The opium wars between England and China were actually initiated because the English people got addicted to Chinese tea and were searching for something to trade for as their treasury quickly ran out of silver coins. They started cultivating and trading opium from colonial India and as the Chinese people got addicted to opium, they drained their treasury. There was an event quite similar to the Boston Tea Party, where twenty thousand chests of opium were thrown in the sea and several trade ships and warehouses were set on fire. This incident and other attempts to prohibit opium import into China resulted in the opium wars.

The peak of opium import into China reached 6.500 tons in 1880, at which time Britain was exporting around 50.000 tons of tea. After the legalization of opium in China after the second opium war, large areas in the provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan were dedicated to opium cultivation so that China was producing 22.000 tons of opium in 1900. Also the British had discovered wild tea plants growing in the mountain regions of Assam and Darjeeling in India and after stealing productive hybrids from China in the 1890s, started cultivating tea in those regions.

During the 1920s and 1930s, opium smoking got "hip" in USA's art and music underworld. "Hip" and the later derived words "hippie" and "hipster" actually come from that era and indicate the position of laying on ones hip when smoking opium.

Opium poppy is an annual plant which makes a lot of seeds and normally self-seeds quite reliably. If starting opium poppies from seed, the seeds should be sown in early spring or even earlier, as they start growing early in the season. Also poppies don't like to be transplanted at all. Once a patch is established, they tend to come back every year. They can be found in many front gardens with the sole intention of an ornamental plant as they make beautiful, showy flowers in different colors. There are many ornamental cultivars which have an abundance of layers of petals which can definitely compete with ornamental rose cultivars. Bees love the flowers and it is easy to find one or several bees in the jungle of stamens.

Opium poppy flower

After the last petals fall off, it takes about one to two weeks until the seed pods are at their maximum of sap content. The seed pods turn from a green color to a blue-gray color in that period. Another way to tell the readiness for opium harvest is to wait until the ring, which attaches the seed pod to the stalk turn from a bright green color to a grayish color.

Ready and not yet ready seed pod

The sap is harvested from the seed pod by scratching the outer skin with a sharp knife. The scratch should not be too deep, as the sap then flows into the seed pod and is lost. Diagonal cuts are better than vertical cuts in preventing the sap from dropping down. The scratching should be done one a day and night withour rain, as the water soluable sap can easily be washed away by rain. The sap dries on the seed pod over night and can be harvested by scraping it off the next morning. The resulting substance is called raw opium and can be further processed into other morphines.

Scratched seed pods

Another way to get the medicine out of the poppy plant is to make opium tea. The tea can then be cooked down until a sticky substance, like raw opium, stays on the bottom of the pot. Adding a table spoon of lemon juice helps to make the opiates more soluable. Turning off the flame at the right moment is crucial, as this can easily start to get burned.

Harvested seed pods and stalks

Making a poppy decoction

After a day in Chicago we headed out to Red Fern Farm in Iowa just west of the Mississippi on July 16th. I stayed for three days and never learned so much in such a short time. Tom and Kathy Wahl have been planting Chestnut trees there about 30 years ago and since planted and interplanted mainly with Pawpaws, Walnuts and relative Juglans ssp., Honeyberries, Cornelian Cherries and Grapes. Next to these main crops they are growing almost every fruit and nut that can grow in hardiness zone 5 and the continental climate they live in. Tom challenged me to name any hardy fruit or nut as he was sure he would have it growing in their polyculture. After many tries I was able to come up with Ginkgo nuts and Rosa rugosa fruit which he hadn't tried yet but was aware of.

All the fruits and nuts at Red Fern Farm are harvested in a pick-yourself system by the customers, who are sometimes willing to drive long distances for them. Chestnuts don't seem to be a good market with anglo-American people, who make only 1 % of the customers. The main customers for Chestnuts are Bosnian and Chinese people. The Pawpaws on the other hand are harvested around 60 % by anglo-Americans, still not as high as the proportion of anglo-Americans in the area as I would guess. The chestnuts are sold for 3 $ per pound (~ 6,6 € per kg) but the price will go up to 3,5 $ soon, as prices are going up everywhere.

Tom got interested in growing Chestnuts by the fact that the American Chestnut once was feeding the American people as a staple crop and is now on the verge of extinction because of the Chestnut Blight. Hearing that the Chinese Chestnut is resistant to the disease and by crossing the American with the Chinese Chestnut this tree could once again feed the people in a perennial and sustainable way he started planting chestnut trees. Then after hearing about Permaculture and reading the Designers Manual by Bill Mollison, Tom and Kathy began creating a diverse polyculture of woody plants and herbaceous perennials.

