This time of the year, back to school and changing weather all signal one thing: COLD SEASON!

The Sell family is not immune, though we strive to be one of these years. When our family got hit hard just two weeks ago, we felt it out for a couple days to see what we were dealing with. As Ethan and I progressed through the coughs and sniffles, Andy, Liam and Elly remained immune. Within a week, however, Andy succumbed to some sort of cold variation that was completely different than Ethan's and my symptoms.

Within a few days, he was coughing very hard and deep. One day he was laid out completely and that's when we started looking online for symptom descriptions. I found a site on the Mayo Clinic website. There we saw that most of what he was suffering matched up to Whooping Cough, or Pertussis.

A home diagnosis is not as reliable as the sort of diagnosis a doctor's office would give, seeing as they take swabs and samples to verify in a lab. However, given the general public fear of this bacterial infection and the way we've seen whole families quarantined by the county, we decided to play it safe and keep Andy at home. Whenever there is a case of whooping cough, it is blasted all over the news and people are urged to get in right away for the pertussis shot or a booster, especially kids.

We don't believe in vaccinating our kids. As I write that, I realize I'm stating it like a religion, but that's how militant the government and local health authorities have gotten about vaccination. You pretty much have to say it goes against one's religion in order to get a "pass" for your family. That's messed up. One of the minor reasons we are homeschooling is so we don't have to compulsorily shoot up our kids for public school.

Many of you might believe differently about this and that's ok. I'm not here to make converts. Andy and I have simply done some research and looked deeper than the photocopied handouts from the CDC that we always get at each well-checkup. Being spoon-fed anything is not always Truth.

That being said, we didn't want one of several things to happen upon a doctor's visit:

1. Being forced to explain our kids' lack of "up to date" immunizations when it's none of their business.

2. Possibly being quarantined when we have no plans to leave our home anytime soon anyway.

3. Causing a major "outbreak" fear mongering of the media and hospitals.

4. The only thing doctors give for pertussis is antibiotics which we avoid at all costs anyway, since even one dose severely damages the essential gut flora necessary for proper immunities in the first place.

Whew. That was a lot. I'm getting to the point of this post, trust me!

While Andy lay resting in bed, I took a break to look up some herbal remedies for whooping cough and learn more about the infection online. I came across a wonderfully written blog article at Natural Home, a sister publication of GRIT magazine. We love Natural Home for its many eco-conscious building ideas and home accessories. One of their bloggers, Heidi Cardenas, had some ideas for licking the cough right at home with some common household spices and herbs. Her ideas explain the individual benefits of a variety of herbs and spices, each with its own cough-fighting properties.

Here is her link: Natural Home Remedies for Treating Whooping Cough

When I read the short post to Andy, he said..."That sounds a lot like the ingredients for mustard."

And so began our experiment: Mighty Mustard. Below, Andy details the ingredients and prep.

   

MIGHTY MUSTARD 

The flavor is intense. You may have to tweak it based on your level of taste comfort. Do this with water; you want a consistency like a thin paste or a slightly thick mustard. It will be slightly grainy and the onion and garlic will be very fragrant.

Use high quality, organic and raw whenever possible, especially the onions, garlic and ginger as they are the powerhouses of this recipe.

Ingredients 

1/4 Cup turmeric

1 half head garlic, peeled

1 Tbsp mustard

1/4 white onion

1 Tbsp mustard seed

4 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp mineralized sea salt (we use Redmond's)

3 Tbsp fresh ginger (finely grated and compressed)

4 Tbsp Bragg's apple cider vinegar

water to taste/texture

1 Tbsp cinnamon

Add all but water to food processor and blend on high until VERY smooth. Slowly add the water until you are at the desired consistency. If the sharpness is too strong, cut it with another tbsp or two of honey. If it is still too intense, cut it with more water. Flavor mellows with age so the more you make the more palatable it is. Stays for up to a month in the fridge.

Take one tablespoon four to five times per day, or once every four hours when ill. Take as a condiment for preventative care whenever you are well.

The reason we are even sharing this with you all today is because it worked miraculously! Andy wanted to call it Spicy Death Kill because the intensity of the flavors melding together, but he dutifully took one spoonful every few hours washed down with a glass of water. We began this experiment late morning and by evening, he was showing a reduction in coughs by two thirds and when he did cough, it wasn't the deep body cough of the pertussis; it was a phlegm extracting cough. The garlic, ginger and turmeric are all expectorants, as well as anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-spasmodic.

