We are all Healers ~ Creating Enhanced Winter Immunity with Diet not Drugs!

I wish I'd taken this gorgeous photo, but I did not. It's true origins are unknown.

In the 18th century, there wasn't much recourse against a horrid epidemic of influenza, staph or plague except for holistic methods of keeping the body as strong and resilient as possible. Herbs, spices,onions, garlic, barks, tinctures, soups and distillations were the medicines of the day. Steam to open the sinuses and lungs, poultices, plasters and teas were used as first line medical defense and many of these are still methods that I and many other herbalists and aromatherapists use today.  

Jump forward into the 21st century and once again it’s flu season.  This year it’s taken on a whole different meaning as we face the possibility of so many of the dangerous new strains of influenza that are emerging. I’m no different than any of you reading this and I worry endlessly about my families health and wellbeing. I work hard during these months to make sure that everyone's immune system is  as strong as possible. 

I really avoid most drugs, unless its imperative that I take an antibiotic for my very survival! Instead, I prefer to hedge my bets by strengthening my immune system through the foods that I eat and the supplements that I use. I'm a firm believer that real health is inextricably linked to good digestion and elimination. Keeping those systems healthy is truly your first line of defense against most virulent strains of staph , strep or influenza. You owe it to yourself right now to begin to eat foods that move quickly through you, strengthening you and helping you fight off infection powerfully  as a result of the natural ability that our bodies have to fend off disease. 

During the winter I’m constantly replenishing my stores of Echinacea and goldenseal, Vitamins B and D , elderberry tablets and  essential oils.  Oil of oregano is a must for any medicine cabinet as it's not only a vital germicide, but can help to control a stubborn candida infection. I’ve discovered that if I begin to take elderberry tablets at the beginning of the flu season that I feel very well protected, no matter who I come in contact with. Drinking steaming mugs of green tea sweetened with honey instead of my usual coffee always helps me to replenish the much needed moisture robbed daily from my skin by the bitter dry winds and artificial heating sources found in my home.

I also make a fragrant yet powerful blend of oils that I love, equal parts clove, cinnamon, lemon, eucalyptus, rosemary, white thyme and oregano to use in many ways.  This is my own variation of the famed 4 Thieves Vinegar, which is legendary  among herbalists and perfumers! Rumor has it that during the Black Plague,  the most successful corpse robbers were the perfumers who figured out that the essential oils that they used rendered them impervious to the virulent germs.  They were later caught and hung, but not before they were forced to give up their secrets!

Try to make this for yourself because mixed with white vinegar and put into a spray bottle it will become a potent antibacterial to use either as a room spray or surface spray for your entire home. Used in a diffuser, this oil blend creates a continuous line of defense against most airborne viruses that it comes in contact with. It’s a little too strong for most forms of personal use, but I will mix a few drops with some fresh vitamin E oil and massage the bottoms of the feet with it and then putting a pair of clean cuddly socks to help the oils soak in.  That treatment coupled with a bowl of garlic miso soup with a bit of tofu and a warm mug of cayenne, cinnamon, honey and lemon tea can have me up and out again in a day! Speaking of cinnamon, I love to keep a pot of honey that I've literally stuffed with powdered ceylon (not cassia) cinnamon in the pantry. Just a spoonful of this delicious nectar can help soothe a scratchy throat or a cough very quickly and stirred into some hot water can provide simple nourishment when you're just not feeling like eating much.  

Because there is so much temptation to overindulge during the holidays, our bodies can become very overloaded with sugar and complex carbohydrates, the end result being an overload of yeast that builds up in the body, causing some very difficult problems including skin rashes, joint aches and pains and a heavily compromised immune system that is even more susceptible than usual to the nasty bugs that are generously present in our daily environment.

Now is the time for a good cleansing, but generally not of the fasting sort. If you’re anything like me, the bitter chill of the winter winds make that nearly an impossibility.   Instead I prefer to treat my body to simple meals based upon mostly seasonally available foods and herbs that are designed to gently cleanse and invigorate .  For example,  I love to poach leeks and serve them with homemade mustard sauce and I make a homemade raw beet borscht with fresh dill, diced onions, cooked turnips and rutabaga that is a surefire remedy for adding iron to your diet and  cleansing the blood. 

