The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Prunus species, A HUGE thanks to every helping after the hurricane, fruitcake and cider

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

Today, I tell you about the medicinal use of plums, cherries, peaches, etc... and etc.... lots of etc..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. This is going to be a big one. Strap in. It's the prunus family. Well, you may wonder what the prunus family is of trees. Well, yes, as the name would imply, it's everything in the family of the prune or plum tree. family of the prune or plum tree prunes are just dehydrated prunes no I'm sorry prunes are just hydrated plums but it's actually really big it is a huge family it not only includes plum but also cherry peach apricot nectarine almonds damson slow you may be familiar with slow gin slow gin is gin infused with slow berries we hardly ever see um slow berries on the market in the united states it's more of a british thing they're delicious i love slow berries and really do need to get some growing um you know now the hurricanes basically ruined everything as far as my garden beds and everything I had planted, time to replant. So, let's look into some, gosh, I mean, what are there, 30 different kinds of wild cherries that grow in the United States, plus, you know, probably a dozen nice cultivated cherries.

My favorite fruit, actually, I love cherries almonds are very nice almonds will not grow here in the mountains where I live but in warmer areas really very nice of course peaches I absolutely love we have one peach that's native to the mountains in North Carolina believe it or not and it is a unsweet peach unfortunately so I can harvest those and make just about anything I would with just regular fruit peaches if they're good and ripe by adding sugar and such as that but you really can't beat a good fresh ripe peach grown in a hot sandy climate. Really, they grow peaches, tons of them in Georgia obviously. When I lived in Georgia I would make peach cider and all kinds of stuff. They grow tons of peaches in the middle of North Carolina sand hills.

One of my favorite places to get them actually is from Macbee, Southby south carolina uh little town probably never heard of it uh it's spelled mcbee m-e-m-c-b-e-e i think the locals as far as i know the only ones i've heard say it call it macby and um it's entirely the entire town's economy depends on peaches they have these cannons these big cannons which are so cool um if there's any chance of a frost they start firing off these cannons to keep the frost from forming on the peaches and they just scare the hell out of anybody going through there and i mean literally people think their car has exploded or something i mean they're like veering off the side of the road and you know they just they do it with impunity it's absolutely amazing uh but um yeah as far as apricots i mean you got the japanese version

you got middle eastern you got a mexican apricot i mean there's so many members of this family, and they'll literally grow in the coldest environments like Kimberley and cherries, or they can grow in the hottest environments like apricots and peaches and almonds, really more so apricots and almonds. Peaches are pretty actually kind of variable. Man, I'm telling you, these are really some of my favorite fruits and it would be like a dream come true i mean i've got like i've got listed here what is this used in documented use in herbal medicine 124 varieties of prunus can you imagine imagine? I've probably tasted 20 of these at most. I would love to before I die actually taste all 120 that are listed as having use in herbal medicine which is by no it means all that have are edible. I mean we've got native to North America once that people have never even studied prunus americanus it's an American plum my grandfather had them on the property they're

just wonderful actually when they're ripe when they're ripe when they're not they're not good at all uh chickasaw plum uh Carolina laurel cherry that is such a cool one. I haven't found one in a while. When I was younger, I seemed to run across them all the time, and I didn't know they were edible. Now I want to go search it out and see if I can find it again. that's prunus umbilata people used to grow these plum trees just to feed their pigs believe it or not uh prunus virginiana that's a another variant of the choke cherry that's the virginia choke cherry um prunus avium sweet cherry prunus cirrhosis i guess it's cirrhosis sour cherry wonderful in pies by the way um prunusus glandulosa that's actually a flowering almond that's an almond tree that grows native doesn't really produce nuts here in north america mahalab cherry prunus wild goose plum i love that name name. You know, you could do a plum brandy and call it Wild Goose Brandy. How cool would that be? That's probably a million dollar idea right there, actually.

And Prunus persica. That's peach. And there's so many varieties of peaches, as I said, that grow in every, really every environment. If you find a fruit that looks like a peach and is soft and fuzzy and everything, it's a peach and is soft and fuzzy and everything it's a peach open it up make sure it has a pit i mean i don't know of any lookalikes but uh yeah even here in the mountains where um commercial peach trees will not grow we have a native and it grows it's a big tree it's not like your little peach tree it's actually a big tree and really nice actually if handled properly and harvested at the right time but in Appalachian herbal medicine wild cherry bark is one of our like most important herbs the bark of the cherry tree this is black cherry sour cherry bird cherry whatever you want

to call it it's just a wild cherry um used people used to make a living going out and finding the cherry trees and stripping the bark and selling them to pharmacy companies pharmaceutical companies the reason is there is um it has an antiitussive quality. It's really, really good for cough and congestion. And so many commercial cough syrups used to be made from wild cherry bark. I could not begin to list them. And of course, cherry wood is wonderful to carve. I'm carving some cherry right now. I got a special order for two pickle forks. I carve a really unique pickle fork. If you haven't checked out my work before, go to Judson Carroll Woodcraft. It's a Substack page that I do. The link will be in the description. But I do these pickle forks,

which have an interesting design, kind of, I guess, sort of elegant, you know, even though it's carved out of wood with a knife. So, you know, it's kind of like combining primitive and elegant. And the cherry is good and hard. It'll last generations. I mean, you know, these things could be passed down through families for hundreds of years. Actually, they'd still be just as good. But the thing about cherries, it has this wonderful scent.

