Horseradish: Nature's Tear Duct Opener

 

Back at home and it's time to dig up the horseradish and either process it or spread it out and replant it to get bigger roots for next year.  Horseradish as a garden crop is either loved or hated by the people who grow it.  It is darn hard to kill off, which is fine, as long as you want it where you planted it.  When I put in a new asparagus bed a few years back, I had to dig up some horseradish to make room.  I thought I got all the roots, but it turned out I must have missed some.  Because I didn't want to dig up my asparagus roots, I'm now kind stuck with a patch of horseradish growing up right in the middle of it.  If even a tiny piece of horseradish root is left behind, it can grow to a good size patch of horseradish in a couple of years.  The nice thing with having a plant that keeps going and going and going is that horseradish is a great medicinal, especially for those of us who live in cold climates.

Horseradish is a member of the Cruciferae or mustard family.  This is a rather large and useful plant family that includes brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, watercress, and many more.  The family gets the name Cruciferae from the fact that mustard have four petaled flowers that some thought was in the shape of a cross.  Horseradish, like most mustard, are not cold sensitive which means they can be planted just as soon as the ground can be dug, the leaves stay green long after the first hard freezes, and they sprout out of the ground early in the spring before the frost is gone.  It's a good growing plant for those of us that may have long hard winters.

It is medicinally great for those long, hard winters too.  As most people know, nothing opens up clogged airways like breathing in freshly grated horseradish.  It is great for the cold and flu season.  An older, but still useful way of working with horseradish is as a mustard plaster.  This is a way to irritate a certain area of the body to bring blood to the surface.  This blood brings more oxygen and therefor quickens healing to an infected area.  It can help in cases of kidney stones (put the plaster over the kidney area in the back) lung congestion ( put the plaster on the chest), bladder infections (put the plaster over the lower stomach)...you get the idea.  Wherever blood needs to be brought to (except near the eyes) mustard plaster can work wonders.  For those who have never had a plaster before, smear the area you are going to cover with petroleum jelly, animal fat, or a thick layer of vegetable oil, bruise or chop up you horseradish or other mustard, place on the affected area, and cover it with plastic wrap or a damp, thin towel.  Always be careful with plasters as they can burn the skin.  Use common sense and if it hurts, stop using it.  Also, it's probably not a good idea to use on very small children.  I use horseradish on chilblains, rubbing the root over my feet if I just can't seem to warm them up after I was out shoveling snow all day.  It can be rubbed over arthritis pained areas to provide pain relief but should not be used on broken skin.  Horseradish can also be used for bladder infection, as it is a diuretic (makes you pee) and is anti-microbial.  It is also good to help lower high blood pressure as it opens up the blood vessels and makes them flow easier.

Horseradish, like almost all members of the mustard family is high in sulfur, and sulfur was the premier antibiotic before we learned about penicillin.  Doctors still prescribe sulfur tablets for sinus and bladder infections.  Sulfur is one of the first antibiotics used for livestock that may have a minor infection.  Natural sulfur dissipates quickly one it is exposed to air, which is why garlic, onions, and horseradish smells so strong right after they are cut.  It also is destroyed by heat.  So if you use horseradish as an antibiotic, the only two ways it works is if you chew a fresh cut piece of it and swallow the juices (not a pleasant experience for many) or if you can suspend the sulfur in a medium.  Fortunately suspension of sulfur is quite easy.  Cover you bruised or chopped horseradish in a vinegar that is 4% or stronger for a couple of months or more.  Remove the root and your sulfur is suspended in the vinegar.

Which brings me to what I am making today; Fire Cider, also known as Cyclone Cider.  This is a great cold and flu stopper and some people drink it all winter long around here as a precaution.  It is quite easy to make and most of the ingredients can be grown right in the garden.  Traditional fire cider is made from unfiltered, organic apple cider with the mother still intact.  This is because you are about to put a whole mess of anti-microbials into it and it's nice to have the vinegar mother to help replace any good bacteria that may be flushed out of the system by this powerful healer. 

The base ingredients are; fresh onions, garlic, horseradish, ginger, and cayenne.  Grate or chop all your ingredients (measurements are not required, just what works with what you have) and put them in you cider vinegar.  If you use a big glass gallon jar you can keep adding ingredients as you go and don't have to strain out the old stuff until the jar starts getting filled up with too many solids.  Most people around here keep a perpetual jar of it going and add to it all winter.  From there you just put a few tablespoons into a glass of water a few times a day and drink it down when you are feeling sick, feeling a cold coming on, or just feel run down enough that your immune system may need a boost.  You can even use it as a base for salad dressings or any sauce that does not need to be cooked (heat destroys sulfur).

Once you have your base ingredients, you can add what feels right to you.  Such as I add watercress and nettle leaf because they are so high in minerals, which can help the body heal.  I have heard of people near the sea adding seaweed for the same reason.  I have added turmeric from the spice cabinet for its anti-microbial properties.  I have threw in a couple handful of rosehaws at some times or pot marigold at others.  Sage, burdock root, fresh echinacea root, or astragalus are good additions.  When being mixed with water, raw honey can be added for its healing properties.  That's the neat thing about making your own medicine, you make it with what you have and what works best for you.

Cider acts as an antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal. It has immune stimulant properties as well as increasing white blood cell, T cell and NK cell counts. It increases the blood flow and the amount of oxygen delivered to the tissues, as well as aiding the removal of waste products.  Its no wonder so many families have some version of this healing concoction ready as the cold months begin.

My Cousin Stold My Man...

 

Yep, I can see it now, my cousin, Amanda is sitting on the stage of one of those sleazy daytime TV shows that people go on to air their dirty laundry and to get their 15 minutes of fame.  Amanda is saying something about how I couldn't satisfy my man so she had to do it.  Suddenly I burst onto the stage yelling so many foul words that they have to bleep that it sounds like a garbage truck is backing up.  I grab Amanda by the hair, she grabs mine back, we're screaming, meanwhile Ryan, my man, is grinning back stage as two women fight over him....

