It's been a week to remember! I climbed the ladder up the backside of the barn on Friday...armed with gloves and managed to pull down the 15 foot vines. Immediately saw dust flying everywhere , which made me cringe at the time and I told dad to stay far back so it wouldn't get in his lungs or on his skin....and I would shower as soon as the vines were down on the ground. Well, we got company immediately (no shower) Then , someone else came bringing me sorghum stalks..fresh cut and seed for next year to plant. And my mind went to sorghum mollasses production and the shower was forgotten.
(By the way., all my days effort into squeezing the stalks with my champion juicer or the meat grinder was total failure..an effort of hours of futility! I still have to buy molasses!)
Night came and I felt alittle itchy , but was already in bed..no shower. Next morning my eyes were practically swelled shut and I had a bad itching rash above my gloveline, and under my shirt collar and it was looking like poison ivy blisters....yeap, it spread like poison ivy too. It ended up on my hands and fingers and I looked like I was made up to go halloweening as a monster. Missed church Sunday, etc... Finally went to the doctor..last resort(Wed) today and got cortizone pills, because it is still spreading.Hopefully that will get it under control.....but what else will the cortizone do????
The doctor said it is a small dose and not many people react to it ...Pray for Aunt Bean, I usually react to everything!!! Anyway, the mucuna beans work well, and I am trying a tincture of steamed , halved mucunas...just to see if it will work. Mucunas are definitely more concentrated with l-dopa. Don't think they will be growing up the back side of the barn again though. They worked ok growing in tall corn and I didn't react to picking the beans from them..it was just the pulling down of the tall stalks that got me! Other than that....NEWS.....a neighbor has offered to give me a large greenhouse that they are not using anymore, if we can move it. It will take alot of guys and determination to do it. It's a large one made of pipes and 2 ply plastic that hasn't been used for several years.
Always something going on...no boredom on the farm. GOD is good. Blessings

Just a quick note....got papaya last week and tryed fermenting it....then dried it in dehydrator. Needs alittle added something before drying, but it worked. Will let you know specifics next week and if it seems to have benefits as a home project. It is a whole lot cheaper than buying what the Pope took, if it does.
Oh , we have the golf cart and little wagon for hauling water/ mulch etc into the garden.....and people! It will seat 3 people besides the driver (two facing backward).
Dad's new toy, useful for me! So if any of you come visit...you can have a ride thru the garden....Lots to do. Blessings, Aunt Bean

Hope the papaya will help you. I tried a little mango mixed with it; need to find a good place to buy reasonably priced. Take care gardening!

Well, dad and I made a quick trip to Ohio to see my brother who also has PD. He has gone down hill quite a bit from when we saw him in the spring. VA doctor has prescribed a walker for him now. One that looks very ingenious actually. You squeeze it to release the brake (most are to activate brakes) It also has a laser beam that can be activated if freezing occurs to give a person visual line to help movement start again.
The papaya experiment has been a success I think. For some reason I feel it has helped my eyes. Driving at nite not so hard and my eyes don't seem as blurry without my glasses. I've taken my fava top tincture less often and feel especially good.
Probably one of the reasons I feel so good is that the fava plants are still alive after a bad cold night while we were in Ohio. So I can gather tincture tops this afternoon!!
I am hoping they will last into December and I can get some of the rows under cover before 26 degrees happens. Still looking for a research person to work with me on a clinical trial ....there's got to be someone out there!
Oh went to a veiwing of a documentary film "Ten Mountains...Ten Years" . A group of people are climbing to gaiin funds for PD and Alzheimer research and awareness. The man who is behind this effort is Enzo Simone ( A Quest for the cure)
www.TheArmyOfChange.com The film is very good and the climbing team reads letters from patients/ family/caregivers when they are stopped at rest areas for the night.
There is even a segment that shows a lady from our own support group that actually went on one of the climbs with him and the "regulars". She is amazing and feels that this is a great way to get support for our cause and for the search for a cure. We got to visit with Enzo and he has other ideas that he is pursuing about research and political challenges that may be able to be bridged in the future if we all pull together. There is also a segment in the film about DBS, that you need to watch if considering this treatment. It is very enlightening/ frightening/ encouraging (that some people are helped by this surgery) We have one person in our neighborhood that benefited greatly from it.
For now, we all have to keep fighting our own little and big battles in life. But, I feel that we are all pulling for each other and that means alot everyday. We are all different,but all the same. With God's help, we will pull thru this. Blessings , Aunt Bean

My fava bean garden looks like its gonna bite the dust soon without producing one single bean pod..They grew two feet tall, have flowers, and survived one frost, and a dusting of snow, but they're just haning in, and not growing much

Oooooooooh well

to extract l-Dopa from fava, just goole up "isolation of l-dopa from fava by aqueous extraction and precipitation". It was oneof my dreams to set up a huge farm to grow fava and extract l-dopa by the ton ,m ix it with bought carbidopa, and market a useful product, for free to all parkies.
Dreams die along with us. cs

Steve I'm sorry...you are so far north and my favas have already been bit once in TN!!
I am still collecting the tops I use for tincture. Had to throw one whole pickiing away after the cold spell hit while we were iin Ohio visiting my brother with PD, who, by the way is currently in the hospital with double pnuemonia and pretty weak from it all. If you have flowers/ you have tincture tops....dry them ,except anything that is black on the part and put them in brandy and shake for a month...you have l- dopa!
We are busy cllearing out the neighbors 80 foot greenhouse to get it ready to move....still don't know how to do the moving as yet...maybe "house movers"????
made my first cold frame of the year this morning, mulching asparagus, staying busy!!
Hope you all are staying warm and not letting the business of the holidays get to you....
too many things are pilling up on our calendar for my taste....it all comes flying at you at once.....sometimes I wonder....Where is Peace in the holiday season....seems the garden is the only place where it is quiet and a person can just breathe for a while!
Blessings to all Aunt Bean PS ....Take time to just breathe!

HI Aunt Bean,

Do you use the flowers for tincture? The flowers I have seen are black and white at their peak..... I thought the "hidden tops" were the balled up leaves.can you just put them directly in the brandy without drying them first? thx so much for sharing! agree on the breathing..

kind regards,
md

We've been hit about 3 times..The plants are still standing, and alive, but are not growing anymore

The part I use to tincture is like a ball..it is undeveloped flowers and leaves. It only forms one time on each stem. I dry it completely before putting them in a jar and adding brandy to cover and then shake every day for a month/then strain/ then wait a day and decant off trying to leave the sediment in the jar (I go ahead and use this first and bottle the other liquid in clean dark bottles and LABEL!) I have never tried not drying the plant parts I use to tincture. Aunt Bean