Fermentation and Creosote

It stinks when it's dry

After a bit of a pause for fickle internet, we're back! We talk about Honey and Garlic in an ancient preparation and Creosote, the desert beauty that stinks so good.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Grandpa. Yeah. What happened with your internet?

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Regale us. I don't know, bro. Also, I forgot we were recording. Off to a great start, man.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Uh yeah, you didn't.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Yeah. And then CenturyLink didn't fix it for a week.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

A long time.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

A full week. It was like 24 literal calendar days.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

We kept being like, well, we'll just put out an episode on uh like late on Wednesday. And then we were like, maybe Thursday, maybe Friday.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

CenturyLink. Every day CenturyLink was like, uh, this isn't gonna be done until 1.30 tomorrow. They were very tomorrow came and they were posted again.

unknown 1:04

They're like, oops.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Another 24 hours. So uh yeah, that took a long time. So we just, I guess, skipped it, and now we're back. And hi guys, it's July. How was your happy birthday, America?

SPEAKER_00 1:21

I keep forgetting that I'm the one you're talking to. See, my internet went away and I forgot how to do everything.

unknown 1:34

What?

SPEAKER_03 1:35

I'm like a newborn child.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

You are an iPad baby relearning everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:41

I did not. I absolutely did not celebrate anything about the country. And in fact, the July 4th is a s oh my God. Uh I I celebrated Major, what is his name? Watson, whatever that guy's name is, who went up in uniform, gave up his entire military career in order to call out that piece of shit in the White House. So to Major, whatever your name is, I salute you. Great slide. I'm sorry that UCMJ has gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Wonderful. Whatever your name is. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

I can't even remember we're recording and you and I'm here.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Look, forget about it. We're not recording. We're just having a conversation among friends.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

And we were supposed to do this live too.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Well, I was gonna say I was gonna I was gonna move into that. Uh we we were gonna do it for this one, but perhaps we'll talk about it. Uh so if you are a Patreon at the tier that gets the lives, we've decided that one of those lives, we're gonna do something very fun and exciting, is one of the lives will remain the way that they always are, just bullshit and mad libs and Kim taking off her socks and all of that. Sometimes spells. Sometimes spells. Uh but the other one, y'all are gonna get some early access, behind the scenes, and when we record these things uh once a month, we're gonna do it live. Which is so scary to think about. So we we can't we won't be re interacting with chat. I'm sure we'll say hi and stuff, but once we start the episode, you guys will just watch us uh how make the sausage.

SPEAKER_03 3:23

See how so many things that I say that Charlie removes. Oh, yeah. For our legal protection.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

We gotta tie that up. Uh okay, but we're back with topics. And um what do I do?

SPEAKER_03 3:44

Wait, I have one thing to say. Oh god. You know, when uh you're watching things, I'm gonna say big brother because I can't remember anything else right now. I'd never watch Big Brother, but this is the example I'm using. And you think, if I was on that show, I'd never forget that I was on camera. Obviously, this proves that I was wrong. This is my house, and there's only two of us. This is Love Island, but it's just us. And I've said something that ruined my life in the future. Or I had an affair and everyone saw and I thought nobody'll find out. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

You go on Love Island and you're fully married, but you're just like, eh, nobody'll know. Nobody watches. Uh so what are you what are you talking about today?

SPEAKER_03 4:35

I am talking about creosote.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

I'm so happy. It's a fun word to say. And you've also talked a lot about it over the years, and I can't wait to hear more about it.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

And also it's probably not what you think it is.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Oh. Okay. Well, grand. I'm talking about something that I don't this it's not like a specific topic, but it's something you can make.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

And it's something I've been obsessed with lately. Um, listen, I've been really into fermented foods as of late. And uh I like the the health aspect of a fermented food. I like that it's significantly more easy than pickling things. Yeah. I like that you are probably not gonna get botulism because of the salt content and just the way it works. Uh, and I like that it's supposed to be good for you. So I'm gonna talk today about a very specific fermentation that I'm gonna get going. Uh, it's a honey and garlic ferment. Yeah. And I've been seeing it all over the place. And of course, since I, you know, the algorithm has taken over everyone's lives, so the more I'm watching it, the more content about it I'm getting pushed. Uh, so my life is nothing but a fermenting, a rotting jar of honey and garlic right now.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

Now my life is filled with politics that make me rage.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

See, I that was one of the reasons that I had to get off TikTok. I am now firmly on just like shorts and reels. Um because TikTok just got into my brain a little too much. And it was, yeah, sure, mostly it was the hunt of iris that scared me, and I had to get away from it, but I needed to take a uh it was isn't that what what the the people on the ship had?

