Category Archives: Healthy Living

Making a flu bomb to cure cold symptoms

Healthy Living, home remedies

My throat was feeling a little scratchy yesterday morning, so my first activity of the morning was self-care: I made myself a flu bomb.

At this time, when one can so easily be overwhelmed by anxiety or stress thinking about the state of the country/world, I’m finding it helpful to focus on small projects. I don’t have time or headspace for anything big, so I’m talking about small things like cleaning my ceiling fan, binding some of our children’s books that were falling apart, making spice blends – and making myself a flu bomb.

Now, a flu bomb is more of a concept than a specific recipe. Basically, you mix several foods with demonstrated powerful antioxidant/antibiotic/antiviral qualities and then drink up!

I was reminded about the flu bomb when listening to a talk on home remedies by Barbara O’Neil. (I’m making the effort to listen to topics that aren’t related to the war, that I can learn something concrete from. Again, putting the focus on something I can do in the moment.)

Barbara’s recipe is: garlic (as much as you can but three cloves a day is recommended), ginger root (1/4 t.), eucalyptus oil/tea tree oil (1 drop – added note – do not use eucalyptus for children under 10), cayenne pepper (1/2 t.), juice of lemon, 1 t. honey. Grate the ginger and garlic, add the remaining ingredients as well as 1/2 – 1 c. water, and mix it all together. You can strain it and then drink it; this is enough for one flu bomb/one dose.

Over a month ago I decided to be proactive and have my supertonic ready to go if cold symptoms made their appearance in our home. (Some people call this fire cider.) Using my homemade apple cider vinegar as a base, I added garlic and chopped onion and let it steep for a few weeks before straining it out. I didn’t have the other ingredients that are commonly used when making supertonic, like hot pepper, ginger, or fresh lemons, but it’s still really good.

To make a flu bomb, I decided to use my supertonic as a base. I didn’t have fresh ginger or cayenne pepper (to remedy my pantry lapse I bought a kilo bag of powdered ginger and cayenne today), and though I put my bottle of tea tree oil on the counter with the intent to add it to my mix, I inadvertently placed it where it was obscured and couldn’t find it until two hours later when I no longer needed it. 🙂

Keeping it simple, I didn’t chop or mince or grate anything. I blended my infused apple cider vinegar together with five cloves of garlic, two peeled lemons, a sprinkle of powdered tumeric, some water and a teaspoon or two of maple syrup. I chose to drink the blended mixture rather than strain it; again, that’s me keeping it simple. You can strain it!

I drank more than half right away, and put the rest in a bottle to have later in the day. I liked the flavor – it’s like a lemonade with some kick – and definitely felt the benefits within a few minutes: my throat felt better almost right away and my slightly raspy breathing quickly became normal.

I saw the suggestion to prepare the flu bombs in a large batch, then freeze them in mini muffin pans; you add hot water when ready to drink. That’s a good idea. When I blended the lemon, it tasted fine when I had it right away, but by the time I had my second dose, I it had been in the fridge for hours and became bitter. Freezing it right after making it would probably avoid that issue.

Having said that, I liked the freshness of it and time and energy allowing, would prefer to make it right before drinking it.

In addition to the ingredients I listed above, you can also add in black pepper or cinnamon. Black pepper and tumeric are a good combination and advised to use together since they work synergistically together. I’ve seen radishes recommended as something that cuts phlegm and even bought some to have on hand for this purpose, but they don’t stay fresh forever and by the time I was making my flu bomb, the radishes had already been eaten as a salad. 🙂

When do you take a flu bomb? You can use it when you feel cold symptoms coming on or when you’re already sick; it’s helpful for bronchitis, flu, sinusitis, asthma or any upper respiratory complaint. It’s recommended to take it twice a day; how many days you take it depends on if you’re already really sick when you take it, but usually three days is enough to have you on the mend.

Isn’t it nice that you can whip up something so helpful from ingredients that are probably sitting in your kitchen right now?

Avivah

How to reduce your likelihood of catching a virus

Healthy Living

Last week, many of my family members spent Shabbos together in Jerusalem and afterwards several of our older children had mild cold symptoms. One asked me with concern if it had been brought back to the rest of the family here.

I told her not to worry – no one here caught anything, but even if they did, these things really don’t concern me. People may be under the weather but they get better – this is the natural cycle and it’s not something to get anxious about, or make a big deal of. Every person has been supplied with an incredibly sophisticated system to protect them from disease and help them heal if they do come down with something – our immune systems.

Three years ago I was talking with my accupuncturist and she introduced me to the term ‘terrain versus germ theory’. While I wasn’t familiar with the term prior to our talk, I was very familiar with the thinking behind each theory.

The germ theory posits that the germ is the danger to health. The focus is thus on eliminating the germ, and is the focal point of the medical world.

