clean and light

in which panchakarma is undertaken, well, attempted....

made kitchari again today because the first try was such a let down. boiling it for 10 minutes instead of 45 left the vegetables palatable and with texture and the rice soft, the mung dal was slightly firm but in some ways that was a more appealing way of eating it. the entire dish is meant to be soothing, warming and easy on digestion. read: mushy, bland and without much textural variation. all goals of a luminous clean form aside, and in keeping with the mantra that the cleanse should fulfill and the food should taste good, i thought that tweaking the formula to make it soothing and easy to digest as well as good tasting was not too far a deviation from acceptable.

scobing things out

at long last, after many peeks into the post box, this treasure has arrived!

above is something i am highly preoccupied with at the moment (and have been for some time.)
a kombucha SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) is a strange and pungent science experiment to kindle in the kitchen.

this "mushroom", which feeds on tea tannins and sugars, when fermented produces a miraculous dose of highly nutritious and healing medicine. it is also, and more to the point, delicious, addictive and bubbly. who can beat that? far more scholarly and well scoby-educated people than i have written tomes and treatises on the science of kombucha.


( this is a particularly informative example
this is the place to direct funds should you want to start any kind of fermenty lifestyle
and this blog (turned onto me by this kind lady) is an example of a well-fermented life and the pixies who live them. 
you can also check out more fanatics of fermenting here )


*anyway*


as i am always keen to absorb both the theory and the science experiments of the healthfood-and-somewhat-mad-alternative-food-medicine-experts i of course undertook to culture the pillowy mushroom on my counter for the weakest of reasons because the 3.99 price tag on a bottle of store-bought kombucha was fairly steep, and for the most potent because of wanting dearly to construct some sort of ambrosia-like substance that, in taste and texture, in color and in grandeur, and  in nutrition and holistic value would nourish all the little swiss-hole riddled bits of me that needs nursing. 


begin with copious amounts of tea

 stir in sugar, leftover kombucha from the previous batch (lovingly donated by the above source), let cool til tepid, bottle and cover with a breathable and highly technical covering (see also: paper towel)...

and wait! fingers crossed!

more to come.

summer?

the widening of the year is upon us. warmth we can count on, here, up high. loops and wedges of light that anchor into the late hours of the day. the land calls out to be walked, who are we to deny it?

the rest of the country has had this balm for weeks - maybe months - by now.  but here, in the high desert, this recent coming of Real Summer is bracing, resplendent in a shameless green that surprises us all. every year.

the Wasatch Range bears many small towns on its shoulders. there are rewards for bracing the parched and crackling sunbeat meadows, for skating up talus slides and leaning the many levers of your body against sharp inclines. at the tops of mountains, meekness falls away (though a sense of smallness prevails.) from the fingertips of the  folded palm summits, if you can bear to be up in the winds, you can make sense of all the seemingly mysterious and aimless back roads that you ease the lumbering station wagon along in the valleys. this kind of whippy, radiant clarity, is empowering while we ride on aching legs up to make sense of our homey spaces.

in early June we still are not free of killing frosts- that strange phenomenon that renders the more tender plants glossy and transparent as the cell walls collapse and light moves through them with ease. commonly we are out on balconies and in fresh furrows tucking tablecloths and woolen scarves over the very young and the very green.

often in the mornings scales of water ice the back grasses, rigid and fierce. 

and, as a result, there comes with this warm greening of the world, a profound sense of preciousness. this is why, i think, we are deeply wired to misunderstand the glut of green in the coastal places, the lowland places.

how foreign to have an endless supply of fecundity. here, instead, there is a glut of brilliance, light, space and moving air. the mountain people, perhaps, are imbued with an airier, more ethereal constitution. more frivolity. less rooting and firmness. it is we who load up on the metally trinkets of the climbing trade and attempt to fasten ourselves to the very high and exposed rocky walls of our wild citadels without lingering on that sport's impracticality. we wade up through the snowfields on skis and then slide back down, slicing up the crystal structure as we go by and dodging death, speedily, if we can. we who clamber through the desert with loads on our backs to spend days at a time up to our chests in river water, inspecting the wet and foreign lives of fish and heron.

but this is a ramble.

more to the point is that the mountain world is in its giving place again. it is time to break out shears and baskets and go harvesting in the gluey late light of a forest glade inlaid with bluebells and pricking poisons.
as last year this potion was made, i am fittingly at the end of my store and need to re-up.

but one thing i have not done is use the nettles in their fresh green glory. (partially because, perhaps, i am still too nervous to consider eating such prickly fare.) but i am bolstered, as always, by posts like this. so it is a good weekend experiment to test out the generosity of the land. among other ways, of course.

