Pineapple weed

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Pineapple weed

Pineapple weed is another plant that is labelled as a weed to be eliminated at all costs. The reality is that this plant is a forgotten treasure given to us by nature and that has many uses for food and medicine. The plant has yellow, cone-shaped flower heads that resemble small pineapples. Interestingly enough, the crushed flowers, give off a slight aroma of pineapple, as well as the aroma of chamomile, hence the name.

The cone-shaped flower heads are a valuable part of this plant, as they are used either dried or fresh, most often in pineapple weed tea, which has a clear pineapple scent when brewed. You can also eat the dried or cooked flower heads for an energetic burst. The flower, more so than the leaf, tastes sweet and like pineapple. I can still remember my sister as a young child picking and eating them like sweets. The flower heads are the best part of this plant and can be a quick high energy snack. The leaves can be added to salads or nibbled on as you walk.

Flowering Pineappleweed
Pineappleweed Wild Manchester

Food Uses

Because pineapple weed is in the category of an invasive species, you should be careful where you harvest from to be sure that no spraying of toxic chemicals has taken place. It commonly grows on or along walking paths, trails, roadsides, and in disturbed areas. I wouldn’t recommend harvesting in these areas as they are typically polluted. Try to harvest in areas that are away from heavy use by humans, pets, and vehicles.

Recipe ideas for using pineapple weed

Here are 4 quick and easy ideas for using pineapple weed;

  • Pineapple weed in salads—use the flower heads and leaves in salads to add a fruity bite.
  • Pineapple weed syrup—just use the flower heads to make the best syrup. Cover the flower heads with water, simmer for 5 minutes, and strain. Measure the water and combine every millilitre with a gram of sugar, or every cup of liquid to one cup of sugar. Combine the liquid and sugar and heat slowly while stirring until the sugar dissolves. Dilute for drinks, cocktails, or salad dressing.
  • Pineapple weed salad dressing—mix half the pineapple weed syrup with olive oil, vinegar, and a little wholegrain mustard. Combine well and drizzle over salads or cold meats.
  • Pineapple weed tea—simply pour boiling water over dried or fresh pineapple weed flowers and leave to infuse for 5 minutes.

Health Benefits of Pineapple Weed

Pineapple Weed Harvesting

Pineapple Weed’s Benefits

Like chamomile, pineapple weed, a relaxing herb, is great for calming nervousness, agitation, and anxiety, and for promoting restful sleep. When we have digestive troubles of any kind that are caused by nervousness, this can be a great remedy. It is reported to help relieve stomach cramps and intestinal cramps, but it can also help with menstrual cramps as well and can be a good aid for painful periods.

New mums have often found it beneficial to take right after birth to help get a healthy supply of milk started for the newborn. And as an extra bonus, the effects of this herb can pass from mom to her baby through the milk, providing some digestive support for the baby as well. It’s a gentle herb that’s great for babies and children with colic, gas pains, and teething. It’s even used for children’s colds, especially in children that are warm-natured, have flushed cheeks, and usually don’t like to wear warm clothes

Historical Uses

Pineapple weed in written records has been in medicinal use for thousands of years by indigenous peoples in North America and Northeast Asia. Some of these uses include being brewed in a tea, topically applied after solvent extraction, eaten for its internal benefits, and cultivated to repel insects. Tea: Dry flower heads of pineapple weed, used to brew herbal tea, still remains the most popular use of this herb. You only need 5-6 flower heads, and you can add honey to sweeten the flavour or dilute the taste of the pineapple.

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3.9/5

Hawthorn Tree

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Hawthorn Tree Wild Manchester
Hawthorn Fairy Tree

Hawthorn - Bread & Cheese

Hawthorn is a common sight in the British Isles, yet it is often overlooked as a very useful source of food and medicine. The omnipresent Hawthorn announces its awakening from Winter with little snowflake flowers in spring and lipstick red berries in Autumn, just before it goes back to sleep.

