Smartweed...there's a reason it has this name!

Smartweed, it's so delicate and dainty looking, the flowers are so pretty and I really have no idea how those scrawny stems hold up those flowers!  This little weed goes by several names including knotweed, water pepper and arsesmart. There are several other plants that look like smartweed but there is no mistaking whether or not you have the right one when you take a taste of one of the leaves, I warn you, a SMALL taste is all it will take and all that I recommend. It has a very peppery taste and can burn your tongue if you aren't careful. 

Identifying this plant is relatively easy compared to other plants. It likes damp areas so that will tell you where to look first. It has long, skinny, oval shaped leaves that hang onto the stem by a sort of sheath. The flowers grow on long stems out of the leaf nodes and form clusters at the top of the flower stem which has no leaves on it, it's just a...stick, with a flower at the top.  The flowers come in white, pink and a pinkish white and are tiny little clusters of what I think of as "blobs".

The Native Americans used to use this plant in place of pepper because of it's spicy, peppery flavor, we can do the same. You would just use it the same way as you would black pepper except that you might want to test it out at first, it can be very spicy, you may not need as much smartweed as you would pepper.

So because it is peppery and used the same way as pepper, I don't really think I need to get into the culinary uses of it. I think you can pretty much figure that out on your own.

Smartweed is a stimulant, diuretic (encourages urination), emmenagogue ( this means that it stimulates blood to the pelvic area, it can stimulate menstruation and / or cause miscarriage, please do not take any emmenagogue herb during pregnancy), antiseptic, diaphoretic (this means it can make you sweat which can be helpful during fevers) and a vesicant ( it can cause blisters on the skin so be careful).

A couple of things to keep in mind when talking about smartweed. Heat will destroy the medicinal benefits as well as drying does too so the best way to use smartweed is to make a tincture of the fresh plant or use it sparingly in foods like soups and salads. I cannot stress enough that you should use this plant very sparingly and watch for skin reactions, some people have severe reactions to touching it.

Please make sure you have positively identified the plant before eating it. A tiny taste of one of the leaves will tell you if you have smartweed by it's peppery taste.

As always, enjoy eating your weedies!

The grub worm kitchen spice

Hi!

Today I want to talk about a plant more so than an herb, the main part of this plant that we use is the root, it is found in kitchens everywhere and also in the herbalists medicine chest. It is versatile and powerful as a medicine. It also is an amazing spice to add to your food.

Turmeric! Many people call this tumeric (too-mer-ic) but it actually has an "R" in there so it really prefers to be called turmeric (tur-mer-ic).

The turmeric root looks a lot like some nasty grub worm thing crossed with ginger root. Every time I see turmeric root, that's what I think of, a grub worm pretending to be ginger. You can find it in it's root form in most grocery stores and definitely in a whole foods store. It's pretty common because of it's culinary uses. Many Asian dishes call for it, usually dried and ground which you can find in any grocery store spice aisle.  As a root it's outer skin is a dull brown or tan color similar to ginger root but maybe a shade darker but once you peel it you will find the flesh is a bright orange color. The dried ground powder is slightly darker than than the fresh root.  Before we go any further I want to warn you of one thing, turmeric will stain your clothes, the fresh root  will stain instantly, the dried powder won't stain until you get it wet. It will also stain your fingers and hands but it washes off after a few washes so no worries there. You can wear gloves if you don't want to deal with the staining and I would highly recommend you cover your clothes with an apron or wear clothes that you don't mind getting stained, it will not come out of your clothes.

Speaking of staining clothes, in many countries turmeric is used as a clothing dye, it turns everything it touches a nice sunny yellow. The longer you leave the item in the turmeric water, the darker it will get. I've seen beautiful cotton scarves dyed with just turmeric, no chemical dyes or colors, just dunk the scarf in the turmeric water.

In the kitchen turmeric is used in many dishes, you find it most often in Asian dishes but it can be used in all kinds of other things. Soups, stews, meats, even vegetables are great with a little turmeric in it. It has a little bit of a pungent flavor and is used in making mustard for color and flavor.  I once heard it referred to as "poor man's saffron" since it makes a very nice substitute for the more expensive spice.