SPEAKER_03 6:29

Oh, I thought you said something very different. What did you think? Okay, I heard you say the hunt of iris, and I was like, that must be some video game I don't know about. You know how the kids do.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

The hunt of iris. That would actually be a sick name for a video game.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Actually, I didn't think it was a video game. I thought it was some like Slenderman situation. I was like, I don't know nothing about no iris.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

That'd be fun. Uh so it's making of uh trademark hunt of iris is ours. It uh it it it I also think I accidentally said hunt of Irish at one point. That's not what I meant. Sorry, Ireland. Uh so the last episode that we actually had any actual like uh structure to not structure, but like the the usual topic, because I'm trying to figure out who goes first here, uh was back on June 3rd. Uh and I think that you went first talking about digital witchcraft, and then I talked about Skyrim. So I guess if we go by that, I would go first today, just to get back on track. Are you okay with that? Or do you want to flip to start a new world world order?

SPEAKER_03 7:53

My point is it's up to you.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

I'll just go. Uh before we go further, though, if you heard the little update episode, or if you are active on our socials at all, then you will know. The summer, summertime and the prints are out. That was supposed to be summertime and the live's easy, but it didn't really work. Summertime and the prints are easy.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

Tell me about the prints. Well, what I was gonna tell you is that the keychains are in the mail getting delivered today. Nice. I'm excited to open them.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Uh not only do we have prints out as you know and love them, and of course, we experimented last time with having the canvas ones and the pre-framed ones, but we've expanded, as you've heard. There's keychains, right? Is that?

SPEAKER_04 8:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Okay, just making sure I don't say something not true. There's a t-shirt, a tote, a magnet, and yes, stickers.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

A mug. Someone bought the mug.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

There's yeah, so you guys you've asked for other ways to get this print. I will say when it's gone, it's gone. But there are other ways to have the print.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

Although those keychains may hang around a while.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Listen, shipping issues are out of our control. Listen. Uh yeah, so just check our website.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

And you can definitely get them. Unless we sell out before then, you can get the keychains at Anahadas Purpose.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

So I want to talk to you. Tell me about ferment pickles? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

Garlic and honey.

unknown 9:46

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Pickles? Uh yeah. This is this this falls under that category of uh old things that have suddenly become trendy again. I know that a lot of people what was the face? Oh, I thought you were gonna say I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Just I heard old things and we're talking about pickling, and I was like, oh.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Well, we're not talking about pickling. Uh actually. Educate me, daddy. Dude, that's a shirt. Hold on, I'm making a note. Educate me, daddy. Is that too gross? Ew, that might be okay. Okay. Uh so maybe it is. See, when you think about it, I'm not making that. Uh so there's pickling and there's fermenting, and they're they're similar, but the difference is when you pickle something, you're doing it in vinegar. I think your your regular pickles, there's pickled, I don't know, beets. You can pickle if you can throw a wrench, you can throw a ball. You can think you can pickle just about a pickles, pig's feet, pickled eggs. You ever had a pickled egg? I've not. Which is weird because it's a southern it seems a very southern thing. Anyway, fermentation is different.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Uh but it a lot listen fermentation doesn't exactly equal rotting.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

That's uh oversimplification. Uh but kind of. Fermentation is a controlled microbial transformation. We're letting little tiny organisms, the yeast and the bacteria, they consume sugars and produce new compounds. So depending on what you ferment, you can get different things. Beer, wine, kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt, sourdough, vinegar, all these things are our fermented food. Actually, I'm not totally sure on vinegar. Is vinegar itself a fermented food and then you use that to do the pickling? I don't know. I didn't look into that aspect. So, humans, we have been purposefully and intentionally fermenting food for thousands of years because it pervert perverts them. No, preserves them. It uh changes that's why you're doing this. Because it's perverted. Because it preserves them, it changes their flavor. And hey, you know, back in the day, there weren't too many flavors floating around. You know, you kind of had what you had. So if there was a way to make a new flavor, you were like, oh shit. Uh it is healthy for us. We'll get into that later. And it makes some foods easier to digest. It's one of our oldest technologies. Before refrigeration, there was fermentation. And so I'm trying to like think of, I was trying to think about how to bring this into the witchy space, and I was thinking about it, and I think fermentation is kind of a it's a little bit of a liminal space. You're taking something that existed and turning it into a food that wasn't. Uh, it's it's in a little in-between state of being rotted, but not. So, I know I'm making it sound so appetizing. Fermented food supports a healthier gut biome. You have probably heard this. Uh, so most fermented foods contain lactive beneficial microorganisms. Um, I think it's biolac biolactic, biolactic. I don't know, I'll get into it later. Uh, but it can temporarily add and diversify and healthify the bacteria in your gut. And having a healthy gut is associated with better digestion and overall health. Um, the microbes during uh fermentation break down the parts of the food uh before you eat it. So it kind of in an oversimplified way starts to digest the food before you get to it. So when you get to it, it can make things like lactose easier to digest. So yogurt, kefir, uh if you have a hard time with just milk products, dairy products, this can help to break down some of those complex sugars. Um, and it can reduce certain compounds that interfere with nutrient absorption. So a little pre-digestion for you. It may increase the nutrient available. You said that. What? Pre-digestion? Pre-digestion. It's like it's not like when a baby bird gets food from its mom. It's not like it's even thinking that. Listen, I'm not trying to gross. I'm trying, I'm I'm trying to be pro-fermentation today. Maybe I shouldn't have talked about pre-digestion if that was the case. Uh, I think an ant might have just bit my arm or a spider. I don't know. It's one of your spiders. It's one of your 4,000 spiders.