Hybrid Chestnut with American appearance

The walnut and chestnut trees are planted at a spacing of 20x20 feet (6 m) and are thinned out to 40x40 feet (12 m), removing three quarters of the trees, when the crowns start touching each other. As the soil is a fayette loess soil, one of the best soils in the world, the trees will probably grow very tall and Tom plans on thinning out to 80x80 feet (24 m) eventually and will leave a note for someone to thin out to 160x160 feet if the trees will ever grow as big as "il Castagno dei Cento Cavalli" (the Chestnut of a hundred horses) in Sicily, Italy.

Rows of Chestnuts

To decide which trees to keep and which ones to thin out, he uses a color marking which he sprays on the trees every year to keep track of which trees had no, bad, medium, good or very good yield. Trees with all blue markings are reliably yielding, ones with only red or orange markings are not productive and are thinned out. When good trees stand next to each other he may thin out the neighbouring trees, so the end pattern may not be symmetrical. When only bad ones are standing next to each other he may replant new trees in empty areas.

Color markings to keep track of yields

Tom was experimenting with all kinds of different planting strategies over the years. He tried using cardboard and wood chip mulch but the cardboard has to be renewed every year or weeds would grow through. He also tried landscape fabric which is hard to remove after some years. Nowadays he uses Oust herbicide to suppress the weeds under establishing trees. Next to some trees I could find some very happy looking living mulch comfrey plants. Comfrey has a deep taproot and not much siderooting and thereby doesn't compete much with tree roots and it is good at suppressing grass which can outcompete young tree roots. Tom also tried Rhubarb and Horseradish which weren't very successfull in the long term but can still be found here and there together with Asparagus.

Living comfrey mulch around tree

Tom is also very convinced of using tree shelters. The tree shelters are 5 feet (1,5 m) high and have ventilation slits. Without ventilation the trees would die in the summer heat. Tom states the tree shelters reduce the mortability of the trees, set the side branching height to 5 feet, dramatically increase growth rate to the point that fruiting may occur 5 years earlier than without a shelter and protect the trees from browsing of deer and rabbits. Once the trees get too girthy for the shelter it is removed and a short piece of drain pipe is put around the trees to protect them from antler rubbing by deers. The deers only rub their antlers very low. To deal with voles, they keep the grass mowed short so that predators like hawks, owls, coyotes and badgers can catch the voles and they have less housing opportunities.

Tree shelter and deer rubbing protection

They are lucky to not have any chestnut weevil present in the region. It is hard to deal with the chestnut weevil in an organic approach, Toms suggestion to keep the population low is to pick all ripe nuts from the ground every day and let pigs roam around after the harvesting season and chickens in spring when the adult weevils emerge from the ground.

The Chestnut trees which got planted years ago got a subsequent ecto-mycorrhiza inoculation using a self made syringe to apply right next to the roots.

Syringe for myrorrhiza inoculation

It was very interesting for me to hear that they are almost only growing Chinese chestnuts (Castanea mollissima) or hybrids with the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) but just very few species or hybrids of European (Castanea sativa) or Japanese chestnuts (Castanea crenata). The European chestnut is also susceptible to the chestnut blight, but other than in the USA, in Europe hybrids with Japanese chestnuts are very common. European varieties with french and spanish names like 'Bouche de Betizac', 'Marigoule', 'Précoce Migoule', 'Dorée de Lyon' or 'Marsol' are all hybrids between European and Japanese chestnut. In America on the other hand hybrids between the American and Chinese chestnut are more prevalent. There are not many Japanese x American hybrids or European x Chinese hybrids.

Tom prefers the Chinese (x American) varieties because the skin hull is not as bitter and fuzzy as with the European (x Japanese) varieties. Therefore the Chinese chestnuts can be eaten raw, without peeling. But also the skin peels better as the Chinese chestnuts are not as indentated as the European. He also claims that they taste much better. So I am very interested now in trying to source these varieties in Europe or trying to bring them there. Also where are the European x Chinese varieties and how would they taste and peel? By the way, the 'Dunstan' chestnut, often claimed to be a resistant American variety, is almost completely Chinese with maybe a hint of American in it.

Row of promising chestnut seedlings

Also Tom explained to me why many Chinese x American hybrids are pollen-sterile. The Chinese chestnut seems to have a pollen-fetility related gene on the mitochondrial DNA which is only passed on by the female, so when crossing a male Chinese a female American, half of them will be pollen-sterile. Pollen-sterile hybrids don't make pollen at all and thereby can't fertilize other chestnuts to set fruit. It is like having a pollen-sterile triploid apple variety. If you have one pollen-sterile plant you will need at least three plants (two of them pollen-fertile) to have all three plants fruiting. Many of the European x Japese hybrids are also pollen-sterile, probably because one of them (Tom guesses it might be the Japanese) also has a pollen related gene on the mitochondrial DNA.

