ANOTHER FREE TEA, FREE MEDICINE IN MINI-GARDEN

You should already know that when you simply create the right atmosphere in your garden or farm, some plants you didn't cultivate would  spring up.

We assume all these are weeds and often cut or uproot them. So I was also weeding out another power-packed plant in my little mini-garden until Eureka! (Discovery).

I did attempt to search the plant out online many months ago but I suppose it was one of those times I had so much to do such that when the search results came out I couldn't go through them all to identify it.

Fortunately, social media that people believe has so much negativity is also a haven of good knowledge. A fellow herbalist recently posted on this plant giving the common name - Day flower. This therefore aided my recent search and study about the plant. 

Day flower with scientific name:

Commelina benghalensis, is also called Tropical Spiderwort or Wandering Jew or Whiskered Commelina. I found out it is a perennial herb native to tropical Asia and Africa. It is edible and also medicinal. The light-green leaves can be prepared and eaten as a vegetable like spinach or included in salads.

Though not sweet, it is not too bitter - like lettuce. The leaves can also be boiled, soaked in hot or warm water and taken as tea with sweetener like honey or fruit juice. You may also boil with other leaves used as tea like lemon grass, blood leaves; pawpaw leaves; mint leaves etc. 

it removes toxins from the body, so protects the body  from harmful inorganic materials that we ingest through food, drinks; drugs and inhale in  polluted air. Remember that a lot of commercially grown foods are grown with chemicals which can be damaging to human health, drugs have side effects and harmful gases are often released into the environments we are.

While we are advocating for all these harmful practices to be stopped, we need to keep exploring ways to remove toxins from our bodies to prevent or reduce ill-health and untimely deaths. 

I  have been taking the leaves daily as tea for about five days - I am noticing it makes me feel somewhat more energised.  

I also read that it treats  ailments like leprosy, sore throat, tonsillitis, inflammation of the eye(s) and other body parts, burns, pain and so used to soothe inflammation,   soften skin/heal and calm the body. It is also taken to reduce high blood pressure.

The leaves are also used as animal fodder 

The dried plant is used to treat bleeding, diarrhoea, fever etc.  It is also an anti-bacteria.

BUTTERFLY PpEA

Commelina benghalesis - Day flower produces very attractive small flowers with deep ink-blue petals.

It is used in some African cultures to treat infertility, burns, sore throats, sore eyes, dysentery, rashes and leprosy.

The Blue flower - butterfly pea: contain antioxidants that can help with skin and hair glow, aid weight loss, and balance blood sugar.

Already Butterfly pea flower is being used in some herbal teas, mixed drinks, and cosmetic products due to its rich  antioxidants. It is used as colouring in cooking, and even in dyes.

When I read that it strengthens the body immune response and boost overall health, it confirmed what I had been noticing when I take it. Having read that butterfly pea tea  improve blood flow to the eyes, I am testing the effects on my eye health. 

Though generally safe, pregnant and nursing women should avoid  taking herbs without the recommendation of a health practitioner. 

Like most things in life Day flower and it's Butterfly pea should be taken in moderation. If you notice allergic reaction after taking it; discontinue it's use. Also consult your health care practitioner.

I have not experienced allergies taking the Day flower or the blue butterfly pea - there is a small yellowish-gold part on the ink-blue  butterfly pea that I remove before using it. Why? I don't know yet but I think it may cause allergies. 

So if having allergies; remove that part before soaking the blue part in water to drink and check if there are still allergic reaction(s).

But all in all this plant Commelina benghalensis is awesome! If my little mini-garden can provide so much health benefits, you can imagine how much more a large farm would. 

Had I known Agriculture is Solution to Health, I would have started Farming long ago!

#Dayflower

#Butterflypea

#Commelina

#Commelinabenghalensis

#TropicalSpiderwort 

#wanderingjews 

#WhiskeredCommelina

#pureagriculture

#agricutureversusgoodhealth 

#minigardenresearch

#growingcornindryseason

#growingcornallyearround

#throughbredseeds

#purebredseeds

#agriculturalmedicine

#gardeningindryseason 

#growingcropsindryseason 

#growingcropsinsacks

#growingmaizeinsacks

#spaceconstrainedgarden

#gardeningincementedpremises

#gardeninginsacks

#growingplantsinsacks

#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening 

 #minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces

THREE-YEAR OLD ALMOND TREE PLANTED BY BIRD STARTS FRUITING

Fruits have actually started emerging on the almond tree growing in a drum in my mini-garden. 

