Janice Cox
Yarrow is a popular perennial herb that can be found in many gardens, mine included. It is known as a powerful “healing” herb. It’s also a fantastic landscape plant, culinary ingredient, and can be a key ingredient in anti-aging and healing body care products.
I have my yarrow planted along my driveway. I call it my “protector” plant as it keeps deer and rabbits out of my yard. They do not like the scent or bitter tasting leaves. It also helps as a ground cover, keeping weeds out and my yard in bloom. Yarrow comes in a wide range of colors from creamy white to dark red. It will also attract birds and pollinators to your yard, helping all of your plants bloom and produce more.
Yarrow has antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties. It is cooling, soothing, and healing when used in skin care products. A simple tea or infusion of fresh flowers and leaves makes a calming product for troubled skin, insect bites, or a bad sunburn. Simply apply to your skin using a spray bottle or cotton pad. Yarrow in the bath is especially refreshing and will also boost your circulation. The most popular use of yarrow is as a key ingredient in healing skin balms and lotions. Yarrow leaves are powerful and have been used to stop bleeding in cuts and scrapes and also help the healing process. Legend has it that Achilles, the great warrior, used yarrow leaves to heal his soldiers’ wounds after battle. This may also be the reason the plant genus is called “Achillea.”
Yarrow can also be used in the kitchen when making bitters, teas, salads, and salts. You can use just about everything from oils, butters, honey, and vinegar in which to infuse the bitter peppery leaves, and adding a bit of citrus or sugar will help enhance yarrow’s strong flavor. You only need a few leaves, as the taste can be overpowering in dishes. Also, when infusing in oils always use dried yarrow so you do not introduce any extra moisture, which can spoil your product.
Yarrow is an especially beautiful dried flower and dries very quickly and easily. Pick bunches not larger than a quarter in diameter and let them air dry in vases or hanging from drying racks. If you are seed saving you may want to dry your bunches in paper sacks to help with collection and to protect them from dust or bugs.
Here are a few recipes for you to try at home:
Yarrow Cucumber Cleanser
Cucumber is naturally cleansing and calming to your skin. When you combine it with fresh yarrow flowers you have a mild cleanser that can be used in place of soap for all skin types.
1 whole cucumber
1 Tablespoon fresh yarrow flowers and leaves or 1/2 Tablespoon dried
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon honey
Yield: 4 ounces
In a blender or food processor combine all ingredients and process on high until you have a well-blended mixture. To use: Massage into your skin and let sit for a few seconds up to a minute. Then rinse with warm water followed by a cool water rinse and pat your skin dry. Store any leftover cleanser in the refrigerator.
Yarrow Bath Salts
Yarrow makes a relaxing bath. Fill a muslin tea bag with fresh flower heads and some leaves and toss in your tub as it fills, or wrap inside a cotton wash cloth and use as a “scrub” sack in the shower. Combined with popular bath minerals it makes for a soothing soak that will also boost your circulation.
1 Tablespoon fresh yarrow leaves and flowers
1/2 cup Epsom salts
1/2 cup baking soda
1/4 cup sea salt
Yield: 10 ounces
Mix together all ingredients and spoon into a cotton sack or onto a cotton wash cloth and secure with a rubber band. To use: Toss in a warm tub. Soak for 20 minutes.
Yarrow Flower Salt
Making herbal salt is a simple process with benefits. Yarrow supports digestion and also helps reduce bloating. You can create a simple salt that can be used in cooking. Just use care as a little bit will go a long way. Yarrow adds a sweet, bitter flavor to the salt.
1 Tablespoon sea salt
1/2 Tablespoon fresh yarrow flowers
Grind together the yarrow and salt until fine and spread on a clean tray or cookie sheet to dry. You may also use dried yarrow and skip the drying step. To use: Use as a finishing salt on your dishes.
Medicinal Disclaimer: It is the policy of The Herb Society of America, Inc. not to advise or recommend herbs for medicinal or health use. This information is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as a recommendation or an endorsement of any particular medical or health treatment. Please consult a health care provider before pursuing any herbal treatments.
