What does Survival look like? Would we survive if we had only nature to sustain us? Has modern society lost the life skills that kept our great-great-greats alive? Have our first world lifestyles mollycoddled the basic knowledge of food and medicine? Do we still have the instinct - hidden and dormant - to truly live off the land? In the recent weeks I have been troubled by our ignorance of basic survival. Animals know instinctually what to eat - or not! Us? Foraging is so much more than picking pretty wildflowers or taking photos of unusual bark. There are a select few local people that retain something of their ancestors knowledge of medicinal plants. When I started researching I was overwhelmed by the amount of veld vegetation that is both food and medicine. The important thing is to know which. Your life could very well depend on it.
In nearly a decade of my love relationship with my goats their browsing habits have fascinated me. Little did I know that a lot of their favourite snacks are highly medicinal, for humans! A thorn tree? Really? Me nibbling the tender leaves between all those nasty thorns? Those bright green clusters of the parasitic creeper hanging in the thorn tree that increases goat milk production; a powerful healing herb, for humans? And all the delicate little succulents that cover the road sides and pop up in the most arid and rocky terrain, a natural anti-depressant, for humans?
Thanks @riverflows for triggering my interest in an Oxymel, earlier this year. I was intrigued for weeks. Should've asked dr google - duh! And then last week my feed blasted off like a tsunami. @theherbalhive dropped the Oxymel bomb. Do a Herbal Experiment. I'd already had my nose (out of joint) in various veld medicine books and enquiring of the oldies who still remember veld medicine. So what is Oxymel? The simplest explanation I found was from ancient Greek oxymeli meaning acid and honey. It is more of a fermented herbal elixir. An Oxymel from the veld? I was excited. Then terrified. It seems more appropriate for mine to be a Veld Oxymoron! After all these years of natural healing it is as though I'm only just beginning. Like I've been living on the Macdonalds of health. Is that even possible?
Over the weekend I packed a picnic and told the BuckarooBabies we were going foraging. With the goats. "Are we going to make FOOD?!!" They gleefully danced around me. I was more nervous than I let on. It's one thing to use tamed herbs; wormwood, coriander, rose geranium, wild garlic, tumeric. But foraging from the wild unknown? Frankly, I was terrified. After reading the Oxymel post I took days to decide what to pick. Sutherlandia is indigenous to our area. That's easy. The magnificent Protea flowers make an amazing cough syrup - so I'm told - but they only bloom in winter. Aloe ferrox would of course be cheating because everyone knows it is my go-to most days.
Eventually my goats helped me decide. I chose bark from our beautiful Acacia Karroo, the thorn tree indigenous to our area, after which our area is named, Karoo. Various parts of the Acacia Karroo is used for different ailments; from diarrhoea to bleeding to conjunctivis. We were fascinated with the gum oozing from the thorn tree but chose to stick with the veld plants to treat bronchial type conditions as well as having a calming effect. We sliced some bark, which traditionally was used in leather tanning.
See the dark clumps drapped in the thorn trees? I always thought it is a parasitic creeper. Called Lidjiestee - or in English Cape Mistletoe - the entire plant is harvested and used to treat bronchial ailments, including asthma. Apparently the infused fruits remove warts.
My third choice is the pretty Kanna succulent. What is their distinctive property? Sceletium! Although it also has anti-inflammatory properties. After all these years in this area, called Kannaland, I am now learning what a Kanna actually is. The roadsides are covered with them. Look how delicate this perennial succulent is. Those millions of little droplets, are not moisture but a distinguishing bladder cell which glistens. The entire plant can be used to treat stress. Traditionally the whole Kanna was crushed, allowed to ferment then air dried and powdered to be taken as a euphoric aid (but not hallucinogenic). Today we swallow it in as a supplement called Sceletium.
While I assumed this Oxymel experiment would be my first ever, I have made Fire Cider. I guess I was not in class the day I should've seen the heading; *"This is the most well known Oxymel....." The basic Oxymel recipe is a third of your selected herbs, a third apple cider vinegar and a third honey. The hardest part was choosing what to forage for my Veld Oxymel. My honey is a natural creamer and I battled to dissolve it. I guess we'll just wait for that wonderful natural fermentation and infusion to happen. Once that begins I will taste my Veld Oxymel.