This almond tree whose seed was initially sown by a visiting bird in one of the sacks of soil in the premises is in its third year.

The seed is no doubt pure-bred - only God knows where the bird picked the seed from. I think it is likely from a forest or any place where human beings have not tampered much or at all with the growing vegetation.

Ever since it was sown and started sprouting in the sack in Year 2021 till December 2023 when I got it transplanted into a large drum till date, it's growth has been very vigorous. 

The leaves are mostly big and flabby, I even cut off so many of the leaves to use as food wrappers and boil as tea. I also use the leaves in manuring other plants in the mini-garden.

In fact, I planted other crops - turmeric, ginger and yam in the same drum with the almond tree yet it has continued it's vigorous growth. 

I cannot say the same of other crops- the mango tree I transplanted into another drum same December, last year  has been having difficulty in its growth. So I cut off the upper parwhich was drooping in hope the mango tree would grow from the base - I bought the mango from which I extracted the seed from our local foodstuffs sellers- though likely organic grown, the mango  at some point in its growth or lineage may have been tampered with by humans.

Hence, I am having a yearning - a very strong desire to go on forest-combing in search of pure seeds  or seed-bearing fruits and other plant parts that can be propagated. 

Let me whisper something into your ears - currently in our country, most terrorists or extremists with criminal intent live in forests  - is there any wonder they have so much physical strength and do some physically -daring  things? 

You see the more the things that people eat and drink are tampered with instead of naturally growing in pure soils, the less potent they become. 

So generally  the consumers will not be as constantly strong  physically as those who eat items that are grown, processed or preserved naturally. The former will constantly need health-boosting drugs or supplements to stay strong - this eventually wears out the body's inbuilt natural immunity by the Creator.

Any wonder a virus challenged the potency of human-health systems few years ago?  The natural immunity of most people in modern societies  are low mainly because of what they eat and drink which are presumed to be healthy.

Reason I encourage as many people as can, to grow food, is because we live in a world where there are all sorts of anomalies.

These things I am stating here no doubt have been discovered by lots of people - some people use the knowledge for good trying the best they can to produce healthy foods as naturally as possible.

Some people inspite of the knowledge still use chemicals or other toxic means of producing food because they think they have no other choice to get crops to grow so they can make profit.

 There are also extremists who use the knowledge to perpetrate evils - the way to defeat those they regard as enemies is to constantly weaken them, shorten their lives or make them less productive - perhaps one of the means is  subtly introducing health hazards to people's food and drink within their control. How can they be captured or stopped? 

While contemplating that, we can at least come to the point that if people produce, process or preserve food and drinks in such ways that make them  damaging to health, it would become very unprofitable business.

Food in whatever form should not just be to satisfy hunger/thirst or for pleasure/enjoyment, it should keep the body in good health, not damage it. 

#almond

#almondfruit

#almondtree

#vigorousplants 

#vigorouscrops 

#pureagriculture

#agricutureversusgoodhealth 

#minigardenresearch

#growingcornindryseason

#growingcornallyearround

#throughbredseeds

#purebredseeds

#agriculturalmedicine

#gardeningindryseason 

#growingcropsindryseason 

#growingcropsinsacks

#growingmaizeinsacks

#spaceconstrainedgarden

#gardeningincementedpremises

#gardeninginsacks

#growingplantsinsacks

#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening 

 #minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces  #spaceconstrainedurbangardening

CHICKEN FEED: COCOYAM CAN REPLACE MAIZE

Maize - corn has been very expensive and sometimes not available, according to poultry farmers. 

This has been one of the major reasons these farmers are battling for business survival. 

Before the main gist on  how Cocoyam can be used in poultry feed, let me say what I have been saying again and again and again  - highly commercialised crops such as maize that chemical or inorganic elements are used in their production will become less and less productive with time no matter the growth boosters used in growing them. 

If you plant  seeds from such crops and attempt to grow them naturally, it will be so very difficult for them to yield. 

Those using chemical elements like fertilizers, pesticides to grow them will need higher and higher levels of these inorganic elements which are  toxic to boost their growth. 

So such crops eaten as food by humans or fed to animals pose health hazards - they are slow poisons - the accumulated effects of such foods constitute serious health hazards to humans and livestock consumed by people.

So back to Cocoyam GIST 

Cocoyam root meal can be adopted as alternative energy source in poultry feed. 

