My first post here on 'Liana's Food and Herbal Cupboard. I also have a Pinterest board where I will be sharing recipes and what not herbal and food related. Here is the link: https://www.pinterest.com/liana1110/lianas-food-herbal-cupboard/ I post on two other blogs where I talk about crafts/DIY projects and farming each having separate blogs. Yep! I am crazy, but I figured if people are interested in one subject but not the other they can follow one or all three!
Let's get started! I have been working with herbs for over 25 years. I started out small making facial creams and eventually soaps, because I had adverse reactions and frustrations with my skin with store products. This all took a lot of time and space to create. Since herbal soaps have become more available I have went away from that direction and now just buy them. I love goat's milk soap!
What I did keep working on was my knowledge of herbs for health, cooking, healing, teas, and a combination of them all together. It is surprising what we use for spices or drinking beverages can also help keep us healthy or help in healing things not up to par. I do lots of cooking, I drink herbal teas, make ferments, make homemade tooth pastes, mouthwashes, etc.
I have a few herbs that grow in my garden and come back every year. I live in basically zone 3 so I do have my limitations. My perennial herbs are greek oregano, garlic and regular chives, lovage, tarragon, violets, purple cone flower, lemon balm, peppermint, and spearmint. I hope to expand that to others. Biennials like parsley and celery. Garlic is another herb I like to grow and cook with.
I plant a lot of annual herbs like calendula, chamomile, peppers (chili & paprika), basil, savory, dill, fennel, etc. I also grow many tender types like thyme, rosemary, lemon verbena, citronella, etc. I just keep them in my heated shop that reaches no higher than about 40 degrees and cross my fingers they survive the long winter cooped up.
I have been playing with ginger and turmeric root. I just have to keep my chickens out my pots. haha
I have been making yogurts for quit a while and lately I have been making ginger beer/ale and root beer. I am still working on the root beer recipe. The ginger beer/ale is not really a beer and nothing at all like the store stuff. It has bite and is really good we enjoy it.
I went away from more processed foods the norm we see in the grocery stores when I discovered it was possibly the reasons for me having asthma. I was taking all the medicines what a mess. I went to cooking with whole foods and from scratch literally. I have become a crock pot junky. It was easy to throw things together and then go to work. Since I worked off the farm plus all the chores I did on the farm. I had to figure out how to cook healthy and try to get things done. I have since retired from the working world so to speak and just run my farm. Eventually, I got off of my asthma medications. I did it gradually and always had the necessary inhalers around just in case.This was about 12-15 years ago. I have been asthma medication free since. :)
The real challenge is trying to find good highly nutritious foods and herbs locally or even online is sort of a hit and miss kind of thing. There is less in the grocery stores, but more available from farmers or other online 'stores'. We do a lot of online ordering. I still look locally for farmers or merchants who carry what we are looking for. I will pin those I know of on Pinterest.
Liana
