Medicinal Herbs

     Always be alert to your surroundings.  In the woods, the city park, or your backyard you can find healing herbs that can ease pain, seal a wound or give comfort when there is little to be had.  

wildernessarena.com 

http://www.nativetech.org

     One of my more popular posts has been Pine Sap and it's uses.  It is a sticky antiseptic substance that can cover a wound and protect it from flies or dirt while healing.  Since it is so very sticky, you can use it to remove splinters just like using duct tape!  Pitch from the pine, when chewed can relieve sore throat.  You can make a tea very high in vitamin C with the crushed tender tips of the pine boughs.

    Sweet grass provides a tea used for sore throats and coughs.  

     Very popular in Florida gardens and in xeriscape garden designs that require no irrigation, is the Aloe Vera plant.  Famously used as a salve for minor burns and as a skin soothing agent, you can cut a leaf and keep it in the fridge to enhance it's effects.  The aloe can be used for skin conditions like dermatitis and impetigo.  You can apply it to skin irritated by insect bites or rashes from heat rash to allergy outbreaks.  It makes a nice all around skin softener when you are not irritated.  Aloe is a member of the lily family.  

     I have a client that pays extra just for someone to pull dandelions out of his yard.  He HATES them!  Pity.  He is paying someone to pull the med kit out of the lawn.  The whole dandelion is edible and should be eaten not only as a survival food, but should be used as a tonic food. The leaves should be eaten in spring and fall salads to tone up the body, or in green drinks almost all year round. The root is the part that is used in most herbal preparations  

http://articles.grandmasherbs.com/articles/Medicinal-Herbs.

     Please get to the website listed above and make it a favorite stop in your prepping education.  the photos of the plants are good enough to help you see the magic in a bunch of ditch weeds or the reason certain flowers are good to have and easy to hide in the garden, turning your summer floral display into a secret medkit.

Just look at this feverfew, on the left!  And the echinacea, to the right!  

   You will be surprised how much health and wellness is available just in the flower gardens around the neighborhood! 

    Without bragging about my yard, I promise, I could spit and hit these same plants in my neighborhood.  What are you walking past as you take your evening walk?  It is time to learn the alternative uses for the pretty things you may be just ignoring because it doesn't look prep!

     

   Get a good herb book.  I have one titled Medicinal herbs of the South east.  You can get one for your region.  Also, put a good Herbal medicine book in your library to cross reference and back up your knowledge.  All of these books can be had at Amazon.com for under $20.  Keep your eyes open at yard sales and thrift stores for even lower prices! 

Fast Food

     Fast food makes you think of burgers wrapped in paper tossed in a bag schlepped through a window.  I also think of cold, tired, overcooked, not what I ordered, soaked in grease.

     Sometimes, I have an urge for salad and I hate buying a head of lettuce for one only to have most of it end up in the compost heap because I want a bit not a lot!  The cost of a head of lettuce for my urges for a year adds up to over thirty dollars and maybe, I get $7 worth before it wilts or freezes in the back of the fridge!  

     Sprouts make a great substitute for lettuce.  A small salad or the lettuce on a sandwich is just flavorless crunchy water and air.  Bean sprouts offer a flavor and protein as well as more nutrition than the bean they sprout from.  

     To help keep this topic on topic and get a  lot of information in a small space, I am cutting and clipping from good sites with more information if you want it.  I can only tell you: Tastes good, good for you, easy to do, and you can store seeds in bulk, grow some and gather seeds for future use.  
     

Harvest your own sprouts - Getting started - Fruit & Vegetable ...

www.canadiangardening.com

Bean sprout

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kongnamulguk. Korean bean sprout soup

Moyashi

Nam ngiao with bean sprouts sprinkled on top

Bean sprouts are a common ingredient, especially in Asian cuisine, made from sprouting beans.

The typical beansprout is made from the greenish-capped mung beans. Other common bean sprouts are 

the usually yellow, larger-grained soy sprouts. It typically takes one week for them to be completely grown. 

