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 is a magic in the healing herbs of gardens. This magic consists not only of the plants’ reputed medicinal properties, but in the strong sense of connection and interdependence that comes from growing and collecting what you need to stay healthy. There’s a pleasant satisfaction, too, in preparing herbal remedies for your family, your friends, and yourself. When a child catches cold, one can open a bottle and take out a pill or brew a fragrant pot of peppermint‑yarrow‑elderflower tea. Each way of treating the cold has its advantages, but the sweet ceremony of brewing and offering tea may be as much of a remedy as the herbs themselves. 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.
Lacy evergreen plants grow 2 feet tall, topped by reddish flowers in early summer. Grow in sun or part shade. May re-seed.
Traditional Healing Uses: Used in both China and the West, burnet has been a traditional remedy for diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhage, excess menstrual bleeding, menopausal discomforts, fevers, and infections. It has been added to beer and wine to ease gout and rheumatism.
Other Uses: Young leaves of cucumber-flavored burnet can be added to salads, cottage and cream cheeses, sour cream, soups, and vinegars.
Harvest: Collect and dry leaves twice each summer, or harvest fresh leaves year round. Roots are sometimes used as well.
Preparation: Pour boiling water on 1-2 teaspoons of dried herb and let steep for 10-15 minutes. Take 3 times a day.
