Janet Schultz

Okay no I do not sell any medicines ....I could lose my house, and land. I will preface all the medical information with the statement according to the people of the Taiga this is what these plants do. I hope that is enough to satisfy all those in the background. As for the value of poplar bud, it would depend upon whether or not you could find some one to buy them from you. Organic dandelion root is worth 35.00 per pound if you can find some one to sell it to. If your poplars are close to a road or drive way remember they would not be organic.
So to answer what to do with the plant materials that I spoke about.
spruce is an analgesic, anti fungal, antimicrobial antiseptic and disinfectant. It can be prepared as a cream essential oil foot soak, hydrosol, infusion liniment oil poultice, salve, steam syrup tea wash, the pitch can be used in any of these but needles and tips will work better at some things than others. According to the council of the Yukon First Nations "the sap of the spruce is a tonic and is used each spring to clean the blood. The inner bark of a spruce was made into a tea and strained and was used for stomach upsets, ulcers, weak blood mouth sores and sore throats. Spruce cambian was an emergency trail food, needle tea a source of vitamin C. First nations people use the gum or pitch as a lozenge for coughs and sore throats. They mix the pitch with grease (I use oils and beeswax) to treat cuts and topical infusions. It cleanses the wound and protects it from germs, makes great stitches in a pinch and can be packed into the cavity of a tooth until you can get to treatment.
There is also spruce tip jelly, spruce beer, soaked in oil they make a great salad dressings and in the boreal gourmet you will find a recipe for spruce tip salt.

I have also have a Sami recipe for pine bark crackers which are really quite good, pine and spruce ache and pain liniment pine household cleaner. There is research being done into the primary active compound in the wood of the larch species an arabiogalactans that belong to a group of carbohydrates called polysaccharides. Studies have shown that the larch arabinogalactans help to stimulate the immune system to fight cancer and act as a prebiotic to help stimulate and promote good bacteria in the digestive tract and help to produce digestive enzymes. There are companies that are producing this in powder form generally from the western larch. The larch was and remains a major food source among northerners.
Poplar in the winter gather buds. Bark in the spring, gather that from pruned or downed branches. The medicinal properties of poplar: alterative, analgesic, anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory, anti-rheumatic, antiseptic, astringent, bitter, cholagogue, diuretic, expectorant, febrifuge, pectoral, mild sedative and tonic. Preparation methods include bah, cream, infusion, oil, linement poultice, salve, steam tea and tincture. The buds are emollient and help soften, soothe, and protect the skin. They are also effective at helping heal wounds and cuts, and demucent, helping soothe and protect irritated or inflamed tissue. The inner bark contains salicin and is a natural remedy for feverrs, rheumatism, arthritis, and diarrhea. This is a stronger medicine and can be very stimulating in high dosages.
A salve made with the winter buds is traditionally called balm of Gilead. There is something in poplar bud that acts as a preservative so mixing some in with some of your own blends will preserve them for years longer than normal.

I hope all that answers all the questions and helps get anyone started who wants to.
cheers
Bina

The grimace more for not quite knowing if I have messed up or not. And when I thought how much work could it be I found out. Making sure I protect up here in the great white north was an automatic. I originally looked at the beaver tail design used by the settlers in Quebec. I also looked at building cob structures and cordwood structures so have a weird appreciation of overhangs, and tarps. Historically and into present day building code situations it all calls for.
Another reason for the grimace all the free labor that I put into making this thing. I hauled in my little car about 15 tons of marble at least ten of which went into the base of the fire pit and I have a labradorite fire pit bottom and hearth front. I will put a ring around the whole shibang with a kind of pergola I have planted arctic kiwis, honeysuckles and some great soapworts. and will add medicinal, culinary, and pollinator flowers as I go may add a couple roses to the side that faces the rhododendrons. I got them for five bucks each and could not resist, they bloomed this past spring/summer a vivid lipstick pink. Will post two sets of photos asap and will keep you posted the debate is between beehive, snail shell, classic dome and conning three artist sons into making me a dragon....

I am not sure if this is the right section for this but I was just thinking that I need to go out and harvest poplar tree leaf bud. Now this can be harvested from fallen limbs etc as well as off the lower branches of the trees, even fallen buds at this time of year are great to use. Another thing I will be gathering is pine, and spruce pitch. In winter both pitch and buds are some what frozen...much easier to deal with.
I will process the buds out in a grape seed oil and leave a few to de-stickify a bit and store them dry-ish in a cloth topped jar. The pitch I will just clean as best as possible and store in a jar. I should also process some in oil as well it works well with willow for pain and mixed in a little hot water is good for the stuffies.
I should mention that I have taken courses and studied edible, medicinal plants, and traditional healing.
Next will be barks, and syrup tapping and making but will wait till things start to warm up just a smidge or a lot which ever gets the sap flowing. I know it is the temps and the light but this will be my first year tapping birch trees, so will keep you posted. I did tap maples when I was a kid down southeast, but birch will be a new experience. Will also gather a whack of willow bark as soon as I see the pussies cause the essential oils are at their height in spring.
I live in what is called the boreal forest or the taiga so the wild medicines that I gather are from these areas. I am trying to plant some other medicinal plants in my garden as well and now I look at my neighbor's yard and have asked if I can pick their juniper berries cause I want to make a great pain oil.... I get that look, a lot. I mean a lot.
cheers
Bina

I need to go and get my skis organized and find my back pack.

Maybe I have a problem, possibly. Okay from the beginning. I finally got the base of the bake oven, fire pit built using re-purposed marble and granite scraps so we managed to get the first 4 inch thick dome done and being impatient we lit a fire in it before the next 6 inch thick insulating layer built and on. It didn't hold heat the way I hoped, it fired okay, but only did one foccacia bread before it seemed to have cool right down.
So has anyone built an oven and am I just being impatient and need to get the next layer on in order to hold that heat before I will get the promised Neapolitan pizza in less than 5 minutes. Right now the whole thing is safely wrapped in a tarp under feet of snow, granted the second it warms up it starts to melt out long before the hip deep drifts that surround it. I have lots of time like until the middle of June at least before it will be time to build that final dome and hopefully we will have argued out the final design. We have had a few weeks of bitter cold and now we are back up around the freezing mark. I will see more minus fifty before the end of the season for at least a week or two yet. We have had a very weird winter....so I will also see how everything settled out over the winter as well. There were a couple of cracks when it was drying but they never really got worse when it fired.
I have heard that some people can judge their oven temps by the cracks....talk to me fellow cobbers it seemed like such a great idea when I picked up the book and said "Sure how hard can it be?"....and then I started hauling rock, sand, clay, mortar and bricks.
cheers from the great white north zone 2b/3a
Bina