Dreaming A Beautiful World

Some Hopsitals Have 40% Lower Death Rates Than Others

2012-02-24T16:09:00.001-08:00

A recent study showed that a patient admitted to one of the nations top rated hospital emergency rooms has a 40% lower death rate than those admitted to the lower rated hospitals. The study used a survey in the years 2008-2010 of medicare patients and was undertaken by HealthGrades, a Denver, Colorado–based provider of information about physicians and hospitals.

263 of the nation's 4783 short-term acute care hospitals were chosen among the top 5% in providing emergency care. These facilities received Excellence Awards from HealthGrades based on the number of in-hospital deaths among patients admitted through the emergency room. A full listing of these hospitals, by city, can be found online at HealthGrades.com.

I was sad to see that in my state of Oregon, the only hospital rated as excellent was the Rouge Valley Medical Center. However, I was not surprised due to the horrible stories I have heard from many patients regarding their hospital care at various Oregon hospitals.

HealthGrades said, "If all hospitals performed at the level of the hospitals rated as "Excellence hospitals" from 2008 through 2010, an additional 170,856 people could have potentially survived their emergency hospitalization."

More than 123.8 million people in the United States will make an emergency room visit, and 13% will end up being admitted to the hospital, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The HealthGrades report included only those patients admitted to the hospital from the ED for further medical treatment, representing the full continuum of a patient's care.

The top 10 cities with the lowest risk-adjusted mortality for patients admitted through the emergency room are Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Phoenix–Prescott; Cincinnati; West Palm Beach, Florida; Baltimore; Traverse City, Michigan; Dayton, Ohio; Cleveland; Fargo, North Dakota; and Detroit.

To be included in the HealthGrades analysis, hospitals must have met minimum thresholds in terms of patient volume, quality ratings, and the range of services provided. The hospital ratings are independently created; no hospital can opt in or opt out of being rated, and no hospital pays to be rated. Details about the survey's methodology can be found at HealthGrades.com.

Poems of Connection & Beauty

2012-02-23T13:26:00.001-08:00

We Are All One

We are alone, but not lonely

When we are alone

We are all-one

Within the one all exists

It is in those moments when we are alone

When we delve deep inside of our being

That all becomes evident

All that exists becomes visible

We become all that exists

We become Every-One

AND FOR NO REASON
by Hafiz

And
For no reason
I start skipping like a child.

And
For no reason
I turn into a leaf
That is carried so high
I kiss the Sun’s mouth
And dissolve.

And
For no reason
A thousand birds
Choose my head for a conference table,
Start passing their
Cups of wine
And their wild songbooks all around.

And
for every reason in existence
I begin to eternally
To eternally laugh and love !

When I turn into a leaf
And start dancing,
I run to kiss our beautiful Friend
And I dissolve in the truth
That I Am.

This SKY

This

Sky

Where we live is no place to lose your wings

So love , love,

Love.

Please pass these poems on and write your own poems of connection and beauty.

Paleo Diet Conference Free Online

2012-02-21T16:03:00.000-08:00

Some of my readers have mentioned an interest in the Paleo Diet. A physician I know just sent me an email about a free online Paleo Diet conference she is speaking at. It looked like something some of you would like to know about. You can sign up for the conference HERE.

24 researchers, doctors, and diet experts will teach you about the paleo diet and why they believe it is the answer to our modern health problems.

The paleolithic diet, also called the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a modern diet based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various hominid species consumed during the Paleolithic age of about 2.5 million years duration that ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture. The "contemporary" Paleolithic diet consists mainly of fish, grass-fed pasture raised meats, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts. It excludes grains,legumes, dairy products, salt, refine sugar and processed oils.

^{If you are interested in ancestral diets, I would also suggest you read the book "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price, DDS. This is an amazing and eye opening book that explains how our modern diet has caused most of our chronic disease. The writer, includes photos of people from around the world and shares his extensive notes as he traveled the world looking at the changes that came over people after they started eating processed foods.}

Help Protect The Honey Bees - Act Now

2012-02-19T08:37:00.000-08:00

We have the chance to get one of the neonicotinoid pesticides banned but we must act quickly. It will just take a few moment of your time.

Clothianidin, is produced by the German corporation Bayer CropScience. It is used as a treatment on crop seeds, including corn and canola, and works by expressing itself in the plants' pollen and nectar. These are some of honey bees' favorite sources of food. No major independent study has verified the safety of this pesticide. However independent studies have shown that neonicotinoid pesticides like clothianidin are highly toxic to honey bees, providing compelling evidence that they should be immediately taken off the market until the E.P.A. can conduct a full and valid scientific review.

Clothianidin was approved by the EPA in 2010 - but now the EPA is reviewing this approval. The deadline to submit a comment is Tuesday and we need to urge federal administrators to cancel the approval of this dangerous chemical.

You can use this link to voice your opinion to the EPA. Every voice helps. Just click the "Submit a comment" box in the upper right hand corner to write to them. If you think they may want additional information from you to support what you tell them, include an email, address or phone.

Here is an example of what I wrote to them.

No major independent study has verified the safety of Clothianidin. However independent studies have shown that neonicotinoid pesticides like clothianidin are highly toxic to honey bees, providing compelling evidence that they should be immediately taken off the market until the E.P.A. can conduct a full and valid scientific review. Our honey bee population is dwindling and without them we will loose many of our major food crops. Please take Clothianidin off the market. You can find some of this research at these links below. I can supply additional information if you like. Sharol Tilgner - sharoltilgner@yahoo.com

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029268

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603

More information on the honey bees at these links:

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Honey Bee Pesticide Exposure - New ...

Jan 19, 2012

Abstract: Populations of honey bees and other pollinators have declined worldwide in recent years. A variety of stressors have been implicated as potential causes, including agricultural pesticides. Neonicotinoid insecticides ...

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Dan Rather Honey Bee Report

Sep 23, 2011

This fantastic Dan Rather report on the honey bees and the damage done to the honey bees by neonicotinoid pesticides can be seen by clicking below on vimeo.com. As we suspected all along current research is continuing ...

New United Nations Report on Honey Bees - Dreaming A Beautiful ...

Mar 14, 2011

New United Nations Report on Honey Bees. The United Nations just put out a news release on the world-wide decline of our honey bees. On March 10, 2011 the United Nations wrote “The way humanity manages or ...

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Save The Honey Bees

Mar 02, 2011

Bee Keepers try to keep up with the loss. Each year they loose 30-40% of their hives. This can't keep up. Some of them are going out of business. Who will pollinate our food if not for the honey bees. Although there are other ...

Dreaming A Beautiful World: A Cause of the Honey Bee Deaths

Nov 15, 2010

My bees died this spring. They had been healthy and happy 5 days prior when I had put an essential oil in their hive to kill off mites. Something I do every spring and not something that would harm them. However, 5 days later ...

Echinacea the Wonder Herb

2012-02-16T14:36:00.000-08:00

Echinacea purpurea

You have learned how to collect Echinacea roots as well as how to process them into tincture. I thought you might also like some information on how it is used.

Common Name: Echinacea

Latin Name: Echinacea spp. (purpurea, angustifolia and pallida are the most common species used by herbalists and N.D.'s)

Echinacea - Latin definition
The below definition comes from Stearn’s Botanical Latin-4th ed.
“Echinatus (adj., armed with numerous small rigid hairs or straight prickles or spines or spiny projections, from echinus, ‘hedgehog, sea-urchin’ hence ‘prickly husk of sweet chestnut’, echinulatus, with very small prickles, echinulate.”

Family: Asteraceae

Species

Echinacea angustifolia and purpurea are the most commonly used species with Echinacea pallida probably third most used. Echinacea purpurea is used the most which largely has to do with it being easier to grow in many areas than angustifolia. I personally find pallida to be lacking in activity. It also tastes quite different. The root of pallida has an unusual flowery taste quite unlike other roots. It does not work for me as well as the other two. I prefer angustifolia for long term storage of dry root. It stores better than purpurea. If making a tincture out of them, they are both fine. I tend to use purpurea fresh more than angustifolia as it grows best where I live and is quite active clinically. It stores fine for about 6 months, just looses quality quicker than the angustifolia after that. There are other spp. which you can also use medicinally such as E.tennesseensis.

If using Echinacea angustifolia only organic should be used to protect the wild Echinacea angustifolia from being wildcrafted out of existence.

Echinacea purpurea

Historic Use

Echinacea angustifolia - narrow leaved cone flower, was used by many of the native Americans in the Great Plains area of central United States. Locally, they used the plant topically as a poultice for venomous bites such as snake bites and over enlarged glands. It was also used topically for toothaches. They used it for a variety of septic infections.

They usually chewed the root and applied it as a poultice or made a tea to take internally.

It was introduced to physicians by Dr H.C.F. Meyer and Dr. John King in 1887 as an alterative and antiseptic. The tincture was used both internally and externally in cases of boils, ulcers of the throat and extremities, as well as for wasp/bee stings. Meyer claimed people recovered from rattlesnake bites within 2-12 hours by using the tincture both externally as a wash and ingesting it. In 1906 it started being used by homeopathics and main stream physicians. It was used for infected wounds, septicemia and bites and stings of various poisonous critters. In 1921, & 1922 Echinacea ranked first out of 239 plant remedies sold by the Lloyd Brothers. In a study done a few years ago, it was the 4th largest seller on the U.S. herbal market.

The eclectic physicians used Echinacea to help prevent infection and aid in healing after injuries and surgeries. It was also used in septic conditions (externally as well as internally) such as gangrene, lymphangitis, boils, carbuncles, feverish conditions, and abscesses. In the early 20th century it was used externally over lymph nodes much more than it is now.

Parts used

Echinacea purpurea root

Root mostly, seeds and flowers also. Juice of the above ground E. purpurea has been used but most herbalists I know don't find it to be very useful. I have used the juice internally and do not find it to be as useful as the root tincture. It may be due to the fact that it has been a preserved juice. I thought perhaps fresh juice would work better. However, I have found the external fresh leafy parts to cause nausea in some people and simply not be very useful internally. The leaves are helpful as a spit poultice for things like wasp stings.

Echinacea purpurea - root, seed and flowers - As far as I am concerned the best part to tincture is the root - extracts easier than seed, stronger than flower. All can be used though.

Taste/smell

Root is slightly sweet, pungent, aromatic, tingles the tongue and causes a slight numbing sensation with most species. (pallida root tastes like a flower) The seed and flower will both tingle the tongue also. The seed tastes a bit cardboard like also. The flower is very prickly. They will all increase salivation when chewed.

The tingling sensation is is due to the alkylamides (alkamides). If you don't notice tingling from eating a root or tasting a tincture, you may not have a real Echinacea root or tincture. If you have a tincture that is not causing tingling on your tongue, I would question what is really in that tincture. You will find polysaccharides in the glycerite and the teas, but since they do not extract alkamides very well, you will not get much tingling from a tea or glycreite. That is normal for them.

Constituents

Echinacea purpurea spent seed head

Echinacea angustifolia roots: polysaccharides (Inulin and fructose); phenylpropenoids (echinacoside, chicoric acid, cynarine and caffaric acid); alkylamides ( complex of isobutylamide, the numbing taste); alkaloid (tussilagine 0.006%) and oils (0.1%, palmitic and linolenic acids).

E. pallida roots : phenylpropenoids (echinacoside and chlorogenic acid); alkylamides (trace amounts); polyacetylenes; oils (0.2 - 2.0% ketoalkenynes).

