This morning I found three Black Walnut Trees on my property!

Last night I was reading a friend’s blog and she made her Black Walnut almost exactly one year ago – which means the time is ripe NOW to make this tincture (which I just realized). Then, this morning a young girl stopped by wanting to pick some of my Walnut to make a tincture! haha Good timing, since I was literally heading out to door to pick. We found a tree at the end of the driveway that had already started dropping the green balls. Good thing I knew to pick the green ones (not black) and how to make them. It was so fun!

Here are the (copied) directions on how to make your own homemade Black Walnut Hull tincture (store bought it is very expensive):

Black Walnut

The medicine of the Black Walnut tree is found in it’s fruit — mainly the HULL of the fruit.  The walnut hull is a thick, hard, rough, green skin that surrounds the actual walnut (shell and all).   When it falls off the tree the hull begins to turn black.

The medicinal properties of the Black Walnut hull are mainly anti-fungal and anthelmitic (kill parasites), and these properties are not mild, if I do say so, myself.  …Yowza!

A tincture is a great way to draw out and preserve the properties of Black Walnut hull.  Don’t bother trying to make this into a syrup or otherwise improve the taste.  It refuses to be improved without LOTS of sweetener, and if you’re going to be using this to help kill off something like Candida albicans (yeast), lots of sweetener is just what you don’t need.  So when you  take some of this tincture, just dump it down the hatch and follow up with ginger kombucha (what?  what is kombucha?  …that news will break later)  or some other equally good goodness.

Below I’ve spelled out a recipe (from Hulda Clark) for making a Black Walnut hull tincture.  When you are collecting the walnuts for this recipe, it’s important that the hulls be at least 50% green in order to get the most out of them.  Don’t peel the hulls off of the walnuts.  This tincture is made with the whole “walnut ball” intact — hull and kernel.

Happy tincturing, and may your parasites shake in their boots.

Black Walnut Hull Tincture Extra Strength

Your largest enamel or ceramic (not stainless steel, not aluminum) cooking pot,

Preferably at least 10 quarts Black Walnuts, in the hull, each one still at least 50% green, enough to fill the pot to the top

Grain alcohol, about 50% strength, enough to cover the walnuts

1/2 tsp. vitamin C

Plastic wrap or cellophane

Glass jars or bottles

The black walnut tree produces large green balls in the fall. The walnut is inside, but we will use the whole ball, uncracked, since the active ingredient is in the green outer hull.

Rinse the walnuts carefully, put them in the pot, and cover them with alcohol. Sprinkle on half the vitamin C. Seal with plastic wrap and cover. Let sit for three days. Pour into glass jars or bottles, discarding walnuts, and divide the remaining vitamin C amongst the jars. If the glass jar has a metal lid, first put plastic wrap over the top before screwing on the lid. Potency is strong for several years if unopened, even if it darkens.

(taken from page 543 The Cure For All Diseases by Hulda Clark)

Take 2 tsp., all together in 1/4 cup water. Sip it, don’t gulp it. Get it down within 15 minutes. (If you are over 150 pounds, take 2 1/2  tsp. Do not take more than 3 tsp. because no additional value has been observed.)

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A couple extras:

– Instead of ceramic/enamel pot, I used a glass gallon jar for the tincturing process.

– The vitamin C is to preserve the green color of the tincture.  If you don’t care what it looks like, you can make it without.

– The less oxygen in the tincture, the better.  The jars in which the tincture is stored should be filled almost to the brim, leaving very little air-room.

– The storage jars, if possible, should be amber glass.  Store in a dark, cool place — refrigeration not necessary.

– If you don’t want to ingest 2 tsp. vodka every day, put the tincture in some warm (110 degree)  water to get rid of some of the alcohol.  Make sure the water isn’t too hot or it could damage the parasite/yeast killing properties.

– Black walnuts are a great source of iodine, so there’s lots of iodine in this tincture.

–  Black walnuts stain like crazy.  Be warned.

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My husband and I are in the final stages of production for our second DVD with Bulk Herb Store – actually it is already at the “presses”. Making Herbs Simple  II is a fabulous addition for anyone’s herbal collection, especially beginners. It’s funny, but everyone time I watch it, whether to edit, spell check, or some other project – I learn something and am inspired all over again!

I’ve uploaded two excerpts from the video for you to see – and really excited about it.

Herbal Art Project – Excerpt from “Making Herbs Simple: Volume 2 (HD)

Poison Ivy Remedy – Excerpt from “Making Herbs Simple: Volume 2 (HD)

It really was a fun project to work on, I remember shooting the Mullein Steam segment and the sun being so incredibly bright and then my husband added a light reflector, which only makes it more bright! My eyes were tearing and I could hardly open them. All while he is impatiently saying “No, you can’t wear sunglasses in a video…..if you can’t do it that’s fine, we’ll just get someone else.” Have you ever worked with or for your husband before? Do you notice how it doesn’t quite mesh when he treats you like a minimum wage worker? Well – it only fired me up, thinking “If someone else could do it, then I’m definitely going to have to do it, even if my eye makeup is totally smudged.”

But, seriously this is a great DVD because it incorporates herbs into our daily life; like cooking, the perfect brew for women, making salves, homemade cards, what herbs you can find in your yard. Oh – and I forgot the extras of the video – they are absolutely hilarious. At one point the ladies on camera (Debi and Shoshanna) did not know we were rolling and we just let them go at it – so so so funny! Can’t wait for everyone to see it.

Coming Soon!

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Nettles are more than an herb (or weed) that grow in wastelands, gardens, and hillsides….. they are rich source of nutrients and healing capabilities. Whenever I see myself retaining water (especially while pregnant) I drink some tea with Nettle in it and I notice how my swelling decreases! Pregnant or not though, I drink it mixed with Red Raspberry and a few other herbs most everyday. It is such a versatile herb, there is even a recipe for Nettle Soup!

Stinging Nettle Facts:

• Grow 1-2 meters tall.
• Stalks are fully of hairy stingers. Ouch!
• Cooking, crushing, or drying disables the stingers.
• It is a diuretic. So, don’t drink right before bed!
• Historically, has been used for inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis.
• Nettle is FULL of vitamin K (vitamin K helps helps stop profuse blood flow)
• Is full of important minerals, vitamins AND protein!…. So, you can throw the nettle leaves in a soup and have a free ingredient! I’ve heard you just replace Greens (like spinach) in soups and it turns out great.

When harvesting Nettle try these steps:

1. Harvest in early/mid spring when Nettles are young- use gloves!
2. Gently snap off in mid to low part of the plant.
3. Place in a collecting bag.
4. Take home to dry or cook (the stinging properties will cease with drying, crushing, or cooking)

Here is a recipe I found for Stinging Nettle Soup:

GNOCCHI WITH PESTO D’ORTICA (Gnocchi with stinging Nettle pesto)

Kristen’s note: I’m not sure how to measure these ingredients, but I would use to scale.

150g Fresh, boiled nettle leaves (to make Pesto d’ortica)

600g Potatoes

4 Sun-dried tomatoes

50g pistachio nuts

2 tablespoons olive oil

200g Wholemeal flour

1 teaspoon of sea salt.

Boil potatoes, cut into pieces and pass them through a vegetable filter. Paste in the flour until well mixed, then separate the mixture into thumb-size lumps, or “gnocchi”, cover them in sieved flour and leave them to sit for an hour or so.

In the meantime blend the tomatoes with the cooked nettle leaves, pistachio’s and oil until creamy.

Drop the gnocchi into boiling, salted water and when they rise to the surface they are cooked.

Add the mixture to the gnocchi, decorate with a few pistachio nuts and enjoy!

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