Medical Monday - Herbal Medicine for Preppers - Dill, Fenugreek, and Ginger

Hey, y'all, welcome today's show. We're going to continue with our series of culinary herbs and garden plants that you may already be growing that have medicinal properties of which you may not know. And of course this all comes from my book Growing Your Survival Herb Garden for preppers, permaculture people, homestairs and everyone else. But today we're going to start with Deal. And Deal is actually a very interesting herb. It's one that's mentioned in the Bible, like several of these so we mentioned, Jesus said, woe to you scribes and pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay a tenth of mint Deal and Cooman, yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. These things should have been done without neglecting the others. So obviously Deal was considered very valuable. So you know, I guess with that admonition in mind, we probably ought to look at why Deal was so valuable. But presumably it was good for more than just flavoring pickles. But an interesting aside. You know, these days we associate Deal with dial pickles, and there's actually a reason for that. Both come from the same area of the world. The cucumber originally of the Mediterranean, and the first deal pickles were probably made by either the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians or Samerians. And our tradition of deal pickles comes through the ancient Jews. They as a after the fall of Israel, when they were dispersed, they took with them cucumbers and deal and garlic, and it was food and medicine. And when we think of just the regular deal pickle we have beside a hamburger, that pickle is actually so full of historical significance. It's one of the oldest foods known to man. That was a sin for survival, and it's actually quite medicinal. Deal has been used for countless centuries as a preservative for food. It has antimicrobial properties. In the Scandinavian you know, Norse regions, they use deal in preserving fish. You know, just deal and salt, maybe some juniper berries, a little bit of vodka or aquavite makes the wonderful grove locks. The preserved salmon. Again, you'll find this in you know, smoked salmon, preserved salmon with deal. Very much in Jewish culture. If you go to a Jewish deli. You get bagels and locks and it's fantastic. Actually, you get the bagel with the cream cheese and maybe a sprig of deal. You know, if it's a little fancy, you get your smoked salmon, maybe a few capers. If you go to I'm just gonna say Scandinavian. I cannot remember exactly which of those Nordic countries this comes from. It's this Smorgesborg. I guess it's Swedish. I'm going to go Swedish. Well, anyway, they kind of mastered the art of the sandwich, and it's just this huge spread of small sandwiches and among them you're gonna find new cured salmon, the grovelocks, and a lot of deal and cheeses. Deal Is it goes very well cheeses. It was preserved for cheese as well as meat and fish and cucumbers and just about everything else. But it really has a lot of medicinal properties. It's essentially a digestive herb. It may be the essential digestive herb. For thousands of years, people have taken deal well one to mix with food to prevent food poisoning, but two for gas flatulence, upset stomach and all that. It's especially good for easing cramping and gas and babies and children. You infuse Deal in hot milk. That's the way it's traditionally been used. Other herbs can be used the same way, like carraway and such as that. Definitely fennel seed, but Deal is really the go to the one that's been used a lot for you know, colic issues and just you know gas and flagelets. I mean, you know that causes you know, babies and kids to cry a lot and they're not used to it, and it really helps, It settles the stomach. Deal actually increases mother's milk. It's what we call galactagog. It calms intestinal spasms. It even helps with minstrel cramps, and is useful in colds and flu and helps with bad breath. You know, Deal has amazing properties that we really don't think about these days. We just throw it in our pickle brine. But you know, really good stuff. It's a weedy orb. It's in the appiahi family. It's unbuliferous, so it gets set like a you know, palm pum type head of seeds. It's pretty. It look good in any ornamental garden or in your herb or you know, vegetable garden. It has thin kind of fern like leaves kind of just some people say their feathery. I just say it's a soft texture. The flowers are yellow, and like I said, they form in umbels. Deal is an annual that will self seed rampantly if established. If you plant Deal, you'll probably only have to plant it once. Usually Deal is it's a self seed or we'll just go with that. Deal likes loose soil that's moderately rich, but it will grow and pour a disturbed soil where we thrive if it has to. It's a very hardy plant. Seeds could be broadcast. Some people call it throw sewing or different different words. When I was a kid, it was called broadcasting, and it's how you take small seeds and you can either toss him out, you know, as you walk through tilled garden beds. Or there was actually a little oh, I don't even know what you would call it. I think it was called a broadcaster. It was sort of like a bucket with a wheel on the bottom that you turned with a crank. And you've seen