• The Freecycle Network The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,775 groups with 7,090,000 members across the globe. It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them’s good people). Membership is free.
• SwapTree You list the books, CDs, DVDs, and video games that you want to trade and the books, CDs, DVDs and video games that you want to receive and swaptree does the rest.
• Craigslist You can find all sorts of things for free and barter, all sorts of things. Exercise extreme caution when dealing with people you meet on Craigslist, especially in the adult section.
• The Free Site A modge-podge of free Internet stuff.
• Tip Junkie One of the best blogs for finding free stuff on the Web. Right now there are 107 giveaways listed, a value of $6,391.  Fabulous products with real value – way better than your average giveaways.

The Internet often gets a bad rap from mainstream media outlets, but for those of us who are scroungers see it as a great tool for finding free stuff. We all need free stuff now and then.

Last summer, I put up a dozen or so quarts of sauerkraut while I was working on finals. It was a much needed diversion then, and a lifesaver now. I didn’t get sick because as soon as I was informed of the first attack, I broke open a jar of sauerkraut and started munching. A nurse told me that the vomiting episodes were likely caused by a bacteria, and it was making it’s way through the community. So what does sauerkraut have to with it? Well, in a nutshell, my sauerkraut bacteria can beat the tar out of any old vomit-inducing bacteria. In fact, the health benefits of sauerkraut are well-documented:

• Sauerkraut  contains the bacterium Lactobacilli plantarum, a powerful bacterium that prevents upset to the digestive system.
• Sauerkraut contains enzymes that  prevent E.coli, salmonella and unhealthy overgrowth of candida (yeast) create antioxidants (glutathione and superoxide dismustase) from harming the digestive system.Fermentation of cabbage produces a substance called isothiocynates, which prevents cancer growth.
• Sauerkraut is high in vitamin C and contains substances that soothe the nervous system—perfect for those of us riding out the harsh winters of the North in cramped quarters.

We’re down to  eight quarts of kraut, that should take us through the rest of the winter. I’ll have to put up more this fall. I’m already looking through the seed catalogs, in between mopping up barf and passing out glassfuls of 7-Up. Over the years, I’ve found that late cabbage makes the best kraut. I might just plant a couple extra this time around, for medicinal purposes.

Generally, I avoid the catalogs from the giant seed suppliers, preferring to buy seeds from smaller providers like Seed Savers Exchange, Territorial Seeds, Fedco and others. I’ve found the seed quality and customer service much better at smaller seed houses. For me, quality is important. I want seeds that will produce healthy vigorous plants with character, not some genetically engineered variety that will produce “adequately.” If I were the least bit interested in adequate, I wouldn’t bother with gardening at all. The grocery store would be adequate.

We have a limited garden space, even though we live on a farm. Because we are dairy producers, every last inch is in grass for the cows. I had to summon up every negotiating skill I had to get Wayne to agree to the 35′ x 100′  plot that I ended up with. We grow a good deal of our own food, and this year, I’m determined to grow even more, and do more with the space I have. So I’m going to be even pickier about my seed this year than usual.  I’m weeding out the catalogs that promise a bunch of buy-one-get-one-free deals. In my experience, these have never been bargains. The seeds usually produce weak plants that will only perform to a pre-engineered standard no matter how much the gardener may coax them to do more. It’s disheartening for the grower and, I suspect, Mother Nature alike. True, seeds from the smaller suppliers may be a little more expensive, but you get what you pay for, and this is especially true of garden seed. Remember that when you’re doing your winter weeding.

The oat is generally cited as the most nourishing of all the cereals, and a good nerve food. The fine oatmeal gruel of our grandmothers has gone almost entirely out of fashion, but its use might be revived with advantage. Like wheat, it is a complete food. A good preparation of groats (ground oats from which the husk has been entirely removed) may be taken by those who find other preparations indigestible.

Some persons seem unable to take oatmeal, its use being followed by a skin eruption. This is supposed to be due to a special constituent called “avenin,” the existence of which, however, is denied by some authorities.

There is little doubt but that persons of weak digestive powers and sedentary habits cannot digest porridge comfortably. In any case quickly-cooked porridge is an abomination.

Olive.

The chief use of the olive, at least in this country, consists in the oil expressed from it. Unfortunately our so-called olive oil is generally cotton-seed oil. Captain Diamond of San Francisco, aged 111, and the oldest living athlete in the world, attributes much of his health to the use of olive oil. But he lays great stress upon the importance of obtaining it pure. Cotton-seed oil consists partly of an indigestible gum, and its continued ingestion tends to produce kidney trouble and heart failure.

