According to The Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year, Red Clover is the "single most useful herb for establishing fertility." That is not only good to know, it is great news because of all of the greenery surrounding my house, red clover is one of them. It is everywhere! Actually we have planted some as is is a great pasture legume for our cows. Who knew it would be a great herb for women too!

Before I go on, I want to say a few words about The Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing year. This is the book (e-book) that I was so thrilled to get to read and review. I am so excited about all of the information that is packed into this 192 page book! In this book there is all that you would need to know about herbs that promote fertility, are beneficial for pregnancy, and even herbs that are known to help with your newborn, breastfeeding, and postpartum concerns including depression. There are instructions on making tinctures, infusions, and salves. There is also information on herbs that help prevent pregnancy. I really can't even put into words how much I am going to be using this book in the coming weeks and hopefully years.

I will likely be making references to the book, The Childbearing Year, in future posts as well since it really is teaching me everything there is to know about fertility herbs. If you would like to purchase this book, which I suggest you do if you are a woman who has any interest in using herbs (purchased or grown) in any capacity during your quest for children, more children, or looking for all natural means for preventing future pregnancies.* Really a wonderful tool!

Also, I want to give a special thank you to Hill Country Herbalist who helped me out by answering my questions and giving me the confidence to just dive in.

So back to my red clover! I have this stuff growing everywhere so Gavin and I went out and picked as many clover blossoms as we could find. Well... not all of them because we could have been out all day and in a matter of 25 minutes I was drenched in sweat and Gavin said he was ready for a Popsicle. So, we brought in all of the clover and admired our find. Not too bad!


I picked all of the leaves off so that all I had left was the blossoms. There are a lot of tiny baby leaves at the bottom of the blossom so it was somewhat tedious work. Actually, it took me longer to clean them all than it did to pick them! I discarded any blossoms that were too browned or unhealthy looking.


I also met my new least favorite creepy crawly. The blossoms had tons of these almost invisible little spiders that if they didn't bite, I wouldn't have even noticed them! These little suckers drove me crazy the whole time and they were all over the place! No joke... I just had to itch my neck twice as I typed that because I was recalling that awful part of nature.


I packed as many blossoms in a Mason jar as I could. I was a little surprised at how many clover blossoms I managed to fit into one, wide mouth pint jar! I thought for sure I had picked enough to make two separate pints but, after packing the first jar, I may have had enough to fill a small jelly jar but since I didn't have any on hand. I discarded the rest.


Then, I used 80 proof vodka, fighting the temptation to pour a little into a glass of orange juice, to fill in the small amount of space left in the jar until it was completely full. In fact, when I screwed the lid on some vodka did escape from the sides. After reading the Childbearing Year, I would have opted for 100 proof vodka. Next time I will. Aw shucks. It looks like I have a big bottle of 80 proof vodka I need to take care of.


Each day I give my jar a shake and see its progress. Almost immediately the color turned from purple to white. After the first day, the Clover had soaked up quite a bit of the vodka so I topped it off again.


After a few weeks of soaking I will pour off the liquid, squeeze the blossoms to get the alcohol out of them as well and place the liquid into small glass bottles with droppers so that I can start using it! I can't tell you how excited I am to start really doing this. One day I would love to have a whole herbal pharmacy but for now, I'll start with Red Clover!



* Disclaimer* I am not an herbalist. I am not a doctor. I am just a farm girl who likes to grow things and appreciates the medicinal qualities of the herbs that grow around me! While herbs are a wonderful, natural, and God given gift, please consult a professional before experimenting with adding herbs to your health regimen. Also, this book was given to me at no cost but I am not being compensated for this post. My thoughts are 100% my own.