So a few folks contacted me and asked for amounts on my Nettle Tea, now I should be clear that I like hot nettle tea as well but this is my current standard Cold Nettle Tea.
I had to make a batch and then write it out today, so I take a 8 cup steel pot with my cutter out to the garden and I am cutting around six cups of loosely packed nettle tops, one cup of loosely packed apple mint (althought later in the year, I am looking forward to trying a number of different kinds of mints in the mix) and one cup of violet leaves/mixed with flowers.
* Please remember to use nettles that are not in bloom, if you need to, cut down half your patch and allow it to start again so you have fresh tops to use.
These are cleanly picked and because of that, I feel comfortable just filling the pot with fresh cold well water, and bring to a simmer, I simmer them for a min of 20 min, at this point, I strain though a steel fine mesh and it goes into my half gallon jar, I like to add raw local honey to taste, and I then add 1/4th to 1/2 half a cup of white wine or apple cider vinager- that is not required by any means, I just like the way it tastes, and the added health benafits (I guess you could use sugar if you want to sweeten) and then stir and fill the rest of the jar with cold water and into the fridge to chill..
This is a full bodied in flavour herbal tea, its a lovely green color, its slightly sweet, slightly tart and goes down easy.. cheers to a awesome healthy drink to your health!
When I butchered out my last Large Black Gilt, I was so pleased to see that she had a lovely perfect looking liver, no signs of worms or ill health, but wow was it big considering her size, I cut it into parts and froze then on a tray and then double bagged them for the feezer so that I could take out meal size portions of liver (dH is not found on liver at all) so that leaves it pretty much on my plate.
I wanted liver for breakfast this morning but I wanted it both well fried, but bursting with freshness and this came close.. its as easy as it gets, its liver, green pepper and salad greens, I got not just one but two heads of big iceburg lettice in my green box’s, otherwise, this would have been wild yard greens or microgreens.
I put a little lard in the pan on med heat and cooked the liver till well seared, flipped and added in the green pepper cubes, cooked till the liver was no longer pink inside but was till juicy, its a very, very fine line, watch it carefully or cook it the way you like to.. my mom wants it dry and dead, and others like it to still be pink.. me, I want it right on that line.. I did a light bit of salt on them and that was it.. but you can spice it up if you want to..
Serve on the bed of greens and chow down, the combo of the hot crunchy liver bits with the warm but still crunchy pepper with the sweet lettice.. It was yum, yum.. Clearly you will need to double or triple the amounts depending on the amount of people eating, I made a single person dish..
I most likely would not have written about this if I had not seen Angelina talking about her surgery’s, I know, I know, everyone comes down hard on both sides of this issue, but the bottom line is, it was her life and her choice, and I am glad she came forward on it.
Ok so you need a little history on this subject (and yes to my male readers we are going to be talking about breast health.) I am a regular home checker and have never had a issue but it also means that I know what “normal” feels like..
I am also getting older, I am 40 this year, about six weeks ago, I had a soreness in my right armpit, it was like I had worked it to hard, and it bothered me, a lot.. it was not typical, and anything that is not typical, I take notice off, I didn’t have redness, or a lump or heat, or swelling, just a dull ache.. I was careful at checking my armpit, down and my breast for any signs of issues, and none were found..
Heat helped the ache and massage helped and I started a herbal, exercise and lost some more weight to work and flush out the lymph glands in that area and felt much, much better for it, so you can imagine my look of mild (ok, maybe more like moderate at that moment panic) when I found a small lump on the matching side of my right breast last week.. it had not been there on the last check and it was clearly there now..
Dh checked it and did what any self respecting hubby would do.. get thy to the doctor with a worried look on his face.. I did what most women who are in fact in touch with their bodies, have a grasp on hormones and do regular self-checkups would do.. which is nothing till I had time to think about it..
I increased my fresh nettle tea, I was even more careful on taking and eating my foods and drinks to help flush my system, I looked at the fact that I had a real allergy attack not that long ago and I started doing a healing salve rub and massage on the area four times a day.
Now I would like to point out one more thing, this was a smooth rounded lump and I felt and still feel that it was a duct based on feel and placement, if it had been a rough, or uneven lump, I would have had a lot more concern on it.
Needless to say I wanted a full check today with hubby doing the second check on it, and I am thrilled to say that both of us are in agreement that its down by half or more already in size and we will continue to treat it and watch very carefully.
I expect that within another week or four, that we won’t be able to find it at all.. which is what I am hoping for..
I will make a note of this and report for my medical, and please don’t get me wrong on the above, if I needed to go to medical care, I would do so, if I needed it checked, I would do so and if I needed surgery, I would do so..
Those of us lucky enough to live in Canada do have a good health care system, not as good in some ways as we would like it but compared to billions, we are among the lucky and I know it..
Everyone of us needs to find that mix, that spot, where they take a active and healthy role in their own health care and at the same time, know when its wise to step back and let those with more skills, knowledge and equipment help them..
Bottom line for me, lump- bad, worried- yes, careful care-yes, being proactive-yes, not jumping the gun-yes, willing to take it to the next level if needed.. you bet I am.
So here is my thought of the day.. everyone learn a little more about your own health this week, read up on the basic of home self checks and if you are not already doing them, please consider doing so.. once you know what is normal, it will allow to you to catch things at a early stage, and please, please if in doubt, as dear hubby says.. get thy to the doctor and have it checked there.
This one is a true farmgal style, I didn’t measure my brine.. it got some regular vinager, some red wine vinager, some jerk seasoning, some sugar, some pepper corns, some dill seed and a good simmer.. it is sharp, sweet and spicy all in one.. Made enough to do one pint jar..
From the gardens I pulled fresh itty bitty baby garlic and used both the bulbs and the greens, fresh baby horse radish greens (with the stems removed and a 3 inch piece of root, washed, peeled and grated in, filled and poured over, and into the fridge for keeping for when I want to use them over the next days to week plus..
It think if I had taken this mix, it would be so good in so many ways used fresh and in different dishes!
Tiny tight dandelion flower buds, black berry leaves, fresh young grape leaves, along with salt, sugar, vinager, black peppercorns an a single clove bud form the recipe that will make Pickled Dandelion Flower Buds.
Now when I say, tiny and tight, I mean it, these should be the first spring buds that have not even yet risen up on their stalks, they should be found in a tight cluster deep in the middle of the plant, you will have a very narrow window in the spring to find these at their peek. Clean them well, if you want them less bitter, I have read that you can reduce it by soaking them in salt water, but I have not done this, so don’t know if true or not!
Think a lovely wild caper.. and they can be made to be more sharp/bitter or they can be made to be a touch more sweet/salty/with a bitter bite to them.. either way is yum but I tend to lean personally towards the sweet/salty brines with them.
Some folks tell me that they just put them in with vinager, cover and pickle them, some add salt, or a wine vinager and brine/vinager them..
I am going right out and well beyond that.. to make one pint.
Put your buds, and leaves in a clean hot jar, bring the rest of the mix to a boil, then simmer for ten min, back to a boil and then pour over then, and put your lid on.. (yes you are open kettle canning here) allow to cool, place in fridge and allow to pickle for two to four weeks, can be served with fish, or lamb or a whole host of other ways..
Well, I finally felt that my beer was as flat as it was going to get in that fridge, I followed all the rules, I popped the top, and poured all the beer into a steel pan, and whisked it till it was all foamy, then I turn it on a slow slow low heat.. the foam came up again as it de-carbonated, which is what I needed because if you don’t do this, when you add your lye, it can foam up and be quite dangerous.. after it simmered down from 16 oz to my needed 12 oz for the recipe, I put it in the fridge to chill and then into the small freezer to get nice and frozen/slushy for use today.. worked perfectly, and boy they were not kidding about the beer really giving off a smell in regards to the fumes, I did it outside on the deck.
I did my oils and took some to the side, and beat in my egg, now I went with just one egg and it was well beaten and set it to the side..
Once my oils and my lye was within the ten degree mark, into the pot it went, now I have been warned that beer soap will set up fast, well I did something wrong here, it took forever to reach light trace.. opps, I am head of myself.. so I blended till smooth, then checked my temps again and drizzled in my egg/oil mix while stick blending it in (you have to watch your oils or you can cook the egg, instead blending it, some folks like to add egg white and some egg yolk, and some both.. whatever, it was one jumbo rich farm egg)
And then I blended and blended and blended… an muttered again and again.. what happened to fast trace.. I was barely getting a soft light trace.. growl.. I poured a 3rd of the mix into a glass bowl with a bit of coco to turn it into a nice dark brown to match up with that lovely warm tan that the beer made.. and I blended an stirred and blended and stirred and finally I got trace, but not what I wanted to see..
Finally say that I had no hope of doing my planned two tone soap, I would need a proper trace to a medium trace to get that soap to the stage I could play with it like I had planned..
So I changed it up, I poured the dark brown soap back into one side of the main and then poured them into the loaf mold as a very free flowing two tone color blend.. and it was still so soft in trace that I could not even work the top and I gave it the stink eye.. and then I thought.. fine.. want to be BAD soap, I will force gel you. and flipped on the oven at the lowest setting just till it was warm, turned back off and put the light on, and popped that bad boy into the oven.. half an hour later I checked it and it was good for me to do the pretty top on it, retouched up the heat in the oven and put it back in.. I am going for a full out gel on this baby!
now I am sure that at least one of you has thought.. why call it the hair of the dog? Beer and egg, get it ..huh.. huh… or maybe that is just a family saying.. can’t wait to see how this one turns out.. a gel will change the texture a bit and its going to be a total surprise and I expect that each bar is going to look each own because of the blending..
Between the sugar in the beer, I am expecting a rich lather, the egg is to add a lot of richness to the soap as well.. will take photos of it once its been cut and curing..
Well, I can’t keep showing you only wet soap and not the finished results, plus I have been playing around with recipes and would like to report on how they turned out.
This is the Baby Sheep Milk Soap.. this is a very, very soft soap, as in I am will most likely let it cure another four to six months in the hopes that it will cure out more.. its like washing your hands with a mix of soap and lotion, it melts very quickly, and gives small rich lather, your hands feel very, very soft when washed with this soap, I can see how it would be amazing on a wee ones fine skin.. no scent.. just pure and very, very gentle..
This is Sheep Milk Nettle Soap– This is a very hard bar of soap, it gives a small amount of lather, it has a very, very light scent of nettles and it feels wonderful, I love this soap as face or shower soap, you feel so clean and no need for lotions when done with it, I have also used this one as a solid shampoo bar, I found it cleaned really well and when rinced with apple cider mixed with water, that my hair dried to soft fluffy and with my natural curl showing, I had a few folks tell me, that my hair looked great that day, but I would like to tweek the recipe if I wanted to make it into a proper shampoo bar!
This is Nanaimo..
It is a special soap as it was made with my own home rendered lard, and its shows, its a amazing hard, hard, HARD bar of soap, it also is almost impossible to get a lather on it.. it is a very interesting soap to me, it has very little scent but what it does have is soft and enjoyable, it produces a very creamy feel when washing with it, and it leaves your hands feeling super clean and very, very soft.. now I didn’t much like this bar in the shower until I felt the super creamy feel and shaved with it, and man O man, its a shaving bar of soap.. love it…
This is my Coffee Garden Soap..
Wow, I am so glad that I have the recipe on this one and can repeat it, its a winner! This is a lovely scented and scubby soap with a amazing lather, leaving you hand or face clean and soft with a awesome smoothness to it.. Its got lard in it, so it is a bit of a harder bar as well but it soften in the water perfectly and lathers quickly and fully!
So there you have them.. Coming up in the next while, Beer Soap and Wine Soap..
They say, first there is five of us, not six, three browns, one black and one flash little trimmed white baby.. our eyes are open, our fur is fully in and we are growing well, the white trimmed and the one brown are the biggest, the next two are the other browns and then the little black is the smallest babe.. don’t worry, they may have not been happy about getting their pictures taken but as you can see on the last photo, I was watched over carefully by their momma to make sure it was all on the up and up 🙂
Just another Day on the Farm 