The leaves are long, roughly oval and lobed into three segments, dark green above and paler below with a tough feel, the stem is tinged pink. Flowers are five-petalled and white (although sometimes described as creamy and tinged pink); they appear as flat, spraying clusters. Dark red berries appear in autumn.

The berries are nutritive and have amazing medicinal properties, as they are considered “food for the heart”. The tree has a strong history with magic and enchantments and has many traditions and folklore associated with it, but then it is after all considered the fairy tree amongst hedge witches.

Hawthorn Berries
Hawthorn

Food Uses

Historically, the shoots and unopened flower buds given name was ‘bread and cheese’. Though much healthier, unfortunately they taste of neither. The berries, known as Haws, are much like mild apples, but the flesh is quite dense and dry. These make a good chutney to eat with cheese and a great ketchup substitute. Haws can also be used in the production of country wines and homemade schnapps. In addition, leaves, flowers, and berries can be used to make a herbal tea.

How to make Hawthorn fruit leather (Reportedly increases sexual fertility.)

This recipe is fairly straight forward to make.

  • Place large quantity of ripe hawthorn berries (haws) in a saucepan
  • Cover in water or apple juice, but don’t add too much as you will need to dehydrate the purée
  • Simmer for about 15 minutes & allow cooling
  • Mash the pulp briefly then rub through a sieve
  • Pour the strained pulp onto baking paper on a baking tray less than 1 cm thick
  • Place in the oven for approximately 2-4 hours. Leave to dry in the oven at its lowest setting
  • Leave until the pulp is dry and leathery and can be peeled off the trays
  • Cut or tear into pieces &  store in an airtight jar
  • If dried and stored properly, they will easily last for a year.

Hawthorn Harvest and Recipes.

Making hawthorn fruit leather

Myth and Lore

The Fairy Tree

The trees stand on the threshold between our world and the Otherworld. They’re under the protection of the fairies, so you risk punishment if you cut them down. The only time you could bring the branches indoors was on May Day. It spelt disaster to do so at any other time. This is why you might often find a lone hawthorn tree seemingly standing in an inopportune place. No one wants to uproot them without the fairies’ permission.

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3.9/5

Delicious Wild Strawberries Children’s Favourite

ForagingFruitHerbal MedicineHomesteadingOff GridSurvival
Wild Strawberries Flowers
Wild Strawberry

Delicious Wild Strawberries

The wild strawberry is a delicious, sweet berry much smaller than its commercial counterpart, but in my opinion, it is far superior in flavour. You can find them on grassy banks, open woods and hearths throughout Europe.

It is a low creeping plant with hairy runners and stems, and the plant has a little flower that is a snowdrop white in colour with five petals and a yellow button centre. The fruit is a small red berry, with little yellow protruding seeds.

The berry can be picked from late June to September, but you will need to look carefully for them because they are masters at hiding in long grass and under leaves; but if you persist in the hunt, you will get a sweet, tasty treat of deliciousness for a reward when you find them.

Food Uses

Who can resist a Strawberry? Not me, but have you ever had wild Strawberries? They are super sweet and delicious. To get the very best from them, they are best when eaten fresh from the bush (after washing, of course). The berries are also great in a salad or in a glass of champagne. The wild berries are small, so gathering any substantial harvest for recipes such as jam is unlikely, but some people do manage it.

We have wild Strawberries growing in our garden and let me tell you that some years I never see a single berry, yet I see little fingers stained red and I wonder why? :). But seriously, the little red berry is a ball of bursting juicy sweetness, and it is easy to see why Super Markets stock the larger commercial varieties. (Mass distribution and profit) but at the expense of flavour, which is a shame.

Medicinal Uses

Used in folk medicine as a laxative and diuretic, the berries reputed to cure gout and the leaves considered to be good for dysentery. The fruit has antioxidant properties and is suggested to heave anti-cancer and anti-blood clotting effects.

The leaf of the strawberry is packed full of vitamin C and makes a great cuppa, it can be used fresh from the plant or dried and stored in a container. The tea has a mild fruit flavour, and in my opinion tastes better than green tea. The tea can be used as a tonic for the body and helps soothes the digestive system, particularly if you suffer from diarrhoea. With the leaf containing all that vitamin C, it could help boost the immune system too.

