MyHerbCorner

Posts Tagged ‘rosemary’

My ear ache is gone due many different applications.
As you may have read in the previous post I applied warm echinacea tincture which gave me a quick pain relief.

Later that day it was sore again and I applied a chamomile poultice (made a tea and strained. I drunk the tea and gave the infused flowers into a handkerchief to press against my sore ear area)
I didn’t want to apply another tincture so quickly. Only in the evening I dropped the second application of echinacea tincture into my ear.

After thinking were the source of this painful earache might be I thought about my tonsils which are over sized since I am a child.

Because my right side of the head was sore I made a hot mustard foot bath.
That sure sounds strange but a hot mustard foot bath is drawing all the blood away from the sinus and upper part of the head to the feet. Then the effected area is supplied with clean blood. So the body can help it self by taking away the bad bacterias which caused me so much trouble.
When I gave a spoon full of powdered mustard into a big bowl with hot water I sure enjoyed the funny feeling. It started to tingle in my sinus and I could feel the change. It was as if mucus was drawn away from forehead and sinus.
It was fascinating to feel this change and relief but mustard wasn’t enough.

To get rid of the tonsillitis I gargled with a cup of warm water in which I gave a spoon of rosemary vinegar (why rosemary vinegar? Because it was just in the bath room as natural antibacterial cleanser ;- )
I gargled and to my surprise blood and ‘yellow stuff’ came out. Yuck! A week ago I was not even thinking to treat my tonsils! What a big mistake!

So now after a good nights sleep I feel much better and keep up the rosemary vinegar gargle since it brought great results. There is no need for any ear drops but I keep up to take echinacea internally to aid the healing process.
This two days I learned a lot due my intuition (and laziness if you think about the rosemary vinegar)

Hurray it is time for the blog party of the UK Herbarium!
Tomorrow on the 20th April Sarah will kindly host the party with the subject:

‘Herbs for aches and pains’

I would like to start my post for this party with some suggestions to prevent aches since we sure want to do our best to enjoy a painless day outside.

• Watch your diet (it should be easy to digest as well as protein, mineral and vitamin rich)

• Drink nettle infusion which has a high content of magnesium and calcium. This fights against muscle cramps.

• Drink a lot of water while working in the garden.

• If you work in your garden make many breaks.

• Stand up and stretch your body. Raise your hands high up to the sky and take a deep breath. Then breath out by lowering your arms. Repeat a few times.

• Look around and admire the beauty of nature.

• Make goals you can achieve (you don’t need to weed out the garden in one day!) Just a little every day goes a long way without pain. Admire the work you have achieved.

• Take your time to walk around and smell the flowers and herbs.

However, if you haven’t had exercises for a long time (or you suffer from past injuries) or you just start to work in your garden after a winter of rest you might get sore and aching muscles. To prevent this I take 5-15 drops St John’s wort tincture (diluted in an eggcup with water) just before I go outside.
St John’s wort relaxes muscles and I also saw people finding relieve by rubbing the tincture over aching muscles after hiking.

The most important painkiller for me is comfrey root tincture which is the most effective rubbing mixture for aching back or sore feet.
If you make comfrey root tincture make sure you use dried roots in Vodka. This does extract all the painkilling ingredients (alkaloids… ) of the root.
Once I made it with fresh roots which hasn’t had the proper effect.
But the dried root tincture is strong enough as rubbing mixture and you might even dilute it with filtered or spring water. Unfortunately the tincture is very dark so you shouldn’t wear bright clothes (however, it doesn’t stain permanently and your shirt will be clean again after washing)

When I made my Certificate in Herbal Studies we were given the challenge to invent rubbing creams for the Musculoskeletal system with a herb combination for different aliments.

