Dandelion Flower Wine:  the following recipe was taken from Susun Weed’s Healing Wise

      Materials:

• 2 gallon crock

• cheesecloth

• clean bottles and corks.

     Ingredients:

• 3-5 quarts freshly picked dandelion blossoms. When picking the flowers, leave the green sepals on, but remove the stalks.

• 5 quarts water

• 3 pounds sugar

• 1 organic orange

• 1 organic lemon

• 1 package of live yeast

• 1 slice whole wheat bread, toasted

Instructions:   Place the blossoms into a large ceramic or glass vessel (a large kitchen canisters or     several 1/2 gal. sized mason jars work well). Boil water and pour the hot water over the flowers.  Cover your crock with cheesecloth and let sit for 3 days.  Stir it once a day with a wooden spoon.  On the fourth day, strain the blossoms, reserving the liquid.  Bring the liquid to a boil and add the sugar and the rind of the lemon & orange.  Turn heat down and let simmer for 30-60 minutes.  When the liquid has cooled to 80 degrees, pour it back into the crock.  Soften the yeast and spread it on the toast. Then float the toast on top of the crock (you may have to cut the toast in a smaller piece to fit it into a mason jar).  Cover again with the cheesecloth and let sit for 2 days.  Strain again, reserving liquid and return the liquid to the crock to settle for one more day.  Then filter into very clean bottles and cork lightly.  Store the bottles in the refrigerator and let them sit for at least six months before drinking.  Here is another resource with several variations of dandelion wine: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelion.asp

Chickweed & Garlic Mustard Pesto

1 cup fresh chickweed

1 cup garlic mustard leaves

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup olive oil

3 oz grated parmasean (optional)

3 oz pine nuts or walnuts (optional)

If using nuts, add those to the food processor first and pulse until they become fine crumbles.  Then add the rest and blend until smooth.  Add salt to taste and blend some more.

Violet Flower Syrup: (from Euell Gibbons Stalking the Healthful Weeds)

Fill any size glass mason jar to the top with violet blossoms.  Cover with boiling water and lightly screw on the top.  The next day, open the jar, strain out the flowers, reserving the liquid, and pour the liquid into a pot.  For each cup of violet-water, add the juice of 1/2 a lemon and 2 cups of sugar.  Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Pour into sterilized bottles or jar and seal.  You can make a violet jelly in a similar fashion by adding 1 package of powdered pectin for every 2 cups of violet infusion.  Process as you would any other jelly.

Other sources for herbal recipes

• Dandelion fritters: http://www.learningherbs.com/dandelion_recipes.html

• Garlic Mustard Roulade: http://the3foragers.blogspot.com/2012/04/garlic-mustard-recipe-garlic-mustard.html
• Lamb’s quarter recipes: http://laist.com/2012/02/14/seasonal_eats_1.php

To round out this month’s newsletter on the kidney system, I have to include a piece on bone broths, because they are such a great restorative tonic for the whole body.  Properly prepared broths are rich in minerals, marrow, and electrolytes in a form that is easy for the body to assimilate.  This is why they are traditionally used for convalescence to build up weak and depleted bodies.  Bone broth specifically targets the kidney system through its salty and mineral-dense nutrition: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons–stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.  It is literally food for our bones.

Here is a recipe for chicken broth, taken from Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions:

Chicken Stock

1 whole free-range chicken or 2 to 3 pounds of bony chicken parts, such as necks, backs, breastbones and wings*
gizzards from one chicken (optional)
2-4 chicken feet (optional)
4 quarts cold filtered water
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
1 bunch parsley

*Note: Free-range chickens give the best results. Many battery-raised chickens will not produce stock that gels.

** Personally, I like to roast the chicken first, pick off most of the meat, and use what is left over for the stock.  Roasting the bones beforehand creates a better flavor.

If you are using a whole chicken, cut off the wings and remove the neck, fat glands and the gizzards from the cavity. Cut chicken parts into several pieces. (If you are using a whole chicken, remove the neck and wings and cut them into several pieces.) Place chicken or chicken pieces in a large stainless steel pot with water, vinegar and all vegetables except parsley. Let stand 30 minutes to 1 hour. Bring to a boil, and remove scum that rises to the top. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 6 to 8 hours. The longer you cook the stock, the richer and more flavorful it will be. About 10 minutes before finishing the stock, add parsley. This will impart additional mineral ions to the broth.

