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.
Hyssop is an evergreen perennial with a bushy, 2 foot tall growth habit and spikes of blue-purple flowers in mid to late summer. Plants can be shaped to form hedges, and thrive in sun and light soil
Traditional Healing Uses: Hyssop has been used primarily to relieve coughs, bronchitis, colds, and fevers, and also to lower blood pressure, increase circulation, and aid digestion. It has served as a vermifuge, as a gargle for sore throats and cold sores, and as a remedy for herpes simplex. The leaves have been used in poultices for wounds and bruises.
Other Uses: Suggested culinary uses are as a seasoning in chicken soup, poultry stuffing, lamb stew, and sausage. Hyssop flowers attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to the garden. Plants repel flea beetles and cabbage moths from nearby vegetables.
Harvest: Collect the flowering tops and leaves in August and dry in the sun.
Preparation: Pour a cup of boiling water on 2-3 teaspoons of dried herb and infuse for 10-15 minutes, 3 times a day. Hyssop tea is sometimes combined with horehound for coughs, and with peppermint for colds.
Take a look at all our Traditional Healing Herbs in this amazing flip-book! Or click here for a poster.
