Hello Natural Medicine community! I wanted to introduce myself here with my first ever post -- about a very special "herb" of the season.
Here in Argentina we are experiencing the coldest of months. I struggle to enjoy winter, but, there is one major benefit to this season ... citrus!
As a homesteader and herbalist I make the most of this time and prepare a number of potions with orange and lemons: juice, marmalade, but, more than anything (and as eluded to in the title of this post) my favorite part of citrus is the orange peel.
This land has been in use as a commercial farm, then later hobby farm for many years. My partner and I are caretakers here and will eventually move on to a place of our own. This is not "our" land but we care for it and treat it as if it were and feel so fortunate to live in a beautiful place of abundance.
In climates with cold winters oranges and lemons are often the only fresh fruit to be found locally. Citrus juices are often marketed as being high in vitamin C which is an antioxidant and is hard to find in winter when fresh produce is not very abundant.
Once the oranges begin to ripen you can find me doing my rounds with a citrus hook and a bag in which to collect my bounty. If any orange have fallen on the ground and haven't been picked open by birds, I will collect them too.
Back on the front patio I begin by juicing a liter of orange juice to drink immediately. In my experience it is best to consume orange juice in the morning not exceeding more than a cup per person per day.
Oranges are abundant during the deepest of cold winter months (here in the southern hemisphere, that is usually July). Fortunately for us, the orange and lemon trees often have an off-season round of fruit in summer too. Last summer both my partner and I became ill with dengue fever. One of the home remedies for this mosquito borne illness is to keep hydrated with fruit juice, especially orange juice, which we did and recovered completely.
During these few weeks in winter and the random chance of a round of oranges later on in the year, I try to make the most of the harvest by making orange jam and drying the peels. Orange jam is really more of a desert than a natural medicine. The peels, however, have many properties which I will discuss now.
According to Michael Tierra orange and mandarin peels are often employed in Traditional Chinese Medicine formulas as a warming agent and mover of Chi. Ripe orange or mandarin peels are digestive and aid the stomach in producing the fluids needed in processing food. In Tierra's books and elsewhere I have seen orange peel combined with other herbs for stagnant digestive and gas related to indigestion.
More interesting to me is the use of orange peels in tea mixes that help keep warm during the winter. One formula listed in Planetary Herbology has been used to treat many conditions associated with winter that we often simply called "a cold". Such symptoms like excess mucus, poor circulation and digestion, and generally suffering in damp/cold conditions can be aided by orange peel tea in combination with ginger and dandelion root, caraway and cumin seeds with the addition of black pepper.
Despite all the healing found in the orange peels, children are unlikely to want to drink the tea, unless very wisely mixed with other herbs. And then there are those who claim they don't like tea! In such cases, making citrus jam is the best way to preserve their medicine and combine their natural tartness with sweetness thanks to sugar.
Most jam and jelly recipes call to use the same amount of sugar as fruit, by weight. I generally disregard this advice, using about 3/4 or 1/2 the amount of sugar suggested and go with a raw or dehydrated cane sugar option.
As you can see in the picture, the orange peels are incorporated into the jam which adds some of the digestive benefits that are attributed to the peel. This is my way of getting a little medicine into a desert or sweet breakfast such as jam and toast.
I have mentioned drinking orange juice, making jam, and some of the proposed formulas by my favorite herbalist-writer. By now you may be wondering, how do I drink orange peel?
When making herb mixes for teas I tend to keep it simple and stick with three or four herbs. The process for choosing which herbs is mostly intuitive and depends upon those that are abundant in my apothecary. For the most part my process is as so: consider the situation at hand, go stand by my herbal workshop, and let the information flow into my mind.
On one such day I wanted to make a mix of herbs to share with friends & family for a trip home that would help keep spirits high during the colder months. Orange peel, of course, was to be the main herb as well as yerba mate leaf as I now live in Argentina and wanted to share a bit of the herbalism culture that is so vibrant here.
Then, to my surprise, the spirit of Hawthorn flower seemed to want to be included too. Upon reflection I am glad that I added hawthorn, which is soothing to the heart and helps to balance the jittery feelings associated with caffeine. Stevia leaf, to balance the bitter taste of yerba mate and Lemon Verbena, to support the digestive actions of the orange peel were also added.
And what a lovely, warming, digestive tea it is!