Are You Ready for Winter?
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Here come the colder, darker, often sicker, days of the year. Are you ready?
Colds, coughs, flu, stuffy and runny noses, and fevers are the most common winter miseries. To counter and deal with them, I need anti-infective, anti-viral, soothing, and immune enhancing herbs.
A mainstay of preparedness is having plenty of anti-infective herbal remedies on hand to prevent and treat colds, flu, and fevers. Two of my favorites are echinacea and yarrow. I also use Phytolacca (poke).
Yarrow is best tinctured in the summers, while in full flower. I never make this remedy with dried herb; it is too bitter and too harsh for me. But yarrow doesn't mind frost, and an excellent anti-infective tincture can be made with the large leaves available now. Herbalist Gretchen Gould prefers the autumn leaves when making yarrow oil. Fill a jar with well-chopped leaves. Add 100 proof vodka right to the top. Lid and label.
Echinacea roots can be dug after the first frosts and promptly tinctured. And dried Echinacea augustifolia roots can be tinctured anytime. I buy a pound of dried root and make four quarts of tincture, spaced about three months apart. I find tinctures from dried roots are best after sitting for at least twelve months.
Read this article here:
https://www.wisewomanmentor.com/healing-archive/are-you-ready-for-winter%3F-part-1
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