Today it is officially Autumn, my personal favorite season (for the colors and smells and crisp, clear air). Unfortunately, this year it’s been so cool and wet that we basically had no summer. The tomatoes turned black and died, pumpkins are rotting in the field, weeds have taken over and it’s been weeks since we’ve seen the sun.

But now is the time to prepare for winter, beyond just putting up the harvest. We managed to get the H1N1 flu right after school started, but the immune-strengthening tea I’d previously gathered and dried worked quite well to keep it relatively mild. Was only abed for a day, which is less than with any other flu I’ve ever had. It does seem to go straight to bronchi and lungs, though, so I’m glad I was prepared. I’d encourage everyone to either gather and dry the recipe’s herbs now, or get some from a local (and organic) supplier and have it ready to brew. It tastes good enough to drink hot or cold just for fun, and certainly won’t hurt you if you do!

The winter comes with its own issues for keeping yourself healthy. There’s a dramatic lack of sunshine – thus a shortage of vitamin D – and cold weather’s general ill effects on a healthy immune system. There’s also a notable lack of fresh foods (at least, those not from some South American country you’d rather avoid), and a steady diet of grains and processed or preserved foods will often come up short on nutrients that would help keep your family going. Thus as soon as it stops raining cats and dogs here on the ‘stead, I’m planning to gather and process the ingredients for a winter tonic packed with goodies. Only four ingredients (you can always add more, of course), and some local organic apple cider vinegar.

The vinegar is a preservative and solvent that will keep the vitamins and other nutrients active and accessible to your body in easily assimilated form. There’s no cooking involved, so delicate nutrients won’t be destroyed. Even herb teas have some issues with that, in that they are brewed with boiling water which destroys some of their effectiveness. So first thing on the list is to obtain a quart or two of the very best cider vinegar you can. Don’t substitute white vinegar, as it’s mostly just chemicals in water. You want the natural goodness and medicinal/nutrative properties of the cider vinegar.

First, cider vinegar is a natural germicide. It helps to fight infection and eases inflammation. It also helps to prevent blood clots and contains vitamins C, B6, E, beta-carotene (vitamin A precursor and anti-oxidant), potassium, magnesium, calcium, riboflavin and thiamin. It also stimulates excretory organs and aids digestion. Plus it tastes good!

Second ingredient is dandelion roots. We grow some hefty dandelions in a lower terrace of the garden for greens, but also for roots in the fall. They’re easy enough to harvest with a potato-fork or hand trowel in soft ground. The roots go deep, usually straight down but sometimes they’re forked or grow at angles around rocks and such. I usually just loosen the soil around at about a foot distance and a foot deep, then pick them out by hand carefully. Dandelion root is a rich blend of vitamins A, B, D (you’ll need this one), iron, magnesium, zinc, potassium, sodium, calcium and silicon. It’s a mild diuretic, eases digestion, and promotes healthy blood circulation.

Third ingredient is chickweed, of which we’ve plenty in the yard and garden. We don’t use artificial fertilizers or weed-killers or other chemicals, but if you do you should obtain your chickweed (as well as dandelion) from someone who doesn’t. It’s high in vitamins B1, B2, B3, E and C, beta carotine, calcium, magnesium, manganese, copper, iron and zinc, and contains flavinoids that aid in absorption of nutrients. It’s rich in chlorophyll, contains saponins, is a rare plant source of essential fatty acids and is useful against respiratory infections. Chickweed is renowned for reducing inflammation and speeds healing. You’ll want to keep a good growth of chickweed going all year, as it’s delicious in salads as well as excellent for your skin (along with cleavers). But this time of year, we’re talking tonic.

Fourth ingredient is rose hips, best source of vitamin C anywhere, plus A, E, K, B-complex. Generally, wild rose hips need to experience a freeze before they turn red and soften enough for harvest. First freeze in my zone should come in October, so this particular ingredient will be added later to the tonic extract.

The recipe for tonic is easy. First, wash and drain the chickweed, pat softly with paper towels. You can cut it into small pieces with kitchen scissors, go ahead and dip the blades in boiling water for a few minutes first. Put about a loose cup of chopped chickweed into a sterile quart jar. Trim and soak the dandelion roots in cold water, agitating occasionally. After the dirt is mostly off or softened, drain and scrub them carefully with a vegetable brush or old toothbrush (pre-soak brush in boiling water for 3-5 minutes). When they’re good and clean, chop them into small chunks and add to the jar(s) with the chickweed. No need to dry the roots first. You’ll want 1/2 to 1 cup of root chunks per jar. Fill the jar(s) with cider vinegar, leaving enough head space to accommodate about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of rose hips when they’re in.

Cap and store in a cool, dark place. No need to process, the vinegar will preserve and serve as solvent for the nutrients. You may wish to strain out the ingredients at some point (I don’t bother) and re-bottle. If so, wait for at least a month for the nutrients to infuse the vinegar. Take a tablespoon of the vinegar per day, however you like it. I like it on salad, but sometimes I just like to take it straight. You can use it in cooking, but that will destroy some of the nutrients you’re aiming to ingest. This tonic extract is very rich in vitamins and minerals plus anti-oxidants and flavonoids, etc. Your body will absorb more of them in this form than you’d get from a pill or capsule too.

Concerns about how the fall and winter are going to be shaping up with the “Novel H1N1″ version of swine/avian/1918 human flu is going to turn out. It’s already full-fledged pandemic, is less deadly so far outside of Mexico than originally feared, but is unstoppable and there is no effective vaccine on the horizon. It could do an instant replay of the 1918 pandemic, from which the human DNA elements of this novel strain are derived, meaning it will incubate as not-too-deadly all summer, then come back when the seasons turn to wipe out tens of millions.

