Potions Class - Sweet Medicines: Reproductive Health Syrup

We made several thins in Potions class today. I'm going to list them in separate posts so that I can find them again.

The one I found that I loved the most was a women's reproductive health tonic syrup. Recipe first, explanation after.

Red rasperry leaf
Nettle Leaf
Oatstraw
Lemon balm
Rose petals
Yellow dock

Totalling just about 3/4ounce by weight. Which means it's about 1.5 cups. All but the yellow dock came in a women's nourishing tea. I added yellow dock to help with anemia

in Molasses (or honey, maple syrup, agave, etc, but for anemia, molasses is the obvious choice).

Make a strong tea (in other words boil the ingredients in about 1.5 quarts of water until it's about 3 cups of liquid)

Strain and press the herbs and let drip until you've gotten as much liquid as you're willing to work out.

In class we added honey that was already warmed and viscous, but I'm adding molasses out of a jar, so I didn't heat it.

Add about 1/2 as much molasses as liquid. Sweeten to taste. I am adding a bit of honey for the anti microbal and antiviral properties (and to help it keep longer)


Why make a syrup?
Well in this case, I can make a big batch that's reduced, but ready so that I can drink it whenever I want - hot or cold, just add water or put in a tincture bottle with a dropper and carry with me. It keeps for at least a month, but probably more.

This one is high in iron and I'm going to treat my anemia with it because it's less than a quarter of the cost of what I've been using and should be just as effective because I like the taste so I'll take it more often..

Potions class: Elderberry syrup

Elderberry syrup is for head colds and mucus in your head and stimulating immune system response. Elderberries smell strong and some people don't like them. I like them, but this is a way to get kids to take this without holding them down.

3 c wanter
1/2c elderberries dried or 1c fresh
handful of elderflowers (dried)
handful of rose hips (dried)
about 2 sticks of cinnamon
raw honey

Boil down herbs down to 1.5 cups (ish)
Add half of the tea volume in honey (or molasses, maple syrup, fruit concentrate, simple syrup or agave)

Dose: Take as often as possible as needed. 1 Tbls 4-6 times a day. The best way to take this is in small doses several times a day so that the medicine part gets into the body a little at a time.

Why?
Elderberries are great for head colds. The perfect cure, if you will.
Elderflowers are cooling which is great for the flu, it brings the heat down and for immune support
Rose hips are great for vitamin C. The vitamin C is very available for absorption in the body
Cinnamon is great for digestion, to move energy and to release heat in the body.

Potsions class: Syrups

In general syrups are about making medicine sweeter and more condensed for one of a few reasons: 1. you can take it more easily
2. so that you can take less of it
3. So that you can store it and take it with water later.

In general boil the herbs or fruit etc for about 20-30 minutes.
Strain.
Add sweetner.

Anything you can make tea out of can be made into a syrup from herbs to fruit and vegetables. Just make sure it's edible

They need to sit for: none, ready immediately
Lasts: about a month.

Honey does not go bad, but herbs can and adding water to herbs is what can introduce the place to culture bacteria or mold. So if it smells ok and looks ok, it's probably ok.

The repro health/iron batch that I just made is the third. I made enough so that I cna take some every day either by dropperfull if I'm on the go, but mostly so that I can use it as a tea some times during the day as an iron supplement.

The general idea is to take a tea and boil it until it's half of what the original water then take that and add about 1/2 again as much honey while it's warm so that you have a syrup. The more honey/sweetner you add, the thicker it will be. The general rule is to just taste it to see if it works for you. And remember you can always add more, but you can't add less.

Potions class: Medicinal honeys

Tonight I made lavender honey. I came home with an immune system booster with astralagus, rose hips, ginger and raw honey. You could take that every day to support your immune system health long term. Kiddo loves lavender so I thought I'd just start some and see if he uses them. I ended up making three jars, 1 with lavender and chamomile and the other 2 straight lavender.

The basic idea of a medicinal honey is to make up a powdered herb mix and fill the jar about 1/ or less full.

Warm the honey, but do not let it boil. It only needs to get hot enough to work with or not be crystalized.

Pour the honey into the jar over the herbs.

Stir (a chop stick works really well for this).

Seal the jars. (If the jars are clean/sterile and are the 2 part lid mason jars, they will self-seal as they cool.

They need to sit 2-4 weeks for maximum potency before eating. Turn them over twice a day to keep the mix moving.
They last a long time. Honey never goes bad, so these will last at least a year (which is the shelf life of most powdered herbs. But these should get eaten up! Yum!