The Country Wisdom Thread

[Voodoolove]

As the granddaughter of a hippy herbalist, I love herbs and love the tons and tons of uses they have. I've listed some of the herbs I think many of us either have on hand, or could buy seeds to grow when SHTF.

Lavender- Internally- Lavender is a benefit for a ton of problems, including stress, anxiety, exhaustion, irritability, headaches, migraines, insomnia, depression, colds, digestion, gas, upset stomach, liver and gallbladder problems, nervousness, loss of appetite, and as a breath freshener and mouthwash.

Externally- Lavender oil is one of the safest essential oils and can be used full-strength on the skin. It can be applied directly for cuts, scrapes, wounds, burns, bee, wasp, and insect stings, rashes, muscle aches, rheumatism, arthritis, cold sores, canker sores, blisters, bruises, athlete's foot, and rubbed directly into the temples in case of headache or migraines

Dill- Stomach soother and anti-gas remedy. It's pretty mild so it makes a good remedy for colic in babies. It is also said to increase mother's milk and help treat breast congestion from nursing.

Basil- Another stomach soother great for cramps, vomiting, constipation and headaches.

Sage- The oils and tannins in Sage have astringent, antiseptic, and irritant properties. Which makes it great for mouth sores, mouth ulcers, and sore throats. For sore throats, mix a Sage tea with apple cider vinegar and salt for gargling. Sage is reported to have moisture-drying properties, and can be used as an antiperspirant as well.

Catnip- It's not just for kitties! It's great for it's calming and sedative effects, both in adults and in kids. It is said to relieve the symptoms of colic in children, and can be used as a digestive aid for adults. The fresher the tea the better since the oils break down quickly!

Thyme- Intestinal worms, gastrointestinal ailments, bronchial problems, laryngitis and diarrhea. It has antiseptic properties, and can be used as a mouthwash, skin cleanser, anti-fungal agent for athlete's foot and as an anti-parasitic for lice, scabies, and crabs. You can even mash the leaves into a pase to help inflammation and sores.

Mint- Mint is great for indigestion, stomach cramps, menstrual cramps, gas, upset stomach, nausea, vomiting, and colic in children. Mint also can be used as an appetite stimulant. It reduces hunger for a short time, but beware when the effects wear off the hunger returns even stronger than before. If your having loss of appetite make and drink mint tea 30min befor a meal to help stimulate hunger.

To make your own herbal oils and ointments, combine about 4 ounces of the fresh (or 2 ounces of dried) herb with 1 pint of olive or other pure vegetable oil. Heat gently, uncovered, for about one hour, ( Becareful that you don't brun your herbs!!!) For oil, strain, bottle, and cap tightly when cooled. For a thicker ointment, add 1 to 1-1/2 ounces of beeswax to the mixture as it heats. Let cool and bottle, the best bottles are amber in color or dark so light wont hit your oils.

Okay thats not all of them but I don't want to take over this thread with endless herb talk.

Ducktape can be used to get rid of a wart. Clean the area befor apply the ducktape, leave the ducktape on for a few days and the wart should go away. Just to let you know it don't work on everyone, but it's helped many of my friends.

[Greezybean]

If you go out at dawn and there is no dew on the grass then it'll rain later that day.

[ShovelBoy]

Common comfrey is a wonder plant.

The roots can be cut up and boiled into a paste which is excellent at healing wounds/ruptures/bone fractures. The leaves can be blanched in hot water and made into a poultice [though not as strong as the root.]

Comfrey root can be turned into a paste which can be made into a plaster cast. It contains steroidal allanoins which aid in cell growth and repair. Good for burns, cuts, broken bones. Heals the digestive tract rather well, too.

It's also edible. There has been some sham science about comfrey. In short, some maintain that it contains dangerous alkaloids. In truth, a cup of comfrey-leaf tea contains 100th of said alkaloids that a glass of beer does. In the link below, johnyb explains that there have only been 2 tests done on the toxicity of comfrey. In one of them, rats were injected with syringes chock-full of said alkaloids. One of the rats developed a benign tumour... Sounds scary.

