Mug Tree Remedies

Last weekend we stomped in the woods, teaming up with Sophie from the forest school, Stomping Grounds, to create Stomping Grounds for Big Kids, a day designed for women. It was a a beautiful sunny day combining foraging, fireside cooking, fire making using natural tinders and of course magical ointment for everyone to take home. The pic above is of our 'mug tree', which made everyone smile! We boiled water in the kelly kettles and made medicinal teas, scots pine tea, nettle tea, mugwort tea, dandelion tea and yarrow. My fave was nettle, I love the iron rich deep green flavour from the fresh nettle tops. Everyone got excited about mugwort, aside from it's medicinal properties, the mention of it's use in ritual and to incite lucid dreaming seemed to encourage the group's interest!

This morning I woke up with a cold. Boo. The turn of the season often hits us with this inconvenience and so in the spirit of the weekend's tea tree I turned to my allotment and the hedgerow beyond. I ate about three handfuls of big juicy blackberries which are anti viral, anti bacterial, packed with vitamin C and from what I read just about everything you could need from a berry! Wonderous fruits on the doorstep and in abundance. I've been drinking cider vinegar in hot water using this wonderful RAW health cider vinegar containing the mother, which I bought a crate of from SUMA.

Inspired now, I'm going to mix the two and make up some blackberry vinegar to incorporate the super duper blackberry healing along with the pro biotic goodness of the vinegar and flavour fresh salads and make light pickles. I think I'll use an adaptation from this recipe in my favourite, 'Home Made Wines Syrups and Cordials' published in 1954 by 'The National Federation of Women's Institutes. I might omit the sweetening and certainly only use honey if I add sweetener. I'll also not boil the vinegar so as to preserve the medicinal properties. I'll let you know how it goes in next weeks blog.

I also made a vitamin C boosting pot of rosehip tea with some heart warming hawthorn berries or, 'pixie pears' a folk name for haws which I love to use, mixed in. Hawthorn is a heart tonic and boosts circulation. Rosehips have 50% more vit C then oranges, so are a super immune booster. For my cuppa I added approx 4 tbsp of rosehips from a dog rose in the hedge and a tbsp of hawthorn berries from the same hedge to a tea pot and poured over boiling water. I left it to steep for 20mins for a substantial brew and strained it into my cup as the seeds can cause irritation. It has a surprisingly zingy flavour and a slightly floral note to it, I've enjoyed the whole pot! As always please avoid herbal remedies if pregnant and check with your doctor first before trying.

I'm feeling markedly better than I did this morning, so my potion making seems to be doing the trick! Stay well this autumn and enjoy the hedgerows!

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