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{Note from Jessica: Today’s post is shared by my sweet friend Jess Kuh. Jess is a fellow real food lover with a passion for natural living, herbs, and anything that keeps her family and home healthy.}
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Summer! I can’t wait for summer. Picnics, walks in the woods, trips to the beach, swimming with friends, catching fireflies, fresh garden produce….pure bliss!
And then, there are bug bites, sunburn, poison ivy, skinned knees, sprains – the side of summer that nobody likes to think about. Just like I stock up on herbs for the winter, I stock up on herbs for the summer too.
I like to be prepared and have my ‘first aid’ kit full and ready for the summer months. A few simple herbs can go a long way to help alleviate some of the hazards of summer.
Plantain
Plantain is a great herb to have around for summer. If you can only buy one herb for summer, this is my pick. Plantain grows just about everywhere so if you can ID some, you can have a fresh supply for summer.
Plantain is useful for bug bites, bee/wasp stings, poison ivy and scrapes and cuts. Applied fresh as a poultice, a cloth soaked in plantain tea or a salve, it will take away the sting or each out of a bite. It will prevent and pull out infection. It is also soothing for any skin injury and sunburn.
Comfrey
Comfrey is commonly called bone knit, comfrey is great for anything bruised, sprained or broken. Applied as a wet poultice it will help bring relief of swelling and prevent bruising.
The one caution I can give you about comfrey is that it works SO well at healing, it can sometimes heal and leave infection in an open wound. That is why I pair plantain and comfrey together because plantain will pull out the infection and comfrey will heal it. Unless you know a wound is clean with no infection, do not use on an open wound.
Cayenne
Cayenne has so many great purposes, including fresh salsa, but it also wonderful at helping control bleeding. Use in tincture or powder (1 tsp. in a cup of warm water), given orally, cayenne can slow and even stop bleeding. It can also be applied directly to a bleeding cut (yes, it burns, but it works!).
Jewelweed
This is the perfect herb for those of you that struggle with poison ivy. It can often bring quick relief. If you can find fresh jewel weed (or if you use dried) make a strong tea and then freeze it in ice-cube trays. Pop the cubes out when frozen and put in a labeled bag and you have soothing herbal ice ready for poison ivy.
Another great way to use jewelweed is to make a tincture of it with witch hazel. The combination of the astringent witch hazel and soothing jewelweed can dry of the rash quickly (you can also add fresh plantain). Just throw it all in the blender, blend together, pour into a glass bottle, and let it sit for a week. Then strain and bottle. Put it is a spray bottle so you can always have some with you.
Aloe Vera
Aloe is just an overall good plant to have in your house. The inside gel of the plant is soothing for burns and also helps prevent scarring with cuts and scrapes. If you don’t have a plant, aloe gel is readily found in most stores today, just check your label to make sure there isn’t extra unwanted ingredients in it.
Mixing a few drops of lavender essential oil in aloe gel makes a soothing relief cream for sunburns. It also helps with regular burns.
These are just a few simple herbs to have around, but can do you a world of good when it comes to some of the woes of summer.
I’d love to hear from you, what are some of your favorite herbal remedies for summer?
If you’re interested in learning more about herbs and would like to know who I recommend, check out my Resources page..
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