No more hot air with Epazote
An epazote plant in the garden
I came across this interesting South American plant and decided to give it a go. One of the reasons it attracted my interest was that it claimed that South Americans added it to their bean dishes to stop flatulence…
We propagated and planted some Epazote plants in the garden. They grow quite prolifically and don’t mind being cut back. If they go to seed too quickly, they can be cut back and they then form nice big leaves. Epazote is said to be a great companion plant, keeping away pests by masking plants’ natural scents, attracting some predatory insects and it is said to have natural pesticide compounds. In addition to numerous health benefits, like apparently killing intestinal worms and used in asthma treatment, I add some Epazote leaves to my bean dishes to prevent unpleasant odours later in the day. So far, it seems to work 😉
Beans with Epazote, avocado, scrambled eggs with cream, leek and kale, cooked tomatoes, home made sausages and toast with homemade raw cultured butter.
This morning’s breakfast we had beans with sausages, scrambled eggs, toast, avocado and tomato. I soaked the beans (I used kidney beans this time, but black eyed beans are great too!) for a day and a night, then drained the soak water, rinsed the beans and added fresh water. I cooked the beans for a number of hours on the wood stove. A lot of the water had disappeared by then, so I added a bottle of strained tomatoes (you can also add fresh chopped tomatoes or tomato paste and some water), around 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper and 1 tsp cumin, and of course the chopped up Epazote leaves. I used about 6 – 8 leaves for a medium size pot (serves around 8 – 10 people for breakfast). Do not use too many leaves, as the flavour can get a little overpowering. Cook the beans in its sauce for another few hours, stirring on occasion to ensure no sticking. I then put the beans in the fridge ready for breakfast the next day.
So far the Epazote is doing its job. Let’s hope I’m not full of hot air….
Author: Zaia Kendall
Zaia grew up in a family of musicians in Holland, and has a background in top sport (snow skiing) and web development and design. She co-founded the PRI Luganville and PRI Sunshine Coast Inc (now PermEco Inc.) with Tom, and runs the “invisible structures”, like finances, business administration, website design and maintenance, writes articles and records and edits videos. She assists Tom in running the Kendall Permaculture Farm and supervising other volunteers. She is an active member of several musical projects and bands, involved in community music and runs percussion and marimba workshops, is the percussion leader for the Woodford Folk Festival People’s Orchestra and composes as well as plays music. She is passionate about community music and loves seeing people discover that they can play!
Unfortunately when I tried growing Epazote in my Sunshine Coast garden I found it did a little too well. For many years I had to weed out hundreds of seedlings even though only a few plants went to seed. I higly recommend a degree of care with this interesting herb.
I eat macrobiotically and it is said by macro teachers that flatulence with beans only happens if we eat dairy. Dairy lines the gut n prevents proper absorption of nutrients which then decompose in the gut …. Have to say that since giving up dairy I have had many improvements including this one! I don’t miss dairy at all now but it took me years to let go of milk in my tea, when I did, I had a huge detox by default and now eat beans every day. Am very interested to look at a grain-free diet ….