Vegetarian curries with cumin, ginger, garlic and tumeric  can provide the warmth needed to rebalance the digestion and hot spicy salsas and moles made with chiles , dark chocolate, cinnamon and chipotle are another winter treat that those of us north of the border can use to fend off the blues of seasonal affective disorder and stay warm as toast all winter!  I love a simple roasted chicken  or  vegetarian cutlet   dressed with a spicy mole sauce and  served with cumin scented black beans and a salad of fresh blood orange, jicama, pomegranate seeds with a red wine vinegar and oil dressing.  A meal like this can bring the sunshine back to me in an instant!

Soups are really easy to make and a good homemade bone  broth is a wonderful foundation for creating all kinds of foods that promote healing. To make a good bone broth, start with fresh spring water or chicken broth and either a chicken cut into pieces or a pot roast (bone in). Organic  and free range please! Then add onions, garlic, carrots, celery , beets, leeks, root vegetables, garlic, kale…you get the picture. It doesn’t have to be pretty to be delicious and fortifying.  Quite often depending upon my mood I’ll add a bottle of red wine or some fresh apple cider.  Many times I’ll use a chicken and pot roast together and sometimes I won’t use meat at all choosing instead several varieties of seaweed, seafood and shellfish. 

The rest is simple.  Put it all into a stockpot and simmer for at least 6 hours. Making a good meat based broth does take some time but its well worth the wait. You’ll have to skim what is known as the “scum” off of it several times, but this added step will result in a clearer stock. I love to add healing herbs and spices to mine, particularly cinnamon sticks, ginger root, cayenne and star anise for warmth.  When it’s done remove the meat and the vegetables and put them aside to reserve for a later meal. Serving either the chicken or beef with a sauce of fresh horseradish or mustard is another way to raise the digestive fires needed for warmth at this ever so chilly time of year. Then strain the stock and give yourself the pleasure of putting some of the hot broth into a mug with a bit of salt and a squeeze of fresh lemon. Bon Appetit'! The end result after refrigeration of the broth will that the stock will be jellied...a sure sign that all of the nutrition, has been taken from the bones and put into the stock! So delicious and so good for you! 

 Vegetarian broth will cook faster and you won’t have as much foam to remove but the end result will be just as delicious and fortifying! Add a bit of miso, green onion, cubed tofu and shitake mushroom to a vegetarian broth to make a satisfying tonic to revitalize and replenish the vitamins and minerals that are lost through the simple stress of everyday living.  Either of these stocks can be used as a base for many different delicious soups like a spicy chicken chili, lentil or white bean with kale, squash and sweet potato.The only other thing needed  for either of these meals could be a simple green salad with a bit of lemon juice and oil and a lovely glass of red wine.  

If you’re really cleansing, avoid heavily processed cheese and bread for now and any other complex carbs like rice or pasta that can really clog up your system. During this time I try to stay away from regular white fleshed potatoes because they convert to sugars so quickly and without the more complete nutrition of  yams or sweet potato. You won’t regret abstaining from them for a week or two and you might discover that your body doesn’t rely on them as much to create energy after a time. See if you can avoid coffee or black tea for this time period and allow your body to begin to rest and heal for a bit without artificial stimulation. Your stress may even go away, enabling your body to begin to relax,heal and regenerate.  

 For some, green tea may even be too much, so instead drink a cup of hot water with a teaspoon of good olive oil, honey or agave,  with some lemon squeezed into it to cleanse, nourish and revitalize your liver.  I would be willing to bet that after a week or two of eating  clean , nourishing meals that you begin to find renewed stores of energy and creativity as well as vastly improved immunity and health. 

 Eating simple wonderful food that you've prepared brings you in contact with your native wisdom and intrinsic needs. Although I don't eat much meat anymore because it depletes my energy, it may be the very thing needed to help you heal. Listen carefully to your body, feed it well and it will reward you with many years of balanced energy and health!

Milady's Pantry ~ Hearth and Home

“I woke just past dawn to the scratching of the rose brier against the window, and the muffled thump and clang of breakfast fixing in the kitchen below. Peering over Jamie’s sleeping form, I saw that the fire was dead out. I slid out of bed, quietly so as not to wake him. The floorboards were icy under my feet and I reached, shivering, for the first available garment.
Swathed in the folds of Jamie’s shirt, I knelt on the hearth and went about the laborious business of rekindling the fire, thinking rather wistfully that I might have included a box of safety matches in the short list of items I had thought worthwhile to bring. Striking sparks from a flint to catch kindling does work, but not usually on the first try. Or the second. Or …
Somewhere around the dozenth attempt, I was rewarded by a tiny black spot on the twist of tow I was using for kindling. It grew at once and blossomed into a tiny flame. I thrust it hastily but carefully beneath the little tent of twigs I had prepared, to shelter the blooming flame from the cold breeze.”