E. purpurea root: polypropenoids (cichoric acid 0.6 - 2.1%); alkamides (complex of isobutylamides); alkaloid (tussilagine and isotussilagine); polysaccharide (fructose based) and oils (0.03 - 0.2%, caryphyllene, humulene, palmitic, linolenic acids and germacrene D.

E. purpurea areal : polypropenoids (cichoric acid ); alkylamides. ( complex of isobutylamides); flavonoids (rutoside, quercitin, quercetin-7-glucoside and kaempferol-3-rutinoside and essential oils.

Extracting Mediums

It should be noted that the polysaccharides are not soluble in alcohol (Etoh), polypropenoid is soluble in medium strength Etoh and Alkylamides only in very strong Etoh. The constituents desired in the final product will help determine if the product should be a powder (capsule or tablet), tea, or tincture. If you make a tea you will get polysaccharides but not much as far as alkylamides. If you make a tincture you will get alkylamides but very little polysaccharides if the alcohol is over 40%.

Constituent Information and Activity

An isobutylamide (type of alkylamide) called echinacein causes the tingling sensation and has a mild anesthetic effect. Other isobutylamide constituents have also been identified in both purpurea and angustifolia and have been shown to be antiinflammatory. However, the isolated isobutylamides were individually less potent than the whole extract. (This is common for plants to be more potent when used whole rather than broken into individual constituents.) Alcohol extracts of angustifolia, pallida and purpurea all showed enhanced phagocytic activity in mice in vivo when given orally. The increase phagocytic activity correlated with the isobutylamides in angustifolia and purpurea and with polyacetylenes in pallida.

The caffeic acid derivative echinacoside comprises about 1% of the dry weight of angustiolfia root and has a weak activity against staphylococcal and streptococcal bacteria.

The most significant effect of caffeyol conjugate components is their hyaluronidse inhibiting activity. Echinacoside is a caffeoyl conjugate of Echinacea with known anti-hyaluronidase properties. It is found in Echiancea angustifolia and pallida root. Cichoric acid and caftaric acid had the greatest antihyaluronidase activity when tested in research. All parts of dried Echinacea purpurea showed cichoric acid as the major derivative and substantial amounts of caftaric acid.

Hyaluronidase is an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is like an intercellular glue in our bodies. Hyaluronidase which is found in venom of some snakes and spiders and is secreted by some bacteria can break down the intercellular glue and allow the venom or bacteria to move more freely through the tissues.

Echinacea’s purified polysaccharide, arabinogalactan, activates macrophages to cytotoxicity against tumor cells and microorganisms, as well as produces tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-1, interleukin-6, interferon-2 and slightly increases T-lymphocyte proliferation. It therefore enhances the immune system’s resistance to infections and stimulates wound healing. The root oil has inhibited leukemia cells in vitro and in vivo.

Echinacea purpurea

Teas contain polysaccharides (water soluble) which are thought to be immune-enhancing but it is not known if they are absorbed or digested. They may however effect the Peyer’s patches (gut lymph tissue). Alcohol precipitates polysaccharides making them less or unavailable.

Tendencies & Use

Echinacea has a cooling, drying, and stimulating effect on the body.

Dosage: Infusion: 1-2 teaspoon per cup of water; or 1:1.5 fresh + dry liquid extract: 10-120 drops 1-4 times per day. If using for an acute infection can use 120 drops as much as every 2 hours for first 24-48 hours.

Mental picture and specific indications: Echinacea is indicated for exhaustive states with chilliness, offensive discharges, lymphatic congestion with swollen glands, mental confusion, dull mind, dizziness, tendency to skin eruptions and low grade continuous fevers, as well as high grade fevers.

Use: (a) Antimicrobial, (b) Anti-inflammatory, (c) Antiviral, (d) Antibacterial, (e) Antifungal, (f) Slight stimulation of the adrenal cortex, (g) Stimulates leukocytes, (h) Inhibits hyaluronidase, (i) Sialagogue, (j) Enhances phagocytosis.

Note: Clinical information for E. angustifolia and E. purpurea species is basically interchangeable in most circumstances.

In vitro and in vivo studies show that E. purpurea stimulates the immune system in a non-specific way by activating macrophages, enhancing phagocytes and stimulating the secretion of TNF and interleukins 1 and 6.

Echinacea protects the gut from harmful micro-organisms due to its enhancement of phagocytosis. It also decreases inflammatory allergic reactions in mild food allergies and stimulates gastric healing. The constituent, echinacin, has been shown to be useful in treatment of tonsillitis in pediatric practices. Due to its specificity for infectious conditions, it is used for colds, influenza, wounds, infections, allergies, bacterial and viral disease, swollen glands and gum disease.

This plant can be used internally and externally at the same time for many therapies. Ear infections can be treated internally while using the tincture externally in the ear. The tincture works wonders externally when mixed with clay and used as a poultice on brown recluse spider bites while also being used internally in high doses.

Contraindications

Echinacea is not associated with acute or chronic toxicity. Although there have been reports that it is contraindicated in auto-immune diseases. Many practitioners have used it with patients who have auto-immune diseases without noticing side effects. Lupus is one auto-immune disease that practitioners have noticed can be exacerbated by use of Echinacea. Due to arabinogalactan’s ability to increase production of TNF-alpha, there is concern about AIDS patients taking echinacea. Many clinicians give whole plant liquid extracts that contain little or no arabinogalactan to AIDS patients without any problems.

Additionally, it has been thought by some herbalists that Echinacea should only be used short term because its effects stop after a period of 1-3 weeks. However there are many individuals who have used this herb long term with successful results. An 8-week double-blind study in 1989 showed Echinacea was useful in prevention of respiratory infections. Another study using oral Echinacea for 10 weeks showed prevention of recurrent bouts of vaginal candidiasis.

Echinacea purpurea

While it is infrequently done, when used parenterally, Echinacea can cause nausea, vomiting and fever reactions. This is usually dose-dependent. In persons with diabetes, hypersensitivity reactions have occurred; these include rash, itching, occasional swelling of the face, breathing difficulty, dizziness and a drop in blood pressure.

Be aware that the immune stimulating properties of Echinacea may interact with immunosuppression drugs like Cyclosporin or other anti-rejection drugs.

Hyaluronidase is one of three enzymes attached to the acrosomal membrane located on the head of the male spermatozoon. This enzyme clears a path for the sperm to fertilize the egg. Men taking large amount of echinacea might experience some infertility, though this has not been studied.

There has been some research with Echinacea purpurea and its effect on various medications. Caution should be used when Echinacea is co-administered with drugs dependent on CYP3A or CY1A2 for their elimination. However more research is needed.

Growing Echinacea purpurea

A perennial. Seeds will self sow or can be collected in the fall. Be sure to get them before the birds do. They birds love the seed and it will disappear if you don’t watch carefully. Stratification is usually helpful although not always necessary with purpurea. Stratification is necessary for angustifolia and pallida. They must both be stratified for 30 days. This can be done with a freezer bag, some slightly moist sandy soil and seeds. The seeds and soil are placed in the bag and the bag is put in the freezer for 30 days to simulate winter time. Take them out and they can now be planted into trays or directly into the garden.
Flower and seed available 2nd year (few 1st year), root available 3rd year or 2nd if good soil. Grows to 2’ first year, 4’ second year. Yields about 1200# per acre

Negative Research from a few years ago

Not good research. Lack of verification of correct plant material was a problem in one article I read. You should never conduct research with a plant without verifying its identity first. Lack of use of correct part of the plant - used leaf juice in research. I find the leaf juice to have been fairly useless internally personally as do many of my colleagues. There was also the problem of not giving a high enough dose of the herb. There is a tremendous amount of research that has been amassed over the years to support Echinaceas efficacy. I am ignoring this poorly devised research.

It seems I have not taken any photos of the Echinacea angustifolia or pallida. I still have the angustifolia in my garden and will try to remember to take a photo of it for you this summer.

Past Blogs about Echinacea
How to make tincture
Digging up Echinacea
Using Echinacea Long Term

Gentically Modified Food Bills in Congress

2012-02-13T12:48:00.000-08:00

Dennis Kucinich has introduced three bills regardinggenetically engineered food . They all have sponsors and they are listed below. I have listedthe sponsors as links as well as the committees currently discussing the billsso you can contact these folks to let them know how you feel about each bill.At the bottom of the page I have listed a link that allow you to easily see whoyour representative is and contact them about these bills. Let yourrepresentative know you want them to be a co-sponsor of this bill. Everypersons input counts.

1) H.R. 3553: Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act

To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, theFederal Meat Inspection Act, and the Poultry Products Inspection Act to requirethat food that contains a genetically engineered material, or that is producedwith a genetically engineered material, be labeled accordingly.

Cosponsors:

Rep. Peter DeFazio [D, OR-4]
Added January 18, 2012Rep. Raul Grijalva [D, AZ-7]
Added December 02, 2011Rep. Fortney Stark [D, CA-13]

This act has currently been referred to the following committees:
House Agriculture
House Energy and Commerce

3) H.R. 3555: Genetically Engineered Technology FarmerProtection Act

To provide additional protections for farmers and ranchersthat may be harmed economically by genetically engineered seeds, plants, oranimals, to ensure fairness for farmers and ranchers in their dealings withbiotech companies that sell genetically engineered seeds, plants, or animals,to assign liability for injury caused by genetically engineered organisms, andfor other purposes.

Organic Labeling of Food

2012-02-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

During a recent discussion of friends, I realized most people still don't know what the organic labeling on packaged human and animal food means. Folks are still being deceived by intentionally deceptive advertising on products but the biggest problem is that they need to know what the organic labels mean. It seems folks are buying partial organic products when they think it is all organic. This happens a lot with both human and animal food. I thought it would be good to review it here.

There are 3 basic categories indicating levels of organic certification

• 100% Organic

• Organic

• Made with Organic(specified ingredients or food groups)

What each of the categories stipulate

100% organic - means exactly that

Organic - indicates that 95% or more of the ingredients are organic. Read the label to find out what is not organic in the product.

Made with Organic - indicates there are some organic ingredients in the product and by law it must be no less than 70%. Read the label to see what is and is not organic.

Products certified 95 percent or more organic can displaythe USDA sticker.

Wine

Generally organic foods can not contain sulfites. However awine may say “made with organic grapes”, and still contain sulfites, although it must contain less than 100 ppm of combined natural and added sulfites. So readthe labeling carefully. If it says 100% organic, it can only contain naturallyoccurring sulfites and must be 10ppm or less. Conventional wines areallowed to contain up to 350 ppm sulfites.

Some non-organic ingredients are allowed in organic products

Now there are certain times when an organic ingredient may be substituted for an organic one as the organic one is not available on the market. There is also a long list of ingredients that are not organic but allowed to be in an organic product as you simply can't get them organic. I am going to give you this link to go to so you can see the official list. This is on a long page of other organic rulings. Look for Number § 205.605 Nonagricultural (nonorganic) substances allowed as ingredients in or on processed products labeled as “organic” or “made with organic (specified ingredients or food group(s)).” This is close to the bottom of the page and easy to find with the number 205.605.

Amending the National List

Anyone can make a request to amend the organic substance list. Here is how you do it.

(a) Any person may petition the National Organic StandardBoard for the purpose of having a substance evaluated by the Board forrecommendation to the Secretary for inclusion on or deletion from the NationalList in accordance with the Act.

(b) A person petitioning for amendment of the NationalList should request a copy of the petition procedures from the USDA at theaddress: Program Manager, USDA/AMS/TMP/NOP, 1400 Independence Ave., SW., Room 4008-So., Ag Stop 0268, Washington, DC 20250.

