Tops Chatter

If you read my book “What Happened to my Peanuts” or followed this blog, you may have seen that I am a fan of plantain (Plantago Major). I am using it as parrot food and for myself during the summer. And I feel always safe to have an herb, which helps with so many issues, like wounds, as tea for internal problems, etc. For the winter I used to dry my own. And I am ready to harvest and dry some batches for the next winter.

Though, today I got my weekly Dr. Christopher’s Herbal Legacy Newsletter with the following information: 

Plantain is best used fresh, as opposed to the dried herb.  What works very well for us, is to take the plantain, right after being picked, place it in a blender with only enough water as needed to blend it until smooth.  Fill individual dividers in ice trays with this blended plantain, and freeze.  When frozen completely, remove to plastic freezer-safe bags, label, and store in freezer.  When bitten by a snake, spider, or in the case of an insect sting, simply remove one of those frozen cubes, thaw, and apply to the affected area, holding in place with a cotton gauze, or some other bandage.

 I am excited about this information, because it seems much easier to prepare my winter batch. This way I can freeze enough to use it for food for my parrots in times when no plantain is growing. I am going to try this with other herbs, like basil, nettle.

Several years ago, I was invited to Pittsburgh, PA to speak to the members of the Parrot Education & Adoption Center there.  Their executive director Christy Kaufman, who had made all arrangement for me to come and speak there, was a most gracious host.  I will never forget how welcome I felt.  She also impressed me with her knowledge about  parrots  nutrition.  She drove me around and showed me the area and such wonderful places like the National Aviary.  My memories of Pittsburgh are very found because of the open and eager to learn members of PEAC and Christy.

I just got the newsletter from PEAC in Pittsburgh, PA and it anounces that Christy is retiring from as a executive director.

I wish her all the best. I am sure it will not be easy to find a replacement for such an loving, patient, knowledgeble and hart working person and wish the board of directors and Christy that  somebody who can replace her will come anlong soon.

Here is a link to the newsletter, in which you can also find information of the “Parrot Personalities” workshop for the 24th of July.:

http://by145w.bay145.mail.live.com/default.aspx?&ip=10.25.142.8&d=d1825&mf=0

Take good care of your self, Christy. I hope to see you at some of the ‘parrot events’.

About ten years ago a parrot owner ask me for a suggestion about what kind of parrot food or herbs she can feed for a certain condition of one of her birds. She thought what I was telling her was total nuts. I must have tried rather stern to convince her, because she thought I yelled at her. I guess she was just not used to my German way of communicating. LOL. Though, I learned to be more tolerant in the mean time. Anyway, she was open enough to have a look into using certain foods or herbs for her birds and think it through. She says she learned a lot from me about nutrition and how to feed her parrots right. Over time we did not only become friends but started to learn from each other.  She comes up with the most delicious recipes and was gracious enough to allow me to share here cantaloupe relish, which is just wonderful during for our birs these hot summer days.

And here is Crystal Smith’s email from this morning, in which she shares her parrot cantaloupe relish recipe:

This was our breakfast today!  I forced myself to take a bite…  I can’t even describe the sensations my mouth went through. (We’ll leave that for another time)  The birds however are definitely enjoying!  Tommy hasn’t manners though - he’s talking with his mouth full.  He can’t get past the need to identify his meal with the repeated phrase of “WHAT’S YOUR NAME”!!  Weirdo bird.

Cilantro - A member of the carrot family and also referred to as Chinese Parsley and Coriander.  This herb is often referred to in my health food cook books as an “appetite stimulant”!  The leaves of the Cilantro have a pungent smell and humans tend to either love it or hate it!   We’ve found that our parrots are drawn to any dish that contains this herb.  Cilantro also contains antibacterial properties and can also be used as a fungicide.  Rich in vitamin C, A E, K, Fiber, and Calcium. 

PS

OH!!!  I almost forgot!  I roasted some cantaloupe seeds!  Birds LOVE them!  I just washed and dried them with a towel.. then tossed them with cayenne pepper and roasted in oven ..low heat for about one hour!    OMGosh - such a delicacy for them… but nearly sent me to the ER, my tongue was on fire!

In many ways parrot food is not that much different from human food, when it comes to a healthy diet. Some people think, if something is good, more of it is better. But a healthy diet consists of a variety eaten in moderation.

Consuming regularly different foods we can help the body to break them down and assimilate and absorb the nutrition.

Enzymes are very important for digestion. So, some pineapple, papaya or apple on a regular base will support that part of assimilation. Bitter foods, like dandelion, arugola, nasturtiums, etc will help the body breaking down fats. Sour foods, like lemons, grapefruit, (and yes) apples help to break down carbohydrates. Cayenne pepper and/or ginger stimulate the production of hydrochloric acid to break down food and make it easier to get the nutrition. Coconut or olive oil help the body to absorb more of beta carotene.

