I once heard that Yarrow was Nature’s Band-Aid but had never tried it. Recently when we were out in the woods exploring, I found a meadow filled with native perennials including yarrow. I had a small knife with me and began harvesting. My intent was to harvest the yarrow along with some Ceanothus to dry and use for tea.
As I was placing the cut yarrow in my little bucket, I accidentally cut my hand with the knife. As the cut started to bleed, I laughed to myself since I found it pretty ironic that I was harvesting yarrow, “Nature’s Band-Aid”, when I cut myself!
I plucked a fresh yarrow leaf, popped it in my mouth and chewed for a few seconds. Then I put the wad of chewed yarrow leaf on my cut and continued harvesting.
A few minutes later I took the yarrow off and was simply amazed! It had stopped bleeding and you actually couldn’t even tell I had a cut there unless you looked really close!
I continued harvesting and played with our little nugget and still no more blood. I am just amazed at the natural ability of yarrow to do that. Of course me being the nerd that I am and wanting to know everything about anything, I had to “google” it.
While this use is new to me, people have been using yarrow for thousands of years to stop blood flow and help heal wounds. You can use fresh leaves or ground up dried leaves. To read more about this fascinating plant, click here and here, just two websites I found helpful in the many that talk about this amazing plant, yarrow.
So now instead of just using our harvested yarrow for tea, I’m also keeping a supply of dried yarrow leaves on hand for any cuts and scrapes our family may get. Not only is it natural, but it will save us money by not having to buy band aids!
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How awesome! The author talked about yarrow all the time in the Earth’s Children series. So I say to you (in a nice way, not sarcastically!) “Go Ayla!”
Yarrow is pretty awesome! I’m still amazed that I’ve seen yarrow in the woods quite often and even have some growing in the garden and never really understood just how awesome it is! I’m not familiar with that series so I’ll have to check it out
What does yarrow tea taste like? When is the best time to harvest? Do you use the flowers or the leaves? I’m full of questions!
BTW - Thanks for participating in the Eat Make Grow blog hop! This week’s just went up:
http://foyupdate.blogspot.com/2012/08/eat-make-grow-thursday-blog-hop-3.html
Great questions! This was my first time harvesting yarrow for tea. I’ve been using a book called “Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Rockies” which is specific to our region and guiding me in my new adventure of doing more wild harvesting. I read that the best time to harvest is when it is blooming, around here this time of year we were at a higher elevation picking huckleberries where I found it still in bloom. I read that you can use the yarrow leaves and flower heads for tea. It can be bitter so mixing in some other herbs or even a little honey can make it less so if you don’t like the taste
wow! Thanks for the info!
Hi Glo! I’m still amazed at how well yarrow works to stop bleeding. I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to find out about this easy natural remedy- I’m harvesting even more yarrow leaves to dry and use just for this purpose!
I have never used yarrow this way either - how awesome! Thanks for linking up with us!
Do you know the Latin name of this variety of yarrow? It looks different than what I have growing in our area.
Congratulations, you’ve got one of this week’s featured posts on Wildcrafting Wednesday- http://www.commonsensehome.com/jewelweed/
Thanks for joining in.
Wow Laurie, that is so exciting this was a featured post! Wildcrafting Wednesday is one of my favorite weekly link ups to read through so this is definitely an honor
The Latin name is Achillea Millefolium, the book I have specific to the Rocky Mountain region says that it grows more in alpine regions.
Ok… Ashamed to admit I have never heard of yarrow before. Must go google……
I didn’t know this! It’s so amazing to learn all the natural alternatives.
I had no idea yarrow was a healer. We grow yarrow and love to learn things about the items I grow