The Term Natural

One last thing, needs to be mentioned just because it irks me. If any of you think the word "natural" means something wholesome or good, IT DOES NOT. This is just a deceptive way to make folks think their food is better than it really is. There is no legal definition for it. Since there is no legal definition for it, you could even sell synthetic items under this term as some might consider them to be natural also. I can bag up some goat turds from my barn and sell them as natural. It might be hard to get away with selling them as a food item, but they would be natural! So next time you see the word natural on a product just remember goat turds are natural too.

How to Get Really Good Food

1) Grow it yourself

2) Get it from a friend who grows - trade them something

3) Get it from a local grower that you know or that has good standing in the community

Local Growers Can Be Found

• at their own farms where some sell direct to the public

• farmers markets

• some stores sell local, organic produce - shop at them

Some past garden blogs

How to Recognize organic biodiverse farms

Seeds & Getting Ready to Garden

How to Grow Carrots

How to Grow Onions

How to Grow Tomatoes

How to Make Fresh Echinacea Purpurea Tincture

2012-02-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

During our Becoming An Herbalist class of 2/5/12 we made a fresh Echinacea purpurea tincture. We decided we would use a total of 4# of herb in our tincture. The strength would be 1:1 and we would use 50% alcohol.

We now needed to collect our root, and calculate how much alcohol and water to mix with the root as both a method of extraction and preservation.

Collecting Root

Echinacea purpurea root

So we collect our Echinacea root and wash it off. We then blot it dry on a towel. We collect enough root to use in the tincture as well as for students to take some home with them.

How Much Water is Already in the Roots

Before we can do the calculations for how much alcohol and water will be needed, we must figure out how much water is already in the root of the plants we are harvesting. We do this by weighing out a small amount. In this case we weigh out 30 grams of root. We then use a toaster oven to dry the root. We put it in the over at about 200 degrees to dry it quickly. Once completely dry, we remove it and weigh it again. It is now 9 grams. 9/30 = 0.3 or 30%. This means we now have 30% dry root left after drying. Therefore we had 70% water in the root prior to drying. We will need to use this 70% water in our calculations.

How Much Root to Use This Time Through

We Know from past experience that only 1.75# - 2# of herb will mix into the alcohol and water, so we decide to use 1.75# this time to be safe. If we mix too much root into the liquid, there will not be adequate liquid to cover the root and it will oxidize. We will add more of the 4# of root when we press out the current 1.75# from the menstruum (alcohol and water with herb in it). We did not harvest the rest of the root this time as it will be at least a month before we add the rest of the root. We will harvest it later so it will be fresh when we add it.

Now we can go through the calculations.

We start with our known factors. We have 4# of root. We want to make the tincture a 1:1 fresh plant strength. (1 part plant to 1 part liquid (alcohol & water). We want to use 50% alcohol and 50% water. We have 70% water already in the root to account for.

Start by Using Metrics

We changed our pounds into grams. We did this by using 1# = 450 grams (we rounded up). We are using metric as it allows us to change our grams into mls. We are rounding up as it keeps us from making as many mistakes if we use an even number. Although there are a few reasons why this is not 100% accurate, it is how this is done and if done the same way each time creates consistency.

4# x 450grams = 1800 grams of root

Now we want to figure out how much liquid to add. We are using a 1:1 strength so it is easy to calculate. We use 1 part herb to 1 part liquid. So we multiply the 1800 grams of herb x 1ml and get 1800 mls of liquid. (If it was 1:2 we would get 3600 mls of liquid.)

So we will be mixing 4# of herb with 1800 ml of liquid. But wait, we still need to account for the water and calculate for how much of the liquid is water and how much is alcohol. Here is how we do that.

Calculate for Water in the Root

1800 ml liquid x .7 water = 1260 ml water in root

Need to Use the Water in the Root in Our Calculations

Now add the 1800 ml of liquid we are planning to add + the 1260 ml of liquid in the root (1800ml + 1260ml = 3060ml) We need to use this 3060 ml of total liquid including the root water to calculate for the alcohol and water we will add.

3060 ml x 50% alcohol = 1530 ml alcohol

3060 ml x 50% water = 1530 ml water

Subtracting Root Water in the Calculation Out of Amount to Add

Now we have to subtract the water in the root out of our calculated amount of water to add because it is already in the root.

1530 ml total water needed - 1260 ml in root = 270 ml water to add.

So we now know we will be adding 1530 ml alcohol and 270 ml water.

So we took 1.75# of Echinacea purpurea root and ground it up in a vita mix (type of a strong blender) with 270 ml of water and 1530 ml of alcohol.

It is now sitting in a dark place and is shook once each day for at least a month or longer.

Echinacea in process

In a month (or next fall depending on how soon spring comes) we will press out the root in the menstruum. The spent root (called the marc in herbal language) is now composted. The menstruum (liquid with herb extracted in it) will be put back into the vita mix with 2.25# of Echinacea root ( if it all fits and is still covered by liquid.) It will macerate for another month or longer and then be pressed out and ready to use.

The Folk Method
For those of you who say, this is just too much trouble. Is there an easier way? Yes, but you won't be able to control the strength or alcohol percent of your product. If you are okay with not knowing the strength or alcohol percent, you can use the folk method. It is fine to use for home use, but if you want to have consistency or sell on the open market you will want to use the calculation method.

Usually, with the folk method you would use 40-45% vodka or some such alcohol and mix it with the roots one time and press and filter to get your product. You can do this but if you want a stronger product and get close to a 1:1 strength as well as about 50% alcohol do the following.

Folk Method Intensified
For making Echinacea purpurea, simply mix your root with 190 proof alcohol with blender or VitaMix. Make sure there is about an inch or more of liquid over the top of the root. Let it sit and shake daily as stated above. Press out in one or more months and then mix the menstruum with more Echinacea. Once more making sure there is some liquid above the herb to keep it from oxidizing. Let it sit one or more months and press. Filter and it is ready to use. It will be close to a 1:1 strength and somewhere from about 40-60% alcohol strength.

Lawsuite Against Monsanto

2012-02-09T19:05:00.000-08:00

The case, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto, was filed in federal district court in Manhattan on March 29, 2011, on behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, challenging Monsanto’s patents on genetically modified seed. On June 1, 2011, they amplified the OSGATA v. Monsanto complaint by bringing on an additional 23 Plaintiffs to bring the total to 83. Their plaintiff group now represents over 300,000 members.

Jim Gerritsen, President of OSGATA said, "Today is Independence Day for America. Today we are seeking protection from the Court and putting Monsanto on notice. Monsanto’s threats and abuse of family farmers stops here. Monsanto’s genetic contamination of organic seed and organic crops ends now. Americans have the right to choice in the marketplace – to decide what kind of food they will feed their families – and we are taking this action on their behalf to protect that right to choose. Organic farmers have the right to raise our organic crops for our families and our customers on our farms without the threat of invasion by Monsanto’s genetic contamination and without harassment by a reckless polluter. Beginning today, America asserts her right to justice and pure food.”

You can read more about it here

You can help support them in their effort by going to seedalliance.org where you can purchase all your organic seed from these companies. Additionally you can join the OSGTA here. Joining them will make them stronger.

Other things you can do.

• Plant an organic garden if you don't already have one. It is thought that 80% of non-organic products sold in stores contain GM food. (Much of this is the prepared foods.) Most non-organic corn, soy, sugar from sugar beets, canola oil is GM. So, grow your own.

• Buy only organic seeds and ask your stores to carry organic seeds. Monsanto is trying to control the world wide seed market. By supporting organic seed growers at seedalliance.org we are stopping them from getting

• Support the California initiative to label GMO's. Learn more here.

• Support the Federal Labeling petition: This week, Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Peter DeFazio began circulating a letter asking their fellow legislators to join them in writing the FDA in support of the Just Label It petition. This "Dear Colleague" letter reads, in part:

"Opponents of providing consumers this basic right to information will argue that it would only confuse consumers, be costly, or imply that the products are unsafe. Yet, the FDA requires the labeling of over 3,000 ingredients, additives, and processes. Providing basic information doesn't confuse the public, it empowers them to make choices. Without labeling, consumers will continue to be deceived by current labeling practices. For example nearly 80% of processed foods on supermarket shelves contain GE ingredients, many marketed with labels such as 'all natural' or 'natural'."

Please write your Senators and Member of Congress, asking them to join Boxer and DeFazio here.

Some websites for GMO information
This site is a register of GMO environmental contamination around the world http://www.gmcontaminationregister.org/

Where you can find out what products are guaranteed non-GMO http://www.nongmoproject.org

For excellent general information on GMO's go to http://www.responsibletechnology.org/ as well as
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/Public/Home/index.cfm

To follow the court case against Monsanto http://www.osgata.org/http://www.osgata.org/

To stay up on GMO's and General Food issues: http://www.organicconsumers.org/

Herb Class Series February 5th, 2012

2012-02-07T15:34:00.000-08:00

This Sunday was our first class of 2012 and we spent the daydigging up roots and collecting some bark. I can’t go through all 7 hours of the day and the uses ofthe plants in detail, but here are some highlights as well as the photos thatPeggy was so kind to take for us. For more details on these plants go to http://www.herbaltransitions.com/MateriaMedica.html where there is a free materia medica on my website. You canget the updated materia medica in the latest printing of “Herbal Medicine Fromthe Heart of the Earth."

Digging Echinacea purpurea

The roots we dug up were Echinacea, Valerian, Elecampane andMarshmallow.

Echinacea purpurea root

We dug up quite a bit of Echinacea. Many folks took some ofthe root home for personal use or to grow in their garden. We started a freshEchinacea tincture. We learned that Echinacea purpurea grows best in our localWillamette Valley soil and wet winters, while Echinacea angustifolia does not dowell here. We also learned how to use clay and Echinacea poultices for brownrecluse spider bites and use Echinacea leaves as spit poultices for stings.Internally we learned to use the root and seed for wounds and all manner ofinfectious disease. (I will post the directions to make Echinacea tincture inthe next blog.)

Digging Elecampane

Additionally, we pressed out some Elecampane tincture thathad been started previously this winter and added additional fresh elecampaneroot to the menstruum. It is now macerating in a dark area along with theEchinacea where both of them get shook once each day for the next month beforewe will press it out again. We discussed the use of elecampane as a lung anddigestive tonic. It is good for all manner of lung complaints.

Washing Elecampane

Especially think of it with chronic infectious disease in debilitated individuals. It hasantibacterial properties, is an expectorant, diaphoretic, anti-inflammatory,and immunomodulating herb which all help assist in a variety of infectiousrespiratory tract conditions. Some of these same actions along with itsantiparasitic action, bitter tonic, and carminative activity make it helpful ina variety of digestive tract complaints. Definitely a handy herb to have aroundand such an easy herb to grow. It has so many different uses.

Elecampane root

Cari took home the marc (spent herb from tincture) from the elecampane tincture to make a teaout of it and put it in her bath. We look forward to hearing how her bathingexperience turns out.

Washing Valerian root

Valeriana officinalis

We dug up some fresh Valerian also and tasted it. Studentstook some home to preserve it or to put in their garden.We discussed the use of Valerian in anxiety, sleep disorders, angina, and hypertension as well as other situations.

