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DIY Herbal Cold and Flu Remedies

Cup of tea, tea leaves and garlic

Aside from COVID-19, it’s the season for colds, flu, and other bugs that bring us down in the chillier months. Despite social distancing, flu shots, good care, vitamins, and other attempts to ward them off, these bugs always arrive, unwelcome, and uninvited. So, how do you treat colds and flu naturally? DIY herbal remedies, of course! (Your favorite chicken soup recipe should be a close second.)

Healing Culinary Herbs

Tea infuser with loose leaf tea
Be sure that you have a tea infuser for the loose leaf tea recipes.

During the summer months, I grow plenty of herbs for teas, salves, soaps, and tinctures that I use in the winter. Some years I also grow medicinal herbs indoors on my sunny kitchen windowsill. They are inexpensive and effective, while also smelling pleasant and tasting good. Even nicer, some of the best grow like weeds, including peppermint, chamomile, garlic, cayenne pepper, lavender, and elderberry. Others, like ginger, are tender plants that can be grown indoors in winter or outdoors in summer. (Click here to learn more about growing ginger indoors.)

Anyone who has grown the classic herbs peppermint and chamomile knows that they’re wild and must be kept in bounds. Nonetheless, their usefulness far outweighs their weediness.

Pot Marigold

Pot marigold
Pot marigold petals should be harvested fresh and quickly dried.

Pretty pot marigolds (Calendula officinalis) produce single or double daisies of orange or gold, and they thrive in cool weather. Their dried petals are used to make teas that are calming and ease the stomach. Combine them with other tea-making herbs that help with cold symptoms and congestion. Calendula is also used to make very effective creams to heal the skin. Let some of your calendula seedheads dry and sprinkle the seeds on the ground to sow themselves year after year.

Chamomile

Chamomile
Chamomile is one of the easiest medicinal herbs to grow.

Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) is a sun-loving herb that generally germinates in summer or fall, remains a low-growing foliage rosette through winter, and blooms in spring, producing a cloud of little white daisies. These choice flowers should be harvested at their prime and quickly dried to make herbal teas or inhalations. (Be cautious about letting them set seed; they can become weedy!)

Orange Chamomile Inhalant or Tea

A combination of dried orange peel and dried chamomile flowers makes a lovely tea or inhalant that will ease the stomach or gently clear the sinuses. Just add one teaspoon of dried or fresh orange peel and three tablespoons of dried chamomile flowers to two cups of boiling water. Steep it for 5 minutes, for tea, or place it in a heat-safe bowl and breathe it in after several minutes. Cover your head with a towel to keep the steam in.

Peppermint

Peppermint flowers and leaves
Peppermint flowers and leaves can be used to make tea.

Peppermint (Mentha x piperita) has rhizomatous roots that spread like wildfire, so I grow mine in large pots in sunny spots. The summer foliage and flowers are easily harvested and dried for year-round use. Peppermint can be used to make inhalations and compresses as well as head-clearing tea.

Peppery Peppermint Tea Recipe

A good, simple mint tea recipe for colds contains peppermint and a few other ingredients. For one pot fill your infuser with two teaspoons of dried elderberries, two tablespoons of dried peppermint leaves, and a few peppercorns or some cayenne flakes to fire up the spice. Fill your pot with boiling water, steep for 5 minutes, and serve with honey.

Garlic

Child with fresh garlic
Garden fresh garlic tastes better and is great for colds.

Garlic has proven cold-fighting benefits and is truly a plant-it-and-leave-it crop requiring next to no care. Simply plant it in rich, well-drained soil in fall, and let it grow and bulb up in spring and summer. As any garlic grower can tell you, garden-fresh garlic is worlds more flavorful than the store stuff. Still, grocery garlic works just as well as a cold fighter.

Lemon Garlic Tonic

Fresh lemon-garlic tonic is a standby for cold sufferers. Simply add three large (or four small) sliced garlic cloves and the zest and juice of two lemons to three cups of boiling water in a saucepan. (Add some cayenne if your sinuses are troubling you.) Allow the mix to boil for 5 minutes before removing it from the heat and straining. Add a teaspoon of honey to each cup, and you’ll have a truly useful cold treatment.