Honeyberries between Chestnuts

Grape row between chestnut rows

Next to most of the Chinese varieties like 'Qing', 'Peach', 'Gideon', 'Auburn Super', 'Sleeping Giant' (Cx(JxA)), 'Nanjing Special', 'Kurakata Sweet' (CxJ), 'Amy', 'Mossbarger', 'Jenny' and 'Luvall's Monster', Tom and Kathy are also breeding their own varieties: 'Shotgun', 'Red Fern Super', 'Hoben #1', 'Hoben #2', 'Gandalf', 'Elrond', 'Treebeard', 'Igor' (named after a person in Russia who doesn't have his own garden but wants to be involved in plants and sends Tom plant material without having ever met him in person or being to the farm), 'Sandy', 'Mark', 'Phil', 'Mike', 'Ken' (CxA), 'Terminus', 'Apex', 'Kaching', 'Arthor Radley', 'Jem', 'Atticus', 'Scout', 'Tucker', 'Giant Badger I' (CxA), 'Giant Badger II' (CxA), 'Large Badger I' (CxA), 'Large Badger II' (CxA), 'Large Badger III' (CxA), 'Badgerqing I' (CxA), 'Badgerqing II' (CxA), 'Badgerqing III' (CxA), 'Qingsu' (the most productive of all their varieties), 'Type AB+' (CxA), 'Arbor Laedi' (formerly called 'Broken Tree' but the latin name sound much nicer, this tree had such a heavy yield that the branches started to break from the weight) and 'Resilient'. Chinese varieties he didn't list but are also common named varieties include: 'Kohr', 'Perry', 'Payne', 'Ace', 'Knitzel', 'Hong Kong', 'Szego' and 'AU Homestead'. To keep track of the varieties they are labeled with a lifestock eartag pen, which is very weather resistant, on a PVC pipe.

Label with lifestock eartag pen on pipe

The second most important crop next to the ~ 1.200 chestnut trees are the several hundred of pawpaw shrubs between the chestnuts. The pawpaws grow as fast in shade as they do in sun but they fruit much better when not standing in full shade so the yield may decrease once the chestnuts overshadow them completely. Pawpaws (Asimina triloba) are the only hardy member of the Annonaceae family, which include tropical fruits like custard-apple and cherimoya, and pawpaws taste as tropical but are hardy almost down to zone 4, one of Toms breeding goals is to select for even more hardy pawpaws.

Pawpaw fruit clusters

Pawpaws make root suckers and form dense patches after some years. Pawpaws are self-sterile so there need to be two plants with different genetics to make fruit. What is strange is that pawpaws surround themselves with their own genetics by making patches of suckers and also they are pollinated by flies and beetles which don't travel as far as bees do, a recommended spacing between fertilizing pawpaws is 8-10 feet (2,5-3 m), max. 30 feet (10 m). So in the wild you will often find many pawpaw shrubs but no fruit at all because all trees are clones of each other. But sometimes when two patches grow together there can be a heavy fruit yield.

Beautiful pawpaw patch

Pawpaws can be grafted but are almost impossible to root cuttings from. Grafted trees fruit after about 3-4 years while ungrafted ones take about 7-8 years. Normally seedlings of pawpaws also make good fruit, so selecting new varieties can be very rewarding. 'Summer Delight' is the earliest of all pawpaws that Tom and Kathy are growing, 'Sundog' is a variety from Red Fern Farm that is tested for self-fertility. There are some varieties like 'Sunflower', 'PA-Golden 1', 'Prima 1216-60', 'Balda' and 'Gorini' which are also speculated to be self-fertile, but Tom could only confirm 'Sundog' so far. 'Canopis' is their most productive pawpaw which ripens late. 'Hypro' is also very productive and the fruit of 'Iowa Golden' all ripen at the same time and have strong yellow color break which makes it easier to tell when they are ripe. Normally the ripening period of one pawpaw variety expands on about 3 weeks. With different varieties this can be extended much more.

To bring pawpaw seeds to sprouting Tom separates them from the fruit pulp as soon as they are ripe, stratifies them (maybe not even necessary) and then keeps them very moist and very warm at 90° F (32 °C) until they sprout (about 2 weeks).

Different size Pawpaw seedlings

The sheep at Red Fern Farm eat walnut leaves and chestnut leaves and all kinds of green but won't touch pawpaw leaves at all. The only animal that seems to eat the leaves at the farm is the zebra swallowtail, which depends on the pawpaw leaves as it's only food source.

Sheep grazing between the trees

To sustain a harvest of heartnuts and walnuts Tom and Kathy have to set up traps against squirrels as without the traps there will be no heartnut harvest at all. They eat them unripe on the tree and leave none ripening. Also some of walnut trees develop a bunching disease which is caused by zinc-deficiency, so they apply zinc under affected trees. Over the years they have experimented with many plants growing under walnut trees and discovered that mainly plants from the Rosaceae family seem to have a problem with the juglon exudated by walnut roots and through breakdown of leaves and husks. Tom says that black currant doesn't mind growing under walnuts and Vivian Böllersen mentions cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums and black raspberries in her book "the revival of the walnut" (german book). Tom also observed that persimmons, pawpaws or chestnuts don't seem to have a problem growing near or under walnut trees at all. Also it is mainly the black walnut (Juglans nigra), which exudates about 10 times more juglon than other Juglans spp., that is of concern in this matter.

