What a creative lot of posts from eager herbalists discovering about this ancient process of extracting herbal medicine! Following their intuition and guided by the plants around them, these herbies came up with some fabulous oxymels that we're all looking forward to seeing in the new year, and doing vicarious taste tests! Whilst I'd normally do a wrap up AND announce the next challenge, this one is worth a whole post of it's own. We'll be announcing the Christmas herbal challenge in a couple of days, so stay tuned and don't forget to join in!

Cayenne Oxymel

This one is by @chacald.dcymt who writes of her grandmother's recipe. Using cayenne flowers, mango vinegar and chamomile, she creates a gorgeous recipe which sounds super tasty! Her grandmother used it for a cold but also discovered it was good for scalp and hair health.

Winter Oxymel

@mike.cupcakes joined in for the first time. What was cool about this is that he USUALLY buys an elixir from the store for colds - this time he made his own!

Health Tonic

@rubido used a slightly different method with his version of a fire cider. I think everyone should make this recipe as it's so good as a daily tonic and helpful for the immunity.

Lung Support Oxymel

Lover's Oxymel

Using homegrown mullein and other herbs, @riverflows made a lung oxymel, inspired by @didivelikova's respiratory support below. She also wrote about a lover's oxymel, made from the Plant Clinic book she's been reading of late. An aphrodesiac oxymel is pretty tempting, right?

Respiratory Support Oxymel

Sweet Dreams Oxymel

@didivelikova created two oxymels for the challenge. Her recipes sure look pretty. I love how she trusted her intuition, which all herbalists should do. We often have the answers right within us. The plants talk to us, and tell us what we need.

Rose and Lavender for Self Care

@clareartista made oxymel for the first time. What a lovely combination - soothing, gentle and sedative! I love her reflection on food as medicine, storing oxymels in the kitchen so she remembers to shake them!

And it's next to the fridge, which reminds me to shake it every time I walk by: this is an important part for me, of making things food-and-medicine-related, as it's easy in a busy kitchen to forget something on a shelf or inside a cupboard; I've found it powerfully useful to store all things precisely where I will see them, according to when I'll need to tend to them or use them!

CBD Thyme Bay Leaves Oxymel

@edprivat created something that I had never thought of - using a bit of that special green leaf with bay and thyme! Well I never. An oxymel that gets you high. Can't wait to see the results of this one!

Veld Oxymel

@buckaroobaby got wild with her oxymel, going into the south African veld.

She reflected on whether any of us have what it takes to survive, and knowing the plants around us can make that difference:

What does Survival look like? Would we survive if we had only nature to sustain us? Has modern society lost the life skills that kept our great-great-greats alive? Have our first world lifestyles mollycoddled the basic knowledge of food and medicine? Do we still have the instinct - hidden and dormant - to truly live off the land? In the recent weeks I have been troubled by our ignorance of basic survival. Animals know instinctually what to eat - or not! Us? Foraging is so much more than picking pretty wildflowers or taking photos of unusual bark. There are a select few local people that retain something of their ancestors knowledge of medicinal plants. When I started researching I was overwhelmed by the amount of veld vegetation that is both food and medicine. The important thing is to know which. Your life could very well depend on it.

That's really what these challenges on Herbal HIve are all about - connecting to ancestral knowledge of medicinal plants, going on journeys of discovery, and reawakening that knowledge we have within of the plant kingdom and it's capacity to heal and nourish us. We hope you join in the next one!

Winners

25 HIVE on offer this week - it's proportionate to the amount of entries recieved. As usual, super hard to chose the winners so please know that you are all amazing and if you dont win this week, I'm sure you'll win another time! I'm looking for really good quality photos as well as interesting stories, anecdotes, reflections and creativity, and I'm sure you'll agree these winners are well deserved.

1st Place - 10 Hive @buckaroobaby
Runners up - 5 Hive each @mike.cupcakes @edprivat @chacald.dcymt

Congratulations, and see you for the next challenge!

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