Man does not thrive on food and water alone… In addition to growing food producing plants at our urban homestead food forest, we also have an interest in growing unusual medicinal plants in the desert. Here is some of what we have been successful growing:
- Basils
- Blackberry
- Borage
- Black Cohosh
- Chaste Tree
- Elderberry
- Eleuthero Root (Siberian Ginseng )
- Endive
- Evening Primrose
- Goji-Wolfberry (We have 4+ varieties. The 2 desert varieties from the State Nursery have been the most successful)
- He Sho Wu (aka Fo Ti) which is very vigorous
- Lavender (multiple varieties)
- Lemon Balm and Bee Balm
- Mallow
- Mints (spearmint, peppermint, chocolate mint)
- Onions (multiple varieties)
- Prickly Pear
- Watercress
- White Lead Tree
- White Sage
- Wormwood
We have several trees which produce food, which can also be considered medicinal: Lemon, Olive, Pistachio, Pomegranate. We plan to add a Screwbean Mesquite and Female Carob to our mix in the future as plants that produce both food and medicine. Although we imbibe in none of these vices, we do acknowledge their medicinal benefits and are experimenting with a Coffee tree, Tobacco plant, Afghan Hemp, and Ayahuasca vine for fun. Lastly, we also had a serious Ganoderma applanatum (a wood tree fungus) growing on an aged elm tree – which is related to the Reishi mushroom!
