Tag: metsäntaru

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Pleasant Dreams Tea

Sweep, sweep, sweep away the mighty thoughts, giants who’ve taken residence in the mind, big strong thoughts pulling tension up the body, all that constant thinking & over-thinking. Sweep it away. With Lavender, the broom of the brain. Softly softened now with Chamomile & Linden. Mystical Hyssop & Heather. And settling down into the body with Wood Betony & Verbena.
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Pleasant Dreams is a tea I formulated to help bring energy down from the over-thinking head into the sensing body. I drink this tea in the daytime or evening if I feel nervous or anxious, and it helps take the edge off, helps my shoulders relax and helps me to breathe more deeply and slowly.
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This tea is not strongly sedating, but gently calming. A tea to help transition from Up in the Head, to Down in the Body, from hyperactive linear thoughts to pleasant dream space… Enjoy.

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Classic Cold Care Tea

Classic Cold Care Tea… Yarrow, Elderflower, Peppermint. Also known as YEP Tea or Gypsy Tea, is a traditional herbal blend that goes back centuries in folk medicine. This Tea is drank as a hot infusion at the first signs of cold or flu.
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Yarrow, Elderflower & Peppermint are all diaphoretic herbs, which means that they open the pores of the skin, allowing Excess Heat to leave the body via perspiration or sweat. (When sick, Excess Heat in the body can manifest as sore throat or fever or thick mucous or yellow mucous or feeling hot and achey).
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When drinking this tea you’ll quickly feel the heat in your body come to the surface of your skin, and then you will start to sweat a bit. This activates your immune system and will help to support the fever process as well as help break a prolonged fever. An elevated body temperature helps to kill viruses in the body, so fever & sweating is one way that the body fights off viruses.
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Yarrow is antiseptic & anodyne which means that she helps inhibit the grpwth of harmful micro-organisms, helps prevent infection & helps reduce pain.
Elderflower is expectorant, assisting in expelling mucous from the body. Elderflower is also a soothing nervine, helping you to relax and rest.
Peppermint is antispasmodic & decongestant, and so beneficial for a spastic cough or sinus headache.
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The combination of these 3 herbs has a quite pleasant taste! Sipping this tea while its hot, throughout the day, at the first signs of feeling sick will usually have me feeling better in 1-2 days. Of course its also important to rest, drink plenty of water and eat warm soup.
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Enjoy & Be Well.

Yarrow flowers
Classic Cold Care Tea
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Smokey Cottage Tea

Deep in the heart of the forests of Finlandia are treasured sanctuaries built from trees felled by the ax of ancestors sweat & love. The clock doesn’t tick here. Time is measured by the rolling of the sun across the sky, the rise & fall of shadows, the waxing waning moon. The Finnish cottage is a place where the veil is thin, and dreams come alive into the waking world.
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In honor of my husbands family cottage, I crafted Smokey Cottage Tea. Finlands treasured flavors of Birch, Meadowsweet, Goldenrod, Linden, Fireweed & Angelica meld together in a tea whose flavor is reminiscent of sitting by the fire in a cozy cottage.
I chose herbs that are anti-inflammatory, contain natural pain-relieving salicylates & have a traditional use for reducing muscular body aches & arthritic pain. A tea to settle your bones and soothe your muscles, a tea whose flavor may carry you to the cottage of your own imagination.
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All herb ingredients are Finnish and I wildcrafted most of the herbs myself. A percentage of sales proceeds are donated to Finnish Nature Conservation groups to help protect and give back to the forest.

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Midnight Sun

And in the blink of an eye, the birches were all covered in leaves. Upon each days awakening, new flowers appeared. Bee’s bumbled and butterflies fluttered. Blue lakes reflecting blue sky. As the Sun shines brightly into the midnight hours, her rays summon up Finlandia’s subterranean slumberers who have been asleep under the frozen ground for 6 months. Come up! Come out! Time to Shine!

The scent of birch fills the air, dappled sunlight shines through her green leaves hanging elegantly over cool blue waters. The little ones appear on the forest floor, mustikkalehti (bilberry leaf), mansikka (strawberry), siankärsämö (yarrow). Pupu (bunny rabbits) nibble and Fasaani (forest pheasants) honk, as we dive blissfully into the cold pure lake waters.

Finlandia is fully awake, in full bloom, fed by the Midnight Sun.

Midnight Sun is a tea that I blended in honor of Finnish Summer. I wanted to try and convey the flavor and feeling of my favorite time of year when the sun always shines. Midnight Sun Tea contains herbs that I wildcraft during summer for teas and cooking. Plants such as young birch leaf, blueberry and raspberry leaf, meadowsweet and heather. So anytime of year I can drink this tea and taste the flavors and memories of summer. I hope that you Enjoy this tea too.

