Issue 58                                                                                              September 2009

Oh, isn’t this wonderful that the spring is finally here!! Interest and enthusiasm for the gardens returns and we all get outside to see what we can do! Here in Muldersdrift we are busy redoing gardens and there will be lots of new things to see.  At the moment the plants are still small and a bit ‘lost’ in their new spots, but in a month or two they will be looking as if they have been there forever.  Spring always brings lots of talks and workshops, as you can see in the ‘what’s on’ page at the back of this newsletter.

On 17 October there is the last workshop of the year on earthworms.  If you have never attended a talk on earthworm composting, you should really make a huge effort to go.  It is well worth the R100, and in October Johann from ZZ2 (the tomato people) will be speaking as well as Ken’s earthworm presentation

Have a fantastic  month in your gardens,

 
Sharon
   

Herb of the Month

Comfrey

Symphytum officinale

The name comes from the Latin ‘confirmare’, to unite, and it has been used for centuries to heal broken bones and wounds.  Early Greeks discovered that boiling the root with water made a sticky paste that could be applied to the limb.  When it dried it formed a hard plaster cast which kept the broken bone straight whilst at the same time the comfrey knit the bone together, hence the common names of Knit Bone and Bone Set.  By the 1500s the herb was also prescribed as a tea to be taken internally for broken bones, digestive and respiratory problems.   Its reputation for healing wounds and skin was so great that it was also added to bathwater of young brides to restore virginity.

Anybody who gardens organically knows what an excellent fertilizer comfrey is. As well as being rich in nitrogen, phosphate, potash, iron and manganese, it has long roots which go deep into the ground, bringing minerals up to the surface.  It has been used to restore paddocks and even old tennis courts to an arable condition.

Cultivation: Comfrey will grow in most soils and although it prefers some shade, it will grow in full sun. It does not need excessive water, but if it is watered regularly it will thrive and have large lush leaves. Propagate from stem cuttings or seed.  The seed take up to 8 weeks to germinate. The plants have a 20 year life span and can become invasive.

Harvesting: You should be able to harvest from a healthy comfrey plant four times during its growing season. The leaves are hairy and can cause a rash, so use gloves if you are sensitive.
   
Dry the leaves flat in a warm place.  Comfrey is one of the few herbs that can be dried in the sun.

Home and garden: An excellent fertilizer. Chop the leaves and place around the base of plants or make a liquid manure and use when watering.  It is good for plants in pots.

Body and bath: It softens, heals and improves texture of the skin.

Culinary: It used to be eaten as a green vegetable, but due to the cancer causing properties, this is no longer encouraged.  It is still used as cattle fodder.

Medicinal:  The allantoin in comfrey encourages cell regeneration, making it useful for broken bones, cartilage and muscle damage, arthritis, varicose veins, haemorrhoids and cuts and abrasions. Infused oil, poultices, creams and ointments can be used to treat these ailments.

If a bone is broken, such as a toe or finger, the leaves are wilted in hot water and then wrapped around the broken digit.  An infusion is also taken twice a day until the bone has healed. Comfrey should not be taken internally over long periods of time due to its carcinogenic effects on the liver.  The leaf is considered to be a lot safer than the root, if you do take it internally.

Cautions: Excessive internal use, especially of the root, can cause liver damage and liver cancer.  External use is safe.

Only apply to shallow, clean wounds as comfrey heals so quickly and can heal the outside of the wound before the inside, which can cause an abscess.

Indigenous Page

Uit Letitia se tuin :

‘n Groot onverskoning vir die nuusbrief wat hierdie maand so laat is!! Ek was in Mabula en het gedink dat met moderne tegnologie sal ek my werk vandaar kan doen.  Heeltemal vergeet van gremlins en goeters wat gebeur in die bos. Volop in Mabula is die Vaalboom , ‘n besprekingspunt vir die gidse wanneer die diere hulle skaars hou.  Wat nou meer gepas as om dit ons inheemse plant van die maand te maak.  Volgende maand is ek weer in die bos (‘n voëltoer in Botswana), ek sal hierdie keer my artikel voor die tyd aan Sharon stuur.  Die somer is so vinnig hier, ek wag nog vir ‘n lente. My tuin en liggaam is heeltemal onkant gevang – vir julle wat ook nog winter (weet-nie-meer-hoe-hulle-lyk-nie,altyd-in-sokkies) voete het, ‘n paar vinnige resepte om weer met oop skoene in die openbaar te kan verskyn.  As ‘n refleksoloog & holistiese terapeut is voete baie na aan my hart, ‘n mens kan NOOIT te veel aandag aan hulle gee nie.  My tuin het ongelukkig nie vinnige oplossings nie, net harde werk.  Elke oomblik daarvan wonderlik, is dit nie heerlik om weer buite te wees en die son op jou vel en die grond tussen jou fingers te voel nie?

 Letitia

letitia@barefootherbs.co.za

 082 451 9876

Silver Cluster-Leaf

Terminalis sericea

Family:  Combretaceae – Bushwillow family

Can grow up to 5 – 8 meters, but individual trees may become as tall as 16 meters.  The inconspicuous flowers are cream-coloured to yellow, with an unpleasant smell.

Also known as:  vaalboom,silwerboom, bloubos (Arikaans), mangwe (Ndebele), mogonono (Tswana), amangwe (Zulu)

What is in a name:  The young leaves have silver hairs, giving the tree a silver shine.  Sericea derived from the Latin “sericus” meaning “silky” referring to these silver hairs on the leaves.  Terminalia from the Latin “terminalis” meaning “end” referring to the dense grouping of the leaves at the ends of twigs.

Cultivation:  Prefer a light sunny position and can tolerate some frost. It regenerates readily from seeds.  Prefers deep, well-drained, sandy soils.  It is adaptable to drought.

Medicinal use:  The leaves are used for treating stomach disorders and diarrhoea.  Cooked in water it can be used for coughs.  Externally the leaves can be cooked and placed on a bleeding wound until it comes of by itself.  The bark is grounded and mixed with mealie meal and eaten against diabetes.  The roots is used to treat wounds, bilharzias, colic, pneumonia, and diarrhoea.  Roots are soaked in cold water for a hour and used as a eye lotion.  The roots yield anolignan B as the main active compound.  In anti-bacterial test it showed activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, this isolated compound (anolignan B) was also tested for anti-inflammatory activity.

Traditional use:  The Tswana potters used the silvery hairs for glazing their products.  The leaves yield a blue dye when crushed and soaked.  In Botswana the Basarwa (Bushmen) use the strong and elastic young branches for contriving snares.  Powdered roots are used with the  black –and-yellow Blister beetle (Mylabris beetles) for the treatment of bilharzias (schistosomiasis).  The Vhavenda used roots for diarrhoea, infertility and venereal diseases.  In Tanzania the roots were used for schistosomiasis.   A ailment known as “amanxebha” is treated by the Zulu using the roots.

Mythology:  Some tribes in Botswana believes that by cutting the tree while crops are still growing, it will hail.  During harvesting a stick is stuck into the floor of the shrine used to worship ancestral spirits.

Other uses:  The wood is resistant to termites and borers, therefore widely used as fencing material.  The wood is used to manufacture tool-handels, also used for firewood as it makes a good charcoal.  Due to the straight growth-form of the young plants, it is used in the Okavango Delta for the making of mokoro poles.  The bark can be used as a rope.  The bark is pulverised and mixed with a little water and used for tanning.  The tree can planted for erosion control, to enrich impoverished soils and to improve sites by draining waterlogged soils.

Although the nutritional value is low, dried leaves are eaten by cattle, wildebeest, and other browsers, leaves and young shoots by elephant, giraffe, kudu and impala, twigs by elephant and giraffe.

Caution:  The roots are reputed to be poisonous.

Better a bare foote then none.

(Better a barefoot than none)

George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum

RECIPE PAGE

Foot Pack – use overnight

125 ml almonds

(Gentle nourishing exfoliater)

125 ml oatmeal

(hypo-allergenic)

45 ml cocoa butter

(Nourish and moisturiser)

30 ml honey

(anti-bacterial)

First ground almonds and then the oatmeal

Combine all ingredients and mix well

Apply to clean feet, put socks on and leave overnight.

Herbal foot soak

30 ml groanded oats

30 ml grounded almonds

60 ml lavender flowers

60 ml flowers

20 ml rosemary

Use this in 2 litres of warm water and soak your feet for 20 minutes

“My feet have felt the toil of years on hard kitchen floors, and when one meets another cook one exchanges more foot balm panaceas than recipes.”

Clarissa Dickson Wright, “Food” (1999)

Cooling mint foot cream
2tsp cocoa butter
2tsp beeswax
2tbsp grapeseed oil
1tbsp apricot kernel oil
2tbsp infusion of mint (spearmint is especially good), warmed
10 drops peppermint essential oil

Heat the cocoa butter, beeswax, grape-seed oil and apricot oil in a Double boiler until melted
Remove from heat drop by drop, add the mint infusion to the melted waxes and oil, stirring all the time until cool and thickened.
Add the peppermint essential oil, stir and store in a glass jar.

Foot Scrub

1/4 Cup ground oatmeal
1/4 Cup Mielie meal
1 tbsp. salt
2 drops peppermint or lemon essential oil
water to mix
Combine dry ingredients with enough water to make a creamy gritty consistency.
Stir in the essential oils.
Spend a few minutes massages the scrub into the feet, then rinse and dry the feet thoroughly.

Massage oil for feet

¼ cup chopped sage leaves

(stop perspiration and fight infection)

¼ cup calendula petals

(soothes irritated skin)

3 tbsp chopped spearmint leaves

(increase circulation, relieves tired feet)

250 ml olive oil

30 ml beeswax

Infuse the herbs in the oil for 1 week, strain.

Warm oil and add beeswax

Stir until blended.

Invigorating foot soak

125 ml each of dried peppermint, rosemary, thyme

45 ml ground mustard

15 ml cayenne pepper

500 ml Epson salt

125 ml sea salt

Mix al the ingredients together.

Use 60 ml in warm water and soak feet.

The Last Page

Courses and Workshops

September and October 2009

Venue :  Barefoot Herbs Muldersdrift

Contact – Sharon  082 415 3743

26 Sept
   

Module 9 Herbal gifts

14 Oct
   

Randburg Horticultural Club

(Talk) Herbs and their uses, herb garden walk

17 Oct
   

Organic gardening, harvesting & preservation

24 Oct
   

Module 10 Herbs for household cleaning and pets

21 Nov
   

Bath and skin products

Sharon – Other Venues

9 Sept
   

Ngwenya Glass Village – Muldersdrift

Practical use of crystals for beginners

3 Oct
   

Mystical Cat, Edenvale

Introduction to herbs and their uses

19 Sept
   
Pot Pourri Garden Club, Krugersdorp

(Talk) Common herbs and how to use them

14 Nov
   

Germiston Garden Club

(Talk) Common herbs and how to use them

Venue:  Barefoot Herbs – Meyerton

Contact – Letitia  082 451 9876

13 Sept
   

Thai Cooking with locally available herbs – R200

26 Sept
   

Plant sales at Kliphouse Market, Henley-on-Klip

17 Oct
   

Workshop – Feet – Creams, Lotions & Potions

24 Oct
   

Workshop – Detox the herbal way

31 Oct
   
Plant sales at Kliphouse Market, Henley-on-Kli

The following workshops are available on request

for groups of 5 or more:

Liqueur making, organic gardening, bath and skin products, herb and spice mixes for culinary use,

herbal first aid box, herbal products for babies and toddlers, herbal remedies for common ailments, green cleaning for the home.

Courses and workshops cost R300,

which includes all materials,

a recipe booklet and refreshments.

Disclaimer

Herbal remedies should be treated with the same care and precautions as all other forms of medication.  An illness should be taken seriously and self-medication used only with the confidence that comes with professional advice.  While herbal medicines are safe and effective when used appropriately, the author cannot accept liability for any consequence
   

Contact Us :

Sharon

sharon@barefootherbs.co.za

Tel 011 957 2413     Cell: 082 415 3743

Letitia

letitia@barefootherbs.co.za

Tel: 016 362 0754    Cell: 082 451 9876

Visit our Website

www.barefootherbs.co.za and see photos, past newsletters, products and recipes

EIGSA Workshop

Date and time:  08.30—12.30 on Saturday, 17 October

Venue: Ditton’s Farm, 53 College Rd, Rietfontein (off Beyers Naude, near Random Harvest Nursery.)

Guest speaker:  Johann Noffke, Production Manager, ZZ2 Farms

Theme: Growing vegetables and herbs the natural way

Cost:  Adults R100 each,  Schoolchildren under 12 and Senior citizens: R50 each.

Bookings and enquiries: Advance booking is essential.  Entrants limited to 100.

Contact Allison at 083 791 1198 or by email at Allison@earthwormbuddies.co.za