Guest blog from HerbMother!

Though I love Halloween, November 1st, Dia de los Muertos, is truly my favorite holiday.  Mrs. B was kind enough to let me interrupt her Halloween celebrations to share one of my favorite Muertos traditions: Pan de Muerto, Bread of the Dead, or simply Dead Bread in my house. Pan de Muerto is traditionally left as an offering on the alter to the dead on Dia de los Muertos. I adore this bread because it features two of my absolute favorite plant medicines: orange peel and anise.

Both herbs (lets just call em both herbs) target the digestive system and fight against phlegmy coughs. As a seed tea, anise is useful as a digestive aid that helps with flatulence. It can also increase breast milk and soothe a colicky baby. In fact, I drink a seed tea that includes anise each night before bed, as I am currently nursing a babe who has her own set of witching hours. You can make a seed tea two ways: let 1 tsp seed steep overnight, or until the seed opens, in 1 cup of boiled water or slightly crush the seed in a morter and pestle and steep for 10-20 minutes. Since orange peel also loves the tummy, why not add a little to your water for an amazing Dead Bread Tea. It’ll feel like desert. Orange can be a quick fix for heart burn as well. Just bite into it as you would an apple or strip off a small piece of the peel and you’ll have fairly instant relief. However, it is best enjoyed as a bitter tonic, eaten often helping the digestive system do its work. Try it in your smoothies, breads, salads etc.

As an expectorant anise and orange peel help to break up the plegmy cough that is all too prevalent these coming autumn months. Make an easy herbal syrup with them and find delicious aromatic relief. Add 1/4 c anise seed and 1/4 c ground orange peel to 2 cups of water. Simmer over low heat until reduced by half. Strain the herbs. Add 1/2 c honey. Stir well. This should last several weeks in the refrigerator.

Besides making great bread and medicine these herbs offer a plethora of otherworldly goodness as well. Orange peel is said to bring luck and good fortune while anise will avert the evil eye and help with bad dreams. So after you’ve eaten all your kids candy and you have that stomach ache you warned them about, and you can’t sleep because you watched that Halloween movie, make some Dead Bread Tea. Cuz who knows, maybe you’ll even win something.

**Pan de Muerto recipe available upon request. In the interest of brevity, I left it out of this post, but send me an email if you’d like it at: herbmother [at] hotmail [dot] com.

Latisha, HerbMother, is an Earth-Loving Mama of 2 small girls, married to the ultimate Beer Gardener. She spends her free time playing among the plants in the small but bountiful desert patio garden he created for her brewing up potions and indoctrinating her daughters with the ways of the herb hoping to fuel the fire of a new generation of Wise Women.