Posts by Hebe
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Capture: Getting closer, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Your bees are amazing. I especially like the bumble. We have one who seems to come back every year. He is huge: his name is "the Great Bee".
-
Feed: Saints Preserve, in reply to Richard Aston,
Called Seed, or Weed? And the parenting one: Breed?
-
Feed: Saints Preserve, in reply to Chris Waugh,
Hay fever: my best remedy (out of all the drug/non-drug/vitamin/jiggery pokery of all sorts that I have tried) is one from Dr DC Jarvis, a US doctor from Vermont who wrote "Folk Medicine" in 1958. The book culled his experience and folk medicine remedies that he had seen to work. He was particularly keen on the use of apple cider vinegar, honey and kelp.
A caution for this remedy: definitely do not use if you are allergic to bee products or propolis or cannot eat honey for some other reason.
His hay fever remedy: get honeycomb cappings, or honeycomb (or honey if nothing else). Make sure it is as local as possible (for the pollen types I guess) and raw (unheated). Chew a tablespoon of the wax/honey for five minutes. Spit out the residue. Repeat every hour, for a total of five hours. Repeat three times (ie three five-minute chews) a day, or twice if that works.
I have had miraculous results with this and so has most everyone I have told who has done this. All my symptoms -- running eyes and nose, ear infections, itchy and rashy skin, fatigue (like being under constant assault) went by the end of day one. I start the chewing as soon as the first snivel and prickle appear. I could do it all year with no ill-effects. And it's relatively cheap!
I bought an old copy of the book on TradeMe for $5, so they are easily available.
-
My discovery of early summer: flag making elderflower syrup, lovely as it is, in favour of fresh elderflower water. Less -- or no -- sugar and just as fragrant. Pick half a dozen or so heads of elderflower in the morning, put in large jug with a litre of just-boiled water and some maple syrup or raw honey (or not -- doesn't need sweetening) and lemon or lime juice. Cover and leave to sit on the bench covered for an hour or two, then add ice and enough cold water to make 2 litres. Keep in the fridge and drink undiluted.
Elderflowers are reputed to be help alleviate hayfever. It is easy to grow a few bushes in a wild corner by planting a cutting; they spread easily. In later summer the berries are worth making a syrup too.
The berries and flowers can be frozen whole until you deal with them. It is best to process the day you pick. This year I picked a colander full of berries and left them in the kitchen 24 hours -- they started to ferment and go mouldy in that short time.
-
Feed: Saints Preserve, in reply to Pete,
Aged venison (and this hurts because we've been bossed in trial vegetarianism by the teenagers):
Saw into thick little steaks , or if backstraps (you lucky man) sear whole in hot pan until preferred doneness. Remove meat. Add 1T wholegrain mustard per person, splosh of verjuice/pomegranate molasses/apple cider vinegar, then about 1/4 cup of cream per person. Bubble until thick. Or more healthily, heat mustard + liquid then take off heat and stir in very thick plain yoghurt, heat gently; do not overheat or bubble or it will split. Serve with whatever; especially good in New World bakery olive and garlic loaf, a rough sourdough or a proper baguette.
-
Hard News: Republished: The CTV collapse…, in reply to Matthew Poole,
the first-arriving fire appliance (which didn't manage to arrive until 42 minutes post quake
Hell, the CTV site is less than 10 minutes' walk to the Central Fire Station. That is even longer than I thought it would have taken -- and I'm implying no fault whatsoever on the Fire Service's part. That is how it was that day all over the city.
-
Feed: Saints Preserve, in reply to Richard Aston,
Me too Ben, lawn clippings are a fantastic mulch, put on fresh they seem to burn off the weeds - except kikuyu of course.
Kept away from trunks so rot doesn't set in. And lots of hand-held watering to break down the piles. I have found that lawn clipping mulch also attracts flies, so under windows is not great.
(Hah: gardening threadjack. Come on RB, you know you want to surrrender a corner. We'll leave the Feed alone; promise.) -
Feed: Saints Preserve, in reply to Russell Brown,
Bet you are happy to have harvested before the deluge.
-
Root competition for the lemon tree: I hadn't thought of that. The lemon tree is in a fairly narrow strip between the concrete garage foundation and a dense, old lawn. I could shift a few plants and cultivate a bit more garden bed.
I found an olive brining recipe that I saved years ago: similar to others posted though it stresses that plain -- uniodised -- salt is to be used.
-
Hard News: Republished: The CTV collapse…, in reply to Matthew Poole,
officers, arriving disjointedly (rather than as an organised response) at a complex operation ... went to work on the immediate need
That is the difference between a call-out and a citywide emergency. There was no way of knowing if any of the usual resources -- people and equipment -- would be available.
Was the coroner's call that things should have been done better or that they could have been done better?