divine intervention. kinda.

some bodily tension these days. maybe energetic tension also. a funny time to feel out of kilter with the swell and blush of the land. the best i can liken it to is walking with someone in perfect stride and then losing it, bumping clumsily along, feet flapping at the wrong intervals and resorting, finally, to the small lunging limp that brings you back into the rhythm.

although this is a little flawed too, as the kind of energetic seaming up with the natural world has no objective mirror- you can't make your spine into water and flow uphill as a herd of deer can, or splice your sinews into the green and upturned palms up new leaves, letting the wind at you. you can only stand in the blowing light, feel out how your vertebrae stack like stones and lean in a hopeful direction hoping balance will still you.

ayurveda has much to say about this. (and there are too many places to read and take notes and consider tea blends to list here. but i will say this has helped some and the local library, obviously.) ayurveda's stance (in a highly watered down and weak reiteration) is that everything we consume nourishes not only our bones and blood but our cadence with the larger world as well. those parts of us out of whack or exaggerated need not be banished from routine but supplemented with their opposites- warm and soothing food and practices for the frazzled and chilled, light and invigorating foods and routines for the overheated and internally slowed. to embrace our individual circuitry and nourish the atrophied parts instead of focusing on their negativity is, for me, a moment of divine logic. too simple to have even considered and so completely reasonable.it is an interesting theory because its tenants are not focused on curing or fixing but on balancing and most of us could stand to imbibe at least more of that on a regular basis.

anyway, the way the days pan out is under some self scrutiny. i am trying filter my systems of nourishment, to cultivate some gentle but encouraging shifts.

there has been so much of this




about which i feel strongly- whole things, without judgment, sometimes a rash of butter is necessary. but there has certainly not (until recently) been enough of this


which is also necessary and vital but not at the complete absence of the above.so ayurveda.

not a cure-all, not the Next Big Thing, but a luminous model. supplement nourishment with nourishment and above all listen to what your body is thirsty for. the Western mind struggles with this and, i think, that is precisely why a call into balance in the name of restoration is vital. plus, it's spring! watch and learn, right?

balms

kinds of domesticity evolve and shift in the winter months. at this point the cold, flat days, sometimes drifted over with the threats of snow, other times pierced with the glass shard cold of clear-skied sun become monotonous no matter how dutifully one tries to find divine meaning in examining Light.

little miracles of plain things have kindled little bonfires in our small house and plain though they may be, they have helped immeasurably.

**

** training our kefir grains to fizzle and thrive in the cloudy gravenstein juice we so love. turns out, the chalky, sweet juice is never happier than when plunked into a large jar of the stuff. after 24 hours (versus 48 for the water and fruit concoction) the juice is fiercely carbonated from the hard working kefir grains and undeniably boozy. yip yip!

set backs

this lady has been bed-ridden by a flu for the last few days. all the usual heavy hitters of any flu and an unfamiliar, complete, crippling and dizzying exhaustion. this sleepyness has been a soporific, balmy weight that is nearly beyond fighting. this strikes me as the most odd, the body's inclination to curl up in a heap of cool, crackling bedclothes: ambrosia for the ailing insides. for the most part, sleep has been the strongest antidote for this set back (which i attribute to sickly little ones, vomiting parents, strangers in town for Sundance (two weeks after the 'festival most Parkites will succumb to something similar like clockwork, every year...) and the many plans, preparations and checklists that have weakened the whole household from the inside out).

in addition to that delicious sleep cure, chicken soup has also fought the battle gallantly,

along with heavy doses of petroselinum hortense, or, the common parsley which is a powerhouse of herbal medicine despite its commonplace presence sprinkled across most anything. parsley is uncommonly high in vitamin C (beating out lemons, grapefruits and oranges) which helps any ailing body out. additionally it is high in iron and calcium, a detoxifier for the kidneys and an appetite stimulant. while most invalids do not have an immediate use for an abundance of iron and calcium (though those without appetite can often become anaemic due to a low caloric intake), a hefty dose of appetite stimulant and kidney flushing will make almost anyone feel better. hot soup in general is also an aid in raising the body temperature to burn out low-grade bacterial infections (essentially inducing a fever.) and there is certainly something comforting in clutching a hot bowl of broth and noodles and sniffing in a self-pitying fashion from beneath the eiderdown one has dragged onto the couch and climbed into up to the throat.