Delicious Wild Strawberries
Wild-Strawberries
Frigg is the Queen of Asgard
Freya

Myth and Lore

The strawberry has been associated with the goddess Frigga, patroness of matrimony and Oden’s wife. In Norse mythology, Frigga gave strawberries as a symbol to the spirits of young children who had died in infancy, who would then ascend to heaven hidden within a strawberry.

Freyja drives a chariot pulled by cats and cries tears of gold. She is associated with beauty, fertility, love, gold, war, death, and a type of Norse shamanistic sorcery.

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4.5/5

Stinging Nettle A Super Food

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Nettle – Stinging Nettle

Nettle or Stinging Nettle is another plant that even children are familiar with, ask any child what they associate Nettle with, and I guarantee it will be pain. However, Nettle is another plant that is misunderstood and labelled as a pest when the fact is without this plant our ancestors would have starved. I still remember my great-grandparents and grandparents telling me how when money was tight, Nettle soup and poor man’s cabbage (Nettles) was all they had. Apart from this it does have many other uses, it truly is a remarkable plant and is also known as a super food…

Bowl of Nettles

Food Uses

Nettle has a flavour similar to spinach mixed with cucumber when cooked, and is rich in vitamins A and C, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium. Native Americans harvested young plants and used them as a cooked plant in spring when other food plants were scarce. Soaking stinging nettles in water or cooking removes the stinging chemicals from the plant, which allows them to be handled and eaten without injury. After the stinging nettle enters its flowering and seed-setting stages, the leaves develop gritty particles called cystoliths, which can irritate the urinary tract. In its peak season, nettle contains up to 25% protein, dry weight, which is high for a leafy green vegetable. The leaves when dried are used to make a herbal tea, as can also be done with the nettle’s flowers.

  • Nettles can be used in a variety of recipes, such as polenta, pesto, and purée. Nettle soup is a common use of the plant, particularly in Northern and Eastern Europe.
  • Nettles are sometimes used in cheesemaking, for example in the production of Cornish Yarg and as a flavouring in varieties of Gouda.
  • Young nettles can also be used to make alcoholic beer 🙂

Great video's for Nettle uses

Nutritional Profile of Nettle

Stinging nettle’s leaves and root provide a wide variety of nutrients, including

What’s more, many of these nutrients act as antioxidants inside your body.

Antioxidants are molecules that help defend your cells against damage from free radicals. Damage caused by free radicals is linked to aging, as well as cancer and other harmful diseases

Medicinal Uses

  • Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is a plant with pointed leaves and white to yellowish flowers. The root and above ground parts are used for diabetes.
  • The stinging nettle plant is typically 2-4 meters tall. It contains ingredients that might decrease swelling and increase urination. The leaves are sometimes eaten as a cooked vegetable.
  • Stinging nettle is most commonly used for diabetes and osteoarthritis. It is also sometimes used for urinary tract infections (UTIs), kidney stones, enlarged prostate, hay fever, and other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses.

Other Uses

  • 1. They’re great for butterflies: many butterflies – among them the Peacock and Red Admiral – lay their eggs on stinging nettles. Once hatched, the caterpillars feast on the nutritious nettle leaves.

    2. It is believed they helped the Romans keep warm! The nettle’s sting is a ‘counterirritant’: this means its chemicals can actually decrease an existing pain. Roman soldiers allegedly used this effect to adapt to the colder, harsher climate of Britain – rubbing nettles on their arms and legs to help them keep warm.

Myth and Lore

It’s said the Roman invaders brought nettle to the lands we now call Briton to rub this plant on their joints—curing rheumatism and protecting the joints from cold weather. The Roman writer Caius Petronius said that a man’s virility was improved if he was whipped with nettle below the kidneys.

Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome

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English Ivy the Forgotten Wonder

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English Ivy the forgotten wonder

Ivy leaf is the leaf of the common ivy plant, also known as English Ivy or Hedera helix. It is a green climbing plant that is often found on the sides of trees, houses and fences, more so trees and that’s bad news for the tree as Ivy can kill it. What you may not know is that ivy leaf is as a herbal medicine. It has been for hundreds of years, in addition to this you may be even more surprised to know that Ivy can be made into a washing detergent.

Traditional herbalists used ivy berries against the plague, and ivy leaves boiled in vinegar for stomach aches and for cleansing ulcers. These methods are of course no longer used – in the present day, although you can find ivy leaf as an ingredient in naturally derived cough medicines at your local pharmacy.

English Ivy Tree

Properties of ivy leaf

  • The saponins in ivy leaf can help relieve cough symptoms by helping to:
  • Thin the consistency of mucus in your airways
  • Loosen the mucus from your chest
  • Clear mucus by making it easier to cough up
  • Calm coughs

Herbal Medicine Uses of Ivy

Ivy is traditionally used for relieving breathing disorders. Preliminary research indicates that ivy may be helpful in relieving symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and disinfecting minor burns and cuts. Ivy is often used on minor skin wounds to prevent infections.

Ivy Washing Detergent

Simple recipe

  1. Collect 20-40 English ivy (hedera helix) leaves, preferably darker (older) leaves, one big handful should be enough. The leaves can only be used fresh, so you have to collect them prior to your laundry.
  2. Tear the leaves apart in little pieces, using your hands. As English ivy can leave skin irritations (if you have sensitive skin), you might want to wear gloves doing it.
  3. Put the leaves in a closed laundry net and put it together with your laundry in the washing machine. Can be disposed and composted after use.

Greek Mythology

Ivy had a great deal of significance in ancient times; it was a symbol of fidelity in Ancient Greece and was associated with the Greek god KOMOS (Comus) of revelry and good times.

KOMOS (Comus) was the god of revelry, merrymaking and festivity. He was the son and cup-bearer of the god Dionysos. Komos was depicted as either a winged youth or a satyriskos (child-satyr) with balding pate and asses’ ears.

Comus God
Comus God

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Plantain – Ribwort – Narrow Leaf Plantain

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The Learning Homestead

Have you ever heard of Plantain? No, not the banana looking things that are delicious fried with sugar added. There is a plant that grows virtually everywhere called Broad Leaf Plantain. Practically everyone has seen it, and the majority presume it to be a weed. We did too for a long time. It is, in fact, an amazing medicinal plant that is free for the taking. It can be used to treat everything from insect stings and bites to minor cuts and scrapes. Below is a step-by-step guide to making your own Plantain Salve with pictures of each step:

Plantain Salve images

*INGREDIENTS AND EQUIPMENT*

  • Plantain Leaves
  • Carrier oil (fractionated coconut, olive or similar oil)
  • Dehydrator (optional)
  • Blender (optional)
  • Oven or dehydrator
  • Fine mesh strainer and/or cheese cloth
  • Stainless steel saucepan
  • Stovetop
  • Essential oils (optional)
  • Suitable container for salve

***OPTIONAL***

You may also add essential oils to your salve after removing it from the heat and before it begins to solidify. Many essential oils smell good, and have healing properties of their own. Mrs. TLH is a dōTERRA consultant, and we added 30 drops each of lavender, melaleuca (tea tree), and frankincense to our salve.
Beginning with two and a half (2.5) ounces of dehydrated Plantain leaves, two and a half (2.5) cups of fractionated coconut oil, and two and a half (2.5) ounces of beeswax, we wound up with one and a half (1.5) pints or six 1/4 pint jars of salve.
The total time for this project was about 14 hours, but only about 1 working hour.

