We talk about eating seasonally, having plates of food with as many colours as possible to ensure you receive the nutrients you need for healthy living. Virtually every recipe contains herbs or spices, we have become so accustomed to adding herbs to our food that we forget about their medicinal properties.
They not only add flavour and complexity, they also have an action on the body. The Mint you eat with your lamb contains the same branched-chain compounds making it taste really good in combination but also Mint has a carminative effect on the digestion relieving bloating and helping the body process such a rich fatty meat. The Basil you put in your pesto and slather on your pasta amongst other things helps to reduce your blood sugar, so the spike that you get from eating white pasta is ameliorated by the addition of lashings of Basil. Over centuries we have become adept at using plants to support health and it has become so embedded that we don't even know we're doing it.
Alongside the use of herbs and spices, we have found other ways of supporting health using plants. We brew Teas - Mint for digestion, Black Tea for cardiovascular support, Green Tea for antioxidants, Wildflower Tea for women's health, Atlantic Ocean Tea for thyroid support, Sage Tea or Ada Cay (island tea) used in Turkey for menopausal hot flushes and so many more. They are a low tech, delicious, highly effective delivery of beneficial therapeutics.
Tinctures are different, they concentrate plant therapeutics into a small, easy delivered dose. They are a brilliant example of bioavailable treatments, they work quickly and are easy to absorb. Picked seasonally and immediately steeped in an alcohol and water mix, the tinctured plants retain their potency all year round. It also allows for a specific dose to be delivered with absolute consistency from one dose to the next.
At A.S Apothecary we make a lot of tinctures from the plants we grow and wild harvest, I have a particular love of seeing them all on the shelf, jar after jar of perfectly preserved plant power. We pick the plants when they are in their absolute prime - we use leaves, flowers, berries, seeds and roots in our work, each chosen and harvested when in their optimal state. We are guided in our work by the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia which sets out how herbs should be used to make various preparations including tinctures. Different plants have alcohol and water soluble compounds so the ratiio of water to alcohol varies according to the plant being used. It is endlessly fascinating.
We work a little differently with our tinctures at the Apothecary because my work spans several different therapeutic traditions and I have found ways of combining different approaches to make something really special. Heretical though it may seem, it's perfectly possible to bring together Homeopathy, Herbs and Flower Essences to make something so beautifully gentle but wonderfully effective.
We have 3 Tinctures that are always available and have a very good therapeutic rationale for their production. The Menopause Tincture is a really good example of why different therapeutic traditions have their place. I made a beautiful tincture to support women who were peri-menopausal and menopausal, it brought together herbs that I know are good for treating hot flushes and other symptoms of menopause. Then I was contacted by a number of women who couldn't take it because some of the herbs within had an oestrogen-like effect in the body and they had suffered from ER positive breast cancer which meant that these herbs were unsuitable. So I went back to the drawing board and made another option which is Homeopathic and equally effective but suitable for women with ER+ sensitivity. These are important decisions which we take seriously and the beauty of being so small is that we can pivot rapidly to make sure that what we offer will support the maximum number of women.
Our February offer is the Heartease Tincture - I love this product, it is unlike anything I've seen before. It is quite simply a hug in a bottle. I thought about all the language around the heart and how powerful that is - heartbroken, heartsore, heavy hearted, heartless, heart wrenching and so many more painful connotations, so I decided we needed Heartease as an antidote, to invite in love and warmth. Made from Roses to soothe the heart and Hawthorn with its mythology around love and protection and its wonderful circulation and heart support, plus Oak for strength, Rose Quartz for love and Lotus for emotional wellbeing. I take it every day - 10 drops in a little water - I find it just smooths out the bumps in the road and makes me feel settled, loved and still. With Valentine's Day just around the corner and all the emotion both positive and negative that stirs up, it seemed like the perfect offering.
Our third tincture is for the digestion, the Digestive Tincture is a lovely blend of 4 Mints and Marshmallow Root that we grow on the Croft to soothe and Fennel seeds for flatulence, I also added in Homeopathic Nux vomica which is the very best remedy for ailments from over indulgence. It's a lovely blend and works beautifully to ease digestion. I find it immensely helpful after a little too much rich food (back to the lamb again!)
The real beauty of our work up here is the variety of what we offer, we have a really simple approach to business - we take only what we need, to make the very best products we can, to help the most people we can manage. I think that's a very good lesson for life.
I saw an advertisement for Patagonia the other day and thought it was brilliant, it sums up my thoughts beautifully. Read it from the top down and then from the bottom up. We're definitely in the from the bottom up camp.
We’re all screwed
So don’t tell us that
We can imagine a healthy planet
Because at the end of the day
It’s too late to fix the climate crisis
And we refuse to believe
We need to demand a liveable future
Because we don’t have a choice