Okay, so maybe I'm not that over dramatic but I'm pretty sure there is something going on, and I'll tell you how I know.  On Monday, when Ryan and Amanda got home from work, they immediately disappeared down into the cellar together...alone.  When they came back up, both of them had red stained lips.  Very suspicious.  This happened again yesterday (Wednesday) but this time they were down in the cellar a lot longer.  Hmmm.  I may have to hire a private investigator.

Actually there may be a reason, but not one I'm willing to face.  See, down in that dark, secret cellar is a big 40 gallon crock of beet pickles.  They aren't quite ready yet so Amanda and Ryan go down every couple days to eat one and check to see if they're done.  Now here's the problem, I'm not a beet pickle fan but Ryan and Amanda love them.  That big crock draws them like flies to honey and when they eat one, they stain their lips reds.  I'm losing my man over beet pickles...*sob*.

Many members of my family love beet pickles so I have always made around 10 gallons or so of them to share with loved ones.  This year though Amanda and Ryan decided that 10 gallons was not enough.  They cleaned up the big 40 gallon crock and planted tons of beets.  We harvested them a little over a week ago and immediately they went into the pickle crock.  Now I can't really fault them for their tastes, beets are very good for you.  They are high in foliate which not only helps to prevent birth defects but has been shown to help reverse cancer cell growth.  That's not counting that they have betacyanin which is also an excellent cancer fighting natural compound.  The potassium helps regulate your biological electrical system, especially your heart.  If you don't get enough potassium, your heart doesn't work as well.  Of course that deep red color has to come from somewhere and that is beta carotene.  Actually they greens (which I like) are a higher source of beta-carotene but beets are still high in it.  Beta-carotene  functions as a potent antioxidant, something we humans don't get enough of.

So, I shouldn't be surprised that my wise cousin and my good man (he has to be good, I chose him lol) enjoy eating them.  But still...sneaking off together?  Gathering around the beet crock?  It sounds darn suspicious to me.

But for those of you who may want to keep your loved one instead of letting them roam to someone else's beet barrel, here is the recipe for beet pickles.  Maybe you can save your relations by staining your lips red with your man (or woman) and do better than me.

Ingredients
fresh beets – sliced.
ground cloves
ground cinnamon
ginger

Brine
water
pickling salt

Begin by slicing your washed raw red beets.  The thinner you slice them, the faster they will ferment.
Pack the beets into a crock, a jar, or a clean food grade bucket until you are within about 1-1/2 inches from the top. Add the cloves, cinnamon, ginger.  Of course like most of my recipes you can use any, all, none or your own spice combination. Place a weight onto the sliced beets.  An inverted plate with a heavy weight on top of it will work fine.

For every quart of water you'll need 1/4 cup of salt.  Mix brine in a separate container until the salt is dissolved. Pour the brine mixture over the beet slices until it completely covers all the slices and yet is below 1/2 inch from the top of the jar.

Set aside in a dark location at room temperature. Place a saucer or plate under the jar to catch any possible spillage as the fermentation process “breathes”. Bubbling should start within days and slow after a couple of weeks.  Scum may rise to the top but this can be skimmed off.  After about 1 week you can begin to test the beets to see if that is the flavor you want but they won't reach their full flavor for at least 2 weeks.

When they reach the flavor you like you can either refrigerate them to slow the fermenting process down or you can water bath can them for 15 minutes.  This will stop the fermentation so the beets stay the same flavor but it will also kill off those healthy microbes.  We do a bit of both, can some to keep the same flavor and leave some in the pickle barrel for those good probiotics.

So, let this be a warning to all you people out there.  Don't let you man (or woman) go sneaking around the pickle barrel with nobody else but you (why does that sound like a country song?).  Especially if those are beet pickles you are talking about.  The red stain the beets give off may be pretty, but they are a tell tale sign of sneakiness, or at least good taste.  Now if I could only make myself like those darn things.  lol

 

 

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The Many Uses for Sumac

 

After a long dry summer we are finally getting a few days of rain.  So before this evening's rain came in, I ran out and gathered up some staghorn sumac berries to make into seasoning.  Staghorn sumac is one member of the sumac family with some of the members being so much more famous.  Cashew, mango, pistachio, to name three nice members of the family.  Poison ivy and poison oak to name a couple of the not so nice members.  While there is a poison sumac that some people worry about when gathering sumac berries, it is usually pretty easy to tell the difference between them and edible sumacs.  Simply look out for white berries on a sumac bush and you'll be safe.  Not all white berries on sumac are poisonous, but that's still the best way to steer clear of the ones that are.

 

 

 

The staghorn sumac has compound leaves, meaning each leaf has many leaflets on it.  The leaflets are usually opposite of each other with a terminal leaflet at the end of the leaf.  With staghorn sumac the bushes are somewhat rough looking, which is what earned them the name 'staghorn'.  They are usually one of the first trees in fall for their leaves to turn and the are beautiful when they do.  They can start by turning gold before going to fire red or they can shoot right past the gold part and go straight to red from green.  They often grow in large stands and those stands can look like fire in the field in early autumn.

 

The berries don't really look like what most people think of as berries.  They look almost like a fuzzy torch on the top of the bush and are a deep reddish color.  When you touch them early enough in the season, or before they get too much rain on them, they feel fuzzy and some what sticky.  The sticky fuzzy part of the fruit is actually what you harvest when using it for a seasoning.  Sumac berries are different than other berries because their goodness is on the outside instead of the inside.  When you are gathering it take care not to rub off too much of the sticky fuzz because it has a wonderful taste of lemon. 

 

Most people use sumac for a refreshing, lemony tasting drink.  This is done by simply stripping as many berries as you can off each bunch and soaking them in cold water for an hour or so.  Do NOT use hot water as the inner part of the berries are high in tannins and are bitter.  Tannins take a long to time come out in cold water and usually the berries have been strained out before this happens.  Tannins come out very quickly in hot water however, and using hot water will make a bitter drink with a slight lemony taste.  Not what most people would find refreshing.  After an hour of soaking, taste the water to see if it has a lemon flavor.  It may need a bit longer to go but not much.  Then strain out the berries and sweeten as you would lemon aid. 

