Elderberry - The Flu Remedy

Elderberry is used as a delicious remedy for the flu. It prevents the flu virus from attaching to our cells and therefore, it shortens the duration and severity of the flu.

Elderberry is extremely useful for fighting the flu. It contains compounds that keep the flu virus from attaching to the cell, so it can shorten the duration of your illness and possibly lesson the severity.

Elderberries make a wonderfully tasty remedy. You can use them fresh or dried equally well. Making a sweet elderberry syrup or a semi sweet tincture.

When wildcrafting elderberries, be sure to only pick from areas that do not receive a lot of vehicle traffic and be certain to only pick the most ripe berries. This is easy to do, as they are picked in large umbrells of berries per stem.

Make Hand Rubbed Sage Powder

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Red Clover

Red clover is a popular tonic herb. It has a sweet taste and is easily recognized by beginning herbalists. Red clover is used for women's issues, as a powerful addition to their herbal medicine chest.

Red clover is an important herb to know. The blossoms are easy to pick and the few tiny leaves that sometimes are attached can also be included in the harvest.

Use the flowers as a tasty accent in your salad or freeze individual blooms in ice cubes for a pretty addition to a pitcher of lemonade or tea.

Red clover blossoms are traditionally used for menopause issues, as they are said to helps balance the estrogen levels during this time. Red clover is also used in herbal cancer fighting treatments. This herb does have a blood thinning effect, and should not be used by anyone taking blood thinning drugs.

Red clover can be used as a cover crop in your garden area, as well as wildcrafted from clean, wild places.

Basil

Basil is a fragrant herb with strong ties to both Italian and Indian cooking. Basil varieties range from teeny fairy basil to large garden varieties with leaves large enough to use as wraps in cooking. Basil has many different colors. You can grow plants that are a deep purple, blue or a myriad of greens. There are also many different flavors of basil; sweet, spicy, lemon and even licorice can be found. For gardeners, no matter if you have a small window box garden or a large acre farm, basil has plants that will grow well in any size space. Look for a bush basil for a more compact and dwarf habit. Basil is an easy to grow annual so you can grow it straight from seed or start with a few plants. Basil likes well drained soil because it is susceptible to mildew and needs to remain watered but not soaking wet. It is also a good idea to keep larger leaves pinched back. The more airflow around the plant, the healthier for your basil.

Although basil is sometimes found crushed in jars, it doesn't dry well.If the leaves are bruised, they will turn an unsightly black. To store your excess basil for winter's use, puree in a food processor with just enough olive oil to make a paste. Freeze in ice cube trays and then pop the frozen cubes into a gallon size freezer bag. In any size garden, make room for basil.

Compost

Compost Pile

©2008, A. Jeanroy, Licensed to About.comAny herb gardener will benefit from adding nutrients and organic matter to the soil in order to grow plants well. One of the most popular and beneficial things to add is compost. Compost can be purchased at any garden supply center, but it is very easy (and less expensive) to make your own. Whether your garden is indoors or out, compost will help all your herbs grow better. The act of composting is putting organic materials in a pile or container, along with water. This pile is turned periodically and the beneficial bacteria will thrive. This creates high heat and breaks down the raw organic materials into a dark, rich, soil-like product. There will be no discernible original parts, and finished compost has a fresh, earthy odor. If you have a small indoor garden, you can simply create less compost. If you are growing your herbs outdoors, you can never have enough of this black gold. A nice idea for indoor composting is to buy a rubbermaid-style tub that will fit under your kitchen sink and begin composting with earthworms. This is called vermiculture, and it is the perfect way to create compost for all your indoor herbs.

For larger amounts, you may want to contain your compost pile in a bin. These can be made of any material you have access to. I have used free wooden pallets with great results. I simply wire three together and have the fourth side open for turning. These pallet bins are easy to move in the fall and contain enough room for me to easily stir the contents. There are many other styles of compost bins to choose from. You can spend hundreds of dollars buying a fancy version that is essentially a barrel with a handle to crank it around with. The choice is yours. Now, on to the ingredients needed for a healthy compost pile.

