I was knocked down by yet another cold this season. This is hard for me to wrap my brain around (especially in the cold-induced foggy state.) I have been healthy and cold free for about 2 years and this year is completely different.
I have learned a lot over the past few years about herbs and foods and characteristics that are helpful, but I have also found that my best intentions haven’t prepared me to fight these colds.
I want to grow elderberry bushes so I can make immune boosting syrups and tinctures and even wine. I want to grow calendula and chamomile, horehound and stinging nettles. I want to grow sumac and dandelions and ginger. I know I can grow these things. I have a few growing now. It just takes time and I have to realize that I can’t do it all overnight!
Even though I can and will grow these things, it isn’t practical to think I can grow and make my own “everything” all at once. I need to step back and realize that I can (and should) buy some of these wonderful dried herbs and fruits and just start making the tinctures and syrups and throat lozenges so when I am hit with a cold I am prepared. When my bushes and trees and herbs mature I will then know what to do with them and be thrilled I can use my own.
There are a few things I did during this last cold that helped me to fight it off faster. I drank hibiscus tea and I also drank garlic tea. Garlic is chuck-full of great antimicrobial and antiseptic properties. I cook with garlic a lot, but drinking the garlic tea is another way to get it into your system and help fight off the effects of the cold or flu. You can read about garlic tea right here at Not Dabbling in Normal.
Along with losing my appetite I also lost my sense of taste and smell. To help get me through this cold I made a healing chicken soup that I know helped nourish me and get me through this much quicker. I made a bone based chicken broth and threw in ginger, onion, hot peppers, dark leafy greens (kale and chard and spinach), turmeric, and garlic along with basil, oregano, thyme and parsley. I wasn’t really thinking about taking photos while I was sick, so the photo you see below is the second batch of soup I made when I started to feel better.
This past week I got together with a culinary group I belong to. The theme this month was “soup.” One of the ladies brought an “Immunity-Boosting Winter Soup” and it was the first soup I ate that night. It was so much like the one I make, but hers included freshly harvest dandelion greens. We talked about her soup along with the ingredients and the properties that each ingredient has. I was thrilled to know I was on the right track with my soup.
What went into my healing soup?
- Ginger – works on congestion & great for nausea
- Spinach/Kale/Chard – full of vitamin C, and A, folate and potassium
- Hot peppers – help to relieve pain and stimulate endorphins
- Turmeric – antibiotic properties
- Garlic – an expectorant, natural antibiotic
- Red Bell Pepper – high in Vitamin C & A
The immunity-boosting soup that my friend made also had a pinch of cinnamon (infection fighter), calendula flowers (immune stimulator), dried thyme (antibiotic & expectorant), astragalus root (help to strengthen the immune system) and dandelion greens (high in vitamin C & A and many trace minerals and is especially high in potassium)
I am back on my feet and the fog has cleared. I attribute that to the things I ate and drank. Now I better start making a list of things I would like to order so I can get some syrups and tinctures made up to help keep my immune system in tip-top shape.
Do you have any herbal or home remedies that work for you?
Sincerely, Emily
You can also read what I am up to over at Sincerely, Emily
With our last batch of colds I made an elderberry syrup (from dried elderberries, I also don’t have any bushes)– I think it was helpful, and it had the advantage of tasting good, which certainly helped me get it into the children.
Thanks! I am glad to hear how well it worked for you. I know this is the route to go. It is time for me to order dried elterberries and get that syrup made!
I’m in the same boat you are- my usually well functioning immune system has been knocked off the rails this year and I have had cold after cold since Oct. This week I was flattened by something that hung out in my sinuses until I thought I might have to drill holes in my head for relief. None of my usual remedies helped and neither did the pharmaceuticals do much. I drank herbal teas, spicy homemade soups and used a netti pot to no avail and ended up popping ibuprofen and drinking OTC hot lemon to dull the pain at least. It just had to run it’s course I guess. I would like to try elderberry syrup tho- we make cocktails with it for our Not Far From the Tree (notfarfromthetree.org) fundraising parties but I don’t have a personal supply of the syrup at home.
I am glad you are feeling better. Odd year I guess. With elderberry syrups and tinctures you take some everyday to help build up your immune system and keep it in good shape. Upon onset of cold or flu symptoms you would then increase the intake from 1x a day to 4x a day. I will be ordering both dried elderberries so I can get some of this wonderful stuff made and I will looking to get some bushes planted (hopefully yet this winter).
[…] did a post here a few weeks about my best intentions and my plans for making up some tinctures and throat lozenges. Well, this is the year to do […]