Nourishing Infusions—Medicinal Vinegars
A talk given at the Green Nations Gathering, September 2000
c 2010 Review by Jan Calloway-Baxter
mentor at the Wise Woman School
2 CD Set Nourishing Infusions—Medicinal Vinegars
If you can only buy one Susun Weed CD, buy this one. If you’ve never heard Susun talk, start here. 
If you’re an experienced Susun Weed aficionado, this is a classic that must be added to your collection.
If you look at the title and think, “Oh, I already know the basics about nourishing infusions and vinegars; I need something more advanced,” you are wrong. I confess to the last listed heresy. Thought, “Ho, hum, I already know about all this, but I’ll review it for beginners.” Error!
This recording is the best one of Susun’s I have heard. It includes many of the basic tenets of the Wise Woman Way as it relates to herbs. It will do more for your nutritional health to listen to this CD and follow its advice than anything else I can imagine.
One of the most important messages from this CD tells us how our culture has misled us into dangerous beliefs about what we should and should not eat. I see these beliefs harming men and, especially, women every day, both physically and maybe even more so emotionally and mentally.
I see young girls who won’t eat even a bit of oil or dressings on their salads. I see women who carry around tremendous guilt about their craving for sweets. I see men with high blood pressure trying to choke down unsalted broth.
None of this suffering is necessary.
Learn about the three tastes that mean survival to our bodies: sweet, the first taste, the taste of life; salt, the taste of minerals, the clumpier the better; fat, so necessary for women and for mineral absorption, and so feared.
Learn how to indulge these tastes healthily. Sweet? Maple syrup—the darker the better for good mineral content. Honey—I use the most local I can find.
Salt? Make sure it isn’t white. Pink or gray means minerals.
Fat? Write an apology to your Grandmother and use lard. Or if she was Italian, follow her lead and use olive oil or organic butter.
Are these dietary suggestions already surprising you? If so, don’t waste time. Listen to this CD and discover the science behind these suggestions. I assure you that your head will spin at the “accepted wisdom” that Susun turns upside down.
Don’t expect complicated instructions. Making nourishing infusions and making herbal mineral-rich vinegars is easier than making a cup of tea. And you might decide to give up that tea, anyway, if you start to drink infusions regularly. You will probably start cooking your vegetables more, however, and consider turning your juicer into a grain mill. Raw food, with its difficult access to minerals and in the amounts needed to get sufficient nutrition, is NOT suggested.
The four mainstay plants for providing minerals are comfrey, nettle, red clover, and oat straw. Preparing the dried herb as an infusion is as simple as boiling water and waiting. Order from a reputable company or grow and dry your own.
Vinegars get short shrift in this discussion due to time constraints, but it’s worth it for what you get in their stead. And making vinegars is easier than making infusions because you don’t have to worry about heating up anything—just get fresh herbs, put in a jar, cover with pasteurized apple cider vinegar. You can find discussions of what plants make good mineral-rich vinegars elsewhere on susunweed.com.
The end of this CD will make you laugh. It got cut a bit short, and the last few minutes remind me of listening to what they now call “vinyl” when the needle skips. A short phrase is repeated over and over. Here, what is repeated is the audience reaction to Susun’s description of the result of trying to make an herbal vinegar with unpasteurized vinegar. The smell caused them to run from the room screaming, she said. “It would make an animal dead in the woods for a week smell good!” The audience response and Susun’s response to the audience are repeated over and over. I laughed hysterically.
© 2010 Jan Calloway Baxter
read other reviews by Jan Baxter
Optimum Nutrition - Review by Jan Calloway-Baxter
Herbal Healing for Women - Review by Jan Calloway-Baxter
Magical Plants - Review by Jan Calloway-Baxter
Elements of Herbalism: Harvesting - Review by Jan Calloway-Baxter
The Visionary Art of Martina Hoffmann - Review by Jan Calloway-Baxter
Online Courses by Jan Calloway-Baxter
at the Wise Woman University
~ Creating Altars ~
~ Goddess Dolls ~
~ Dream Journals ~
~ Moon Writing ~
~ Creative Writing ~
About the Mentor:
Jan Calloway-Baxter
Jan has taught writing, literature and humanities in universities, colleges and high schools for many years, including developing online composition courses. Jan is delighted to be a mentor at the Wise Woman University.
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