Category: Health

Cayenne – The #1 Emergency Herb

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By Melody Horst

Cayenne is probably one of the most used herbs. It resides in almost every kitchen, and is used in hundreds of ways. Though cayenne is normally put in food, it is an amazing emergency help. I would like to emphasize that it is really good for the circulatory system. It helps to lower blood pressure, as well as increase it (though not at the same time, of course), it helps to stop bleeding (including very bad nose bleeds!), it stops strokes and heart attacks, helps thin your blood, and even can help colds and sore throats in the winter.

I’ll list out some of the different uses and why it works. But first, let me explain why I reference cayenne as an “emergency herb”. It’s because it works so incredibly fast on so many different things that could possibly severely harm you, as well as keeping you away from the doctor and all his huge bills as much as possible.

I was recently at the Mother Earth News Fair, where I heard Dr. David Christopher talk about the benefits of cayenne. Following are some things that I learned.

Bleeding

For external bleeding you can take cayenne orally or apply it straight to the wound. The cayenne will help your body to form a clot around the new hole in your circulatory system, and stop the bleeding. Back in 2013, several of us were at a fair, and Mom got a really bad nose bleed. The first aid people at the front entrance; couldn’t do too much for her, so someone called 911. When the paramedics got there, they said, “We don’t have anything in the ambulance that will help. We’ll have to take you to the hospital.”

Ridiculous, I thought. Any ambulance should be outfitted for something as common as a nosebleed! By now the bleeding had slowed down. We called Dad and waited for him to come before deciding what to do, so the ambulance left. By the time Dad got there (30 – 45 minutes later), the bleeding had stopped, and he and Mom went on home. If only we’d known about cayenne…

My brother Nathan’s sheep will sometimes hemorrhage while giving birth to their lambs. He puts cayenne in their mouth, and the bleeding stops almost immediately.

Strokes and Heart Attacks

Strokes and heart attacks happen when blood is not properly hydrated, and begins to clump (not clot—a clot is what forms over a lesion in the walls of your veins). When the clump comes to a place in the brain that it can’t fit through, it stops, and you have a stroke. What you want to do is put a dropper full of cayenne tincture in the person’s mouth (if they are unconscious, put it in drop by drop so that they don’t choke) or mix a teaspoon of cayenne powder in a glass of warm water and have them drink it down. If they don’t get better very soon, give them some more in smaller doses. The warm water will help get the cayenne to the blood quicker.  One time, my grandmother began having the symptoms of a stroke and almost passed out. My aunt put two droppers of cayenne tincture under her tongue, and Grandma quickly came back (she said she hardly felt any sting!). By the time the ambulance got there, Grandma was sitting up in a chair. When they asked her how she was doing, she said, “Just fine!”

High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure generally happens when there is a clog somewhere in the circulatory system that is keeping oxygen from getting to all your cells. The cells then sends out an alarm that they are lacking oxygen and your heart begins to pump harder to try to push the clog out of the way and get the blood to the cells. If you take medication for it, those poor cells will probably die. Taking half to one teaspoon of cayenne powder in a glass of water  will naturally increase circulation, taking care of the clog, and get the needed oxygen to your cells. Your heart will then resume its normal rate.

Colds and Sore Throats

Though this may not be everyone’s favorite remedy, it does work to take away sore throats, calm fevers, and take away the achiness of the flu.

Fire Water:

Cold and flu fighter

½ c. boiling water
½ c. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. cayenne powder
1 tsp. salt

Stir together until the salt is dissolved. Add the vinegar. Take 1 tsp every 15-20 minutes until all symptoms are gone. It is important that you take it faithfully if you want to see the best results Note: taking a bite of bread and half a glass of water afterwards really helps the burning.

Aching Joints

For aching joints in general, mix one heaping teaspoon full of cayenne powder in a half cup of apple cider vinegar and shake well. Let it set for several days and shake often. Apply this to the joint and let it do its job. My brother used cayenne and honey mixed together on his aching wrist. He would apply it each night and bandage it up, and by morning it would feel a lot better.  For arthritis, try mixing cayenne into castor oil until it’s fiery red. You can then apply it to the aching area and bandage it up. There should be a noticeable difference within several days.

Other Uses

– Stomach Ulcers
Take half a teaspoon of cayenne powder in a glass of warm water every day.
– Shock
Put a dropper of cayenne tincture under the tongue, or drink a glass of warm water that has a teaspoon of cayenne powder mixed in.
– Hypothermia
Do the same as for shock.
– Cold hands and feet
You can sprinkle a little cayenne powder in your shoes or gloves before going out in cold weather to keep them warm.
– Headaches
Just this afternoon, my brother, Nathan, had a bad headache. He asked Mom for some fire water, and took it. Five minutes later, his headache was completely gone.
– Migraines
At the Mother Earth News Fair in Pennsylvania this year, we heard about using cayenne for migraines. A couple weeks later, Dad got an eye migraine. Mom put a squirt of cayenne tincture into a half cup of water, and Dad took one gulp. This was a very hot experience, and he wasn’t sure which was worse, the eye migraine or the cayenne! He laid down for a bit, but soon got up saying the eye migraine was gone. Now, I do not suggest that you take same the dosage that he did! About a 1/4 teaspoon to a glass of water should be sufficient. If it isn’t enough for you, then take some more.

