My Garden Cures

   For the past couple of weeks, some sort of illness settled in as a resident of the Little Bayou House.  It started with Mark and spread on to Son.  Each of them had full blown cold symptoms with sore throat, fever, congestion and a general bit of just feeling blah.  That mess hung around in each of them for nigh on a week or better.  Son is still congested.  There has to be something "going around" because my sweet sister-in-law had it the same time that Mark did and now Darling Daughter has it (and she lives several towns over).  When Mark first said he did not feel well, I was determined not to catch the mess.  Exposure to him meant it was likely but then exposure to his sister and Son put my chance of avoiding coming down sick to slim or none.  Three exposures to any contagious illness is not very good.  Still, I was determined so I headed to the garden.  I gathered herbs and went back to the kitchen to "stir up" a brew.  I am a firm believer that boosting the immune system can do wonders so most of the herbs were chosen because of that.  To the sage, rosemary and ginger, I added my standby of crape myrtle blossoms. (Those I had dehydrated last July.)  Steeping this in a base of fruit juice for Vitamin C gave me just what I needed.  My favorite juice to use was home-canned blueberry.  Crazy enough, the blueberry, sage and rosemary blended well!

  While some ridiculed me about drinking so much of the tisane, I never gave up hope.  For three weeks now, I downed this brew!  I went through several pots a day for the first ten days then eased off to just one pot per day.  Several times during those weeks, I thought sure I was coming down ill.  NOPE!  Not happening!  I made more tisane.  Now, both Mark and Son are mostly well.  Son still has a lingering cough but feels back to his old self.  Mark is doing fine.  My sister-in-law sounds much better and Darling Daughter is on her way to being well again.  Me?  Well, I am still as healthy as I was before all this started.  Perhaps, my garden "teas" are the answer.  I don't have time for that mess!