Winter health initiatives part 2: Stocks

Image HT: Stocks by Sally Fallon

To build upon my last posting about my winter inititives, I'm sharing the recipes for my stocks, soups and casseroles. Though in this post I'll start with stocks only, there is alot to say about them!

I use to make a 14litre pot of lamb stock and chicken stock but I tend to make chicken only these days..I've sort of gotten into the habit of this for no particular reason. I'll share both recipes though, I have modified them from the Nourishing Traditions book.

Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions quotes this about broths:

"Good broth will resurrect the dead," says a South American proverb. Said Escoffier: "Indeed, stock is everything in cooking. Without it, nothing can be done."

A cure-all in traditional households and the magic ingredient in classic gourmet cuisine, stock or broth made from bones of chicken, fish and beef builds strong bones, assuages sore throats, nurtures the sick, puts vigor in the step and sparkle in love life--so say grandmothers, midwives and healers. For chefs, stock is the magic elixir for making soul-warming soups and matchless sauces.

In folk wisdom, rich chicken broth-the famous Jewish penicillin-is a valued remedy for the flu. The 12th-century physician Moses Maimonides prescribed chicken broth as a treatment for colds and asthma. Modern research has confirmed that broth helps prevent and mitigate infectious diseases. The wise food provider, who uses gelatin-rich broth on a daily or frequent basis, provides continuous protection from many health problems. "

Chicken Stock.

I start with my 6 chicken frames, organic and free range. I tend to believe that it is important to track down a supplier of at least free range frames but ones that have not been fed hormones and antibiotics, that would be a must for me, I don't want hormones and antibiotics that are most likely stored in the marrow, leaching out into my glorious, life-giving stock!

I put the 6 frames into my 14litre pot and I fill it will filtered water and pour about a cup of apple cider vinegar into the water and let stand for an hour. The vinegar helps the calcium to release from the bones more easily.

I then throw in the following ingredients, two or three carrots, I don't peel them or cut the ends, just all chopped up roughly. Two or three celery sticks including the leafy end, nothing wasted, all chopped. Two onions, peeled the roughly chopped. Then I add a bunch of fresh thyme. If you can get a bit of thyme growing in your garden that would be a continual cheap option..while you are at it, grow some parsley, because they are your two main stock herbs. Don't throw your parsley in yet though. Now I would also sometimes throw in some dried nettle and dried comfrey herbs - I particularly recommend the dried nettle if you can get some and be liberal with it, a handful. The herbalist Culpepper recommends you add calendula flowers to your broth:

"The flowers, either green or dried, are much used in possets, broths, and drink, as a comforter of the heart and spirits, and to expel any malignant or pestilential quality which might annoy them."

And then this quote:

"It has been cultivated in the kitchen garden for the flowers, which are dried for broth, and said to comfort the heart and spirits.

Fuller writes: The yellow leaves of the flowers are dried and kept throughout Dutchland against winter to put into broths, physicall potions and for divers other purposes, in such quantity that in some Grocers or Spicesellers are to be found barrels filled with them and retailed by the penny or less, insomuch that no broths are well made without dried Marigold.'

Once the hour is up I turn on the stove and get the stock cooking, within half and hour you will get alot of thickish, grey scum rising to the top, skim it off as it spoils the flavour of your stock.

Then you boil for a minimum of seven hours or as long as you like, I tend to boil anything from 10 to 24 hours. I will often have the stock boiling through the night, put it on in the evening, ready to take off in the morning. In that last 15 mins you throw in your sprig of parsley this will add additional mineral ions to the stock.

I then strain the fluid from the ingredients. Take from your ingredients all the lovely chicken meat and freeze it for a future recipe you would like to make with it. Or if you have an industrial blender (Vita Mix) like we have, you can stick the WHOLE LOT of the remaining stock ingredients into the blender in a few lots and blend it until it looks like a pate. I bag it in little cliplock bags and give it to my mother to feed her dog, if you have animals and you want to keep them well, can you think of anything better? Nothing is wasted then.