That’s not guaranteed, of course. It could as easily piddle out and mutate itself into something not even infectious. Yet so far, that isn’t apparent either. I figure it’s better to be safe than sorry, so I’ve gone looking for the most effective natural ingredients for an immune-booster with likely antiviral properties that will also make a good day-drink just because it tastes good and is good for you generally. For regular cold viruses, bronchial/lung inflammations, sore throats, coughs, fevers, chills, etc. High in vitamins and minerals and antioxidants, plus some indications of anti-tumor agents.

Now, medicinal claims for natural herbs and such are strictly illegal per the FDA these days, so take it all with a grain of salt. Yet at the same time, many traditional herbal remedies have been and are being studied because they do appear to be effective. Many modern medicines are based upon traditional herbal remedies, even if they’re just the alkaloids artificially synthesized. First thing I did was go Googling for herbal “antivirals.”

There are several decent websites with ample enough disclaimers to get around the FDA, which I’ll list at the end of this article. But in addition to the immune-boosting, maybe anti-viral tea (cold or hot), there are some dietary things we should think about doing before we ever get sick. First, a good helping a white rice cooked with turmeric every day is a good idea. Turmeric contains curcumin, which imparts the bright yellow coloring. It’s an excellent anti-inflammatory (for any inflammatory condition), and may be helpful in mitigating the cytokine storm of flu as well as allergies like hay fever in general. Add an equal amount of cayenne or other pepper powder to the pot, as this pepper enhances absorption of the curcumin. Buy fresh powdered spice, store in the ‘fridge door – your new, improved spice rack! Or in a cool, dark place away from kitchen range heat.

When you’re food shopping, look in the fresh produce section for those nice bags of fresh cranberries. Buy as many as possible, freeze them. Not only can you make scrumptious whole cranberry sauce with these (do so, eat often, use raw honey if you can instead of sugar, 3/4 cup honey to 1 cup sugar), you can also make high molecular weight, high Non-Dialysable Material [NDM] with them. Just boil them about 5 minutes in good water, strain. Either drink a few ounces of this strong juice every day, or dilute it with more water and sweeten a bit with honey or maple sugar and drink as juice. If you’ve a blender and food dryer, make mush of the solid leftovers and turn it into fruit leather. Add blueberries (reconstituted dried or frozen) to increase the antioxidant value and enjoy like tart candy snacks!

If you can find good elderberry wine or brandy, get a bottle and drink 2-4 ounces every day as well. Elderberries are among the most ancient and valued of herbals, and may reduce the risk of contracting influenza. Do, but don’t overdo. If you can get a good organic basalmic vinegar (I make my own 1-year aged with native muscodines), take a tablespoonful every day – a healthy dose of basalmic and virgin olive oil dressing on a lunch salad will do. Throw some raw spinach and other actually valuable food-greens in while you’re at it. Good whole grape juice (with sediment) is also recommended, I bottle a couple of gallons of it every year. You’re going for your daily dose of supplements in the form of things you actually eat or drink, not taking a host of capsules or pills over the course of a day. If you’re like me, you get way more value from the real thing rather than somebody’s possibly questionable – and often expensive – supplements, and those generally go right through me.

The point of herbals and natural food-based remedies, in my opinion, is to get you to alter your daily consumption habits toward things that really are whole and good for you, as well as get you involved in preparing them for yourself. It’s a wholistic deal, this natural thing. Your thoughts, intents and actions all count toward the prevention/cure. Pretty soon you’ll find yourself healthy in spite of yourself, looking forward to your next meal or snack! Don’t forget alfalfa sprouts (grow your own) and nuts/seeds and hearty multigrain sprouted or seeded bread. Big on vitamin E.

Now for the great tasting tea with all the antiviral, antibiotic, anti-cancer and immune-strengthening ingredients! I start with peppermint, mostly because not only is it high on the list, it’s what grows like crazy in my garden. Have tons of it, always put it in my summer iced teas and winter hots. Lemon balm is the second ingredient, it’s got even stronger immune stimulating properties. Wild and red rose leaves, wild strawberry leaves and fruit, grape leaves, muellin, Japanese honeysuckle flowers and new leaves, pineapple mint, some ground spicebush twigs. I dry thoroughly and carefully, mix it up well and put it in a well-sealed jar, keep it in a dark place. When I brew a family-size couple of green tea bags (always good for you), I toss a handful of this dry mixture into the pot. Let it steep 5-10 minutes (10 if you’re dlluting), strain into a 2-quart pitcher. It’s still hot, so add honey now, preferably local and raw. I don’t like my tea very sweet at all, so only use half a cup or less for half a gallon. When this is mixed well, add pure water (we have mountain spring water out of our tap!) to fill the pitcher and stir. Refrigerate, drink over ice. I usually have an insulated cup with a lid that keeps it cold, sip on it all through the day.

If it’s cold, you have a cold, or you just want a hot tea, use a rounded teaspoon of the herb blend with a single-serving green tea bag, strain, sweeten with honey and drink hot.

I always fluff the dried mixture to mix it well before using, as some of the ingredients will tend to sink to the bottom of the container. That way you get all of it, and you’ll want all of it. You could add more exotic ingredients like St. Johnswort (good relaxer if you’re sick) or dyer’s woad or some other favorite, even mix with that hearty cranberry juice or whole grape juice. Any way you like it, it’ll help you fend off colds and flu as well as keep you refreshed!

