We had some visitors from the Midwest over Labor Day weekend who flew in on Friday to attend a conference. We hung out Friday night and then took them to the site.
One of them had a bad cough and mentioned they were recovering from RSV but had taken antibiotics last week. I'd never heard of it so didn't think about it much, figuring that if they were able to fly, they were probably fine.
By Saturday late afternoon, I was running a 99.1 F fever and my head was a snot machine. I tried to ignore all the symptoms and keep working until I got much worse that evening.
Because herbs are a part of my life, thankfully, I had 3 herb compounds available to help me feel better.
In late August, I had filmed my "Every Summer Practice" of building a Winter Tincture based on some foundational herbs (lemon balm to fight viruses and thyme for lungs and strong antibacterial plus whatever went crazy as my garden predicts the flu season). The link to that video is here: Winter Tincture So I had a big jar of that still infusing but close enough to done to be used.
Also "Every Summer Practice" is gathering herbs for my Cough Tea. As I'm growing my YouTube Channel, Wise Woman Werx, I had been taking videos of harvesting the herbs, cleaning them, and setting them to dry. I had made a batch as a rehearsal for the filming, so again, blessedly, I had a big jar of the Cough Tea in the fridge.
It's almost like Future Me knew that I was going to be sicker than I'd been in a decade. When I make up compounds for my modern Stillroom (fridge and freezer), I daydream about being a Medieval Monk like Brother Cadfael making herbal medicine for my community and putting herbs up for use and it feels so right.
Ahem - a digression:
(If you haven't heard of the books here is a link for more information The Cadfael Chronicles. If, by chance, you are sick, these are a perfect read of cozy murder mysteries with an herbal flair set in England when Empress Maud and Stephen were fighting over the Crown. British television ITC did a series that I rewatch often - Cadfael: The Complete Collection. These are DVDs, occasionally the series does pop up on various streaming services. If you have Amazon Prime, as of today, 11 of the Cadfael audiobooks are free in Audible! )
The urge to community, to be helpful to the community, to share the knowledge that been passed on to me - I don't know if these needs are powerful drivers to you, but much of what I do with healing herbs are driven by them.
My focus in the healing compounds is to use what is local and I can grow.
This is the way it was before we got all fancy and newfangled.
I've been alive long enough to remember being taught the folk remedies by my mother and my father's mother.
For a while, we ate what we grew on the little farm with a few meat animals and a big garden.
Several folks have sent me their favorite herbal remedies for coughs and illnesses.
The generosity of herbs allows for many combinations to create healing.
These are valid as well, as it works for you and you are able to have the herbs in stock, use them!