Sue's Blog

Saturday, 01/18/14 - How can cooking with juniper berries help with cedar fever?

Not sure about you but this year here in the Austin Hill Country the Cedar pollen has been horrendous!  You can see it all over the car, windshields, and glass table tops.   I was driving down Hwy 71 towards Spicewood and saw something blowing in the air that looked like smoke!  That evening on the news they said the cedar pollen count was the highest ever!  I think they said like 16000!  Don't quote me on that, I'm not that great with numbers!  All you have to do though is ask people and they are like..  my nose is out of control!   I say, "Cedar Fever"? and they knod YES! 

This year has been the worse for cedar pollen I've seen yet in my over 30 years living here on and off.  And my symptoms have actually been mild compared to some of our friends who have been suffering with headaches, nasal drip, out of control sneezing, coughing, itchey watery eyes and skin itching, and some of them have complained of being fatigued.  Personally for years I've worked to build up my immune system with all sorts of natural methods and I've been using one of those Neli Med bottles from CVS to rinse my sinuses with sea salt at least twice a day.  We've also taken a product called Monolaurin for eight years which we call the 'BEADS'.   

Someone told me rencently that eating the little juniper berries may help relieve symptoms so I googled it, just to be sure, don't want to OD on eating berries that may be toxic!  My husband said to be sure my life insurance policy is up to date! Funny guy! I didn't even know it was the female tree that produced the berries so I looked in our back yard since we have several cedars back there. One is a huge tree by our patio that helps provide shade which I'm thankful for but he's a HE and they are loaded with the pollen!!!  I was gardening today and picking up the dead stuff we pulled out and happened to see the little purple berries all over the ground.   So I picked some up and thought why not give them a whirl in my kitchen.

Anyway, before I ingest anything, I always google and if I do decide to put some of these in my morning protein shake along with some other fruit.  You can rest assured that it will be a minimal amount to be safe!   I'll keep you posted!  If you don't hear from me sound the alarm! 

Here's some interesting information on the berries I found while researching -

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-724-JUNIPER.aspx?activeIngredientId=724&activeIngredientName=JUNIPER

http://cookingfortwo.about.com/od/ingredients/a/juniperberries.htm

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/medicinal-benefits-juniper-berries-7691.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_6722610_eat-juniper-berry.html

http://www.livestrong.com/article/539975-the-toxicity-of-juniper-berries/

http://www.hillcountrymysteries.com/2011/10/cedar-fever-potion.html

http://www.hillcountrymysteries.com/2009/10/cedar-fever.html

Enjoy the Journey!

Sue