Tag Archive | vinegar

Apple Cider Vinegar

Sep15

As we move towards autumn I notice the smell in the air, the light cast by the sun, and colour of leaves take on a distinct change. I can’t believe the Autumn Equinox is just a week away— a sure sign of deepening into the the fall, which will certainly draw me more internal. Since childhood, there is no sign more telltale that autumn is here then apples ripe on the tree. And apples ripe on the tree indicate it’s time to make apple cider vinegar, one of nature’s most powerful healing elixirs and one of my favourite autumnal home garden projects.

Apple cider vinegar is so easy to make, and each time I do, I think back to the thousands, possibly millions of generations of people who have been doing so, and I find myself drifting into a distant memory of how our ancestors first came to understand its countless health benefits. With a natural acidity, it proves to be an antibacterial, and due to the naturally containing “good” bacteria it assists in breaking down food and is perfect for sorting out upset stomaches and augmenting our infection-fighting medicinal vinegars (read more about those here). Apple cider vinegar makes an excellent hair rinse, especially in the treatment of dandruff or fungus on the scalp and  it makes a fabulous facial toner (for these two purposes, you must dilute with 50% water or else it’ll really sting!).
The National Arthritis Association lists it as a potential remedy for easing arthritis due to its Malic acid content; and it is also listed as a possible solution (some swear by it) for weight loss by breaking down undigested food, balancing blood sugar levels (thus minimizing food cravings), and improving overall efficiency of digestion. And there are plenty of ancedotal claims of people stating it has lowered their cholesterol (it’s natural pectin attaches to cholestrol globules) and even blood pressure. I’ve had many people in my practice try it for eliminating Gout — with success I’m happy to report. How much? Just 2 tablespoons taken a day is the general dose for gaining health benefits from apple cider vinegar. Yes, you can mix it with water and honey to make it more palatable. And you can also add it to salad dressings, veggies and more. Just do not cook it or heat it excessively or else you’ll kill all the good stuff.

Fresh fir needles soaked in home-made cider vinegar for coughs and colds

Apple cider vinegar is also known to relieve constipation, sore throats, coughs, sinus infections, headaches and more. For a more exhaustive list on what apple cider can do for your health, check out this book here, written by one of the “authorities” on the subject, the Bragg family. Personally, I am skeptical of any ONE thing being promoted as a cure-all, and I cannot atest for all of the health claims given to Apple Cider Vinegar. But, I do have personal and professional experience with it easing constipation, dandruff, scalp fungus, sore joints, a myriad of digestive complaints, a skin toner, gout, and decreasing food cravings. And, as mentioned on this blog under Herbal Vinegars in February’s post, I adore it most for serving as one of the best extracts for herbal medicines. It really brings home the concept of local medicine if you ask me!
So let’s get to it: HERE’S HOW YOU MAKE YOUR OWN APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

**If you cannot make your own apple cider vinegar, you can purchase some at your local health food store or natural grocer. However, read the fine print on the bottle and ensure that it is organic and unpasturized apple cider vinegar.

1. Start by either pressing your own apples for juice, or purchase some freshly pressed apple juice from a local farmer. Be sure no water has been added. It must be real, whole, unadulterated apple juice with nothing added or taken away. I have never used pasturized juice, only the fresh stuff right from the farm. Confirm these apples have not been sprayed! It’s important the apples have been drug free.

Apple juice pressed from our apples

2. Defrost your juice if it has been frozen. This is a great way to use last year’s batch if you still have some in the freezer. Next, find yourself  a large, wide mouth jar or earthenware crock. Clean it meticulously. Then dry it, and pour your juice into the vessel.

3. Next, you want to cover your vessel to prevent dust, bugs, or other unwanted particles from entering your cider. However, you also WANT some healthy air exchange for it to breathe. Keep in mind that this substance is alive. Anything that is alive, ferments. We want to assist in the fermentation process by allowing healthy exchange to occur, and for that, we do need some air circulation like anything alive does.

I like to cover my vessel with a tightly woven, very clean and dry cloth. I tie it with a string to fasten it, and as always, I date the cider so when it is done, I know how long it took to get the right taste and acidity to my liking.

That’s it! You do not need to add anything to it. The next step is just to let Nature do her magic.

How do you know it’s done? Taste it. It can take anywhere between 3 weeks or 3 months to get the acidity you like. I find that 3 or 4 weeks usually makes for a good cider vinegar. If you like, you can purchase pH strips from the health food store and test it for acidity. You’re looking for a pH reading below 4.5. However it is not necessary to test your vinegar with strips. Let your taste buds be your guide.

NOTES:

- Within a few days – depending on the temperature outside and in your home — a frothy foam may manifest. That’s ok, it means that the natural sugars are being digested by the good bacteria and fermentation is taking place. You can, with a clean spoon, scoop away the foam.

- If blue bacteria shows up on the foam, it doesn not mean the cider is bad. Again, just scoop it away.

- You will notice clumps of concentrated particles begin to form this is called the “Mother“, and is a positive sign. Do not scoop these away! This is the concentrated good bacteria. Some people prefer to filtre these out once their cider is done, and compost them. This is a personal preference. You can also save these, add add them to your next batch of juice to speed up the process of a fresh batch of cider–however in this case they’d need to be used immediately.

NOW WHAT?

Once you’ve reached the acidity you like (determined by taste or test strips), strain it through a mesh strainer and either compost the majority of the “Mother” or hold it back for a new batch (remember it must be used immediately). Bottle the cider vinegar in clean glass bottles. Mason jars will work, so will wine bottles, or anything else you like. It does not need to be refridgerated; but if you do, that’s okay too. It will naturally age, slowly, over time.

Now, use it in salad dressings, pour it over your food, take in water, tea, mixed with honey, or any other which way you like. As mentioned, my favourite is using it for even further health benefits by turning it into a medicinal herbal vinegar. I hope you find this home project as satisfying as I do.

Enjoy!
Jamie Capranos

More on the Bounty of Nettle

Apr14

I woke early this morning to set out and harvest nettle root from my small but healthy patch of nettles (urtica dioica)

The peak time to harvest roots are early spring while the energy is still residing in the root and pushing upwards for new growth; autumn while the vital energies are pulling back towards the earth to rest over winter; and early morning or late afternoon & evening.

While most of us are familiar with all the benefits of nettle leaf, few pay attention to the remarkable root. Like all mineral rich plants or plant parts, next to eating them or drinking them in an infusion, I like my vinegars. That’s because vinegar (and I mean raw, unpasturized organic apple cider vinegar) is one of the absolute best extraction solvents available.  If you are new to making medicinal vinegars, you can read my herbal vinegar post with instructions on “how to” at the bottom of that post here.  Alcohol tinctures do not do a good job at extracting these minerals at all, however alcohol does do a good job at extracting many other constituents. Vinegar is also an inexpensive and healthy preservative. I will write an entire post dedicated to the health benefits of vinegar at a later date. Now back to nettle root.

Nettle root nourishes the spleen, thereby powerfully enhancing the immune system and “feeding” the blood. For reasons that have yet to be identified, it decreases inflammation from the body, and is now catching on as a popular new treatment for all issues to do with the prostate. That is Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), prostatitis, and even prostate cancer. The root has a powerful affinity to men’s health, and a company has even patented it for male patterned baldness (!).

Once I bring my nettle roots home (and remember to collect at most 1/4 of a plant community so to leave lots to thrive) I wash them well – not peel them – and chop them like carrots, filling a clean glass jar about 1/2 – 1/3 full of roots.  There’s no rule around proportion. You can fill your jar to the brim with roots. It’s really a matter of how much root you have, and how intense you want the taste. I do it both ways depending on how much root I collect.

Next I cover with apple cider vinegar. It’s inexpensive to buy, and incredibly easy to make yourself. When I write my post dedicated to apple cider vinegar I’ll go into more detail around how to make it. Basically, you leave juice in a wide mouthed vessel to stand until it turns to vinegar. Seriously that’s it!

Here’s my earthenware crock with vinegar in it. As you can see I go through a lot of it as I like my medicinal vinegars – such practical medicine!