Excerpt From: Diana Gabaldon. “Voyager.”  

As I've said many a time before, my favorite scenes from Outlander always seem to be in a kitchen, around a cooking fire, in a bedroom with a peat fire and stone hearth or in a parlor replete with brandy, tea or oatcakes! The act of breaking bread together in and of itself is an act of bonding and creating community; add a fire and you've added a generous measure of warmth and safety. 

Over the years many have asked me about Emily, my old wood fired stove. Here she is in all of her glory! She's a good old fashioned Dutch West cast iron workhorse capable of going up past 1000 degrees really quickly once you fire up the catalytic converter!  When we left our farm in Burton, I couldn't bear to leave her there, so I uninstalled her and now she lives with good friends of ours who enjoy her warmth on a regular basis. 

At this point I've written about Emily  so many times that she's begun to really have a persona of her own. I loved sharing life with her,  she was the provider of many a fine breakfast, lunch and dinner at Windesphere when the power would go out. On evenings without heat, we'd curl up with our blankets and pillows,  lay down around her (cats and dogs too!), watch the flames dance and wake up in the morning safe and toasty warm.

Even when the power didn't go out, I'd still wake up on a cold morning and cook pancakes and bacon on top of her broad hot shoulders. The best oatmeal in the world is oatmeal that you've put on the night before in a cast iron pot, set on top of the warming stand on a woodstove and allowed to simmer gently though the night. Add cinnamon, raisins and whatever spices you want and you've not only got breakfast, you've got warm and spicy potpourri!

 These days, although I've moved into the city, I'm all about inspiring others to create as much self sufficiency  as possible and for me a woodstove is one of the most important things that you can ever install in your home. When the power goes out and you need drinking water you can boil it, when the power goes out and you need food and warmth guess what? Just fire up the stove and you're as cozy as can be. Everyone should have the experience of cooking with fire at least once, if not for any other reason than to just know that it can be done and besides...there's no better pot of chili , vegetable soup or chicken and dumplings in the world than when they are cooked slowly on a stove just like this! 

I hadn't seen her in over 8 years but we went out into the country a while back to have dinner with our old neighbors and there she was, logs a~blazing, standing stalwart in the corner and heating their home as capably as she'd ever done ours. It was so good to bask in her warmth again and furthered my resolve to have a smaller version of her placed in my home by next winter. 

If you're interested in a stove of your own grab a cup of tea and biscuit with jam and cozy up to Lehman Brothers and have a look around! You'll find all kinds of wonderful things to bring joy to your homesteading heart!

The Art of Fine Cookery ~ Apple Butter & Oatmeal

“We had wakened in the dark after moonset, leaf-spattered, twig-strewn, bug-bitten, and stiff with cold. We had said not a word to each other, but laughing and staggering drunkenly, stumbling over roots and stones, had helped each other through the moonless wood and made our way back to bed for an hour’s brief sleep before dawn.
I leaned over his shoulder now and deposited a bowl of oatmeal in front of him, pausing to pluck an oak leaf from his hair. I laid it on the table beside his bowl.
He turned his head, a smile hiding in his eyes, caught my hand and kissed it lightly. He let me go, and went back to his parritch. I touched the back of his neck, and saw the smile spread to his mouth.”

Excerpt From: Diana Gabaldon. “Drums of Autumn.”

I spent a wonderful day last week making apple butter and many of my readers asked for the recipe. Normally, the best way to make apple butter is over a hot wood fire, apples simmering away for hours in a large copper cauldron with pats of butter added and lots of brown sugar and cinnamon to finish. Lacking the 50 gallon cauldron and the woodfire, I've devised another method that works well. I use my slow cooker (which is a cauldron of sorts!) and it works verra weel!

All you do is take a bushel of apples  and dice them. You can peel them if you like and that makes a smoother apple butter, but my family loves the peels so I leave them on. I put them in the slow cooker until the pot is full and then I add about 2 cups of sweet cider, about 1/2 a cup of chopped crystallized ginger, a lot of cinnamon, 1 cup of bourbon or single malt and at least three cups of brown sugar. Then I turn the crock pot on low and I use the 10 hour setting. I watch it and stir occasionally and at a pat of butter every once in a while which keeps the foam down. As the mixture "melts" down, I add more apples and brown sugar. I let it cook for about 18 hours on low, stirring and tasting as I go.