Here are my recipes which turned out very helpful:

• Cold cream:
For this cooling cream I took Aqueous cream and mixed it 1:1 with tincture.
First I gave 1 Tbsp peppermint tincture (cooling), 1 Tbsp St John’s wort tincture (takes tension and cramp), 1 Tbsp calendula tincture (soothing and cooling) and 1 Tbsp arnica tincture (anti-inflammatory and pain relief) into a milk jar.
Then I gave 4 Tablespoons Aqueous cream into a clean dish and stirred the tincture slowly with a whisker into the cream. At the end I stirred vigorously and filled the finished cream into a clean jar. I screwed the lid on and labeled it with all its ingredients and date.
This cream was cooling, soothing and took muscle tension as well as muscle pain.
Ideal to rub onto legs before or after physical activities. This cream gets nicely absorbed by the skin. But it shouldn’t be used on broken skin because of the content of arnica.

• Refreshing and anti-inflammatory liniment:
For this oil liniment I used 2 parts fresh rosemary (refreshing and anti-inflammatory), 1 part thyme (anti-bacterial), 1 part lavender (stimulating and circulating) and 1 part sage (anti-spasmodic), cut it coarsely and gave it loosely into a 500ml jar.
Then I did top it with olive oil and stirred slowly to remove air bubbles. Then I lid and labeled it and left to infuse on a warm place. Every day (for the first week) I stirred it and topped up with oil when necessary. After 4 weeks at a warm place (and stirring once a week and control if there was enough oil) I strained the aromatic herb oil.
Then I left it to sit for a day or two so the water could set on the bottom. After that it was ready to be filled into nice 250ml bottles (without the water on the bottom). With a nice label of ingredients, date of production and what it can be used for, this liniment had its final touch.
This liniment not only smells delicious, but also brings joy and refreshment to a tired and sore body (nearly like a refreshing bath or shower
Sure this liniment would also be great by infusing the herbs in alcohol. Alcohol is cooling and refreshing as well.
In oil it is nice as a massage oil as well as liniment for tired sore muscles.

As you may know I am a simple person which chooses simple medicine, which means I normally choose only one herb for a rub, liniment or ointment, like comfrey root (takes pain), St John’s wort (muscle tension) or horseradish (to heat up).
Lavender is also a favorite to relax muscles and  I love it as massage oil. Therefor I make an aromatic oil infusion with lavender leaves and flowers.

Another wonderful forest scented favorite is pine needle liniment for muscle spasm!
Pine buds and needles infused in alcohol is a recipe from my granddad
He used Schnapps as menstrum since he was the man in the village who was making the distills out of apples, pears, cherries, plumbs or even elder.
The first run of the distill was always a high concentrate (100% alcohol)
For the liniment he diluted it with spring water and then gave the pine needles and buds into a wide mouthed glass jar covering it with the diluted Schnapps (I think it was 70% alcohol). I have seen the jar standing on the windowsill as well as resting in the cellar.
Maybe he left it some days to infuse in the sun before moving into the dark.
I let my Vodka pine tincture infuse in the pantry and it always turns into a wonderful liniment.

So… now you read about a lot of my herbal secrets… and… I add one more…

When I was working as a gardener the wife of my boss introduced me to the benefit of raw milk.
Every night she soaked her hands in raw milk (pasteurized fat milk from the shop is fine as well if you can’t find raw milk)
This keeps the hands moist and soft even by working all day in the garden.
The minerals in the milk as well as the fat are nourishing for the skin. The woman also used raw milk to wash her face every night and even in a high age she had not one wrinkle! That”s what I call the best proven natural anti-aging secret!

If I don’t forget it (by all the joy of speeding out into the garden) I pamper my hands with calendula ointment.
This keeps them protected from water and soil and even brings relief afterward if your hands are sore or chapped.

So, enough written… now I go and have a relaxing hot rosemary bath which is also sooooooooooo lovely for sore muscles

Today I discovered my yarrow oil was already infusing for 7 weeks!
Gosh I should have checked the calendar where I keep track of making and decanting herbal medicines…

I was lucky to find my yarrow oil in good quality with such a green colour I really felt blessed.

Yarrow is a fine herb for chickenpox which my kids sooner or later will bring home, so I will make more of this fine herb oil. Also the a wash with fresh yarrow will help the kids and I am very happy to find it growing all year round in my area… what a blessing!

