Hi Everyone! This is me, Rachel! As some of you all know, I am really interested in learning about using medicinal herbs instead of "normal medicine". I find it fascinating that God designed something as simple as a dandelion to have healing properties! I am always on the lookout for herbs that are growing wild that I can harvest without having to buy a plant, (see last post about the wild mint) so I was thrilled when driving down in Burnt Mills Swamp I saw jewelweed growing wild. This is a plant that thrives in swamps and damp places, and is shrubby and about 3-5 feet tall. The flowers resemble snapdragons and the nick-name "touch-me-not" comes from the little seedpods that explode when you touch them. For a long time I'd read about the poison ivy-healing properties in jewelweed, and had really wanted to try harvesting it and using it on Daniel and Dad who get really bad cases of poison ivy every year. (It's funny actually, they work outdoors more than I do, and Sarah and I are the ones that can handle poison ivy without getting any sort of a rash!) Anyhow, I went online to research jewelweed, and found out some really cool things about it. First off, and the best thing about it to me, is that it has no poisonous look-alikes! Yay! (I'm scared to death to pick Queen Anne's Lace after hearing how poison Hemlock looks just like it!)
If you cup your hand around the seedpod and lightly touch it, you can catch the tiny seeds in your hand and eat them! They are supposed to taste like walnuts!
Next, jewelweed is wonderful for getting rid of and preventing poison ivy, repelling bugs, taking the sting out of bee and wasp stings, healing any sort of rash, and clearing the complexion among several other things, including making an orange dye!
I also found recipes for making jewelweed oil in order to use it in place of a light oil in making soap! I love making soap! (Sarah and I made it about a month ago and had our first experience with dealing with lye!) But the most amazing and wonderful thing about jewelweed, is that is grows in the same habitat as poison ivy and stinging nettle, and if you brush by any of those noxious plants, just split a stem of the jewel-weed, rub it on the affected area, and you won't get a rash at all!
Isn't God's creation amazing? I am looking forward to making some jewelweed "potions" and using them on Daniel who will probably we extemely skeptical! Well, I'm gonna' hand the keyboard to Sarah who will fill you in on her day entering chickens at the fair! God Bless Ya'll!
Hi everybody! How's it goin'? Today us middle 4 were getting paperwork and reports finished for 4-H so we could check in our broilers at the fair today. I helped Leah, Anna, and Benjamin fill out their papers so by the end I had all our information that any one would need in the world, memorized from writing it down again and again. Then we had to prepare cages that we'd be transporting the chickens in and clean their cage, and get them presentable for the County Fair,etc. That took a while and in the middle we took a break for lunch. Around 4:00 or so Mom, Rachel, and the two youngest came home from doing our weekly Sam's Club/Walmart shopping. We put away all the groceries (we were very thankful for the new pantry shelves Dad just finished putting in) Then we went out and picked the best broilers and caged them. Mom took us to the fair grounds and as a timed it they're only 4 minutes and 9 seconds from our driveway. We went in the 4-H tent and weighed our chickens. I was dreading to see our competition because we got the State Fair batch which isn't supposed to be full grown during County Fair. Anyways, it wasn't too bad, although a few certain broilers were alot bigger than ours. We helped band them and others that had been checked in and then looked around the fair. We looked in the County Fair Contests tent that had all the baked and canned goods, art, handiwork, etc. I loved seeing all the pretty quilts that had been made! We walked around and saw the elephant and tigers that are new to the fair this year. They were giving elephant rides for $5 and had about 6 tigers that would do scheduled shows! That was cool, but I don't know if I'd want to ride the elephant ;) Anyhow, after looking around we went ahead and came home because Rachel had been holding down the fort there. The broilers will be judged tomorrow I think, so until further results show, I'll just be hoping for the best!
Well, I'd best be off!
P.s. If any of ya'll would like to, Daniel has a blog that's http://www.imjestsayin.blogspot.com
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