Method

1. Harvest some Plantain. There’s no magic to it. It grows everywhere and is easily recognizable. Just pick or cut as much as you think you need.
2. Rinse and dry the leaves.
3. Dehydrate the leaves. This can be done as simply as placing them on some old window screening in a well ventilated spot out of direct sunlight. For expediency, we used our 10 tray Excalibur dehydrator.
4. Once the leaves are fully dehydrated (they should crumble just like very dry fall leaves when handled), crush them into very fine pieces. We did this by crumbling them into a blender and then pulsing a few times.
5. Carefully weigh the Plantain leaves in ounces.
6. Add one (1) cup of fixed carrier oil per ounce of dehydrated Plantain leaves. We used a food grade fractionated coconut oil, but olive oil will work okay, too.
7. Once you have stirred in your oil, put it in the oven on the lowest possible setting or, if you’re using a programmable dehydrator, 120° for about 4 hours. This will allow the active ingredients in the Plantain to fully leech into the carrier oil, making an infusion.
8. Strain all leaf particles from the infused oil. We used a fine wire mesh strainer topped with a few layers of cheese cloth.
9. Pour the infusion into a stainless steel pot and heat over medium-low heat on the stove top. Add in one (1) ounce of beeswax for every ounce of dehydrated Plantain leaves. We used organic beeswax pellets, but you could grate some off of a bar. Reserve a small amount of both wax and infusion to one side. We would recommend that you use a “cosmetic grade” and not a “candle grade” beeswax. The cosmetic grade has fewer impurities.
10. After the infusion and wax have emulsified, spoon out a small amount and chill it in your freezer for 2-3 minutes before removing the remaining mixture from the heat. Once your sample has solidified, test the consistency to ensure that you can easily spread it with a finger.
11. If the consistency of the cooled salve is to your liking, simply divide into containers and allow it to cool at room temperature. We packaged ours in Ball 1/4 pint quilted preserve jars.

Article from the Off Grid and Homestead Homeopathy and Healing Facebook Group and written by Shaun O’Neal

 

Acorn A Great Resource from Oak Trees

ForagingHomesteadingSurvivalTrees

Acorn – Oak

The Oak tree is the most common in Britain, the acorn that has the potential to become a tree have been a source of food and medicine for many cultures around the world throughout the ages.

The trees are a common sight and are all around us; unfortunately, rare are the people who bother with this wonderful resource. The issue with the nuts is not their flavour, but the time and effort involved to make them edible for us humans.

Acorns are packed in tannins; which is a compound that makes them astringent, therefore they must be processed or “leached” to make them palatable.

Medicinal Uses

The oak tree has a long history of medicinal use and it has been valued for its astringent properties. All parts of the oak, including wood, bark, leaves, acorns and galls, have been used for medicinal purposes.

How to Prepare

The Native Indians were experts with Acorn processing or leeching, involving a process of many days hard work to produce an edible flour to make breads, after collecting the nuts they would crack the nut just enough to leave a split in the shell then the nuts were put in fine cloth or nets and put in a running stream for 1 – 2 days.

When the nuts had been leached, the nuts were dried, removed from their shells and crushed into a fine flour.

Natural tannin-leaching can occur in the wild. If you find acorns in the spring under layers of leaves, chances are, the rain water will have leached out some or much of the tannins. In fact, some animals especially squirrels bury their nuts for this very reason!

Food Uses

The nuts are very nutritious and provide a complete vegetable protein, the starch, which is the toughest thing to forage for. Nutty and sweet, they provide an alternative gluten-free version for regular grain flours that contains large amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fats.

Nutritional Profile of Acorn

Though the exact nutrient profile depends on the species of acorn, all are packed with essential nutrients.

  • Vitamin A:
  • Vitamin E:
  • Iron:
  • Manganese:
  • Potassium:
  • Vitamin B6:
  • Folate:

Myth and Lore

In Greek mythology, the oak was a sacred tree associated with Zeus, the supreme god. To this day, Zeus’s oracle in Epirus has the sacred oak in the middle of the grove, and priests would try to uncover messages from the gods by interpreting the rustling of the oak’s leaves.

It is no coincidence that oak trees are more prone to lightning strikes than many other trees. This is because of the tree’s high water content and the fact that they are frequently the tallest living things in the landscape. More articles here.

