Table of Contents
65
4 Start a Self-Sufficient,
1-Acre Homestead
Life off the land with these strategies for establishing self-sufficient food production.
9 Live Simply:
Save Money, Smile More!
Live with less cash income but great security and life satisfaction.
14 Self-Reliance is
a Family Affair
The Atwell family is working together to build a homestead haven in Hawaii.
21
1-2 TOC.indd 1
16 27 All-Time Best Tips
for Living on Less
Mother Earth News readers share their tips for wiser living.
21 Seed Starting Made Simple Starting seeds indoors is a sure cure for the restlessness that plagues gardeners during the off-season.
24 Sourcing Truly High-
Quality Garden Seeds
The pros and cons of heirloom, hybrid, and open-pollinated varieties.
39
30 Best Staple Crops
for Building Food Self-Sufficiency
Grow these ten space-efficient, calorie-rich staple crops that return high yields and store easily.
36 Choosing a Greenhouse
Grow food for the table – and the spirit – any time of the year.
39 Small-Space Gardening
Growing food in small spaces can be fun and productive.
COVER PHOTOGRAPH: GETTTY IMAGES / REIMPHOTO
This Ontario home is powered by sun, wind, and wood, and consumes almost zero fossil fuels.
The MOTHER EARTH NEWS Guide to Self-Reliance and Country Skills
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Table of Contents
65
4 Start a Self-Sufficient,
1-Acre Homestead
Life off the land with these strategies for establishing self-sufficient food production.
9 Live Simply:
Save Money, Smile More!
Live with less cash income but great security and life satisfaction.
14 Self-Reliance is
a Family Affair
The Atwell family is working together to build a homestead haven in Hawaii.
21
1-2 TOC.indd 1
16 27 All-Time Best Tips
for Living on Less
Mother Earth News readers share their tips for wiser living.
21 Seed Starting Made Simple Starting seeds indoors is a sure cure for the restlessness that plagues gardeners during the off-season.
24 Sourcing Truly High-
Quality Garden Seeds
The pros and cons of heirloom, hybrid, and open-pollinated varieties.
39
30 Best Staple Crops
for Building Food Self-Sufficiency
Grow these ten space-efficient, calorie-rich staple crops that return high yields and store easily.
36 Choosing a Greenhouse
Grow food for the table – and the spirit – any time of the year.
39 Small-Space Gardening
Growing food in small spaces can be fun and productive.
COVER PHOTOGRAPH: GETTTY IMAGES / REIMPHOTO
This Ontario home is powered by sun, wind, and wood, and consumes almost zero fossil fuels.
The MOTHER EARTH NEWS Guide to Self-Reliance and Country Skills
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54 44 Backyard Chicken Basics
They’re less work than house pets and more fun than a tire swing.
49 Raising Chickens for Meat Want to ensure that the chicken on your plate was raised and processed humanely? Do it yourself!
54 Want Milk? Get Goats! Dairy goats can supply your family with fresh milk inexpensively.
59 How to Make Your Own
Yogurt, Kefir, and Cheese
Tap the health benefits of rich, tangy fermented milk products.
61 Make Your Own Gas:
Alcohol Fuel Basics
Produce ethanol on a small scale and enjoy the many benefits of this homegrown, renewable fuel.
65 Living off the Grid
(And Without Propane)
This Ontario home is powered by sun, wind, and wood, and consumes almost zero fossil fuels.
88
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59 68 Solar Heating
Plan for Any Home
If you can build a deck, you have the skills to build this super solar system.
74 The No-Mortgage
Natural Cottage
From treehouses to tiny homes on wheels, a no-mortgage shelter can help you eschew expensive rent and debt.
80 Space-Saving Home Design Make your house feel bigger.
84 How to Build a Workbench Use our DIY workbench plans to create a sturdy table for woodworking and gardening projects.
88 Cast No Aspersions
on Cast Iron
Learn how to use old-fashioned cookware to its greatest advantage.
94 Easy, No-Knead
Artisan Bread
80 100 Brewing Beer: The Basics Bottle your own beer by using four ingredients and following four steps.