some festivities and some triumphs

christmas came and went. big deal for those who celebrate it, somewhat of an anticlimax for those of us who don't. there is a common misconception that channukah is the equivalent of christmas for a jew. not so. it is not a holiday that lights us up, or one to which we look forward all year. merely it is an opportunity to exchange gifts and meals (should we choose to) or, more commonly, to light up the sparklers for the wee ones. not having any wee ones proper we spent one day this weekend exchanging practical things (merino socks, mittens, shearling lined boots) and drinking out of every available fancy glass in the house. cheers to mum who can assemble a party quick as a bunny, we were all more than satiated.

one thing that happened was something i have truly been yearning for my whole life. something cast iron, with an enamel finish and a very blunt little name tag

yep. it happened. a covered french masterpiece with a myriad of uses. i had to keep creeping into the living room to peek under the lid and ensure it was really there.

it was!

after we ate too many lovely things, and drank early in the morning and so of course had to allow ourselves a nap just for posterity. (well, some of us. others of us (ahem) had to go to work and serve christmas dinner to strangers.)

cava, orange juice, stovetop espresso, steamed milk, kahlua, b & b (to each their own, not all at once of course.)

and then after, the dutiful ingestion of the cleansing food. a shot of orange juice mixed with a tablespoon of the most green spirulina (tastes just like it sounds) with a grapefruit chaser. smoothies with rice milk, chia, hemp, kale and bananas and, newly, water kefir! it is an experiment i have been working on for a few weeks. milk kefir grains (who subsist on lactose) can be transmogrified (or transmogged) to ferment juice, morphing into something very close to (although completely different than) water kefir crystals. this is done by training the milk kefir grains to switch their eating habits to sucrose or dextrose (not ideal, the dextrose.) once they are used to sucrose they are left with a fistful of raisins to ferment the basic sugars into a beverage with an astonishing probiotic load. (similar to kombucha). truth be told the process scared more than a few folks away from the counter

and understandably so. but it worked! huzzah! this morning the first fizzy (indeed, these guys give off some substantial carbonation) throaftful of water kefir, flavored with a clutch of raspberries from this years pick frozen to hold us over until something vital occurs. like this!

cheers.

a stand-in chemist

as it turns out, sickness happened. bust.
last night during a waning last quarter moon snow fell and disrupted everything: my sinuses, the back roads, the volvo and my ankles. in a mouthful: the first snow in a mountain town is the only allowable night on which one can drive like a maniac (or in my case, be passed by a maniac), imbibe great lungfuls of panic at the carnival ride the road has become and cuss at the general state of things: namely clogs full of snow and cold ankles, a car that won't hump up over the last hill before home and losing a glove. and thus today, plied with tissues and wrapped in a sleeping bag, this lady has presided over the couch and set only two goals for herself.
i. resting
ii. making soup

i have learned quite a few things about soup, i think it's because my brain is spongiest when it comes to combining snacks and philosophy. soup benefits from slow consideration, patience, intuition and the simmer burner. there are no rote instructions to go through mechanically, no alchemical proportions, just attentiveness. further,  you don't have to peel or even cut up the vegetables, you simply tip everything into a pan, cover it with water, and see how long you can fight the soup smell before you ladle yourself a mugful. there are of course some common sense parameters that no one would find surprising:
-if you wouldn't eat it out of your fridge that ingredient is not soup fodder
-if you wouldn't eat that ingredient with the other things you put in your soup pot, that ingredient probably won't taste good in the soup. (for example, chicken, parsley, carrots, celery, onion and parsnips would likely not taste good with olive juice or cottage cheese.)
-leave your spices out until the soup is completely done; additions like peppercorns or cloves if left in for too long will impart bitterness
-the longer the cooking time the better the soup.

so this is all well and fine, every can understand the base appeal of soup. but. the old 'jewish penicillin' tag frequently affixed to chicken soup is not as hokey as it might sound.

the long slow process of boiling a whole chicken, and if you're lucky enough a few other chicken or turkey bones especially the backs, promotes the release of nutrient rich gelatin into the broth.

gelatin is a superfood. though low in the crude protein we look to for building muscle, it contains proline and glycine, two 'essential' amino acids. of course, when we refer to an 'essential' nutrient of any kind we are simply acknowledging that it necessary for good health but is not produced by the body. (to be sure, both proline and glycine are produced by the body but not, accordingly to clinicians, in amounts sufficient for the body's daily requirements.)

