The Urban Homestead Herbalist

What is the difference between an apothecary and a pharmacist? The apothecary is the forerunner of the pharmacist. They gathered raw materials and prepared medications. The modern pharmacist dispenses drugs prepared by pharmaceutical companies. 


Herbal medicine came before either of the above. For thousands of years human have used plants to treat injury and illness.


To be a homesteader means to learn to do for yourself with what you have, where you are.


Everyone has bumps, scrapes and bruises so it is wonderful to walk to the garden and find a plant that can help you heal. Arnica Montana has had a secure place in the home apothecary for a very long time.

Arnica Montana

Native to Central Europe, Mountain Arnica spread to Scotland, England and North America through escape and for medicinal use.


It's primary use has been to sooth and heal sprains and bruises.


According to the British Homeopathic Association, Arnica is rich in selenium and arnica ash is high in manganese. These powerful antioxidants may be the reason for Arnica's healing properties.


Following is an easy recipe for herbal infused oil


To make an herbal infusion:

1. pick herbs early in the day, before the sun has hit them
   
2. Carefully clean the herbs ( no bugs please) and sort the parts of the plant needed
   
3. Tightly pack the herbs into a clean mason jar, pour the oil of you choice (I prefer olive oil) in to cover the herbs, put on the lid and put in a cool dark place for about four weeks
   
4. Carefully drain the oil and put it in a dark colored jar and store in a cool dark place.
   

If you are in a hurry, here is an easy, stove top method.


Stove top method for herb infused oils.
Place the herb filled jar in a sauce pan that has been filled about ¼ full of water, simmer for 4-8 hours. Remove jar from saucepan and allow to cool. Decant, bottle, label, and store in a cool dark place.


I keep our oils in the refrigerator. With care they will last about a year.
The infused oil is easily made into salves and lotions.


https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/a/arnic058.html


http://www.britishhomeopathic.org/bha-charity/how-we-can-help/medicine-a-z/arnica-montana/


Have you grown or used Arnica? Please share your experiences and ideas.  We love to hear from you.

Change is in the wind

I got good news yesterday that will allow a few changes.
I now am an official blogger for Mother Earth News.

This blog will still be here for you with new, additional and complimentary  information appearing at http://www.motherearthnews.com/search.aspx?tags=%22+Deanna+Tworivers%22

Yes, some of you have read this article before. It was actually my "audition piece". All our new posts will be at this page.

I am happy to be a member of the Mother Earth News Team. (doing a happy dance!)

Huckleberries – Native plants and permaculture in our back yard.

On a clear day, we can usually see the tip of the mountain from Vancouver, WA over the eastern hills. Upon first approach it becomes an overwhelming presence that the dominates the landscape. The summit, at 12,276 feet makes this the third highest peak in the Cascade range.

Native Americans have harvested huckleberries on the flanks of Mt Adams in the Gifford Pinchot Wilderness for thousands of years.

Our 10^th acre in suburban Vancouver, WA is blessed with a large, pine tree in the northwest corner. Upon investigation it seems to be the perfect spot for relocation of a rhododendron bush and a home for huckleberries.

Both plants are perfect as an evergreen, understory layer in this corner. They will provide habitat and food to birds,butterflies and other small wildlife – which I hope they will share.

The rhododendron is at present in our front yard and will take a bit of digging to get out. Thankfully we have a wheelbarrow and sharp shovels. It's melon colored flowers and glossy leaves will add contrast to the back corner.

As to the huckleberries, we were able to buy them from our conservation district which holds a yearly native plant sale. http://www.clarkcd.org/

Count this as our “before” picture. As you can see there is quite a lot of work to do to get the area ready. Removal of blackberry vines, mis-planted arborvitae and some English Ivy which has wandered in from somewhere else. Plenty of raking too. The Rhododendron bush will have room to spread in the semi-shade and so will the huckleberries, which can get up to 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide. This will help block our view of our neighbors backyard.

The evergreen huckleberry, Vaccinium ovatum, has attractive bronze foliage in the spring with white, urn shaped flowers that bear dark purple, tasty, edible fruit in the fall. The berries are high in vitamins A, C, Iron and Calcium and very low in carbohydrates.