104 Make Your Own Hot Sauce You can approximate one of the world’s tastiest hot sauces in your home kitchen.
105 Putting Food By
the Old-Fashioned Way
Canning produces flavorful, highquality food that saves money, builds self-reliance, and creates lifelong memories.
108 Make Your Own Shampoo,
Deodorant, and Toothpaste
Save money and avoid the potentially dangerous ingredients hidden in commercial products.
110 Make Your Own
Herbal Medicine
To find ingredients for many basic herbal remedies, look no further than your backyard.
Methods guaranteed to make everyone a baker!
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54 44 Backyard Chicken Basics
They’re less work than house pets and more fun than a tire swing.
49 Raising Chickens for Meat Want to ensure that the chicken on your plate was raised and processed humanely? Do it yourself!
54 Want Milk? Get Goats! Dairy goats can supply your family with fresh milk inexpensively.
59 How to Make Your Own
Yogurt, Kefir, and Cheese
Tap the health benefits of rich, tangy fermented milk products.
61 Make Your Own Gas:
Alcohol Fuel Basics
Produce ethanol on a small scale and enjoy the many benefits of this homegrown, renewable fuel.
65 Living off the Grid
(And Without Propane)
This Ontario home is powered by sun, wind, and wood, and consumes almost zero fossil fuels.
88
1-2 TOC.indd 2
59 68 Solar Heating
Plan for Any Home
If you can build a deck, you have the skills to build this super solar system.
74 The No-Mortgage
Natural Cottage
From treehouses to tiny homes on wheels, a no-mortgage shelter can help you eschew expensive rent and debt.
80 Space-Saving Home Design Make your house feel bigger.
84 How to Build a Workbench Use our DIY workbench plans to create a sturdy table for woodworking and gardening projects.
88 Cast No Aspersions
on Cast Iron
Learn how to use old-fashioned cookware to its greatest advantage.
94 Easy, No-Knead
Artisan Bread
80 100 Brewing Beer: The Basics Bottle your own beer by using four ingredients and following four steps.
104 Make Your Own Hot Sauce You can approximate one of the world’s tastiest hot sauces in your home kitchen.
105 Putting Food By
the Old-Fashioned Way
Canning produces flavorful, highquality food that saves money, builds self-reliance, and creates lifelong memories.
108 Make Your Own Shampoo,
Deodorant, and Toothpaste
Save money and avoid the potentially dangerous ingredients hidden in commercial products.
110 Make Your Own
Herbal Medicine
To find ingredients for many basic herbal remedies, look no further than your backyard.
Methods guaranteed to make everyone a baker!
100
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Spring Flock In April 2008, I shared an order of Cornish cross chicks with my friend, Jim. Of my 10 chicks, one died the first day. The other nine spent their first couple of weeks on my porch in a borrowed brooder that kept them thermostatically correct day and night. The brooder was supposed to be their home until they feathered out — about three weeks or so — but I wanted them to enjoy green grass and sunshine as long as possible, so I started transferring them outside to the floorless A-frame coop on sunny days when they were a week old. I’d bring them back to the brooder at night. I had read that Cornish cross birds were not robust enough to handle outdoor living, but mine didn’t seem to know that. In just a few days, they were so heavy I could carry only half the flock at a time or risk breaking the bottom out of the pet carrier. After another couple of days, I could only carry three at a time. Genetically programmed for less than a two-month life span, my flock began to look elderly as they approached their eighth week. When they spied me coming with their feed bucket, they would waddle at full speed on bowed legs, their short wings flapping for an extra boost. The roosters’ rumps were conspicuously dirty from resting so often in the holes they had dug in the soft garden soil. They still sprinted to the compost pile to compete for earthworms, but the effort made them wheeze.
1
Chickens are swiftly and humanely beheaded in cones nailed to trees.