Photo Credits: 1) Achillea millefolium flowers (Erin Holden); 2) Achilles tends the wounds of Patroclus (Bibi Saint-Pol); 3) Achillea ‘Colorado Mix’ (Erin Holden); 4) Achillea ‘Terracotta’ (Chrissy Moore)
Janice Cox is a garden writer and natural beauty expert. She is the author of Beautiful Flowers, Beautiful Lavender, Beautiful Luffa, Natural Beauty at Home, Natural Beauty from the Garden, Natural Beauty for All Seasons and the newly released Natural Beauty at Home Handbook. She was the beauty editor for Herb Quarterly Magazine for more than twenty years. She is the education chair for The Herb Society of America and a member of the International Herb Association. She makes her home in southern Oregon.
It was believed that heartsease could cure the effects of illicit love too, which resulted in what some countries called the French disease, also known as syphilis.
As the Abenake, Algonquin, Menominee, Mohegan, Narragansett, Wampanoag, and others had local access to goldenseal, it could be that they, too, had learned about the usefulness of the plant. In whatever manner the knowledge was spread, colonists soon learned to treat it as a valuable product and began harvesting the plant for personal use and for trading. Consequently, centuries of wild collecting and habitat loss have put it at risk. 
There is another interesting story connected to goldenseal, and that is the use of the term “seal” in the common name. 
What Solomon’s seal has to do with 
Other common names for 
The spotlight is shining on parsley this month. Parsley (
The Romans, on the other hand, wore wreaths of parsley to ward off intoxication and used it at meals to mask the smell of garlic. Perhaps this is where the idea of parsley as a garnish originated. It is said that the Romans also covered corpses with parsley to cover the smell of decay. 
Parsley began to be eaten during the Middle Ages. Charlemagne was said to have grown large quantities of parsley in his gardens for this purpose. Early immigrants brought parsley to the Americas where it was used as a culinary herb.
Parsley is a versatile herb in the kitchen. It adds brightness when sprinkled over any finished dish, and is good in salad dressings, soups and stews. It is one of the ingredients in fines herbes, the French persillade, South American chimichurri, and Mexican salsa verde. The Japanese deep fry parsley in tempura batter, and the Swiss serve deep fried parsley with their fondue. And of course, it is used in pesto. It truly is a universal herb. Herbalist Madalene Hill, former President of The Herb Society of America, in her book 
Without a doubt, parsley does have medicinal benefits. It is high in vitamins A, C, and K, and contains antioxidants. The leaf, seed, and root are used in medicine. People have used it to treat bladder infections, kidney stones, gastrointestinal disorders, and high blood pressure. Some apply parsley to the skin to lighten dark patches and bruises. It is also used for insect bites. Pregnant women are advised not to take parsley in medicinal amounts, as it increases menstrual flow and has been used to cause abortion.
Susan Belsinger lives an herbal life, whether she is gardening, foraging, photographing, teaching, researching, writing or creating herbal recipes for the kitchen or apothecary—she is passionate about all things herbal. Recently referred to as a “flavor artist”, Susan delights in kitchen alchemy—the blending of harmonious foods, herbs, and spices—to create real, delicious food, as well as libations, that nourish our bodies and spirits and titillate our senses. Susan is a culinary herbalist, educator, food writer, and photographer whose articles and photographs have been published in numerous publications including 
Settlers also brought cultivated raspberries that were native to Europe with them to the new colonies. In 1761, George Washington moved to his estate in Mount Vernon where he began to cultivate berries in his extensive gardens. The first commercial nursery plants were sold by William Price in 1771. Jefferson planted raspberries at Monticello on numerous occasions beginning in 1774. In 1735, Irish herbalist K’Eogh described these uses for raspberry: “An application of the flowers bruised with honey is beneficial for inflammations of the eyes, burning fever and boils…the fruit is food for the heart and diseases of the mouth.”
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