Life on a little urban homestead in the making, with ideas for self-sufficiency, Permaculture, DIYing, organic gardening, food preservation, Chicken keeping, cookery, crafts, thrifting and more...

Jul 11, 2012

Native American Ethnobotany Database, The Shelf That Keeps on Giving, One Lovely Blog Award, Thrifting

Native American Ethnobotany Database-
For those of you who like to forage or know more about the medicinal benefits of plant and edibles, here's a great site I stumbled onto- Herb.umd.umich.edu  This database is a wonderful resource for searching out relevant historical information about many foraged/wild foods, and their uses and benefits. You can find out info about a weed in your backyard, like berries, lambs quarters, etc. There are citations for each separate benefit (so there maybe several per search) well as a link the USDA Plants database. Here's a citation for raspberries:
Rubus parviflorus Nutt.
Thimbleberry; Rosaceae
Bella Coola Food (Preserves)
Berries cooked with wild raspberries and other fruits into a thick jam, dried and used for food.
Turner, Nancy J. 1973 The Ethnobotany of the Bella Coola Indians of British Columbia. Syesis 6:193-220 (p. 209)
Plantsusda.gov

and lambs quarters:

Chenopodium album L.
Lambsquarters; Chenopodiaceae
Carrier Drug (Blood Medicine)
Decoction of plant taken to improve the blood.
Carrier Linguistic Committee 1973 Plants of Carrier Country. Fort St. James, BC. Carrier Linguistic Committee (p. 86)


The Shelf That Keeps on Giving-
A few weeks ago we bought an ugly brown thrift shelf for some vintage display items in the kitchen. After I did 2 coats of white paint we realized- it was 1/2" too narrow. Then I painted it the wall color as I thought it would look more cohesive. Then we realized the boards were warped. And twisted. OMG, I should have spent the $$$ for new wood! I am so done. Anyway, Dave & I adjusted it and it finally looks pretty good. Nothing in a 25+ year old house is level and square anymore anyway! It's as level as can be and there's a shadow on the right so... ta da!!!


One Lovely Blog Award-
Reminder- if you won the One Lovely Blog award from me you need to: share 7 random things about yourself and pass it on to 10 other lovely blogs. I know you're all busy, but do it when you can!

Thrifting-
Haven't done much lately with the heat, but I did get a great movie on DVD for $2.00, three cute cheese spreaders for 25 cents each. One says "fresh asparagus", another "celery 10 cents", cute. I'll take them camping soon...
and this cute little oil lamp, which works!

Stay cool wherever you are!

4 comments:

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Thanks for the reminder on passing on the award.

Unknown said...

Sure, I know everybody's busy :)

Candy C. said...

Me too, thanks for the reminder (sheepishly). :)
Thanks for the link to the website too!

Unknown said...

Sure, I know several of you do wildcrafting with jams, jellies, etc...

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