Medicinally, turmeric is pretty amazing. It has many benefits to our health. Turmeric contains curcumin (cur cue min) which is a compound that has strong anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Curcumin is the main active ingredient in turmeric  Unfortunately, turmeric doesn't contain much curcumin by weight. If you want the full effects of the curcumin in turmeric it would be a good idea to take it as an extract rather than relying on what you can get using it as a spice. Black pepper contains piperine which helps our bodies absorb the curcumin by 2000%!  If you choose to only take turmeric as a food spice make sure you also add pepper to the dish.

Okay so it's powerful as a medicine but what does it do? Well, we already said it is an anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant. Antioxidants are important because they help to fight the free radicals that we absorb every day adding to our susceptibility to disease and illness.  Turmeric also anti-inflammatory, recent studies have shown that short term inflammation is actually good for us, it helps to fight some bacteria in our bodies so in this way, inflammation is good but it becomes a problem when it is long term or chronic. This kind of inflammation leads to diseases like cancer, alzheimer's and some other degenerative diseases. Curcumin is a very strong anti-inflammatory and fights the chronic inflammation that can add to the disease development.
I think those two things by itself is pretty amazing but turmeric does more! We all carry a hormone in our brain called "Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor" (BDNF). It was once believed that this hormone stopped affecting our brain after childhood but recently we have discovered this is not the case. Many brain issues are caused or made worse by lower levels of BDNF.  The curcumin in turmeric actually helps to increase the level of BDNF in our brains helping to prevent these brain issues or even treat the issue. Some of these issues are depression, Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.  Curcumin also may help prevent heart disease, some kinds of cancer, and it can help with symptoms of arthritis. It has been my personal experience that turmeric is a very strong pain reliever, I use it for toothache, headache, muscle aches, arthritis and just about any other pain I may come across.

Now, with all things good there are always bad things. This is true with turmeric.  These things are not necessarily bad but something to keep in mind and watch for, I'm talking about side effects. Turmeric does have blood thinning side effects, if you are taking blood thinning medications it is a very strong suggestion that you speak with your doctor before taking turmeric medicinally. You can add up to 500 mg twice a day as a food spice with relative confidence but any more than that may cause problems with your blood clotting.
The second side effect or thing to be careful of is diabetes since turmeric can lower your blood sugar. Make sure to talk to your doctor if you have diabetes.
Next on the list is for the people out there that take antacids such as Tagamet, Pepcid, Zantac and others like that. Turmeric can actually increase stomach acid when it is take with these kinds of medications.
If you are pregnant you should try to avoid turmeric because it can cause the uterus to start contracting leading to a possible miscarriage. Also, it can cause a woman's period to start or increase her flow.
Lastly, individuals with gallbladder or gall stone problems should avoid turmeric and curcumin because it can aggravate your condition.

Well, now you know a little about turmeric, I hope that you will do more research on your own to find out even more about this amazing kitchen spice.

Clover!!

Tonight I would like to talk a little about clover. I'm pretty sure everyone has seen clover at some point. There are 2 different kinds of clover that I want to go over, white and red. Red clover is actually a pinkish color and I don't know why they call it red when it really isn't red at all. Probably for the same reason they call red onions red when they are actually purple.

White clover forms dense patches in lawns and can root at nodes on the creeping stems, the leaves are oval shaped with white crescent marks near where the leave attaches to the stem. sometimes the crescent marks are not seen, especially in the young leaves. the leaves can be almost an inch long, are dark green, have no stalks and come in sets of 3. The flowers are white and ball shaped, occasionally you'll find a light pink. They stand up just above the leaves. They grow from May to September.

Red clover can grow to be as high as 16 inches, it has little hairs on the stems. It has 3 leaves which are oval shaped and have white "V" shaped markings in the center. In some varieties the leaves also have hairs on the underside and in others, the entire leaf has the hairs. The flowers are purple to pink and are egg shaped.

