Lime / linden

These are lime flowers. They smell fantastic.

Use

Lime is used for:

-         curing cold, flu and respiratory system,

-         lowering high temperature by enhancing sweating,

-         sore throat,

-         calming cough,

-         purifying blood,

-         enhanceing urine and stool,

-         soothing nerves,

-         insomnia, etc.

 Tea

To make the tea, put one teaspoon of crushed dry lime flowers ( with or without small leaves) in one cup ( 2dl ) of boiled water and cover.

Strain it after 10-15 min. You can add honey.

Large amounts of lime tea can induce heart problems, so be careful.

Picking and drying

Lime blossoms from June to July (depends of the type of lime).

Best time to pick it is in the beginning of blossoming, before the flowers  change their colour.

Curative parts of lime are it's flowers with little leaves attached to them ( little leaves aren't used if they have rust ). Big leaves  also have some curative properties but aren't used so often.

 

After picking, place the flowers on the clean cloth or paper, in thin layer.

You can dry it outside ( in the shade ), or inside ( away from sun or some heat source ).

Put the dry lime in a paper bag or a glass container and store it in a dry place. It is better to crush dry lime just before use.

Lime tea

Lime is an excellent remedy for respiratory system during cold, for chronic cough, it relaxes nerves, good for sleep, helps with anemia, purifies blood and kidneys.

I drink lime tea when I have sore throat. To make tea put one teaspoon of lime flowers in one cup of boiled water, keep it covered for 10 minutes, strain and sweeten with honey.

Lime tea is very tasteful and nice smelling, so it is nice to drink it even if you are not ill.

Sore and inflamed throat

Sage tea is a very useful herbal remedy for sore throat and inflamed throat, I have tryed few times with good results. I have used it as a tea to drink and to rinse my throat.

         Rinsing can help even with inflamed throat, I tested it once I had such inflammation that my throat was so narrow, hurt a lot, and I had a case of a cold, the one when it hurts all over.

         To make tea put 1 teaspoon of dry sage in a cup of boiling water, cover it, after 2 minutes strain it. For rinsing throat alwayes rinse and spit, and repeat.

         Except sage tea I have used another remedy, for witch I than didn't belive that it will work so good, as it did. My mother convinced me to try. She boiled 3 potatoes with skin, big as an egg, until they were cooked. Then put them on a cloth, fold it over the potatoes, and squeeze them. She put this cloth around my neck, potatoes should be hot, but not to hot to burn.

         She put a shawl over it, cap on my head, and I layed well covered with blanket. It's important to lay on the back, well warmed, cover arms, and stay for 1-2 hours or if a person falls a sleep until person wakes up.

         This really worked excellently for me, the next day my throat was better and my cold was gone.

Herbal medicine - sage

        Sage (Salvia officinalis) is a herb used as a remedy since ancient times, it growes 30-70 cm high, has purple flowers and greyish-green leaves. Name salvia in latin means that it saves, cures.

        Often sage is used in cooking meals adding flavour to meat, pasta, etc.

        As a remedy it is used to purify blood, and so gives strength to the whole body. Some say if you drink sage tea every day that than is very hard to get sick. Drinking sage tea several times a day can prevent stroke, is good for cramps ( menstrual), it clears respiratory organs and stomach from mucus, is good for digestion, appetite, diarrhoea.

        Has a good affect on liver and problems relating to it. It is used for diseases of spinal cerebral, gland problems and trembling limbs.

        Fresh leaves can be put on insect bites to relese pain or iching.

        I found it very good for tooth ache and other dental problems. For this take some tea in your mouth and hold it in for a while then spit and repeat at least once more. After few hours you can repeat this process if necessary. In some cases this helps almost instantly.

It is also good for sore throat drinking it or rinsing  the throat and then spiting.

Making sage tea

To make tea in one cup (2dl) of boiled water put one teaspoon of dry sage, stir and leave it covered for 2 minutes, or half a minute if you are using fresh leaves, than strain it.

For some diseases one needs to drink tea several times a day for some period of time to see a result, sometimes sip by sip. Drinking tea sip by sip means that you make tea,  then drink a sip and after some time ( 15-30 minutes, or so) take another, and repeat this until you run out of tea. This can be done with one cup of tea or more (2-4 cups) depending on the disease for witch you are drinking it.

It is best to drink fresh tea, not to hot and not to „old“.

Herbs are an excelent way to give strength to your body and mind they cure some diseases and with others they reduce the symptoms. Take this gift of nature because of it chemical content, or a godsent, or looking at everything as one; what ever of this reasons are valid to you.