Freeze drying is ideal (for preserving flavor, nutrition and the medicinal compounds in the highest potency for the longest time) if you can afford a machine (though it took me years to save up to buy our freeze dryer so for most people that is likely not viable) but second to that (if you are enjoying as a tea in a traditonal way) would be air drying the leaves/flowers in a dark space. For low tech drying, I hang about 12 inch long sections of the leaves and flowers in clusters of 3 in a closet or a room with blinds closed. Once the leaves are brittle and the stems can break and snap I remove the flowers and leaves from the stems into jars with a desiccant and store in a cool, dark, and dry place for up to 1.5 years for making tea.
Additional unconventional preservation methods include lacto-fermentation and adding tulsi leaves to soups or curries and then freezing.
Thank you so much for your kind words about my photos. Exploring the realm of the fleeting, minute and finite moments in nature (that are often beyond the capabilities of our human eyes to detect unaided) with my lens is a passion of mine.
Some day (after I work out the kinks in self-publishing my gardening/recipe book and get my second book pieced together and published) I hope to offer a unique photographic package format where I sell prints of my work on canvas which would be accompanied by other forms of the preserved essence of the beauty/medicine of the place in which the photo was captured (making it more of a holistic/multi-sensory experience). It would also come with seeds to cultivate the plants that are present in the image. I can share more on this idea another time if you are interested.
btw - I recently responded to your comment on The Corbett Report's October Thread (regarding shiitake mushroom cultivation) but I don't know if there was actually a reply button below your name (or if that function disappeared as it sometimes does once a few people comment and I had to just reply to myself) in which case, I imagine you would not be notified that I had replied.
Thanks again for swinging by to check out my post, I am glad you enjoyed it :)
I am a treatment-free beekeeper … or have been … and plan to be again. My success rate hasn’t been great, but I do have a hive as a centerpiece in my cabin that is nearly full of honey from the last bees I lost over the winter 2020-2021. (I brought it in because there was a bear hanging around.) That may be part of the reason I find the photos so stunning, but they are truly pristine. I am wondering if they are taken as photographs or if they are stills selected from video.
I have tried out and/or built a variety of styles of hives - 10-frame langstroth, 8-frame langstroth, warré, top bar, and most recently have built a Leo Sharashkin design of a layens hive with double wall and insulation (my insulation isn’t in yet, but it will be before I put bees in it).
I did see your info about shiitakes. I don’t remember now if I got a notification or if I just went back in to see. I’ll have to wait and see what happens with the wood chips and wood chunks I have tried to inoculate. I’m off-grid and don’t buy electric tools since I can’t afford both and I want to be able to do my work any time. I have seen the angle grinder in action at a workshop, and yes, they are super fast. I am hoping to get mushrooms going without the need for fancy tools. I know it might be a long shot, but I’m giving it a try. :)
I don’t know if you have checked out my website, but you may find it interesting. thelilacdragonfly.wixsite.com/home and also basketyurtshop.wixsite.com/home (I’m no longer doing the fundraiser, but haven’t gotten in there to update since I have to go to a library and I have a hard time using daylight hours for such things.)
It sounds like I could sure use some of your skills here on my place. If only there wasn’t an impenetrable government barrier between here and there and such a long drive. I think you are more toward the east side of Canada now, aren’t you? I’m in New Hampshire. My ideal job, if I must continue working away from home, would be edible/herbal/medicinal… ornamental gardens.
I have been researching natural bee keeping as I plan on making it a central pillar of our future homestead (as we will be cultivating a diverse array of medicinal blossoming plants and trees that can provide ideal nectar for our winged friends).
Thanks again for your kind words about my photos, they were still shots taken with my Nikon 5100 and a macro lens, but it took hours to get good shots at those little hoverflies and mason bees etc do not like to stand still :)
Thank you for sharing those details about hive designs, I may want to pick your brain on the pro-s and cons of each when we get closer to building our hives :)
Since we are talking about fungi and bees I feel it is only appropriate I ask if you are familiar with Paul Stamets' work in extending the lifespan of honey bees, increasing their resistance against Varroa mites and increasing their natural immunity to a range of viruses via feeding them medicinal mushroom extracts?