Cathy’s Cooking Corner

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BBQ Chicken on the Grill

Summer is the time for grilling. This bbq chicken recipe is our favorite. We sell grilling halves that are great for this recipe. Of course, any piece of chicken is wonderful on the grill!

8 chicken pieces

Marinade:
2 cups vinegar
2 cups water
1/2 cup butter or oil
1 tablespoon pepper (optional)
8 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Bring the marinade ingredients to a boil. Remove from heat. Marinade the chicken pieces in the sauce for one hour. Grill the chicken, basting frequently with the marinade.

You can grill the chicken till it’s done and serve it immediately, but there’s something you can do that will make the chicken even better. When the chicken is grilled well on both sides (it doesn’t have to be finished clear through), put it into a crock pot with a little of the marinade and cook it in there for at least an hour or until you want to serve it. This causes the flavors to meld together and the chicken is super tender and absolutely delicious. The temperature of the crock pot depends on how soon you want to serve the chicken and how nearly finished it is when taking it off the grill. Enjoy!

Meet Your Farmers

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Each of the next number of months we will tell you a little bit about two members of our family and their role on the farm, their interests, and the talents that they contribute. This month we will introduce the two people that you will likely meet when you come to the farm to pick up chickens or if you call on the phone.

Cathy

Cathy grew up near Hutchinson, Kansas. Her father was a dwarf and passed away from skin cancer when she was 20. She also had a severely mentally handicapped brother and sister who have also passed away. The challenges of helping care for her handicapped brother, developed character and strength in her.

We met in Bible college while we were singing on the college chorale on a 12,000 mile tour through the US and Canada. Cathy is a talented musician and can sing soprano, alto, and tenor. Her favorite instrument is the piano/keyboard, but she can also play the guitar, accordion, and autoharp.

Cathy with her beloved cookbooks.

It is said that an army marches on its stomach (its food). In the same way on our farm, we do our farm work on our stomachs. Good nutrition is important to Cathy and she keeps us well fed with a wide variety of foods and ways of preparing them. She likes to garden, not for gardening’s sake, but to produce the most nutritious food for her family that she can. Cathy cooks almost exclusively from scratch using whole foods from our garden and farm, with only a small part being purchased. Bread, cookies, and other baked goods are made from whole wheat that she freshly grinds into flour just before making the item. Cathy and the girls can or freeze over 1,000 quarts of fruits and vegetables each summer.

If you have a question about how to prepare chicken, turkey or lamb, she is the one to ask. She loves to talk about cooking and also loves to hear about good ways of preparing and seasoning food that you have found. She loves it when people stop by between chicken processing dates to purchase products and chat. Cathy also has a strong interest in heath and how to help people to be healthy.

Kara

Kara is our oldest daughter and is 20 years old. She works full time on the farm as cook and gardener. She also helps with chicken processing, and processing eggs. Kara enjoys gardening and is in charge of our greenhouse where she raises plants for our gardens and flower beds.

Kara, like her mom, is a good cook. The guys say that they can’t tell a difference between her cooking and her mom’s. So if you have cooking questions, she can probably answer them too.

She enjoys singing and can sing soprano and alto. Kara also plays the flute.

Kara also has an interest in health and herbal healing. This past winter she completed a herbal healing course from Dr. John Christopher’s School of Natural Healing and is certified as a Family Herbalist. Kara is the one who makes the Everyday Miracles Salve that has been so helpful to us.

What is the Difference?

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Jehovah-Jireh Farm Chicken Grocery Store Free-range Organic Chicken
True free-range, pasture raised Large confinement factory farm chicken house with limited or no access to the out of doors.
Fed fresh ground organic feed with added vitamins Fed organic feed
Practically no ammonia smell in shelter Lots of ammonia vapor in the chicken house
Normal day lighting Artificial lighting 23 hours a day
Small groups (350 or less) Huge groups (10,000 or more
Low stress in small groups High stress in large groups
Clean air Air hazy with manure particles and ammonia
Fresh air and sunshine Limited or no access to sunshine
Plenty of exercise Limited exercise
Fresh daily salad bar (pasture) Basically no greens
Promotes family farming Promotes large corporations
Rural revitalization Promotes urban expansion
Consumer/producer relationship Consumer/producer alienation
Environmentally friendly Same environmental impact as conventional confinement chicken houses

The difference between the two is much more than the “free-range” grocery store label implies. The “free-range” organic grocery store chicken is not much different from conventional chicken, except it receives organic feed and does not receive antibiotics, or arsenic (fed as a growth stimulator!). A door may be open to let a few chickens out to scratch in the dirt.

