Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Hop Tree and Pear

[00:00:00] Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. Well first of all, James said he wanted me to keep everybody posted on the hurricane situation in the Western N.C. Things are getting better slowly. Life's getting back to normal as it can. I mean obviously with people who have lost loved ones and such, that's not the case. But you know things are kind of getting back to normal. I was finally contacted by a FEMA inspector, I guess five weeks later.

[00:00:29] So I guess in another month or so I'll know if they're gonna cover any of the damage on the house. And since we had a freeze, now I have frozen pipes too. So it's fun. But a lot of people of course lost everything so I'm not gonna complain. And you know the bad thing is a lot of people, their claims are being denied. And so if you listen to the show, if that happens to you, the law is actually that FEMA is supposed to make your house habitable.

[00:00:59] You know, your homeowner's insurance is not gonna cover most of the damage from a hurricane. I mean, tree falling on the house is one thing, you know, but flood damage. If you don't live in a flood area and normally one does not have that as part of their coverage. And of course, if you're on the coast, you're probably not gonna get any coverage for it anyway because it is a flood prone area.

[00:01:51] You probably could be a little more motivated to help you out. You know, you can either say I just voted for you or if it's next week and they lost the new person coming in will be hiring a whole new staff and there'd be very eager to help people actually.

[00:02:07] And I think, I would say most people don't even know that's a possibility. But whenever you have any problem, when I worked for a congressman up in Virginia, he had about two, three people on staff that just help people with disability claims that have been denied.

[00:02:22] A lot of veterans issues as well. A lot of stuff with the VA and benefits. And you know, that is actually their job. They actually get paid to do that. So, you know, reach out.

[00:02:35] And the worst they can do is tell you no, right? But if they tell you no, then you tell them you're gonna tell all your neighbors and they're not gonna get reelected.

[00:02:42] So only person I've ever encountered that was like that was a guy that worked for Senator Tom Tillis.

[00:02:48] And let me tell you, I got nothing good to say about Senator Tom Tillis.

[00:02:52] I actually called the office just to ask a question and the guy started cussing me out. Literally.

[00:03:00] Tillis is not a good guy. Not a good guy at all.

[00:03:03] And the people that work for him seem to represent that, at least those that I have encountered.

[00:03:07] Maybe you have a different view of him.

[00:03:09] But, you know, I used to be able to call up Jesse Helms.

[00:03:13] And no problem, right?

[00:03:15] Call Tillis' office and someone starts screaming and cussing at me just because I asked a question about some proposed legislation

[00:03:23] and how it was going to affect the people in North Carolina.

[00:03:26] And wow. Okay.

[00:03:28] So anyway, now let's get on with the show.

[00:03:31] Oh, and to be fair, I did then call a different office.

[00:03:34] He put me in touch with his, like, main chief of staff guy in D.C.

[00:03:38] who was very apologetic.

[00:03:39] So I should not smear the entire organization just on one bad experience.

[00:03:45] But, you know, keep in mind, if at first you don't succeed, try again.

[00:03:50] Now, let's talk about our tree for the week.

[00:03:53] And we'll get a couple of them.

[00:03:55] But, well, I don't know.

[00:03:57] We'll see how much time we have.

[00:03:58] But the second one is really long.

[00:04:00] Okay.

[00:04:00] So maybe we'll do a short show this time or I can find a shorter entry that I can put in second place.

[00:04:08] This is, I'm not exactly sure how to pronounce the Latin name.

[00:04:12] It's like patella or something.

[00:04:14] I don't know if the P is silent.

[00:04:15] I never know with stuff like that.

[00:04:17] But you probably know it as hop tree.

[00:04:19] Now, hop tree is actually a pretty interesting tree.

[00:04:21] It's been used, at least three varieties have documented use in herbal medicine.

[00:04:26] Been used for a very long time.

[00:04:29] And it's actually a member of the Rue family, believe it or not.

[00:04:34] And the fruit of the tree was used in place of hops as a bittering and preserving agent for beer.

[00:04:42] It was used before they started using hops around 1100.

[00:04:46] It was used when you didn't have hops.

[00:04:50] Well, as far as the medicinal uses, we're going to start with ancient Greece, actually, Deaschorides.

[00:04:58] So he wrote that the leaves, branches, and bark of, I'm going to say patella, maybe patella.

[00:05:06] We're going to go with hop tree.

[00:05:07] I'll just try to say it in the common name for now on.

[00:05:10] Are all astringent.

[00:05:11] The leaves pounded into small pieces mixed with vinegar and so applied are good for leprosy and to heal wounds.

[00:05:17] But especially the bark if it is wrapped around like a bandage, for it is flexible like a girdle.

[00:05:22] Now, that's unique.

