MyHerbCorner

Archive for the ‘Try it’ Category

On Trademe I found this lovely little book called Herbal Medicine, by Dian Dincin Buchmann.

It’s full of recipes and great info.
Many of the recipes are hand down by Dian’s grandmother who learned some herbal treasures from Gypsies in Romania.
Others are the reflection of old books like Culpeper and Gerard, but also from modern scientific friends of her.

One recipe I would like to share with my dear friends in New Zealand and other Southern Hemisphere people who feel the cold of winter is an ‘Anti-flu preparation’

Anti-flu recipe

2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup boiling water
1 cup apple cider vinigar

Grind together cayenne and salt and add boiling water. Steep until cool. Then add the vinegar and store in a bottle.

Adults can take 1-2 tsp every half hour. You can dilute it with water in an egg cup if it is to strong for you.

For prevention just take a teaspoon once a week (or every day if you like)
This is like a home made flu shoot and worth to try.
I used it to taste and was surprised to find yellow mucus the next day when I blow my nose! I had some mucus up there for a long time and never got rid of it… until now
Even my husband (you know… normally using the pharmacy stuff…) tried it! Gosh! You should have seen his face! He forgot that I had mentioned there is vinegar in it… lol
Think he will tell me today that he is fine only to escape my ‘new medicine’

But he can’t escape everywhere because since I learned more about cayenne pepper I keep up to give it into every meal we have
Cayenne is sharp to the taste, but mild to the digestive tract.
It is actually an aid for the digestion and a nutritional source of vitamin C.

An energy drink is described by adding a quarter teaspoon of cayenne to fresh pressed or unsweetened grapefruit juice. This drink can be taken on a trip into the mountains or for long distance driving. Maybe you guys up there in the Northern Hemisphere like to try this
Dian says this drink is also helpful for during exam periods or times when alertness must be maintained over a prolonged period.
I sure gonna try this!

So, this post has nothing to do with herbs, but it is just such a great simple advice you might like it

Since the time is pretty cold in New Zealand and everyone is keeping him self warm with spices like chili, ginger or other warming herbs, the amount of fire wood is disappearing very fast.

We have a pellet oven and if you also have one you know that the window of it is getting full of resins over the time.

Here is a cool and easy trick to make it clean without store bought scrubs… just get some old Newspaper make it wet with cold water and dip it into the cold ash.

Then clean the window…

… and see how easy the resins are removed!

Clean the whole window with wet ash and than again with clean cold water.

Dry with dry Newspaper and enjoy this convenient, gratis  cleaning tool

Just give a quick up-date of my calendula essence from which I gave a bottle of Stock water to a friend who I showed how to use it and make the Medicine water.
I didn’t told her which effect this essence had on me… kind of finding out what other people feel.

When I asked her what her experience with the essence was she thought for a while and said,
“It’s funny, but always when I took a few drops I just smiled. This essence just made me smile!”

Yeah, calendula essence will give you inner joy and let you smile
Want to try?

Do you make your own broom?
I know most people prefer a noisy vacuum cleaner but if you have a bach without electricity?
Now I have the right thing for you which is easy to do and you even help our New Zealand environment.
Go and cut some broom (Cytisus scoparius) branches the same length optionally.

Take a handful and bind them together (if you want a broom with a handle take a stick and bind the broom on one end around it.

Finished!
This broom can be used on carpets or other floor and is so flexible that it wipes clean every corner (try that with a vacuum cleaner!)

Of course it can also be used outdoors where the autumn leaves are covering every pathway.

Have fun and try this ecological broom which can be composted if it is outworn

…throw away the roses!
Here is a beautiful tip from my husband’s grandmother.

If you receive some roses as a flower bouquet then you can bring them to bloom for ever!
No I don’t talk about drying…
… although you can dry the petals when they fall down for a potpourri, but don’t throw away the stem.
Cut off the flower head and let the rose stand in the vase.
After 3-6 months it will develop roots!

Ok it doesn’t always work out (guess 1 of 3 will make it) but it is worth to try.
I enjoy to go into the garden and say ‘this is the rose my husband gave me on our anniversary’ …

… or ‘this is the rose from the first bouquet my husband gave me when we moved to New Zealand’
The flowers sure keep memories awake