Walking on a cold day

         It is good to be  outside, on the fresh air, even if it is cold like now, in the midle of winter. It is important to experience all kinds of weather conditions, to feel the wind or sun on our skin, to breath fresh air.

         Sometimes it is hard to leave a warm home and go out in the cold, but it is better to freeze a little than to be bored.

         Walking makes me feel good, tired but relaxed. Helps to clear the mind of annoying thoughts and to fill it with positive. Sometimes when walking I feel that I can do anything I want.

         It is nice to smell snow in the air and to feel cold on your cheeks.

I took some nice photos of herbs in my walks this days.

HIP

HAZEL FLOWERS

PRIMROSE

Nice cup of tea

         It is completely natural to eat more during winter, also to eat stronger food. I like to eat and drink something nice to keep me warm and happy when it is cold and depressive outside, like: hot toast with butter, chocolate (always good), hot potatoes, little bit of brandy or wine, nice warm tea and lots of other stuff.

         Nice tea, for me, is one that has good taste, smell and colour. The one you can drink even if you are not ill, like: hip tea, lime tea, camomile and mixture of camomile, yarrow and nettle.

Hip tea

Hip tea needs a little bit of honey (1 teaspoon) and lemon juice (1 slice) to enhances the taste.

To make hip tea pour 1 cup of boiled water on 1 teaspoon of dry hips, cover and strain after 10-15 minutes.

         It is better to add honey and lemon in warm, not hot tea, because they don't stand high temperatures.   

         If you want more aromatic version of hip tea, add clove and cinnamon to it. This is a very nice tea from which the whole house smells like cinnamon cookies.

         There are two ways of preparing this tea.

1.    Pour 1 cup of boiled water over 1 teaspoon of hips, 1-2 cloves and some cinnamon. Cover and strain after 10-15 minutes. Add honey and lemon juice in a warm tea.

2.    Put 1 teaspoon of hips, 1-2 cloves and some cinnamon in 1 cup of cold water. Put it on the fire, as soon as it boiles remove from fire and add half of sliced lemon. Cover and strain after 15 min or more. Sweeten it with honey.

Lime tea

         Lime tea smells like honey and reminds me on the time when lime tree is blooming and that wonderful smell is spreading everywhere.

         Lime tea also likes a little bit of honey (1 teaspoon). To prepare this tea boil 1 cup of water and pour it over 1 teaspoon of lime flowers, cover it. Strain the tea after 10 minutes.

Yarrow and blackberry cream

Yarrow and blackberry cream is used for curing hemorrhoids, applied externally. It is made from yarrow (Achillea millefolium) flowers and blackberry (Rubus fructicosus) leaves, about 15g of each herb. Herbs need to be fresh and chopped.

Making the cream

Heat pigs fat (about 90 g) to a temperature of frying steaks. Use a big pan, much bigger than the amount of fat, because fat is very hot and can foam. Caution is necessary.

         Add herbs part by part, stir few times with a wooden spoon and fry herbs a bit. Remove it from fire and cover.

         Next day heat it to melt the fat, strain it with a strainer or/ and cloth. Squeeze the herbs a bit, pour it into small  containers or jars, cover when it cools down.

Label it

         Write the name of the cream and year of making on the jars, so you wouldn't forget what is in it. This happens to us sometimes, we keep similar containers in the same spot and later we forget what cream is in which container so the sniffing party begins. Same is with oils. In eather case it is best to write something on.

         Keep it in the fridge or other cool place, it can last for a year or more. The amounts can be reduced, according to your needs.

         For more about making herbal creams and why is better to use pigs fat than artificial creams look at this posts.

Drinking camomile tea is also good for healing hemorrhoids internally, it heals and do not couses diarrhoea.

Making natural herbal cream

Description

Natural herbal cream is cream made from fresh herbs and pigs fat. You can make it yourself, it is easy.

Before, I wasn't very happy to use cream made from pigs fat. Then I read in book from Dr.Theiss that pigs fat is good for skin because it is natural and skin absorbs it well, also it transforms well the healing substances from herbs through skin.

Use

They can be used for dry skin or some concrete problem. That dependes of herb from which the cream is made. We have written about creams like: marigold, camomile, comfrey, agrimony. There you can find recepies how to make each cream. You can reduce the amount of herbs and fat in recepies, accordingly to your needs.

Making herbal cream

         First find fresh herbs (try to find herbs that are away from any pollution, like: traffic roads, industry, polluted waters, pesticides, artificial fertilizers). Then chop them into small pieces. Heat the fat in a big pan (use big pan because the fat foams). Be careful while you are doing this, don't touch the fat because it burns like hell.

         Heat it to the temperature of frying stakes. Divide herbs into few parts, then carefuly add one part, stir, add another until you spend it all. Fry it very shortly.

          Remove the pan from heat, cover it and leave somewhere to cool. Next day warm it a bit, just to make fat liquid.

         Strain it through cloth and strainer. Squeeze the herbs. Pour it into small containers, small glass jars, etc.

         Write the name of herb and the year of making it on the container and keep it in refrigerator or somewhere where it is cool. It can last for a year.

Macerated oils

What are macerated oils?

They are oils in which herbs have realised their good ingrediens, with  help of sun or some other heat source.

Use

Can be used for some concrete problem, for dry or damaged skin, or for a massage.

We have already written about some oils, like: camomile, hyperici, yarrow, marjoram.Colour and smell of oil dependes of herb from witch it is made.

