Weeds of the Northeast: review

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

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

I Love This Book.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants by Steve Brill

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

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

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

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

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

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

HM

Review: My Side of the Mountain

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

This is an older book, originally published in 1959. It's written for young adults, but it is eminently readable by anyone. And if you're interested in foraging wild plants (or hunting small game or falconry or living off the land) then this is a sweet little novel you'll want to read.

Our hero, Sam Gribley, lives with his family in New York City. He learns about living off the land by reading books in the New York Public Library and by talking to others. When the story takes place, he's probably about 14 or so. Sam decides to run away from home and go find his great-grandfather's farm in the Catskill Mountains. He tells his father that this is what he's doing and the old man says, go to it, son! Every boy should run away.

So off Sam goes, first by train and then by hitching rides. With him he has a penknife, a ball of cord, an axe, and $40 and the clothes on his back (two or three layers of clothes). He heads to the small town near where the farm is located, goes to the library and with the help of the friendly librarian, finds out where the farm is on the mountain.

Sam is, at first, scared and cold, and he can't quite light a fire his first night out in the woods. He manages to find a nice man, though, who teaches him that necessary skill. And from then on, Sam is set. He takes to his new life like he's been living it forever, instead of just reading about it in books.

Sam fishes and is successful. He finds many wild plants to eat. In fact, Sam makes it all look so easy! For a kid raised in NYC, it's a bit unbelievable. Since Sam is such a likeable character, I could forgive him for how easy he makes it all seem, foraging, trapping, fishing and even raising and training a falcon.

I won't go through the entire plot, but I'll share some fun bits, how's that? My comments in bold.

"I was hot and dirty. I scrambled down the rocks and slipped into the pool. It was so cold I yelled. But when I came out on the bank and put on my two pairs of trousers and three sweaters, which I thought was a better way to carry clothes than in a pack, I tingled and burned and felt coltish. I leapt up the bank, slipped, and my face went down in a patch of dogtooth violets.

"You would know them anywhere after a few looks at them at the Botanical Gardens and in colored flower books. They are little yellow lillies on long slender stems with oval leaves dappled with gray. But that's not all. They have wonderfully tasty bulbs. I was filling my pockets before I got up from my fall."

*****

"At lunch I also solved the problem of carving out my tree (the one that he ends up living in). After a struggle I made a fire. Then I sewed a big skunk cabbage leaf into a cup wtih grass strands. I had read that you can boil water in a leaf, and ever since then I had been very anxious to see if this were true. It seems impossible, but it works. I boiled the eggs in a leaf. The water keeps the leaf wet, and although the top dries up and burns down to the water level, that's as afar as the burning goes. I was pleased to see it work."

*****

"Once home, I immediately started to work again. I had a device I wanted to try, and put some hickory sticks in a tin can and set it to boiling while I fixed dinner. Before going to bed, I noted this on a piece of birch bark:

This night I am making salt. I know that people in the early days got along without it, but I think some of these wild foods would taste better with some flavoring. I understand that hickory sticks, boiled dry, leave a salty residue. I am trying it.

In the morning I added:

It is quite true. The can is dry, and thick with a black substance. It is very salty, and I tried it on frogs' legs for breakfast. It is just what I have needed."

(That's a neat trick to know!)

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

"The inner bark of the poplar tree tasted like wheat kernels, and so I dried as much as I could and powdered it into flour. It was tedious work, and in August when the acorns were ready, I found that they made better flour and were much easier to handle.

"I would bake the acorns in the fire, and grind them between stones. This was tedious work too, but now that I had a home and smoked venison and did not have to hunt food every minute, I could do things like make flour. I would simply add spring water to the flour and bake this on a piece of tin. When done, I had the best pancakes ever. They were flat and hard, like I imagined Indian breat to be. I liked them and would carry the leftovers in my pockets for lunch."

(Wonder if that baking in the fire got rid of the tannin in the acorns sufficiently? Another way I've read to rid the acorns of bitter tannin, is to put them in a lightly woven bag in a fast stream and let the water wash out the tannin. Or boil the acorns in as many changes of water as it takes.)

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

Sam is awfully clever. He trains his falcon, Frightful, to hunt for him. He also befriends a little raccoon:

"Jessie C. James became a devoted friend. He also became useful. He slept somewhere in the dark tops of the hemlocks all day long, unless he saw us start for the stream. Then, tree by tree, limb by limb, Jessie followed us. At the stream he was the most useful mussel digger that any boy could have. Jessie could find mussels where three men could not. He would start to eat them, and if he ate them, he got full and wouldn't dig anymore, so I took them away from him until he found me all I wanted. Then I let him have some.

"Mussels are good. Here are a few notes on how to fix them.

"Scrub mussels in spring water. Dump them into boiling water with salt. Boil five minutes. Remove and cool in the juice. Take out meat. Eat by dipping in acorn paste flavored with a smudge of garlic and green apples.

"Frightful took care of the small game supply, and now that she was an expert hunter, we had rabbit stew, pheasant pot pie, and an occasional sparrow, which I generously gave to Frightful. As fast as we removed the rabbits and pheasants new ones replaced them."

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

Sam's friend Bando (a lost English professor who Sam found and fed) and his Dad manage to come visit Sam in his big hemlock tree home for Christmas. Their Christmas dinner menu:

wild onion soup, turtle shells of sassafrass tea, blackened venison steaks, "fluffy mashed cattail tubers, mushrooms and dogtooth bulbs, smothered in gravy thickened with acorn powder. Each plate had a pile of soaked and stewed honey locust beans mixed with hickory nuts. It was a glorious feast."

