Vinegar Solutions
Vinegar Solutions
Vinegar Solutions
The Power of
Natures Most
Remarkable
Healer
Published by
OffTheGridNews.com
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Vinegar Solutions
How To Harness The Power of
Natures Most Remarkable Healer
2012 Sam Adams
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Table of Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Part 1: Vinegar and Food Preservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Part 2: Vinegar for First Aid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Part 3: Vinegar for Illness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Part 4: Vinegar for Mental Health. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Part 5: Vinegar for Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Part 6: Vinegar in the Garden. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Part 7: How to Make Off-the-Grid Vinegar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
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INTRODUCTION
What if there was one simple substance that could not only enhance your off-the-grid
lifestyle but could also increase your chances for survival in just about any disaster?
What if this simple substance could also improve your health while providing you with
an alternative to dangerous, Big Pharma-created prescription drugs? What if this
substance could also help you clean your home without harsh, dangerous chemicals?
What if it had several other excellent survival uses as well, such as preserving your food,
increasing your garden output, and repelling insects too?
Would it seem like a magic potion? Would it seem like an impossible substance?
Now what if I were to tell you that in most stores you could get your hands on this little
miracle for less than $10 per gallon? Or that you could make it yourself if you needed to,
using things that you already have in your garden? You probably wouldnt believe it.
Yet vinegar can do all of these things. Its been around for
thousands of years, and yet few of our more modern
substances can match its power. Even plain white distilled
vinegar, the least nutritious and powerful of all available
vinegars, contains protein, fiber, carbohydrates, calcium,
phosphorous, iron, potassium, vitamins A and D, folic acid,
zinc, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, magnesium, and vitamin C.1
4 Introduction
More nutritious vinegars, like apple cider vinegar,
include still more powerful compounds. Every
type of vinegar is a little bit different, but all of
them offer powerful benefits.
This guide will show you how to take full
advantage of all of vinegars wonderful
qualities. Youll also learn how to make your
own vinegarjust in case youre ever in a
situation where you cant just head down to
the store to buy some. Note that the benefits
of vinegar are consistent across nearly every
variety of vinegar that you can think of, whether
its made from rice, potatoes, grapes, apples,
barley, or any of the other myriad of all-natural
ingredients that can produce
vinegar. That means you can
enjoy everything vinegar can do
for you regardless of your taste
preferences, the area of the
country that you can live in, or
the budget that you are working with.
5 Introduction
PART 1
VINEGAR FOR
FOOD
PRESERVATION
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Vinegar has been used to help people store food safely for centuries. Not only can you
preserve food through the process of pickling, but it can help you ward off food poisoning
and malnutrition as well.
12
Vinegar for Skin Rashes
You can use vinegar to treat all kinds of skin rashes, including poison ivy, hives, and mosquito
bitesin fact, it was one of my grandmothers preferred treatments when I was a child.
Applying the cure is easy. Simply run a cool bath and add two cups of vinegar. You can
do this for sunburn as well. If you wanted to treat dandruff, youd use a few tablespoons
of vinegar in a quart of hot water, using it for a final rinse during shampooing.1 The
treatment should reduce the itching as well as the rash itself.
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Vinegar as Disease Prevention
Vinegar can help you prevent some rather surprising ailments. While its perhaps no
surprise given vinegars properties that you could prevent the flu with a daily dose, it is
perhaps surprising to realize that vinegar is also successfully preventing and treating
tough diseases like cervical cancer.
This is, of course, given little credence in Western medicine, even when the techniques
arose in Western hospitals. You have to look a little farther away for that.
Experts from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine developed a simple
procedure involving vinegar and carbon dioxide that successfully locates precancerous
white spots on the cervix and allows them to be removed with a cooled metal probe. The
procedure is simple, say experts, and has helped to significantly reduce the cervical
cancer rate in primarily Asian, rural villages.
The pap smear, a procedure commonly used in developing
countries to identify the presence of cervical cancer, is not as
effective in poorer areas due to a lack of testing laboratories.
So when samples are taken, they have to be sent to distant
facilities where they can take weeks to be evaluatedand the
women waiting for the results are often difficult to locate as
they typically live far from clinics.
The Legend of
4 Thieves Vinegar
During the Black Plague, there was said to be a group of four
thieves who robbed the dead or the sick. When they were caught,
they offered to exchange their secret recipe, which had allowed
them to ward off the plague, in exchange for their lives.
Legend has it that their recipe was an infusion of vinegar, garlic,
sage, rosemary, lavender, and thyme. Some traditionalists who
make the recipe now add one herb for each thief.
Heart Problems
The pectin in some forms of vinegar can help you reduce
cholesterol. As it works through the digestive system, it binds
to cholesterol in your blood stream, pulling it out naturally.
This reduces your risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other
cardiovascular problems.4
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Consuming regular quantities of vinegar can help you ward off depression. This is because
vinegar contains tryptophan, which helps the brain produce more serotonin. Serotonin
deficiencies are implicated in depression, migraine headaches, and a host of other mental
and physical problems.
In a crisis situation, depression is a real danger. People have committed suicide when
their lives were changed in a tragic and dramatic way. During Argentinas total economic
collapse, for example, there was a dramatic increase in the suicide rate. The suicide
rate has recently doubled in Greece during a similar economic meltdown.1 Its vital
to strengthen your mental health during a crisis and not just your physical health. Of
course, you want to develop mental fortitude, but the chemicals in your brain do make a
difference. If you dont have enough neurotransmitters to send the correct messages in
your brain, then its not unreasonable to expect an emotional crash.
Vinegar has also shown itself to be useful in dementia cases. Vinegar slows brain cell
degeneration. It also helps combat the poor nutrition that can cause dementia in
so many elderly individuals.
Simply adding vinegar to the diet can make a big difference
in both cases. The Journal of the American Dietetic Associa-
tion reports that adequate nutrition can alleviate or reverse
dementia. 2 Remember that vinegar packs a heavy-duty
nutritional punch. Stirring apple cider vinegar and honey
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In modern society weve come to rely on a vast array of harsh chemical cleaning products.
Off-the-grid living encourages something morea natural cleaning product that can be
created on the homestead, is environmentally safe, and doesnt exacerbate medical
conditions like asthma with harsh fumes.
Its important to be able to stay clean during a crisis and to keep your environment
clean. Doing so reduces your chances of getting ill. Fortunately, vinegar is just as good
at destroying pathogens around your home as bleach is. In fact, it is so effective that
hospitals are even using it as a routine disinfectant.1
Grandmother knew the value of vinegar in the kitchen, and
she used it for more than cooking! All sorts of viruses, bacteria,
and fungus can grow on kitchen surfaces. Keeping everything
clean and dry helps to eliminate them and the sickness they
can bring. Vinegar can be a big help in doing this. Use white
vinegar for its antibiotic and antiseptic qualities, or use apple
cider vinegar to add the fresh aroma of ripe fall apples to
vinegars power. For a very special effect, clean with your
own homemade herbal vinegar. Herbal vinegar can add a
very special aroma to your kitchen, giving guests a hint of
foods you prepare.2
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Growing your own food is an essential part of survival. Used correctly, vinegar becomes
an important helpmate to ensure that your garden grows safely, offering a natural
pesticide and soil pH balancer. This pesticide is also very effective inside of the home,
which is especially good for homesteaders living in warm climates where bug infestations
are often a persistent problem.
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One of vinegars greatest advantages is that it is easy to create yourself. After all, vinegar
is essentially soured wine. When you get right down to it, the process is as easy as
allowing something to ferment, and then allowing it to ferment a second time. You could
make vinegar simply by leaving a bottle of wine exposed to air long enough. Of course,
there are more sophisticated methods of making your own vinegarmethods that are
faster and ultimately more satisfying in terms of taste and nutritional content.
You can therefore make vinegar from just about anything that ferments. If youve heard
of it being turned into a form of alcohol, then you can make it into a vinegar, too. Some
choices include:
The type of base that you use will ultimately determine the
type of vinegar that you get. You dont even have to use up vital
food stores to do it in a crisis. You can start vinegars with
the waste peels and fruit cores that youd never eat anyway.1
Grind the flesh, peels, and cores, and then place them in a pot.
Add enough water to cover. Boil the scraps until they are soft,
After adding the yeast, stir your mixture well and place in a glass or earthenware jar (no
metal!) and cover with a clean cheesecloth. Maintain temperatures between 80 and 85
degrees. Lower temperatures will simply slow the process. Higher temperatures will kill
the bacteria and cause your solution to spoil.
PART 1
1. Master Principles of Food Preservation, Learning from @Leda Meredith. www.angrywayne.com/master-
principles-of-food-preservation-learni, accessed 11/5/2012.
PART 2
1. Linda Gabris. Vinegar: A Splash is All You Need for Healthful Eating, Natural Healing, and Sparkling Home.
Backwoods Home, January /February 2006, Issue #97.
46 References
PART 3
1. Jonathan Benson. Vinegar Technique Used In Rural Villages Helps Prevent Cervical Cancer. Natural News,
Wednesday, October 12, 2011, accessed 11/5/2012.
3. Linda Gabris. Vinegar: A Splash is All You Need for Healthful Eating, Natural Healing, and Sparkling Home.
Backwoods Home, January /February 2006, Issue #97.
PART 4
1. Fernando Aguirre, Suicides After the Crisis. Sunday, September 5, 2010, ferfal.blogspot.com/2010/09/
suicides-after-crisis.htm
PART 5
1. Emily Thacker. The Vinegar Anniversary Book, 2006.
3. Sara Novak. Never Buy Cleaning Supplies Again! Make These 8 Cleaners
at Home. TLC, tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/buy-cleaning-supplies.htm, ac-
cessed 11/5/2012.
47 References
5. Emily Thacker. The Vinegar Anniversary Book, 2006.
PART 6
1. Emily Thacker. The Vinegar Anniversary Book, 2006.
2. Homemade Natural Bug Spray Recipes that Work. Wellness Mama, wellnessmama.com/2565/home-
made-natural-bug-spray-recipies-that-work, accessed 11/6/2012.
PART 7
1. How to Make Vinegar. www.howtomakevinegar.com, accessed
11/6/2012.
48 References
2. How to Make Vinegar. www.howtomakevinegar.com, accessed 11/6/2012.
49 References