By the end of May, our Georgia weather was unseasonably hot. Even in the shade of the big hickory trees, the chickens looked so uncomfortable that I set out box fans in the afternoons. The birds jostled for position in front of the fan blades, little combs and wattles flapping in the breeze. Even though none of mine developed the leg or heart problems that can come from growing so fast, they were ready to lay it down by the time we picked a slaughter date. Dispatching our combined flock of 19 birds took less time than we expected. It was 8 a.m. when my husband, Preston, and I arrived at Jim’s farm with our little flock. Jim already
2
The birds are then scalded to make feather removal easier.
had two homemade killing cones nailed to trees, a large pot of water heating over a propane burner, and a clothesline strung between two oaks as a plucking station. He had worked in a commercial chicken processing plant as a youngster, so he taught the rest of us how to process birds according to standard food and safety guidelines. After everyone had an opportunity to try all the tasks, the most efficient process seemed to be for Jim to behead, scald, and hang them on the clothesline. His wife, Jayne, and I plucked — the most time-consuming part of the process. A tarp under the plucking station collected the feathers for easy
DIY Processing Table
My husband built an evisceration table for our group of “backyard birders.” The tabletop slopes toward the middle to form a valley that is 1 inch lower than the sides. He created a watershed by cutting the table legs on one end 2 inches shorter than the other end. Plastic water pipe, perforated with drilled holes, hangs over the top of the structure. A garden hose screws into the upper end of the pipe so that clean water continually flows over our hands, the carcasses, and the work surface. Clean plastic is stapled over the wooden tabletop on slaughter days. Because of the tilted work surface, the flowing water funnels all waste into a burlap bag or 5-gallon bucket drilled with holes that hangs from the lower end of the table. The water, tinged with blood, soaks into the ground. We set up near a fig tree so it could benefit from the nutrient-rich water.
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3
Call in the troops: Anyone, young or old, can participate in a community chicken harvest.
4
After feathers are plucked, the chickens’ innards are removed and the birds are put on ice.
cleanup. We placed the plucked birds in a large plastic barrel filled with cold water. Next stop was the evisceration table. Then we placed each bird in a cooler packed with ice. By 11:15 a.m., all the birds were on ice. A recycled feed bag held the entrails, feet, heads, and feathers with room to spare. It was three hours from start to finish, but the actual processing time was closer to two hours — Jim and Jayne had spent part of that time teaching the rest of us how to complete each step safely and thoroughly.
Fall Flock I wasn’t planning on raising another flock anytime soon, but in mid-August one of my Rhode Island Red layers went broody. I was curious as to whether this hen could take the worry and work out of raising meat chicks through the brooder stage, so I ordered some Cornish cross chicks for her. She accepted each one of the peeping fluffballs, stretching her wings wider and wider trying to cover them all. She taught them to forage in the garden, and protected them from being pecked by the other layers. When the chicks were 7 weeks old, I hosted a second chicken harvest. This one was easier for all of us because we knew what to expect.
The enhanced fragrance and flavor are rewarding enough, but the extra savings don’t hurt! WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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concentrated feed they are genetically designed to utilize without being bothered by the layer hens, the goats, or the Great Pyrenees pooch that lived with them. The nine birds in the spring flock used 31⁄2 bags of feed in their 81⁄2 weeks, including much that was wasted due to my placing the feeder too low, forgetting to protect the feeder from rain, and other management shortcomings. The second flock of three used a little more than one sack in seven weeks. That includes what the mother hen ate. Both flocks ate commercial starter/grower ration their entire lives. If I raise Cornish cross birds in the future, it seems safe to figure about one sack of feed for every three birds if I slaughter them at 7 weeks. There are many mix-your-own feed recipes in the poultry discussion lists on the Internet, but my small flocks did fine on the basic starter/grower brands available at our local feed store. Slaughter age. I will slaughter Cornish crosses at less than 8 weeks from now on to ensure they enjoy the best quality of life. At 81⁄2 weeks, the spring flock lived about a week too long for comfortable breathing and walking. At 7 weeks, my second flock was sound and active. When I experiment with the slower-growing birds, the slaughter age will be closer to 12 weeks. Season. It makes sense to raise meat birds later in the season in Georgia. The August heat welcomes them as chicks and then cools down in September and October as they feather out and get heavier. The season also affects the slaughter date. Our June slaughter resulted in odor and flies at the processing site, while the October and November harvests did not. Foster hen. This method wins for the small homesteader who doesn’t like to bother with a mechanical brooder and happens to have some broody hens.
FEATHERMAN EQUIPMENT CO.
