Simple & Natural Cures From The Garden

Posted on February 13, 2023 by Ann Lovejoy
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Sunny calendulas make excellent salve and bees adore them

Colds, Flu, and Covid

Oh sigh, it’s chicken soup time again (a vegetarian version works too). Despite (or maybe because of) the general relaxing of pandemic rules and prohibitions, a lot of people are still getting sick. Fortunately, vaccinations and all those boosters seem to be quite helpful in reducing the impact of covid; my younger friends and neighbors who have or had it recently say it’s not much different from a cold. However, many friends closer to my age say covid is more like a flu. Mild or nasty, nobody is calling it fun. Besides covid, there are other virulent viruses making the rounds locally. Since my daughter and I both have allergies to alder and hazel pollen, we’re also appreciating the soup, since our symptoms aren’t that different. Headache, earache, scratchy throat, drizzly nose, itchy eyes, ick, right?

I was recently gifted with delicious chicken broth proudly made by a younger friend who raised the chicken herself. The soup it made was incredibly tasty and made me feel truly nurtured. With so many covid- and flu-stricken friends and neighbors, soup is simmering daily around here. So are a few other garden-based home remedies, from tea mixtures and gargles to a comforting skin salve. I especially love that these traditional treatments are as much or even more effective than many over-the-counter medications (which often include ingredients I can do without).

Remedies From The Garden

Even in this chilly month (as freezing weather continues), my hardy garden herbs are providing wholesome ingredients to use in comforting teas, soups, and gargles. My kitchen pantry supplies the rest of my remedy ingredients and I can feel the effectiveness of these gentle treatments almost immediately. For instant relief, a dab of organic coconut oil will soothe a raw, sore nose or chapped lips. A steeped mixture of organic coconut oil and calendula leaves cured my granddaughter’s chaffed and itching wrists helps heal the rosacea that painfully flushes my face beet red for a raft of reasons, from wind and rain to warmth and wine (dang). To make it, steep 1 cup of organic calendula petals (available online or from your own garden) in 1 cup of warm (melted) organic coconut oil in a crockpot or double boiler over low heat for 3-4 hours, then strain out the petals. Store the golden salve in small canning jars and seal the lids so the salve stays fresh until you’re ready to use it.

Every time I go outside, I wash my eyes and brows with organic baby shampoo to remove the pollen that clings to hairs. Through the day, I cover my itchy eyes with warm, wet (usually used) black tea bags covered with a hot compress while I enjoy a mini break or a tiny snooze. Whether you feel sick or just tired, it’s energetically helpful to drink plenty of hot herbal teas (ginger, chamomile, yarrow and peppermint are all good ones), hopefully resting while you sip. My favorite part of such time honored techniques is that they reduce unpleasant symptoms not by masking them but by promoting a cure. Our bodies WANT to be in balance, and when we help them help themselves, positive changes can come quickly.

Help From The Sea

Long, long ago, we came from the sea, and our bodies hold our own personal salt water seas to this day. Thus, sea salt is a very natural balancer for our systems, but sadly, most sea salt contains micro plastics. It’s a good idea to use sourced sea salts from pristine environments, such as Redmond or Himalayan sea salts, both mined from ancient (thus pre-plastic) seabeds. Salty water’s not optimal for drinking, but this simple gargling solution quickly eases a sore throat and rids your throat of the post-nasal-drip gunge that can turn into a bacterial swamp. Do this several times a day, or at least when you wake up and before you go to sleep. A salty water swish is also helpful for improving gum health and rinsing teeth after a meal as well. Vinegar is also beneficial for your mouth and digestive system, whether you rinse with it or drink it (always well diluted!).

Sea Salt Gargle

1 cup warm water
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Stir well and gargle with a small amount, spitting copiously and unattractively in the privacy of the bathroom. And shut the door, unless you live alone, in which case your pets will probably be fascinated and want to play too.

Apple Cider Gargle Or Sinus Swig

1 tablespoon organic apple cider
1 cup (or more) water, hot or cold

Use warm water and gargle (spitting as above) if your throat stays sore for more than a day. If your sinuses get involved, drink this stuff hot or cold every hour or two while awake to help battle both bacteria and viruses. Taken before or after meals, it’s a fine aid to good digestion. This combo also stops acid reflux almost immediately for many folks, who take it at bedtime to prevent uncomfortable nights.