During the very hottest portion of the year I get really very sick of lemonade and regular old iced tea. Worse, I find that I can’t actually drink iced tea after noon if it’s been brewed honestly because it has even more caffeine than coffee. Plus, I live in the south where “regular iced tea” comes complete with about a full cup of white sugar per glass. I don’t like my drinks to be sugary, but I get pretty sick of plain old water too, despite having the Planet’s Best Mountain Spring Water right here in the tap.

So I make some cool summer teas from the first plants in the garden and the last to die out in fall – the mints. In fact, cool summer teas are the #1 thing to do with all those exotic mints – like apple mint, pineapple mint, chocolate mint and lemon mint (as well as good ol’ peppermint). To these I like to add a bit of rose hips, just for the tart flavor and excess vitamin C. I harvest those when they turn red in the fall, then freeze them in a jar for later use.

Now, the very name of the mints tells you all you need to know about the specific taste undertones you get out of them. I like to make my tea fresh, as making it of dried herbs requires less material and no simmering (I use the dry for hot wintertime tea). So in the following recipe, use your mint of choice!

Summertime Tea

2 cups mint leaves
1/2 cup rose hips
4 cups cold water

Put the water into a not-aluminum pot on the stove and bring to a boil. Add the rose hips and turn the heat to medium-low to simmer, simmer for 5 minutes. Add the mint and simmer for another 5 minutes to break down the cell walls and release the flavor.

Remove from heat and cover tightly, let steep for about an hour (or more). Strain into a 4-quart pitcher and add cold water to fill. Refrigerate, drink with ice, garnish with a slice of lemon or a sprig of mint.

You could add brewed green tea if you wish, and get green tea benefits too. And you can sweeten this tea if you really want to (yuck!). I use local raw honey in hot tea, but you can heat a half cup of honey in a cup of water, then add that when you’re mixing up the 4-quart pitcher. You can drink this iced mint tea all day long and into the hot night, it’s good for hydrating you (mostly water), is high in vitamin C, and isn’t going to hurt you. It makes for a great “sports drink” at softball games or when you’re cooking out or playing badminton in the yard too! Kids can drink it as often as they like too, and it won’t spoil their appetite or make them fat!

So get out there and trim those mints, make some tea and relax!

Part of homesteading in the country or in the city is to become familiar with the land and make it work for you. We grow as much of our own food as we can, and many of us will also (attempt to) grow as many useful plants as possible for various medical and/or income purposes. In the two terraces beneath the grape vines at the top of my garden we grow culinary herbs. The perennials have their beds and spots, the annuals are usually scattered in amongst the vegetables farther down the hill.

But there are other useful plants growing elsewhere on the property. There is blue flag growing at the edge of the driveway and bordering the disc golf fairway (orris root). There are large thickets of wild roses above the cabin and trained to a welded rebar ‘tree’ in the back yard (rose hips). There are small flower beds sporting yucca and yarrow, joe pye and wild sunflower. Our forest is thick with dogwood, tulip poplar and maple, growing in the shade in rich forest loam are ginseng and goldenseal and black cohosh and Mayapple. I can gather purslane and chickweed and cleavers galore, all are great in a muslin bath bag for a hot soak, soothes and moisturizes skin.

Becoming familiar with the useful plants that grow on your property – whether they grow wild or are managed, or you plant and tend them in beds, is a long-term project. You should know how to identify them in all stages of their growth through the year, as well as what parts are most useful when, and for what. For instance, the poplar buds in spring are known as “balm of Gilead” and make a fine ingredient in skin salves for cuts, scrapes or just dry, itchy skin. The winds of March blow them down by the basketful from the tops of 100-foot trees, I gather them as soon as the wind stops blowing. In fall the dogwoods sport bright red berries that are excellent tonic ingredients, rich in vitamins and flavinoids but only available in the fall. The wild rose hips have to freeze before they finally turn red and are ready to harvest, usually in November. Mayapple roots are best gathered in May, they’re pretty much invisible and impossible to find after that, once the above-ground plant has died back to nothing.

Here are recipes for some useful herbal teas that can be made with ingredients a homesteader either grows right near the house or can grow somewhere in the yard. As always, any serious condition should be treated by a doctor (if you’ve got one or can afford one). Until the access situation gets worked out one way or the other, millions of people will have to rely on themselves.

Migraine Headaches

Migraines can be life-crippling, and there just aren’t any “cures” or even treatments that aren’t themselves debilitating for sufferers. Herbal teas for the condition stimulate the sense of smell and help to calm nerves, and are gentle enough to be most useful well before the headache appears. Here is a good ‘breakfast tea’ that stimulates vasodilation (opens vessels and promotes peripheral blood flow)…

6 parts rosemary leaves (needles)
4 parts peppermint leaves
4 parts balm (bee balm) leaves
4 parts sweet violet leaves
3 parts feverfew flowers
1/2 part sweet violet flowers

Some of these ingredients are available for only a few weeks a year, so should be gathered and dried when they are available and kept in a tightly closed jar in a dark cupboard until all ingredients are gathered, then the tea should be well mixed and stored in its own container.

Colds and Flu

I get a good old cold twice a year, spring and fall. My husband seems to avoid colds and can go for years without getting one. But when you’re head is stuffed full of snot and you are coughing and you have a fever and ache all over, a good, soothing herbal tea can make you feel much better than just a couple of aspirin can. The best action of an herb for this purpose is to strengthen your immune system, allowing your healing powers to heal your cold.