Brooding About Breeds Cornish cross hybrids. Many people who raise table birds buy Cornish cross chicks for their first flock because they are widely available and grow rapidly, producing a 5-pound live bird (3.5-pound carcass) in about six or seven weeks. Because they gain weight so rapidly, Cornish cross birds can suffer from heart problems and
Portable coops, such as this A-frame model, allow birds to forage for worms, bugs and grasses.
broken legs. Some people avoid them on the principle that perpetuating these genetics is inhumane. Producers of pastured poultry would like to see the best characteristics of the Cornish cross combined with more foraging ability and increased hardiness for outdoor weather. Some pastured poultry connoisseurs say Cornish cross birds lack the flavor of slower-growing breeds, but I’ve become accustomed to lighter meat. I rate the flavor of my flocks as perfect — a more pronounced chicken flavor than store-bought birds, but not overpowering; firm, but not stringy or tough. European-type hybrids. Sometimes called Label Rouge types after a popular production system in France, these birds reach 5 pounds live weight in 12 weeks and are harvested close to sexual maturity. They are considered more flavorful than faster-growing hybrids and have a firmer texture. Compared with Cornish crosses, they have smaller breasts and more dark meat. They are said to be hardier and more active foragers than Cornish crosses, making them more suitable for pasturing, but there is some debate surrounding this. (To learn more, go to goo.gl/xPNZyy.) Heritage chickens. Old breeds such as Buckeye, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Barred Plymouth Rocks have not been bred for meat-production characteristics since the 1950s, so they are slowergrowing than birds that have been bred for greater feed-conversion efficiency. However, many backyard chicken fanciers prefer to raise the old standards because they are hardy for outdoor living, disease resistant, and they have a pronounced chicken flavor.
Jeannette Beranger, research program manager for The Livestock Conservancy (see www.livestockconservancy.org), says that it is important to choose a breed that works for your climate and the system in which you plan to manage them. (The best source we know of for this information is Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds. You can order this book online at goo.gl/YTAKyM. — MOTHER) After you’ve decided on the breeds you think would work for you, the Conservancy can suggest a breeder or hatchery. Beranger also advises that, while these breeds love to forage, they will need highprotein feed to produce a good result. “Common commercial poultry rations are typically not high enough in protein,” Beranger says. “They need at least 28 percent, particularly in the first eight weeks, or they will never reach their potential for growth.” Adding high-protein supplements such as meat scraps or whey to their diet would help, but may be more of a challenge than a beginner would want to tackle.
RESOURCES MOTHER EARTH NEWS Hatchery Finder www.motherearthnews.com/ hatchery-finder Community Chickens www.communitychickens.com National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (ATTRA) www.attra.ncat.org Robert Plamondon’s Website www.plamondon.com
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increased somewhat, so we added two 165 watt panels, mounted along the top of the array. When we decided to kick the propane habit, we added a second solar array, bringing our total PV-generating capacity to approximately 2.7 kilowatts. We also increased our battery capacity. Many small, application-specific kitchen appliances consume relatively little electricity and can easily replace propane-fueled appliances. We already had many of the electrical kitchen appliances that we needed, including an electric kettle, toaster, microwave, and small convection oven. We also purchased an energy-efficient induction cooktop. The beauty of this unit is that the majority of the thermal energy remains in the food, while a similar gas stove may emit as much as 70 percent of the generated heat into the air. Our two-burner induction unit cost less than $200 and is especially handy during the summer months when there’s a lot of solar energy and little impetus to heat the house. We replaced our propane oven with a combination of other options. During the cooler months, our wood cookstove is always nicely preheated and ready for whatever we are preparing. Rather than finding an older refurbished unit, we installed an updated and airtight replica of grandma’s traditional wood cookstove, which includes a water heat-recovery unit. The cookstove can therefore do triple duty during the cooler months: heating the house, cooking our food and providing hot water. We use the microwave and electric convection oven for cooking during the summer months or to provide more cooking capacity in the winter.