SPEAKER_03 14:50

My darlings would never. Your darlings would never.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Do jumping spiders bite?

SPEAKER_03 14:56

They can. They can. So can I. It has fangs and a mouth. Anything with a fangs, anything with a mouth can bite. But they're not aggressive, right? No. Most spiders aren't. Most spiders are defensive.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Most spiders just want you to leave them alone. Yes. Although my mom did find a black widow spider spider on our porch the other day. She's just trying to say hey. She murked it. Oh well. Would I have murked it? Maybe, because it's right next to my bedroom. But you know, don't murk spiders. Anyway, fermentation.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

Aside from the spider's life, if you're only concerned about yourself, it's bad luck to kill a spider in your house. I generally don't.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Except that one that was in my spy uh in my shower for a long time because it just wouldn't leave. And I tried to chase it out, and it eventually got caught up in the stream of water and just kind of flushed away. I'm sorry. Anyway, um but all I could think about was the Rock Sake Snake song Snakes in the Sho Spider Showers, Spiders in the Shower, whatever that was called. It made me laugh every time. Uh anyway, uh fermentation may increase nutrient availability. Depending on the food, fermentation may increase B vitamins, increase certain antioxidants, and reduce phytates, compounds that make it harder to absorb minerals like iron and zinc. So it just means that you can have some access to some nutrients a little more easily, which is great. Uh fermentation can also possibly, uh, according to studies in recent years, reduce inflammation uh because of a greater gut microbial diversity. Uh the people had lower levels of several inflamm inflammatory markers. Uh apparently reachers are still trying to figure out exactly why, but the the findings have ex are they're exciting.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

Uh and okay, okay, so I might actually have to get into this. Yeah. And a bitch is inflamed.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

You can't, dude. I love being inflamed. No, I I love the concept of like anti-inflammatory stuff because you hear it so often, you're like, yeah, yeah, whatever. But then when you look into like inflammation, it oh dude, it's so much. How tangible it is. It's awful. Uh fermentation may help support your immune system, uh, because such a huge part of your immune system interacts and has to do with your gut. Having a healthy gut can uh and has appeared to help boost people's, or it will say, uh help improve the immune system function of the body. There is the gut-brain connection, which I think is so very important. And I try to like I've talked to Macy about this, and I I can't get my like I can't wrap my head around why it matters, but all I know is it does matter. There is still science emerging in this area. However, there's a lot of study into our uh gut microbiomes and influencing our mood, our stress levels, our anxiety, our brain health. So not only the physical health of our physical mushy gray matter, but also the stuff that goes on in our brains, like uh depress-I'm not saying eat ferment foods to cure your depression. I'm not saying you heard it here on WA first. Eating a fermented pickle cures depression. No. Oh good. Uh but it could be a piece in in the puzzle of treating mental health conditions, you know, of course, in conjunction with everything else. Look up H. pylori.

SPEAKER_03 18:42

Right now? How do you spell that? H period. Okay. P-Y-L-O-R-I. I think that that is a some kind of uh bacterial infection you can get in your gut that affects your brain processes, like your thinking. I think.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Uh so it's previously known as Camp camphorbac camphylobacter. Uh gram-negative bacterium, best known for its role in infecting the human stomach, often causing gastric ulcers and sometimes stomach cancer.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

Okay, maybe I was wrong. No, I mean I I've just read the first little sentence there, but I swear I thought I swear that it had some sort of impact on your mental state.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Well, here I'm gonna say mental health. Oh, yeah. Research suggests that there is a link between this and mental health. It does not directly cause psychiatric conditions, but gut inflammation, neurotransform transmitter changes, and several nutritional deficiencies can trigger uh or worsen symptoms of anxiety and depression. And then they go on to talk about the gut brain axis connection. Interesting. So, yeah, I mean it's it's so once you start looking at the colour.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

The body's so weird.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

The body is so weird. Um, so here are some foods that generally contain live cultures. Not saying all of these are fermented, uh, but uh a lot of them are yogurt has live cultures. We know this. Kafir. Kafir? Kafir? Um kefir, I think, is in that in the language it came from.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

Kimchi, which how are your feelings on kimchi? I want to like it, but sure. I don't mostly. Well, not traditional. I like I love cucumber kimchi, but I don't really like the really strong cabbage. Yeah. I don't really like that. What do you think about sauerkraut fish paste and shrimp paste? Oh.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

I like sauerkraut. I like sauerkraut too. That's another one on the list of sauerkraut. Miso soup, raw fermented garlic honey, which hey, more on that. However, there are certain fermented foods that don't necessarily contain live microbes by the time you eat it due to cooking it or just changes. So beer, wine, most sourdough breads, power pasteurized pickles and sauerkraut. Um, so the pasteurization changes things. So if you're making your own fermented food, it's a little bit different than you know, getting the stuff at the store that you can get. Because things do change when you have to mass produce them and make them shelf stable and yada yada yada. Um so fermentation is just one of these processes where we put these little tiny bug dudes, I know they're not bugs, but I will call them that, to work for us. They preserve the food, make it taste like something new, make the nutrients easier to absorb. Uh, it just adds to the whole did you hit your funny bone? It was hilarious. I hate that feeling. Dude, when you hit your funny bone, does it make your stomach hurt?

