Today we're going to talk about a common wildflower that has many uses in herbal medicine. Not to mention that it smells wonderful!

Identification
Yarrow is a common wildflower in the Aster family. It grows to be 1'-3' tall with 2-4" wide clusters of small, white flowers with yellowish centers. The leaves are easy to identify; small, narrow and fern-like feathery. They have a strong smell, are larger at the bottom and progressively smaller at the top. The flowers bloom in summer and fall, and can be found in dry, sunny areas- deciduous woods, fields and prairies. They are found throughout Michigan. Yarrow is native to North America.

Yarrow leaves and flowers can be gathered while in bloom, dried and stored for year-round use. It can also be made into a tincture and used in herbal oils and salves.

Medicinal Use
Many cultures have used yarrow as a medicinal herb. There is a legend that Achilles used the plant to heal bleeding wounds during the Trojan War. In modern times, herbalists still use yarrow to stop bleeding and help resolve colds & flu, endometriosis, heard desease, hives, menstrual problems, pinkeye and sties. More than 40 active ingredients have been isolated in yarrow. The plant possesses anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, and sweat-inducing properties.  It can reduce inflammation, relax cramps, and arrest excessive bleeding, dilate arteries and help lower cholesterol. It is considered a blood vessel tonic, improving arterial health in general. In Germany, yarrow is approved as a treatment for menstrual cramps. Crushed leaves can be applied to wounds to stop bleeding and heal cuts. Fresh leaves can also be chewed to relieve toothaches. Sties and pinkeye can be relieved with a eyewash or compress made from yarrow tea.

Caution: Yarrow should not be used internally during pregnancy or attempts to become pregnant. Don't confuse yarrow with fool's parsley or or poison hemlock. These species have similar leaves and flowers, but their leaves are more broad and lacy. Be sure to take all specifications (color, height, smell, leaf placement) into consideration when you are first learning to identify a plant- don't just look at the flower or the leaves.
 
***
White, Linda B. The Herbal Drugstore. United States of America: Rodale Inc., 2000. Print.
Tekiela, Stan. Wildflowers of Michigan Field Guide. Cambridge, Minnesota: Adventure Publications, Inc., 2000. Print.
Brown, Tom Jr. Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival. New York: Berkley Books, 1983. Print.

How to Prepare
St. John's Wort is commonly infused in oil to be used topically, or made into a tincture. The herb loses potency when dried, but can still be used as a tea for certain ailments. It may take a few weeks in order for the herb to have any effect.

Precautions
As I've mentioned before, herbs can be very effective, so use with caution. Some people become sensitive to sunlight after drinking the tea  for extended periods of time. St. John's Wort may increase the effects of narcotics and some antidepressants. Talk with a professional before using if you are pregnant or nursing.

In the autumn, I use fallen leaves to mulch my strawberries. In addition to stockpiling grass clippings, I also stockpile leaves to use in my raised beds. In October when the garden has died down, I layer the brown leaves (carbon) with grass clippings (nitrogen) and compost to create a lasagna garden inside my raised beds. Then I cover everything with newspaper and give it a good soaking. One more layer of compost helps keep the newspaper from flying away. Then I cover each raised bed with a pallet over winter. 

Chamomile is most often used as a tea to help one sleep or relax. It also has stomach-settling properties. Like many herbs, it is very easy to grow. It is not a perennial, but does reseed itself quite easily. If you are concerned that it won't reseed, save some of the mature flower heads in a baby food jar to plant next year. Most likely though, it will come up on its own.

Picking flower heads will be the most time consuming task. You can use a pair of scissors, but I just pinch the heads off with my thumb and index finger. It's faster that way.

Harvesting
Some people have had success spreading an old bed sheet under the tree, and then shaking the branches until all the ripe berries fall off onto the sheet. I tried this last year, with mixed results. I did get more berries in less time, but I also got a bunch of green berries, twigs and other debris that needed to be removed. About half of the ripe berries landed on my sheet, and the other half bounced off into the grass. For this reason, I keep picking each berry by hand. It takes time, but so does picking out debris. My mom has had success with just leaving the sheets on the ground, and the berries drop on their own, without shaking. This way you have less debris to pick through, and it's less work. Just be sure to weigh the sheet down with a rock if it is a windy day. I don't bother removing the mulberry stem. It is already enough work to go and pick the berries, let alone de-stem every single one of them. After picking, I soak the mulberries in water to drown/scare away the bugs, and then freeze the berries.

Other Uses for Mulberries
One of my other articles mentions using mulberries as a kind of permaculture chicken feed. The berries are high in nutrients and plentiful. The trees also provide shade for chickens. Mulberry leaf tea is said to help stabilize blood sugar.

