The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Medicinal Trees, Paper Mulberry, Hornbeam and Hickory

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Today, I tell you about 3 very useful trees, discuss bicycles and barbecue.The Spring Foraging Cook Book is available in paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRP63R54Or you can buy the eBook as a .pdf directly from the author (me), for $9.99:https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-spring-foraging-cookbook.htmlYou can read about the Medicinal Trees book here https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2021/06/paypal-safer-easier-way-to-pay-online.html or buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1005082936PS. New in the woodcraft Shop: Judson Carroll Woodcraft | SubstackRead about my new books:Medicinal Weeds and Grasses of the American Southeast, an Herbalist's Guidehttps://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/05/medicinal-weeds-and-grasses-of-american.htmlAvailable in paperback on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47LHTTHandConfirmation, an Autobiography of Faithhttps://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/05/confirmation-autobiography-of-faith.htmlAvailable in paperback on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47Q1JNKVisit my Substack and sign up for my free newsletter: https://judsoncarroll.substack.com/Read about my new other books:Medicinal Ferns and Fern Allies, an Herbalist's Guide https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/11/medicinal-ferns-and-fern-allies.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMSZSJPSThe Omnivore’s Guide to Home Cooking for Preppers, Homesteaders, Permaculture People and Everyone Else: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-omnivores-guide-to-home-cooking-for.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGKX37Q2Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast an Herbalist's Guidehttps://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/06/medicinal-shrubs-and-woody-vines-of.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2T4Y5L6andGrowing Your Survival Herb Garden for Preppers, Homesteaders and Everyone Elsehttps://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/04/growing-your-survival-herb-garden-for.htmlhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X4LYV9RThe Encyclopedia of Medicinal Bitter Herbs: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-encyclopedia-of-bitter-medicina.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5MYJ35RandChristian Medicine, History and Practice: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/01/christian-herbal-medicine-history-and.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09P7RNCTBHerbal Medicine for Preppers, Homesteaders and Permaculture People: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2021/10/herbal-medicine-for-preppers.htmlAlso available on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09HMWXL25Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/southern-appalachian-herbsBlog: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/Free Video Lessons: https://rumble.com/c/c-618325

Hey y'all, welcome to today's show. I think we're actually going to get through about three medicinal trees today. At least one of them is super common where I live. It's the hickory tree. And what would barbecue would be without hickory wood? I mean, it is like, what three trees define North Carolina? Pine, certainly, oak, and hickory. That's North Carolina in a nutshell. So that's one of the three. We'll get to.

And then what I'm going to do is get back to assembling my new bicycle. Yes. Believe it or not, this whole hillbilly has a bicycle. I just bought it. First one I'm going to be on, I don't know. I was probably 13 the last time I rode a bicycle I'm 46 now you can do the math I'm excited about it no seriously just you know recently I've been thinking about a lot about like solar flares and what if the grid goes down and what

are you gonna do well you know eventually I'd like to have a farm with a lot of horses and you know i grew up with horses i grew up my grandfather has surrey he had buggies he had all kinds of stuff actually what they call it a limousine which belonged to the uh the governor of north carolina in the 1800s and you know surrey a very nice one black with leather seating and everything and really quite fancy um that uh you would have at least two horses to draw and you know i'm good with horses uh but really hit me one day you know for just running around town um you know i don't really live in a town but you could call it a village if i go two miles in one direction i'm to my favorite fishing hole if i go two miles in the other direction i'm at the post office and there's a gas station convenience store you know a gun

shop there are a few necessities if i needed them a shop that just sells um donald trump memorabilia and a little sandwich stand so that's cool you know i got everything i need right there blue ridge parkway all of course all behind the house um i could go in you know hundreds of miles in either direction if i wanted to with very little uh traffic danger but then again you know six miles i think to uh town so that's a bit of a trek. Maybe like five. Totally doable on a bicycle though. Absolutely. I can get groceries. There's a drugstore, bank, library. The courthouse is there. I could pay the tax bill if I wanted to. And I just kind of got to thinking, you know, I pay so much in gas just to drive my big, heavy 1989 Chevy pickup truck around. I could save a whole lot of money if I rode a bicycle. There's also wear and tear on a vehicle, maintenance,

always the danger of getting in an accident or something breaking and tearing up. I need to do more for my physical health. Obviously, I mean, I am 46 now and I'm not in the shape I once was, especially over the last couple of years. You know, I had COVID twice. It takes its toll. It really does. I need to get back in shape.