Marshmallow root

Marshmallow

Marshmallow was cut up into strips to dry by the wood stovefor use during our next class. We will learn how to use this plant to make a tea,slurry and how to ingest the powder without putting it into a capsule.Additionally, if we have time and enough marshmallow, we may make the originalmarshmallow candies. If I have time, I may dig up some more to dry so we haveplenty. We learned that marshmallow is a wonderful vulnerary (promotes healingof wounds or irritated tissue). It is anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic. Itis beneficial for external use as well as internally in the digestive tract,respiratory tract and the urinary tract. Check out a past blog link on marshmallow flowers here.

We also tasted some Popular buds which were almost ready toharvest but not quite. Everyone learned that they contain resin and that resinis very sticky and will adhere to your teeth. Resins do not dissolve in waterand it is best to make a tincture out of them with 95% alcohol to preservethem. We discussed various uses for Popular buds and I explained that myfavorite use was as a stimulating expectorant in cough elixirs where besides acting as an expectorant it also adds anice flavor and is antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory.

The pussy willows had started to put out their furry littlecatkins and the Witch Hazel was attempting to bloom. Both had been slightlystifled by the cold, lingering frosty nights we have been experiencing. Wesampled some bark, and they taught us how to identify astringent (causescontraction of tissues) plants.

Echinacea purpurea in winter

I am including the skeletal remains of the plants we dug uphere So you can learn how to ID them. It is good to learn how to identify the plants bytheir winter skeletons so you can know where to dig up the roots.

Elecampane in winter

Close up of Echinacea purpurea in winter

Marshmallow in winter

Close up of Marshmallow in winter

Reminder: I asked you to consider the plants we learned abouton Sunday. Use them before the next class or read up on them, talk to them,write poems about them and bring back some words of wisdom, a haiku, a personalstory of your experience of the plant, fun historical data on the plant etc toshare with the others next class. It can be anything that moves you.

I am so excited about our next class as many things will be starting to poketheir heads out of the ground. Yesterday I saw the first crocus up here at ourfarm. There are so many more herbsto discuss and we have more things to make next time. No tinctures in March butif you have questions about those we made, let me know. We will probably finishthe elecampane tincture and there will be more tincture making in our futureclasses.

Regarding the photos, I did not get any releases from folksto put their smiling faces on the website, so I am not posting photos with faces inthem even if they are a great herb shot. I am unsure if you all want to beincognito or no one remembered that needed to be done to include photos withyou in them.

Thank you to Peggy, Susan, Pam and Glenna who stayed andhelped clean up that incredible mess we made!

Until next class, may you walk in beauty!

Reminder: Live Interview About Monsanto Farmer Lawsuit

2012-02-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association is prepared to take on Monsanto in a protracted legal battle. Unprecedented oral arguments were heard in court on January 31st, the first time family farmers have had the opportunity to explain the threat Monsanto represents. Over 300,000 farmers are represented in the lawsuit.

MedicineCrow founder David Crow will interview Jim Gerritsen, the President of lead plaintiff OSGATA. MedicineCrow is proud to host this major event live on February 8th, 2012.

This special event is free and open to the public.

How To Attend The Event

This event can be attended either online or from your phone. Upon registration, you will be sent a link to the event webcast page as well as a call in number.

Free Registration

MedicineCrow events are usually only available to its members. However, because you were invited to this event as a guest, you may attend this class free of charge by entering your name and email above.

When: Wednesday, February 8th, 2012, 6:00pm PST

To register for this free event at MedicineCrow go to this link:

http://www.medicinecrow.com/teachers-event-pages/516-organic-seed-growers-and-trade-association-vs-monsanto#a_aid=4d598ad780661&a_bid=5c67b3a0

Two Great Offers From MedicineCrow

If you wish to sign up for Medicine Crow's Grassroots Healthcare Network of videos, they are offering a trial subscription for $1 that you can access here: Medicine Crow's You will need to enter the code "wiseacres" to get this discounted price.

They are also offering 25% off their essential oils for new customers which can be accessed by this link: Floracopeia essential oils You will need to enter the code "wiseacres" to get this discounted price.

The World's Most Private Search Engine

2012-02-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

Google and other search engines are collecting detailed databases on all of us as we use their search engine.

Katherine Albrecht maintains that Google is using our personal information without consent to create a centralized database of just about everything imaginable. She is a consumer privacy expert and VP of startpage.com, the world's most private search engine.

Startpage, and its sister search engine Ixquick, are the only third-party certified search engines in the world that do not record your IP address or track your searches.

Those searches reveal a shocking amount of personal information about you, such as your interests, family circumstances, political leanings, medical conditions, and more. This information is modern-day gold for marketers, government officials, hackers and criminals - all of whom would love to get their hands on your private search data.

I listened to an interview with Katherine yesterday and she said even your email is being analyzed for data by some companies. If you email a friend and tell them you are going on a vacation to Brazil and you start getting ads popping up on your computer for trips to Brazil, she said this is no coincidence.

Some people like having ads customized towards them personally, but others of us are not so happy about this. Additionally, this collection of personal information is available to others such as the government.

You can read more about what and how data is being collected as well as information about startpage.com at this link

Monsanto Facing Biopiracy Charges in India

2012-01-31T12:01:00.000-08:00

According to an article published this month in the journal Nature Biotechnology, Monsanto is facing biopiracy charges in India.

In an unprecedented decision, India’s National Biodiversity Authority(NBA), a government agency, declared legal action against Monsanto (and their collaborators) for accessing and using local eggplant varieties (known as brinjal) to develop their Bt genetically engineered version¹ without prior approval of the competent authorities, which is considered an act of “biopiracy.”

The journal of Nature Biotechnology reported:

“An Indian government agency has agreed to sue the developers of genetically modified (GM) eggplant for violating India’s Biological Diversity Act of 2002. India’s National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) is alleging that the developers of India’s first GM food crop–Jalna-based Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco) partnered with St. Louis–based seed giant Monsanto and several local universities–used local varieties to develop the transgenic crop, but failed to gain the appropriate licenses for field trials. At the same time, activists in Europe are claiming that patents on conventionally bred plants, including a melon found in India, filed by biotech companies violate farmers’ rights to use naturally occurring breeds. Both these pending legal cases could set important precedents for biopiracy in India and Europe.”

Watch the Movie FRESH For Free

2012-01-29T16:49:00.000-08:00

The movie Fresh is available for you to watch for free until Feb 1st.

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

You can watch it at this link: The Movie FRESH

2,4-D Resistant GMO Corn

2012-01-27T10:29:00.000-08:00

Since Glyphosate (Round Up) is no longer working so well as a weed killer, Dow decided to add a more aggressive, more toxic chemical to the food chain and to our environment. That chemical is 2,4-D. 2,4-d is a constituent of "Agent Orange" owned by Dow Chemicals. Agent Orange (half 2,4-D by composition) was extensively used in Vietnam by the military to destroy forests and crops. Dow has come up with the frightening idea to make a gentically modified version of corn that is resistant to their 2,4-D. (They want to rake in the bucks like Monsanto has been doing.) Dow is seeking USDA approval for genetically engineered corn that will withstand 2,4-D.

Glyphosate (Round Up) has been used in the same way on genetically modified food for almost 15 years now. Creating crops that could withstand heavy use of Glyphosate, led to so much use of the chemical on farm lands that glyphosate resistant weeds have adapted to it and are now super weeds that are not effected by the chemical any more. Glyphosate has been used so much that samples of ground water, river water, rain and air in the areas that heavily use this chemical were found to contain glyphosate in them all. Now Dow wants to add 2,4-D to the water, soil and air also.

The public has 30 more days to comment on Dow’s petition for USDA approval, and can do so online at:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2010-0103-0001

For past posts on GMO's check these links out:

Recent Update on What is Happening With GMO's
http://dreamingabeautifulworld.blogspot.com/2012/01/gmo-update-for-11912.html

Washington State Bill to Label GM Food

Washington State Senator Maralyn Chase has sponsored a new bill that would require both raw GMOs and processed foods containing GMOs to be properly labeled beginning July 2014. Any food product containing GMOs will have to bear a list outlining which ingredients are natural and which ingredients are GMO. Learn more:

http://www.naturalnews.com/034670_GMO_labeling_Washington_State_food.html#ixzz1jkUj98vt

California using Initiative Process to pass GM labeling Law

California is poised to be the first state with mandatory GMO labeling laws through the 2012 California Ballot Initiative process. Learn more: http://organicconsumersfund.org/label/

14 states introduced GMO bills in 2011. Learn more here:

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/14-states-have-gmo-label-bills-call-your-state-reps/

Farmers Sue Monsanto

2012-01-27T09:55:00.000-08:00

On March 29th, 2011, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of sixty family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, challenging Monsanto’s patents on genetically modified crops. Join us for a dynamic, powerful and educational dialog with Jim Gerritsen, President of OSGATA, about the threats to organic farming, the lawsuit, and how all of us can participate in this movement to protect our rights to uncontaminated healthy food.

In Jim’s words: “Today is Independence Day for America. Today we are seeking protection from the Court and putting Monsanto on notice. Monsanto’s threats and abuse of family farmers stops here. Monsanto’s genetic contamination of organic seed and organic crops ends now. Americans have the right to choice in the marketplace – to decide what kind of food they will feed their families – and we are taking this action on their behalf to protect that right to choose. Organic farmers have the right to raise our organic crops for our families and our customers on our farms without the threat of invasion by Monsanto’s genetic contamination and without harassment by a reckless polluter. Beginning today, America asserts her right to justice and pure food.”

How To Attend The Event

This event can be attended either online or from your phone. Upon registration, you will be sent a link to the event webcast page as well as a call in number.

Free Registration

When: Wednesday, February 8th, 2012, 6:00pm PST

To register for this free event at MedicineCrow go to this link:

http://www.medicinecrow.com/teachers-event-pages/516-organic-seed-growers-and-trade-association-vs-monsanto#a_aid=4d598ad780661&a_bid=5c67b3a0

Two Great Offers From MedicineCrow

Honey Bee Pesticide Exposure - New Study

2012-01-19T13:51:00.000-08:00

Multiple Routes of Pesticide Exposure for Honey Bees Living Near Agricultural Fields is the title of a new research article published on honey bee deaths. It was published on January 3, 2012.

Abstract: Populations of honey bees and other pollinators have declined worldwide in recent years. A variety of stressors have been implicated as potential causes, including agricultural pesticides. Neonicotinoid insecticides, which are widely used and highly toxic to honey bees, have been found in previous analyses of honey bee pollen and comb material. However, the routes of exposure have remained largely undefined. We used LC/MS-MS to analyze samples of honey bees, pollen stored in the hive and several potential exposure routes associated with plantings of neonicotinoid treated maize. Our results demonstrate that bees are exposed to these compounds and several other agricultural pesticides in several ways throughout the foraging period. During spring, extremely high levels of clothianidin and thiamethoxam were found in planter exhaust material produced during the planting of treated maize seed. We also found neonicotinoids in the soil of each field we sampled, including unplanted fields. Plants visited by foraging bees (dandelions) growing near these fields were found to contain neonicotinoids as well. This indicates deposition of neonicotinoids on the flowers, uptake by the root system, or both. Dead bees collected near hive entrances during the spring sampling period were found to contain clothianidin as well, although whether exposure was oral (consuming pollen) or by contact (soil/planter dust) is unclear. We also detected the insecticide clothianidin in pollen collected by bees and stored in the hive. When maize plants in our field reached anthesis, maize pollen from treated seed was found to contain clothianidin and other pesticides; and honey bees in our study readily collected maize pollen. These findings clarify some of the mechanisms by which honey bees may be exposed to agricultural pesticides throughout the growing season. These results have implications for a wide range of large-scale annual cropping systems that utilize neonicotinoid seed treatments.

