Beginner questions

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juliac
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Beginner questions

Postby juliac » Wed Aug 20, 2014 12:10 pm

I am just starting to learn about herbs for healing & am starting with what is beneficial in my yard. How many leaves from the raspberry plants can I harvest? I am in a severe drought so need to be careful. I have a juniper bush out front which is dropping the ripe berries. Do I pick up the brown ones on the ground or pick the large green ones? I just planted 2 lavender plants & rosemary yesterday. I do have some Nanking cherries. Can I use more then just the cherries for jelly? I will cut some roses to dry later. Not much scent but they are what is growing & they have not received many herbicides last few years. I already harvested a lot of garlic & dried it.
I will return to my canning now as the bitterbrush is blooming along with ragweed & am still not feeling well since my allergies got out of control yesterday with resulting asthma this AM. I am staying inside today & not cutting more squash until tonight or tomorrow. Thank you for your help.

Lady Alinor
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Re: Beginner questions

Postby Lady Alinor » Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:14 pm

Hi Juliac!

If it were me and I was wanting to harvest Raspberry leaves and only had a few I would turn the few into a Raspberry leaf vinegar. The vinegar will extract the vitamins and minerals from the leaves. Tasty!
For the Juniper...what do the 'brown' berries look like inside? How do they taste? Do they give you a sense of 'life' or do they come across as 'dead' medicine? If they don't seem like a medicinal how about incense.

(I'm also deep in the season of canning, drying and freezing)

juliac
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Re: Beginner questions

Postby juliac » Fri Aug 22, 2014 4:59 pm

The brown Juniper berry appeared woody inside & tasted sweet but a little resinous. The green one was sour & very bitter. I think that means I need to harvest the brown ones. I will need to find more all natural vinegar. Only have regular apple cider vinegar with no mother. I only use white vinegar for cleaning.
I am trying to dry/can as much as possible due to the cost of electricity.
Thank you for your help.

RoseRed
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Re: Beginner questions

Postby RoseRed » Sat Aug 23, 2014 9:08 am

You can use the apple cider vinegar that you have already.

crowsdaughter
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Re: Beginner questions

Postby crowsdaughter » Wed Aug 27, 2014 10:45 pm

Hi,
One of things I have done with raspberry leaf....to consider for the future....is that when the runners come up in another place outside of your patch, you can cut those to the ground and dry them. If you have just a few raspberry leaves, I say don't pick them. (Unless you really need them.) See if you can find a friend who has a more plentiful patch.
Peace and Gratitude, Julie

juliac
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Re: Beginner questions

Postby juliac » Sat Aug 30, 2014 4:26 pm

Raspberry leaves are picked & in drying. I ended up snipping the end leaf off so I did not take too much off each of my plants.
Crowsdaughter, I might try your method if we go over to a friends ranch to get blackberries/blackberry leaves. I think you live in an area with a reasonable amount of rain & water. While things grow, it is only with a fair amount of effort & only where the soakers are. I know one small town in CA is trucking in water. The branch of the river near my house is completely dry.
Rosered, I am glad I can just use what I have.

juliac
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Re: Beginner questions

Postby juliac » Mon Sep 15, 2014 9:38 pm

I started tinctures Sat with dried yarrow leaves & flowers & yellow dock root. I filled the jars half full & there is not much room for liquids now they have rehydrated. Was I supposed to put less in the jars or are they Okay? Is there any reason other than ease of removal to use wide mouth jars to tincture? I would prefer to use jars I can't use for canning.

Lady Alinor
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Re: Beginner questions

Postby Lady Alinor » Thu Sep 18, 2014 2:36 pm

I tincture in what ever glass jar I come across even Starbucks glass coffee bottles.
When I make tinctures using DRY material I'll fill the jar 1/2 to 2/3rds full then I add alcohol or glycerin to cover...usually I'll add more liquid a couple days later if the fairies have been taking their share off the top ;)
FRESH herbs I'll fill the jar with herb and then add enough alcohol to cover.

If your plant matter is out of the alcohol it is okay to push it down in the jar and add more alcohol.

juliac
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Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:16 pm
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Re: Beginner questions

Postby juliac » Thu Sep 18, 2014 9:44 pm

Thank you for the help. The next group will be in jelly, pasta sauce jars with the non standard lids.


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