Feral First Aid (+Sale!)
Hello loves,
Somehow it’s already September, and I am delighted… not to mention relieved! Perhaps you can relate. While I love all the swimming and fresh fruit and juicy tomatoes, the underlying hum of fire anxiety has begun its yearly retreat, thanks to this early rain. May our creeks and ponds and water tables refill with this most basic ingredient of LIFE so all beings may thrive!
Speaking of thriving, keep reading below to learn about a few of the most widespread, abundant, and practical plants for first aid to help you tend to yourself and your beloveds at home or in the field. We’ve also got a sale and other updates for you, so keep scrolling!
Sending big love and bottomless beauty from our hearts to yours, xo Nymph and Woodsman
Wild Medicine from Your Backyard and Beyond
While harvesting our crop of Oregon Sunshine seeds yesterday, I sliced myself on a particularly sharp weed in two spots. It bled immediately. Luckily, I was surrounded by wild yarrow. I grabbed a few leaves, gave them a good chew, and placed them directly on my cuts. Within a few moments the bleeding stopped completely and I was able to continue harvesting, blood free.
No matter where you live, you, too, probably have some helpful herbs (aka weeds) growing near you——and if you’re adventuring in the wilderness, you most certainly have access to a whole pharmacopoeia of plants that can help you with cuts, bruising, belly pains, and more. Today I’m going to share a few of the many herbal helpers that you are likely to find in your neighborhood and in the wilds for much of the year.
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Yarrow can be found all over North America throughout the spring and summer. As with all wild plants, please be 100% certain of your identification before using it. It’s particularly important to distinguish yarrow from wild carrot species, some of which can be quite toxic to humans.
Yarrow has a lot going for it, especially its seemingly magical ability to stop bleeding by promoting clotting. So if you’ve got a nosebleed, flesh wound, or even postpartum bleeding, apply the fresh (and ideally slightly chewed or pounded) leaves and/or flowers directly to the cut and press gently until blood loss slows or stops. Yarrow is also antimicrobial, so it can help prevent the wound from getting infected.
In addition to using it fresh, you can make a strong yarrow tea and soak the wound in it or apply the tea with a cloth for cleansing and care. Some folks like to grind dried yarrow into a powder that they can carry in their first aid kits, lest they need it when it’s nowhere to be found!
Yarrow flowers and leaves can also be taken internally as a tea or tincture to aid digestion, ease menstrual cramps, and help the body drive out fever. Its medicinal qualities are most potent after the flower blooms and before the pollen emerges, but it is effective as soon as its leave emerge in spring. A little bit of honey helps this bitter medicine go down.
We add yarrow tincture to our Seasonal Resilience and Elderberry Elixir Blends for its “stay-well-and-get-well-sooner” qualities. It’s also found in our Meadow Magic First Aid Salve and Twist and Shout Salve for sprains, strains, breaks, and pains.
It is not recommended to take yarrow internally during pregnancy.
Plantain (Plantago spp.)
If you don’t already know this abundant plant, you will probably recognize one of these two images of it:
The image on the left is the broad-leafed variety, and the one on the right is narrow-leafed. Though in some ways they look quite different from one another, their leaves emerge from a single base, have prominent parallel veins, and their flower stalks are quite rigid. Medicinally they are interchangeable.
Like yarrow, plantain is antimicrobial, promotes wound healing, and can be lightly chewed and applied directly to the skin. Its most distinguishing superpower lies in its ability to draw out the venom from bee stings and bug bites, as well as pull tiny splinters, cactus hairs, and even shards of glass to the surface. It may even be helpful for bites from more venomous creatures if you’re stranded in the backcountry, but I’d get to a hospital as soon as possible if we’re talking poisonous snakes and scorpions here.
Plantain also has a history of being used as a “pot herb”, a mild-tasting wild green that you can throw into your soups and stews. As a tea it can help restore an irritated digestive tract and may be helpful at soothing diarrhea and urinary tract imbalances. This is another good one to carry both in your memory and in dried form in your adventure kit! We add it to our Meadow Magic First Aid Salve.
Blackberry (Rubus spp.)
Blackberry is so common it hardly needs a description, but you may not know that—in addition to bearing delicious cobbler ingredients—its leaves are a potent medicinal ally. Like plantain and yarrow, its leaves can help stop bleeding and prevent infection in wounds, and may be applied directly or as a compress for inflamed skin conditions.
It’s also helpful internally. If you find yourself with the runs and have a blackberry bush nearby, drink some leaf tea every hour to soothe the gut and address the diarrhea. The tea is also helpful for sores of the mouth and throat and is quite mild-tasting. Add some wild mint for extra flavor and belly-calming support.
Blackberry medicine is most potent just as it’s beginning to flower, but it can be helpful any time the plant still has life in it.
Summer’s End 20% Off SALE! *
Milky Oats Tincture
We have been recommending milky oats tincture to a lot of our customers at market recently, so we thought we’d make it easily accessible to you as well!
Milky oats (Avena sativa) are considered a “trophorestorative nervine”, which is a technical way of saying that they are replenishing and nourishing to the nervous system.
Milky oats come from the same plant that makes the oats we eat, but are harvested early in the season when the oat tops are filled with a milky latex. This fluid contains compounds that support the nerves and have a particular affinity for the myelin sheath, the protective coating that insulates the nerves and helps them send their messages efficiently and effectively.
