Last night at dinner, my oldest son started complaining of sharp stomach pain. He’s not one to complain, and I saw that he was bent over at the table as he told me that because of the pain. I asked him when they started, and he said his stomach was hurting a little before dinner, but he thought they were hunger pains. Once he ate something, they got worse very fast.
When I made that herb order yesterday, I had read a bit about fennel on their site, and remembered it was good for digestive complaints. I ordered some for my husband, but of course the order won’t arrive for a week, so that didn’t help me. However, I happened to have grown fennel this year in my garden, though I honestly didn’t know what to do with it. I harvested some of the seeds about three weeks ago and put them in a container in my spice cabinet, and that’s what I pulled out last night. They have a pleasant, licorice-like flavor. I quickly made him a cup of fennel tea – a teaspoon of the seeds, 1 teaspoon of honey, and hot water, and told him to drink it.
Because he’s fifteen, he didn’t mind the seeds swimming around at the top of his cup – a younger child would have needed them to be strained out. Literally two minutes later, he told me he was starting to feel much better. He said, “When you gave this to me, you didn’t think it would really help, did you?” I told him of course I thought it would help, that’s why I gave it to him! Anyway, within five minutes of that, he was feeling totally better – he kept saying how amazing it was – “It’s a miracle, I can’t believe it!”
Today my dd13 went to a still photography workshop with my dd12, and they both really, really enjoyed it and learned a lot. But she came home feeling very carsick. I remembered reading a couple of weeks ago that fennel was good for nausea, so I told her to make herself a cup like what I made for ds last night. She did, and that was the last I heard about her feeling nauseous! (I would have otherwise told her to have some fresh ginger and honey, but this was quicker and easier.)
It’s so nice to be able to quickly and easily help alleviate unpleasant physical symptoms for my family! Today I called the company back and asked them to tack onto my order a half gallon of vegetable glycerine, since that way I can make tinctures with the herbs and can easily get it into my baby and toddler – I just can’t see them drinking a whole cup of tea when they’re feeling under the weather. And the tinctures last a lot longer than herbs maintain their pungency, so that will be another benefit.
Avivah