Compost needs three essential ingredients in order for the magic to happen: Green material Brown material Sufficient moisture

Green material is high in nitrogen. It is usually what we refer to as kitchen scraps like coffee grounds, peelings, fruit cores, and eggshells. Any kitchen waste that is not greasy or meat can be composted. Manure (NOT dog and cat waste, only barnyard animals), grass clippings, leaves, and weeds you have pulled are also green materials.

Brown material is high in carbon. Paper, sawdust, small branches and twigs, and straw all fall into this category. You may not believe that the items have anything to offer your compost, but they certainly do. The ratio of nitrogen to carbon ideally works out to be equal parts of both for us on the farm. We use all of our stems and any part of the herbs that we are not going to save and what we clean out of the stalls in the goat barn as the majority of our brown and green material. Cornstalks and kitchen scraps also get added regularly. We never have enough compost, but every bit helps and we do not suffer from drought or standing water like some of our neighbors do.

Water is the final key ingredient in a thriving compost pile. Without moisture, your pile will take months to do anything, and if dry enough, will not break down at all. If your pile is too wet, it will smell and become slimy as the ratio of bad bacteria outweighs the good. You want it to remain damp, but not dripping wet. If you do not get enough rainfall to suffice, dump a bucket over it once a week to keep things moving. You will know that your compost pile is right if it becomes hot in the middle. This is important to sterilize the compost and kill the weed seeds or bad diseases that may be there. The heat is your proof that the ratio is working for your compost pile.

You will turn your pile from the outside in about once a week. This doesn't have to be anything major, simply shovel the outer portion of the pile towards the inside and continue moving in this way around the pile until you have rearranged it so that fresh compost is now exposed. This way, all the beneficial organisms can have a chance to work on all of the pile's ingredients.If your pile heats up, gets moisture, and gets turned regularly, you should have dark, wonderful compost in about one to two month's time. Use this fertile addition to any herbs you have, both indoors and out. Add it in large quantities in the spring to the soil you are going to plant in. Use it throughout the season to top off any soil that has become tamped down due to water runoff or settling. In the fall, break down your garden and put any parts of it that are not diseased back into a new compost pile to work all winter and you will have new compost to use the following spring.

Best Ways To Profit From Herbs

©2008, A. Jeanroy, Licensed to About.com

Value added products, means using a single product, like lavender, to make other items. In the case of lavender, this could be lavender wands, salve, eye pillows, cookies, dryer bags and more. Value added is giving the customer more reason to purchase from you, because you are offering more than just that single thing you started with. A customer may never have the desire to grow a lavender plant, but would love to have a lavender filled eye pillow. Your customer base has now increased, with little effort.

Herbs For The Hair

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Rosemary

Rosemary, (Rosemarinus officinalis), is a delicious and beautiful herb. You can find many varieties to fit your need: upright and trailing. Use them interchangeably and even grow multiple varieties as each is distinctly different looking. I use trailing varieties for my herb standards. I braid three stems and use those as the main stem. It gives a more decorative look to my finished standard.

The ancients were well acquainted with the shrub, which had a reputation for strengthening the memory. On this account it became the emblem of fidelity for lovers. It holds a special position among herbs from the symbolism attached to it. Not only was it used at weddings, but also at funerals, for decking churches and banqueting halls at festivals, as incense in religious ceremonies. In early times, Rosemary was freely cultivated in kitchen gardens and came to represent the dominant influence of the house mistress. 'Where Rosemary flourished, the woman ruled.' In place of more costly incense, the ancients used Rosemary in their religious ceremonies. An old French name for it was Incensier.

Rosemary succeeds best in a light, rather dry soil, and in a sheltered situation, such as the base of a low wall with a south aspect. On a chalk soil it grows smaller, but is more fragrant. The silver and gold striped kinds are not quite so hardy. If you are living in a northern zone, plant your rosemary in pots to move indoors when the weather grows cooler. Rosemary grows very well as an indoor plant as well. Rosemary is a strongly scented herb. It pairs well with butter for a rich spread. It also compliments poultry and potato dishes. Rosemary is easily dried and used throughout the winter. Crush the needle like leaves in your hand to release its volatile oils before adding to your recipe. The stems can also be used as skewers and they will infuse your meat with a fabulous flavor.