The past few weeks here have been a whirlwind. July blurs into August. Then comes our Anniversary, and then compressed with office meetings, and a trip to New Hampshire to visit family, we found ourselves home once again, as August slipped away from us even faster than we thought. On top of this, our daughter got sick with strep.
And in the midst of this whirlwind, the roses have bloomed, the purple clover in the fields whee I run has grown heavy and drowsy, and the nights have become blessedly cooler.
So the most recent development in the little known gem department was a book called Grow Your Own Drugs by ___ Wong. This is not a book about growing illicit drugs. It's a book about ethnobotany and how to use the plants around you for medicine and natural healing. I saw this at my friends house, borrowed it, and ordered it the next day.
My first attempt from it is Rose Hip Vitamin C syrup. Rose hips aren't alien tot he world of vitamin C. During the Great Wars, British families used to make a rose hip syrup and give it to their chidlren for the very purpose of extra Vitamin C. That was quite some time ago.
Rose hips are also edible straight once they are ripe. Couple that witht heir use in teas, it's probably a very neglected fruit that's used only for decoration.
But we have this great rose bush on the farm that always has rosehips the size of half dollars on it. So I decided to give it a try.
And it's SIMPLE.
250g (about half a pound) of fresh rosehips.
5 cloves (note just cloves, not of anything.. i used powdered cloves)
1 cinnamon stick (i used a couple tsps of powdered cinnamon)
2 c water.
gently crush the rose hips. then put the rosehips in a pan. mix in the cloves and cinnamon. then add the water. simmer for twenty minutes. Strain the liquid into a bowl through a sieve or cheesecloth (I used a rice strainer). then put the liquid back in the pan, add as much sugar as there is liquid. heat to a boil then turn down to about medium, and then let it heat for ten minutes.
pour into sterilized jars.
processed jars (like canning) will last a year unopened. opened (unprocessed) will last a week in the fridge.
you can take 2 tsp each day. you can use it as a maplke syrup replacement for pancakes. you can also use it as a crodial - pour one part of the rosehip syrup and five parts water into a glass.
there you go :)
i have to say last night making it was one of the coolest things. i have a lng standing interest in etnobotany and using the plants and flowers around us for healing and all of that. i loved making it.
i also found some yarrow out in the fields, dug it up and brought up the house and planted it up here. yarrow is a great medicinal herb. it can be used for staunching nosebleeds, calming insect stings, among many other things... and it's a perrennial. it comes back!
my goal is to get a good medicinal herb garden going here.
the other way the summer has past, is in a flurry of books and movies. the reviews for the library have been going well.
definitely check out www.tunk.com.library Rebecca's reviews for the reviews.
i have read and loved : TINKERS
Neverwhere - neil gaiman
coraline - neil gaiman
as simple as snow
Girl in Translation
Shug
just off the top of my head... loved them all.
so today i go back tot he library to find a movie and some books for week 6 offerings...
