If you have been following me for a while you know that I set out on a mission to make my own Fertility Tea.  Starting in the late spring I started growing the herbs I would need for the ingredients.  I quickly learned that realistically, I wasn't going to be able to actually harvest and use my own tea for at least another year or two.  Also, while I would be able to make my own tea, I learned that many of you were also interested in this tea!  I would certainly love to be able to grow enough of these plants to share with all of you but it doesn't seem feasible at this point.  But wait!  I have the next best thing!

This weekend we made a huge batch of our TTC Tea so that we can share it with all of you!  I was so excited to open up the various packages filled with the ingredients.  As soon as the bags opened, the room would fill with the intoxicating smells.  Not all of them smelled particularly yummy but the red raspberry leaf and the peppermint made up for the less delightful ones.


We mixed equal parts of the following:

Red Clover

Chamomile

Chaste Berries (Vitex)

Red Raspberry Leaf

Green Tea Leaf

Nettle Leaf

Peppermint Leaf

After mixing it well, we measured and weighed it out and put it into our metal tea tins.  The tea blend really is attractive!






One of our 2.5 ounce tins of tea will last you approximately one month when used used 3 times a day.  Simply place a teaspoonful of the tea blend into a loose tea ball (or use a coffee filter or cheesecloth) and let steep for several minutes.  Do this three times a day until pregnancy is achieved! 

Interested?  If you are eager to get started right away...







Feeling lucky?  Enter below to win your very own homemade with love, TTC Tea!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about making my first tincture of Red Clover. A tincture is when you use a liquid, most commonly an alcohol and water mixture, to extract the healing qualities of an herb. I had read in the The Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year that Red Clover is the "single most useful herb for establishing fertility."





Since I am really just setting sail on this voyage with herbs, I will share with you the words of Susan Weed.  She explains:

It's high vitamin content is especially useful for the uterus; its high protein content aids the entire body; its profuse and exceedingly absorbable calcium and magnesium relax the nervous system and promote fertility.  Its high mineral content, including virtually every trace mineral needed by the glands, helps restore and balance hormonal functions.  In addition, red clover alkalinizes the body and and may balance the acid/alkaline level of the vagina and uterus in favor of conception. 

I was looking for natural alternatives to increase my fertility and this seems perfect!   So a few weeks ago I harvested the flowers and put them in alcohol to soak.  Since I had read initially that the jar should be kept in a dark place and shaken once daily that was my strategy at first.  Susan Weed stated that she didn't feel that it was necessary to shake the jar or even keep it in a dark place.  I compromised and kept it in a brown paper bag and shook it only when I thought about it which was a few times a week.

When I opened the jar, I smelled it to make sure nothing smelled spoiled or strange. It smelled like sweet alcohol.
I opened a piece of cheese cloth over a wide glass container and poured the contents carefully into the cloth.






After the majority of the liquid was in the container I picked up the cheese cloth and squeezed with all of my might to get any remaining liquid into the container.




 

Then, using a funnel, I poured the tincture into blue 2 ounce tincture bottles with dropper lids.





I was happy to see that one wide mouth pint jar filled to the top with the blossoms and then alcohol yielded almost 10 ounces of Red Clover tincture!






Starting last night, I am taking 2-3 dropperfuls in hot water 3 times a day.  The taste is actually very plain, maybe a little sweet and non-offensive.  I may experiment by putting into peppermint tea at some point but right now plain hot water is just fine.   











 

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.

I posted a month or two ago about how I decided to start a herb garden for a homemade fertility tea. The ingredients are as follows:

• German Chamomile
  
• Nettle Leaf
• Red Raspberry Leaf
  
• Peppermint Leaf
• Red Clover Leaf (actually already have this growing everywhere!)
• Green Tea
• Chaste Berry

For more information and detail about the fertility tea please see this guest post where Earon shares her journey and experience with herbs!

I ordered my plants and seeds and jumped right in as soon as they arrived! I ordered a number of duplicate seed packs and plants for fear that they wouldn't make the trip from Oregon to Ohio, and my extreme lack of prior knowledge with herbs. I was pretty convinced that if they showed up alive after 3 days with no water in a box with no sunlight, me transplanting them would likely kill them. Imagine my delight when I opened the box and they were in great shape. They were packaged superbly and looked like I had just picked them up from a green house up the road. I unwrapped them and marveled at the fact that 3 days ago, they lived on the other side of the country!
I transplanted all of the plants, Chaste Berry (Vitex) and Chinese Tea, into my containers that I had already filled with garden and potting soil. I used miracle grow thinking that I was going to be nursing close to dead plants back to health. In hindsight, I may have opted for organic potting soil.