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

My Side of the Mountain is a charming book. You'll whiz through it in an afternoon. My library has a copy, then finally I found my own copy in a used book place. I made the mistake, however, of reading it now, before foraging season kicks in big time. And the book has made my mouth water with the mind-pictures of wild greens, onions, acorn flour, turtle soup..... It'd be best to wait to jump into this story, wait til March at least when the first young spring greens will be out. (That's for my area, anyway. Your seasons might be different.)

There's lots of good foraging-type info in the book, not so much for plant identification, but for the variety of plants and critters Sam finds to eat. There's good how to survive in the woods information as well. How to build a debris hut, finding spring water, that kind of thing.

Apparently, Jean George went on to write a few more of these books--you can find them at Amazon or just keep your eyes peeled for them. The next two are called On the Far Side of the Mountain, and Frightful's Mountain. I'd like to find those and read them too.

Check it out. You'll enjoy it!

HM

Review (Sort of): When Technology Fails

When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency by Matthew Stein

I got a copy of this book from the library. Amazon has it listed for $23 bucks, which is, in my opinion, a very good price for this book.

First, let me say that I am not really reviewing this book here, since I haven't had the time to read it. All I've done is look through it for a few days. But I will say that I definitely want a copy of my own. I no long buy novels, I use the library for my "entertainment" reading. I do buy good reference books, however, and WTF (When Technology Fails, not What the .....) fits in that category for sure.

I'll tell you about the book instead of reviewing it. How's that? I think most readers of this blog and other preparedness-type blogs will want a copy of Stein's encyclopedia. Herewith the main sections of the Table of Contents:

1 Introduction of Self-Reliance

An Uncertain Future

Technology Failures Are Common

Why This Book?

Be Prepared

Preindustrial Self-Sufficienty

Old-Fashioned Self-Reliance and Modern Sustainable Technology

References

(I'm not going to type out all the subcategories in each section--the TOC goes on for 5 pages! But I will put in a few subcategories from each chapter so you get a taste...)

2 Present Trends, Possible Futures

The Main Threats to Our Future

The Eco-Threat

Peak Oil

The Bio-Threat

The Terrorism Threat

Other Important Trends

3 Supplies and Preparations

Planning for the Short Term

72-Hour "Grab-and-Run" Survival Kits

Long-Term Planning and Storace

Calculating a Year's Food Supply

Notes on Camping Gear

References

Resources

4 Emergency Measures for Survival

Survival Strategies

Developing a Survivor Personality

Water

Fire

Food

Shelter

Simple Tools

Surviving a Nuclear Disaster

5 Water

Water Requirements

Stocking Up for Emergencies

The World's Water Crisis

Preserving Water

Treating and Finding Water the Low-Tech Way

Modern Water Treatment

References

Resources

(All chapters have a References and Resources.)

6 Food: Growing, Foraging, Hunting, and Storing

World Population and Food Supply

Permaculture

Grow Biointensive

Sprouting: Your Own Mini-Garden on a Windowsill

Foraging for Food

Brief Guide to Wild Edible Foods

Poisonous Foods to Avoid

Preserving and Storing Food

Dairy, Tofu, and Tempeh

Raising Animals

Hunting and Trapping

Fishing

7 Shelter and Buildings

A Survey of Various Green Building Systems

Straw Bales

Earth-Based Building Systems

Rammed Earth

Adobe

Cob

Cast Earth

Passive Solar Design

Preventing and/or Battling Mold

Health Effects of Mold

Traditional Low-Tech Structures

8 First Aid

Initial Evaluation

ABCs of First Aid

CPR

Wounds

Choking

Bandages and Dressings

Shock

Fractures and Dislocations

Heat-Related Trauma

Bites and Stings

Eyes

Moving Injured People

Emergency Childbirth

(This chapter is a virtual first aid guide all in itself. With the addition of the next chapter, this information alone makes the book worth the price.)

9 When High-Tech Medicine Fails

The Holistic Health Movement

The Low-Tech Medicine Cabinet

Simple, Effective Remedies and Supplements to Have on Hand

The Essence of Healing

Colloidal and Ionic Silver

Healing with Herbs

Detoxification

Supplements and Food

Homeopathy

Sinus Health and Molds

Electromagnetic Fields

The Beck Protocol

Healing with Energy

The Power of Prayer

Hypnosis for Pain Control and Healing

Visualization and Mind-Body Healing

10 Clothing and Textiles

Fiber Arts

Preparing Fibers

Sustainable Fibers

Spinning

Weaving

Furs and Skins

Patterns and Custom-Tailored Clothing

Footwear

11 Energy, Heat and Power

Shifting to Renewable Energy (RE)

RE Systems

Photovoltaics

Wind Power

Micro-Hydropower

Solar Hot Water

Solar Water Pumping

Biofuels

Steam Energy

Fuel Cells

Heating with Wood

Energy, Power and Electricity Primer

12 Metalworking

A Brief Introduction to Metals

Casting Metal

Forging

13 Utensils and Storage

Making a Simple Wooden Cup or Bowl

Basket Basics

Gourds

Storing Fluids in Skins and Other Animal Parts

Primitive Pottery

14 Better Living Through Not-So-Modern Chemistry

Soap

Candles

Alcohol

Vinegar

Natural Glues

Vegetable Oils

15 Engineering, Machines, and Materials

Engineering

Fluids

Materials

Mathematics

Conversions

16 Making the Shift to Sustainability

A Poor Track Record

Proactive Success Stories

Tragedy of the Commons

Sustainable Communities

Sustainable Cities

Cradle to Cradle

The Natural Step

Backcasting

Negative Population Growth

The "Hundreth Monkey Phenomenon"