THe reneWable energY HanDbooK/azTexT preSS (8)
Solar Water Heating I decided to develop a hybrid system to use the ample summer sun, while drawing additional heat from our two woodstoves in the cooler months. For the standard solar water heating system, I chose to install a vacuum-tube-based collection system that would excel in extremely cold temperatures and produce the high water temperatures I desired. Our solar electric system also plays a role in water heating. Standard solar electric systems simply shut off as soon as the
Three stoves: The Kemps use a woodstove for home heating (top), a wood cookstove for heating, water heating, and winter cooking (right), and an electric induction cooktop for cooking during the summer (left).
batteries are full, wasting a large amount of free energy. I developed a means of routing the excess to an electric water heater storage tank. The solar thermal system produces approximately 60 percent of our annual hot water production, with the solar-electric and wood-fired systems providing the rest. This system works beautifully, providing plenty of guilt-free hot water for our hot tub and for almost endless showers.
You Can Do It, Too! I’ve spent the last two decades upgrading and fine-tuning our home’s energy system in my quest to improve its efficiency and reduce our footprint on the planet. But back when we decided to go off the grid, much of the technology was still in its infancy. I am amazed at the variety and quality of equipment on the market today and how quickly it continues to improve. For most homeown-
ers this equipment can be installed by a dealer and function in the background with only a modest amount of attention — unless you’re like me, and can’t resist the urge to tinker. Not only is choosing renewable energy easier today than it was two decades ago, there are even better reasons to do it. As society better understands the true costs and environmental impacts of nuclear power, tar sands, coal, and other fossil fuels, powering your home from renewable sources (whether on or off grid) is not only good for the planet and your pocketbook, it’s good for your peace of mind as well. William Kemp develops powergenerating systems for hydroelectric utilities and biomass cogeneration. He has written several books, including The Renewable Energy Handbook.
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All photos from The Renewable Energy
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optional replaceable plywood top 2 x 6 (or similar) top boards
4 x 4 legs 10” to 12” optional raised side and back
FRONT VIEW
24” to 48” leg frame spacing 3/8” x 6” carriage bolts, nuts and washers
2x6 long rails
2x6 crosspieces
two 31/ 2” deck screws and glue
SIDE VIEW shelf
Use these plans as a guideline to design and build a custom-made table that’s suitable for your garden or workshop.
rough-cut lumber, as I did, or with standard construction-grade planks, composite lumber, or even recycled plastic. Using the workbench plans above, you’ll turn out a bench that’s heavy enough to be secure, simple enough for any handy person to build, and durable enough to last longer than you. The flexible workbench designs I outline here have three main parts: the legs, top, and storage shelf. But before we get to the step-bystep instructions on how to build a workbench, let’s do some figuring. How long should your workbench be? How wide? How tall? The answers depend on who will be using the bench, and for what purpose. You can go small or large, depending on your space and needs. The most important dimension is workbench height. The rule of thumb for a woodworking workbench is a work surface that hits your wrists as you stand with your arms hanging loosely at your sides. A general-purpose
workbench for, say, sharpening your chain saw or fixing a broken toy could be taller. I’m 5 feet, 8 inches tall, and my old faithful stands 35 inches from the floor to the top of the work surface, and 35 inches deep from front to back.
A solid workbench is an excellent starting point for building self-reliance skills. Get a Leg Up After you’ve figured the size, you’re ready to start building your DIY workbench. The exploded workbench plans on this page show how pairs of legs are joined together into frames, with the frames connected by the long rails, top boards, and shelf boards. Your first task is to build as many of these leg frames as you’ll need to support the
total length of the bench you want. Depending on the weight of things you’ll be putting on your bench, and the thickness of the top boards and shelf, aim for 24 to 48 inches between leg frames. The frames will need to be closer together if you’re using plastic composite boards, because these aren’t as strong as wood. If you’re not sure what length you want right now, build the minimum number of leg frames you think will do the job, and then temporarily set some top and shelf boards in place and see how things feel. You can always make an additional leg frame before final assembly if you decide it’s necessary. You can use 2-by-4s for the legs, but 4-by-4s will work better. Remember, a good workbench is a heavy workbench. Cut all of the legs and crosspieces you need at the same time. A miter saw is an excellent tool for getting these cuts perfectly square, but you can use a handsaw or handheld circular saw, too. Use deck screws, WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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“Nothing tastes better than home-canned food.”