The sprouted beans are more nutritious than the original beans and they require much less cooking time and,

 therefore, fuel.

http://voices.yahoo.com/mung-bean-sprouts-nutritional-value-benefits-33866.html

Used extensively in Asian cuisine, bean sprouts are not often considered by the public as a 
nutritional 

element. However, bean sprouts, or rather Mung Bean Sprouts, as they are properly called, 
contain pure  forms of vitamins A, B, C, and E, in addition to an assortment of minerals including
 Calcium, Iron, and Potassium.

This site offers sprouting seeds by the pound for around ten to fifteen dollars,
 depending of the blend. 

They also offer tutorials, video and print and great information:  

http://sproutpeople.org/seeds/beans.html

Seed to Sprout
in 2-5 Days
Yield
2:1 to 4:1
Seed Shelf Life at 70°
2-10 years
Sprout Shelf Life
2-6 weeks

Seeds suitable for sprouting  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouting[edit source]

All viable seeds can be sprouted, but some sprouts should not be eaten raw. The most common food sprouts
 include:^{[citation needed]}

• Pulses (legumes; pea family):

alfalfa, clover, fenugreek, lentil, pea, chickpea, mung bean and soybean (bean sprouts).

• Cereals:

oat, wheat, maize (corn), rice, barley, rye, kamut and then quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat
(these last three are used as cereal even if botanically they are not)

• Oilseeds:

sesame, sunflower, almond, hazelnut, linseed, peanut.

• Brassica (cabbage family)

broccoli, cabbage, watercress, mustard, mizuna, radish, and daikon (kaiware sprouts), rocket
(arugula), tatsoi, turnip.

• Umbelliferous vegetables (parsley family) - these may be used more as microgreens than sprouts.

carrot, celery, fennel, parsley.

• Allium (onions) - cannot really distinguish between microgreens.

onion, leek, green onion (me-negi in Japanese cuisine)

Native Plants

     Just as much as non-gmo seeds are the seeds for preppers, native plants are worth investigation.  Too much time and money has been spent by agri-mega corporations through  high powered ad agencies to sell us on the idea that all pumpkins are orange.  They are not just orange, they are a specific halloween greeting card orange, blemish free, and so bland they need pounds of sugar and spice to make them taste like pie.

     It isn't just pumpkin.  It's oranges that are pumpkin color and apples that are firetruck color, broccoli that is hunter green, peas that are deep dark green and taste like ear wax, carrots also in pumpkin color and corn that is the color of oleomargarine.  All of these colors do occur in nature, but after they have been blanched and frozen, they rarely maintain that color.  Still, food shows up at the store all bright and shiny for you to purchase what you have seen on TV and print ads.  

www.smartlivingnetwork.com 

     We live in a very lucky state of being, in a country that tosses the less than perfect specimens to provide us with the finest produce to choose from.  It kind of kills me a little that only gardeners know all the peppers on the plant are not the exact same size length and color.  

     It irks me just a bit more to take out the trash in a home and see whole bowls of fine fruit and veg tossed away because after three days on the counter, it is less bright, or a dot appeared on one fruit so they were all tossed because of perceived spoilage.  

Seminole Pumpkin
Cucurbita mushchata
http://www.eattheweeds.com

     I went to the Art and Foliage Festival earlier this year and was given a free plant.  Apparently, a lot of people are wondering what happened to the fruits and vegetables of their youth, as I am.  I was given a Seminole pumpkin vine.  I planted it and this photo here, shows what I expect to harvest later this year.  It isn't orange.  It isn't Halloween greeting card pumpkin orange.  It is edible.  It is natural, it is non-gmo and it is Native to Florida.  This is what the North American pumpkin looks like in the Deep South.   I like it.

     All Bell Peppers are not green. all tomatoes are not red and all broccoli is not hunter green.  I like the natural native color of things.  I like knowing my food has no dye, no additives I didn't put in there and no assistance from a friendly well meaning geneticist.  What is Native to your homeland, that doesn't stack up neatly at the produce stand?  What does it look like?  What are they called?  Here, we have ditch berries ( also called Dewberries) that look like blackberries but taste like dirt if you pick them too soon.  We have ditchweed better known as pokeweed, which is questionable as to it's toxicity, but a million NOT dead people can't be totally wrong and in a case where you are hungry, knowing to pick pokeweed when tender and young and cooking it well for and hour after washing it first, well, food is for the living.   