Plan B: Live Locally, Think Globally

Effective Action

Choose Wisely

Bibliography

Index

One of the blurbs on the inside first pages:

"I liked this book. It's carefully researched, comprehensive, well-illustrated, and readable. It presents much needed alternate information, for, in my opinion, technology has already 'failed'. . . . so replacement of polluting 'high' technologies with non-polluting 'low' ones is urgent, and Matthew Stein's handbook systematcially and accurately surveys a wide array of possible low-tech options. Much hard work, time, and talent went into the building of this basic reference survey of low tech options." Carla Emery, author of The Encyclopedia of County Living: An Old Fashioned Recipe Book

I have enjoyed looking through and reading parts of this book. The foraging section is basic, but it'll do in a pinch. The health section is fascinating, the first aid chapter very good. It really is a good basic guide to most of the knowledge we will want to have on hand if the world crashes around us. Stein suggests a lot of books, magazines and other resources for each chapter. The bibliography is extensive and the index looks top-notch. I know I want a copy. :)

HM

Review: Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning

Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning:
Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage and Lactic Fermentation
by The Gardeners & Farmers of Terre Vivante
with a new foreward by Deborah Madison

I have mentioned this book before and included a recipe, but I wasn't yet ready to review the book. Here's my review with some recipes just for fun.

If you're interested in putting food by, and concerned that there may be no electricty in the near future (or are living off-grid, or planning to) BUY THIS BOOK. The cover says $25 new, but you can get it at Amazon for about $14 or so. The book is definitely worth the money if you put the techniques and recipes into practice. I'm sure as hell planning to come harvest time. In my opinion, freezing and canning have their place and we need to put those techniques to good use, but ever since I learned about lactic fermentation, and how that preservation technique makes food alive and brimming with enzymes and probiotics (not to mention zingy flavor), I've wanted to learn more traditional methods of preserving food.

The methods presented in this book: preserving in the ground or in a root cellar, drying, lactic fermentation, oil, vinegar, salt, sugar, sweet-and-sour preserves, and alcohol are all ancient methods of preserving food that do not harm the nutritional value of the food. Frankly, I think freezing and canning does detract from the nutritional value of food, but not to the extent that we shouldn't use those methods. Rather, augment your current methods of putting food by with these old/new techniques.

I want to quote a bit from the foreword to the First Edition by Eliot Coleman:

"In the opening paragraphs of his classic Soil and Civilization, Edward Hyams decries how modern misapplication of science has caused humans to 'begin working across or against the grain of life.' Hyams notes how science, when it becomes the master rather than the servant, displaces the age-old natural wisdom that has maintained the 'integrity of life.' Without that integrity, humans begin to lose contact with the 'poet,' which Hymas describes as the instinctive understanding of wholeness that has nurtured their well-being through the centuries.

Such change is abundantly evident in our modern American diet. The business of food science is in conflict with the poetry of human nourishment. Store shelves are filled with products that keep seemingly forever, such as canned or frozen food, ultra-pasturized dairy products, devitalized flour. ...

Food preservation techniques can be divided into two categories: the modern sceintific methods that remove the life from food, and the natural "poetic" methods that maintain or enhance the life in food...

The techniques presented in this book, maintain and enhance the life in the foods you are preserving, and this is the value of it, and the value of the book. I hold with many others that one reason Americans suffer so many degenerative diseases is due to their crappy diet of fast food, overly processed additives food, canned food, frozen food, all of it with very little to none nutritional value. You can live on the stuff for a while, years and decades even, but your body will break down and degenerate into diseased flesh.

But I'm not here to lecture--buy this book and try these recipes--they are all interesting and unusual. What the folks who put the book together did was ask readers of a French organic gardening magazine Les Quatre Saisons du Jardinage (Four-season Gardening) to send in their favorite methods and recipes for preserving food. They received over 500 recipes.

The Introduction to the book is very important. It discusses preservation without nutrient loss, stopping food contamination, choosing a method of preservation and a note on food safety. Each chapter of the book, each concerned with a different method of preservation, includes a general introduction to the method and then the recipes. There are charts, drawings, and clear descriptions of the methods. The individual recipes, sent in by the readers of Quatre Saisons du Jardinage, are charming, unusual, and usually mention the best variety of fruit or vegetable for their particular recipe. The recipes are attributed to the reader who sent it in.

Before I get to the recipes, let me say that I really like this book and I can't wait to try these recipes and techniques. This year I did very little canning, but I dried vegetables and foraged plants and herbs and fruit, I fermented quite a few and preserved with vinegar and oil, and we've been enjoying the results of those methods this winter. Now, I'm ready to try all the rest and I'm very happy to have this book to guide me. I love the idea of maintaining as much of the foods' nutritional value as possible, and enhancing the flavor when possible.

From Preserving in the Ground and Cellar

Apples in Elderflowers

Apples

Dried elderflowers

box, preferably wooden

Pick elderflowers in June, allow them to dry, and store them in an airtight container so that they remain fragrant.

Place a layer of dried elderflowers at the bottom of a box (preferably made of wood). Alternate layers of apples and layers of flowers. Finish with a layer of flowers, and close the box as tightly as possible. Keep in a cool, dry place (provided it is not too damp, a cellar is suitable). After six to eight weeks, the apples may be eaten and will taste like pineapples. This method works especially well for pippins, which can be kept in this ways for at least ten weeks. If we place them on a bed of elderflowers in small open crates, they will keep longer, but the pineapple flavor won't be nearly as intense.