Christian H. Krupke¹^*, Greg J. Hunt¹, Brian D. Eitzer², Gladys Andino¹, Krispn Given¹

1 Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America, 2 Department of Analytical Chemistry, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America

You can read the entire research article including their discussion of the results at this link:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029268

Please contact your representatives about this problem and ask them to submit a bill to save the honey bees from neonicotinoid poisoning. I am including a link here that will allow you to easily look up your federal and state representatives names and contact address/email/phone numbers. http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/

If you want to know more about the honey bees, here are past posts on the honey bees.

http://dreamingabeautifulworld.blogspot.com/2011/09/dan-rather-honey-bee-report.html

Sept 23, 2011

Dreaming A Beautiful World: A Cause of the Honey Bee Deaths

Nov 15, 2010

New United Nations Report on Honey Bees

Mar 14, 2011

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Bill To Save The Bees

Mar 10, 2011

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Save The Honey Bees

Mar 02, 2011

National Defense Authorization Act - Loosing Our Rights

2012-01-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

We are loosing our constitutional rights as U.S. Citizens.

The Patriot Act has been the biggest cause of U.S. citizens loosing constitutional rights. It allowed the government to spy on citizens. Laws were changed to allow law enforcement to search phones, finincial records, medical records, etc. Spy cameras started showing up on every street of every town. Next thing we know, there is the TSA and body scanners at airports. The TSA is now moving into bus stations and there are highway check points starting too. Tennessee was the first state to implement highway checkpoints for random searches to counter terrorism.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/ron-paul-calls-tsa-jack-booted-thugs-in-response-to-highway-checkpoints/

http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-invades-roads-highways-with-vipr-checkpoints.html

Now it is the National Defense Authorization Act. This is an act that Congress passes each year. It is the way congress keeps tabs on what the Department of Defense is doing and how much money it is spending. Generally just the amount of money it authorizes is what changes. This time it passed with additional provisions that have a lot of people feeling uncomfortable with the government. It now calls for indefinite detention of U.S. citizens if they are "suspected" of being terrorists. With the passage of this law there is no longer innocence until proven guilty. This is unconstitiutional. The Fourth Amendment grants liberty from unreasonable seizures, while the Sixth guarantees every U.S. citizen a trial in front of a jury. The passage of this bill is a violation of these amendments and is therefore unconstitutional. Yet, most of congress passed it and while no one was watching on New Years Eve, president Obama signed it into law. He promised not to use it though.

According to the New York Times Obama said, “The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it,” Mr. Obama said in a statement issued in Hawaii, where he is on vacation. “I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/us/politics/obama-signs-military-spending-bill.html?_r=4&hp

The NDAA absolves the president of the requirement of gathering and presenting to an impartial judge evidence of association with terrorists. The mere suspicion of of association with terrorists now suffices as a justification for the indefinite imprisonment of those so suspected. Even U.S. citizens.

The NDAA places the American military at the disposal of the President for the apprehension, arrest, and detention of those suspected of posing a danger to the homeland (whether inside or outside the borders of the United States and whether the suspect be a citizen or foreigner).

The bill of rights is eroding away. The Bill of Rights has no exemption for bad people or terrorists or even non-citizens. It is a key check on government power against any person. That is not a weakness in our legal system; it is the very strength of our legal system. The NDAA attempts to justify abridging the Bill of Rights on the theory that rights are suspended in a time of war, and the entire Unites States is a battlefield in the War on Terror. This is a slippery slope we are going down.

Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul criticized his fellow lawmakers. “Sadly, too many ofmy colleagues are too willing to undermine our constitution to support suchoutrageous legislation. One senator even said, about American citizens beingpicked up under this section of the NDAA, ‘When they say ‘I want my lawyer,’you tell them, ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer.’”

http://www.dailypaul.com/194777/video-ron-paul-on-ndaa-biggest-story-nobodys-talking-about

Ron Paul described the bill as a “slip into tyranny,” one that will almost certainly accelerate “our descent into totalitarianism.” Ron Paul left his 2012 presidential campaign on January 18th for a moment to fight directly for all of our freedoms, by introducing legislation to repeal Section 1021 from the 2012 NDAA “law” that authorizes the indefinite detention of American citizens without trial. Read the repeal statement here.

http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1941:statement-introducing-repeal-of-sec-1021-of-national-defense-authorization-act-for-fiscal-year-2012&catid=16:speeches&Itemid=1

Currently only one congressman is trying to help protect these rights. Tell your representative what you think about this. Get more of them standing up for U.S. citizen rights. Ask them to join Congressman Ron Paul and support the repeal of section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act.

I am including a link here that will allow you to easily look up your federal and state representatives names and contact address/email/phone numbers. http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/

Communicating With Plants

2012-01-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

The first time I take a new herb class on an herb walk, I like to remind them that we have many ways to learn about plants. The botanical dissection and visual observation of plants is the usual method people use to categorize the plant. (Botanists are starting to use genetic material to categorize them.) Then there is commonly agreed upon material that one can get from lecture or books that tells us who that plant is to the human being. However, there are more intimate ways to get to know the true nature of our plant allies.

We can gain information from them by sensual methods using the senses of sight, tactile sensation, olfactory blissitudes, gustatory delights or by supersensory methods such as gut insights, heart knowing, instant knowledge, inner hearing, and plant angels/fairies to name a few.

The sensual methods:

Sight: Colors and shapes of the plant, where the plant chooses to grow in the environment are all visual cues that give us information about a plant. The location of flowers as well as size of flowers can tell us information about the plant. When they open their flowers is another message. The thickness or thinness of their leaves gives insight into their activities...

Tactile: Roughness, prickles, smoothness, velvetiness, mositure content, toughness or tenderness can all give you insight into the plant you are getting to know.

Olfactory: Your nose can lead you on remarkable plant journeys. There are scents that tantalize and cause euphoria as well as scents that smell nasty and nauseating. All scents are odiferous clues to the personality and activity of the plant. Scents will cause a reaction in your body. Pay attention to this as it is important information.

Taste: This can run from yummy to making you vomit. Tastes usually fall into categories of, sweet, sour, bitter, salty, acrid, pungent and astringent.

Supersensory methods:

To use supersensory methods be in the now:

Naturally
Open to
Wonderment

When getting to know your supersensory self there are times when you will question the information you are getting. If there is question in your heart, be careful. Always be careful with plants you don’t know. Some poisonous plants will try to lure you into their poisonous world and tasting them can be the death of you. Always make sure you know edibility of a plant before eating.

Gut insights: Sometimes you get gut feelings about things. You can get these about plants also. Learn to trust them, they are usually true. When a plant is dangerous for you to ingest, you will often notice a gut insight. Do not ignore it.

Heart Knowing: This is a type of wisdom that is heart based. Think of the times you have said to your self or someone else, “I know in my heart this is true.” Your heart does not mislead you. It is our heart that guides us best. It is our heart where love resides. Love is the greatest power and is that which connects us deeply to the plants and the planet.

Instant knowledge: This type of knowing is like a computer download into your mind. Suddenly spirit gives you this tremendous amount of information. It may seem to come directly from the plants, the plant angels or Spirit. Remember, Spirit has an infinite number of messengers and speaks in mysterious ways.

Inner hearing: This type of hearing is not usually one of directly hearing voices. It is as if you heard a voice but actually just got the message. If you are walking around your house and suddenly out of the blue, remember you forgot to water your house plants, listen closely. You will usually find they are screaming at you in their own non-oral way. It is somewhere between a feeling and an audible experience. The out-door plants will also communicate with you. They have stories to tell. They will take you places that their genetic material springs from. They will let you know about their personalities, their needs. I don’t always know if it is them, plant angels or spirit coming through but it does not really matter since ultimately it is all spirit.

Dreaming: The plants will visit you in your dreams, meditations and prayers if you ask them to. Invite them to visit.

Petting Plants: Besides talking to plants, signing to them, inviting them into your dreams, you can also pet plants. Some plants love to be petted. When you pet them, pet their energy field radiating around them, not them physically. Most of them like this and some love it. If you can not see the energy field around them, simply pet the air within about one - two inches away from their leaves. Get close to touching them, but don’t quite physically contact them. You will notice them perk up and some may lift their leaves upward. On some plants such as boston ferns it is quire noticeable. Their fronds lift upward into the air in delight.

Biodyanimic Farming & Gardening

2012-01-18T11:49:00.000-08:00

I get so many questions about biodynamic farming that I decided to share a couple articles that I wrote a few years back. I hope you enjoy them. They are located on my website resource page. There are two articles. One on biodynamic Farming called "Biodynamic Farming" and the second on the medicinal herbs used in biodynamic farming called "Herbs Used in Biodynamic Farming." To get to the resource page simply follow this link http://herbaltransitions.com/herbalresources.html and then go to the "Farm Data Blog Series."

GMO Update for 1/19/12

2012-01-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

Farmers Suit Against Monsanto Continues

On January 31, family farmers will take part in the first phase of a court case filed to protect farmers from genetic trespass by Monsanto’s GMO seed, which contaminates organic and non-GMO farmer’s crops and opens them up to abusive lawsuits. In the past two decades, Monsanto’s seed monopoly has grown so powerful that they control the genetics of nearly 90% of five major commodity crops including corn, soybeans, cotton, canola and sugar beets.

In many cases farmers are forced to stop growing certain crops to avoid genetic contamination and potential lawsuits. Between 1997 and 2010, Monsanto admits to filing 144 lawsuits against America’s family farmers, while settling another 700 out of court for undisclosed amounts. Due to these aggressive lawsuits, Monsanto has created an atmosphere of fear in rural America and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy. Please stand up for family farmers everywhere against Monsanto's abusive seed monopoly.

Send your vocal support to these farmers.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/farmersvs_monsanto/?referring_akid=456.88720.0kk2iK&source=mailto

Washington State Bill to Label GM Food

http://www.naturalnews.com/034670_GMO_labeling_Washington_State_food.html#ixzz1jkUj98vt

California using Initiative Process to pass GM labeling Law

California is poised to be the first state with mandatory GMO labeling laws through the 2012 California Ballot Initiative process. Learn more: http://organicconsumersfund.org/label/

14 states introduced GMO bills in 2011. Learn more here:

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/14-states-have-gmo-label-bills-call-your-state-reps/

Marshmallow Flowers As a Medicine

2012-01-14T18:13:00.000-08:00

I have used the root of marshmallow (Althaea officinalis) for about 25 years as a medicine. A few years ago I started experimenting with the flowers which have a slight mucilaginous characteristic to them. They are not super mucilaginous like the root is but still they seemed promising. I made a guess that they would have some anti-inflammatory and vulnerary (wound healing) ability and tried using them on wounds which proved to be beneficial.

I was happy to see this recent research article from Lebonon that examined a tea of marshmallow flower in relation to its effect on lipemia, gastric ulcers, inflammation and platelet aggregation(platelets are involved in blood clotting). The abstract can be viewed here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21281251

What the research found was the following: Marshmallow flowers increase serum HDL (what is called the good cholesterol), they have significant anti-inflammatory acitivity (acute and chronicinflammation) and decrease the growth of gastric ulcers. Additionally there was inhibition of platelet aggregation.

They also examined their effect on liver enzymes to see if the flowers would harm the liver in any way. None was seen.

For information on marshmallow root go to this link:

http://www.herbaltransitions.com/materiamedica/Althea.htm

Avoiding Dementia As We Age

2012-01-14T10:18:00.000-08:00

A neurologist in Portland Oregon by the name of Gene Bowman has just published research that appears to identify a few nutrients that may be good for our brains and one constituent of many prepared food products that is bad news for our brains.

