was near the beginning of my journey into herbalism, and I became very anxious to find this plant so I could experience it in this way too! I was totally in awe to discover shortly after that this was the very same common weed I had been playing with my whole life, practically a permanent fixture in my little piece of the world. And there it was, still right outside my door growing everywhere in my yard. I needed only step outside and it was free for the taking.

Fascinated, I read all about Plantain and learned many facts about it. I learned that the fresh young leaves can be eaten as a salad green or cooked like spinach, imparting many valuable nutrients. The seeds are used by many as a bulk laxative. The roots can be made into a remedy for a variety of serious illnesses. To give a good idea of the widespread uses and benefits of this plant, go to: http://altnature.com/gallery/plantain.htm

But I must say, no amount of reading and intellectual learning can compare to actually seeing it work before your very eyes.

My little fair skinned grand-daughter was the first person I experimented on. The bugs just love her! They eat her up every time she goes outside. On one rare occasion, when she was just a couple years old, a bee stung her and had her howling in pain. I remembered immediately that Plantain might help, but I wouldn’t really know for sure unless I tried it, so that is what I did. I went right out into the yard and gathered some healthy green Plantain leaves.

I wasn’t quite ready at that early stage of my herbal career to jump full fledged into making spit poultices (yikes!), so instead of chewing it up I used my fingernails to macerate it and squeeze it so that some of its green juice was oozing out. Then I placed the leaves directly on the sting. Within 5 seconds she stopped crying and said it didn’t hurt anymore!! A few minutes later she said it hurt again, so I applied fresh leaves, with the same instant results. After that she went merrily back to playing as if nothing had happened at all. I’ve since used plantain many times for similar situations, and always with the same miraculous results.

Where I live in central Virginia, the plantain is still flourishing out in the yard even this late into Fall. But I know it will soon diminish as cold weather sets in. So, to make sure I have access to some of its healing properties all winter long, I made my first oil infusion of Plantain this summer, and I will soon turn some of that into a healing salve. I’ll use my oil and salve often throughout the winter and beyond for rough dry hands, chapped lips, rashes, abrasions… any sort of skin irritation.

How to make Plantain Oil & Salve

Gather fresh plantain leaves on a sunny day. Choose only unblemished leaves that the bugs have not eaten. You should not wash them, so choose a spot that is unlikely to have been chemically sprayed or visited by the neighborhood dog! It’s important that the leaves NOT be wet, because the extra moisture can encourage the growth of mold in your oil — you don’t want that! Let the leaves sit for a while to wilt a little. This will help to reduce the moisture further.

Tear the leaves into small pieces and fill a glass jar. Fill it well. This takes a lot of leaves, so choose a smaller container if you only have a little. When the container is full, pour extra virgin olive oil over, stir it and pour more, so the container is filled to the very top and leaves are completely covered. Cap tightly and sit in a cool dry location, somewhere that won’t be damaged by oil seeping out (it always seeps out a little). Let sit for at least 6 weeks.

After the six weeks, strain out the herb and then pour the oil back into a fresh clean dry jar. Cap and let sit for a couple of days so any water in the infusion will sink to the bottom. Then carefully pour the oil into yet another clean dry jar, making sure not to get any of the water at the bottom. Cap and store in a cool dry location. Use as needed for external skin ailments.

Ta-da! You have just made an oil infusion!

Salve

To make salve, gently heat some of the oil on very low heat (high heat will damage the oil). Add about 1/4 cup grated beeswax to every cup of oil. Continue to heat gently until beeswax is completely melted. To test the consistency, dip a spoon in the mixture and then put the spoon in the freezer for a couple of minutes to harden the salve. If it is too hard, add some more oil to your mixture; if it is too soft, add some more beeswax. When it is the right consistency, pour into clean dry jars and let cool before capping. Store in a cool dry place.

Where to get supplies

Excellent quality beeswax, olive oil, and a variety of jars are available at Mountain Rose Herbs.

• Food as Medicine , Herbal Remedies , Wild Crafting
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tammy September 26th, 2007

Well my vegetable garden flopped again this year, but the good news is that my herbs are doing wonderfully! They really are soooo easy to grow, and they require virtually no maintenance. I can feel Fall in the air here in central Virginia, so I’ve been trimming back the herbs and harvesting their goodness before they die back for the winter. The last couple of days I’ve been working on the sage. I have tons of it. I don’t want any of it to go to waste, so here are some ways I am preserving it.

Sage Honey

Preserving sage in honey is a delicious and healthful way to enjoy the sage all winter long. When I say it is delicious, I mean so delicious you just might want to sit down with a spoon and an open jar and eat the whole thing! (Don’t really do that… way too much sweet for one sitting!)

Honey itself is highly anti-bacterial and tends to draw moisture to itself. For these properties it is considered an excellent wound remedy — raw honey applied to a wound will keep it moist and free of bacteria and speed its healing — and is also wonderful for healing many ailments of the digestive tract and sore throats. In addition, honey is an excellent source of high quality protein and carbohydrates plus many vitamins. It is an all-around health food that should be consumed regularly in small amounts. When you combine honey with an herb, the honey will draw out the water soluble vitamins of the herb (due to it’s water drawing properties), and also the strongly fragrant and anti-infective volatile oils in the plant. The result is a sweet and delicious medicinal.

To make sage honey start with fresh sage and a small glass container (I used a pint size canning jar, but you can also use recycled jelly jars, etc). Pull off only the unblemished sage leaves from the stem and tear these into smaller pieces and fill your container. Press it down and really fill it — this takes quite a bit of herb to do, so if you only have a little sage, use a smaller container such as a baby food jar. When it is full, pour raw honey over the herb to cover, and then use a chop stick or other utensil to poke around to get the honey all around and under the herb. You will then probably have to pour on more honey to cover the herb again. Fill the container all the way to the top with honey, then cap tightly, put on a label with the name of the herb and the date, and then sit it on a shelf to “brew.”

The honey can be used within the next day or two, but the medicinal properties will increase the longer it sits. Many wise women let their honeys sit for at least six weeks before consuming. You do not need to remove the herb before using. To enjoy, just take out a spoonful of honey and herb, put it in a cup and pour boiling water over it for tea, or take a spoon full at a time like a cough syrup for a sore throat. You can also spread it on toast, or any other way you might use regular honey.

*Note: Do not give honey to children under 1 year. They cannot digest honey well enough to kill potentially harmful spores that are found in all honey. Older children and adults do not have this problem. *

Sage Vinegar

I started making herbal vinegars last year. I have found my vinegars to be wonderful for seasoning dark leafy greens and other vegetables, and as a primary ingredient, along with olive oil, in salad dressings.

Consuming herbal vinegars is really good for your bone health, too. According to Susan Weed, vinegar splashed onto cooked leafy greens increases the amount of bio-available calcium from the greens by one-third. Herbs are chock full of additional minerals that also become readily available to your body when they are infused in vinegar.

To make sage vinegar, start with fresh sage and a glass container. Pull off the unblemished leaves, tear them into smaller pieces, and fill your container. Pour regular apple cider vinegar over (I buy a gallon at a time from the grocery store) and stir to remove air, then pour more to completely cover the herb and fill the container to the very top. Cap tightly with a non-metal top, and put a label with the name of the herb and the date on it. Vinegar eats metal! Do not use a metal top. If all you have is metal, put a plastic baggie over the top of the jar before screwing on the lid. The vinegar is ready to use after six weeks. You can strain out the herb and put it in a nice bottle with a sprig of fresh herb, or you can just keep it in the “brewing” jar.

Dried Sage Tea

A spoonful of dried sage leaves and boiling water will make a lovely tea anytime you want a warm drink. It also has many medicinal properties, which I will go into in a future post.

Different wise women dry herbs in different ways. One way that I like is to pluck off the unblemished leaves and put them in a small brown bag (lunch size). I roll the sides of the bag down to make a little open pouch, label the bag with the name of the herb, and then put the herb in. Every day or two I reach in and stir the leaves around to circulate air and promote even drying.

I like this method because it prevents having a lot of different herb bundles hanging all around the kitchen dropping leaves and debris all over the place. I don’t mind a few herb bundles, but I have limited space, so I would soon have to resort to hanging them from eye hooks in the ceiling if I used that method exclusively! The brown paper sack pouches can be sat anywhere I have room for them, so they make it much easier to live with a lot of drying herbs in the house.

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You can make honeys, vinegars, and teas out of many different herbs in just the same way as you would sage. I plan to also make some of these with my Rosemary and Tarragon. You can experiment freely with just about any culinary herb.

If you haven’t yet grown any sage in your own garden, but want to experiment with it, you can usually buy fresh sage in the produce section of any grocery store. For best results, look for organic. You can also order dried sage at my favorite organic bulk herb resource, Mountain Rose Herbs. Apple cider vinegar is available from any grocery store. For honey, I recommend finding a quality source for raw honey, as the heat processing of most commercial brands destroys many of its healthy benefits. Health food stores usually carry honey in bulk, and there are also several good online sources.

For some more easy ways to experiment with herbs using simple ingredients from the grocery store and/ or your garden, visit www.learningherbs.com and take advantage of some of their free resources.

Well, making my honey, vinegar, and dried tea took care of a lot of my sage harvest, but I still have more! My next post will be about making Sage Smudge Sticks, which are used much like candles or incense in the home…. stay tuned!

• Food as Medicine , Herbal Remedies , Organic Gardening
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tammy September 1st, 2007

Before that trip to the doctor’s office, before seeing those special therapists, before trying some of the stronger herbal remedies to treat that serious problem you may have, there is the every day food you prepare in your kitchen.  This is where good health starts.  Everything else is patchwork.

Culinary herbs are potent additions to your good health arsenal in the kitchen, and is one of the easiest ways to begin experimenting with herbs. 

Some of my favorite common cooking herbs are Rosemary, Thyme, Marjoram, and Basil.  They can all be freely added to recipes in fresh or dried form.  In addition to the wonderful taste, they also are anti-oxidant rich (anti-oxidants prevent cancer and retard signs of aging), cardiac tonics (tones the circulatory system and heart), mild anti-depressant and nerve nourishers, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, natural food preservatives (food containing these herbs, especially meats, will not spoil as fast), and digestive aids.  There are many, many other culinary herbs that have similar beneficial properties, and many of them also contain loads of vitamins and minerals.

Herbs are very easy to grow in your garden or in a pot inside the house.  They are extremely hardy and will grow even in poor soil.  You can pick up a small plant at the nursery in the Spring, and it will flourish over the Summer.  Then you’ll be able to pick the herbs fresh whenever you need them for cooking during the warm months, and you can also preserve them in a variety of ways to use over the winter.  My favorite ways to preserve them is by making herbal vinegars and honeys. 

Now that you have an idea of the wonderful benefits of using these herbs, get in the kitchen and start cooking!  Need some recipes or ideas?  Visit www.magicmealplanner.com.

I’ll be posting more information over the next several weeks on the medicinal properties and specific remedies that can be made from my favorite cooking herbs… stay tuned!

• Food as Medicine
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