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Drippy Nose Care

Drip, drip, drip… icicles slowly melt & drip, just like Sanni’s nose…drip… Spring is sloooow to arrive in Finlandia and winters chill has been a constant presence in the forest. Perhaps it was the penetrating cold, perhaps it was because Sanni had not spent enough time by the fire, or perhaps it was all the snowcones she had eaten lately, but her nose was dripping like an icicle! Clear thin mucous, a sign that the cold had managed to penetrate.
So Sanni made her way back to Noita (witch) who sat her by the fire and gave her a big mug of Drippy Nose Care Tea.
Warming & drying herbs like Wild Thyme, Ground Ivy, Goldenrod, Hyssop, Anise, Nettles with a touch of honey to moisten & balance the tea. Yuuummmm… deliciously warming. Sanni could feel her nose dripping less & less as she drank the tea. Noita continued to nurse Sanni with broth, lämmintä mustaherukkamehua (warm black currant juice) and other teas too. But she always looked forward to that savory sweet taste of Drippy Nose Care Tea with honey. ..

Sanni lovingly handcrafted by Taru Kolehmainen Lehtomäki
Drippy Nose Care Tea
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Sanni Meets Korona

As Sanni entered a village she saw the frightened faces of humans scurrying into their homes for shelter. The paths were quiet, empty of people. Sanni overheard the humans speaking of a horrible frightening Being who roamed the world hunting & killing humans, Oh My! ..
Suddenly Sanni heard the loud flapping of wings behind her. She spun around and landing before her was a Great Winged Being covered in black armored scales. “Who are you?” asked Sanni trembling & wide-eyed. The Being spoke “I am Korona. I was born out of the despicable conditions of an overcrowded animal slaughter market where creatures are poached from their homes in nature and packed into filthy cages for profit. My mother was a frightened bat, sick with fear & stress from the filthy packed conditions of the meat market. As she died, her frightened spirit was in such shock that it flew into a pangolin who was also sickened with stress & fear from the filthy overcrowded meat market. Their sad frightened spirits coalesced to form me, Korona. Like a winged bat I fly with stealth & speed. Like a pangolin I am armored and difficult to kill. ..
And from the sad sick conditions which gave rise to me, I will cast my seeds of sadness & sickness & grief into lungs around the world. I am not evil, I am the embodied energy of stressed scared & sick creatures overcrowded in filthy conditions for human profit. I am the dirty underside that has been pushed out of sight out of mind. I am the reminder that all beings are interconnected breathing the same air. And yes I am Tragedy, because my seeds of sickness & death are cast on both the Good as well as the Disrespectful. I am Korona. ..
Gather your allies, gather your plants, medicines, ancestors, spirit allies. I am an embodiment of a sickness that hunts & haunts humanity. Lay me to rest… so that all creatures may live with dignity & respect.” ..

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Sanni Meets a Noita (witch)

As Sanni wandered thru the cold forests she could feel the penetrating weight of winter slowly seeping into her tonttu bones. When suddenly she caught the warmly fragrant scent of roses.. Roses in Winter?! She followed the rosey scent down thru the winding roots until… low & behold! A noita! (noita = finnish witch) Noita was stirring her brew and said “Tervetuloa..” (Welcome)… She offered Sanni a mug of her Rosey North Tea. “These plant allies keep us bright & strong during the cold dark times.” Roseroot is the rose flavored great tonic herb of the north. But she is dry so licorice root is added to moisten her up. And she is cool so fennel seed is added to bring warmth. St Joans Wort is added to bring summers uplifting golden sunshine energy and Milky Oats are added to nourish our frazzled cold nerves. Nettles are also added for nutrition. As Sanni held the warm mug to her face, the scent of roses & licorice made her smile. Sip by sip, she felt her spirit lifting, her elf body becoming warm & nourished. She looked up to Noita and said “Kiitos” (Thank you) to which Noita replied with a wink of her eye…

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World Wide Web of the Forest

How amazing that under the earths surface is a mycorrhizal network connecting the mushrooms, fungi, plant roots of the forest thru which they communicate with each other! The original World Wide Web! Just like humans share info thru internet, forest beings share info & nutrients thru the underground web. Tonttu can whisper to a mushroom, listen to a tree root and connect with other tonttu and forest creatures of Finlandia & beyond. And its just like this that Sanni met her first Finlandian tonttu friend, Anna. Anna introduced Sanni to many types of fungi friends and even gifted Sanni with precious hand-collected chaga.

Sanni & Anna are lovingly handcrafted by mother of tonttu Taru Kolehmainen Lehtomäki.
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Sanni Befriends a Rock Spirit

And if you squint your eyes & open your heart, you can see gentle giants slumbering within the forests of Finlandia… Well to us it appears they are resting, but their sense of time is much much slower than ours. They actually roll & rumble across the land at an ancient pace. Old Rock Spirits. And when you listen, stop & listen, they will speak. And now, Sanni has found a friend.
Ja jos siristävät silmäsi ja avaa sydämesi, voit nähdä lempeitä jättiläisiä, jotka makaavat Finlandian metsissä.

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Sanni Wonders If She Will Feel At Home

And so she returned to the forest to sit amongst the moss & stones, sharing her hot cocoa with the trees gathered around. She thought about the Cacao Tree whose home is in the South. And how the cacao seeds are so loved that they are flown in on the backs of birds all around the world. And how, like her, cacao is also an immigrant. Same with coffee and licorice, immigrants too. She wondered if some day she too would be embraced by Finlandia. Would she some day feel as cozy & familiar as hot chocolate in her new home? Not native, but embraced and integrated into the culture? ..