Hyssop for tea?

[werecat]

Ok, I'm looking at the Baker Creek catalog and they list both blue hyssop and anise hyssop. The anice talks about what a marvelous sweet tea it makes and that it is also medicinal, but the blue hyssop talks specifically about it being a natural anitviral plant. Here are my main two questions:

1] Is one or the other better as an antiviral?

2] What part of the plant would I save and dry to use for tea? flowers or leaves?

[Brook]

The blue is the more medicinal one. You use the aerial parts---that is, leaves and flowers. For a very effective antiviral tea used for the later stages of coughs, colds, and flu, combine it with horehound.

By the by, the hyssop referred to in the bible is neither. Instead its an oregano called zaatar---which also is the name of a mideastern spice blend that uses it.

[Lavandula Girl]

You can also make a cough syrup with hyssop, if you want. I do it with fresh hyssop leaves and flowers, which you decoct in potato vodka. After about 4 weeks you strain it and mix it with a simple syrup. It can be taken either in a teasponful as an expectorant, or also made into a toddy which is a great, fragrant flu remedy.

[Brook]

You can reduce that soak time by a week, Lavandula. All of the active constituents will have dissolved in 21 days.

Personally, I prefer honey when making herbal syrups. Somehow, the idea of using refined sugar as part of a health product seems contradictory.

[Lavandula Girl]

Thanks - my old herbal said 4 weeks - well, we felt better, anyway. Simple syrup can be made with unrefined sugars. We started making these when our kids were small, and some studies have shown that natural honeys can make babies sick. Cane syrup can be used, too, but the taste can overwhelm some herbs.

[Brook]

Certainly you felt better. There's nothing wrong with waiting a month. It just isn't necessary is all.

It's true. Honey is not recommended for infants under the age of 2 because it contains a relatively high level of boutulism spores. Not enough to bother a healthy adult, but, perhaps, too much for babies.

Even so, honey is said to be the only non-processed food that doesn't spoil.

>.......but the taste can overwhelm some herbs.<

Hey! It's medicine. It's not supposed to taste good. ;>)

[Lavandula Girl]

I subscribe to the Mary Poppins school of medicinals.... make it taste better and maybe the argument about taking it won't even happen! Actually, I think she was pumping those Victorian children full of cod liver oil, but there you go! (or there they went ;) ! I don't mind the taste of cane syrup, but the kids do.

[Brook]

I was just pulling your chain a bit. I generally agree: if you make it palatable it's more likely to be taken as needed.

I use peppermint for that purpose as much as possible. Only as a last resort do I turn to sweeteners. But sometimes you just gotta.

[werecat]

Thanks ladies. :) I will probably grow both and blend in a tea for my dad. The anise taste will get it down him. :) and the antiviral will help with everything else.

[Brook]

FYI Werecat: I'm a he, not a she.

[dirtundernails]

Tee hee. I was waiting for that statement, Brook. I caught some time back that you refered to your wife, and was surprised, as all Brooks I've known were female. Had the same thing happen here as all Shannons I knew were female, and men are named Shannon here in the Ozarks of Missourah.

dun

[Lavandula Girl]

We named our daughter Kendall when we lived in the Seattle area, and then moved to Virginia, where everyone asks why she got a boy name.... oh well! A rose by any other name....

[Brook]

Girls usually spell it with an "e", i.e., Brooke. The male version is most often Brooks, and I'm often called that erroneously.

Lavendula I'm surprised you get that question. It's a long honored tradition in the south to give a child the mother's maiden name as a given name. That's why there are so many people with, seemingly, double last names, double girl names, and double boy names, no matter what the gender.

A rose by any other name......would be a chrysanthemum. ;>)

[Lavandula Girl]

Oh I'm pretty sure my chain's being yanked - moved to Virginia from Seattle, but grew up in Connecticut, so I'm way too Yankee for my neighbors (I've got that whole CT teeth-clenching accent, and say hollow instead of holler when giving directions). They're coming around slowly, even though I'm not kin to any of them, but given the opportunity, that chain definitely gets a strong tug! It's all good. :cool:

[Brook]

We've been here 20 years and Friend Wife _still_ says hollow.

You can take the girl out of the city, ah reckon, but you can't take the city out of the girl!

But, Lavandula, you know you'll have arrived when you can tell us the plural of "y'all."

[Lavandula Girl]

I hear it's "all y'all", but I grew up hearing "youse guys", and still sound like a poser saying either!

[werecat]

FYI Werecat: I'm a he, not a she.
OOps.... Sorry.... :">

[ipaintedmyhousewhite]

Gosh, I didn't know that you weren't "supposed" to give honey to the munchkins under 2, I thought it was age one. Oops. Anyway, glad to know that.

Kind of off subject, but do any of you know anything about the "raw" honey...completely unheated and unrefined. Please don't scare me b/c I love it, but ages of people it'd be "ok" for? If you don't think it's okay for any age, maybe you shouldn't tell me unless you really really think I might die. I will be too sad if I am deprived.

[Lavandula Girl]

No worries for those over really about a year, but two to be on the safest side - honey can contain botulism spores, which in a fully developed digestive tract are relatively harmless, but in their bitty baby guts can be a problem. If a baby who has been served honey appears lethargic, has trouble eating, and has a weak cry, get them medical attention quickly. As they mature out of babyhood, honey has anecdotally been shown to actually improve allergic reactions like hayfever, and should be served daily! (plus it's so yummy!)

[ipaintedmyhousewhite]

Yes, my kids Looooove it, all kinds and stages... from the rawest to the most refined :) They beg for it! We all still have allergies, but I do think it helps some.

[johno]

I thought the plural of ya'll was you'uns...