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!  

A New Crop?

   The canebrake cleaning chore got a bit sidetracked today as I decided it was better to trim up the Small Gardens a bit.  Son was not able to help me so pulling bamboo can wait.  As I was trimming around the shrubs and citrus trees, I came across the most beautiful patch of lyre-leaf sage.  Yep, that "weed" that grows along roadsides in just about every place imaginable has decided that the space under the peach trees is a nice place to live.  I knew the plants were there and usually have them mowed by this time but one thing or another got in the way.  Now, I have a "grove" of purple blooms!  Lovely, lovely purple blooms are everywhere

  No, I did not have the heart to mow them today.  I figured since I use the roots in tisanes, it cannot be all bad to let the plants go to seed and multiply.  If ever the need arises that I wish for a cup of lyre-leaf root tisane, I shall have plenty to dig.  So...those are not weeds!  That is my new "garden" and it is growing well!  Ok...so I promise to not be so lackadaisical and get to mowing again...maybe tomorrow...maybe Monday...maybe after the blooms fade.  

The "Other" Sage

  A few years back, I was sad to see that my pineapple sage did not make it through the winter.  We had a few hard freezes and lots of rains so I think that is what caused the problems.  The ground stayed soggy and then the cold weather froze everything.  After that incident, I hopefully learned a lesson on growing the plant.  Water the plant often but never let those roots wade around in soggy dirt!  

  This summer, my sweet sister-in-law, Linda, sent me a new "start" of the pineapple sage.  I pondered sticking in the garden but then had flashbacks to the dead plant of winters past.  Nope.  this sage would be in a pot so it can head to the greenhouse when Jack Frost comes to visit.  Old Man Winter cannot have all of my herbs!   Now the sage is growing like a bad weed and has finally decided to bloom.  Normally, pineapple sage blooms in the late fall but I think our winter confuses everything.  Not that I am complaining as it adds some happy color to the drab winter garden.  

  This evening a happy coincident occurred.  While I was studying some herbal remedies, a few notes on pineapple sage came my attention.  It seems that scientists are studying the herb and its ability to help with memory issues and with anxiety.  While I don't tend to be bothered with anxiety, age is creeping up on me and the memory may start dulling.  If this plant can help with that, you can be sure that there will always be one (or many) growing around here.  A good cup of sage tea or a few leaves and blooms in fruit salad may just become regular things around here.   So...it is good for you, tastes and smells delightfully similar to pineapple and can help me think.  Sounds like a good plant to me!  

A Heaping Helping of Herbs!

  I have long used herbs and spices in place of most over the counter medicines.  I feel that there are just too many other things in those pills and liquids.  This is not to say that I never take medicines.  I do...occasionally...when a doctor tells me I should but that is a rare thing.  At least with my home-grown and wildcrafted herbs, I know what I am getting.  Granted, sometimes it takes a bit longer to cure things this way, but I feel safer.  Then, again, here lately, it seems as if the herbs are doing a far better job than are the "store bought" cure-alls.  Just recently, the dreaded flu bug hit the Little Bayou House in full force.  Mark was the first to come down sick.  For weeks, he stayed ill despite visits to the doctor, lots of prescribed pills, tons of pain killers, over the counter medicines and bed rest.  Two days after his first symptoms, Son and I both contracted the mess.  He and I used herbs and downed bottles of the Bayou Fire Brew.  Our bouts of the mess only lasted three days.  Maybe ours was not full fledged flu but neither of us had the lingering cough and congestion that normally comes with this type of illness.  In fact, we never were congested at all nor had a cough.  

  With the first symptoms  of headache, fever and body aches, I started my regimen. This included me slipping outside in a slight misty rain to find MY "cure-all"....Lyre-leaf Sage.  Since my garden had gone the wayside with the onset of winter, I had to depend on this wild herb to pull me through.  Sage is wonderful for most cold/flu symptoms when used as a tisane and gargle.  The Lyre-leaf Sage has a bit weaker medicinal properties but it is not nearly as strong tasting as the other sages.  When I found the few purplish leaves that had withstood the low temperatures, I snatched them up and added them to my sage blend tisane.  Ahhh, relief from all of those nasty symptoms!  Laugh if you wish but I figure that a three day bout of illness sure beats two weeks in bed feeling miserable!

