Basil Benefits

Basil is one of my favorite herbs and I hope to have a good supply of it this summer. Enough to be able to distill, make pesto, and eat fresh with garden tomatoes and mozzarella. I sometimes don’t do well getting basil started from seed because I don’t water enough. I’ve been more successful at this by putting seeds in a large pot, watering and covering that pot with plastic wrap. This helps keep the moisture in and the seed soon sprouts. This year I have dug a small ditch, filled that ditch with horse manure, planted seed there. I covered that with a small plastic covered hoop until the weather warms up. I am hoping that this will allow me some early basil before I start my larger garden.

While I was researching basil (Ocimum) for an Herb Companion article I came across some interesting information on this aromatic herb.

1. Basil has been found to attenuate the stress response to excess noise in rats. This ability to help the body respond to stress is probably due to the wide variety of antioxidants found in basil which inclde flavonoids, phenols and carotenoids.

2. Human hair as well as sheep hair (wool) can fertilize basil increasing its growth. Next time you get a hair cut, work a little of the hair into your soil. Hair is a protein and so it is high in nitrogen. I’m wondering if my horse’s hair will also be beneficial.

3. Basil protects against harmful effects of ionizing radiation. This may provide protection to healthy, non-cancerous cells during radiation treatment for cancer or protect your skin from the sun.

4. Basil can help normalize blood glucose levels and thus prevent insulin resistance for borderline diabetics. Eat basil with high protein mozzarella cheese and whole grain bread and that’s even better for diabetics.

5. The shelf life of high protein food such as tofu can be extended with basil. This study was done in India where refrigeration is not as common in rural areas.

6. Basil contains antioxidants that can protect against damage to DNA resulting in mutations. It also protects against oxidative stress from a variety of sources. This important benefit protects us from free radicals that arise from environmental sources as well as within our own body. In this way it acts as an ‘adaptogenic’ herb.

7. Basil can help the skin in wound healing and may prevent formation of scars. Go ahead, rub it on!

8. Basil is anti-inflammatory agent and can decrease heat and swelling of an injured area making it a potential treatment for arthritis.

9. Basil has potential applications to lower blood pressure.

10. Basil is both antibacterial and anti-parasitic having action against Staph aureus and Giardia. It may also be active against mosquitoes.

11. Basil can inhibit growth of breast cancer cells in the lab and thus may provide anticancer activity in the diet. Is that enough reason to plant extra basil?

St. Pat's Day and mint syrup

We woke up to a few inches of snow on St. Patrick’s Day today. It should be just what those dormant plants need to get started though. We’ve just desodded a small area for our vegetable garden so as soon as this snow melts I will be planting my peas and lettuce.

A few weeks ago I bought a small mint plant from my local nursery so that I could have something green in the house. Now it’s grown to a usable size. Last night we made a mint syrup by first mixing a simple syrup (2 parts sugar, 1 part water) and put about a tablespoon of fresh chopped mint leaves into the syrup after it boiled; leaving them there while it cooled. This made a very nice syrup to use in a drink. We mixed about one part syrup with 3 parts soda water and lots of ice. Its also good with a squirt of lemon juice. This is our St. Patricks Day drink this year; well at least for the morning because I am sure we will have some Irish whiskey come evening!

In honor of St. Patrick’s day here is one of my favorite blessings:

Deep peace of the running waves to you.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the smiling stars to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the watching shepherds to you.

Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you.

Old Irish Prayer

May Saints. Brighid, Brendan and Patrick guide you on your way.

New Bacteria Found in Toiletries

If you are a small (or large) producer of skin care or toiletries products here are examples of why it is important to test cosmetic samples for the presence of bacteria and fungus.

Researchers in Japan recently identified a new species of bacteria that was isolated from hairspray. The new bacteria is named Microbacterium hatanonis. This bacteria is related to another bacterium, Microbacterium oxydans previously isolated from hospital material. Scientists do not have enough information to know if this new bacteria species is pathogenic, but similar bacteria have not been found to infect humans. It is however a gram-positive, rod shaped bacterium. The original research was published this month in the International Journal of Systemic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080307110337.htm

Another more serious case of a contaminated cosmetic product occurred in 2006 in the intensive care unit of a Barcelona hospital. Five patients there developed infections of Burkholderia cepacia that were traced to a moisturizing lotion used in patient care. In this case the infections ranged from bacteremia, lower respiratory tract infection and urinary tract infection. Infections of this type can be life threatening for severely ill patients.
http://www.newsmax.com/health/cosmetics_fatal_ill/2008/01/31/68943.html

It is not common for cosmetics to be contaminated with bacteria or fungus but it does happen. This contamination at times can be a threat to human health as well as damage the product integrity. Microbes can be introduced into a product during manufacturing from the air or equipment that comes in contact with the product, it can be present in one of the ingredients of the product, or it can be introduced into the product by the consumer. Preservatives used in a product should be able to inhibit bacteria or fungus that do occur naturally in a product as well as those introduced by the consumer.

In 1989 the FDA randomly tested department store cosmetics products and found that over 5% were seriously contaminated with a variety of microorganisms. Don’t let your product be one of them. Sagescript Institute offers microbiology testing.

Spring Kick Off & Herb Talk

Are you wondering what herbs to plant this year? I will be talking at Echter’s Garden Center and Greenhouse this Saturday from 10:30-11:00 on growing and using herbs. Echter’s will kick off spring with their annual Echxpo on March 7, 8, & 9. There will be continuous talks given by plant and gardening experts Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Representatives from a variety of gardening and plant companies as well as special interest groups including the Herb Society of America will also be on hand to answer questions.

My talk is entitled “Making the Most of Herbs”. I will focus on some common herbs and introduce you to a variety of uses for them including culinary, skin care, medicinal and crafting. I will include information on Calendula, herb of the year as well as chamomile, oregano, thyme and more. After attending Echxpo you will be ready to get your hands dirty! It may be too early to plant, but its never too early to plan.

Echter’s is located at 52nd and Garrison in Arvada, Colorado. For more information visit http://www.echters.com/.

Doomsday Vault Opens

In the far northern reaches of the Norwegian arctic in an area called Svalbard the world is entrusting the preservation of stock seeds of its major food crops. If you’ve ever wondered how the world might recover from an Armageddon type of catastrophe this is part of it. Hopefully we will not suffer the effects of nuclear war, political turmoil or climatic upheaval, but if we do there will be over 6.5 million different cultivars of crops properly stored that can be retrieved from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. In today’s move towards genetically engineered crops there may also come a time when genetic diversity decreases to the point where these stored seeds can be a mainstay.

The vault officially opened today with stockpiling of a variety of grains and legumes weighing in at 11 tons and representing 92 different crops. Stockpiling will continue for several years with crop seed being supplied by plant breeding facilities most located at universities. It is impressive to see world governments coming together to work on such a project.

The vault is maintained by the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT). The GCDT was established through a partnership between the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research as an independent organization to ensure conservation and availability of crop diversity. Genetic diversity is an important scientific concept especially when it comes to crops. Diversity ensures that there are a diversity of crops adapted to a variety of growing conditions. I only hope that the vault also contains a variety of herbs because in the case of “doomsday” these will be of utmost importance. But we should also all make sure that we are saving seeds from crops such as herbs that are of importance to us as well. If doomsday does come our lives will depend upon herbal medicines. You can read more about the vault here:
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080226/full/news.2008.623.html

An Herb Magazine

This time of year gardeners like me can get pretty anxious waiting for spring to arrive. Here in the Rocky Mountain state spring can be very elusive; one day its warm the next day we could get 3 feet of snow. Besides perusing seed catalogues I suggest you download a sample copy of The Essential Herbal magazine. This is not one of those glossy, fluff filled magazines written by writers who like herbs, rather it is written by herb enthusiasts who like to write. You can be assured that the articles are written by herbies for other herbies and that the suggestions are tried and true not something pulled out of a hat. I count the editor, Tina Sams as a friend and she is someone overflowing with good ideas. This magazine sample is sure to keep you busy until planting time with good ideas, recipes and even a crossword puzzle. Heck, if you like it you can even order a subscription to it to keep you with ideas all year round. And if you're lucky, you might even read an article I wrote.
You can download your free sample here:
http://www.essentialherbal.com/March%20April%202007.pdf

On another note, Tina has collected a group of us herb enthusiasts to blog on a common blog. You can check it out at http://merryblogsters.blogspot.com/.

Valentine's Day Sugar Herb Hearts

Need a Last Minute Gift for your Valentine? I had heard about sugar hearts being sold at tea houses and wanted to try it myself. What I found is that it is an elegant way to use herbs for flavor. For the first hearts I made I added ground rose hips in an attempt to give the hearts a pink color. That didn’t work so I added cinnamon and clove as well. They are more brown than pink, but very yummy. I also made lavender hearts, viola hearts and rose petal hearts. The rose petal are my favorite, but next time I might cut down on the amount of red rose petals to give a more pastel color. Here is how to make them:

1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon dried herbs

Put these together in a blender for several seconds. Remove and put in a shallow bowl. Add a scant 1 tablespoon of water and mix well. It should not be wet but rather just damp. That dampness will hold the sugar together. Note that the color will darken slightly with water. Press the dampened sugar into molds and let set overnight. I used plastic tray of heart molds intended for candy making. Turn the molds upside down and tap the hearts out. Use hearts as a decorative way to serve sugar with your tea or give them as candy treats which is what my family will get for Valentine’s Day.

Herb Society Tea Party

I can’t think of a better way to spend a blustery Sunday in February than with fellow herbies at our annual Herb Society of AmericaRocky Mountain Unit)tea party. This year’s theme was Mardis Gras.The pot luck dishes included gumbo, pecan pie bars, spicy spinach balls and of course King Cake with a tiny plastic baby hidden in inside for someone to find. My contribution was Vegetarian Jambalaya (see recipe below). A commemorative herb tea was designed to mark the occasion.

This year’s tea was held at the Denver Botanical Gardens as it often is. Attendees came dressed for the occasion wearing purple, blue and green and dawning feathered masks. In addition to the feathered masks a demonstration on fresh facial masks was given by Tonja Reichley of MoonDance Botanicals and we all went home with a sample of chocolate rose face mask to try in the privacy of our home! Our Herb Society group meets once a month at theDenver Botanical Gardens for a business meeting and an herbal presentation. I believe our next presentation will be on chocolate (one of my favorite herbs)! Do stop by.

Vegetarian Jambalaya (adapted from: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishentreerecipes/r/Jambalaya.htm)

Saute:

1 chopped onion

3 cloves minced garlic

2 ribs chopped celery

1 chopped green bell pepper

1 chopped red bell pepper

1 cup sliced mushrooms

Add:

2 cups brown rice

6 cups vegetable broth

Cook for 15 minutes

Add:

2 sliced zuchinnis

1 large can chopped tomatoes

2 cups sliced vegetarian sausages (Morning Star links)

2 tsp oregano

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp cayenne pepper (more to taste)

3 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sage

1 tsp dried marjoram

Cook 20 more minutes or until rice is done. Eat up and enjoy!

I struck gold when I checked the laying boxes in the chicken coop this week and found several eggs! Our flock of seven birds hasn’t given us eggs for a few months. Although chickens will typically slow down during the winter months due to decreasing daylight, ours have never completely stopped in previous years. For some reason they just haven’t seemed too happy after moving to our farm this year. Perhaps it’s the raptors flying overhead or the coyotes that come out at night, I don’t know. But hopefully they are out of their slump and we have gotten 8 eggs in the past 3 days. We have a variety of types of chickens, some laying brown eggs and some laying bluish green eggs. Some we bought as baby chicks and some we bought as adult layers. We don’t have any white egg layers so I will probably buy some at Easter so that we can color them.

Chickens are an interesting and entertaining lot and a small backyard flock is certainly something to consider. We first got chickens 7 years ago when we lived in the suburbs. After that several of my neighbors got them because they realized how fun they were and how good fresh eggs taste. Chicken manure is a good fertilizer for the garden and is high in nitrogen. Eggs are a good source of protein and a good gift for friends and neighbors just for being there. Chickens don’t like to be alone so if you get chickens get 2 or 3. You can set up a small run for them next to your garage. Do protect them though as they are prey to many animals including raccoons, foxes, coyotes, hawks, even neighborhood dogs.

There is a documentary I saw on TV once called “The Natural History of the Chicken”. This is a funny and serious look at the joy of chickens. Part of the movie focuses on a hen that wanted badly to be a mother. If you have chickens you will love this movie, if you don’t, it will make you want them.

Today is my brother’s birthday; Happy Birthday Corey!

Cranberries for Health and Taste

If you haven’t already, read my short news article in “The Herb Companion” this month; “Cranberry Juice Soothes Stomachs.” Cranberries, as well as other fruits including blueberries, bilberry, black currant and chokeberry contain polyphenol compounds known as proanthocyanidins. These proanthocyanidins are beneficial flavonoids that help maintain collagen and elastin; important proteins found in skin. They are also anti-stick agents for bacteria. This property has previously been documented as being responsible for inhibiting urinary tract infections and has now been found to inhibit stomach infections due to Helicobacter pylori bacteria.

Before a bacterial infection can occur, the bacterial cells must adhere or stick to the epithelial surface of the urinary tract. Bacteria are able to do this through a specific molecule on its cell wall called adhesin. These molecules bind to a specific receptor on the surface of the epithelial cell of the body which is usually a type of carbohydrate. Once bound to this mucosal surface, replication of the bacteria begins and the infection grows. By interfering with that interaction, infection can be greatly reduced.

Treating urinary infections early while they are still in the lower urinary tract is important because they tend to move up the urinary tract towards the kidney. Obviously a kidney infection is much worse than an infection in the urethra. So, if you get those first tell tale signs of an infection in the urethra, such as itching or slight pain on urination start drinking cranberry juice immediately to prevent its movement up the urinary tract. Oftentimes the success of herbal or food medicine is in getting to it right away.
However, if there are signs that the infection is worsening; cloudy urine, back, side or groin pain, fever, urine retention or frequent urination with pain, seek medical help for antibiotic treatment as kidney infection are serious.

Here is my Mom’s cranberry relish recipe that she made every Thanksgiving and Christmas and now I make (but do continue to have cranberry relish after the Holidays!).

1 orange, grated whole
¾ cup sugar
½ cup water
3 cups fresh cranberries
½ tsp fresh ground nutmeg
½ tsp cinnamon
2-3 whole cloves

Put everything in a pan and boil, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. If you want a thicker relish, simmer longer to decrease water. Cool and refrigerate for flavors to mix.

Purple Mountains Majesty (Above the Fruited Plain)

I want to share with you the magnificent site that I see everyday from my yard and my windows; a source of strength and power for me. I live on the Great Plains just before the mountains rise, surrounded by farm and ranch land. The mountains you see here are Long’s Peak and Mount Meeker together called the Twin Peaks. They are some of the tallest mountains in Colorado making them strong symbols for orientation. Although Native Americans probably used Long’s peak to collect eagle feathers, the first recorded ascent of Longs Peak was by John Wesley Powell in 1868.

Looking at these majestic mountains everyday feeds my spirit and gives me inspiration. I find it important to have a landscape that I feel connected with and is a constant reminder of what is sacred. These mountains were once the home of the Ute Tribe who found their guardian spirit there. Many Native Americans found that these highest of places were also spiritually powerful, so much so that they could pose a danger to those who are not shamans. These mountains were used for vision quests many years ago.

Many Mountain views in Colorado are in endangered by development. Landscape in this state in the form of mountain views, prairie grasslands and agriculture are important to tourists and residents as well, making conservation an important issue.

Two important conservation programs are being used in my area. The county itself owns 24,000 acres that it preserves for farm and ranch land. Private farmers and ranchers can lease this land out for agricultural purposes. The property across the street from me is 160 acres of county owned land leased by my neighbor to grow alfalfa. Another program is

Conservation easements by which land owner can receive a tax benefit by setting aside a portion of their land for conservation purposes that include agriculture, wildlife habitat or scenic open space. A significant piece of land behind my property is set aside for this purpose. It is our hope that these programs will serve their purpose and preserve Colorado landscapes.

Here is an article from the Economist about how land is being preserved in Colorado:

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8636287

Here is an article about mountains of Rocky Mountain National Park:

http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/romo/mcbeth/oral_history.pdf

Use of My Christmas Tree

The Holidays are over and the tree is now setting on the patio and the decorations are almost all boxed up. I will be using the tree for a number of things. The branches will be cut off and some of them will be put around my rosemary plant. I have done this for the past several years and have been lucky enough to have my rosemary survive the past several cold winters. This rosemary, however, was just transplanted here this summer from our previous house and it has already been quite cold here so I hope its not too late. Some of the branches will also go around the roses. I’ve already taken some of the pine needles and some of the smallest branches to put in a jar with alcohol to make a tincture. Although I typically make tinctures for medicinal purposes I haven’t done much in the way of making tinctures for aromatic purposes. I got this idea from Anya at Anya’s Garden (anyasgarden.com) and hope to try tincturing a few other aromatics this winter including orange peel. Most of the remaining branches and needles will become snacks for my two angora goats. I gave them some of the branches that we trimmed off to get the tree into the base and they really seemed to enjoy eating them so I’m sure they will be happy about it. The main trunk of the Christmas tree will be cut into firewood to be used in summer campfires.

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by to say hi from Marie’s site. I appreciate the encouragement! Although I have many ideas in my head about what to write, finding the time to sit down and do it is not always easy, especially when I learn about all the other fun blogs to read!