Bunching disease on zinc def. walnut

The persimmons they grow are all American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) as hybrids with the Oriental Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) are not hardy enough in zone 5. The only hybrid that survived a winter so far is 'Chuchupaka'. Other varieties they grow are 'Yates', 'Prok', 'Geneva Long', 'Osage', 'H69A', 'H120', 'A118', 'A120', 'Morris Burton', 'H63A', WS810', 'Sophies Gift', 'Pine', 'Rosy' (male), 'Szukis' (male), 'Wapello' (female), 'Wapello' (male), 'Arboretum' (female), 'Arboretum' (male) and 'Evelyn'.

Persimmon fruits

They don't grow hazelnuts as American hazelnuts are not falling out of their husk and therefore need even one more processing step in addition to the other steps they alteady need. The European hazelnut is susceptible to the filbert blight disease which is present in North America and makes the cultivation of European hazelnuts (which fall out of their husk) impossible there. Maybe a hybrid might be resistant and falling out the husk. Mark Shepard from New Forest Farm on the other hand is convinced that the cultivation of American hazelnuts can be economic. It may only be a matter of time until the filbert blight finds it's way to Europe and wipes out the hazelnut cultivation there.

During my stay at Red Fern Farm I also learned how and when to use a special grafting method called the barn door graft. It can be done during the growing season as the bark must be slippery to do it. It is especially useful for plants that are not easy to graft like for example walnuts. Maybe this graft would also make it easier to graft chestnut onto oak, which I still find interesting to maybe make chestnuts possible on alkaline soil where they wouldn't grow normally. On their website Tom explains how to do the barn door graft: Grafting methods. The method makes it easier for the scion to grow onto the rootstock as it has a lot of attachment area but for the first years it has to be supported by binding it to the rootstock so it doesn't break off.

Barn door graft

Some other things I learned:

• Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), Kentucky Coffee Tree (Gymnocladus dioicus) and Redbud (Cercis canadensis) although members from the Fabaceae family are probably not nitrogen fixers.
• Apple variety 'Frost Bite' tastes delicious but not like apple. I am curious how it tastes, some people report strawberry or cherry or other fruit.
• Hickan (Hickory x Pekan), Buardnut (Butternut x Heartnut)
• European plum doesn't graft on American or Japanese plum. Apricots don't graft on many other Prunus spp.
• Viburnum lentago variety 'Nannyberry' is supposed to taste like dates
• Toka plum (Japanese x American) is supposed to be the tastiest plum

• Jiaogulan is hardy in zone 5?! (1 of 5 plants survived an average winter here at Red Fern Farm without any further protection)
  
  

  

  Jiaogulan in zone 5

Susana has spent a lot of time in different places of the world learning permaculture techniques. She grows here vegetables on contour for water management and uses no-till, organic and diverse intercropping techniques.

In the following I want to show some elements of the farm that were interesting to us.

Susana had just given a workshop on how to design a solar dehydrator a few days ago so she explained the important aspects to us with the drawing she made. It is important that the heat collector on the bottom of the drying chamber is big enough to sustain the drying chamber. Often the heat collectors are built too small and then it is hard to dry fruit or vegetables like tomatoes in them without them getting moldy. Also the angle of the solar collector is important. As Susana is mostly drying things in spring and autumn she chose the according sun angle of those months. Other people might want a dryer more suitable for drying in summer.

Solar Dehydrator Design

I also liked to see her solar dehydrator on wheels as it can be easily shifted to face the sun by just aligning the shadow.

Solar Dehydrator

Susana then showed us how she deshelles the corn kernels form the cobs with a manual machine that uses a fly wheel to get momentum, shells the kernels off that fall down from the bottom and spits out the rest on the left side. The machine can be adjusted to different widths of corn cobs and it is satisfying to watch.

Manual Corn Sheller

To make a grit out of the corn kernels she uses a small electric and very loud grain mill.

Electric Grain Mill

To get the dry beans out of their pods Susana puts a few hands full in a linen bag and smashes it on the ground a few times, very low-tech and effective.

The following picture shows a traditional corn drying house that would have been made with wood strips instead of metal screen as siding traditionally.

Traditional Corn Drying House

Hanging on the corn drying house I found an A-frame with a string level that is used to measure contour lines. One side of the A is placed on the ground, then the other side is placed where on the ground on roughly the same level and rotated up and down a bit to find the point where the string in the middle is level. Then the other leg is moved around to find the next spot and so on until one ends up with a contour line.

A-frame for contour measuring

Having the vegetable beds oriented according to the contour prevents erosion and improves water infiltration, especially if combined with swales.

