Medicinal teas

I've been trying out different types of medicinal teas.

This morning was a combination of mint and lemon balm - I picked a large handful of fresh herbs (a mix of both), popped them in the diffuser of my small teapot and let brew for 5mins. Nathan really enjoyed a small cup, Danielle not so much.

Mint teas are good if you need to relax, help with digestive problems (think after-dinner mints) and relieve headaches. Lemon balm (also a member of the mint family) has similar benefits in calming as well as aiding in digestion.

This evening I moved onto a sage tea (pictured above). A large handful of fresh sage leaves chopped up and popped into the diffuser and brewed for 5mins. A little honey can be added if needed, but when using fresh leaves it is not likely to be bitter (however is using dried herbs they can be).

Sage is good for aiding digestion, soothing sore throats, colds and flus, eases nasal congestion, help with sore gums to name a few.

Wintery weather, natural flu remedies and general rambling

Cold wet weather has hit again.

Fortunately my little seedlings are all snuggled beneath straw (and the beans behind a frost cloth) and so far surviving.

I have acquired some comfrey seedlings so am wanting to get those planted out.

I weeded my herb garden last weekend and spotted another dozen or so calendula seedlings that had self-seeded from a single plant last year. Looking forward to those lovely flowers.

I have started to use a plantain vinegar tincture I made up about 3wks ago. Nathan attracts insects that bite and seems to be allergic to them (and unfortunately it was likely that insect bites were the trigger to his nephrotic syndrome last summer so I'm waiting with baited breath - and thinking that if I can calm the immune response immediately then he may not relapse - anything's worth a try to stay away from the high-dose steroids for another round).

(this was the freshly made mixture - the resulting tincture was a blue-black colour)

Have been enjoying collecting wild weeds from around the garden to add to salads - a coleslaw the other night included dandelion, chickweed and sweet violet leaves.

I made a rather ummm, hot and spicy flu remedy about a month ago that has been used recently. And yes, both the kids actually drank it (I mixed it into cranberry juice).

Into approx 500ml of apple cider vinegar, blend about 33 cloves of garlic.

Add about 4 tablespoons of honey and 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper.
It only takes a few seconds of blending (a stickwhizz is good!)
Adults take 3 tablespoons a day in water and children about half that amount.
This mixture is designed so that 1 tablespoon of the vinegar has at least one whole clove of garlic in it.
The mixture will keep in the fridge for around a year. It can be filtered as you need to use it (I use my stainless steel tea strainer to catch the garlic in).

The cayenne is a good general tonic and good for breaking up and preventing congestion and improves circulation.

Garlic has so many health benefits but specific to flu's it is a an antiviral (halts the replication of the virus) and an antibacterial. (I include plenty of garlic in our diet every day). I reckon we don't generally catch anything because people don't want to come near us lol.

This is just one part of my arsenal for dealing with illness - but it's proving to be a goody so far with kicking things in the butt (just don't attempt to drink it on an empty stomach!).

Signs of Spring...

No photos...but today as I was pottering in the garden I noticed...

Buds on the grape vines beginning to bulge and ready to sprout leaves.

Flowers on the strawberries.

Plenty of new growth on the wild blackberry that set up camp at my place.

The plums on the tree are about 1/2 cm in diametre now.

My daffodils have almost done their dash, but I can see my other new bulbs growing steadily alongside them.

The herb garden is suddenly starting to look full and lush with new growth and flowers on the lavender bushes.

I finally planted out my tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, cucumber and zucchinis - eek, hopefully the frosts are gone...

Honey the Healer

A few months ago, honey finally made its way into my home first aid kit. I'd heard of its healing benefits for quite a while, but had never really looked into it too seriously.

Here in New Zealand we have Manuka honey which is known as a top quality medical-grade honey that has antibacterial, antiviral, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties.

Manuka honey comes in different grades (rated on how Active it is) and it is kind of tricky knowing that what you think you are buying is the real-deal, but I have been fortunate to find one that does a good job. It's not cheap, but then a little goes a long way. Lower than 10% Activity is good for general health use, but higher than 10% (I have 15-20%) is the one to use for wounds, bacterial and viral conditions. This is the first aid one to get and save it for when it's really required.

Already in the few months that I've owned my little pot of it I've had several uses for it.

I've used it to speed up the healing process of wounds that had the potential for turning nasty (Danielle received a deep stab-wound from some broken glass in a local playground that slid in sideways into her knee). First up the honey drew our the build up of fluid and blood deep down in the wound that had blown up, yet was trapped. This was an almost immediate reaction where the ooze (sorry about the goopy word) was drawn from the wound. The honey then kept the wound soft, clean and stopped it from drying out (which is when scarring and tearing occur - so covered wound care is the best rather than letting it dry out to heal). It helped the dead skin remove easily and for the new skin to regenerate underneath. I applied the honey to the wound twice a day over about 3 days until the wound had completely sealed over without scabbing.

I have used it when Nathan had a sore throat, and after one drink with lemon juice the sore throat was gone.

I have used it on myself recently when I had sore, dry, skin on my face. For some reason my eyelids, forehead and cheeks had gone particularly dry and felt almost sunburnt and had done for several months. I decided to wash my face using the honey and after 2 uses (I used it only at night-time before bed) my skin was back to feeling soft and no longer dry, flakey or sore. To use, I wet my face, applied about 1/4 teaspoon of honey (you need ensure that the teaspoon is clean and dry so as to not ruin the honey), rubbed around and it surprisingly disperses easily and not in the least sticky. I then rinsed it off lightly using only water and no rubbing (I wanted to retain some of the honey as a moisturiser over night) and patted dry.

Lovin' that honey!

Gluten free porridge

I've been reintroducing grains back into Nathan's diet over the past month and have been making him a hot porridge that is rich in magnesium (the rest of us have been having oat porridge (also magnesium rich) since the beginning of the year).

I make it in the crockpot that then allows the grains and seeds to soak and therefore releasing more nutrients and making them more easily available for absorbsion and digestion.

I don't have exact amounts, but I make a choice of 2 whole grains (quinoa, millet - can't recall the others I read about), 2 nuts (eg almond, cashew) and 1 seed (eg flax, pumpkin, sunflower) and mix together. I mix about 2/3 grain and 1/3 seeds/nuts.

Using a cup measure put 2 oz (about the 60ml mark) of dry mix from above and 5 oz (about 150ml mark) of water into the crockpot. Set on low over night. I usually quadruple the recipe and keep in portion sizes in the fridge to be reheated for his breakfast and served with a little milk.

Spring garden update

Woohoo! So Spring officially started on the 1st but we seemed to have dipped back to mid-winter temperatures with 3-4 frosts over the past week. Gorgeous blue skies but cold Southerlies breezing up from Antarctica...brrrr.

It was so tempting to get all my seedlings out during all that lovely weather, but I managed to contain myself and keep them in pots on my sunlit porch for longer.

Yesterday I did decide to plant out the hardier of the seedlings - brassicas, spinach, silverbeet, beetroot, leeks and lettuces. My tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers and zucchini's and beans are still waiting till the frosts are over.

A few weeks back I discovered a HEAP of spring onions (green onions) in my garden that I sowed about a year ago - I thought they were onions that didn't do what they were meant to but just left them where they were...well, upon closer inspection I realised they weren't brown onions afterall! So I now have lovely plump spring onions all ready to use.

I have my potatoes out sprouting (last year I got caught out with heavy spring rains flooding the patch I'd chosen for the potatoes which caused them to rot and I had to start again!).

Pesky chickens keep changing where they lay their eggs. After discovering we have no eggs to collect for a day we watch where they disappear off to when I let them out the next morning and retrieve the little gifts left behind. The chickens just love the kids and spent a bit of time hanging out near them when they are down in the garden.

My Green Pharmacy

I've been rearranging my pantry so I now have a medicinal shelf (includes 20% active Manuka honey, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil as well as herbs and spices for medicinal as well as culinary purposes). I've also been cleaning up old jars and sourcing paper bags to pop dried herb flowers and leaves into as I collect them over the coming months (or ones that I have bought if I'm not likely to find them myself).

The kids and I harvested some young dandelion leaves from our backyard last week - it was good to finally find some real ones after having only been finding the *imposters* in recent times.

The Real Dandelion
The leaves are smooth and soft and not shiny (pale green)
The leaves stand upright off the ground
The flowers are borne on a single pale green stem that is hollow with a milky sap

The Imposter
The leaves are hairy/spikey and glossy
The leaves are dark green and lie flat on the ground in a rosette
The flower stems are borne on tall, branching stalks with many flowers in a candalabra

It was also good to get in touch again with the little patches of wild weeds growing around my yard for when I need them.

As part of my course I've been doing a few little experiments (currently drinking fenugreek tea 3 times a day for 3 days - and ewwww, I'm getting the curry-fragranced perspiration the books talk of in the name of detoxing). It's quite pleasant to drink providing the seeds haven't been brewed for too long (5-10 mins is optimal).

I tidied up my aloe vera plants and repotted some of the little baby plants that have popped up (I now have 8 plants growing). I also found a large, wide leafed, spikey aloe vera in a pot in my garden that I got from my nana's house last year (didn't realise it was aloe vera at the time as it is a different variety to the others I have in the house). Nathan's been using it on his grazes and bug bites.