At about the 14th hour I add about a cup and a half of maple syrup and 3 tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice and stir. Then let it continue to cook for several more hours. You'll know it's done because it will have turned a lovely color (rich caramel) and will smell absolutely wonderful. Cooking it for that long concentrates the flavors and produces a butter that is absolutely delectable. Right before it's done, I add a tablespoon of smoked paprika. This adds a touch of smoky wildness that I love!

You can use your apple butter in so many ways......on hot buttered biscuits, waffles, pancakes, as a filling with fresh apples for pie or on oatmeal as I've done here with brown sugar, cinnamon, walnuts and fresh butter. It's a bit like having dessert for breakfast! A steaming cup of coffee with cinnamon or a delectable cinnamon tea seals the deal!
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The Art of Fine Cookery ~ Sugar Maple Pie

Although Maple Syrup was not really a product that North Carolina was ever noted for producing, there were definitely small pockets in the mountain regions where the sap was collected and boiled down. I love to think that Claire would definitely have known of the pleasures of Maple syrup and so did the Mohawk that they would have encountered in their travels. This is my "go to" pie when I want to bring a gift that I know will please almost everyone. The warm , buttery sweet flavor is exquisite and I wonder if  perhaps Mrs. Bug would have made this pie on special occasions for the household. Make sure that you serve it warm and with freshly whipped cream!

Below is the Mohawk Legend ~ "The Origins of Maple Syrup"

"Long ago, when human beings were new in the eastern part of Turtle Island, they barely lived through the long winters, their bodies and spirits weakened by the cold and dark.  Though they worked to gather and preserve enough food for the winter it was not enough to keep them well and strong. The Creator saw the sadness of the people so he decided to ask the tree nation if there was something which could be done to restore their happiness.  The leader of the trees, the maple, offered to give its blood to the people so they may be restored to good health.  So it was, that at the end of the winter months the sap flowed freely from the maple. The sap was dark and sweet, a syrup which the people drank after putting basswood tubes into the trees so the precious fluid went into their pots almost without effort.

Satisfied that the people were once again happy and strong the Creator left to attend to his duties in other worlds.

Some time passed before the Creator was able to return to this world. It was once again the end of winter with snow still on the ground.  He went to one of the villages only to find it empty, the longhouses cold with only ashes in the fire pits. He saw that there were tracks leading into the nearby woods which he followed.

Soon he came upon a maple bush and there, scattered about on the ground were the people, with wooden tubes connecting the maples and their mouths.  They were drinking the syrup from the trees until they could no longer stand. Even their dogs were laying on the ground,their paws raised to the sky with their own tubes into the trees.  The Creator saw that the people were ragged and the children uncared for.  He was very upset.  He aroused them from their slumber and said that he would change the way in which the syrup was to be taken from the trees. No longer would it flow brown and thick but he people would have to make offerings to the maples, tap its sap and then work to make it into syrup and then sugar.  By doing so they would come to appreciate this great gift. 

Since that time the Mohawks watch the maples and when they notice the sap is flowing during the last weeks of winter they will gather at the longhouse to celebrate this great gift which renews their bodies and lifts their spirits. In Mohawk, maple sap/syrup is called wahta ohses. The people are glad when this happens for they know spring is returning to the earth as the eldest brother (the sun) brings the warmer days."

Sugar Maple Pie

Ingredients: 

One pie crust to line an 8-inch glass pie plate ~ surprisingly, a prebaked gluten free crust really provides a nice contrast of texture, crunch and flavor for this particular pie!

2 eggs, room temperature

1Ž2 c. heavy cream 

1 2/3 c. packed brown sugar

1/3 real maple syrup (preferably dark amber)

2 tsp. unsalted butter, melted

Method:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Whisk together eggs and brown sugar until creamy. (I use electric beaters.) Add cream, maple syrup and melted butter. Beat until smooth. Pour into prepared pie shell. Bake at 350°

F oven for 55 – 60 minutes until crust is golden and filling still quivers. It will set as it cools. Very rich – serve with freshly whipped cream.

Note: a larger pie pan will require partially baking the crust. To do that, line the crust with aluminum foil and weight it down with pie weights. Usually 400 degrees for 10 minutes will be enough.

You need to make two. It's usually gone immediately.