Elder Immune Wisdom

It was bright sunshine a couple of days ago, now  it's hailing outside. It must be August. It is a surprise every year, the days begin to lengthen, everyone begins to look forward to spring, then winter really hits. The temperature has been hovering around 10 degrees  but the weather app tells us it "feels like" 5 (unless it is hailing and then it plummets close to zero. No complaints from me, I am grateful for the rain and wish I could send some of it eastwards to the drought affected farmers.

I adore days like today, a good reason to stay inside and catch up on production, study, craft projects and begin to sort and throw in preparation for true spring cleaning once the sun is back. It seems that this between seasons weather is
when our immune systems become more vulnerable and need some extra support. This summer gifted me an amazing crop of elder berries which is rare in these usually warmer climes. Stripped and dried, they had been waiting for winter. Two weeks ago, on a day rather like today, I turned them into an immune boosting syrup.I have been taking a spoonful each morning as a preventative measure and so far have avoided catching any of the colds and flu around me. The addition of some warming spices makes it easy to take and adding the cooled extraction to the honey helps conserve the properties of our unique raw bush honey.

Elder Immune Booster

2 cups rainwater
2/3 cup dried elder berries
2 tablespoons of fresh ginger, thinly sliced
4 whole cloves
4 cardamom pods, crushed
2 sticks of cinnamon bark
zest of one lemon, peeled

Place all ingredients except honey in a saucepan.
Bring to the boil.

Reduce heat and simmer on a heat proof pad until reduced to about one cup.

Allow to cool.
Press through a sieve, then strain through a muslin cloth.
Stir in equal amount of honey until dissolved.
Bottle and label with date.
Store in the refrigerator.

Dose: 1 teaspoon on an empty stomach first thing in the morning as a preventative.
1/2 - 1 tablespoon every two three hours  when symptoms occur.

Tukmaria: diet seed?

We have a three and a half hour drive to the nearest international airport, so when one of us is about to travel, it is a great excuse to spend a couple of days in the big smoke. Apart from visiting family and friends, shopping and eating are my favourite city pursuits. Staying in the inner city meant new food shops to explore and as always, I came home with some weird and wonderful things.

I was thrilled to find ready to drink Basil Seed Drink (with honey.) Since I discovered tukmaria seed http://frompotionstopesto.blogspot.com/2010/01/tukmaria-sacred-seed.html  I have been on the lookout for more recipes. I opened it yesterday. It was very sweet, thanks to the 12 % sugar and the honey flavour (!) and I needed to add some lime juice to it to make it palatable. The interesting side effect was that come lunchtime, I wasn't hungry. Checking the label further I found it contained a small amount of dietary fibre, calcium and iron and was 20% carbohydrate. So what are the healing properties of tukmaria?

The mucilaginous gel that forms around the soaked seeds acts as a demulcent, soothing the mucous membranes, and is used to relieve constipation and diarrhoea. Like chia seed, which also forms a gel when soaked, it is possible that it slows down the speed our bodies' convert carbohydrates into sugars. This would account for the feeling of fullness lasting longer and could be useful for weight loss and diabetes.

In Asia, where  basil seed is also known as sabza, subza, takmaria, tukmaria, tukhamaria, falooda, selasih (Malay/Indonesian) or hột é (Vietnamese), Ayurvedic and Siddha medicine both recognise the health benefits of tukmaria. Other reputed benefits are a more active digestion, removal of toxins from the gut and the ability to help prevent heart conditions by lowering cholesterol  although I have not found any scientific research to back this up.

I feel that tukmaria has great potential to replace slippery elm, an endangered rainforest tree that must be killed to harvest its inner bark, as an easily grown, safe remedy for stomach complaints.

Just before lunch today, I stirred half a teaspoon of seed into a glass of cold water with the juice of a lime. An hour later, I still felt quite full, even though the amount of seed I drank was much less than was in the drink yesterday. It was a very pleasant and refreshing drink that didn't need sweetening. It can be added to hot drinks, herb or black teas, or to warm milk. If you don't like the slippery texture add it to soaked Bircher muesli or stewed fruit. It has very little taste of its own.