Vegetable beds on contour

I really loved to see the following idea. In a vegetable bed Susana grew barley in her crop rotation and used the straw as mulch for the next vegetable crop by just mulching it down sideways with a wooden block.

Mulching barley straw for vegetable beds

These tomato plants are growing in the same technique of straw mulching.

Tomatoes in mulched barley straw

At the ends of her vegetable beds Susana grows perennial flowers like Daylilies, which are very edible. Perennial flowers that attract benefial insects would be a good choice too.

Daylilies at the ends of vegetable beds

The corn plants at Susanas are the biggest ones I have ever seen so far and they grow without any fertilizer and without tilling the soil. Susana uses a bunch of different cover crops in between the plants and also plants squashes and beans in between.

Cover crops in corn field

Hardy outside:

Fig (Ficus carica) is listed as being hardy in zones 6-10 but it can be hard to find a variety that really is hardy in zone 6 without dying back to the ground every year. This one didn't die back since it was planted.

Fig 'Hardy Chicago'

Peach (Prunus persica) is normally associated with warm climates, but there are varieties that are very hardy. At PFAF it is even listed as being hardy in zones 5-9. Especially 'Siberian C' is very hardy, which this one might be. 'Siberian C' also is said to be true to seed (is self-fertile), so the kernels can be planted and the resulting plants should have similar properties.

Peach, probably 'Siberian C'

Pomegranate (Punica granatum) is listed as being hardy in zones 8-12 according to PFAF. Again there are some varieties that are much hardier. This one is 'Russian'. It did die back this winter, but grew again from it's roots. If it gets to survive a few winters without dying back the wood may become strong enough to withstand the cold winter temperatures.

Pomegranate 'Russian'

Tea (Camellia sinensis) USDA hardiness zones 7-9 according to PFAF. As I have written about in my post Green Tea in Zone 6b, there are many hardy tea varieites.

Tea, probably 'Small Leaf' or 'Korea'

Jiaogulan (Gynostemma pentaphyllum) USDA hardiness zones 7-10 according to PFAF. Jiaogulan is often cited as not being hardy even in zone 7. Here it grows rather invasive, both the sweet and the bitter variety.

Jiaogulan

The most hardy? ginger species of which the flower buds are eaten, sometimes said to be hardy even in zone 5. Here it survives without an extra mulch protection.

Myoga Ginger

Yacon (Polymnia sonchifolia, syn.: Smallanthus sonchifolia) hardiness zones 7-10 according to PFAF.

Yacon

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) hardiness zones 9-11 according to PFAF. Survived only one winter yet and it may have been a rather mild one, still very surprising.

Taro

The following plants are hardy in the unheated greenhouses here:

Turmeric

Stevia

Lemon Verbena

Ephedra

Cath

There are hairy and non-hairy varieties of grape leaves and they can taste very differently and quite aromatic. I tend to try the leaves of most of the grape plants I encouter in search for a mild tasting variety with big and tender leaves. And until then I will ferment the leaves before eating a lot of them.

Grape Vine leaves are:

• extremely high in dietary fiber (which feeds the gut biome). Extremely high meaning more than double as high as any of 22 common reference vegetables assessed in a study by Eric Toensmeier, Rafter Ferguson, Mamta Mehra: Perennial vegetables: A neglected resource for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and nutrition
• very high in iron, zinc, vitamin A, calcium and magnesium. Very high meaning higher than any of the referenced common vegetables.
• and high in vitamin E. High meaning as high as the highest third of the referenced vegetables.

So to make the fermented grape vine leaves I just went out to our grape vine bamboo trellis pathway and harvested the more lightly colored, younger leaves.

Grape Vine bamboo trellis

Young and more tender leaves of grape

Then I made some little piles of about 10 - 20 leaves each and made rolls out of them which were fixed with pieces of corn husk.

Little piles of grape leaves

Rolled and bound 10 - 20 leaves each

As we emptied another jar of the Fermented Solomons Seal I just put the rolls in that brine and added half a tablespoon of salt and some more water.

Fermenting grape vine leaves

I could have harvested many more leaves as there is still a lot of space in the jar.

Hostas with flower stalk about to flower

Many of the Hostas had relatively small or skinny flower stalks, but I found a bunch of big ones. I can't tell the species or variety though.

A bunch of harvested Hosta Flower Stalks

I harvested the flower stalks all the way to the bottom, then I broke off the fibrous bottom part by inching forward from the bottom, bending the stalks until they snap. From the point upward where they snap they are not as fibrous. Then I cut the stalks to length to fit into the half gallon jar. When I treid the flower buds I didn't like the taste as much as the the stalks to I was tempted to leave the flower buds out, but I ended up adding them to see how they will taste once fermented for a while.

Cut Stalks to lenght and tenderness

I added a little more salt to the water and after putting in the flower stalks, added some more water to cover everything.