Well, how about if I get a bicycle? So I found a really great bicycle for about a hundred bucks. And I'm going to put it together this evening and go for my first ride get a bicycle so I found a really great bicycle for about a hundred bucks and I'm gonna put it together this evening and go for my first ride and 30-some years tomorrow God willing I won't kill myself and you know I love to use a tinkara rod for fishing if you haven't looked into tinkara you really ought to do so tinkara is a collapsible Japanese fly rod. It's actually very traditional. They used to make them out of joints of bamboo. It's not like, you know, an as seen on TV type

thing. It kind of combines cane pole fishing with fly fishing. That's ideal for me where I live, where we have so many small trout streams that are stocked. And, you you know I fear I can put a basket on there for I don't know 10 15 bucks you can buy one off the eBay or make one yourself which I'll probably do a rack on the back I can do some foraging out on the bicycle I can do some fishing out on the bicycle heck I can actually do some small game hunting I mean that is sort of like the Northern England tradition. I mean, where I live is essentially identical to Yorkshire. And in Yorkshire, there are a lot of guys that are sort of, you know,

kind of lower middle class, working class guys, or they're just traditional. They could be, you know, money, but probably not. And they'll take their nets out on a night or they'll go out with a ferret and they'll catch a brace of rabbits as they say I mean it's like a dozen what is that I don't even remember six rabbits maybe a dozen I don't know but seriously and um you know I'm not going to draw too much attention on a bicycle I can can stash in the woods. So I got one in green so it won't stand out if you know what I mean. So I'm looking forward to this. From now on, Judson has a bicycle.

In fact, Judson may not do a whole lot of driving whatsoever. Except in the wintertime. Obviously, I don't want to ride a bicycle on winter roads. Ice and snow and all that. And I wouldn't take it a long distance. And I'm certainly not going to put on spandex or try to race somebody no i'm gonna be in my boots and jeans and you know just a hillbilly on a bicycle but uh i'm what was what's weird let's think about it um i guess it was sunday and i was looking at the tracking number see when it was going to be

delivered i thought i'm actually more excited about this than anything I've been excited about since I was a kid. So literally buying a bicycle makes me feel like I'm 10 years old again. It's a crazy, simple, stupid thing, but it should really help my health. In my mom's neighborhood down in sand hills of North Carolina there was a little old lady who used to ride her bicycle every single day you'd see her go to the post office the grocery store just riding around the neighborhood for fun that woman lived to be over 100 years old she was just a little rail of a thing I mean she she probably weighed less than her bicycle. But, I mean, honestly, she lived to be over 100 years old. Probably because she got out and got some exercise in the sunshine and got some fresh air.

Now, you know, I bought a road bike. I'm not really one for bicycles on trails. When I go out on a trail I'm looking one I'm foraging two I'm looking for fishing opportunities three I may be stalking game I'm hunting four I'm looking for areas to trap that means slow down walk stop sit look around observe I you know people go flying past you on a mountain bike on a trail, and that's just recreation. That's not practical for me.

For me, a bike that will take me five miles to town and back without too much trouble, I mean, it's not something I'm going to do every day, that's far more practical. So I'm literally looking at this as like, okay, so there is an old TV show. It's an English show. It's called Last of the Summer Wine. And I always consider it like the English version of the Andy Griffith show.

For some reason, most English folks hate this show. In fact, the ones I've, I mean, I don't think I've ever, no, I have met one in my entire life. I've met one person from England who actually liked the show. It ran for, I think, 38 years on BBC. It was the longest running British sitcom, and it was beloved by the Queen of England, and so it stayed on the air. It's, I think, absolutely brilliant. I think it's absolutely, it's funny, it's endearing. You know, the younger folks in England thought it was like an old folks show, and I think maybe the older folks in England thought it was like sort of an old-fashioned way of life they wanted to get away from. So maybe it wasn't as popular as it should be.

