Witch's Brew

Nourishing Herbal Infusions

“Standard Brew” or “Witch’s Brew”

When I first started to deepen my herbal studies, one of my mentors advised me to study one herb for at least a month. Well, she didn’t necessarily say “study” but instead be friends with one green ally and learn about your relationship with one another. And this advice is something I share with everyone.

I also encourage people to first learn about NOURISHING herbs. These are herbs that are safe and side effects are rare. Nourishing herbs can be taken in large quantities, on a daily schedule and have no interference with pharmaceutical medicine. I’ve learned that nourishing herbs can provide one with their daily vitamins and also have high amounts of minerals, antioxidants and even protein.

Nourishing herbs are recommended for herbal infusions, which Susan Weed refers to as “Standard Brew” and Sam refers to as my “Witch’s Brew.” Call it what you will, but for the sake of this article I will call it a Standard Infusion.

What is a Standard Infusion?

Standard Infusions are strong teas made from nutrient- dense herbs (de la Forét).

So, to start, it’s a beverage. In fact, it is a tea that contains a lot of plant material and steeps for several hours.

Instead of making a basic tea ratio: 1 tsp. herb/ 1 cup water OR 1 teabag/ 1 cup water, Standard infusions consist of 1-ounce herb/ 1 quart water. Also, the standard infusion is left to steep for many hours because it allows the water to extract more vitamins and minerals from the plant material. This higher herb: water ratio along with the longer brew time provides you with a nutrient dense beverage. And imagine what that does for the body on a daily basis…

What’s the point of drinking an Herbal Standard Infusion?

There are many benefits to a standard infusion!

Many nourishing herbs are our wild green allies. Nettles, Oatstraw, Comfrey, Hawthorn… Some of which many people refer to as “weeds” are filled with rich vitamins and minerals that can supplement your store-bought supplements!

Drinking nourishing herbs is comparable to eating whole foods. As stated before nourishing herbs have vitamins, minerals, antioxidants AND proteins! By drinking infusions, you are drinking wholeness and your body is able to readily assimilate the valuable nutrients. Think about how many different vitamin and mineral supplements that we are encouraged to take every morning… how is your body processing those extracted materials?

How do you make a Standard Infusion?

1.     Place one ounce of dried leafy nourishing herb into one-quart jar (or coffee press of equivalent size)

**The “gypsy” way of measuring the amount of herb YOUR body needs for one quart of water is to use ONE handful of herb/quart jar.

2.     Before pouring HOT water over your herb, shock the dried plant material by wetting it with luke warm water –this is similar to the traditional way of making maté…

3.     Pour one quart of boiling water over the herbs

4.     After a 20 seconds or so, stir herb and then cover with a lid

5.     Let sit overnight

6.     In the morning, strain off the plant material

**I was taught to spread the steeped herbal material at the base of my potted house plants, they benefit from any extra nutrients and also its more compost!

7.     Drink and enjoy the infusion throughout the day!

Nourishing Herbs to Infuse:

Nettle

Comfrey leaf

Dandelion leaf

Oatstraw

Raspberry leaf

Red Clover

Hawthorne

Linden

Mullein Leaf **be sure to use a cheese cloth to strain, those stellate hairs can irritate your intestines!

Violet

Hibiscus

Watch some of Susan Weed’s infusion videos for more information and inspiration!

Herbal Chai

Imagine a cool day with a warm, warming drink. Chai teas are some of my favorite teas during the fall and winter. I’ve found that this recipe allows me to drink bitter roots because of the strong spices.  I hope this recipe helps your circulation and stimulates your digestion!

Herbal Digestive Chai

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp fresh ginger, chopped OR ¼ tsp ginger powder

7 peppercorns

1 cinnamon stick OR 1 Tbsp cinnamon powder

5 cloves

12 cardamom seeds

½ Tbsp dried burdock root

½ Tbsp dried dandelion root

1 tsp licorice root

**optional: 1 peel from a whole orange

1 pint water

Instructions:

1.     Combine all the ingredients in a pot with the water.

2.     Cover the pot and simmer 10 minutes.

3.     Add ½ cup milk and simmer covered for another 10 minutes.

4.     Strain and sweeten with honey.

5. Enjoy!

OPTIONAL: If you wish to have caffeine… Add 1-2 teabags of black tea towards the end of the second simmer.

Ear Infections

I recently returned from a trip to Quito, Ecuador. Quito is one of the highest in elevation cities in the world. It took me my whole visit to somewhat adjust to the elevational change as well as cope with my ears popping. Ears popping?! Yes, every bus ride around or in/out of the city, my ears would pop. Ouch!

It wasn’t until I arrived back in Washington that I realized my ears weren’t hurting from the popping change of elevation, but in fact, I had an ear infection…

Everyone kept advising me to go to the doctor’s in case I had some foreign infection, yet I was adamant about using my mullein flower and garlic infused olive oil. And guess what? It worked!

So here is a little guide of how to infuse oil with garlic, then follow Lesley Tierra’s Ear Drop Application instructions from her book, “A Kid’s Herb Book, For Children of All Ages.”

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Garlic Infused Olive Oil:

1.     Purchase or harvest 2-3 medium sized garlic bulbs during proper harvest season (in PNW this means between July and August).

2.     If you harvested your bulb: Let bulb dry normally.

3.     Combine 16-32 cloves (~1 or 2 bulbs) garlic, sliced and diced (I normally use the peel because it’ll be strained anyways) with 1 cup olive oil in the top of a double boiler.

4.     Warm over low heat for 15-20 minutes, or until you smell the garlic infusing.

5.     Use both cheesecloth and stainless steel strainer to strain garlic from olive oil.

**make sure you don’t get any garlic in the oil or else that might get into the ear…

6.     Pour garlic oil into a small glass dropper bottle.

7.     Store in cool, dark area.

OPTIONAL: Follow Oil Infusion Guide to make a mullein flower and calendula flower oil infusion. Combine 1 pt Mullein Flower Olive Oil, 1 pt Garlic Olive Oil and ½ pt Calendula Olive Oil. Use this formula for Herbal Ear Drops.

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The garlic oil helps fight infections. The mullein and calendula flowers help relieve pain and inflammation in the ear. If your oil is WARM, this too helps relieve a painful ear infection.

As Rosemary Gladstar states, “This shouldn’t be used for ‘swimmer’s ear’…” and seek a medical advisor if this oil does not help your ear within 24 hours.

To Use:

·      Warm oil by putting dropper bottle in a pan of hot water (it should be no hotter than mother’s milk)

·      Have the person lie on his/her side with the affected ear up.

·      Drip 2-5 drops into the affected ear.

·      Place a small cotton ball into the ear to prevent the oil from spilling out.

·      Have the person lie on their side for 5-10 minutes. Keep cotton ball in place.

·      Repeat this process 5-6 times throughout the day until the symptoms are gone.

Also try holding a hot water bottle on the ear to help quicken the healing process.

CAUTION: Do not use Ear Drops if eardrum is ruptured. If ear infections go untreated, they can result in a perforated eardrum and permanent hearing loss.