Seasonal Health Refresher: The Metal Element expresses itself as the Lungs and Large Intestine.  It is one of the five elements in Chinese Medical Theory. As Metal relates to autumn, Water relates to winter, Wood relates to spring, Fire relates to summer, and Earth is the transitional time between all of the seasons. Each element also relates to an organ pair. By having a clearer understanding of the seasons and seasonal living, we can enjoy a more balanced life and good health. Our health depends on understanding the seasons and the five element model empowers us and helps to keep our health optimal.

SPICES!

Fall is a time for spices. It’s a time to purge and detox. The flavor of the Metal Element is Spicy, but not necessarily spicy pepper hot. Spicy can be ginger, garlic, cloves, and cinnamon. As colder weather moves in, we generally transition from being outdoors to spending more time indoors and it’s nourishing and restorative to drink hot fluids, more specifically, hot teas.  Although fall and winter in the South are still mild such that these seasons are lovely to spend time outdoors without the nuisance of heat and pesky insects, this is the perfect season for hot, spiced teas. In the South, we love our hot apple cider with cinnamon during this time of year and we may succumb to decadent baked goods that are baked with spices. However, they can be too sweet and cause congestion and suppress our immune response.

SO… spiced tea is a PERFECT drink choice for this time of year! My seasonal go tos are nettles, ginger and chai.  I typically brew bulk herbs and tea leaves in a tea pot with a removable strainer.  Loose herb and tea are higher quality and lower cost per cup if you rebrew the leaves a few times as they are intended. I brew until there is little color left (all the antioxidants, etc have been leeched).  Often, I brew several batches from the same herbs and store in the fridge for later, sometimes mixing batches for fun. My Chinese Medicine teachers always packed their traveling suitcases with tea and spices.  The ah too true joke with them is that packaged teas that we drink in this country are the sweepings off the factory floors from their country.

Nettles, though not spicy, is especially useful this time of year as it is a well known tonic for seasonal allergies. I often mix nettles with green tea (wake), peppermint (digest), or lavender (calm). Keep reading and give this underused weed a try! Another good choice to brew up is ginger root for colds and flu. Ginger is one of my favorites! Both can we sweetened with a little raw and local honey.

NETTLES

Urtica dioica, also known as Common Nettle, Stinging Nettle or Nettle Leaf, or just as Nettle, is a herbaceous, perennial, flowering plant belonging to the family Urticaceae. Native to Europe, temperate Asia and western North Africa, today it is found globally, including New Zealand and North America. The plant has a long history of use as a traditional medicine, food, tea, and raw material. Stinging nettle does in fact sting because of its tiny hairs on the foliage that contain toxins. If you brush up against the leaves, you’ll get a sting that causes an itchy rash. Interestingly, with a little processing and preparation, it acts an anti-histamine, reducing the reactivity of allergic reactions. Stinging nettle is also used as a highly nutritious and mineralizing ingredient in soups, pastas, wild pate and as a greens side dis. To make the leaves edible, they are harvested while young, then wilted or boiled to neutralize the toxins. Nettles has a long history in treatment of urinary symptoms related to early stage prostate enlargement, fluid retention, gout, anemia and topically for strains, sprains, joint and muscle pain and a whole lot more.

Research and resources for nettles are clickable below.

Nettles nutrition, high in fiber and other nutrients

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4302403/

Nettles used for cardiovascular support and treatment of hypertension

https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=URDI

CHAI:  watch for our winter post on Chai

Let’s explore a few fall herbal teas and how to correctly brew them!

THERMAL NATURE & ORGAN AFFINITY (12 ORGAN NETWORKS)

Cinnamon : Cinnamomum cassia acrid, sweet, warm 

• Twig, gui zhi– (warm) Upper body:
  • heart, lungs, collaterals/channels
  • with fresh ginger for joint arthritis, shoulder pain
• Bark, rou gui – (hot) Lower body:
  • kidney, bladder, spleen
  • tea stomach ache, abdominal swelling with cold signs

Turmeric: Curcuma longa acrid/pungent, bitter, cool

• Invigorates blood and breaks up stasis; Injury due to trauma, internal and external
• Promotes movement of qi: Chest, abdominal pain due to constrained liver qi with heat signs
• Clears heat and cools blood: Hot phlegm obstructing heart: anxiety, agitation, seizures
• Benefits gallbladder: Reduces jaundice improves

