Just thought I would update you all on my progress with developing my recipes for my talk, Beat Flu with Home Remedies and herb gathering.

I have been concocting several remedies which, although come from traditional recipes, have needed some experimentation to adapt and develop to our modern tastes. Hence I have been up to my elbows in slices of onion and sugar attempting to get the quantities right for my Thyme and Onion Cough Syrup. This has proved somewhat tricky as too much sugar and it turns to jam and too little and it could ferment and explode in the cupboard! I now thankfully have it right and have various patients trialling it on their coughs.

Yesterday was a definite root day. I was digging them up all over Manchester. I started in Whalley Range, just around the corner from my practice with a rather wonderful Elecampane. This was in the garden of a friend of mine who earlier this year asked me to look at a strange plant that had appeared outside her front door. With its giant leaves and sunflower like flowers I immediately recognised it as Inula helenium or Elecampane. As the roots are a fantastic cough remedy I am tincturing them and also going to try making them into cough sweets. I was also on my allotment digging up Horseradish root to make into Horseradish vinegar, another remedy I will be demonstrating on the 7th Dec.

Oh well back too it, I must get that blend of spices right for my Lozenge recipe…..

Is it really a week since I was on Countryfile? It has all been a bit of whorl since then.

Mind you I guess it hasn’t really stopped since I was invited to do it a few weeks ago. At the time it was all the excitement of the filming which was of course great fun! However then came the wait (anyone who knows me will tell you I am not the most patient of people!) and the agony of whether anyone would be able to find this website!

Right in the middle of this I also organised and ran a public meeting about the future of Herbal Medicine at Hulme Community Garden Centre. If any of you do not yet know about this I urge you to visit the NIMH Act Now website as the deadline for the consultation on the statutory regulation of medical herbalists has been extended to Monday 16th November 2009. This gives you an extra 2 weeks to let the government know that you support us in becoming a recognised healthcare profession.

So Sunday finally arrived and there I was! I thought it was great, I hope I put over the medicinal properties of Elderberries well and I liked that Julia introduced herbal medicine as being widely accepted. It was a bit unfortunate that there was not more time to expand on the syrup recipe and the current issues we face as an industry. However I hope that people will find more about this here and at NIMH.

The rest of the week has been catching up with my patients and teaching work, responding to all your enquiries (thanks!) and preparing for my day at the Museum of Science and Industry on Friday.

This felt like another successful day, what a great event. Lots of families came to find out about all aspects of biomedicine. I was on the NIMH stall asking them to decide from a whole range of herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables, which where foods and which medicines. Of course the answer was that they were all both! This led to lots of great discussions about herbal medicine and some lovely remembered remedies from the grandparents which were shared with the kids.

Oh well this week hopefully should be a little easier. I am mainly going into the herb lab to develop some more remedies, so will keep you posted on my progress.