He studied the brain health of dementia free elders. The mean age was 87 ± 10 years and 62% of subjects were female. He wanted to see if there was something in their diet that protected their brains. Rather than using the usual "food frequency questionnaire" he assayed nutrient plasma biomarkers. He felt the food questionnaires have room for errors when used alone. (I would agree.) The best way is to use the plasma markers and questionnaires together to get a reflection of diet and metabolism. His aim was to see how various nutrients related to brain health.

He found that those with higher trans fats in their plasma had smaller brains and lower cognitive function. High trans fats in the diet is already associated with poor cardiovascular health. This is just one more reason to stay away from trans fats. Most trans fats come from processing liquid vegetable oil into solid fats, which includes margarine. Look for the words partially hydrogenated fats on the labels. (Much of the prepared foods in the grocery store - read the label).

Here is a list of "foods" that often contain them.

margarine and vegetable shortening
cookies, crackers, cakes, muffins, pie crusts, pizza dough, and breads such as hamburger buns
cake mixes, pancake mixes, and chocolate drink mixes
fried foods, including donuts, French fries, chicken nuggets, and hard taco shells
snack foods, including chips, candy, and packaged or microwave popcorn

I would like to point out that trans fats are not found much in nature. However, the ones that are found in nature that have been studied appear to possibly be healthy rather than harmful such as conjugated linoleic acid. This is because natures process of making them and the synthetic process of manufacturing trans fats is different. It is the synthetic trans fats found in a lot of prepared foods that are being shown to be harmful.When you see the words partially hydrogenated on a label, put the toxin back on the grocery shelf and eventually if no one is buying them manufacturers will stop making the disgusting stuff.

The subjects that had the most favorable cognitive and MRI measurements were the subjects with high plasma vitamins B(B1, B2, B6, folate, and B12) C, D and E as well as high omega-3 fatty acids.

How can we get these nutrients in our bodies. Simply by eating real food. This is just one more reason to eat lots of fish, pastured non pasteurized dairy and meat, healthy fats, fruits, veggies, legumes, soaked, sprouted whole grains and nuts and sea vegetables (such as kelp). Keep your diet colorful and varied and eat lots of greens. That is the take home and seems to always be the take home from this kind of research.

An abstract of this research can be found at this link

http://www.neurology.org/content/early/2011/12/28/WNL.0b013e3182436598.abstract

See this past post for more brain info:

http://dreamingabeautifulworld.blogspot.com/2011/03/power-up-your-brain-neuroscience-of.html

Herbal Tea Making Tips

2012-01-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

I promised you some more herbal tea making information. If you have additional questions, let me know.

Why Make Herbal Teas

Many of us use them. We love to grow and harvest our own teaand then consume the wonderful, healthy beverages as we sit and enjoy theirflavors or think about their health giving benefits.

They have important advantages

• Inexpensive

• Easy to make

• Imposes a ceremonialprocess and rest time for individuals.

• Allows the person to take alarger part in their healing process.

• It is self-empowering to be more self sufficient.

They alsohave some disadvantages

• Dry herb only last for one year- roots and seeds may last a little longer.

• They are bulky.

•Takes time to make them.

• Teas have to be stored inthe refrigerator and can only store for 48 hours or if you want to push it upto 3 days.

• If they taste bad, there isa lot to drink.

• Some herbs will not extractwell. An example would be resinous herbs.

What To Do With A Formula That Has A Mix of Herbs NeedingDecocting & Infusing

What do you do when you want to prepare a tea of manydifferent herbs and some need to be decocted and some infused? In thissituation when the formula is being prepared, put the dried herbs into twocontainers. One container that holds the herbs to be decocted and anothercontainer that holds the herbs to be infused.

When putting your formula together make enough to last youfor the time period you expect to be drinking these herbs. If you will be ingesting themlong term, make up enough to last as long as you wish. Start by making one container of herbs to decoct and one container to infuse. Put all the hard, denseplant parts such as barks, roots, and some seeds into the container that willbe decocted. Then put all the delicate and less dense partsof the plant such as flowers and leaves into another container that will beinfused. The herbs to be decocted aremade up first. When they are finished decocting take the pot off the burner andadd the herbs to be infused into the pot. In both cases make sure the lid to the pot is on tight. Let it steep for the necessary timeand strain it all.

Straining Teas

When you strain your teas, pick up the herb in your strainer and squeeze all the liquid out of theherb material. Some of the best stuff is still in the herbs and youdon’t want to throw it into your compost before squeezing it out.

Using Ground Herb Vs Cut & Sift Herb

Usually "cut and sift" herb is used for teas. If you grind the herb up into a powder it will extract wellbut be sure to use cheese cloth or a coffee filter to filter the tea as youpour it into your cup. I also suggest squeezing the powdered herb real well asthose small powder particles will want to hold onto a lot of that herballiquid. You want to squeeze out every drop you can as it is holding the mostpotent part of your tea. You could designate a special thin tea towel for the task or havecheese cloth just for this use. That will allow you to reuse the material afterwashing it. Powdered material will cling to more water than the cut and sift herbs and you will get less final amount of liquid tea when you use powdered herb. This is the reason most people use cut and sift rather than powder to make teas.

When to Infuse Seeds and Roots (They areusually decocted)

Delicate seeds or roots as well as seeds or roots with volatile oils need to be infused. If you are making a root or seed decoction and it does notwork as you expect it should, make sure it does not have volatile oils in itthat require you to infuse it rather than decoct it. Examples of where thismight be important is with archangelica root, dong quai root and elecampaneroot.

If infusing hard seeds and roots you may need to pulverize them a bit with amortar and pestle to break them up into small enough particles to extract alltheir goodness from within. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can putthem in a bag and roll over them with a rolling pin. If they are too hard tobreak that way, double bag them and get out a rubber mallet or even a hammer.Put the bag on your cutting board and break them up by banging on them. I oftensave old bags that are not good for other things for this very purpose. I breakup nuts and all sorts of things this way. Even a pot with a real thick bottomcan be used to break up seeds or roots. Just be careful not to hurt your cookware.

Tight Lids & Volatile Oils

When making a tea by decocting it in a pot, make sure the lid to the pot fits well. When infusing herbs in a container such as a canning jar, make sure the jar lid is on tight enough not to loose vapors into the air. This is especially important when you are making tea from a plant with a lot of volatile oils. Those oils are important and you don't want to loose them into the air. If you open the jar or pot before it has cooled slightly you will loose all your precious essential oils as they volatilize into the air. So even if the tea has steeped long enough, you may need to wait to open the jar lid until the tea changes from hot to the touch to warm to the touch.

How to Make An Herbal Tea Taste Good

What if the tea tastes bad? You have other choices thanusing it as a tea. However, if you want to use the herb as a tea, try adding other flavors to it that taste good.

•Adding lemon and honey is a solution that makes manyteas taste better.

•Using additional herbs in the mixture that are added only for flavor is another choice.

• Infusing driedberries such as raspberry, apple, blueberry or even raisins with the herbswhile making the tea lends to some wonderful flavors.

•Essentialoils are an additional alternative. You probably have some herbal essential oils in your kitchen that youuse in cooking. Look in the pantry. Try anise or peppermint or whatever isthere that you think might work for you. It is good to add an essential oilthat will have an additive effect to the health benefits of the other herbs inthe cup of tea. When adding essential oils, don’t add more than 1-2 drops to acup or you will be overwhelmed. Put one drop at a time in, stir well and taste.Don’t taste without stirring as the essential oil will still be on the top ofthe cup and you will get it all in one sip.
If you can't find essential oils in your area, Floracopia Products has a 25% discount available for my readers. It is for new customers only at the above link if you use the code "wiseacres".

•With kids I have had parents use the fruit infusions mentioned above or mixthe tea with a non-sweetened fruit juice. Most kids willtake it with dark grape juice if nothing else works as it often hides otherflavors.

Herb Walk Videos

2012-01-10T11:11:00.000-08:00

There was a problem with the herbal video links from the last series I posted. Thanks for the feedback. I have fixed that error and you can get information and link to the new videos via this blog link.

http://dreamingabeautifulworld.blogspot.com/2011/12/more-herbal-videos-available.html

Hand Pump Update

2012-01-10T10:05:00.000-08:00

I posted a blog over a year ago about the hand pump I put in my well. It is a fantastic pump. You asked for photos and I am embarrassed to say it has taken this long for me to get the photos posted. There are two photos here. I am also re-posting some of the pump information for you in case you missed the prior blog.

This first photo is a distance shot of the whole operation. In Front is the hand pump. On the left is my ultraviolet light and filter set up. In the back on the right is the pressurized tank. Note there is not much to the hand pump. The handle is light and easy to pump. I have the pump hooked up to the pressurized tank but you can also unhook it from the tank and pump into a bucket.

This second photo is a close up of the pump going down into the casing. I wish I had them drill me a second hole for a clean-out opening but did not think to ask for that. I have my original electric pump coming out of what could have been a clean-out opening.

Here is some prior data I had posted previously:

This is a non-electric pump for my well water. It is in the well on top of my electric pump.

It is not just any hand pump. Originally, I was looking at the old-fashioned pitcher pump. The same exact type of pump my grandmother had on her well. However, I realized early on in my search for the perfect pump that there are now new and improved pump options. After careful consideration of all the pumps available I went for what I consider to be the best choice on the market. It is called the Simple Pump. Indeed it was simple to put in and simple to pump. We placed the Simple Pump right over the current electric pump without a problem. However, this is not just any hand pump. This pump can be hooked up to electricity as a primary electric pump if I wish. Additionally the creator of this fine pump had the forethought to make a pump that it is easily hooked up and used with solar power if I wish. I have not done either of these things currently, although I may hook it up for solar use eventually. Living in the Pacific NW that is not something I am jumping at first thing. I do like the option to be able to easily hook it up to solar though.

When I last wrote this blog, the manufacturer did not supply the solar set up, but they have added that on. You can now buy everything through the manufacturer of the Simple Pump. I know this sounds like an ad, but no I am not on their payroll. Just like the pump.

There are many things I like about this pump. I have the choice of pumping the water into a bucket or I can hook it up to my pressurized tank and pump the water right into the tank rather than a bucket. When the electricity goes off here, rather than going out and pumping into a bucket, I pump directly into my pressurized tank and the water still goes into my house and comes out of my faucet and into the toilet. Wow, that is a far cry from my grandmother having to carry water. You can’t fill the whole pressurized tank, as eventually the pressure is too much to pump against. However, it beats carrying the buckets and is much easier to use out of the tap. It is made right here in the USA and wow is it quality workmanship. The parts are cut and ground with skill. It is not every day you see such brilliant workmanship.

You can find cheaper pumps, but I doubt you can find a better pump or more versatile pump. If you want more details on this pump you can go to http://www.simplepump.com

(I have no affiliation with this company.) If you are in the Eugene, Oregon area and need a person to put this in for you, I can give you the name of the gentleman who helped me put mine in. It is definitely a two person job.

Making Herbal Tea

2012-01-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

Herbal teas are inexpensive, easy to make and they impose a ceremonial process during their preparation as well as a rest time while drinking them.

Tools To Make Teas

If you have something to cook water in and a canning jar, you have all the tools you need. Some other useful items are a Kettle, Teapot, French Press,and Mug. Be sure your tools are glass,stainless steel or enamel. You don’t want to use a container that might reactwith the herbs.