The terrain theory posits that it’s the health of the host that is of primary concern, and the threat of a germ is minimized by strengthening the host.

Why do some people stay healthy when others around them are getting sick? Is this random, or is this something we can affect with our direct actions?

There are germs floating around everywhere, all the time. To focus on the germs that we can directly do nothing about is disempowering and makes us fearful and passive victims, waiting to catch whatever the latest bug is going around. This approach leads people to feel helpless, that the answer is outside of their locus of control, and dependent on others to find the answer for them.

While germs have been and will always be a biological reality, when we focus on the health of the individual, on supporting the most powerful health system that is known to man – our immune system – we take back power.

There is so much you can do about your personal health. Stress and poor diet are two highly negative influencers of personal health, both of which lead individuals to be much more likely to catch whatever is floating around.

The best defense is a good offense! To minimize the likelihood of getting sick, you can proactively focus on building your personal immune system.

Reduce stress – Turn off the news that is non-stop anxiety inducing; bad news is their business and how they make money! Who benefits if you get anxious and start looking outside of yourself for solutions? Instead focus on all the wonderful things in your life. Taking time to write three things you’re grateful for daily requires just a few minutes and shifts your mindset and focus. Negative emotions weaken immune response, and positive thinking strengthens your mind and body!

Get out into sunlight and fresh air. I always find my mood brightens without moments of doing this. Spend time in nature. Twenty to thirty minutes a day spent just sitting in nature is correlated with a notable drop in cortisol levels.

Take a daily walk or exercise in some other way. Exercise strengthens the immune system. If you walk with a friend or family member, you get the double benefits of increased relationship while exercising!

Invest in the relationships that matter most to you and and spend more time interacting with those you love. Did you know hugs strengthen the immune system? The less robust someone is, the more they need this – for example, our elderly need increased physical contact and social connections.

Improve diet – The most common diseases that kill people in the US every year are: heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, obesity, Alzheimers, and diabetes. Do you know that almost every single one is highly correlated to diet?

Simply eliminating sugar from the diet would dramatically improve the immune system of every single person on the planet. It’s curious how hospital menus are filled with processed food and sugar, and also interesting how people are frequently told by doctors that it doesn’t make a difference what they eat, when diet is the biggest influencer of health.

There are also many ways to alternatively support immune health, some of which I’ve shared over the years. Well known supplements to boost immune function include vitamin C, vitamin D, and zinc. There are many, many other ways to prevent and treat illness; in the past I’ve shared different home effective home remedies that use ingredients found in the typical kitchen.

If there were a significant health threat, what would be cause natural immunity to be negatively impacted and make people more susceptible to getting sick?

First of all, raise stress levels – flood the airways with frightening and alarming news.

Simultaneously forbid stress-reducing outlets – spending time with family and friends, exercise, time in nature and physical contact between humans.

Cause deep personal economic distress by shutting down the ability to earn and pay bills. Keep children from attending school and take away the predictability of their regular routine.

Mock and marginalize anyone who suggests that individuals can reduce their risk of catching whatever is going around, or treating it, by improving diet and using alternative means to support their immune systems. Insist that nothing matters except the germ, and all steps taken to wipe it out are justified, regardless of negative impact.

Does this look like the perfect recipe for physical disease and mental health issues?

Worldwide these measures were taken to supposedly keep the population healthy. It’s distressing but not surprising to see the statistics and recognize the feverish focus on the germ, with the corresponding stressors on the host, have had a hugely negative impact on world health. Hopefully humanity has learned the dangers of an approach like this.

Reducing exposure to germs can never be of benefit to the average person unless there is simultaneously a focus on improving physical and emotional health.

As a parent who cares deeply about the well-being of my family and has spent hundreds of hours learning about various aspects of health, my focus is on supporting wellness, not focusing on disease. That has been extremely effective throughout the years, and continues to be where I recommend that concerned individuals put their focus whenever health is a concern.

Be empowered, not fearful. As we move into the fall season when sickness begins to become a concern, be assured that there is so much you can do to protect your families. Regardless of current or future threats to your health, this is a timeless approach that is helpful regardless of the specifics of a particular pathogen, virus or microbe.

Avivah

Recap of Ancient Israel herbalism conference

Healthy Living, home remedies, Self-Growth

Where do I start?!

I enjoyed every single second of this conference, which was wonderful in every way from start to finish.

First of all, the location was amazing. The conference was held in a resort in Poriya, and I don’t think you could find a more physically glorious location. The panoramic view in all directions of the Kineret and surrounding mountains was stunning. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny.

