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HERBAL VINEGARS
AROMATIC DELIGHTS FROM YOUR GARDEN
by Susun S. Weed
Susun Weed CD - Nourishing Infusions and Herbal Vinegars
PART ONE of a two part article
A pantry full of herbal vinegars is a constant delight. Preserving fresh
herbs and roots in vinegar is an easy way to capture their nourishing
goodness. It's easy too. You don't even have to have an herb garden.
BASIC HERBAL VINEGAR
Takes 5 minutes plus 6 weeks to prepare
You will need the following:
~ glass or plastic jar of any size up to one quart/liter
~ plastic lid for jar or
~ waxed paper and a rubber band
~ fresh herbs, roots, weeds
~ one quart/liter apple cider vinegar
Fill any size jar with fresh-cut aromatic herbs. (See accompanying list
for suggestions of herbs that extract particularly well in vinegar.)
For best results and highest mineral content, be sure the jar is well
filled with your chosen herb, not just a few sprigs, and be sure to
cut the herbs or roots up into small pieces.
Pour room-temperature apple cider vinegar into the jar until it is full.
Cover jar with a plastic screw-on lid, several layers of plastic or
wax paper held on with a rubber band, or a cork. Vinegar disintegrates
metal lids.
Label the jar with the name of the herb and the date. Put it in some
place away from direct sunlight, though it doesn't have to be in the
dark, and some place that isn't too hot, but not too cold either. A
kitchen cupboard is fine, but choose one that you open a lot so you
remember to use your vinegar, which will be ready in six weeks.
Apple cider vinegar has been used as a health-giving agent for centuries.
Hippocrates, father of medicine, is said to have used only two remedies:
honey and vinegar. A small book on Vermont folk remedies—primary
among them being apple cider vinegar—has sold over 5 million copies
since its publication in the ‘50s. A current ad in a national
health magazine states that vinegar can give me a longer, healthier,
happier life.
Vinegar has many powers: it lowers cholesterol, improves skin tone,
moderates high blood pressure, prevents/counters osteoporosis, and improves
metabolic functioning. Herbal vinegars are an unstoppable combination:
the healing and nutritional properties of vinegar married to the aromatic
and health-protective effects of green herbs (and a few wild roots).
Herbal vinegars don't taste like medicine. In fact, they taste so good
I use them frequently. I pour a spoonful or more on beans and grains
at dinner; I use them in salad dressings; I season stir-fry and soups
with them. This regular use boosts the nutrient-level of my diet with
very little effort and virtually no expense. Sometimes I drink my herbal
vinegar in a glass of water in the morning, remembering the many older
women who've told me that apple cider vinegar prevents and eases their
arthritic pains. I aim to ingest a tablespoon or more of mineral-rich
herbal vinegar daily. Not just because herbal vinegars taste great (they
do!), but because they offer an easy way to keep my calcium levels high
(and that's a real concern for a menopausal woman of fifty). Herbal
vinegars are so rich in nutrients that I never need to take vitamin
or mineral pills.
Why vinegar~ Water does a poor job of extracting calcium from plants,
but calcium and all minerals dissolve into vinegar very easily. You
can see this for yourself. Submerge a bone in vinegar for six weeks.
What happens~ The bone becomes pliable and rubbery. Why~ The vinegar
extracted the minerals from the bone. (And now the vinegar is loaded
with calcium and other bone-building minerals!)
After observing this trick it’s not unusual to fear that if you
consume vinegar your bones will dissolve. But you'd have to take off
your skin and sit in vinegar for weeks in order for that to happen!
Adding vinegar to your food actually helps build bones because it frees
up minerals from the vegetables you eat. Adding a splash of vinegar
to cooked greens is a classic trick of old ladies who want to be spry
and flexible when they're ancient old ladies. (Maybe your granny already
taught you this~) In fact, a spoonful of vinegar on your broccoli or
kale or dandelion greens increases the calcium you get by one-third.
All by itself, vinegar helps build bones; and when it's combined with
mineral-rich herbs, vinegar is better than calcium pills. Some people
worry that eating vinegar will contribute to an overgrowth of candida
yeast in the intestines. My experience has led me to believe that herbal
vinegars do just the opposite, perhaps because they're so mineral rich.
Herbal vinegars are especially useful for anyone who can't (or doesn't
want to) drink milk. A tablespoon of infused herbal vinegar has the
same amount of calcium as a glass of milk.
So out the door I go, taking a basket and a pair of scissors, my warm
vest and my gloves, to see what I can harvest for my bone-building vinegars.
