Mullein for Coughs

This picture, from Wildman Steve Brill's page, is of a mullein basal rosette. Mullein is a biennial, and this is what the first year plant looks like. The second year is when it throws up its great flower stalk. The leaves are greyish-green, large, soft and velvety, sometimes nearly two feet long. A leaf feels almost like flannel, with little hairs.

The best time to harvest is when the plant is blooming--you can use the roots, leaves and flowers so you will want the whole plant if you can get it. I have also harvested leaves in the spring and fall. Mullien is considered an "alien invader" plant, since it is so prolific. It can and will take over areas. Still, a grateful attitude is best when you're collecting herbs. They may be "invasive" weeds, but I'm still happy they're here and available!

Mullein has many uses in cough and cold season. Here's a quote from Wildman's pages on Mullein:

Mullein tea provides vitamins B-2, B-5, B-12, and D, choline, hesperidin, PABA, sulfur, magnesium, mucilage, saponins, and other active substances.
People use the tea as a beverage, but it’s best known as one of the safest, most effective herbal cough remedies. Mullein is an expectorant, and a tonic for the lungs, mucus membranes, and glands. An infusion is good for colds, emphysema, asthma, hay fever, and whooping cough. Strain the infusion through a cloth, or the hairs may get stuck in your throat and make you cough even more. Laboratory tests have shown that it’s anti-inflammatory, with antibiotic activity, and that it inhibits the tuberculosis bacillus. The Indians smoked dried mullein and coltsfoot cigarettes for asthma and bronchitis, and indications are that it’s effective: I’ve observed it working for bronchitis.

The tea is also an astringent and demulcent. It’s good for diarrhea, and it’s been used in compresses for hemorrhoids since it was recommended by Dioscorides centuries ago. It’s also supposed to help other herbs get absorbed through the skin. Pliny of ancient Rome, Gerard in sixteenth century England, the Delaware Indians, and country folk in the South used the heated leaves in poultices for arthritis.

A tincture of the flowers is used for migraine headaches. An oil extract of the flowers, which contains a bactericide, is used for ear infections, although you should consult with a competent practitioner first, to avoid the possibility of permanent hearing loss if the herb doesn’t work.

Roman ladies used them to die their hair blonde. Roman soldiers dipped the flowerstalks in tallow to make torches.

People also just drink the tea because they like it. Mullein is common--it grows all over the place here, but it likes disturbed soil, roadsides, and fields. It likes dry and sandy soils. I see it most often by road sides--but be careful harvesting those. Don't want car exhaust on your mullein leaves.

We're coming in to cough/cold/flu season here. I expect the mullein I was lucky enough to find will come in handy.
HM

What a Mullein!

(Picture from the Plant Conservation Alliance Least Wanted list.)

I scored today! This isn't a picture of the huge mullein we found today, but it is a good representation. The mullein I found is about 9-10 feet tall, with similar leaf configuration as this one to the left, but the flower stalk is at least 3 feet in itself.

We had to take the trash to the local dump today and I saw this huge fellow a little ways away. I asked the lady standing guard at the dump if I could dig up the plant. "What plant," sez she. "That big weed over there," sez me. She didn't have a problem with it, so I went over to the mullein, wrestled it a bit, and got it out root and all with my trusty shovel.

Mullein leaves are good for coughs and congestion, taken as a tea, or smoked. The roots are flowers are also used for teas, and mullein oil is antibacterial. The plant I found is past the flowering stage--in fact, I was surprised to see it at all. Mullein is past its season here and has all died back. But the one we found is hale and hearty, lovely and huge.

More on mullein later.

HM

A Couple of Good Articles

There's some interesting articles on a couple of blogs this morning. The first is an article on chiles--our good friends the hot peppers--at survivalblog.com. The article tells you how to spice up your stored foods by using chiles and other spices. Check it out--it is the first article called War, Gardening and Cooking for Bad Times, by Elizabeth B. If you are reading this days later, just scroll down Survival Blog to find it, or look at November 6th.

A while ago I mentioned why people get sick when they do, that they get too toxic, and then their immunity can't handle the flu or cold bug and they get sick. Well, this article at Bob Livingson's blog describes the process in clear, precise terms. An excellent article and if you are interested in health, read it. Good elimination of waste is essential to health--if you have waste left in your colon, the toxins will seep into your bloodstream.
Onwards,
HM

The Other Wonder Herb: Cayenne Pepper

You know, I've never been a real hot pepper fan--they've always been too hot for my tastebuds. I grew hot peppers, Scotch Bonnets, habeneros, jalapenos, tabascos, pimentos, you name 'em, I've grown them. And picked them, pickled them and made powerful hot sauces. But I've never quite developed the taste for the truly fiery peppers.