A day or two later, I filled my Jiffy Strips with the same miracle grow potting soil and planted my Stinging Nettle , and Peppermint seeds. I was so excited that my Stinging Nettle (left) popped up about a week or so later! My peppermint didn't ever sprout. I was thankful that I had bought a second packet of seeds and tried again. Just a day or two ago, I noticed for the first time that we had little sprouts (right)!

The German Chamomile seeds were planted in a new flower bed in front of what will be Gavin's play area (once the grass is ready to go and we build the play equipment). I checked daily for any sign of life and I am ready to throw in the towel on the Chamomile. I had bought two packs but used both to cover the whole area. I will need to order more soon. I think our mistake was that we packed the dirt down (lightly) after distributing the seeds over the loose earth. The more I have read, the more I think our best bet is to gently brush the dirt around to lightly cover the seeds. Next time.
The clover is growing around us everywhere. I read that the best time to harvest the blossoms is when they are a deep purple, first thing in the morning before the sun burns off the dew. I went out last weekend to harvest the clover and was disappointed in how faded the blossoms looked. I picked some anyway just to experiment but plan to try again after this extreme heat subdues. Perhaps that is contributing to the less than vibrant blooms.
The Red Raspberry canes will be coming from my wonderful father in law who has offered to let us transplant some of his at our house. I love the fact that we will soon have plants that existed and fed my husband as a child. How wonderful is that? I look forward to bringing them to our house in the the fall. Granted, I won't be able to use the leaves of the plant until next year but, it is worth the wait!






















For a first timer, I must say that I am pretty proud of myself! I am learning so much and even if I don't have a drop of tea to drink, I am enjoying learning about all of the medicinal qualities of these herbs and others. I will continue to post updates and herb info as I learn more and more! Thanks for joining me on this neat little garden activity! As always, I love feedback as well as tips, support, and advice!

A couple of weeks ago I was intrigued by a post on a message board that explained how to make your own fertility tea. As I posted yesterday, I decided to pass the time that Doug is on his medications, by growing the herbs needed to make it. I asked Earon to share, as a guest blogger, more about her journey with infertility and with the fertility tea. Enjoy this amazing post!


By Earon Harwell – Guest Blogger

Most people would say that their beginning began at their birth, but mine started after that. Aside from the Creator of the universe knowing us before we were conceived, my beginning started with my salvation. I was saved in the summer of 2000. I was searching for more and God saw to it that I found Him. I could see my life playing out with all the necessary difficulties that make us grow but the blessing of having God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit with me through it all. Visions of family and babies filled my mind, but what was more important to me at that point was Christ alone.

My relationship with God grew and He nurtured it to fruition as I met my would-be husband only a few short months later in the summer of 2001. Now those visions of family and babies soared to the forefront of my mind as our relationship grew and moved toward marriage in April of 2002. My husband, being a quiet man, didn’t seem too thrilled about having kids right off the bat so we waited a whole six months…. A long time I know. Three point five years later we were still in the same boat. Childless. I had gone through the extreme highs and lows of trying to conceive; something that every woman that has difficulty conceiving knows all too well. I finally decided that it was time to visit an OB/GYN.

So, there I was, 22 ½ yrs old and making a trip to the gyno with a hope of a thumbs up from her. She took a blood sample from me and ordered a semen analysis for my husband. A few days before Christmas I got a call from the office telling me that my progesterone was so low that I was more than likely not ovulating at all, even though my cycles were steady and constant. Another couple of days passed and we heard back from my doctor again about my husbands’ semen analysis. That was the day, December 23rd, 2005, that my world was shattered. My husband was sterile, 100% sterile. We since found that it was likely due to a combination of sickness and an accident he had as a child.

Even after this discovery I hoped and prayed that it wasn’t true and that I would magically end up pregnant. However, a few days after that dreadful day, my husband announced to me that he was relieved that he couldn’t have kids cause he never really wanted them to begin with. He was of course sorry for my hurt, but glad that he couldn’t get me pregnant. I was crushed, broken hearted, and felt completely lost. He tried to explain, but all the explanation in the world didn’t matter at that point. This was the first time in my walk with Christ that I had a crisis of belief. I knew that God is All Mighty, yet He chose to not heal us, therefore, allowing this chain of events to happen. Why would He do that? I didn’t understand. My faith was coming into question.