A. Motsh, Ambierle

Preserving by Lactic Fermentation

Bottled Swiss Chard Ribs Without Salt

Swiss Chard ribs

Water

Canning jars and lids

Only the ribs of the chard are preserved. The green leaves are used fresh. Remove the 'string,' cut the ribs into 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inch long pieces, and wash them thoroughly. Place the ribs into widemouthed jars equipped with airtight lids. Pack down and fill the jars with cool water. The next day, rinse the ribs and change the water. Repeat this procedure for four consecutive days, before allowing to ferment. Preserved in this manner, the ribs will keep easily for one year, and can be cooked like fresh ones.

Andre Foex, Cleon-D'Andran

Tomato Balls

Ripe tomatoes

Salt

Oil

Herbs

A fine strainer

A finely woven cloth

A screen

Canning jars and lids

For this old recipe from Provence, pick a good amount of tomatoes that have ripened well in the sun. Cut them in half, squeezing lightly to release any water, and put them in a jar. Set the jar outside in the sun (bring them in at night) until they begin to foam and smell a bit fermented.

Pass the tomatoes through a very fine strainer, rubbing it through with your fingers. Collect the strained portion; place it in a clean, finely woven cloth; and hang it outside in the sun until you get a paste dry enought o be shaped into balls. Let the balls dry on a screen in the sun. Then add salt, and put them in a canning jar. Cover them with oil, season with herbs to your taste, and close the jar.

Jennifer Rocchia, Beaurecueil

Preserving in Oil

Baguet (Parsley Condiment)

1 part shelled nuts

1-2 parts parsley (to taste)

1 part garlic and onion mixed

a little vinegar

a few anchovies (optional)

Salt

Olive oil

Canning jars and lids

This is a recipe from Val D'Aoste, in the mountains of northwestern Italy, bordering France and Switzerland. Use it as you would pesto for seasoning soups and pasta.

Grind all the nonliquid ingredients together very finely. Add the vinegar, put the mixture in jars, and cover it with oil. Without vinegar, preservation is a bit iffy; with vinegar, preservation is a sure thing.

Anonymous

Preserving with Salt

Migaine de Thezou (Mixed Vegetable Stock)

1 lb leeks

1 lb tomatoes

1 lb onions

3/4 lb parsley and chervil

1/2 lb turnips

1/2 lb celery

1 lb salt

meat grinder or food processor

bowl

jars

This recipe came from a grandmother in my village. Grind all ingredients coarsely in a meat grinder or food processor. Let the mixture stand overnight in a bowl in a cool place. The next day, remix the contents of the bowl by hand. Put the ground vegetables in jars, and store them in the cellar or some other cool place.

While this mixture will keep for up to three years, it is best to use it all within the first year, since you can replenish your stock wtih fresh ingredients the following September. I add one or two tablespoons each time I make soup, tomato sauce, stews, court boullion, and so on. I prefer to toss it in raw, for a more interesting texture, but it can be cooked too.

Anne-Marie Franc, Baccarat

Fruits Preserved in Alcohol

Officer's 'Jam' or Bachelor's Ligueur

Fruit (whatever's available): strawberries, red currants, black currants, wild raspberries, peaches, plums, greengage plums, apricots, etc

Alcohol: kirsch for red fruit, cognac for others or brandy for everything

Sugar (same quantity as the fruit)

5 quart stoneware pot with lid

This 'jam' is prepared as the fruit ripens, over the course of the growing season.

Cut larger fruit into smaller pieces, and remove all pits. Then, in a very large, airtight stoneware pot (called a Rumtopf in Switzerland), alternate layers of one pound of fruit and one pound of sugar, as the harvest continues. Personally, I use less sugar: I cover each layer of fruit with sugar, and without weighing it first. It keeps as well as the version with more sugar.

Each time you add more fruit, cover it with the alcohol you've selected. Never stir. Store the pot in a cool, dark place, and wait at least six months before tasting this delicacy. However, it's much better if you wait one year.

Mrs. Defacqz, Switzerland

OK, that's it. I'm tired of typing, and I hope I've given you enough neat little recipes to get your mouths watering, your imaginations flowering, and your mouse pointed over to Amazon to get your own copy.

Enjoy!

HM

Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Healing Herbs & Spices

As you can see, I copied the picture from Amazon's listing. Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Healing Herbs & Spices is a simply wonderful resource. I ordered it used and received it quickly and I've been reading in it ever since. I had first gotten a copy from the library, but it was so good and useful that I had to get my own.

As with most encyclopedias, this isn't something you sit down to read through. There's too much information for that. It is a book to browse, or to check for certain information.

Here's what the back cover had to say about John Heinerman;

John Heinerman is a medical anthropologist whose research has taken him to 33 countries, where he has worked with folk healers as well as top doctors and scientists. Widely known for his lectures throughout North America, Dr. Heinerman has appeared on television and radio and has written hundreds of articles in the area of folk medicine, herbs, and nutritional healing for The Herbalist, Folk Medicine Journal, and Vegetarian Times. He is also the author of over two dozen books, including the bestsellers Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Healing Juices; Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Nuts, Berries, and Seeds; and Heinerman's New Encyclopedia of Fruits and Vegetables...