Ginger, Zingiber officianale acrid, hot

• Warms the middle jiao and expels cold
• Warms spleen and stomach
• Warms the lungs and transforms phlegm
• Warms the channels and stops bleeding from cold deficiency

Mints, Menta family: catnip, rosemary, oregano, basil

• Light flower floats to upper body.
• Antimicrobial: ECHO virus, salmonella bacteria

Peppermint, Mentha, piperita cool, pungent:

• releases: lungs, liver
• tea plus a little salt for pain (headache, trigeminal neuralgia, pain in mouth, throat, tongue, tooth, nosebleed)
• vents rashes – measles early stage
• common cold due to wind heat – scratchy throat, red eyes, fever
• disperses liver qi – pressure in chest and flank, unstable emotions, gynecologic

Spearmint Mentha spicata warm, pungent:

• calms spirit: heart
• stress induced headache, dizziness

BIOCHEMISTRY:

AntiVirals:  lemon balm, peppermint, elderflower, leaf or berry, cranberry, licorice, ginger, olive leaf, cats claw

AntiBacterial:  cinnamon, clove, oregano, thyme

Digestive:  chamomile, ginger, peppermint                  

Mineralizing and Antihistime:  nettles

HOW TO BREW, INFUSE, & CONCOCT YOURSELF!

Herbal teas deliver botanical medicine.  To free the medicine, we should choose best preparation method, temperature and timing. 

Preparation: add desired amount of tea to best temperature, remove from heat, cover and steep. Warm liquid is tolerated and easily absorbed by the gastrointestinal mucosa, where tinctures, pills and capsules can be irritating.

INFUSION

Definition: the steeping or soaking of botanical parts usually in water of a substance in order to extract its soluble constituents or principles

For what? best for flowers, leaves, and most powered herbs

How much? 1 tablespoon per cup is medicinal

How long? Steep covered 5-7 minutes

Pot? metal or glass

Vessel? glass, stoneware covered to maintain volatile oils

Temperature? hot is by far the common preparation method; cold is appropriate for mucilagenic herbs

HOT water:

peppermint, Menthe piperita leaves;

nettles: Urtica dioica leaves,

chamomile Matricaria chomomilla flowers

COLD water

Slippery Elm Ulmus fulva,

Chia Salvia hispanica

DECOCTION:

Definition: water in which a crude vegetable drug has been boiled and which therefore contains the constituents or principles of the substance soluble in boiling water

For what? best for roots, barks, berries, seeds

How much? 1/2 teaspoon per cup is medicinal

Pot? glass, stoneware covered to maintain volatile oils

Temperature? Boil covered 10-20 minutes, and then steep until tepid

Examples: Dandelion root, Taraxicum officinale; Ginger root, Zingiber officinalis; Licorice root, Glycyrrhiza glabra,  Pau d’arco bark, Tabebuia avellanedae

Teas can be consumed immediately or stored in refrigerator for 2-3 days.

Herbal teas deliver botanical medicine.  To free the medicine, we should choose the best preparation method, temperature, and timing.  Boil or steep the herbs multiple times until there is little color left.  Combine all brews into one large container and drink room temperature or cool from the refrigerator throughout the day or over the next few days.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ABOVE, ENTER YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW FOR A DOWNLOAD LINK TO A PRINTABLE FOR PERFECT BREWING TIPS

HERBAL INFUSED VINEGARS starring pepper sauce on greens!

Vinegar is a health tonic with multiple medical uses.

For centuries, healers and households relied on vinegars to both preserve foods and supplement diet and medicines.  Vinegar is a household staple as a health tonic with multiple medical uses. It is used as a treatment for allergies, flu, sore throat, acid reflux, gout, and other ailments. Some of the more common uses include:

Antiseptic

Vinegar is an antiseptic that is used to treat a variety of infectious and noninfectious conditions including the treatment of boils, acne, and minor cuts, scrapes and burns. Since it is antibacterial and antifungal, taking apple cider vinegar orally or applying it to your skin topically can help to stop the growth of a yeast infection or athlete’s foot. Raw vinegar has a probiotic effect and our skin has its own mircobiome. A second interesting research link here!

