My Favorite Herbs

I tell people that, with a few exceptions, herbs work as well as or better than drugs and without the side effects. Herbs can be grown or wild-harvested, dried and made into medicine yourself. These are just a couple of my most commonly used herbs.  I'm not a doctor, this is just how I use them for my family, and it works!

Garlic
Reputed to be much stronger than an ordinary antibiotic, garlic is good for preventing and treating infections, including cold and flu. Cooked garlic loses its medicinal properties, so it has to be used raw. It can be chopped finely and mixed with honey, which also has antibiotic properties, or chopped a bit larger and swallowed like a pill. Always eat it with a little food; it can make you sick eaten on an empty stomach. Raw garlic can also be placed on the feet, where it will quickly be absorbed into the whole body. For an ear infection, I place half a clove of garlic on some gauze and tape it to the ear. Garlic is strong stuff and the gauze prevents skin irritation.

Plantain
Plantain grows across the US, and is my favorite for wounds, burns, insect bites and stings. When someone gets stung by a bee, I quickly find some plantain, chew it a bit and place it on the sting. It not only takes away the pain, but also heals.

Activated Charcoal
You won't find this one growing in the woods, but most herb companies sell it. A capsule or two will absorb the toxins if you get food poisoning or the stomach flu. It can be mixed with water to form a paste and plastered on a poisonous snake or spider bite to draw out the poison. I take this stuff everywhere I go.

White Willow Bark
This is the stuff that aspirin originally came from. Boil it for 15 minutes and sip on small amounts of the strong tea. Don't give to children under 16. White willow bark can also be ground into a powder and fed to horses for pain - I feed one teaspoon a day for up to a few weeks at a time.

Elderberries and Ginger
When a cold is brewing, I simmer a pot of elderberries and ginger for an hour and strain to make a strong tea. I add a little lemon juice and raw honey and everyone sips on it throughout the day. Ginger is also good for treating headaches and an upset stomach.