Congratulations, we have survived another month! February did it's best to hold us in its frost bitten fingers, but even with the extra day, we persevered and have burst into March, like a lion!
Some of us may be carrying around the battle wounds from this winter. Namely dry coughs, the last remnant of a long ago cold that came. And don't they lone to come when it is most inconvenient?That cold that plugged your ears the day of your big presentation. So the whole time you feel like you are talking with your head inside a tin can, asking "Is that really how my voice sounds?"
Or maybe your cold plugged up your nose when you needed to breathe. For example, while running after your car that you accidentally left in neutral then pushed ever so slightly as you were shoveling off snow and are now chasing as it glides smoothly and steadily into a deep snow bank.
Thup.
(That is the sound of a car running into a snow bank, for all you non-onamonapia people).
Yup I'm talkin about that cold, that gave you achy muscles, or a throat left red raw, or a sinus headache that made you seriously consider cutting off your face. I'm not kidding. Pain makes us think crazy things.
But you have vanquished the cold, the flu, whatever the enemy was. Just like you have vanquished February and are now striding confidently forward, day by day, to daffodils, and tulips, and who knows, maybe even sweet strawberries fresh off the vine!
But your not-too-long-gone enemy left you one last parting gift.
A dry cough, that scratches against the dry air, and although it's not bad, you just can't shake it.
You wonder what it is, since you don't still have the cold...yet it's not being healthy either. You have a distant memory of some time before cold and gray skies when you didn't cough one or two dry coughs for no apparent reason. Was that called healthy?
You wonder, "Is this the last of the cold, and I haven't really gotten over it? Then aghast, you realize if this is true then you've been suffering from this blasted cold for the last two months!
Do you want yourself back, cough free?
In comes a solution, Clover Cough Syrup!
This ain't your mama's cough syrup.
Actually it's more like your great-great grandmama's cough syrup.
This can be made from stuff gathered from your backyard and pantry.
Ready for the ingredients? OK, don't blink.
Clover flowers
Honey
Water.
You blinked!
Amazing, right? Even simpler is how this is done. It is essentially strong tea with honey.
This was one of the first concoctions I made with herbs. I gave it to my mother's friend who had a cold three weeks before, and just couldn't shake her pesky left over dry cough. She said the cough syrup got rid of it within days.
And that she was delighted to have her healthy self back.
Ok, so to make this stuff you take about 2 cups of water and bring it just up to a boil, add roughly the same amount of clover flower heads (dried or fresh, rinsed). You want it so the flowers are mostly submerged.
Boil lightly for up to 10 minutes. Stirring ocassionally. You are looking for the water to change color. It'll turn a tannish color. You will also smell the sweetness of the clover.
Now strain the clover out by dumping the clovery water ino a bowl covered by a clean cloth. The cloth with grab the clover flowers, while the tea, or infusion seeps right through. Squeeze the cloth to get all that good liqid out.
Now add the honey.It's the same proportion of honey as the water you have. If you have one cup of liquid, then add one cup of honey. If you have three cups of liquid, add three cups of honey. You get the idea.
Stir until the two are blended. You may want to do this over a low to heat on the stove, to help the honey to dissolve in the infusion (fancy term for strong tea)
Cool the mixture, and keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to one month.
Congrats, you have just made really really sweet tea!
Now what does this stuff actually do?
The honey is soothing to your harassed and stressed throat. Not to mention honey is also astringent, which means it likes pulling the water out of things. So it'll coat your throat, giving a protective barrier, but also if any nasty little germs may happen to be lingering there, the honey will smother them too, and then suck all the liquid out of its little one celled body. (insert evil laughter here) And bacteria in that way are not that different from us. It needs water to survive, and without it, the little sickness causing bug now is pushing daisies.
The clover is a longer term soothing agent, and will love your sore throat back to health long after the honey wears away.
Other uses for clover flowers include crushing fresh flowers and putting them on insect bites and stings.
Tinctures are good for psoriasis and eczema
Compresses are good for arthritic pains and gout.
And my favorite, in the 1930's they became popular as an anticancer remedy! And in some parts of the world it is still prescribed for breast, ovarian, and lymphatic cancer sufferers.
Want more info on how to make, or how to get the other forms of Clover, either dried, tincture, or compress, just leave a comment.
Oh, and thank you kindly Penelope Ody, and your book the Complete Medical Herbal for the info.
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