For adults:
3 parts elder flowers
3 parts rose hips
2 parts willow bark
2 parts linden flowers
2 parts chamomile flowers
2 parts hawthorn leaves with flowers

For children:
4 parts linden flowers
4 parts mullein
4 parts elder flowers
4 parts rose hips
4 parts thyme

You don’t want to give the willow bark or chamomile flowers to young children, otherwise the ingredients are fairly interchangeable. Sweeten with a little honey and the tea is soothing, will promote sweating, and the hot liquid helps break up head and bronchial congestion. For coughs you’ll want anti-inflammatory herbs and those that will coat and protect inflamed mucous membranes.

For coughs:
8 parts plantain leaves
8 parts coltsfoot flowers
2 parts marshmallow root
2 parts mallow

To make a decongestant you can purchase a half-ounce of camphor crystals from a pharmacist or natural herb shop and mix it in a Pyrex pot with a cup of cottonseed oil (sweet oil, from a pharmacy or hardware store). Heat slowly and stir until the crystals dissolve completely. Remove from heat and put into a glass container with a tight fitting lid and allow to cool. Rub this oil on throat and chest when congestion is present.

Congestion can also be treated with vapor. Put a big handful of fresh-cut peppermint in the stoppered bathroom sink, fill basin with hot water. If your water heater isn’t set to scalding (and it shouldn’t be), fill the sink half way with hot tap water and add a quart or two of water brought just to a simmer on the stove so there is plenty of steam. Drape a towel over the head and lean over the sink catching as much of the rising steam as possible. Breathe deeply through nose and mouth to break up the congestion.

Calming Nerves

Life is stressful in the modern world, so a nice soothing and nerve calming tea at the end of a long day is a delightful luxury. It can help you get a better night’s sleep and that is certainly a useful quality!

6 parts hops
4 parts chamomile flowers
3 parts peppermint leaves
3 parts hibiscus flowers

If there is some general depression present along with the stress, replace the chamomile flowers with St. Johns Wort herb (aerial parts of the flowering plant). Sweeten with raw honey and add lemon if you like.

In the next installment of this series I’ll talk about further uses of common herbs for treating relatively minor health conditions and injuries.

Posts to This Series:

Part 1: Who Needs the Knowledge?
Part 2: More Herbs and Their Uses

I’ve been drying some herbs my youngest daughter requested from me to make some good-for-breast feeding tea when she was here with hubby and 2-month old daughter Sunshine for the Memorial Day weekend. Seems she’s tried to stay as ‘natural’ as possible while living in the city and being a new mother, and has been steered a bit astray by the not-so know-it-alls at her local herbal/natural food store, who have supplied her with some useless, some highly questionable, and some downright dangerous herbal teas that have of course had their poor effects on the baby’s digestive system. She named a few, I was horrified!

She doesn’t need milk thistle or motherswort or black cohosh or rue. My goodness, don’t these herb dealers have to do ANY homework before prescribing? A couple of these are downright dangerous to hormone levels, and because Sunshine’s a baby girl, will of course affect her as well. I tut-tutted and promised a nice batch of dried herbs that will actually work to help the quality of her milk as well as her (and Sunshine’s) digestion and sense of calm.

So I hiked the half-mile driveway gathering the goodies. A whole lot of nice new black/raspberry leaves from developing canes, some brand new kudzu leaves for bulk and general nutritional value, then raked the garden for peppermint, apple mint and pineapple mints. I’d have added some wild rose hips, but my harvest last winter got thinned seriously when #1 daughter cut the bushes back so we could drive past them. This year I’m merely roping them and staking them back toward the hill, so by October there should be plenty.

Anyway, the berry leaves are excellent sources of vitamin C, and are also great tonic toners for bladder and urinary tract as well as a fair regulator that tends to even out the hormone levels so you don’t get big swings. The kudzu is a highly nutritious legume that is about the highest protein green in existence and would make excellent cattle fodder if it weren’t so prone to eating the cattle first (it grows about a foot a day). Goats are the only critters that can keep it at bay, and right now we have no goats, thus have plenty of kudzu. The mint is for flavor and as a stomach calmative, it’s an excellent tea ingredient in every kind of herbal tea. When the leaves are dried and ready to crush and mix, I’ll add some shaved citrus peel (orange, lemon) as well. Brew it in a ball and add some honey and it should work fine and have no adverse side effects (such as colic in the baby or hormone swings in Mom).

It got me to thinking about how little actual knowledge too many herbal suppliers in cities actually know about herbal things. Worse, some herbs are seriously NOT indicated for certain conditions, or for when people are taking actual pharmaceuticals that will clash. Damage can certainly be done, as not all herbs are “harmless.” Most pharmaceuticals are in fact synthetic versions of compounds that occur in natural herbs and roots, as traditional knowledge of these remedies has faded through the years since Big Pharma patented the alkaloids and compounds.

I’m lucky in that I learned quite a bit about various medicinal herbs from my Father-in-Law, who as a child helped gather and prepare herbs with his grandmother who raised him out in Oklahoma. She had learned at the feet of her grandmother, who was Medicine Woman for the tribe long before Indian Territory became a state. Father-in-Law got to be her apprentice because there were no granddaughters, the knowledge usually passed granddaughter to granddaughter. I learned about other herbs (more serious ones) from my older sister, a Ph.D. plant physiologist who specialized in plant alkaloids and was for a time the world’s foremost expert on American Mandrake as a treatment for cancer.

