St. Joan’s / St. John’s Wort

St. Joan’s Wort, also known as St. John’s Wort, is a powerful systemic antiviral.

When it comes to colds and viral flus, tincture of St. Joan’s wort’s fresh flowering tops, is one of the first remedies our family always reaches for. We take St. Joan’s wort tincture throughout the course of a cold or flu to aid our body’s ability to fight off the virus. You can bet we were taking a lot of St. Joan’s wort during the Covid pandemic.

St. Joan’s wort has so many other, seemingly countless benefits too, for which I find myself taking or applying her medicine regularly in various preparations.

I have so much love and respect for St. Joan’s wort for all the beauty and medicine she brings into my life each season!

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Blue Elderberry

Blue elderberry is our west coast native elderberry shrub. As a powerful antiviral, blue elder is one of the first herbs we think of when the first signs of a cold or flu makes its appearance.

All parts of blue elder are medicinal and we regularly use the flowers, berries, leaves and bark for medicine. Each has antiviral properties but differ a bit in their antiviral strength and use.

All parts of blue elder can be used synonymously as European and East coast native black elderberries. However, blue elderberries have a reputation for tasting better and have less toxic effects when consumed raw (It’s still advised to avoid raw consumption and cook blue elder thoroughly).

We also appreciate that while they do love moisture, our region’s blue elders are more drought tolerant than black elders and do better in less than perfect soil and moisture conditions.

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Bergamot

Bergamot is a native herb to North America in the mint family. Once established a single plant can make a huge amount of flowers and leaves that can be harvested multiple times a season.

Bergamot’s volatile oils are quite strong and spicy, very similar to Greek oregano if you’re familiar. We use the leaves and flowers for tea to help our immune system fight colds.

Like most herbs, bergamot is dynamic and offers more than one kind of medicine. I appreciate bergamot as an expectorant, especially when I have mucous entering my lungs or when my lungs have phloem and need help coughing it up.

We appreciate bergamot leaves and flowers, dried or fresh in teas, infused honey and infused vinegar. We also cook with large amounts of bergamot leaves whenever a recipe calls for oregano or other Mediterranean herbs to help nourish our immune systems.

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Elecampane

Elecampane’s roots are a strong antiviral, antimicrobial and antibacterial, specifically for lungs. I am reaching for prepared elecampane medicine as soon as I notice a cold or virus moving into my lungs, before it gets established, and continue to take it until my lungs are tip top again.

More and more, I am also starting to rely on elecampane anytime I have a cold and when nasal mucous or congestion and is starting to drain into my lungs, even if I don’t think it will cause problems.

Elecampane is also an expectorant and helps our lungs loosen and move phloem up and out.

Dried roots can be made into tea, but the flavor may be too strong for most modern palates. I find that tincture of the fresh root is the most convenient way to take and dose elecampane medicine. I also really enjoy 1+ year old infused elecampane root honey and elecampane syrup. Elecampane lozenges used to be quite popular as cough drops and is another great cough remedy.

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Potato Onion

Our potato onion grex is a perennial onion that can be replanted like garlic or shallots, but also makes seeds, which ensures many onions for years to come, and even more chance that we have some onions on hand during cold and flu season!

Onions truly are food as medicine and offer delicious flavor to immune boosting soups and broths during cold season. Onions are antibacterial and can help fend off the troublesome bacteria during a cold.

Onion juice is specific to helping with ear aches and ear infections. When our son started having an ear ache in a recent cold, we immediately baked an onion cut in half and squeezed a few drops of juice in his ear to help ease his pain.

Onion juice is an expectorant and can help clear bacterial colds from the lungs. Since fresh onion juice is so pungent and tearfully strong, some preferred ways to take it, are as onion infused honey or onion syrup.

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Calendula

In some European cultures, dried and stored calendula flowers were commonly added to soup pots throughout the winter to prevent sickness. That’s probably how calendula got one of it’s other common names—pot marigold.

Calendula is an immune stimulator and can help strengthen our immune system. Eaten regularly, calendula can be an immune tonic.

Calendula also has a strong action on draining the lymphatic system and can help relieve swollen lymph nodes and clear stagnant lymph infections, which can otherwise flare up and cause more problems during colds and flus when the immune system is strained.

Calendula can help stimulate sweating during fevers. Calendula eases digestion, reducing digestive inflammation, especially helpful in the winter when we are often eating heavier, richer seasonal meals.

When we have extra calendula blossoms, we like to dry them and add them to our fall and winter soups, stews and chilis. And it brings a big smile to my face to pull them out of the cupboard—the orange and yellow blossoms are stored sunshine and remind me of brighter days!

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Hyssop

Hyssop is another beautiful mint family herb that can be used both medicinally and culinary. The flavor of hyssop’s raw leaf lies somewhere between mint, oregano and sage. Hyssop leaf or flower tea is mild (compared to sage or oregano) and it tastes delicious.

Medicinally, hyssop is both an expectorant and helps sooth or suppress dry coughs. Hyssop can clear bronchial infections/bronchitis and helps move fevers through sweating.

Hyssop can be used in food, tea or medicine, both as a preventative or immunity booster, and as an herb to help fight colds and flus.

Hyssop’s relatively small stature and numerous bright purple flower stalks bring so much beauty to our garden pathways.

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Valerian

As a pain reliever and a very strong, yet non-addictive sleep aid, our family keeps valerian handy for the worst colds and flus when we want to get a really good night’s rest. Getting solid rest can make a huge difference both in comfort, but also in our body’s ability to heal more effectively.

We enjoy drinking dried valerian root as tea (Ann especially likes valerian chai tea) and taking fresh valerian root tincture. Valerian tincture is especially fast and convenient and is easy to dose depending on if we want a little or a lot of sleep aid.

Depending how often you use valerian, chopped and dried valerian root or tincture of the fresh valerian root from one plant may last more several or more seasons.

On the other hand, we enjoy having many valerian plants in our garden for beauty and food as well as abundant medicine. It’s a good thing too, because valerian is a perennial and self seeds easily!

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Mullein

Mullein is one of our favorite plants to consume regularly for its nourishing properties, but it’s also handy to have on hand during colds as specific remedies.

Mullein blossom infused oil can heal earaches and ear infections. It’s handy to keep a small jar of mullein blossom oil around, especially when young children are around (it doesn’t take much, just a drop or few at a time).

Mullein smoke is an expectorant and helps clear stuck phloem really well, as well as ease up asthma. I don’t always want smoke as an expectorant, but sometimes I prefer it, especially when expectorant teas or honeys of other herbs aren’t doing the trick.

Mullein is a nervine, especially for the spine, neck and back and can help ease chronic pain that may flair up during a cold when our immune system is weakened.

Perhaps most importantly, is mullein’s ability to nourish and strengthen our lungs over time. Having strong lungs when the flu or covid arrives is wise preventative medicine. Our family drinks mullein leaf infusions regularly, ideally weekly, in order to ensure good lung health.

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