“I think it’s the love that makes it all taste so good.”
— Linda Palmer
with olive oil. Home canning came along in France in the early 19th century, when Nicolas Appert invented a way to safely store food by vacuum-sealing it in jars. Whether to dry, freeze, ferment or can is a fundamental food preservation question, and canning is often the best answer. More and more people are learning to can food at home. The University of Missouri Extension, for example, has doubled its available food preservation classes. Fran Blank, a food preservation instructor with more than 40 years of experience,
— Mishelle Davis Falsetto
says she has been amazed in recent years by how popular her classes have become. Last year, Ball Canning reported a doubling in sales of the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. We asked our Facebook fans what they thought of home canning and were overwhelmed by the hundreds of responses. They told us they enjoy the rows of colorful jars that sit on the pantry shelves like treasures. Canning provides a deeper
Canning Science and Safety
The science. The more you learn about food science, the more confident you’ll be in the kitchen. In the simplest method of home canning — the water bath method — you fill jars with acidic food, cover them with lids, and boil them in a pot of water for a specific amount of time to kill bacteria. You then remove the jars and wait for the satisfying “pop” of the lids sealing as they cool. Water bath canning can provide you with a number of delicious foods, including tomatoes, fruits, jams, jellies, and pickles. A more advanced method is pressure canning. It requires a little more skill and some specialized equipment, but it will unlock a wider world of food and flavor options. With a pressure canner, you can preserve virtually any food — meat, beans, vegetables, soups, and more. Read more online about how to safely pressure can at goo.gl/GZ7iC. About safety. There’s no reason to be afraid of canning, because ensuring safety is entirely possible. The basic rules of canning are simple and practical. It’s important to follow those rules and to use tested recipes.
wealth than dollars and cents — and that’s another reason why people have taken up the art.
Canning for Flavor and Better Nutrition We also polled our readers, and they reported that they can to enjoy flavors and textures that are just better, more alive and real. The absence of additives has something to do with the difference, as does the selection of top-quality ingredients. In The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest, Carol W. Costenbader dedicates an entire chapter to choosing ingredients and the idea that “no recipe, however elaborate, can make up for ingredients that are inferior in taste or freshness.” Home canning offers the ability to use fresh, great-tasting and hard-to-find ingredients, such as heirloom tomatoes or delicate peaches picked at the peak of ripeness. These simply can’t be used for commercial products because produce fully ripened on the vine or tree can’t stand up to long-distance shipping. Respected biochemist Donald R. Davis reports that industrial farming techniques and selective breeding for increased yields are causing declines in the nutrient content of commercial produce. When you grow your own produce, you have the option to choose non-hybrid varieties and use organic growing methods, which are likely to provide more nutritious produce than industrial varieties and methods (for more, go to goo.gl/4XPZr). You’ll also maintain control of the ingredients list, which is important to many readers who say they want affordable, chemical-free food.
Canning for Connection Coming together to can is the basis of powerful memories for many readers. The part of our brain that helps us decode smells and tastes is embedded in the same part in which emotional memories 106 THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS GUIDE TO SELF-RELIANCE AND COUNTRY SKILLS
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Make Your Own
You can make a simple herbal infusion with nothing more than herbs and vegetable oil.
HERBAL MEDICINE
To find ingredients for many basic herbal remedies, you often need to look no further than your own backyard.
O
ne of the advantages of herbal medicine is that many herbs are easy to grow. In fact, a number of medicinal plants are commonly grown as ornamentals. Why go to the store to buy echinacea if you can grow this lovely, flu-fighting herb in your own yard? Even if you don’t choose to grow herbs yourself, the basic ingredients for many herbal remedies can be purchased in health food stores and prepared in your own kitchen. When I first started working with medicinal plants, I discovered the trick was not in finding the herbs I needed, but in knowing how to use them. Then I found Making Plant Medicine, a book by Richo Cech, the owner of Horizon Herbs in Williams, Ore. The book changed my life because it taught me how to make firstaid, health, and beauty products right at home. What follows are directions from Making Plant Medicine for making the basic applications most often used in herbal medicine — capsules, poultices, tinctures, infused oils, salves, balms, and teas — along with examples of easyto-grow herbs to use for each kind of preparation.
