Major Herbal Onslaught.
Last night I began to feel a twinge of achiness in my throat. Since sore muscles are usually my first indication that an illness is taking hold, and a sore throat is rare, I wasn't sure. This morning the achiness is still there, accompanied by a seriously runny nose, and a seriously cranky attitude.
As I posted about last night, it has been a very emotionally trying week, with a very very sad death occupying much of my thoughts. So it makes sense that I am vulnerable to an illness right now. But I cannot! I will not!
Because the next two weeks are filled with important activities for our family, and I will need a lot of energy.
Chronologically... tomorrow will be the first of Mycelia and her BFF Esme's two birthday parties. It will be at a park and all of our family is coming from out of town, and all of our friends and their kiddos who live here in Nevada County will be there. Graham will be making a fabulous cake :-)
Right afterward Graham is leaving to go work at Burning Man for a week and a half. When we got back from my mom's wedding in Santa Cruz a week ago we realized that we were really broke, so Graham called his friend who works for Burning Man and hooked up a last minute job. He'll be at the box office taking tickets and also personal cheffing for the senior staff (you know, the dozen or so folks who have worked there forever and pay themselves very well for all the hard work they put in throughout the year. The logistics of planning that event blow my mind). It will be the longest by far that I've ever been alone with Mycie. I'm a little nervous.
Then on Wednesday is the funeral. I will be dropping Mycie off at her grandma's a half hour out of town and then traveling on to the funeral, where I will see many people that I love, some of whom I haven't seen in years, and who are in need of a supportive community right now. I refuse to miss this gathering.
Then on Saturday Mycie and Esme have their second double birthday party of the week, this one at Esme's house. At this one the girls will be the only children, and us grown-ups will be cookin' up some yummy food and listening to some great live music. Last year's party was really neat, with, among others, local musicians Ryan Donnelly of
Casual Fog, Thom Moore of
The Moore Brothers, and
Joanna Newsom gracing us with their songs. Again, a gathering I refuse to miss.
Next day I'm off to my hometown of South Lake Tahoe to stay with my mom, her hubby, and sis. This will lighten the load of being alone with Mycie for so long.
Three days later it's back to Grass Valley, then two days later off to the
Northern California Women's Herbal Symposium for the weekend. This will be my first time going and I'm really excited. Mycie is coming with me, of course, and I think that I'll have enough friends there that I'll be able to attend classes and workshops every day.
Finally, two weeks from today, we will return home and be reunited with Graham.
So you see? I can't miss any of this!
Well now, here's what I've been doing this morning in order to empower my immune system and create a parameter around any bacteria or virus that may be present. This is a very general overview. For more in depth information of any of these herbs or foods see the links on the right. Or, ya know, just google it.
I'll break this down into four categories- food, tinctures, tea, honeys.
Food- We always have homemade
bone broth on hand. Yesterday, for his business
Nourish Wise, Graham had
soaked a bunch of grains and then cooked them in bone broth to make a pilaf. He ran out of time to finish the dish, but the grains and broth by themselves are the perfect food for me today. The bone broth helps immunity, and the soaked grains are super easy to digest, meaning that my body needn't expend extra energy digesting any food today. It could better use that energy to heal. (Like congee in Chinese culture- rice that has been cooked for a loooong time so that it's very assimilable and can be used to speed recovery after illness).
I've also been eating a lot of homemade
sauerkraut. Usually I just have a bite before meals, but today I am eating bowls full. The beneficial bacteria present in this raw food also helps with immunity.
Tinctures- A tincture is an herb that has been soaked in alcohol (or vinegar or glycerine, but usually alcohol) for about a month until the liquid medium has extracted the medicinal constituents of the herb. The herb is then strained out and the tincture is taken from a dropper bottle, usually in water. Tinctures are extremely easy to use and require very little preparation, once the medicine is made and bottled. Very nice for a super busy mama.
So I gathered up all helpful tinctures I could find, some homemade, some store bought, some gifted from friends, set them next to the water dispenser, and have been taking different combos of them all day. To more experienced herbalists this may seem like a haphazard approach and, well, it is. But dude, I cannot get sick! The herbs I've been taking include echinacea, ginger, cinnamon, elderberry, and rosemary. And also a fabulous formula made by my herbalist friend
Sasha that contains osha root and manzanita berries.
Tea- I learned from herbalist
Heather Nic an Fhleisdeir on her radio interview series The Village Herbalist at Herb Mentor to always try to sweat out an illness as soon as possible. Diaphoretic, or sweat inducing, herbs are a great way to do this. I've always read about the classic formula of one part yarrow, one part elder flowers, and one part peppermint. Today I will finally get to try it out- it's steeping right now! Honeys- Yummy. Not only is raw honey antibacterial, but it makes a convenient and delicious medium for herbal medicines. I have been taking tiny spoonfuls of thyme, turmeric, and osha root honeys. Mycie was thrilled with the yellow color of my tongue after eating the turmeric. I usually mix 1-3 tablespoons powdered herb to 1 cup honey when making these.
So far I am feeling better that when I awoke this morning. We'll see how it goes from here, but I am optimistic.
(Oh and for those of you who are just beside yourself waiting for my thrift scores post ;-) it'll have to wait until tomorrow now...)
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