My sister is retiring from world-hopping this year and has built a log home near here, so we’ll finally get the chance to write the book we’ve been planning since we were teenagers – the definitive herbal Materia Medica for the 21st century. She’ll offer the chemical knowledge, I’ll offer the practical lore (and illustrations). Should be a big hit…

So in several upcoming posts I’ll offer some of the knowledge I’ve gained per the various medicinal herbs available at your local herb shop, but which the sellers of those herbs may not know enough about to properly prescribe. I’ll note that Great-great-grandma-in-law was famous for curing skin cancers caused by sun exposure, and that I once concocted a cream that my mother used on her basal cell carcinomas that flat cured them in between allopathic treatments she’d been getting from her doctor. He was so amazed that he requested a jar and planned to have it analyzed.

So stay tuned for upcoming recipes for various herbal concoctions useful against a range of semi-minor health issues and concerns. With the increasing price of pharmaceuticals and complete unavailability of regular health care in 21st century America, a little knowledge about traditional remedies can go a long way. Trick is not to have so little knowledge as to be dangerous. If in doubt, avoid all herbs with notable (and/or patented) alkaloids and hormone precursors!

Posts to This Series:

Part 1: Who Needs the Knowledge?
Part 2: More Herbs and Their Uses

“Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere.” [1794]

It was the #1 cash crop in the 13 new states just as it is the #1 cash crop in 50 states today. As a fast-growing “weed” that requires no pesticides or herbicides and very little fertilizers or irrigation, the close-packed stands of 8-9 foot tall plants provided more biomass per acre than any other crop ever discovered, bred or engineered. Its fiber content is 2 to 3 times as great as cotton per acre, and is both softer and stronger than cotton. Hemp paper lasts hundreds of years and can be recycled more often than tree pulp papers.

Hemp’s high cellulose content is a fine base for plastics – composites made with hemp are now used by Mercedes Benz to produce auto bodies and dashboards. Hempseed oil is both more nutritious and more economical than soybean, peanut, sunflower or canola oil. It burns brighter than any other plant oil, and can be used to produce non-toxic diesel fuel, paint, varnish, detergent, ink, home heating oil and lubricating oil. It is as easily converted into ethanol as corn, but can be grown in a much wider range of climates and conditions.

News organizations warn that we are facing a worldwide food shortage in part brought about by the diversion of staple food crops to ethanol and biodiesel fuel production, worsened by reliance on unsustainable agricultural practices and chemical pollution of once-rich “breadbasket” farmland. Our reliance on foreign oil has caused 2 wars in this first decade of the 21st century and killed more than a million people with violence. America alone has sacrificed more than 3,000 soldiers and left some 30,000 returning veterans with life-crippling injuries. Pollution from fossil fuel burning contributes to another few hundred thousand premature deaths worldwide every year. Global warming, if unchecked, will eventually kill tens or hundreds of millions more.

The answers we seek for the future may require a re-examination of our past. Perhaps George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were right. What might be accomplished if we did NOT spend 4 billion dollars a year trying to prevent farmers from growing industrial hemp?

Links:

Fossil Fuel Cuts Would Reduce Early Deaths, Illness, Study Says
1997: Canada Repeals Hemp Prohibition
Energy Farming in America
Hemphasis: Hemp as a Fuel/Energy Source
Vermont House Approves Hemp Bill
Hemp-based biodiesel, NOT ethanol

In this post I’ll offer some actual herbal remedies that some have found useful in treating specific ailments. There will be some herbs mentioned that haven’t been listed thus far, but they are all readily identifiable and available at natural food stores or herbal apothecaries if you don’t have them in your garden, on your property or in nearby woods.

High mallow (malva sylvestris), a.k.a. French hollyhocks. Garden hollyhocks may be substituted. Mallow is used to calm indigestion, heartburn, ulcers, gastritis and sore throats. Mallow is high in mucilage, roots can be crushed, boiled, folded into a damp cloth and applied to boils, sores or ulcers of the skin. For a medicinal salve powdered roots can be added to olive oil and warmed before applying.

Mallow tea: 1 tbsp. fresh leaves, stem, root, flower or all parts to 1 cup of tea. If using dried mallow reduce to a rounded teaspoon per cup. Most all herbal teas should be measured this way, 1 tablespoon fresh or 1 teaspoon dry.

Mullein (Verbasum thapsus), a.k.a. Soldier’s herb or Woundwort. An oil made with mullein leaves steeped in vegetable oil for two weeks in a sunny window makes a soothing application for small wounds or hemorrhoids. It got its traditional titles for its efficacy to staunch bleeding and dispell bruising when applied directly to wounds. A friend once badly twisted his foot while here, it immediately swelled and bruised badly. I wrapped fresh bruised mullein leaves to his foot and ankle, held in place by his sock and shoe. Within two hours the bruising was completely gone and there was no swelling. Mullein should not be taken internally, as the leaves contain rotenone and coumarin.

Horehound, (Marrubium vulgare). Tea made with horehound leaves and stems is an expectorant useful to treat coughs. You can also make a cough syrup by boiling the leaves and stems in honey (equal parts). Keep it refrigerated and it will last a year.

Purslane, (Portulaca oleracea). Native Americans and early colonists used purslane to treat burns, headache, insect stings and stomach ache. Purslane is a common garden weed with thick, succulent leaves and is tasty in salads, soups and in stir-fry. High in vitamins A and C plus calcium and iron, the whole above-ground plant can be harvested any time. Often found growing in tandem with chickweed, (Stellaria spp.) which can be boiled and applied as a poultice for boils and skin rashes or drunk to treat urinary tract inflammations.

Bilberry, (Vaccinium myrtillus), or blueberry. The ative constituents in ripe berries are anthocyanosides, bioflavonoids that are potent antioxidants. These support formation of connective tissue and strengthen capillaries, may also improve blood flow. British pilots during WW-II ate bilberry jam prior to missions to improve their night vision.

