Traditional Healing Herbs are gentle, nature‑centered ways of easing the symptoms of flus, colds, and digestive upsets, of working with chronic maladies, and of giving first aid for minor accidents such as cuts, bruises, and stings. For thousands of years, people have relied on plants for healing. Gathering summer plants for winter remedies is part of the year’s rhythm. There’s a pleasant satisfaction, too, in preparing herbal remedies for your family, your friends, and yourself. Among the joys of summer can be growing and gathering beneficent garden herbs, drying them in big fragrant bunches for winter teas, and preparing a collection of herbal tinctures, syrups, oils, ointments, and cosmetics. In winter, we can use summer’s bounty to keep ourselves healthy.
A frost-tender annual with shiny light green leaves. For prolonged harvest of leaves, remove basil’s flower spikes as they appear.
Traditional Healing Uses: Basil tea has been used as a gentle remedy for digestive ailments: stomach cramps, gas, nausea and constipation. It has also been used to ease nervous headaches and anxiety.
Harvest: Gather and dry leaves and flowering tops just before bloom.
Preparation: Pour 1 cup of boiling water over 1-2 teaspoons of dried herb and steep 10-15 minutes. Take 3 times a day.
Take a look at all our Traditional Healing Herbs in this amazing flip-book! Or click here for a poster.
