Covering bases...

Because I don't know how many visitors here actually make it to my other blogs, I wanted to share a post I copied verbatim from Bulk Herb Store http://www.bulkherbstore.com/index .

I care about each of you, and want you to have the best chance of getting through this coming cold/flu season with good natural support. I am currently using herbs from my summer dried stash, with good results (check out EarthHeart - sidebar link). This is my back-up source.

For those who had no opportunity to dry their own herbs this summer, the Bulk Herbs link will take you to an excellent source of herbs, blends, and information.

Tasty Decongestant Tea Recipe

My family (and me) have all had the congested yuckies. That's scientific for lots and lots of mucous in the face and chest. The coughs have not been very productive with normal remedies, so I decided to make a tea with alot of decongestant kick.

I don't have the medicinal results back, but the taste is good and considering the amount of mullein I threw in, it should do the trick.

For 1 gallon of tea:

1 gallon Berkey filtered water

10 Tablespoons Mullein

6 Tablespoons Dr. Cinnamon Mix

4 Tablespoons Oatstraw

4 Tablespoons Stevia Leaf (not extract)

Boil about 4 cups of the gallon of water. Add the herbs and allow to boil for 1 minute (directions on the Dr. Cinnamon bag). Steep for 10 minutes or more (I think I forgot mine for about an hour. LOL) Strain WELL.

Add back in the rest of the water and serve cold (Hot would probably work as well, but it made a nice glass of iced tea.)

If you're coughing, the last thing you want in your tea is mullein hairs. They will get stuck in the back the throat and cause irritation, hacking, choking, etc. I recommend you strain your herbs more than once.

What I did was reach my hand into the herb pot and grabbed handfuls of herbs and wrung them out much like a dishcloth and disposed of the herbs as I was finished with each handful. Then I ran what was left through a metal strainer to get the rest of the "chunks". Then I ran it through a double thickness of flour-sack dishtowel (a t-shirt would work well) to filter the finer fragments (hairs). (I tried a coffee filter before the dishtowel, but it sprung a leak - LOL.)

The result was a very rich, full bodied, yummy, sweet tasting tea that will hopefully help to break up the congestion.

I hope this will be helpful to you and your family.

And even if you aren't interested in herbal remedies, do try the "Dr. Cinnamon" - it's worth being forced to read through all this!