Did you know that oil of cloves and cinnamon are more antiseptic than carbolic acid? Either of these oils can be applied to cuts and scrapes to kill germs effectively and prevent infection. You should probably keep clove oil around anyway, as it’s very effective for temporary relief of toothache or sore gums and relieving the sting of insect bites.

Garlic, Calamus and Nutmeg are also known for their antiseptic properties.

Sore Throat Gargle

Pour 1 pint boiling water on a handful of sage leaves, let stand for 30 minutes. Add 1/2 cup cider or wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons raw honey. To be used as a gargle followed by a swig.

Migraine Tea

6 parts rosemary leaves
4 parts peppermint leaves
4 parts bee balm leaves
4 parts sweet violet
3 parts feverfew
1/2 part sweet violet flowers

This is a tasty tea that should be made up a gallon at a time and kept in the refrigerator. It’s a good morning drink hot or cold because rosemary promotes vasodilation, peripheral blood flow and is generally tonic.

Links:

Simple Herbal Remedies Information

Natural Herbal Home Remedies

Guide to Herbal Remedies

Sassafras Leaves

We’ve already covered wild medicinals like black cohosh, ginseng and goldenseal in The Homesteader’s Medicine Chest, and got the run-down on elderberries in Homesteader’s Medicine Chest II, so in this post I’ll round out with more useful medicinal herbs from forest and garden.

Leaves – I pick a sack full of raspberry, blackberry, goldenrod and sassafrass leaves in the fall to dry and put into tea. The berry leaves are good for colds, tonic, stomach aches and menstrual cramps. Goldenrod is also good for digestion and is useful to treat kidney and bladder problems, coughs and colds. It’s also anti-inflammatory and mildly sedative, good for the aches and pains of rheumatism and arthritis.

The dark red and gold fall sassafras leaves are dried and ground to make the Cajun spice (red) filé. Filé is used to thicken soups and gumbo and to tenderize meats by rubbing. Early spring leaves are dried and powdered for green filé.

Black Cohosh

Roots and Bark – While we’re taking leaves from the sassafras, it’s time to take some roots as well. You may have to dig around the base to expose some peripheral roots. Don’t mess with any of the larger ones or you will damage the tree. Once you’ve cut a few finger-size roots from each tree, they should be thoroughly washed with a brush and rinsed, chopped into ~1/2 inch sections and dry thoroughly on newspaper. Grind it up and bag it to add to tonic teas. It adds a tasty flavor and pleasant aroma, is traditional as a tonic and blood purifier.

White Willow bark is the original source of salicylic acid – aspirin – and has all the properties we associate with aspirin. Painkiller, fever-reducer, anti-inflammatory. Here you’ll want to harvest stem bark, so cut the stems cleanly with clippers. Strip the leaves and rinse the branches, strip the bark with a pocket knife. Dry it thoroughly and grind. Its bitter taste might be hidden with a strong black cherry, mint and rose hip tea for coughs and colds, or you might just want to put it in capsules and take like regular aspirin. Salicylic acid from willow does thin the blood like pharmaceutical aspirin, but does not cause the stomach irritation.

Rose Hips

Black cherry bark is a notable expectorant useful in treating coughs, and it’s also digestive (settles stomach aches) and mildly sedative. These qualities make it a favorite for cold/flu teas and it’s a fine flavoring in calming nighttime teas with chamomile. I like to gather a lot, and luckily can do so because the black cherries on my property are big. I usually saw off a branch or two off several trees, an inch or so in diameter. These can be long and contain several side branches, Bring it all home.

Here you’ll want the inner bark, that thin layer underneath the dark outer layer. Cherry branch bark is thin, paper-like as birch is. I strip the bark with a pocket knife, then carefully scrape the inner bark off. This is dried and either ground or (if the shavings are small) just added as-is to tea. For a more potent cough remedy it’s best to make a tincture.

Seeds – Other than the mast crop nuts and acorns I gather, there is also a well-tended wild rose hip crop and the dogwood berries to gather in the fall. After the first freeze the rose hips turn red, which means they’re ready for harvest (if I can get to them before the birds do). They’re growing in a hedgerow on the high side of the driveway, so are convenient to the house. Harvesting is tricky due to thorns, I usually just clip off the hip trigs below the spray of hips and put it into a bag.

I sit at the kitchen bar with a bowl and dump the whole twiggy mess right on the bar, put the bag at my feet. Picking off the hips is a chore, but well worth the trouble. I just drop the stripped twigs back into the bag and add to the compost when I’m done. You can dry the hips, but I just put them into a jar and freeze them. They retain more of their delightfully tart taste and vitamins (rich source of C, B, E and K) that way, but for teas you’ll be bagging they should be dried. Either way, try to rub off the dark bud-hairs. They can be irritant.

Dogwood berries – those brilliantly scarlet, clustered berries that contrast so nicely with the dark crimson of fall dogwood leaves are good ingredients for tonic teas or teas used to treat fevers. I bag and freeze, they could be dried. Add 3 or 4 to the tea ball or bag. They’ve a bitter aspect, but this is easily counteracted by honey. For all my teas I like raw, unfiltered local honey as a sweetener. It mellows bitters and adds some medicinal value of its own (particularly for those who suffer allergies or stomach ulcers).

For cold teas add a few dried or frozen elderberries to the tea bag or ball. They have proven anti-viral properties and show good effectiveness in shortening the duration of a bout of flu.