The next day Andy continued the regime and he was nearly back to his normal self with energy, vibrant color and very few whooping-type coughs (though some still crop up).

We are not doctors. We don't boast any sort of treatment background; we just know this worked in our family. It's worth a try in yours. You know ol' Gramps had some sort of ointment or oil he always took everyday and swore by it. Mighty Mustard (aka: Spicy Death Kill) might always be in our fridge as an immune building condiment. Perhaps it should be in yours as well!

PS: Don't be pushed into doing anything you are not sure of. The pertussis vaccine doesn't even work effectively beyond three years and when there have been outbreaks, just as many immunized people as un-immunized were sick with the cough. In fact in some cases, more immunized people were sick than those that had not taken the shot. Food for thought, friends:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/07/30/whooping-cough-vaccine.aspx 

For the Young’ens…or those with no heat tolerance like me! 

This is for my friend Jill, who had a very good question. She asked with the last post if there was a way to make the Mighty Mustard a little more palatable for kids not too keen on eating a super spicy condiment. Unfortunately, the mustard itself gets its kick from the very items that are the most healthy for one's body: garlic, turmeric, ginger and onions. While we discovered that the mustard's strong flavors definitely mellow after a day or two in the refrigerator and continue to mellow every day it sits, the Mighty-ness of the condiment remained far too strong for our children to take it with a smile.

Therefore, I had a backup plan for the kids. (And me!) We haven't seen the miraculously quick results of the one-day of treatment that Andy saw with Mighty Mustard, but we have seen results. As well, there is science behind these simple ingredients and they can be found at most health food stores. We found ours at NDC in Oshkosh for those of you local to the Fox Valley.

Remember, homemade or raw is best when you can get it.

Kid-Friendly Tonic for Cold and Flu

1 teaspoon Colloidal Silver (optional*)

1 teaspoon Elderberry reduction (syrup)

4-6 oz orange or apple juice (preferably fresh squeezed, but whatever you can get is fine)

Mix all three ingredients in your child's favorite cup and serve with breakfast. Tell them it’s a berry orange juice and let them have it. Serve up to four times per day for to 7 days.

   

Above, you can see the brands we found at Nutrition Discount Center last week. Both are super kid friendly and the directions tell you how much to serve based on age. I drank a teaspoonful of the elderberry syrup by itself as it was so tasty but my kids seemed to prefer it "watered down" with juice. Also, they are not sold with child safety caps, probably because it would be hard to overdose on a natural thing like elderberry. Even still, don't let your toddler grab it while you are preparing breakfast. They are smart little buggers and want to do exactly as Mommy does. See below for evidence of Liam's Hitler-esque elderberry experience.

   

Now that you have the recipe, I'll talk a bit on the health benefits of colloidal silver and elderberry.

Colloidal Silver

Much to our amazement, the slightly yellow water is nothing but silver added to water at the molecular level. That's it! But it's been used for centuries as an anti-bacterial agent and for disinfecting medical tools and instruments. When anti-biotics became prevalent in the 1940's, the use of colloidal silver declined dramatically until in 1975, the medical establishment declared that oral ingestion of the silver had no substantiated claims to helping build up immunities and clear out viruses for colds and flu.

*Now I am not medically trained and I don't have sufficient background to refute or endorse those claims. This is why I put it as optional in your tonic. We use it because we have talked to a couple people who have used it to great success in killing off all variations of the sorts of colds that hit people this time of year. Two actually are trained medical professionals and therefore gave us peace in allowing our kids to have a sip of this unique water.

Something to note here is that we swear by raw milk and will always drink raw milk, which has been consumed by humans for millennia. Only in the 1930's did they decide that maybe it might not be the best and then as the the years passed, it became a "serious public health risk." We have done our research on that and have decided to go with the alternative health community and drink to our hearts' content the un-cooked milk product the medical establishment so adamantly abhors. Not everything the medical community deems “worthless” is actually so.

Elderberry Syrup

This is far less controversial and I only looked it up after two moms in my world recommended it for our kids' colds. Knowing a tad bit on the herbal remedies that elderberries are known for, I looked into it further, lamenting that I had missed the season of harvest right here in my area by only a month or two. (Next year, baby!!)

