Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Preparing for Winter Colds/Flu: Sage Honey

Regular old garden Sage (Salvia officinalis) is excellent in poultry stuffing, wonderful with sausage, can be used as a rinse on your hair to keep your hair dark in color and is medicinal as well. Used as a tea or tincture to reduce excessive secreations: such as sweating, dripping sinuses, and mother's milk of a weaning mother. One of my other very favorite uses is as a herbal honey for sore throats. We had a quick but productive two days with Jessica from Blackbirds Daughter and one of the concoctions to prepare for the winter months was Sage Honey. Jessica prepared hers by filling 1/4 of a jar of fresh sage in the blender with honey and blending the two together. You can gently heat the honey (note: heating honey too much lowers the enzymes) and strain the herbs out if you want. Thyme honey can also be made in addition to sage herbal honey for sore throats or hoarseness or respiratory aliments. While raw honey is richer in enzymes we usually use pastuerized honey. Ridiculously easy to make and so yummy too. So don't eat it all at once!

3 comments:

Marilyn Miller said...

It's good to be back with you today and see what you are up to. Sounds like you have been having some fun.

Bernideen said...

You have reminded me to dry some sage this week!

Anonymous said...

My grandmother used to make a cough syrup with a honey base that worked. Not sure what she put in it as the recipe has been lost - jp