Encapsulating Herbs One simple way to consume medicinal herbs is to swallow them in capsules. To prepare capsules, simply grind the dried roots, leaves, or blooms of the plant and fill capsules with the powdered herb. You can grind dried plants with an old-fashioned mortar and pestle, or try using an electric blender or coffee mill. Capsules are inexpensive and available in many health food stores. One 00-sized capsule can hold about 500 milligrams of a dried herb, but weigh the dried herbs yourself to get an exact measurement. (Capsules range in size from 000 to 5; the smaller the number, the larger the capsule size.) Echinacea is a general immunesystem enhancer often taken in capsules. Several species have medicinal value, but Echinacea purpurea is one of the easiest to grow. For use in capsules, harvest and dry the roots, flowers, and leaves. Taken at the first sign of a cold or flu, echi-
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nacea can be effective in boosting your immunity and relieving symptoms. The recommended dose for treating a cold is 900 milligrams per day, according to Germany’s Commission E guidelines, which are often used as a standard for herbal dosages.
Poultices
Basic Balm
A poultice is vegetable material, whole or mashed, that is applied externally so the herb’s properties can be directly absorbed by the skin. Poultices are often used to reduce inflammation, improve circulation and speed the healing of cuts, scrapes, and other sores.
• • • • • • • • •
FOTOLIA
By Brook Elliott
Comfrey has anti-inflammatory and cell-regenerating properties that can make an effective poultice for treating bruises and sprains. A comfrey poultice can be made with fresh or dry leaves — just moisten them and apply as a halfinch-thick layer, placed directly on the affected skin. Bind the poultice in place with a clean cloth. Comfrey should not be used on deep puncture wounds because the surface can heal too quickly, trapping infection-
3 cups olive oil 10 tbsp comfrey leaves 10 tbsp calendula flowers 8 tbsp lavender flowers 5 tbsp plantain leaves 5 tbsp yarrow flowers 4 tbsp sage leaves 4 tbsp beeswax granules 1 ounce vitamin E oil Chop the herbs and infuse in the oil for 4 to 6 weeks, shaking regularly. Strain, measure infused oil, and add additional oil to make 2 cups. Add beeswax. Heat just until the wax melts and stir gently until the balm starts to thicken. (Optional: At this point, add 1⁄4 cup of glycerin for a smoother salve.) Stir until the mix is cool and creamy. Stir in the vitamin E oil. The balm will thicken more overnight. This balm is generally considered safe for external use, but sage may irritate sensitive skin.
causing bacteria inside the wound. Used externally, though, comfrey is generally considered safe.
Tinctures A tincture is made by soaking fresh or ground herbs in alcohol to extract and preserve the active constituents of the plant. One of the advantages of tinctures is their long shelf life — most will keep for at least a year. Many tinctures are intended to be taken internally, often diluted with water and then swallowed. Others are meant to be applied to the skin. Calendula flowers make a good first-aid tincture for treating cuts and scrapes because of the herb’s antibacterial properties. Different tincturing methods can be used, but Cech favors this approach:
Begin by grinding the dried herbs — or by finely mincing fresh herbs — and placing them in a quart jar. (For calendula, dry the flowers and then grind them to a powder.) Cover the ground or minced herbs with vodka or pure grain alcohol. If you opt for vodka, use at least 40 proof for dried herbs and 80 proof for fresh herbs. If you use pure grain alcohol, pair it with dried herbs and dilute the alcohol with distilled water at a 1:1 ratio. Let the mixture sit, covered, for three weeks, and shake the jar daily. (Fresh herbs must remain submerged during this time because exposed plant material can rot.) After three weeks, strain the contents of the jar using a thin, clean cloth, and then press the cloth to squeeze out every drop of liquid. Let the separated liquid sit overnight to settle, and then strain it again. Store the resulting herb-infused alcohol in a labeled bottle for future use.
Infused Oils Some herbs have active constituents that will dissolve in vegetable oil. The resulting infused oils can be used directly by massaging them into the skin, or they can be used as a base for other products, such as skin creams, salves, and lip balms.
Dried and ground roots, leaves, and blooms can be used to make herbal capsules. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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