Herbal Medicine Chest for Beginners {What To Have In There!}

There are many dried herbs to choose when building your herbal medicine cabinet.

I have a lot of favorites, but I seem to keep coming back to the same herbs time and again for my family. Many of these can be added to your garden or foraged and dried for later.

• Dried plantain I love having this on hand for cuts and scrapes. Well, more cuts from the knives in the kitchen. Just a couple tablespoons of the dried herb, moistened with water in a cotton cloth make a great poultice to lay directly on a cut. It will help stop bleeding quickly.
• Echinacea This is a “go to” constantly in my family. We keep this on hand in the form of tinctures and for teas when colds or the flu hits. It’s not the best tasting, and my children describe it as “the bowels of hell”, but it’s been effective at helping to shorten the time we are sick.
• Astragalus This is another non-tasty herb, especially in tincture form. It’s been described as what the bottom of the chicken coop would taste like. But, astragalus is an adaptogenic herb, meaning that it can assist the body in times of stress. I like to keep this one in tincture form as well and my family takes it daily. I up the dosage to 2x a day when under stress, like time changes, seasonal changes or other physical and mental challenges arise.
• Elderberry ah, the wonderful, humble elderberry. Awesome for cooking down into a syrup to assist the body during times of cold or flu. This can also be used over pancakes and waffles, over ice cream and even cakes to let your “food be your medicine”. Elderberries are toxic when fresh, so you MUST cook them to eliminate that. The flowers of the elderberry plant, however, are NOT toxic and are great when drunk as a tea during colds. It has immune stimulating actions and can help to increase bronchial secretions, helping you to cough up congestion.
• Dried Peppermint or Spearmint This is perfect for those upset tummies due to overindulgence. A peppermint infused tea will help settle your stomach and ease digestion.

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