Do you have mulberry trees? What do you use them for?

Sage is one of the easiest herbs I've ever grown. It's commonly used in poultry and pork dishes, but can also be used to flavor cheese. Sage has some medicinal benefits as well. Historically, it's one of the oldest herbs recorded; the ancient Egyptians used it as a fertility herb. Ironically (or .perhaps not?) it tends to dry up a nursing mother's milk supply. Because of this I had a hard time finding uses for sage as a teenager. I couldn't use it much in cooking because my mom was constantly nursing one baby or another.

Sage is a perennial, which means it will grow back year after year; each year bigger and better than before. My 6-7 year old sage plant has gone through two transplants and from a 3" pot has grown to be four feet across. In early-mid summer, it has pretty blue-lavender blossoms. When winter comes, the sage leaves freeze and dry up. Even in the winter then, you can still be picking sage.

Fresh sage leaves can be cut or chopped into small pieces before adding to soup, sauces, etc.

I didn't grow up using herbs for seasoning, especially fresh herbs. In the past few years, I've really gotten better at seasoning my food with things beside salt, butter, and cheese. Hubs introduced me to cilantro, an AMAZING herb used fresh in many Latin American dishes. Last year I grew some just because he liked it. We used it for tacos on Wednesday, but I could never find another use for it. This year we had volunteer cilantro EVERYWHERE and I am using it in anything & everything that includes taco seasoning or salsa. 

To dry dill weed, cut some sprigs from the garden and lay them out on a cookie/baking sheet and put in a gas oven for a day or so- however long it takes to dry. You can also use an electric dehydrator, but the dried dill pieces are small and tend to fall through the holes in the dehydrator tray.

Seeds or seed heads can also be used. In pickling, many times an undeveloped seed head is used. The developed seeds are also often used. These fully matured seeds can also be planted next spring.

Good luck growing & using dill!
-Bethany

Chives are extremely hardy and easy to grow. It seems like they are the first thing up in the Spring and one of the last things left growing in the Autumn. And it would be a pity not to have chives during the winter as well.

You could grow chives from seed in a pot, but you can also dry chives to use in soups during the winter. Chives dry relatively easily. I chop mine up in 1/8" - 1/4" pieces, spread them out on a cookie sheet and leave them in my (gas) oven. The pilot light keeps the oven warm and dry so you don't have to even turn it on. I usually leave my chives in the oven for a day or two, until they are brittle. Then I store them in an airtight container.

It doesn't take a lot of these chives-chopping/drying sessions to have enough chives to use over winter. The plants are very fast growing and recover from a "haircut" within a week, sending up new shoots and even flower heads.

I use dried chives for soups and savory spice mixes.

Do you grow chives? What do you use them for?

I don't know about you, but I'm not really a fan of inflatables. Inflatable snowmen, inflatable Santas, reindeer and/or Christmas trees. I am also not really a fan of flashing neon Christmas lights. Tacky Christmases are just not for me.

Everyone has their own style; I get it. My style is a more subdued, classic, old-fashioned all-natural Christmas. The very first church I ever attended as a little girl was a little Methodist church down the road. Every year at Christmas the building was decorated in fresh greenery. The smell was so... Christmas-y. Not old and stale like some decorations used by other churches. Those plastic garlands- the kind that keep losing "feathers" until they look like a cat's wet tail. Now, there is a place for vintage decorations, but I really like the classiness of fresh greenery.

And why not make your own wreaths, centerpieces and garlands? Most of the materials are free, and how much fun to go tromping through the woods looking for supplies! You don't have to be a florist to make your own fresh, creative and professional-looking wreath. I made one this year with a reusable metal wreath form ($1.77 at Walmart) and some wire ($0.25 at Walmart). Walmart was selling ugly, plain little fresh wreaths for $7 each. My wreath was a fraction of the cost, but so much prettier. 

When we were in Guatemala, I watched a few Youtube videos on wreath-making. This was my favorite one, and I used the same method to make my wreath at home. It took about 30 minutes to assemble.

Before I made the wreath, I went out to the woods and found some pine trees and also picked up some pinecones, sumac berries, and hickory nuts for decoration. Then I came back up to the house and found another different evergreen tree and took some cuttings from that. When I got back, I had three different kinds of greens and some decorations for my wreath. When I got done the wreath, I made a bow out of some ribbon and added that as well. Then Hubs helped me hang it on our door outside.

Why stop at only a wreath? After I was done, I took some more greenery and made a candle centerpiece for our kitchen table. Now something like this takes a bit more skill than a wreath, but not much. Besides, flower arranging takes practice, and what better time to practice than when your "flowers" are free?