Food & Forage Plants

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Basil

#prepper plant, Basil, Ocimum basilicum

FOOD. MEDICINE. TEA. What could be better with lunch today than fresh sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum. High in Vitamin A & K. Got mosquitoes? 

Rub basil leaves on skin for a repellent. Easy to grow. Generously productive. 

#antioxidants #antiinflammatory#anticancer #adaptogen#antibacterial #herb #basil#antifungal #antimosquito#permaculture #ethnobotany#alternativehealth #herbalmedicine#garden #ocimum #survival#prepper #prepperlife

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Spotted Bee Balm

MEDICINE. TEA. STIMULANT. 

Great tea plant & medicinal too, Spotted Bee Balm is drought & salt tolerant.  A great all around #prepper plant.

Mints (Lamiaceae family), both wild and garden hybridized can be a #Preppers best food friend. 

Some associate mints with homesteading and not hiking or backcountry yet mint is also oft easily found in wilds. 

The illustration here & 2nd photo is of horse mint - or spotted bee balm, Monarda punctata. 

Spotted bee balm contains thymol. Thymol acts as an antiseptic & anti-fungal & helps me with indigestion when I drink the leaves & buds seeped in hot water as a tea. We also grow spearmint, peppermint, lemon balm & other mints in our garden & in our herb circle located just outside kitchen door for easy access (see photo). 

Mints contain many beneficial phytochemicals such as flavonoids & antioxidants. Got spastic colon issues? Peppermint tea is considered by some to be an excellent relief & anti-spasmodic for digestive issues. 

Mint also acts as a choleretic & stimulates bile flow from the liver. If you ever experience those horrible gallbladder attacks out hiking look for wild mint. Chewing the leaves or making a tea is a popular gallbladder attack mitigation technique. 

We are all familiar with the mentholated salve type rub for colds. One of the active ingredients in mint is menthol, an aromatic substance used to open sinus passages. Essential oil of mint has also been used for ages as a disinfectant. Most mints are great pollinator plants too (if you want to grow veggies you need pollinators). 

So grow mint! And know your wild mints! Mint makes great tea, works wonders on the body & adds amazing flavor to foods & salads. 

Here is a link to a great article about the benefits of peppermint. https://restorativemedicine.org/library/monographs/peppermint-oil/ 

#Preppers #Prepperlife #Mint#Mentha #Monarda #Beebalm#Foraging #Homesteading#Permaculture #Herbalmedicine#Gallbladder #Survival#Prepperplants #gardening#Urbanfarm #Tea 
#bergamont