Wise Woman Herbals — The Mint Family
This month I wish to draw your attention to the mint family, which is well known for its many delicious-tasting, and strongly-scented plants. Most of the mint family plants are excellent anti-spasmodics, anti-infectives, and nourishers of the nervous system.
Many mint family plants are hardy to frost and can be used all winter, or until the ground is covered with snow. I use winter mints mostly as salad greens, but, even in the cold of the winter, they can be harvested for teas, vinegars, honeys, scented oils, and smoking mixes.
For salad greens: I pick a leaf or two, here and there, according to the size of the plant, to enliven my wintertime salads. Although there is no nutrition available from raw greens, they are worth eating. Fresh, unwashed wild salad greens give us something even more important than vitamins or minerals: soil bacteria, which add immeasurably to the health of our gut flora and thus to our overall health and vitality. (One kind of soil bacteria has recently been found to kill cancer cells!)
For teas: I put a spoonful of honey and some fresh mint-family leaves in a big cup and fill it up with boiling water. Drink immediately. When? After meals. While soaking in a hot bath. When spending time with a friend. Sometimes I eat the leaves after I drink the tea.
Catnip (Nepeta cataria)Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
Catnip can be smoked to relieve menstrual cramps; catnip tea or catnip honey in hot water works well too.
Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)
Lemon Balm leaves in salads or as a tea help brighten grey winter days. The tincture strengthens the nerves.
Wild mint (Mentha aquatica)Wild mint (Mentha aquatica)
Wild mint tea eases indigestion from rich holiday meals and sparks ones interest in leafy greens when added to salad. A hearty addition to a smoking mix.
Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), also know as creeping jenny, ale hoof, and that-*!#!*-weed-in-my-garden
Ground ivy is always willing to lend a hand to cheer you up and soothe your nerves. I add her leaves and flowers to salads all year long. Midwives use the tincture of the plant in bloom to hasten delivery of the placenta. Lovely in smoking mixes.
Bergamot (Monarda didyma)Bergamot (Monarda didyma)
Bergamot can be found both wild and cultivated. I prefer the red-flowered variety over all others for use in salads, honeys, vinegars, teas, and smoking blends, but the purple- or magenta-flowered ones may be used to your tolerance for the taste of oregano.
Wild oregano
Wild Oregano hunkers down but is still available for salads. Since my wild oregano is rather scentless and kinda tasteless, I use the purple-flowered bergamot when I want rich, sharp oregano flavor.
Lavender (Lavendula off.)Lavender, rosemary, and thyme (Lavendula off., Rosmarinus off., Thymus off.)
Lavender, rosemary, and thyme overwinter in the ground or the greenhouse for most of us. They appreciate a winter pruning unless you cut them back late in the fall. Use your prunings to make vinegars, honeys, teas, and to dry for smoking.
Seal-heal aka self-heal (Prunella vulgaris)
Self-heal is also heal-all. This scentless mint grows everywhere: in the city and the country, in the lawn and along trails in the forest. The leaves are a little tough for salads and useless for teas or honeys but add flavor to smoking blends.
Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)
Motherwort is not acceptable in salads, teas, or honeys due to its bitterness. It makes a tasty vinegar though if harvested before it starts to flower. And an important herbal medicine tinctured during flowering, so tolerate it in your garden, please.
Ajuga (Ajuga reptans)
Ajuga is generally cultivated, scentless, tasteless, and not medicinal. It does add a beautiful color to the winter garden.
Nettle (Urtica dioica)Nettle (Urtica dioica)
Nettle looks a lot like a mint at this time of the year. The sting and the lack of scent will set you straight though. Added to smoking mixes, it has a mild hallucinogenic effect.
Susun Weed
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Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine. Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging and often profoundly provocative.
Susun is one of America's best-known authorities on herbal medicine and natural approaches to women's health. Her four best-selling books are recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and cherished by millions of women around the world.
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