I didn’t think much about who the attendees would be when I registered; I was going for the opportunity to increase my knowledge. I didn’t expect to know anyone there other than two of the organizers, but I was pleasantly surprised! I met an attendee of the 2010 Torah Home Education Conference that I organized in the US (who recently made aliya), someone who contacted me a couple of years ago about potential communities to move to in Israel, someone who contacted me nine years ago for family advice, someone else who contacted me for a session, someone I had known online for 17 years but finally met in person, someone who had spent Shabbos with us in Yavneel…it seemed everywhere I turned I was seeing familiar names.

And it wasn’t just the people who I had some prior connection with who I enjoyed spending time with. There were a lot of really awesome people and I made some new friends. It was wonderful to be with people who shared my belief in the amazing ability of the immune system to heal, and are also interested in learning more ways to strengthen the entire body that are nourishing and non-toxic.

The speakers. Wow. What a lineup of incredibly knowledgeable and experienced practitioners. I attended as many workshops and lectures as I could, but it was impossible to be at three places at once so I can only share about the talks that I attended.

I missed the opening circle on Tuesday afternoon but got there immediately afterward in time for dinner, which was the perfect time to begin to meet other attendees. (All the meals were delicious and abundant, and every meal was a time that I enjoyed getting to know people.)

Afterwards, there was a talk by the three organizers of the conference. Conference founder Rivkah Asoulin, herbalist and fertility consultant, knocked it out of the park with her powerful comments about healing, intuition and bodily integrity, and Gilla Weiss and Chava Dagan were also fantastic as they talked about the role of feminine healing.

I then stayed for hours talking to other attendees, and got home close to midnight. That was really enjoyable but I didn’t get much sleep before the next day’s busy schedule!

I appreciated being able to attend on a day pass, which allowed me to be present for my kids in the morning, and then get there in time for breakfast. After arriving towards the end of breakfast, shortly after the first talk of the day began.

Sara Chana Silverstein, US herbalist, homeopath, lactation consultant and speaker gave an amazing talk about how to do intake of clients, which sounded like a dry topic but I think she must make every topic fascinating. I thought it would have no relevance for me since I’m not a practitioner but it was very interesting.

Nir Avraham, founder of Trifolium, Israel’s first one hundred percent herbal pharmacy, spoke about the healing power of assorted herbs in the mint family. While I was familiar with most of the herbs, I gained technical knowledge that I didn’t have.

Next I attended a two hour talk by Matthew Wood on blood indicators. While that sounds like another dry topic, it was fascinating. Matthew is the author of many books about herbs and has helped tens of thousands of people over his decades of practice. He’s filled with knowledge, experience and great stories, and is a genuinely down to earth person, caring person.

We had lunch, and I then participated in a plant walk led by Peretz and Roni Gan, herbalists, agronomists and founders of Al Alim Center for Herbal Medicine. During a plant walk, local plants are identified and the qualities of each are discussed. I especially these hands-on learning opportunities.

Herbalist and doula Gilla Weiss was an online friend of many years and it was a joy to finally meet in person. As a doula and herbalist, she is extremely knowledgeable and experienced regarding the use of herbs in pregnancy and postpartum, and I participated in her workshop for birth and postpartum herbs. I appreciated the opportunity to walk away with a lovely blend of herbs and while I made mixtures like these for myself in the past, I feel inspired to make more of these blends to share with daughters and daughters-in-law.

Next was dinner, followed by a musical ensemble. Since the night before I didn’t get home until almost midnight since I was enjoy chatting so much, I disciplined myself to leave earlier and got home at 10 pm so I would get enough sleep to more fully enjoy the next day’s session.

The last day began with breakfast, where I sat with a journalist who wrote for a well-known Israel international news site. I told him that seeing his articles in the first months of the ‘pandemic’ were encouraging to me at a time that I wondered if journalism was dead. He flatly replied, “It is.”

We then had a thought-provoking conversation about as a writer, what and how to share, and my conflicts in that regard. He suggested that I write – just for myself – all the things that I want to talk about, and then maybe at one point, maybe in years, I’ll feel ready to pull them all out. He made the decision to quit the news site he was writing for, and to leave behind the stress, high blood pressure and having to fight for every article that he wrote, and instead moved to a different organization. I could have sat there for much, much longer with him and his wife, but the next talk was beginning so we cut it short.

The first talk of the day was a talk by Matthew Wood on plant energetics. It was another interesting and educational talk with lots of great stories and examples.

I next attended a workshop on making herbal creams, with Boaz Tzur, Israeli herbalist and producer of his own line of herbal creams, tinctures and other products. I’ve made salve in the past and making a cream is just one step up from that. Now that I have some direction on how to do this, I’m planning to experiment with making a cream of my own after the wedding and Pesach are over.

Next I attended another plant walk, this time with a foraging focus, led by Kate Breslaw. I appreciated hearing a different perspective, and again seeing some of the plants I had first learned about the day before was very helpful. It takes time to learn to recognize plants and I now have two new plants to add my repertoire of wild edibles that I’m comfortable foraging (wild lettuce and cleavers), and a third, lambsquarter, that I’m not sure I’ll easily recognize but will be looking for it. (There were more than just these herbs talked about, but others I was familiar with already.)

