COUNTRY BASKETS & SPICES MONTHLY NEWSLETTER September / 2009 Number 7. Fall Herb Collecting

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1 COUNTRY BASKETS & SPICES MONTHLY NEWSLETTER September / 2009 Number 7 Fall Herb Collecting Coming home with the loot. Doesn t look like much when all bagged up. Herb collecting can be as simple as replanting for your herb garden, or in the making of your own herbal preparations. The first step is identifying your herbs. Many great books have long been available for that and often it helps to have someone that already has learned, because so many herbs have look a likes that often grow side by side with the herbs your seeking. 1

2 The greatest find! A gigantic True Solomon s Seal plant. This was a great unexpected discovery while searching for Gravel Rt. The True Solomon s Seal plants normally like dry hill sides in the deep woods and rarely grow more than 2 feet tall in Nature. When exposed to the sun and more than normal water they are one of the rare deep woods plants that actually grow HUGE! This one was at the edge of an abandoned railway track dating back to the 1800 s and has had no tracks on the rail bed for at least 50 years. The plants received the bright South Sun and growing in the gravel bank raised about 15 feet higher than the normal ground. So it was dry poor soil, but received direct rain and direct sun. It is the largest such plant I have found to date. 2

3 Check this out! Look at this years stem size on Trevor s left hand on the right side of this picture. Now look back left to last years Knuckle or growth scar and see the HUGE SIZE! This summer was kind of dry. In comparison to last years growth, this plant may have been 8 feet tall or larger!!! In the deep woods, these roots grow the size of your pinky finger! 3

4 Getting the plants separated and ready to remove the dirt, grass and weeds. 4

5 Where I was preparing to cleanse the roots a small Burdock Plant was growing at the edge of the cement. This is the plant the Amish healer uses for the B&W burn method. The entire plant can be used herbal and the roots most famous as a blood purifier. 5

6 Gravel Roots Note the white larger spaghetti looking roots. These would first appear as Mature roots, but actually they are the babies. These roots have not sent a stalk up out of the soil as of yet. Once they create the huge plant and flowers, these roots will appear thin. 6

7 Here is a close up of the first year roots, they are preparing sprouts to come up next Spring. 7

8 I try to collect 1 sample jar of each herb I wild craft. This can be used as part of a schooling and as well as an emergency use storage. 8

9 This is MAX the Goat! Max is a natural born Master Herbalist. He only lives on eating wild fresh herbs and he is a very picky eater. He visually searches the ground and taste test everything. He does not seek the common medical herbs used commonly in the herb books. This gave me ideas on making the Food Spray formula.. Max was born this Spring and he will be growing for some years. Our 2 dogs are not good dogs and seek to harm most all pets we have ever tried to have. The cats fight back and have whipped the dogs and held their ground, but poor Max can only stand on his hind legs and jump at the dogs and one on one can defend himself, but he is no match for both dogs at once. A week ago the oats bag was almost empty and I made a large mistake and poured the bag into his feeding pan. Prior to this he had only gotten very small amounts of the grain as a treat he loves oats, but oats are not a natural food for a goat in the wild. Most animals are not grain eaters and too many grains will mess their stomach / digestion up. 9

10 The oats swelled up in max and he became deathly constipated. After 5 days he was nearly dead and clogged up tight; so I started spraying him with Spray III and giving 1 dropper doses by mouth of the diluted Oregano Oil. I decided to allow him to be loose with the hopes he could find a herb that would allow him to have a bowel movement. By this time he could barely walk. I forgot about the dogs because they had not caused him any trouble for the past month. We came back later in the day to find both dogs pulling Max from both ends seeking to kill him and then eat him. After tying the dogs up; Max was pretty much chewed up at the ears and some open wounds on his sides.if we had found him a few minutes later the dogs would have been eating him alive piece by piece. Unable to walk anymore, we carried him to his pen and I soaked him with Spray III. The flies soon came to kill him, so we put a fan on him and made sure to give him 1 dropper of Oregano Oil daily and soak his hair with Spray III. I assumed he would die, but after each dose of Oregano Oil, the taste would make him want to get up and away from me soon he had a bowel movement that looked like black tire. After 3 such bowel movements he started to eat the fresh herbs again and after 1 week, he seems to of recovered 100% from the dog attack and oats. So we learned a lesson about wrong foods that almost killed him. If we could only learn such lessons in human lives we would all live so much healthier. Max should grow large and strong enough to boss dogs around; goats often are used to protect herds of sheep from dog attacks. I am 100% sure max would have died if I had not dosed him with Spray III and Oregano Oil by mouth. 10

