Spring harvest

I harvested my ginger and turmeric today. I have tried to grow ginger in about every soil imaginable--compost, potting soil, sand, clay, and combinations of soils. The most I got was a single rhizome that let me try again. This last year I tried it two different ways--regular garden soil mix with sphegnum moss added in to break up the pack, and straight sphegnum moss.

Ginger harvest (2015). Soil on the left, sphegnum moss on the right. The sphegnum ginger grew larger in bulk but didn't have as many pieces.

I've tried turmeric almost as many ways, and the roots always died. Rotted, dried up, and last year a giant cutworm found it. This year I had two roots survive (not grow, but survive) so I put them in sphegnum moss as well in an attempt to save something. One of the parent roots is still solid but has no eyes. The other will go back in the moss to try again.

Turmeric harvest (2015)

Harvested and repotted all the turmeric (except the rhizome that didn't have any buds). I put the ginger in a mini greenhouse and I'll plant it later. I'll probably do a combination again, some in moss and some in soil.

Food sensitivities

Last week I discovered that one of my sisters is lactose intolerant. She hadn't told any of us, so of course Thanksgiving was heavy with cheese and cream and butter.

Food sensitivities are rampant, especially as people get older. Stomacheaches, heartburn, etc, are pretty much ignored except to pump pharmaceuticals and other chemicals into an already overstressed system.

If you have food alergies or sensitivities, the best thing you can do is tell other people about it. Other people can help you (or snipe and warn) and adjust their foods to accomodate. Mashed potatoes may not taste the same with margarine, or without the heavy cream, but they're still good.

Avoidance may be the best option, but some people lack self control and sometimes you simply don't know what is in the food you're eating. Once in a while you may slip and unknowingly eat something you shouldn't simply because it's related to something you're sensitive to.

If you do slip up there are a number of herbs that will help with digestive problems (many of the mints, dill (carrot familly) as well as turmeric and ginger). But herbs, by their nature, are related to other herbs and people will often have the same sensitivities to their relatives (rather like your sister-in-law's mother).

That being the case, I'm going through all the old posts here and putting up plant family information. I've started but not finished, so look back later for additional information.

Got my Drug Interaction book back!

Since I didn't have the book that has all the drug interactions, I didn't put the interactions in each of the posts. I think the herbs below are those that I missed (with the exception of a few that aren't in the book).

I think it's important to note (although the people who wrote the book would probably scream at me for it) that many of these "interactions" are increases or decreases in the effect of the drugs. The authors are very careful to state that nothing is proven as to the effects of the herbs, then they state that the herbs increase or decrease the effects of pharmaceuticals. Which would suggest to me that the herbs are actually effective, since taking a double dose of a pharmaceutical would have the same effect.

Yarrow
Avoid using yarrow with depressants (such as alcohol) as well as blood thinners and drugs that lower blood pressure

Ginger
Avoid using ginger with blood thinners

Garlic
Avoid using garlic with anti-platelet agents or blood thinners, as garlic may increase their effects

Pepper
Pepper interacts with blood thinners, some anti-biotics, non-steroidal pain killers, and smoking cessation aids.

Catnip
No interactions listed