 

 

 

Another use for sumac and the main one I use it for is as a seasoning.  It makes a wonderful lemon flavored seasoning that can be sprinkled on yogurt or on top of fresh cakes (it will be a pretty red), or one of my favorites, in the cavity of the fresh fish of the day.  Mixed with dried pepper grass or shepherd's purse it makes a wonderful, wild lemon pepper.   I like it with thyme over roasted potatoes and even sprinkled over lightly basted eggs.  Any place where a lemon flavor sounds good to you is where sumac can be used.

 

 

To get that lemony goodness off the berries though you will need a blender or a food processor.  A blender with a bottom that can be taken off works the best, however.  Also you will need two bowls and a rubber spatula. Take the berries off of the bunch and drop them into the blender.  You are probably not going to get all the berries without getting the branch end into the blender so don't worry about getting them all off.   If you have a large amount of berries you are going to want to do this in batches or else you may lose some of the lemon fuzz when it sticks back onto the seeds instead of the sides of the blender. Maybe do no more than 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup at a time.

 

Once you have some berries in the blender do a few quick pulses on blend to stir the berries around.  Centrifugal force knocks the berries against the side of the blender where the sticky fuzz sticks.  The seeds drop down to the bottom of the blender when the pulsing stops.  If the bottom of your blender comes off, unscrew this over one bowl.  This is you seed bowl and you will be discarding this.  I recommend taking it back to where you got the sumac so that you can plant the seeds for the next generation of sumac.  Then, over the other bowl, scrape the sides of the blender with the rubber spatula.  The powdery flakes that fall into this is where all the flavor is.

 

 

                               

 

I put mine into a shaker to use whenever I need a quick burst of lemon flavor.  It's best to label your jar because you may begin to mix your sumac with other flavors to get you favorite herb combination.  Like I said, I like lemon pepper, but I also like lemon garlic as well.  Lemon salt can be made by mixing a little kosher salt into the batch.  Really, there is no end to the combinations you can make.  And the red color can make lots of food prettier too, and from what I hear, many people eat with their eyes before they eat with their mouths.  I'm more of an eat with my nose first, if it smells good, I'll probably eat it.  lol

 

               

 

I thought I would add this one last use for sumac as I gather it for this as well.  Sumac berries are not well loved by mites.  Making a "smudge wand" or simply drying the bunch of berries, lighting it and then blowing out the flame for the smoke can be waved over pet beds or children's hair to help make mites not want to be there.  It doesn't kill them just makes it uncomfortable for them.  I use it for working with bees.  The smoke doesn't seem to bother the bees (anymore than any smoke does) but the little mites that can harm a bee hive hate it.  They will leave the hive in mass to get away from it.  So I use sumac berries in my bee smokers when I am working with them.  I find it better than compressed dryer lint and anything to help keep the mites down is okay by me.

 

While I talked about staghorn sumac, that's because it's what we have here in Wisconsin.  There are many kinds of sumac all over and as long as you avoid the ones with the white berries you'll be fine to use them in this way.  Some of the white berry ones are even safe so if you plant a white berries sumac that you know is not poison sumac, give it a try.  Sumacs are nice to have round if only for that burst of color as the flowers of summer are fading into memory.  But why not work with it's lemon flavor as well.  A sprinkle of deep red lemon flavor is not only beautiful, but adds flavor to our lives as well.

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Barberry, Strong Medicine from Nature

 

When walking through one of my open woodlands or along the hedgerow I often am caught up by a thorny bush that can just be a pain.  I carefully take the time to remove my tangled clothing or hair or skin from these grasping plants, trying not to harm either myself or the plants.  These little thorny bushes are barberry, a wonderful healing plant and even a bit of a wild edible.

Barberry is actually a family name and there are several different kinds of barberry plants out there.  Some are small trees, some are large bushes and here in Wisconsin they are small bushes that can take over a semi-open space in record time.  For the most part we have the ornamental Japanese barberry that has "gone wild", so to speak.  Birds have eaten the berries off of bushes that were planted in people's yards for their beautiful foliage and deposited the seeds in them in places where they may not be as welcome.  It is considered to be an invasive species that, once established, can shade out native plants and compete with them for nutrients and sunshine.  Not something we want a whole lot of in our area.

What can we do about this?  Well, for me I feel that for a long time we humans harvested these more aggressive plants that could take over an area.  This helped control them so they didn't spread as fast.  Now, however, we have stepped away from our role as protector of the wild places.  We no longer dig up the roots, pick the berries, and use the plants enough to keep them from taking over.  Here in Wisconsin, barberry is a prime example of this.  By harvesting the berries both as a medicinal and as a wild edible we would keep the birds from spreading the seeds contained in them.  By digging up the roots for their amazing medicinal qualities we would cull many of the already established plants.  Humans have play many roles in nature, some which would fall into the "not good" category.  Here is one easy one that would not only help ourselves, but the natural world itself.

 

Okay, so what do we use barberry for?  Let's start with the berry.  Barberry bushes produce hundreds of berries each season and can be quite easy to pick.  There is one thing though, those grabby thorns.  If we have good leather gloves we can just strip the berries off the canes into a bucket.  If not then the berries can be carefully picked between the thorn and it is still a pretty quick harvest just because there are so many of them.  The berries as a medicinal are good for building red blood cells.  If an injury occurs or after a surgery, it can take up to 120 day to replace any red blood cells that were lost.  Barberry tincture can help speed up this process.

I also use it as a winter tonic.  Most people have heard of spring tonics where we drink some of the early spring greens such as chickweed or bed straw.  These are diuretics that are used to help cleanse the body of eating all the heavy winter food.  Well, the body often has a hard time switching from the mostly green diet of summer to the more root and meat based diet that stores so well in the winter months.   Barberry tincture seems to help the body prepare itself for that change in diet.

