A Project: Mullein, Part I

[kellan_the_tabby]

Thanks to a suggestion from questrix I am embarking on a Project. So I'm gonna chronicle it here, partly for your edification but partly because this way I'll know when I started the stuff.

Here's what I have to start with. So at the event this weekend, there was a lot of mullein about; I picked a bunch. No more than two leaves from each plant and maybe only one from the small ones, because I don't want to overpick. Carefully picked only the good ones, no bugs or dirt of stuff. Put them in a plastic bag and drove home.

That was Sunday. Sunday night I was too exhausted to do much anything else so they didn't get processed until yesterday -- I soaked them in water overnight so they wouldn't wilt, which seemed to work fine. Monday I bought an entire gallon of apple cider vinegar and started processing.

No soft brush so I just used fingers and a lot of water to clean them. No pickle jar so I used a big plastic tub. Let them drain a bit to get the worst of the water off, wedged them in the tub, poured in the vinegar. And in the closet it goes for six weeks.

In the meantime, I've some dried mullein about; I made tea with it last night and will have a cup every day until the tincture is done. It tastes like poo but I breathed a little easier afterwards. I can deal with poo-tasting for breathing, and getting an effect after only one mug is brilliant.

questrix, how often do you take that one ounce of tincture? I figure a half-gallon of tincture isn't going to last me a year, so I'm going to get another batch started soon, but if you could give me a vague idea of how much you need to last a year, I'd appreciate it...

And thank you! I'll keep y'all updated.

Comments

[kass-rants.livejournal.com]

Good luck with it! So far none of the side-effects of that stuff you took last year that you were allergic to?

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

If you want it to taste a little less like poo you might mix the mullein with some peppermint and maybe even some licorice root. I'd bet a 1-1-1 ratio would still work well and would taste much better. Especially if you added a bit of stevia to it instead of sugar. Barring a few other ingredients that's the basis for my cold and flu tea, which works just as well as any prepared cold medicine I've ever used for 4 hours at a pop.

Oddly, I hadn't seen the older post. I've been missing huge chunks of my Flist but I think I might be in denial that it's too large for the amount of time I have to read it.

[questrix.livejournal.com]

I usually use it once a week. If I have a cold, then daily until the chest crap breaks.

Last year I only had 1 cold and it wasn't bad. I think I used it for 4 days straight. Chest crap broke up and went back to once a week.

Remember its only a shot right. So 1 oz.

I usually start at the beginning of the fall which is one of my bad times, until the sun shines for longer than 5 hours in the spring and the temperature has been high enough to get rid of the dampness of winter.

Hope it helps.

q