It actually smells something like rose thing about cherries, it has this wonderful scent. It actually smells something like rose petals and cherries mixed together, like dried cherries and rose petals. The wood is phenomenal. And as such, it's not only good for carving, which is, you know, it's great for carving. A little hard, a little difficult to work with sometimes. It never splits evenly. You cannot get an even split out of a cherry tree, but it's a wonderful wood for smoking barbecue. There is nothing like pork smoked over cherry. There is nothing like duck smoked over cherry. Those are the go-tos for me. I mean, sure, I would do beef, but, you know, beef isn't going to feature that sweet aromatic smoke like pork with its fat or duck with its fat.

There's really nothing like duck smoked over cherry. It will, golly, I mean it would change. It would convert any vegetarian or vegan into a pure carnivore. And I am not kidding. I am not kidding at all. carnivore and i am not kidding i am not kidding at all i'll never forget my uh my muslim friend from uh egypt mustafa who just he he wanted bacon so bad he would smell that bacon when other people and and he says to me you know i'm muslim i can't eat bacon i said i know i i respect that i understand it have you tried smoked duck and the boy became a duck hunter in one day i'm just telling you

literally um he was going crazy wanting a just a blt and of course islam forbids it he was a good guy no he had what we call ecumenical he had had absolutely no bias against any Christian or Jew or anybody who wasn't Muslim. He came from an upscale, intelligent, educated family. But he tried to live by the tenets of his faith, even though, well, he had an issue in one regard I won't get into. Let's just say, no, I won't get into it. There's probably one thing he couldn't do because maybe he did. Maybe he overcame it. It was a personal struggle and maybe he got over it.

I'm going to hope he did, um, because it's not allowed in Christianity either. Um, I'm sure you can fill in the blanks. Let's just say he had a proclivity, uh, toward, um, a certain issue that is not allowed in Islam or Christianity. But a good guy, a really nice guy. And I'm telling you, he became a duck hunter in like 10 seconds. I'm like, you get some duck and you roast it over hickory or oak. Well, oak's okay, but i mean like nutwoods like walnut and pecan or cherry and he's like that's like bacon i'm like give it a try and he's like next

time i see him he's like yeah i'm going out i'm getting my limit and i'm doing nothing but smoking duck from here until the end of season i mean mean, that boy loved smoked duck. Yeah, he was an all right guy. I got to admit, he was really an all right guy. You know, I've said this before, I think, well, maybe on my herbal podcast, there was one year I just come to the county I was working in for a while. It wasn't near home and it's very different from where I live. It's in North Carolina, but it's mostly populated by non-North Carolinians. A lot of folks from up north. It wasn't near home and it's very different from where I live. It's in North Carolina, but it's mostly populated by non-North Carolinians. A lot of folks from up north. I didn't know anybody. And that year, this Muslim Egyptian transplant was the only guy in the entire county to wish

me a Merry Christmas. Now think about that. Were he home, he could have had his head cut off for wishing somebody a merry christmas and he was the only person in probably a county where 90 of the people identify as christian to actually wish me a merry christmas so you know um keep things like that in mind uh Just because people don't share your background or religion doesn't make them bad people. And a lot of times we need to be a lot better just to be as good as they are sometimes. A lot better.

And, you know, I say that. I need to be a better Christian. I was talking to someone just recently, a fellow Christian, but he's a different denomination. And such a great guy. He worked at a grocery store, and he learned the name of, like, every customer, like probably 10,000 people that walked in there, addressed each person by name, talked with them, knew their family life, their situations, and prayed for each person or had a kind word uh you know a smile for everybody and um you know you think this guy you know you would think in our limited human understanding god's gonna bless this guy right um no he's in a terrible car accident. He was almost killed, suffered brain damage, and has lost his sight

two years ago. He's got three little girls. What did he do? Well, anybody else probably would have fallen into despair. Not Jim. Jim decided if he had to go on disability, which he did not want to do, Jim decided if he had to go on disability, which he did not want to do, he would volunteer in any capacity he could for any religious organization or secular if they were doing good. But he didn't care about the denomination. He didn't care if they were Baptist or Catholic or Presbyterian or whatever. He would volunteer and he would pray for

every single person he met. There are no words. There are no words, you know. That's, I mean, we've seen so many people like that here in the mountains after the hurricane. People who just dropped everything came up to help. hurricane people who just dropped everything came up to help so it's amazing it's absolutely amazing you know as preppers we tend to think that you know when the blanket's the fan or whatever we need to focus on defending our property and keep people from breaking in and stealing our preps and everything because well there's a certain percentage of the population that will do that. There's also a certain percentage of the population that will do literally anything to help their fellow human beings, regardless of whether they know you, regardless of whether they have anything in common with you. You can disagree about every single thing, but there's a certain percentage.