Don't like taking your barberry berries in alcohol?  It's okay, there is a bit more labor intensive way of preparing it that makes your medicine much more delicious.  Barberry berry jelly is pretty easy to make and makes a nice spreadable way of preparing your body for winter's changes.  You'll need:

4 cups crushed ripe barberries 2 whole oranges, chopped 2 cups water 1½ cups sugar 1 pkg pectin

Simmer berries and orange pieces in the water for 20 minutes or till tender. Strain the juice through a jelly bag. Combine juice and the sugar. Bring to a rolling boil, then add the pectin. Bring to a boil and boil 1 full minute or according to package directions. Pour into hot, sterile jars and seal. Process in hot-water bath for 15 minutes.

I personally like this way of taking my medicine.  lol

 

Then there is the root of the barberry.  This is where the real medicine is.  Barberry root contains the same medicine that is in goldenseal, golden root, golden thread, or Oregon grape root.  It is an alkaloid called berberine, which gives it a bright yellow color.  It also gives it a VERY bitter taste.  And there's no disguising this taste either.  This is medicine that, when you need it, you plug your nose and take it, period.  Long before pharmaceutical companies began to add sugary flavors to their medicines to make people take more of it, most powerful medicines were of the "plug your nose and swallow fast" variety.  I figure there is a very good reason for this.  We shouldn't just will-nilly take strong medicine like we do today.  It is for those times when we really need it enough to be willing to shudder as it goes down.  Barberry root medicine is that kind of medicine.

 

What the berberine in barberry root is good for is as a living antibiotic.  And it is one of the best.  Berberine has been shown to kill off staff infections in petri dishes.  Made into a salve and it can not only block bacteria from getting into a wound but kill off any that might already be in the wound.  Taken internally it can help cure many bacterial infections of the body.  And unlike some of the other plants that also contain this powerful alkaloid, barberry is not in danger of being over harvested.  In fact as an invasive you could harvest every bit of it and not do any harm.  Birds would probably bring you more in a couple of years anyway.

Now living antibiotics are different than antibiotics made in a lab.  The main thing is that, as all living things do, it changes each year.  Some years it is stronger than others, some years it may be slightly different than others.  This means that there is no "one dose fits all" kind of usage.  Every year it is made, we have to experiment with it to see what works.  This can be frustrating to those who are use to the cookie cutter approach of lab made antibiotics, with each pill having the exact same dosage as the next.  Take the recommended amount of medicine and more than likely your infection will go away. 

But there's a problem with that.  We are finding that the more we use these cookie cutter antibiotics, the less effective they are.  This is because the bacteria "learn" how to fight against the antibiotic precisely because it is the same over and over and over again.  Because there is no diversity in the antibiotic, and because the living bacteria is always changing (as life does) eventually the lab antibiotic will no longer be effective against the bacteria.  THIS is why living antibiotics, like berberine, can be so much more affective for curing infections.  Because barberry is a living being that will change with each seed it plants, with each flood or each drought, with the changes of the season, it keeps the bacteria from "learning" how to fight it.  While it may be a pain to figure out the right dose every time a person uses it, it still has an advantage because of its living status.

Barberry root can be dried carefully in a dark place and stored in the same.  The dried root will last about six months and is taken by boiling the dried root in water for 15 to 20 minutes, strain out the plant material, and drink as soon as it is cool enough to do so.  Most people simply can't do this though.  It is VERY bitter medicine and our bodies are designed to fight against in taking bitter.  This is because many poisons are also bitter.  The best way to process barberry root is in tincture form.  Put it into a jar and cover with the highest proof alcohol you can get.  If you can get Everclear or a good, high proof moonshine, this is best.  Let set for a couple of months or even longer.  You want this medicine to be strong so you don't have to take it in large doses.  Twenty-five drops in a glass of water to start with.  If you aren't seeing at least a slight improvement after 3 days make the does a bit stronger.  Keep doing this until you either get an upset stomach (you've killed off all your good bacteria at this point and obviously the berberine is working, just not on the bad bacteria), or until you see an improvement.

Now this is strong medicine.  It is not to be taken because you "feel like it" or because you want to try it.  In fact, if that's the way you take your medicine, it's best to go to an MD.  They went to school for this stuff and they love to hand out medicines.  Barberry root should be taken with care and also with a good pro biotic to help replace the good flora that keeps you in balance.  I don't really worry too much about that though, because the medicine tastes so bad that most people don't take it for a lark.  It comes from a time when we listen to our mothers and when they told us to take our medicine we did, no arguing.  We gagged, coughed, and cried, but we took it.  Not out of fear, but out of respect and love for our parent's knowledge. 

 

The invasive barberry can be seen as a nuisance that must be abolished, which is an uphill battle at best, or it can be control with human intervention through the harvest.  The first means we spend long hours cutting the canes and putting poisons on the roots.  The second gives both nature and us a little something for our troubles.  I personally think we would get farther with the second choice.  ;-)

Coin, The Trickster Spirit

A few of us witches got together this weekend mainly to decompress for a moment during the harvest.  One of the young ladies is having money problems and wondered what magic she could perform to help her family out.  Many ideas came out, both mundane and magical, but then the conversation changed.  Why is money so important to us at this moment is history?  We all have our ideas from bad politics, to a greedy society, to no personal responsibility.  Most ideas were on the negative side, in case you can't see from my list here.  lol

For me though I do not see money as a negative.  Now, before you decide that I am crazy, I don't see many things as purely negative.  What I see money as is a trickster spirit, one I often call Coin.  So many spirits or god/dess that we modern day humans follow are of the far distant past.  But Coin is a contemporary spirit that has followed the human race throughout most of its history.

Coin is not evil, per say, but instead likes to play jokes on people.  Some of those jokes can get downright nasty and in this modern day and age when we are so sensitive to being victims, nasty jokes are really looked down on.  This is probably why we humans have a love-hate relationship with this spirit.  While she helps us out, she also can be...well...a bit of a bitch too.

Coin is a spirit that one can be friends with, just cautious friends.  She can help, if worked with on a wise level, but she can also pull the rug out from under a person when they least expect it, if they work with her foolishly.  She doesn't mind holding up a mirror to our face and letting us see our strengths and our weaknesses.  And I think this is why she is despised most of all.  We don't like to think of ourselves as having weaknesses.  We don't like to think we can fool ourselves.  We like to think that every though in our head is always correct and can never lead us in the wrong direction.  We forget our humanity which is bound to our flaws and mistakes as well as our triumphs and accomplishments.  To never had made a mistake is to never have pushed one's self hard enough to step into unfamiliar territory.  Stagnation may be the biggest mistake of all.

