Bannish Tea For Female Woes
Making Tea (dandelion, food grade lavender, cinnamon stick, fresh raspberry leaves.
We should all be adults here. I know I certainly am not writing for the under age crowd. I write assuming they are busy on Tiktok, not at all interested in what I have to talk about. My life is a very natural one in a vast many aspects. I like it that way. One part of nature is human biology. So let’s have a small chat about reproductive system and what women go through. It is a miserable experience. You don’t feel well there is pressure and cramping and bloating in the lower stomach, your head hurts, your breasts may ache, etc…. We all know what this time of the month is like. I doubt any of us enjoy it. It is decidedly unpleasant and for a variety of related reasons. or at least it is for me. I get terrible cramps sometimes…
tea in tea bag.
What I do, for this female misery is very simple. I pull out the herbs and I make a tea. Usually it contains motherwort, raspberry leaf (in this case fresh, I pulled it from off my raspberry bushes in the barn yard.) It also includes dandelion, and lavender, and cinnamon. All of these herbs are great for supporting the reproductive system. More importantly, they all treat menstrual pain and discomfort.
Prepping the tea cup
I strongly recommend honey with this recipe because well, without it, it is very horrible. Even with it it is horrible. But not as horrible as the other option… Not taking it and suffering for a week in misery and pain. When did medicine ever taste good? And oh yes, this is medicine. it is nature’s medicine.
1 small part dandelion (dandelion is a diuretic, seriously, go easy or you will spend a lot of time on the toilet after taking it.)
1 large part raspberry leaf
1 part lavender
1 part motherwort
1 cinnamon stick
You can use all dried herbs, or if you have a raspberry bush, go steal yourself some leaves that are fresh as I just did. Whatever you use, make sure it is food grade and safe. Look up Mountain Rose Herbs, they are a great source for safe herbs.
Tea
Mix your herbs, put them in a container or bag, drop that in a cup garnished with a cinnamon stick and some honey, fill cup with boiling water, allow it to sit for several minutes to steep. Drink. Feel better.
Menstrual Cramp Banisher.
I call this tea Bannish. Because that is what it does to my cramps and headaches. Sometimes to give it even more teeth I add a little willow bark as well.
This is not a pleasant subject, i realize it is a bit taboo, we are not supposed to talk about these matters. They are nature doing what nature does. And a homesteader’s life is a natural life. I will discuss these issues, because perhaps this tea can help someone else. Always talk to your doctor before you take anything because you don’t know what may interact or what health conditions could be impacted. But for a healthy person, with no other supplements or medications, this tea should be quite safe and highly effective.
Thank you for reading
I am going to get some chocolate now.
Laterz
Amanda Of Wildflower Farm
Tags: ag, agriculture, All purpose muffins recipe, B&B, DIY, DIY herbal tea for menstrual cramps, farm, farm blog, farm wife, farm wife blog, farmer, farming, farmstead, female reproductive system herbs, herbal tea, Herbalism, herbs for menstrual cramps, homestead, homestead blog, homestead farm, homestead wife, homestead wife blog, homesteader, homesteading, homesteading New England, housewife blog, infusion, innkeeper, Innkeeper's blog, menstrual cramps, natural living, natural medicine, natural PMS treatment, new england, new england homestead, New England homesteader, old fashioned housewife, self sufficiency, self sufficient, self sufficient homesteading, simple living, simpler life, stay at home wife, Tea, travel, wildflower farm
Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.
My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.
Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.
Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.
Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.
We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.
We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.
This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.
We welcome you on this journey with us.
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