Huckleberries are used as jam and in many dessert recipes such as apple and huckleberry crisp.

What native plants would you like to have in your garden?

 

Seed Swap Surprise

We went to the annual Venersborg Schoolhouse, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Historic-Venersborg-Schoolhouse/153244748108615, seed swap Sunday. It was great to get out and share seeds and stories with a growing community but had no idea that I was going to be interviewed for our local newspaper. 

Seed swap, giveaway promotes food diversity

Annual event introduces lesser-known nutrition sources to gardens of the adventurous

 

By Stevie Mathieu, Columbian assistant metro editor
Published: January 25, 2015, 8:26 PM

BATTLE GROUND — With still months to go until peak gardening season, a group of about 60 people packed into the historic Venersborg Schoolhouse on Sunday afternoon to get their hands on some lesser-known seeds for their gardens.
The annual seed swap and giveaway, started several years ago by Kristine White of Battle Ground, included tubers that would grow into 6-foot-tall lilies, indigo seeds and "more types of basil than I knew existed," White said.
For many, the seed swap provides a chance to grow food that's not typically sold in grocery stores, and to foster crop diversity, said Deanna Tworivers of Vancouver.
Seated in one corner of the schoolhouse, Tworivers chatted with guests about the seed library she keeps with several hundred varieties of heirloom seeds. A friend of hers started the seed library years ago, but handed it over to her for safekeeping once he got too busy to keep it going.
"It's my job to share it and add to it," she said. All of her seeds are free, and include seeds for veggies, herbs, flowers and root vegetables.
On Sunday afternoon, Tworivers was sharing a couple of new additions to the library: Glass Gem seeds, a variety of Indian corn that can be popped or ground into cornmeal, and Anasazi beans, which hail from the Southwestern U.S. and date back at least 1,000 years, she said.
She and her husband, Eric Tworivers, bought the new seeds last year and grew them for the first time at their west Vancouver home. They got a decent crop from the corn and the beans, with enough seeds left over to share.
The couple live not far from Clark College on a quarter-acre lot that includes their home. They've packed their yard full of fruit trees, berries, grapes and several types of vegetables. Eric Tworivers teaches classes on food preservation and puts his skills to work at home by canning, pickling, drying and freezing the produce they grow.
In the winter, Deanna Tworivers said, she can crack open a jar of tomato soup made from their homegrown heirloom tomatoes, and "it tastes like summertime."
She said that the produce sold to grocery stores by mainstream farmers has a longer shelf life, and "that makes sense." But, she added, people who shop at the grocery store might be missing out on good, nutritious food with a shorter shelf life that could be grown in a garden at home.
"What we want to do is continue to have diversity in our food," she said.
Brush Prairie couple Jahnavi Hastings and Noah Seely were on the hunt for dill Sunday afternoon so they could make their own pickles.
"We did pickles for the first time last year," Hastings said, but not with their own dill. "I'm looking forward to trying it out."
And the couple brought plenty of seeds to share.
"We brought some peas and tomato and tobacco seeds, and painted-mountain corn and horse radish crowns," Hastings said. They left with several small envelopes with herb and flower seeds, many of them perennials.
"We did find some stuff we don't have," she said.
They live on a 1-acre property and said they were motivated to grow their own food because it costs less, and it's more environmentally and socially conscious.
And, "the food you grow yourself tastes about 10 times better than what you buy at the store," Seely said.

Toothpaste

All my life, until this winter, I have used commercially prepared tooth cleaning products. From tooth powder in the '50s the  and 60s to the "brightening and whitening" national brands.  I have tried them all. Some are as advertised but at what cost - read the ingredients. Some "natural" brands have been better but are very expensive.

This fall I came across a very simple recipe and decided to try making our own toothpaste. One of the main ingredients is coconut oil. I have not jumped on the coconut oil band wagon because it is not local to where I live. Coconuts trees do not grow naturally in the Pacific NW, but I decided to give it a try for the sake of our dental health.