Coin has a way of bringing out both our good side and our bad side.  We can work with her to help ourselves become stronger and better for the world.  Where I live right now going off grid is becoming the fashion trend.  People are going solar or wind/solar powered, we're even seeing a couple of big methane generators being put in this fall.  All of this needs coin to work.  A methane generator alone starts at a million dollars.  Coin is willing to work with us to make the world a better place by using less fossil fuel and nuclear power plants to power our lives.  Coin can be worked with to help feed the hungry or keep an animal shelter going.  Coin helps us with buying livestock or starting our seed collection.  Coin is willing to do her part to build schools and community centers for everyone.  Coin can help us find quality over quantity.  Coin can help us laugh at a comedy club or enjoy friends at a restaurant.  Coin can help us see the world through travels.  Coin looks to be a friend.

But Coin will also get a person addicted to her.  She will work with us to give us our fondest desires, even if those desires may not be good for us.  She will maintain a relationship with us, building our egos around the stuff we have instead of the person we are.  She will help us buy more and more and more, and leave us unsatisfied with what we have, always wanting the next "in" thing.  She will sit back and laugh as we hear seductive whispers about what we need to have.  And she will role on the floor when we start to believe those whispers.  She will bring in so called friends that only love us for the things we have and disappear when we are not part of the "cool" crowd.  She will allow herself to be used for that "next big thing".  She will wait for the next shop-a-holic fix each person needs.  And just when a person is at their worst, she will fade from their life, her laughter echoing in the darkness of their empty life. 

Coin is not a bad spirit.  She is more of a mirror that shows every line and every wrinkle.  There is no plastic surgeon to fix the person who stares back at us, because it is our souls that do.  Coin is the one that can teach us lessons, sometimes the hard way.  But that is what trickster spirits do.  Throughout history tricksters have been seen as creators and destroyers.  It is only in this modern day world that has so little color and sees only in black and white where we label them as evil.  They are us at our best and at our worst.  It is our choice on how we work with them.  They are willing to come along for the ride.  It's just best never to turn our back on them.

Medicine from the Dark Woods; Blue Cohosh

 

Blue cohosh shuns the sun and likes to grow in dark places. To find her healing qualities I have to wind my way through ancient oaks and towering cherry trees. Not such a hardship for someone who happens to enjoy the dark places just as much as I like the light.

Working with roots really brings out the witch in me. Reaching down into the shadowy dirt and coming back with a gnarled old root that twists about itself like a coil of snakes makes me feel like I am working with the energies of the earth, herself. I often think that roots are one of nature’s gifts that made people equate witches with dark arts. Imagine you step into the granny woman’s kitchen and ask for a cure. She reaches into her herb room and comes out with some dark, twisted roots. She probably has named them in a way that helps her remember when and where to gather them, like salamander’s tail or autumn raven’s claw. Then she tosses them into a pot of boiling water where they writhe around each other, darkening the waters of the cauldron. Things that come from the earth often scare people who like to live in the light.

Blue cohosh root has both dark and light medicines. It is good for bringing on delayed menstruations or to aid in delivery of the child when birth has gone on for too long. But taken during pregnancy it will most probably abort the fetus and make the mother very ill in the process. Definitely this herb stands with one foot in the light, the other in darkness.

What we mainly use it for is to give a stimulant “kick” to pains for arthritis. On its own it is a pretty good anti-inflammatory but mixed with willow bark or evergreen and its stimulant action works like the caffeine in aspirin, giving the pain reliever just that much more power. In this way it works for both men and women and is usually used by those who are a bit older and not as worried about getting pregnant.

It comes at the right time of the year, as cold winter nights or heavy winter storms often seem to bring out the pain of arthritis more. This is to help us get through those times. I make a tincture of blue cohosh root by soaking it in at least an 80 proof liquor of some sort for a couple of months and putting up to 25 drops of this into wintergreen tea (or lacking that, willow bark tea). The tincture itself has a wonderfully mysterious look when put on the shelf with all the other root tincture. Echinacea root tincture and this one are usually the ones the apprentices are pulled too first, wondering what the heck is in those jars.

 

Just a bit of medicine, drawn from the dark woods to help with the aches and pains that living life to its fullest often brings.

The Chaos Time of the Year

As I was out digging up burdock roots yesterday I could hear a sound that was approaching from the east.  At first it just sounded like a strong gust of wind through the trees but it grew louder and louder.  I paused with the root tines shoved half way down in the dirt and looked around.  There was nothing to be seen...but boy was it getting louder, like a jumbled wall of sound heading in my direction.  Just before they came into view I recognized one call in thousands as a red wing black bird.  Then in mass, a flock of black birds burst over the treeline and flew overhead.  They streamed by the thousands heading toward the Mississippi River.  While I don't want to be too over-dramatic they did seem to blacken the sky for a few minutes.  Then they moved on, their sound slowly fading into the west.

There was a storm coming and the birds could feel it.  They would ride the waves of air that were pushed out ahead of the storm and allow it to help them on their journey south.  The birds had felt the shortening of days and began to flock together.  No longer feeling the urge to set up breeding territories, now they felt the urge to move to warmer climates.  They waited until the weather changed just enough to use it for their push.  I have seen it with many different bird, from geese to hawks to nighthawks to black birds.

All of nature feels the shortening of days.  It is felt all the way to the core of our DNA, of our instincts, of our connection with our ancestors.  Squirrels feel the need to gather nuts, bears feel the need to fatten up, butterflies feel the need to migrate...and humans feel the need as well.  Winter is coming, and for most of our specie's existence this means we need to get ready just like all the other animals.

People needed to make sure they had enough food set aside during the months that plants do not grow.  It take more calories to make it through cold times than it does for warm time.  Shelters need to be found, made, make stronger...whatever is needed.  A need grows with us as the days get shorter, a need to prepare, to get ready...winter is coming.

