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.
Nodding yellow flower clusters bloom in spring over low rosettes of bright green leaves. Grows 8 inches tall. Prefers a shady damp location with well-drained soil. Perennial.
Traditional Healing Uses: Flowers and roots have been used in herbal remedies. Cowslip flowers have been added to tea or wine to relieve stress, tension, insomnia, nervous headaches, stomach spasms, and constipation. Cowslip root tea has been used for colds, bronchitis, and whooping cough. Cowslip ointment, oil, and lotion have been used for sunburns, swelling, bruises, and to reduce skin spots and wrinkles.
Other Uses: Edible flowers may be used to decorate cakes, crystallized in sugar, or used to flavor wine and vinegar; leaves can be added to salads.
Harvest: Gather flowers in spring, taking the yellow petals but not the green calyces. Dry for use in wine or syrup. Harvest rootlets before or after bloom.
Preparation: Pour 1 cup boiling water on 2 teaspoons of dried flowers and let steep for 10-15 minutes, 3 times a day. For root tea, put 1 teaspoon of grated root in 1 cup of cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer 15 minutes, 3 times a day.
Caution: Some individuals react with a skin rash after touching some Primula species.