 I am on a mission to lose weight at the moment so maybe fate is at work again. I'm going to stick with drinking tukmaria for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

Dizzy!

I nearly fell off the chair laughing at the doctors’ the other day when I was told I needed to fling myself sideways and backwards onto the bed, lie there until the dizziness passed and repeat five times each side, three times a day. The doctor even handed me a printed sheet with the full instructions on the Brandt and Daroff exercises.

I had been feeling dizzy for a couple of days, a feeling of being drunk or sea sick. The diagnosis was benign positional vertigo. I had suffered from a cold the week before and apparently ‘debris’ had collected in my inner ear and was affecting my sense of balance.

This all seems to be a bit witchy.  It pleased me too in that if a little bizarre, it was a simple solutionlike banging the salt cellar so you can shake out the salt. The only herbal remedy that I thought to  administer is ginger for the nausea. As it is the inner ear that is affected, I don’t think ear candles would help much although I have found them useful after a cold.

The more I share the stories of the dogs leaping on me to play some strange game, the near misses of the head and the wall and the hysterical laughter from the unsympathetic partner, the more people fess up to having had the same condition and being given the same exercises. It is like a secret society of people who do crazy things.

Dizziness can be a symptom of many serious conditions (see the picture at left for another occasion) if you suffer from it regularly, don’t ignore it. And please, don’t be one of those people who deprive others of a good laugh.

Share the madness!

nirala

Nanna's magic cream

For many years now I have made a range of herbal products including a beautiful green healing ointment. Over the years the formula has changed and the current version contains 11 essential oils, 6 tinctures and extracts of 17 different herbs, chosen for their varying properties, nearly all grown in my garden.

Ointment is a simple way to preserve and concentrate the healing power of herbs. The ingredients are easily sourced from your local chemist and health food shop. The equipment needed is minimal and can be found in most kitchens.

Choose your herbs for the properties you wish to bring to your ointment. I like to always start with comfrey, lavender and rosemary. You will need to make a herb oil and if you like, a tincture, starting at least 10 days before you wish to make the ointment. If you make your oil extraction in advance,  keep it in the refrigerator until needed. Tinctures keep well at room temperature but store out of reach of children.

To make a herb oil extraction:  http://gypsysoul-au.blogspot.com/2009/01/little-bit-of-magic.html.

To make a tincture:  http://frompotionstopesto.blogspot.com/2010/01/summertime.html.   

Equipment:

Stainless steel jug or saucepan

Measuring jug

Plastic or wooden spatula

Scales

Clean jars with tight screw top lids to hold a total of 300gm.

Ingredients

120ml herb oil

20g beeswax, beads or block

120g lanolin

1 Tbsp or 30ml tincture of choice or tincture of benzoin (optional) 

2tsp or 15ml essential oils of choice

Method:

1. 
   
   Very gently melt the beeswax and lanolin together over a gentle heat. If you have a stainless steel jug, this works really well as you can melt and pour in the same container. Use a heat diffuser under the pot if you have one.
2. 
   
   As soon as the mixture is clear, turn off the heat. Remove pot to a heat proof surface and leave for a minute to cool slightly but not harden. The lower the temperatures, the more properties of the herbs are retained.
3. 
   
   Slowly stir in the herb oil, which should be at room temperature. If the mixture starts to look lumpy, sit the pot back on the warm stove but do not reheat.
4. 
   
   Add essential oils and tinctures and mix until incorporated.
5. 
   
   Pour into jars and lid. The ointment is at its best for nine months but I have used older pots on the animals with great results. Unopened will keep for much longer.

 

Any type of ointment can be made by the above method. Please note that wax based ointment is not suitable to use on burns, eczema or psoriasis or any conditions which require the skin to breathe. If any  adverse reaction or sensitivity is noted, discontinue use.

I use my multipurpose ointment on bites, grazes, blisters, cuts, nettle, nappy and reef rash, piles, stinging tree injuries, cracked feet and nipples and to draw boils and splinters. I have used it on chickens’ combs to cure stick fast fleas, on bald guinea pigs and injured dogs and cats with great success knowing it is a safe product  My son swears it cures mouth ulcers and my granddaughter is comforted by a dose of ‘nanna’s magic cream.’