Chamomile

And don’t forget that your garden-grown chamomile, purple echinacia, St. Johnswort and feverfew flowers, sage leaves, thyme and basil all make good herbal tea ingredients. The sage, basil and tyme are soothing to the nerves and stomach, camomile and St. Johnswort are calming, mild sedatives, and feverfew does just what its name implies. Echinacia (flowers and roots) has anti-biotic properties, as does thyme. Thyme oil is a good topical antiseptic.

For gifts to friends and family every year I bag up some good stimulant and sedative teas (be sure to label which is which) along with some general tonic teas that just taste good and are full of good vitamins and happy properties. There are some good sources on the web to get supplies like individual and pot-size heat-sealable tea bags and tea balls and tea strainers, so look around!

Or do what I do – make my own. I usually do 4-cup pot-size bags because individuals are a lot of trouble. That way a group of 4 can each have a cup of hot tea, or one person can refrigerate the excess and drink it iced or reheated later. For this I use those incredibly cheap unbleached paper coffee filters you can buy by the hundredlot. Simple in-out 1/2-inch chain stitch with 3-strand embroidery thread around the edge, measure your various ingredients into the center, then carefully pull, wrap and knot off the thread to make a tightly closed sack-bag. Use self-stick address labels stuck in half on the long end of the thread (so it can be kept out of the hot water by draping over the side of the pot.

Then enjoy your healthy, warming teas during cold winter nights and days, and thank Mother Nature for her bounty!

Links:

Gardens Ablaze: How to Make Herbal Teas

Make Your Own Simple Herbal Remedies

Grow Your Own Tea

Hand Made Naturals: Tea Brewing Supplies

World of Plenty: Supplies and Tools

“Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of Elderberries!”
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

In The Homesteader’s Medicine Chest we broached the subject of cultivated and wild medicinal herbs like black cohosh, ginseng and goldenseal. In this late fall period it’s time to harvest one of the most useful medicinals that mother nature offers for free… Elderberries. Sambucus canadensis.

Elders are shrubby trees that grow to about 12 feet tall on the edges of rural clearings and farm fields. They produce flat sprays of lacy white flowers in the summer, sometimes a foot across. In the fall these bear clusters of deep purple berries that are hard to miss. Also called the “country medicine chest,” elder flowers and berries have a history in folk medicine and folk lore going back to the Stone Age.

Elder flowers make a sweet-smelling wine, an aromatic tea to treat colds and sore throats, and impart a savory flavor to foods. The fall berries produce the famous port-like elderberry wine said to be a perennial favorite of fairies, elves, leprechauns and gnomes. The Egyptians applied elder flowers to improve complexion and treat burns. The Russians and English believe that elder trees ward off evil spirits, planted them for luck near their houses. Sicilians believe sticks of elder can kill snakes, and they’re probably right. Most any stout stick can be used to kill a snake!

Elderberries contain the most vitamin C of any herb other than rose hips and black currants. They are also rich in vitamins A and B, as well as cartenoids, amino acids, flavonoids, tannins and sugar. Elder leaves, flowers, berries, bark and roots all have traditional medicinal uses. Elder has been shown to contain anti-viral properties and preparations make effective cold medicine, cough syrup and flu remedy. Elderberry wine makes a fine base for tinctures and any elderberry preparation (juice, tea from dry berries, wine, vinegar) makes a good general health tonic to boost the immune system.

Flu season is almost upon us, so it’s a good time to stock up on elderberries. Recent research from Israel and Panama has demonstrated elderberry juice (as a syrup) directly inhibits the influenza virus. Flu virus forms tiny spikes that are laced with an enzyme that helps the virus penetrate the cell walls of a healthy organism. Then the virus sets up reproductive shop. The active ingredients in elderberries disarm the enzyme within 24-48 hours, halting the spread of the virus. In a double-blind study against placebo, those taking the elderberry syrup recovered from flu symptoms twice as fast and also demonstrated higher levels of antibodies against the virus in their systems. This effect was demonstrated against 8 different influenza viruses.

There are a host of recipes for elderberry, from jellies and jams to catsup and fritters. One can follow one of the many recipes for elderberry wine or simply purchase straight juice or wine from specialty wineries like Nuyaka Creek or Wyldewood Cellars.

In light of recent FDA actions to take over the counter children’s cold medicines off the market, there is renewed interest in elderberry as the traditional remedy, a safe and effective alternative to those synthesized drug and alcohol concoctions that too many people use to put the kids to sleep more than ease their discomfort. And which harbor a host of not-fun side effects.

Elderberries can be dried, juiced and/or frozen. A syrup concentrate can be added to vodka for a stronger tincture base, in which sassafrass or black cherry barks give up their qualities, making a stronger by-the-spoonful cough and sore throat medicine. There’s great information out there on the web, so check some of the links below and see if you can find some elder trees in your area that can help get you through the winter!

Links:

Harvesting the Elderberry

Herbal Information Center: Elderberry

Alternative Medicine: Elderberry

Prodigal Gardens: Elderberries

People who choose to live close to the land, to do for themselves as much as possible, and to learn to live in harmony with nature will also tend to want to assume some responsibility for their own health maintenance whenever they can. This commitment may play out in the garden by growing a variety of healthful foods and culinary herbs, and many homesteaders will also cultivate a variety of useful medicinal herbs while they’re at it – because they can.

Those who have chosen a rural environment and have managed to gain control over several acres of land will also want to become familiar with the many useful wild herbs that grow in their region and perhaps even on their property. Some of these are endangered in the wild due to over-harvesting (ginseng roots, for instance, are worth their weight in gold in the medicinal market), so you’ll be happy to learn that a good many homesteaders are making good economic use of their patches of shady woods and forested acres to cultivate these wild herbs as cash crops or homestead medicines.