Both white and red clovers are yummy, I especially like the red, if you pull the red pieces off the flower head and eat them, you find they have a sweet nectar inside.  The white clover blossoms are sweet but not quite as sweet as the red. The blossoms of both can be dried and used to make teas, fresh blossoms of both can be eaten as is, fried like fritters, put in salads and stews. An old old cookbook I have in my collection has several recipes for clover honey and a few for clover jelly, red or white flowers are okay in either case so there are many things you can use clovers for in the kitchen. The leaves are also edible, raw or cooked, salads, stews, the usual haha. Some people have digestive issues with clover so just watch for that if you do eat them. You can also grind the dried flowers up to make a flour for muffins, cakes etc.  but it would take an awful lot of them hahaha. If you decide to harvest the leaves for culinary use, it's best to get them before the plant flowers.  If you dry the leaves you can mix them into cakes etc for a slight vanilla flavor.

Both white and red clovers have medicinal values, but they do very different things.

White clover helps fight rheumatism, purifies the blood, works well for coughs, colds, fevers, gout and even as an eyewash.

Red clover helps with some of the symptoms of menopause like night sweats and hot flashes because it contains isoflavones which is a compound similar to estrogen.  Some research has been done on the red clover isoflavones and it's ability to protect against heart disease, it increases HDL cholesterol in pre and postmenopausal women, one study found that red clover made arteries stronger and more flexible which can help prevent heart disease. Red clover also has blood thinning abilities that keep blood clots from forming.

The estrogen like compounds in red clover also help reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis. Slows bones loss and boosts bone mineral density in pre and perimenopausal women.  There are also many studies and researchers everywhere showing that red clover can stop cancer cells from growing or even kills cancer cells (in test tubes, no human studies have been conclusive on the killing part)

The research shows that it can help prevent some forms of cancer like prostate and endometrial but having said that, the estrogen like effects may make some cancers grow just like estrogen does. Breast cancer patients should not take red clover because of that fact.

Red clover is also know for treating skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, rashes and other inflammatory skin conditions.

It is also used as a cough suppressant for children short term.

Burdock

What exactly is burdock? This is very cool plant to be honest. First off it was the inspiration behind Velcro, seriously! How? Because the heads of the plant have tiny little hooks on them that easily attach themselves to animal fur and clothing, even feathers, birds have been known to get caught in a patch of these and die because they can't get out. I'm sure you've heard of "burrs",  well, burdock is why any plant head that sticks to your clothes are called burs or burrs (regional dialect dictates the extra "r").  Also, it is a HUGE plant. The leaves can get to be as big as 2 feet.  They are heart shaped at the bottom of the plant and become more egg shaped closer to the top. The leaf stalks are hollow and the leaves themselves are fuzzy on the underside.  The whole plant itself sometimes grows as much as 3 to 6 feet tall.

                                         (Thank you to prepare-and-protect.net  for this picture)


What can  you do about these plants that cause so much trouble? You could get rid of them or poison them or better yet, eat them and even better than that, make medicine with them.  Yes, you can eat them and make medicine with them.  A lot of people would ask "What parts of burdock can be eaten?"  Well, the root is the most often used part for food, it can be sauteed, boiled or I eat them raw. They are a little woody when you eat them raw but they taste good! I've heard of some people boiling the burrs themselves and eating them but I'm just not that brave. The first year leaves can be eaten but they tend to be pretty bitter, something like dandelion. The leaf stems of the first and second year plant can also be eaten. Burdock has a whole host of things that are good for you in it, things like plant carbohydrates, protein and fiber. It also has vitamins like folate, niacin, riboflavin, vitamins A,C, E and K. On top of that, it has electrolytes like potassium and a small amount of sodium. If all of that isn't enough to convince you that it's good for you, it has minerals like calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, zinc, phosphorus and selenium. It's a powerhouse of goodies!

Burdock has been used for centuries as a medicine, it is a diuretic (helps you pee) and a diaphoretic (makes you sweat, especially helpful if you have a fever) it helps restore your body back to a healthy state in general. Burdock works as a pain reliever, antiseptic, and an overall tonic.
When you boil the root, save the water that you boiled it in to drink as a tea. Burdock leaf is really helpful for burns, there is a great article here about the use of burdock for 2nd and 3rd degree burns. For more minor burns you can use burdock leaves as a pain relieving, protective bandage. You can also chop it and add some chopped plantain leaves, apply this to the burn then use another burdock leaf to hold the mix on (think poultice).

Burdock root is also amazing for the liver, it cleans the blood and detoxifies. The cool thing is that not only is it good for our liver and blood but also for our dogs. You can give your dog a nice big drink of burdock tea or you can dry the root and grind it to a powder to sprinkle on their food. Another good way to give it to your dog is to make a tincture (100% vegetable glycerin is the best way to make a burdock tincture, especially when giving it to your dog.)

Burdock root is one of the safest herbs you can use for both yourself and your dog so get some today and start cleaning your blood, liver and healing your burns. (Not to mention eating it!)

Lilacs

It's early May, Mother's Day is right around the corner and that always brings my mind to lilacs. My mother loves lilacs so every year I try to find some recipe somewhere that I can make for her using those wonderfully fragrant, beautiful blooms. Sadly, I have never had success. One year I tried to make lilac perfume but in the end it came out smelling like burned popcorn, eww! Not exactly the scent I was going for. Through much research I have discovered that it's near impossible to get a true, natural lilac scent. It can be synthesized by chemical/perfuming companies but to use the flowers at home to get the scent...not so much. One point of interest here, I have recently discovered that an essential oil producer has discovered how to make an essential oil but it is such a difficult process requiring so many flowers that it is ridiculously expensive and only a few people in the world can afford to buy it. The good news is that I refuse to give up, I will continue trying different methods of extracting the scent.

So now we know that at this point in time I have no suggestions for using those amazingly scented flowers for anything that we want to put the scent in. BUT! There is hope. The flowers are completely edible. I was doing a little online research and found an article (http://www.henriettes-herb.com/blog/lilac-flowers.html) that said the flowers are bitter and sour and don't taste very good. While within that same article (I believe in the comments section) someone said they pull the flowers out of the green parts and suck on the end where there is a sweet drop of nectar. Well, I don't like to take anyone's word for something so I went and picked a blossom head and gave it a try, first I pulled the flower out of the green part and sucked on the end (like you would do with a honeysuckle flower) and sure enough, there it was, just a tiny hint of sweet, it was actually very good.  well, since the flower was now in my mouth I chewed it up and noted that yes, it had a bitter taste to it but it wasn't all that bad. The worst thing about eating them is that because lilacs are astringent I had a slight dryness on my tongue that lasted a little while, I didn't time it but it was more than a couple of minutes. It wasn't horrible and definitely would not deter me from eating more of them but I just noted that the dryness was there. I ate several more and even shared a couple with my dog who begged for more and found it to be completely acceptable. I would absolutely put them in a salad. I don't think that I would eat them as the only ingredient in the salad but throwing a handful onto the top would be great. Maybe I'll have to try that for lunch. If I were to compare the bitterness to dandelion greens I would have to say that dandelion greens are substantially more bitter and much less pleasant to eat than lilacs.

I suppose now is a good time to talk about the technical part of lilacs. The botanical name is syringa vulgaris and it is part of the olive family. It grows as a shrub that can get to be as tall as 30 ft but most of them usually like to stay in the 10 ft. range. The leaves are really very simple growing between 2 and 5 inches long and between 1 and 3 inches wide.  They are opposite each other on the branch and have a leathery feel to them. Leaves are shaped sort of like hearts but elongated and don't generally have the dip at the top end opposite of the point.  The flowers are mostly 4 petal individual flowers grouped in bunches on stems. Occasionally you will find a single flower with 5 petals and folk lore suggests these 5 petal flowers are good luck.  The flowers come in a variety of colors like pink, white, purple and I have heard of, but never seen in person, yellow. They have an unmistakable scent that makes you want to close your eyes and take a deep breath, breathing in as much of the smell as you can. In my opinion, lilacs are easily the most beautiful and best smelling shrubs there are.

So what can you do with these wonderful, beautiful flowers since we already know that preserving the scent is very difficult at best? Well, we already talked about the fact that they are edible so there's that.  Lilacs are also astringent, I mentioned that earlier after tasting them. How can that astringency be used? Lilac tea makes a very nice facial toner. I have to mention at this point that there is not a whole lot of medicinal value to the flowers, most of the medicinal properties are in the leaves. If you make a lilac leaf tea it has been known to help with skin problems like burns, rashes, cuts and scrapes. Similar to lavender. Drinking the tea can help get rid of intestinal parasites, it acts as a febrifuge which is a fancy term for bringing down a fever. The effects on fever are not reliable though, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't so please make sure you have other options available. One more thing it does is it is an anti-periodic, another fancy word but this one means it stops certain symptoms from recurring.

So to sum up, lilacs smell wonderful, are simply gorgeous, a tea from the flowers can be a nice facial toner and a tea from the leaves can help heal skin wounds, get rid of parasites and help certain symptoms from coming back.

There are a few things you can do in the kitchen with lilacs. Making candied flowers to decorate candies or cakes (really nice looking on petit fours) is one. You can eat them raw in salads like we talked about. Garnishing a side dish would also be a good use for them. (I'm thinking a beautiful garnish to green bean casserole, put a ring of the french fried onions around the outside edge of the casserole then just inside that, a ring of lilac flowers or even an entire flower head in the center of the dish resting on top of the green beans after the cooking/baking part is done).  I personally dry the flowers and add them to other dried, aromatic flowers in a dish.  (potpourri)

Lilacs are often used in aromatherapy instances to help ease tension, they are very calming and relaxing. They can even help with some memory issues that are caused by tension or stress.

Thank you for reading and I hope that you have learned a little something.

What is the first weed you think of when someone says "Spring"?

For me, the first thing I think of when someone says spring is dandelions.  As soon as the snow is gone I start watching the weather forecasts for warmer temperatures. I also start looking closely at the ground for the first signs of dandelions, every time I walk out the door my eyes are glued to the ground. I even shuffle my feet a little to disturb what is left of the leaves from the fall hoping to see a glimmer of green poking through the dirt.

Now, some of you might be thinking that I have totally lost my marbles and hey, you might be right! But not because I look for dandelions. Dandelions have been considered the scourge of spring and summer for far too long, not enough people know what a great thing they have growing right out there in their yard. They spray poisons on them to get rid of them and why do they do this? Many years ago someone decided it was more pleasing to have their lawns symmetrical, all the grass has to be of the same variety, the same height, the same color, perfectly manicured. Dandelions don't fit into that vision. They are green, sure, but what about those obnoxious yellow flowers? They certainly do not fit into the "boxed lawn" view.  Well, I'm here to tell you that those lawns are not my idea of a great lawn. Mine is a sea of yellow dandelions, purple and white wild violets and purple creeping charlie flowers, varying colors of green.

I'm going to focus on dandelions now.  First the technical details:

Botanical Name: Taraxacum Officinale
Root System: Taproot
Leaf System: Basal Rosettes
Reproduction: Seed and Root pieces
Family: Aster

Description:

Dandelion flowers are probably one of the most identifiable flowers out there. They are a bright, sunny yellow, they can get to be as much as 2 inches across and they sit on top of hollow stems that grow straight up from the plant base and can be as tall as 20 inches.  When the flowers ripen they turn into grayish white colored puff balls that have the seeds attached at the ends. The seeds are dispersed by wind.  [1]

Dandelion leaves grow in what is known as "basal rosette" which simply means that the leaves grow out flat at the base of the plant and form a circle around the base.  They are very deeply lobed in most species and have pointed "teeth" at the points of the lobes. Some varieties are less deeply lobed than others and in some,  the lobes point backwards toward the base.

The dandelion has a taproot for a root system, that means it has one, large, tapered root that sometimes has smaller roots coming off of it. Older plant roots will separate at the head of the tap root forming a second or even third plant. The older the plant, the more "extra" plants will grow off of the taproot. The root itself has a dark outer skin and a light, whitish yellow inner flesh. There is a white, milky substance within the root. This milk is pretty bitter tasting but if you can tolerate bitter, it's really not too bad tasting.

The name "dandelion" comes from the French 'dent de lion' meaning 'lion's tooth'. [2]

Dandelions are everywhere, you can find them in yards, empty lots, roadsides, parks and woodlands, finding some to eat should not be a problem.  Wait! EAT? Are you kidding? Nope, I'm not kidding, I love eating dandelion flowers right from the ground (I don't recommend eating them straight from the ground because they can contain dirt, bugs or even poisons from weed sprays but I eat from my own yard where I know what is there) I like to pull the yellow petals out of the green calyx and eat them as they are but there are recipes for dandelion flowers out there that are amazing also, I'll give you one of my favorite recipes shortly.  I don't care so much for the bitter leaves and stems so I have alternative ways of eating those, again, I'll give you a good recipe for those too.  Many people say that if you get the greens early in the spring when they are just babies that they won't be bitter. In my experience, this is not true. They are always bitter but there are ways around that. You can boil them, pour off the water and boil them again, they would then be similar to boiled spinach and the bitterness will be significantly decreased. You can sautee them in bacon fat. You can also put a few of them into your salad with other lettuces and vegetables.