Elderberry syrup alone is known for its ability to treat those with colds and flu, causing their symptoms to subside days earlier than those who did not take the elderberry. It has strong antioxidants and has even been used for anti-cancer properties in patients. Because it is readily available in the northern hemisphere, it makes sense to me that the berry has been used for so many centuries in North America, Europe and Asia for the curative remedies. Even the medical establishment is beginning to green light this one. :-)

Below is a link to a two minute video put out by Fox News just this past March on the health benefits of elderberry. Enjoy!

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1526868241001/health-benefits-of-elderberry/

Autumn is the season for root vegetables. I love growing things underground because they are the one crop the rabbits don't eat from our garden and they are largely protected from insect damage also. 

It's so exciting to tug gently on the greens and watch as a beautiful vegetable emerges from the warm soil. Of course I plant extra to share with the chickens, now that the summer garden is depleted and their supply of lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers has dwindled.

Here are some of my observations regarding feeding root vegetables to our flock:

Beets - YES! Beet greens and stalks are a favorite of both our chickens and ducks and both also like the beet itself. They can eat them raw or cooked.

The ducks have an easier time if you chop or grate raw beets, but the chickens will happily peck away at them as long as I slice them in half.

Beets are extremely nutritious and have blood cleansing properties, so they are a good treat choice for your flock. Just don't panic if you see hot pink or teal poop in the run after a beet-fest!

Carrots - YES! We always have carrots on hand for our horses. We also grow them in our garden. The chickens and ducks love the carrot tops and will also eat carrot peels.

Whole raw carrots should be chopped or grated, especially for the ducks to manage, but cooked carrots are fine for them all to eat in any shape or size.

As an added bonus, the beta-carotene in the carrots will turn their egg yolks a brilliant orange.

I also add carrots to the twice yearly pumpkin seed, garlic natural worm preventative I feed our flock.

Garlic - YES! There is a lot of conflicting information online about feeding garlic to chickens. Although part of the allium family which includes shallots, onions and chives, all of which can be toxic, garlic has natural antibiotic and immune system boosting properties. It also helps repel parasites such as ticks, fleas, mites and lice.

I feed my chicks minced fresh garlic in the brooder. I also add garlic powder to my laying hens daily feed. I have also floated whole garlic cloves in the waterers. In fact, I consider garlic to be one of the foundations of raising a healthy flock. Could garlic be toxic in large quantities? I suppose, but couldn't almost anything?

I can only tell you what works for me and how I choose to raise my flock, and I can tell you unequivocally that small amounts of garlic are not toxic - and are most likely very beneficial.

Onions - NO! Onions contain a toxin that destroys red blood cells. Onions don't have the same health benefits as garlic, so any possible positives gained by feeding onions are far outweighed by the potential for them to be fatal.

Excessive amounts of raw or cooked onion can cause anemia or jaundice in your hens. I never knowingly feed our flock onion, but if they end up eating small amounts, in restaurant leftovers for example, it probably won't kill them.

Bottom line, try to avoid onion in any form but don't worry if they inadvertently eat some.


From our pinterest 'Gardening' board

Parsnips - YES! Parsnips are a nutritious food source for your flock. They are related to carrots and parsley and can be fed raw or cooked. But again, raw parsnips are more easily consumed if they are grated or chopped.

Photo courtesy of 1840 Farm

Potatoes - NO! Potatoes are a member of the nightshade family. The leaves and vines are toxic to chickens. To make matters worse, the skins, especially green skins, contain the toxin solanine. The green color signals higher concentrations of the toxin. The flesh also contains solanine, although in smaller quantities. I feed potatoes very infrequently, if ever, and never any green potatoes, peels, leaves or vines.

Fortunately, solanine is poorly absorbed and rapidly excreted by mammals, so small amounts of potato flesh as long as it isn't green most likely won't be fatal, but potatoes have very little nutritional value anyway, so they aren't an optimal treat. I would recommend refraining from feeding potatoes to your flock, but like onions, if they eat some cooked potato mixed in with leftovers it probably won't kill them.

Photo courtesy of 1840 Farm

Radishes - YES! The chickens will love both radishes and radish leaves. Again, radishes are much easier for the chickens to eat if they are grated or chopped first.

Sweet Potatoes - YES! Oddly enough, sweet potatoes are not a member of the nightshade family like the white potato. They are a member of the morning glory family and do not contain the toxin solanine, so they are perfectly safe to feed to your chickens, along with the leaves.

Sweet potatoes contain loads of vitamins and nutrients. Your chickens will love sweet potato, but like most other hard veggies, cooked or grated is going to be the easiest way for the chickens and ducks to eat them.

Photo courtesy of 1840 Farm

Turnips - YES! Turnips and turnips tops are a great healthy treat, although the chickens have an easier time with them if the turnips are grated or cooked and mashed.

You can also toss a halved turnip in the run and it will keep them busy for quite some time pecking at it or put a whole turnip in a hanging basket for them to nibble on.

As with any new food, your chickens might view these root vegetables with much suspicion and you may have to try offering a particular treat several times before a few brave souls will give it a try. But be persistent and they will eventually dive in!

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK and follow our blog FRESH EGGS DAILY for more tips, tricks and advice on raising chickens and ducks as naturally as possible.

  

I firmly believe in an ounce of prevention.  In fact, wasn't it Benjamin Franklin who said 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure' ?  He was a smart man - and I bet he wasn't even talking about chickens when he said that!

But he was right, it's far easier (and cheaper) to keep your chickens' immune systems strong and healthy and give them the best chance at fighting off illness and infections themselves than to try and treat something after they have contracted it.  Being the ultimate prey animal and being part of a pecking order that preys on the weaker members of the flock, chickens work very hard to hide signs of any illness or injury, so often by the time you see any symptoms, it is too late to treat whatever is wrong.

Because of this, in addition to the layer feed mix  I give to our chickens, I also supplement their diet with what I call the 'Holistic Trinity' of healthy chickens: Apple Cider Vinegar, Garlic and Diatomaceous Earth. 

  

First in the Trinity is APPLE CIDER VINEGAR. 

It's great for their immune systems, guards against bad bacteria and maintains digestive health in the intestines by lowering the pH levels and is an overal health booster.  It increases calcium absorption so your chickens will get more 'bang for the buck' from the eggshells or oyster shell you provide them.  ACV aso acts as an antiseptic by killing the germs that cause respiratory problems - which chickens are extremely susceptible to - in the throat.

  

Add apple cider vinegar (raw,organic ACV with the 'mother' is best, Bragg's brand for example) to your waterer a few times a week, or alternatively one straight week every month. The ratio is 1 Tablespoon per gallon of water.  The ACV will also help keep your chickens' water free of harmful bacteria and algae.  Be sure and use a plastic or stoneware waterer tho. The ACV will rust the metal and galvanized waterers.

I have also started using the generic store brand ACV to rinse and clean the waterers instead of bleach or another commercial cleaner.  I just mix it with water in a spray bottle or pour some into a pail of water.

Second in the Trinity is GARLIC.   Garlic boosts immune systems and it is also thought that mites, lice, ticks and other parasites are not as attracted to the blood of animals who eat alot of garlic. Garlic is also a natural wormer.

  

Garlic can be added to your chickens' diet in a couple of different ways.  You can float whole cloves in your waterer (mashed up a bit), replacing them every few days.  You can offer crushed fresh cloves in a small dish free-choice. Or you can add garlic powder to their feed.  I have tried all three and find it easiest to just add the powder to their feed (2% ratio), but every once in awhile I also give them a bowl of the fresh garlic.

Small chicks should also be offered crushed fresh garlic, free-choice, early on so they develop a taste for it.   A splash of apple cider vinegar in their water is also a great health booster for chicks. 

 

The third in the Trinity is DIATOMACEOUS EARTH (DE).  DE is an all natural silica-based crushed fossil that kills hard-shelled insects.  It kills fleas, ticks, flies, aphids and digestive worms while being completely safe for chickens.   Only food-grade DE should be used around the chickens, because they will inevitably end up eating some.  I  add DE to their feed in a 2% radio.

DE does also kill good bugs and can cause lung aggravation if the dust is inhaled, so take care where and how you sprinkle it.   You can wear a dust mask while sprinkling your coop floor, nesting boxes, around the feeders, in the dust bath area, etc.  

  

I find that one good way to disperse the DE is from a plastic shaker bottle, like the kind Parmesan cheese comes in.  I keep a full bottle in the run and sprinkle it liberally, especially in the summer when the flies get bad.

Bonus health tips !  Plain yogurt with live cultures and black strap molasses are also good to give your chickens on occasion as both have health benefits for your flock.  A weekly serving of yogurt will help keep the good bacteria levels high in your chickens' digestive systems and molasses contains lots of minerals including iron and copper, manganese and potassium, as well as calcium.  Molasses helps flush toxins out of the chickens' systems. 

Yogurt can cause diarrhea so it should only be given in small amounts and conversely, probiotic powder can be added to their feed in place of the yogurt to help boost the good bacteria in their intestines.

And there you have your Holistic Trinity plus something for intestinal health.  The holistic secrets to raising healthy chickens.

~Follow Fresh Eggs Daily on Facebook and also check out our blog: fresh-eggs-daily.blogspot.com for more great blog posts~ 

Autumn is here in the desert and it’s time to plant garlic again. We’re closing the windows on our straw bale house to keep warmth in rather than encouraging those cool summer evening breezes in the high desert. This is the time of year for hot and zesty meals and the time of year that garlic really comes into its own here at the Bear Cave, for cooking and for planting next year’s crop of tasty and healthy bulbs.

           
 

Garlic and onion added to slow cooked pinto beans is a staple here. Spicy bean burros for lunch can happen pretty regularly and make me a happy guy.  Adding garlic to stir fry, marinara sauce made from our garden produce, and salad dressings are just a few of the many ways we enjoy our garlic. Because we use garlic nearly every day, certainly every week, we keep a good supply on hand and make sure we plant and preserve enough to carry through the year. Apart from our belief that garlic contributes to good health, we know it contributes to good eating.

    
 

To ensure we have a plentiful supply of garlic, we always overplant. Last year, we went a bit too far overboard and planted 120 cloves of four varieties. Our garlic loving neighbors thank us on a regular basis. This year, we chose the best three of the four varieties and are planting 90 cloves. Should be more than enough for our use and sharing with friends and neighbors.

    
 

Preparing the bed for garlic planting is pretty straightforward. We spread strained compost over a new bed. We like to rotate beds for planting all our varieties. In this case, we are putting our garlic in last season’s green bean bed.

Recently, there have been larger numbers of earthworms evident in our garden beds. YEA!  To keep from damaging even one of those welcome little critters so rare in the desert, we quit using a tiller and turn our compost in with a spading fork.

    
 

When the bed is prepared, the best of last season’s crop is selected for replanting. Only the largest and healthiest bulbs are chosen.

      
 

Bulbs are separated into cloves until we have 90 of each kind. Care is taken to leave the skin on the cloves intact as they are separated from the bulb.

     
 

Barbara lays out the bed for planting by running masonry string down the middle and laying out a steel measuring tape between the about-to-be-planted rows. She plants our garlic in rows by variety with one row in the center, on the masonry string and the outlying rows midway to the edge of the bed. The cloves are planted 2” deep and 6” apart in the row with 12” between rows.

    
 

In addition to hanging our garlic for preservation, as shown earlier, we also freeze sacks of prepeeled garlic cloves. That’s it, just peel the cloves, put them in freezer bags, and they are ready to add zest to your cooking all year long.  For more on planting garlic in the desert, please visit us at www.grow-cook-eat-beans.com and learn how one of our favorite “bean friends” fares here at the Bear Cave.

Folks at the local garden center in Osage City know that garlic is typically planted in the fall, but they don’t stock garlic-for-growing in autumn because most people in Kansas plant it in the spring. Undeterred by that bit of news, Kate decided it was time to try a few different varieties of garlic next year, and so she spent way too much time on the Nichols Garden Nursery website and ordered too many different garlic varieties to count. The box of garlic has been around for a while … I finally got some of it planted on Thanksgiving Day.

My first task was to till up part of the garden for the garlic. I chose to turn the ground that had been lettuce, spinach and peas earlier this year. The soil was already pretty mellow, but I wanted to turn the chicken-scratched straw into the top few inches. Since I was working a relatively small part of the garden, I used our trusty old BCS tiller. This 8-horsepower Kohler-powered machine is as heavy-duty as they get. It has an all-gear transmission and automotive-type dry clutch. Kate thinks it is hard to start … I will tweak the carburetor some day.

After the tillage, I used a little four-tine hand cultivating tool to create shallow furrows … my lines are only relatively straight. I next placed individual garlic cloves pointy side up in the bottom of the furrows. After I had four rows of garlic cloves placed, I gently pulled and pushed soil into the furrows until the garlic was covered. By then, another daughter and her husband had arrived for the holiday, and it was time to take a tour of the farm and have some fun.

I hope that November 27 is the right time for garlic planting in Kansas. It was about 45 degrees and the soil was still warm. I guess we’ll know come spring whether this effort was worth it.