When I wrote about my approach to herbal remedies last week, I mentioned that often the way I first try a new herbal remedy is by using it as a tea. The above tag came from my moringa tea bag, which I ordered on amazon a while back to try. I also ordered some moringa seeds and plan to start some soon. With moringa, the information I found states moringa trees grow best in a warm climate, zone 8-10, so I am going to try growing my own moringa tree.
I found this quote on my tea tag even more uplifting than the moringa tea. As of yet, I’m not sure I’ve noticed any change in my arthritis pain since I started drinking moringa tea. Even if moringa doesn’t help my arthritis, its leaves are packed with nutrients. So if I can grow my own moringa tree, I hope to find ways to use the leaves in some dishes. I read it can be added to soups, stews, smoothies, stir fry dishes and it sounds like it can be treated like another green. I could also dry my own moringa leaves for tea.
Since Spring is right around the corner, another healthy green is dandelion. When I was a kid, my mother handed me a paring knife and sent me to gather dandelion greens in early Spring, when she made dandelion with hot bacon dressing. It’s one of my favorite PA Dutch-style meals. I also love PA Dutch scrapple fried nice and crisp for breakfast with eggs and I spread apple butter on my scrapple, because that’s how I grew up eating it.
It’s important to pick dandelion from areas where you’re sure a lot of chemicals haven’t been used. With gathering dandelion greens – first, we only ate them when the dandelions first appeared in the early springtime. My mother told us not to pick dandelion that had already bloomed, but dandelions with closed buds were still acceptable. She said after dandelion blooms, the leaves become bitter tasting.
Here’s a video with a recipe for PA Dutch dandelion and hot bacon dressing from one of my favorite YouTube cooking channels, Helga’s Pennsylvania Cooking. Some people add the dandelion into the hot bacon dressing to wilt it down a bit before spooning it over a boiled potato, but some people arrange it just like in this video:
libertybelle diaries 