Those Helpful Onions

When you’re fighting off colds or flu, the allium clan, notably garlic and onions, offer speedy aid. The classic chicken soup remedy definitely still works, but happily for vegetarians is that chicken broth is not the magic ingredient; onions and steam are what do your body good. Other vegetables will also help, so add whatever appeals to you (kale and sweet potatoes, for instance). Pureed soups are easier on sore throats, and naturally antibiotic herbs like thyme and rosemary are less irritating than pepper, though a little smoked paprika offers body and depth as well as a little bite. Nutritional yeast is high in protein and has a cheesy-nutty flavor that gives vegetarian dishes a savory, umami quality.

Garden Powered Super Soup

1 tablespoon olive or avocado oil
2 large white or yellow onions, chopped
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon stemmed thyme or oregano, minced
1 teaspoon stemmed rosemary, minced
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cups chopped kale or cabbage (or both)
1 purple or golden potato, chopped
1/4 cup flaked nutritional yeast
1/4 cup stemmed parsley or cilantro
1 lime or lemon, quartered

In a soup pot, combine oil, onions, and garlic over medium heat and cook to the fragrance point (1-2 minutes). Add salt, herbs, and vegetables, reduce heat to medium low, cover the pan and sweat the vegetables for 8-10 minutes. Add water to cover all (4-6 cups), bring to a simmer and simmer until all is tender (about 20 minutes). Breathe in the steam as it cooks! Puree with a stick blender if you want a smooth soup, stir in nutritional yeast and serve hot, garnished with parsley or cilantro and a squeeze of citrus. Serves 3-4.

To your health and wellbeing!

Adding more vegetables makes soup even better

 

 

Posted in Care & Feeding, Edible Flowers, Hardy Herbs, Health & Wellbeing, Nutrition, Pollination Gardens, Recipes, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living, Vegan Recipes | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Power Of Natural Magic

Posted on February 7, 2023 by Ann Lovejoy
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When losing a tooth was cause for celebration…

Remembering Wonder

Since the continuing rain and bitter winds are still limiting my outdoor time, my fleeting glimpses of the garden feel more precious than ever. Because I’m not out there every day, the progress of buds poking through the soil and early blooms, battered yet bravely opening, seems more dramatic and noteworthy than in gentler years. It feels both exciting and triumphant to find a crop of little tiny Lewisia babies coming up eagerly next to their mamas, something I was hoping for when I poked the seedheads in the soil instead of the compost last summer. I’m still filled with wonder when I see seeds sprouting and new plants forming; it feels like natural magic every time. Talking yesterday with a young friend who’s pregnant, we mused about the similarities of tiny beings forming in our bodies, just as buds become blossoms and possibly fruit. That too feels like natural magic, as does observing the emergence of a new baby from its mother’s womb, an experience that takes my breath away every time.

Since I’m only seeing my grandkids once or twice a week now that they’ve moved, it’s easier to notice their small shifts in development too. We were brushing our teeth at bedtime recently when we heard a little click and my grandson realized that his long-loose tooth had finally fallen out. Today he was very excited to show me the blank spot where another tooth fell out last night at dinner. Having lost a tooth myself last year, it struck me as amusing that for him, losing a tooth is wonderful and something to celebrate, while for me, it feels a little dire, like the looming edge of a slippery slope. I was fairly amazed to learn last week from my granddaughter (whose teeth are also going fast) that the going rate for teeth is now $5 (getting mine extracted cost a good deal more than that!). The poor Tooth Fairy must be going broke! When I told them that back in my day, the going rate was a dime, my daughter chimed in that in HER day, it was a quarter. My grandson also weighed in, saying that he only got a dollar last time, which sparked parental negotiations later….

Now We Are Seven

I was also a bit taken aback to see my granddaughter arrive with purple hair last week. Apparently her city cousins had celebrated her seventh birthday by going to a nearby salon where the three girls had their hair bleached in streaks and dyed. She reported having had a wonderful time with them; I truly can’t even imagine experiencing such an event when I was her age, though I suspect hair products are far gentler, safer and less smelly than they were back in the day. Several of my friends dye or streak their hair in vivid colors quite often, happily noting that going grey or white means they’ve now got a perfect palette to paint on; no need to bleach first and the colors really shine. Now there’s a win-win!