During this time we often get extra bursts of energy, which is a good thing because we need it to get the harvest in, the wood cut, the last of the warm weather chores done, the livestock moved to their winter pastures...and all of this is ON TOP OF our regular day to day living chores.

It doesn't matter if you have never once prepared yourself for winter.  It doesn't matter if you go to the grocery store twice a day to get what you need at that moment.  It doesn't matter if you spend more time worrying about fashion or who gets voted off what reality show on TV than you do worrying about day to day life.  You feel the change of season coming too.  It may be muted somewhat, it may come out in other ways, but you feel it.  How do I know?  Because you ancestors lived long enough to carry on your family line.  They needed to prepare for winter and they passed that genetic need down to you.  Just like the squirrel doesn't need a calendar to know it is time to gather nuts, you don't need anything other than the shortening days for your body to know it needs to get ready...for something.

 

If you are part of the prepper movement online you will notice more people coming onto prepper boards this time of year.  More end of the world predictions are felt at this time than any other time of the year.  There is more unrest, more terrorist plotting, more cult-like behavior happening now than there is at any other time of the year.  Depression will come as the days get really short but right now there is a revving up, a need to prepare...even if people are unaware of what they need to prepare for.

I feel it too and I love the chaos energy of the season.  While I would prefer people not plotting to take over the world, I know that this energy that we humans feel now makes us want to be ready.  Sleep is almost a four letter word here at my house, what with all the harvesting, dehydrating, gathering wood, stocking the root cellar, moving the looms out of their summer homes to sit in front of the fires, stocking up on livestock feed, moving livestock from summer quarters to winter quarters...the list seems endless.  Still I love doing it.  I love the feeling of all this chaos swirling all around me, opening doors that are closed for most of the rest of the year, giving me not only the energy and the strength to do what I normally can't, but opening my mind up as well so I can understand what at other times may be hard to do. 

 

The one main problem with chaos energy is that it is...well...chaotic.  It is not meant to be tamed.  Which is probably the reason I love it so much.  I am just along for the ride, like a surfer who rides the crest of a wave off the great oceans of the world.  I do my best to keep my balance and I let that energy carry me where it will.  To that end I have long learned this is not the time of the year to organize ANYTHING.  As I put food into the root cellar, I pretty much store it as it needs to be stored, hopefully I'll write a little note and pin it to the food or jars, or boxes of sand, so that I know what I have there and when I put that food up, but I don't try to make it organized in any way.  This will happen once this chaos energy wears off, when it is too cold to be outside for long periods of time.  THEN I will straighten up my storage areas.  Until that time comes though I just keep harvesting, cleaning, processing and putting things on the shelves.  If I took the time to straighten them now, something would go bad before I processed it for storage.  Now is the time to rush and get things done, later will be the time to rearrange those things into some kind of order.

 

It's really just too crazy of a time to worry about nice, neat shelves.  I'll take care of that when the first snow storm locks me and mine into the house and I either need to disappear into the cellars or else they will try to talk me into one more game of poker. lol  Then I will carefully put everything into its place, lined up by what it is and when I put it up.  By the end of the first stow storm I will have organized shelves of food that are just waiting for me to pick a meal from them.  But now, if you were to look into my cellars you would wonder how the tornado got down there.

 

So, if I seem a mite jealous of pictures of perfectly placed jars, and wonderfully organized storage barrels, bear with me.  I soon will join you in knowing what food is where.  Until then though I will keep putting it up, trying to stay one step of the weather and the plants, and hoping that I will have enough to get me through the next seven months before I can plant the first of spring's crops.  And I will be riding the chaos energies of the season.  Hang ten and cowabunga!

Wild Carrot and the Scary Umbrel

The title came to me because I am starting to get into the Halloween mood and I am thinking of the things that DO scare us compared to the things that SHOULD scare us.  As a witch I often hear things like..."But you're so normal,"  when people are told about my religion.  Nope, there's not a pointy hat in my house and my cauldrons tend to be made of stainless steel and look like everyone else's stock pots.  Right now I don't even have a black cat on the farm.  I've had them before but now all I have is a few brown tabbies, two orange tabbies, and one black and white kitty with no tail.  I'm not even like most modern witches as I don't have a permanent alter set up.  It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I don't have an artistic bone in my body and the alters I have tried to set up look something like my junk drawer in in the toolbox.  I gave up on that a very long time ago.  So as a scary witch, I just don't cut it.  Sorry to disappoint.

In my line of teaching another thing I also find people to be illogically scared about are poisonous plants.  When I take people out into the wilds and we are gathering wild edibles or medicinals I will invariably get the question...but what if it's poisonous?   I don't teach about plants that have a poisonous look alike that any person with an ounce of common sense can't tell apart.  There are some plants out there that one of them is okay to eat and the other will kill you dead and the only way to tell them apart is by bringing them into a lab, but those are rare and I'm not going to try to get you to eat them.  Heck, I probably don't eat them because why would I risk it? 

The one kind of plant that I teach about that gets the most fearful glances is those plants with WHITE UMBREL FLOWERS (cue scary music in the background).  This is because the plant that has caused the most deaths through poisoning of any other plant here in North America is the water hemlock and it has a white umbrel flower.

 

Above is a picture of what this flower looks like.  An umbrel flower means its flowers are made up of stalks radiating out from a central stem with many little flowerettes at the end of the stalks.  And yes, it is a deadly poison.  Eating just a small portion of the leaf will kill you.  And the scary thing about it is that the poison takes a bit of time to work, so by the time you are showing symptoms it is too late to have your stomach pumped because the plant has already been digested.

 

 

If you see a plant that has leaves like this:

 

 

 

Or a purple streaked or spotted stem that is solid all the way through like this:

 



 

For goodness sake STAY AWAY FROM IT.  If it is growing in your pastures, put on rubber gloves and pull it out by the roots before your livestock eats it.  Some people are so susceptible to the poisons they can get very ill just by handling the plant. 