Then we had our final meal at the conference, before continuing with the next workshops.

I was conflicted about which workshop to attend, and signed up and then unsigned up for both. The two options I couldn’t decide between was making a botanical beeswax candle, or herbs for veterinary use. I decided to do something fun, since I had so much information I was accruing, but after a few minutes waiting for the candle making to begin, checked in with myself and felt it would be a better fit for me at that moment to attend the pet workshop.

That was a great decision, and I enjoyed every minute of it! This was led by Chava Dagan, with whom I felt an affinity before I had any idea how many interests we share (that I didn’t know about until I looked at her website after the conference). I really enjoyed her presentation style, which was a natural fit for me, and the information about how to use herbs to keep animals healthy was validating and encouraging.

The conference ended with a panel of almost all the herbalists who had spoken, followed by a closing circle.

I got so much value for every single shekel spent, and was so glad that I attended. I don’t know what next year will hold, but if Ancient Roots Israel has another conference, I’ll certainly want to attend.

Now I need to go through all of my notes to process and organize the information, so it doesn’t stay on the written pages! I also want to order a couple more books on herbalism – I only have two – to have some good resource material on hand to easily access.

Avivah

Ancient Roots Israel herbalism conference – starting today!

Healthy Living, home remedies, Intentional Spending,

When I learned that the Ancient Roots Israel herbalism conference would be held this year in Poriya, not far from my home, I was excited that I’d be able to attend on a day pass. I could put my kids on the school van in the morning, daven, milk the goats, and make the fifteen minute drive over in time to join others for breakfast!

Then my daughter got engaged, and with so much to be done in a short time (the wedding will be the end of February and we have a short engagement period of just seven weeks), and I wondered if it was responsible of me to take two days out to learn about plant uses when there were so many pressing things to attend to.

Last week I concluded that busy or not, I would regret giving this up if I didn’t go. (Have you ever noticed how we parents so often give up the things that are important to us, to do the things that are important to other people?) Just a week before the conference was to begin, I registered.

There’s a lot I know about health and healing, but I enjoy continuing to expand my knowledge, and learning about the medicinal qualities of the plants all around us is empowering. I remember when I learned on a nature walk in Maryland about the ability of plantain to instantly soothe bee stings, and soon after used that knowledge when a boy next to us at my son’s baseball game was stung. (We were sitting on the grass, so I quickly picked some plantain growing right on the ground next to us, told him to chew it and put it on his sting. He was amazed that right away it felt better.) It’s not just for my own family but to help others that I want to learn more, though I have no desire or intention to pursue healing at a professional level.

Some of the compounds in plants have been isolated and used to produce pharmaceutical products, but many more remain unknown to most, despite having been effectively used for thousands of years in cultures across the world. Last year I went on a foraging hike and enjoyed learning about the plants growing locally, and my interest in learning more continues to grow.

Here’s the schedule of events for the Ancient Roots Israel herbalism conference. I’m planning to attend two of the plant walks, in addition to other talks. (They have also done free virtual plant walks, the videos of which can be found here.)

Since my younger boys get home at 2 pm, I’m going to be hiring my thirteen year old to take care of them during the afternoon hours I’m gone. My husband will give everyone dinner and put the younger boys to bed, and I’ll get up in the morning with them to get them ready for school. Initially I thought I might come back home during the extended breaks, but that may be stressful so I have the option of staying there for the entire day. The conference begins 5:15 pm today, and concludes on Tuesday at the same time.

I really wanted to let you know about it in advance, knowing that there are those of you who would be interested in attending, and am sorry that my time constraints didn’t allow me to share about it sooner. At this point, all the rooms are taken and only day passes are available.

Having said that, in the event that someone is spontaneous and wants to attend even though it’s the last minute but the last of room at the hotel room leaves you without a place to stay, be in touch with me (avivahwerner at yahoo dot com). I have guest rooms available for a small fee and will be driving back and forth daily, so you’re welcome to join me. 🙂

Avivah

Easy Buckwheat Chia Bread – gluten free

Healthy Living, recipes

I’ve discovered – and been incorporating – a new ingredient into my gluten free cooking: green, unroasted buckwheat!

I used to buy this many years ago and didn’t know what to do with it other than cook it as a rice substitute. It was kind of gluey but my husband liked it….

Well, in recent months I’ve purchased it once again, and have appreciated how versatile it is!

(About cooking it as a rice substitute…not the greatest use of this. Roasted buckwheat is a much better option for that.)

