Medicinal Herb & Chicken Soup

Okay, so you've heard that chicken soup is for the soul, for a cold, for the flu and for just about everything... BUT not all chicken soups are created equal.  This one has it all covered in my opinion.  We eat this throughout the year but even more so in winter when people around us are sick and we are more susceptible to becoming ill ourselves due to less fresh foods from our gardens or from less vitamin D.  I can proudly say that nobody in my family has been to the doctor for an illness in the past eight years! I believe it is so important to learn to care for ourselves, first by preventative health and second, by knowing what to do in case you do come down with something.  Between the five people in my family we have been sick probably five times (collectively) in the last ten years.  Even when we were sick, we quickly recovered.  The trick is to NOT run to the doctor for an antibiotic prescription.  You can easily take care of coughs, colds, flus, viruses, stomach and digestive issues, and many other ailments on your own.  There is a place and time for doctors, but that is not every time that you sniffle.   Here is one of the many tools I have in my home's "medicine chest" to keep us healthy year round.  This recipe can be tweaked depending on your taste preference or what you have on hand.  Here is what I used today:

• One whole chicken, I took the skin off but added in the giblets for extra iron, and for sure leave the bones.  Slowly simmer the chicken for about 45 minutes before you add anything else so the bones really get the chance to release their calcium and gelatin into the broth.
• Chinese Five Spice which consists of fennel, anise, star anise, cloves, and cinnamon.  Warming herbs that help the body's systems function more efficiently and help circulation.
•  Parsley Boost the immune system by providing important vitamins, including Vitamins A, C,  B 12, and K. Helps flush excess fluid (improves kidney function) and tones nervous system.
• Turmeric Powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, this is a "super-spice" (good for so many things I couldn't possibly list them all here!)
• Fenugreek Balances cholesterol and blood sugar levels.  Nourishes body during illness.
• Fresh Garlic - It is referred to as "Russian penicillin" because it is antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, is used to treat cold, cough, flu, reduce cholesterol and fight cancer to name a few of the many, many things it is great for.
• Dried Rose Hips (Bottom left)- Contain 50% more vitamin C than oranges!
• Astragalus Root (Bark looking stuff below the garlic) Will kick your immune system into action, fights cancer and is good for your heart.  Do not add if you are already sick as it can actually "lock" the sickness into your cells.  It can also "lock out" a sickness and is therefore a great herb for preventing illness.  Also, do no take if you have an auto-immune disease.
• Gogi Berries (Dried red berries) These potent little berries have been used as medicine and food in the east for over 3,000 years!  They have significant antioxidant properties and have one of the highest vitamin C contents of any food in the world!  They are used to treat a wide variety of ailments, I suggest you become acquainted if you aren't already.  I add them to oatmeal, soups, health bars, smoothies, or eat them plain.  PACKED with vitamins & minerals.
• Elderberries- Used to treat cough, cold, flu, viral and bacterial infections.  High in antioxidants... and like a bazillion other uses.  (My favorite herb!)
• Fresh Ginger- Ginger actually has more than 40 pharmacological actions (stuff it can help with, medicinally) it is an anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant, and reduces nausea and other stomach ailments.
• Carrots, Onions, Celery, Kale Hearty veggies that contain many vitamins, minerals, and fiber





 

Before I go on, I can already hear what you are likely thinking... "I don't have all of that stuff on hand!  So I might as well not even try to make this."  (Hopefully that's not what you're thinking, but that is what I may have said).  Don't throw in the towel just yet friends!  You would be amazed at what your common spices can do for you.  Cheyenne, cinnamon, nutmeg, basil, thyme, cloves, pepper and even a healthier salt like Himalayan Mineral Salt can all improve your body's performance and help heal many illnesses.  I'm going to plop this link in here for you just to whet your appetite.  I LOVE this site and magazine, but there are a plethora of other articles on this subject for you to easily research as well. http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/cowell122.html

Option #2 is even better, go ahead and buy these things like Gogi berries, astragalus root and some elderberries (if you can't find them growing around you).  They are used weekly if not daily in my home in multiple applications.  Start to get friendly with these herbs and spices and experiment with teas, tinctures, cooking and baking with them.  You won't be disappointed!  I buy all of my bulk herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs www.mountainroseherbs.com and Monterey Bay Spice Co. www.herbco.com BUT everything that I can grow myself I do, because I like to become very well acquainted with the things that I use and there is no better way than planting it, watching it grow, caring for it, harvesting it, processing it, and using it.  I mean that's all an education in itself, wouldn't you say?  So buy them, plant them, get them from the store, whatever.  But try them for sure.