11 This time of the year the cat tails look their best. Some herbalist use their roots, but I have never used them. They are also known to cleanse the water of ponds and are a pretty pond plant. 11

12 A very famous herb; RED RASPBERRY. I can only assume many years ago someone had Red Raspberries and no one else had them and some author wrote that you need the Red berries for the better herbal effect and a market was born. Otherwise I think the wild raspberries in the woods would be better. These plants bare red fruits all summer long and are extremely hardy and tasty! 12

13 This plant has lived at the south end of the house since the year I built it. I have mowed it, tilled it and put a septic system there and the plant continues to grow ONLY THERE and no where else on the property. Some websites sell the seeds to this plant as an Indian / Native ceremony herb. They should not do this, this can be a deadly herb. Teenagers in our area chewed on a few of the seeds from this plant species a couple of years ago on a school field trip and they all got deathly sick and 1 died on the table and was brought back to life and was saved using emergency drugs. The boy s heart stopped from chewing on a few seeds. They did this because stupid news channels have shown this plant way too many times and stupid kids just have to try it and see if it makes them high. Gypsum weed, STAY AWAY from this one. Some Native Indian might consider this a Spiritual gift to come live at our house..or maybe a plague? Regardless, it seems like it must live there, so I tolerate it for trying so hard. 13

14 Trumpet Vine I always liked this plant as a child. Once started, they can climb to the highest pole. They are suppose to be deadly to Goats. Yet, max seems to love the leaves and the only side effect I have seen so far is diarrhea. You can t make him stay away from the plants, so I figure he must know best or he will just kill himself and most animals don t desire to die when given a choice. 14

15 Golden Rod Golden Rod takes over entire fields, it is everywhere this time of year. A famous kidney herb and I use it in the Kidney Herbal Formula. I was also happy to buy 17 gallons of fresh Golden Rod Honey, which is very dark and a different taste that should be good for the Kidneys. 15

16 Peppermint This makes a wonderful summer cold tea and grows very easy and very hardy. A great stomach herb and as well a cure all type herb often used as an essential oil. The Amish healer says he has saved many a child s life that could not barely breathe by using essential oil of Peppermint. 16

17 Burdock Shown earlier, this is a very famous old herb used for many medical purposes. The adult plants can grow as high as 7+ feet and have hundreds of these cockle burrs that stick to anything that gets near the plants. 17

18 Concord Grapes Yum Yum, I have 2 mature plants near the house and I must pass under them on the way to the hot tub. I often can eat from these for 2 months each fall. To me, grapes are the easiest fruit to grow that is not natural in my area, other than their cousin the wild grapes that raccoons absolutely love. 18

19 Virginia Snake Root The rarest and most expensive herb I use. I have spent hundreds $$$ attempting to raise them in the woods and in containers. They grow slow, stay very small and takes hundreds of them to make a pound. I know of 2 sources that sell only the live plants. The plants can sell as high as $9 each wholesale and their roots are very small as well. I have not had any source for the dry roots for sale. Many years ago this plant sold for more than wild ginseng and I suggest it is the most valuable herb in America. It probably grows wild in my area, but the plants are so small, they are nearly impossible to find. 19

20 ] Rose Hips A beautiful pink flower in the Spring and a wonderful berry in the Fall that is known for its high Vitamin C content. The vines are covered in razor sharp briars that cut you up. I worked hard to harvest these berries! 20

21 After an hour and dozens of scratches and covered in poison Ivy plants, I was able to collect ½ gallon. That was enough for this year. I was sweating hard by the time I picked this many. 21

22 Barn I got a new boat dock. We cleaned and decorated the place for a school party. The following are some of the School FALL FESTABLE pictures. 22

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