  Today, Mr. PJ (the old dog) and I found ourselves in the midst of a virtual grove of Lyre-leaf Sage!  I plopped myself down among the plants and started to nibble a leaf. (I felt like a rabbit!)  When I looked at the old dog, he, too, was munching the plants.  Ha!  I think this dog is an herbalist!  He knows a good thing when he smells it! 

Pretty in Purple!

  Today, storms shook the Little Bayou House as they roared through the area.  High winds blasted from the southeast, changed to coming from the southwest, turned to being a north wind and are now back from the south. We caught it from all angles.  With the winds, came torrential rains complete with waterspouts dancing about the Bay.  All in all, it was a rough day weather wise but satisfying in a weird sort of way.  The weather did keep me indoors, though.

  Yesterday, however, was a different story.  Knowing that a storm was brewing to our west, I was busy trying to prepare.  The plants in the greenhouse needed watering, the fishing gear needed storing and the last of the squash seeds needed to be put into the ground.  So much to do...so little time!  After gathering the fishing gear from the pier, I noticed a rather interesting plant in the board path.  How could I not notice it?  It was a gorgeous purple and hairy!  Aha!  Lyreleaf Sage! I love this plant. It is one of those neat little herbs that grows wild yet should be in every garden.  There are just so many uses for it in herbal medicines and even on the supper table. (It can be used just as any other garden green.)  Lyreleaf Sage has milder flavor than other sages but still has all of the good properties of the others.  Sage is in the mint family and there are over 900 different types of sage!

  Sage leaves can be brewed to make a tisane that relieves sore throats and mouth ulcers.  Lyreleaf Sage works as well as the others.  This is one of those herbal home remedies that actually works.  Granted, you have to drink several cups of the tisane or gargle with it numerous times but it does relieve the pain and has no side effects.   This is my "go to" remedy for sore throats and I, personally, never have one longer than a few hours.  Warm sage tisane soothes the body as it treats the throat.   Sage, in general, is being studied as a possibly treatment for Alzheimer's Disease, as an aid in restoring memory, as a treatment for high cholesterol and controlling blood sugar.  Hopefully, these studies will find that the plant does indeed help in these areas.  

  As I was hustling back up the hillside and spotted the Lyreleaf Sage, I made a mental note to transplant this one into the herb garden as soon as the storm passes.  Besides being a helpful plant, the thing is just too pretty to be cut down by my lawnmower!  

A Bit of Sage Advice

  Just a bit of sage advice here, folks.  If you are sick, stay away from the Little Bayou House or prepare to be medicated with some fine herbal tisanes.  It irks me to no end to have noticeably ill people come to the Bayou, claim that they are not sick in the least all the while coughing and sniffling up a storm.  That said, I am issuing a fair warning...if you come here sick, you will be treated and some home remedies are not, lets say, too tasty.  However, since I am not a doctor that can prescribe any of the helpful medicines of today, I can and will whip up a lovely cup of "tea"....and you will drink it...or I will send you on your merry way!

  I have been fighting the onset of a cold for the past four days.  It is not bad as I keep it at bay by using said remedies.  Today, however, I was exposed, not once but twice, to folks with full blown colds...nasty colds with sneezing, coughing, sniffling, sore throats and even fever.  I do not need this!  So...a tisane has been by my side all day.

  My bit of sage advice?  Sage!  Sage is an effective herb to use against the onset of a sore throat.  It works wonders as either a gargle or to sip as one would a tea.  As an added plus with this remedy, it tastes pretty good.  Personally, I love the taste and will drink this just as a warming drink after being outside in the cold and with the cold, rainy days we have been having for the past week, it is just the thing!

  To make this tisane, heat a cup of water until almost boiling.  While the water is heating, fill a tea infuser with about a teaspoon of dried sage leaves.  Once the water is hot, place the infuser in the cup and let steep for a good five minutes.  Sweeten the tisane with honey and stir.  Sip this as you would a cup of tea.  Repeat as often as necessary.  

  So, my advice for when you are feeling sick?  Stay home!  Make a cup of sage tisane.  Curl up with a good book and sip your drink.  This way, you will feel better and you will not share the nastiness with everyone else.