[00:05:24] I mean, that's, you know, survival situation.

[00:05:27] If you can identify that tree, that could be extremely useful.

[00:05:32] Decoction of the leaves, I mean, decoction of the leaves or the bark of the root.

[00:05:36] Applied with hot cloths, consolidates by drawing a callium.

[00:05:44] That means a hard skin over the fracture of a bone sooner.

[00:05:48] The moisture which is found in the bladders of the undeveloped fruit at their first sprouting clears the face when rubbed on it.

[00:05:57] Oh, and this is interesting.

[00:05:59] The moisture, actually, of the fruit apparently really attracted like fruit flies.

[00:06:04] And back in ancient Greece, they thought that the gnats, as they called them, were actually being produced by the tree.

[00:06:11] So, you know, they just didn't have all the information yet, right?

[00:06:17] But the newly emerged leaves are used for a sauce like vegetables.

[00:06:22] So, very interesting.

[00:06:23] You know, edible use and some ancient medicinal use.

[00:06:28] Let's skip ahead a couple thousand years.

[00:06:30] Resources of Southern Fields and Forest, written by a French botanist for the Confederacy in the 1860s, said that the Petalia trifolata, that's the one that really grows in my area.

[00:06:47] We just call it hop tree.

[00:06:50] He said it was found from Florida to North Carolina.

[00:06:53] And he said it's a small genus of the trees, and it's actually more like a shrub.

[00:06:58] And it was peculiar, or specifically grows in America and India.

[00:07:03] And found it to be anthelmintic, which means helps get rid of intestinal worms and such, parasites.

[00:07:09] Strong infusion of the leaves and young shoots being used.

[00:07:13] The fruit is aromatic and bitter, and is stated to be a good substitute for hops.

[00:07:17] Now, of course, in early America, they didn't have hops.

[00:07:20] They weren't growing.

[00:07:21] Now, there are wild hops in America, but to the best of my knowledge, they weren't in use in colonial times.

[00:07:27] And so, I guess by the Civil War, they were growing hops, but they were still substituting if they didn't have them.

[00:07:35] So, King's American Dispensatory of 1898 says hop tree is tonic and surpassed in this line only by hydrastus.

[00:07:46] In this case, tonic is going to mean good for digestion, good for the stomach.

[00:07:52] Used after intermittent fevers and remittent fevers in all cases of debility where tonics are indicated.

[00:07:58] So, helps strengthen the stomach after a severe illness.

[00:08:02] Also said to be anthelmintic, which we just discussed.

[00:08:05] Equal parts of hop tree and another one I have trouble pronouncing.

[00:08:10] I believe we've discussed euonymus before.

[00:08:13] Not much used anymore.

[00:08:15] Let me think.

[00:08:16] Euonymus, I believe that's wahoo.

[00:08:19] Wahoo was used a lot in Cherokee herbal medicine and by early America.

[00:08:24] I think it also includes like burning bush or, yeah, if I'm not mistaken.

[00:08:29] A little toxic.

[00:08:30] You want to be careful with that one.

[00:08:32] So, you know, probably would not combine it with equal parts of this were it me.

[00:08:38] But it had been found very useful in pulmonary affections.

[00:08:41] And that's actually what wahoo was used for, was for pulmonary issues.

[00:08:44] A tincture of hop tree made in whiskey is reputed to have cured several cases of asthma and is said in many instances where it has been used, said to cause in many instances where it has been used, a troublesome external erosyplous inflammation.

[00:09:02] But if the tincture be persisted in, it finally disappears and the patient becomes at the same time permanently cured of the disease for which he was treated.

[00:09:11] That's a bold statement, but that's actually from a pharmaceutical manual.

[00:09:16] I don't know.

[00:09:18] Well, he did say it has been said.

[00:09:21] So take it with a grain of salt.

[00:09:23] He said this would certainly indicate other valuable properties of this plant than those which we are acquainted with, which deserve further investigation.

[00:09:30] And at this point, Professor I.E. Jones stated that the bark is a pure, unirritating tonic, having a rather soothing influence when applied to irritated mucous membranes.

[00:09:43] He has also, so it would not be at all a contact dermatitis.

[00:09:48] I guess it was just an allergic reaction to the tincture.

[00:09:51] He has also employed it advantageously in convalescence after fevers and inability connected with the gastroenteric irritation.

[00:10:02] It promotes appetite, enables the stomach to endure subtle nourishment, favors the early reestablishment of digestion, and will be tolerated by the stomach when other tonics are rejected.

[00:10:14] He employed it in a cold infusion, that's a tea, of a half-fluid ounce given every two, three, or four hours, depending on the circumstance.