I stick my stock into the fridge or even the freezer, still in a pot or pots of some sort so as to skim the fat off the top as it rises and sets. When I say the freezer, not to let it freeze at this stage but to speed up the fat rising and setting to the top so I can skim it off. The fat can be popped into jars and kept in the fridge, making a great fat for cooking.

Once the stock is skimmed of fat and cool, I bag it into varying sized cliplock bags, cup sized bags when I need only a cup of stock for a recipe. Then bigger bags containing 4 cups of stock, I mark the bag 'casserole' that will be the base for one casserole. Then the biggest cliplock bags I fill with stock (I'm not sure of how many cups exactly but I'd say at least 10?) This bag is used for a big pot of soup (I use my 14litre pot for cooking it, though the soup might not come to the very top) and usually I'll get 2 to 3 soup meals for a family of 8 from that. I feel this is a fairly ordered system which is important if you are going to keep this up on a regular basis, efficiency and order, it keeps me sane and making it.

Here is my old recipe for making a lamb stock (or beef):

For a 14 litre pot I think I was popping in 2 to 3kgs or so of lamb necks (my favourite choice of bone) I'd get the butcher to par off as much meat as he could, knowing there would still be some on the necks, which is perfect.

I used exactly the same ingredients as the chicken stock above and the method of making it. The only difference being, I'd put all the neck bones on a tray and brown them in the oven first before adding it to the stock to draw with the apple cider vinegar. You would probably cook your lamb/beef stock for a bit longer than the chicken, considering the difference in size of bones. When I finish a chicken stock the bones will crumble completely when touched - that's what you want. The lamb or beef bones, if cooked long enough will look sort of hole-ridden. Alot of goodness has been leached out of those bones!

You know you have made a particularly FABULOUS pot of stock when it is been sitting in the fridge for some time or you look at it before it freezes completely and it is gelatinous, that's what you want!!! That gelatin is the life-force of your stock!

Sally Fallon once again writes about the benefits of gelatine:

"Dr. Francis Pottenger, author of the famous cat studies as well as articles on the benefits of gelatin in broth, taught that the stockpot was the most important piece of equipment to have in one's kitchen.

It was Dr. Pottenger who pointed out that stock is also of great value because it supplies hydrophilic colloids to the diet. Raw food compounds are colloidal and tend to be hydrophilic, meaning that they attract liquids. Thus when we eat a salad or some other raw food, the hydrophilic colloids attract digestive juices for rapid and effective digestion. Colloids that have been heated are generally hydrophobic-they repel liquids, making cooked foods harder to digest. However, the proteinaceous gelatin in meat broths has the unusual property of attracting liquids-it is hydrophilic-even after it has been heated. The same property by which gelatin attracts water to form desserts, like Jello, allows it to attract digestive juices to the surface of cooked food particles.

The public is generally unaware of the large amount of research on the beneficial effects of gelatin taken with food. Gelatin acts first and foremost as an aid to digestion and has been used successfully in the treatment of many intestinal disorders, including hyperacidity, colitis and Crohn's disease. Although gelatin is by no means a complete protein, containing only the amino acids arginine and glycine in large amounts, it acts as a protein sparer, allowing the body to more fully utilize the complete proteins that are taken in. Thus, gelatin-rich broths are a must for those who cannot afford large amounts of meat in their diets. Gelatin also seems to be of use in the treatment of many chronic disorders, including anemia and other diseases of the blood, diabetes, muscular dystrophy and even cancer."

My health initiatives for winter

My pumpkin soup

Down under in Australia we are in the middle of autumn. Though it is not cold at all at present, we have had humid weather that is unseasonal and with it has come heavy, continuous rain.

This has been a real blessing because we are pulling slowly out of a long, protracted drought...Funny though, it's always been green living near the sea but it hadn't been raining over our dams, so that last year the dams had dropped to 16% which was dire.

So even though it is not cold I am determined to be more prepared for the winter season and the seasonal illnesses that can come with it. We had a sick year last year. We do not want to repeat that. So this is my focus:

1. Prayer. I believe it is vitally important to pray for good health. I will always resign myself to God's will but I will pray that He will guide me in making good choices for my family, to find me the best and most economical way to achieve this. I have seen the fruits of such prayers for which I am very grateful for.

