Sweeten Up: How to Make Simple Syrups

wikipedia.org

Honey is wonderful medicine.  Antibacterial and antiseptic, honey has been used for thousands of years as good medicine.  In addition to its own powerful healing properites, honey is an excellent medium for delivering other healing herbs into our bodies.  Besides taking honey daily in teas or straight for the spoon,  we can create simple syrups out of honey and medicinal vinegars.

To make a simple syrup, you will need only a few items.   A bowl to mix in, a spoon to mix with, measuring implements (if you like, but not always necessary) will be helpful.  Make sure to choose raw and unfiltered honey for your simple syrup.  Raw and unfiltered honey contains the vital enzymes, propolis, pollen, and essential vitamins and minerals.  You will also need some raw apple cider vinegar that may or may not have been prepared as a medicinal vinegar.

Raw apple cider vinegar on its own, as has been discussed before, is great for your health.  It is not always the most palatable for some folks taste buds, especially the young and the picky.  Combining medicinal vinegars with honey is a great solution.

The ratio of honey to vinegar in our simple syrups is largely dependent on how sweet you want your syrup.  Generally, one part honey to two parts vinegar produces a not overly sweet, but still satisfying syrup.  Reverse the ratio if you want a sweeter, thicker syrup.

Mix the honey and vinegar together.  At this point you might want to sing a song thanking the bees and apples for the hard work they put into creating such beautiful food medicine.

Now you'll have a lovely syrup!  What is great about simple syrups of honey and vinegar is that they have a long shelf-life and don't need to be refrigerated (though, like most herbal medicines, should be kept in cool place).

What sort of syrup shall you make?  Try  making your very own Four Thieves Vinegar simple syrup!  You can also try making simple syrups with our Amazon Brew and TOUGH AS NAILS Iron Brew.  Experiment and enjoy!

Holy Herb of the West: Yerba Santa

flowersociety.org

The sweet tasting Yerba Santa is said to enhance beauty and be useful in spells of glamoury and illusion. In addition to its ability to magickally alter the appearance of clever sorcerers, Yerba Santa is said to protect the wearer from illness and disease when worn around the neck.  Place it on your altar as a sacred offering.  Call them Bear's Weed, Holy Herb, Mountain Balm or Tar Weed there are many more ways than wearing our purple-flowered friend about our neck to improve our health.

Yerba Santa is an excellent herbal ally for the cold parts of the year when stuffed-up noses and congested chests are passed around like holiday gifts.  'Tis the season for giving (along with all other three seasons, but that's a bit beyond the point)!  Yerba Santa is an excellent remedy for a wet cold - one that is mucousy, sniffling, and has a cough.  As an astringent and decongestant, Yerba Santa dries up excess mucous by normalizing excess mucous secretion.  Normalizing mucous secretion means that you won't have to go back and forth between too much and too little secretion leading to being too dried out and equally uncomfortable.  In addition to its powers of mucous normalization, Yerba Santa is antimicrobial and antiseptic.

In addition to colds and because Yerba Santa strengthens capillaries and stimulates the cilia of the lungs, is appropriate for treating other respiratory conditions such as asmtha, hayfever, and sinus congestion.  It is also useful for digestive complaints because it normalizes mucous secretions in the gut.  The leaves can also be chewed to quench thirst.

flowersociety.org

Topically Yerba Santa can be used in poultices for broken bones, bruises, fever, insect bites, poison oak and ivy, rash, acne, sprains and sores.  Pretty darn useful.

I keep a small bottle of Yerba Santa tincture on me most days to help prevent asthma attacks brought on by environmental pollutants.  During a series of extensive fires outside L.A. a few summers ago the city became covered in a thick sky of ash.  I took Yerba Santa daily to help strengthen my lungs against the added environmental pollutant stress being put on my body.  It worked wonderfully and has been a well-loved herbal ally in my traveling apothecary ever since.  You can also use the leaves in a steam for clearing up congestion and opening the lung passageways.