This is a great ingredient to use for making gluten free breads. We’ve found store bought gluten free breads not to be very tasty, and definitely not nutritious, though I use them for convenience. You can find unroasted buckwheat in the health store in the bulk grain section. There are a number of ways to use unroasted buckwheat for baking; here’s one easy recipe that I regularly make. It requires about six minutes of hands-on preparation time; most of the prep is soaking.

Buckwheat Chia Bread

  • 1 1/2 c. green buckwheat
  • 1/4 c. chia seeds
  • 1 c. water
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 1 1/2 t. baking powder

Soak the buckwheat in water to cover for a couple of hours but you can leave it overnight if you like. Drain, then rinse.

Separately, soak the chia seeds in one cup of water. Stir it so that all the seeds are submerged in the water. Let it sit for up to twenty minutes until it’s gooey.

Process the soaked buckwheat in a food processor with an S blade. You can process the chia seeds separately and then combine the two mixtures, or just process it at the same time. I generally opt for simpler options so I process it all together. Process until the mixture is smooth.

Add in the salt and baking powder, mix. Pour the batter into pans (I use a silicon loaf pan and a silicon muffin pan). Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celcius for up to an hour and fifteen minutes. A smaller pan and muffins will take less time. Let it cool completely before slicing.

When I use the extra large muffin size pans, I slice each muffin into four slices.

This lends itself to be eaten as an open face sandwich. Below, pizza wheels were very much enjoyed for dinner.

Avivah

How we healed our dog of poisoning naturally, and other animal experiences

Healthy Living, home remedies

One Shabbos morning, I looked over at our dog and saw a huge swelling on one side of his face. When I say huge, it easily looked like he had a large golf ball inside his cheek.

Even more worrisome than that was his behavior. He was laying on his side without moving, not even lifting his head. His breathing was shallow and irregular; something was clearly seriously wrong. I looked at him and thought, he’s going to die.

My youngest daughter was home, and asked me what I thought was wrong with him. I told her I assumed he had been poisoned by something – maybe he was bit by something. Her next question was what could we do about it.

Naturally, these situations usually come up on Shabbos, when my ability to research a question like this is non-existent.

Without any other recourse, I relied on my own knowledge and thought about what I would do if it were a person, using what I had in my home. I suggested we use vitamin C powder to counter the poison, and activated charcoal to pull the toxins out of his body. We would have to put it in a liquid for him to drink since we couldn’t make a compress or poultice because it was Shabbos.

My daughter filled a bowl with raw goat’s milk, then added a small amount of vitamin C (it’s a strong flavor and we didn’t want him to reject the mixture) and a bigger amount of charcoal. Our dog couldn’t lift his head, so she held it in front of his mouth. He very weakly started to lick it.

She gave him three bowls of this mixture and in the next ten or fifteen minutes, it was literally like watching him come back to life in front of our eyes. He lifted his head a bit, then straightened his front legs and lifted his upper chest. By the end of the third bowl, he was acting like his normal self.

I hadn’t verbalized how bad I thought the situation was earlier, but once he was revived, my daughter told me she had the same thought that he would die based on his complete unresponsiveness. He was in really bad shape. It took until the next morning for the swelling in his face to go down completely, but once we saw him acting like his healthy self after the milk mixture, I was sure that the swelling would take care of itself.

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Every morning I take all three of our goats out. (I’ll have to tell you the story of how we came to have a third goat another time!) Two are milking goats, and the doeling is six months old. I’ve gotten them all used to a milking routine and include the little doeling because it’s nice for her to get out and get treats even if she doesn’t need to be milked. I figure it will be helpful whenever she eventually is ready for milking to have her acclimated to this schedule.

When I took her out, I noticed that her hind section didn’t look clean. Off I went to look online, when I learned that runny stools in a goat (called scours) are a very bad thing that can kill them. Having just experienced this with our bunny less than two weeks before, I didn’t doubt this claim.

I looked online for what to do, other than take her to a vet and medicate. Based on almost three decades of taking care of my own children, I was sure there was something I could do for her at home. While I was looking this up, my son asked me what to do. I told him I didn’t yet know, but if it was a person I would give them electrolytes.

‘What were electrolytes?’ he wanted to know. I told him I had no idea what it would mean for goats, but for people I would give a mixture of a sweetener, baking soda and water, and maybe some salt. He went off to shul, I continued reading online, and when he came back he told me he had spoken to someone who had experience treating farm animals, and had gotten a recipe to use.

While he had been out, I was reading lots of information, confirming that the issue was what I thought – loose stools – and how to treat them. By the time he got back, I had already made up an electrolyte solution based on something I found online. Nonetheless, I wanted to know what he had learned.

His recipe would have been cheaper to use, as I made a mixture with honey and his called for sugar, but basically it was the same idea – basically the same as what I had told my son would be what you’d give a person. The problem was getting it into her. I’d given her a container of my mixture to drink from, but she hardly touched it. I had read about using a syringe, but I didn’t have one, the neighbors we thought might have one didn’t, and I didn’t know where to get one.

Fortunately, along for a rehydration recipe, my son got instructions about how to get the drink into our doeling. He put the electrolyte mixture into a glass bottle (because she could chew a plastic bottle), pried open her jaws, put in the bottle and held her bottom jaw closed while he poured the fluid slowly into her mouth. He did this a couple of times that afternoon, then a few times the following day. He was so good with her, gentle and firm at the same time.

After a day and a half of this, the loose stools had ceased so we discontinued the ‘treatment’. My son later told me what a good feeling it was to be able to treat her and do what was necessary to help her get better.

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Yesterday afternoon, ds10 came out to do the milking with me (I’m teaching him how to milk). He milked a bit, then I took over. When I glanced in the bucket, the milk had a pinkish cast. I’d never seen that before; I threw it away, washed out the bucket and began milking again. Definitely a pinkish cast. I got a different bucket and milked her on the other side. That side was fine.

I assumed that there was some kind of minor internal bleeding, but the question was why, and what to do about it. After perusing the goat forums (new experiences make being a lifelong learner a necessity!), I was relieved to read that it seems to be something that can happen no matter how careful you are, and usually passes with time with no need for treatment. (It reminds me of when I was in second grade, I would get nosebleeds in the hot dry climate where we lived. The doctor told my mother that the dryness caused tiny capillaries in the nose to break.) When I milked her this morning, everything was fine. So I’ve learned about one more variation on the norm.

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Dealing with health related issues for the first time is always a little worrisome. Many, many times over the years I’ve experienced how empowering it’s been to successfully treat our children’s ailments at home. Though I’m now including animals along with people, the task remains to first of all not panic! – and then to appropriately support the immune system, so the body has the resources to heal itself.

Avivah

Formula shortages and formula options

Healthy Living, Intentional Spending, nutrition, Parenting

A few weeks ago there began to be a shortage of formula in the US, a situation that has reached what some officials have called a ‘crisis situation’.

Baby formula is in dramatically short supply, with many stores locking up the formula, limiting it to one per customer, or the stock in the stores simply not there. Parents of babies who need formula are having to drive far distances, pay exorbitant online prices to opportunist sellers – or do without.

As a mother of 11 who has been deeply committed to breastfeeding, I nonetheless have experienced the challenge of not being able to nurse two of my babies. I nursed my tenth child, who had a weak sucking reflex, for four months, while simultaneously pumping for several hours a day to keep my supply up. I finally gave up when despite all my efforts, I couldn’t produce the milk he needed. (I later realized that the two pumps I had borrowed were faulty and that was the source of the problem, but in my exhausted state and with very limited community resources, I couldn’t access other options.)

I turned to formula, trying different kinds while also looking for goats’ milk and mothers’ milk donors, for the most part without success. Finally, after five months we found a formula he could tolerate, that was only available by medical prescription and cost over 1000 shekels a month.

When my eleventh child came into our lives via the legal system, I began seeking out mothers’ milk donors before he even arrived home. I was then living in the center of the country, and access to community resources was dramatically different. Like his brother before him, he couldn’t tolerate regular formula. For the first two years, we were blessed to be able to give him mother’s milk for all but two months (a week here, a week there, when the donor milk couldn’t be found), and for those in-between times we supplemented with a medical prescription formula. I later donated the many unused cans we had purchased to a mother in financial need whose child used that specialty formula. I was so grateful to have the resources that I needed to keep him healthy.

When I think of these desperate mothers seeking food for their babies, it’s heartbreaking. I once ran out of formula due to logistics in prescription/purchasing rules (those have since changed) and we ended up in the emergency room on Shabbos as a result.

These mothers need options. While breastfeeding is wonderful and I fully support it, it’s not an option for everyone. It’s disturbing for me to see commentators – especially men – suggesting that if mothers would be breastfeeding they wouldn’t be in this situation.

Many women physically can’t produce milk no matter how much they try, due to illness or physical challenge on the side of the mother or baby; there are foster/adoptive parents/grandparents raising children that they didn’t give birth to.

I do believe that steps will be taken to to increase formula production and hopefully this will be a short-lived crisis. In the interim, parents need help. If you are a nursing mother and know someone struggling with the formula shortage, perhaps you can offer to help out by pumping. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to the tens of mothers who kept our youngest nourished and healthy thanks to their donations. Or if you see formula in your stores, buy it to donate to someone else who can’t find it. Or share the below information for how to make their own.