And I don't know what that percentage is but thank god for them thank god for them it could be 10 maybe it's 10 right i don't know you know we got a lot of um fellows that go in well now women too okay so i don't actually approve of women in the military i'm sorry i don't okay that offends you i am sorry I mean in support roles and whatever but I do not think women have any place in combat no you may disagree with me whatever but I'm gonna say we got a lot of guys that go into the military and give their lives for us and we don't give them enough respect it is true that there are some women as well I'm never

going to be good with that I'm never going to be okay with that I'm sorry I just I'm not anyway you know I never served so I guess it's not my place to say but I just don't think it's right but there's a certain percentage of the population that would do military service there's a certain popular percentage of the population that would do law enforcement or firefighting, EMT. You're going to always have some good ones and some bad ones, 100%. But there's also a certain percentage of the population that I think we don't really acknowledge enough, who's just a plain good neighbor, just somebody you can count on when you need them.

And we should all strive to be that person. But when we encounter them in our lives, that's the hidden hero. That's the one that gets no government benefits. You know, they're not getting free tuition to go to college and no one's paying for their health insurance or anything like that. To me, that's really a hero that we need not to forget about.

And as I know, as preppers, we always think like worst case scenario and, you know, the hordes are going to be beaten in our door to steal our food. And that's true in many cases and we should be prepared but there's also the neighbors can be knocked on your door to offer you a hot cup of coffee or a bowl of soup and man those are real heroes I I mean, yeah. And I've seen it. I'm a little emotional because literally I've been living in this hurricane now for like two, for like a month trying to recover from the hurricane. And I just see it all around me.

Men and women, people of different races and ethnicities, people of different ages, they just dropped everything and came to help. You know, when you're in it, it's really hard to be able to help because you've got so many things you've got to deal with. But it's amazing. And I know so many people in the Prepper Broadcasting family have done exactly that and are doing exactly that. And I hope you've been told thank you. But from the bottom of my heart, I'm telling you now. Anyway, let's talk about this family of trees. And we're going to start with almond oil because this was like one of the most precious things

in the ancient world. Almond oil. D.S. Corrity said, well, he actually tells you how to make the almond oil. And interestingly, he used bitter almonds. Now bitter almonds are poisonous. So I guess they had almonds for eating and then they would use the poisonous ones actually for making the oil but it is actually that poison

and let me think is it cyanide right i think that's right i believe that's the poison that's in bitter almonds actually in very small amounts it is medicinal it's actually the quality that gives that oak that cherry bark the antitussive quality it suppresses uh coughing i think yeah i think yeah cyanide if not i'll i'm sure i'll get to a note here that i've written down soon that will correct that but But he talks about how it was harvested and how it was made. It's essentially pressed, just like olive oil was. And like I said, it's antitustive. Well, it's antispasmodic, and they actually used it to prevent miscarriage,

Well, they actually used it to prevent miscarriage, like contractions, premature contractions, which is not considered a safe use now. But they were very aware. But they also said it was good for headaches, ear problems, and interestingly, tinnitus or tinnitus. In the South, we say tinnitus. I don't care what you call it. Ringing in the south we say tinnitus i don't care what you call it ringing in the ears and it is still to this day one of the best remedies for tinnitus it helps inflammation of the kidneys good for kidney and bladder stones rogues urination good for asthma and splenitis we're inflamed spleen amazingly uh but topically was used to remove spots from the face freckles good for sunburns

very very useful even the bitter almond tree which we don't really use much at all anymore but again topically for ulcerated wounds shingles it's good they applied it for for shingles and of the sweet almonds he said it would take away pains and soften the bowels so essentially um you know just a laxative uh good for the kidneys and pneumonia taken as a drink they yes in ancient greek they actually made almond milk it's been used it's in so many recipes in apicius's cookbook from ancient rome um yeah almond milk's actually been around for a very long time i don't see it as a substitute for milk i think it's very nice though it included some desserts and such it's not really my thing you know i like uh i like milk and meat

and fat and all that good stuff but uh actually almond milk as a food by itself does have some very good uses and there's no reason you cannot use it now when we think okay how is the almond related to the peach and such well open a peach crack the kernel and you're going to see two seeds look like almonds don't eat them they're poisonous no they're that little amount probably wouldn't hurt you but it could if you're a person of weak constitution it again that's that bitter almond principle and so almond as a nut these are these are drupes really you know they have more fruit on the peach less fruit on the almond nut but essentially they're like cousins and so are the prunes and all the plums i mean all that um they said that they keepeth away the drunkenness if five to seven them of them are taken before indulging in other words, in ancient Greece, they believed eating five or seven almonds would keep you from getting drunk.