But now I'm determined to. Whether I like them or not, I'm going to be eating them and using them. The health benefits are just too good to pass up. I grew a bunch of cayennes this year, and the fruit is hanging in pretty ristas around the house.

I've been reading that cayenne pepper can stop a heart attack, or help a person fully recover from it. I've been reading that cayenne pepper can stop bleeding, even gushing blood. And it can regulate high blood pressure so that you never have high blood pressure again.

Yes, it sounds too good to be true to me too. Although I may not seem like it in my writings here, I'm pretty skeptical. "Prove all things," is what I've learned. What that means to me is that I will slice some garlic and put it over a weird looking mole on my skin to see if the garlic will make the damn thing disappear. Actually, my husband said he's got a weird mole, a "cancer spot" as he called it, and so we'll try the slice of garlic on him. If I get even remotely sickly with a cold or flu, I will chop up garlic and put it on the bottom of my feet and see what happens. Will Michael's "cancer spot" go away? Will I feel much better after the garlic on the feet attempt?

That's what I mean by prove all things. I hope you will proceed the same way. I've had great luck with trying what my family and friends have considered "oddball" remedies. What I've tried doesn't always work, of course. Pharmaceuticals don't either--but I've had better luck with natural than chemical. I've found that overall, this is a good way for me to deal with my own health concerns.

So, on to cayenne pepper and why it is so good for you.

First of all, it is high in vitamin C, vitamin A, the complex of vitamin Bs, vitamin E, calcium, and potassium. It's a potent nutrititional powerhouse. If you eat a lot of it, as they do in southern climes, it will make you sweat, which will cool you off. Sweating is your body's way of releasing heat.

Recently I've been reading Dr. Christopher's Herbal Legacy, and what they have to say about cayenne made me very curious. If you've the time and interest, read the entire section about cayenne here.

I've read the "cayenne can stop bleeding" info here and other places as well. I have not yet had the occasion to see if this is so for myself, but I will try it next time I accidently cut myself.

I've been too timid to try cayenne tea (one teaspoon ground cayenne to a cup of hot water), but I did make a cayenne tincture. The tincture is almost too hot to take a direct eyedropper full, but I can get it down in a small glass of water. I expect my taste buds will adapt to the heat so that I'll be able to take it directly soon. Perhaps as I get better at this, I'll be taking 3 teaspoons a day, as Dr. Christopher did!

When my feet get cold in the winter, I have put ground cayenne in the bottom of my shoes. This works well. You'll get a nice warming heat from it for quite a while. I will also be making a cayenne salve for muscle aches and pains. There's lots of these on the market already, of course, but I've got lots of cayennes around and plenty of lard or coconut oil or olive oil or for that matter, vaseline around. Much less expensive than anything commercial, plus I know there's no other nasty chemicals in it.

If you keep two herbs in your house at all times, and even in your BOBs and BOVs, keep garlic and cayenne. These two are kickass powerful. Garlic is an antibiotic. Cayenne will stop bleeding. I know garlic works, and I'm going to find out more about cayenne. But they are both potential life-savers, which is important in survival situations.

There will be more on cayenne in this blog. Stay tuned.

HM

The Election

My consent to this government has been withdrawn. I will not be voting on Tuesday.

If the people in the government will not abide by the Constitution they swore an oath on the Bible to uphold, then all bets are off. If the people in the government will not abide by the law, then my contract with the government is severed, cancelled, null and void.

Does anyone seriously think that I will consent to my own enslavement? Hell no. My consent is withdrawn.

The American government has been sliding into tyranny most of my lifetime, but I have seen nothing--NOTHING--like the last 8 years for unconstitutional Nazi laws and behavior. Just call Bush the FUBAR president and stick a fork in it.

I don't care which Flash Bazbo* goon gets elected: Neither are worthy, each is clone to the other, both are evil choices, and there will be evil results either way.

Enough said.
HM

*Flash Bazbo is the guy you really, really, really don't want courting your daughter. :) Stolen from Ed Parker, a true wit.

Noodles with Peanut Sauce and Dandelion Greens

I created this recipe today because I got a desire for this peanut sauce I used to serve over broccoli and rice and I hadn't made it in . . . what, 10 years? 15 years? A long time. I had totally forgotten about it and probably woke up some time last night hungry for the stuff.

