There's something particularly magical about the hawthorn. It's snowy visage is striking in Spring, and when the wind catches the blossoms, they fall like confetti. Whilst apparently fragile in this regard, they're also anything but, traditionally used as hedgerows to keep stock in or people out with their thorny branches. Whilst not native to Australia, they managed to find their way here and can be found along roadsides with other migrant blow in's, like wild rose, apples and blackberries.
Because of their splendid flowers in Spring and berries in Autumn, they're a vivid marker of seasonal change. I find it remarkable that both rosehips and haw appear just when we might need them the most - when the ccol winds begin to blow, their antioxidant qualities help steel the immune system. For many, they are heart medicine - haw especially, but the rose is also said to open the heart as much as hawthorn protects and heals it. The fact that these two grow side by side certainly made my heart soar this weekend as I was collecting them out by Birregurra in southern Victoria.
Hawthorn is known as a heart medicine. Studies show that show extracts 'can increase cardiac contractility, increase cardiac blood flow and decrease blood pressure'1. Herbalists recommend haw berry tea or tincture as a beta blocker and to lower blood pressure - Susun Weed recommends it a few days a week to care for her aging heart and describes it as one of those gentle medicines that have a gentle effect across a period of time.
To be clear, I don't have a heart problem, but my Dad had a heart attack a few years ago and so did my sister, when she was 38. We're not entirely sure these two things are related, or whether it has anything to do with me, but still, heart health is kinda in the background hum of my life. I refuse to get tested, because I'm stubborn, and I know what the warning signs are, and I don't have them. I don't like being overly monitored or the medicalisation of bodies, choosing instead intuition.
Yes, listening with my heart, to my heart.
My heart tells me that if the hawthorn is calling, then my body might appreciate it, or at the very least, the things I learn as I interact with this beautiful thorny marker of seasons will be useful for my knowledge base. Plus, I'm a bit addicted to oxymels, because they are such a good way to get plant nutrition into you on a daily basis that's tactile, sensual and pleasurable. An oxymel in fizzy water or drizzled over a salad is just a lovely, lovely thing.
But it's this that I'm eventually drawn to:
"Hawthorn has a very mild sedative effect, which may help decrease anxiety symptoms ( 26 ). In a study on hawthorn's effect on blood pressure, while people taking hawthorn extract didn't report significantly lower levels of anxiety, there was a trend towards reduced anxiety" - Health Line
And due to it's antiinflammatory effect, it's also meant to be good for asthma. Now if there's two things that kinda define my health status currently, and that I'm trying to integrate, it's asthma and anxiety. Is this why the hawthorn is calling me? Chinese hawthorn is most well known in this regard - in fact a study done on mice suggested feasibility for more trials on it's use in airway inflammation.
Finally, I find this, via Cedar Mountain Herbs:
Hawthorn is valued in treating anxiety and panic attacks, in addition to relieving the physical and emotional effects of stress and insomnia as it has a strong relaxing effect on the central nervous system. This is particularly helpful for those who are going through life transitions and dealing with grief. It can be taken daily as a nerve tonic, or as needed during stressful times. Take note: Some people feel a “swaddling” effect with hawthorn. For most, this is a comforting feeling. For others, it can feel claustrophobic on occasion. Consider ashwagandha as an effective substitute for anxiety issues.
Now I'm a huge ashwagandwa fan, but I'm also intrigued about using these to support my anxious self and my asthmatic self, and the possible relationship between the two.
A heart nourishing exercise, I suspect, given the lungs attachement to the heart, and the emotions that dwell in that centre of the body.
Many years ago, we used to make country hedgerow wines. Rosehip and haw were my favourites - crisp and white - next to a blackcurrant and elderberry wine, which we drank far too much of, resulting in my falling off my bike in said hedgerow. We've decided making our own wine is a bit dangerous, and probably not as medicinal, if we are to be honest.
As I begin to investigate haw recipes, I have to filter through a lot of sugary sweet ketchup and jelly recipes online, that also appear in some of the old recipes I have in books. There's a lot that it takes a long time to find. In invetigating a ketchup, I want to know why they don't add something sweet like apples, and what makes it saucy. It takes a long time digging to find out haws have a really, really high amount of pectin. Boiling them in vinegar for a ketchup and straining them through a sieve will make a very, very thick sauce. I learn that boiling them in vinegar is basically the start of any kind of sauce, but boiling them in water for a sweet food is necessary because you don't want to eat the pips. They contain cyanide bonded with sugar, called amygdalin, and if you ingest them, that can change to hydrogen cyanide in your small intestine, which can be dangerous.2. Given the recipes for oxymels and tinctures online, I don't think there is much concern about this extraction method when the pips are included in the mix.
The other thing I realise is that the first two recipes are just a bit of foraging fun - and a recipe to have in the tool kit should the food supply dwindle. Cooking the berries is going to destroy the vitamin c/antioxidant in them1 so to use the medicinal benefits, perhaps an oxymel or a tincture is best.
Haw Sauce
Okay okay, it's a haw ketchup, but I can't go past a rude euphemism. Please don't judge me for it, it's just a bit of fun.
There's quite a few recipes for haw ketchup online, and I recommend this one from Gather Victoria as it's sugar free. Honey is the sweetner instead.