 

The thing is, the wild edibles that I teach about that have white umbrel flower can be told apart from water hemlock by anyone who is not trying to force the plant to look like something its not.    Using common sense while gathering wild edibles and medicinals is a must.  If you use common sense, you'll be fine.  If you're one of those people who leap before you look maybe you should only gather with someone who is going to take the time to check things out.  There's nothing wrong with being impulsive, I would think it would be a fun way to live life, but gathering wild edibles by yourself may not be the best occupation for you.  Hey, I can't crochet.  My mother has tried to teach me, I knit just fine, but the part of my mind that should be able to crochet just never developed fully.  We each have our own thing we are simply not good at.

 

So now that we have gotten past the scary umbrel, lets move onto wild carrot or queen anne's lace.  While this is not my favorite wild edible to eat, it is one of my favorites to gather.  Being out in a field surrounded by the fading flowers of queen anne's lace is a magical place to be indeed.

 

First a bit about wild carrot. It is the direct ancestor of the modern day domestic carrot.  Every carrot you have eaten or will eat owes what it is to the wild carrot.  And almost all the characteristics of a domestic carrot come from the wild carrot.  Keep that in mind because many people who have tried wild carrot and didn't like it don't seem to know this. 

 

The leaves of a wild carrot are the same as a domestic carrot.

 

 

 

 

 

The flowers are the same as a domestic carrot.

 

The scent of the roots are the same and the life cycle of the wild carrot is the same as the domestic carrot.

About the only thing that is different is the carrot itself, or the root of the plant.  In domestic carrots you usually harvest a tender, orange tap root that you can eat just as soon as you wash it off.

Wild carrots are a bit different. 

First, the root isn't orange, it's off-white (maybe if you squint it might be slightly orange-ish).  Second it isn't tender...well... that's not quite true.  The outer shell of the wild carrot is tender, but this is only about 1/4 of an inch thick.  Then you get to the inner core-that gets tough and is pretty much inedible.  It's not poisonous, it's just not good to eat even if your teeth could bite through it.  Third, the root often branches, so while technically it is a tap root, it doesn't really look like one all the time.  About the only thing that will make you think of a carrot when you dig up a wild carrot is the smell.  And that's the big way of identifying a wild carrot over any other plant.  If the root doesn't smell like a carrot, it's not a carrot.  End of story.  If you think it might smell like a carrot, or it kinda smells like a carrot, don't eat it.  All fresh carrots, be they domestic or wild, smell very much like a carrot.

So here's the other thing to know; all carrots share the same life cycle, which is that of a biennial.  This means it takes two years to produce seeds.  The first year the plant gathers as much energy as it can with its frilly little leaves.  This energy is stored in the roots throughout the first winter.  Then all that energy comes out of the root and goes into building the big flowers and seed heads.  For human consumption sake, this means that the wild carrot is only good to eat if it is harvested before those roots get rid of all their energy in its second spring. 

I don't know how many people I have seen digging up queen anne's lace flowers to eat the root only to spit it out because it is very bitter.  That's because energy for plants is starch or sugar.  By the time those flower head are made there is no energy in the roots which means there is not sugar there.  They will taste like crap.  Queen anne's lace is a beautiful flower and an excellent beginning to a seed head, but it is not a sign of food for people.

To find the wild carrot you want to eat you must look waaayyy down on the ground for that little carrot leaf that has no flower attached.  The leaf is usually only 2 to 5 inches tall and hidden in the tall grass of an open field.  There will probably be a lot of them so you can gather many wild carrots in a short period of time.  Smell each carrot as you harvest it to make sure you are getting what you want. 

Wild carrot stores the exact same way domestic carrots store.  I bury mine in slightly damp sand in a box in the root cellar and they will last long into the next summer before they start sprouting. 

Cooking with them is a bit different than cooking with domestic carrots.   First is the cutting.  Most  people who cook with wild carrot just throw the cleaned root in whole to whatever they are cooking and then fish out the core later.  If you want to cut it you will need a heavy, sharp knife to get through that tough core.  And then you will still have to fish out the pieces of core later.  What I use wild carrot for mostly is in venison or bear stew.  It has a wonderful flavor, actually better than most domestic carrots, and it gives a good deal of nutrients to the stew. Not to mention it is nice to cook wild meats with wild veggies, they just seem to go together.  I also will grate up the outer shell of the root and put it into coleslaw or other salads raw for the yummy, crunch carrot flavor and texture.  Slice it the long way and peeled the outer shell off the inner core of the root, then slice it into spears and they will make great glazed carrots.  And OMG are they wonderful as a replacement for carrots in carrot cake though it does take a good amount of them and the cake has no orange flecks in it.

They are just sweeter than domestic carrots are, except for the core which tastes like chewy wood.  So anything that doesn't need that characteristic round carrot shape can have wild carrot as its substitute.

Not to mention that being out in a sunny field with wild queen anne's lace flowers swaying in the wind above you while you are digging out the first year plants below is just a fun experience.  Well worth smelling each and every carrot you pull out of the ground to make sure you don't fall victim to the scary umbrel of water hemlock.  If it don't smell like a carrot, it's not a carrot--know this and you are safe.





 



Cold Harvest; Wapato

 

 

For those of us who harvest our own food from nature and even from our gardens we know there is a cycle to the harvest that, while not set in stone, is a good rule to follow throughout the year.

 

In the early spring, before the perennial and biennials plants reemerge we can still gather the roots, as long as the ground is not too frozen or too warm.  But usually spring means the gathering of sap as it rises from its storage place of the roots, heading for the leaf buds to begin the new cycle of life.  This is also the time to harvest many of the inner bark of trees because that sap moving through them can often give them an extra boost of nutrients and medicinal energies.  From there we harvest the tender new shoots and leaves that are just opening.  Often these have not only the sun's energy in them but still has the sugars that were stored in the roots all winter.  Next is often the new stalks of plants, then the flowers, then the fruit and seeds.  The last plant harvest of the year is most likely to be the roots of biennials and perennials as the leaves die back and send their energies down to those roots for storage through the winter months.

 

I know the summer is drawing to a close, autumn is here, and winter is not far behind when I begin to dig in the soil for the hidden store houses of nutrients that await me underground.