The first greens to greet me are the slender spires of garlic grass,
or wild chives, common in any soil that hasn't been disturbed too frequently,
such as the lawn, the part of the garden where the tiller doesn't go,
the rhubarb patch, the asparagus bed, the coven of comfrey plants. This
morning they're all offering me patches of oniony greens. Snip, snip,
snip. The vinegar I'll make from these tender tops will contain not
only minerals, but also allyls, special cancer-preventative compounds
found in raw onions, garlic, and the like.
Here where tulips will push up soon, in a sunny corner, is a patch of
catnip intermingled with motherwort, two plants especially beloved by
women. I use catnip to ease menstrual cramps, relieve colic, and bring
on sleep. Motherwort is my favorite remedy for moderating hot flashes
and emotional swings. They are both members of the mint family, and
like all mints, are exceptionally good sources of calcium and make great-tasting
vinegars. Individual mint flavors are magically captured by the vinegar.
From now until snow cover next fall, I'll gather the mints of each season—peppermint,
spearmint, lemon balm, bee balm, oregano, shiso, wild bergamot, thyme,
hyssop, sage, rosemary, lavender—and activate their unique tastes
and their tonic, nourishing properties by steeping them in vinegar.
What a tasty way to build strong bones, a healthy heart, emotional stability,
and energetic vitality.
Down here, under the wild rose hedge, is a plant familiar to anyone
who has walked the woods and roadsides of the east: garlic mustard.
I'll enjoy the leaves in my salad tonight, as I do all winter and spring,
but I'll have to wait a bit longer before I can harvest the roots, which
produce a vibrant, horseradishy vinegar that's just the thing to brighten
a winter salad and keep the sinuses clear at the same time.
And what's this~ A patch of chickweed! It's a good addition to my vinegars
and my salads, boosting their calcium content, though adding scant flavor.
In protected spots, she offers year-round greens.
Look down. The mugwort is sprouting, all fuzzy and grey. I call it cronewort
to honor the wisdom of grey-haired women. The culinary value of this
very wild herb is oft o'erlooked. I was thrilled to find it for sale
in Germany right next to the dried caraway and rosemary, in a little
jar, in the supermarket. Cronewort vinegar is one of the tastiest and
most beneficial of all the vinegars I make. It is renowned as a general
nourishing tonic to circulatory, nervous, urinary, and mental functioning,
as well as being a specific aid to those wanting sound sleep and strong
bones. Cronewort vinegar is free for the making in most cities if you
know where this invasive weed grows.
To mellow cronewort's slightly bitter taste and accent her fragrant,
flavorful aspects, I pick her small (under three inches) and add a few
of her roots to the jar along with the leaves. I cut the tall flowering
stalks of this aromatic plant in the late summer or early autumn, when
they're in full bloom, and dry them. The leaves, stripped carefully
from the stalks, provided stuffing (and magic) for our winter dream
pillows; they are said to carry one into vivid dreams and visions.
The sun is bright and strong and warm. I turn my face toward it and
close my eyes, breathing in. I feel the vibrating life force here. Everything
is aquiver. I smile, knowing that that energy will be available to me
when I consume the vinegars I'll make from these herbs and weeds. As
I relax against the big oak, I breathe out and envision the garden growing
and blooming, fruiting and dying, as the seasons slip through my mind's
eye....
The air grows chillier at night. The leaves fall more quickly with each
breeze. The first mild frosts take the basil, the tomatoes and the squash,
freeing me to pay attention once again to the perennial herbs and weeds,
and urging me to make haste before even the hardy herbs drop their leaves
and retreat to winter dormancy.
The day dawns sunny. Yes, now is the time to harvest the last of the
garden's bounty, the rewards of my work, the gifts of the earth. I dress
warmly (remembering to wear red; hunting season's open), stash my red-handled
clippers in my back pocket, and take a basket in one hand and a plastic
tub in the other.
Then I'm out the door, into autumn's slanting sunshine and my quiet
garden. My black cat bounds over to help me harvest and, after a while,
the white cat emerges from under the house to purr and signal her satisfaction
with my presence in her domain this morning.
My gardening friends say the harvest is over for the year, but I know
my weeds will keep me at work harvesting until well into the winter.
In no time at all my deep basket is full and I'm wishing I'd brought
another. Violet leaves push against stalks of lamb's quarter. Hollyhock,
wild malva, and plantain leaves jostle for their own spaces against
the last of the comfrey and dandelion leaves. (I think dandelion leaves
are much better eating in the fall than in the spring, much less bitter
to my taste after they've been frosted a few nights.) The last of the
red clover blossoms snuggle in the middle. Though not aromatic or intensely
flavored, a vinegar of these greens will be my super-rich calcium supplement
for the dark months of winter.