My question wasn’t answered for months on end. God allowed me to suffer in this for a bigger purpose, and today I can honestly say that I’m grateful for it. About a year later, we had decided to begin the process of foster care and adoption through the state. In filling out the paperwork, my husband kept getting really frustrated with some of the personal questions that were being asked as they were directed at his infertility. This was another beginning; I was beginning to understand what was really in my husband’s heart about our infertility. God was using this time to shape my husband and help him to realize his potential as a parent and the desire of his heart to become a father. Regardless of that, and due to financial difficulty at the time, we chose to wait to do foster care and ended up moving to another county. Within the next 2 years I began to notice how great he was with the kids that were around us. He loved playing with them and making them laugh. Plus, I saw his countenance lift every time he hung out with kids. Once established after the move we picked up the foster care endeavor again.

By this time, I had finished writing my first book, The Prayer Of A Parent, and was in the process of publishing it. The Prayer of a Parent is a book that God put on my heart in order to help people learn to pray God’s word over their kiddos lives, because of the fact that I had been praying for my future children for 4-5 years at that point. That’s about when we got our first foster child, and over the course of that year we took in 6 more foster kids, one of which we adopted. I’m a little sad to say that I didn’t end up getting pregnant, but I know that my life isn’t over yet, and by God’s grace we may yet have another child somehow. Presently, we are living happily with our daughter who is now 2 years older than when we first gave her a home. She was our second foster child and we love our girl, but want another child to give our daughter a playmate.

All of that being said we have found a well regulated company that will deliver donor sperm to our home without the assistance of a physician. Which makes it much more affordable for us to try for an actual pregnancy. Therefore I’ve been researching ways to help stimulate ovulation without the use of prescribed drugs. That’s when I came across a recipe for Fertility Tea, and about the same time I met Maria, the author of this blog. This is what I found and the post that got Maria’s attention:

I went to my local Natural Abundance health food store and got ingredients to make my own Fertility tea.

In the tea I have:
• German Chamomile 0.75oz
• Nettle Leaf 0.75oz
• Red Raspberry Leaf 0.75oz
• Peppermint Leaf 0.75oz
• Red Clover Leaf 0.75oz
• Green Tea 0.75oz
• Chaste Berry (vitex) 0.75oz

To Use:
I have a loose tea ball, which is what you'll need. Either that or whatever you can use such as a coffee filter, cheese cloth or whatever. Use 1 teaspoon per cup of water (standard coffee/tea cup is about 1.5 cups-ish) and steap in boiling water for a couple minutes or so. Add sweetener, creamer or juice to taste. Drink 3 times a day until pregnancy achieved. Viola!

Mixing and storing:
I mixed them all together in a big bowl and put them in my loose tea container which seals for freshness. The stuff that didn't fit I put into a ziplock and got as much air out as I could for continued freshness. I also got Licorice Root (Glycyrrhiza Glabra) as suggested by crossgirl_15, but I got it in capsule form which I will take with the tea in the morning, afternoon and evening. A person can get licorice root for the tea but you don't want to take it over an extended period of time so I chose to get is separately. You can use licorice root just like clomid, but you need 3500-8000mg a day? Someone can correct me if I'm wrong on those numbers. My pills are 450 mg each so I will take two or three with each meal. I will take it on cd 5-9 just like you would with clomid. Licorice root can raise your bp so you need to be careful if you have heart problems or high bp.
If you don't use licorice root and need something to help with luteal phase and LH for follicular maturation then you will need to add Chasteberry to the tea just use 0.75 oz and mix with the other leafs. Here is a great link to help you understand what each herb does for your cycle.

This is what I resorted to. My OB/GYN called and canceled the appointment I had made to discuss fertility with him so I think this was just God's answer to what I was asking, and seeking for.

I fully believe that God made the herbs for us to use and I think sometimes we forget about them. Now it’s VERY important that you consult your herbalist or naturopathic doctor before throwing herbs together. I grew up with the use of herbs and have a really good handle on what I can use and how to adjust if it’s not working, but not everyone does. The tea costs somewhere around $6 as opposed to $14 at a retail store. Plus it will last a couple of cycles. I should also mention that using it three times a day has caused a little bit of constipation, so I started using it once a day and drinking a bit more water than usual.

I have to say that the part of the title, “Made Whole” has not yet been completed, but I know that one day it will when God receives me into glory. God has granted me peace with the fact that we cannot conceive the natural way. God had used that time of barrenness in my life to help my husband overcome his fears of parenting and to help him realize that he truly did want to have children. For me God has begun and continued to teach me patience and contentment. I had and have the blessing of watching my hubby blossom before my eyes. I have the privilege of seeing his character grow and shape into a godly man and father; this is something that I would never trade with the opportunity to conceive and give birth normally.



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