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Navajo Tea, Adler Sap, Mashua

2026-01-14

As we have had a number of below freezing nights, I figured it was time to run some Alder sap lines. This trial was using Red Alder trees above the house as seen in the center pic below. The tubing and pliers in the first pic were a gift from Professor Eric Jones of OSU. He was kind enough to stop by and discuss starting shiitake on Alder logs along with a demo of using tubes to tap Alder trees for syrup. As the hillside above is totally covered with salmonberry bushes, this required clearing a path up the hill before I even considered running any tubing. Although still a sweat producing chore and a steep uphill battle, my weed whacker with a steel 12" brush cutter that has two downward facing blades or teeth. A couple hours on two different days got it done. I then had to determine the path between the existing (and live) Alder trees to run the tubing. That added another couple hours of clearing, but it was eventually complete. I now have 19 mature Alder trees on the line.
Besides finding a downed Alder branch with a lot of beautiful Turkey Tail mushrooms growing from it, I also came across a couple spots of "hair ice", produced by the fungus Exidiopsis effusa. Not overly rare out here, but I only tend to spot it maybe every other year or so. And of course, that's only if I'm out in the woods in below freezing temps.
The first pic below shows some Greenthread or Navajo Tea on a dehydrator rack for drying. If you recall, I was trying to winter over about 40 pots of it in the Aquaponics house. The plants were doing just fine, but I failed to take into consideration the amount of moisture and tight weave of the grass-like stems of these plants, and did not provide enough space and air circulation to keep them happy. Some started to get grey mold and I even found some aphids (who knows where THEY come from in the cold winter months!). So I decided I needed to euthanize the lot of them to protect the other plants in the aqua house. All of them got tossed outside, but I did manage to save a few of the forty plants to dry for tea that were on the outside edges and had not yet succumbed. Interestingly, Greenthread can withstand very low temperatures if you can believe what you can find online. The Greek Mountain Tea plants are much less susceptible to both the mold and to aphids. But I removed all of those, left them out in the freezing night air for a couple days, then turned each one upside down and submerged the tops in a Neem oil solution. Hopefully, with the added air movement from 24 hour fans, they will be fine. They are perennials, so I could leave them outside, but because they are still in pots, it is possible their roots might freeze. I don't know for sure, but on such small plants, that may likely kill them all. So, I am hoping for the best inside for now.

The last pic is the 2025 hard cider being racked for the first time from the SS fermenter into a wide mouth carboy.

Navajo Tea, Adler Sap, Mashua

2026-01-14

As we have had a number of below freezing nights, I figured it was time to run some Alder sap lines. This trial was using Red Alder trees above the house as seen in the center pic below. The tubing and pliers in the first pic were a gift from Professor Eric Jones of OSU. He was kind enough to stop by and discuss starting shiitake on Alder logs along with a demo of using tubes to tap Alder trees for syrup. As the hillside above is totally covered with salmonberry bushes, this required clearing a path up the hill before I even considered running any tubing. Although still a sweat producing chore and a steep uphill battle, my weed whacker with a steel 12" brush cutter that has two downward facing blades or teeth. A couple hours on two different days got it done. I then had to determine the path between the existing (and live) Alder trees to run the tubing. That added another couple hours of clearing, but it was eventually complete. I now have 19 mature Alder trees on the line.







Besides finding a downed Alder branch with a lot of beautiful Turkey Tail mushrooms growing from it, I also came across a couple spots of "hair ice", produced by the fungus Exidiopsis effusa. Not overly rare out here, but I only tend to spot it maybe every other year or so. And of course, that's only if I'm out in the woods in below freezing temps.



The first pic below shows some Greenthread or Navajo Tea on a dehydrator rack for drying. If you recall, I was trying to winter over about 40 pots of it in the Aquaponics house. The plants were doing just fine, but I failed to take into consideration the amount of moisture and tight weave of the grass-like stems of these plants, and did not provide enough space and air circulation to keep them happy. Some started to get grey mold and I even found some aphids (who knows where THEY come from in the cold winter months!). So I decided I needed to euthanize the lot of them to protect the other plants in the aqua house. All of them got tossed outside, but I did manage to save a few of the forty plants to dry for tea that were on the outside edges and had not yet succumbed. Interestingly, Greenthread can withstand very low temperatures if you can believe what you can find online. The Greek Mountain Tea plants are much less susceptible to both the mold and to aphids. But I removed all of those, left them out in the freezing night air for a couple days, then turned each one upside down and submerged the tops in a Neem oil solution. Hopefully, with the added air movement from 24 hour fans, they will be fine. They are perennials, so I could leave them outside, but because they are still in pots, it is possible their roots might freeze. I don't know for sure, but on such small plants, that may likely kill them all. So, I am hoping for the best inside for now.

