As I walk around my garden this weekend, I feel a bit heartbroken. The decision to sell up soon has been a really tricky one, and once the initial excitement has faded, I find myself sorrowful. I'm so used to walking around my vegetable patch knowing which bed is due for green manure or which one is due for the garlic crop, when to turn the compost and keeping an eye on the blackcurrants, telling my mullein to hurry up and grow or nibbling on mugwort. How will I give this up? The lovely couple we showed through loved the garden, but I doubt very much they understand what I've done, or will find use for half the things I've planted.
Mullein
I know I can start another physik garden elsehwere - within a season, if planted fast enough, I know I can have lemon balm and thyme, mugwort and pepperment, and so on. Sourcing other plants might be tough, and some, like ashwagandwa, I'm not sure will grow in Tassie. I'm busy drying even more than I usually do, just in case we move even quicker than I thought. I think we'll be living in a caravan for a while before we move down there and I wonder if the people that buy it will allow me to come onto the property and harvest the plants I know they'll have no understanding of or use for.
Honestly, I didn't expect to feel this heartbroken. I know it's the right decision but I'm worried I'm going to miss this garden for the rest of my life!
However, let's turn to more positive things - medicine making! Inspired by the oxymel challenge, I decide to get a lung oxymel on the go. After reading this post by @didivelikova I thought I'd try a lung support oxymel of my own, using the mullein that I had dried last week. Mullein is well renowned to be good for the lungs (I'm sure @edprivat and @foxfireorchards and @rubido have smoked it), opening them, easing spasms and tightness, and soothing irritation and dryness.
That sent me on a googling mission wondering what else was good for lungs. The problem is that when you start these searches you become tempted to purchase herbs from far away rather than relying on what you have. Then I stumbled across plantain - that I have a lot of, as it grows wild. I've had a lot of success with plantain before when we were on a road trip and I was struggling to breath due to the cold air, and my husband's nose operation meant that his nose was really, really painful. Foraged plantain tea worked a treat for both of us, but I'd forgotton this personal anecdote altogether. Of course it'd work for lung support!
Other options were wild black cherry, horehound, and marshmellow, but none are available to me. I thought the taste of just mullein and plantain would be super grassy, so I added some thyme to the mix! It's also good for soothing coughs and is a natural expectorant that helps get rid of mucus. I used to do steam inhalations with thyme when I had asthma as a kid so I thought I'd give it a go in the oxmel.
Elecampane
What I do wish I had was something with vitamin c, like rosehips or blackcurrants. The blackcurrants are a few weeks off ripening so I might throw them in then - it shouldn't matter, and I'll just leave it to extract for longer. Vitamin C is antiinflammatory so I think it'd be perfect. I also really, really want to put elecampane in there, but I don't think my plants are ready to uproot yet. It's also an expectorant, and is good for bronchotis and asthma. It's also got a lovely sweetness to it. I guess I can add it later or do a separate oxymel and mix them together. That's the groovy thing about oxymels - they're pretty forgiving.
I also added a splash of brandy to this one to preserve it a little better, since I use fresh plantain and fresh thyme as well as dried. That way it should keep longer - perhaps for those cold winters down in Tassie.
Oh, and I forgot to mention - like @didivelikova I used fresh apple cider vinegar that I made myself!! It's been sitting on the bookshelf since last winter and I forgot about it, which was a good thing because it had a great thick mother of a scoby on it - perfect!!! Do you make your own apple cider vinegar? If so, you should - it's so easy, and dirt cheap!
I dipped my finger in the rosepetal, schisandra and damiana and rosehip oxymel today and oh goodness, it tastes totally divine! Now, I'm off to make a sleepytime oxymel as well - probably lavender, bee balm, chamomile and mugwort. I have fresh chamomile for the first time this year - I also struggled to grow it but I think it's because the rabbits were eating it. This time I put it in the fenced garden and it's growing beautifully and smelling soooo good!
Barefoot before the chamomile
Have you ever experimented with oxymels? Youv'e got a couple of days to do so for the chance to win HIVE - go check out the challenge in the Herbal Hive community (link below) and join the fun!
With Love,
The Herbal Hive Community
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