2. Stocks. It is going to the BEDROCK of our diet. Here is why. I buy organic, free-range chicken frames and make up 14litre posts of stock using 6 frames per pot. This is so incredibly nourishing and it dramatically alters that flavour of everything you cook with it. I am planning that most of our lunches will be soups. Thick, hearty soups using chicken stock for any water content.

So far I have made pumpkin soup and pea and ham soup...but I want to build the repertoire but it must be soups that are not complicated and hard to make OR overly expensive, with too many ingredients.

With the lunchtime soup I usually have in our freezer a good supply of sour dough bread I buy as yesterday's bread at a quality sour dough bakery - this has been a blessing and kept the bread affordable and yesterday's sour dough bread is not like normal bread that is a day old, there is no real dramatic difference in it's texture etc.

Then our nighttime meals will consist mainly of casseroles. I cook all my fortnight's casseroles and bag them in large clip-lock bags. Then all I need to do is throw them in into the slow cooker each day. What HAS worked for me is when I buy my fortnight's supply of organic meat I braise the casserole meat, onions and liberal amounts of garlic together and clip-lock each meal lot together with the stock's I need for each casserole...sort of my casserole base, you would call it. Then each day I defrost a bag and when I cook that night I need only throw in my vegetables and maybe a can of diced tomatoes or sour cream depending on the desired flavour. This IS working! I usually use 4 cups of stock to a casserole.

Our breakfast we like to make sure is a protein breakfast in order to help with daily detoxification so we buy organic, free-range eggs. Once again we have been blessed. A community truck arrives in our area every week and sells food off the farm at a fraction of the normal price. I can buy 2 and half dozen eggs for less than what I'd pay for one dozen and these are stamped organic, free-range! This allows us to use the eggs a little more liberally and save quite a bit of money from our food budget.
We use blessed salt in our soups, casseroles and our salt grinder, for healing of both body and soul.

going......

3. Lime Water. My dear friend Elizabeth put me onto this one and for all the ladies entering summer in the northern hemisphere I highly recommend this. I buy limes (I hope to plant a tree this year) and I usually squeeze half a lime to a good sized jug of water, I also add some probiotic powder, a great way to get this important supplement into the children. This drink has an AMAZING effect on me.

Confession time: .....I can get addicted to soft drinks.....do I have to say that louder? it's embarrasing....I can find myself on the soft drink vicious circle, the more I drink the more my body craves it. It's embarrasing because I believe I am health conscience and this is a major obstacle in that goal, I know it.

It has been a BLESSING to discover that this simple, refreshing, unsweetened drink actually kills the addictive desire for a softdrink. So when I experience this inordinate desire (I did yesterday driving in the car) I had waited until I got home and made up a punchbowl full. On this occasion I threw in some crushed ice as well. I was satisfied and the children flocked around like birds, enjoying this cold, healthy, delightful drink. When I make a big punchbowl I use two limes, so it is quite economical. I even served this in a punchbowl on Easter Sunday to family and relatives, they all loved it! There were no softdrinks served that day and we did not miss it. I will continue to use this drink through winter.

gone.

4. Herbs. They are truly God's natural pharmacy gift to mankind. While there is always a time and a place for antibiotics in order to save lives, the less often they are used the better. Herbs are a daily health regime for us and antibiotics are our last resort for something serious.

In the last 6 months I have made a conscience decision to use the herbs on a daily basis without fail. No more, hot and cold with this important aspect of my family's healthcare and my own. I hope to post again soon to show you what my dear husband has done for me in the kitchen to make this a much easier task for me. This is important. That you are set up in a way that using the herbs is not a big imposition to your daily life. I have also found a online dried herbal site in Australia where I can buy them wholesale if I spend a minimum of $50, this has been a significant find for me.
I have in the last 4 months been making tinctures for the first time. The main tincture I have focused on is bottles of elderberry tincture, they are 'brewing' at present in preparation for the winter season. I have also started making herbal oils and we have been using this with good success already - comfrey oil and calendula oil. I've prepared a gotu kola oil and a horsetail oil. I'll post about them in depth in the future, why I've chosen those herbs and what I will use them for.

