Homemade First-Aid

Several years back I took an herbal wildcrafting class at my local community college. I learned a lot in this class and have made several tinctures, salves, teas, and infusions using many of the powerful healing herbs that I learned about or have since researched. The only thing is, almost all of my herbs have been dried and have come from health food stores or online bulk herbal sites. I have recently taken a very big interest in my backyard and a few weeks ago I realized that I have an abundance of the herb plantain growing, everywhere! I have made a healing gel from dried plantain, in fact it was the second herbal concoction I ever made! Knowing it is so beneficial for cuts, scrapes, bites – you know, the things that eleven year old boys and clumsy mommies are prone to- I thought to collect some of the herb and make my own plantain salve to have on hand for any of the often injuries that happen in the back yard and around the house.

It is easy to collect and it doesn’t have to be dried. You could even pick a leaf, break it up some, and apply it then and there to any type of cut or scrape. I think having it in the medicine cabinet would be a good idea so I am gonna harvest some, and soak it in oil for several weeks. Once that is done all I have to do is strain it and melt some beeswax and maybe some vitamin E with it then pour it into a small container. Easy enough!

With so many things growing in your backyard, you never know what you may really have. The pictures above are plantain. Now if I could just have someone tell me what these below are:

It is everywhere and I cannot figure out what it is. Any ideas? Let me know.

There are lots of posts about plantain. I found these to have some good information:

cstauffer.blogspot.com/2009/07/making-plantain-oil-and-salve.html

www.woodwifesjournal.com/2011/10/herbal-medicine-chest-wildcrafting.html