The original formula was originally created by Nerys at Rivendell Farm. To take the lid off a pot and inhale the scent of the essential oil blend is a reminder of soothing words and gentle hands for our families and friends and many clients over the years. It is a wonderful reminder of the skills taught to me by an amazing person.

Green Healer (nanna’s magic cream) will soon be available via my website.

Go well,

nirala

Adventures with a cucumber

I am a sucker for new home remedies. A friend has sent me an article that had recently appeared in the New York Times as part of a series ‘Spotlight on the Home’, entitled ‘The Amazing Cucumber.’ It gave a list of 13 ‘creative and fanciful ways to solve common problems.’ I just had to put them to the test.

I am rather a cucumber fan. For years I disgusted my children by eating toast topped with peanut butter and cucumber for breakfast every day.

Cucumbers contain many nutrients, the only problem being that they are present in such small amounts that were you eating only cucumbers, to get the recommended allowance of those nutrients you would need to eat 100 times the recommended serving size, about five kilos, every day. You could just eat the peel; this is where most of them are found. The serving size this data is based on is 52g of unpeeled cucurbit which funnily enough cuts into 13 slices.

Sneaking around the house with my 13 slices hidden in a bowl, I started by rubbing my bathroom mirror with a slice to prevent it fogging up ... since then no one has used the hot water so I’m not sure this will work. There certainly wasn’t any spa like fragrance wafting around as I had been promised. While there, I rub a slice on the crows feet around right eye, leaving other eye cucumber less for a true before and after test. One more slice is vigorously applied to the inner right thigh where it is going to work a miracle on cellulite.

On to clean the stainless steel in the laundry and shine my shoes. I think I can use one slice for each of these tasks. If anyone catches me at this, my name will be mud, again!

Back to the computer to check the list. The next item was about removing pen marks from surfaces. My walls and window trims were pretty good until I deliberately scribbled on them with brown marker. The marker is gone but the cuc has left some lovely green marks I will have to explain.

Its afternoon tea time and two other handy hints say that the cucumber will stop snacking binges and act as a ‘pick me up’. I can eat a few, I just have to try and remember which ones I used to do the cleaning.

Slices of cucumber in an aluminium pie tin are reputed to keep pests off your garden. What about the pests that like cucumber and aren’t at all bothered by its reaction to the metal? The rabbits here would probably eat the tin too but I will give it a try - tomorrow, when it’s not raining.

An hour after eating most of the recommended serving I am still hungry and fading but my breath is sweet (holding a slice to the roof of your mouth for 30 seconds works, possibly longer than the 30 seconds you hold your mouth shut. I’ll wait till the next episode of coffee breath to try this, must remember to ask the coffee shop for ‘cuc ‘on the side.’)

I could have a G & T or four and test the hangover cure but I have a dirty sticky laundry to clean and one shoe that is a different colour from its mate. Half my face and one leg are sticky and I am too busy to try a cucumber steam inhalation or to test cucumber juice on a squeaky hinge. I’ll hop in the shower, test the mirror story, and gloat over the miracle of the missing wrinkles and tightened thighs. And no, you are not getting photos of the resultEnjoy,

nirala

Summertime

Today is the first day of the return to some sort of reality as the limbo of the week between Christmas and New Year ends. Shops, banks and the Post office will be open ‘normal’ hours all week and hopefully we will be able to stop asking each other what day it is. Living in a tourist town it is often hard to focus on work when the rest of the world is on holiday but the demands of animals, gardens and harvest keep me somewhat grounded in the practical.