Are you ready for the recipes?  Here you go!

Dandelion Fritters (I got this recipe from: http://learningherbs.com/remedies-recipes/dandelion-fritters/ )

2 cups of prepared dandelions (prepared means bracts and stems removed, washed thoroughly)
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup milk
1tsp baking powder
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 egg
large amount of high heat oil
sea salt to taste

Mix the dry ingredients together then add the egg, combine well
Dip the flower blossoms in the batter coating both sides
Fry in hot oil until golden brown
Cool slightly on paper towels

Now what to do with the greens?  Make a smoothie!

This is my own recipe.

Dandelion smoothie:

1 cup packed dandelion greens
1 apple cored
1 orange peeled and sectioned

put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth
You can add distilled water if the original is too thick.
You can also add more fresh fruit or substitute other fruits.

Okay, great, we can eat the dandelions but how healthy are they?  Well, they have a ton of vitamins, minerals and even fiber in them like vitamin C, beta carotene (our bodies convert that to vitamin A),  they have phosphorous, zinc, magnesium and calcium. That's a lot of good stuff for a weed. I've had some people ask me if there is a negative side to dandelions, my answer is always "sure there is", the world revolves around balance, if there are positives there has to be negatives. The negatives to dandelions are actually quite small. Anyone taking medication for hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) should avoid dandelion since it helps to lower blood sugar, if your blood sugar is already regulated then dandelions could drop it too low causing more problems. Also, some people are allergic to the white sap that dandelions contain, if you come into contact with the sap and find yourself itchy or getting an irritation, it's best to avoid them since the sap is in every part of the plant. Dandelion contains a type of fiber called inulin, there are some people that are allergic to this type of fiber and should avoid ingesting dandelion.

We know, now, that dandelions can be eaten and are healthy, the next question is "What can dandelions do for us?" Dandelions can be used for many things, for example, they are good for bone health, liver, diabetes, urinary problems, acne, weight loss, jaundice, gall bladder issues, constipation, high blood pressure and anemia. Another awesome fact is that dandelions contain high levels of antioxidants, vitamin C and luteolin which can help reduce your risk of cancer. Luteolin actually binds to prostate cancer cells and makes them unable to reproduce and renders them completely ineffectual. That's great!

What about acne? Well, acne is more a symptom than a disease in itself. Acne indicates there could be any one of several issues going on inside your body. A hormone imbalance, an overly fatty diet, too much stress (who doesn't have that??!!), so we want to treat not only the outward signs (the pimples) but also the inward cause(s). Dandelions can do both. Drinking dandelion juice will detox your body, it's also a diuretic, stimulant and antioxidant, they help your body regulate your hormones. Externally you can apply the sap to the blemishes themselves. The sap can stop microbial infections which reduces the signs of acne (pimples be gone!).  [3]

These are just a few of the amazing things that dandelions can do for us, for more information on anything in this post, please see the references listed below and Thank you so much for reading about dandelions!


References:
[1] http://www.turf.uiuc.edu/weed_web/descriptions/dandelion.htm
[2] http://www.herballegacy.com/Chhabra_History.html
[3] /www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/herbs-and-spices/health-benefits-of-dandelion.html

So here we are, day 1 of  "The Weeds You Need", The goal for this blog is to present one weed, plant, flower or herb at a time and maybe we can learn a little more about the green things that share our space. My information comes from many sources, some of it I find online, some of it from books and some of it from courses I have taken over the years, not to mention all of the knowledge from generations past. I will link back or credit my sources when possible.

Herbs have literally saved my life and I will post about that.  I use herbs on a daily basis for everything from medicine to "beauty" products (like lotions, lip balms, moisturizers etc) to food to using them on/for my animals.

I really hope you enjoy reading and learning everything that I have to share, herbs are my passion and there is nothing I like more than to share all of the great things they can do.