I have not tried that. I doubt it's true, but, you know, give it a shot. Tell me what you think. Eat a few almonds, a handful of almonds, and if you're going to indulge, let me know if it helped in any way. I don't think it's going to do you a bit of good. But also taken as a drink for bloody vomit that's pretty serious and so I wanted to include that rubbed on with vinegar it takes away impetigo or other skin infections taken as a drink with diluted wine cures old coughs good as take it taken drink with passam, that was a raisin wine, and for those troubled with urinary stones. The sweet edible almond has a great deal less strength than the

bitter, however, yet it also reduces the symptoms and is a diuretic. So I guess, you know, if you're going to play around with this like prevention from getting drunk thing, he's actually talking bitter almonds. And therefore, I'm going to recommend you don't do it because like the last thing you want to do is take a bunch of poison and drink a bunch of alcohol at the same time green almonds eaten with their shells heal the moistness of the stomach and i don't even know what that means maybe a mucus stomach i have no idea um but anyway he goes on with sour cherry uh and recommends for cough so you can see that the cherry bark and such has been used by all people throughout time i mean this is true in china this is true i mean it's really very good anti-tussive said it also uh the dried sour

cherries were good for the intestines and would stop the discharges of the bowels. They have tannins, so they're going to help with diarrhea and such. And a gum, a sap for the plant, taken with diluted wine, was very good for a cough. Peaches, he said, they were good for the stomach and the intestines too, if ripe. But if unripe, they gripe. They cause pains. Do not eat unripe peaches. They're quite unpleasant actually made that mistake a few times in my life

unripe palms and peaches no doubt about it made that mistake a few times especially as a kid a plum or prune they loved them they loved the Damascus prunes from Syria in ancient Greece and but they were really not only uses of a food but as a laxative essentially but also said it was good taken as a drink for kidney stones rubbed on with vinegar to heal this is actually like lichen's chlorosis a fairly rare skin thing that's somewhat related to psoriasis. I know someone who had it, and it's one of the few herbal remedies for it. It actually prunes with vinegar.

They would call it paper skin disease. It's like a, well, look it up, okay? It's hard to describe and uh but just the garm of this the sap used for uh cuts and sores the uh cherry laurel which is very similar to our native laurel cherry here in in the southeast very good for um the leaves leaves helped with headaches and burning of the stomach used externally actually as a poultice taking in a drink they were good against griping and other stomach pains and such let's get up to about 1080 we'll skip ahead about a thousand years st. Hildegard von I've been told it's bingen I've always heard it bingen but aard von i've been told it's bingen i've

always heard it bingen but a reader from england has told me it is bingen i have no idea um i'm just gonna try to pronounce as best i can uh she said a very this is such an interesting entry i had to include it of almond tree right uh the medicine say uh it's barclays and sap are not much used in medicine because all its power is in the fruit and here we go one whose brain is empty and whose face has a bad color from pain in the head should frequently eat the inmost kernels of this fruit they will fill his brain and give him a correct color also one who ails in his lungs or is weak in his liver should often eat these kernels almonds in other words sweet almonds in this case they give strength to the lungs and they are no way a burden to a person i dare you have it i don't ask me to explain that

interesting i don't know what an empty brain even is actually the cherry she loved cherries and she said for one is retching pains in the belly but not from worms should actually cherry seeds well we don't do that anymore and they do they do contain some some of the poison but used topically the cherry dissolved in bear fat this is actually cherry fruit pounded dissolved in bear fat of all things was really good for sores and ulcers and leprosy and and was very commonly used actually the gum of the cherry tree was good for eye inflammation. Again, recommended for tinnitus and earaches and all kinds of stuff like that. She mentions medlar. Medlar is a fruit we don't use much in America. Really good. Somewhat like a quince, I guess. Anyway, she said the fruit

of the tree was good for healthy or sick people increases their flesh and cleanses their blood in other words very uh nutritive but for uh peach she liked using the inner bark of the tree and was good for spots and sores and different things um really infused in vinegar with a little honey in it and yeah she used that a lot and that was actually she used as a cure for bad breath I mean you might think people in the 10 hundreds didn't care about bad breath yeah actually they did she said take the fruits of the peach tree that are ripe pound them cook them with a handful of licorice, a bit of pepper, and some honey, and then put these things in pure wine and so prepare a spiced wine. And not only would that be absolutely

delicious, but said it was good for bad breath. And it was probably due, that bad breath would probably be due to like a sinus infection. And yeah, I can see how that would help. And the root they used for worms. Literally, the root of the peach tree is steeped in boiling wine, taken before breakfast at night, which is used to help get rid of intestinal worms. Again, the kernels of the peach tree which are something like almonds and somewhat toxic were combined with a couple of really poisonous herbs actually and a few good ones like galangal and licorice.

