Homestead Happenings

A special announcement!

We interrupt this homestead blog for the following special announcement:

After a long time of thinking and wondering if we should...we did it.  We have started selling our own herbal products.

Introducing the Colestead Herbal Line. 



From our site:

Here on the Colestead our family has been using our home made herbal remedies for years.  The Colestead is where the Coles raise children, chickens, goats, plus a few fruits & vegetables. It is also where we make our line of herbal products.

All of our tinctures are made with a vegetable glycerin base.  You can swallow them straight, chase it down with a glass of water, or drop it into your favorite hot or cold tea.

Our salve has a base of olive oil and beeswax.  It feels good going on and often can take away the pain of whatever boo-boo it is being used on.  A very useful salve to keep on hand.  We take a jar with us just about every time we leave the house.

We hope you will give at least one of our products a try.

Please visit our new store: www.thecolestead.etsy.com

We now return you to our regular homestead blog.

Goot Recipe

When illness (or the threat of serious illness) is in our family I make a batch of Goot.  Goot is a garlic ointment that is able to get raw garlic quickly in your system without burning the skin.  More garlic burns later.

To make Goot you will need 1/4 cup each of:
   chopped garlic
   olive oil
   coconut oil

Blend it all together (I use a stick blender due to ease of cleaning) then strain through a fine mesh sieve.  You want to make sure there are no large pieces of garlic (they can cause burns).  You will have a soft paste.  Put this in a small glass jar and store in the refrigerator.  Wait 1 hour before using.  Stays at full strength for 2 weeks. Keep refrigerated.

You can apply Goot on many parts of the body, depending on the illness being treated.  For any infection put on the soles of the feet.  For colds also put on the chest.  I have put this on the chest and back of Handsome Hubby and knocked out his pleurisy in 2 days.  It took 2 weeks of antibiotics last time.  I have heard of it being used for jock itch.  I will not tell you where to put it.  Your man will know.  

About garlic burns.  Raw garlic juice can cause nasty chemical burns when applied to the skin.  Here's how I know this:  Years ago when I first started studying herbs our whole family caught a cold that would not quit.  So I decided to treat everyone with a garlic poultice.  I carefully treated everyone using a new paper towel and even used a timer as to not keep it on past the 30 seconds my book recommended.  When it was time to treat myself I reused the poultice I had just used on my youngest child since I did not want to use another paper towel.  I held it on for only 30 seconds. A few minutes later it started to burn and turn bright red.  Let me tell you I spent the rest of the day regretting not using a fresh paper towel and trying to find something, anything that would cool that fire!  All of the children were fine. And just so you know a paste of baking soda and water will take away most of the pain and it was 2 days before it quit hurting completely.