Goldenrod

Truxton, NY
Phone/Fax: 607-842-6863
E-mail: bethsnaturalway@yahoo.com

Depending on the stage of this plants growth cycle, it can be edible, medicinal or have the ability to teach us valuable lessons. I guess you can compare the herbal world to human life and the ages we also go through. Goldenrod is one of those herbs that when young, it is wonderful in a salad. If you pick this plant just before it flowers, it is strongly medicinal. Should it have already flowered, those with allergies will feel its effect. The stages of our lives can be the same way. When we are young, we are full of life. When we are middle-aged, we work hard and accomplish many wonderful deeds. When we are old, we can be tough on those we love.
FOLK NAMES: Aaron’s rod, blue mountain tea, sweet scented goldenrod, woundwort.
LATIN NAME: Solidago virgaurea.
ELEMENT: Air.
POWERS: Money and divination.
MEDICINAL PARTS: Leaves before it flowers.
CONSTITUTES: Triterpine saponins, volatile oils, water soluble acid polysaccharides (glycogen), carotinoids, flavonoids, phenol glucosides, caffeic acid derivatives.
PROPERTIES: Bitter, astringent, diuretic, relaxant, stimulates the liver and kidneys, reduces inflammation, expectorant, improves digestion and promotes healing. Cleansing to the urinary tract.
MAGICAL USES: If you wish to see your future love by the next day, wear goldenrod. Good fortune shows its face when goldenrod starts to grow near you door.
INTERNAL USES: Urinary infections, chronic excess mucus of the kidneys, uterus, lymph nodes, skin, lungs, sinus and throat, skin diseases, influenza, whooping cough, kidney stones, gas upset from stomach acid reflex associated with nervous tension, helps the liver to produce more glycogens, helps the kidneys to expel more water, and opens and tones the nasal passages.
EXTERNAL USES: Stops wounds from infecting, insect bites, ulcers, and sore throat.
HARVEST: Pick the whole plant just before it flowers and hang to dry. Then strip the leaves for use.
USE AS: Extracts, teas, oils, poultices, a throat wash and powders.
PRECAUTIONS; None known but those with renal diseases should use sparingly as it could irritate the tissues.
The intention of Beth’s Natural Way and the wild weed shop is too teach herbs that are so common that most herbal books will not even talk about them. Why? Mainly because they are so common and easy to find that they seem too much of a weed to truly be a haling plant. But learning the weeds that are outside of your doorstep is like being sure you use your own local foods or honey.
In college before I even knew I was going to be working with wild crafted herbs, I took classes on plant physiology. Learning what a plant needs in nutrition and how each element worked in the plant. My thesis was about the reaction of music on plants. Playing different tones and seeing the results. Classical music made plants thrive whereas hard rock killed the plants. With learning the knowledge of what most people called weeds and how to destroy them was even more interesting as now even a weed-wacker bothers me.
As I started to learn about the common medicinal plants, I learned that many people believed only in herbs they did not know or even how to pronounce their names. They had to come from a different country so someone else still had control over their healing not themselves. But as I learned even back in high school, you can not go on with chemistry or math unless you learned the basics first. With herbs that is so true, learning the basic of how to use an herb and when and then making combinations is the direction of learning this field.
At the wild weed shop, we have herbs for you to use that are very common but very healing. Staying close to home and using what you can get yourselves or buy at our store with a reasonable price is the up coming future for our healings. Golden rod is so common and so taking over our fields that there is no reason why anyone should have problems with mucus with this plant so close. God is answering our prayers, are we listening?

Vibrantly,
Beth Hill of Beth’s Natural Way!

[mappress mapid=”34″]