[00:10:22] It is also said to cure intermittent fever and is considered by some to be the equal to quinine.

[00:10:27] That's very useful, especially in this day and time.

[00:10:29] It may be used as a powder, tincture, or extract dose of the powder.

[00:10:34] And under specific indications, they say asthmatic breathing, chronic disease with a sense of constriction in the chest, and short breathing.

[00:10:42] Now, the only thing I should clarify, until recently, very recently, most all asthma was spasmodic asthma.

[00:10:53] And many herbs have antispasmodic properties, like we talked about the wild cherry bark last week.

[00:10:59] I'm assuming this is very similar to that.

[00:11:02] Basically, since at least the 60s and 70s, we started getting so many toxins in our environment.

[00:11:10] From the crap they put on our food to a lot of microplastics and petrochemicals and such.

[00:11:20] I mean, the fumes that come from carpet can even cause people to have an inflammatory asthma.

[00:11:29] And I actually developed that at a young age.

[00:11:32] I've been treating inflammatory asthma basically my entire life.

[00:11:35] But mine's not spasmodic at all.

[00:11:38] But I get inflammation and I get, well, I get congestion.

[00:11:42] And I shouldn't say not at all, because with a severe attack, the lungs do spasm for anybody.

[00:11:48] But, so anyway, a lot of the old cures are specifically for spasmodic asthma as opposed to inflammatory asthma.

[00:11:55] So I can't say for sure on this one.

[00:11:58] The cherry bark works for both, by the way.

[00:12:01] According to Plants for Future, medicinal use of hop tree.

[00:12:05] The root bark is anthelmintic, antibacterial, antiperiodic, stomatic, and tonic.

[00:12:12] It has been mixed with other medicines in order to give it an added potency.

[00:12:16] It has a soothing influence on the mucous membranes and promotes the appetite being tolerated when other tonics cannot be retained.

[00:12:23] It also is taking the treatment of intermittent fevers such as with malaria, heartburn, roundworms.

[00:12:31] Intermittent fevers such as malaria, I guess also for heartburn, roundworms, pinworms, and poor digestion.

[00:12:37] They left out a punctuation there.

[00:12:42] What's that joke?

[00:12:43] You know, commas are important.

[00:12:46] You see the same sentence, let's eat, grandma.

[00:12:49] The other one just says, let's eat grandma.

[00:12:50] Of course, they have two totally different meanings.

[00:12:53] And it says, don't be a cannibal, use your commas.

[00:12:56] But anyway, the roots are harvested in the autumn and the bark peeled off for later use.

[00:13:03] Externally is applied to wounds.

[00:13:05] The roots are tonic, used in the treatment of asthmatic breathing, fevers, poor appetite.

[00:13:10] The leaves are said to be useful in the treatment of wounds and also in the destruction of intestinal worms.

[00:13:15] Peterson Field Guide to Central and Eastern Medicinal Plants says,

[00:13:20] American Indians added the root to strengthen other medicines, historically used by physicians as a tonic, surpassed only by golden seal.

[00:13:27] That's, you know, that was the hydrastis we mentioned.

[00:13:31] We can use, golden seal was overharvested.

[00:13:34] It became a very valuable plant.

[00:13:36] We don't use it much anymore in herbal medicine unless we grow it ourselves because it almost went extinct.

[00:13:42] But Oregon grape grows like everywhere.

[00:13:46] And it has the same alkaloid, berberine.

[00:13:51] It has the same berberine in the root.

[00:13:53] If you pull up an Oregon grape and kind of strip it down a little bit, you'll see that the root is very yellow.

[00:13:59] And that is, there's also a gold, what is it, gold thread copsis, I think.

[00:14:05] That's actually a small, almost like a wildflower that also contains it.

[00:14:09] So we do have other alternatives to, to a golden seal.

[00:14:15] And if I'm not mistaken, well, I'm sure it's true.

[00:14:18] Also barberry, you know, Oregon grape and Japanese barberry and different ornamental plants that are often, those are cousins actually.

[00:14:26] So they would have the same property.

[00:14:27] But yeah, you can probably find that one if you can't get golden seal.

[00:14:31] But anyway, used for asthmatic breathing, fevers, poor appetite, gastroenteritis, irritated mucous membranes.

[00:14:39] A tea of the young leaves and shoots was once considered useful as a worm, well, they say experiment.

[00:14:46] I think, hmm, what might they have meant in place, expectorate?

[00:14:50] I don't know.

[00:14:51] The bitter, slightly bitter aromatic fruits were once used as a substitute for hops in the manufacture of beer.

[00:14:58] Yeah, I think I can get one more here.

[00:15:02] Yeah, it's a short entrance.

[00:15:04] Well, it's, it's pyrus or pear.