Also, leaves of Cocoyam can  serve as alternative protein source for livestock, and poultry feeding but they need to be processed by any of these means - boiling, soaking, fermentation or ensillage (sort of drying)

 Cocoyam plant  produces large quantities of protein and mineral-rich leaves during its vegetative period. 

So the leaves can be harvested and processed into livestock feedstuff  that's very high in protein.

 

It is much cheaper than soybean meal, and groundnut cake. But it has been found to contain phytate -an anti-nutrient which limits the absorption of other nutrients given to the livestock  at the same time. The root meal  - the Cocoyam itself also contain anti-nutrients  But any of those simple  preparation processes mentioned above such as boiling or soaking will  deactivate or reduce the antinutrients.

In addition cocociysm root meal  can be roasted and chopped into bits to feed poultry. 

  

Proximate nutrition composition 

0.2 – 1.10% (fat), 

2 – 5% (fibre), 

14 – 23% (carbohydrates), 

390 – 460 mg/100g (potassium), 

24 – 43 mg/100g (calcium), 

79 – 91 k/cal (energy), 

0.3 – 4.8% (protein) and 79 – 110 mg/100g (magnesium).

 Also note that these anti-nutrients affect the absorption of nutrients eaten at the same meal and not the ones eaten hours later. 

So if rearing livestock especially poultry and maize is too expensive or scarce, why not explore Cocoyam? 

Large scale commercial farmers may find this cumbersome but it is doable. But small scale farmers especially those into home farming or gardening and raising livestock can more easily adopt this. 

You can even grow Cocoyam plants for the starchy carbohydrate roots and protein-rich leaves.  As small as my mini-garden is, I am growing some Cocoyam plants in containers -sacks and bucket.

Note that it is not just about saving money but protecting  consumers' health  - a lot of maize in the market contain toxic elements because of the chemicals they have been grown, processed and preserved with. 

If you give your chickens or any livestock toxic food, it's coming back to you

#Cocoyan

#cocoyamasmaizealternative

#cocoyaminlivestockfeed

#cocoyaminpoultryfeed

#cocoyaminchickenfeed

#minigardenfeedformulation

EXPLORING HEALTHY CHICKEN PRODUCTION IN MINI-GARDEN

Do you know our indigenous - local chickens can grow very big, fleshy and luscious? 

I have seen this quite a number of times - these chickens either scavenge for food or get fed with leftovers from the keeper's household  or both.

When they scavenge for food, among other things they eat worms, insects, vegetation and whatever they can pick up.

If kept, they can be fed with many plant-based foods you have to spare such as rice, maize, yam, sweet potato, Cocoyam etc.

For animal-based foods - give them cooked such as boiling the intestines of  fish and other animal products even chicken intesrines and add  organic grown turmeric  or ginger to aid digestion

Also give them out of the organic-grown vegetables you buy or grow especially greens.

I will be adopting the second option- feeding them and sharing my findings, If the chickens are kept in a cage which is more likely option  for urban dwellers with limited space,, ensure there's   space  in the cage for them to take some steps.

There's still a whole lot of discovery  to be made - no matter how much you have read or heard about any endeavour especially different aspects of farming, until you have actually practised  it, you cannot get the experience needed to go into very large scale production.

I have chosen local chickens because I want to avoid the use of antibiotics and other drugs for survival and growth boosting
usually given to the breeds reared by modern commercial poultry farmers .

I hope to prove what I said at the beginning that local chickens can also grow big, fleshy and luscious enough to grace the plates of food at home or at social functions.

Such chickens would of course be much more  healthier. Their eggs also would be free of toxic elements that may be introduced through drugs which can affect the health of human consumers.

One of the goals of Farm Cafe Information Service is to ensure people eat what will nourish their bodies not damage it.

Farm Cafe's mandate is to prosper Agribusiness through ICT- soon producing healthy food  would be the only way to prosper if you are doing food production, processing or preservation aspects of agribusiness.

Producing truly healthy food will become good business

#poultrykeeping
#chickenrearing
#producingchickens
#localchickenproduction
#healthylivestockproductiom
#healthypoultryproduction
#healthychickenproduction 
#pureagriculture
#agricutureversusgoodhealth
#minigardenresearch
#growingcornindryseason
#growingcornallyearround
#throughbredseeds
#purebredseeds
#agriculturalmedicine
#gardeningindryseason
#growingcropsinsacks
#spaceconstrainedgarden
#gardeningincementedpremises
#gardeninginsacks
#growingplantsinsacks
#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening
#minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces  #spaceconstrainedurbangardening

A KIDNEY HEALTH SOLUTION PLANT IN MY MINI-GARDEN

I don't know whether I should shout Eureka! yet but I think it's very close to it.

There's this plant I noticed  over a week ago. Like some other plants it  has sprouted in my urban cemented, mostly  sack-cultivated mini-garden. 

 Weed! I initially thought  but as I am also a scientist,   I was curious to first find out about it 

 So I searched and searched online, discovered its name: Phyllanthus niruri- stone-brreaker plant that helps solve some if not all liver/kidney health problems. 

I took some photos of it and was going to talk about it last week but held back because I have not  yet tested it. 

Lo and behold, going through Social media posts last week Tuesday, a fellow herbalist on IG had put it up for people to discuss on what they knew about it. 

Quite a number of people had used it for liver/kidney health issue. You may say, 'I don't have liver or kidney problems so I am not interested.'

Eeehhh! You must be interested o. Why? Do you eat food grown or processed or preserved by others? Are some if not all the food and drinks you take bought in the market? Do you take drugs even medicinal drugs? Let's not mention about alcohol and substance abuse or your  inhaling some harmful substances in the atmosphere through no fault of yours. 

If you are in any of these categories, there will certainly be inorganic substances that get into your body system. 

Inorganic substances in the human body are like plastics that are not  bio-degradable such that they pollute the seas, rivers and other water bodies and negatively affect aquatic life,

These inorganic substances  that get into our human bodies also  do not fully degrade or digest. So they have difficulty passing through the liver.  If they eventually  do, they  harm the liver and would also likely harm the kidneys or other organs  such as the ones for defecation. 

If such harm keep happening over time,  the person may have difficulties  urinating or  passing faeces and need serious medical intervention.

If these inorganic substances stay for so long in the body due to not passing through the liver, they build up over time and may become cancerous.

Certain foods like chemical-free vegetables and fruits  and spices like turmeric can help boost liver and kidney health and aid safe passage of these inorganic substances out of the body. But consistently taking in inorganic substances through any of the means mentioned above can really harm the performance of the liver and the kidneys.

 Many people may have only slight discomforts  from time to time especially if they also eat very healthy foods devoid of inorganic substances. This is because the body and organs generally are on healing mode. 

But since you cannot always know for sure  if inorganic substances have been used in your food at some points, you may be taking in a whole lot of inorganic substances.  It may also be through the other means highlighted above. 

So, in order not to wait till there's a major problem and since we cannot yet fully control all our food systems, having a herb that can further breakdown the inorganic  substances such that they have easier passage through the liver and kidneys is marvellous, isn't It? 

I have been taking the juice of this plant everyday for a week now. 

I was able to eat certain highly commercialised food that I have been avoiding without some of the after-effects - terrible inflammation in the body usually with aches and pains, some hurting in the eyes, and temporary flare-up in skin break-outs  and itching and emergence of grey hairs😂.

The reason for body discomforts from taking food containing inorganic substances  is that the longer those inorganic substances stay in our body system due to difficulties passing through liver and kidney(s), the more havoc they wreck.

When they eventually pass through, they do some harm to the liver and kidney(s) and if such inorganic substances keep getting into the system they will keep on damaging these organs  and may lead to very serious problems.

While the Phyllanthus niruri

 - stone-breaker plant can help resolve to some extent liver and kidney health issue, prevention of causal factors to our body ill-health should be our goal - eat healthy, make other good  lifestyle  choices. 

P. Niruri seems to be a seasonal plant and hopefully should be sourced from places it's safely grown. Note, it is bitter, not something you will enjoy taking. 

But it's so good to have such plants that can  bring relief to our health while we keep on encouraging commercial food producers to  stop any practice that pose health hazards. 

God has indeed given us everything we need for life.....

Also, if you can, grow as much of your own food as possible or buy directly from accredited organic food producers. 

#Phillanthusniruri

#Stonebreakerplant

#kidneyhealth

#liverhealth

#pureagriculture

#agricutureversusgoodhealth

#minigardenresearch

#throughbredseeds

#purebredseeds

#agriculturalmedicine

#growingcropsinsacks

#spaceconstrainedgarden

#gardeningincementedpremises

#gardeninginsacks

#growingplantsinsacks

#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening 

 #minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces