The crab apple is the wild ancient ancestor of all the other apple species in Britain, the source of every apple we have today. To me apples are the epitome of autumn. Orchards always feel particularly fortuitous, magical even, with the gifts of health. In our family, we live by the old adage, ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’, which helps enormously when it comes to convalescing with crab apples.
This Autumn I have reacquainted myself with the humble crab apple after a ten-year break from working with this little fruit! A failed attempted at Crab Apple jelly knocked my pride; it simply wouldn’t set. I was left feeling like a complete failure as a woman (because the women in my mind at that time could all make a perfectly set delicious crab apple jelly). I partly blamed it all on the bitter, sour, little tart fruit and shunned it for a decade.
One of the things I love best about working closely with the natural world is that things never get boring. As an airy Gemini girl I personally find it difficult to do repetitive tasks or jobs as my concentration span isn’t the best! I need changing stimulus to keep my wandering mind interested. Even after years of yogic meditations and work to focus myself, I still like new creative project more than tying up the loose ends of existing ones.
Being a herbalist is a perfect profession. I get to watch the ever changing seasons bring a wealth of diversity and continuous fresh, exciting options and tasks. Making remedies from plants is foremost dependent on what plant material there is to work with depending on the season and your location. Then there’s a plethora of differing preparations to chose from to transmute these raw materials into medicine. All the different ways of preparing herbs facilitate preserving them for future use, but they also extract particular individual properties so you can pick and chose according to your needs. Some of these processes to explore include drying for teas/powders, steeping in alcohol/vinegar, cooking in wine, conserving with sugar, honey or oils, making creams or ointments, distilling, freezing and even cooking in foods.
This year at Sensory Solutions we have dreamed up a new potion called Recovery Remedy, specifically for convalescents. These days people have lost the art of convalescence, the period of rest and recovery after any illness. How many of us have heard the words, ‘take a few days to rest’ and not heeded this advice?
Recovery Remedy support:
- Convalescence (nurturing strength and stamina) from physical, mental, emotional illness
- Stepping out from a period of isolation
- Finding your own natural rhythm, thus allowing your heart to beat with the rhythm of life
- Connecting back in with the tribe
- Coming through a dark emotional time
Crab apples hold the potential for the creation of a completely genetically individual fruit tree within each pip. These rose family fruits, astringent and wholesome connect us to our tribe, our community, helping with feelings of loneliness that can come with prolonged periods of illness.
Hawthorn Berries are gently warming; a plant of Mars. They support the heart and digestion keeping a steady rhythm, counseling a slow, safe space of self-care.
Sloe Berries are the first to blossom and often the last food source still out in the depth of winter supplying nourishment in the harsh often-freezing weather. Sloes are full of immunoboosting nutrients. Great for overcoming adversity.
Order your own Recovery Remedy. You could take your drops each day with an affirmation:
“I take the time I need to rest and rejuvinate then I can bring energy and light to my community”
Dr Bach’s description – Crab Apple, Malus sylvestris
This is the remedy of cleansing. For those who feel as if they had something not quite clean about themselves. Often it is something of apparently little importance: in others there may be more serious disease which is almost disregarded compared to the one thing on which they concentrate. In both types they are anxious to be free from the one particular thing which is greatest in their minds and which seems so essential to them that it should be cured. They become despondent if treatment fails. Being a cleanser, this remedy purifies wounds if the patient has reason to believe that some poison has entered which must be drawn out.
Crab Apple Tincture Recipe
These crab apples were harvested August Aquarian Full moon.
The intention whilst harvesting was about connecting in with the ebbs and flows of life, the waves that can wash over us.
Cleansing out the stress and toxicity, cleaning the mind and body and soul of clutter and an overall feeling of convalescence.
- gather your crab apples from the tree
- then chopped in half, filling a glass jar with them
- adding a pot of local raw honey
- a cinnamon stick
- and a bottle of gin to cover
Shake once a week
We shall leave these in until Sept Full Moon where we shall process it all through an apple press.
