Seasonal spiced apple juice

Spiced apple juice à la Matthew

simmer for 30 minutes in a large saucepan:
apple juice, 2 litres

add while warming:

1 cinnamon stick, roughly crumbled

1 vanilla stick, cut in half

1 knob fresh ginger, sliced

about 20 allspice fruits

3 or 4 star anise fruits

[optional] handful of epimedium leaves

towards end: juice of two oranges

strain through a metal sieve and serve warm

The vanilla makes it smooth on the tongue, the orange brings the various tastes together, the star anise gives the undertone of aniseed, the ginger adds fire, the cinnamon is the inevitable true companion of apple. Wow!

Tamarind or liquorice would be interesting alternatives!

Nettles: Three Medicines in One

NETTLES – Three Medicines in One

              

Conditions treated by nettles (a partial alphabetical list):

* anaemia * arthritis * asthma * burns * eczema * hayfever * infections * inflammations * kidney stones * mineral supplement * prostate enlargement * reducing blood sugar levels * regulating breast milk production * regulating blood pressure * rheumatism * a sexual tonic * skin problems * a spring tonic * urinary problems * vitamin supplement

Nettle is three medicines in one because its roots, tops (leaves/stalks) and seed have separate but overlapping significant medicinal uses. Let’s look at each briefly.

Freshly dug nettle roots

Nettle roots: digging these can be tough on the back as well as the hands, but it’s worth it. The roots are yellow and tangled. Wash well, cut into smallish pieces to dry in the oven or airing cupboard. Or use fresh, also cut up.

Make into a decoction (a boiled tea) or tincture (with vodka, after boiling in water, throwing away the water but keeping the roots). Decoction ready in 20 minutes, tincture in 3 to 4 weeks.

Use for: prostate; infections; inflammations. Avoid in pregnancy.

Nettle tops

Nettle tops: spring picking is best, but nettles grow back strongly and fresh shoots can be harvested through summer and into autumn. Cut off top 6 inches, wearing rubber gloves or cut with scissors and lift them into a bag or basket. Used fresh or frozen – blanch in boiling water, drain and cool them before storing in freezer bags.

Make a nettle tea (infuse for 15 minutes, with boiling water on fresh nettle tops in your teapot), nettle soup or nettle juice powder – see recipe in our book Hedgerow Medicine, p117.

Use for: a spring tonic; anaemia; gout; low or high blood pressure; coughs; allergies; inflammations; regulating breast milk production; skin problems; high blood sugar. Nettle tea is a great hair rinse.

American herbalist Susun Weed wrote in 1989 (Wise Woman Herbal, p371):

Use nettle leaves and stalks as an everyday nourisher, an energetic changer, a marvelous kidney/adrenal ally, a digestive restorative, a respiratory strengthener, an ally for women, a hair and skin nourisher, and a prompt hemostatic.

Nettle seed: nettle flowers and seeds are best in summer; gathered in same way as tops. The taste is strong and mineral-like, and a small bit goes a long way. It is powerful: a friend took a tablespoonful of nettle seed instead of the usual dose of a teaspoon, and whizzed around like a dervish for several hours, full of manic energy.

Best way to take is as dried, ground-up seeds (use a coffee blender), and mix the powder into a paste with honey. This is called an electuary, and will keep for months in an air-tight jar. Otherwise, nettle soup or a tincture – see recipe in Hedgerow Medicine, p118.

Nettle flowers in summer

Use for: stopping bleeding; promoting urine flow; treating burns and skin problems; a spring tonic; anaemia; kidney support; as an aphrodisiac.

©Julie Bruton-Seal & Matthew Seal www.hedgerowmedicine.com 2014

Hawthorn berries

Hawthorns are currently decorating autumn hedgerows and fields with their scarlet and crimson berries. These can be safely eaten, but don't possess much flavour and have quite a big seed. They are best used by adding them to hedgerow jellies and in more medicinal preparations such as honeys, syrups and tinctures.

Long the plant of the heart in folklore, we know now that hawthorn works in several ways as a restorative of the physical heart. It has the wonderful capacity to dilate the coronary arteries and strengthen the heart muscle without raising blood pressure or increasing the beat. 

The berries, leaf and flowers can be used to treat angina, enlargement of the heart from overwork or excessive exercise, and heart damage from over-use of alcohol.

It is important to state that heart disease is a life-threatening illness, and should be treated under the advice of a primary healthcare practitioner such as your GP or a qualified professional herbalist. If you are taking beta-blockers, only use hawthorn under supervision. 

Unlike digitalis and numerous commercial preparations, hawthorn is a prophylactic with few side effects. It can – and we’d say should – be made part of personal regime to forestall future problems with the heart and circulation. 

Hawthorn lowers high blood pressure and helps dissolve cholesterol and calcium deposits, making it good for arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and plaquing. 

When a fatty plaque comes loose from an artery wall it can rapidly lead to a blockage. If the artery involved is the coronary artery, which feeds the heart muscle, this blockage will mean a heart attack; if a plaque blocks an artery in the brain, it will cause a stroke.

Arteries anywhere in the body can be affected, but problems often go unnoticed.

Hawthorn is also an effective treatment for intermittent claudication, where the blood vessels of the legs aren’t supplying enough oxygen to the muscles, resulting in pain on walking. Similar conditions, such as Buerger’s disease and Raynaud’s disease, also benefit from hawthorn’s gentle effects. Hawthorn enhances the functioning of the heart and circulation during exercise, and taken in moderation can improve athletic performance.

Also, the flavonoid compounds called procyanidins found throughout the plant help normalise blood pressure. So, if blood pressure is too high, hawthorn will lower it, and if too low it will stimulate the heart rate and raise it.

Taking hawthorn calms the spirit, and gives good results in menopausal mood swings, restlessness and anxiety; it will quieten overactive children who have ADHD.

Hawthorn combines well with yarrow when there is constriction of the blood vessels and a risk of thrombosis or clotting. As a general heart and circulatory tonic, it is used alongside ramsons or garlic, and ginger. If the circulation needs stimulating, take it with horse-    radish. To improve the peripheral circulation of the limbs, use hawthorn with lime blossom.

Expanded from Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal, Hedgerow Medicine (2008)

Hawthorn