Ingredients
Big bunch of dandelion greens (or lambsquarter or whatever you've got)
Noodles of your choice (I used ramen-type noodles, but spagetthi would have worked too)

Sauce
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup hot water
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (I used a little bit more than that)
2 TBS tamari sauce (soy would work or Bragg's amino sauce, which is what I had on hand)
2 TBS molasses or barley malt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I used the stuff I ground yesterday from our cayennes)

In a small sauce pan, whisk the peanut butter and the hot water until you have a uniform mixture. Whisk in the rest of the ingredients.

Wash and cut up dandelion greens, put in pot with water to cover and boil for 5-7 minutes. Drain, reserving the liquid to drink later as a tonic (optional, but I drink it for the vitamins).

Bring another big pot of water to boil, add noodles, cook until done, drain.

Put 'em all together, get it all mixed up nice, and chow down. YUM.

Michael liked it, asked for seconds, but said it'd be better with some beef. That's not a bad idea. Pork would be good too, probably.

Dandelion greens are a bit bitter for most folks, I think. I have a sour tooth as opposed to a sweet tooth, and I like dandelion greens, but not plain. I sure liked them today!
HM

More on Garlic: Nature's Super Healer

This book is so good I want to share another item with readers.

This section, I'm supplying whole, from the book:

Melanoma . . . Can't Argue with Success

We said it before, we'll say it again. We're writers who do research. We have no professional medical background. We're reporting and not prescribing. We urge you to seek out, find, and work with a health professional whose approach to your well-being is in keeping with your own. You want a doctor who is not in the panic business--someone who can properly diasgnose the health challenge, then discuss the conventional, complementary, and alternative options for whatever ails you.

If you see a beauty mark on your body that has an irregular border and whose color seems to move beyond that border, or there's a nodelike dark patch of skin that's changing in size, we think it's very important that you show it to your doctor.

And now that we're on the record with our suggestion, we're reporting the experience of Bill Anderson, managing partner of Garlic Research Labs and Garlic Valley Farms, with what he thought may have been melanomas.

In the course of doing business, Bill Anderson comes into contact with lots of farmers. Here are Bill's own words:

One day, one of those farmers told me about a melanoma that he had on his lip. The farmer took a garlic clove, sliced it, and put it on the melanoma, then covered it with a bandage. From time to time, he'd change the garlic clove and put on a new bandage. Within two weeks the thing on his lip completely disappeared. Another time this farmer had a melanoma on the back of his neck. He did the same thing and sure enough, it also disappeared completely.

While Bill was leading up to his own experience, he shared this one too:

I had dealings wiht this ol' country lady in Little River, who worked in a feed store. She told me, "Oh yeah, that garlic is good for everything. Here we use it for skin cancer. We had this one farmer who had it on his arm. He drives a tractor and the arm is always out in the sun. The doctor said he couldn't do nothin' for him, so I mixed up some onions and garlic and made a mince out of it and rubbed it all over his arm, then I wrapped it up. In two weeks the skin cancer was all gone."

The time had come for Bill's own personal story:

I had this black mole on my neck for a couple of years. It kept getting bigger. When it was about the size of a penny, only fatter--that thing was real ugly--I got to thinkin' about the success the farmers had getting rid of their problem, and said, "Hell, I'll put some of my own garlic juice on there." [Bill's company, Garlic Valley Farms, bottles and sells 99.3 percent pure garlic juice.] I dipped my finger down into the bottle and smeared it on, just that one time. In a little over a week, maybe closer to two weeks, the thing on my neck disappeared. Then I got the same thing on my right temple. I put the garlic juice on it and it also disappeared. It's the God's truth.

In the 1850s, Louis Pasteur recognized garlic's ability to kill bacteria. More than a century later, biochemist Sidney Belman of New York University Medical Center reported that by painting garlic oil on the skin of laboratory animals, he could inhibit the development of skin cancers. Extensive research continues, with extremely encouraging results.

***************** end of book section*******************

Now that is interesting. I too, would advise seeing a health professional if you ever see a funny bit of skin turning strange on you. However, in the bizarre world we live in, if a health professional isn't there to be consulted, you might keep this bit in mind . . . and keep some garlic on hand as well.

This is all for information and entertainment only, of course. Medical advice is beyond my purview and my calling.
Onwards,
HM