Hello All,
I wrote this article some time back for Prophezine's PZ Insider Report. I thought it might be helpful to my blog readers today. My two favorite things from this article are peppermint oil - which I use almost daily sometimes; and pine or evergreen tree resin. I can't tell you how helpful that is for cuts and scrapes - especially anything that is painful. Resin seems to not only heal the wound but stop pain as well. At least, that has been my experience.
I am visiting my mom in Arkansas, so posting is difficult. I will be back home in a little over a week. I hope you are all safe and well.
If you know of something that might be readily available in hard times, or disasters, please post your comments at the end of this article. You never know who it might help out some day.
Barbara
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My mom and dad grew up in the depression. Dad's family moved to
Arizona, then California, then back to Arkansas. They did better
financially than mom's family - who never left the farm. Especially my
mom has said - Good grief! how much easier our lives would have
been if we had know just a little about herbs and plants. And there
was no available doctor. And the only two 'healing ointments' they
had were (I AM telling the truth here) coal oil (kerosene) and
turpentine!
I was the second of six kids. My dad worked and mom stayed home
with the kids. That era was the real beginning of mother's working. Many of my friends had mom's who worked - so they had so much more disposable income than my family. We really did have to live on a very very tight budget. It wasn't fun when we thought about it - but mostly we had a very good life. We never actually went hungry - or were without a home - or a lot of good times. So while no one looks forward to hard times - I don't know that we should fear them.
Looking back - I can say I had a wonderful childhood - even though we really could have been considered 'poor'.
Hardship is often feared, but when lived through, it isn't nearly as bad as the fear of hardship and poverty. So, in facing the uncertain times ahead, Christians just need to live their lives each day. We should not be worrying about the future, or regretting the past. The Bible says, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Hardships can be lessened by recognizing and making use of resources around you. I have some quite a bit of useful information on the web, some of which I have personally tried and love (GSE, evergreen tree resin, and peppermint oil).
These are web sites with some information about nutrition or healing that I have found helpful or interesting.
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Grapefruit seed extract - I use this one all the time for everything. there seems to be a lot of research behind this. you can get it for $10 a bottle at many health food stores - it keeps a long time. It is a germ killer - disinfectant for water to name two.
http://www.nutriteam.com/gse/index2.html
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Pine resin - My mom just makes her own - or uses it straight from the tree. The point of this is that pine trees (or spruce trees - or cedar - or some evergreen) are available most of the time. In a disaster healing slaves might not be readily available. Also - the experience of my family (in using the stuff straight from the tree mostly) has been overwhelming positive.
http://natrhealth.com/skincare.html
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Peppermint oil for headache - joint pain - muscle pain - and it is wonderful! a bottle is really cheap - last a long time - and I don't know of anything bad about it. Also put it on wrists for carpel tunnel pain - or wrist strain from lengthy computer use.
We also have it growing around the yard. We don't use what we grow - we just want it there in case we ever need to use it. Of course you can make tea out of it - which tastes pretty good.
http://www.vitaminstuff.com/herbs-peppermint.html
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The benefits of garlic - everyone who has space should have some growing - even if the don't use it now - just in case they ever need it.
http://www.farmradio.org/english/radio-scripts/51-9script_en.asp
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Herb List - here is a list of herbs that are good to have growing if you have space - even if you don't use them right now.
http://www.realtime.net/anr/herbs.html
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Chicory - Probably everyone knows about chicory as a coffee substitute - I don't think it is hard to grow once you get it started.
http://coffeetea.about.com/cs/coffeesubstitutes/a/chicory.htm
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Pine Needle Tea - This one really sounds bad - but I read about it years ago - how some people trapped in the mountains came through much thinner - but otherwise fine - by just drinking spruce needle tea.
http://www.zetatalk.com/food/tfood07p.htm (pine needle tea)
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Pomegranate - The pomegranate and I are really good friends. the juice has been very helpful to me personally in dealing with joint pain. I think the trees grow in many states. And the fruit keeps well over time - which makes it a good fruit for anyone trying to be self sufficient. I buy the juice in Cost-co for about $10 a gallon. it is in the fruit juice section - not the pharmacy. I believe
it is supposed to lower blood pressure (dropped my top number about 10 points), be good for the heart, circulation, slow prostate cancer - and lots of other stuff.
http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/hl/nutr/food/alert06162005.jsp
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Dandelion root - Not that I ever used it personally - but I would try it in very hard times. The thing about it is - you can find it everywhere. It sounds ridiculous that a time would ever come in American that survival would depend on dandelions and pine tree tea - but we really don't know what the future holds.
http://www.alternative-healthzine.com/html/0201_2.html
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I tried to scan these web sites to make sure they were just giving out information - and not passing out 'praise mother earth for her bounty' garbage - but I might have missed something.
I certainly pray that none of us ever have to eat dandelions or drink pine needle tea - but it would be better to know about it than to not know about it in a time of starvation. (You know - I personally hate stuff like turnip greens - but dandelion greens may taste about the same. Maybe a brave soul who reads PZ could try them and give us a 'taste' report.
It currently appears that instead of a food famine - we will face a famine to hear the word of God -because sound Bible teachers are getting harder to find all the time.
Have a good day.
Barbara
