The Natural Medicine Cabinet
It's time to harvest roots, leaves and seeds for making natural remedies.
“Your mind is a garden. Your thoughts are the seeds. The harvest can either be flowers or weeds.” — William Wordsworth
Hello Everyone.
This week, I made Fire Cider. It is an old-time recipe with horseradish root, ginger, garlic, turmeric, and apple cider. My recipe is derived from herbalist Rosemary Gladstar, yet many variations exist. It’s a natural immune booster, as the saying goes, a tablespoon a day keeps the doctor away
Herbs and the use of wild plants as medicine goes back 60,000 years when our ancestry had an intimate relationship with plants as part of everyday life. Our current dependence on modern pharmaceuticals has shifted this balance towards medicines that are created in a laboratory. A revival of interest around this ancient knowledge of the plant kingdom, with plants such as St John’s Wort and Echinacea becoming familiar, has also readily as they have become part of our medicine cabinet.
The Shakers were the first to sell herbs and flowers for use as a prevention rather than a treatment. Oils, salves, tinctures, and creams were made from flowers and herbs growing in their gardens; the Shakers were social pioneers, inventors, and craftspeople dedicated to self-sufficiency. During the 1800s the Shaker community was largely responsible for growing the medicinal herbs and flowers used by physicians until modern medicine was invented.
They were also the first to sell seeds for profit, due to a clever invention by Ebenezer Alden, who developed a printing press that would print paper envelopes for seeds and also wrote a growing guide titled The Gardener’s Manual, which sold for six cents. Both proved popular and supported the Shaker communities.
Gardening was a spiritual experience for the Shaker community, a way of putting belief into practice and taking responsibility for creating a heaven on earth. Living close to the land meant they turned their gardens and surrounding woods into a natural pharmaceutical, with a knowledge of wild foraged plants and herbs that were believed to relieve all but the most drastic illnesses and injuries.
A few quotes from the Shaker scriptures are as relevant today as they were 150 years ago. “Work faithfully.” “Don’t Rush.” “Be attentive.” “Know your plants.” “Keep Learning.” Nurture the soil.” “ Take care of your tools.”
Most of us have all the plants we need to make a natural medicine cabinet growing nearby, and once the lifestyle is embraced, a deeper understanding and appreciation for the plants naturally follows. And making Fire Cider is a good place to start.
It takes an instant to whir everything together with apple cider, then a month for it to brew on the shelf. A daily swig is the recommended dose to stave away a cold. My recipe will make an ample amount, enough for yourself and to share with a friend.
From my garden to your kitchen,
Ellen O.
Ellen Ecker Ogden is a Vermont food and garden writer, and author of six books. Her current book is The New Heirloom Garden, with designs and recipes for cooks who love to garden. Available in bookstores everywhere.
Curious about how to turn horseradish into fire cider?
My fire cider was ready in November. I also fermented honey garlic. You can also dehydrate the strained remnants of the fire cider, grind into a powder and add it into your food.
I definitely need to make some more fire cider.
Out of curiosity, do you make yours with ACV you've fermented yourself? (This is sort of a question of theory for me at this point; I used to make my own ACV, and then we moved and this house (apparently) will not allow that kind of ferment to be successful at all. (I try every year.) But when I was able to make it before, I never quite felt like it was "strong" enough to make a good fire cider.