SPEAKER_03 22:06

Yeah, it makes me like almost projectile vomit immediately. Like it's a button to make everything except my stomach. Sorry, everyone.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

This may be the best episode so far, dude. No, but everybody's gonna try to eat fermented pickles and just think about projectile vomit and uh pre-digestin and stuff. Uh so fermentation, however, despite everything that we've said that makes it sound really gross, it is really wild when you think about it. Uh, you know, we spend all this time worrying about there being foreign germs in our body. Uh, but let's not forget that we are not alone in our bodies. I know this might creep some of you out, and I'm sorry, but there are tons of living things inside of us right now, you know, and we're co-opting, we're working it out together. There are mites on your eyelashes. Love them. They're doing a job sometimes. Okay, so I'm gonna break this down the honey, garlic, and formation into from fermentation into little sections. So I'm starting off with garlic. Garlic has an a whole episode by itself. I would love to revisit garlic, but if you're interested, uh the episode from March 3rd. What? What did you look up eyelash mites?

SPEAKER_03 23:22

No, I know what that was. Oh in any human body, there are around 30 trillion human cells. Remember that number.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

30 trillion. Three T. 33 T.

SPEAKER_03 23:35

Our microbiome is an estimated 39 trillion microbial cells, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live on and in us. Yeah. So 1 to 3% of their body of our body mass is that.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Great.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

Not I love that.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

I love that. That makes me feel less alone. That gives me almost I'm serious. They're my friends. My eyelash might be.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

That's why I'm very afraid that all the atoms that make up me are just gonna be like, fuck this bitch, and then just leave.

SPEAKER_02 24:13

Leave. Dude, I know that someone out there who is smarter than me can explain this. And I know that this is not how it works. However, when I was in science class, I think I was in the and maybe I was a freshman in high school. One of my friends asked our science teacher because we were learning about atoms and stuff like that. And they said, well, if everything is just these individual particles, they're like, how come I can't just grab my arm and like pull it off? You know, and I understand that there's more to yada, yada, yada, but I think about that sometimes. I'm like, what if part of my body just decides to leave? Leave fuck this bitch. And that's why I try to get every parasite I can so I can have more friends. Um Okay, uh, listen to the garlic episode. It's called Garlic and Jade. It's episode 137, came out in 2021. So, garlic is a bulb. It's not a root. Uh, it is related, I'm just doing a little basic thing, related to onions, chives, and leeks. When you chop garlic, the enzyme, the enzymes in it get, when you bruise it, it converts to compounds inside of the clove, uh, which gives it this the delicious unmistakable garlic smell that you know. Uh, and many, that oil that comes out when you bruise or crush it gives garlic its antimicrobial properties. So for thousands of years, people have known either in knowing the science, or just kind of that like, hey, we know that it's good to eat garlic because the people who ate garlic die less kind of way. But for thousands of years, we know that or have believed that garlic protects against illnesses. Uh, this vampires. Vampires, this leaks into our magic with stuff like that, keeping evil away, protecting travelers. The Romans put it, like I think it was one of those that goes inside the shoe that protects the soldiers. Can you hang in walking around with a big ass garlic cloak under your heel? Oh, yeah, man. First of all, you stink, and then you're kind of sticky, and then like poking you. Yeah, I love it. Uh, but there's also tons of garlic and folklore, and this is where it gets tasty and witchy. So garlic protects against evil spirits, curses, witches, which is a little awkward, vampires, uh, and in some cultures protects against the evil eye. So whether or not we're looking at a metaphysical or a mundane way, garlic very much carries the energy of nothing bad gets past here. Now a little bit about honey. If you're interested in an episode about honey, uh the sacral chakra and honey episode was episode 53 from 2019.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

What are you laughing at? This is where we are.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Honey is edible sunshine. It's from the it's very earthy, it comes from flowers, it's processed by bees, um, it's stored within everything about honey is alien to me. I think bees are aliens. I think the little wax, like very geometric like things that they like, they make these perfect hives. I that's very alien to me. And then the way that they just make honey one of the most delicious things that never fucking spoils. Are you kidding me? They're aliens. Yeah. Which, by the way, yeah, they're aliens. Dude, I'm telling you. By the way, if you're into bees, check out that print.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Oh yeah. Uh not at all. Oops, it's time for me to take my meds.

SPEAKER_03 28:07

All right, I thought you were gonna talk about Skyrim because I just built my first apiary.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Yay! Uh Did you did you build it in Lightview Manor?

SPEAKER_03 28:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Yeah, hell yeah, I did. So honey will naturally resist spoilage. It's acidic, it contains very little water, and it contains enzymes from the bees themselves. We have found thousands of year-old honey that was still recognizable and still still and still shelf stable, basically. Uh, and honey across cultures uh represents abundance, sweetness, prosperity, healing, divine favor, offerings to spirits and gods, what a great offering to give. Uh, and I believe, again, it is alien. It's hard to find a magical tradition wherein honey is not considered sacred or important in some way. So, what fermenting does to these things? Uh, when you combine them, we kind of get this overlap of mundane and scientific and witchy stuff. So when fresh garlic goes into raw honey, the garlic releases its moisture, and that moisture slightly dilutes the honey. Then natural yeasts and bacteria that were already present in the raw honey begin to ferment and the jar starts to bubble. And the honey becomes thinner over time, and the garlic becomes soft and the flavor mellows. So if you're not the kind of person who could crunch into a garlic like uh pod with clove, you could or couldn't.

SPEAKER_03 29:56

Could not. Oh, I've tried. I've tried doing this and I don't like it.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

Uh, it becomes a little less sharp. And I will say, yeah, uh, the taste of fermented foods is is funky. Uh kombucha, you know, some people can't handle like that. Like um, what else? You sourdough bread has that stank to it. It has that like sour sharpness to it, right? Um, kimchi, obviously, sauerkraut. It's got that fucking bite to it. Um, so don't think that because there's honey in it, it's suddenly becoming a candy. This is still almost a bunch of garlic in it. It's still jam-packed with garlic, but you do get a sweet, funky candy-like garlic. Uh, and then the honey itself becomes infused with that garlic flavor. So they kind of affect each other, and the fermentation changes the chemistry of the entire mixture. I want to have Charlie's safety uh corner right now. So, because we appreciate responsible witchcraft here, I want to say if you do this at home, know what you're doing. Don't just go off what I say. Please look into it. Do your own research. Uh, it is important to use like raw, um pasteurized honey if you're making a ferment. You need to burp the jar occasionally because fermentation creates gas and it can explode. Do y'all remember that story where Macy was making her kombucha and the glass jars exploded? Yeah. And embedded like two inches of thick glass into her wall. If that was her head, she'd be. Also, it exploded so big that it went up the stairs. It it and listen, if you've been in her house, and I have once or twice, believe it or not, those are far from kitchen. I know the the range on this was insane. Be fucking careful, guys. Um, you keep the garlic submerged beneath the honey if you have little glass weights. You can use those. Uh, never, ever, ever give honey, fermented or otherwise, to babies under one year of age because of infant fucking botulism, which we don't get as adults, but babies can, okay? Um, and obviously, if you're relying on this for some kind of stand-in for medical treatment, see a doctor. Okay, there we go. Legally, if you fucking die, it's not on me. I'm sorry. Uh so to go over to go over the kind of witchy magical correspondence of these things when they come together, when they form ferment together. We've got protection, banishing, health, warding, boundaries, attraction, sweetening, prosperity, friendship, healing. So we're taking the very sweet side of honey that went on about two seconds longer than I meant for it to, but I couldn't stop. And then we're taking the kind of uh offensive, I guess you could say, or the very perfection. No, I'm having a stroke. Protective. I can't talk while you're laughing. It's like I still hear you're going down. You're taking a very hard thing and a very soft thing, basically, and you're making a thing that is it's very the vibe is very, I protect what I love. I protect my health, I protect my family. It's very protect, it's it's got that like mom energy, I guess. Like, you know, I'm a sweet, loving caretaker, but I'll fucking kill you. Uh so how do you actually eat fermented garlic honey? Because listen, I'm the type to pop it out of the jar and just eat a clove every day. And some people do that. Uh however, most people will, after putting in the jar, they will wait for about three to six weeks for it to um go through its fermentation process. Some people let it sit longer, some people, whatever. But once the bubbling starts to slow down, generally it's considered ready to use. So you can pop one clove sh a day straight. And it I have no issue with that. And I know a lot of you have no issue with that, however, you might. You can also take a spoonful of a spoonful of the honey, you know, if you're having a sore throat, or uh, you know, if you you can use it in conjunction with something like your uh fire called fire cider, you know, something like that. That might be okay.

SPEAKER_04 34:31

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Um you can stir it into teas, you know, uh after it is cooled slightly so you don't just cook away the delicate like compounds. Drizzle it over roasted vegetables if you're going for like a you know, like uh like a glazed carrot, where it's still a carrot, it's not candy, but it's got a little sweetness to it. Mix it into salad dressings, brush it on a roasted chicken or your meat as a glaze, put it on pizza. So many people online I saw were like, put this on pizza. It's become a a thing, and I can't wait to try it. Uh, or just throw it on a little crusty bread with some cheese. Get creative with it. You don't just have to eat the uh the garlic and make a face of the whole thing. Did you ever watch to do this? Did you ever watch the movie Sinners?

