Recipes and benefits
The trees are bare, the leaves are raked, and the gardens are tucked in for a long winter’s nap. But the pink rose in my front yard, with its deceptively delicate looking petals, still gives its sweet fragrance to the chilled air. Around the corner in my urban neighborhood, there are other bright gems — the hawthorns in someone’s lawn are laden with clumps of red berries. Both hawthorn and rose are part of Rosaceae, the rose family. Their mere presences are colorful and fragrant gifts, but herbalists also use both plants to mend broken and fragile hearts. There is no better time to drink rose and hawthorn tea than the dark days and cold nights preceding the Solstice.
Ingredients
1 generous tablespoon Hawthorn, soaked over night
1 – 2 generous teaspoons dried organic rose petals
1/4 cinnamon stick (or to taste), crushed
Directions
Measure 1.5 – 2 cups water into a pot
Place hawthorn berries into pot and cover
Bring water to a boil, then lower to a simmer
Simmer for 15 – 20 minutes, covered
Prepare roses and cinnamon and place into teapot, cup, or jar
Pour hot water and berries over roses and cinnamon, cover
Steep for 10 minutes, then strain
Stepping out of the mayhem with a cup of rose and hawthorn tea is a heart-healthy way to reconnect us to our inner stillness and keep us centered through the hectic holiday pace.
While we prepare and drink our tea, what if we take a few moments to pause like the sun at Solstice. To let go, like the bare trees and branches. Sink down to our roots, like the sap sinks in maples. As the seeds rest in the dark ground, we can savor the fertility of deep dark wintertime. And like the rose effortlessly giving its scent to the cold winter air, may we enter the New Year with open hearts, offering our own intangible gifts to others, gifts that make our world a little sweeter and brighter.