Next cover your herbs with the vinegar

and don’t forget to label your medicines! It’s good practice to include the latin name. Date and location are also important.

Store away from direct light and shake daily for a week. Also important is to admire its beauty, reflect on the miracle of nature, and each time you shake it infuse it with good energy and intention for how you’d like it to help you and your family - that’s the magical art of herbal medicine!
Enjoy!

p.s. please feel free to share this post with friends, family & neighbours or “share” below via facebook.  Instead of emailing me, please leave your questions / comments below where it says “leave a comment/reply”. Thank you!

Green Blessings,
~ Jamie

Herbal Vinegars

Feb23

 There is something special about spring that plants a flutter in my heart. It’s more than just the inching forward of longer days, the warm sun, and varied shades of green. This season speaks of the great potential that births a bright future. The possibility of all the exciting things I can plan and anticipate. Seeds to germinate; life to watch grow and thrive, greens to harvest, and fresh herbal medicines to make.

In one of my recentAlchemy of Herbal Medicine classesI was sharing my love of trees with my wonderful class of 14 students. Along with being majestic, trees function as the respiratory system for planet earth and are therefore essential for our every breath of life; plus they provide food, shelter, and warmth through firewood — and offer exceptional medicine for the treatment of coughs, colds, aches pains and healing wounds.

Since the age of 17 I’ve been appreciating the virtues of trees as medicine, especially those that are a member of my favourite family, the Pine Trees (pineaceae). Now a transplant to this coast and still a lover of the pine family I’m using what is abundant and in my very backyard, that is Douglas Fir (pseudtostuga spp.).

It’s medicinal uses are many.

The leaves (“needles”) can be chewed to soothe sore throats; brewed into tea for coughs, colds, sore throats; stomach pain from indigestion; arthritic joints; bladder infections; and an antiseptic mouthwash. That “pine-like” fragrance is due to those powerful essential oils that work as an anti bacterial, an anti fungal, and a general well rounded anti microbial. It’s particularly high in Vitamin C, giving it another lovely boost for immune support.

My favourite way to use this tree medicine is as a medicinalvinegar. Vinegars excel at extracting vitamins and minerals. They are also great for those wishing to avoid alcohol, perfect for children, elders, and are generally user friendly. Splash some on your salad, rice, veggies. You can also use fir vinegar as a hair rinse for dandruff, as a disinfectant for skin wounds, and use it as your daily vitamin C dose every morning in some water. Enjoy the bounty of this land.

Here’s how to make your own Douglas Fir medicinal vinegar (or any medicinal vinegar):

With sharp scissors, cut a few small branches of Douglas Fir, needles, tender small branches and all, into a wide-mouthed mason jar.
Fill this jar with raw organic apple cider vinegar. Cover with a tight fitting lid. Vinegar can rust metal lids. I line my jars with wax paper to avoid this.
Label your vinegar including the name of your plant, the fact that its vinegar, the date, and even the latin name.
Shake your vinegar every day, for a week. After one week allow your vinegar to sit for 5 more weeks (six in total). Your vinegar does not need to be refrigerated, just let it sit in a cupboard or on a shelf for the 6 weeks.
Once the 6 weeks are up, separate the plant matter from the vinegar, strained through a cheesecloth or strainer, and store in a new bottle.
Compost the exhausted plant material.
Now you have your very own medicinal vinegar! Rewarding isn’t it?
Don’t forget to label your vinegar, I suggest using the latin name as well as the common name, it’s good practice. Remember to include the date, common name, and the fact that it’s vinegar.
Use: Pour it over steamed veggies to taste for improved mineral uptake; use it as a base for salad dressings; take a tsp or tbsp for a sore tummy and to ease digestion; splash some on a mild sunburn or steam burn; a splash on your face as a toner (this is what our great grandparents did before the commerical stuff….The famous Queen of Hungary Waters were herbal vinegars); and use it in food anywhere vinegar is called for.

Questions? Comments? Please contact me through leaving a comment below.

Green Blessings & Enjoy!