There is a good deal of information out there about cultivated garden herbs, some linked below. Here I’d like to talk about the usually wild, forest-grown offerings, particularly Mayapple, goldenseal, ginseng and black cohosh.

Black Cohosh

When we purchased our 10-acre ‘stead here in the southern Appalachians, all but a bit over an acre of cabin, yards and garden terraces were still in hardwood forest, last logged back in the 1930s. This means some of our tulip poplars, oaks and maples are stately, interspersed with a lower level of dogwoods and sassafras as well as saplings that keep the forest floor well shaded for most of the year. We were also lucky enough to have some significant natural growth of useful and endangered botanicals.

In fact, we have an entire slope on the eastern side of the ridge that is blanketed with black cohosh and ferns amidst median growth hardwoods with a few 100-foot poplars to form the upper canopy. A local conservation society would pay me a fee every year not to harvest the roots, as black cohosh is becoming seriously endangered in the wild. I don’t take the money for a couple of reasons. First, I’m not fond of the idea of having ‘inspectors’ roaming my woods, when it’s enough of a pain in the neck to have agricultural ‘inspectors’ wandering my garden every other year to make sure i’m not cheating on my organic certification. Secondly, I can manage the stand just fine on my own, while cultivating the plant for harvest at the shady edges of my yard.

In crowded patches I dig a few of the smaller plants in the fall, cut away any remaining greenery stem, and replant them where I want them. They come up nicely the very next spring, and the wild patch has room to generate more. So far this has kept us in enough fall-harvested roots to sell some to local dealers and enough to make tinctures for the women in my life who are still experiencing womanly health issues. Black cohosh is an estrogen precursor useful for treating menstrual cramps, PMS symptoms and the frustrating issues of menopause.

Ginseng

Some of the wild ginseng plants down in the bottomland on both sides of the ridge were more than 25 years old, and the “big mamas” stood an impressive 3 feet tall. The way ginseng grows, there is usually an elder “mama” plant in the middle of the patch, with younger daughters growing around it where the seeds that don’t get consumed by deer fall and get covered by fall leaves for the two years it takes the seeds to sprout.

My habit was to plant 5 or 6 of the seeds out from the mama, then bring the rest up to the woods near the garden and plant them in marked-off beds. Sometimes I did harvest some of the smaller 3-4 year olds from a wild patch and replant the small roots in the cultivated patches. Ginseng is seriously endangered in the wild, worth as much as $650 a pound for dried roots from one of the licensed ‘sang brokers. An elder “Man-Root” may go for a thousand dollars on the black market in China, though ginseng roots older than 15 years (or younger than 5 years) are illegal to sell in the United States.

Ginseng (Asian or American) has legendary healing properties. It’s tonic as an immune system booster and stamina enhancer, a traditional treatment for erectile dysfunction, hepatitis C and menopausal symptoms, and research has demonstrated its effectiveness for lowering blood glucose levels and blood pressure. Some of my beds are 6 years old now, which means the seed-grown plants are 4 years old. I start a new bed every fall, which means I now have 6 ginseng beds. I won’t sell any roots until at least a year after the plants havev started producing seed, at which point they’ll be closer to 10 years old than 5. It’s a long-term investment, but I do enjoy watching them slowly grow.

Goldenseal

Goldenseal [a.k.a. Yellow Root] grows in abundance on our property in thick stands among the trees in the bottomland near the spring-creeks on both sides of the ridge. It is not yet endangered, but its popularity has driven up the price and its survival in the wild is becoming a concern. I manage this resource much as I manage the more endangered wild plants – by carefully planting mature seeds in managed forest beds and occasionally thinning the natural stand by moving younger plant roots to managed beds. I do use some of the wilding harvest – I like to keep a jar of powdered goldenseal roots on hand for general purposes – but never enough to threaten the stand’s regeneration.

Goldenseal was used by the Indians to treat skin diseases, ulcers, liver ailments and gonorrhea. More modern uses are for control of bleeding and hemorrhage, colds and upper respiratory infections, diarrhea, eye infections and vaginitis. It also seems to have some effectiveness in treating cancers and canker sores.

Mayapple [a.k.a. American Mandrake] grows in the early spring, often the first green-green to appear in the root-line of trees. They resemble foot-tall green umbrellas blanketing the root spread of a tree or group of trees and sport a single white blossom that develops into a green fruit. Also called “Cancer Root” in some herbals, a powder ground from the dried yellowish roots is called podophyllum. This powder is usually mixed with Benzoin (from a tree grown in the far east) and used for removal of warts. It is also used in a beeswax/olive oil salve with cleavers and poke root for treatment of basal cell carcinomas of the skin.

Mayapple is difficult to cultivate, but is in no danger from overharvesting in the wild. Just take what you need and leave the rest, which will regenerate the following season. If you have it growing beneath trees on your property, careful management will ensure there is plenty every season.

There are many other useful plants that grow wild in my mountains. Mountain Mint, also known as “Heal-All” is gathered in mid-summer, as is wild-growing St. Johnswort. The ubiquitous poke plant not only provides tasty greens (must be double-boiled) in the spring, but their tuberous roots and berry juice are useful for treating skin eruptions, cancers and warts. There’s plenty of small witch hazel growing along the driveway and trails. I harvest the small branches and flowering twigs in December and January, chop them up good and steep them in alcohol as a fine astringent.

We’ll talk more about medicinal plants from the woods, yard and garden in future posts, so stay tuned and do check out some of the links below!

Links:

Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Preserving wild by cultivating your own

Medicinal Herb Plants Nursery

eMedicinal: Medicinal Herbs, Herbal Formulas

Healing Herbs Guide