FENNEL

FENNEL is part of your in house pharmacy.  It is better.. and more commonly known for its culinary uses as an added herb for flavoring,  All fennel is edible; the seed, leaves, the stalks and the bulbs.  It is used as an expectorant.  Nothing should surprise anyone about the medicinal uses of herbs as at least 25% of our medicines are made from or derived from plants.

Here follows some of the known uses of Fennel.

1. used for weight loss.
2. abdominal cramping
3. menopause-hormonal balance
4. coughs
5. muscle pain
6. fibromyalgia
7. gout
8. fleas
9. Rheumatoid Arthritis
10. asthma.
11. steeped tea just for pleasure.

You can get Fennel Essential Oils at a health store or get online and order what you wish or want.  I am lucky enough to live near a Health Store..  I can't tell you everything about Fennel; I am not in any way an expert.  I can only point the way and list what little I know about Fennel.  As in all things use care and caution and follow any directions available.

Now then:  Today I ordered a two quart cast iron tea kettle from a hardware store in Michigan.  The tea kettle is listed for at just under $20.00.  The shipping is almost $12.00.  I have wanted one for a long time.  Next I would like to find a cast iron griddle like my mother had.  I don't know where it went.  I had washed all her cast ironware and put it away.  The next summer it was all gone.

The cast ironware that I have, I  collected over the years at flea markets, yard sales, and the  Good Will Store.  I can't list the Salvation Army because they are so over-priced on anything that even remotely looks like it might be an "antique."

Believe it or not it got cool in the night.  I got up at 5 A.M. and turned one A/C off.  Then I had to find a cover and went back to bed for a while.  It has heated up since then.

Again, it is too hot to cook so I made some Barley Soup in the Crock Pot.  1/4 cup of Barely to 4 cups of water.  I added chopped ham, chopped onions and chopped carrots, a little salt to taste and walked away.  Let the Crock Pot do it's thing.  The Barley Soup turned out well and has a nutty, chewy flavor.  The recipes will call for other ingredients, but this is what I had on hand.  Pretty good.

Wen I took the trash out for pick-up in the morning I looked at the sky.  It looks like another storm is rolling in.  The storm of last eve. was a good rock 'n roller.  I hope we don't get another one, but with the heat we probably will.

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