I got schooled

Yesterday I got a lesson in medicina verde Nicaraguense from Doña Goya, a lady from Nueva Vida. We made the general health syrup known as Miel de Jicaro (jicaro is a calabas) which included the pulp of 4 jicaros, oregano, dulce negro (sugar cane/molasses type sweetner), lemon grass, cinnamon and rum. It smelled delicious. And it tastes delicious.

Doña Goya cracks the jicaro and gets all the pulpy goodness out.

Everything goes into the pot and we stir a lot.

While the Miel de Jicaro was cooking, we also made Miel de Carao. This is good for anemia, the lungs, general upper respiratory health as well. Carao is the bean pod of the Cassia grandis tree. In this remedio we put the pulp of the bean pod in a glass jar along with sugar and rum. Today I have to go and add some cinnamon because we ran out. At this point Doña Goya made fun of me because I didn't buy enough cinnamon, but more than plenty rum. Well... oh well.

Doña Goya serves up the rum.
This concoction will set for 6 days, and then it is ready to serve. To use this stuff just warm a bit of milk up, pour in a little of the happy juice and eat a bit of the pulp. Sounds great.
Once the other remedio was complete, Doña Goya poured it into our giant glass vessel and it is ready to go! Tasty.

Neem!

Back when I thought I had scabies (that was a rough time for me) I started researching a natural treatment for la sarna (scabies). Scabies is a skin parasite, little tiny bugs that burrow in the skin, especially in between the fingers, on the wrist, back of knees and groin area. Evidently it gets to be a big problem here in Nicaragua during the invierno (which we are approaching right now) and the only treatment the clinic offers is a very harsh chemical soap. So a gentle sarna treatment is what we needed. Through several books, websites and conversations I came to the conclusion that a treatment of neem, tumeric and onion skin would be the perfect solution.
Neem (Azadirachta indica) trees are amazing, and at the center of several intellectual property rights disputes in India. The tree is indigenous to subtropical Asia and has been used for forever in various applications in India as almost every part of the tree can be used. The wood is soft and antimicrobial and therefore the branches are snapped off and en vez de toothbrushes. The leaves can be used as an organic insecticide, which is what I will be doing for the scabies treatment. The neem leaves are gentle enough to use on even the most sensitive skin as both a scabies treatment, mosquito repellant and general skin treatment. The fruit and seed of the tree are often pressed into the luxurious oil which is used in India as a hair beautification treatment.
So in my sarna treatment I am planning on making both a soap and a cream. The cream will go on the body and left to dry, then washed off with the soap. The soap will be made with a neem infused oil (when I made this the neem really infused the oil, and it smells of garlic butter), some neem oil, onion skin tea, and lye. The cream is to be made with crushed neem leaves, tumeric and glycerin (a by product from our biodiesel project!).
I am very excited about this neem treatment as neem is absolutely EVERYWHERE here. I am going to cosechar (harvest) some neem leaves and seeds today and start drying the seeds in my new solar dryer. When I leave the JHC I hope to have enough dried neem seeds to last them until next May!

P.S. I didn't have scabies after all. Just an allergic reaction. It cleared up, I'm fine now.

Photo tutorial

So... here is a little thing I put together entitled "How to make an herbal syrup (the folk method)"
So step one. Gather herbs and wash them. I gathered some lemon grass, oregano and basil. Yum.

Chop them up really well. You want as much of the juices flowing as you can get.

Put them in a jar with a lid. A glass jar is best. Add enough water to just cover your herbs. Measure the water first so you know how much you put in.

I let this soak for a bit. Only about 30 minutes. Then you add sugar. Double the amount of water.

Shake this up reallllllllly good. This might take a bit depending on how much sugar you have in there. The sugar needs to dissolve completely. If you did the measurements correctly this will happen in time. You just gotta be diligent. This part usually takes a few hours because I like to let it stew a bit. And shake a lot. Stew and shake, that is what you gotta do.
When it is completely mixed, we gotta strain all the herbs out. It is best to do this the folk way as well. Get some cheesecloth, muslin or unbleached organic cotton (this is what I use - scraps from the womens sewing coop) I put a scrap on top of another jar and pour the herbal mixture into it. Let it all drain and then squeeze the rest out. The stuff left in the cotton is called the marc, or, really tasty sugared herbs. Yum, once again.

After it has all strained out, you have herbal syrup! I usually let this set over night and strain at least two more times. This way I can be sure all the plant bits that will ferment are out.

Once you are sure it is good to go, package it up! Amber glass jars are the best. They keep the light out and temperature good.

Tada! And of course, here is a picture of me and my work station.

And my full line up of products as of this morning.

The end.

Bru-haha

I think I totally moved into the clinic today. I took over all my macerations (I have a oregano and vodka, oregano and vinegar and basil and vinegar processing right now), all my tools (one knife, one cutting board, a funnel, a strainer, a bottle of vinegar, two shot glasses, and a glass bowl), ALL of my books (too many to list!), and my notes. Tomorrow I will be taking over my experiment of chilie infused oil (to make a salve to help out arthritic pain) and my recently gifted electric kettle. Over at the clinic I have arranged all of these items along with a piedra de moler (mortar and pestle) and assorted tables along one wall away from the gynecological exam table. I am in the room that was originally slated as the birthing room, but since the community wanted dentistry and optology over women's health, I am there. Tomorrow I am told that Rogelio will be bringing over a makeshift counter space, which very well might be an eight foot long door on top of two sawhorses. I am very excited. I will be meeting with one of the doctors tomorrow to talk about what plants are ready for harvest and use as is. I am nervous about this. Soon, I will actually be seeing patients and dispensing medicine! Anyone who gets herbal medicine will also get a follow up visit with me so I can chart efficacy and respnose to taste. I am incredibly excited about this. If I were still in school, this would make for a perfect thesis project. Perhaps I will collect my data and publish, haha. I am also working with an old friend (from Earthwatch!) who just recently did a project in Bolivia. He was working to put solar ovens in the homes of Bolivians in order to eliminate the harmful smoke of cooking fires. I contacted him because I realllllllly need a dehydration system for the herbs, and a solar dehydrater would be ideal! He sent me a lot of info on the matter and hopefully we can soon work out some plans for a sweet solar dehydrater. I will keep you updated on that. Now, time for card playing?