Another win-win is having the kids for an unexpected extra day after school, as happened this afternoon. Ever since the family started the big move, we’ve been working on big banners to fasten to the ceilings in their new rooms. Today, they’re busily painting their drawings using all sorts of media, including several colors of glow-in-the-dark paint. They’ve also made some smaller experimental versions for my ceiling, featuring flowers and shells, owls, cedar trees, stars and planets, and more. After we had a conversation about making space and feeling spacious a few weeks ago, they came up with a mysterious galaxy of space creatures to gaze at as we all fall asleep. Looking at the softly glowing stars and moons helps me coax my busy brain into peaceful paths where nature’s magic leads my imagination to wild and wonderful places. Onward, right?

Space; The Final Frontier

 

 

 

Posted in Crafting With Children, Health & Wellbeing, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

First Flowers

Posted on February 1, 2023 by Ann Lovejoy
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Hardy cyclamen and snowdrops cheer up bleak winter days

Snowdrops Never Fail

Brrr! This feels like the coldest winter in a long time, and it’s been hanging on for longer than usual as well. I know, people back east would be telling me to SHUT UP but here in the maritime Northwest, winters are generally quite mild. January usually brings the warming Chinook winds and the average daytime winter temperature is (or was) 44 degrees. That feels quite comfortable as long as you’re moving around, and I’ve been able to garden all winter in a light vest or sweater for decades. This year, every time there’s a sun break, I rush hopefully out to do a little light tidying in the garden troughs but it continues to be so cold, with such bitter winds, that I can’t stay out very long before my fingers go numb.

Yesterday, despite grey skies and icy wind, I couldn’t stand to stay indoors a minute longer and went out to see what if anything was showing signs of life. Sadly, there isn’t much; even the hellebores are holding back far longer than usual, though a few buds are barely emerging here and there. As always, there are a few calendula blossoms trying to open, though dwarfed by the cold. The only flowers that look fresh and crisp are the stalwart snowdrops, which never fail to appear in January, bravely emerging through snow and ice in the coldest places.

Bringing Bulbs Back

Though some snowdrops are native to Europe, others found their way into English gardens through the challenges of war. Old English gardening books are full of stories about soldiers returning from battles in the Middle East bringing unusual forms of snowdrop back to England. It’s hard to imagine modern soldiers gathering bulbs; over the last two centuries, soldiering has changed quite a lot. Apparently back then, people in various military services overseas found time to explore the hills and mountains and plains. When they noticed interesting variations on plants familiar from home gardens, they sketched them and often brought them back to England. Old English memoirs and novels often mention the practice in village schools of nature observation. Children were encouraged to gather wildflowers, nuts, berries and lovely leaves for the ‘nature tables’ set up in many a classroom, and elementary students often kept nature journals and sketchbooks as well. These days, children at Waldorf schools still do this and for some of them at least, the practice of nature observation opens their eyes to the beauties of the natural world for life. What a gift!

My own children, and now my grandkids always collect interesting seedpods, catkins, lichen-covered sticks, colorful or skeletonized leaves and other bits and pieces, not just from woods and meadows but even as we walk around the neighborhood. They like to bring them home to play with, draw, or simply admire, and as their own pockets are fairly small, such things usually end up in my more capacious pockets. Indeed, I’ve often discovered an overlooked chestnut or slightly squishy berry when doing laundry (checking pockets has become a strong habit as so many things that do NOT belong in the laundry end up in pockets).

Children naturally see art in nature

Snowdrops Persist

After so many house moves, my once-large snowdrop collection has dwindled, but I have the satisfaction of knowing that their legacy lives on wherever I’ve lived. Snowdrops, like crocus, are good naturalizers, spreading slowly but surely as long as their foliage is allowed to ripen before they go dormant. They can spread and persist for decades, even centuries, despite adversity; when a friend who lives on the site of a century-old former nursery cleared the neglected land of its heavy ivy blanket, he discovered thousands of snowdrops covering half an acre or more.