    Hyperici oil has wonderful red colour and smell's like St. John's Wort and olive oil. We often use it for relaxing massage, or for back pain.

        

Camomile oil has yellow-green colour and smell's like camomile.

Making macerated oil

To make oil you need fresh flowers (some use dry) and good oil, cold pressed and not refined (cold pressed oil is remedy by itself), like: olive, almond, sunflower, etc.

Put the flowers in a glass jar, don't press them. Then pour oil over so that it covers the flowers. Close the jar with lid and then find place where it is sunny most of the day. If it is not warm outside, keep it inside near some heat source.

Shake the jar from time to time. Leave it for 14 days or more and then strain.

Strain it with the help of strainer or cloth or both. Squeeze the herbs so that you get most of the oil out.

Storing the oil

Pour oil in dark glass bottles and keep it away from light and heat. If you don't have dark bottles, use plain. It is always good to recycle, so when you buy something leave the bottle, jar, etc. and use it again.

Remember to write name of oil and year of making on the bottle.

  

Corn

Corn is very tasty and healthy food. It is also used for healing. In that case it should be organic, also old varietys of corn are better (for eating too).

Tea can be made from corn silk or grains.

Corn silk

Corn silk is used as a diuretic (enhances urination), for stones in urinary organs, water around heart, edema, kidney inflammation, bladder inflammation, gout, rheumatism, colic and lossing weight.

Silk blooms from July to August, it is picked before pollination.

When you are drying the silk, it needs to be completely dry also shouldn't be stored for a long time. Otherwise it will lose it's diuretic properties and will couse diarrhoea.

Making the tea

Pour 1 cup of boiled water over 1 teaspoon of dry silk. Cover and strain after 2 minutes.

Drink one tablespoon of tea every 2 to 3 hours.

Grains

Grains are diuretic, they purify whole organism, are used for diseases coused by poor working of urinary tract and inflammation of bladder.

If you add honey to the tea it will be good for catarrh, cold, hoarseness.

Natural skin products

Skin during winter

Winter is not very good for our skin. Low temparatures, cold winds, staying in heated spaces, using warmer water, it all dries the skin.

Useing soaps and shower gels also doesn' t help. When it is cold I like to use hot water for showering, washing hands, etc. That feels good but it is not good for my skin.

Moisturizing creams

I'm not against moisturizing creams, body milks, etc. but I have never been their fan. They have nice packages and smells but I feel that my skin can't breath. I only use hand cream and sometimes moisturizing face cream.

Also they are made from all kinds of chemicals, which are not good for us or the nature. We should all think more about that.

Natural moisturizers

Excellent products for dry, damaged or normal skin that only needs nourishment are not refined, cold pressed oiles, like: extra virgin olive oil, almond oil, rose hip seed oil from Andes, jojoba oil,etc. and natural creams like marigold cream (made of fresh marigold and pigs fat).

Pigs fat, alone, is also good for dry skin and so are other creams made from it and herbs, like: camomile cream, agrimony cream, comfrey cream.

                                                       Marigold cream

I mostly use it for my hands. Sometimes for damaged lips or dry face skin. It can be used for the whole body. Not only for dry skin but also for lot of skin problems and diseases. To see more about it and to learn how to make your own cream read my post Excellent herbal remedy for skin.

If your hands are really damaged apply the cream few times a day. Small amount of cream is necessary, only to make your skin moist. Also you can combine this cream with hand cream.

Extra virgin olive oil

Extra virgin olive oil is very nourishing and good for skin. I like it because  it is available and you can also eat it.

When you apply the oil don't overdo it, so you don't feel oily. Small amount is enough, unless you have really dry skin, bigger skin problems or diseases or if you feel confortable to put a lot of oil.

I also think that we shouldn't oil our skin every day, few times a week is enough. Of course it dependes on your needs or likings.

Natural oil allowes skin to breathe better than artificial products but skin still can't breathe normaly as when it is completely free from anything.

Macerated oils

Macerated oils are oils made from some oil like olive oil and various herbs.They are all good for dry skin but they also have other curative properties. They are Camomile oil, Hyperici oil (St. John's Wort oil), Yarrow oil, Marjoram oil, etc.

St.John's Wort tea

         St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) tea is used for calming nerves and healing damaged nerves (in limbs, etc.). It is a very strong tea and can be used for different nervous diseases and conditions.

        

         St. John's Wort tea is especially recommended for depression as a natural antidepressive (for light to moderately severe depressions). In Germany it is often prescribed by doctors instead of synthetic antidepresives.

         It is also recommended for speach disorder, sleepwalk, restless sleep, bed wetting, irregular menstruation and hysteria.

         Making St. John's Wort tea

         Tea is made by puting 1 teaspoon of dry herb (stems, leaves and flowers) in a cup of boiled water, stir and cover. After 2 minutes strain it ( half a minute if you are useing fresh herb).

         Caution

         It is not recommended to be exposed to the sun for a long time (sunbathe, sun-lamp), because spots or redness can apear as a side effect of an ingredient of St. John's Wort that reacts to long sun exposure.

         Do not mix heavy medication with it. Do not stop taking your medication at once if it is necessary for you to use them.

         This doesn't mean that it is dangerous, but coution is always necessary with all remedies, in this case because of St. John's Wort effect on nervous system.

         Hyperici oil is a very useful and good remedy made from St. John's Wort, applied externally.