Rosehip – Rosa Canina

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Rosehip – Rosa Canina

This climbing shrub is one of the most commonly spotted wild roses in the UK. In the summer months the pretty pink-white flowers pepper hedgerows, providing an important source of nectar for insects. Later in the year the bright red hips provide food for mammals and birds and are also collected by people to make rosehip syrup. Rosehip is the fruit that grows on the blossom of the beautiful wild rose, you can find them in hedgerows, woodland edges and on scrubland. It’s more common in the South of the UK but can be found all over, especially in heavy soils, flowering occurs in May and June with the hip ripening around September and October.

Food Uses

Both the flower petals and rosehip can be used for edible purposes, my favourite is sugared roses which look and taste great, another favourite is homemade rose petal jam and who can forget rose water made from the fragrant petals. Rose hips have a flavour similar to Crab Apples, sweet and tarty. One thing to note with hips is that they have fine hairs inside and around the seeds that can be irritating to the throat and stomach if eaten, so before using the hips be sure to pass them through a coffee filter, Sieve or another equally fine material. Rosehips can be used in cookies, jam and alcoholic beverages.

Here is a link to a recipe for Rosehip Syrup

Medicinal Uses

Rosehips are packed full of vitamin C, E and B as well as other antioxidants and minerals in addition they also contain polyphenols and anthocyanins, which are believed to ease joint inflammation and prevent joint damage. Fresh rosehips have more vitamin C than any citrus fruits and over the last few years, medicinal interest in rose hips has increased as a consequence of recent research that has studied its potential application as a treatment for several diseases including skin disorders, hepatotoxicity, renal disturbances, diarrhoea, inflammatory disorders, arthritis, diabetes, hyperlipidaemia, obesity and cancer.

Myth and Lore

If you’re after fertility and wealth, the plump seed-filled rosehip is thought to be a lucky token. Sleeping with rosehips under your pillow is also thought to protect against bad dreams. Archaeological finds have confirmed that, along with blackberries, rose hips were eaten as early as 2,000 BC. Reportedly called the dog rose due to the belief that the roots should be used if bitten by a rabid dog, this rose also goes by many other names. It is often called ‘wild rose’ but can be mixed up with other similar looking species. The prickly nature of the plant has also lent it to be called briar-rose and dog briar. More articles can be found here.

Blackberries

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Blackberries

Blackberries are a wonderful resource to keep you healthy and provide us with some really tasty treats, homemade Blackberry jam is delicious and really easy to make but like most things wild and Free it needs time and preparation. Eating Blackberries straight from the bush is a refreshing snack and I often pick them on my travels (Tip: try and pick the fruits from the top of the plant, and they are best after it has just rained) in a survival situation you can even eat the young leaves. In times gone by and today in some craft projects the stems of the Blackberry plant can be used for making baskets by simply stripping the stem of its leaves and because it is very flexible makes it perfect for weaving.

When and how to pick

Picking Blackberries is great fun although they can stain your fingers purple, when my children were young blackberry picking was always on the calendar and it kept them occupied if only for a little while.

  • Blackberry peak season is from early June to late August. When choosing fresh blackberries, let colour be your guide. Only choose those that are deeply coloured. Those that are red or paler purple are not yet ripe. While you can ripen the fruit at room temperature, once the fruit is picked, it will not get any sweeter.
  • Pick only berries that are fully black. Mature berries are plump yet firm, a deep black colour, and pull freely from the plant without a yank. Berries do no ripen after being picked.
  • Once blackberries start to ripen, they must be picked often—every couple of days.
  • When picking, keep the central plug within the fruit (unlike raspberries).
  • Harvest during the cooler parts of the day. Once picked, place berries in the shade and refrigerate as soon as possible.

Here is a link to a recipe for yummy Blackberry Pie Bars

Quick and Easy Blackberry Bramble Basket

Medicinal Uses

As we approach cold and flu season, plenty of us will be looking for ways to boost our immunity through our diet. Notably, blackberries are an excellent source of vitamin C, which helps protect cells against damage, support the immune system and maintain healthy skin and blood vessels.

It is reported that adults need around 40mg of vitamin C per day. As 100g of blackberries typically provides 21mg, adding a generous handful of blackberries to your morning porridge or yogurt will give you a great boost.