Galangal is a type of ginger essentially and you know what licorice is and uh spurge which is quite dangerous um prepared in a certain way i'm not getting into it because i'm not gonna recommend this but was good for um mucous stomach and actually some forms of paralysis which she called the gitched which was probably more like arthritis than anything but also for pains in the chest and the throat and all that. So she talks about plums, and let's see if there's any interesting use here. Again, like externally for sores and such, but an ash made from the bark of the tree. made from the bark of the tree a lie actually from the ashes was used for pockmarks or what would you even call it scars and marks on the on the face and head we're probably not but here's another one this is really you know very

1080 AT if someone through magic or by evil word is rendered insane well we don't really think of things that way uh now not to say it couldn't happen or didn't happen um but anyway if someone take a little earth which is around the roots of the tree and warm it vigorously in fire until it burns a bit. When it has burned by fire, place rue and a little less pennyroyal in it, again, two fairly toxic herbs. Let it absorb their sap. And if you don't have pennyroyal,

use fresh fenugreek, which nobody has anymore, unless you're really into Indian cuisine. If it is winter, place the seeds of the herbs, moderately warm, after the person has eaten, place this with the herbs of the herbs, moderately warm, after the person has eaten, place this with the herbs on his head, on his stomach, and then his naked sides, and

tie it with a cloth. Put him in bed with clothing so he might sweat a bit. Do this for three or four days, and he will be better. For when the ancient serpent hears magic and evil words, he takes them up and sets traps for one whom they were said, unless God stops him. I have absolutely no idea what she's talking about, but this, you know, one of the reasons I love the old herbal books is they are just absolutely fascinating. And that, you know, she used the gum of the tree if someone's lip swelled up. I guess that would be an allergic reaction.

I don't know. Maybe, well, she did live in Germany. Maybe they had, you know, cracked lips, and they didn't have, like, chapstick like we have now. So they were using a gum, and it was just smeared on with the fingers. Good for dry cough again the they use the inner kernels of the peach like we use the uh bark of the cherry tree now getting up to 1500s england uh obviously they didn't have almonds in england they were imported they were very

very expensive you only got almonds sweet almonds especially if you were very, very expensive. You only got almonds, sweet almonds especially, if you were very wealthy. And they'd probably be served to you in like a fruitcake. I mean, a legit, and he actually gives, let me say, he basically in his first entry gives a recipe for a fruitcake. A legitimate, not the crazy stuff we have in american grocery stores around christmas time with all the weird colored fruits a legitimate english fruitcake like my ancestors carried into battle against the moors and the crusades as essentially the ancient power bar yes i am actually related to um oh wow uh, King Richard Lionheart, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, you name it. This was their storage food.

You can think of this as like this was their prep, right? They would make a cake with all kinds of dried fruit, dried cherries, dried peaches, dried pears, dried apples, raisins, currants, gooseberries, every kind of dry fruit you can think of and every nut they could get hold of. So if you're wealthy, you had almonds. Otherwise, you had pecans and walnuts and hazelnuts. Hazelnuts were really the nut of the common people. They grew very all over the place in England. You may even have acorns if they came from what we call a noble oak tree that had sweet acorns but you just make a really dense cake with it dried fruits nuts you know flour

sugar honey honey was used a lot because it has preservative qualities some eggs and all that make a really dense cake and then just soak it in brandy I mean these things were like you aiding a bite of a real english fruit cake is like taking a drink from a glass of brandy plus is phenomenal i mean i'm telling you now if you've never had a real fruit cake you've never had fruit cake the crap that they still sell in grocery stores really should be made illegal. I mean, it should not be allowed to hold the noble name of fruitcake, which is in its true form. If you do one thing this Thanksgiving, Christmas, holiday season,

go get, you can get my cookbook, The Omnivore's Guide to Home Cooking, or any traditional fruitcake recipe online. I don't care what recipe you use. Make sure it doesn't have that weird candied fruit in there. It may say citron. Citron was actually a citrus. A real fruitcake will often have citrus peel, candied citrus peel in it. But it doesn't have weird dyes and colors and marshmallows.

No. This thing should be as heavy as lead and as calorie dense as you can imagine and yeah throw some almonds in there and you're gonna be like i mean you know you can do a panettone i mean that's often has just basically raisins and almonds in it as not always almonds but sometimes as like the only ingredients you know uh definitely prefer honey to sugar in this case because honey's just richer and has those preservative qualities but i mean the real deal is like the best thing you'll ever eat in your life i'm not kidding you if you think you don't like fruitcake man go get a real recipe and try this sucker out because it is gonna blow your mind and make a few and give them as gifts and blow your friends and family's

minds who say they you know I hate fruit cake well you hate fruit cakes you had the night the 1950s 1960s nasty version that has taken over in America and I just don't understand it. You know, when I was a kid, my family had a grocery store. It was in this resort town in the mountains, and we had a lot of imports. We had real English fruitcake. We had real mincemeat, like actual big barrel that had, you know, apples and beef in it. I mean, the real thing. And that's actually amazing. If you've never had a real mince pie, that will also absolutely blow your mind. Beef suet, apples, spices, nuts. It's like bewildering to a modern American thought. Real English mincemeat is one of the greatest things

on the face of the earth. Okay. imported wines we had imported cheeses we had all this stuff so we had a real butcher i grew up in a butcher shop we had farmers bringing in produce when i was like i mean i grew up thinking like fruitcake was like the best thing on the face of the earth because i had the real thing and what wasn't imported there were these little old ladies that would bake it we had a lot of people there from England and Germany and Switzerland. And they all had their, you know, this was a resort town in the mountains of North Carolina. They all had their own recipes. Italians who made their panettone.