Our oranges are imports, grafted on to lemon stock.  Our roses are hybrids grafted on to Cherokee rose stock.  In a TEOTWAWKI situation, I will protect and preserve what I can, grow Native and non-native as long as I am able and like others, eat what I need to survive.  Till then, I think I will look into the native weeds and vegetation and learn more of what may not be pretty but, nutritious.  

     

What Is In Your Garden?

     I have mentioned in several posts that I suffer from the occasional outbreak of lawn guards.  They are the enforcement arm of the 'association'.  They ride around in golf carts hoping not to be called to work.  Oh, don't get me wrong, they also pick up trash the garbage truck dropped and they clean the pool.  But, often I find them examining my garden.  Apparently the city doesn't want people farming in their front yards, but I think they spend too much time worried about my garden.

www.onalee.com

     Usually, I entertain myself by answering their questions with honesty, but not 100% of the truth.  I have been asked about the squash in the big planter and I just point out the pretty yellow flowers.  Flowering vines, there's no rule against that, right?  A couple days ago, one of the guys was waiting at the end of the driveway when I got home to ask me about the exotic flowers in the shade garden.  When he pointed it out, I really didn't know much about it.

I had to go look it up. 

     Honestly, it was just a shade loving tropical I planted to hide the fact that I was rooting seeds earlier in the spring.  I acquired this plant working with one of my son's in a yard that was overgrown.  The homeowner just wanted a lawn that looked like a golf course. Unfortunately, for him, he had purchased a yard from a woman who had close ties to an actual plant wrangler.  A plant wrangler is a person who travels collecting plants for study by colleges, university, plant nurseries and botanical gardens.  This particular wrangler worked for Harry P. Leu Botanical Gardens (almost 50 acres of tropical and subtropical wonders).  I do love a gossipy neighbor!  I gave away a lot of plants and I took a lot of this material home.  

www.leugardens.org

     I looked at this thing the lawn guard pointed out.  It didn't look like that when I planted it, and promptly forgot about it.  It has taken to it's home and flowered.  It put out a pinecone shaped bracht on a stalk and then it put out flowers.  It was pretty odd.  So, I looked it up and thank you Plant Wranglers of the world and silly men who like flat grass!  

It is a plant called Shampoo Ginger!  Who knew?  And, for a prepper, it is a multipurpose plant.  lucky me! 

Zingiber zerumbet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Uses[edit source | editbeta]

The juice can be used to quench thirst when out walking in the forest and can be combined with Mountain Apples as a meal.

Medicinal uses[edit source | editbeta]

Specimen at North Carolina Zoo

In Hawaii, the spicy-smelling fresh rhizomes were pounded and used as medicine for indigestion and other ailments.^{[citation needed]} The rhizomes can be stored in a cool, dark place to keep for use when needed. In traditional use, the rhizome was ground in a stone mortar with a stone pestle, was mixed with a ripe Noni fruit and then used to treat severe sprains.^{[citation needed]} The pulp was placed in a cloth and loosely bound around the injured area.^{[citation needed]}

For a toothache or a cavity, the cooked and softened 'Awapuhi rhizome was pressed into the hollow and left for as long as was needed.^{[citation needed]}

To ease a stomach ache, the ground and strained rhizome material is mixed with water and drunk.^{[citation needed]} Similarly, 'Awapuhi Pake or Ginger root (Zingiber officinale) is widely cultivated and eaten, or made into a tea for indigestion as well as increased circulation of the blood and an increased sense of well-being.^{[citation needed]}

Rhizome extracts have been used in Malay traditional medicine for various types of ailments such as inflammatory- and pain-mediated diseases, worm infestation and diarrhea.^[1]

An extract, "Zerumbone", from Zingiber zerumbet Smith, has been found to induce apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in human liver cancer cells, in an in vitro study.^[2]

Indigenous Practices[edit source | editbeta]

The leaves and leaf stalks, which are also fragrant, were used in baking in the imu, underground oven, to enhance the flavor of pork and fish as they cooked. Traditionally, the aromatic underground rhizomes were sliced, dried and pounded to a powder, then added to the folds of stored Kapa (Tapa) cloth.