Supplements

Apple cider provides supplemental minerals including potassium, calcium, copper and iron. One of the benefits of taking apple cider vinegar, as an iron supplemental is that unlike cooked red meats, vinegar contains no cholesterol, sodium, or saturated fats.

Diabetes

Studies indicate that regular vinegar consumption may help control diabetes as well as decrease body mass and triglyceride levels. See links below.

diabetes control:

Small study with positive morning fasting levels after nighttime use of ACV

ACV Increases Insulin-Stimulated Glucose Uptake with Type 2 Diabetes

body fat and triglycerides:

Vinegar intake reduces body weight, body fat & triglycerides obese subjects

Arthritis

Apple cider vinegar may help in the treatment of arthritis, particularly gout. You can try mixing a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar with a teaspoon of honey and take three times a day and notice. This mix of apple cider vinegar and honey can break up the deposits of uric acid crystals that form between the joints and in muscles, which cause rheumatism. Taken over a long period of time, this mixture may also help to dissolve bone spurs. Most gout can be managed with reduction of foods that are high in purines like seafood, wild game, organ meats, red meat and foods that increase uric acid concentration like sugar, alcoholic beverages (particularly beer), fruit juices and fructose sweetened beverages.  The exception being the amazing tart cherry, which can actually lower serum uric acids and offer prevention from gout flares.

Indigestion/Heartburn

Vinegar is commonly used to treat indigestion and heartburn. Because the human body typically produce less hydrochloric acid as it ages, the symptoms of too little acid in the stomach can result in the symptoms which appear the same as too high of acid levels. As such, vinegar can aid digestion of food and relieve the painful symptoms of heartburn and indigestion.

Sore Throat

For the treatment of a sore throat, mix a tablespoon of vinegar with 8 ounces of warm water. Gargle this mixture every hour before being swallowed. Also, to break up mucus in the throat associated with cold and sore throat, swallow one tablespoon of equal parts vinegar and raw honey. This treatment is not for infants as their immune systems are developing and raw honey may (very rarely) contain bacterial spores that cause botulism.

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) has become a popular natural remedy during the past few decades. Numerous online articles are to be found that praise ACV as a treatment for a wide range of health conditions including: acid reflux, allergies, strep throat, high blood pressure, common cold, diabetes, obesity, PMS and more.

Natural ACV is brownish in color and is murky with cob-web-like substances that is called the “mother”. The “mother” in ACV is a complex structure of beneficial acids that have great health benefits. The “mother” in organic, unfiltered ACV is rich in proteins, enzymes, antioxidants and beneficial bacteria. Filtered ACV lacks the “mother” and also lacks the health benefits of natural ACV with “mother”.

The most common vinegar on the market is heated through pasteurization. It appears clear and looks like water. It tastes like vinegar but has no health value as it does not contain the nutritional and health values of natural, apple cider vinegar. Pasteurized apple cider vinegar doesn’t have the same benefits as raw apple cider vinegar. Valuable vitamins, probiotics, and enzymes are destroyed by the heating process. Also be aware that many “apple cider vinegars” on the market, are nothing but distilled, white vinegar with added flavors and colors. It is not the same as natural, unfiltered ACV with the “mother”. The distilled, clear vinegar is excellent non-toxic cleaner for your kitchen and home, particularly fabulous for streak free windows and mirrors!

GREENS!

Did I mention that we Southerner’s love our greens? Well it’s the time of year to plant seeds for a fall crop. Fall gardens in the South are often preferred because we don’t have the daily struggle of weeds, bugs, and heat. Try a mix of green seeds including rape, kale, turnip, mustard, swiss chard and collards. Broadcasting with radish seeds deters the bugs! They all grow well through the fall and into the winter here in our temperate planting zone. With increased attention to health benefits of kale, it has become a more important cash crop and increasing levels of pesticides on its green leaves have, sadly, also increased.  It is one of the ‘dirty dozen’.  along with peppers. So it is best to grow your own or purchase organic kale and peppers whenever possible.  Also check out the ‘clean fifteen’ vegetables as ranked yearly by the Environmental Working Group.

This PDF: Garden to Table: Leafy Greens  from NDSU Extension Service offers delicious recipes, crop descriptions and images, crop, soil and pest information.  I highly recommend that you click and enjoy!! You will definitely be inspired and well informed to give seeding a fall crop a go.

Southern pepper sauce on greens is a tradition, and many people take pride in their pepper sauces and share with friends and family. This wise combination actually increases the bioavailabity of the nutrients in the greens. Harvest those peppers left in your summer garden, place them in a pretty bottle or jar, add hot vinegar, and infuse. Homemade kitchen goods make great holiday and just-for-the-heck-of-it gifts!

ACV in Traditional Chinese Medicine

From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, vinegar is both sour and bitter and works on the liver system to reduce accumulations of stagnant bile, fat, and toxicity. In contrast, lemon juice also helps the liver but it has a more cooling effect. The warming nature of vinegar helps with the all too common American diet of ‘cold’/yin beverages such as iced drinks, alcohol, and caffeine. ACV’s sour properties stimulate digestion and help to break-down and absorb nutrients including minerals and alkaloids that are often harder to digest. In TCM, vinegar helps to circulate and dry out the “damp” conditions in the body that present as symptoms of a feeling of heaviness, swelling or water retention, distended/bloated abdomen, excess mucus, nodular masses/acne, sluggish energy, inflammation, and weight gain. For nausea and depression, add 1 tsp raw honey (not for infants) into your lemon ACV water. In addition to ACV stimulating the digestive system, it has a draining effect that is similar to an expectorant. For these reasons, ACV is used to clear or cleanse and reduce cholesterol. ACV, infused with a variety of herbs or just on its own, is used as a general preventative.

In addition to being sour, vinegar is also bitter from an energetic perspective of the properties of vinegar, and not necessarily its actual flavor. According to Chinese medicine, rice vinegar is bitter, sour and warm. The Nei Jing states that when bitter and sour come together, the collective function is to drain. Taken as a whole, therefore, vinegar warms and drains, and this explains most of its functions in Chinese medicine and food therapy.

1. Vinegar stimulates the blood, dispels blood stasis, and stops pain. In addition to taking internally, vinegar applied externally can treat external forms of blood stasis. Used alone or formed into a paste with da huang powder, it can help with the early stages of boils. This same formula can be used as a salve for first-degree and second-degree burns. Plain vinegar wash helps to heal bruises and contusions due to external trauma. As a mouthwash, vinegar can relieve toothache pain. 
2. Vinegar supports the liver, regulates qi, and moves stagnation. Pre-cooking in vinegar enhances the qi-regulating and pain-reducing properties of herbs such as xiang fu, qing pi and xiao hui xiang. Combined with cooling herbs, the draining properties of vinegar can be used to treat headaches due to liver fire or ascending liver yang.
3. Vinegar detoxifies the body. Vinegar can be used as a topical wash to prevent insect bites, or as a treatment for insect bites. Boiled vinegar may even clear toxins from the air and prevent colds and flu.
4. Miscellaneous uses: Diluted in water, vinegar relieves the symptoms of a hangover from excessive alcohol consumption. Patients with blood stasis, qi stagnation or liver yang rising should take a little more vinegar in their diet. One sign that your liver qi may be stagnated is lack of appetite in the morning after waking. Consider drinking vinegar through a straw to reduce contact with tooth enamel because of the erosive nature of vinegar.
   

“Vinegar is warming. It creates a temporary warming circulation of energy (qi) in the body, and removes stagnant blood. It can quickly alter emotional stagnation as well, especially in children— bad moods will usually disappear a few moments after taking or eating something with high quality unpasteurized vinegar.”

– Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition

ACV in Ayruveda

In Ayurvedic practice, vinegars, and ACV in particular, is considered rajasic, which means that it contains loads of Pitta or Pitta-stimulating properties. Rajasic foods and medicines are beneficial in small doses to stimulate digestion and heat-up or fire-up the body’s systems. Rajasic foods stimulate the fire element, outward motion, creativity, aggression, and passion. Common rajasic foods include chili peppers and garlic. As a Pitta-increasing food or medicine, ACV helps get the digestive system moving and stimulates the liver and gallbladder, increasing the digestive system’s fire and ability to break-down foods.

SHRUBS

Drinking vinegar was popular during the 17th and 18th centuries, and it has experienced a come-back in recent years as shrubs. A shrub is a concentrated syrup that combines fruit, sweetner, and vinegar.  The vinegar preserves the fruit syrup and adds a tangy taste that, surprisingly, quenches the thirst. Shrubs are often topped with either cold water or club soda, ginger ale, or any clear soda. Combine 1 ounce of shrub with 5 to 6 ounces of water or soda over ice. In recent years, shrubs have become a popular cocktail and mocktail ingredient.