The recipe is:

6 tbls organic coconut oil
6 tbls baking soda
Stevia to taste (the baking soda tastes very salty)
Peppermint essential oil for taste and antibacterial properties

First blend the dry ingredients and then add the coconut oil, stirring briskly. Then add the Peppermint essential oil (you can use other essential oils) to taste and stir until evenly combined. We like quite a bit of peppermint.

We store this on the bathroom counter in a 1/4 pint canning jar. For the two of us this jar will last a little over a month.

Homemade toothpaste

Since using our homemade toothpaste I have no more bleeding of gums and less plaque build up (some plaque has come off during flossing to my surprise). This is a very soothing and gentle cleaning paste with good over all results.

Yesterday was time to mix a new batch but by evening I was too tired to make it. I am recovering from a broken shoulder and kneecap with just returning to work so evenings are very slow.

 In desperation we used commercial toothpaste and it was horrible. "I was hit immediately with a metallic smell and taste. It made we wonder if we were experiencing an electrical fire in our bathroom. It was an industrial smell", my husband said. I seem to have experienced an allergic reaction. I had trouble swallowing and breathing for a couple of hours after use. 

We will not do that again. From now on homemade will be the only toothpaste we use.

Getting Ready For Spring

Deep in midwinter this gardener is toasting her toes by the fireside, browsing through seed catalogs, contemplating spreadsheets, planting plans and taking a class on “Designing Elegant, Edible Gardens” while my broken shoulder and kneecap continue to heal.

If years past I have sketched our potential garden spots, made little maps of where I hope to put plants and plant seeds but it has never been particularly serious or official. This year I hope to get “organized”, make and follow a plan of seed starting, permaculture, and rotation of food crops.

I have come across some good tools and will share them with you here.

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/seed-starting-chart

A very useful, easy to read, printable chart to help you get things going.

http://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-france-first-frost-date-map.php

First and last frost dates are very important. To go to your country of choice, try inserting the name in the above address ie: http://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-russia-first-frost-date-map.php

http://commonsensehome.com/start-seeds/?utm_content=bufferebaf9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Excellent record keeping and great, informative writing.

http://youtu.be/tmEEX6-8HEo?list=PLE2487043FB14B1FF

A good video series on seed starting.

http://homespunseasonalliving.com/garden-planting-schedule/

Make your garden plan.

The amount of information available can be overwhelming, but I think these will help you plan and grow a successful food garden matter where you live. Keep cozy and enjoy making your practical plan.

Update

I realize I have not written anything for months.

Summer and fall were filled with work and many challenges.

 We, Husband Master Food Preserver Eric Tworivers and myself, taught 20 on location food preservation classes from jelly and jam to jerky. 

Pinot Noir Jelly at Woven Wineworks

Green beans at the Homestead Supply Store

Our first year garden grew well and we managed to save seeds from heirloom tomatoes, Glass Gem corn and Anasazi Beans. 

Corn patch

Anasazi Beans

Glass Gem Corn

Heirloom tomato

Sunflower

I did battle with a tribe of raccoons – the same family that made a gaping hole in our roof in 2013 – saved our dog from injury and acquired a colorful set of bruises.

As to the roof, it is replaced. An estimated 3 day job became 8 days. The yard looked like a war zone but we entered a very windy fall and winter with a snug roof and repaired chimney. 

During

After

Our day jobs, we are both musicians and music teachers, have kept us busy as well. Combined we teach over 50 private students every week, host 2 open mics weekly and play out as often as we can. You can find some of our music at http://www.amazon.com/Tworivers-Music-1/dp/B003X6L8E0/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1420319949&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=tworivers+music    

In December I fell at work – at the day job – and broke my right knee cap and shoulder. Seems to be healing well but am reduced to left hand only typing for several more weeks.

The seed catalogs are beginning to arrive and seed swap time is approaching. Time for inventory and planning.

The Battle Ground Village Outdoor Market is beginning to stir (husband is the Market Manager) and we are associated with a new farm store. Spring holds many promises and new adventures.

Happy 2015.