SPEAKER_03 35:30

No. I should I know, but I have not yet.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

Oh, it's good. There is a part in it where they have to go around in a circle and eat a clove of garlic and they're very not happy about it. Uh but yeah, so that is uh my little my little talk on raw, I mean not raw, sorry, fermented honey and garlic. And was this perhaps a way just to put it out there that I'm interested in it? And maybe somebody who's really good at this gets in contact with me and tells me about it. Yeah, maybe. But I also wanted to figure out how to make it witchy. And in that, kind of, you know, have the broader discussion of when you're burnt out and when you're not feeling like doing witchcraft or whatever, you can take these really mundane mundane things in your life and add a witchy spin to it. And I I think that's in can be important for keeping that spark alive. Tell me about creosote.

SPEAKER_03 36:24

I will, but first, if you have recipes or advice for Charlie, send it to WBAHpodcast at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

Thanks. Thanks, Gramberly Gram Grambly Grimbly. I didn't even notice your name today, Grambly Grimbly. Thanks, Grandpa. You're welcome, right at my pony. Dude, I have to tell you the story that I told Macy the other day. It was yeah, I think it was yesterday. I don't know why. But pony has been something. You know the song? You know the song Pony. Yeah, it has been coming up in my life so much. For some reason, it just I I it it just comes on, I put it on shuffle, and it just happens. So the other day, driving, pony comes on, and my volume of my car is fucking loud. So I'm just rocking. But the thing is, is I'm not really into it, you know how when you're into a song, you're singing and you're whatever. I'm more like dissociating, staring at the road and just driving, which is fine. But then when I get out of my car, because I had to throw get out of my car to throw some trash away, I realize there is no sound protection in my car. And the volume that I had it on, you could hear every womp, womp, womp, womp. Uh I just thought of all the people I passed blaring pony while my face is just like. And Macy said, you know what? I think and what she said, I can't stop thinking about. She said, I think that quietly listening to Pony would be more concerning. I'm gonna, I told Rebe to put that in my horror movie, like in uh get out, where the girl is just drinking milk and like eating eating fruit loops and it's very uncomfortable. I want a scene where somebody's just very quietly listening to Pony.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

Anyway.

SPEAKER_03 38:37

It stinks.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

It stinks.

SPEAKER_03 38:41

It stinks so good though. It smells really good in my opinion. But it does definitely have an odor.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

I know we say this a lot, but how good would a shirt that says creoso? It stinks. Not only would that be great and funny, but it would go, it would be a perfect compliment to dead nettle, who cares? You could just have a rotation of shirts that say like an herb and then a stupid thing.

SPEAKER_03 39:05

Okay. You're telling everybody my plan.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

Oh shit, sorry. Be on the lookout for creosote.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

It stinks.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

And okay. So creosote, aka Lara Tridentata, aka Chaparral, Greasewood, Hedion Dia in Sonoran. Greasewood. Yeah, I know. I don't like crease. Greasewood. But it is pretty oily, so I mean it makes sense. And the Okay, so you can find it in the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Desert. It ranges from California to Utah, down to parts of Texas. And it's an evergreen shrub. It can grow like a little tiny three-foot thing to a giant ten feet. We have some ten footers on my property. It's very resinous. It has a really strong smell of petricore when it's rained on or gets wet. And in fact, remember I said hedionida um is something that it's called the word herondido means smelly in Spanish, which is where the it stinks comes comes in. But it doesn't stink bad. Does it stink good? It depends. It is a very strong smell and it smells great after rain. But if you just go I can tell when the dogs have been out in it because the smell gets on them. I don't love that. Okay. Like unrained on creosote to me is not a particularly pleasant smell just because I'm annoyed by it. But it m other people might like it.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

So it's more like dry creosote. It stinks. Or creosote. It stinks when it's dry.

SPEAKER_03 41:02

When I've sent it in boxes to people, they say it smells really good when they open the box, but I'm I just don't want that on me. So it provides food for some desert animals. Jackrabbits, if they're desperate, will eat the leaves. And some lizards might eat the leaves. And the leaves are ity bitsy bitsy. They're like smaller than my pinky nail. They're tiny little leaves. I gotta Google what this looks like. I know you've showed me a hundred times, but I just desert rodents like kangaroo rats and pack rats eat the seeds. The pretty yellow flowers are great for pollinators. Pollinators love creosote. And the creosote gall midge makes these little balls. Do you know what an oak gall looks like? That weird ball thing that you see on it. I think it's caused by a wasp, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

Yeah, uh yeah, yeah. You get 'em when you're a kid, you like uh peel them apart.

SPEAKER_03 42:06

Yeah. Creosote midges do something like that to creosote, and they develop these little things around them. It's really neat. Individual plants can live up to a hundred years.

unknown 42:21

Whoa.

SPEAKER_03 42:23

And as it gets ready to die, it splits into crowns and new plants grow, so it makes like a ring of new plants around it. It's technically cloning like that giant aspen grove. Oh, sick. And the oldest creosote ring is in the Mojave Desert and is estimated to be alive have been alive for 11,700 years.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

That's a very long time.