Considering that the book is so inexpensive bought used through Amazon (and my copy is truly as good as new), everyone interested in herbs and nutritional medicine should get a copy. I'm finding it very interesting as well as containing tons of information, great stories of how herbs have helped heal many physical problems, case histories, examples from scientific/medical journals, anecdotes from folk healers around the world, and all kinds of recipes--nutritional and medicinal.

Here's a section on using juniper berries for flu that is representative of many entries:

Knocks the Flu for a Loop

When influenza hits, it usually spells a long period of aggravating miseries, which seem to change with the infection going through its several different stages of activity. The worst part about the flu, however, is that it is usually tends to linger for days, even weeks, after the worst symptoms have passed.

There are a number of herbal remedies for coping with the flu. But none of the herbalists I know or the books they have written have ever suggested hot jumiper tea for this problem. In fact, I didn't even know myself how good it was until an old Navajo shaman years ago acquainted me with it when I was an invited guest in his hogan, located out in the middle of nowhere.

I somehow picked up the flu "bug" before I got there, and it didn't take very many hours to aggrfessively dominate my body. In plain words, I felt like hell! But my friend, Ned Many Sheeps, boiled me up some tea by throwing a handful (probably one-half cup) of juniper berries into an old coffee pot sitting on top of an old iron stove situated in the center of the dirt floor and filled with one quart of boiling water. A series of black stove pipes snaked their way up through a hole in the rounded clay roof firmly packed down on top of sawed juniper planks laid next to each other in a circular fashion and expertly supported together in the middle without the benefit of a center column.

Between the strong juniper scent and the hot tea he kept pouring into me every couple of hours, I got better in a big hurry. I can assure you. The warmth of the tea felt good going down and induced the perspiration I probably needed to throw off the excess poisons within me. The strong disinfectant properties within the berries themselves went a long way in killing the viruses responsible for my miseries.

Not only did I quickly recover, but I fully recuperated. I'm not being redundant with this statement. Remember earlier how I said that remnants of the flu usually tend to hang on for days or weeks after most people have gotten over the worst parts of their infections? Well, in my case, there was no additional eveidence of anything lingering; when I got well, that was it, period.

There are nearly 500 pages of information like that--plus scientific studies done on rats or mice and reported in the medical literature. Heinerman not only reads about folk remedies, but he obviously keeps tabs on many medical specialities.

The introduction discusses how herbs can and should be incorporated into daily use: The Ten Cardinal Rules of Herb Usage. Then there's a symptom index, where readers can look up their symptom, and the herbs to use for it are listed; an Herb and Spices content list, and hundreds of pages on the herbs and spices themselves.

Here's a tidbit from the entry on cayenne pepper:

Brings Down Blood Sugar Levels

A report in the West Indian Medical Journal (31; 194-97) mentioned how a pack of mongrel dogs picked up off the streets in Kingston, Jamaica were given powered cayenne pepper. The result was a dramatic plunging of their blood sugar levels for up to several hours at a time.

If you're diabetic an average of 3 capsules of Nature's Way or any health food store brand of capsicum will help bring down high blood sugar levels very nicely. If you're hypoglcemic, you'd better avoid cayenne altogether, both in food and in herbal formulas as well.

Cinnamon can help prevent cancer, elderberries is great for constipation, rosemary oil can make a wonderful linament for sore muscles--there is a world of information here.

This is an excellent resource. I highly recommend it.

HM

How To Survive Disasters with Natural Medicines

by Cass Ingram, D.O.

I have no idea when I bought this book--must've been during my Y2k prepping mode. At that time, I was gathering in lots of books on survival, homesteading kinds of topics. Everything from armed self defense to citizen soldier to Carla Emory's Country Living to health topics.

This book is quite short, took me less than an hour to read it. It is available used at Amazon, though one seller has it listed for $129 something. Don't buy that copy. :) Another seller has it for $9--and even that is high for such a short book.

The book has many dire predictions--many of them true, if discomforting to consider. We live in a world made toxic by chemistry-gone-wild. There are nasty chemicals everywhere we turn. One scenario mentioned by the author is a chemical factory torn in two by an earthquake. Damn--that would be tough if you live in the neighborhood.

But the advice given in the book is good too. Did you know pure, raw honey is an excellent antibiotic? I have been reading of its use on wounds infected with MRSA, that dread staph infection. Raw honey is also useful in treating diarrheal diseases--something we can expect after a natural or unnatural disaster.

The Chapters are as follows:
Introduction
It Could Happen at Any Time
Are You Prepared to Survive/
Natural Remedies for Treating Infection
Injuries
Internal Disorders
Antioxidants
Water Treatment and Accessories
Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography

The remedies that Ingram recommends you have on hand in your survival medical kits are:
Raw, unfiltered honey (antibiotic)
Bee propolis (antiseptic and anesthetic)
Tea Tree Oil (excellent antiseptic--killer of bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites)
Whole Leaf Aloe (for burn treatment)--"whole leaf aloe possesses potent antibacterial, anti-pain, and wound regenerating powers"
Organic Sulfur Drops--"most potent anti-inflammatory agent"
Bromelain--also anti-inflammatory
Microcrystalline hydroxyapatite (MCHC) for healing fractured bone
Liquid Trace Minerals to stop bleeding (I'd use cayenne myself)
Ginger (for nausea)
Antioxidant Vitamins


and so on. Of course, there is a company that sells all of these items recommended by Dr. Ingram, and the address and phone number is provided. This book provides enough good advice that I could ignore the hard sell for the company--in fact, for some of these items, I'd be willing to give the company a call myself.