[00:15:06] And the pear is, of course, absolutely delicious.

[00:15:09] One of my absolute favorite fruits.

[00:15:11] Just a little medicinal use.

[00:15:14] And yeah, we'll wrap it up there.

[00:15:16] D.S. Corides wrote,

[00:15:42] In other words,

[00:15:45] pear that he said took longer to ripen.

[00:15:48] And it was more astringent than the pear that they were normally growing for fruit.

[00:15:52] And that is true.

[00:15:55] And yeah, I mean, there are so many different varieties of pear.

[00:15:59] We have, I guess, two naturalized in my region, Bradford and what they call the common pear.

[00:16:07] And yeah, the Bradford would be, to me, a little more astringent than the pears you see usually in the grocery store.

[00:16:16] Yeah, we had a big Bradford pear tree, you know, when I was a kid at my grandparents' house.

[00:16:21] And much more flavorful than a lot of the pears you get from the grocery store.

[00:16:25] But actually, those little Bartlett pears, those awful ornamental Bartlett pear trees that everybody,

[00:16:31] that stink so bad in the spring, and they actually smell like rotting fish.

[00:16:35] They have those little tiny pears, right?

[00:16:38] Those are actually edible.

[00:16:40] If you get them when they're ripe, before the birds eat them,

[00:16:43] you could actually make a dessert out of them or press them to make a pear cider.

[00:16:47] However, just like in apples and many other fruits,

[00:16:50] like the cherry pits we were talking about last week,

[00:16:53] they contain, is it cyanide?

[00:16:56] Yeah, just in very small,

[00:16:59] or is it strychnine?

[00:17:01] I think it's cyanide.

[00:17:01] And anyway, just in very, very small amounts.

[00:17:04] But that's not a big deal when you're eating a full-size pear.

[00:17:08] If you've gathered up like, you know, 500 tiny little Bartlett pears,

[00:17:13] and you're going to try to press them or you're going to try to make fruit out of them,

[00:17:17] you would be ingesting a far greater quantity of the seeds

[00:17:20] or anything that was pressed out of the seeds or cooked out of the seeds.

[00:17:24] So if you do that, you really do want to take the seeds out.

[00:17:27] It's very tedious.

[00:17:28] Most people wouldn't do it.

[00:17:30] But if you were starving,

[00:17:31] it would be certainly worth the effort to pull out your Swiss Army knife

[00:17:34] and start picking those seeds out of there

[00:17:36] and eat enough of them just to, you know,

[00:17:38] give you some energy and some calories, you know.

[00:17:41] But anyway, that wild pear, he says,

[00:17:44] is more astringent and as a result is good for the same purposes.

[00:17:47] The leaves, though, are also astringent.

[00:17:49] And ash from the wood actively helps those suffocated from eating mushrooms.

[00:17:53] Wow.

[00:17:54] What does that mean?

[00:17:54] Well, somebody ate a poisonous mushroom and the ash from the wood would help.

[00:18:00] That makes sense.

[00:18:01] We use charcoal for a lot of things when it comes to, you know,

[00:18:06] helping with toxins and poisons,

[00:18:08] things that people have eaten that they shouldn't eat.

[00:18:10] Charcoal is actually very good.

[00:18:12] They would be making charcoal from it.

[00:18:13] However, he does not say which mushroom it is.

[00:18:17] And, you know, I foraged for mushrooms.

[00:18:19] That's actually how I got into foraging and herbalism was,

[00:18:21] I started foraging for mushrooms when I was like 10 years old, you know,

[00:18:25] with just an autobahn field guide from the library.

[00:18:28] Nobody told me what to do.

[00:18:29] So even at that age,

[00:18:30] I thought the best thing to do would be to learn the poisonous ones first.

[00:18:34] And we got a lot of poisonous mushrooms in North America.

[00:18:38] The amanita, the destroying angel,

[00:18:42] that one, you take a little bite of that and it will liquefy your liver.

[00:18:46] It will absolutely kill you.

[00:18:48] Usually you'll get sick.

[00:18:49] You'll have some diarrhea and throw up.

[00:18:50] You think you're getting better.

[00:18:52] Then your liver quits and you're dead.

[00:18:54] So I'm not going to recommend anything for that,

[00:18:58] except they've proven in Germany that milk thistle extract is liver protective

[00:19:04] and they've saved a lot of lives.

[00:19:06] And it's starting to get some traction here in America among, you know,

[00:19:10] doctors who are open to natural cures,

[00:19:13] because there's really no cure for amanita poisoning.

[00:19:18] Pretty bad stuff, actually.

[00:19:21] And then there are other, like we have one of the most poisonous mushrooms in the world,

[00:19:25] right here in North Carolina.