The last pic is the 2025 hard cider being racked for the first time from the SS fermenter into a wide mouth carboy.








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Merchants of Poison Report final 12/05/2022

(with 579 cited references)


Find out about: America's (now the World's) Favorite Poison By Far!


“In order to save glyphosate, the Monsanto corporation has undertaken an effort to destroy the United Nations’ cancer agency by any means possible.”[10]

... " just four companies — Bayer, Corteva (formerly DowDuPont), BASF and Syngenta/ChemChina — controlled 75 percent of plant breeding research, 60 percent of the commercial seed market, and 76 percent of global agrichemical sales in 2019."[78]



Just gotta' LOVE glyphosate, right?????

Yes, the second link is old news, but not forgotten and more importantly, as the first link shows, not remedied:

Monsanto / Bayer's Roundup Triggers Over 40 Plant Diseases and Endangers Human and Animal Health. Protect yourself and those you care about!

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/argentinasRoundupHumanTragedy.php    

http://www.NaturalNews.com/031138_Monsanto_Roundup.html

[10] Foucart, S. & Horel, S. (2019, April 7). Monsanto Papers. European Press Prize. https://www.europeanpressprize.com/article/monsanto-papers/

[78] ETC Group. (2019, April 06). New report: Putting the cartel before the horse…and farm, seeds, soil, peasants. https://www.etcgroup.org/content/new-report-putting-cartel-horse%E2%80%A6and-farm-seeds-soil-peasants

Just Say No To GMO by Michael Adams - Video
https://www.naturalnews.com/NoGMO.html

Just Say No To GMO by Michael Adams - Music
https://oregonTruffleTryst.com/_MEDIA/JustSayNoToGMO-192.mp3 Song Lyrics

Song by Mike Adams, with spoken lines from Jeffrey Smith

I’m lookin at the food that’s in the grocery store
They say it’s safe, everybody eat more.
On second thought, I don’t really know if it’s made with those GMOs

So I’m lookin for the non-GMO label ‘fore I bring it home and put it on my table
I wanna know it’s verified so I don’t
Harm myself with genetically modified

Uh-Oh
They don’t want you to know
All the poison they grow
The corporate profits they show from those GMO OH

Those Frankenseeds that they sow
They’re gonna hurt us we know
It’s time we told ‘em to go, say GMO NO!

I don’t want eat poison, I don’t want gene mutations at my dinner reservations
it’s a food abomination what they doin’ to this fast food nation
They take artificial gene combinations
inject them in seed variations
so they can grow their Frankenfood imitations
while the side effects cause medical patients

Keep their profits alive while they
spraying all the food with name brand herbicides
and all the while they’re spreadin’ their lies
Monsanto (Bayer now!) destroyin’ farmers lives
and the FDA keeps it all going
saying it’s safe even though they all know it’s just
poison stealing away your life, and that’s what you eat with genetically modified.

GMO safety huh that’s a corporate myth
if you don’t believe me listen to Jeffery Smith
He’s the man with plan gonna do what he can
To help us all get those GMOs banned
But we need you to lend a hand
take a stand against this food scam
It’s a mission for the health condition worldwide
We don’t wanna live genetically modified

Don’t eat food unless you know what’s in it
Don’t believe the propaganda cuz the press will spin it
Affects everybody, we all up in it
Stand up to Monsanto (Bayer now!), tell ‘em oh no you didn’t

Reject Frankenfoods in the store
demand honest labels so we can be informed
We have a natural right to know
What we buyin’ Just say no to GMO

Before our farms start dyin’
Just say no to GMO

Those corporate crooks are lyin’
Just say no to GMO

This time we’re not complyin’
Just say no to GMO

We’re just not buyin’ it
Just say no to GMO

Song and Lyrics © 2010 by Michael Adams, All Rights Reserved

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