A Kitchen Pharmacy? Tell Me More!

I was at Moving on to the Past, and had just finished reading about Kathy's fabulous new chicken coop, when I spotted something in her blogroll that grabbed my attention, a post by Andrea at Frugally Sustainable called Creating a Kitchen Pharmacy.  This is right where my thoughts have been this past week, so naturally, I clicked on over.  Here's a snippet of what she said:

During these uncertain times – times of change – there are many individuals and families in search of an altogether different approach to treating minor illnesses and ailments.

For some, this is the next step in their natural-living lifestyle, for others it’s all about self-sufficiency, and concern over the rising cost of healthcare dominates the thoughts of others.

No matter what your motivation, the question remains – how can we achieve our goal?

I believe the answer to be in three parts:

1. We can add medicinal herbs and plants to our garden landscape.
2. We can learn the benefits of the plants that grow freely in our local and regional area.
3. We can create a kitchen pharmacy. 

I would have to say that for me, both of her reasons for "an altogether different approach to treating minor illnesses and ailments" apply.  I can't wait for the next article in the series!

One of the reasons why the timing of "Creating a Kitchen Pharmacy" is so perfect is that I finally got a dehydrator last week, so I'll be able to dry medicinal herbs in addition to food items.  While I have been busy experimenting with drying celery, carrots, and tomatoes, Emma has been researching, picking, and dehydrating dandelions.  I was vaguely aware of all their health benefits, but while I was processing my tomatoes, she read me an article about them that was just astonishing.  The plant seemed designed to meet so many of the common human health problems.  We should probably all be drinking a couple of cups of dandelion tea every day.  Learning about all the goodness in a simple dandelion was especially sweet because I had been worrying about Fiona getting enough minerals.  She has had really loose stools since she calved, and I read that it could be a copper deficiency.  When Emma read that dandelions are a good source of copper, I was able to relax and go with the diagnosis that a veteran cow man had suggested to me: It's most likely all the lush green grass she is eating right now, since we don't feed any her any grain.  Cows will eat what they need if it is available, and I have watched Fiona make her rounds every day to eat certain things around our place.  In addition to grass, she eats mulberry trees, clover, dollar weeds, blackberry vines, and various other plants that grow wild around here that I don't know the name of yet.  That's another thing, I just found out about Merriweather's Wild Plants of Texas this week.  He teaches classes at the Houston Arboretum on edible wild plants.  I'm hoping to be able to take one soon. 

I'm grateful to all the bloggers out there who enrich my life every day, practically and spiritually.  May God bless you all.  I will be remembering you in little prayers today as I practice dehydrating pineapples.