Lichen tincture
I recently had the opportunity to pick some lichen and make a new herbal recipe. One of the apple trees in the garden had partially uprooted and I needed to cut quite a few of the large branches that were weighing it down, and these branches were covered in lichen. I probably wouldn’t go and forage for lichen normally (I don’t know enough about them!), but this was one of those opportunities that presented itself, so I thought I would experiment. I did do some research first and I believe the lichen on my apple tree was a type of frucitose lichen. I also was surprised to find that lichen can be used as an anti-fungal remedy.
Lichen covered with apple cider vinegar, ready for the slow cooker
I found an interesting web article (linked below) on how best to make a tincture from lichen. I thought I would try to follow this recipe and use it to support my candida cleanse. The only thing I did differently is that I used apple cider vinegar instead of alcohol. This was purely experimental for me and I had a lot of fun learning a new herbal remedy method. The steps I followed were:
Rinse the lichen and dry on a drying rack
Place in a glass mason jar and cover with cider vinegar
Place the sealed jar in a slow cooker on a tea towel and add water to the slow cooker to just under the lid
Put the slow cooker on low and leave the tincture to brew for 3 days while every day removing the jar briefly to cool it down and open the lid (releasing pressure)
Dispense the tincture into a bottle and start taking 1 teaspoon of the tincture in a glass of water with a meal
I tried this for about 1 week but my body wasn’t reacting well to the tincture (it could have been the vinegar too as I have a yeast intolerance). Although I didn’t continue to take the tincture, I still wanted to share this as things are bound to not go to plan at times. I learned something about my body and further down the line, I would love to try this technique again with alcohol rather than vinegar.
Most of all, I am loving using plants and herbs to heal my body. I believe by using herbs and plants that grow locally, I will be developing a closer relationship with the land and nature that surrounds me, which in turn will improve my mental and physical health. There will be more posts to come on any other plants that I have foraged so far and how I have used these to support my body!
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