Birch, Bleeds, & Bread (Troika)

The last two days I've been subjected to low-level torture. It's not so painful it drives me out of the house, but interferes with college. Low-level torture to the metal in my neck most of all but other things and then with the very severe lasering or other energy field, I had such body ache 5 aleve at a time or advil don't help.

I had this idea I was having "bleeds".

Internal bleeding I mean. It says when it happens, there is pain in joints and I was having pain in my knees mainly, and lower back, and shoulders, but most of all my knees.

Then I found out my son is running, but I think someone needs to let him have fun but I worry about him bc I think (know) he has the same blood condition I have.

So I was recently thinking, in addition to making my tincture for prostate, the other idea I had was something all-purpose for cleaning with eucaplytus, but then I was also thinking yesterday, I should make my own anti-inflammatory. That would be a good thing to come up with. So today I was looking at an herbal book for things to use from nature for this, instead of buying anti-inflammatories.

It says "1/2 a pineapple, fresh!" for a food supplement and I hardly think I'll be eating a whole 1/2 a pineapple a day. Might try more, but it also said horsetail and silica but I have settled for birch bark, leaves, and saponins.

I just went to my parents house and at that door were a heap of white sheets. I said, "Dad, are those trees at the back of our property birch?" and he said, "Why are you asking me?" and I said, "Because you know about trees." He said he didn't know and I said, "What about the one by the stream, it's birch right?" I had thought about going out there with a knife and shaving off some bark and my Dad said, staring at me, "Yeah, I think so. White birch. But don't go cutting down trees."

I didn't go back for the knife, but I had almost walked out with one, and then thought, "Don't go to your parent's door with a knife. It doesn't look right." So I didn't and then I decided to just pick off a branch and peel off some bark and now I'm boiling it.

I think I get the gemmotherapy thing with trees, because all the new sap is at these new small budding shoots, they're sticky with sap and have bright new leaves. There must be something about distilling them. Pine bark is good as an anti-oxidant, like grape seed oil.

This book lists red clover, alfalfa, papaya, birch, and other things as anti-inflammatories. I thought I would mix alfalfa with the birth bc alfalfa is good for blood and birch is good for pain and anti-inflamm.

Anyway, when I come up with the better of the ideas and combinations, maybe I'll market it. Just one anti-inflammatory might not be a bad idea but then I realized,
"Cameo, that is medicine. You are thinking of making medicine."

Jane Seymour, here I come. I remember watching Medicine Woman when I was a kid, but I was never really into it. I thought she was pretty, but it wasn't my favorite of all the shows.

Anyway, I've also made my own bread every single day for almost 2 weeks now. I got a 5 lb of whole wheat and I've made small batche each day except today I won't because I used my parent's oven and made a normal size loaf of bread. Before, I made small batches.

Then, after a week of making bread, or more, I asked my mom, "How long do you let bread rise?"

I was making flatbread, vegan bread, and things but then I got a whole jar of yeast and I've been making bread ever since, thinking, it is so easy and fast if I'm at home anyway. But I bought a loaf of sourdough from the bakery the other day before I went on my breadmaking thing. I asked my mom how do you sour bread? because I'd like to make some sourdough. She said you have to buy a starter. So I have to buy a starter.

I made my bread without a recipe, and told my mom, yesterday, "I made this poppy seed bread but I fell asleep and let it rise overnight. What happens to bread if it rises for over 5 hours?" and then I asked how long she rises bread and she said between 1-2 hours and then punch it down and let it rise again and bake.

I said, "Oh! You let it rise a second time? I was doing letting it rise just once."

She said not with all breads, and I said, "I usually mix up my ingredients, and was letting it rise for 1 hour or 1 1/2 hours and then punching it down, and then baking it. I didn't know you let it rise twice."

My mom got this smile on her face when I told her I only let it rise an hour or so and then didn't have it rise more than once. It still doubled and it worked when I tried two different kinds of yeast.

My bread turned out fine, for whole wheat. Good flavor and good toast too. I tried this new butter called "Earth Balance" that's vegan and is a really good butter substitute. I mean, I will definitely buy it again. I tried it on pancakes too, and it's so good.

I just tried my birch tea and it's good.

I had two handfuls of bark from the treetrunk, and pulled off the buds from a new branch and boiled it all for 5-10 (probably 10 minutes) with less than 8 oz. water and made a 1/3 cup of a strong tea. I haven't added alfalfa yet, boiling it separately. And now I will find out if boiling is best (probably not for everything).

