Honeysuckle

This time of year is so great for harvesting herbs. I'm always experimenting with new herbs and new ways of using them. This summer I have been harvesting Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica. This hardy Japanese native has spread to many parts of the world.

The smell of its divine lemon scented blooms fill the air when I walk past the flowering weedy vines. In some parts of the world it is an invasive pest. In Canterbury, it is just unruly and tough. I have a vine growing in my garden but it's still small and manageable. Some people will have sipped the nectar from flowers which are sweet like honey. Some people use the vines for basketry. The berries are only food for the birds.

Some delicious ideas for the perfumed flowers are iced summer drinks made from infusing the flowers in water, ice cream, jelly and other fragrant desserts.

In TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), honeysuckle has been used long term for upper respiratory support and fevers with studies showing it has antiviral, antibacterial and hypolipidemic actions. Enjoying the dried flowers over the winter months as a herbal tea (infusion) or the infused honey is a tasty way to enjoy this herb's benefits.

Honeysuckle is considered to be cooling and antiinflammatory which means externally it has an affinity for skin issues like sunburn, soothing irritated or itchy skin, cold sores and chicken pox, by adding an infusion to your bathwater or soaking a cloth in it and applying to inflamed skin.

Honeysuckle - such a deliciously fragrant bloom