Fermenting Hosta Flower Stlaks

For our exhausting work days we made some Athletes Endurance honey pills. This herb formula that is also called Ginseng Endurance. It enhances breathing, recovery and is used against fatigue and it is widely used around the world in extreme sports and competitions.

The Athletes Endurance formula contains by weight:

• 18 % Radix Astragali Membranacei (Astragalus Root / Huang Qi)
• 16 % Radix Eleutherococci Senticosus (Eleuthero Root / Wu Jia Shen)
• 15 % Herba Rhodiola (Rhodiola / Hong Jing Tian)
• 9 % Radix Ginseng (Ginseng Root / Ren Shen)
• 8 % Radix Angelicae Sinensis (Tang Kuei Root / Dang Gui)
• 7 % Fructus Schisandrae Chinensis (Schisandra Fruit / Wu Wei Zi)
• 7 % Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae (White Atractylodes Rhizome / Bai Zhu)
• 7 % Ganoderma Lucidum (Ganoderma Mushroom / Ling Zhi)
• 5 % Sclerotium Poriae Cocos (Hoelen, Tuckahoe, Poria Sclerotium / Fu Ling)
• 4 % Radix Glycyrrhizae Uralensis (Licorice Root / Gan Cao)
• 4 % Cordyceps Sinensis (Cordyceps Mycelium / Dong Chong Xia Cao)

To make honey pills, the honey has to be cooked on low heat without a lid for about 1-2 hours to remove some of the water content and make it more sticky.

Cooking honey to thicken

Then it is mixed with the ground herb formula while it is still warm and soft until the mix has a cookie dough texture. The honey to herb ratio is about 1:1 by weight.

Mixing honey and herb formula

It is then rolled out with a rolling pin and sliced with a pizza cutter or a knife into uniform pieces that are then rolled between the hands into gooseberry sized balls.

Slicing into uniform portions

Rolling the honey pills with your hands

The pills are then baked on the lowest heat in the oven over night. As they have to be stirred from time to time they can also be baked in several steps.

To make the pills less sticky to each other in the end they are sometimes rolled in melted beeswax, but after baking they are just slightly sticky anyways.

A bunch of Athletes Endurance honey pill

Disadvantages of a percolation are that it needs dried herbs, so fresh herbs are not possible and a herb grinder is needed to grind the herbs. Some herbs are very hard to grind and are therefor rather used in a maceration. Also a glass-cutter might be needed to make a percolation flask out of a bottle.

The powder for the herbs should not be too coarse as the alcohol will just rush through it and also not too fine as it can get easily overcompacted and the alcohol will get stuck.

One day before the percolation is started the ground herbs are pre-moistened with a 50 % alcohol and 50 % water mixture until the texture is like a cookie-dough, holding together by itself but breaking apart between the fingers. Some single herbs require different alcohol ratios but if you have a herb formula and no other indication you would go for a 50 % ratio as standard.

Pre-moistening the ground herbs

Checking the pre-moistened texture

Before the herbs go into the percolation flask, the lid should be on and a cotton ball is put to the bottom to prevent the herbs from falling out once the lid gets removed.

Adding a cotton ball to the bottom

Then the herbs are added and lightly tamped down with a stick that has a flat end after every other table spoon of herbs added. Try to keep the surface of the herbs flat all the time and don't overcompact them. Also look from the side to see if any air pockets are forming.

Filling the glass and compact by tamping

Once all the herbs are in the percolation flask (the one in the back holds 100 g, the one in the front 50 g) a coffee filter is added to the top to prevent the herbs from getting into turbulence once the alcohol is added.

The next step is to remove the lid! This step gets easily overlooked but is very important. If the lid is not removed before the alcohol is added, air will have only the way through the herbs to make room for the alcohol and will drive holes into the nicely packed herbs. After the lid is removed the alcohol is added to the top. Look if it is running homogenously on all sides through the ground herbs. If it is slower or faster on one side this indicates over- oder underpacking. Make sure that the alcohol does not run out on the top or air will get back into the herbs. Once the alcohol reaches the cotton ball and starts dripping, close the lid. The percolation could be run right now, but it does not harm to let it saturate with the alcohol for another few hours or even a day if hard roots are included before opening the lid again.

Open the lid just a bit so that there is about 1 to 2 drips per second. Make sure that the alcohol is never running out on the top. Normally you would go for a 1:5 ratio by yield, meaning for 100 g of herbs you add alcohol until you get 500 ml of tincture in the jar. As the herbs soak a bit of the alcohol you will end up putting in more than 500 ml. If you want a more potent tincture, you could go for a 1:4 ratio.

Letting percolation sit for a few hours

Shi Chang Pu is used for the treatment of mental disorders (refreshing the mind, helping with memory issues...), it opens the orifices and acts mainly on the heart and stomach meridian. In western and ayurvedic medicine, and probably in every other culture where it is native, it has many more and different uses. It is used against insomnia and melancholy, has antibiotic properties and is used against fevers, asthma, bronchitis and constipation, to name just a few. It also benefits the throat and the voice and many singers or speakers chew on Acorus sp. rhizome before going on stage.