I brew up big pots of herbs, usually a mix of about five herbs. In regard to the children, I put dried herbs into all the soups and casseroles, usually stinging nettle and comfrey. I put the children in stinging nettle baths (they call 'the pond' bath, they feel like frogs!)

We use Swedish Bitters for everything, it is our number one cure-all in a cupboard! We also been greatly blessed to have a very experienced herbalist that we visit for all our general health complaints, I thank God the day she came into our lives.

5. Blueberries and Sheep's Yogurt. Who hasn't got a sweet tooth? I think most people have. This is also another 'Achilles' heel' for me. I suffer functional hypoglycemia and when you get on that 'sugar bandwagon' it is often not easy to get off. Until I discovered my blueberries and and sheep's yogurt. Firstly this is a very healthy food in itself:

Blueberries, the health benefits are innumerable, a powerful antioxidant.

Raw honey for a little sweetner, also with many health benefits.

Then the sheep's yogurt is better for you than cows and in my opinion the best tasting, not gamey like goat's, not heavy like cow's, it's just right! A good probiotic food for the body.

This one dish has stopped me many a time in recent months from getting back onto that awful food spiral, and of course for those enjoying spring in the northern hemisphere, it's prefect!

I use frozen blueberries, I do not let them thaw, it gives it that lovely icecream effect.
I pour a little honey but it is a dish that can do without it if need be.
A few tablespoons of the sheep's yogurt.
All stirred together to create a delightful sweet!
Now I know this may not seem like a winter dish, I do believe it will keep me on track when I'm tempted with some heavy, sugary treat.

6. Other miscellaneous health ideas. This will consist of the regular use of castor oil packs otherwise known as the Palma Christi, the Palm of Christ -for myself and other family members when needed. I hope to do a series of them on my liver and also for the abdomen area.

Also the need to be more sensible with clothing choices for the family. We can get caught out thinking we are in a warm, sub-tropical climate, that we can still walk around the house in the morning barefoot. Warmer clothes that we can always peel off if it becomes too warm (which is usually the case) is better than not wearing them at all. I really believe that these are just common sense approaches. We continue to use the terramin clay for our teeth brushing. We drink the clay as well and make good use of our "St Benedict's Well."

So this is my arsenal for this coming winter. Arsenal oh yeah, it's a war. I don't want a year like last year, it is a major stress and disruptor in our lives and I do believe deep down that a great deal of it is preventable.

Cleaning teeth with Terramin Clay

Lately, the discussion of teeth and tooth care has come up at 4Real and I had mentioned that in our family we have finally all switched over to using Terramin Clay for brushing our teeth daily instead of toothpaste.

Terramin Clay, due to it's remineralization and detoxification benefits, aids in strengthening teeth (remineralization) and healing gum disease (removal of toxic wastes, namely, bacteria.) Unfortunately, we were using it spasmodicly due to storage issues in the bathroom, so we kept abandoning it.

Well, finally in the last few weeks we have it sorted. I had some lovely, small sized Tupperware containers that fitted perfectly between our new toothbrush holders, as you can see in the photo above. I have one container for the children and one for my husband and I. You need to make sure that the brushes have been cleaned under running water before dipping them lightly into the clay, it only needs to be a little clay on the brush. When the children have finished brushing, I get them to spit once, but not to rinse their mouths with water, so that the clay residue stays in the mouth and continues working on the teeth, particularly in the nighttime brush, so there is still some clay in the mouth overnight.

Ran Knishnisky wrote in The Clay Cure, "the clay is absorbent, so it will not be abrasive, and it helps harden teeth enamel while it aids in gum tissue repair. Furthermore, if used regularly, it helps to prevent gum recession." The reason gum disease develops is the bacteria build up around the teeth. When brushing with Terrmain Clay it binds the bacteria to the clay particles and is removed.

Terramin Clay and it's ability to heal or prevent gum disease is well known. I have known of two cases personally where this has worked. Firstly my mother - she is someone who will not eat unless she can brush her teeth within 15mins afterwards. So if she goes on a long trip and forgets her toothbrush, she will not eat until she returns home. She has been like that since she was 18, no one can accuse her of not doing the very best with her teeth!

