The Benefits of the Many Uses for Turmeric©

The Benefits of the Many Uses for Turmeric©

By Arlene Wright-Correll

Turmeric is commonly used in Asian food. You probably know turmeric as the main spice in curry. Turmeric is also used as an enema for people with inflammatory bowel disease. In food and manufacturing, the essential oil of turmeric is used in perfumes, and its resin is used as a flavor and color component in foods.

You can buy Home Farm Herbery’s chemical-free Turmeric by clicking here now. 

However, Turmeric is used also for arthritis, heartburn (dyspepsia), joint pain, stomach pain, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, bypass surgery, hemorrhage, diarrhea, intestinal gas, stomach bloating, loss of appetite, jaundice, liver problems, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, stomach ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), gallbladder disorders, high cholesterol, a skin condition called lichen planus, skin inflammation from radiation treatment, and fatigue.

Some people apply turmeric to the skin for pain, ringworm, sprains and swellings, bruising, leech bites, eye infections, acne, inflammatory skin conditions and skin sores, soreness inside of the mouth, infected wounds, and gum disease.

It is also used for headaches, bronchitis, colds, lung infections, fibromyalgia, leprosy, fever, menstrual problems, itchy skin, recovery after surgery, and cancers. Other uses include depression, Alzheimer's disease, swelling in the middle layer of the eye (anterior uveitis), diabetes, water retention, worms, an autoimmune disease called systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), tuberculosis, urinary bladder inflammation, and kidney problems.

Now this is a lot of stuff!!! However, it is no way to be interpreted as uses without consulting your doctor.

There are side effects to self medicating with Turmeric and these may well be some of them.  In addition, high doses of turmeric have been observed to cause: Nausea, Diarrhea,

Increased risk of bleeding, increased liver function tests, hyperactive gallbladder contractions, Hypotension (lowered blood pressure), uterine contractions in pregnant women and increased menstrual flow.

Should you decide to take Turmeric here is the recommended way to take it.  Squeeze 1/2 of a lemon into a mug.  Add the turmeric.  Add warm water.  Stir well.  Add honey to taste, if desired. Keep spoon in the cup as turmeric will fall to the bottom so the drink will need to be mixed again.

Use as dye for spicy tie-dyed tees.  Add three tablespoons of turmeric to a pot of boiling water, let it simmer for a while, and your dye bath is ready. 

Turmeric will naturally dye Easter eggs.  Hard-boiled eggs transform into the jewel-like colors found in nature rather than in the lab. Beet juice, onion skin, blueberries, and of course, turmeric all do a bang-up job of the task.

Turmeric can be added to scrambles and frittatas.  Use a pinch of turmeric in scrambled eggs, a frittata, or tofu scramble. If you or your family is new to turmeric, this is a great place to start because the color is familiar and the flavor subtle.

Here is Home Farm Herbery’s favorite recipe for Baked Chicken Breasts and the cooking time is only 20 minutes!

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 Tbsp melted ghee or avocado oil

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp turmeric 

½ tsp cumin 

½ tsp smoked paprika  

½ tsp garlic powder   

½ tsp fresh ground black pepper

¼ tsp ground ginger  

Pinch of cinnamon 

Pinch of cayenne 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place chicken breasts in a single layer in a large baking dish. Brush on either side with melted ghee or avocado oil.

In a small bowl mix together spice mixture: salt, turmeric, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, cayenne, cinnamon, and ginger. Sprinkle the spice mixture liberally over the chicken on both sides. Use your hands to press spices gently into chicken breasts.

Bake chicken breasts in the oven for 15-18 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear once poked.

If using a cooking thermometer, the inside of the thickest part of the breast should be between 160-170 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove the chicken from the oven and let rest for five minutes before serving. Leftover chicken will keep in an airtight glass container in the refrigerator for three days.

May the Creative Force be with you!

Arlene Wright-Correll

Home Farm Herbery

https://homefarmherbery.com/

Remember 100% of our profits go to St Jude's Research Hospital.

The Many Uses of Peppermint Leaf Powder©

The Many Uses of Peppermint Leaf Powder©

By Arlene Wright-Correll

Natural dried, Peppermint Leaves (powder)- INCI (Mentha piperita) is believed that some stomach discomfort and nervousness can be relieved by drinking tea made with equal parts of spearmint and peppermint leaves and honey.

Peppermint contains the active ingredient, menthol, which is thought to loosen phlegm and soothe coughs. Peppermint tea is believed to relieve the pressure caused by migraine headaches.