How did people feed their infants in the days before commercially produced formula was available? Hiring a wet nurse was a common practice, but in cultures that didn’t have that practice, parents made their own. Here’s are two recipes for formula that are nutritionally complete that were published in Nourishing Traditions; one is dairy and one is meat based. Goat milk is an excellent replacement for mother’s milk, though it needs to be supplemented with vitamin B12 and folate. Many of our elders who were bottle-fed were raised on evaporated milk mixed with Karo syrup; here is a simple emergency formula replacement recipe using evaporated milk, as well as an excellent explanation for why evaporated milk is a better option than regular milk. **Disclaimer: of course every parent needs to verify with their medical professionals that the option they are considering is appropriate for their child.**

Hopefully this situation will quickly be resolved. In the meantime, parents can look to alternative solutions and feel empowered knowing they have the tools to keep their babies fed and happy.

Avivah

Homemade cough syrup remedy, helps coughing and congestion

Healthy Living, home remedies, Intentional Spending

There’s a lot of common cold symptoms going around now, which seasonally what tends to happen in the winter months. For generations, people have known how to treat this kind of thing at home.

Last week I heard one of sons coughing at night and the next morning told him how much vitamin C to take. After a few days, I heard him still coughing in the night and asked him if he had taken the vitamin C I told him to take the first day. No, he sheepishly admitted. I obviously knew that because he wouldn’t still be coughing if he had!

It’s not as if there’s just one way to respond to cold symptoms, though. There are many different remedies people have used effectively for many generations in cultures across the world to heal upper respiratory illnesses and chest congestion, using ingredients that are natural antibiotics.

Plasters and poultices with onion and mustard as a base were a common practice. There are lots of cough syrup/tea recipes include whiskey or bourbon (‘hot toddy’). Below I’m sharing non-alcoholic syrup and tea recipes variations, so you can see how much flexibility there is with the general concept. (The first two listed are what I make.)

  • Mix equal parts freshly squeezed lemon juice and honey. Take a spoonful every few hours.
  • Chop onion, cover with honey. Let sit for several hours; it will become a thin and watery consistency. Strain out onions (you can eat them) and take a spoonful every few hours.
  • Layer raw onion, fresh ginger and raw garlic into a pint jar until half full and then fill the rest of the jar with raw honey. Shake periodically over twelve hour period. Strain, use like cough syrup, a tablespoon every 4 hours.
  • Onion tea – boil cut up onions with peels included until soft. Strain, mix with honey and drink hot.
  • Slice a large onion, sprinkling sugar between the slices and put into a jar. Add water to weight it down. The juice runs out after a few hours, take a spoonful every few hours.
  • 1 teaspoonful each of dried rosemary and thyme. Add boiling water and let it steep. Strain it and drink. Can sweeten with honey and add a sprinkle of cinnamon. Drink hot or cold.
  • Boil a red onion, drink liquid with honey.
  • Mix small amount of horseradish/ginger and mashed garlic with honey, pour a cup of boiling water over it. Allow to cool slightly then sip. You can also add couple tablespoons of lemon to the “tea”.
  • Oregano (natural antibiotic) and thyme (removes mucus) tea with a teaspoon of honey.
  • Honey-lemon-ginger warm tea, with a bit of coconut oil
  • Mix raw apple cider vinegar with equal parts of raw honey.
  • Red onions (peel on), lemons (sliced, peel on), honey, garlic, ground horseradish. Ad enough eater to cover, heat until just boiling. Cool. Strain, take a teaspoon at a time or add to a cup of hot water as tea.

Isn’t it marvelous that lemons are in season in the winter at the time that people need that natural vitamin C the most, and that onions and garlic can be stored year round? So even at times that people had no grocery stores, the ingredients they needed to to boost their immune systems were available. These are all very affordable ingredients – even honey, which is the most expensive, is still considerably less expensive than store bought cough syrup with its questionable ingredients!

If you have your own recipe that you’ve found helpful, or use any of these and they work for you, please share in the comment section below.

Avivah

How to make apple cider vinegar

food preservation, Healthy Living, Intentional Spending, lacto fermentation

It’s fun when I discover how I can do things on my own that I previously assumed I had to buy or outsource to others, and making my own apple cider vinegar was one of these things!

It is so easy, frugal and healthy, that I can’t believe I didn’t make this until recently.

If you’re preparing apples for something else, you can save the peels and cores to use to make the vinegar. Technically this is called scrap apple vinegar. Since I try to minimize waste, making vinegar out of something destined for the trash (or in my case, the chickens) is a bonus. However, in terms of the final result, I made a batch of scrap apple vinegar and a batch of apple cider vinegar, and didn’t notice much of a difference between the two.

1- Fill a jar at least halfway with chopped apples or apple scraps. The flavor and color of the final product will be affected by what apples you use; it’s all good. I had a bunch of yellow apples that started getting wrinkly, so that’s what I used.

2- Add water to the jar until it’s just about at the top. Technically it’s best to use filtered water but I’ve always made ferments with tap water. The chlorine evaporates when left uncovered or when covered with a cheesecloth.