 

 

Medicinal Chicken & Herb Soup Recipe

 

*(PLEASE if you see something that you don't have, substitute for whatever you do have!)*  If you try something and like it, please share what you did in the comments for us to try too  :)

 

1 Whole Chicken, skin off

6 Carrots, large diced

4 Celery stalks, including the leaves, diced

2 Large onions, medium diced

2 Cups kale, finely chopped

1-2 Inches fresh ginger, slices or grated

1 Head of fresh garlic, roughly chopped

4 Tablespoons dried parsley (double if fresh)

1 1/2 Teaspoons turmeric

1 1/2 Teaspoons fenugreek seed, ground (I use coffee grinder)

1 Teaspoon Five Chinese Spices

4 Astragalus root slices

1/4 Cup Gogi Berries, whole

1/3 Cup elderberries (dried, fresh, or frozen)

1/4 cup rose hips, dried or fresh, chopped

1 cup barley (or other grain)

salt and pepper to taste

coconut oil (optional)

enough water to cover everything in the pot, I didn't measure :/

 

Put the whole chicken in a large pot and cover with water, let it gently simmer for 45 minutes or until almost done.  Add the rest of the ingredients, minus the coconut oil and cover with water again.  Let everything cook together for 20 minutes, the chicken should be fully cooked at that point.  Remove the chicken and let it cool a bit while everything else finishes cooking.  Debone the chicken very carefully and shred it up into bite-sized pieces.  Add it back into the soup.  You can add a few tablespoons of coconut oil at this point, just to get it into your diet, and the coconut flavor that floats to the top is yummy.  In fact you could probably add a bit of canned coconut milk to this recipe and it would be delicious!  I truly hope you enjoy this delicious and very nutrition soup and that it finds you in good health. 

 

 

 

 





Winter Happenings

 

Welcome back to the Good News Herbs (and Wornicov Family) Blog!

Yes, it has been a while, but it was well worth the absence because I now have a new SON to show for it!  It was a high risk pregnancy and pretty much from the get-go I was out of commission, so there wouldn't have been much to blog about except my misery, big hit eh!? 

Welcome to the world Tav Elijah!  Born October 15

 

So, I never really understood why people had blogs, why people read blogs, I mean who gives a rip about what is going on in my life!  However, I have often found myself googling a recipe or something and finding the answer on a blog, that leads to reading a couple of articles that that person has posted and that leads to me actually doing what they posted about.  My family and I are into at least a dozen projects at any given time.  Those projects range from cooking and baking to gardening, beekeeping, homeschooling, cheese making, herbs and their uses in our daily lives, raising livestock,  and a bazillion other random things.  SO, maybe, just maybe I can inspire someone as so many others have done for us.  Thank you for reading this blog, and please comment or question because I would love to hear from you and because I know that we have so much to learn from one another.

 

Here are some recent happenings around the homestead...

HERBS, of course! That is something that never ceases here.  I have been fine-tuning some of my old blends and coming up with several new ones.  I am opening an Etsy store here in the next month or so, so I am getting that all in order.  Packaging and labels have been a pain in the neck, but it's coming along slowly.  Some of my blends that you can look forward to are: Calming Tea, Restorative Blend, Fairy Tale Blend, The Momma Trio- Big Momma, Little Momma and Milky Momma (yep, that's what I said!), Cold and Flu Brew, a Citrus Ginger Yerba Mate Blend and the winter favorite... Roasty Toasty Tea, similar to a chai and great for circulation.

 

 

Some other things I've been developing and tweaking:

lotions and creams, baby diaper balm, tooth powder, medicinal 

syrups, face and body scrubs, throat lozenges, herbal massage oils

and some other things that we like to use in our home and am trying to replace with natural, herbalicious substitues.

I LOVE cooking from scratch, especially when I can find all or most of the ingredients from right here at home!  I also like to make food so chalk full of healthful ingredients that it is actually medicinal!  This soup has homemade bone broth, free-range chicken, hearty home-grown vegetables, lots of herbs and spices including turmeric, sage, parsley, gogi berries, astragalus root and rose hips.  If you had a cold or were feeling something come on THIS is what you would want to be eating!

 

 

 It's important to me to make sure that my kiddos love to eat healthy foods.  This was our New Year's breakfast.  Freshly ground whole wheat pancakes with bananas, cinnamon and kefir added to the batter.  I also made a plum syrup to go with it instead of adding syrup or honey.  Not diet food at all, just delicious and nutritious!

I've been experimenting with ALL things bread.  I have 50 pound bags of wheat berries, rye, spelt, 7 Grain cereal, rice and lentils.  I've been sprouting grains for bread, making kefir breads, sourdough breads, ancient breads, flat breads, and having a blast doing it.  All this kneading is making me buff! I think I need me a kneading machine, phew!  More on all of this later.

Daniel and I butchered a couple of our lambs this week.  What a process!   But we think it is important to raise as much of our own food as we can.  We are also in the process of tanning the fleeces for rugs, there will probably be a post on that process too. 

 

 

 

This momma looooves elderberries!  Every year our family goes out and harvest buckets and buckets of elder flowers for medicinal teas and berries for elderberry syrup.  This year because I was pregnant I didn't get to get out there myself but my husband brought me lots of branches full of berries and I sat on the deck and combed them off.  Now this winter we are keeping healthy with our elder teas and syrup!

MY GOODNESS, the garden was in full swing for months and we had to  harvest, freeze, can and dry the produce as quickly as we could.  It was a constant chore!  Maybe this year will be better since I won't have a big belly attached to me.  We are still enjoying our potatoes, onions, garlic, green beans, canned tomatoes, dried herbs, pickles and even fresh kale from the garden this winter!

 







Crocheting is another hobby of mine.  I had fun making hats and things for the baby and one new hat for each person in the family too.  They are coming in handy now.  It is FIVE degrees outside as I type this



 

 

 This is Benjamin, we raised him from two months old.  The girls always knew he would be dinner and were fine with that.  The other day when we had the s hanging for a couple of days Nadia (the little one) walks up as her dad was removing the fleece and says "Yum yum,  he is going to be so tasty!" Some may think that is gross but I am proud to say that my kids know darn well where their food comes from! 

 

 

 

There will always be lots to post about around here.  I'll do my best to keep it up but this lifestyle is quite a busy one!  If there is something in particular you'd like to hear about let me know.  My post will probably be short but useful (hopefully) so that I can commit to posting more often.  I hope you have enjoyed the introduction to what this blog will be about.  Have a blessed week!



Herbs, Natural Living, Homeschooling, Country Living, Multi-Cultural Family and Pregnancy

As stated in the title of this post, this blog will be cover many things.  The goal is to stay connected with like-minded folk and to inspire those looking for a simpler, more practical lifestyle.  I can truly say that we have been blessed to be able to live our dream at an early age.  That has come with many sacrifices but I always have at the forefront of my mind that we have one life to live, make it count and make sure what it important stays at the top of the priority list.  Easier said than done right?

So things that will be discussed here at Good News Herbs Blog:




A batch of Good News Herbs PEACE FLOWERS tea

• HERBS & NATURAL HEALTH:  I am the owner of Good News Herbs and have been studying herbs for thirteen years.  I am now enrolled to become a certified Family Herbalist and will then go on to my Master Herbalist certification.  My family and I have incorporated herbs into our diets and daily living for years now, and I think in ten years we've been to the doctor for just a handful of visits, and only for acute infections, and usually just for diagnosis and then we take it from there with herbs!  So what is Good News Herbs you ask?  Great question, so glad you asked!  I am a hands-on learner, as are most people.  Over the past thirteen years I have studied dozens of books, websites, journals, magazines, etc. One thing was missing: the experiential learning experience!  So, I conduct workshops and classes that are hands-on or out in the field.  I have a few local Herb Hikes a year where you could come out and walk through the fields, marshes, mountains and streams with me as I go over dozens of medicinal and edible plants.  Much more fun than reading a field guide!  You can take notes, take pictures, ask questions and touch and feel each plant, sometimes even take a bite out of one!  I also attend many local festivals with the Good News Herbs booth where I sell all of the products that I have formulated and handcrafted myself.  This is lots of fun because I love selling stuff that I have put lots of care and love into and then meeting the person who will be enjoying that product.  It's not the same as when I sell online.  I will soon be opening an Etsy store, so I'll post that when it happens and you can all go check it out.  I make specialty teas, salves, scrubs, infused oils, creams, and household products.  I will be posting lost of pictures and videos through this blog so you can learn a little something everyday to get natural medicine incorporated into your daily life.

Our school wall at home that we work from each day.

HOMESCHOOLING:  I have been homeschooling my two children for the past four years or so, they are seven and five as of now.  There are has been so much that I have learned from veteran homeschooler mamas, many with 10+ children that have allowed me to succeed.  I would love to share some of the stuff they have invested into me and my family.  I will share what curriculums I have used and why I did or didn't like them.  I will share the outings and projects that we do, just stuff to keep you (and me) encouraged and inspired!

The first harvest of the garden in 2013

• COUNTRY LIVING:  Okay, I live in the stinkin' middle of NOWHERE, a little spot on the map called Pumpkintown Tennessee, it is nestled in between Lafayette and Red Boiling Springs.  I am from Northern California where I also lived in the country and my husband is from Young, Uruguay (that's in South America y'all, NOT Africa!) He also grew up in a very rural setting and between the two of us we have learned to live off the land quite comfortably.  We can harvest a chicken, we're beekeepers, hunt and dress our critters, milk a goat or cow, make our own butter, cheese, kefir, yogurt, we do a big organic garden every year, grow and harvest a lot of our own food and medicine, can, dry, freeze, cook outdoors over a fire, build and use traditional clay ovens, cook everything from scratch everyday, bake our own bread, make our own wine and beer, and lots more!  I will be posting videos or pics of these things as we do them, again for instruction or just inspiration!

Isabella & Nadia at a pioneer School of Organic Agriculture in Brazil

My husband, Daniel and I in Brazil cooking traditional foods.

MULTI-CULTURAL FAMILY:  As I mentioned earlier, my husband is from Uruguay, so we speak both Spanish and English, we also know a lot of Portuguese because we lived in Brazil for a time and we are now learning Hebrew as a family.  I have learned so much from my husband and have learned to stream-line and simplify life and even my whole thinking process, it has been great!  We teach our children many things of the Uruguayan culture and even got to take them on a two month trip to Uruguay and Brazil so they could really soak it all in.

•  We also are Christians, we believe that Yeshua (Jesus in English) is the Messiah, the Son of God and we have made it a point to learn our true roots as believer, and those roots are JEWISH.  We as Christians are grafted in to the Jewish stock, as a wild grapevine is grafted into the root stock of another vine.  Here Romans 11:17-18 says it best:  "If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches.  If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you."  Okay, pretty important I would say!  So we as a family celebrate ever Friday evening with Shabbat or the beginning of Sabbath, the seven day of the week.  We also celebrate God's Appointed Times which the English Bible translates as the "Lord's Feasts" such as Passover, Feast of Trumpets, Pentecost, etc.  More on all of this later.

My first daughter Isabella at a couple months old (she's 7 now!)

• PREGNANCY: Well as of a few days ago I join the ranks of pregnant mama again.  This will be my third, so I have couple of natural births under my belt to encourage you with, as well as being able to walk through it again, while tweaking a couple of things because I have learned a lot more in the past six years.  My youngest now is almost six, so I've got a bit of a gap, which just translates to "great helpers!". 

So, that is this blog's future in a nutshell.  I hope you find it useful, inspiring, encouraging and through the comments that you leave I hope to learn a lot from you too!  Thanks for reading!

Until Soon,
Alicia Wornicov