Marigold tea

I was reading a wee Herbal the other day. Which has gone missing now that I think about it, last seen being 'read' by Miss1. Hmmm, that will bear some investigation. Anyhow, was reading this Herbal and learned all about the wonders of Calendula officinalis (pot marigold), some of which was new to me. I had known that it was good for soothing skin complaints, but apparently Calendula has been used as the cure-all for pretty much everything. Wouldn't surprise me if there had been someone, somewhere crediting it with healing them from the Plague.

Still, making marigold tea felt like a lovely sunshiny thing to do, and the sun was surely shining. So I put on my purple woolly hat, and dashed out into the cold to harvest some. Fortunately Calendula grows like a weed and there were 2 plants in flower. Back inside in the sunshine and out of the wind, I roughly cut the flowers up with a veggie knife and steeped them in my coffee plunger. It looked so pretty I just had to share it.

I'm sure that for any medicinal effects I'd need more petals than that, but the sight of it in the sunshine was tonic in itself. The tea itself was very nice with a bit of honey. And if nothing else, the honey was soothing to my sore throat.