practical-herbalist

[practical-herbalist]

Currently trying to grow basil in my room. Will see how it turns out. Mainly doing it for food.

#practical herbalist #gardening #basil

[practical-herbalist]

Another invasive (but delicious edible) plant that plagues many a garden, especially on the western and eastern coasts of the US: cardamine hirsuta, or hairy bittercress.

This is a winter annual, and can be found absolutely Thriving long after other plants have died back from cold. This is the time they should be picked, whether for eating or for general removal. They come out of the ground easily, roots and all. If you plan on eating them, choose ones that haven’t gone to flower yet, as the leaves become bitter and tough.

Around mid-spring the plant goes to seed, and at that point you’re fucked – the seedpods will literally EXPLODE at the slightest touch. (I’ve walked through places where they were unavoidable, and it sounds like tiny popcorn!) That’s why they spread so prolifically.

Okay, but what does it taste like? Even though it’s called bittercress, it’s not bitter at all. It’s very similar to other plants in the brassica family… if you like mustard, cress, or arugula, you will like hairy bittercress! It’s slightly peppery, a little mustardy, and more mild than the name suggests. It’s best used raw in salads or sandwiches.

Now go munch on/population control some of those cressy bastards.

#foraging

[practical-herbalist]

#goals

[practical-herbalist]

DANDELION HATERS DO NOT INTERACT!!!!

#dandelions

[practical-herbalist]

But seriously, when we got our property, it was all just…grass. A sterile grass moonscape, like a billion other yards. With two big old maple trees. Just grass and maples, that was it. 

But then I got my grubby little paws on it, and I immediately stopped fertilizing, spraying, and bagging up grass clippings and leaves. I ripped up sod and put in flowers and vegetables. I put down nice thick blankets of mulch around the flowers and vegetables. 

When I first was sweating my way through stripping sod, I saw a grand total of 1 worm and 0 ladybugs. The ground was compacted into something that would bend shovel blades. 

Now, six years later, I can’t dig a planting hole without turning up fourteen earthworms, and there are so many ladybugs here. Not the invasive asian lady beetles; native ladybugs. They winter over in the mulch and in the brush pile. I see thousands of them. 

The soil is soft and rich. There are birds that come to eat, and bees of many sorts.

Like this is something that you, yourself, can absolutely change. This is something that you, personally, can make a difference in.

#cw long post #gardening

[practical-herbalist]

Just so everyone is aware:

An international group of qualified mushroom identifiers who do worldwide identification in emergency cases have identified the Shroomers App as a potentially very dangerous system that could kill you if you try to use it to identify edible mushrooms. They use AI to generate almost all of their content, including their identification profiles on their app as well as their books and other materials. Not only is this unethical from a content creation standpoint, it is also extremely dangerous.

DO NOT USE APPS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES BEYOND SIMPLE CURIOSITY. A MISTAKE WHEN IDENTIFYING AN EDIBLE COULD COST YOU YOUR LIFE. DO NOT EAT ANY FORAGED MUSHROOM YOU CANNOT IDENTIFY YOURSELF BY SIGHT OR HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED IN PERSON BY SOMEONE WHO CAN.

ONLY BUY BOOKS FROM REPUTABLE SOURCES AND AT THIS POINT THAT MEANS ASKING EXPERIENCED PEOPLE WHAT BOOKS THEY USE.

Mushrooms are fun, amazing organisms. Enjoy safely.

#psa #foraging #mushrooms

[practical-herbalist]

Pee in a cup and leave it outside near ants - if they avoid it's probably not diabetes, if they seem interested, you might have sugar in your pee and should get checked out

what the fuck is this 1200's medical science 101

#diabetes #medicine

[practical-herbalist]

listen i am more than aware that hormonal birth control can do fucky things to your brain and body. i have been there and i have dealt with it and i don't take that lightly. but i do want to say that if you're sexually active and can get pregnant, the last people online you should be listening to are the "divine femininity" cryptofash tradgirl influencers who are spouting leftist-sounding rhetoric while telling you to throw out your birth control and "just track your cycles naturally" at a time when it's functionally impossible to get an abortion in many states. i cannot stress this enough. these people are white supremacists who have learned to cloak their right-wing, reject-modernity beliefs in language that sounds appealing to the left, and they are winning, and you need to be really vigilant about the influencers and messaging you are following and consuming and helping give more of a platform. because this shit is everywhere and women are going to die because of it.

#cw pregnancy #cw menstruation #birth control #abortion

[practical-herbalist]

remembering the time a tiktoker went to a tribe to ask a faith healer to cure an inflammation in his eye and the healer said "u need antibiotics"

the old spirits of the jungle boosting laboratory medicine in shamanic sessions (great pajelança)

#medicine #SDGLKHSDLGKHFDKLGHSLKDGHLKSDHG #hell yeah

[practical-herbalist]

happy wash your fucking water bottle wednesday

#wash your water bottle wednesday #safety #cleaning

[practical-herbalist]

U.S. people, if you bought cinnamon from Dollar Tree, Dollar General, or other discount stores, throw it out. It's got lead

#recalls #contaminations #psa #fda #cinnamon #spices #ingredients

[practical-herbalist]

UC or ER?

#healthcare

[practical-herbalist]

#cleaning #chemicals #safety

[practical-herbalist]

Always remember that a major reason reason health scams and sketchy alternative medicines are flourishing the way they are right now is because the actual, real health care system is currently a raging Dumpster fire due to capitalism and conservative policies.

#healthcare #medicine #alternative medicine #us politics #scams

[practical-herbalist]

#gardening

[practical-herbalist]

If you don't mind the question, what makes vinegar good for washing floors? I've also seen it in window cleaners and stuff, and I always wondered why that was?

Vinegar is all natural and has no added chemicals. It tends to be the most environmentally-friendly product you can use and because of that, it's really easy to find out how it'll react to other chemicals used in cleaning solutions

#vinegar #cleaning

[practical-herbalist]

oh wow! hey if you take pills check this out. new medicine taking meta just dropped.

according to these models, out of the 4 tested postures, the best position to digest pills is laying on your right side. standing upright has a similar time to laying in your back at twice as much as laying on the right side, and laying on the left side is the slowest by far.

laying on right side: pill dissolves in around 10 minutes.

standing: pill dissolves in 23 minutes. laying on the back has a similar time.

laying on left side: pill dissolves in up to 100 minutes.

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0096877

definitely worth a lot more research.

if you want your medicine to kick in fast, try laying on your right side! if you want your medicine to kick in slower, try laying on your left side.

#cw long post #medicine #studies