Remove whole chicken or pieces with a slotted spoon. If you are using a whole chicken, let cool and remove chicken meat from the carcass. Reserve for other uses, such as chicken salads, enchiladas, sandwiches or curries. Strain the stock into a large bowl and reserve in your refrigerator until the fat rises to the top and congeals. Skim off this fat and reserve the stock in covered containers in your refrigerator or freezer.

If you want to boost the kidney nourishing power of this stock (it already nourishes the kidneys through the mineral salts and gelatin), you can add a handful of dried nettle leaf, 8-12 dried shiitake mushrooms.  I like to freeze my extra stock in ice-cube trays so that I can thaw a few at a time for an instant nutrient-dense snack when I am feeling low.

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I’ve been spending hours this morning going through native plant catalogs and drooling over the shady greens and blues of ferns and spring ephemerals.  Forests epitomize abundance, resilience and vitality–the matra here at Meadowsweet Botanicals.  They possess a therapeutic quality unlike that of any other environment that I know and I desperately want to reinstate a forest habitat on my property.  My vision is that of a small arboretum containing specimens of at-risk medicinal plants. It will begin as a 20′ x 30′ area with mature maples providing hte canopy.  Beneath the canopy layers are a few dogwoods and redbuds.  I hope to fill in the other layers with spikenard, ginseng, goldenseal, bloodroot, wild geranium, black cohosh, blue cohosh, solomon’s seal and loads of ferns and bulbs. You may have a hard time picturing it as I do, unless you are familiar with these plants and with my property, but I can assure you that it will be a magical place and provide an important environment from which to teach.  With this forest garden, I could demonstrate the permaculture concept of forest gardening and I would grow dozens of at-risk medicinal plants and teach others how to grow, care for, harvest and use these valuable traditional medicines.  We cannot afford to loose these plants due to over-harvesting and habitat-destruction. We cannot afford to forget their value as medicine for humans and for the forest itself!  I encourage anyone who reads this to do two things: 1.  Go to the United Plant Savers website (www.unitedplantsavers.org) to read about some of the at-risk plants that I have been alluding to, and 2. Treat yourself this spring with a trip to the Carrier Arboretum at James Madison University.  It is incredible in April-early May.  

One final word of encouragement: if you do have an interest in learning about and preserving these plants, consider signing up for my workshop series this year.  I plan to spend 100% of the money generated from these workshops to complete this vision of forest-sanctuary, so you can feel good knowing that you are supporting habitat restoration and species conservation.  AND you’ll learn a ton about herbal medicine, gardening and nutrition!  More information is on the Workshops tab under Seasonal Living Series.

Alfalfa, Medicago sativa, is a wonderful, safe, and I think tasty, digestive & nutritive tonic.  Here is a description of the virtues of alfalfa taken from a Materia Medica I wrote for school…  

Description & Cultivation: Alfalfa’s roots grow 68 feet deep or more. These roots break up heavy clay & bring up valuable nutrients from the subsoil.  A member of the legume family, it also fixes nitrogen, making it a fertility booster for the land. Mixed with clover it creates a soil-replenishing ground cover.
 
Constituents: isoflavones, coumarins (isoflavones & coumarins are estrogenic), alkaloids, proteins, sugars, chlorophyll and porphyrins, minerals (calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, silicon), betacarotene, vitamins B, C, E, K and P (rutin); mucilage (coats & moistens; penetrates tissues to bring out toxins), mineral salts (allow water to penetrate tissues and break up hard swelling)
  
Properties: anti-anaemic, anti-haemorrhagic, diuretic, tonic, alterative (helps with metabolism & elimination), anti-cholesterol, highly alkalinizing (alkalization sedates muscles & nerves & removes acids from the digestive tract), laxative, anti-inflammatory, anti-atherosclerotic
 
Indications  For busy, on-the-go, impatient people with irritable nervous systems, poor protein digestion, poor appetite, bad breath, tooth decay (over-acidic environment), peptic ulcers, sluggish bowels, colitis, constipation (anything indicating a weakened digestion)
 
Nutritional: Excellent for anemia & convalescence (to buffer the blood from nitrogenic acids caused by tissue break-down)
Digestive System: Can stimulate or sedate stomach secretions; stimulates appetite; benefits peptic ulcers, bloating, distention, flatulence, diverticulosis, sluggish bowels, colitis, constipation.
Musculo-skeletal: Arthritis & rheumatism, back pain, fibromyalgia (these conditions are often the result of digestive inflammation/overly-acidic environment)
Skin: itchy, irritated, boils, skin ulcers
Nervous system: for busy, nervous, irritable people; insomnia.
Respiratory system: hay fever, allergies, infections in the upper R.T. (lungs and digestion are linked), nutritive tonic for people getting over pertussis and TB
Cardiovascular System: encourages blood clotting, lowers blood cholesterol, helps with heart disease, hypertension, & excess fluid retention.
Reproductive System   Pregnancy—A safe and appropriate tea for pregnancy, along with raspberry leaves to increase the available amount of vitamin K and hemoglobin (hemorrhage prevention); Lactation—“to encourage a plentiful supply of breast milk and a relaxed and healthy mother.” Will also prevent mineral loss during  nursing. 

Preparations: To get the most nutritional value out of your alfalfa infusion, let it steep for 4-8 hours before straining.  Sprouting the seeds also opens the doors to added nutrition.

Cautions: Never eat the unsprouted seeds; they contain a toxic amino acid. Consumption of alfalfa has been known to trigger attacks in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).  May cause bloating, gas & diarrhea when it begins to work (mild healing crisis).

*This information is for educational purposes

Sheet Mulching vs. Tilling

To the left is an area that I sheet-mulched and hand-seeded in the fall with meadow-dwelling medicinals.  To the right is the area that I tilled first before seeding in the spring.  I did this because I ran out of cardboard, compost, and energy in the fall before I could finish sheet-mulching the 3,000 sq. ft. meadow garden, and rather than wait for autumn to come around again to finish this section, I became impatient and used a tiller.  Lesson learned!  Tilling the soil just brought all of the weed seeds to the surface and invited them to germinate.  I still have a lot of wanted plants that are growing strong, but now I have to hand-weed all of the crab grass and pigsweed–not a fun job in the heat of the summer. 

For those of you who are not familiar with sheet-mulching, it is a method of garden-preparation that involves layering sheets of cardboard or newspaper with compost and other compostable materials to build topsoil while suppressing weeds and minimizing soil disturbance.  For more information on no-till gardening & sheet-mulching, you can visit the following sites: http://agroforestry.net/pubs/Sheet_Mulching.html and http://notillgardening.com/

St. John's Wort, Motherwort, Calendula and Wood Betony Flower essences soaking up the sun.

The sun is shining so intesely today, it’s too hot to spend much time outside, but I did manage to pick a few flowers to infuse in water and take advantage of the sun’s rays.  Calendula helps to balance the feminine aspect of receptivity within the masculine aspect of dynamic activity. St. John’s Wort engenders a feeling of being protected from negative influences and dispels fears by giving a feeling of being strong and full of light.  Wood betony engenders a sense of physical and emotional wellbeing. Motherwort opens the heart to joy and helps the body to relax enough to savor the feeling. I wish I had more empty jars! I would have made so many more flower essences.  It’s not something that I do often, but today was just the perfect day for it!

We just received our plaque from United Plant Savers:

Isn’t it beautiful?  Among the at-risk species we have growing here, you will find bloodroot, goldenseal, black cohosh, blue cohosh, wild yam, and echinacea.

So many plants are flourishing ready to harvest right now!  The elder has almost finished flowering, the blueberries are turning blue, the nettle seeds are ripening, and the mint family plants are doing what they do so well–taking over.  Today I harvested lemon balm, blueberries, beets, and nettle seeds.  Over the weekend I hope to harvest and dry motherwort and catnip.

Dandelion Flowers Infusing in Olive Oil.  These petals will turn the oil bright yellow in a few weeks and will transform extra virgin olive oil into an extra-ordinary massage oil that is great for relieving muscular tension in the neck and shoulders. 

It’s easy to make your own.  Just pick a quart-full of fresh blossoms (make sure to do this at least 36 hours after a rain and after the dew has dried).  Separate the yellow “petals” from the sepals (actually each petal is a tiny flower of its own) and fill your jar with these tiny delicacies.  Pour olive oil over the flowers and stir with a chopstick to remove air bubbles.  Once the air bubbles have all risen to the surface, top off the jar with olive oil and screw on the lid.  Let sit for 4-6 weeks before straining.  Susun Weed has a more in-depth explanation on how to make an herbal oil here: http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/February05/healingwise.htm 

I’ll also be selling dandelion flower oil at the Morgan’s Grove Market starting in June, so you can pick some up from my booth if you don’t want to make it yourself. 

http://www.morgansgrovemarket.com

We are in the process of building and creating our home on the web. Please be patient with us while we make our offerings available to you. In the meantime, please feel free to contact Meadowsweet Botanicals via email: info @ meadowsweetbotanicals.com or by phone:

We look forward to working with to make your meadows sweet.