SPEAKER_03 42:51

I want to go meet that plant.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

Let's go. It's the Mojave? Let's go. Patrolling the Mojave makes you w wish for a nuclear winner. Let's go! Okay.

SPEAKER_03 43:10

I don't know if you remember me having said this before. I know I've said it before, but I thought that it had produced this chemical like jug loan where it keeps other plants from growing. And I might have gotten bad information or old information. Jug loan. Like, uh walnut walnut does have walnuts produce jug loan, and it keeps other plants from growing where the jug loan is. I love that. But and this I couldn't find a citation for this information. And the person I got it from said the same thing that there's no citation for this. But there's a possibility that the roots of the creosote bush are just. More fine and are better at sucking up water that other plants that might grow near it can't get any water because the creosote's just like mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. And um, the only other thing I've seen that grows successfully around creosote is brittlebush, which is another one of those determine motherfuckers.

SPEAKER_02 44:29

So creosote is like the family member at Thanksgiving who doesn't care if you get mashed potatoes. They're taking all of them. Right.

SPEAKER_03 44:36

All right. But there's no citation available, so that may not be true. Grain of salt. The leaves have a waxy coating, sometimes called greasy. There it is. To prevent water evaporation and to predict it protect against the sun. And if the plant loses all its leaves in summer, it will probably die. Probably, because I've cut the bush down in the dead of summer to where there's not only no leaves, but no above-ground plant, and that motherfucker came back because they're determined.

unknown 45:13

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 45:14

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:15

And it has tiny little yellow flowers, which are very cute. And they turn into little furry seed pods, which are also very cute, like little catkin cat toes. I gotta look 'em up. It does not like being transplanted, and it's very hard to start from seed. So I don't know why they're all over my property if they're so tender, but they mine are not like this description. Look at these little I'm gonna live. Look at 'em. It's like little pussy willow toes.

SPEAKER_00 45:47

Don't say pussy. Sorry. That's another one.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

It's just gonna be a picture of a pussy willow in parentheses, don't say pussy underneath. Don't say it. So medicinal uses of creato Oh, and I I I didn't go into this, but I meant to. Most of the time when people are talking about creosote, if they are not in the desert, they are talking about the tar substance that comes when you burn wood and it collects around your chimney or whatever, that is toxic. Yes, creosote is toxic if you are referring to the tarry substance that forms in your chimney that will burn your house down if it catches on fire. That's toxic. That's what they use to like put on railroad ties. That's this is not that.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

I was confused. Yeah, I remember because you said you were gonna make like a uh lip balm, I think you said you were gonna put it in lip balm. Yeah. And I was like, I I don't know, the internet says it's poison. I don't know if you should do that. And you're like, I meant to put that at the beginning.

SPEAKER_03 47:05

I meant to put it that at the beginning at the beginning that yes, that is a thing. You are correct. I'm not talking about that creosote. So medicinal uses of this bush plant situation, not the tar, have ranged from emetics, emetics make you vomit. When taken internally to arthritis soaks when made into a tea, don't ingest creosote even if it's this plant. Don't ingest creosote. Yum. It's been shown to cause liver and kidney damage. So don't ingest this. There's a bioactive plant compound that you can isolate from this called NDGA.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Here we go. Nordihydrogi acid.

SPEAKER_03 48:05

I'm not even going to apologize because that's long and I'm proud that I got through as much as I did. Clinical studies have demonstrated the ability of this compound to inhibit cancerous growth. And I have heard of people using this not using it, experimenting with not people, scientists, researchers, not people Joe down the block. Scientists. Uh experimenting it with this in cancer research. That is from ethnoherbalist.com. And I have used it for its antimicrobial properties in homemade tattoo salve. It's looking great, by the way. Look at it.

SPEAKER_02 48:45

It looks so showing her tattoo. You guys should check us out and watch our faces.

SPEAKER_03 48:51

You gotta upload them though.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

I did.

SPEAKER_03 49:00

So the metaphys, let's get into the magic. Like all desert plants, in my opinion, you can use creosote for determination and resilience. Even though it takes a lot to get this plant started, once it's started, creosote is hard to kill. It's great for adaptation. If you have something that you need to work on adapting, you adapting to it. Creosote is your hookup. It's adapted to live in the desert. It thrives. It's very hard to get rid of it. Uh joy during hardship. Those pretty little flowers pop up. If they get the like somebody whispers rain across the yard, they'll be like, oh flowers. It's a reminder that even the smallest bit of help can make a huge difference. Longevity. The old oldest one is literally thousands of years old. That's very old. Centuries. A century of centuries. That's very old. I've lost.

SPEAKER_01 50:15

That's only halfway to Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 50:18

It's been around a long time. Ask it for help to prolong and strengthen any long-term spell work you're working on. Stress. It's good for stress. Living in the desert is stressful. Creosote thrives on that. It does need a little help now and again, but so do we. I need help all the time.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

I get biased with a little help from my friends.

SPEAKER_03 50:45

Exactly. And what is special about creosote is that it does great on this stress. If you put creosote somewhere with ready moisture and good soil, it's going to be like, oh no, and die. It needs to have stress to survive. Oh no, you're helping me. I can't take it. So if you find yourself getting burnt out and are stressed out, take a cleansing shower. Get your whatever magical soaps you use, but put a sprig of creosote under the shower so it when it gets wet, you get that really good smell. Let that smell fill the room. Meditate a little bit in the shower. You know you want to. Bees, you know what I'm talking about, because this month I sent out something amazing to you.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

Uh all about the bees today, man. I know. Are we making creosote soap? Uh, probably not, because making cold processed soap is a lot.

SPEAKER_03 51:58

But we could get somebody to do it for us. Do you make soaps and you want to collaborate? Let us know. Midgard. I will mail you a shit ton of creosote if you make us a couple loaves of creosote soap. I'm not kidding. Barry called out specifically right now. They're sweating like a lot of people. And that's because I know Midgard and I know Midgard makes soap, y'all. If there are other soapers, hook hit hook us up. Hit us up. I can't.

SPEAKER_02 52:30

Midgard is uh coming to the whole thing podcast very soon as well. Yay! This could all work out, Midgard.

SPEAKER_01 52:37

Check us out.

SPEAKER_03 52:40

Okay. I remember when I first moved here, everybody talked about how good it smelled in the desert after it rained, and I thought, um, it smells good everywhere when it rains. Are you guys crazy? Except maybe in a swamp. But that's not part of my story. Delete that.

SPEAKER_02 53:03

And everybody take it up. What if you had a sewage factory? Doesn't smell good there.

SPEAKER_03 53:12

When it did finally rain, I went outside and I was hit in the face by this really beautiful smell, and it was amazing. And you called everyone to apologize. Yes, I did. Every person that I was like, you're crazy. I love creosote. I talk to it when I go outside. It is one of the spirits that I interact with a lot. I don't actually use it as much as I you would think. But I do talk to it a lot and I interact with it. Like I don't actively go out and get it, but I call on it to ask for its help. Because it lives right around my house. It lives, it touches my house when it's growing. So that's how I work with it a lot. Like when I'm doing that thing where I'm in bed and trying to clear the house and I blast it out, whatever it is that I'm put pushing out of my house, creosote helps me because creosote is strong and touches the house and lives here too. So ask your plants for help. Ask the things that live around your home for help because if you are doing well, you can help them do well instead of whoever the whatever corporation might buy your house when you leave. So maybe have that conversation with the plants and animals and other things that live outside.

SPEAKER_02 54:38

Me looking at my snake plant that I haven't watered in six months. She's fine. She probably likes it. Listen, her name's Ophelia and she's shooting at a baby right now. So she's Oh wow. Good for her.

SPEAKER_04 54:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:51

Good job. Yeah. Anyway, that's creosote. It stinks. Creosote. It stinks when it's dry. I hate that part. Go get prints, y'all. Go get your prints. I'm excited for the male to actually come today so I can s hold the keychain in my hand. I'm gonna post a picture of it in the group. And on Patreon as a quip.

SPEAKER_02 55:17

Oh! Check us out over on Patreon. We post quips now. By the way, I love that uh I took a picture of some Queen Anne's lace. And uh there were people there was there were so many hairy leg comments, which I only recently learned that that was a way to identify uh Queen Anne's lace. And not accidentally hemlock.

SPEAKER_01 55:39

So Yeah. Same. Yeah. Anyway, check us out. Uh do we have any other things that we need to uh announce?

SPEAKER_03 55:52

I don't think so. Um keep your ears open for possible events, possibly in February, possibly in October, and come see us in Anahada's Purpose. Come see us in the house.

SPEAKER_02 56:04

I just bought my plane tickets. It's coming sooner, faster than you think.

SPEAKER_03 56:08

So much faster. Oh, also, we are doing I'm gonna call them conjuration calendars because it's not Advent, because Advent is about Jesus. Yes. But essentially it's a it's an Advent calendar.

SPEAKER_01 56:25

It's a it's it's a conjuration countdown calendar.

SPEAKER_03 56:30

And it's for 12 days, and we are in the process of figuring out what goes in it. We're finalizing that. And maybe some of that creoso's so cute. Maybe if we can get that going. I was hoping for some soap to put in there. But we're going to sell them. They're gonna go up in the shop probably in September. And then we're gonna cut it off mid-October so we have time to make them and ship them in time to get them to you before Yule.

SPEAKER_00 57:03

Oh. Yes. Yule. I immediately was just thinking Halloween.

SPEAKER_02 57:13

I'm just always thinking about Halloween.

SPEAKER_03 57:15

You should. How shit it should be.

SPEAKER_01 57:18

Oh god, I love candy corn.

SPEAKER_02 57:23

Okay. Uh I love you, grandpa, or Gramberly Gimberly, which is so hard for me to say. And I love you, the listener.

SPEAKER_01 57:35

Goodbye. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

Click.