A simple test for purity is to use, the suspected sample for oiling floors or furniture. If pure, it will leave a beautiful polish minus grease. But if it contains cotton-seed oil, part of it will evaporate, leaving the gummy portion behind.

When pure olive oil is shaken in a half-filled bottle, the bubbles formed thereby rapidly disappear, but if the sample is adulterated the bubbles continue some time before they burst.

Pure olive oil is pale and a greenish yellow.

If equal volumes of strong nitric acid (this may be obtained from any chemist) and olive oil are mixed together and shaken in a flask the resulting product has a greenish or orange tinge which remains unchanged after standing for ten minutes. But if cotton-seed oil is present, the mixture is reddish in colour, and becomes brown or black on standing.

Olive oil is slightly laxative, and therefore useful to sufferers from constipation. It is also an excellent vermifuge.

Olive oil has been used with great success in the treatment of gall stones. A Dr. Rosenberg reported that of twenty-one cases treated by “the ingestion of a considerable quantity of olive oil, only two failed of complete recovery.”

Onion.

The uses of the onion are many and varied. Fresh onion juice promotes perspiration, relieves constipation and bronchitis, induces sleep, is good for cases of scurvy and sufferers from lead colic. It is also excellent for bee and wasp stings.

Onions are noted for their nerve-soothing properties. They are also beautifiers of the complexion. But moderation must be observed in their use or they are apt to disagree. Not everyone can digest onions, although I believe them to be more easily digested raw than cooked.

A raw onion may be rubbed on unbroken chilblains with good results. If broken, the onion should be roasted. The heart of a roasted onion placed in the ear is an old-fashioned remedy for earache.

Raw onions are a powerful antiseptic. They also attract disease germs to themselves, and for this reason may be placed in a sickroom with advantage. Needless to say, they should afterwards be burnt or buried. Culpeper, the ancient herbalist, says that they “draw corruption unto them.” It is possibly for this reason that the Vedanta forbids them to devout Hindoos.

Garlic possesses the same properties as the onion, but in a very much stronger degree. Leeks are very much milder than the onion.

Onion Juice.

The following prescription is excellent for sufferers from bronchitis or coughs: Slice a Spanish onion; lay the slices in a basin and sprinkle well with pure cane sugar. Cover the basin tightly and leave for twelve hours. After this time the basin should contain a quantity of juice. Give a teaspoonful every now and then until relief is afforded. If too much be taken it may induce headache and vomiting.

Onion Poultice.

An excellent poultice for the chest may be made by placing one or two English onions in a muslin bag and pounding them to a pulp. This should be renewed every three or four hours, and the chest washed. I have been told that, at the age of six weeks old, I was saved from dying of bronchitis by such an onion poultice applied to the soles of my feet.

Orange.

The orange possesses most of the virtues of the lemon, but in a modified form. But it has the advantage of being more palatable.

The juice of oranges has been observed to exert such a beneficial influence on the blood as to prevent and cure influenza. Taken freely while the attack is on they seemingly prevent the pneumonia that so often follows. By far the quickest way to overcome influenza is to subsist solely on oranges for three or four days. Hot distilled water may be taken in addition.

The peel of the bitter Seville orange is an excellent tonic and remedy in cases of malaria and ague. A drink may be prepared from it according to the prescription under the heading “Lemon.”

The “orange cure” is used with great success for consumptive patients, for chest affections of all kinds, for asthma, and some stomach complaints. Oranges are taken freely at every meal. The “navel” kind are generally used.

Herbalists sell dried orange pips to be crushed to a powder and taken in the proportion of 1 teaspoonful to a cup of hot water. This is a harmless sedative, and useful in hysterical affections.

Marmalade Tonic.

A drink made with half a pint of hot water poured over a tablespoonful of good, home-made marmalade will often give relief in cases of neuralgia and pains in the head.

Parsley.

Parsley is useful in cases of menstrual obstruction and diseases of the kidneys. The bruised leaves applied to the breasts of nursing mothers are said to cure painful lumps and threatened abscess. It may also be taken with advantage by cancerous patients. In all these cases parsley may be taken in the form of a soup, in common use among members of the Physical Regeneration Society, which consists of onions, tomatoes, celery, and parsley, stewed together in distilled water.

Dr. Fernie remarks that when uncooked parsley has been eaten to excess it has been observed to produce epilepsy in certain bodily systems. The oil of parsley has also been found useful in cases of epilepsy. This would naturally follow on the homeopathic principle of similars.

Pear.

The pear possesses most of the virtues of the apple. But, unlike the latter, it is credited with producing a constipating effect if eaten without its skin. In an old recipe book I found the following tribute to Bergamot pears. The writer says: “I had for some years been afflicted with the usual symptoms of the stone in the bladder, when meeting with Dr. Lobb’s “Treatise of Dissolvents for the Stone and Gravel,” I was induced on his recommendation to try Bergamot pears, a dozen or more every day with the rind, when in less than a week I observed a large red flake in my urine, which, on a slight touch, crumbled into the finest powder, and this was the same for several succeeding days. It is ten years since I made the experiment, and I have been quite free from any complaints of that nature ever since. The pears were of the small sort and full of knots.”

Pea Nut.

The pea nut—or monkey nut—is especially recommended as a cure for indigestion. I have not been able to find out why. As a matter of fact it is such a highly-concentrated food that, unless taken in very small quantities, it is liable to upset weak digestions. I suspect the secret to lie in the chewing. Almost any kind of nut will cure the habitual indigestion induced by “bolting” the food, if only it be chewed until it is liquid. Hard biscuits will do instead of nuts, although an uncooked food like the nut is the better. But whatever is taken must be “Fletcherised,” that is, chewed and chewed and chewed until it is all reduced to liquid.

Pea nuts contain a good deal of oil, and for this reason are recommended for consumptives. They are the cheapest nuts to buy, for the reason that they are not really nuts but beans.

Pine-apple.

Pine-apple juice is the specific for diphtheria. This seems to have been first brought to the notice of Europeans by the fact that negroes living round about the swamps of Louisiana were observed to use it with great success. A writer who records this says: “The patient should be forced to swallow the juice. This fluid is of so pungent and corrosive a nature that it cuts out the diphtheria mucous and causes it to disappear.”

The above direction looks satisfactory enough on paper, and it is eminently cheering to read of how the pine-apple juice causes the diphtheria mucous to disappear, but anyone who knows anything about diphtheria knows that to “force” a diphtheria patient to swallow is more easily written about than accomplished. Fortunately I have been able to obtain the following explicit directions from an experienced nurse and mother:

The pine-apple should be cut up and well pounded in a mortar. The juice must then be pressed out and strained through well-scalded muslin. The patient’s mouth must be washed out with warm water. The juice may now be given with a silver teaspoon. It is possible that the patient may be quite unable to swallow any of it. If this be so, the juice will serve as a mouth and throat wash. It will gradually dissolve the membrane, and enable it to be scraped gently away with the spoon. The juice should be given, and the throat scraped as far down as the nurse can reach, as often as the patient can bear it. The time will come, sooner or later, when the juice is swallowed. No other food should be given. The nurse may have to work away for some hours before any juice is swallowed, but my friend assures me that if the scraping be done gently and skilfully, even children will bear it patiently. Only a silver or bone spoon should be used, and, needless to say, it must be well scalded in boiling water in the intervals of using.

It is a remarkable fact that while pine-apple juice exercises this remarkable corrosive power upon diseased mucous, its effect upon the most delicate, healthy membrane is absolutely harmless. I have seen sweet pine-apple juice given to six-months-old babies as a supplement to the mother’s milk, with excellent results.

Dr. Hillier, writing in the Herald of Health in 1897, says “Sliced pine-apples, laid in pure honey for a day or two, when used in moderation, will relieve the human being from chronic impaction of the bowels, reestablish peristaltic motion, and induce perfect digestion.”

“A slice of fresh pine-apple,” writes Dr. Fernie, “is about as wise a thing as one can take by way of dessert after a substantial meal.” This is because fresh pine-apple juice has been found to act upon animal food in very much the same way that the gastric juice acts within the stomach. But vegetarians should eat fresh fruit[Pg 64] at the beginning of meals rather than at the end.

The pine-apple is useful in all ordinary cases of sore-throat.

One pine-apple of average size should yield half a pint of juice.

Tinned or cooked pine-apple is useless for curative purposes.

Pine Kernel.

Pine kernels are recommended to those who find other nuts difficult to digest. They are the most easily digested of all the nuts. They are often used for cooking in the place of suet, being very oily.

Plum, Prune.