Acorus gramineus next to a pond

It likes to grow in moist areas. The rhizomes of the plant are widely connected to each other and it is quite a lot of work to divide the plant.

Cutting off the roots from the rhizome

Then the roots are cut off the freshly harvested and washed rhizomes.

Rhizomes cut in half

For better drying the rhizomes are cut in half with pruning shears.

Drying the rhizomes in solar herb dryer

Then they were placed in the solar herb dryer for around a week until they break with a snap. Depending on the weather this can take shorter or longer.

Shi Chang Pu in labeled half gallon jar

Seeing this picture I realize that I misspelled the chinese Pinyin name. I will correct that and also add the date.

The trees we had to fell were mostly tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), some hickory (Carya ovata) and white oak (Quercus alba) and one maple tree (Acer sp.).

We ordered mycelium of Shiitake (Lentinula edodes), different Oyster varieties (Pleurotus ostreatus) and Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus). According to the mushrooms preferences, the hardwood (hickory and white oak) was inoculated with Shiitake, the softwood (tulip poplar) with Oyster and the maple with Lion's mane.

To inoculate the logs and the stumps we drilled holes about 6 inches apart all around with a special drill bit on an angular grinder.

Drill bit on angular grinder

While drilling the holes we let paraffin wax melt on a small and mobile rocket stove. Bees wax would also work but is much more expensive. The wax should not get smoking hot as it can easily catch fire.

Melting wax on a rocket stove

While one person is drilling the holes, two to three persons can inoculate the wood with a hand inoculator that is stabbed into the bag of myceliated medium (grain seeds or sawdust) until full and then emptied into the drilled holes. Another person can than seal the filled holes with wax using a cotton dauber.

Cotton wax dauber and Inoculator

Afterwards we stacked the logs of the same variety in a shady and wind protected place. Make sure to keep enough space between the logs to be able to reach any surface of the logs forharvesting the mushrooms. The softwood may be starting to fruit in the same year, the hardwood will take at least a few years to fully myceliate but will produce for a longer time than the softwood.

Stacked tulip poplar logs with oyster

The stumps may even take longer until they start fruiting mushrooms.

Inoculated tree stumps

The Shiitake logs that were inoculated a few years ago tend to fruit quite reliably a few days after it rained.

Fruiting shiitake logs

Second flush shoots

This time I wanted to try and make some black tea and it ended up pretty good. The green tea I made a few weeks ago with the first flush smelled super good but didn't add a lot of flavor to the water (I think I made have not rolled it hard enough as I only used my hands to press the leaves). The black tea tasted really good and makes a nice red color.

To make black tea (red tea) I harvested the leaves in the early afternoon and let them wither for a day. Then I rolled them on a plate, this time using a glass bottle instead of only my hands until the moisture seeped out thoroughly. Afterwards I broke the leaves apart and scattered them on a plate to let them oxidate for 4 hours until they turned reddish.

Oxidizing tea laves

The chinese actually call the tea, that is known and I am refering to as black tea, red tea. Actual chinese black tea is fermented instead of oxidized.

As a last step I dried the oxidized leaves in a pan on low heat while stirring with my hand and being careful to not let them burn or overdry.

Finished black tea

Oat patch

To test if the oat-seeds are in the milky stage just compress it between your fingernails. The seeds can be easily stripped from the stalk by hand.

Afterwards they are put in a blender and then combined in a 1:2 ratio with 75 % alcohol and 25 % water mixture. We harvested 300 g of oat seeds so we added 450 ml of alcohol and 150 ml of water.

Milky oat seeds ready to be blended

"Oat seed is a gentle nervine tonic for treating exhaustion, sleeplessness, adrenal burnout, or addiction to nicotine, caffeine or other drugs. The herb is also a servicable diuretic." - Making plant medicine by Richo Cech

Blended milky oats together with alcohol

The seeds can also be used fresh or dried in teas or decotions.

Spiderwort Plant Mid of May

Spiderwort can grow in sun or in shade and i found many scattered around here, as they are good in self-sowing. I have also found some growing out of rock walls, so they seem to be quite undemanding about their growing location. They also have a wide range considering temperature, withstanding the summer heats of Florida and the winter colds of the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina.

Harvested Spiderwort Stalks

I peeled the stalks as the thin outer skin was a bit fibrous already, but as they broke of easily from the plant i might actually try to braise the stalks without peeling the next time. Peeling also does take quite a while.

Peeled Spiderwort Stalks

The stalks do not really bring a lot of taste but that can also be considered something positive as they can make a good adding to stir fries, soups and salads without bringing a strong taste.

