It’s Makuru in Boorloo (Perth) which means we finally have some decent rain, our gardens are greener and germs are about. Lots of colds, flus and covid are going around and they are easier to catch as we spend more time indoors. For more on that check out this great ABC podcast on the science behind winter and sickness.
But like most of life’s problems – there are answers in the garden! This month we are exploring two natural ways to support our immune systems at the Farm- by eating weeds and making Fire Cider.
Eating Weeds
‘Weeds’ are a human concept, really they are just plants growing in a spot we didn’t want them to. Delightfully many of them are edible and some like dandelions and purslane contain nutrients and antioxidants that can support immune function, more so than many plants we have carefully cultivated and eat more frequently.
Why? Weeds tend to have a short lifespan and grow in challenging conditions- like through the cracks in a pavement. This means they often ‘go hard and die’, packing a lot of activity into a short period, and creating chemicals to protect them from predators.
In fact a study from the University of California found that some common weeds are actually healthier for you than much of the food we buy from the shops. They found six particular weeds had higher levels of fibre, protein, Vitamins A & K, calcium and iron than kale.
It’s important to make sure you eat the right weeds though, and from the right places. If you’re interested to learn more join the wonderful Annie for an upcoming Edible Weed Forage at Perth City Farm. Annie’s written the best handbook to Australian weed foraging so knows what she’s talking about, and we’re leaving lots of great weeds around the Farm for you to try.
Fire Cider
Fire Cider is a traditional immune boosting health tonic. It is apple cider vinegar infused with lots of classic garden goodies and finished off with some honey to help it go down. You can take 1 tablespoon of it daily to help your body fight off nasties.
Recently we started a batch at the Farm, taking good organic apple cider vinegar and adding most of the things listed in the recipe below. It is now in the office infusing for a month, then we’ll strain out the lumpy bits and add in some lovely Farm honey. We’ll then divide up the fire cider between those who helped make it.
One thing we learnt in the process is that fresh horseradish is very hard to find in Perth so we skipped that. Michelle from Trovato Biodynamics at our Farmers market has a patch planted out which she hopes to start harvesting from in a couple of years. Another consideration is that this is a recipe from the Northern hemisphere so we’re making is at the start of our winter, but plants like turmeric, garlic and horseradish wont be ready until our spring. So we’re going to freeze some fresh turmeric to make fire cider at the same time next year.
Fire Cider recipe
Adapted from a recipe by the Urban Nanna
Ingredients
To make 2L of finished cider
- 2L Apple Cider Vinegar, ideally a raw one with the ‘mother’ in
- 2 lemons
- Piece of ginger – 10cm long
- 1 onion
- 1 head garlic
- 4 dried chillies
- Fresh rosemary – leaves only from 3 long sprigs
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 kaffir lime leaves
- Fresh sage- 3 sprigs
- Fresh chives- handful
- Black pepper, whole – 20 or so
- ½ cup of honey
- Other possible ingredients to add (we couldn’t source them): Horseradish ( thumb sized piece), galangal, turmeric, orange.
Method
- Start with a clean large jar.
- Chop up all ingredients as fine as you can be bothered. Leave the peel on citrus and skin on ginger/turmeric/horseradish. Peel onion and garlic. Put it all into the jar.
- Cover the ingredients with the apple cider vinegar. Top with a fermentation weight, some baking paper (to protect the metal lid from the vinegar) and then the jar lid.
- Keep in a cool dark spot and give it a daily shake. Leave to infuse for four weeks.
- Strain the ingredients from the liquid. (The ingredients can be added to other cooking (e.g. dahl) or dehydrated and blitzed as a spice to add when cooking.)
- Add the honey to then strained liquid and stir well. Store in clean glass bottles and keep in the fridge.
- Take 1 tablespoon daily as a health tonic. Can also be used as part of a salad dressing or flavour enhancer in cooking.
Conclusion
By adding some edible weeds and a daily dose of fire cider to your diet you may be able to avoid the worst of the winter sickness. Either way, getting outside for some gardening and harvesting is bound to be good for you- good for the soul and getting you out of a house full of other with germs perhaps!