But here's the thing. If you wanted to ingest that much of said alkaloid from comfrey leaves then you'd need to eat your body weight in comfrey leaves every day for a whole month. So we see the scare-tactics used by the FDA to divert people away from the wonderous herb.

[More in-depth analysis: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/loa ... 98259.html]

So make up your own mind. For my part, I've ordered comfrey seeds - make sure you buy organic and NOT the 'Bocking-14 variety'. They're tough as hell, and considered 'weeds'. They self-seed, and in a year will produce 1-2oz of seeds. Which is about 7000-14000 comfrey plants. That' a lot of bug-out food

They're medicinal, good food, and bloody hard to get rid of. In the USA, they're classified as being more toxic than arsenic But comfrey's been used for medicinal purposes for a hell of a long time. The 'toxicity tests' were a sham. Judge for yourself, but so long as you're not allergic, should be ok. I heard of one fella with chronic back pain who ate 1/4 - 1/2lb of comfrey root a day. A month later, his back was completely healed.

[EndOfTheRoad]

+1 on the comfrey

We try to harvest local herbs when they come along. Remember to harvest while they are available because they may not be there when you need them. Adding to this discussion, we recently made a great batch of Mullein to fight my father-in-law's bad emphysema. There are some great recipes for these concoctions that when taken daily improve your lung health tremendously. We also gave some to a kid with a respiratory alergy.

Mullein are the big yellow flower spears that can get over 4 foot high. They are very stalky but have large hairy leaves at the base of the plant. The leaves and flower stems contain the ingredients used in the respiratory remedies.

Nice thread.

[ShovelBoy]

Lots of mention about honey here. Don't get me wrong, I love the stuff. Have even bought some bee propolis. But... In a PAW, don't hurt the bees, or steal their honey. There's only 1/20th of the bee population that existed 20-30 years ago, and bees are essential for plant-life [cross-pollination etc]. You might think that a beehive is an easy meal. But if the bee population goes, there's gonna be a hell of a lot less food in the long term.

Watch out for the bees!

[azrael99]

there is some stuff you can do with vinegar (i found that on another forum but anyway)

1. Arthritis tonic and treatment; 2 spoonfuls of apple cider vinegar and honey in a
glass of water several times daily.
2. Thirst-quenching drink: apple cider vinegar mixed with cold water.
3. Sagging cane chairs: sponge them with a hot solution of half vinegar and half
water. Place the chairs out in the hot sun to dry.
4. Skin burns: apply ice cold vinegar right away for fast relief. Will prevent burn
blisters.
5. Add a spoonful of vinegar to cooking water to make cauliflower white and clean.
6. Storing cheese: keep it fresh longer by wrapping it in a vinegar-soaked cloth and
keeping it in a sealed container.
7. Remove stains from stainless steel and chrome with a vinegar-dampened cloth.
8. Rinse glasses and dishes in water and vinegar to remove spots and film.
9. Prevent grease build-up in your oven by frequently wiping it with vinegar.
10. Wipe jars of preserves and canned food with vinegar to prevent moldproducing
bacteria.
11. To eliminate mildew, dust and odors, wipe down walls with vinegar-soaked
cloth.
12. Clean windows with vinegar and water.
13. Hardened paint brushes: simmer in boiling vinegar and wash in hot soapy
water.
14. Clean breadbox and food containers with vinegar-dampened cloth to keep
fresh-smelling and clean.
15. Pour boiling vinegar down drains to unclog and clean them.
16. Clean fireplace bricks with undiluted vinegar.
17. An excellent all-purpose cleaner: vinegar mixed with salt. Cleans copper,
bronze, brass, dishes, pots, pans, skillets, glasses, windows. Rinse well.
18. Make your catsup and other condiments last long by adding vinegar.
19. To clear up respiratory congestion, inhale a vapor mist from steaming pot
containing water and several spoonfuls of vinegar.
20. Apple cider vinegar and honey as a cure-all: use to prevent apathy, obesity,
hay fever, asthma, rashes, food poisoning, heartburn, sore throat, bad eyesight,
dandruff, brittle nails and bad breath.
21. When boiling eggs, add some vinegar to the water to prevent white from
leaking out of a cracked egg.
22. When poaching eggs, add a teaspoon of vinegar to the water to prevent
separation.
23. Weight loss: vinegar helps prevent fat from accumulating in the body.
24. Canned fish and shrimp: to give it a freshly caught taste, soak in a mixture of
sherry and 2 tablespoons of vinegar.
25. Add a spoonful of vinegar when cooking fruit to improve the flavor.
26. Soak fish in vinegar and water before cooking for a tender, sweeter taste.
27. Add vinegar to boiling ham to improve flavor and cut salty taste.
28. Improve the flavor of desserts by adding a touch of vinegar.
29. Add vinegar to your deep fryer to eliminate a greasy taste.
30. Add a tablespoon of vinegar to fruit gelatin to hold it firm.
31. Steep your favorite herb in vinegar until you have a pleasing taste and aroma.
32. Use vinegar instead of lemon on fried and broiled foods.
33. To remove lime coating on your tea kettle; add vinegar to the water and let
stand overnight.
34. To make a good liniment: beat 1 whole egg, add 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup
turpentine. Blend.
35. Apply vinegar to chapped, cracked skin for quick healing.
36. Vinegar promotes skin health: rub on tired, sore or swollen areas.
37. Reduce mineral deposits in pipes, radiators, kettles and tanks by adding
vinegar into the system.

38. Rub vinegar on the cut end of uncooked ham to prevent mold.
39. Clean jars with vinegar and water to remove odor.
40. Avoid cabbage odor by adding vinegar to the cooking water.
41. Skunk odor: remove from pets by rubbing fur with vinegar.
42. Paint adheres better to galvanized metal that has been wiped with vinegar.
43. Pets' drinking water: add vinegar to eliminate odor and encourage shiny fur.
44. For fluffy meringue: beat 3 egg whites with a teaspoon of vinegar.
45. Pie crust: add 1 tablespoon vinegar to your pastry recipe for an exceptional
crust.
46. Half a teaspoon per quart of patching plaster allows you more time to work the
plaster before it hardens.
47. Prevent discoloration of peeled potatoes by adding a few drops of vinegar to
water. They will keep fresh for days in fridge.
48. Poultry water: add vinegar to increase egg production and to produce tender
meat.
49. Preserve peppers: put freshly picked peppers in a sterilized jar and finish filling
with boiling vinegar.
50. Olives and pimentos will keep indefinitely if covered with vinegar and
refrigerated.
51. Add 1 tsp. vinegar to cooking water for fluffier rice.
52. Add vinegar to laundry rinse water: removes all soap and prevents yellowing.
53. After shampoo hair rinse: 1 ounce apple cider vinegar in 1 quart of distilled
water.
54. For a shiny crust on homemade bread and rolls: just before they have finished
baking, take them out, brush crusts with vinegar, return to oven to finish baking.
55. Homemade sour cream: blend together 1 cup cottage cheese, 1/4 cup skim
milk and 1 tsp. vinegar.
56. Boil vinegar and water in pots to remove stains.
57. Remove berry stains from hands with vinegar.

58. Prevent sugaring by mixing a drop of vinegar in the cake icing.
59. Cold vinegar relieves sunburn.
60. When boiling meat, add a spoonful of vinegar to the water to make it more
tender.
61. Marinate tough meat in vinegar overnight to tenderize.
62. A strength tonic: combine raw eggs, vinegar and black pepper. Blend well.

[BrowncoatCaptain]

Cast Iron and other pots to be used over a fire: MAke a paste of washing powder (detergent powder) and water. Smear over the outside of the pot. THe soot from the fire can be merely washed off with the dried soap and you won't transfer that black soot to your pack, car, kitchen, etc.

Not all leaves are suitable for mulch pits: Acacia,walnut, eucalyptus, California bay, juniper, camphor, cypress, and pittosporum leaves give off chemicals toxic to plants as they decompose. Oak leaves decompose very slowly.

To prevent excess wear on your tires, never turn the steering wheel while the car or truck is standing still.

When starting a nail in wood, hold it between your first two fingers (not the first finger and thumb) with your palm up. If you miss and strike your fingers, it's on the fat, fleshy part, not the nail. Hurts wicked less.

Rub a handsaw blade with a bar of soap to reduce friction.

All I have for now...

Gabriel

[wee drop o' bush]

^^^Browncoat they're all great ideas, I particularly like the first one

[lailr]

Yellow Root cures about everything

Chewing Ginseng is a HUGE pick me up... as paw-paw said, it'll put lead in your pencil

Touch-me-not, or Jewelweed counteracts poison ivy

If you kill a rattlesnake, leave it out, and it's mate will come lay out next to it

putting out mothballs will keep snakes out

[angelofwar]

Sulfur, when/if you can get it, will also keep snakes out...it burns there belly's, so I've heard.

[Roak]

A couple from my grandfather.

A lazy man does more work.

Never buy with credit. If you can't afford it you probably don't need it.

[ShovelBoy]

Awww

If you kill a rattlesnake, leave it out, and it's mate will come lay out next to it

[lailr]

Awww

If you kill a rattlesnake, leave it out, and it's mate will come lay out next to it

It's the truth though...I saw him do it once....he went out and killed it too

[jethroUSMC]

just heard this one yesterday, cannot verify it from personal experience. I DO trust the person who told me (he's the one who told me about the tobacco trick), and he says he witnessed it first hand. Anyway, Jellyfish Stings- douse with vinegar immediately, and the pain is washed away with the vinegar. I'm not much for spending time on the shore, and honestly, I would have NEVER thought of this one on my own, but it's a pretty cool trick, and cheap to prep for.

Baking soda works, and you won't smell all funky.

[KnightoftheRoc]

just heard this one yesterday, cannot verify it from personal experience. I DO trust the person who told me (he's the one who told me about the tobacco trick), and he says he witnessed it first hand. Anyway, Jellyfish Stings- douse with vinegar immediately, and the pain is washed away with the vinegar. I'm not much for spending time on the shore, and honestly, I would have NEVER thought of this one on my own, but it's a pretty cool trick, and cheap to prep for.

Baking soda works, and you won't smell all funky.

I shall pass that along- he goes to the Jersey shore, and it could come in handy.

[ShovelBoy]

This isn't country wisdom as such, but I figure it's pretty handy to know.

Cancer can only exist in an acid environment - Max Planck won a Nobel Prize for finding that out in 1913 [or it could have been 1917.] Anyway, a teaspoon or two of food-grade baking soda and a tablespoon of raw honey/maple syrup/molasses taken thrice daily can be pretty deadly to cancerous tumours. Mix em up in a pan on a gentle heat and down the hatch... Cancers munch on sugar and these types are instantly available forms of such, so the tumour eats em pronto and takes the baking soda with it. The raw/healthy sugars are the Trojan Horse, the baking soda Greek soldiers who unboard and wreak havoc on the lil bastard. Some scientists say that no bacteriological pathogen - and thus disease - can exist in an alkaline environment. Alkaline-forming foods are - to put it simply - raw foods, foods which live. Food as it's supposed to be, sprouts most of all. Acid-forming foods are the typical Western junk - processed flour, sugar, coffee, sodas, tobacco, alcohol.

I'm working on re-alkalising my body [sprouts, cilantro, herbal teas basically.] I've read stories of people who've done re-alkalising diets and they say they're great. Even better - They're amazing for your teeth/bones. Your teeth and bones are always re-mineralising themselves, but acid-forming foods - white flour acts almost exactly the same way as sugar in the body - prevent the healing from becoming tangible - It's more the re-mineralising playing catch-up. However, do away with the acid-forming foods and teeth regrow, just so long as the nerve's intact.

There's something called 'homeostasis' in the body - It's where the body leeches nutrients from certain parts in order to transfer them to others. Calcium from teeth/bone is a classic example... Think of it like a hole in a dam - The body pulls a few bricks out to help plug a hole somewhere else. An alkaline diet will basically build new bricks for the body to use.

In order to support the above:

One woman switched to an alkaline diet. A year later, her teeth were in fantastic condition and she had no joint pain. Her fillings fell out because he teeth had completely regrown.

A young lad with two dentists for parents had a huge cavity in a molar. He took 2 slices of toast with raw butter/honey every day, and his mum got him to take a teaspoon of fermented cod liver oil and 3 capsules of butter oil a day. A few months later, the tooth had completely regrown.

Even if that sounds like madness, sprouts are still hella good. Maybe I'm preaching to the choir, but they've got 20x as many vitamins and minerals than the unsprouted version of the seed/bean/nut.

In an aside, I think most poisons are acid-based or acid-forming... So baking soda should go some way towards dispensing them if applied internally/externally. Dunno how much you'd need.

One way of treating ENVENOMED snake-bites - don't ask me how to tell if poison was injected or no - is an electric shock to the area affected. With a certain voltage [not too much], the shock will break down the proteins which constitute the poison and make it metabolisable by the body. This can be administered by tazer or hooking up some clips from a car battery/bike to the affected area and running the motor in short bursts. One girl in India got bitten by a cobra, an Indian with a motorbike did the above and she was fine in 15 minutes. Only use if there is no chance of medical attention and the bit person doesn't have a pace-maker or dodgy ticker.

SB

just heard this one yesterday, cannot verify it from personal experience. I DO trust the person who told me (he's the one who told me about the tobacco trick), and he says he witnessed it first hand. Anyway, Jellyfish Stings- douse with vinegar immediately, and the pain is washed away with the vinegar. I'm not much for spending time on the shore, and honestly, I would have NEVER thought of this one on my own, but it's a pretty cool trick, and cheap to prep for.

Baking soda works, and you won't smell all funky.

[oldspicehero]

Tagged for all of the useful information within this thread. Glad i stumbled across it.

[crypto]

This isn't country wisdom as such, but I figure it's pretty handy to know.

Cancer can only exist in an acid environment - Max Planck won a Nobel Prize for finding that out in 1913 [or it could have been 1917.] [citation needed]Anyway, a teaspoon or two of food-grade baking soda and a tablespoon of raw honey/maple syrup/molasses taken thrice daily can be pretty deadly to cancerous tumours. [citation needed] Mix em up in a pan on a gentle heat and down the hatch... Cancers munch on sugar and these types are instantly available forms of such, so the tumour eats em pronto and takes the baking soda with it.[citation needed] The raw/healthy sugars are the Trojan Horse, the baking soda Greek soldiers who unboard and wreak havoc on the lil bastard.[citation needed] Some scientists say[citation needed] that no bacteriological pathogen - and thus disease - can exist in an alkaline environment.[citation needed] Alkaline-forming foods are - to put it simply - raw foods, foods which live. Food as it's supposed to be, sprouts most of all.[citation needed] Acid-forming foods are the typical Western junk - processed flour, sugar, coffee, sodas, tobacco, alcohol. [citation needed]

I'm working on re-alkalising my body [sprouts, cilantro, herbal teas basically.] I've read stories of people who've done re-alkalising diets and they say they're great.[original research] Even better - They're amazing for your teeth/bones. Your teeth and bones are always re-mineralising themselves, but acid-forming foods - white flour acts almost exactly the same way as sugar in the body - prevent the healing from becoming tangible[citation needed] - It's more the re-mineralising playing catch-up. However, do away with the acid-forming foods and teeth regrow[citation needed], just so long as the nerve's intact.

There's something called 'homeostasis' in the body - It's where the body leeches nutrients from certain parts in order to transfer them to others. Calcium from teeth/bone is a classic example... Think of it like a hole in a dam - The body pulls a few bricks out to help plug a hole somewhere else. An alkaline diet will basically build new bricks for the body to use.[citation needed]

In order to support the above:

One woman switched to an alkaline diet. A year later, her teeth were in fantastic condition and she had no joint pain.[citation needed] Her fillings fell out because he teeth had completely regrown.[citation needed]

A young lad with two dentists for parents had a huge cavity in a molar. He took 2 slices of toast with raw butter/honey every day, and his mum got him to take a teaspoon of fermented cod liver oil and 3 capsules of butter oil a day. A few months later, the tooth had completely regrown.[citation needed]

Even if that sounds like madness, sprouts are still hella good. Maybe I'm preaching to the choir, but they've got 20x as many vitamins and minerals than the unsprouted version of the seed/bean/nut.[citation needed]

In an aside, I think most poisons are acid-based or acid-forming... So baking soda should go some way towards dispensing them if applied internally/externally.[citation needed] Dunno how much you'd need.

However! The best way of treating snake-bites is an electric shock to the area affected.[citation needed] With a certain voltage [not too much], the shock will break down the proteins which constitute the poison and make it metabolisable by the body.[citation needed] This can be administered by tazer[citation needed] or hooking up some clips from a car battery/bike to the affected area and running the motor in short bursts[citation needed]. One girl in India got bitten by a cobra[citation needed], an Indian with a motorbike did the above and she was fine in 15 minutes.[citation needed]

SB

just heard this one yesterday, cannot verify it from personal experience. I DO trust the person who told me (he's the one who told me about the tobacco trick), and he says he witnessed it first hand. Anyway, Jellyfish Stings- douse with vinegar immediately, and the pain is washed away with the vinegar. I'm not much for spending time on the shore, and honestly, I would have NEVER thought of this one on my own, but it's a pretty cool trick, and cheap to prep for.

Baking soda works, and you won't smell all funky[citation needed].

This is the biggest load of crap I've read this year.

[Ricerageous]

This is the biggest load of crap I've read this year.

Luckily we've got baking soda to help counter that.

[whisk.e.rebellion]

Cancer can only exist in an acid environment - Max Planck won a Nobel Prize for finding that out in 1913 [or it could have been 1917.]

Planck won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918 for his work on Quantum Theory.

Since your lame attempt at a citation of your bullshit is completely wrong, I'm going to ignore your statements and advise you to follow Rule 33 of the Internet: "Lurk More -- It's never enough."

[crypto]

Also, most organic poisons (and medicines since the difference between the two is usually merely dosage) are alkaline in nature, which is why they taste bitter, and are buffered with acids for storage and delivery.

[Doctorr Fabulous]

Also, most organic poisons (and medicines since the difference between the two is usually merely dosage) are alkaline in nature, which is why they taste bitter, and are buffered with acids for storage and delivery.CITATION REQUIRED

I am an equal opportunity hater.

[crypto]

Also, most organic poisons (and medicines since the difference between the two is usually merely dosage) are alkaline in nature, which is why they taste bitter, and are buffered with acids for storage and delivery.CITATION REQUIRED

I am an equal opportunity hater.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaloid


Dont hate, appreciate.

[Regular Guy]

If I'm bitten by a poisonous snake and any one of you taze me I'm going to be pissed.
OT: don't mess around with Jim. Always carry a lighter where lawful.