[00:19:26] It's one of the few places it grows.

[00:19:27] And it's actually called a gompfus.

[00:19:29] It is, I mean, it's an awful name for an awful mushroom, really.

[00:19:33] Um, it's unique because it's actually brass colored and you can't mistake it for anything else.

[00:19:39] So anyway, if you're going to get into mushroom hunting, I absolutely say learn the poisonous ones first.

[00:19:45] And, um, don't eat them raw.

[00:19:48] You actually don't get any nutritional value from raw mushrooms, basically.

[00:19:51] You really do need to cook your mushrooms.

[00:19:53] Some mushrooms that have a slight toxicity when raw are not toxic when they're cooked.

[00:19:59] Um, you can learn that.

[00:20:00] Um, many mushrooms, well, a few that I know of right off the top of my head should not be combined with alcohol.

[00:20:07] Ink caps or, uh, shaggy mane will actually prevent the liver from processing the alcohol.

[00:20:13] And so, like, you take one drink and suddenly you're blind, drunk, and throwing up and can even die of alcohol poisoning.

[00:20:19] I mean, just a little glass of wine with your meal because your liver cannot process it.

[00:20:24] Um, yeah, mushrooms fascinate me.

[00:20:26] Uh, right before the hurricane, I was, uh, I figured, hey, this big rainstorm's coming in.

[00:20:30] I better go harvesting mushrooms to see, you know, in the yard and the woods around me.

[00:20:35] And because, really, a hurricane often triggers that barometric pressure will trigger a big flush of mushrooms.

[00:20:40] And it did, as usual.

[00:20:41] So, I have a lot of, um, King Bolet.

[00:20:44] So, we want the best, right?

[00:20:46] Well, we also have a mushroom that grows, um, in the same region that looks identical to King Bolet's from the top.

[00:20:55] You actually basically have to pick it and look at the stem.

[00:20:58] Now, it grows in different shapes and sizes, so it's not always true.

[00:21:01] But, in my basket, without being, you know, I was in a hurry, I wasn't really paying attention,

[00:21:07] I had not only harvested some of those King Bolet's, but I also got a variety called American Sewellius.

[00:21:14] And, um, and it was already starting to rain, so they were both wet.

[00:21:18] I couldn't tell them apart just by touching or just by looking at the top.

[00:21:21] The Sewellius actually has a, um, like a slime to it that causes contact dermatitis.

[00:21:30] It's very rare.

[00:21:31] It doesn't grow in most places, but in a few spots in North Carolina and Georgia and different places you will find it.

[00:21:36] And so, I'm processing my mushrooms, and I'm like, oh, that's not a king.

[00:21:40] They have these, they're called porcinis in Italy, you know.

[00:21:43] They have these nice, thick stems, and the Sewellius has a thin stem.

[00:21:48] And, um, I'm starting to, like, trim them up and look at them, and I'm like, oh, I got something else in here.

[00:21:52] What is that?

[00:21:53] It was vaguely familiar, you know.

[00:21:55] So, I start sorting them out, and suddenly my hands turned beet red.

[00:22:00] And anything, anywhere else my hands had touched, like I touched my cheek.

[00:22:04] And, I mean, fire red.

[00:22:06] No discomfort whatsoever, actually.

[00:22:08] It's just really weird.

[00:22:09] I mean, I don't, uh, well, maybe a little tingly, a little itchy, you know, that kind of thing.

[00:22:14] Um, faded away within about four hours, I would say.

[00:22:17] You cannot wash that slime off your skin.

[00:22:19] I mean, you wash with soap and water, it just will not come off.

[00:22:23] Had it been a dry day, had I been paying more attention, wouldn't have happened.

[00:22:27] So, remember the old, uh, saying, there are old mushroom hunters, and there are bold mushroom hunters.

[00:22:34] There are no old, bold mushroom hunters.

[00:22:37] So, even if you think, even if you've been doing it for years, you've got to still be very, very careful.

[00:22:43] Uh, there are a couple poisonous lookalikes from morels.

[00:22:47] They don't look very much alike morels at all, if you see them side by side.

[00:22:50] But, yeah, you can make mistakes, even with something as simple as a morel.

[00:22:55] And, um, and the kings and that suelius, they're both, uh, boletes.

[00:22:59] And, generally speaking, boletes are, like, the least toxic of all the mushroom species.

[00:23:04] There's only, like, I mean, there are, like, 10,000 different types of boletes.

[00:23:08] And, to the best of my knowledge, there are less than 10 that are poisonous.

[00:23:12] And I happen to just pick the only one that gives you dermatitis.

[00:23:17] So, and, and really, I could have mistaken it easily for another type of bolete that grows right in my backyard,

[00:23:23] called a slippery jack.

[00:23:24] There are slippery jacks and slippery jill.

[00:23:26] They both have that slimy texture, right?

[00:23:28] Um, and I could have picked them right alongside that.

[00:23:32] Those are actually delicious when handled and cooked properly.

[00:23:35] There's, um, some, well, in some regions, like in California, they say they're no good.

[00:23:40] Or, but in, like, Oregon and where I live, they're one of my absolute favorites.

[00:23:46] So, anyway, that's just a word of caution.

[00:23:48] And always keep some milk thistle extract on hand.

[00:23:52] I mean, just, not only is it really good for your liver, um, it also has some antiviral properties.

[00:23:58] So, but, you know, could actually save your life.

[00:24:01] But, um, you'd have to take a lot of it in a very strong concentration if you did actually eat, like, the destroying angel,

[00:24:07] which is a really common mushroom.

[00:24:09] Um, looks a lot like, uh, the, the agaricus white button mushrooms you'd get in a store, right?

[00:24:15] Um, but, and it grows, like, in everybody's lawn.

[00:24:18] Um, it's actually deadly poisonous.

[00:24:20] Not, I mean, it, yeah.

[00:24:23] The only reason I would say not as poisonous as the gompfus is because you can actually handle destroying angels.

[00:24:28] You're not going to absorb toxin through the skin.

[00:24:30] Like, if you just wanted to, I don't know, touch them for some reason.

[00:24:33] I'm not sure why you would.

[00:24:34] Um, but, uh, that gompfus is actually, uh, you can absorb toxins through the skin and make you very sick.

[00:24:41] And if you ate it, it would certainly kill you.

[00:24:43] So, anyway, don't touch a mushroom that has a brass-colored or gold-colored cap.

[00:24:49] And I mean metallic, shiny.

[00:24:51] It's the weirdest looking thing.

[00:24:53] So, anyway, where were we?

[00:24:55] Um, um, and he also said that if some say, and this is when you've got a, uh, an herbal writer says,

[00:25:03] some say, you know it's probably a myth, um, he says, some say that if anyone boils wild pears together with mushrooms, they become harmless.

[00:25:12] Uh, not, not with the, um, species that we're talking about.

[00:25:17] Um, no.

[00:25:19] So, uh, going, um, about a thousand years after that, St. Hildegard von Bingen wrote,

[00:25:24] and I've been told it's not von Bingen.

[00:25:27] Apparently it's von Bingen, but I don't speak German, so I'm probably going to keep mispronouncing it.

[00:25:33] I'm sure there are plenty of German speakers in the audience that have been annoyed with me.

[00:25:37] I've been, uh, too kind to complain, which actually isn't a German characteristic.

[00:25:42] But, hey, anyway, I grew up with a lot of Germans in the mountains of North Carolina.

[00:25:46] But, uh, I have a, I have a, actually a fondness for the culture and the food, uh, fondness for the food like you would not believe.

[00:25:55] And, uh, with the culture, uh, especially in the Black Forest region, those are great people.

[00:26:00] Uh, just funny and usually good, great craftsmen and musicians and everything.

[00:26:05] But, man, German and Swiss food, I mean, that was such a treat.

[00:26:09] Um, you know, mountains in North Carolina in the 70s and 80s, it was still that, that alpine theme, and we had a big ski industry.

[00:26:15] So, people in the French Alps and the Swiss Alps and the German, I mean, and yeah, man, did I learn to love sauerkraut and sausages.

[00:26:24] Ooh, boy.

[00:26:26] And, anyway, uh, they, they have a way with pork, I am telling you.

[00:26:32] Oh, my gosh, yeah, those big, uh, cutlets, what do you call them?

[00:26:35] You pound out the meat thin, you take like a big pork cutlet, and you just pound it out thin and bread it and, oh, man, fry it up crispy.

[00:26:43] That is, oh, yeah.

[00:26:45] Anyway, she said that the pear tree is to the apple tree as the liver is to the lungs.

[00:26:52] For just as the liver, it is stronger and more useful and, indeed, more harmful than the apple.

[00:26:57] Uh, and she may have actually been talking about the poison content in the seeds, which they wouldn't have understood at all in, uh, 1080 AD when she was writing this.

[00:27:06] But, uh, she also found it, uh, particularly irritating to her stomach.

[00:27:11] And she, she didn't really like, uh, to eat pears at all.

[00:27:14] Um, only cooked.

[00:27:15] She didn't, she did not recommend raw pears, which I love.

[00:27:17] But, uh, also love cooked pears and pear preserves and pear brandy and pear, um, uh, they call it perry.

[00:27:24] It's like a pear cider.

