Wildcrafting Through the Winter

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By the time late winter rolls around, I feel like I’ve settled into the truth of deep winter and have accepted a life of cold winds, icy grounds and muted tones of gray and blue. I’ve all but forgotten about what it feels like to see and smell fresh young greens growing naturally outside. And always, without fail, my heart jumps up and nearly misses a beat when I come across horehound growing faithfully, fearlessly, all the way through. 

Such a humble herb, you’ll often find horehound growing in vacant lots, abandoned grounds, pastures, or areas of compacted soil. She’s hardy and incredibly tough, and offers us deep and powerful healing.

She’s a real plant of the North in my eyes, gently teaching us of endurance, deep strength, perseverance, and of relentless love.

About Horehound

Horehound is in the mint family, having a square stem and producing opposite veined leaves and small white flowers. White horehound, the variety that grows around here, has a musky sage-like scent and an intensely bitter taste. She shoots up a long stalk that has little round bundles of flowers/seeds housed between opposing woolly and deeply veined leaves. Very similar to her relatives, she is a small perennial that propagates very easily spreading seeds by way of clothes and fur in the winter.

Her Story

Throughout history, horehound has been highly revered across many lands and different cultures. Originally native to Europe, North Africa, and Asia, horehound is now naturalized and extremely common throughout North America. There is much lore and many ancient remedies associated with this plant, which you can tell by the multitude of names she’s been called—horehound, houndsbane, marrubium, eye of the star, marvel, bulls’ blood, and Seed of Horus.

Her history is rich. Horehound, or Seed of Horus, was one of the herbs found in the medicine chests of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs. The first recorded mention of horehound was in the first century of Ancient Rome. Julius Caesar’s antidote for poison included horehound, and Cornelius Celsus describes the herb as having antiseptic uses as well as being an effective treatment for respiratory ailments in his materia medica. This was followed in the second century as being recommended for relief of coughing and to support respiratory health. 

Additionally, horehound is one of the bitter herbs used in the Jewish Passover rites. I have even heard in medieval Europe horehound was believed to be magic and used as protection against witches' spells. 

Harvesting

High time for harvesting horehound is in the fall, right after full flower as the seed clusters start to get stiff. However, I have found the herb to be very effective even when harvested in the dead of winter, even now. 

When harvesting, look for a plant that is a deep green and has life in it. I often rub the leaves with my fingers and make sure they have some scent to them. When the plant is healthy, the leaves will feel full and supple, almost succulent. If the leaves are browned or shriveled they are better off left. You’ll want to harvest the younger, more supple leaves. These are generally the new growth and will either be at the end of a stem or coming from the base of the plant, near the ground.

When harvesting this time of year just know that you will be hired by the plant to fulfill an incredibly important job—spreading seeds. The tiny barbed seed clusters latch easily onto clothes and fur, catching a ride to new and fertile ground for the spring. 

A Note On Wildcrafting:

It is a beautiful offering to wildcraft herbs and plants. When we do this in a good way we are helping the plant to live out their life purpose, giving us their fruits to feed, nourish and sustain us. This being said, when you head out to harvest there are a couple of things that are good to be aware of. 

Always ask permission from the plant to harvest and make an offering.  Some people offer tobacco, some a strand of hair. I say, offer whatever it is that is sacred to you. Maybe a song, a prayer, or something you’ve made. It is a way to acknowledge the generosity of the plant and give a little something in gratitude for all that we receive from them.

Only take what you need and have a plan for.  Know that what you harvest is food that other animals like the mule deer, squirrels and birds will not get. Harvest in gratitude for what you need, and leave what you don’t. Essentially, don’t be greedy.

Always leave enough for the plant to reproduce for the coming year.  A good rule of thumb is to never take the first, never take the last, only take what is given, and never take more than half.

Once you harvest the leaves you’d like to gather, you’ll want to use them pretty quickly. If you cannot lay them out to dry or make a tea or syrup with them that day, then it is best to keep them in a sealed bag in the refrigerator. Best to use them right away though. This honors the plant and keeps the life moving.

Medicinal Properties

There are many ways horehound is extremely beneficial to your health.  The active ingredients in the leaves include a range of vitamins and minerals (iron, potassium, volatile oil, and vitamins A, B-complex, C, and E) as well as bitter marrubiin. It’s a bitter tonic, used to stimulate digestive juices. The tea when cooled can be used as an antiseptic to disinfect wounds. The way it is most widely used, however, is as a decongestant and expectorant to discharge bronchial mucus, loosen phlegm, and relieve a sore throat making it awesome for this time of year when bronchitis, croup, whooping cough, and just your plain ole’ cold is getting you down. It also has anti-inflammatory properties which soothe the throat and lungs. You can use it as a tea, simply brewing the leaves in hot water for 5 minutes. But my favorite way to work with it is to make a healing horehound cough syrup.

Horehound Cough Syrup:

Bowl filled with fresh horehound leaves (3.5 oz)

Water just to cover (5 cups)

Raw honey (2 1/2-3 cups) 

Dash of lemon juice and Brandy to taste

I generally don’t measure much and go with my gut on recipes, which isn’t very helpful when trying to share info with others. So, for this post I have taken some weights and measurements. Please use these as a rough guide and trust your intuition above all. The connection you have formed with the plant throughout this entire process is really what will inform you on how to proceed.

To make the syrup, comb through your harvested leaves and pick out any brown or shriveled ones. Take a bowl full of fresh leaves, put them in a stainless steel pot, and cover with water.

Bring the water to a gentle boil over medium heat and turn down to simmer for about 90 minutes, until the liquid is reduced by half. Strain the infusion through a cheese cloth and wring out all the medicine into a bowl. Compost the herbs and return the infusion back to the pot.

Add the honey to taste. Return the sweetened infusion to low heat and simmer for 3-4 hours, until the syrup is the consistency you like. Be very careful to keep the syrup on as low heat as possible so as to maintain the healing benefits of the honey. 

When the syrup is nearing the taste and consistency you like, add a dash of lemon juice and a dash of Brandy to taste. I don’t know why. Mostly because that’s what Grandmother’s have always done and seems to me they know better than me on such matters.

When your syrup is set, bottle it up and keep it in the refrigerator. Voila! You’ve got yourself some healing horehound medicine to relieve sore throats, coughs, congestion and tightness in the chest. Take a few tablespoons at a time when you need and share generously when you don’t, loving relentlessly on all your people.