Blackberry Winter, and more recipes

Well, the weather has presented its own roller coaster lately, its been chilly enough the last few mornings to go hunting for long sleeves, sox and slippers again, but today should be the last cold for a while, back in the 80's by tomorrow. Yesterday we got a brief hail storm tossed in just to make it interesting, stuff bigger than a pea but smaller than a marble, made noise mostly. Had a good bit of rain along with it. It is doing the gardens good, things are growing nicely. Rain is ever so much better than watering. Our well water is hard, lots of minerals, and better than no water but the rain is welcomed. Saw a report on the news this week saying that the third leading cause of death in this country is mistakes made by doctors. That is totally scary, you feel like you have to trust them if you are going to them and yet they are prescribing wrongly and operating the same way and the stats on the number of deaths is really off the wall. I prefer taking care of my health and using my own home made remedies for things. When my sis had shingles, a salve made with hot peppers was given her, why would you want an irritant when you are already hurting? Makes little sense. She had good luck with my pine needle salve which is very soothing. About time to brew up a new batch. For a long time I have been making cough syrup from fresh ginger, horseradish, herbs and onions and garlic. It takes 8 weeks to brew, so not something available if needed in a hurry. Here is a recipe for some you can make and use right away: 1 cup of fresh pineapple juice, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 1 piece of ginger, about 1/2 inch, grated, 1 tablespoon of organic or raw honey and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper powder. Mix all together and use as needed, up to 1/4 cup at a time, 3 or 4 times a day. This does seem to work too, if you have Hemorrhoids and can not get to a store, soak a cotton ball with apple cider vinegar, place and leave on overnight. This is for external ones, if you have internal ones, in a small flat container freeze the vinegar and cut into slivers you can insert into the anus. Might need a drip catcher to save your undies. Also drinking a Tablespoon of vinegar in hot water every day may help prevent and cure the problem. This one I can't check as I am allergic to coconut, but mixing turmeric powder and coconut oil into a past and applying with a cotton swab is supposed to whiten your teeth. If anyone tries this let me know results please. Did you know you can easily make your own powdered sugar? Just put a cup of organic sugar and 1 teaspoon of corn starch in your food processor and whirl until powdered. I am not using corn starch as its too processed, almost all corn is GMO these days, I have gone to arrowroot instead. My peonies are blooming, the snowballs rapidly fell apart, rain really took those out. Hope all the mom's out there have a wonderful mother's day, I am blessed to have 4 remarkable kids, making every day Mother;s Day. Love them all, makes me realize how lucky I am. God had a most important hand in that venture, no complaints at all. Have a great week, stay well.