3 – Add sugar. The official ratio is 1 tablespoon of sugar per cup of water and 1.5 apples. (I’m not so exacting and didn’t find this formula for the ratio until after I had made a few batches, so I can definitively state that it will turn out fine if you use less. I used four teaspoons for each of the large jars you see below.) If you try to avoid eating sugar, don’t worry about it in this case; the fermentation process will eat it up and none will be left in the final product.

4 – Mix, and cover the jar with a cheesecloth to keep anything from getting in. You’ve now just about finished the active part of making apple cider vinegar. Basically you’re going to let it sit on your counter for a few weeks and stir it once daily. (That’s because the pieces will all float to the top, so stirring it will ensure no mold grows on top.)

5 – Let it sit a few weeks. Taste it. Do you like how it tastes? Then strain it and bottle it. Not ready yet? Let it sit another week or two. Refrigerate once ready.

That’s it!

I previously mentioned that I really liked the taste of this. My husband tasted my latest batch when it was still sitting on the counter, waiting to be strained, and he likes it, too, so it’s going fast!

There are lots of ways to use apple cider vinegar to benefit your health. Lots of people have written about it, so I’ll just link to one of them and let you read what they’ve written. 🙂 I can add, though, that one of my kids had dandruff, and when they washed their hair using this apple cider vinegar as a rinse just one time, there wasn’t a speck of dandruff remaining and the hair looked so shiny and healthy afterward.

Avivah

Vitamin D is awesome and critical, so be sure you are taking enough!

Healthy Living, home remedies, Intentional Spending

My daughter called me earlier this week to ask what to give her husband, who was beginning to have nasty cold symptoms. I told her specific doses of vitamin D (based on doctor’s guidelines for the ‘hammer’) and vitamin C , and said I expected he would be fine in the morning. Sure enough, she called the next day to say he was feeling better and back to kollel. 🙂

Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin, and many have the idea that it doesn’t need to be supplemented if you are outdoors a good bit of time. However, studies have shown that even around the equator where you would assume people get abundant sunlight, many are deficient in vitamin D.

Even though I live in a very hot climate, I stay inside during the hottest parts of the day, wear a sunhat when I do go out, have an olive complexion, and am always wearing long sleeves and long skirts. Not much chance for the sun to get through, even living in a very hot and sunny area! So I have no doubt that supplementing vitamin D will benefit me.

In January 2020 I wrote a post about the using the vitamin D hammer to quickly and effectively treat the flu. That is still really good information so go back and read that if you don’t remember it or didn’t read it then! Little did I know that a short time later, mentioning that this same approach could be valuable in prevention or treatment of the superbug that was circulating would elicit howls of outrage around the world and censure of medical professionals.

But as time has gone on, more and more doctors have been speaking up about the critical importance of vitamin D in strengthening our immune systems, specifically vis a vis the current health situation.

Here’s an interesting interview with two doctors about vitamin D in Israel.

(It’s interesting to read the comments on the video and see what people say about their experiences with vitamin D.)

Here’s another great talk with two more doctors, both of whom have been sharing this information from the beginning of the situation. This video came out when I was in the middle of writing this post, so I decided to add it for you. 🙂 This talk is more technical but lots of great information, including the benefits of sunlight beyond vitamin D.


Information is so valuable, and both worth watching. (I listen to talks like this when I’m working in the kitchen or driving, since I don’t have time to sit in front of a computer to watch.) By watching, you’ll learn how much to take and why it’s so important.

I’m hopeful that as information like this becomes more widely known, more people will have access to tools that they can use to protect their families. Why information about an easily accessible, highly affordable vitamin that could offer so much protection when dealing with the health situation is known but hasn’t been shared by those deciding on worldwide policy is concerning, but our point of power is when we focus on what we can do. It’s empowering to know how easily and inexpensively we can take steps to protect our families.

Here are the vitamin D choices we get for our family; I order from iherb since it’s much less expensive than buying locally and I can get the higher dosage vitamin D capsules that I want. (In Israel they don’t sell anything higher than 1000 iu. Which is fine, but based on the guidelines that I linked above, you’d need to take a bottle full in the course of a day or two if you get sick, which psychologically feels dangerous. Better to just get higher dosage capsules and take a small number, in my opinion.) You’ll get a first time buyer discount by using my coupon code OBO992.

I want to stress that prevention is always the best strategy. Yes, you can be depleted and once sick, try to quickly boost your vitamin D levels. But a better bet is to keep your vitamin D levels high to start with. When you’re deficient in vitamin D, you’re at much higher likelihood of getting sick in the first place. I’ve read a lot of anecdotal comments by various medical personnel in past months to the effect those who were most ill with the virus had very low vitamin D levels, and the studies that I’ve read seem to support that.

Wishing you all a very healthy winter season!

Avivah