I recently came across this delicious and healing recipe for dandelion syrup. I have made dandelion wine before so I know how many dandelions you need to pick for such a recipe. It is best to have a lovely field with no dogs or pesticides anywhere near it. It is a lovely way to spend a spring day, picking lovely bright yellow dandelion blossoms, and preparing them to make syrup or jelly. I found this recipe on Ewa In the Garden’s website, she gives a good description of the wonderful properties of dandelion for detox, plus lots of lovely photos showing the various steps for preparing the syrup. I have changed her recipe slightly to use honey instead of sugar. Please follow this link to the original recipe.

I recently posted about the benefits of miso soup in cases of radiation poisoning. Miso soup is easy to make and is extra beneficial when made with the Japanese stock dashi because of the kelp (kombu) that is used when making that stock. More information on how to detoxify radiation poisoning and other toxic conditions here.

Variations of dashi can be made with only kombu or with an addition of shittake mushrooms. Kombu dashi has a lot of iodine from the seaweed and is helpful if you are exposed to radiation. The addition of traditionally made hatcho miso to your dashi stock has quite powerful radiation detoxing abilities. But commercial miso has also been found to work as well.

Saurkraut made with kefir grains gives you kefirkraut! Originally developed by Dom, please check out his site: Dom’s Kefirkraut in-site for a full description and history of the recipe. There are lots of other great recipes and interesting resources over there, which I am sure all the fermentation fanatics out there will really get into.

Well I’ve been feeling a bit bad about not posting many recipes lately, so I just wanted to share this one. Recently we’ve started adding juices to our kefir–yum! Very easy fresh and full of friendly enzymes, probiotics and vitamins.

• 3 apples
• 3 medium carrots
• 1-2 inch piece of ginger
• 1 c of freshly made kefir

I was having some trouble with cyclical vomiting syndrome for a couple years and perhaps as a result of that I have holes in my teeth now which I have never had before. This year I am focusing on remineralising my teeth, so I will be posting ways to get more dietary calcium soon too. In reading about remineralising your teeth I came across some information that indicated that glycerin might actually damage your tooth enamel. Most of the herbal toothpastes that I have been using over the past couple years have glycerin in them. I have never had a filling and prior to these recent health issues, I never even had a hole in my teeth. Over the last couple years I switched to herbal toothpastes, so it is possible that the glycerin could have caused additional damage.

It seems the jury is still out about the glycerin, but I am not taking any risks, therefore I have started making my own tooth powder. I have been using it for about a month now and things are going pretty well. I combine this with oil pulling for two weeks out of every month. While on the GAPS diet when going through detoxification processes it is common to get really bad breath. The oil pulling helps a lot with this and I have also gotten in the habit of carrying a little case of fennel seeds with me wherever I go in case of emergencies.

This is quite a lovely idea for people who make their own yogurt at home–a herbal infused yogurt. It is VERY simple, yet exotic–using only milk, yogurt culture and your choice of aromatic herb(s) or spice(s). Some delightful herbs I have used are keffir lime leaves, lemon verbena, rosemary, mint, jasmine, lavender, rose, but I am sure there are many others that are fantastic as well. It is good to think about what you will be using the yogurt for, and what herbs go well with a sour flavor. Generally I strain it in to cream cheese and make it into a dip or use it to make cheesecake or other baked items, but it is also fantastic as yogurt. A nice rosemary yogurt added into a carrot and lamb stew is a very delicately delicious addition to a potentially heavy meal….

This simple, but amazingly effective traditional remedy is easily made from common household ingredients and will reduce bruising, inflammation, boils, abscesses, sprains and tension headaches.

Cut brown paper up into fat strips. The size will depend on what area needs the poultice. An ingrown nail, for example will only need very small strips, and a sprained ankle will need longer strips. Bruise whole fresh sage leaves (use around 5-10 large leaves) by pounding them lightly in a mortar and pestle or using a rolling pin to flatten them. Do your best not to break or tear the leaves.

Although my partner grumbles and complains to high heaven about the smell while I am making kimchi, he usually eats it up and wants more. I have taken out the chilis for this recipe of kimchi and added in burdock root, so it isn’t by any means an authentic Korean kimchi, but we like it. It also makes a quick salad when added to steamed broccoli and sunflower seeds, then tossed in olive oil (Recipe).

Makes about 2 quart jars (depending on size of cabbage)

Brine:

• 1 litre filtered water
• 4 T himalayan or sea salt

Vegetables:

• 1 medium napa cabbage, shredded
• 6 medium organic carrots, grated
• 1 large daikon radish, julienned
• 3 medium burdock roots, julienned

Looking through a little book by Phillip C.S. Fong written in Pidgin English, Papua New Guinea Igat Gutpela Marasin Tu, I discovered a hiccup cure. Papua New Guinea’s Pidgin is an official language, although simple and based on English, you may find you can understand it if you look at it long enough! Or just read it out loud and suddenly it will start to make sense! One tip is that you generally pronounce ‘e’ as ‘eh’. ‘Save’ for example means to know and the last e is pronounced as ‘eh’. ‘Me no save’ for example means ‘I don’t know’.

Marasin Bilong Hiccup (Medicine for hiccups)

Em is save wokim nek bilong you krai olsem HUK, HUK, HUK, na i wok long mikim yu olsem tasol. Na sapos em ino malolo long mikim yu olsem long tu o tri wik, em iken kilim yu.

(If your throat won’t stop hiccuping for two or three weeks you can die). Side note! My pidgin isn’t that great, so there is probably a better translation possible, but you can get the gist…

Rose hips can easily be made into a vitamin C rich tasty spread. I make this recipe with dates and apples to sweeten the rose hips. It is best to cook rose hips even though heat breaks down vitamin C. There is also an enzyme in rose hips that also breaks down vitamin C very quickly which is neutralized by heat. Therefore it is important to cook the rosehips long enough but not too long!

I like this method because it can take a really long time to clean rose hips individually and remove the hairs and seeds from them. Simmering them and then straining them through a moulie or sieve helps this process to go faster.