A few years back in one of her 6 monthly dental checkups she was horrified when informed the early beginnings of gum disease was present. This was the same diagnosis at the following 6monthly checkup. Three months before her third checkup, she started on the clay, not to brush her teeth with but drinking it in water, twice a day, a tsp each time. When she went for her next checkup the dentist informed her that her gums were fine again. My mother knew it was the clay that was the only different thing in her life.

The second case is a lady who had mentioned a relative had serious gum disease and had been told that all his teeth had to be removed because of it. She was looking for any possible product that might help in a last minute effort to stop the loss of teeth. I mentioned the clay and it's benefits with teeth. The lady bought the clay off me (as I was at the time, an Australian distributor) and said she would get her relative to try it. I didn't hear from her until a year later when I received an email from her. She said that she was wanting to buy more and that a friend was also interested - the reason? - the clay had completely reversed her relative's gum disease, as advanced as it was, and the teeth were saved.

I have at present a friend who is trying it, she wears a plate in her mouth and where the wires are rubbing against a tooth, she has a badly recessed gumline. She has used it only for a few weeks and already it has closed in by half, she has high hopes it will completely resolve in time.

So you would think with all those personal stories I would have used it faithfully with the family all these years...the trouble is, the practial issues of storage and how to use it in a sanitary manner are all important in a big, busy family and so life can pass by and you realise you are not using it daily.

Our family have had alot of dental work in the last few weeks, it is a big wake up call to us. One child has particularly chalky teeth which need to be seen by the dentist 3 monthly from now on. So we have become faithful to the use of the clay now that we have the practical issues sorted, I will definately update again if we find that our teeth have improved with our new regime.

I just had to add one of the funniest dentists skits I know, Tim Conway (a practising Catholic BTW) is brilliant, so have a good laugh!

Elderberry Syrup and Tincture

HT: Morguefile.com

Time to creative with health...this time, elderberries.

HT: Respect your Elderberries

I never knew what elderberries were until a few months ago. Truly. It would seem that the revered elderberry is far more widely known and used in the States than Australia. What a shame for us down under.

It was thanks to a few threads over at 4Real and one in particular, that brought this berry and it's health-giving properties to light for me. Firstly I searched the Australian net to see what was for sale..there were a couple of bottles of syrup but not much else.

So I decided I'd make it myself. I've made a bottle of syrup and a bottle of tincture, well in advance of our flu season but that is a good thing..the tincture in particular, needs time to develop it's potency, I have it marked out on my wall calendar in fact, end of April before I sift out the elderberry pips/pulp from my tincture.

HT: Bulk Herb Store

I bought my berries dry. I am in the process of equiring an elderberry plant but it will be a few years off before anything can be harvested so I will continue to buy dried berries in the meantime.

This is the recipe I chose to use to cook up the syrup, from Herbology in Australia. It is a recipe that is very natural - no sugar - just berries, water, honey and lemon juice. I soaked the dried berries in the boiling water overnight and then continued on with the recipe the next morning.

Here is a step by step tutorial with pictures!

Here is the syrup, ready to be strained (actually I poured this as is into my bottle first, tasted it and thought, 'this is too crunchy/pippy!" asked over at 4Real about it and was told...strain it!)

So that is what I'm doing here..straining it.

I couldn't bring myself to throw out the pips...and so I pose the question...what can you do with elderberry pips?

I cleaned up a 1.5litre wine bottle for the syrup. It is ready now to be stored in the fridge, ready for use.

I also made a tincture, about 150grams of dried elderberries place into a 750ml bottle of 40 proof vodka. I cleaned up a used apple cider vinegar bottle and sterlized it. I poured in the vodka and berries together.

I need to give it a good shake each day, for at least a month.

The apple cider vinegar bottles make great tincture bottles when empty.

The bottle is not the ideal, dark coloured glass, so I've put a bag over the top of it to keep out the light.

When I go looking for this elixir, I'll be giving it out in 1 tsp doses, 3 times daily.