I fell in love with it, you know. When I was like 10, 12 years old, probably 12 to 15, you know, and the store had been gone for a long time. I tried probably the first time standard American fruit cake and I bit into one of those neon colored citrons. I almost threw up. I mean, I literally, I started gagging and I don't react that way to food. I mean, I'll eat just about anything. You give me head cheese, I'll love it. You know, South's meat. I mean, I have like an iron stomach. I mean, I've gone to taco stands and had pig brain tacos.

I mean, I am not a squeamish eater. That's the one thing I could not eat was the traditional American fruitcake. Get yourself a real recipe and make it. You will thank me later and you will freaking love it. I am not kidding you and of course you can tailor it to your taste but getting back to the herbal so he would make a liqueur also another traditional way of um oh wait a minute first of all for fruit cake he basically said it would give you strength it would give you energy. It would give you energy. And it was great for fiber as a laxative.

So it is so good. I'm not kidding. But he would also make an almond liqueur, making sort of an almond milk and then mixing it with either wine or a liquor, a brandy, a whiskey or whatever. It's really good. I told you, I think it was last week,

I told you about a pistachio liqueur i had tried oh my gosh almond liqueur that was really really good too and you can use it in cooking as well it's really good as a flavoring but he said it was also medicinable what does that mean well it was good for the chest lungs um and and especially for helping people with phlegm. And, you know, yeah, again, we come to this family is actually very good for coughs and congestion. And he said the almonds just eaten plain or almond meats, as he called them, do stop the belly and nourish but little. I disagree. I think they nourish but much but you know of course the english have odd prejudices when it comes to food i guess we all do really

or i mean you know all of asia uses fish sauce and you know if you had thai food or whatever you've had fish sauce um ancient romans love fish sauce it smells like butt okay it tastes pretty good in food but it stinks it's horrible um i use it uh it takes a while to get used to it let's just it literally smells like butt sweat okay that's what fish sauce smells like i'm you know i'm sorry if you're you know korean or something and you're hearing this and getting offended you have to admit it smells like butt sweat but anyway uh it is delicious i will not deny that but it takes a while to get used to so uh he talks about barley water barley cream um etc and says you can do almond milk the same way that's what they used to call tisan which is what you would give to a person who was sick it's just it's easy on the stomach gives you a little uh nutrition uh oil of the sweet almonds was good for pain all manner of aches also helped with kidney and bladder stones good for the liver

um oh he talks about the oil of almonds being good for spots and pimples and cleanseth the skin of everything. You know, the English hate freckles. You know, if you have a freckle, it means you've been in the sun, and therefore you can't be a gentleman or a lady. So you have to cleanse away all freckles, which I actually like freckles myself. Bitter almonds, he said, were especially good for stoppings of the liver and spleen and good for pains in the side. Good for the spitting of blood, actually. So that would be tuberculosis.

And again, he says that five or six being taken fasting do keep a man from being drunk. I sincerely doubt it. Especially since I've eaten so many fruitcakes full of almonds with a nice glass of port and some good blue cheese. Oh my gosh, blue cheese, any kind of cheese really. A lot of people prefer cheddar or whatever, but cheese, fruitcake, and a glass of port, whoa, that's Christmas for me. I'm just telling you. And yeah, mincemeat, love that stuff. Man, I love that stuff. Have I said that enough? No, I really love that stuff. And I don't even have a sweet tooth mainly, but that's good stuff. Really good. Take with honey. And this is going

to be the oil of almonds and oil of rose could be applied to, he says, the biting of some mad dogs. He thought it was good for rabies. I, again, cannot endorse that whatsoever, but also good for any kind of foul or ulcerated sore. Good for the bites of scorpions, which freak me out. I hope I never encounter a scorpion, and if I did, i don't think i'd be in the right frame of mind to grab some almonds i'd just be freaking out because they really do uh freak me out um seeing with oil it is singularly good for those that have the stone and cannot easily make self-explanatory. Good for the gums. It takes, they say that sweet almonds would take away the sharpness of the urine but said it must be drunk with bastard.

