Hawthorn

[Billy]

I have a hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha a.k.a. Crataegus laevigata). It is only 18" high. I want advice on shrubing it out (I don't want a tree) and on methods to optimize the harvesting of its' leaves.

[Sheldon]

With an 18" hawhorne if you're over 40 years old you probably don't need to worry about harvesting many leaves. And besides, hawthorne leaves are small and light, even from a mature 20" tall tree you won't collect more than a bushel, more like a quart. I have a 20' hawthorne, its leaves shrivel on the tree and drop slowly over many weeks, they blow away before many accumulate. But with a 18" seedling you really don't need to concern yourself until it reaches about 8'... at least another 15 years.

[kate]

I'm guessing he's wanting the leaves for herbal stuff, but it's the berries and the flowers that are used primarily for heart issues.

Don't know about keeping them shrubs, but I'm planning on trying it.

Kate

[Rick]

Why not trust anti-christians? They're bound to be more rational than most, and not nearly as viruliferous as your sort.

[paghat]

The leaves are included in alternate remedy food supplements even though having no potency because it's more expensive to process the fruit into an herbal product, even though it's the fruit that has the main chemical ingredients thought maybe to assist in heart disease -- pharmaceutical grade extract of the FRUIT, not the leaves, is not entirely ruled out for some extremely slight benefit may exist for cardiovascular disease IF it is used in conjunction with and supplementary to conventional treatment. There's also a recurring belief that as an herb it somehow benefits diabetes, but doubleblind studies have ruled that one out for sure. However, the leaves are a tobacco substitute.

What is bought in the healthfood stores is usually derived from the cheapest hawthorn source, C. ambigua. Since a tincture should derive from C. oxyacantha to have any chacne of possessing the suspected benefit, you'd either have to get it from a German phramaceutical source with doctor prescription, or make the tincture yourself from the requisit species.

For antioxidant content, hawthorne berries rank right up there with blueberries for just generally healthful content. If harvested after autumn's first freeze they're almost as sweet as apples, grainy and seedy but no longer bitter (they can be harvested before first freeze then frozen off in the freezer which has the same sweetening effect; waiting for after first freeze can mean competing with birds and squirrels who take a late-in-the-year liking to them). They can be steamed & sieved for the pulp to make wonderful jams or jellies or syrup. Too much seed to eat them as fresh fruit though they don't taste bad even raw.

-paghat the ratgirl

[Billy]

When I want a "tweaker's" opinion, I'll let you know.

[paghat]

I was talking to Kate, not you, kurva muterort.

-paghat the ratgirl

[Charlie]

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:06:30 -0700, [e-mail] (paghat) blathered and blustered and trolled yet again:

Look who talks, yenteh.

Gai tren zich, prietzteh!

[Billy]

I didn't know that Italian Biera was that good;-) grrrr

[Charlie]

Si deve essere cauti. Forte birra. Triste che ci sono solo sei, ma questo è una buona cosa.

Il tuo amico e fratello, grrrr ;-) Charlie

"Gli uomini sono così semplici e così tanto incline a obbedire bisogni immediati di un truffatore che non sarà mai per la sua mancanza vittime inganni." ~Machiavelli

[Billy]

I don't think the "rat" is long for our group given her charm offensive (emphasis on offensive) and all the burned bridges.

[Ann]

Billy expounded:

You must be joking. She's been around as long as I have. Comes and goes as life flows.

[Billy]

You make that sound like a long time kid;-)

I'm always joking;-) I got the drift that she was slash and burn but with people on their guard it will be harder for her to get face time. People will see the name and move on, like they do with symplastless and Staples or, in some circles, Charlie and me. I presume she will eventually move on to easier pickin's. She'll have to work to hard here.

[Charlie]

Kinda sorta like flatulence. Her, her.....not you! ;-)