Peppermint leaves are frequently added to eye pillow formulas to assist in relieving headaches. Since peppermint produces a cooling and numbing effect on the skin, it is sometimes used in body cream formulations to help with skin irritations.

With that in mind here are some other uses for Peppermint Leaf Powder.

1. Peppermint Leaf powder can be used in natural bath tea recipes

2. Peppermint Leaf powder can be used in soap recipes

3. Peppermint Leaf powder can be used in the formulation of natural herbal waters

4. Peppermint Leaf powder can be infused and used in lotions, creams, and ointment recipes.

5. Peppermint Leaf powder can be added to facial mask recipes.

6. Peppermint Leaf powder can be used in scrubs

7. Peppermint Leaf powder can be used bath salt recipes

8. Peppermint Leaf powder can be used in bath bomb recipes

9. Peppermint Leaf powder can be used in eye pillow recipes

10. Peppermint Leaf powder can be infused and used in shampoo and conditioner recipes.

11. Peppermint Leaf powder can be infused and used as a face tonic.

We grow and sell our Home Farm Herbery Peppermint Leaf Powder for external use only. We do not sell it as a food item. 

Note: The information we provide is for educational purposes only. This information is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Home Farm Herbery accepts no responsibility (written or implied) for any products you make with our herbs. All testing is the responsibility of the customer.

Home Farm Herbery heartily recommends one to keep all herbs out of reach of children and pets. Special care should be taken by pregnant and/or lactating women when handling herbs.

May the Creative Force be with you,

Arlene Wright-Correll

Home Farm Herbery

The Benefits of Growing Wild Chicory©

The Benefits of Growing Wild Chicory©

By Arlene Wright-Correll

Wild Chicory is a bushy perennial herb with blue, purple, or occasionally white flowers.

Wild Chicory is grown and cultivated for their leaves or for the roots which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive. The Wild Chicory leaves are used in salads, often times preferred over the Dandelion. The Wild Chicory leaves are cut and generally blanched, as the unblanched leaves are bitter. The young blanched heads are also a good vegetable for cooking, similar to Sea Kale.  Planting outdoors is really simple.  Just plant this perennial in a sunny spot with proper drainage and it will come back year after year.

One of the biggest benefits is the Finch love the seeds and since store bought Finch seeds have become more and move expensive over the years; this is really a simple way of attracting these beautiful birds.

Just about any visitor to New Orleans, including myself, has tasted an obligatory cup of the city’s signature blend of coffee and chicory. But chicory’s varieties and uses extend far beyond a slow Sunday brunch at Café du Monde.

When cooked, the roots taste like parsnips, but they are almost too skinny to bother with. Instead of boiling them, however, you can scrub them and roast them slowly until brittle and dark brown inside. Grind and brew them like coffee or blend with regular coffee. The resulting beverage tastes much like coffee but doesn’t contain caffeine.

People, for at least 5,000 years, have cultivated chicory for its medicinal benefits.

According to the “doctrine of signatures” (a renaissance theory that a plant’s appearance indicates its healing properties) the milky sap of chicory demonstrated its efficacy in promoting milk flow in nursing mothers, or perhaps diminishing it if it were too abundant; it seems to have been prescribed for both conditions.

The blue of the blossoms and their tendency to close as if in sleep at noon (in England) suggested the plant’s use in treating inflamed eyes. The bruised leaves have been poultices on swellings while root extracts have been used as a diuretic and laxative, and to treat fevers and jaundice.

The second-century physician Galen called chicory a “friend of the liver,” and contemporary research has shown that it can increase the flow of bile, which could be helpful in treating gallstones.

Much laboratory research also has shown root extracts to be antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and slightly sedative. They also slow and weaken the pulse and lower blood sugar. Leaf extracts have similar, though weaker, effects.

Chicory is a good source of folic acid, necessary for the formation and maturation of red blood cells and in the synthesis of DNA; potassium, which is required for the contraction of skeletal and heart muscle and for the transmission of nerve impulses; and vitamin A. One of the traditional bitter herbs of Passover, it is eaten as a spring tonic in many cultures.

A compound called maltol (3-hydroxyl-2-methyl-4-pyrone) from chicory (as well as larch bark, pine needles and roasted malt) is used in baked goods to intensify the flavor of sugar 30-to-300-fold.

The colonists brought it to America mainly as a medicinal crop.

