Apothecary
Tinctures, teas, syrups, and salves from plants that grow in Dearborn County or in a Zone 6a kitchen garden. Comfort care. Not a hospital.
Identify twice. Cook elderberries. No honey under age one. No willow or aspirin-family tea to a child with a viral illness. If they cannot breathe, that is Alert, not a teacup.
How to make a tincture
Folk method, teas, syrups, oils, doses, and what not to brew.
When someone is sick
Cold, onset
Rest, steam, hot drink, honey if they are over one. Herbs here are comfort. They do not replace a day in bed.
Cough and tight chest
Dry tickle vs wet freight-train. Honey and thyme for most. Mullein tea for the dry one. Steam for both.
Sore throat
Sage gargle, thyme honey, and not talking. Look at the throat if you can.
Fever
Fever is a tool. Cool the room, push the sugar-salt drink, use willow only in adults who could take aspirin.
Stomach, gas, queasy
Mint, chamomile, broth. Sip, do not flood. The rehydration mix if they are dumping fluid.
Cannot sleep, frayed nerves
Lemon balm, chamomile, catnip, and the wood stove turned down. Darkness is the other herb.
Headache and body ache
Water, shade, willow for an adult, mint on the brow. July headaches are often heat and salt.
Cuts, scrapes, cracked hands
Wash first. Then plantain, yarrow, or calendula. Herbs do not replace irrigation.
Stings, bites, poison ivy
Plantain on a bee or nettle. Jewelweed on ivy, as soon as you can. Wash first.
Earache
Warm (not hot) mullein oil only if the drum is intact. A warm cloth. Sit them up.
Cramps (belly or monthly)
Heat, chamomile or catnip, a walk. Yarrow tea is an old monthly herb — not if they could be pregnant.
Hay fever season
Nettle infusion is the honest local try. It is not an EpiPen and not a reason to skip the Benadryl in the kit.
Recipes
Folk tincture (any herb)
The one method. Fill a jar with herb, cover with drinking alcohol, wait, strain. Works offline, no scale required.
tincture
Elderberry syrup
The jar you reach for at the first scratch in the throat. Cooked, honeyed, shelf-stable enough for a cellar.
syrup
Elderberry tincture
When you want a dropper in a coat pocket, not a sticky syrup bottle.
tincture
Yarrow tincture
Fever sweat on the inside, wound wash on the outside.
tincture
Willow bark decoction
Adult ache and low fever tea from creek willow. Treat it like aspirin that tastes of wet wood.
tea
Mullein cough tea and steam
Dry, tickly, or tight chest. Strain the wool twice or you will cough more, not less.
tea
Mullein flower ear oil
Yellow flowers in olive oil, sun-steeped. Only for a closed, intact eardrum.
oil
Thyme (or garlic) honey
Herb steeped in honey. Spoon for a cough, or into hot water for a sore throat.
honey
Onion cough syrup
The old farm cough pot: sliced onion, sugar or honey, overnight. You already have the onion.
syrup
Peppermint or spicebush tea
Queasy, gassy, or a tension head. Mint from the bucket, or spicebush twigs from the hollow.
tea
Chamomile or catnip rest tea
Evening cup for a crampy belly or a person who cannot come down from the day.
tea
Plantain (or self-heal) poultice
Chew or mash a clean leaf. Tape it on. The oldest first-aid in the yard.
poultice
Calendula (or plantain) salve
The cracked-hand, shallow-burn, scraped-knuckle tin. Make it in September.
salve
Sage gargle
A raw throat that hates to swallow. Cool tea, gargle, spit or sip.
tea
Nettle infusion
Spring mineral jar. Food-like, not a cold cure, but the cup people miss when the greens are gone.
tea
Rose hip tea
After frost, from the fencerow you already hate. Vitamin C and a tart evening cup.
tea
Wild, this county
American elderberry
wild
Sambucus canadensis
The county’s winter-cold berry. Cooked syrup and tincture are the homestead flu shelf.
Yarrow
wild
Achillea millefolium
Wound herb and fever sweat. A little bitter tea goes a long way.
Common mullein
wild
Verbascum thapsus
The cough leaf of dry ground. Tea and steam for a tight chest. Flower oil for a closed-eardrum ache.
Broadleaf plantain
wild
Plantago major
The bandaid that grows underfoot. Poultice for stings, nettle, splinters, and shallow cuts.
Jewelweed
wild
Impatiens capensis
Same hollow as the poison ivy, on purpose. Smash and swab as soon as you itch.
Stinging nettle
wild
Urtica dioica
Mineral tea. The spring tonic that actually tastes like food once cooked.
Dandelion
wild
Taraxacum officinale
Bitter leaf for a sluggish winter gut. Roasted root as a coffee stretch, not a drug.
Black willow
wild
Salix nigra
The original aspirin tree. Tea for an adult ache or low fever — with the same warnings as aspirin.
Boneset
wild
Eupatorium perfoliatum
Old flu-ache bitter. A few sips. This is not a tea you drink by the pint.
Self-heal
wild
Prunella vulgaris
Gentle mouth and throat herb. A gargle more than a miracle.
Catnip
both
Nepeta cataria
The gentle rest tea. Useful for a fussy feverish child when you want them to sleep, not for a high fever itself.
Spicebush
wild
Lindera benzoin
The creek-woods cold tea. Pleasant enough that people will actually drink it.
Rose hips
wild
Rosa multiflora (and garden roses)
Winter vitamin C tea. Tart, good with honey.
Kitchen garden
Garlic
garden
Allium sativum
Food that is also the first cold medicine in the house.
Thyme
garden
Thymus vulgaris
The cough steam and the sore-throat honey of a kitchen garden.
Sage
garden
Salvia officinalis
Gargle for a raw throat. A dry tea, not a daily pint.
Peppermint
garden
Mentha × piperita
Gas, queasy stomach, tension headache (tea and a cloth on the brow).
Lemon balm
garden
Melissa officinalis
Calm-down tea. Cold-sore lip wipe from strong tea, not a cure.
Chamomile
garden
Matricaria chamomilla
The evening cup: belly cramp, rest, a fussy child over one year.
Calendula
garden
Calendula officinalis
The salve flower. Skin, cracked hands, shallow burns after they are cooled.
Purple coneflower
garden
Echinacea purpurea
Onset-of-cold tincture. Evidence is mixed. It will not raise the dead or replace rest.
Cayenne
garden
Capsicum annuum
A pinch in broth or honey for a cold that feels stuck. Warming, not magic.