VELD OXYMEL - IS THAT A SWEARWORD!!!????

What does Survival look like? Would we survive if we had only nature to sustain us? Has modern society lost the life skills that kept our great-great-greats alive? Have our first world lifestyles mollycoddled the basic knowledge of food and medicine? Do we still have the instinct - hidden and dormant - to truly live off the land? In the recent weeks I have been troubled by our ignorance of basic survival. Animals know instinctually what to eat - or not! Us? Foraging is so much more than picking pretty wildflowers or taking photos of unusual bark. There are a select few local people that retain something of their ancestors knowledge of medicinal plants. When I started researching I was overwhelmed by the amount of veld vegetation that is both food and medicine. The important thing is to know which. Your life could very well depend on it.

In nearly a decade of my love relationship with my goats their browsing habits have fascinated me. Little did I know that a lot of their favourite snacks are highly medicinal, for humans! A thorn tree? Really? Me nibbling the tender leaves between all those nasty thorns? Those bright green clusters of the parasitic creeper hanging in the thorn tree that increases goat milk production; a powerful healing herb, for humans? And all the delicate little succulents that cover the road sides and pop up in the most arid and rocky terrain, a natural anti-depressant, for humans?

Thanks Hive account@riverflows for triggering my interest in an Oxymel, earlier this year. I was intrigued for weeks. Should've asked dr google - duh! And then last week my feed blasted off like a tsunami. Hive account@theherbalhive dropped the Oxymel bomb. Do a Herbal Experiment. I'd already had my nose (out of joint) in various veld medicine books and enquiring of the oldies who still remember veld medicine. So what is Oxymel? The simplest explanation I found was from ancient Greek oxymeli meaning acid and honey. It is more of a fermented herbal elixir. An Oxymel from the veld? I was excited. Then terrified. It seems more appropriate for mine to be a Veld Oxymoron! After all these years of natural healing it is as though I'm only just beginning. Like I've been living on the Macdonalds of health. Is that even possible?

Over the weekend I packed a picnic and told the BuckarooBabies we were going foraging. With the goats. "Are we going to make FOOD?!!" They gleefully danced around me. I was more nervous than I let on. It's one thing to use tamed herbs; wormwood, coriander, rose geranium, wild garlic, tumeric. But foraging from the wild unknown? Frankly, I was terrified. After reading the Oxymel post I took days to decide what to pick. Sutherlandia is indigenous to our area. That's easy. The magnificent Protea flowers make an amazing cough syrup - so I'm told - but they only bloom in winter. Aloe ferrox would of course be cheating because everyone knows it is my go-to most days.

Eventually my goats helped me decide. I chose bark from our beautiful Acacia Karroo, the thorn tree indigenous to our area, after which our area is named, Karoo. Various parts of the Acacia Karroo is used for different ailments; from diarrhoea to bleeding to conjunctivis. We were fascinated with the gum oozing from the thorn tree but chose to stick with the veld plants to treat bronchial type conditions as well as having a calming effect. We sliced some bark, which traditionally was used in leather tanning.

See the dark clumps drapped in the thorn trees? I always thought it is a parasitic creeper. Called Lidjiestee - or in English Cape Mistletoe - the entire plant is harvested and used to treat bronchial ailments, including asthma. Apparently the infused fruits remove warts.

My third choice is the pretty Kanna succulent. What is their distinctive property? Sceletium! Although it also has anti-inflammatory properties. After all these years in this area, called Kannaland, I am now learning what a Kanna actually is. The roadsides are covered with them. Look how delicate this perennial succulent is. Those millions of little droplets, are not moisture but a distinguishing bladder cell which glistens. The entire plant can be used to treat stress. Traditionally the whole Kanna was crushed, allowed to ferment then air dried and powdered to be taken as a euphoric aid (but not hallucinogenic). Today we swallow it in as a supplement called Sceletium.

While I assumed this Oxymel experiment would be my first ever, I have made Fire Cider. I guess I was not in class the day I should've seen the heading; *"This is the most well known Oxymel....." The basic Oxymel recipe is a third of your selected herbs, a third apple cider vinegar and a third honey. The hardest part was choosing what to forage for my Veld Oxymel. My honey is a natural creamer and I battled to dissolve it. I guess we'll just wait for that wonderful natural fermentation and infusion to happen. Once that begins I will taste my Veld Oxymel.

Hopefully it is not an Oxymoron! We're all quite excited about it's efficacy. And based on that making a selection of Veld Oxymel as various remedies. You never know; I may join my goats to forage in the future. Maybe I will have learned far more about survival. Maybe veld medicine will soon become second nature to me. It is invaluable knowledge. Life could very well depend on it.