The disfavour with which “stone fruits,” especially plums, are generally regarded owes its being to the fact that they are too often eaten when unripe. When ripe, they are as wholesome as any other fruit. Unripe they provoke choleraic diarrhœa.

The prune, a variety of dried plum, has been recommended as a remedy against viciousness and irritability. An American doctor declares that there is a certain medicinal property in the prune which acts directly upon the nervous system, and that is where the evil passions have their seat. He reports that he tried the experiment of including prunes in the meals of the vicious, intractable youths of a reformatory, and that by the end of a week they were peaceable as lambs. Most writers who comment on this seem to suggest that any fruit which is mildly aperient would produce the same effect. But the mother of a large family tells me that she has observed that prunes seem to possess a soothing property that is all their own.

Prune Tea.

Prune tea is an excellent drink for irritable persons. It is made as follows: To every pint of washed prunes allow 1 quart of distilled water. Soak the prunes all night, and afterwards simmer to rags in the same water. Strain, and flavour with lemon juice if desired.

Potato.

The potato is a cheap and homely remedy against gout, scurvy, and rickets. Dr. Lambe tells how he cured a case of scurvy solely with raw potatoes. One of the favourite dishes of that good old doctor was a salad composed of sliced raw potatoes and olive oil.

In order to preserve the medicinal properties of potatoes when cooked, they must always be steamed in their jackets. The skin may be removed before eating, but care should be taken not to allow a particle of the potato to adhere to it. The valuable potash salts chiefly lie just under the skin.

A raw potato scraped or powdered to a pulp is an excellent remedy for burns and scalds.

Dr. Fernie recommends the following decoction with which to bathe the swollen and inflamed joints of rheumatic sufferers. Take 1 lb. potatoes, cut each into four, but do not peel them. Boil in 2 pints of water until stewed down to 1 pint. Strain, and use the liquid.

Eaten to excess potatoes are apt to cause dullness and laziness.

]]> http://scarecrowchronicles.countrysidemag.com/2009/11/24/the-medicinal-uses-of-food-o-p/feed/ 0 http://scarecrowchronicles.countrysidemag.com/2009/11/24/the-medicinal-uses-of-food-d-g/ http://scarecrowchronicles.countrysidemag.com/2009/11/24/the-medicinal-uses-of-food-d-g/#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:49:50 +0000 Jerri http://scarecrowchronicles.countrysidemag.com/?p=360 More good food for a healthy body:

Date.

The nourishing properties of dates are well known. They are easily digested, and for this reason are often recommended to consumptive patients.

According to Dr. Fernie half a pound of dates and half a pint of new milk will make a satisfying repast for a person engaged in sedentary work.

Elderberry.

The elderberry has fallen into neglect of late years, owing to the lazy and disastrous modern habit of substituting the mineral drugs of the chemist for the home-made vegetable remedies of our grandmothers. Nevertheless, the elderberry is one of the most ancient and tried of medicines, held in such great esteem in Germany that, according to the German folk-lore, men should take off their hats in the presence of an elder-tree. In Denmark there is a legend to the effect that the trees are under the protection of a being known as the Elder-Mother, who has been immortalised in one of the fairy tales of Hans Andersen.

The berries of the elder-tree are not palatable enough to be used as a common article of food, but in the days when nearly every garden boasted its elder-tree few housewives omitted to make elderberry wine in due season.

It is not permitted to “food-reformers” to make “wine,” but those readers who are fortunate enough to possess an elder-tree might well preserve the juice of the berries against winter coughs and colds.

Preserved Fruit Juice.

The following is E. and B. May’s recipe for preserving fruit juice. Put the fruit into a preserving-pan, crush it and allow it to simmer slowly until the juice is well drawn out. This will take about an hour. Press out the juice and strain through a jelly-bag until quite clear. Put the juice back into the pan, and to every quart add a quarter of a pound of best cane sugar. Stir until dissolved. Put the juice into clean, dry bottles. Stand the bottles in a pan of hot water, and when the latter has come to the boil allow the bottles to remain in the boiling water for fifteen minutes. The idea is to bring the juice inside the bottles to boiling point just before sealing up, but not to boil it. See that the bottles are full. Cork immediately on taking out of the pan, and then seal up. To seal mix a little plaster of Paris with water and spread it well over the cork. Let it come a little below the cork so as to exclude all air.

The juice of the elderberry is famous for promoting perspiration, hence its efficacy in the cure of colds. Two tablespoonfuls should be taken at bed-time in a tumbler of hot water.

The juice of the elderberry is excellent in fevers, and is also said to promote longevity.

Elderberry Poultice.

“The leaves of the elder, boiled until they are soft, with a little linseed oil added thereto,” laid upon a scarlet cloth and applied, as hot as it can be borne, to piles, has been said to be an infallible remedy. Each time this poultice gets cold it must be renewed for “the space of an hour.” At the end of this time the final dressing is to be “bound on,” and the patient “put warm to bed.” If necessary the whole operation is to be repeated; but the writer assures us that “this hath not yet failed at the first dressing to cure the disease.” If any reader desires to try the experiment I would suggest that the leaves be steamed rather than boiled, and pure olive oil used in the place of linseed oil. It must also be remembered that no outward application can be expected to effect a permanent cure, since the presence of piles indicates an effort of Nature to clear out some poison from the system. But if this expulsion is assisted by appropriate means the pain may well be alleviated by external applications. (Pepper should be avoided by sufferers from piles.)

Fig.

A “lump of figs” laid on the boil of King Hezekiah, as recorded in 2 Kings xx. 7, brought about that monarch’s recovery. The figs used were doubtless ripe figs, not the dried figs of our grocers.

“This fruit,” says Dr. Fernie, “is soft, easily digested, and corrective of strumous disease.” The large blue fig may be grown in England, in the milder parts and under a warm wall. The fresh figs were rarely seen at one time outside of the large “high-class” fruit shops, but for the last year or two I have seen them peddled in the streets of London like apples and oranges in due season.

Green figs (not unripe) were commonly eaten by Roman gladiators, which is surely a sufficient tribute to the fruit’s strength-giving qualities.

The best way of preparing dried figs for eating is to wash them very quickly in warm water, and steam for twenty minutes or until tender.

Grape.

The special value of the grape lies in the fact that it is a very quick repairer of bodily waste, the grape sugar being taken immediately into the circulation without previous di[Pg 40]gestion. For this reason is grape juice the best possible food for fever patients, consumptives, and all who are in a weak and debilitated condition. The grapes should be well chewed, the juice and pulp swallowed, and the skin and stones rejected.

In countries where the grape cure is practised, consumptive patients are fed on the sweeter varieties of grape, while those troubled with liver complaints, acid gout, or other effects of over-feeding, take the less sweet kinds.

Dr. Fernie deprecates the use of grapes for the ordinary gouty or rheumatic patient, but with all due deference to that learned authority, I do not believe the fruit exists that is not beneficial to the gouty person. One of the most gouty and rheumatic people I know, a vegetarian who certainly never over-feeds himself, derives great benefit from a few days’ almost exclusive diet of grapes.

Cream of tartar, a potash salt obtained from the crust formed upon bottles and casks by grape juice when it is undergoing fermentation in the process of becoming wine, is often used as a medicine. It has been cited as an infallible specific in cases of smallpox, but I do not recommend its use, as it probably gets contaminated with other substances during the process of manufacture. In any case its value cannot be compared with the fresh, ripe fruit. I have little doubt but that an exclusive diet of grapes, combined with warmth, proper bathing, and the absence of drugs, would suffice to cure the most malignant case of smallpox.

Sufferers from malaria may use grapes with great benefit. For this purpose the grapes, with the skins and stones, should be well pounded in a mortar and allowed to stand for three hours. The juice should then be strained off and taken. Or persons with good teeth may eat the grapes, including the skins and stones, if they thoroughly macerate the latter.

In the absence of fresh grapes raisin-tea is a restoring and nourishng drink. Dr. Fernie notes that it is of the same proteid value as milk, if made in the proportions given below. It is much more easily digested than milk, and therefore of great use in gastric complaints. Sufferers from chronic gastritis could not do better than make raisin-tea their sole drink, and bananas their only food for a time.

Raisin Tea.

To make raisin-tea, take half a pound of good raisins and wash well, but quickly, in lukewarm water. Cut up roughly and put into the old-fashioned beef-tea jar with a quart of distilled or boiled and filtered rain water. Cook for four hours, or until the liquid is reduced to 1 pint. Scald a fine hair sieve and press through it all except the skins and stones. If desired a little lemon juice may be added.

Gooseberry.

The juice of green gooseberries “cureth all inflammations,” while the red gooseberry is good for bilious subjects. But it has been said that gooseberries are not good for melancholy persons.

Gooseberries are an excellent “spring medicine.”

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