I think it's absolutely brilliant, honestly. And if you can pull up some old episodes of Last Summer Wine, do so. You're going to enjoy it. I mean, it's a slow-paced show, and it will take a while to get used to the Yorkshire accent. I remember it used to come on PBS when I was a kid like again like 13 14 years old and I couldn't understand a word they were saying I've come to absolutely fall in love with the show and hit me today no one on that TV show in this little rural village in Yorkshire except for Wesley Pegton his wife England

Edie I'm sorry his wife Ed. And that's a totally different, you know, you'll, you'll know them if you get into the show, but for like the first 10 years of the show, no one had a vehicle, no one had a car. They rode their bicycles everywhere. And it just kind of hit me. Why can't I ride my bicycle everywhere? So I got a road bike that I can ride. And, um, I think this is going to be fantastic for foraging and gathering wild herbs. You can probably expect, you know, I have a Rumble channel. It's, well, I've got Southern Appalachian Herbs set up with a podcast on, and then I've got more videos on Herbal Medicine 101. You're probably going to see a whole lot of wildcrafting and foraging videos of me just like

driving around riding around on my bicycle stop there's some you know some dock there's a big stand of burdock there's some poke there's you know blackberries you know i guess what i'm saying is like, it's so fits my lifestyle. I cannot believe I haven't done this before now, but if you're like really, um, concerned about like, you know, EMPs or solar flares and the kind of stuff I am, I mean, literally, and you know, you may think this is a little crazy, this crap they're doing with transhumanism is very much to me like the Tower of Babel, and I thoroughly expect God to strike it down any day. Okay, does that make me some Christian nationalist?

You know, whatever. The Bible says God will not be mocked, and they are literally trying to make what they call, what is it? Oh, I've forgotten. It'll come to me later. Is it the synergy or something a a virtual god online that would be the sum total knowledge of all humanity plus what all this computer could figure out on its own synchronicity that's it that would be like a

virtual god as a religious human being i firmly believe something real bad is going to happen soon. And our phones and our computers and our cars that are full of computers and all kinds of electronic crap probably aren't going to work. And a bicycle is probably not a bad thing to have plus it's good for your health and they're actually fun honestly assembling this bike that I just took out of the box is probably going to be the most fun I've done in a month I love putting stuff together you know if you're a guy you probably get that but tomorrow when I take it out and Saturday you know I'm Catholic,

so we have a Saturday evening service and a Sunday morning service. I'll probably go about four miles to the church on Saturday evening at 430 or Sunday morning, you know. I love this. I may have told this before on this show. I know I told her on another show recently i do three podcasts three separate podcasts a week so i mean like actually a total of i don't even know eight episodes a week uh so sometimes i lose track but um justin wilson the

great cajun chef that used to be on pbs used to tell his. He said there were these two little boys who grew up in Louisiana. One was Baptist and one was Catholic. And they were both from Cajun families. And they were best friends. They were inseparable. You know, they just could not stand to be apart. So the parents said, okay, on Saturday night, you can stay the night with each other and you'll go to church with him on this Sunday.

And the next Sunday, you'll go to church with him. So the first Sunday, the little Baptist'll go to church with him on this Sunday and the next Sunday you'll go to church with him so the uh first Sunday the little Baptist boy goes to church for little Catholic boy and little Catholic boys tells tells him everything now if y'all never been to a Catholic mass it is very different than Protestant okay there is this what we call the liturgy it's 2,000 year old tradition you know uh 2,000 plus now so the little catholic boy is telling well this is what we do now this when we kneel this when we stand this when we say this prayer this when we sing this hymn this you know it's good through the whole thing and he just you know explains it to him and the baptist boys are just just fascinated you know next uh sunday the little catholic boy goes to school a little baptist boy and he does the same thing he says you know we

come in and those are the hymns we sing and the preacher's going to go up there, and then the preacher takes his watch out and sits it on the lectern. Now, if y'all grew up Baptist, you know what I'm about to say. A little Catholic boy says, what does that mean? Baptist boy says to him, it don't mean a damn thing whatsoever, I guarantee. Oh, if you ever sit through a few you know 45 minute hour hour and a half long sermons you know exactly what I mean and you know I even though I have converted Catholicism I have such a love for the old Southern Baptist churches I grew up in and the churches of my grandparents and

yeah i love that story i love everything justin wilson did he was a huge influence on me in many ways but let's get into these here trees the demdia trees as justin wilson was said and the first one is going to be brucinichia papy faria yeah otherwise known as paper mulberry because nobody could pronounce that i i you know when they put down these what they call them what are they etymologists or something they make these like fancy latin names of plants you would think they would at least put it, keep in mind, let's give a tree a name, something that somebody can pronounce. No, they don't. In fact, they seem to pride themselves on putting as many syllables as they can into a word. But as I said, that's called the paper mulberry, and it's naturalized in my region.'s not it's not native people brought it in and of this tree

all I got on is one little entry in plants for a future medicinal use of paper mulberry it is a stringent diuretic tonic and vulnering now if you've been listening show you know what that means if you're new to the show astringent means it tightens and tonifies tissue diuretic means it removes excess fluids from the body tonic well it means it tonifies but generally when someone says tonic they mean it's tonifies the digestive system it makes the stomach work a little better and vulnerary means it helps heal wounds. The leaf juice is diaphoretic and laxative. There's another, you know, 27 letter word. Diaphoretic, it helps with fevers. And laxative, you probably know what that means.