My baskets are overflowing and I haven't gotten to the nettles and the
raspberry leaves yet. They're superb sources of calcium, too. Ah! The
gracious abundance of weeds, or should I say "volunteer herbs"~
I actually respect them more than the cultivated herbs; respect their
strident life force, and their powerful nutritional punch, and their
added medicinal values that help me stay healthy and filled with energy.
Vinegars, as we’ve read, can be our allies by (among other things)
lowering cholesterol, improving skin tone, and metabolic functioning.
With a few simple tools, we easily can harvest herbs right in or around
our yard to make some yummy, healthy vinegars. Part two of this article
reviews the importance of harvesting the right roots, offers some helpful
pointers for making vinegars, and provides an indispensable list of
plants that make for tasty vinegars and a list of plants for herbal
calcium supplements.
Read Part Two ..
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Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com
and www.wisewomanbookshop.com
Susun Weed’s books include: |
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Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year
Author: Susun S. Weed. Simple, safe remedies for pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, and newborns. Includes herbs for fertility and birth control. Foreword by Jeannine Parvati Baker. 196 pages, index, illustrations.
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
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Healing Wise
Author: Susun S. Weed. Superb herbal in the feminine-intuitive mode. Complete instructions for using common plants for food, beauty, medicine, and longevity. Introduction by Jean Houston. 312 pages, index, illustrations.
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com |
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NEW Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way
Author: Susun S. Weed. The best book on menopause is now better. Completely revised with 100 new pages. All the remedies women know and trust plus hundreds of new ones. New sections on thyroid health, fibromyalgia, hairy problems, male menopause, and herbs for women taking hormones. Recommended by Susan Love MD and Christiane Northrup MD. Introduction by Juliette de Bairacli Levy. 304 pages, index, illustrations.
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
For excerpts visit: www.menopause-metamorphosis.com
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Breast Cancer? Breast Health!
Author: Susun S. Weed. Foods, exercises, and attitudes to keep your breasts healthy. Supportive complimentary medicines to ease side-effects of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or tamoxifen. Foreword by Christiane Northrup, M.D. 380 pages, index, illustrations.
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
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Down There: Sexual and Reproductive Health the Wise Woman Way
Publication date: June 21, 2011
Author: Susun S. Weed
Simple, successful, strategies cover the entire range of options -- from mainstream to radical -- to help you choose the best, and the safest, ways to optimize sexual and reproductive health.
Foreword: Aviva Romm, MD, midwife, 484 pages, Index, illustrations.
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
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Abundantly Well - Seven Medicines
The Complementary Integrated Medical
Revolution
Publication date: December 2019
Author: Susun S. Weed
Seven Medicines build foundational health and guide you to the best health care when problems arise.
Includes case studies, recipes, exentsive references and resources. Introduction by Patch Adams illustrated by Durga
Yael Bernhard 352 pages, index, illustrations
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
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Susun Weed's Video & CD's: |
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Weeds to the Wise DVD Video
Visit Susun's farm for a weed walk. Hear her talk on the Three Traditions of Healing. Make infusion with her. Fun! (1 hour VHS video) Please note: this VHS video tape is in NTSC format which may not be compatible with video players outside of the USA and Canada.
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
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Susun Weed's "It's Time"
Wise Woman Center
25th Anniversary Celebration CD
GODDESS CHANTS CD
Visit www.goddesschants.com to hear all the songs, read lyrics &
learn about the artists.
18 Wise Woman Songs & Chants from the heart
Order this CD in our Bookshop
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Susun
Weed, green witch and wise woman, is an extraordinary teacher with
a joyous spirit, a powerful presence, and an encyclopedic knowledge
of herbs and health. She is the voice of the Wise Woman Way, where common
weeds, simple ceremony, and compassionate listening support and nourish
health/wholeness/holiness. She has opened hearts to the magic and medicine
of the green nations for decades. Ms. Weed's Six herbal medicine
books focus on women's health topics including: menopause, childbearing,
and breast health. Visit her site www.susunweed.com for information on her workshops, apprenticeships, correspondence courses
and more! Venture into the
Menopause site www.menopause-metamorphosis.com to learn all about the Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way. Join Susuns Mentorship site for personal one on one mentorship!
We also invite you to visit our commerce site www.wisewomanbookshop.com to learn about our Wise Woman publications, workshops, correspondence courses. As well as online courses at Wise Woman School.
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