Christmas is the time of year that the St John’s Wort flowers here. Some of the most prolific patches grow on the damp verges of the road to Summertime farm (the same road pictured above). This year the crop flowered early and I harvested a bag of flowers the week before Christmas. Hypericum perforatum is an introduced weed of excellent medicinal properties. Analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antiviral and antibacterial, it has been used To soothe wounds, burns and bruising, ease fibrositis, sciatica, arthritis, rheumatism and gout and to help relieve depression.Last year Nerys and I made extractions into oil and Nerys has posted a blog on this wonderful process that saw yellow flowers gradually turn the oil a miraculous deep red.http://gypsysoul-au.blogspot.com/2009/01/little-bit-of-magic.html and http://gypsysoul-au.blogspot.com/2009/01/st-johns-wort-oil.html This year she asked me to make her a tincture.

Here is the method:

Fill a glass jar with flowers, after the spiders have had a chance to run away.

Cover with the highest proof alcohol you can buy (I use vodka but you can use brandy or gin.)

Label the jar with the date you start and the date the tincture will be ready (10 – 14 days.)
Each day tap the base of the jar 100 times ( or for one minute) onto either the heel of your hand or a folded cloth. This is known as ‘succussion’ and is a process that allows the release of the plants properties into the alcohol.

After 10 days – 2 weeks, strain the tincture first through a sieve and then through a paper coffee filter into a brown bottle to protect from the light. 5 ml of glycerine added to each 250ml of tincture will increase its keeping properties.

Label and store in a cool dark place.

Dosage is 5-15 drops in 40ml of water three times a day.

Do not give tinctures to children under five.

More information on herbal tinctures is available in 'Healing with Herbs,' click on the cover in the side bar.

The particular magic of making this tincture was that it turned red before our eyes. As the weather became very hot, I decided to strain it after 10 days.By the way, be careful, the red tincture created black stains on my white shirt, which then spookily turn yellow in the wash!

May the New Year bring you joy and inspiration,

nirala

Welcome!

The Gardener's Rest

'Potions to Pesto' is a celebration of the creative inpulse in us all.

We are two women (considered eccentric by many) who have been friends for more than thirty years and have shared many experiences together. We have run restaurants, dug gardens, created a skincare business, admired each others grandchildren, swapped ideas and skills and have even fought occasionally.

We all crave the healthiest, happiest and most beautiful environment we can afford for ourselves and our loved ones but with the hard financial times that are upon us we may be wise to return to the skills of earlier times and by using them in combination with the amazing technology and information resources we can easily access today, create an even better and more fulfilling life than ever before.

From the garden to the kitchen, bathroom to bedroom, we have fed, treated and experimented on our families, friends and animals with healthy produce, luscious skincare, sensual perfumes and healing remedies.

Making a lotion

We have discovered that the easiest and often the cheapest way to source
the perfect item is to make it yourself and to this end we are creating a range of e-books that can be found on our website From Potions to Pesto

Here is a recipe from our 'Easy' 150 recipes for one or two pot cooking book.

Huevos Rancheros

Huevos Rancheros

Serves 2

This breakfast (or lunch) dish will keep you feeling full and happy until the next meal.You can use a jar of ready made salsa if you don’t want to make the sauce.

1 tsp vegetable oil
½ finely chopped onion
¼ C chopped red capsicum (optional)
2 tsp bottled crushed garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
420 g can diced tomatoes
Slurp of chilli sauce
Left over Mexican beans (optional)
2 tortillas
2 eggs
Grated cheese

1 Heat the oil in a small pan, add the chopped onion and capsicum and cook for a couple of minutes.
2 Add the garlic and cumin and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes, and chilli sauce.Once the sauce is boiling, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes until thickened. Add the beans (if using) and reheat.
3 Drop the eggs into the sauce (and beans), put the lid on the pan and turn the heat off. A couple of minutes or so will be enough to poach them.
4 Heat a frypan with a small splash of oil added and, in turn, fry two tortillas for about 30 seconds on each side, remove and keep warm in foil.
5 Spoon the eggs and sauce onto each tortilla, sprinkle grated cheese on top.

We take the greatest pleasure in the concept of lifelong learning especially in a hands-on, practical way. 'Making your own' is a way of life that can help us to save money, recycle more, learn new skills and improve our quality of life.

Nirala at 'work'!

We'd love to share with you some of the excitement we feel, the recipes we use and the useful places we visit on the web and also to hear what you are doing too.