TEOTWAWKI Substitutes?

[cookiejar]

Do you have substitutions in mind for common herbs/vitamins you use? For example-if a TEOTWAWKI happens, eventually I'll be able to get my Cinnamon from Jamaica, but someone in Oregon might have to come up with a good substitute like wild ginger?

 

Do you have backups? Or are you stocking up ALOT of the ones you know?

 

I was wondering if White Birch (apsirin species) even grows down here...is there a substitute? (It is white birch right? )

 

Not many cows down here for my vitamin D but luckily I can get via the

 

 

 

 

[Lois]

Quote:

was wondering if White Birch (apsirin species) even grows down here...is there a substitute? (It is white birch right? )

I think you mean willow bark for aspirin.

 

Cinnamon sticks sealed and stored in a cool dark place will last

 

a long time. To use just put the stick in your hot tea until

 

the flavor you want is reached or grate into your favorute

 

recipe.

[JCK88]

(and you can get reasonably priced sealed larger containers of cinnamon sticks at Costco...for about four dollars)

[kappydell]

You want willow bark for aspirin, white is most commony mentioned because it is strongest, but any will work, just steep it longer and use more. But you are also right about birch...it has some salicin also. Dover Press publishes a book called 'Mrs Grieve's Herbal' which was written in the 1030s -1940s. It is 2 vol, very complete and lists all manner of herbal items. You can also find it on the internet. It is the best of my many herbals. Even the weeds have uses. I don't like my landlord to mow my country lawn (meadow) very often since I like to pick the dandelions, plantain, red clover, yarrow, chicory, burdock and 'creeping charlie' for herbal uses. Not to mention, the early mustard and dandelion greens are very tasty! I make tinctures from the herbs, they keep their strength longer than dried herbs do, and can be combined easily for more complex formulas.

[kappydell]

I have found yarrow (white funny smelling one) to work well as a tea when getting a cold. It tastes amazingly awful, mix it with peppermint to make it more palatable. Drink lukewarm. You will sweat a lot, but it does break up a cold nicely. My colds last about 24 hrs. instead of 5 days. If you have a viburnum bush check the species; viburnum bark tea was used effectively for cramps in civil war times. Not to mention the berries of some viburnum are not called highbush cranberry for nothing, they make a nice fake cranberry jelly. Stew them with a chopped orange though when you juice them because they smell like you are cooking old sweat sox!! Fortunately they don't taste like they smell. Eull Gibbons wrote about the highbush cranberry; Mrs. Grieve's told me about the yarrow, and both worked for me.

If I was to plant only one 'herb' in my yard it would be an elderberry bush. The flowers steeped are good for complexion, clearing acne, and are tasty battered & deep fried. The berries make a tasty jelly and wine, and the juice of them has been shown to help prevent flu. They are very hardy, but people keep cutting them down because they are very old-timey and rather scraggly bushes. I could go on and on....but I really recommend the herbal, it is extremely complete.

[CrabGrassAcres]

I second Mrs Grieve's Modern Herbal. It is my favorite and the one I reach for first.

[cookiejar]

I've got to get that book. Thanks/ and thank you for not making me feel too nutty about saying birch not just willow.

How many aspirin like plants are there? Or are there too many to hazard a guess?

 

Thank you again