At any rate, I went to the baptist church today thinking for a moment about the last one I was at and thinking, "What are you? russian?" because I've been making all this bread (which I ate each day, yes, my daily bread) and it was before I thought to make birch tea, but I have been sending my son these eggs each day and thought, "?" I guess, right after getting the idea to peel birch and make tea, I thought, "And I've been sending my son eggs like some kind of reincarnation of anastacia"

While pulling birch off of the tree, the pen came out of my hair and my hair unwound over one shoulder and it's to my waist and that's what made me think of jane seymour and I wasn't sure if I was vibing jane or ana-the-spy.

The problem with sending eggs, is to be sure they don't break so I have to figure something out for that. There are 12 and I've been tempted to eat one of them but haven't.

Anyway, the birch tea doesn't taste bad and it's not bitter. I didn't add sugar and it has sort of a very tree-like taste. I did a search and found this link and didn't know it's wiccan, but it talks about the use of birch for medicine. I'll find one about boiling too. http://patricia-deneen.suite101.com/tree-medicine-and-magic-the-birch-a185503


Oh, and I ate the leaves, the new ones, after boil and they were very tender, like beet greens or any green you could saute or steam or have in a salad. Here's another link, with some recipes:

http://www.liveandfeel.com/medicinalplants/birch_tree.html

I have been reading this stuff while listening to a thing on radio about resurrection. It's 5:23 p.m.

I felt a lot of good energy while singing today in church. Especially in the second set of songs, all at once, and shaky from it sort of. Through all of it, but I feel power, and the presence of God, in music and song. The pastor talked about Chariots of Fire and how the runners felt God when they ran--I did sometimes, with running, but most of all, when I sing. I can listen to music of all kind, but if I am singing with my voice to worship God, I feel God's presence.

I mean, not in the same way, all the time, but more often than not.

Anyway, it was a good service. I woke up early this morning with an idea of having "seen" people in church singing and I got up after lying there to think about it, and turned on the light to see what time it was and it was a little after 4:30 a.m. and I got it around 4 a.m. They were all standing and singing a hymn or song. It had more of a structure of a hymn. So I then went back to bed and wondered who was in church singing a song at that time. It wasn't a dream, I maybe woke up and then got the impression but I woke up and then I saw it, and laid there for awhile and decided to see what time it was. Over there, wherever it was, it wasn't dark like early morning coming from the night, but bright daylight, whether it was dawn or later in the morning. I only saw the people around me, about as far as a few on all sides and in front.

Anyway, back to the tea, I added alfalfa to the birch tree pieces and it's not bad. The flavor is less grassy because of the more astringent birch, but it also gives the water a slightly slippery feel, like martini dry or wet, the alfalfa wettens the texture.

I read some articles quickly and the pharmaceutical industry is lately using birch. I used parts from the White Birch, not the Paper Birch.
http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/HerbsVitaminsandMinerals/white-birch

This article mentions xylitol as a birch product but I would not include it in the medicinal category as it also includes other substances that are less safe (in my opinion). I would go with a tea or tincture. It says not to mix with aspirin bc it has many of the same qualities as aspirin, and compounds, so if it's a blood thinner, it would be a good idea to use it with an herb that acts as more of a coagulant or is protective for internal bleeding disorders. Horsetail works that way (as a coagulant, purifier, and is a bone builder) so I wonder how birch and horsetail would react with eachother.

If you're going to gemmotherapy with White Birch, they recommend April-May as this is when the tree is budding.

I looked up chemical compound and it is similiar to aspirin because it has sacylic (msp) acid. That's what aspirin is made of. Another herb with this chemical is wintergreen. I think they can be used for different things.

Basically, for something like an anti-inflammatory, it is maybe not something I'd make a business out of, but it's nice to know you can use something from your garden rather than buy it from the store. It's safe, convenient, and a free painkiller.

I wouldn't market a tea but if I were going to the trouble of gemmotherapy and tinctures to isolate a highly desired chemical compound that pharmaceuticals charge an arm and leg for, I'd charge. So if I ever get into gemmotherapy, outside of my one tincture idea, I'll let you all know and get certified organic first.

A lot of the gemmotherapy can't be done without grain alcohol unfortunately. Some chemicals can be pulled through water or oil or cider vinegar even, but there are others that are resistant and are only released through an alcohol base, which I don't like in case I want to extract the same compound for an alcoholic. Which, I'm not doing right now, but it's better for some people to not even have a small amount through tincture. And so far, grain alcohol is the only available method outside of owning your own pharm lab (not in my future plans).

Like the lady said, 'troika's a charm'.