First thing is to make sure you know what juniper berries you are using. Some species are very poisonous. And always make sure they are ripe. Unripe juniper berries have a higher essential oil content, and the high levels can damage the kidneys. Other things to keep in mind is that juniper berries can kill the bacterial cultures so I would not brew them in the tea, and juniper berries will drop the blood sugar readily so watch your blood sugar levels.
interesting.
not sure how I can know "species"
Berries being ripe--I bought them
from the health food store. They taste
delicious. and are plump. flavurfull.
they are ripe.
These are fine. The ones sold in the health food stores are imported from Europe and are a safe species. These are actually a dark purple. I collect juniper berries from the local mountains, which are a different species and are powdery blue when ripe. But so are the berries from the savin junipers, which are poisonous. They contain podophyllumtoxin, which was found to be extremely effective against about 6 cancers including breast cancer according to the Journal of the American Cancer Society and the Journal of the American Medical Association back in the 50s. But of course it was natural so it was shelved until it was finally synthesized back around the 90s. The drug was sold to a California drug company and that was the last I heard. But the dose needed was only 10mg. A standard capsule of herbs holds about 500mg showing how little was needed with the toxicity of the berries.
killing the cultures: interesting--
I add them after the brew is finished...
That's fine, as long as they are not in contact with the actual "mother".