Friday, November 13, 2015

Schefflera digitata effective against Athlete's Foot


I can confirm from personal experimentation on many occasions that the New Zealand native plant Schefflera digitata (Patate, Pate, Seven Finger) is extremely effective against athlete's foot.

I just put some leaves in a blender with water, then immediately applied the water to the infected skin with an artist's paint brush. The itching stopped almost immediately. In my opinion it is more effective, especially quicker, than treatment obtained from a chemist. I then kept the juice in the fridge, it remained effective for many months, perhaps more than six months. The long term solution to the problem, however, was to stop wearing a particular pair of old shoes which I used for going into the bush.

It also worked against an ear infection, though again, the permanent, simpler solution was avoiding the cause, in this case keeping my ears above water when washing hair. Finally, this liquid also appears to have cured an identified scalp condition that consisted of itchy and slightly painful areas of skin (when touched) on the top of the head where hair was growing, perhaps they are all much the same condition.

It was reported in 1979 that the leaves contain falcarindiol, known to be effective against "common dermatophyte fungi" (1) including athlete's foot and ringworm. It is not clear to me that the plant was used as a herbal remedy for athletes foot before this, there is a report from 1991 recommending the water steeped in the leaves for "athletes foot and ringworm" (2), but this use may be derived from the scientific finding mentioned.

There is a report from 1848 (1,2) stating Maori used the sap for "scrofulous sores and ringworm" which could include athlete's foot. Perhaps this disease was not even present in Pre-European Maori society because early Maori footwear may not have provided a conducive environment, so it was not an issue.

This plant has the ability to grow under the full shade of larger canopy trees, worth considering as a rare full shade crop. I've nibbled and swallowed very small quantities of the soft young leaves form time to time, even though I've found no reports they are edible (or toxic). They have a mild, pleasant, slightly peppery flavor, not at all bitter like the reportedly edible young leaves of the related Five Finger (Pseudopanax arboreus or Whauwhaupaku) (3) which I enjoy regularly.

An interesting thing I happened to notice about Five Finger is a transparent jelly which can sometimes be found in reasonable quantities on the stem. I don't know what it is, exactly when or why it's there, similar exudations occur on other plants after injury from insect attack, perhaps that's it. The jelly tastes exactly the same as the leaves, bitter but interesting. I've ingesting very small amounts from time to time, finally quite a bit on one occasion, it appears harmless. Seems to me it might have a future as an interesting & unusual food if safety could be determined for sure and a way of inducing/controlling jelly production could be found.

I also tried the easily eaten soft young leaves and stems of the highly attractive Pseudopanax laetus, both raw and cooked they produced a mild burning sensation at the top of the throat, won't be the first time I've been burned by beauty.

1. New Zealand Medicinal Plants. Brooker, Cambie, Cooper 1981 pg 95
2. Maori Healing and Herbal. Riley 1994 pg 330
3. A Field Guide to the Native Edible Plants of New Zealand. Crowe. 1981 pg 153



Saturday, August 29, 2015

Epiphytic Watercress ??





















 Seems a little odd. A Watercress seeding apparently growing as an epiphyte (air plant) in a bottomless free-draining container suspended on a house, alongside an epiphytic cactus.

Perhaps it likes combination of good aeration (they don't like sitting in poorly aerated water) and high rainfall over winter. It found it's way up there from a tub below with watercress in it. The seedling is of course small, I'd be surprised if it reaches a useful size.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Cooking Tiger Worms So Not Tough & Rubbery

The following is the result of experiments with cooking Tiger Worms (Eisenia fetida, also called Compost Worms) so they will not be tough & rubbery as they are after being prepared  by boiling alone. I also wanted to bypass giving them cornmeal to purge them which all recipes I could find recommend.








Step 1: Collecting worms from worm farm (on right: brand name Worm Cafe). Often worms will bunch together in "orgies" making collection easier. Mmmmmm yummy.


Step 2. Wash worms using a sieve, pick out debris if there is any. 


Step 3. Place worms in a container. This is a commercial plastic container for supplying live mealworms, presumably small holes in the lid are an effective & necessary way of providing fresh air for breathing. I then put the container in a dark place, as these worms hate light, for 4 days. I wash the worms once a day so they don't eat their own waste (I don't know if this is necessary, they don't seem to be interested in doing this from my observation, but an easy precaution to take). 

I simply fasted the worms, didn't give them cornmeal as usually recommended, I'm interested in eating worms for maximizing self-sufficiency, buying cornmeal from a shop seemed a silly excess for someone trying to be reasonably self-sufficient.


Step 4. Place worms in pot of boiling water for 5-15 minutes ( based on fact that 3-4 minutes recommended time for boiling untreated water to kill all potentially harmful micro-organisms). Presumably just putting worms in boiling water is considered a sufficiently humane way to dispatch them, it's done with lobsters, they can be frozen first if not.



Step 5. After boiling the worms can be eaten but they are tough, rubbery and average in flavor.



Step 6.  I roasted them for 15-20 minutes at 220 C (428 F) on an oven tray, without water or oil, until they were crispy. You should probably check often for when they're just getting crisp. They are no longer rubbery at this stage, easily eaten, tasting something like prawns in my opinion. The prawn-like flavor and crispy texture combine to make them very similar to prawn crackers, I think good enough to consider as a regular food item, though I've only done it twice so far. 

They do have a lingering smoky, perhaps earthy, strong cheesy, aftertaste that stays in the mouth for over an hour. Not an unpleasant taste but a little odd, a potential drawback worth trying to eliminate - unless it becomes an acquired taste, there are stranger ones. I will probably experiment with eating something after it to "clear the palate". 

I also fried some in olive oil, this also made them crispy, they tasted more like octopus this way, not as nice I thought. Also buying olive oil seemed an unnecessary, avoidable, dependence for someone trying to maximize self-sufficiency.  The aftertaste seemed to be even stronger with frying.

Final dish consisted of more roast worms than the few pictured above, I was enjoying them so much I forgot to take the photo till almost too late.

Conclusion

Tiger worms may be worth considering as a way of providing your own protein rich (ref 1) and tasty meat if you live on a small, e.g., suburban, section. Tiger worms also contain vitamin B12 (cobalamin) (ref 2) so are possibly the easiest ways of producing this essential vitamin in a small space with little skill, presumably with less ethical concerns than farming and slaughtering more intelligent and sentient animals.

Because they eat decomposing material, apparently usually at the bottom, or close to the bottom, of the food chain, they are presumably amongst the most energy efficient ways of producing meat possible (I actually find food chain hierarchies a little confusing, I assume if they're eating something from the "bottom" of the food chain like a plant they are energy efficient, if they're eating something at the "top" like a dead person, which is perfectly natural of course, they are inefficient, I don't know if they would then also be considered to be at the "top".) Presumably they are able to produce more meat in a given amount of space than carnivores or perhaps even herbivores. Certainly the reproduction rate of Tiger Worms is legendary, especially if well managed. Other edible consumers of decomposing material such as the American Cockroach and meal worms, also known for very high reproduction rates, are presumably worth trying for the super-efficient small-scale production of meat.

I suppose vegetarianism may be the most energy efficient way to maximize food production in a small space, which I might resort to, though these creature do use a resource plants don't and provide a byproduct plants can use, as well as providing the essential vitamin B12 (ref 2), rarely if ever available from plants. It's possible creatures like this combined with plants are more productive than plants alone and they do use spaces plants don't, namely dark places.

Also if you're in a suburb probably no one will seriously object to you eating these. They'll think it's disgusting but that's probably better than being known for slaughtering (invariably cute) micro-livestock likely to be available like bunnies. People in the country wont care a toss about you slaughtering animals for food but city dwellers, especially children, will probably have more trouble with it. Reminding them their insulated industrial way of life is slaughtering the planet is unlikely to help.  

Refs: 

1.The Worm Book. Loren Nancarrow and Janet Hogan Taylor. 1998. Ten Speed Press.

2. Production of feed protein from animal waste by earthworms. C.A. Edwards. 1985. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.1985.0120
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2396435