[00:27:26] It's delicious.

[00:27:26] Anyway, she actually said if you ate it raw, it could, um, give you a migraine headache.

[00:27:31] I don't know.

[00:27:32] Maybe she had some allergy.

[00:27:33] I have no idea.

[00:27:35] It apparently also gave her lung congestion.

[00:27:37] So, yeah, she probably did have an allergy.

[00:27:39] But anyway, she says anyone who eats pears should place them in water or roast them on a fire.

[00:27:45] Uh, boiled pears are better than those roasted since the warm water gradually cooks out the harmful sap which is in them.

[00:27:51] Uh, I don't think there's any harmful sap in them, actually.

[00:27:54] Uh, and she said they roast too quick on the fire.

[00:27:58] And she just liked them slow cooked.

[00:28:00] But let's see if she's got some, uh, medical, uh, information here.

[00:28:03] Uh, she did say, uh, yeah, for cooked pears, uh, that they would seek out any rotten manner, diminish it, and break it up.

[00:28:11] Nevertheless, they give him good digestion since they remove the rotten matter.

[00:28:15] The fruit is easily digested.

[00:28:17] And, um, yeah, she, she did recommend coring them.

[00:28:21] So, they did know there was an issue with the seeds.

[00:28:23] Cook them vigorously in water and take a little fennel and a little less galangal.

[00:28:28] And that's an interesting herb.

[00:28:29] Uh, it's in the same family as ginger and turmeric.

[00:28:32] It was very popular in, uh, Europe at this time.

[00:28:35] Uh, licorice, a bit less than galangal.

[00:28:37] And savory, a bit less than the licorice.

[00:28:39] And if you do not have fennel, use hog fennel and, uh, root reduced to a powder.

[00:28:46] Mix it with the others and put them in a bit of warm honey.

[00:28:49] Add the prepared pears.

[00:28:51] Mix this well and place it in a small container.

[00:28:53] And every day, eat one small spoonful before breakfast.

[00:28:57] And two spoonfuls with a meal and three at night.

[00:28:59] This electri is very good and more precious than gold since it carries away migraine and diminishes vapor, which raw pear may create in a person's chest.

[00:29:11] It consumes all bad humors in a person and so cleanses the person just as a vessel is washed of its impurities.

[00:29:18] So, hey, and it sounds delicious.

[00:29:20] I mean, that would be some really good pear preserves.

[00:29:22] I may have to give that one a try.

[00:29:24] Um, Gerard in 1500s England, he also said, nope, don't eat uncooked pears.

[00:29:31] I mean, amazing.

[00:29:33] I don't know why pears upset their digestion so much.

[00:29:36] But anyway, um, he said they were unctuous and sour and harsh, especially the wild pears.

[00:29:44] Well, you know, um, I don't know.

[00:29:48] English taste.

[00:29:48] Um, he said that pears are cold and have a binding quality and an earthy substance.

[00:29:54] And that the, um, choke pears, that would probably be more like the, um, uh, Bartlett's, the little ones, are more harsh and the sweet ones are less.

[00:30:04] Um, the harsh and austere pears may with good success be laid upon hot swellings in the beginning, as may the leaves of the tree, which do both cool and bind.

[00:30:15] Uh, wine made of the juice of pears in England called perry.

[00:30:19] And it's delicious, uh, by the way.

[00:30:21] Um, my grandfather was, you know, a winemaker and he had the big pear tree there for a reason.

[00:30:26] It's absolutely delicious.

[00:30:28] Um, perry is solid, soluble, purges those that are not accustomed to drink thereof, especially when it is new.

[00:30:35] In other words, he said it would work as a pretty good laxative.

[00:30:39] Notwithstanding, it is a wholesome drink being taken in small quantities as with wine.

[00:30:43] It comforteth and warmeth the stomach and causeth good digestion.

[00:30:48] About a hundred years later, uh, Culpepper also described it as a very cold tree.

[00:30:53] He used, he said it was a tree that belongs to Venus, which is what he meant, uh, in that regard.

[00:30:59] He said, all sweet and luscious sorts of pear, whether they be manured or wild or cultivated or found in the wild, do help to move the belly downward more or less.

[00:31:09] In other words, a good laxative.

[00:31:11] Those that are hard and sour, however, do the contrary and bind the belly very much as the leaves do also.

[00:31:16] So, unripe fruit could be used to, or the leaves could be, uh, used for diarrhea.

[00:31:23] Um, I'll skip forward a little bit of his lore here, which, you know, I love.

[00:31:28] But he also said that about boiling, uh, pears with mushrooms, make them less dangerous, uh, which I don't think is good advice whatsoever.