Try drinking vinegar by making your own shrub cocktail

Hot Method

Cold Method

In addition to increasingly locally grown herbs in their tea blends, Johnathan and Becca Gardner aka Tea Town Alabama offer seasonal shrubs for sale at their marketplace booths in various locations like Pepperplace in Birmingham.  They have recently relocated to Rainbow City from Tuscaloosa and you can keep up with their ongoing on Instagram and Facebook. Check out their website for connect and details.

INFUSED VINEGARS

With all of the known benefits of vinegars, it makes sense to increase its use in our daily lives. Infusing herbs and peppers with vinegar not only gives us the benefits of vinegar but also delights our taste buds with a variety of smells, tastes, and uses. It’s the end of summer and many of our gardens are full with an abundance of herbs and peppers. Infused vinegars are a wonderful way to not let our garden’s produce go to waste. Here in the South, we love our greens and a spicy, vinegar pepper sauce is a staple at many Southern tables. I’ve listed several tried and true vinegar infusion recipes. Note that vinegars are corrosive so be sure to use glass bottles with a cork, plastic or glass lids.

Method:

Heat method: heat vinegar in an enamel or glass pot until warm. Pour over chopped or crushed herbs/flowers filling container to top.  Tightly seal container and place in a sunny window for 2 weeks, gently shaking a couple of times each day. When vinegar has reached desired taste, filter through straining cloth. Pour vinegar into clean, sterile container and add fresh herbs and spices for ornament and taste.  Seal bottle.

Sun infused or diluted method: Vinegar does not have to be heated.  This is especially important for raw, fermented foods like apple cider vinegars.  A small amount of the vinegar can be heated to infuse herbs filling the remained of the bottle with raw vinegar. Place in windowsill as above.

Rose Petal Vinegar

2 c (tightly packed) fragrant organic red rose petals

1 ½ c white wine vinegar

Purple Basil Vinegar

1 c (loosely packed) chopped purple basil

1 ½ c white wine vinegar

Lavender Vinegar

3 T  lavender flowers

1 ½ c white wine vinegar

Most herbs can be used to prepare vinegar for salad dressings. White wine vinegar is more  mellow than cider vinegar.  Cider vinegar can be purchased fermented and raw. Try a combination of herbs; add a bulb of garlic and peppercorns.  Make small batches until you find your favorite.  Place finished product on a shelf away from sunlight.

Vinegar Based Dressing

Basil Salad Dressing
2-3 cloves garlic
2 T raw honey
2 cups fresh green basil leaves
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup purple basil vinegar
1 cup olive oil

Other oils and vinegars can be substituted for those listed.
Place all ingredients in a processor except the oil.  Blend until basil and garlic are finely chopped.  With processor running, slowly stream oil into mixture.  Chill a couple of hours, shake well before using.  This makes a great dip for fresh artisan bread.

Grow your Herbs for Infused Vinegar!

GROWING HERBS

Herbs should be grown in a sunny garden, well drained, with good soil.  It should not be necessary to add fertilizer.  Adding mulch (leaf, grass clippings) each season will inhibit weed growth.

Plants with a silver leaf need to be higher and drier (sage, thyme).

A spot for your herb garden should be chosen that is near your kitchen area.  Start with a few herbs that you will use and enjoy.

Annuals:  purple basil, basil, parsley (flat: flavor – curly: garnish), dill, and rose geranium

Perennials: chives (round, flat), sage, thyme, rosemary, lemon grass, lemon balm, lavender, mints, catnip, bay tree or red bay, rose geranium (can carry over and use as edible), marjoram, monarda bee balm

Make your own FIRE CIDER! 

Fire Cider is an Apple Cider Vinegar tonic infused with superfoods.

Also try a homemade oxymel for the upcoming cold and flu season.

Oxymel – from the Latin oxymeli meaning “acid and honey” has been made and used in many ways throughout the ages and it’s a recipe that can be adapted to suit your health and herbal needs. Traditionally, an Oxymel recipe is used to administer herbs that are not so pleasant to take on their own.  Additionally, some of the more pleasant herbs can become even more delightful after a bath in honey and vinegar!