Thomas Jefferson and others grew it as a forage crop. Since it doesn’t dry well, it was usually cut and fed green to horses, cattle, sheep, poultry and rabbits.

As I said it is an easy to grow perennial and the thing I like the best of it is it attracts the finch and I really enjoy watching these birds flit around these lovely blue flowers.

The highly adaptable and rugged nature of chicory allows it to thrive virtually anywhere, although it grows best within U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zones 3 to 9. Chicory requires little care if planted in a garden bed with deep, fertile soil and full sun exposure.

May the Creative Force be with you,

Arlene Wright-Correll

Home Farm Herbery

Ask Arlene about Autumn Olive©

Ask Arlene about Autumn Olive©

By Arlene Wright-Correll

Autumn olive is a deciduous shrub that can grow as tall as 20 feet. It’s cream to pale yellow flowers bloom in early spring and bring on an abundance of pink to red berries dotted with scales. The leaves of the plant are elliptically shaped with a slightly wavy margin. It is distinguished from other similar shrubs by the silvery scales found on the lower leaf surface. Although beautiful and fragrant, autumn olive’s aggressive proliferation negatively affects natural areas throughout Indiana.  It is really invasive and although it is not illegal to sell or buy autumn olive in Indiana, it is recommended that Hoosiers do not sell, buy or plant autumn olive, and to remove the invasive from your property. Remember - cutting and burning alone will not get rid of autumn olive, but will only create more.

Originally a native plant of China, Japan and Korea and it made its way to the United States in 1830. In the 1950s it was widely promoted as a great way to provide wildlife habitat and erosion control in environmentally disturbed areas. While it did make available habitat and food for wildlife, it soon became a really major problem as autumn olive began to rapidly spread throughout the state.

Attempts to remove the shrub by cutting and/or burning created even more autumn olive and only made matters worse because it out-competes and displaces native plants by creating a dense shade that hinders the growth of plants that need lots of sun. 

It can produce up to 200,000 seeds each year, and can spread over a variety of habitats as its nitrogen-fixing root nodules allows the plant to grow in even the most unfavorable soils. Not to mention that it reproduces quickly and with little effort at all.

Even though you may attempt to remove autumn olive by cutting or burning from your property you can cause unwanted spreading as the shrub germinates easily.

Birds are quite attracted to the seeds and will scatter them throughout pastures, along roadsides and near fences and these include song- birds such as thrushes, cardinals, cedar waxwings, evening grosbeaks, sparrows, bobwhite, ruffed grouse, ring-necked pheasants, wild turkeys, and mallards. 

Mammals including raccoons, skunks, opossums, and even black bears will eat it also.

Goats and sheep will eat autumn olive readily and effectively control repeated heavy defoliation in spring and early summer; although goats can clear brush in a single season, multiple years are needed to actually kill the shrubs.

Scientific Name: Elaeagnus umbellata

Type: deciduous, either shrub or tree

Size: up to 20 feet tall & 30 feet wide

Stems: silvery or golden brown; speckled; often with thorns

Leaves: grayish green with silvery scales on bottom side; has a shimmery look to it

Flowers: in clusters; bell-shaped, cream to light yellow petals; fragrant; bloom in April -June

Fruits: fleshy, silvery with brown scales to a speckled red when matured; edible to both animals and humans

Reproduction: by seed or propagation by stump sprouting and/or roots

Habitat: forests edges, meadows, open woods, pastures, riverbanks, roadsides, streams and disturbed areas

Impacts: invasive specie; increases nitrogen levels in soil; possibly beneficial to black walnut

Similar Native Species: Silver-berry; however, not native to Indiana

On the good side until recently, few people were aware that the berries of autumn olive, Elaeagnus umbellata, are edible. But the secret is out. More and more are harvesting these tasty fruits for both sweet and savory dishes such as jam, pies, breads and even wine.

AUTUMN OLIVE WINE

4-5 pounds autumn olive fruit

2 lbs granulated sugar

1ź tsp yeast nutrient

ź tsp tannin

1 crushed Campden tablet

1 tsp pectic enzyme.

3 qts water

Lalvin RC212 (Bourgovin) wine yeast

Put 2 qts water on to boil. Meanwhile, wash and cull fruit for soundness. Put fruit in nylon straining bag, tie closed, and place in primary container. Bruise fruit by squashing with hands or a piece of hardwood, being careful not to crack seed. Pour boiling water over fruit and cover primary.

Combine remaining water with sugar and stir until dissolved--may heat the water to aid in dissolving sugar. Add sugar-water to primary, replace cover and set aside to cool. When room temperature, stir in tannin, yeast nutrient and crushed Campden.

Replace cover and set aside for 12 hours. Stir in pectic enzyme and again cover primary and set aside. After 12 hours, add activated yeast and again cover the primary. Stir twice daily until s.g. drops to 1.015 (1-2 weeks).

Remove nylon straining bag, squeezing well to extract juice. Allow to settle and rack to secondary and fit airlock. Wait 30 days, then rack, top up and refit airlock. Repeat when wine clears. Allow another 60 days under airlock. Stabilize, sweeten to taste if desired, wait 10 days, and rack into bottles.

Age six months before tasting and also you will find it improves with age. 

Health Benefits of Autumn Olive. The most common fact you will read about autumn olive is that it contains 5 to 15 times more antioxidant lycopene than in tomatoes. But besides lycopene autumn berries is also a source of vitamin C (around 28 mg/100g), as well as other vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals.

Medicinal use of Autumn Olive: 

The flowers are astringent, cardiac and stimulant. The seeds are used as a stimulant in the treatment of coughs. The expressed oil from the seeds is used in the treatment of pulmonary affections. The fruit of many members of this genus is a very rich source of vitamins and minerals, especially in vitamins A, C and E, flavonoids and other bio-active compounds. It is also a fairly good source of essential fatty acids, which is fairly unusual for a fruit. It is being investigated as a food that is capable of reducing the incidence of cancer and also as a means of halting or reversing the growth of cancers.

There does not seem to be any health habits of Autumn Olive.

We do not offer it in any form at Home Farm Herbery simply because of it’s invasiveness.

May the Creative Force be with you!

Arlene Wright-Correll

Home Farm Herbery LLC

Ask Arlene about A brief history of Sausage & Sausage Making©

Ask Arlene about A brief history of Sausage & Sausage Making©

By Arlene Wright-Correll

If you are worried about commercially-made sausage fearing not only fat content, but what odds and ends manufacturers dump into the mix you are rightfully so. But, if you make your own sausage at home, you can ensure only the best ingredients and spices are used, plus control the fat content. Do not make the mistake of thinking sausage is strictly a meat product. Many sausage recipes also include seafood and vegetarian sausage blends.

Sausage History

The word sausage comes from the Middle English sausige, which came from sal, Latin for salt. In France they are sausissons and in Germany, wurst. In practice for over a millenia sausage-making was originally a method used to preserve meats, especially lesser cuts.  It came to be at the same time animals were domesticated and, subsequently, surplus meat was able to be preserved.

It is believed that the Romans were among the first to preserve meat in sausage form. They learned over time that salt, smoking methods, and spices improved the process and the taste, and by the middle ages, sausage was being made all over the continent.

Sausage-making has become an art and there are more than 200 different varieties of sausage are made in the United States alone, and thousands more worldwide, varying by regional tastes and ingredient availability. Hot dogs are popular in the United States, sausage is the ultimate Finnish fast food, and seafood sausages are popular in Asia.

The definition of sausage is ground meat mixed with fat, salt and other seasonings, preservatives, and sometimes fillers. Some sausage mixtures are sold in bulk form, and others forced into casings to form links.

Sausage is available in fresh form, which needs to be cooked before consumption, and dry or cured form, which are already cooked.

Virtually any type of meat can be used in sausage, but most common is pork or pork blends. Variety truly is the spice of life, with spicy, hot sausages and bland sausages, and with flavorings running the gamut from garlic to nutmeg.

We even make Black Trumpet Mushroom Sausage.

Creative chefs are also making sausages from vegetable and seafood blends for those who eschew meats. There are also ways to lower the fat if you make your own at home using any of our chemical-free organic Home Farm Herbery Sausage Seasoning Blends.

You can find all kinds of sausage seasoning at Home Farm Herbery’ store and here are just a few that we make:

Bratwurst Seasoning  

Breakfast Sausage Seasoning  

English BangersSeasoning  

Arlene’s Hot Italian Sausage Seasoning  

Just to name a few of the many we create and we invite you to check them all out.

We thank you in advance for your purchase as 100% of our net proceeds go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

May the Creative Force be with you!

Arlene Wright-Correll

Home Farm Herbery LLC

Brittany G. of Terrell, TX is September art contest winner

You just won September’s Art Contest!

Brittany G. of Terrell, TX is September art contest winner 

Your prize is on its way.

Congratulations from

Home Farm Herbery LLC