Okay, I don't know what that means. So anyway, then he goes on to cherries and you'd say it was a good blood purifier. Good for, of course, anything, you know, for to the digestion. Brandy made from cherry juice or cherries infused in brandy was so good for cough obviously and in that case you actually begin a little with the um where the cyanide from the uh the pit of the cherry stone and it is antitussive just like in the mountains we use the bark um but you know what is there bad to say against cherries they're phenomenal and uh in any way shape or form you have them and ditto with peaches he talks a little bit about peaches says they're good there for the appetite and good for digestion and um yeah the leaves uh the tree says are good for stoppings of the liver and loosen the belly and kill worms so not a use we use much anymore but he said that the leaves boiled in milk were one of the best remedies for helping

children who had worms and dried put on wounds would help heal them plum he goes on about I'm yeah this is a very long entry in my book medicinal trees I'm gonna try to just kind of skip ahead if I see something I haven't said before. Well, leaves of the plum tree used as a tea were good against swellings of the throat, gums, uvula, and the underside of the throat and jaw. They stopped the room or congestion, the mucus. Excellent use for those. Again, being drunk in wine wine the leaves infused in wine were good against kidney and bladder stones and applied topically good for joint pains and swellings

so we're talking astringent property wild plums are especially astringent which is why you don't want to eat them you know before they're ripe trust me but he mentions they were good as especially astringent, which is why you don't want to eat them before they're ripe, trust me. But he mentions they were good as an astringent to help with diarrhea. Well, Skip had about 100 years. Boy, you know, I may not say a lot about what Culpepper says because he was getting into all his astrological stuff. And I think if I see something new, new i'll tell you but a lot of this is same use um um yeah again infused in wine good for coughs and shortness of breath and he was

talking cherry and such um plums he thought were particularly good for women women and may actually help with fertility but also good for ringworms and kidney and bladder stones and hemorrhoids even. And that was the leaves, of course. We're using that instance. We're not talking the fruit there. But the fruit would open the body and cool the stomach and all the kind of things people used to say. Miss Grieve, 1931, she loved almonds. She has some good recipes again, but the almond oil used for all things we talked about before. She talks about how to make

almond milk and how it's very good for digestion and gives you some nutrition. It is quite delicious. I just don't see it as a substitute for cow's milk or goat milk or anything like that. a substitute for cow's milk or goat milk or anything like that of cherry especially astringent tonic pectoral and sedative now that's true again that little bit of poison in there that little bit of cyanide in there did i say strychnine i meant cyanide okay anyway that little bit that's in there does have a slightly narcotic property and sedative property. It's not generally speaking enough to make you sick unless you're very weak or you had a lot. Um, but yeah, the, uh, hydro cyanide, cyanic acid specifically is what it is. And it does help with cough, whooping cough asthma stomach cramping it yeah that's that's what it is actually you're taking a very small amount of cyanide when you take

well anything made from these this family of plants and it is actually not bad for you unless you really over did it and she would use the kernels of peaches for the same reasons also branches flowers I mean she'd make you know teas and infusions and tinctures but she says infused in white brandy sweetened with barley sugar the leaves have been said to make a fine cordial never tried tried that. Probably couldn't go wrong. Like I said, when I lived in Georgia, I made some peach cider. I may or may not have made quite a few gallons of peach brandy at one time as well, which really impressed my friends, if I did in fact make it,

which I'm not going to admit to. I kept it in the freezer because it was extremely, I may have kept it in the freezer I may have kept it in the freezer because it was extremely high proof it was like drinking a glass full of broken glass it was so harsh before it had aged sort of a short barrel age where you just put a piece of oak in the bottle

but when it first came out man would it knock you down uh it was uh so strong that when if you add a little water to it it became like milky white that's like and again i'm not admitting to ever do this but if i did let's just say i made something nearly a hundred proof prunes dried prunes used as a mild laxative of course we all know that don't we okay yeah prunes will get you going so a raisin brand by the way raisin brand Wow you know I don't even know why I threw that in there but I mean most people don't realize that if

they're buying prescription or over-the-counter laxatives, Raisin Bran is, generally speaking, just about as good. Anyway, in the Irish tradition, bitter almonds, according to Kehoe, are used for all diseases of the lungs. Liver and spleen, good against the shortness of breath, coughs, inflammation, ulcerations of the lungs. Should be taken in sweet wine. And it's an excellent cure against a headache when applied to the forehead with oil of roses and vinegar. It is said that if a man takes five or six almonds, he cannot become drunk that day.

Well, you know, whatever. Okay. Cherry, he actually said was good, again, for kidney stone. But there's actually a form of epilepsy that's caused by water retention, essentially not being able to urinate, or at least that was traditionally thought. And so he recommended it for epilepsy as such. But, you know, what's generally diagnosed as epilepsy now is not the same, but does have, because of its antispasmodic effect,

you know, again, it's that little bit of cyanide, good for convulsions and such, but also provokes urination, breaks up the stone. Medlar, again, which we hardly ever see, is astringent. He thought it was very good for stones of the kidney and bladder, but for stopping diarrhea peach especially good for the liver and for digestion father nape in the german tradition absolutely loved almond oil and his he loved it for especially for earaches and inflammations good for the lungs etc and he did have tuberculosis he cured himself from tuberculosis using herbs and almond oil was one of the main ones he used his protege brother aloe vicious he liked almond milk for bladder complaints gravel dry horse cough or hoarseness with fever, and the oil dissolved to help with hardened ear

wax. Well, he used peaches for constipation, but actually warns against using the kernels in very high doses. He said it could even be dangerous or fatal which I agree I'm not sure exactly I I just would not eat or use the kernels of peaches myself unless it was a very very small amount and I knew what I was doing and in this case I don't so and some research southern fields of forests 1860s wild cherry this is like really some of the first documentation on wild cherry and it basically gives the cough syrup that we use so much here in the mountains which is essentially just wild cherry bark infused into whiskey or liquor of whatever kind or a tea if you have to but that's usually it and mixed with local honey and that that is, like, the very best thing.