You can strain the pips out or you can leave them, straining only what you go to drink, leaving the pips in the bottle...I think I'll probably leave them in.

We had a very sick season last year, there was alot of persistant illnesses around so we really hope to go into bat against these viruses with a bit more ammunition this time!

Elderberries with it's great anti-viral properties, makes it a good choice in a world where viruses cannot be stopped by much else.

Blessed salt and herb ginder

We have always bought 'herbal salt' instead of having a traditional salt and pepper shaker. The herbal salts contain finely ground seasoning herbs and sea salt. It is not cheap, usually $4 - 7 dollars depending on the brand bought, we would usually go through a bottle every two weeks.

A few days ago I made up my own mix of herbal salt. I bought the Himalayan crystal salt in bulk. I then took it to Father to have blessed. Blessed salt is a sacramental and can then be used for my salutary purposes including adding it to meals:

"A few grains in drinking water or used in cooking or as food seasoning often bring astonishing spiritual and physical benefits"

"As with the use of Sacraments, much depends on the faith and devotion of the person using salt or any sacramental. This faith must be Jesus-centered, as was the faith of the blind man in John 9; he had faith in Jesus, not in the mud and spittle used by Jesus to heal him."

I remember listening to Father Corapi, when he said he knew a friend who ran a drug rehabilitation center and added blessed salt to the food for all the recovering addicts - she knew well this was a battle against the devil at that point and this was the perfect use for this powerful church sacramental.

I keep this blessed salt and the grinder separate from all the normal pantry items, so that I am the only one (or dh) who uses it at meal times, seasoning each plate, rather than children helping themselves, willy-nilly.


I didn't buy an empty grinder, I bought one that already had seasoning in it, but I wasn't 100% happy with the indgredients since it contained chilli..and chilli tends to be a stomach irritant, whereas cayenne would be my choice of chilli-hot seasoning..

So I emptied the grinder and started to mix my own bowl of seasoning as you can see on the left, I used the following ingredients:

chunks of blessed salt
dried horsetail
dried stinging nettle
dried comfrey
dried hawthorn berries '

Actually, many of these herbs are blessed too, here is my post about the special feast day for it here.

You can make up any mix you like, using your favourite herbs, you can add other things as well, like dried pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, kelp (for iodine), sesame seeds, peppercorns if you like a bit of normal pepper (though it can be a stomach irritant as well)

Here is my herbal salt on our breakfast, eggs on sourdough toast, it was enjoyed by everyone!

This is certainly a great way to get good herbs into the family, in small but daily doses and save money on commercial preparations.

Herb preparation in my kitchen

Here is what my herbs and my preparation with them, looks like in the kitchen. I have my canisters for each dried herb, I store them in the pantry. I also have a lovely, bright ceramic and wood cabinet I use for storing smaller amounts of each herb for quick access each day. Then I have a large brewing tea pot and a smaller one, plus a handy little teastick!

The herb cabinet has ten drawers, in them are the 10 herbs I use the most:

Stinging Nettle
Comfrey
Herb Robert
Horsetail
Gotu Kola
Ladies Mantle
Hawthorn berries
Chaste Tree berries
Small flowered willow herb
King of Bitters

I have more herbs but they are not ones I use daily, mainly for acute situations.

Looking down on each nob, I have taped the name of each herb, because I can't rely on my memory for anything, anymore!

Adding this herbal cabinet to my kitchen has streamlined my access to them, especially when early mornings are very busy. When I am brewing a pot of herbs, it is usually a few in the pot - anything up to five herbs or so. When you use more than one herb at a time, it creates a synergistic effect. (Used especially of drugs or muscles that work together so the total effect is greater than the sum of the two (or more.))

When I first saw this cabinet, I thought "the herbs!" ....then I started to really think hard about it all. Timber's are usually impregnanted with varnishes/stains or anti-pest solutions. Not always, but you can't be sure. We bought a handsome kitchen cabinet and it was made with that same Asian timber and influence. I had to contact the company about what products had been used on them previously, before re-covering it with a new varnish made of natural ingredients, it was then I discovered that they had only used a natural, beeswax solution.