Wasabi plant in April

Wasabi is in the Brassicaceae family and what is normally harvested are the stems of certain varieties with big stems. The ones we have growing don't have big stems but the leaves are also tasty in salads for example and have a milder flavor. In many products Wasabi is supplemented with the easier to grow root of Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana), which has a spicier but less interesting taste.

Wasabi likes to grow next to cool mountain streams in the woods so it can root to the water. It dislikes hot weather and the seeds are easily germinated after a period of stratification.

Peeling the Wasabi seed pods

Saving the seeds is a lot of manual work as the tiny pods have to be peeled by hand and the seeds are easy to squeeze. We were able to harvest about 100 - 200 seeds per 15 minutes and after 2 days of work for one person we ended up with a half full little jar containing approximately 5000 seeds. The seeds are stored in a fridge until they are shipped so they stay fresh as they quickly lose viability. They are going to be sold for 25 $ per gram.

Approximately 5000 Wasabi seeds in a jar

Giant Solomons Seal (Polygonatum commutatum, syn. P. biflorum) is an easier to cultivate Asparagus as it readily spreads all over the garden and sends up these delicious and tender shoots. They don't come up all at the same time which gave us a harvesting period from early-mid April until now, mid May. 

The shoots that are just about to open the first leave are perfect to harvest, as they don't have a fibrous base yet and can be harvested as a whole. Older ones need to be peeled or picker further up from the soil level.

The taste reminds strongly of Asparagus, which doesn't surprise as they are both in the same family, together with Hostas by the way.

Solomons Seal ready to harvest

We were eating lots of stir-fried Solomons Seal and as they were about to get too big, I went out and harvested all the ones that were still young enough and made a ferment from them.

I took half gallon jars and cut the shoots to size, stuffed them in tightly and covered them with pre-boiled but only warm water. In each jar I added 4 tablespoons of salt, 6 cloves of garlic, 3 tablespoons of mustard seeds, 3 tablespoons of dried dill and 1 tablespoon of dried red chili flakes. I looked for 2 stones that I washed and put on top to keep the Solomons Seal submerged in the water. The dried dill tends to swim on the top now as it is finely crushed and i feel like this could develop into a molding problem, so I would advise to use fresh dill on stalks the next time.

Tea needs a good draining and acidic soil for successful growth. Wild blueberrys indicate the proper soil conditions (the pH should be between 4,5 - 5,5) while grown ornamental Camellias can be good indicators for a suitable climate. Furthermore tea requires high and even rainfalls during the growing season and doesn't like drought during summer, which with regard to climate change can be or become challenging in many areas. Temperatures between 20 - 30°C (68 - 86°F) are ideal.

Early morning shade from evergreens in winter prevents ice and snow, which act as insulation, to melt in the cold early morning. That gives a protection in cold climate. In the summer months shade during midday and afternoon help to prevent heat stress and high evaporation. Also  large waterbodies or other objects with a lot of thermal mass like big stones or walls, can regulate cold temperatures but they should not get too hot during summer.

As tea is a natural understory plant and grows good in halfshade, especially in regions with hot and dry summers, shade trees might be of importance.

C. sinensis ('Korea' or 'Small Leaf')

The tea plant in the above picture is about 20 years old, came from the Camellia Forest Nursery and is probably the cultivar 'Korea' or 'Small Leaf'. It grows at Mountain Gardens in North Carolina near Mount Mitchell at a height of almost exactly 1000 m above sea level (3280 feet). It stand in decidious shade and near but not right next to a house.

So the first flush of leaves to be picked in the standard grade "two leaves and a bud" happened to be around the 6th of May. I picked everything I could find on that plant which ended up not being very much as the plant is not pruned or harvested regularly, and it is only one plant.

Harvested Tea Leaves

The leaves can be used fresh for a tea or further processed into all sorts of different types like white, green, red or black tea. To make green tea I harvested the leaves in the morning and let them wilt for around 6 hours in a shady spot inside. Then I put them in a clean wok on medium heat for 3 minutes while stiring them with my hand. Afterwards they were "rolled" by putting them in a cheesecloth and pressing them, from time to time opening the cheesecloth and mixing them, for about 20 minutes. During this process the water gets pressed out of the leaves and coats them. Then I dried the leaves in the wok on low heat and stiring all the time until they started to get crunchy. If they get too dry they fall apart.

Finished Processed Green Tea

Sources:

• "Grow your own Tea - the complete guide to cultivating, harvesting and preparing" by Christine Parks and Susan M. Walcott.

Interesting blogs about tea:

• discoveringtea.com
• senchateabar.com
• topictea.com

Nurseries selling tea cultivars:

• camforest.com (North Carolina, USA)
• camelliashop.com (Georgia, USA)
• mintoislandtea.com (Oregon, USA)
• nucciosnurseries.com (California, USA)
• tregothnan.co.uk (Cornwall, England)
• lubera.com (Niedersachsen, Germany)