people probably use these spreading grass seed. You walked along, it had a harness at one over your shoulder and you turned it and it would just throw the seed everywhere as you walk. So it really doesn't need to be planted deeply at all. In fact, it should only be sown about a quarter inch deep at most. Ideally the plant should be about to foot apart, so either in the fall or the spring. It likes full sun and it can grow two to three feet tall, so it could be a nice kind of striking plant. It actually is very attractive and definitely one I would consider absolutely essential to have on hand. And that's interesting to me. I'm having trouble these days, like if I don't have everything I need on hand and I go to the store to get the spices to make my pickling spices, I prefer to use deal seed. The spice companies don't seem to be selling deal seed anymore like they used to. They just sell deal weed, which is the tops. So if you want deal seed, you're probably gonna have to grow at yourself, at least it's been my experience in my area. Finia Greek is a culinary herb or spice. It's really not used much in Western cooking, but it should be. It's a medicinal herb. It has a bit of a it's odd, okay, I've grown finna Greek before, I've worked with finyw Creek. It's used a lot in the cuisines of Africa and the Middle East as a spice. From the ancient Greeks and Romans, it was a medicinal herb. The seed it has almost sort of a maple syrup like flavor. But on the other hand, it's not really sweet. It's kind of strange to describe. But with combined with other spices, it's really good, like in savory dishes. It's especially used in curries and such an India. It has a little bitterness to it. It's very very hard to describe. But it's more practically, I mean, if you're a preparent such it's actually one of the easiest seeds to sprout. So you could put this in a jar, put a little cloth at the top, put a little water in there, and you're going to have, you know, a court jar full of fine Greek sprouts that you can eat as an emergency food in a matter like forty eight hours. I mean they're ready to go. Sit them in the sun, let them green up and you've got tons of nutrition in there, or add them to salads or just you know, eat them throughout the winter. I mean, it could be really been one of those survival foods that you could have in the winter in early spring when most things really aren't growing. Because you know, that's the benefit of sprouts. They're not there's nothing to jump up and down about, you know, culinarily speaking, taste wise, but they're an easy way, whether it's bean sprouts or grain sprouts or like fenia Greek seed sprouts, chias sprouts, lots of sprouts, easy way to get some very fast nutrition and fiber when you might need it in times when you know things just won't grow outside, and it's something you could do, like even if there was no electricity and you couldn't use grow lights and such as that very very easy to make. Alfalf sprouts, Fenni Greek sprouts, among mean sprouts, lentil sprouts. Lentils are a really good one. I like lental sprouts quite a bit, but the medicinal properties of finny Greek are really impressive. According to Plants for a Future. Finny Greek is much used in herbal medicine, especially in North Africa, the Middle East, and India. It has a wide range of medicinal applications. The seeds are very nourishing and are given to convalescents to encourage weight gain, especially in anorexia nervosa anarection nevosa. The seed should not be prescribed medicinally for pregnant women since they can induce uterine contractions. Research has shown that the seeds can inhibit cancer of the liver, lower blood cholesterol levels, and have an antibiotic effect and have an anti diabetic effect. The seeds and leaves are anti colon. This is so hard for me to pronounce. They lower cholesterol. That's anti coal or coalsterlimic, anti cholesterolimic, they lower cholesterol. Let's just go with that. Anti inflammatory, anti tumor carminative. Mulcon that means softening the obstruate means getting rid of basically obstructions in the bowel. Essentially a mullient which means softening expectorant gets rid of mucus and the lungs. Fabrifuge helps with fever. Galactogog also increases mother's milt just like dill does. Hypoglycemic which means lower's blood sugar, laxative, para paraciticide. It helps get rid of parasites they really ought to maybe things easier to pronounce and restorative and a uterine tonic seeds yield a strong mucilage, and they are therefore useful in the treatment of inflammations and altars of the stomach and intestines. Taken internally, a dicocia of the ground seed serves to drain off the sweat ducts. The seed is very nourishing and body building and is one of the most efficacious tonics in case of physical debility caused by an anemia or infectious disease, especially where a nervous factor is involved. It is also used in the treatment of late onset diabetes, poor digestion, insufficient insufficient actation, painful menstruation, labor pains, et cetera. The seeds fresh in bad breath and restore a dort and restore a dulled sense of taste. Externally, the seeds can be ground into a powder and used as a polses for abscesses, boils, alters, burns, et cetera. They can be used as a douche for excessive vaginal discharge. The leaves are harvested in the growing