In this tiny garden, I’m only growing common snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, but they’re very lovely, common or not. The outer petals have the substance and texture of slubbed silk, while the inner petals are marked on their fronts with green fish or hearts and neatly penciled with green lines or dots on the inside. For all their delicacy of modeling, their toughness is impressive. On a cold morning after a hard frost, the flowers collapse, seemingly melted to mush. A few hours later, the (relatively) warming sun revives them and they rise again, crisp and fragrant. That example of endurance and resilience is especially welcome in these chilling times; despite freezing weather or smothering blanket of choking, oppressive ivy, these lovely little bulbs, seemingly so fragile, persist. Onward, right?

Posted in Crafting With Children, Gardening With Children, Health & Wellbeing, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Finding Spaciousness In Small Spaces

Posted on January 24, 2023 by Ann Lovejoy
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There’s always room for one more

Making Space

As the new year rolls on, I’ve been thinking a lot about space and spaciousness, inside and out. For starters, after years of living larger, this sweet little house still seems so small to me and I was worried about cramming in four more people when my family makes a mid-week overnight pit stop to take a break from their long commute. However, right across the street, an even smaller place is happily housing a family of four, including energetic twin 8 year old boys, as well as their friend who has lived there for many years. Long ago he made a tiny house-ish addition where various home sharers lived off and on. Now he lives there himself while the young family uses the main house, where they fitted two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room and a kitchen in a space smaller than my former bedroom in our Big House. They’re happy to be here after living under a terrifying political regime in Venezuela and they find that little house to be a haven of peace and comfort.

Happily, a little burst of New Year reorganizing has created some new places to be in our small house, some of them very fun. After moving so many times in recent years, once my daughter and I got here, we set the house up to our satisfaction and pretty much called it good. Four years later, looking at the space with fresh eyes helped us try new configurations of furniture that allowed unsuspected spaces to open up. My creative grandkids have some appealing ideas for making cozy corners to sleep in, places so fun to inhabit that the kids decided to trade off each week so they get a chance to be tucked in to each sweet spot. By day, we now stack four mattresses on our little daybed, making a princess-and-the-pea-sized pile that doubles as an indoor slide when the kids are feeling frisky. The cats also love to scale the heights and survey their territory from on high, admiring the improved view of busy birds in the garden.

Interior Enlargement

Things are opening up inside me as well. I’m co-facilitating a large-ish Senior Center book group as part of the all-island social justice book club and steering that rich, deep conversation is being a good way to stretch my own ideas and put my imagination to work. We are reading STAMPED: Racism, Antiracism and You, a Young Adult version of Ibram X. Kendi’s STAMPED From The Beginning “remixed’ by Jason Reynolds. It’s an engaging book that offers many talking points which spark great conversations and interior dialogs as well. Realizing yet again how much my own world view has been shaped by twisted history is prompting yet another round of personal revisioning.

During my girlhood years, New England’s colonial history was presented as progressive and positive, with happy stories about helpful, generous Indians eager to share their land (!). Even as a kid, that seemed unlikely, on a par with the cheerful, smiling turkeys we made for Thanksgiving table decorations in elementary school art class. Despite growing up in a time of great social turbulence and feeling ardently opposed to much of American foreign and national policy for most of my life, I still bump into pockets of resistance, finding little nuggets of racism hidden away in my thoughts and beliefs.

Cut Off Or Welcome In

That kind of sudden self knowledge can trigger deep defensiveness, a common response that can shut down a conversation right quick. My family of origin was big on emotional cut offs; cross one of us and you are history, with no recourse and no second chance. Such a moment of insight, however uncomfortable, can also offer an opportunity to open up our inner doors and windows and let in some fresh air and brighter light. When I feel that defensiveness kick in for myself and others,I’m finding it useful to step back and take a breath. Instead of calling out our mistakes in a shaming or blaming way, it feels more useful and healing to simply sit with that very human behavior a bit. That makes space for considering how rearranging our mental and emotional furniture might make room for more light and fresh air. Onward, right?

Posted in Health & Wellbeing, Social Justice, Sustainable Living | 5 Comments