Harmony Sandlin

Dave Lucey, could I ask you to please share the recipe for peach habanero pie? It sounds amazing.

Dave Lucey wrote:So...the slippery slope of heat...

I've always eaten various peppers, but never really pushed myself.  When traveling for work and feeling a bit sick, I'd look for Pho.  It always seemed to do the trick....bone broths do that.  When especially stuffy, I threw in a few too many jalapeno slices and discovered capsicum's mucus thinning powers as it cleared out my whole head.  While soundly unpleasant at the time, I could breathe clearly the rest of the day.  A total win in my mind.

This started a pattern, I traveled for work a lot back then.  As I adjusted to the heat I started to notice different flavors in the spicy foods.  I mean jalapenos are rather grassy, but I could taste the other flavors in other peppers as well.  I started exploring peppers, less for the heat than for other flavors.  I mean the smokey, fruity flavors of a home grown habanero is amazing, but you have to be able to get past the heat to taste that.

Far enough down that road, I discovered the whole endorphin rush that comes with eating something that's 'too hot'.  It's a roller coaster, but just about the best mood improver I know.  After running into that at lunch, I'd be 'feeling great' for the rest of the day - both physically and mentally.

My rule is that it has to taste good first.  There are plenty of dishes that are 'hot for the sake of hot' and there is no fun in that.

BTW, a peach-habanero pie is still my absolute favorite pie.  The sugar from the peaches tone down the heat and the smokey/fruity flavors of the habanero compliment fresh cooked peaches brilliantly.  It needs home grown habaneros though, the store bought ones are usually bland and just heat.  You can de-seed and de-vein the habaneros to reduce the heat further, but I think it looses some flavor profile in the process.

In Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (1909), the sleep-inducing effects of lettuce play an important role in the plot: “ It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is "soporific… [t]he Flopsy Bunnies simply stuffed lettuces. By degrees, one after another, they were overcome with slumber, and lay down in the mown grass.” (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14220/14220-h/14220-h.htm) Perhaps Beatrix Potter was recording a half-remembered folklore about the virtues of wild lettuce, or the lettuces of a century ago retained more of their ancestral chemistry.

I’m applying for the Natural Medicine Sand Badge!
https://permies.com/forums/meritBB/bb/262093

1. Make an infusion from blackberry leaves
2. Dry blackberry leaf or root bark for a tea, infusion, or decoction
3. Make a Plantain leaf salve
4. Make rosemary infused vinegar
5. Make a comfrey leaf infused oil
6. Make an oregano leaf tincture
7. Make a dandelion root decoction
8. Make a plantain Leaf Poultice
9. Make a chamomile syrup or gummies

I made Chamomile Syrup!
First, I made 1/2 cup infusion with freshly-harvested chamomile blossoms from my garden and boiling water. It infused for about 20-25 minutes. The scent was amazingly delightful and summery. I strained the infusion. Then, I made 1 cup of rich syrup (1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water). I combined the syrup and infusion in a glass jar and labeled it for later use.

I repaired a hole in a knee of my pants with a scrap of white cotton fabric, white cotton thread, and yellow embroidery floss. I used a round embroidery frame to keep the fabrics taut part of the time, and a hard-back book to keep the pants flat while I embroidered the straight lines of the star’s points. I also used a white pencil to mark the straight lines after I learned the hard way I cannot embroider straight and even without a guide.

Well, we hosed down the belly and discovered the apparent entry wound for infection. We were pretty darn tired at that point and decided to write the hog off as compost.

The two weird teats also have normal milk

Hogs are an invasive pest animal around here, so the meat is easy to come by. However, this sow has strange teats to my non-pig-keeper eye. Is this mastitis? A tumor? Possibly just developing? Some of the other teats express normal-looking milk so she was definitely lactating.

Hello!
I am trying to find a source to buy pure, liquid Castille soap. Sprouts has a “Real Roots” brand, but even the unscented bottle has a note on the label stating that it “contains fragrance.” Which is telling the truth, the note or the ingredients list? Is there a better place to buy Castille soap here in Texas, USA either online or in person? (For non-soap-related reasons I don’t prefer to buy Dr. Bronner’s)

Natural Medicine Badge Bit for Rose Hip Syrup (Or Gummies)

If you do, make sure to document it for a Badge Bit!