Ingram strongly recommends good antioxident vitamins to help combat the toxic fumes that may be present after a disaster. Vitamin E, beta carotene, Vitamin C, folic acid, B12, zinc, selenium, glutathione, N-acetyl cysteine, and chlorella are his specific recommendations. These should be taken regularly BEFORE any disaster occurs to help your body deal with whatever may come.

Appendix A lists some typical problems that happen with disasters, and how to treat these medical problems both internally and topically with the honey, tea tree oil, etc. This is a useful section. Appendix B is lists symptoms caused by specific diseases and toxicities--also useful. Since I own the book, I won't have to photocopy these pages, but I would if it was a library book. The bibliography is a list of papers published in medical journals that show the research conducted by Dr. Ingram.

All in all, this is a useful little book. I don't think it is really worth $9 (let alone $129), since the copyright is 1995 and the research could be a bit dated. But if you can find a copy used at the right price, it is good information to have on hand--along with the raw honey, tea tree oil and vitamins.
HM

Garlic is Better than Ten Mothers

Garlic: Nature's Super Healer
by Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen

What a neat and informative book. It's available from Amazon as a hardcover for $30, or it starts at $.75 used. Guess which I would buy. :) I love Amazon, but not that much.

I got this copy from the library, one of my favorite places. It was written by the Wilens, who are not food writers per se, but researchers, writers and television hosts, as the back book cover says. They write on folk healing and remedies, which is currently an interest of mine. This is a terrific book to have as a resource, for it turns out that garlic has many more uses than I have ever considered, and I've used garlic as a home remedy for many things--but not athlete's foot, nightmares, lyme disease or melanoma. Now, however, after reading the Wilen's book, I think I would use it. You bet.

Garlic is something everyone should have in their home, for both food and medicine. If you can't stand it as food, then I pity you truly. Some folks can't eat it or maybe even shouldn't, if they have a medical reason. . . . Even so, you should still keep it for medicines. It's been used for centuries upon centuries by every culture that has ever become aware of it. I consider garlic super-food and super-medicine. In our home, garlic goes into everything except desserts. We eat it raw daily. Michael likes his clove through a garlic press, followed by a teaspoon of jam or jelly, but he's civilized. I chew mine and swallow it (as quickly as possible!) with water.

Garlic: Nature's Super Healer has the following chapters:
No Matter How You Say It . . . Garlic in 45 languages
Garlic's Believe It or Not (vampires, etc.)
Garlic as Medicine (general doses, supplements, raw, suggestions on other foods to take it with)
Remedies (a list of illnesses and complaints and garlic's uses in them)
Garlic Remedies for Your Pets
Health-Giving Garlic Preparations (garlic oil, baths, enemas, formulas, juice, syrups, etc.)
Growing Garlic
Garlic as Food
Recipes (some incredible kick-ass recipes!)
Appendices with Garlic Festivals and Resources
Bibliography
Index

Pretty much everything you'd want to know about this godsend to mankind. I'll include a few excerpts here for your entertainment (the authors have a great sense of humor) and information.

How/Why Does Garlic Work:

The Wilens quote William Blot, chief biostatistician of the National Cancer Institute: "Every time you slice or crush a clove of garlic, you initiate a complex sequence of biochemical events. The merest bruise unleashes an enzyme called allinase, which goes to work converting another molecule, alliin, into allicin. That the reaction is instantaneous is obviously because at precisely this moment, garlic begins to smell like garlic.

"Allicin spontaneously decomposes into a group of odoriferous compounds which provide much of garlic's medicinal punch. Those compounds quickly form still others--dozens of them--depending on whether the bulb is fresh or aged, raw or cooked, natural or processed in pills, extracts, and capsules.

"Garlic's quicksilver nature creates problems for researchers. No one really knows which form delievers the greatest benefit."

I'm glad "researchers" have problems, aren't you? Keeps 'em busy and off the streets. At least, in studying this, they are not studying what makes dogs bark or why men are attracted to busty women....

In the Believe It or Not Section, there's a bit on how vampires became associated with (and repelled by) garlic:

Everyone knows that you repel a vampire with garlic. But do you know how the legend came to be? Dr. James Scala explains: "Porphyria is a hereditary disease that occurred in isolated areas of central Europe, especially Romania, where Transylvannia is located. People with porphyria need iron in the form of hemoglobin from blood. They must avoid sunlight or any strong indoor light or their skin becomes inflamed and produces toxins that make them very sick. They are exceptionally hairy, have large teeth, and very light skin. Most importantly, diallyl sulfides make them violently ill. Garlic is the best source of diallyl sulfides. Therefore, whoever has hereditary porphyria looks and acts like a vampire and will avoid garlic like the plague."

I would never have known this (and don't really need to know it now) but I find this kind of information fascinating.

Here's a cold remedy I'm going to definitely going to try:

If garlic is rough for you to take, even though you have a cold and may not be able to taste anything, then peel and crush 6 cloves of garlic and mix them into 1/2 cup of white lard or petroleum jelly. Spread it on the soles of the feet. To keep the feet warm and to prevent messing up the bed linens, put each foot in a plastic bag, secure the bag by tying ribbon or cord around the plastic (not too tight, you don't want to stop your circulation), and leave it on overnight. It should help bring down a fever and clear up the cold.

Or chop it up and put in your socks before you put them on. Seems like that might work too.