Blackberries are full of antioxidants, antioxidant-rich foods are important to include in your diet. This is because they help protect to protect your cells against the oxidative stress caused by free radicals – harmful molecules that are produced by lifestyle factors like drinking alcohol or exposure to pollution and sunlight.

Myth and Lore

Blackberry was considered to be a holy plant as well as one of the earliest foods known to man. In the Highlands it was called it the ~Blessed Bramble.~ Evil spirits could be kept off by a wreath of bramble, rowan and ivy.

Blackberry is a symbol of remorse and is associated with alleviating several illnesses. The ancient Greeks used them as a remedy for gout and in England the leaves are used in as a remedy for burns and scalds.

Raw Living: Picking blackberries, beneath late afternoon sun; a sunset reminiscent of watermelon sangria, as the scent of honeysuckle accosts me and the ducks waddle into the lake. Thanking Mama Nature for her abundance. Loving this candied-sweet southern life. - Author: Brandi L. Bates

Moss – Bryophyta

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Moss – Bryophyta

The magical Moss can be found everywhere and is a very handy plant in survival situations, it can be eaten as a last resort, but it won’t taste very nice however it’s uses for medical purposes are astonishing. During WWI and WWII Moss was an essential part of a medical kit when bandages or wound packing was in short supply and as you can imagine there were never enough with the amount of wounded soldiers coming from the battlefields and trenches. In fact, Moss has been used for thousands of years on battlefields, but like most things it was forgotten or replaced by something that can be mass-produced for convenience and profit.

Moss is very absorbent, far more than cotton wool, and has remarkable deodorizing power. The remarkable sponge-like quality comes from Sphagnum’s cellular structure, ninety percent of the cells in a sphagnum plant are dead. They’re made to be empty, so they can be filled with water. In this case, medics took advantage of that liquid-absorbing capacity to soak up blood, pus and other bodily fluids. Sphagnum moss also has antiseptic properties that helped avoid infections and amputations. A lot of research is taking place on the medicinal properties of Moss, and it has been found that it has similar attributes as Cannabis.

Moss and water

If you ever find yourself in a survival situation and can find sphagnum moss, you probably won’t die of thirst. Sphagnum moss, due to its spongy consistency, soaks up and holds moisture. Just squeezing it will provide a water source – and due to its acidic nature, bacteria typically aren’t present.

Mosses function like sponges, using their capillary spaces to hang on to water. 

They help to soak up rainfall, maintain moisture in the soil below and keep conditions around them humid. This enables other plants around them thrive, such as in habitats like marshes and woodland. 

Mosses also play a vital role in the development of new ecosystems. They’re among the first plant colonisers of disturbed sites, such as when an area is deforested or affected by forest fires. They stabilise the soil surface and retain water, helping new plants to grow. 

Other uses for Moss

Dried Moss Is Extremely Flammable

If you can find dead moss or have the time to pick some and let it dry, it’s extremely flammable and is great for starting your fire. Since it’s lightweight, you may even want to add some of it to your homemade fire starters or just carry some raw.

Moss Is Waterproof

Moss is damp, isn’t it? Well yes it is but it likes to hold on to its water. You can use a nice layer of moss to cover your shelter and it will keep you dry. One of the best things about this is that, since moss has an interconnected, shallow root system, you can cut it in large chunks that make it easy to transport and cover your shelter quickly.

Within 24 hours, these root systems will grow together and you have an instant, waterproof roof. As a matter of fact, there are many stories of wilderness people who actually use moss to roof their houses.

Myth and Lore

The moss people or moss folk (German: Moosleute, “moss folk”, wilde Leute, “wild folk”), also referred to as the wood people or wood folk (Holzleute, “wood folk”) or forest folk (Waldleute, “forest-folk”), are a class of fairy folk, variously compared to dwarfs, elves, or spirits, described in the folklore of Germany as having an intimate connection to trees and the forest. In German, the words Schrat and Waldschrat are also used for a moss person.

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