Safety
Only make teas with herbs that are safe to drink.

Types of Tea Preparations

Teas are divided into two basic types of tea preparations. The infusion and decoction. Depending on what you want to extract from the herb and how dense the herb is will depend on which type of preparation you use.

When To Choose An Infusion

Infusions are used forextraction of labile constituents such as vitamins, enzymes and volatile oils.They are also used for delicate and less dense parts of the plant such as flowers and leaves. Some seeds are also infused as well as roots with volatile oils such aselecampane or valerian.

When To Choose A Decoction

Decoctions are used for plantconstituents that require more time and heat for extraction, such as mineralsalts, bitter constituents and hard, dense plant parts such as barks, roots, and some seeds.

Infusions

How to Make An Infusion

An infusion is a gentle method to extract constituents from the herb. When making an infusion, the plantmaterial is cut small, torn up or bruised to release its essence. The ideais to get as many parts of the plant in contact with the water as possible. Ifyou have bought "cut & sift" herb from someone else, it is probably already cut up foruse in an infusion.

Example of timing and how it changes the ultimate preparation

If you infuse an herb likechamomile the essential oil will be released quickly and taste and smell divineif drank within a few minutes. However, if you want the bitter constituents inchamomile which often we do if using it medicinally, you want to infuse itlonger. The longer you infuse it the more bitter it will get.

Directions for one cup ofinfusion

Three recommended methods:

(a) Addone cup of boiling water to one heaping tablespoon of dry herb or three heapingtablespoons of fresh herb in an air-tight container like a canning jar. Let it steep for 10-25 minutes.

(b) Bringone cup of water to boil in a stainless steel or glass kettle. Remove thekettle from the burner and add one heaping tablespoon of the dry herb or threeheaping tablespoons of fresh herb to the water. Cover the kettle with a tightfitting lid. Steep for 10-25 minutes. Remove the lid, strain and drinkthe liquid.

(c) Put one heapingtablespoon of dry herb or three heaping tablespoons of fresh herb in a pintcanning jar. Pour one cup of boiling water over the herb and put the lid on thecanning jar. Let it sit overnight and drink the next morning. This method is often used for extracting minerals. When I am attempting to extract minerals I put extra herb in my jar. I often put a handful in and fill the quart jar with water. Most mineral rich herbs are food herbs such as oats and drinking strong teas is okay. If you use herbs in large amounts, make sure they are safe herbs to consume in quantities.

(d) Put one heapingtablespoon of dry herb or three heaping tablespoons of fresh herb in a pintcanning jar. Pour one cup of room temp or cool water over the herb and put the lid on thecanning jar. Let it sit overnight and drink the next morning. This will make a very mild infusion and picks up small amounts of volatile oils and energetic essences of the plant. Often this method is used for full moon infusions.

These infusions can be consumed hot or cold, depending on the specificusage. Large quantities can be made and stored in the refrigerator. Do notstore tea for longer than 3 days because it may grow mold.

Solar Infusion

This type of infusion relies on the sun to provide heat todraw out constituents. You putyour herb into a canning jar. Then add clean spring water, well water or filtered water using the same amounts as listed above. (1 T per cup water if dry or 3 T per cup water if fresh.) Simply multiple the herb and water depending on how much tea you want toend up with. You put the herb inthe jar. Pour cold water over the herb, tighten the lid on the jar and put thejar in the direct sun. I often make sun tea in gallon canning jars when I have friends visit.

Lunar Infusion

Lunar infusions are wonderful for certain herbs. I place theherb in the jar and pour cold rather than hot water over the herb and place itunder the moon at night. Usually I do this when the moon is full. It isespecially nice for herbs with volatile oils. I do notice quite a differencewhen it is hot at night as compared to when it cools down. The heat of coursedoes much of the extraction. When cool out at night, I get just the bareessence of the plant. I have to be sure to retrieve it before the sun is up. It is lovely and somewhat magical with certain plants.I suggest you try this with something like peppermint. Although I have used them medicinally for people, I usually don’t as I generally want the full range of constituents I can get from a hot extraction when I am using a tea medicinally.

Decoctions

How to Make A Decoction

In a kettle, bring one cup of water and onetablespoon of dry herb or three heaping tablespoons of fresh herb to a boil.Cover the kettle with a tight fitting lid, and simmer the ingredients for 15 -25 minutes. Remove the kettle from the burner and steep ten minutes. Strain anddrink.

Examples of when to choose an infusion or decoction

If you are trying to extract minerals from an herb likenettles you can either use a hot water infusion overnight or you can decoct itfor 25 minutes. They will both give you a similar amount of minerals. (I have made both up and sent it to a lab for testing.The decoction gave a tad bit more but not enough to matter.) However,the overnight infused one in my opinion usually tastes better. I am more likely to drink something that tastes good, so guess which one I will make. Usually, leafyherbs like nettles are not decocted and the only time I would decoct them is ifI want to extract something like minerals and don't have the time for a 12 hour infusion.

Roots are generally decocted as they are dense and hard. However, if you are decocting a root with volatile oils such as valerian or elecampane you will want to infuse the root so you do not loose the essential oils. To make sure you extract it completely, you can cut up or pulverize the root into small pieces so the water can get into more parts of the root for a better extraction. You don't want a powder, you just want it mashed up or cut small.

Drinking the Tea

Ahhhh, now for the relaxingpart.

The amount of tea you ingestwill depend on if you are ingesting it for pleasure, or health. It will also make a difference if using it forhealth reasons, why you are using it. It is impossible to give a specificamount to drink, but since I know you want a guideline, I would tell you that ½ - 1 cup three to five times a day will usually be the range. Some herbs need tobe taken in very small amounts to work. For instance if you are using a bitterto stimulate digestion, you only need a few sips of a strong tea for it tohelp. Acute conditions usually require more of a tea and it is usually taken more often than chronic conditions. Some herbs should only be taken in small amounts as they are can be irritating if taken in large amounts of too often. It is important to always know what you are ingesting before ingesting it.

More On Teas In The Next Blog

There is so much to tell you about teas. What do you do when you want to prepare a formula of 6different herbs and some need to be decocted and some infused? How do you make bad tasting teas taste better? What are the advantages and disadvantages of herbal teas. This and more will be awaiting us in a soon to come blog. If you have a question about teas, let me know so you can see the answer in the next tea blog. In fact, if you have any questions about herbs, please speak up so you can get an answer in a future herb blog.

Problem With Blog Emails Rearranging Words

2012-01-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

For some reason the people who are receiving this blog by email are getting words, rearranged and bunched together in the email. I have no control of this and suggest you click on the name of the blog at the top of the email so you can read it directly on the blog page where it is written up correctly. Sorry about this problem. I assume it will be corrected in the future.

Garden Blog Series: How To Grow Carrots

2012-01-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

Types of Carrots to Grow

Carrots are categorized into groups depending on shape andhow deep they grow. I list a few common ones below.

Imperator: Thin,deep growing carrots of up to 10 inches

Danvers: These grow up to 7 inches long. The topsare thicker and the flavor of the Danvers tends to be strong.

Nantes: These aresweet, round carrots that grow to around 6 inches long.

Chantenay: Thesegrow around 5 to 6 inches. They are medium sized stocky roots which are moreconical and have a good core and flesh color. Many consider these to be thetastiest of the carrots.

Purple, white and reddish varieties are also available onthe market. I think the orange carrots are the best tasting ones though.

When to Grow

Carrots like cool weather, so you can sow as early in thespring as the soil warms up (10Cor 50F) and continue seeding them every six weeks until the fall. Usually, thelast time you can sow them is about two weeks before the first expected frostdate. You can start them earlier if you use a cold frame or row cover tocover them. Set up the row cover a few weeks before planting seed to warm up thesoil.

Soil Preparation

Carrots grow best in a deep, loose soil that retainsmoisture yet is well drained. Carrotslike loose, loamy, sandy, well weeded, well drained, soil. They grow great insandy, soil with lots of organic matter. They do not like too much nitrogen inthe soil so do not add manure or other high nitrogen fertilizer prior toplanting. Even excess compost has caused my carrots to form multiple roots. The best soil pH is 6.5 - (5.5-6.8 will do.)

Sowing

You can sow your seeds after the last hard frost. Sow seedsdirectly in the ground and then thin. They can be planted about 3/8 inch intothe soil The thinning distance is based on how big you want them to be when youharvest them. Will you harvest them when they are small or let them growlarger. Some folks like to have rows of carrots with some space between therows. Other people like to grow them in large blocks quite close to each other.As long as you have good soil either way works fine. Give them enough room sothey can get as big as you want at harvest time and don’t forget to leave roomfor you to get your fingers around them while pulling them out. This means youshould usually thin them to about 3-4 inches between each one usually. If youhave them overcrowded they will twist around each other from lack of room. Theywill taste good but look odd.

Generally carrots are seeded and not transplanted. You cantransplant them but transplanted carrots tend to fork.

Soil temp of 10c (50F) is good for germination. At this tempit usually takes 10 days for the seed to germinate.

Plant every 6 weeks or so for continual carrot harvest.

Watering

Light watering often promotes shallow root development andcan increase the crop's susceptibility to hot weather and drought stress. Onmost soils, watering once a week is sufficient. Very sandy soils may requiremore frequent watering.

Not enough water creates tough roots with feeder rootsextending off them. Too much water can cause the root to split all along itslength. This usually happens close to maturity.

What Not To Do

Do not plant in heavy, clay soils with lots of rocks. Do not plant in compacted soil. Do notput fresh manure in soil where carrots will grow or use other types of nitrogenfertilizer prior to putting carrot seed in the soil or you will get forkedcarrots rather than straight carrots. Even too much compost has caused thisproblem for me.

Minerals

They require moderate to high levels of phosphorus and potassium. Phosphorus can be added as rock phosphate and potassium can be added as ashes from your wood stove if you have one. Don't over ash though just because you have a lot of ashes. If the soil is too acidic lime can also be added. Carrots grow poorly in soil with high amounts of sodium. It is always helpful to get a mineral analysis of the soil in your garden before adding minerals.

Why My Carrots Look Odd

Forked roots: May bedue to rocky or stoney soil or heavy, lumpy soil. Transplanting of long-rootedvegetables will also lead to forked roots. Too much nitrogen will cause thecarrots to become forked too.

Hairy, Tough Roots:If carrots don’t have enough water, the main root will form small feeder rootsto soak up more moisture. They also form extra tissue to help carry the water.This extra tissue makes them tough.

Small hairs all over the root: This is often due to an excess of fertilizer.

Split Carrots:Carrots can split along their entire length when there is too much moisture.This usually happens close to maturity.

Green Shoulders:This is due to the top of the carrot sticking out of the ground. It turns greenwhen it is exposed to the sun. They can be exposed due to heavy rains washingsoil away or the carrot pushing itself upward out of the soil. The green part is not dangerous butwill taste bitter so cut it off.

Twisted Carrots:They did not have enough room and the roost twisted around each other. Give them more space next time. They may have run into rocks too.

Leaves Turn Yellow & Die: Aster Yellow Disease – A bacterial disease that causes young innerleaves of carrots to yellow and later form dwarfed leaf clusters. Slightlyaffected plants may still be edible. The roots usually bulge at the crown, arestunted and have many hairy secondary roots. Leafhopper insects spread thisdisease, so the best control is prevention of them. Cover vulnerable carrotplants with row cover right after sowing the seed. Certain carrot varieties,such as Scarlet Nantes and Royal Chantenay, are somewhat resistant to asteryellows.