Cayenne Pepper

Cayenne pepper
Cayenne pepper clears the sinuses and is rich in vitamin C.

Nothing clears the head and chest like something spicy. That’s why cayenne and other chilis (Capsicum annuum) are sought after as herbal remedies for cold sufferers. The sun- and heat-loving vegetable is easy as pie to grow during the summer months and just as easy to dry when red and ripe. Crushed cayenne can be added to any simple herbal tea as a stimulant to get the blood flowing. It is believed to help with headache pain and it clears stuffy sinuses.

Lavender

Bee on lavender
Lavender is soothing and reduces inflammation.

Lavender (Lavandula spp.) is one of the most beautiful, sun-loving plants, and its dried fragrant flowers and leaves are versatile herbs for health. Not only can they be added to soaps and creams, but they make wonderful cold inhalations.

Lavender Eucalyptus Inhalation

Infuse one tablespoon eucalyptus leaves and two tablespoons of lavender flowers into two cups of boiling water, steep for 5 minutes, and breath in under the cover of a towel. (Keep in mind that eucalyptus cannot be ingested, so do not drink this mix.) The two fragrant botanicals are harmonious partners. In fact, their oils may help to relieve depression, inflammation, and congestion, according to the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH).

Elderberry

Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis 'Nova'
Elderberries can be dried and added to various herbal tea remedies.

Gardeners with a good bit of space can and should grow elderberries (Sambucus spp.). Not only do they make delicious jam, jelly, and wine, they are also healthful and medicinal. The shrubs grow well in full sun or partial shade, though plants grown in more sun yield more fruits. Umbels of fragrant, yellowish spring flowers give way to dark, edible berries in late summer. Both the flowers and berries can be dried to make teas. The berries also make a delicious syrup that can be used to sweeten and flavor any herbal tea. All are believed to alleviate cough and allergy symptoms.

One warning: Elderberry seeds contain toxic chemicals (glycosides). There are two ways to make them safe. Avoid cracking elderberry seeds when drying them, or cook the fruits. They are rendered safe in the cooking process because the harmful chemicals are broken down.

Elderflower and Apple Tea

Fill your infuser with 2 tablespoons chopped, dried apples, and two tablespoons dried elderflower, and fill the pot with boiling water. Let it steep for 5 minutes and then sweeten with honey or sugar.

Ginger

Ginger
Ginger soothes the stomach and helps clear the head.

Ginger root (Zingiber officinaleis delicious and desirable in more ways than one. Like cayenne, it’s spicy, so it acts as a stimulant that gets the blood flowing and clears the head and sinuses when added to tea or an infusion. It also helps soothe the stomach. Ginger is most easily grown in a pot outdoors in summer or in a sunny window or sunroom in winter. It’s plump, spicy roots can be harvested as needed.

Fresh Ginger & Cinnamon Tea

For delicious fresh ginger tea, boil five large slices of ginger root in three cups of water with a cinnamon stick for 10 minutes, strain, and serve with sugar or honey. (Click here to learn how to grow ginger.)

All of the plants mentioned grow best in soils with average to good fertility and excellent drainage. Before planting them in spring, amend the soil with Fafard Garden Manure Blend. Likewise, ginger plants grown indoors thrive when planted in Fafard Natural & Organic Potting Mix.

Two great reference books for medicinal herbal plants are The Modern Herbal Dispensatory by Thomas Easley and Steven Horne (2016), Grow It Heal It by Christopher Hobbs and Leslie Gardener (Rodale Books, 2013), and the classic Complete Medical Herbal by Penelope Ody (DK, 1993)

Though all of these herbal remedies are deemed safe by health experts, but it’s always smart to talk to your doctor before partaking in any herbal remedies. Also, be sure that you have no allergies to these plants before using them. Some planning ahead is required if you want to grow your own herbal remedies, but when the winter sniffles arrive, you will be glad you broke ground and took the time.

Halloween Plant Lore

Halloween Plant Lore Featured Image
Jack ‘o-lanterns originated from the traditions of mid-nineteenth century Irish immigrants.

