Berry Good For You, For Coughs, Home is Where the Hearth Is & Light My Fire

Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
2^nd December 2023

Berry Good For You

Well, if the saying that ‘a good crop of berries is a sign of a hard winter’ is accurate, then I think we could be in for a ‘belter’.  The holly trees are absolutely laden with berries and hedgerows are still hosting ruby-red rosehips.

Rich in vitamin C, rosehips are one of nature’s finest medicines, containing beneficial amounts of vitamin A, D and E too. They also contain an anti-inflammatory and have been shown to help relieve the symptoms of arthritis.  Nature’s way of giving back to gardeners maybe.

The best way to benefit from their properties is to use them to make a syrup, which can be taken by the spoonful as a good-tasting cough medicine, or diluted in hot or cold water for a healthy drink – or it can be added to alcoholic cocktails for a fruity twist.

The wild dog rose hips (Rosa canina) make the best syrup although the rugosa rose hips (Rosa rugosa) – which you may have in the garden – are suitable too and are larger hips.

The rose hips are often traditionally boiled with sugar and water to make the syrup, but making a ‘raw’ syrup will ensure you retain the maximum goodness and flavour.

Harvest your rosehips and rinse them under water.  Trim off the ends and pierce each one with a fork. Sterilise and dry a suitable, sealable jar and place a layer of caster or granulated sugar on the bottom, then a layer of hips, repeating the layers and filling any gaps with sugar.  Just keep layering until you run out of rosehips or until the jar is full – there are no exact quantities. Seal the jar and keep at room temperature for a couple of weeks, turning it from time to time. The sugar will draw the liquid out of the rosehips to create the syrup.

When syrupy, strain it through a fine cloth, like muslin, to remove the fine hairs, which would otherwise cause irritation.  Don’t skip this stage even if you think you can’t see any hairs – trust me you don’t want to be ingesting them.  Seal the syrup in sterilised bottles and keep in the fridge.

For Coughs

At this time of year I always make a homemade cough syrup from a recipe that a client gave me years ago – her husband used to call it ‘snake juice’.

The following is the ‘original recipe’ as given to me by my client who used to make enough to give to friends and family (an original Christmas gift) – but you may want to adjust the quantities accordingly.

You will need 4 lemons, 2 large onions, a large jar of honey, a bottle of blackberry brandy and a bottle of peppermint schnapps.  Slice the lemons and onions and layer them in a large sterilised jar. Pour the honey over the top and add the brandy and schnapps. Leave for 2 or 3 weeks to infuse.  If kept in a cool place, the syrup will last well over a year, although as gifts and ‘preventative measures’ it almost certainly won’t last that long.  I take a spoonful each day – prevention is better than cure.

Always keen to swerve coughs and colds, at this time of year I often have a spoonful of blackcurrant jam in my coffee too – it tastes good and provides a bit more vitamin C.  And I am a great fan of Hibiscus Flower Tea. A little like cranberry juice, it is a bit of an acquired taste but the health benefits are worth ‘enjoying it’ for and the high vitamin content will also help to keep coughs and colds at bay.  Always chose the whole flowers, not just crushed petals, and simply add hot water.  After being used for tea, you can ‘re-purpose’ the (now) hydrated flowers in cakes, porridge, bread and all sorts of desserts – and my chickens also love them.  I’ve got to keep them healthy too.

Home is Where the Hearth Is

Whilst I appreciate that wood-burning stoves – like so many other things – are now controversial (to use my favourite Monty Don quote when asked about anything controversial … ‘it’s complicated’), it is only the thought of settling down in front of my wood-burner for the evening with Yogi that keeps me going whilst working outdoors in the harsh winter weather.  ‘Weather you wouldn’t put a milk bottle out in,’ to quote my brother.

Dad always used to say the wood that he, my brother and I used to cut and haul for the winter would warm us three times – once when we cut it, twice when we hauled and stacked it and the third time was when we actually put it on the fire.  Getting wood for winter was always a major part of the year when we were kids and has continued to be the case now both my brother and I both have wood-burners.  They are still great days – even if they get more tiring each year.  Even though I have my chain saw license, I admit that it is my brother that does all the saw work – post menopause, I simply don’t have the kind of attention span needed to use a chainsaw.  And trust me, the last thing anyone needs working next to them is a menopausal woman with a chainsaw.

These days (as always) I am happiest when stacking the wood.  It’s not unlike dry stone walling – I find it quite meditative and I verge on being OCD about it.

But whilst sitting in front of a log burner or open fire with a dog and a glass of ‘something’, conjures up thoughts of relaxation, many are oblivious about the amount of work involved to ‘get there’.  And of course, a wood-burner will only heat your ‘whole’ home if that home is tiny and heavily insulated. In most draughty cottages, numerous draught excluders, a blanket over your knees, thick jumpers and heavy-duty slippers will be as essential as a good supply of well-seasoned and dried logs.

Because most stoves will rarely burn unattended for more than four or five hours, your wood-burner can dominate your life like a new puppy. I recall a friend having her first wood-burner years ago and complaining ‘it was like her husband’ – as soon as she stopped giving it attention, it went out!

I don’t attempt to keep mine in all day (wood-burner not husband) unless it’s the weekend, so every weekday evening I let the embers die down before I go to bed and then put beetroot and jacket potatoes wrapped in (thick) foil in the ashes. Both are fully cooked in the morning and sauté nicely for tea.

Light My Fire

Despite being brought up with open fires and wood-burners I have only just learned a completely ‘game-changing’ way of lighting my wood-burner. It’s called ‘lighting from the top down’ and is absolutely brilliant.  There are plenty of YouTube videos demonstrating it online but basically … lay a couple of the thicker dried logs at the bottom of the wood-burner on a thin layer of ash underneath (don’t clean your stove out fully each time).  Add some thinner (my brother calls them ‘intermediate’) dried logs, making a ‘log cabin’ shape with 1-2 layers of these thinner logs – on top of the thick logs. Stack the kindling in another ‘log cabin’ shape on top of the intermediate logs, and pop a natural firelighter on top.  Build another layer of kindling and add another natural firelighter on top.  Light both of the natural firelighters, making sure the vents are open accordingly to your make of wood-burner.  After 7-10 minutes, you should have a roaring fire, so then just ‘feed’ as you would normally.

It sounds a bit of a faff but trust me, it is staggeringly effective – and it means that I look forward to lighting my fire even more now!