Hopefully it is not an Oxymoron! We're all quite excited about it's efficacy. And based on that making a selection of Veld Oxymel as various remedies. You never know; I may join my goats to forage in the future. Maybe I will have learned far more about survival. Maybe veld medicine will soon become second nature to me. It is invaluable knowledge. Life could very well depend on it.
I have thought about this too, in case we have to survive with the family in the wild: will we make it?
I loved your combination for this preparation, I hope it will be of great use to you. Best regards!
P.S. I loved your goats🐐🥰
Thank you. I love my goats. They're amazing pets. Sometimes my husband says I give them more attention than him!
Thank you for your comment @tere.alv . Survival is an interesting topic - and necessary one to consider
Really a beautiful and interesting publication, from the beginning to the end you manage to catch the attention. Especially for what you say about the importance of knowing what and how to feed ourselves correctly and naturally. It is relevant to understand nature and its natural medicinal power. It's like you say, this can't be about just finding good photos. Your process for Oximel or Veld Oximel, as each name is new to me, can have excellent results. Your jar looks great and this may end well. I love your goats.
A virtual hug ♥
Thank you so much for the compliment @parauri. My goats are very special. They are as much part of the family as most people have dogs and cats!
What a glorious post, @buckaroobaby !! I'm inspired to research Kanna Sceletium in particular, as we have something identical right here in my wee Via, but without the glistening...
My mum used to have goats (I know that their milk molecules are much nearer the size of our own, and so feeding humans on goat milk is much better for our digestive system), and they're such brilliant, intelligent animals - it makes perfect sense that they'd have similar tastes in medicine to us :-D
I love the whole presentation you make here; beauuuuutiful photos, and such enrichment of information... My oxymel journey has begun this morning, with a very simple experiment in rose and lavender, but I'm looking into making my own apple cider vinegar, getting another big jar of local honey from Piera, and investigating other wild herbs here that proliferate! Yum and Yeh!
YAY!! I'm keeping my eyes on my feed for your oxymel. Rose and lavender sounds wonderful. I think I'm going to tackle a simple and tamed herb oxymel. Maybe lemon verbena and peach. We currently have a tree full of peaches. I was quite nervous about the wild foraging but then we also have a lot of toxic veld plants that we have lost some animals too.
Oh yes, my beloved goats, I haven't posted about them in quite a while - I'm quite enamored with my beautiful girls. Wonderful that you already know and understand goats. So few people do. I'm busy with a soap making post. I love their milk internally and externally. Goatie cheese is delicious
I shared it a few days ago, @buckaroobaby : https://peakd.com/hive-141827/@clareartista/first-exploration-of-oxymel-making Here's the link! Aaah, so beautiful to hear about your goats, yes!! Share more! :-D And I love that you're also doing a nice simple oxymel: today I was thinking about the plethora of citrus leaves that grow abundantly nearby, which would make beautiful elixirs and have medicinal value, hopefully! Peaches - YEh! Blessings!
Thank you! Sorry I missed it. Going to peek
This is the first I've heard of oxymel, and I've gone back to river's post, and other pages on internet. It's really fascinating how something so simple can be so versatile with many practical uses. It must be lovely to know what you're doing, what plants to use to make your own.
Edited to explain the Oxymel and add a link. Oops. I spent two days writing and editing and missed the actual explanation totally. Thanks for pointing that out! This was a first for me in so many regards. I was quite nervous. But I'm going to try an oxymel salad dressing tomorrow. With "tamed" plants and not the wild veld variety. Maybe garlic, some coriander and thyme. Easy
@livinguktaiwan , you could do one from herbs or plants that are familiar to you. I imagine there would be some berries at this time of the year in the UK - if you can find some rosehips, they're high in Vit C and maybe combo them with garlic and lemon for a bit of a cold buster? @riverflows xx
Holy knowledge overload! Like seriously, there was so much there! I love foraging, wildcrafting, and self-sufficient herbalism, so you are so speaking to my heart with this post, but I'm serious, you blew it out of the box with all the glorious content.