All ancient festivals relating to Halloween involved the harvest as well as fruits, herbs, trees, and vegetables that were believed to have mystical properties. Plants historically linked to Halloween were most often used to ward off evil, gain good health, or even tell the future. Some classic examples include/d fruits and vegetables carved into Jack ‘O Lanterns as well as apples, elderberries, hazelnuts, and rowan.

The Celtic Feast of Samhain

Halloween is tied to ancient Roman harvest festivals as well as the Celtic feast of Samhain, a festival held at summer’s end. The Celts believed that the dead ascended from their graves on the eve of Samhain and communicated with the living through druid priests. When the Romans conquered the Celts, and Christianity became the dominant religion in Europe, traditions hybridized, and over the centuries culminated into Halloween as we know it today. With each new tradition, a new symbolistic use of plants was employed.

Vegetable Jack ‘O-Lanterns

Pumpkins
Pumpkins are the ultimate symbol of Halloween in North America.

A combination of Old World and American traditions led to the hugely popular Halloween Jack ‘o-lantern. The Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a character that fooled the devil using devious, unorthodox means, inspired the first Jack ‘o-lanterns. As the story goes, when Jack died, neither God nor the devil wanted him, so they turned him away with nothing more than a burning ember for light. Jack hollowed out a turnip to hold the ember, and Jack of the Lanterns has been wandering the countryside with his glowing turnip ever since.

The Irish, Scots, and English carved faces into turnips, rutabagas, potatoes, and beets, and lit them on All Hallows’ Eve to frighten away Stingy Jack and other evil spirits. This tradition was then brought to the Americas. It was the influence of mid-nineteenth century Irish immigrants that lead to the carving of pumpkins for jack ‘o-lanterns. Pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo) are New World vegetables, so they are true symbols of American Halloween.

Apples on All Hallows’ Eve

Apples
Apples are ancient fruits that have been long associated with Halloween traditions.

Halloween also has roots in the ancient Roman harvest festival, Pomona, named for the Roman goddess of apples and trees. Pomona and her fall fruits symbolized romantic love and fertility.

Most European pagan religions applied important symbolism to the apple. During Samhain festivals, the druids are said to have used apples to foretell the future in divination ceremonies. The ancient practice of using apple peelings for divination was a common Halloween game until the early twentieth-century. The length of the peel and pattern it created when falling were used to determine one’s longevity.

Other age-old apple games are still popular today. The Halloween traditions of bobbing, ducking, or diving for apples, have been American favorites since Victorian times (1830s – 1900). Most of these games are thought to have originated from seventeenth-century Ireland. Apples were put in a tub of water, and those able to bite a bobbing apple hands-free would be blessed with good health and luck for the coming year. Others used it as marriage divination; the first to bite an apple would be the first to marry. A similar game, called snap apple, was played with apples hung from strings.

Rowan, Elderberry, and Hazelnut to Ward off Evil

Rowan twigs and berries
Long ago, crosses made of rowan twigs were carried for protection on Halloween.

European rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), elderberry (Sambucus nigra), and hazelnut (Corylus spp.) are three woody plants once believed to ward off witches, evil spirits, and offer protection on All Hallows’ Eve. The ancient Celts believed that rowan berries magically gave good health and that rowan trees planted near gravesites would help the dead sleep. Branches were also used as dowsing rods, and crosses made of rowan twigs were carried for protection on Halloween.

In old Europe, elderberry branches held above doorways were thought to protect homes from malevolent spirits and witches. And, though bonfires are still a part of many European Halloween celebrations, tradition dictates that elderberry should never be burned as this will invite death or the devil.

Elderberry
It was once believed that burning elder invited death and evil.

Hazelnut trees and their nuts were thought to hold equally potent powers on Halloween night. Strands of nuts worn or kept in the home would bring good luck. They were also used in divination practices and carried by young women to ensure fertility for the coming year.

These are just a few of the many plants and fruits with roots in the ancient and interesting holiday of Halloween. Knowing them makes the holiday a little richer and helps us understand the importance and role of seasonal plants in our traditions.