Harvest

They can be harvested about 50-90 days after planting depending on how big you want them to be. Carrotsare usually harvested when the roots are ¾ inches in diameter at the upper end,but you can harvest them any time they reach a usable size. If the soil is niceand loose you may be able to pull them out easily with your hands. If not, loosen the soil around the carrotfirst, be careful not to break the root while pulling it.

Storage After Harvest

Wash them, let the moisture dry off so they are not wet, butquickly get them in the bottom of your refrigerator in a plastic bag. If youstore them somewhere else, make sure they are close to 32 degrees farenheit andkeep the humidity high. You canalso dig outdoor pits to store through the winter or buckets filled with sandthat are left in root cellars, basements or I even store such buckets in mybarn in the winter. I only wash them if I am storing them in my refrigerator. I don’t washthem if storing them in a bucket of sand or outdoor pit.

Disease & Pests

Carrot Rust Fly

Carrot Rust Fly (CRF) - (Psila rosae) is the main pest thatI have had to deal with. I don’t have any other problems growing carrots as ageneral rule. The largest carrot growing region in the United States is inWashington State and CRF is the number one problem they deal with there. Acouple other pests of carrots are the Aster Leafhopper and the Carrot Weevil. Since CRF is a large problem here, I will tell you a lot about it.

Besides carrots, the CRF also attacks other garden plants includingparsnips, celery, celeriac, and parsley. The CRF larva(maggots) damage plantsby eating small roots and by tunneling in larger roots. A rust-colored materialdevelops in the tunnels, giving the insect its name. The infected plants maybecome yellow, stunted, and die. Usually the plant tops continue to lookhealthy. The larva often continue to feed in stored carrots. Disease organismsmay enter the feeding tunnels and cause the root to rot.

The CRF flies into the garden or field of carrots to lay eggs at thebase of the carrot. Then theyleave the area. Three – ten days later the eggs hatch into larva and move intothe soil and feed on the carrot. They migrate down through the soil along thecarrot root and penetrate the carrot as they feed. Larva feeding results intunnels along the surface of the carrot and rust colored frass. The larva willeventually pupate in the soil. When the adult fly emerges from the pupal case,it flies back to the edge of the garden or field.

You will not know you have CRF damage until you lift acarrot at harvest time. Then you will see the dark colored tunnels in thecarrot. If you have a really bad infestation you might notice the carrot leavesturning a orange or rusty color followed by a yellow color.

What Do They Look Like & When are They a Problem

The adult fly is 1/5 inch (5-6 mm) long and has a dark, shinybody with straw-yellow legs and head and large red eyes. In the Pacific NW the CRF lays eggs in May and June on thesoil surface around the plants. The eggs hatch in a 3-10 days and the larvafeed on and in the roots. The maggots are yellowish white and reach about 1/3inch (8 mm) in length. They feed about a month and then change into brown pupaabout 1/5 inch (5 mm) long. The pupa stay in the soil near the roots until Augustwhen the adult flies emerge. The adult carrot rust fly is a slender, shiny,black fly, about 6 mm long, with a small but characteristic reddish head andlong yellow legs. The new flies lay more eggs which change to larva. This groupcauses plant damage into the fall. Some flies may develop in the fall. Theseinsects spend the winter as pupa in the soil or as larva in the roots. Larva from the August-Septembergeneration cause the greatest damage. Damage generally increases the longer thecarrots are left in the ground.

What Conditions Favor CRF

• A previous history of rust fly infestations.

• Consecutive annual plantings of carrots in the same spot.

• Fields surrounded by brush and woods.

• Soils with high organic matter content.

• Lots of CRF weed hosts in area.

Management of Carrot Rust Fly

Monitoring

Carrot rust fly adults can be monitored with orange/yellowsticky traps placed in the carrot field or in nearby trees where theadults rest.

Identify and Remove weed hosts

Other Apiaceae or carrot family plants can host the flies.They include common garden veggies such as parsnips, celery, celeriac, andparsley. They also include herbs or weeds such as dill, coriander, wild carrot,lovage, fennel, parsley and all the other Apiaceae family members.

Plant Late

Avoid early-season egg laying by planting after early adultshave emerged and dispersed. Mid to late June is a good time in my area to plantand avoid the flies. However if you have neighbors with carrots or otheralternate plant hosts are in your garden this won’t work.

CRF Are Attracted to the Scent of the Carrots

The CRF is attracted to a chemical that the carrots producewhen they are under environmental stress. Even weeding the carrots and movingthe leaves around may release more of this scent and attract the flies. So weedwhen there is no wind so the scent does not travel far or weed in the eveningwhen the sun is going down as the fly takes air only in bright sunlight.Pulling the carrots in the evening is also helpful for this same reason.

Confuse the Flies withStrong Smelling Herbs

Some folks have good results putting strong smelling dryherbs around the base of the carrots such as pennyroyal, rosemary, sage andwormwood. Since they lay eggs at the base of the carrots covering the soil witha strong smelling herb will both confuse them and cover the soil where theywould usually lay eggs. Some people also plant between row crops of strong smelling herbs.

Cover Crops Planted Between Carrot Rows Can Also Confusethem

Growing the carrots with cover crops between them has beenan effective solution to keep the CRF from finding them. Some cover crops thathave been used are Crimson Clover, Medic, Subterranean Clover, Vetch and WhiteClover. Additionally, they helpenrich the soil. These crops enhance the soil and provide cover for beneficial insects. It is thought that they help hide the smell of the carrots and confuse the flies.

Row Crop Covers Can Be a Physical Barrier to the Flies

Covering the carrots with a floating row cover works forgarden growers but is hard for people who have large fields of carrots. Seal them well at the soil line. Be sure you do not havemaggots or pupae in the soil where you place the row cover though. Never growcarrots on a soil area that was infested with rust fly the previous year. Carrots and other Apiaceae familymembers should never be planted in the same area as the prior year.

Raising the Carrots more than 18 inches off the Ground

Since CRF usually flies no more than 18 inches above theground, some folks have grown them in raised beds above this height. Here is avideo of one such method.

Beating the Carrot Root Fly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORB1-EtLIjM

Birds

Birds and chickens serve as excellent biological controls infallow ground where pupae are suspected. If you can put your chickens in the garden without causing damage (Chickens scratch up bugs from the ground, so if you don't want them damaging roots, be careful where you put them.) they will help clean up many bugs.

When You Have the Fly in Your Carrots Harvest Early and Don’t Provide them With A Place to Eat

Early fall harvesting and storage of carrots in pits androot cellars rather than in the ground help minimize fall infestations causedby late second or early third generation larva.

Get rid of these carrots quickly. Do not store buggy carrots inthe ground through the winter. If they are still worth saving, harvest them andput them in cold storage where larva can’t get back into the soil. The larva still in the soil is starved todeath as long as there are no other carrot family plants around. Carrots with worms can still feed your animals. I give them to my goats. You may havean animal who might enjoy them too. I feed all wormy garden produce to farmanimals to remove the worms from my farm.

What Non-Organic Folks Do (Don’t do this at home kids!)
Non-organic folks use insecticides even though they have limited effectivenessagainst CRF. This is due to the fact that the adult rust fly spends most of itstime on the periphery of your garden or field. They fly into the garden orfield to lay eggs and then leave the area. After the larva hatch they move intothe soil and feed on the carrot. It eventually will pupate in the soil. Whenthe adult fly emerges from the pupal case, it flies back to the edge of thegarden or field. Many types of pyrethroids and organophosphates have beentested to kill or control CRF. It has been found that the pyrethroids do notappear effective against eggs and larvae , but do decrease adult populationswith continual broadcast spraying. This also kills all the beneficial insectsand even the non-organic folks usually realize this type of constantover-spraying is hazardous to the end user of the carrot. Some organophosphateshave been effective against the larval stage and the recommended pesticide forcontrol of CRF in the Pacific NW is to use Diazinon at the time of planting theseed as a seed furrow drench. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to eatany carrots that had their seed drenched in Diazinon. There is a good chance if you eat non-organic market carrots that your carrot was grown in a Diazinon drenched garden. So if you buy carrots, only buy organic ones.

Carrot Weevil

The carrot weevil adult is a dark-brown snout beetle about 6mm long. It over-winters in plantdebris in and about carrot plantings that were infested the previous year.

In the spring, adults become active and mate after a fewwarm days. They are capable of laying eggs by mid- to late May. However, theydo not attack the new crop of carrots until the first true leaf stage. Adultfemales chew small cavities in the crown of the carrots and deposit two tothree eggs in each cavity. They seal the cavity with a black exudate. Eggshatch after one to two weeks and the young larvae tunnel down into the root orleave the stalk and enter the roots from the soil. Some young plants may wiltand die as the slender root is tunnelled by the developing larva. The damage isnot otherwise conspicuous until the larva are nearly mature.

After feeding for at least three weeks, larvae leave thecarrot and pupate in the soil. After one to two weeks, adults emerge. If warmweather or an early carrot crop has permitted the adults to mature early enoughin the summer, some second-generation eggs and larvae may occur. In warm areas second-generation injuryis more common.

Management of Carrot Weevil

Monitoring the activity of carrot weevil adults is aneffective means of determining the level of weevils. Wooden-plate orcarrot-root sections placed in the soil can be used to monitor adult activity,starting at the time of seeding.

Carrot weevil adults rarely fly and therefore the insectdoes not spread rapidly. Its presence in a particular location should beevident for a season or two before it builds up to serious levels. Developmentof a serious infestation can be delayed by not planting carrots on or adjacentto sites that were infested the preceding year.

Creating A Beautiful World

2012-01-06T15:58:00.000-08:00

We have powerful minds. What we envision leads us toward our future.

What we envision inspires others.

So envision the world you want to live in. Envision beauty all around, tell others about it and propel yourself towards it.

Simple Steps Towards Changing Reality

The dream of a new reality is the first step towards a new reality.

Next your dream gives birth to visions and new ideas.

What follows are plans for the future based on these visions and ideas.

Finally, we turn these plans into physical actions.

These actions can be broken up into simple steps to get from where we are now to where we wish to be.

These simple steps allow us to create reality out of our dreams.

We are doing this every moment of our existence.

I choose to be actively aware of where I am going and take conscious steps towards the future I envision. The more I actively participate, the happier I am with where I am going.

How about you? Are you actively participating in creating a beautiful world? Tell me about it.

Alternative Medicine In Trouble Again

2011-12-30T11:15:00.000-08:00

1. Medical Docs are trying to get rid of their competition again. They are out to put Chiropractors and Naturopaths out of business using their usual excuse of "danger". Talk about danger, have they looked in the mirror? The AMA was proven guilty of an illegal conspiracy against the chiropractic profession in September of 1987, and it slowed them down, BUT they have found loopholes in the law and are back at their old tricks again. Here is a great link about what is going on.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/12/30/rethinking-medical-associations-best-interests.aspx?e_cid=20111230_DNL_art_1

2. In Oregon, the Oregon Health Plan is being overhauled and although Naturopaths have been covered in the past, due to a lack of indicating their coverage in the new bill, they may no longer be covered in the future. We need to contact the Oregon Health Authority by January 3rd to ask them to language in the bill that includes Naturopaths. You can get a brief explanation of this at the following link and can send an email from this page to ask for Naturopathic coverage. Even if you are not on the Oregon Health Plan, many people are. Take a moment to help them.

http://www.oanp.org/?page=advocacy

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14 states introduced GMO bills in 2011. Learn more here:

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/14-states-have-gmo-label-bills-call-your-state-reps/

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