Perhaps the most common use of 'Awapuhi is as a shampoo and conditioner for the hair. The clear slimy juice present in the mature flower heads is excellent for softening and bringing shininess to the hair. It can be left in the hair or rinsed out. Hawaiian women often pick or cut the flowerheads of this plant in the forest, as they approach a pool or waterfallfor a refreshing summer bath, leave the flowers atop a nearby rock, and then squeeze the sweet juices into their hair and over their bodies when the swim is completed. The sudsy juice is excellent for massage also.

     Sooooo, now we have a new plant to use in the natural medicine bag, and a cleaning product for the hair.  How lucky did I get?  I already have other tropical plants that grow from rhizomes in the yard so I know how to propagate and grow this plant faster than I have by just plunking it in the ground, ooops!

      Now, it is time to go back through the yard and examine the plants there more carefully.  I was surprised the exotic flower would give me so much joy.  I need to know what every plant does besides look good and cover the few vegetables I can get away with.  

I know my lemon balm is fragrant and a bug repellant and great in soap for both reasons.  I know my canna lilies are not lilies they are a useful plant, beyond the pretty flowers, they are: a starch for humans that can make noodles and for animals, fodder from the ground up, they produce a dye from the seeds, the fibre in the stalks can be used as a jute substitute or to make paper.  

I need to thoroughly investigate the entire garden to discover prepper's gold. 

Today's Rant, Seeds

I think many people will agree with me in the thinking that although prep sites that offer seeds in packaged sets are not thinking clearly of the prepper.  The garden you could plant form these sets would be, in a perfect world, a well rounded lovely little garden of onions, tomatoes, peas, beans and corn. but in a survival world, the sets are not ideal for starting a survival garden, the first year.

My son pointed it out this way:"Lowes now sell heirloom seeds in some of their stores. These are open pollinated, non- genetically modified seeds. Why is it that they will give you 1000 carrot seeds in a packet, 100 broccoli seeds, 40 tomatoes, but only 15 cucumber seeds. Worse than that is they give you less squash seeds.

     I love his sense of comic irony and his ability to point out things we may have overlooked.  His point is not only the seeds value in number but their nutritional value.  Carrots take a long time to grow, tomatoes are delicate liking neither too much hot or too much cold, beans provide just about one meal per packet planted.  We like a big pot of beans and frankly, you have to plant a lot more space in the garden than the number of seeds in the packet.  THe survival seed packaged sets are also off skew with the number of seeds to the number of meals.  

beprepared.com 

     He pointed out to me that even though lettuce is easy to grow, can be packed in to the garden, it provides little nutrition and is basically just a filler food, to keep the tomatoes from sinking to the bottom of the salad!  So, he suggests plucking the leaves from the bottom of the plant for your BLT and saving the whole plant till the end of the season to give you seeds for next year.  Brilliant!

    You really do need to have someone in your life to bounce ideas of, when you have any kind of plan, another set of eyes, or another perspective is great for a reality check before you spend a lot of money and end up with a garden full of filler food.  

     I suppose a lot of people will put tomatoes in their garden thinking it is a good source of vitamin C.  I can't argue that, but another better source is Chili Peppers!  Also, bell peppers, dark leafy greens like kale, broccoli, and soft fruits like oranges, strawberries, kiwi and papaya.  So, you are not stuck in the packaged seed garden, collect a variety of seeds you know you can grow in your region and stock, grow and collect those seeds.  

http://www.myheirloomseeds.com/
I like the price here

     I am not saying don't buy packaged sets of seeds you know to be heritage, I am saying, don't put all your eggs in one basket.  Grow, collect and/or purchase seeds of a wide variety.  Know what grows in your area and get good at growing that.  Adjust your diet according to what you know you can provide, and stock the rest well.  

Sources for Buying Non-GMO Seedswww.urbanorganicgardener.com 

     I went to a website ages ago out of curiosity to find out how hard it is to grow rice.  I found that the year long effort to grow rice in a five gallon bucket would yield half a meal for one.  I store rice in bulk. 

      So, pick your seeds, count how many you will need, stock more than that and also, pick your battles.  Store what you truly cannot grow.  And get off the survival sites once in a while.  Those organic foodies have non GMO seed outlets too!