[00:31:34] Um, he said, that said, pears boiled with a little honey help the much oppressed stomach, as do all sorts of them, some more, some less.

[00:31:43] Uh, but the harsh sorts do more cool and bind, serving well to be bound to green wounds, wounds to cool and stay the blood, and to heal up a green wound without further trouble or inflammation.

[00:31:55] As Galus saith he found by experience, the wild pears do sooner close up the lips of green wounds than others.

[00:32:02] Uh, it's very interesting, but, um, uh, Irish tradition, they said, uh, pears stop diarrhea, can also be applied fresh to green wounds, which they heal.

[00:32:11] Um, and actually that's it.

[00:32:13] I don't have any, um, more modern, um, uh, medicinal uses for pears.

[00:32:19] I think we got the gist of it.

[00:32:21] Um, you know, unripe ones and leaves, good to stop diarrhea and apply to wounds.

[00:32:27] Uh, ripe ones, good to use, you know, kind of as fibers, you know, a laxative, like you might eat some raisin bran or something or take some psyllium or whatever.

[00:32:36] Uh, but I, I do like St. Hildegard's, uh, pear preserve recipe.

[00:32:41] Um, man, that would be good.

[00:32:43] Pears and honey are such a perfect combination as well.

[00:32:46] And I'll give you one of my favorite recipes.

[00:32:47] And this is a real common old French recipe.

[00:32:51] You know, probably came down from my family.

[00:32:53] You know, my family's about half French.

[00:32:55] And, um, it's really good.

[00:32:58] It's just pears stewed or cooked, basically whole, in red wine.

[00:33:03] And you usually would add a little bit of honey to that and a little bit of clove.

[00:33:06] And the red wine turns the pear red all the way through.

[00:33:10] And it softens it.

[00:33:11] And, um, really delicious.

[00:33:13] Um, a lot of people just eat them plain like that.

[00:33:17] Or they'll put it on, like, some cake.

[00:33:19] Or, uh, you can actually keep reducing that wine down and make it into a nice thick syrup.

[00:33:25] Put that over it.

[00:33:26] Or, put it over some vanilla ice cream.

[00:33:29] And I am telling you.

[00:33:31] Uh, pears cooked in red wine with a little honey and clove.

[00:33:34] You can spice it any way you want.

[00:33:36] If you could leave out the clove, you could put in cinnamon.

[00:33:38] You could do whatever you want, right?

[00:33:39] A little vanilla if that's your thing.

[00:33:41] And that might be good, you know.

[00:33:43] But anyway, reduce that down.

[00:33:45] You could use sugar in place with honey.

[00:33:46] And use it as a syrup over ice cream.

[00:33:48] And I am telling you, that is some good stuff.

[00:33:50] That is really good right there.

[00:33:53] And, uh, you'll pay a lot for that dish in a French restaurant.

[00:33:56] A whole lot.

[00:33:58] Often served with chocolate and such.

[00:34:00] Um, you can make it at home yourself if you have a pear tree.

[00:34:04] Well, the fruit's free.

[00:34:05] Um, like I said, you can use sugar or honey.

[00:34:08] And just an inexpensive bottle of red wine.

[00:34:11] You don't have to buy the expensive stuff.

[00:34:14] Just anything that's tolerable to drink.

[00:34:15] Because you could be cooking it down and combining it with other flavors.

[00:34:18] So, you know, for a dish, you'd probably spend a good...

[00:34:22] I don't even know.

[00:34:24] You know, with inflation, it's hard for me to even ballpark.

[00:34:26] I'm going to say 10 to 20 bucks for a dessert in a nice restaurant.

[00:34:30] Um, you can make it at home for, what?

[00:34:33] A quarter?

[00:34:34] 25 cents per serving?

[00:34:36] If you source it and you're going to really enjoy it.

[00:34:39] And, uh, you know, could have a little medicinal value as well.

[00:34:41] So anyway, y'all, have a great week.

[00:34:44] And I'll talk to you next time.

[00:34:46] The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition.

[00:34:52] Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA.

[00:34:56] I'm not a doctor.

[00:34:58] The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine.

[00:35:01] And there is no governing body regulating herbalists.

[00:35:04] Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs.

[00:35:06] I'm not offering any advice.

[00:35:08] I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true.

[00:35:11] I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for.

[00:35:14] I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb has helped me.

[00:35:18] I cannot nor would I tell you to do the same.

[00:35:20] If you use an herb anyone recommends, you are treating yourself.

[00:35:25] You take full responsibility for your health.

[00:35:27] Humans are individuals and no two are identical.

[00:35:30] What works for me may not work for you.

[00:35:32] You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about.

[00:35:39] Be careful with your health.

[00:35:41] By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog, you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever.