Homegrown Medicine
(Page 2 of 6)
June/July 2008
By Harvey Ussery
Medicinal herbs as foods. As already stated, many of the plants we’ve come to rely on for food also offer medicinal actions. In some cases, the medicinal part is different from the food part — for example, it is often the root bark of blackberry which is used medicinally. But in many cases, it is the edible part of the plant itself which is a kind of “superfood,” toning and balancing the body while adding “punctuation” to our meals, such as cayenne (a general, circulatory and digestive system tonic), fennel, ginger and peppermint. We should incorporate such herbs more frequently into our diets, and explore their use in a more directed way when there is a special need. We might make an infusion of fennel, for example, to treat colic, or to stimulate digestion or appetite.
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Herbs can be used to make other foods with medicinal effects. In previous eras, a wide range of medicinal herbs — yarrow, ginger, wintergreen, licorice, St. John’s wort, elder flowers and berries — were used to flavor and preserve beers and ales. Mead, a fermented beverage made from honey, has medicinal effects in its own right, but can also be made with herbs such as heather that boost its medicinal properties. Vinegars and vegetable oils can be infused with herbs such as rosemary, garlic and cayenne, and used on salads and other dishes to promote health.
Boosting insect diversity. Wise homesteaders know that the solution to damaging insects is not a program for killing insects, but encouraging even more insect diversity, especially by cultivating plants that flower throughout the growing season. Many common medicinal herbs — such as calendula, chamomile, echinacea, fennel, peppermint and yarrow — are flowering plants, and offer the valuable “fringe benefit” of providing food and shelter for beneficials as well. Plantings of flowering herbs are more effective at encouraging our insect buddies if incorporated among the crops to be protected, rather than planted in their own little fiefdoms.
Herbs as fertility plants. Smart homesteaders also know it is possible to grow more of our own soil fertility. Isn’t it fortunate that some of the best fertility plants have medicinal properties as well? Comfrey (used for healing wounds and broken bones) and nettle are high in protein (nitrogen), and can be used as nutritive mulches or to “spark” a compost heap. Dandelion and yellow dock are deep-rooted dynamic accumulators which “mine” minerals from the subsoil and make them available to more shallow-rooted crops.
Herbs as fodder crops. Many medicinal plants do double duty to provide fresh green (or dried) fodder for our livestock. I find that dandelion and yellow dock stay green deeper into winter’s chill than any other forage plant — I dig them up and feed them to my winter poultry flock by the bucketful. Oats make an excellent nerve tonic, and can be used to feed livestock as well, either cut and fed green, or self-harvested by the animals. My geese love comfrey.
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