Not wanting to let go the herb idea, I wondered how I could be cautious with this yet still have something that would help me in quickly getting my brews together each day. Then I thought I could stretch glad-wrap over the top of each draw. Maybe that would prove just as difficult..lifting the wrap each time, but it hasn't, which is great.

So it is still far easier to lift the wrap, take a pinch and cover again and open the next drawer to repeat rather than open bigger cannisters, that also take up alot of room on the kitchen top when they are all lined up together. The wrap also helps in protecting the quality of the herbs, in a sealed environment.

This is the size of my bigger cannisters, you can see how just one of them takes up a lot of space compared to the herb cabinet.

Here are my brewing tools. I bought them from the tea center in my city. There is the large, icon concepts 1 litre, double walled tea pot on the right. It is perfect for brewing for myself or for the whole family. When I brew for myself, I will often drink a few cups in the day. If it is for the children, it will give them all a cup.

It is made of glass and stainless steel. I am very fussy what these pots are made of, I don't want any leaching of plastics or metals into the brews. This was a quality buy for life. It is double walled, it helps it stay warm, longer and allows me to handle it a little more freely as it boiling hot to touch the outer glass wall.

Then on the left there is a 1 litre, Euroline stainless steel teapot it is a smaller one I use mainly for my husband or if I want to brew a small amount. The reason I've bought this for dh is I am limiting both myself and him by previously sharing the main brew. I don't want to put in herbs that are more traditional herbs for a woman, an example would be Ladies Mantle.

Also, the Small Flowered Willow herb is the revered herb for the prostrate, though in dh's case, I use it as a preventive or a prophylactic. Dh is doing alot of shift work which includes a sprinkling of overnight shifts. I make sure that he has a cup or more before he leaves at night and that he has a fresh brew when he arrives home in the morning, before going to bed.

I like to add into his brew, herbs that a specific to endurance, all round rejuvenation and while many people talk of the headiness and hangerover headaches of night shift, it has not affected dh in that way. Maybe the herbs have played a part in this.

The last little gaget is a Gamilia teastick made of stainless steel. It's brilliant, you just load up the compartment with herbs/teas (take into consideration the herbs swell, don't need to fill it too much) and shut down the sliding lid and sit it into your cup to infuse.

I have chamomile in the picture above. Often I have an aunty visit who only drinks chamomile tea and since I have the loose, dried flowers only, I would find myself brewing a pot even though she was wanting only a cup of it. Now I have my solution, tea for one! This will be handy at other times as well, for us or guests.

Brewing up those delightful flowers, if only you could smell it, the gentle smell of chamomile!

I hope to blog regularly about my love of herbs, but I thought this was a good starting place since brewing herbal teas is a big part of my life with herbs and trying to improve the health of myself and my family - naturally.

I have many herbal books, I love them all. But if I had to choose just one - what I believe to be the best, the most comprehsive, packed with the most practical advice, it would be Isabell Shipard's book, How to Use Herbs in My Daily Life.


It is a big, thick book and it stands head and shoulders above all the rest I have or seen. You can buy from Isabell's site, she posts around the world, accepting paypal or credit. Remember too, our dollar has collapsed under the US dollar and anything bought from Australia is almost half the price of the US dollar, good value for overseas customers!

This mama is....

definitely multifunctional!!

We spent the last week of our holidays building a new fence but it became a race against time and in the end there was still work to be done when dh went back to work yesterday...but we needed a secure yard for the children so I got out and with the help of ds14 we drilled in the remaining rails and then I preceeded to nail on all the pailings....in the rain.

I lived in fear of those pailings going their own way so checking with the level top and bottom...Finally when I was close to the end I saw two men coming towards me with hammers in hand...neighbours three doors down to help me out! Well, it's now done and I am very happy with our new fence!

Earlier on in the week...

Life's hard when I've got to sit around and watch people work hard in the hot sun!

We have had so much rain in our part of the world lately the digging wasn't too hard.

Here's my Dear Boy (4) who showed himself to be very handy with a hammer.

When he went a bit askew, he self corrected...and continued on.

He was able to knock in a row of nails with relative ease.

Last one....

There! All done! WELL DONE Dear Boy!!!