Meat is much more than a combination of nutrients that we eat. All meat is not the same. We have been conditioned to believe that all meat is the same and that the main difference is the price. That is not true. Even though the nutrients in a downed cow and the nutrients in a healthy beef may analyze in the lab basically the same, the true nutrition is NOT the same! The same is true in the way chickens are raised. Just as we need sunshine, sunshine is important for chickens too. Just as fresh green vegetables are important in our diet, so fresh green vegetables (grass, clover, etc.) are important in a chicken’s diet. It is important that we get exercise to be healthy. So it is important that the meat we eat had the proper amount of exercise to be healthy as well. It is important that we get plenty of fresh air. In the same way it is important that the chicken meat we eat was not raised in an environment where the air was hazy with with manure dust and ammonia. We are what we eat. The way that the meat we eat was raised is important. It has an effect on our bodies. That is why we, at Jehovah-Jireh Farm, go to the extra work to produce a product that is raised in the best way possible.

The Frederick News Post had an article this week about reduction of antibiotic use in food animals. Our farm was one of the featured farms. You might find it interesting. http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/agriculture/concern-for-proper-antibiotics-usage-in-food-animals-prompts-groups/article_3d4a1279-938c-5488-a6a6-562e1b55e992.html

Time to Put Eggs Back on the Menu

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The nation’s top nutrition advisory panel has decided to drop its caution about eating cholesterol-laden food after many years of warning people not to eat high cholesterol foods. It has been discovered that for healthy adults, eating high cholesterol foods does not significantly increase the level of cholesterol in the blood or increase the risk of heart disease. This is something that has been known for a number of years, but has just now been acknowledged by the government. (Why didn’t scientists and doctors know that dietary cholesterol didn’t significantly increase blood cholesterol years ago?)

So now you can eat your Jehovah-Jireh pasture-raised eggs without any guilt. We do recommend that you do not eat an excessive amount of eggs at one time – definitely not more than one dozen eggs at one time. I say that in jest, eggs naturally tell you to stop eating after you have eaten several eggs. They are not like some foods where you want to keep on eating.

To read more about the amazing reversal in scientific opinion on dietary cholesterol, you can check out this Washington Post article.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/10/feds-poised-to-withdraw-longstanding-warnings-about-dietary-cholesterol/

All of this makes me wonder how many other “scientifically” proven “facts” are error, and we will look back years from now with amazement of how naive and unscientific we were.

Poultry Processing Inspection and Certificate

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Our chicken and turkey processing facility has been inspected by the Maryland Department of Agriculture and we have received certification. We are now certified to sell our poultry at other locations other than our farm, including stores. While this inspection is not required for on farm sales of poultry, it gives you a level of confidence that the chicken and turkey that you purchase has been processed in a facility that has been inspected and has been processed in a sanitary and approved manner.

We did some investigation into having drop off points for the chickens or to sell our chicken in some of the Maryland MOM’s stores. We did not get much interest in the drop off points and so at this point we will not be pursuing that. After talking things over as a family, we decided not to pursue selling chickens in the stores at this point. It would mean significantly increasing production and processing chickens every week. None of us enjoy processing chickens enough to do it every week and the wholesale price would also reduce our profit margin. We are open to any suggestions you may have.

Fake Honey

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The price difference between corn or rice syrup and honey is big enough that it has attracted fraud. We have heard about this fraud for some time. Recently, we found the evidence that it is actually happening. The website of a manufacturing company in India that produces honey grade invert syrup says this: “Honey grade invert sugar syrup is widely used in honey processing and food processing industry. Chemically, honey is equivalent to invert sugar. It is often mixed with regular honey during packaging… Honey grade invert syrup has similar character to honey… Manufacturers often mix Honey Invert sugar with natural bee honey to keep up with the demand.” http://www.invertsugarsyrup.com/honey.php

Another manufacture of honey grade invert sugar states: “Honey Grade Invert Sugar Syrup offered by is extensively used in food processing and honey processing industry. Chemically, honey is equal to invert sugar and is often mixed with regular honey during packaging. This invert syrup has similar quality to honey…”http://www.tasteagro.com/honey-grade-invert-syrup.html

And a third website states this: “Invert sugar is a golden yellow coloured viscous liquid consisting of equimolecular mixture of glucose and fructose. Being 25% sweeter than regular sugar, this is generally applied as sweetener in food and pharmaceutical industries. This is often known as artificial honey for its composition being nearly the same as real honey… Honey-industry: Because of similar physical and chemical properties like that of natural honey, invert sugars can be mixed with honey for obtaining better texture and flavour. Sometimes, it is also used for bee feeding.” http://feedgradericeprotein.com/invert_syrup.html

Now we know why there has not been a shortage of honey in grocery stores even though honey bees have been dying all across America. Packers are mixing invert sugar, costing only about thirty cents a pound, with honey. The unsuspecting American consumer has been deceived and sold a fraudulent honey diluted with inverted sugar (likely GMO). http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/database/ingredients/130.invert_sugar_syrup.html