season and can be used fresh or dried. The seeds are harvested when fully ripe and dried for later use. Compounds extracted from the plant have shown cardiotonic, hypoglycemic, diarrhye, diuretic, antiphlogistic, hypotensive activities, and the seeds also have sapnans which have been used in various pharmaceutical application. But that's an amazing amount of qualities or uses for one simple little plant, super easy to grow. You can see why I consider finugreek almost to be not just a medicine, but a survival food. I mean, I would really think that fine greek would be in a survival garden. Really in the top ten. It's actually in the bean family. It's a luguminous plant. That's why it's sprouts so easy, That's why it's so easy to use. Those little seeds are actually little beans, believe it or not. So you grow them just as you would any other lagome. It likes full sun, water needs are moderate finn you Greek will grow up to two feet tall. Spacing should be about a foot and a half apart, so after the last frost the foliage is shiny and blue green, and the flowers are not showy. So you know, really, if you're planting, if you're prepping, I guess I should say make a note a finny Greek. Probably the two well for me, probably the two most important lagomes I would plant would be fine greek and lentil. And it's because well you've seen how useful finey greek is. Lentils are just an excellent protein, rich, easy to use, you know, remember the bead and pea family. But the thing is they don't need pre soaking. You can you can harvest tons of lentils, you can store them up, you can actually grind them and use them in breads. You can use them as a grain, or you can just throw in boiling water with some onion and maybe some chicken broth or a bone or something, and you've got excellent nutritious soup. And if you know, if fuel was an issue, if water was in short supply, lentils could probably save your life. And even if you couldn't make a soup out of them, you could take those same dried, stored lentils and sprout them and have wonderful, nutritious lentil sprouts. They actually taste pretty good. A lot of people say alfalfa, but alfalfa actually does have some toxicity when eating raw. Now. IVING know alfalfa sprouts all my life. You know, mom was a hippie, you know, but we I mean I enjoyed them with salad. I enjoy them on a sandwich. But apparently there is some concern about eating too much raw alfalfa, Finia, Greek and lentils don't fall into that category. Now. Of course, being Southern, I also have to grow my field peas, my Dixie lee peas, my rattlesnake beans, my purple runners, zipper creams. I love heirloom kalpie essentially black eyed peas at the very minimum. And some butter beans. I've got to have my butter beans. These are there are airline varieties of lima beans, and I love butter beans. And yeah, i'd have some pintos and some black beans because I got to have some refried beans and some you know, burritos every now and then good pot at chili. But yeah, probably some navy beans. You know, I really do like beans. I'm a wagon fanatic. I just you know, growing up in the country. We had beans and peas at every meal. I'm not kidding. I mean every single supper, every single day of the year. My grandmother had a pot of field peas and a pot of of butter beans going on the stuff. Other times a year she might have done fresh you know, sweet garden peas. There might have been black eyed peas, you know where they were. Quite often we had black eyed peas, kidney beans, I mean, but always on the back of her stove was a pot of field peas and a pot of butter beans, two separate pots. Okay, the field peas would be peas with snaps. The butter beans would just be plain butter beans, but she'd add some corn meal to it. That was really important to thicken the broth, and they were seasoned with Fatback there was never a single meal from birth to the point I could eat solid food, right to the time she had a couple of heart attacks and couldn't cook anymore. And then so when she taught me to cook when she was in her eighties, and I guess I was in my mid twenties, so there was not a single meal where there were those two pots of peas and beans were not on the stove, and so for me a supper, and there was always a pot of okay, you know, we're from the eastern north part of North Carolina where rice culture began. Supper was always going to be meat, beans, peas, rice, gravy, usually greens, mustard, turnups, collars, you name it, corn, tomatoes. Those were ubiquitous. I mean always okra, I mean in season or outf We froze plenty of okra, froze plenty of tomatoes. So we'd have it in the in the wintertime. Throughout the season, there'd be fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, radishes on the table. We always had what they call crewe de tay now, which we just called, you know, vegetables, you know, these huge plates and seconds and thirds. But those, the filled peas and butter beans were the heart and foundation of every meal. I mean that was constant. We didn't know, you know, depending on what she had on hand. We might have chicken, we might have pork chops, we might have you know, country style steak. It might be game, it might be fish. But the peas and beans were always there. The rice was always there, usually some potatoes, always corn bread. Every single meal corn bread, oftentimes dinner rolls, or biscuits too, if there were biscuits left over from breakfast, and we ate what people think of the huge feast of Thanksgiving. That was the regular supper on the farm, and leftovers would be had the next day for lunch, and the whole thing would start over again, and she would cook for not only you know, a family of four kids with their kids, but cousins and aunts and uncles, great aunts and uncles, farm hands. On a given day, she might have been cooking for thirty seven, forty seven people. The dining room tab would be full a family. The back porch would be far hands with a you know, sitting in a rocking chair with a plate in their lap and a glass of tea sitting beside them. And the front door was open and anybody was welcome to come in if there were. The staples we had were certainly filled peas and butterbeans, greens, oakward tomato, rice, potatoes, and pork fat. Every meal. Everything was cooked with pork fat fat back. You know, her father raised hogs and he made phenomenal hams and bacon and sausage. You know, my grandfather kept other livestock meat was never in short supply, and vegetables were always in abundance, always in abundance. We kept three chest freezers and two upright freezers stocked all the time, plus a room full of canned goods, a pantry. Essentially, she would do tons of canning of vegetables, make jams and jellies and pickles. Huge, I mean the size of you know, most people's kitchen. It was just lined wall to wall with shells full of canned goods, and cabinets full of dry goods. I mean, you know, dried beans and rice and everything. A nice big spice cabinet, because you know, that's part of my tradition, part of my heritage. We're part of French in creole and cage and all that. We use a lot of herbs and spices, and my gosh, nobody everyone went hungry around there that I guess the actual home place with the farm around it. There were other properties that my grandfather owned that thirty eight acres produced more food per year. It probably produced enough food per year to feed the entire town. And my grandfather was just a genius when it came to farming, and my grandmother was just a genius when it came to cooking and storing food. And you know, that's it. It's quite a legacy, quite quite a legacy. And you know, I hope I, I hope I live up to it. I don't have a family to feed. God's never brought the right lady into my life. But someday I would love to have kids on my own, and I'd love to actually hand a hands on teach them everything I talk about to y'all. That's that's what I want more than anything else in life. But it may happen, it may not not my will, but fine, exactly, you know. So I'll get you one bonus. One will throw in. It's ginger. We've already talked about ginger and a turmeric. Ginger is anti viral, and if you go back to my showing anti viral herbs, that's where I discussed a lot. Ginger is also very good, very effective against nausea, especially emotion sickness or morning sickness. The fresh juice of ginger, though, is a powerful antiviral. You actually have to take the fresh root, throw it in the blender of the juice or and press it. That's where it is and it's most effective for what it can touch, so it's really good for sore throats like strap throat and such as that. But in any form, it's a good carminative, which means it helps subtle in upset stomach, good for dyspepsia, which is you know, burping and gas and all that. It's a stimulant. It actually increases the body temperature. So a tea made of ginger, or actually just putting ginger in a hot bath can help break a fever. Good for colic gastritis and diarrhea. And I don't know about I cannot speak for other dogs. My border Colligue loves spice. This is the weirdest thing. He was about two when I found him. Somebody abandoned him out in Timber country. He's been with me now for about fifteen years, so he's a fear old dog. But when he was just just come into the household, you know, and he's still unsure about things, and I didn't know what he liked to eat or not. I had this craving for a hot, spicy pickled sausage, so I just ran down to a gas station and got one of those. I think it was like a Mahama mama, or one of the nasty, cheap, very bad for you hot pickled sausages. But they're super hot and spicy. Right. So I'm sitting there and I took a bite of it and like, oh, that's pretty good. You know, I had a cold beer. It was just very satisfying when you get that taste. And he's looking at me, he's like, I want some of that, And I'm like, you don't want any of this. This is hot and spicy, trust me, you don't want any of this. And he's, you know, adamant. So I gave him a little bite. His eyes got as big as saucers. He started drooling, and he literally jumped on me and tried to take the rest of it away from me. Seriously, This dog, my border Collie, loves spice. He loves cayenne pep or, he loves holapeno and even hobby Neiro peppers. If I put hot, I love hobby Neiro sauce. I eat it quite a bit on a lot of things. If I put it on my food, he smells it and he wants the hobby Nero sauce. He's crazy, I know. He also loves ginger and cloves and such as that. Those hot spices. Cinnamon. The dog goes crazy ever cinnamon when his appetite is low, because I mean he's at least sixteen, maybe seventeen years old now. He's a very old dog, mostly Brian, mostly deaf, and he's always got a good appetite. But if it's a little off, a ginger snap cookie will do the trick. Every time. I'll get a couple of ginger snaps. I like him in the morning with coffee occasionally, you know, I'll just dip in my coffee and eat eat one, and he'll get up out of bed and he'll come over and he'll stare at me. He's like, I want a cookie. So I'll hand him a ginger snap. He'll take it and spit it out and look at it and then he'll gobble it up. He does that with everything. He always spits it out and looks at it like I'm trying to poison him or something. But it will stimulate his appetite. And I can tell you when he's been sick, when he's been just really, I mean, I thought he was near the end. I mean, this is a very old dog. A ginger snap cookie brings his appetite back and puts the spark back in his eyes like nothing else. Now, these sunshine ginger snaps, which I usually buy now, I do sometimes bake my own gingerbreads and such as set. They not only have ginger and cloth in them, but they also have cayenne pepper. So I don't know if he's necessarily I think it's a combination and he just loves it. Give him that, and then you know, maybe I'll go in and you know, brown up some beef for lunch or some other meat, and suddenly that dog has an appetite like he did when he was two or three years old. Every time, it's like that ginger just brings him back to life. And it's kind of strange because you know, doctor Patrick Jones, the Great Herbalist, is also a veterinarian, and he keeps cayenne pepper on hand for dogs that are going into shock. Dogs have been hit by a car, they're about to die, you know, or not recovering well from surgery or for whatever reason he said, you know, when their eyes are fading, their gums are getting pale, he just shoots a little cayenne pepper tincture into their throat or some hot sauce, and it brings them right back dat. It seems to be what ginger does for my dog Buddy. It's absolutely amazing. And I got to see it again last night. He was like moping around the house, you know, I mean, he seemed to be having a rough time. And I was just sitting there eating a couple of Ginger steps and he came over to me. He started staring at me adamantly, and I remembered I was like, oh my gosh, I should have given him a cookie earlier. He loves them. He's a weird dog though. Actually he loves onions and garlic, and you know, every single veterinarian says never feed your dog alliums because it can actually cause anemia. If I don't put onions in or garlic or both in the meat that I'm cooking, he doesn't want to eat it. Literally, the dog was like crazy of our meat loaf or you know, ground beef with the onions and I'm putting a burrito or something. He is, I don't know. He is a very odd sense of taste, and considering he's at least sixteen or seventeen years old. Apparently it hasn't done him any any harm. Neither is the chocolate that he enjoys. And you know, I don't know. I'm not a veterinarian. I don't give advice, Colly pete, but everything they say that will harm a dog certainly hasn't harmed him. And he's outlived every single dog in the neighborhood that was around when he came into my life. So who knows, who knows? I don't know, But I would grow ginger if you could, if you can, I grow it in pots because it is a hot weather plant. It is tropical, it comes from India. Put it in a sandy soil, give it full sun. It probably will not really sprout and get growing until you hit about eighty degrees well, actually till you hit about ninety degrees eighty I say eighty five to ninety in a daily high So I grew it in a sunny window. I grow it almost in like a mini greenhouse when I'm in the mountains. Same with turmeric and gelangle. They're all related. Excellent herbs. If you live where it's hot and you have a sandy soil, and it's kind of dry. It can actually handle some rain. I mean, it's kind of tropical, but it doesn't want wet feet, that's for sure. You can probably grow ginger. Are very pretty plant, big broad green leave. It's almost like a you know, an easter lily or something nice, pretty flower, gorgeous plant. This would be bury at home in your uh, your flower garden. Your poa or ho a is gonna love it. And ginger is great. Ginger's great to cook weed, Ginger's great medicinally, so it's turmeric, so it's galangle. Go for it. Soe y'all, I guess that's gonna. That's gonna wrap it up for today. Have a good one and I'll talk to you next time. The information this podcast is non intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of verbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating IRBLEUS. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who says IRBs. I'm not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true. I can tell you what Earth has been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience, and if I believe in Erb's heal me, I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use an herb anyone. Recommends you are treating yourself, you take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals, and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy of sensitivity and underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know of it. Be careful with your health by continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog you read to be responsible for yourself, to your own research, make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever.