Honey-Garlic Syrup

This recipe comes from Susun Weed, another revered herbalist, teacher, and Wise Woman.
Please look for her on the Web and you will not be disappointed at the knowledge you will gain just by reading her blogs, the herbal and Wise Women information she posts online in the form of wisewomantradition on You Tube, her mentor/apprenticships through Wise Woman University, and  her many books and audiobooks.

Honey-Garlic Syrup

 First, use organic or homegrown garlic, and peel each clove.
 

Susun Weed also states that the cloves do not need to be peeled, so either way is fine.
I have tried this syrup  both ways and prefer to have the cloves peeled.
It can be a tedious job to peel many little cloves, the papery husk sticking to your fingers from the juice of the previous clove. So be warned and prepared to spend some time doing this if you decide to peel your garlic.  But it is so worth it!!!

Next, chop the garlic into small piece.  Again, Susun claims that the garlic can be left whole.
I have tried it chopped and whole, and do prefer the cloves to be chopped.
The garlic does not seem to be so intense when consuming smaller piece.
But if you are a bonafide whole garlic aficionado, then go for it!

 Garlic chopped and ready to put into a sterilized jar.

 The jar full of garlicy yumminess and waiting for the organic honey.

SLOWLY  pour your organic honey into the jar and over the garlic.  Do this slowly!
My honey is very thick and it takes some time for it the run down through the garlic pieces.
Haste does make waste as I have discovered from personal experience in pouring the honey into the jar too fast:  Thick honey overflows the top of the jar! You think it is going to settle quickly, but no!
Fill to within 1/4 inch of the top.
Surprisingly, during the next few hours, the mixture will decrease slightly as the garlic begins to absorb the honey.  Susun delightfully claims that the fairies take their share, and that is why the mixture decreases.  I believe this to be so!

Once the honey has settled around each piece of garlic, use a wooden chopstick or ka-bob stick and poke it down into and around the garlic and honey.  This helps to release the air bubbles that have formed from the honey displacing the air in the jar.

All air bubbles gone and ready to be capped.
Wipe honey from the rim with a clean cloth, and lightly screw on the jar cap.  You will be opening the jar once more before setting it away to work its magic.
Place the honey-garlic syrup in a dark, dry, cool place overnight or for at least 12 hours.
The next day, top off the mixture with more honey.
Using your clean chopstick, once more poke it down into the mixture to release the air bubbles. Wipe excess honey from the rim of the the jar.
Then place your sterilized cap onto the jar, sealing it tightly with only hand turning.
But not too tightly! You don't want to have to break your lid or jar to get into the syrup later.
All that garlic peeling would be for naught!

Place your jar in a cool, dark, dry place for six weeks. Mark it on your calendar.
The honey will begin to extrude all the goodness from the garlic, mixing it with the honey properties.
Honey will sink and show a layer on the bottom as more juice is pulled from the garlic,  and this is OK.  At least that is what my mixture does.

At the end of six weeks in the dark, your Honey-Garlic Syrup will be ready to use.
Take at least once a day;  and during illness and recovery from flu or illness, take at three times a day, and once at bedtime.

To Your Health!

Honey-Onion Syrup

This is a recipe of Rosemary Gladstar's, the Queen of Herbs in my estimation. 
She is a knowledgeable and revered herbalist and Wise Woman.
Take some time to search for her on the Web.
I could extol the wonderful and healing benefits of honey and onion, but I am not a trained nor certified herbalist, and that sort of information is best left for you to explore and learn for yourself.

The Honey-Onion Syrup is a delightful medicinal and preventative syrup for long cold winters.  Actually, one can use this year round.
Stored in the refrigerator, I take a tablespoon every morning, and use the onions on sandwiches when I make them.  Oddly enough, I can eat the honeyed onions with little gastric problems, whereas raw and cooked onions sometime disagree with me.

For a 3/4 quart of syrup, I peeled two whole sweet white onions. For a whole quart, use three onions.

 Next slice each onion into 1/4 inch slices.

 Place onion slices in a stainless steel sauce pot.  If you are using more than three onions, you will need to use a larger pan.

Cover onion slices with organic honey and let simmer slowly for several hours until slices are soft.
Rosemary Gladstar relates how she kept a pot of honey-onion syrup on the back of her woodstove all winter, adding onions and honey as she used them during the long cold months. This mixture of course slowly stewed and the onions were simmering all the time.
Unfortunately, we don't use a woodstove, so once my mixture was ready and cooled, I poured it into a sterilized mason jar where it sits in my refrigerator ready for use.
The jar will last about two weeks, and then I create a new batch.

 The final results!  A beautiful jar of medicinal honey!

Enjoy!

Hello friends and family!
Here I am finally, ready to get serious about doing this blog on a regular basis.

Winter Solstice is not too far in the future.
The Earth will be in deep sleep then, but will soon begin to slowing awaken as the weather progresses into Spring!

This Spring, I am hoping to plan for a hoop house for our garden, and by next fall, will have completed a cold frame to start early seed a year from this coming Spring.
I think the state and climate of the economy necessitates such preparedness.

The Moon is waxing by one day, and I plan to make sauerkraut today or tomorrow.  There is mixed opinion of whether to start sauerkraut on the waxing or the waning on the Moon.

And, I made jerky this morning, and it is drying nicely in the dehydrator. I will give a recipe and explanation on how to make your own yummy jerky in a future blog.

I have closed my Artfire shop for now. Perhaps in the future I will reopen it.  And I hope to create a readable and pleasant blog here, plus offering my crafts and arts for sale, and offering my Wise Woman knowledge for free!

We have been so busy this fall: birthdays, Thanksgiving, holidays in the mountains (any time spent in the mountains is a holiday for me), traveling, caning and freezing food stuff of the winter, and of course crafting.
The next few blogs will show the crochet and crafting I have completed, and crocheted items I am almost done with except for the finishing.
So come along and I will share my adventures with you!

TO A FAR OFF DAY

Written in the 'Epic of Gilgamesh' by a scribe of Uruk in ancient Sumeria:

Through the shifting sands of time, the ancient cities and wall are covered by the sands and winds. Many thousands of years have passed.

"To a far off day
On a far off night
In a far off time...............

Gilgamesh what you seek you will never find
For when the Gods created man, they let death be his lot.
Eternal life they withheld.

Let your every day be full of joy
With the child that holds your hand.
Let your wife delight in your embrace,
Fore these alone are the concerns of humanity"

Homemade Marmite/Vegemite

For all you vegemite and marmite lovers out there, here is a homemade recipe for you.

(In case you wonder why these wonderful products are not sold in the US, it is because some higher-up in our government has decided that they should be a controlled vitamin supplement substance.  And therefore can no longer be imported.  Go figure......

I discovered the demise of these wonderful cooking products in the US when I tried to bring Vegemite in to the States after visiting Australia several years ago.

Also a military friend tried to slip it past customs in Hawaii when returning from Australia.

Both times, the product was confiscated.

One day soon, I shall have a discussion on the importation and exportation of food products between the US and our world.  Please join in!

I discovered the recipe in one of those serendipity moments when I wasn't even looking for it.

It comes from an old Seventh Day Adventist vegetarian recipe book called Nature's Harvest, printed by the Walla Walla General Hospital Auxiliary.

On a side note,  SDA vegetarianism needs to evolve to include the wonderful world of spices and herbs. (But that is just my opinion.)

There is an untapped incredible amount of healing properties in herbs and spices, as I have been discovering for the last 20 years!

-----VEGEX - page 44 in the yellow section of Dressings & Spreads & Vegetables----

-----And here is my own recipe that evolved from the VEGEX recipe:
(In general, I seldom write down the amount of the ingredients when I tweek a recipe, but add and mix until I like the taste.  So, this is your moment to create your own!
Ingredients:
*Nutritional yeast - Bragg is the best I have used; Red Star produces a good yeast but it may not be organic.  Haven't checked since I am able to use Bragg.
*Instant Postum, Pero, etc.  (Postum is no longer produced in the States. Sad, sad.)
*Sea salt
*Amino Acids - Bragg brand is the best I have used.
*celery seed, ground - I have a little coffee grinder only used for herbs and spices
*butter
*onion powder

If you are going to attempt to make this, it is assumed that you are familiar with the consistency and taste of vegemite and/or marmite, and therefore will be able to create a palatable substance.

***This is an amendment to the original post in that I have tweaked the recipes here and there: melting ghee or butter in a pan and then adding the ingredients, or a combination of ingredients from both recipes, makes a very savory, warming, creamy paste that is very spreadable warm.  Although the butter separates from the yeast (mystery to me as to why), it will stir up. The bit that doesn't, I pour in with the "golden paste" that sits on the back of my stove.   Of course, the butter hardens in the fridge, so take out the portion you want to use and let it warm up before spreading.

Enjoy!

Have a wonderful and magical day!

We Are Like Lutes...........

We are like lutes once held by God.
Being away from His warm Body,
Fully explains this constant yearning.

Ibrahem Hafiz

Happy Celtic New Year!

November 1st has historically been celebrated in Celtic Lore as the beginning of the new year.
And I say, "Why not?"  And, "Makes perfect sense!"

Modern civilization has strayed so far from its origins, that societies and cultures are on a downward spiral.
Most are no longer in sync with Nature and the Cycles of Nature: the waxing and waning of the moon, the coming and going of the Seasons, the celebration of the New Year, The Harvest, The Awakening, The Solstices, and on and on.
Because they do not observe these wonderful natural cycles and celebration, they have lost connection with their Souls, the Souls of those around them, and the Great Spirit.

Samhain (Halloween), is the last harvest celebration, a Fire festival, and a reckoning of all that has transpired through out the previous months and year. It is the celebration before the day of the New Year, November 1.
The fields have all been gleaned and are ready to lay fallow, the grains stored and prepared into useable fare for both human and beast, the winter meat has been slaughtered, preserved, and set aside for the long winter ahead.
All that could be done has been done to prepare for the cold, lifeless, snowy months ahead. It is time to snuggle down into our abodes and await the Spring.
I think I like this time of year the best.  Spiritually it is a time of reflection on my life's activity throughout the Spring and Summer.
I have prepared the harvest and stored it for our winter meals. I have prepared the house for the cold winter winds and snow.
And now, there is a sort of waiting.  Waiting for the first snows, the first storms. All the while knowing that we are safe and warm, that my husband and I and family are together. Together we can withstand anything.
And so, I wish you the reader, a wonderful year ahead.  May you be Blessed and Protected.