Here is a video presentation where he talks about some of his work in that area (among other things) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q0un2GPsSQ (The part about honey bees and mushroom extracts starts at about time index 7:46 and goes until about 16:40).
Here are some additional links/studies that are related:
Perhaps you could make some DIY tinctures with foraged Reishi mushrooms and feed some to your bees in the winter to help them have that extra bit of resilience to survive in challenging conditions?
Ahh off grid, I admire that. Well I suppose if you used a generator just once a year and did a whole bunch of logs in one go it might be worth it? Or maybe it would be worth processing them offsite (where you do have access to power tools) and them bringing them to your off grid situation? Or maybe you could do the chainsaw method? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkVaA5oukHE
I do think that focusing on low tech cultivation is a wise choice given we may not have access to high tech tools and/or power tools if one of several things occurs to cripple our centralized infrastructure (and/or the technology itself if something like a CME happens) however I also make use of power tools and grid dependent high tech tools (like a freeze dryer) while I have access to them so I can add momentum to my cultivation efforts and preserve the resulting abundance for the ultra-long term. It was not easy for me to save up to get tools for cultivating mushrooms or a freeze dryer but I felt it was a prudent choice for our situation so we tightened our belts for a while so we could make it happen.
Given good oak/maple shiitake logs can produce for 5-7 years easy, they can be moved if you need to and you can encourage them to produce year round by dunking them in water to stimulate fruiting when you need some extra food in a relatively fast timeframe, I find cultivating mushrooms in that way to be very practical and versatile (especially given our current economic/food supply situation).
Please keep me informed as to how your shiitake wood chip cultivation project goes, I have high hopes and will say a prayer to the spirits of the fungi queendom and ask that they help your shiitake mycelium to thrive and persevere ;)
Yes I have seen your lovely website (I wanted to buy one of your beautiful handmade baskets remember ;) ). I would like to learn how to weave pine needle baskets next year, have you ever tried making those?
Likewise, I would love to learn from your skills here at our place too! Alas plutocrats and their politician puppets do like drawing their lines in the sand, and we happen to be on different sides of one such arbitrary imaginary barrier.
Yes we are in Ontario on the shore of Lake Erie, just south of Detroit.
I share in your desire to focus on creating and helping others to create edible/herbal/medicinal gardens. I already help people create ornamental gardens but I sometimes cringe when I see young families spending thousands of their hard earned dollars to plant inedible, imported, hybridized, dwarf/grafted, clean cut ornamental shrubs (that often do not even provide food for wild life, much less humans). I try to dissuade people from planting a garden purely for looks (because some magazine or social media influencer told them that is "what is in fashion") given what is happening with our economy and food supply, but in many cases they are uninterested in cultivating edible plants as they have been conditioned to perceive food gardening as some kind of 'low down dirty peasant activity'. Oh well, the old saying you can lead a horse to water... comes to mind so I just re-direct my energy to those that are willing to help themselves.
There is no reply option on your CR comments now, so I can’t reply there…. You know how it is from previous experience. So I’ll reply here, which is really going to mix things up, but …
The tricky part about ginger when I tried growing it before was that it said ~11 month growing season, I think and very warm, but in the shade. That is a really tricky thing to do up here. I wasn’t sure how to manage that. Maybe a small in-ground greenhouse with shade cloth over only the ginger…(?). I WOULD like to try again. I got some, but not much.
I DID see your comment on the tulsi article, and kept it up. The problem is, I can’t watch videos here at home. I only rarely get to a spot where I can, and then I’m trying to catch up on so many things - mostly listening while I clean a house every other week, and not watching - so I haven’t watched all the links you put in there. I will try to follow up on some of them one of these days.
I have never drunk alcohol and completely avoided it, even in flavorings, for many many years, until a couple years ago when the herbalist I am taking a course from convinced me that it should be okay for medicinal purposes - that it gives herbs pretty much an indefinite shelf life, and to not waste my time and effort, I decided to get some alcohol. I got it from an organic alcohol company in Oregon and you have to jump through some hoops and pay a lot even here. I’m sure to Canada it would be outrageous.
I have a lot of echinacea. I mean A LOT. More than I can really use, and right now I have probably a bushel and a half of seed heads (besides the good flowers I harvested to use from my existing ~ 8’ x 16’ echinacea patch). Last year I made echinacea vinegar, rather than tincture with my echinacea. About 3 gallons. I had just learned about oxymels and was going to try it, but I haven’t added the honey. I used some as salad dressing this summer and if I make fire cider, I will add some to that. I literally have enough echinacea seeds to plant a field of it, I think … but no good place to plant that much. :) I’ve heard it’s not good to take echinacea consistently, and when you DO take it, make sure to take enough, as it is quite mild, and also take something else with it like ginger, cayenne, peppermint or something else kind of zingy to wake your body up to take notice of it and put it to good use.
I lived in Jackson, Michigan, for almost 4 years - 1994 - 1998. If I were still that close, we WOULD be able to meet at the border. :)
I am familiar with Paul Stametz and have at least one of his books. I knew he was doing things with bees (I have a distinct image in my mind of him covered in bees), but I didn’t know what exactly.
I did remember later than you had said something about my baskets. I think maybe I was wondering if you had seen the bee/honey stuff on my website. I haven’t updated it in quite a while. Computer/internet access is a pain for me…. :(
Gavin,
What would be the best way to preserve tulsi at the end of gardening season? Thanks!
Hello my friend! :) Which type are you growing?
Freeze drying is ideal (for preserving flavor, nutrition and the medicinal compounds in the highest potency for the longest time) if you can afford a machine (though it took me years to save up to buy our freeze dryer so for most people that is likely not viable) but second to that (if you are enjoying as a tea in a traditonal way) would be air drying the leaves/flowers in a dark space. For low tech drying, I hang about 12 inch long sections of the leaves and flowers in clusters of 3 in a closet or a room with blinds closed. Once the leaves are brittle and the stems can break and snap I remove the flowers and leaves from the stems into jars with a desiccant and store in a cool, dark, and dry place for up to 1.5 years for making tea.
Additional unconventional preservation methods include lacto-fermentation and adding tulsi leaves to soups or curries and then freezing.
Hope this helps! :)
Thank you for your help!
The photographs are spectacular. :) Are you the photographer too?
Greetings lilac dragonfly! :)
Thank you so much for your kind words about my photos. Exploring the realm of the fleeting, minute and finite moments in nature (that are often beyond the capabilities of our human eyes to detect unaided) with my lens is a passion of mine.
Some day (after I work out the kinks in self-publishing my gardening/recipe book and get my second book pieced together and published) I hope to offer a unique photographic package format where I sell prints of my work on canvas which would be accompanied by other forms of the preserved essence of the beauty/medicine of the place in which the photo was captured (making it more of a holistic/multi-sensory experience). It would also come with seeds to cultivate the plants that are present in the image. I can share more on this idea another time if you are interested.
btw - I recently responded to your comment on The Corbett Report's October Thread (regarding shiitake mushroom cultivation) but I don't know if there was actually a reply button below your name (or if that function disappeared as it sometimes does once a few people comment and I had to just reply to myself) in which case, I imagine you would not be notified that I had replied.
Thanks again for swinging by to check out my post, I am glad you enjoyed it :)
Hi Gavin,
I am a treatment-free beekeeper … or have been … and plan to be again. My success rate hasn’t been great, but I do have a hive as a centerpiece in my cabin that is nearly full of honey from the last bees I lost over the winter 2020-2021. (I brought it in because there was a bear hanging around.) That may be part of the reason I find the photos so stunning, but they are truly pristine. I am wondering if they are taken as photographs or if they are stills selected from video.
