Tea with Trudy

One of my favorite things to do over the Holiday season is to visit my sister and spend an evening in her beautiful glass green-house.  We concoct our own specialty tea using fresh herbs picked from the potted herbs growing around us, using water heated in a kettle on the wood burning stove, a large variety of dried flowers and herbs kept in crystal jars, and sweetened with organic honey and cream.  Our husbands talk building construction, mechanics and all things manly.  We visit about children, gardens, plants and organic growing.

 more pictures and information about this gorgeous, plant filled glass green-house

TRUDY'S WINTER PARADISE 

Elderberry

We have a long row of Elderberries growing along side one of the gardens.  It flowers in the spring with snowy white umbrellas consisting of hundreds of tiny white flowers.  If a late frost doesn't hit, killing the blossoms, I can gather the flowers to make fritters.  As the summer progresses, tiny, little green berries form.

just beginning to ripen, berries will be a dark purple when ripe

 When the Elderberries ripen I gather them quickly before the birds eat them all.  The berries are laid on paper toweling and placed on a window screen, out of the wind and sun, to dry.  I don't worry about taking out the stems unless I am making Elderberry  jelly or jam.  The dried Elderberries make a wonderful hot tea to help combat colds and flu.

TEA FOR FLU AND COLDS

Desert Tea / Brigham Tea

 

Ephedra nevadensis Wats

 

A stunted shrub with green twigs on woody stems.  It is known by many names,

  Desert Tea, Joint Fur, Mexican Tea, Popotillo, Brigham Tea.

 

A tea that has been used since ancient Aztec times here in the south-west.  It is used for colds, fever, headache, for a decongestant and asthma remedy, as a diuretic and for internal troubles.   It is also consumed to relieve rheumatic and arthritic pains. The dried and powdered twigs were used for poultices and  ointments for sores. 

 

I gather the woody stems and  twigs of the bush early in the spring.  It has been used as a

 spring tonic for hundreds of years

 (I bet it cures the dreaded Spring Fever). 

 It can be harvested and used fresh.  We collect  large branches in the spring or early summer and place them in a paper grocery sack, tye the sack tight around the woody stems, and hang in the pump house to dry.  The tea is used all year long.  It is a sweet, pleasant tasting tea.

 

To make the tea, strip the green "leaves" or twigs from the woody stem.  This tea needs to boil to extract the healing properties.  I simmer about 10 minutes and then let it steep for 10-20 mins. reheating if necessary before drinking.  Strain.  Add honey.   The twigs can be reused several times if desired.   If you use the powdered, dried, plant form just steep as regular tea.  This tea is also refreshing served cold.  Make a large batch and keep it in the fridge.  Serve over cubes of ice with frozen berries in them.  Add a dash of raw sugar.

Aunt LIB drank this tea every day and lived a long healthy life, 96.

Her mind was sharp and she was independent to the end.

She always said it was the Brigham tea that kept her well.

 

 

 

Brigham tea grows in higher mountain elevations in the west.

Harvest in the spring when the plant is vibrant green, just before it blooms. It will fade in color as the year progresses and is not as effective for use.

 

This tea is not recommended if you have a heart ailment.

 

 

HERBAL TEA for the FLU and COLDS

 

My favorite herbal tea for the cold and flu season is a combination of dried elderberries and rose hips.
I gather the hips from the wild dog rose that line the pasture fences or collect them high in the mountains while hiking in the fall.  Rose hips can also be purchased in Health Food Stores.  The  fully ripe elderberries are collected in  late summer.  I have a long row of bushes at the farm, but I have to be quick to harvest them before the birds eat them all.  They are dried and put away until winter.

As soon as the symptoms of the cold and flu are felt a large cup of tea with honey will usually stop it in it's tracks.  Works for us anyway.

                                                 ROSE HIP AND ELDERBERRY TEA

                                                        1/2 cup rose hips
                                                       1/2 cup elderberries
                                                        2 cups water

Bring the water to a boil.  Add hips and berries.  This tea needs to simmer at a low boil for 15 to 20 mins. to extract the healing proprieties from the berries.  Strain and add a large teaspoon of honey.
I reuse the hips and berries to make another cup or two of tea.  Drink 2 cups a day.

We also make a tea of HOREHOUND for a cold with congestion.  It grows as a weed here on the farm, but I have a large bush in the greenhouse in case we need it for a cold during the winter.  STEEP 2 tsp dried or 3 TBS fresh in 1 cup of  boiled water for 10 minutes.  Add honey, this tea is quite bitter.  Sip sparlingly throughout the day.  Large quanities of the herb act as a laxative.

Cough drops can also be made from the horehound.

Here is a recipe for horehound cough drops.  I haven't tried it, I buy my winters supply of drops from my local feed store.

OLD FASHIONED HOREHOUND CANDY

2-3 cups fresh horehound--use the leaves, stems and flowers----- or use 1 cup dried herb
1 quart water
3 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp butter
1 tsp lemon juice

In a large sauce pan bring the herbs and water to a boil.  Steep for 15 minutes.  Strain through a cheese cloth and put 2 cups of the tea back into the sauce pan.  Add the sugar, corn syrup and cream of tartar.  Cook on a slow boil until 240 degrees and add the butter.  Continue cooking until the hard crack stage 300 degrees.  Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice.  Pour into an 8x8 greased pan and score when slightly cooled.

MULLEIN is valued here on the farm.  It  is one of my favorite herbs.  Use the tiny yellow flowers, picked fresh and steeped in olive oil for ear aches.  The leaves are made into a tea for coughs and congestion.  The large soft leaves are good to place in baby diapers to help prevent diaper rash.  A sister of mine jokingly said to me, " I bet you even grow something at your farm to use as toilet paper."   I smiled and replied " YEP!"

 

MULLEN is a biannual and will self seed easily.  The large stalk is sent up in it's second year.  In the upper right of this photo you can see just the leaves of the mullein.  This plant is in it's first year.  Look closely and you can see the tiny yellow flowers on the tall staff of the mullein in the fore ground.  We just let mullein grow where ever it wants.  It doesn't need much water, but they tend to gravitate to the edges of the outside of the greenhouses.  I also let one or two grow in the greenhouse to allow for longer harvest of the plant.