Clarity tea: our visionary blend

Our Clarity Tea was on our tasting table last weekend at St. Andrews market, and it proved so popular that I thought I’d write a bit of a post about it. It’s a beautiful blend to look at – anything with calendula flowers in it is so pretty, don’t you think?

When you drink it you will find it has a kind of earthy taste (I think that’s mostly the mugwort), a bit spicy from the calendula flowers and a bit aromatic from the fennel seeds. It’s grounding – that’s the mugwort and the fennel – yet opening, protective and clarifying thanks to the eyebright and the calendula (and the mugwort. Mugwort is good for lots of things, in case you hadn’t worked that out by now).

This blend is a tonic for the third eye; we particularly recommend it for when you’re working on meditation or feel a bit lost in a mental fog. If you suspect that there’s something going on around you – especially something negative – but you’re not quite sure what it is, Clarity Tea can help to open your eyes to what’s happening. It is also an excellent herbal blend to drink while you’re studying, helping you to identify and absorb the most relevant bits of information.

Obviously, based on the description above, our Clarity blend has been formulated to work primarily on an energetic level. It does, however, also work on a physical level; eyebright and calendula have a long history of use for inflammations of mucous membranes (with eyebright in particular acting on the upper respiratory system and eyes), and calendula is also a lymphatic herb – meaning that this blend may also be helpful for mild seasonal allergies such as hayfever.

As with anything containing mugwort (a uterine stimulant), please avoid this blend if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

What will be available on the tasting table this Saturday at the market? Come along and find out! We’d love to see you!

Blessings on this sunny winter’s day

Verity )O(

A tried and true remedy for colds and flu: Healing Garden Tea

Have you been having lots of illness lately? I really hope not (we have, including one of the most ghastly, lingering sinus infections I’ve ever suffered with. It was absolutely disgusting! But that’s all I’ll say about that!). Sickness at one time and another is pretty much inevitable, I think – no matter how much we try to avoid it, at some point our bodies’ defenses are just going to say ‘too hard!’ and we’ll come down with something. Poor diet, too little sleep, and above all stress of any kind (or every kind, I suppose) all wear us down eventually.

And that’s ok, you know? Because illness is a wake-up call as well as a pain in the arse. Illness makes us ask ourselves What do I need to change, how can I better support myself to maintain my health? But while we’re working on the answers to those questions, what do we do to relieve the discomfort?

Enter my very most favourite first line remedy for colds and flu, which we have called our Healing Garden Tea (I’m actually sipping some right now). It works really well to ease the pains of the early stages of a cold or flu, and it contains yarrow, peppermint, elderflower, catnip and echinacea.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a circulatory stimulant, diaphoretic and mucous membrane tonic. It tones the tissues (eg of your sinuses), making it harder for the bugs to get in; heats the body, making it harder for the bugs to survive; and gets the blood flowing, which means that more defensive goodies can get to the infected site more quickly.

Peppermint (Mentha piperita) is, like yarrow, used as a diaphoretic to promote sweating and get things moving. The volatile oil components also help to break up mucus, and of course add a pleasant flavour.

Elderflower (Sambucus nigra) is also a mucous membrane tonic, specific to the upper respiratory system (yarrow is more general), and helps to get mucus moving.

Catnip (Nepeta cataria) has many similar actions to peppermint but is also very soothing for the nervous system, promoting relaxation and rest – which is after all really the BEST thing for recovery.

Echinacea (Echincea purpurea) stimulates the immune system and, equally if not more important, stimulates the lymphatic circulation, which is responsible for clearing all the nasties out of the bloodstream.

So you can see that this is actually a really potent, synergistic blend of herbs, deeply supporting the actions of the body as it tries to heal itself, which I think is just amazing. Healing Garden tea also tastes very pleasant (although depending on your symptoms you might not be able to taste it much) and is extremely soothing, especially when you’re feeling kind of shivery and miserable. It will help your throat feel better and you’ll be running to blow your nose as it gets all that infected mucus out of your body! I recommend at least three cups a day if you’re feeling poorly, or preferably six – but you can infuse the same leaves a second time after you’ve had the first cup.

Another tip I have is to drink it as hot as possible – this will improve the diaphoretic action – and even add a sprinkle of cayenne pepper or a pinch of chilli flakes to the pot while you’re brewing it to fire things up a little. Add some raw honey too if you like, and then wrap up as warm as possible and rest if you can.

Keep well!

Bright blessings
Verity )O(

Tuesday is Herb Day – DANDELIONS!

There are still a few hours of Tuesday left, so let me rave on at you about dandelions for a bit.

I must be one of the few gardeners in Melbourne actively trying to increase the dandelion population in my garden, rather than attempting to eradicate them. For a long time my garden was, sadly, entirely dandelion free. Then, amazingly, under the thorny shadow of the climbing rose, a single exemplar of the being Taraxacum officinale appeared. I was delighted, checking on it regularly to see when it would flower (a slow process), and then, just as regularly, and even more eagerly, checking to see if the flower had turned into a puffball of seeds that would populate my already (maybe) overcrowded garden with more of its kind.

The puffball arrived. And THEN A POSSUM ATE IT.

However, a few days later, after listening to me whinge about the possums eating my long awaited dandelion puffball, Cath very sensibly just took a seedhead from the massive dandelion that was growing down the lane (that’s the one in the picture above) and blew the seeds all over the spot where I want them to grow. Now I have lots of dandelion seedlings popping up and I am content.

Just what is so good about dandelion?

You can eat the leaves, which are very bitter, especially as they get older, so the young ones are best in terms of palatabiltiy. They are still quite strong and may take a bit of getting used to (I’ll probably have a rant about why people should include more bitters in their diets at another time). I often pick a few to put in a salad or a sandwich amongst the other greens like rocket; you could also toss them into a soup or cook them in amongst some milder greens like spinach or silverbeet.

Because the roots of dandelion grow so deep into the earth, the leaves are rich in minerals like iron and potassium; you can brew them as a tea, which has tonic and diuretic properties (and since diuretics in general can deplete the body of potassium, dandelion is a particularly good choice).

The root is hepatic, which means it acts on the liver, stimulating its function and aiding the body’s natural detoxification processes. Roasted, the root makes a tasty ‘coffee’ which is delicious on its own or with milk and/or spices.

Dandelion is one of those herbs which bridges the worlds. Its taproots go deep, as I mentioned before, and yet its flower is as pure a representation of the sun as you can find. It is sacred to the Goddess Hekate, the Illuminatrix who also walks between the worlds. The seeds are messengers, and will carry your wishes with them as they take to the air.

So next time you meet a dandelion, honour it; there’s more to it than meets the eye and it has many gifts to share with you!

Bright blessings

Verity