A CITY GIRL: Healing Experiments

As you know, I've been on a quest to fix my digestive issue for quite some time. After a few years with a specialist and a surgeon, they were both unable to help me. One of my favorite experiments was acupuncture. I came close to fainting once, but when I got past that feeling, I loved it. It didn't help with my digestion, but it helped so many other ways, like sleeping and stress. I'd love to continue it if it was more affordable.

My next experiment has been herbs and medicinal. Maybe they will help. I'm not an expert, so these experiments are self guided by listening to my body's reaction.

1-DANDELION FLOWER INFUSION. I've made this three times, so I'm unsure of the official outcome. I've been making the infusion when I find enough flowers. This is about once every two weeks which is probably not enough for an official experiment.

Recipe: 10-12 Dandelion flower heads and boiling water. I really add as many flowers as I can find. Ants love the flowers, so washing is a must. No matter what, I still seem to get them crawling everywhere. After washing, I remove as much stem as possible from each flower and put the petals in a seal able jar. Then add about 2 cups boiling water, seal the jar and let it set for at least four hours. I use a loose leaf tea strainer to separate the pedals. I drink only about 1 cup of the tea.

2-COMFREY & MINT INFUSION. I've been drinking about 2 cups a day, 1 cup in the morning and 1 cup at night for about three weeks. The results are excellent when paired with CALM. I was feeling over confident and stopped taking the Calm and drank the infusion only in the morning. It was a terrible idea. I'm back to square one.

Some will not recommend comfrey internally, but I've done lots of research and feel comfortable with this experiment.

Recipe: I haven't been good at measuring the amount of comfrey or mint leaves. I think I make it different each time. The glass jar is from Ikea that I love. I add leaves of each and fill up the jar with boiling water. I let it sit over night and strain the infusion before drinking. I don't think I'd drink it if it sat longer than three days, though.

3-ALOE SHAKE. This past weekend, I separated the pups from my main aloe plant. I had plenty of leftovers, so I'd thought I've make some juice turned shake. I don't have enough aloe to do this often enough to make a difference, but I'm considering trying the store bought aloe water. The shake tasted pretty good, though.

I've previously tried adding aloe to orange juice that was terrible. I think soaking it removes the harsh smell/taste from the aloe.

Recipe: I harvest just the meat and soaked it in water for about an hour. Then added a bit of honey, yogurt, and whole strawberries to the blender.

4-DANDELION FLOWER SYRUP. Yum! This might not be healing, but I had to add it anyway. I've made this twice now and hold back from making again. It's really good over french toast, biscuits and my favorite is in coffee. This was a huge hit at the office as a coffee sweetener.

Recipe: You know that other cup from the dandelion infusion? That's the cup that you add to a medium sauce pan with two cups sugar. It's a 1:2 ratio. I let it boil down a bit. Let it cool some and serve.

No one thing seems to be the perfect fix so far, but I think with a few combinations and the right diet, I can get things right again. Plus, these experiments are practically free since I already had everything which is an experiment worth doing in my book.