Milky oats have been traditionally used as a daily tonic to support a regulated nervous system, promote calm, ease anxiety and the blues, and replenish an overextended or ill system. It has also been used to support folks recovering from drug and alcohol addictions, and a recent customer told me that daily usage has helped her husband’s chemo-induced neuropathy greatly.
You can get it in our Mellow Mood Daily Tonic or all by itself!
Goldenrod Tincture
Goldenrod is perhaps best known for its affinity for the bladder and kidneys, as its yellow color suggests. It has traditionally been used to address UTIs and kidney stones, support a prolapsed bladder, and promote urination.
As a bitter herb, it has been used to stimulate digestion and address skin issues by helping to flush out metabolic waste.
Because of its drying qualities and affinity for the sinuses, I lean heavily on goldenrod during allergy season and any other time I am congested.
You can find it in our Breathe Easy, Root of Wellness, and Fluid Flush blends, as well as in its own little bottle.
CBD Hemp Tincture
Folks often ask if we have anything for sleep or pain and, while we have many herbs that support both, we find that CBD tincture is our most potent offering.
I take it almost every night… not just because it helps me sleep well and deeply, but because of its anti-inflammatory properties that support nearly every system of my body, including my skeletal, immune, and nervous system.
And, as I learn more about how harmful NSAIDS can be, I take it in place of Advil and other over-the-counter anti-inflammatories for cramps and other aches and pains. It also pairs well with and amplifies the wellness properties of the other tinctures I take.
Finally, if you’re not a big drinker but want a little something to take the edge off in the evening, a mocktail with a squirt of CBD tincture may be just the thing…
*Sale good for 1oz. & 2oz. bottles only. Ends Sunday night, September 13th.
Tea and Tarot in Grants Pass
This month I’ll be doing tarot readings at the Mystic Valley Farm Tea Shop in downtown Grants Pass on September 16th from 11am-3pm.
You can book ahead of time or drop in, and get a free drink and 10% off tea and beverage purchases. I hope to see you there!
Mystic Valley is located at 229 SE 6th St, Grants Pass, OR 97526.
Market Updates
Markets are now in full force! If you live in Southern Oregon and want to find us in person, here’s our general market schedule for the summer:
Medford at Hawthorn Park
Thursdays, 8:30-1:30
Grants Pass outside at F St. + 4th
Saturdays, 9-1
Ashland Saturday Market on Oak St.
Saturdays, 8:30-1
Bandon Cranberry Festival
Saturday and Sunday, September 12+13th
Tarot for Radical Self-Love!
$40 Special
For the past 25 years, tarot readings have been one of my favorite and most reliable tools for accessing intuition, making sense of confusion, working with shadows, and stepping into my power. And for almost as long, I have been sharing this endlessly creative offering with others.
Over the years, my work as a practitioner has deepened through my trauma-informed trainings in somatic parts-work, shadow work, attachment-wound healing, grief tending, herbalism, and rites of passage.
My readings are therefore not fortune-telling or prescriptive events, but sessions that invite you to access your own deep knowing and inner healer through the reflections offered by the cards.
And right now I’m offering recorded 45-minute readings for $40… get one for yourself and a gift card for a beloved!
P.S. In addition to live and recorded 1:1 readings, I am also available to read at private events. Last week I was hired to read cards at a friend’s birthday gathering at a local winery and it was super dreamy! Tarot readings are a perfect match for birthdays, pre-wedding gatherings, blessingways, rites of passage, ladies’ nights, and friend retreats. Be in touch if you want to learn more!
Stay in Touch on Social Media!
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Subscribe to Becca’s Substack
I’m making my own tarot deck and book of love letters to go with it! Subscribe to my Substack to follow my (on-hiatus-for-the-summer) process. Here’s an excerpt from one of my faves:
Oh my love,
It’s alright. You can breathe now. The storm has passed, the sky is clear, and the stars are calling your name. Step towards them. Step toward wonder and awe and into the welcoming calm. Step into your newness as you enter the waters of Love. It’s safe to be naked here.
The tremors that have been shaking up your world are over now, but nothing is the same, is it? Something has broken, crumbled, or been swept away. And, no matter how much pain it’s caused… keep reading.
Local Community Events
Support Indigenous Leaders
On Friday, September 11th, our friends at Peace House in Ashland are hosting Sarah Caligiuri of the Yomba Shoshone Tribe and founder of the HEALR Project, who is starting a school on her traditional homelands of Noowuh Segobia (Central Nevada (and beyond)). Join them at from noon-1:30 on September 11th to learn ways to follow along and support this Indigenous-led project that directly supports tribal sovereignty and the future of the Yomba Shoshone people.
For more updates about clear local actions to take for a peaceful world, include ICE Watch trainings and more, check out Peace House’s most recent newsletter and subscribe!
We’re all in this thing together.
Justice for Hakiym
On On Saturday,September 12 at the Barnstormers Theatre in Grants Pass, come watch a documentary about the unjust imprisonment of Hakiym Simpson, a wildlands firefighter and father who defended himself against a racially motivated attack two years ago and is still serving time, while his aggressor is walking free.
In addition to the film, attendees will get to participate in a live call with Hakiym and witness a panel discussion with the filmmaker and community leaders. We will be donating items for the raffle, and all proceeds from the event will go toward Hakiym’s legal funds. To learn more and support this important cause, visit Justice for Hakiym.
Resources
Kloos, Scott. 2017. Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants. Timber Press: Portland, Oregon.
Herbal Academy. https://theherbalacademy.com/. Website.
Disclaimer
For educational purposes only. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