I have tried out and/or built a variety of styles of hives - 10-frame langstroth, 8-frame langstroth, warré, top bar, and most recently have built a Leo Sharashkin design of a layens hive with double wall and insulation (my insulation isn’t in yet, but it will be before I put bees in it).
I did see your info about shiitakes. I don’t remember now if I got a notification or if I just went back in to see. I’ll have to wait and see what happens with the wood chips and wood chunks I have tried to inoculate. I’m off-grid and don’t buy electric tools since I can’t afford both and I want to be able to do my work any time. I have seen the angle grinder in action at a workshop, and yes, they are super fast. I am hoping to get mushrooms going without the need for fancy tools. I know it might be a long shot, but I’m giving it a try. :)
I don’t know if you have checked out my website, but you may find it interesting. thelilacdragonfly.wixsite.com/home and also basketyurtshop.wixsite.com/home (I’m no longer doing the fundraiser, but haven’t gotten in there to update since I have to go to a library and I have a hard time using daylight hours for such things.)
It sounds like I could sure use some of your skills here on my place. If only there wasn’t an impenetrable government barrier between here and there and such a long drive. I think you are more toward the east side of Canada now, aren’t you? I’m in New Hampshire. My ideal job, if I must continue working away from home, would be edible/herbal/medicinal… ornamental gardens.
See you again either here or over at CR. :)
I have been researching natural bee keeping as I plan on making it a central pillar of our future homestead (as we will be cultivating a diverse array of medicinal blossoming plants and trees that can provide ideal nectar for our winged friends).
Thanks again for your kind words about my photos, they were still shots taken with my Nikon 5100 and a macro lens, but it took hours to get good shots at those little hoverflies and mason bees etc do not like to stand still :)
Thank you for sharing those details about hive designs, I may want to pick your brain on the pro-s and cons of each when we get closer to building our hives :)
Since we are talking about fungi and bees I feel it is only appropriate I ask if you are familiar with Paul Stamets' work in extending the lifespan of honey bees, increasing their resistance against Varroa mites and increasing their natural immunity to a range of viruses via feeding them medicinal mushroom extracts?
Here is a video presentation where he talks about some of his work in that area (among other things) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q0un2GPsSQ (The part about honey bees and mushroom extracts starts at about time index 7:46 and goes until about 16:40).
Here are some additional links/studies that are related:
- https://fungi.com/pages/bees
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-89811-2
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32194-8?_ke=eyJrbF9lbWFpbCI6ICJhbm5zZ2luZ2VyaG91c2VAaG90bWFpbC5jb20iLCAia2xfY29tcGFueV9pZCI6ICJMeDRHUnAifQ%3D%3D
- https://news.wsu.edu/press-release/2021/05/27/fungus-fights-mites-harm-honey-bees/
Perhaps you could make some DIY tinctures with foraged Reishi mushrooms and feed some to your bees in the winter to help them have that extra bit of resilience to survive in challenging conditions?
Ahh off grid, I admire that. Well I suppose if you used a generator just once a year and did a whole bunch of logs in one go it might be worth it? Or maybe it would be worth processing them offsite (where you do have access to power tools) and them bringing them to your off grid situation? Or maybe you could do the chainsaw method? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkVaA5oukHE
I do think that focusing on low tech cultivation is a wise choice given we may not have access to high tech tools and/or power tools if one of several things occurs to cripple our centralized infrastructure (and/or the technology itself if something like a CME happens) however I also make use of power tools and grid dependent high tech tools (like a freeze dryer) while I have access to them so I can add momentum to my cultivation efforts and preserve the resulting abundance for the ultra-long term. It was not easy for me to save up to get tools for cultivating mushrooms or a freeze dryer but I felt it was a prudent choice for our situation so we tightened our belts for a while so we could make it happen.
Given good oak/maple shiitake logs can produce for 5-7 years easy, they can be moved if you need to and you can encourage them to produce year round by dunking them in water to stimulate fruiting when you need some extra food in a relatively fast timeframe, I find cultivating mushrooms in that way to be very practical and versatile (especially given our current economic/food supply situation).
Please keep me informed as to how your shiitake wood chip cultivation project goes, I have high hopes and will say a prayer to the spirits of the fungi queendom and ask that they help your shiitake mycelium to thrive and persevere ;)
Yes I have seen your lovely website (I wanted to buy one of your beautiful handmade baskets remember ;) ). I would like to learn how to weave pine needle baskets next year, have you ever tried making those?
Likewise, I would love to learn from your skills here at our place too! Alas plutocrats and their politician puppets do like drawing their lines in the sand, and we happen to be on different sides of one such arbitrary imaginary barrier.
Yes we are in Ontario on the shore of Lake Erie, just south of Detroit.
I share in your desire to focus on creating and helping others to create edible/herbal/medicinal gardens. I already help people create ornamental gardens but I sometimes cringe when I see young families spending thousands of their hard earned dollars to plant inedible, imported, hybridized, dwarf/grafted, clean cut ornamental shrubs (that often do not even provide food for wild life, much less humans). I try to dissuade people from planting a garden purely for looks (because some magazine or social media influencer told them that is "what is in fashion") given what is happening with our economy and food supply, but in many cases they are uninterested in cultivating edible plants as they have been conditioned to perceive food gardening as some kind of 'low down dirty peasant activity'. Oh well, the old saying you can lead a horse to water... comes to mind so I just re-direct my energy to those that are willing to help themselves.
Yes sounds good, catch ya on the flip side :)
Hi Gavin,
There is no reply option on your CR comments now, so I can’t reply there…. You know how it is from previous experience. So I’ll reply here, which is really going to mix things up, but …
The tricky part about ginger when I tried growing it before was that it said ~11 month growing season, I think and very warm, but in the shade. That is a really tricky thing to do up here. I wasn’t sure how to manage that. Maybe a small in-ground greenhouse with shade cloth over only the ginger…(?). I WOULD like to try again. I got some, but not much.
I DID see your comment on the tulsi article, and kept it up. The problem is, I can’t watch videos here at home. I only rarely get to a spot where I can, and then I’m trying to catch up on so many things - mostly listening while I clean a house every other week, and not watching - so I haven’t watched all the links you put in there. I will try to follow up on some of them one of these days.
I have never drunk alcohol and completely avoided it, even in flavorings, for many many years, until a couple years ago when the herbalist I am taking a course from convinced me that it should be okay for medicinal purposes - that it gives herbs pretty much an indefinite shelf life, and to not waste my time and effort, I decided to get some alcohol. I got it from an organic alcohol company in Oregon and you have to jump through some hoops and pay a lot even here. I’m sure to Canada it would be outrageous.
I have a lot of echinacea. I mean A LOT. More than I can really use, and right now I have probably a bushel and a half of seed heads (besides the good flowers I harvested to use from my existing ~ 8’ x 16’ echinacea patch). Last year I made echinacea vinegar, rather than tincture with my echinacea. About 3 gallons. I had just learned about oxymels and was going to try it, but I haven’t added the honey. I used some as salad dressing this summer and if I make fire cider, I will add some to that. I literally have enough echinacea seeds to plant a field of it, I think … but no good place to plant that much. :) I’ve heard it’s not good to take echinacea consistently, and when you DO take it, make sure to take enough, as it is quite mild, and also take something else with it like ginger, cayenne, peppermint or something else kind of zingy to wake your body up to take notice of it and put it to good use.
I lived in Jackson, Michigan, for almost 4 years - 1994 - 1998. If I were still that close, we WOULD be able to meet at the border. :)
I am familiar with Paul Stametz and have at least one of his books. I knew he was doing things with bees (I have a distinct image in my mind of him covered in bees), but I didn’t know what exactly.
I did remember later than you had said something about my baskets. I think maybe I was wondering if you had seen the bee/honey stuff on my website. I haven’t updated it in quite a while. Computer/internet access is a pain for me…. :(
Sure wish I could work with you. I’d learn a lot.