Here's something you can do for gangrene, if there is no doctor or other medical professional around. The authors consulted Lalitha Thomas, an herbalist, for this suggestion:

To prevent or possibly retard gangrene or blood poisoning, pack the entire area thickly with pulverized garlic directly in and around the wound. Clean out dead tissue and any pus, etc., with strong garlic water (see Preparations chapter). One way to do this is to soak the area for 10 minutes and then repack it with a fresh garlic poultice (see Preparations) at least 3 times a day. In some cases the red lines of blood poisoning actually begin retracting within a few hours, or at least by overnight. At this point in the process the dead gangrenous flesh may start cleaning out of the wound. With that the re-infection cycle is stopped, and the wound begins healing normally.

I've read of treating gangrene with maggots--I would certainly try the garlic first!

The Wilens also include a section on how to get rid of garlic breath--fenugreek seeds, cloves, cinammon, wine, milk, coffee bean, but the best way they've found to take raw garlic is to crush up the clove, mix it into a dollop of yogurt and swallow it down. Avoiding garlic breath is a noble thing to do for your friends, I guess.

There is a lot of information here useful for just about everyone.

Next time you're feeling sickly, try a garlic footbath. "The footbath will draw toxins from the entire body, soothe tension and anxiety, rejuvenate sore or tired feet and legs, help treat athlete's foot, speed recovery from colds and flu, relieve toxic buildup from a daily job environment that may be physically or emotionally polluted or stressful, and much, much more."

The Preparations chapter includes Lalitha Thomas's Enhanced Garlic Formula. It is well-known that garlic is an antibiotic and the authors report that this formula doubles or even triples the "strength and effectiveness of garlic alone, while it helps the body to more quickly assimilate the garlic and thus put it to work." Here it is:

Enhanced Garlic Formula

Ingredients
1 part garlic powder (bought in bulk at health food or herb store)

1/4 part cayenne powder
1 part powdered calcium ascorbate (a form of Vitamin C that's available at health food stores and has a potency of 1/4 teaspoon = 1 gram vitamin C)

Depending on the amount of the formula you intend to make, 1 part can equal 1 pinch, 1 tablespoon, 1 ounce, and so on.

If you prefer, you can mix only the garlic and cayenne together as powders and take 1 gram of vitamin C in tablet form with each dose as needed.

It is advisable to make a large enough quantity so you always have extra on hand for emergency use. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for best shelf life.


Well, hopefully this will be enough to get you going with garlic. Keep some at home, handy in the kitchen, and you'll always have one of God's best medicines available to you.

Note and Disclaimer: This information is for entertainment and information only. It should not be taken as medical advice.

Have to get that nonsense out of the way. Keep in mind when reading here, OK?


Next post: Where to find garlic outdoors for when the stores close. :)

Country Folk Medicine

Country Folk Medicine: Tales of Skunk Oil, Sassafras Tea, & Other Old-Time Remedies

Gathered by Elisabeth Janos

(I got this book from the library, but I'm going to have to buy a copy. It is one I want to have around.)

Elisabeth Janos had the sterling idea of gathering stories from old folks about what kinds of things they did when there was a medical problem, but a doctor wasn’t around, or a family couldn’t afford a doctor. She went to senior centers and nursing homes around New England, Yankee-land, and simply asked this question to the elders. And she got answers, lots of answers, many in agreement, about various folk remedies. This is a fascinating book on many levels: what folks actually did, what kinds of remedies they used, what worked or seemed to work, how the remedies were applied, etc.

Janos wisely allows the elderly folk to tell us in their own words--she provides lots of quotes and stories. There’s a real feeling of authenticity here. For instance, for colds:

Three drops of turpentine on a spoon of sugar--the greatest thing there is for a cold. My doctor said that a long time ago. Take it at night and in the morning the cold is better.

Cut raw onions in big slices and place in a pie plate. Cover them with brown sugar and put them in a warm oven. The heat melts the sugar and goes through the onions and makes a syrup. When it’s cool, take a teaspoon whenever you cough. (She Survives had this in her post on Favorite Herbals a while back. Seems this one works!)

What did these rural country people use for medicines? Whatever they had available in their kitchens, barns, woods, fields, and occasionally something from a store or a neighbor. During the early part of the last century, many people were poor. There wasn’t as many of doctors then either, and most rural doctors were combination allopath (what you think of as a normal doctor) and folk medicine. If a plantain leaf would work on a bee sting, then the rural doctor would get a plantain leaf. There wasn’t a big supply of pharmaceuticals either--most drugs hadn’t been developed yet. So people used what they had.


Janos includes a section on what she calls sewage pharmacology--the use of cow manure or human urine as medicines, usually topical, applied to the skin (mostly). The use of manure and urine is ancient, and is still practiced in parts of the world today. As it was in New England, early in the 20th century. For example:


We had a large family. When diphtheria struck, Father made us horse-bun tea. He steeped it on the stove. The ones that took it lived, the ones that didn’t died.


When we’d get poison ivy on our feet, Ma would have us walk barefoot through cowflops. I used to like the feel of it oozing between my toes.


In World War I, the outfit that my father-in-law was with had no gas masks. They would urinate on a hankie and put it over the face. It would keep gas away from the throat and eyes.


Hmmmmm. I don’t think I’d walk barefoot in cowflops for poison ivy, but if I’m in a crowd of people and the cops were spraying tear gas, then I would definitely try the piss in a hankie over the face trick. Seems to me that one has possibilities. Human urine is sterile and therefore potentially quite useful. I know that urine therapy is practiced in India (and probably worldwide), but it isn’t talked about in this country.


What were the medicines? Pine resins, spruce gum, Gilead balm beads, turpentine, kerosene, various animal oils such as skunk oil, snake oil, bear grease, clay and mud, herbal teas, spices, mustard plasters, dirty old socks, flannel, red ribbons and many other items were the pharmacopia of the day. The one that really caught my eye was skunk oil, yes indeed, the oil from a skunk. Actually, the oil that comes after you render the fat of a skunk.

The folks Janos interviewed swore by skunk oil. It was used for colds, rubbed on sore muscles, taken by the teaspoonful or as a few drops of the oil on a teaspoon of sugar, or rubbed on bones that didn't heal properly.

There is nothing so good as skunk oil, nothing. When I needed some of the oil, I would take a BB gun and shoot a skunk in the head. I never knew the oil to go rancid. We used it for everything. We rubbed it on the feet to keep them smooth and soft. Sometimes women even rubbed it in themselves for contraception.


My mother fell and shattered her elbow so that the arm was all contorted. I shot some skunks and hung them up. I took the fat and put it in a double boiler until it melted. I brought two quarts to my mother, with instructions to heat it until it was very warm, then massage it in and cover it with flannel. She was to do this at least two times daily. This straightened the arm in a year and a half. The doctor couldn't believe that the arm straightened, and asked her how she had done it.


Janos even includes a story where skunk oil was used to cure laryngitis.


It seems to me that there is much that is useful in this book, and since we’re all likely to be as poor as the folks in the book were, we might keep some of these items and stories of their use in mind. Unfortunately, turpentine and kerosene are not made the same way anymore (says Janos), so it probably would be ineffective and dangerous to use them today. But for the piney resins, kitchen produce, herbs and spices and other ingredients? I would give most of them a try.


You see, I don’t think people used these things medicinally simply because they were “dumb,” or “hicks” who didn’t know any better. I’m sure they used them because they WORKED--maybe not every single time, but often enough. These were cures passed down from generation to generation. Hell, some of these cures go all the way back to the Egyptians and ancient Greeks and Arabs.


I’m not sure where the dirty sock for a sore throat idea came from, but it seems to me there must have been something to it. Some odd chemical/electrical/magnetical or who knows what reason.


For a sore throat, we’d wrap a dirty sock around the neck. I’d use my brother’s or father’s. All there were, were wool socks in those days. You’d wear them five or six days in a row--they didn’t wash every day like they do now, had to wash by hand.


When I had a sore throat, I would grease my throat with chicken fat or lard. Then I would take my mother’s or father’s warm, dirty sock and tie it around my neck before I went to bed. It really made me sweat.


Hmmmm. I may try it. Just to see if it would really work, because if it did, how curious, how interesting would that be? How could I explain it? Things like this make me wonder.


Here's one cure that is really odd. A spry old gent interviewed by Janos said it was an old Indian cure for broken bones and sprains:

Take a half pint of night crawlers and a half pint of heavy cream. Bring it to a boil, simmer it for ten minutes. Let it cool. Skim off the top. Use the stuff you skimmed off for broken bones; run it on a few times a day. I had a friend that broke some fingers adn he couldn't move them. After two months of this treatment, his fingers were fine.


This is a fascinating book and I highly recommend it if you are interested in simple ways of healing. As always, take it all with a grain of salt, be curious and openminded, but don’t be stupid. If something seems dangerous, it probably is, so don’t do it. Or do it at your own risk.

HM


PS. Sorry--can't resist. Some more info on Skunk Oil. :)


The only place I could find to purchase skunk oil was from Cabelas, where it is sold as a product to kill human scent for hunters. If I can’t get one of our young men to trap or shoot me a skunk, maybe I'll just buy some from Cabelas.


Where/What is Skunk Oil?


Skunk Oil A:

Skunk oil is an oil that is obtained from the two lateral glands that run the length of a skunks back. Skunks store fats in these glands for use during hybernation or semi-hybernation in warmer climes. There is very little odor to this oil. Skunk oil was used by the Native Americans as a healing balm or as a liniment. When rendered from the glands, over a low heat, it has the consistency a SAE10 motor oil and the feel of a coal oil when applied to the skin. It has gives warming sensation as a mild liniment would.The early explorers and fur buyers, especially in Canada, found that this oil was a very useful addition to their medical kits. They paid the Indians a premium price for his product.


Skunk Oil B:
However, in Country Folk Medicine, I got a different impression of what skunk oil is:


When I needed some of the oil, I would have my husband go out and shoot a skunk. I would skin it, clean it, and cut it into quarters; then I’d put it in a hot oven to get all the grease out. After it was about half cooked, I’d put slices of raw potato in the bottom of the pan to clarify the oil. When we used it on rheumatism, it’d make the ache stop.


Another article on skunk oil.


As far as I’m concerned, modern American medicine has shown that it is far more interested in money than in healing, and is therefore mostly worthless. Trauma care, however, is said to be great here. I’ve only had that experience once, and the docs and nurses in the ER did a fine job of patching me up after a car accident. But American medicine for diseases? Illnesses? Actual sickness? So they can apply as many life-threatening drugs and treatments as can hike up the bill? Even granting them some humanity, in that they really wish to help people, I think modern doctors, allopaths, have taken a really wrong turn with their reliance on pharmaceuticals and invasive medicine, and operations.


No thanks. I’ll stick with herbs, nutrients, real living food, and maybe even some skunk oil. If my husband thinks garlic syrup is bad . . . Just wait til he gets dosed with skunk oil. This blog may end abruptly, in that case. We’ll just have to wait and see. Onwards!
HM