Sometimes people put a little ginseng in it, you know, but it's really fantastic. And I'm not going to get into all his uses because we've really covered most of them. Let's see if there's anything else here that I haven't discussed. Well, the Thompsonians did actually use the kernels, the meat, what they call the peach stones. I will just kind of cover this a little bit. Again, they would infuse them into wine or liquor, made into a cordial. or made into a cordial. It said, one of the best remedies I know to recover the natural tone of the stomach

after a long sickness. So, very small amount was used just to help with digestion. Looks like they did the exact same thing with cherry stones. Both of these are very high in cyanide, so I would be very careful with them uh were it me uh 1898 wild cherry bark was used in official medicine it appears in king's medical dispensatory i've already told you how to make it and i've told you what it does so we don't need to worry about that you know i think i'm just going to wrap it up there i mean okay Plants for Future has listings for almond, apricot, wild cherry, dampson, peach, nectarine, and slowberry.

I think we've covered all the uses. They do give especially a warning not to be used by pregnant women, obviously. especially a warning not to be used by pregnant women obviously it's it's really the cyanide in there that is being used a lot for coughs and such but and I've told you about external uses in poultice and all that just like for instance apricot I don't think I mentioned that one they see that the seeds are analgesic that means helps with pain uh anthelmintic that's for worms antihistamic it actually has some antihistamine properties antispasmodic antitussive helps with coughing demulcent means softening emollient also means softening expectorant means it helps with the crap out of your lungs pectoral sedative and vulnerary vulnerary means it helps

with wound cleanse wound cleansing. Good for chronic bronchitis and constipation and contains vitamin B7. No, B17. I'm not even sure what that is. So, yeah, I mean, I guess we haven't said everything about that. Gosh, it just, there's a lot. But I think we've hit the high points at the very least. Slowberries I haven't talked about a lot. Like I said, slow gin, that's a popular beverage in England.

They are delicious. I would highly, highly recommend growing slowberries. You're not going to find them in the wild in the united states or for sale but um the fruits are apparent astringent purative diuretic diuretic febrifuge which is good for fevers laxative and stomatic an infusion of the flowers is used in the treatment of diarrhea especially for children good for bladder and kidney disorders stomach weakness um yeah wonderful weakness. Yeah, wonderful stuff, and yes, it has a little bit of the cyanide in it, which is very poisonous, but also helps with, in very small amounts, coughs and congestion, and gives one a sense of well-being. Believe it or not, a little bit of cyanide actually makes you feel good, which probably the worst thing I've ever said on this show.

But it's true. It actually has a slightly narcotic relaxing action. So be really, really careful with it. I'm serious. But, you know, when we just make our old cough syrup out of choked cherry bark or black cherry bark, you'd have to drink like a gallon of it to even get a little sick. So it's no big deal. Peterson Field Guide talks exactly about that, the black or wild cherry used to make in that cough syrup.

And says, yeah, well, you know what, I'm just going to finish it up with physician's desk reference because they'll give you the, you know, they'll tell you if it's dangerous or not. This is what your doctor would use. Sweet almond used in skin care and liniments. No hazards or side effects are known in conjunction with the proper administration or design of therapeutic topical doses of sweet almond. Bitter almonds were used in the past as a remedy for coughs, vomiting, nausea, or in the form of a bitter almond water. But bitter almonds contain more cyanide and should only be used by qualified professionals. They can be quite dangerous.

Let's see. And they actually talk about how 10 bitter almonds would be a fatal dose for a child. So, yeah, they really can and i think of peach pits about the same of cherry wild cherry bark is astringent a touch of insensitive while cherry bark is used for coughs bronchitis and whooping cough also used in the treatment of nervous digestive disorders and diarrhea and very importantly here this is from this physician's desk reference no health hazards or side effects are known in conjunction with properly administrated or designated therapeutic dosages.

Cyanide poison from the drug is unlikely due to both its low cyanogenic glycoside content and the lack of inclination to digest it. What does that mean? It means it's bitter. You're not going to want to have enough to make you sick hopefully but um like i said in appalachian medicine this is like one of the essentials this is like the go-to go-to this is like dandelion and a few other things we don't even have a tradition without cough syrup made from wild cherry bark and uh um wow i i mean i

i can't say enough good about uh cherries i love them i really do all right y'all have a great week and i will talk to you next time the information 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.