I had never heard of an Oxymel (have made fire cider though, just harvested some horseradish before the snow and am going to make a fresh batch soon!), and I squeed multiple times over your pictures of both your goat girls and all the glorious local fauna in your part of the world. I've done a little wildcrafting around the farm like Ponderosa Pine Pollen and pine needle tea, etc, but I will wholeheartedly admit that I am way under-educated and would love to learn more.
Speaking of learning more, thank you so much for sharing that info about Kanna! I love succulents, and while I couldn't grow it here in my harsh climate, I am sure I could have one in my bathroom (It could join the other succulent friends there lol). Your Veld Oxymel is so pretty melding in its bottle, I can't wait to read more about your foraging adventures😊
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Thank you for such a sweet and enthusiastic comment @generikat. I must admit I see so many others foraging mushrooms, wild berries and tree gum and it seems amazing. But then I look across the veld and I remember how many animals died horrible deaths, including my first family of Saanen - sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiff - eating the toxic plants and I am nervous.
Some of the veld plants I do know as they are indigenous to us while they are imported to other countries, like sutherlandia, arums and wild cannabis (different to the regular) It's beautiful with orange flowers and leaves like umbrellas going up the stem. That's my next veld oxymel. Maybe next week
Oh I so hear you about the nervousness when it comes to sampling nature's bounty. I am super extra hesitant about mushrooms especially, some of those you don't come back from.
But, that isn't going to stop either of us I think, we are just being extra cautious right?:)
Sorry about your goat family loss, that's heartbreaking. That's also one of the main negatives of livestock care for me, losing any of them. They become like family, and I can totally handle the loss, it's just hard.
Can't wait to see your next veld oxymel (I love that word group soo much lol!). You are awesome!!!
What a sweet thing to read! Thank you. I've been busy with a "safer" oxymel today. Half tame. Half wild. Peaches, lemon verbena and sutherlandia! Even the children are excited. I think I need to pop a chilli in because these oxymels seem rather sweet. As a salad dressing I like contrasting flavours. Guess what I'll be posting today.....
Ooh, that sounds so citrusy and delightful. Although I have no idea what sutherlandia tastes like, but adding a chili to anything always gets a smile out of me, um yum!! I am wandering over to have a look at your concoction now!
Oh gosh this is the coolest ever!!!!!!! Well done you!!!! "Oxymel" is indeed a hilarious word - couple that with veld and it's just delightful. A Voxymel? A veldymel? I can't even imagine how it will taste, but what a grand experiment. Now you've start with them, you won't stop now! Now, are there any aphrodesiacs in the veld? Horny goat weed? :P
And what a duffer for posting in the wrong community -- did you scream? I hate it when that happens. Never mind, you'll have to make it up to us and post some more oxyveldymel experiments in the community. Or, as you said below, a 'tame' one as well!
Loved this so much, and loved the picture of you and the goats!
@riverflows
You've been curated by @theherbalhive on behalf of The Herbal Hive.We support any content related to herbalism, from stories about your relationship with medicinal plants, to wildcrafting, foraging, ethnobotany, plant spirituality & herbs as nourishment, as well as the use of natural products to create medicines such as salves and tinctures. Use the tag #theherbalhive or post from our community!
Community II Delegate II Curation TrailII Discord
Did my husband tell you to say that @riverflows? Horny goats weed? Another eye roll. That was the ONLY thing he was interested to know when I explained about the Voxymel (I like that!!)
Are you going to make it with horny goats weed?
Beautiful photo of your goats. You are right it is very important to learn about natural medicine. Many of us let ourselves get wrapped up in pharmaceutical medicines and let the recipes of our ancestors get lost. Excellent post. Greetings!
Thank you so much @nellyhope. My goats are my four legged kids. Loveable mischiefs
Excellent post. I like how you do the procedure.
I love the pictures.
Thank you so much