Check out our brand new Oxymel Video!
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Introduction
Hi. I’m Madelyn, owner and co-founder of Mickelberry Gardens! Along with my husband, Matt, and a small team of dedicated employees, local beekeepers, and organic herb growers across the Pacific Northwest, we produce a unique line of what we call Honey Tonics. I want to share with you why herbal honey tonics are an important addition to the herbal medicine cabinet, highlight their unique properties. and explore why we feel that Sourcing Local makes all the difference in product quality.
What's An Oxymel?
All of our Honey Tonic formulas are Oxymels, which combine local and raw honey's nourishing natural sweetness with the invigorating tartness of Organic Apple Cider Vinegar. The word “Oxymel” comes from Latin - "Oxy" means acid or sharp. "Mel" means honey or sweetness
Our Oxymel Honey Tonics taste great! The combination of honey and vinegar is both sweet and sour, and is both soothing, and delicious. Sometimes convincing folks to consistently take herbal medicine can be challenging, due to the un-palatable taste of alcohol-based tinctures. Our Honey Tonics are an excellent alternative to alcohol-based tinctures that provide the benefit of herbal medicines, in a soothing and delicious format. Honey Tonics are great for kids! Parents will get better compliance than by trying to hide bad tasting alcohol tinctures in juice.
Mickelberry Gardens Honey Tonics are ideal for people who chose to not consume alcohol, or those who simply can't tolerate its harsh taste. Instead of using alcohol to extract the medicinal constituents of healing herbs, our formulas utilize Apple Cider Vinegar as a primary menstruum. This results in an extract that is gentle, tonifying, safe, effective, and ideal for taking over longer periods of time.
Apple Cider Vinegar as a Solvent for Medicinal Plants
Apple Cider Vinegar and Oxymels have a long history of use with plant medicines. Before the invention of distilled spirits, herbalists used wine and vinegar to extract the medicinal properties of herbs. The use of Oxymels dates way back to Hippocrates in the Western Herbal tradition, and were relied on in Traditional Persian Medicine.
Apple Cider Vinegar extracts a range of plant constituents, from simple water-soluble constituents, vitamins, and minerals to more pharmacologically active compounds that give many herbs their therapeutic powers. Oxymels provide many of the benefits of tinctures, without the drawbacks of alcohol and glycerin.
Tinctures can also be to added to our Honey Tonics, to help make them more palatable.
Healing Benefits of Honey and Apple Cider Vinegar
Honey and Apple Cider Vinegar are both extremely nourishing and soothing, particularly for the mucous membranes of our digestion and respiratory systems. Mickelberry Gardens uses Raw Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, which contains the ‘Mother of Vinegar.’ This living component is probiotic, contains live enzymes, and promotes gut friendly bacteria.
Raw Honey has been used traditionally used therapeutically for a very long time. It’s widely known as being soothing for sore throats, anti-microbial, preservative, and nourishing. There’s also a good deal of scientific research backing up the traditional uses of raw honey as an antimicrobial and antioxidant.
Raw Apple Cider Vinegar as well has a long history of use to support healthy digestion, and is full of vitamins and anti-oxidants.
The traditional and scientifically proven benefits of Raw Honey and Raw Apple Cider Vinegar show that these ingredients support and promote our health on their own. This is in contrast to alcohol and glycerin, commonly used in herbal medicine, neither of which offers health benefits on their own and could even be considered detrimental to health.
We use perfect healing foods from Mother Nature to extract and preserve our plant medicines. No harsh solvents. Nothing produced with toxic chemicals. Apples, probiotic cultures, and honey. That's it. Oxymels take the idea of 'let thy food be thy medicine' to a new level.
Mickelberry Gardens Commitment To Sourcing Locally!
We source the highest quality medicinal herbs available, from local certified organic growers. We are 100% committed to developing local relationships – which means we source direct from the producer whenever possible. This means reduced food miles and a smaller carbon footprint. Sourcing local also means that we receive fresher and more vital herbs, often arriving on the same day they were harvested. We support a growing community of small scale, certified organic farmers.
We are also committed to working directly with local beekeepers to source all of our raw honey. We believe in working directly with beekeepers in order to obtain the highest quality honey available. All of our honey comes from small beekeeping families who keep their hives on farms and wildlands in the Pacific Northwest. We independently test our honey for adulteration, quality, and the presence of antibiotics and pesticides to further ensure it’s quality.
Certified Organic Honey vs. Local Honey
Our honey is better than USDA Certified Organic. In fact, all honey bearing the USDA Organic seal on supermarket shelves is imported from other countries. The reason why will surprise you and, hopefully, change the way you shop. The USDA has set no organic standards for certifying domestic honey, and so accepts organic certification of foreign countries. This prevents American honey producers from using the USDA Organic seal, while opening the floodgates to allow foreign producers to use it. It’s a disaster for American Honeybees and American Beekeepers.
Imported honey has major issues with honey substitution and adulteration. As a business, we have made a conscious choice to support local, and for this reason it is not possible for our honey to be Certified Organic.
If you want to support local honeybees and beekeepers, avoid USDA Certified Organic honey. Instead, buy non-USDA COG honey from small, trusted, ethically-driven American producers.
Our Herbal Honey Tonics are Versatile and Easy to Use!
With that background on the quality and ethics behind our ingredients, I hope that you are excited to give our line of Honey Tonics a try!
We recommend taking our tonics by the spoonful, and they can also be added to warm tea or sparkling water.
Mickelberry Gardens Honey and Apple Cider Vinegar are a wonderful, nutritive combination designed to support your health. Our tonics can be taken daily by adults and children over the age of one – babies should not consume raw honey since it has not been pasteurized. Our Oxymel Honey Tonics are both gentle and effective, and are excellent for people observing sobriety or abstaining from alcohol for religious reasons. Honey Tonics provide a soothing effect immediately.
We have formulas that utilize herbs that work to support seasonal immunity, respiratory health, throat and lung health, digestive health, and to provide stress relief. Our tonics are available in multiple sizes, and also as a convenient spray that can be used on-the-go as needed!
Thank you so much for listening! Please stay in touch by visiting our website, following us on social media, and joining our newsletter list! And look for our products in the Wellness Department at a high quality retailer near you!