What this recipe doesn't tell you is how little it makes, but then, I imagine it's shelf life wouldn't be as long as a traditional ketchup loaded with sugar. I also didn't have black cherry juice, and figured it was to add another richer flavour. Haw berries themselves don't taste of much. I instead used an apple for the extra sweetness, boiled with the haws, and added some elderberry syrup I'd made last week. You then can add your basic spicey sauce flavours - perhaps just salt and pepper, or more exotic with star anise, cardomon and ginger.
Would I make it again? Never. I don't really use sauce much, and it seemed quite labour intensive.
Haw Pie
As I was in the business of processing hawthorn by boiling them and pushing through a sieve, I thought I'd add the syrup to an apple pie.
I loved the hedgerowy autumnal vibe behind the pie - apples from our trees and haw berries. I also added a handful of foraged blackberries. There was no noticeable taste difference as haws have a dry appley taste to them anyway, but hey, I made a haw pie.
All jokes aside, please. We could be nice and call it a hawberry pie, but where's the fun in that?
Plus, I made my husband happy because I put a Landrover on it.
Haw Oxymel
This is well and truly my favourite. It's so pretty. An oxymel is basically made by stuffing a jar half full with the plant, covering with vinegar, and then topping up with honey. The result, in six weeks time, is the herbs extracted into the vinegar and it suits those that might not get along with alcoholic tinctures, although it doesn't keep as long and you get a much stronger infusion from vodka or Everclear. But as I said, I'm in love with liberal drizzlings and guzzlings of oxymel.
Both Susun Weed and Cedar Mountain herbs warn that you should only half fill the jar as 'the pectin will inhibit the menstruum from accessing the medicine in the berries if packed too tightly by acting as a barrier'. Furthermore. Cedar Mountain suggests smashing the berries up so the vinegar is able to access the alkaloids and nutrients inside the berries. I also did this with the rosehips. Given they are spikey, I'll eventually strain the whole lot through muslin.
I also used rose hips, ginger and cinnamon in this mix. Cinnamon seemed to add to the wintry chai spice of this medicine, and the ginger is also warming and good for the immune system, which seemed to suit my purpose here. It's the most spectacular colour, don't you think? I can't wait to try it!
Have you ever made anything out of haw berries?
With Love,
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STOPI've not found hawthorne growing around here. At some point I hope to add more shrubs and trees and this sounds like a good candidate...
Ooh try the one with the pink flowers.. they are awfully pretty!
Fantastic post beautiful lady. I like the look of the oxymel. Rosehips are always a good foraging find in autumn too, I'll be tying this recipe come October.
🤣 you crack me up I am so glad you went there. I love a bit of humor in an article. No judgement at all because, well, let's face it, what's life without a good laugh? And just like the those little red haws, laughter is great heart medicine too.
Love you 🤗💚💞xx
He he it was fun joking about it with you this week. I'm totally into oxymels at the moment.. and you can drink them in fizzy water and splash liberally on salads, kinda like a daily tonic. You must be at random season now! I was so lucky to have spring in England last year, honestly, the haw blossoms made me so happy. So special.
Ooh sounds very versatile too. I like things that have multi purpose, good for variety and saves going to waste too.
Yes spring is trying to break through. We had a few warm days but beware the Ides of March as they say. I'm hoping the Hawthorne flowers pop soon. There's a wild area on our walk to school filled with Hawthorn trees. I'll grab some photos when they do xx
💚🌳🤗
Hugs friend, in Venezuela I ate too much cherries, apples and blackberries, the name cherries in Venezuela are certainly anti-inflammatory and delicious in juice and eat the fruit directly. Unfortunately that tradition has been lost, now they are a luxury. My son tells me in Buenos Aires-Argentina that there eating cherries and apples is as easy, as eating mangoes in Venezuela. In truth, I am addicted to fruits, they are nutritious, tasty, medicinal and nutritional, bananas, peaches and guava are hardly missing at home, Successful publication friend. Hugs.
Thankyou ! I love cherries a lot. Cherry juice would have been nice in the haw sauce!
Hugs. Successes un your work un Hive. Thank you.
What a wonderful fruit with so many delightful and healthy properties (except for the cyanide part). I have a bit of a sweet tooth, so I would to taste some of that haw sauce.
Well, my husband had it with eggs this morning - and he liked it! He likes HP sauce, so this was almost close to it!
Oh the amazing hawthorn, how I love this tree! It has brought me so much comfort down through the years. I have only every used the berries for tea and I have eaten the leaves on occasion. They don't grow where I am, but do further up the mountains, which is where I think I should move to, somewhere with Hawthorn trees, perfect. What a beautiful post my friend xxxx
Thankyou!!!! Yes, you know how much I worship the hawthorn too. It's so good to know how to supplement your diet with any kind of wild food, just in case I ever actually need to. It was blowing my mind this abundance was overlooked by all the cars zooming on by.
I loved this! I am a fan of Hawthorn and the diversity of it. There is no denying that it is well known for heart medicine and beta-blocker. That surprised me. So many things I have learned from a bonafide natural medicine site, and Mother Earth News. :))
I do make jelly, and I absolutely love Haw Oxymel !! That is so pretty!!! And you joke!! :) I love it and this was a great piece here, which I have bookmarked for further use.
Thank you!
Oh thanks sooo much @dswigle - I'm learning from everyone here all the time. I love our little community! I'll have to try the jelly one day, just to say I have!
lol good vibes from nature