These are just some samples to show how a diet with great variety can help absorb the nutrition a body needs. Coming from a background where this kind of a diet is normal, I apply it to the way I feed my birds.

I like foods I can share with my birds. Sometimes I prepare a dish and during or after finishing it, it occurs to me that it is a perfect parrot food. A while ago I ate this delicious mashed sweet potato dish. Today I made it myself and before I added salt, thought this makes a perfect bird food. Here is what I used for 10 parrots and myself:

2 large sweet potatoes

½ can of coconut milk

2 tablespoon of coconut flakes

2 tablespoon of nut pieces ( almonds, walnuts, macadamia, filberts)

¼ teaspoon of ginger root powder or 1 teaspoon of fresh grates ginger

a sprinkle of nutmeg

I baked the sweet potatoes for about 1 hour by 300 degrees. When they were really soft I pulled them out of the oven, let them sit a moment to cool. Peel them, put them in a large bowl, mashed them, add the coconut milk, ginger, nutmeg, coconut flakes and nuts and stirred it all in.

½ I set aside for the birds. To the other half I added some salt and ate it. By the time I was done the “parrot portion” was cool enough to feed it to them. It delights me to hear for a minute or so the whole bird room go: hm, hm, hm

We all probably know many ways of offering new parrot food to our birds. I certainly thought I know a bunch of them. And then Lisa, a customer of Totally Organics sends me the following email:

 ”In September we brought another tiel into our home that is older and had been on a seed diet.  We were able to get her transitioned to sprouts and cooked grains very easily but she would not eat the pellets.  Well, last month I had the idea to ground the pellets up a bit with a mortar and pestle.  I spread that around on the bottom of her cage and she immediately hopped down and start foraging around gobbling up the pellets.  I was so excited to see her having fun and it’s great to know that she is getting more variety through the pellets.”

 I know cockatiels are one of the parrot species that are ground feeders. But it never occurred to me to present their food in a way like these birds would eat in their natural environment, on the ground. Talking about not seeing the forest for all the trees.

There will be more articles on parrot food. But today  run into a great article from Susan Friedman, posted to her site www.behaviorworks.org and I want to share that with you. 

here is the link:

http://www.behaviorworks.org/files/articles/PARROT%20Principles.pdf

Now here is another weed. The early settlers valued plantain so much, that they brought it over from Europe and introduced it into the US. I am not talking about the bananas, but the little weeds everybody tries to get rid of.

The plantain leafs are coming up here and I am glad to see this little treasures being back in my yard. At the moment the leafs are small and tender and are great in salads. Later, when they are a bit tougher they can be cooked in steam and prepared like spinach. I eat and feed only the small ones to the birds. The big leafs are a fun toy for parrots. All my birds like to tear them apart and try to separate the treats from the leaf. And later when the plantain gets the sticks with the seeds on them they are even more fun for the birds to take apart and eat. They are a real fun and nutritious parrot food.

 Plantain is very high in beta-carotene, vitamin C and K, calcium and many minerals. Researches show that Plantain has cholesterol reducing property, helps for disorders of the kidneys, eases coughs and mucous membrane irritation associated with upper respiratory tract infections. I have used it in simmering a leaf for 15 minutes and putting it on a wound. The pain leaves immediately and it heals very fast.

It’s the time of the year again, where we con go out in the yard and harvest some weeds for our parrot food. Dandelion is considered a food and an herb alike and contains many health improving and nutritional ingredients. All parts of the plan can be offered to our birds (and eaten by ourselves).

Dandelion leafs calcium content is so high that it has been used for calcium deficiency. The greens are a richer source of beta-carotene than carrots and contain vitamins D, B complex, and C.  They have very high potassium content, as well as numerous other minerals. Today’s herbalists see dandelion as one of the foremost effective detoxifying herbs.

My birds like to nibble on the flowers also. They like to play and eat the yellow one. And think it is a lot of fun to take each little part from the white fluffy flowers.

Taken from “What Happened to my Peanuts”.

Slippery Elm is also known as Indian or red elm. It is one of the thirty-four species of Elm tree, growing in the Central and Northern States of the USA. Native American’s used it for a healing salve, in their baby food and as common remedy for digestive disorders, made a beverage which was soothing to an inflamed alimentary canal and also very nutritious.

The Slippery Elam Bark Powder contains an abundance of tannins and mucilage, both astringent and anti-inflammatory. It is soothing and healing to everything it comes in contact with. All areas that it reaches are rejuvenated, coated, and protected from irritations such as inflammations and infections. When all other foods fail, Slippery Elm is tolerated by the stomach and can reestablish harmony in inflamed intestines within hours to a day.

I have used it successfully with crop infections and some other issues. But because it is so nutritious, I add it several times a week to the fresh parrot food.

This information is from my book ‘What Happened to my Peanuts”. It contains much more information about the health benefits of Herbs and vegetable.