Speaking of old Southern characters, you remember that? Yeah, I love James Gregory. I hope you love James Gregory. James Gregory is the funniest man on earth. He said, you remember that commercial? It was an Exlax commercial. It said, Exlax is our family's friend. I want to know where those people go on vacation so I can avoid them. I can avoid it. He said the motto for X-lax,

you know, it works while you sleep. I don't want that. I don't want that at all. I want to be up and ready to go. But anyway, yes, paper mulberry has some laxative quality and is also used in the treatment of dysentery. So it can help you go and it can dry things up when you got diarrhea it is also poultice for various skin disorders that's

that voluntary quality the skin stem bark is hemostatic the fruit is diuretic ophthalmalic stimulant stomatic and tonic ophthalmalmatic, I guess is the only weird word in that. It means it's good for the eyes. It can help with eye inflammation. The root is cooked with other foods as a galactagogue. What's a galactagogue? It means it actually increases mother's milk. A lot of herbs do that.

A lot of herbs do that. About, what, two years ago, there was this big shortage of baby formula. And I was on Twitter, and there are thousands of women freaking out because they can't get baby formula. And I said, don't worry, y'all. I actually know probably 100 herbs or more that will increase lactation. Not a single one of them was interested. I actually know probably a hundred herbs or more that will increase lactation. Not a single one of them was interested. Several accused me of being a male chauvinist, and I didn't know anything about women. We're in a bad place when women don't want to do what God designed them to do,

but they want to buy something from a store, and if isn't available they want to complain to the government i'm just going to put that out that may be the most controversial statement i've made but um there wasn't a single woman and i'm talking literally out of hundreds if not a thousand that wanted to know what herbs would increase breast milk. I guess they'd rather their babies starve to death. And that's the world you live in today. And that is a shame. We'll just put it that way. Now, the next one I'm going to get into is caprinus.

Caprinus. That didn't sound right, did it uh but it's actually the name it's carpenis let's see if i can get it right carpenis hornbeam i may have cut that out that didn't sound good at all but that's hornbeam uh four hornbeams have been used in herbal medicine carpenis betulus hornbeam carpenis carolinia that's the one we have mostly, American Hornbeam, Carpinus Americana, Carpinus Cordata, and Carpinus Laxiflora. Only the Carolina is native to my area and the Hornbeam is in the birch family so it's pretty much usually the birch we talked about last week. Native Americans were known to have the bark,

were known to have used the bark as an astringent against diarrhea. The leaves may be used to stop bleeding and heal wounds. A Bach flower remedy uses hornbeam for tiredness and exhaustion. Now Bach flower is sort of like homeopathy. It's not standard or herbal medicine. You'll just have to look that up. Actually, on my Southern Appalachian Herbs podcast, I did a really good interview with the homeopathic herbalist, Tori. We talked a lot about Bach flower remedies. They're actually apparently called Bach because they're English and they like to say Bach instead of Bach. But I don't say it that instead of bach but you know um

i don't say it that way and i don't know why you should i also don't say herb uh but anyway virginia ironwood is in the same family and it's uh austria virginiana and it's closely related to hornbeam it grows in my region obviously i'm just like you know not that far from virginia um it has more traditional use in herbal medicine and it was much used by native american tribes in the region and there are several i'm not just i'm not gonna try to list them all barks astringent but also analgesic it's used for for sore muscles, toothaches, bruises, sores, and sprains. So analgesic means like pain reducing, like aspirin or Tylenol. It is used as a blood tonic and for stopping bleeding and hemorrhaging.

Ironwood is also used for rheumatism and arthritis in a soak. So that is a super useful plant. Also, an extremely valuable tree i mean that whole name ironwood kind of tells you that's a pretty darn strong wood so much sought after in the appalachians actually and then we'll get into the one i actually mentioned the start of the show which is korea um actually knows hickory and there are 18 varieties of hickory known in medicinal use and 12 that are native to my region. This is literally one of the most important trees in North Carolina. We've got butternuts, pig nuts, mocker nuts. Much of the Confederate Army actually dyed their

uniforms with dye made from hickory nuts. You want to know what's called a mocker nut? Try to crack one open. It is the most difficult nut to eat, but another name being sweet, pig nut hickory. It's actually, I mean, it's somewhere between a walnut and a pecan. They're both the same family. Absolutely delicious. between a walnut and a pecan they're both the same family absolutely delicious i'd probably rather have hickory nuts to eat than i'm big on hazelnuts i love pecans but i black walnuts

i probably would prefer hickory nuts actually chestnuts a real old-fashioned chestnut is really good too i have to put a plug for that but But hickory nuts are amazing and my favorite way to use them because you really they get broken up when you crack them. I mean it's really impossible to get a whole hickory nut which is why you never see them in a store. Make ice cream with them. Do vanilla ice cream with hickory nuts and wow a shot of bourbon forget it that's going to be like the best thing you ever had in your life. Or a hickory nut pie you can make the same as you would pecan pie put some bourbon and chocolate in there and you will thank me for that that will blow your mind and you will not ever find anything better you can put in your mouth seriously the cracked chopped nuts are fantastic with sausage, scrambled eggs for breakfast.

I mean, yeah, really one of my favorite things. And the pecan is technically, so is the walnut, in the same family. Pecan will usually be called Korea-Illinois-Esseneys, even though, I I don't know there are plenty of pecans around here before anyone ever got to Illinois don't don't ask me but um hickories are common in plentiful in North Carolina traditionally wood has been valuable for both furniture making and smoking pork barbecue that's too you know that's what North Carolina is known for we're known for cotton tobacco furniture, furniture, and barbecue. Okay.

And hickory wood is essential to at least two of those. The nuts are crazy tasty. And the pecan is probably the most widely grown. Droop. It's not actually a nut. It's a droop. So if you wanted to say tree fruit that isn't an apple, yeah, pecan would probably actually surpass it. The main thing about it is the bark is astringent.

It's good for treating wounds. Very likely, like walnut, the leaves have some vermifuge or antiparasitic properties. All members of this family, which are the juglandaceae family, secrete juglone from the roots. It's a plant hormone that prevents other plants from growing close enough to compete for resources such as, you know, sunlight, water, etc., space. Traditionists believe that juglone is useful in making the human body inhospitable to worms, parasites, etc. So, you know, I got my tongue a little tied there, but inhospitable. Juglone, as it repels other plants from growing around the walnut, hickory, pecan trees, has been believed to keep one free of parasites in the body. I don't know whether the juglone actually does that or not. I do know that the leaves of these

trees are good against intestinal parasites and rubbed on the body can help keep bugs off. They're really very useful actually. And you know, as a kid, the horses used to eat pecan leaves or walnut leaves or something. You know, the old folks would say, don't have too much, but they know what they're doing. They know what they need. It would keep them free of worms and parasites. It seemed to work. That's all I can tell you. I don't know it's ever been proven but I would certainly think that would be a good thing to do hickory smoke was also used in the curing of meat to prevent infestation by insects so again this these plants do seem to have vermifuge or insecticidal properties. One thing I do know, hickory smoke makes any meat cook, taste good, cook low and slow. I cook my pork over hickory.

I cook, smoke my turkeys over hickory. I smoke my beef over hickory. Hickory is like the magic ingredient. I might add some cherry and applewood, you know, oak, just more for the heat than anything else. Hickory is like, hickory is North Carolina in, in a bite of meat. Let me just put it that way. It is like, yeah. Hickory smoked bacon. Oh, wow. So anyway um resources of the southern fields and forest states the barks of these this family of plants are astringent uh mr fred sterns of detroit i don't know who fred sterns is but apparently he did some studies on uh hickory has called attention to the bark of several species of hickory in his paper on the medicinal plants of Michigan, published in the Professional Pharmacy Association's 1859 publication.

So, all right, take that for what you will. Mr. Chaffinbury of the same state has found great advantage from the chewing of the inner bark for dyspepsia. That means stomach upset. And has used tincture made for the same bark in intermittent fever. Many in the neighborhood used it, and the infusion is found equally effectual. So, y'all, that wraps up three great treats. Three very useful treats. And, yeah, we chatted about a few other things.

I hope you enjoyed it. I'm going to go put together a bicycle. Have a great week, and I will talk to you next time. The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not a doctor. The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating herbalists.

Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs. I'm not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true. I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience and if I believe in herbs help me. I cannot nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use an herb anyone recommends, you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about.

Be careful with your health. By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog, you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever.