When is a Bulb a Vegetable?
Elephant Ear! Which is also called Taro, has been used as a vegetable for 6,000 years in Asia, where it is sometimes called Dasheen, and in Egypt and then Rome. It is considered to be our oldest cultivated vegetable. Taro leaves are rich in vitamins and minerals. They are a good source of thiamin, riboflavin, iron, phosphorus, and zinc, and a very good source of vitamin B6, vitamin C, niacin, potassium, copper, and manganese. Taro is slightly toxic due to the natural presence of calcium oxalate, although the toxin is easily destroyed by cooking or by steeping in cold water overnight. Apicius had several delicious recipes using Taro. When the leaves are as big as they will get, it’s time to harvest. When you dig it up there are large potato or yam like “corms.” Instead of having a thin skin, Taro has a rather thick pinkish skin, looking like a soft coconut skin. One of its names is cocoyam (coco yam). The corms can be as large as cantaloupes or as small as large potatoes. Usually, the Taro root is boiled, but sometimes baked, and many cultures have eaten it for thousands of years. It is then peeled. It is slightly pink with a grainy consistency rather than smooth like potatoes. Taro has been an important “food” to many cultures for it can be used in stews, alone as a “starch,” chips, flour, leafy vegetable, wraps, dessert. A famous Hawaiian staple poi is made by mashing steamed taro roots with water, and then fermenting. The leaves are also eaten or used as “wraps,” stuffed and then eaten or boiled in stews. The leaves can also be used as wraps for steamed or baked fish or chunks of meat. Before people thought about “health food,” Taro was known to be good for the immune system, particularly as a preventative against malaria, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, Lyme disease, West Nile fever, South African tick-bite fever, and dengue fever. It was also mashed raw and used as a plaster in the treatment of boils and inflammation. When a hole is dug in the ground, it is lined with Taro leaves and when the fire burns down another layer of leaves is placed on top of the hot ashes, the food wrapped in Taro leaves, and then another layer is placed on top. When serving the food, fresh Taro leaves are used like doilies on the platters. In fact, in Hawaiian luau means Taro. In these villages, every herbologist, grocer, etc., would have a supply of slightly dry Taro leaves to wrap purchases. Smaller leaves folded like an envelope for powdered purchases, larger leaves as sacks. Left over leaves would be used for siding and roofing material for their huts. Anything left over, peels, stems, leaves, etc., would be used in the compost pile. You cannot ask more of a plant that that! When you look at Taro you see an ornamental plant. When I look at Taro I see an entire lifestyle and wonder how many other plants are here to “serve” us to this extent? I am sure there are many more, if we only knew. I became familiar with Taro growing up on my Grandparents farm. Later, I would find it on the Azore Islands, where they had been born, and people still used it for almost all of the things itemized above.
Claudette of A Magnet A Day
Score!! Unbelievable but hilarious. Who would have thought! Keep ‘em coming, although I guess it’s not quite herbals but…. we appreciate your research…. these vignettes make history much more real.. not just us in different costumes.
We’re really pleased with the rosemary solution as a flea chaser for our cats. They love the attention since it seems to last about half a week so they get rubdowns twice a week. but it’s so safe and so body friendly… and it works so well for those 3-4 days at the concentration that I’m using, even on our little white flea magnet… no more nerve toxins from the vet since we’d tried just about EVERY OTHER natural remedy we came across on google and on cat websites.. Rosemary is a gem. With some persistence in mopping the wood/tile floors with the non-toxic flea growth disrupter, we figure we can get rid of those troublemakers eventually. In the meantime the cats love the rub down and it’s good for them and they’re free of fleas while we diminish the new fleas hiding *somewhere* on cat hiding places.
MJ
hi bob, your write up re Homeopathy is very encouraging, coz that’s our problem here also in the Philippines. Even if my margin of profit is very small i keep doing what i think will help a lot of people. In my own simple way i do give lectures to a group who are intrested to learn about medicinal uses of herbs. I’m getting some reference from the write ups you’re sending me. Again thanks my friend for sharing what you have there.
Evelyn
P.S. Appreciate the Herbal Lore and Legend Series with the medicinal history of herbs.
We received an inquiry from our herbal lore/legend enews about above where a lady had been drinking fennel tea and was looking for other potential herbal remedies. Prompted a “google inquiry” and wanted to share with you.
Utilizing herbs for irritable bowel syndrome ( IBS) relief or treatment is one natural method that more and more individuals are turning to in an effort to ease their suffering from this condition. Read More…
Mr. Johnson,
I have been nurturing a bay leaf tree in my garden for the past 10 years. The tree is now nearly 13 feet tall! I need to trim it back and hate to waste all of those flavorful leaves. Do you know if there is a way I can sell those leaves to an herb vendor? Or if you know of any local markets that may wish to purchase bay leaves? I would like to prune the tree back and I know I’ll have hundreds/ thousands of leaves to spare.
Sherrie
Hi Sherrie, happy post Thanksgiving.
One of best ways to sell is in local farmer’s mkt. or health food type grocer. Emphasize no pesticides, natural etc.
Also if you have long branches you might consider adding value by creating wreaths using the long branches and now not only does one have an “edible wreath” but it also is aromatic if placed indoors.
Hope this helps and also I don’t know where you live, but congrats on your continuing success with your bay tree. Quite an accomplishment!!
Herbanite bobj
following a post on Garlic on our herbal tips enewletter received the below comment from C. Moonstar which is interesting.
Bob
Ewwwwwww…I believe that garlic as well as chicken soup has medicinal value. However, I draw the line sometimes…I believe that my friends must think it wards off evil because they even use garlic in their grits.
My maternal grandmother was a true herbalist and she planted crops year round of her wares. Each year as winter approached, my mother would help her harvest the ready herbs and cover her herbal garden plants with straw to protect them until the weather became warmer. Each year in the spring, the gypsies (honest truth Bob) came with their entourage of wagons and horses to gather their needs for the coming year.
Now how or why my mother made warm milk with garlic and butter when I was sick with a cold, I do not know. Just the thought of those days gags me. This is one recipe that I do not have nor do I want….eeeewwwwww.
Thanks for the info on garlic. I am sure that I could have also learned a lot from my grandmother. I am sad to know that her skills and knowledge were buried with her since I was only 6 months old when she passed. I am sure that despite her limited purse she had a vast wealth of knowledge. Hopefully, our paths will cross in the skyland one day.
Blessings of the season, Bob
CMM
Garlic as Medicinal & Garlic Recipe
Hey Herbanites -
Know some of you are writers or wannabe writer’s so here’s you chance to write and maybe get some money for doing so. Annie Nice of Tir Na nOg and the GJCAE have teamed up for the first IrishFest Writing & Poetry Competition. Try your hand and come on over even if you are not a writer to congratulate the winners at IrishFest at Festival Park.
Hi Bob,
I am having trouble with the rabbits and raccoons digging up my plants (tiger lily, jack in the pulpit, trillium, ferns, daisies) and digging into and uprooting my tomato plants. They have been completely eating my parsley, celery and fennel (planted fennel 3 times). I have the garden surrounded by wire fencing to protect it from the deer, but they are digging underneath. I have tried the commercial invisible fencing from the garden centers, but no success. Is there an herbal repellant?? I do not want to use anything which will harm the animal.
Thanks!!
Taerie
Herbanite Bob
I am having an awful time with my sedum. It came down from N.E and survived last year well.
This year, one pot is being eaten by something the other is covered in mildew.
They sit on the opposite side of the same stairs. Any suggestions as how to treat it?
Thank you for the newsletters.
Laura
Below is comment from one of readers on specific problem, using organic natural products for organic gardening pest control. Can anyone help here? Thanks.
Hi Bob,
Thank you for your advise on the ivory soap, it did help the Sweet Basil. Do you know if i can do it the same to take care of white flies? I don’t know if that is what it is but i have on my tomatoe plant and getting on other plants that have small white bugs that look like small as a flea and it flies. They are under the leaves and if i shake the plant they start flying. They are on my lantana plant and i think they are getting on my other plants. Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Jo Ann