My daughter turned 7 last week and I started to keep her busy in the kitchen, by peeling carrots…

… and cutting beans which we picked from the garden

It is great to teach her how to cook, she even made a rice at the weekend, all by her self!
Her favorite work is peeling the beans out of their pod.

We also made a nice rosemary salt together…

… mmmmm, we just love this herb salt!

I feel so blessed to be able to show our kids how they can grow their own food or make their own medicine.
Life can be so fulfilling and exiting

This post is written to take part at the February Blog Party of the UK Herbarium with the subject

“Emerging From Winter With Herbs”

Elizabeth is hosting the party on the 20th February on her blog Apotheblogary.
So find this and other posts there on the 20th

If we look at the winter-blue we see it is mostly a phenomena which is enhanced by less sun and not enough Vitamin C as well as green food in the diet. Daily a spoon of raw Sauerkraut over the winter keeps us healthy and provides us with enough Vitamin C, but when the sun is lacking we just feel blue.
Best for me is to get out and search for chickweed. This herb is loaded with minerals and you can pick it year round (yes even under a cover of snow if you know where it grows ;- )
Don’t wash chickweed! It has most of it’s vitamin C stored on the surface of it’s leaves.
Make a nice endive or other winter salad, add chickweed and dream of spring which is just around the corner in the UK

Maybe you also find some daisies here and there which are great in salads and bring also a smile onto your plate.
If you are lucky enough you might find a sweet scented violet…

Ah… that’s it!
Look for all your flowers in the medicine chest and make a nice smelling potpourri!
The smell of lavender and rosemary is so uplifting and then a few cheering flowers… perfect

I also love to dive into a hot rosemary bath which scent let my spirit wander into Mediterranean gardens where I dream of taking part at a lecture by Hippocrates of Cos under an olive tree and…
… gosh… the thought of rosemary scent alone let me wander over miles (and centuries) away…

If I still feel gloomy I reach for lemon balm tincture. This herb is not only my ‘survive medicine’ in the holidays when kids can stretch your nerves, but also when the sun wont shine. A few drops diluted in water and taken three times a day or every hour (if necessary) make the waiting for sunny days easier. You can take the tincture or tea over a long period of time (at least for 3 weeks) and you will soon recognize the wonderful uplifting effect.

One great visionary of the 11th century named Hildegard of Bingen wrote down a lot of mood lifting remedies.
She advised to drink a cup of cowslips tea from dried blossoms and leaves, sweetened with honey for 3 weeks. Morning and evening one cup would help especially against the winter-blue (Ref: Mit dem Kraeuterpfarrer durchs ganze Jahr, Hermann-Josef Weidinger, 1988, Verlag Niederoesterreichisches Pressehaus, St Poelten – Wien)
How great this sweet smelling herb is just one of the first spring flowers to arrive!
It is also great for the lungs and maybe you have it already in your medicine chest as a cough herb?
Like to try it out for the blue?

Or what about one of my favorite recipes by Hildegard of Bingen called ‘Gute Laune Kekse’ (‘High Spirit Cookies’ or Uplifting cookies / sorry if the translation is incorrect, I just tried my best here ;- )
The cookies were invented exactly for the winter-blue and are supposed to cheer you up due the fine spices nutmeg and cinnamon.

I once got the recipe from my aunt who is a big fan of the Abbess Hildegard

What you need:
45 g nutmeg powder
45g cinnamon powder
10g clove powder
1,5 Kg spelt flour
400g cane sugar
4Tbsp Milk
2Tbsp Honey
200g grounded almonds
4 eggs
pinch of salt
4 teaspoon baking powder
500g butter

How to do:
1. Mix nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves well together
2. Give spelt into a big bowl (it is important to use spelt since it grows only without spraying or fertilizing and there for it is the healthiest and most natural grain)
3. Cut the butter in small pieces around the flour edge, in the middle make a pit and add the eggs
4. Knead all well to a dough
5. Now add baking powder, salt and spices and knead well again
6. Then add honey and milk and the ground almonds and knead again until it is a nice dough.
7. Give in a container and keep in the refrigerator for one hour.
8. Then preheat the oven to 180 degree C and roll a sausage with the dough (around 3-5 cm in diameter)
9. Cut 1 cm slices, give on a buttered baking tray and bake for 6-8 minutes (or until brown)
10. Let cool and store in an airtight container.

These are medicine cookies so don’t eat more then 4 a day!
Don’t hesitate to make the full recipe, I am sure you will find some people who will enjoy them too.
Take them to a tea party and feel your high spirits while everyone will smile with delight
I also heard they are good for the nervous system… mm… how delicious medicine can be

By the way, Elizabeth blog party tea (1 tsp of nettle, 1 tsp St. John’s Wort, and a half tsp rosemary) is really wonderful!

While I sip my cup, I’d like to add another ‘Emerging from Winter‘ post I call ‘Spring cleaning!‘

When spring arrives all greens are jumping out of the ground and also our mood is jumping with the enjoyment of warm sun rays scented of sweet violet blossoms and lovely green weeds.
(This sure is a spectacular emerging from winter ;- )

Our ancestors used this time for the ‘big spring cleaning’ and I’m not talking here only about the house 
Using the spring greens for cleansing excretion organs like skin, lung, kidneys and intestine was followed by blood cleansing (and not the other way round!)

Some of the bitters we discussed in the last blog party bring our sluggish digestive tract into movement and since we can go out into the fresh air for a walk to pick the herbs we inhale not only the clean air but also the long awaited spring sun. I would add yellow dock roots, dandelion roots and leaves teas for the cleansing of liver, kidney and skin, so don’t forget your shovel
Dandelion leaves, nettle and cleavers are fine cleansing teas for the urinary tract.

To make a gentle but effective spring cleaning cure you have to use a herb (e.g nettle or dandelion) over a period of at least 4-6 weeks (because the cells of your liver are reproduced in 6 weeks and the cells of the kidneys in 4 weeks)
In this time start your day with a cup of cleansing tea and choose a light diet with spring greens, soups and apples or whatever fruit winter has left over.
Drink at least 8 glass of water (best you drink one before every meal and the others throughout the day)
In the evening drink a cup of cleansing tea again.

Bring spring herbs like nourishing (and cleansing) nettle into your kitchen and cook it like spinach or make a tasty Nettle Souffle.
Use the nice young dandelion leaves in your salad and add daisies not only as decoration, but also as spring cleansing herb for the urinary tract (click here for a Spring salad recipe).
Chickweed is another fine example for this.

Good blood cleansing herbs are birch leaves, dandelion leaves and roots, daisy leaves and flowers, horsetail, fresh nettle greens, violet leaves, yarrow leaves and watercress. You can choose one or more of the herbs and make a tea cure over a period of 3 weeks. That’s the time your body needs to renew every cell of your blood

After your body got rid of toxins you can start to nourish your body. Switch from teas to infusion (infuse e.g dandelion or nettle for 4 or more hours) which are rich in minerals and vitamins or make tonic teas like burdock for the urinary tract, peppermint or milk thistle for the liver and so on. Most nourishing infusions are also tonics so they are a really good choice.

I can guarantee you that a  gentle bodily spring cleaning will give you a lift out of the winter-blue and makes you fit for spring
I wish you a good time and the enjoyment of a beautiful herbal life!

The last few days my painful muscles reminded me to try out rosemary tincture. I learned last year it shall be helpful by pain or up coming cold (Please click here for that post)
So I tried it out and after taking a few drops tincture every 30-60 minutes the tension and pain was gone within a day.
Wow! That really surprised me.

I have tried out St.Johns wort before which also helped me sometimes (but not this time)
So I was really happy to got this positive effect.

It was funny to find the next day a recipe of ‘Rosemary Short Bread’ on the lovely ‘UK Herbarium’
When my daughter saw the recipe she immediately wanted to make this special treats so we went into the garden to pick some rosemary and then into the kitchen to bake some short bread.

They are really yummy!

If you like the taste of rosemary I have another recipe for you… please click here.
Have fun!