Cool/Cold Bag for First Aid, Better Than Ice

kiwidutch's Note:

Last weekend we were visiting friends in Germany and my Daughter and I got bitten by mosquitoes, and since we are both allergic to them we were full of swollen lumps. DD also took a tumble and sported an impressive bruise on her knee... but my friend Tatjana came to the rescue with this simple remedy. It's surprisingly soft and comfortably cold without the chilling lumpy frostiness if ice and it recycles cherry pips, so is also environmentally friendly. I tried to enter cherry pips in the ingredient list but that's not possible, but you will need between 1/2 lb and 1 lb (250-500g) of ONLY the pips of the cherries not the actual fruit, so when cherries are in season, start saving those pips instead of throwing them away! Can NOT be used as a heat pad, so please don't try microwaving it. Prep time assumes that you have a heap of cherry pips cleaned, dry and ready for assembling the bag.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 1 bag

• 1/2-1 lb cherries, pips (250-500g)
• 1 small cloth, bag

Directions:

1. Eat the cherries, keep the pips but discard the stems.
2. Soak the cherry pips in water for an hour to soften the residue on them, then boil them until they are clean.
3. Cool and dry them well.
4. Sew a square or rectangular pillow from a soft cotton fabric, leaving a small opening so that you can fill it with the cherry pips.
5. Fill and then sew the opening closed.
6. Keep the bag in your freezer to use on all swellings and bruises.
7. Excellent for painful insect bites because it's cold enough to give relief but not enough to burn with cold. It's amazingly comfortable too. Can NOT be used as a heat pad, so don't microwave it.

Reviews

[thalassa]

I wanted to add something, since i use my Cherry-Pad also as a heat pad, and actually a lot of people do in Germany. You can actually buy these cherry pads in heatlh stores. This method of having a cold bag or a hot bag is indeed quite common used in Germany. I love it - especially in the winter time when i just put it in my microwave for 3 minutes and it warms me (or when i have cystitis - what a relief!).

[Chef at Heart]

It's cherry season, and since I recently had an operation on my leg I tried this. It is wonderful. The freezer packs are so cold. This is perfect. I wonder whether you could do it with seeds from other fruits when it is not cherry season? Leanne