Vibrational Medicine: Flower + Gem Essences

Borage

Flower and gem essences are a form of vibrational healing that recognizes the energetic foundation of all healing work and that all living things are infused with energy. Flowers and gems appear again and again through the ages as potent healing medicines, often used in religious rites to alter the states of those present, to cleanse hearts, bodies, and minds of impurities, and to protect against illness and disease. There has been a recent renaissance of the use of flower and gem essences as a healing therapy, starting in the early 20^th century with the work of Dr. Edward Bach and continuing to grow and flourish as a practice around the world.

Flower and gem essences are inherently mysterious in the way they work – a perfectly enchanted form of healing that we love at the Apothecary. There are many theories on why and how flower and gem essences work, but essentially they affect our emotional, spiritual, and mental foundations. A flower or gem essence can be taken to deal with anxiety, address feelings of inadequacy, and in conjunction with traditional herbal remedies to heal physical symptoms such as acne. Vibrational medicine by and large affects our emotional states, but have definite impact on our physical conditions.

Milkweed

Creating flower and gem essences are simple. The basic idea is that the healing essence of the flower or gem is imprinted in the water it resides in through use of sunlight, moonlight or heat. Flower and gem essences are generally taken 3-4 times per day and at small dosages of usually only 1-5 drops. A dosage cycle usually lasts about a month, but changes are usually felt within the first few uses. We'll cover creating your own flower and gem essences in later posts.

Our flower and gem essence blends have been created in the same way that all of our remedies are created – through building a relationship with the plant and gem material, being as guided by their wisdom as well as guided in our training in traditional techniques of herbalism. The process of creating our flower and gem essence blends is a bit magical and we hope that you feel as enchanted as we do when using them.

Our current flower and gem essence blends are:

Grounded & Centered: When you feel unbalanced, light-headed, and have difficulty staying focused. Helps you feel grounded, steady, and centered. Includes the essences of Hematite, Feverfew, Lavender.

Uplifted: When you feel burdened and overwhelmed by responsibility. Helps relieves anxiety around the tasks at hand while helping you to find what brings you joy in life. Includes the essences of Lavender, Chamomile, Blue Violet, Amethyst.

Courageous: When fears fill your head and you don't feel strong enough to face them. Helps you to find courage while feeling protected and nurtured at your very core. Includes the essences of Wild Mustard, Borage, Rue, Milkweed, Feverfew.

Renewed: When recovering from an illness, emotional trauma or other times of strain on your system. Helps return vitality to your whole being, freeing you from previous disruptive patterns of behaviour. Chive, Wild Mustard, Chamomile.

Find all of our essences and more in our S H O P!

A History of Thievery: Making Medicinal Vinegars

Death Plays with Medicine, Hartman Schedel, 1493 via Histoire de la Medecine

What is full of essential amino acids, vibrant enzymes, vitamins, and minerals and balances the bodies acid/alkaline state and tastes good?

Apple cider vinegar!

 In the body, apple cider vinegar diminishes thirsts, helps to relieve feelings of restlessness, manages fevers, and has an overall cooling effect. Externally, apple cider vinegar keeps skin smooth, treats sprains and bruises, checks perspiration odor, and relieves inflammation and itching.  Making medicinal vinegars is abundantly easy. They are great alternatives to alcohol and glycerine based extracts and have a long history of use in western herbalism. Ever heard of the infamous Four Thieves Vinegar?

One version of the legend has it that four thieves were robbing the dying or dead during the height of the European plague and when they were finally caught they made a deal with their captors. In exchange for freedom they would reveal the secret that kept them from succumbing to the deadly disease. Four Thieves Vinegar was the recipe that was revealed.

Want to make some Four Thieves Vinegar of your own?
It's easy!

First, find yourself some good, unpasturized (raw), preferably local, apple cider vinegar. Delight in its golden glow!

Next, you will need equal parts of the following dried herbs for your thieving vinegar of health and wellbeing:

• Sage (Salvia officinalis) 
• Lavender (Lavandula officinalis)
• Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)
• Rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis)
• Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)

It is important to use dried herbs for this recipe, with the exception of our next ingredient, to reduce the possibility of spoilage with the addition of any water content to the recipe. In my experience, vinegar is an excellent and trusted preservative, but it is always best to  use caution.

Our next ingredient is fresh garlic and a small onion, both excellent and zesty foods for colds and the 'flu.

Combine equal parts of each of the herbs and mix them into a course powder with a mortar and pestle, electric grinder or willpower. Place all herbs, garlic, and onion into a clean jar and cover with raw apple cider vinegar. Shake!

Let all the contents settle and top off with more apple cider vinegar, if necessary, so there is an inch of vinegar resting above the herbs. Cap tightly (put a wax paper between jar and cap if using a metal lid to prevent erosion), label with the ingredients and date made as well as the date it should be decanted, shake and sing to daily. In about three weeks time your brew will be ready. Strain the herbs from your vinegar and enjoy your super vinegar elixir! You can take one teaspoon up to four times daily when feeling sick or to prevent feeling like you have the plague. You can also add some to your salads as a dressing which is one of my favorite ways to get my daily dose of medicinal vinegar.

Above all, be generous and share with your friends and family.  They'll probably think you're clever - stealing away their health woes with your charmed bottle of vinegar.

P.S. Let's protect our herbal heritage, including medicinal vinegars, from thievery - be sure to support the FREE FIRE CIDER movement!

Tea for Two: Herbs Through Your Pregnancy

Have a cup of tea - or two or three! During your pregnancy tea can be a wonderful ritual of mindfulness helping us remember to nourish our bodies, spirit, and mind. Herbs such as Red Raspberry leaf(Rubus idaeus), Nettles (Urtica dioica), and Oats (Avena sativa) are particularly suited for nourishing, supporting, and preparing the body for birth as well as supporting you postpartum. So why these three herbs? Glad you asked!

raspberry leaf  by author

Red Raspberry leaf(Rubus idaeus) is a wonderful herb to take during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum because of qualities as a uterine toner. Red Raspberry leaves contain fragrine which is an alkaloid that tones the muscles of the pelvic region without causing contractions by stimulating the uterus. For those concerned about miscarriage, Red Raspberry leaves are very valuable because they so effectively support the uterus. What Red Raspberry leaf does is help the uterus work more effectively – during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum. Raspberry leaves can also help to alleviate morning sickness, assist in the production of breast milk, and reduce pain during labor and after the birth.

nettle leaf photo by author

Nettle leaves (Urtica dioica) are gorgeous wild greens just dancing with all the vitamins and minerals they contain. Some of the vitamins and minerals found in Nettle leaves are vitamins B, C, E, K as well as iron, calcium, silica, magnesium, protein, and potassium. Nettles both nourish and restore the body and because of their high iron content they are especially useful for women who are anemic or have a low iron count. Not only can they be enjoyed as a tea, but fresh Nettles can be prepared much in the same way as spinach for a delicious and nutritious meal. Nettles help to reduce cramping and muscle spasms, eases pain during labor and after birth, and prevents hemorrhaging.

photo from uky.edu

Oats (Avena sativa) are modest powerhouses of nourishment. Oats help to increase energy, strength, and a sense of calmness during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum because of their unwavering support of the nervous system. Silica, selenium, manganese, potassium, iron, zinc, beta-carotene, and B vitamins are some of the nutrients found in Oats. Pregnancy, labor, and after birth can all feel very overwhelming at times, and Oats can be used to address headaches from stress and worry, heart palpitations, mental exhaustion, and cases of mild depression.

To truly benefit from these herbal pregnancy partners, I suggest drinking 2-4 cups daily of herbal tea, rotating between Raspberry Leaf, Nettles, and Oats every 2 or 3 weeks. I also encourage experimentation with combining them to find a blend that is the most delightful to your senses.