proline and glycine (and gelatin as a whole), have a range of uses in the body. primarily they are involved in the integrity of joint tissues. however they are also able to
-aid in detoxification by aiding in the export of toxins such as benzoic acid, a common food preservative
-encourage the secretion of gastric acid, thus improving digestion
-aid in wound healing, due to their function in skin and joint membranes
-act as a remedy for those with 'sour stomach', by virtue of its colloidal properties
-aid in the digestion of milk and milk products (especially useful for babies)

in addition to gelatin, a traditional chicken soup recipe will provide a good dose of antimicrobial palmitoleic acid (from chicken fat), substantial hits of vitamin c (in the form of carotenes) from parsley and carrots, and additional butt-kicking, antiviral, antifungal and antimicrobial compounds found in onions and leeks. 

nutrition aside, sitting in a house that is slowly filling with steam and good smells, boiling off a pot of the widest, chewiest egg noodles you can find, and sitting in front of the fire with a deep bowl of soup while the snow falls is way more healing that bundling up to wipe your nose and sniffle in line at the pharmacy for a bottle of god-knows what. 

(a whole mouthful of goods on gelatin and broth-rich diets in this article)


while i am fending off the sniffs, the chills and the swoons, i am still thinking about seeing and trying to differentiate between 'looking' and 'seeing'. for me, 'looking' is a responsive, reactive sensation while 'seeing' is voluntary, dynamic and unique to each set of eyes. being in a newly colored world (white from brown) the exercise for the day has been re-orienting to Place using only the covered contours and quiet of the day.

alchemy

yesterday marked two weeks since the nettle tincture was bottled. (thankfully it was labeled, as it was a suspicious concoction, at any rate, to be swathed in a dingy tea towel and left in the bathroom to steep.)

straining the tincture is an easy task but a rather time consuming one as the nettles have undergone considerably metamorphosis during their exposure to the alcohol.

like most plants, the nettles' compounds are both fat and alcohol soluble. (this is why it is best to eat most vegetables, especially greens, with a considerable amount of fat (bacon, pancetta, butter, ghee, oil, etc.) thus making their fat-soluble compounds available to the body instead of functioning purely as roughage.) while heating the green matter in a fat source would certainly draw the medicinal properties out of the leaves more quickly, it would leave the mixture subject to rather quick oxidation and thus rancidity. this is a fine method of obtaining the medicinal compounds from the plants but would require the forager to consume it within three or four days after preparation. some plants in particular, like flaxseed, are of course harvested and processed to render their oils and these must be kept refrigerated as their molecules are heat-sensitive and not very stable (another reason never to cook with flaxseed oils or anything high in omega-6's or 3's.) however, since nettle is collected for its chemical compounds, the best way to extract and maintain a local source is by suspending it in alcohol which will keep for much longer.

the purpose of using an alcohol medium (known alternately as 'menstruum') is three-fold. firstly, the alcohol acts as a preservative, inhibiting the production of bacteria from decomposition of the plant material. secondly, it acts as an astringent, drawing the phytochemicals out of the plant. and lastly, because alcohol is able to pass through mucus membranes, to access the blood vessels close to the surface in the mouth, and to permeate the stomach lining, its role as carrier of the plant compounds is extremely efficient. however, because the alcohol acts to macerate the material, a considerable amount of alcohol remains in the plant fiber after being strained. therefore, it is important to give the tincture adequate time to drain, retaining as much of the liquid as possible.

jargon and chemistry aside, the process is really very simple and should encourage anyone interested in undertaking to experiment in herbal medicine to give it a try.

here are the basic steps to summarize:
1. harvest the material
2.decide whether you intend to make a fresh or dried tincture. a fresh tincture needs to be made soon after harvest to retain all the active compounds in the plant. a dried tincture needs to be completely dry before processing in order to prevent the formation of molds.
3. chop or pass the material through a food processor or spice mill.
4. cover the material with alcohol in a *clean* jar. fresh tincture ratios should be 1 part menstruum (grain alcohol, ethanol or brandy) to 1 part plant material. dried material ratios should be 1 part menstruum to 2 parts plant material for a comparable potency.
5. store the raw tincture out of light in a cool dry place for two weeks. (no need to store tincture in the refrigerator as the alcohol will prevent spoilage.) agitate this mixture every day or two for two weeks.
6. strain the tincture by pressing it through a few layers of cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer, press the back of a spoon or rest a heavy or weighted bowl in the strainer to press out as much liquid as possible.
7. store in an airtight, lightfast container. health food stores, co-ops,  and the dreaded whole foods sell blue glass vials in the cosmetic section which are best for storing alcohol tinctures. these minimize the exposure to uv light which will damage and weaken the tincture. they don't, however, keep all uv light out and should be stored in a dark place. if you don't have access to a source for these vials or prefer not to buy anything additional to crowd your medicine cabinet a simple application of duct tape, electrical tape, or light-fast paper can be taped around the jar with equal efficiency.

cheers.

old growth

it is true that if there were enough time and daylight, a person could become acquainted with all the secrets of the natural world.

in this little natural world, just a scrape above the 40th parallel, where virgin forests have long since given way to new growth pines and aspen groves still wet behind the ears, the hunger of the developing world has not allowed for much wildness to remain.

i have been reading John McPhee's "In Virgin Forest", an essay that describes the remaining, bristling places seen from aerial photographs where virgin forests still stand in our country. it is daunting to see maps that reflect how the presence of these places has dwindled since it was colonized.

(clockwise from upper left, the images reflect the placement and size of old growth forests from 1620, 1920,currently, and 1950 respectively.)

And I long to see them, these places where there has been a currency of stillness and utter acceptance of fate.

Of a particular forest, preserved by Rutger's University, McPhee notes:

  "A few years ago, gypsy moths tore off the canopy and sunlight sprayed the floor.The understory thickened, as shrubs and saplings responded with a flush of growth. "The canopy is now closing over again," Stiles said [the director of the preserve.] "This summer there will be a lot of death." In 1950 a hurricane left huge gaps in the canopy. "Once every three hundred years you can expect a hurricane that will knock down damn near everything," Stiles went on. "There's a real patchwork of nature in an old forest, in the way it is always undergoing replacement." He stopped to admire a small white ash standing alone beneath open sky. "That's going to take the canopy," he said. ""It's going to to go all the way. It's been released. It will fill the gap." 

Succinctly; the value of these forests, those standing for thousands of years, lies in their utter untidiness, their lack of order or cleanliness. What makes these deep and uneven places so important is that they are furred over with decay, chaos, death, accident, trauma and defeat. But in the wake of all of that is gloriously fertile soil, and its consequence is untamed fecundity. 

"...a toppled hull fruited with orange-and-cream fungus, which devour the wood, metabolize it, cause it literally to disappear. In virgin forest, the classic symbol of virginity is a fallen uprooted trunk decaying in a bed of herbs..." 

So despite my own rigidity and height, toppled by winds beyond my control I am undertaking this phenomenon of primeval forest as a meditiaton on how to proceed.

: :

More especially, I am interested in foraging- not only conceptually (unpacking, repacking my thoughts, assembling a piecework of plans,) but literally, in the disturbed and cool soils of the mountainous tangle which is my home. 

So. 

Nettles! Urtica Dioica. A plant that generally causes discomfort to those calves bared in woodland travel. This is due their stinging hairs, actually hollow hypodermic needles, filled with a topical poison. Upon being broken, say by a wildlife enthusiast, the hairs break and their chemical compound is literally injected into the skin. (This is different than exposure to other poisonous plants, for example poison ivy, whose irritant is present on the entire surface of the plant in the form of poisonous oils.) But not to worry! The juice in the stem of the nettle plant contains a compound which neutralizes the irritant, so if you are unlucky enough to get stung, snipping off the central stem and applying the juice to the area of contact will promptly relieve the sting. 

Nettles have been touted as a  upremely nourishing and powerful form of herbal medicine. The resume is extensive and impressive:
-nettles are high in vitamins and minerals including: sulphur, silicon, beta-carotene, chlorophyll, vitamins A, C and D and iron (which make it especially good for pregnant and menstruating women.)
-in that category, nettle is a useful treatment for anaemia especially if it caused by heavy menstrual periods.
-its combination of phenols and vitamin compounds alleviate PMS symptoms including breast tenderness and bloating
-nettles are a diuretic and help detoxify the kidneys, liver, circulatory and respiratory systems
-this makes them an excellent and powerful medicine against hayfever and seasonal allergies
-nettles, when taken daily, can help lessen the severity and frequency of asthma attacks
-additionally, nettles detoxify joint fluid and are beneficial when taken for arthritis, bursitis or tendonitis
-nettles are also an effective remedy for thinning hair due to malnourishment, excess of synthetic hormones or antibiotics, etc. benefits can be derived by taking the herb internally or using the tea as a rinse for hair.

**(be sensible when reading this. i am, of course, not a certified practitioner of herbal medicine. documentation of nettles is widespread and positive  but research thoroughly before undertaking treatment with nettles or other herbs. nettles can also cause uncommon histamine reaction in some individuals so consult a physician if you are prone to allergies.)


As luck would have it, Park City's reluctance to let go of the evening frosts has started us out pretty late in nettle harvest. Referring to wild plant guides in the region I set off with some four-legged friends, a pair of japanese plant shears, some heavy leather gloves and a rucksack to collect the bounty of the back hills. 

Nettles are easy to identify and aren't easily confused with other poisonous plants that grow in their area. If you are foraging for nettles you can use the following characteristics as a guide:

Nettles grow in shady soil, well-drained and often close to creeks or streams. They are usually ready to harvest by late May in temperate climates or in late June, as Utah would have it. 
-The plant grows 2 - 4' tall, but is best picked when the plant is young/small as they become tough and bitter as they age. If using fresh nettles to make tea, snip off only the 'tips' of the plant, that is the paler green, topmost shoot where the new leaves are forming. Lower, older parts of the plant will cause fresh-nettle tea to taste bitter and astringent.
-They are characterized by their rather stout, hollow ribbed, opaque stems.
-They have dark green, oval leaves growing opposite to on another
-The leaves are papery in texture and have deep, coarse teeth
-The leaves come to points at the tips and are heartshaped at the base
-Easily recognizable by prominence of small, hair-like needles on the stalks and undersides of their leaves


As I mentioned, nettles do not mimic other poisonous plants as means of defense. They do, however, grow among other, benign, plants with similar characteristics. A common imposter is Clearweed (pilea pumila) which is a non-poisonous but also non-edible (not particularly tasty or nutritious) plant. Clearweed can be discerned from nettles in three main ways: The first is that they have a conspicuous set of 'side-veins'. This means that the leaf, instead of being bisected vertically by one central vein, is divided into fourths vertically with one main and two lesser central veins. The second is that the stem of a clearweed plant is transparent. Lastly, a clearweed plant will not be covered in stinging hairs. 


A second imposter is the common Catnip (nepeta cataria), a plant which shares its preference for shady soils with proximity to water. catnip is a delicious herb that can be brewed with nettle for an herbal tisane but is of course a different plant entirely. Like clearweed, catnip will not be covered in stinging hair. A catnip plant will also be a lighter shady of green, with duller, softer teeth, and will release a lemony minty fragrance when rubbed between the fingers. It is also considerably thicker and more 'downy' to the touch than a nettle plant.

The (somewhat blurry) photograph above shows three plants that grew with one another on my foraging walk. On the left is a plant that grew low to the ground, with toothed edges, papery leaves and fine hairs on its underside. It is a wild strawberry plant, however, not a nettle. Upon inspecting the plant, the strawberry was dotted with small white flowers (nettle flowers hang in long clusters from the leaf bracts), and its leaves always presented in groups of three. Easy to cross it off the list.


The central plant is a nettle plant, with opposite leaves that are easy to recognize, many stinging hairs, and coarse, deep-set teeth.


The right hand plant is a catnip plant. This picture gives a good comparison between the difference in teeth on the plants. While a catnip plant presents with opposite leaves, its teeth are duller and softer and it has a velvety sheen when seen in the sun.


Below is a picture of a nettle plant with its stinging hairs evident:

Compare that to a catnip plant which has an absence of hairs:

Easy yeah? 

So we took to the trail and collected a rucksack of nettles, with a minimal amount of a stinging and a liberal application of stem-juice to get us through.

And then...

Nettles stings are combatted in one of two ways. The first is by starving the hairs of moisture thus causing the needles to shrivel. This is accomplished by drying the plant either in the sun or hung to dry inside. The second way is to neutralize the poison by immersing the plant in boiling water. This, of course, is accomplished by taking the nettle as a tea, or by steaming/blanching the greens as you spinach or kale.


Nettle tea with fresh leaves can be made by chopping the greens coarsely and covering them with boiling water. Nettle tea with fresh leaves must be boiled for at least 10 minutes to remove the stings. Otherwise, well...you'd be in bad shape.


Nettle tea with dried leave can be made by covering one to two teaspoons of dry nettles with boiling water. Dried nettles need only be steeped for 5 minutes. The hairs have dried posing no threat of ingesting the poison, but adequate medicinal benefits are only derived if the dry leaves are soaked for a minimum of five minutes. Of course, stronger tea is indicative that more of the plant compounds are present but it is, at this point, only a matter of taste. Lemon is often a good partner in nettle tea as its acids are also a diuretic and it is a stimulant of the kidney and liver but, it is interesting, the stark difference in pH when added to the dark green tea will cause it to turn bright pink! (But who doesn't love that?)

 Additionally, as dried nettles will lose their strength over time, and because fresh nettles are not always available a tincture can be made. This distills the compounds in the plant which are soluble in alcohol and preserves more of their potency.

A tincture can be made with fresh or dry nettles. As with tea, more fresh material will be needed than dried as the plant reduces in volume considerably when dried. Cover the plant material with vodka or brandy at a ratio of two parts nettle for fresh and one part nettle for dried with 1 part alcohol. Let the mixture steep for two weeks, agitating daily. Make sure to store this mixture out of the sun as UV rays will weaken the plant compounds. After two weeks, strain the tincture into a dark colored bottle and store out of sunlight. The general recommended dose is 2ml 3 times a day for adults. (Again, please don't self medicate with nettles purely with information gleaned from this blog. There are many many sources for information on nettles. Look for websites promoted by certified practitioners of herbal medicine or by companies who provide herbal medicine commercially, and/or consult with your naturopath or physician.)

What bounty exists underfoot in all the natural places we travel? I am interested in what sorts of instinctive abilities we, as humans,  retained from our eons of hunting and gathering. The dogs seem to graze confidently, avoiding nettle and poison ivy but dining instead on dock weed, timothy, and shoots of wild onion. In what small pebbles of our smallest bones is the wisdom stored that enables us to take only as much as we need to be sated from a world blanketed with only ravishing appetites? It is humbling, certainly, to sip tea on the porch this morning and to nurse the velvety, flourishing patch of crimson itching on my forearm knowing that nettle can take the initiative to live with purpose. I will keep my eyes to the growing places, low and in shadow, dusty and in disarray, and hope that I can be so lucky, soon.

a full day before dawn

this seeking work and space is a process with many furrows and ditches. to be seeking a roof and a place at a table is proving to be more difficult than i expected...i was, however, treated to a day's work at the Blue Hill Farm which works to provide dairy, eggs, beef, chicken and pork directly to the Blue Hill Farm and Stonebarn restaurants of New York City and Westchester.

the man who oversees the space and the animals, Sean Stanton, gave me directions. through many shades of green and gray, at 4:30 in the morning, before the first beams of light swung down from the ridges and poured, i ascended hill and hummock. the air was still and at a slant and mist hung in the mud ridges at the foot of a red barn. the sign was prim and plain.

we milked 15 cows of a broad range of pedigree and breed- norweigan belted, gurnseys, jersey, swiss. all named and dozing while the milking machine thumped agreeably. three bull calves in pens howled for breakfast. 

Sean's gentle cows are smaller than conventional dairy breeds, those who famously produce outrageous quantities of inferior milk- a paler, watery milk, lower in milk fats and hardly worth drinking. his cows are fed on grass during the warmer parts of the year and hay during the winters. absent from their diets are grains, soy, genetically modified feed or any nutrients that have been processed with pesticides or other chemicals. nor are the cows treated with antibiotics, likely because their natural diet and regular exercise boosts their immune systems and helps them maintain a resistance to such infections as cystic ovarian disease, mastitis and staph.

it was astonishing the amount of milk from the cows, gallons and gallons from their first milking (with a second to follow in the late afternoon).it was weighed, recorded and poured into a cooling tank to await the arsenal of glass bottles stacked against the back wall. from the 15 cows roughly 75 gallons of milk were collected and poured off into buckets.

none of the milk sold from Blue Hill Farm is pasteurized- a heating process which neutralizes some of the incredibly nutritious fats and, more importantly, fat soluble vitamins such as vitamins A and D which help the body absorb the milk's calcium, and enzymes like lactase (which is absent in the digestive systems of those individuals who are lactose intolerant,) which aids in the digestion of the milk itself by breaking down lactose and which boost the efficiency of digestion in general. additionally these fragile fats contribute to the deep yellow color, richness and complexity of the milk which is incredibly delicious. laws across the country differ in their opinions of how raw milk should sold and distributed (or not). in Massachusetts, where the farm is located, raw milk is legal for sale only at the location where the cows are milked and put to pasture. larger scale distribution is not allowed, nor is raw milk legal to use in the cultivation of yogurt or the fermentation of cheese. 

so, in summation, this milk is special. the bottles have to be procured at the farm, near the cows, which seeds a relationship between milk drinker and animal. its nutrition panel is far superior to commercial milk, rich in antibiotics, production enhancing chemicals, and devoid of taste and color. how lucky to spend time in the company of the quiet animals whose warmth radiated in the barn while the cold nipped like a blade outside. 

not all of the milk was collected for cooling. some was set aside to be separated into cream. the cream separator was a horrifically loud device, all stainless steel and mounted on an  old steel bombshell from earlier days. seriously. milk was poured into a reservoir at the top and separated by virtue of its weight and speed of the machine's motor and funneled out into two long tongues of metal where it collected in respective buckets.

from the 60 gallons that were put aside to be separated, roughly 6 gallons of cream were skimmed. the bi-product of skimming cream is, of course, skim milk and in Sean's opinion the only creatures fit to consume 54 gallons of skim milk were his pigs. this was put aside for a trip down into the wooded slopes behind the farm where the pigs and piglets slept in sand and deep shade to roam comfortably at their leisure.

 

this being an industrious little dairy, the day's cream in addition to twice against as much from previous milks was put to use in the butter churn. butter is made most easily at a temperature of about 54 degrees. the cream stored in the refrigerator from roughly 5 days ago (useful because its slight fermentation adds a noticeable depth of flavor in fresh butter in addition to undertaking slight antimicrobial qualities) was about 37 degrees. the cream separated an hour earlier from the morning milk was 85. 16 gallons of milk, then, were poured back and forth in predetermined fractions, to result in a three buckets of cream roughly 56 degrees each. it was a beautiful closed circuit system of logic and timing. 

the cream was divided into two batches and put into the churn where it processed for roughly 15 minutes achieving the texture of whipped cream and then, abruptly, changing cadence and pitch as the cream  solidified into butter (whose texture resembled couscous) and liquid. the liquid of course is buttermilk, or more specifically 'sweet' buttermilk which has not been fermented or 'soured.' Sean cautioned me against overwhipping butter which can re-emulsify if treated too roughly and then be unfit for buttermaking or consumption. once the couscous texture satisfied Sean's careful eye the butter was washed (sent back into the churn with equal parts water and poured off over and over until the water ran clear). we had roughly 30 pounds of butter. almost. following the washing the butter was scooped out of the churn and heaped into a bowl where it needed to be 'wrung out', that is, Sean and myself had to mash slap and whack the couscous until the water which resided in air pockets was extruded. because the butter's structure depends on remaining at a cool temperature, handling the butter as much as it needed required that Sean and I soak our hands in the coldest water we could stand so as not to melt the butter as we shaped it.  we wrapped the butter in heavy paper in parcels weighing about 2 pounds each and called it quits. selling butter is another method of using raw milk that is not allowed, so it was packed into crates and taken back to the house.

it is also extremely interesting to note the nutritional panel on raw butter. most commercial butter, a solid fat, is churned and packed at a ratio of 75 - 80% fat and 20 -25% water. pastry chefs and bakers rank butter according its fat content. superior butter is any with a percentage of  85 - 95% fat. traditionally made butter however has a lower ratio of fat to water (roughly 65% fat to 35% water) because of the difficulty in manually extracting enough water to yield higher fat percentages. additionally, the fat profiles of butter made from raw, grass-fed, milk indicate high levels of conjugated linoleic acid (or CLA) a polyunsaturated Omega-6 (similar to those fats in fish oil). this amazing fat has an impressive resume, known to remove fat from the abdomen, raise metabolic rates,  boost muscle growth, reduce insulin resistance, strengthen the immune system and lower an individual's likelihood of developing food allergies!  To be clear, these health benefits can be derived from only those products made from raw, grass-fed milk. i've never seen or smelled such beautiful butter.

following buttermaking the calves were fed; they are slowly being weaned from their mothers and are just learning to eat communally at a large bucket fitted with pink nipples that radiate from a center vessel. the feeding bucket can accommodate roughly a dozen shy calves. that day was only the second time the calves had had a go at the communal feeder and i was interested to see if they would catch on.

 no problem.

the last part of the day involved bottling off a few gallons of milk to stock the farm stand and a taste test off the cooling tank's spigot.

 

we left the farm at one o'clock having spent a full day's work in the gray sleep of pre-dawn. coffee is taken at 'the half way mark,' and the rest of the chores are tended to following a meal and a nap in the deep grass.

Sean estimates that he and his two current interns work 60 - 100 hours a week with the higher number reflecting time spent haying. the stipend provided for an intern, who was given housing in a tent on the farm house lawn, was $100 a week. that's roughly $1.25 a hour for the duration of the warm months.

i shook his hand at the end of the afternoon, having another interview to attend, covered in calf slobber and cow manure. i had butter in my hair and under my fingernails, i had cream all over the front of my shirt, pig bristles in my boots, mosquito bites on my eyelids and a sunburn on my nose. i was happy and i was offered a job. i told him i'd take it under serious consideration.

*for more information or resources for obtaining raw milk where you live you can visit www.realmilk.com

**for more information about nutritional healing (where i got most of my information about the chemical make up of butter) you can visit http://www.westonaprice.org/
***for more information about Blue Hill Farm you can visit www.bluehillfarm.com