Kimberly Gallagher shows us a method for making a homemade fizzy drink. These first two videos are about making the culture (to which you’ll later add flavored syrups to make your drink):
Here she uses her culture to make a fizzy ginger beer (fermented soda/pop):
Interesting, because I know one of the traditional ways to make ginger beer is to grate ginger, squeeze water through it to extract the flavor, add a lot of sugar to the liquid and let it sit bottled (covered loosely) to get fizzy.
Someone who’d seen the video commented that they used honey instead of white sugar to create/feed their culture and that it had not taken a month to get to the right stage for soda/pop making.
Kimberly didn’t mention this, but I assume that there is alcohol in the beverage (but at what level I don’t know) since it was a sugar solution and was fizzing and wasn’t vinegar.
The basswood, also known as the linden, tilia or lime tree has a ton of uses, grows widely (in different varieties) throughout North America and Europe and is easy to identify.
I’d been reading about its use by Native Americans to make fiber and cordage/rope: From NativeTech
“Fibers were stripped from the inner bark of the basswood tree. After long pieces of bark were removed from the tree the sections were soaked to facilitate separating the fibers from the inner bark. Basswood fibers could be used immediately for simple lashing, or the fibers could be dried and stored for future use. Other items made from dyed basswood fibers include tumplines or burdenstraps used to carry heavy loads, fine twined storage bags and closely woven mats used to strain maple syrup. Sheets of basswood bark were also used as winter coverings for wigwams. Iroquois found the wood ideal for carving, the grain being soft and light.”
It’s flowers make a pleasant, medicinal herbal tea.
According to Wikipedia:
“Linden flowers are used in colds, cough, fever, infections, inflammation, high blood pressure, headache (particularly migraine), as a diuretic (increases urine production), antispasmodic (reduces smooth muscle spasm along the digestive tract), and sedative. The flowers were added to baths to quell hysteria, and steeped as a tea to relieve anxiety-related indigestion, irregular heartbeat, and vomiting. The leaves are used to promote sweating to reduce fevers. The wood is used for liver and gallbladder disorders and cellulitis (inflammation of the skin and surrounding soft tissue). That wood burned to charcoal is ingested to treat intestinal disorders and used topically to treat edema or infection, such as cellulitis or ulcers of the lower leg.”
The basswood/linden’s leaves (especially the young, tender leaves), fruit and seeds are also edible.
In the following video Green Deane gives us the low-down on the linden; how to identify it, some of its uses, how to prepare it (he adds young leaves to a salad) — he also points out other edible plants he comes across growing nearby.
Caleb Musgrave in Ontario, Canada who has Ojibway heritage goes even more deeply into the many qualities and uses of the basswood. He says “Very few people look at these trees and think, ‘Wow, you’re really useful.'”
But of course those people would be wrong.
In this video, he covers more of the edible uses for basswood. He also confirms what Green Deane said about basswood tasting like lettuce — tree lettuce.
HerbMentor talks to Lexi Koch in Washington State about how to grow and harvest linden for herbal use (there doesn’t seem to be much to it).
Here Whitney Gerschke talks about linden (basswood) as a useful herb and shows us how to make linden basil ice tea.
Rickvanman explains the purpose of ointments and how to make them. He points out the difference between the aim of an ointment versus that of a cream. He stresses that you must know about particular herbs before you use them.
Rickvanman explains how to make an herbal tincture. He stresses that it is important to know about particular herbs and how they should be used before attempting to use them.
When most of us think of medicinals we think of herbaceous herbs, but Dave shows us how we can effectively use the trees all around us (even in cities) as herbs.
This is a really informative series of videos by Dave Canterbury of the Pathfinders Wilderness School in Ohio. Dave seems like a great teacher.
These videos are focused on trees of the “Eastern Woodlands” but luckily many of these trees grow widely across North America.
Don King of theMushroomHunter.com in Ohio talks jewelweed, a wild plant that is often found near nettle patches. The seed pods taste like sunflower seeds, according to Don, and can be used to stop the itching from insect bites and irritant plants (like the nettles who are often their neighbors).
Puma talks about the many uses for pine resin and pine needles. He says “A lot of people don’t know how many uses there are for a pine tree.”
Even more uses of pine trees from thejourneyoutdoors in Michigan. He emphasizes being sure of your identification of the trees before you even think about eating from them.
The Real Know How 