 

So with the weather getting colder we began the extremely frigid task of harvesting the wapato roots (or rhizomes if we want to be correct).  Wapato or arrowhead, is an aquatic plant that grows in shallow, silty, and often deeply mucky waters.  It usually grows in large stands that, as they die back, allow us to gather a great deal of wapato quite quickly.  Wapato is high in starch and calories which makes harvesting it worthwhile.

 

Which is a good thing because harvesting wapato is freakin' cold work. 

 

I wear a wet suit to do it and still end up sitting in front of the fire with a gallon of hot chocolate to warm me up at the end of the day.  I can not imagine how cold it must have been to the American Indians that waded out into the slowly freezing waters to gather up their stores for the year. 

 

Yes, you must wait until after at least the first hard frost to start a wapato harvest.  What we need to wait for is for those leaves to send down the last of their energies to the roots and that does not happen until the leaves freeze.  Often the first frost is not enough to affect the leaves though because the air just above the water is heated by the still unfrozen water.  So while the rest of the air may be 25 degrees, the 33 degree (above freezing) water is heating the wapato leaves up and keeping them alive.  It can take getting that water down to below the freezing mark to start the leaf die back and the roots to fill with their starchy goodness.  This mean for harvest you are wading out into water that is at or below the freezing mark.   It just hasn't had time to form a thick layer of ice as of yet.



 

 

 

 

Well, one of our rivers, The Black Jack, runs through several bog areas.  Bogs in Wisconsin can stay frozen all year long and it helps to keep the rivers that run through them cold or cool them down faster than surrounding rivers that do not flow through bogs.  This gives me an earlier window of harvest than those who will have to wait until it get REALLY cold.  Still, wading in freezing water is cold, no matter what the air temperature is.

 

 

Wapato is pretty easy to spot, especially if you remember its other name of arrowhead.  Most of the species have an arrowhead shaped leaf with long tails pointing back against the arrowhead.  All the veins in the leaf comes from a single point, right where the stem attaches to the leaf.  As long as you see these two points on a plant that grows out of shallow water you will know that you have found wapato.

 

Despite wapato growing in shallow waters, it will grow in deep mud.  Meaning, if you step into what looks like a foot of water you may sink down another foot or even two into the deep muck that surrounds the plants.  Before you start panicking and trying to pull your feet out of this mud, wait....the deeper you sink, the easier it is to harvest the roots.  In fact, you WANT to get your feet as deep into the mud as you possibly can.  The best way to accomplish this?  Dance!  Jump around!  Leap up, spin around, and jam those feet into the deep, dark silty mud that carries all life down that river.  Harvesting wapato is often called the wapato dance because the people who do it look as if they are dancing around in the middle of freezing cold water.

 

 

The more you dance about, the more of the mud you will disturb...and then suddenly something will pop out of the mud and float to the surface.  More than likely this is a wapato tuber (I'm not discounting that there may be something else in the mud that may float too, lol).  The more you dance, the more of them that will float to the surface.

 

Once you get really going, the surface of the water may be covered with wapato, gentle floating away.  Gather them up,  this is your treasure.  They can be stored easily in a cool root cellar for most of the winter and will bring a good deal of calories to any dish they are added to.  For our fat rich world, more calories sounds like a bad thing, but for ancient people it was often hard to get enough calories to make it through the harsh winter ahead.  This is why still to this day we crave calorie rich foods, because our bodies remember a time long ago when we NEEDED those calories to survive.

 

 

As a person with simple taste, my favorite way to prepare them is to put them on a baking sheet with other root crops, cover them with my favorite herbs (usually garlic, with thyme, rosemary, and sage from the window sill) drizzle some olive oil over them and toss until covered.  Baked in a 425 degree oven until a light golden brown crust forms on most the the roots.  Talk about a dish that can get you through a cold winter night!  All that starch is going to my hips just thinking about it.  lol  But seriously, the energy from that dish will keep me going while out doing chores in a blizzard or sledding with the kids on a frosty January day.

 

I also like to bake it, mash it, and make it into flat bread, much like my ancestors used potatoes to make lefse.  Rolled up with a favorite stuffing like scrambled eggs and sausage for a breakfast "burrito" or leftover meat from supper and some sliced brussel sprouts or sauerkraut for the German side of my ancestry, or brown sugar and butter for a sweet treat...there is no end to what can be done with a flat bread.

 

I've even made it into pasta...that was more work than what it was worth, but to find a recipe just look up potato pasta and try it yourself.  Sliced in spears it goes great in quick stir fries.  Soups can be made more hearty by simply adding a handful of these wild edibles.  Basically think potato when trying to cook them.  Another name for them is actually duck potato because dabbling ducks will eat around the plants, though the tubers themselves are a bit big and a bit too deep for dabbling ducks to eat.

 

This is one of my favorite wild edibles to eat...but I have to admit that I have to force myself to harvest it.  It's not like harvesting wild rice which you can do from the comforts of a canoe...Nope, you need to get into the water and sink you feet into the mud and muck.  You have to feel the nutrient rich silt that it grows in, that is until you lose the feeling in your now frozen feet.  You are not only a part of the water, but a part of the earth that is carried in the water, and part of the air that you can see your breath in.  You WANT to be part of the fire after the harvest is over.  lol  So I guess you can say you incorporate all the elements in the harvesting of this wonderful wild edible.

 

For those who need a bit of pop culture reference to this plant, another name for it is katniss, and it is where Suzanne Collins got the name of her main character in 'The Hunger Games'.  She chose the name because she was trying to show how hard hunger can be.  Katniss, or wapato can be a hard plant to harvest, but it will end your winter hunger if you can only persevere.  Much like the character Katniss needed to persevere to survive.

 

Funny thing is now that the book has been made into a movie I have many people wanting to learn how to harvest katniss.  I find that only the hardiest of the bunch will harvest much more than a handful before they are sloshing as fast as they can out of the freezing waters, showing off their prized rhizomes like they were golden treasures.  And indeed they are, because not many people would trade the feeling in their toes for a chance to get a few pieces of gold.  But it is a surprise to see how many will do just that to try katniss...or as the American Indians called it, wapato. 

 

Hunger Games my butt, I won't be hungry...just darn cold!