YARROW

Yarrow is a powerful blood cleanser that has been used since ancient times and should certainly be in every home apothecary.

YARROW SALVE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

• Freshly harvested yarrow in bloom - flowers & leaves

• high quality olive oil

• grated bees wax

Harvest fresh stalks of leaves and flowers. Cut off the tender flower tops and use your hand to pull off the leaves in one swoop. Return the stems to the mother and place all other plant material in a jar. 

Herbalists often dry fresh plant material before making an oil, to reduce the water content and prevent mold. I might let my yarrow wilt for a few hours, but it's such a dry plant that I often make the oil without any drying. I have never had a yarrow oil get moldy - knock on wood! 

Pour olive oil over all the plant material so that it is submerged. Set it in a sunny, dry place for a few weeks or warm it for a few hours in a pot of warm water and then let it sit for a few days, if you have the time. 

When done brewing, pour off the oil using a cotton cloth with fine weave or your preferred method (I wish I had a better one!) (Sometimes I don't squeeze too hard to get the oil out of the cloth because I really try to avoid any tiny plant material escaping into the final oil product. If there's leftover oil with plant material in it, you can put that in the fridge and use it soon or return it to the mother.)

Pour the strained oil into a pot in a double boiler and gently warm. Slowly stir in grated bees wax in a 1 to 4 ratio - 1/4 cup wax to 1 cup oil. You can test the consistency of the salve by putting a spoonful on a plate and putting it in the freezer for a bit. 

Once the bees wax fully melts, pour into jars and tins. Make sure your containers have no oil on them, and then label. 

DRIED YARROW IN THE APOTHECARY

Dried yarrow is very good to have on hand because you can always make a tea to take internally or use as a wound wash. I have never made a tincture or oil with dried yarrow, but you could certainly try and I feel you'd get something worth using. Usually I only recommend making medicine with fresh plant.

MEDICINAL USES

I get to know yarrow a little bit better each year and this year, I have fallen completely in love with her. We have a very wet, clay soil meadow where yarrow has always grown. Last year we didn't mow and there was a good amount of yarrow that came up. This summer, the amount of yarrow quadrupled. It's bigger and healthier and started blooming in early June. Don't mow and let the wild things grow! 

Yarrow is one of master herbalist Matthew Wood's ten "most indispensable herbs", and I highly recommend his writing on the plant. 

FEVER

I use hot yarrow tea or hot water with the tincture or elixir to treat fevers in all ages.

Just a few weeks ago our baby reached a fever of over 104 in the night. I put a bit of yarrow tincture in water and it soon brought the fever down a couple of degrees. We later learned that baby had roseola, for which yarrow can also help bring out the rash (and in chicken pox too).

The challenge with young ones and yarrow is that the effect sometimes only lasts about twenty minutes and it can be hard to get a child to take bitter yarrow multiple times. I find a lightly brewed tea of dried yarrow flowers with yarrow honey is usually the most accepted medicine by little ones (and it doesn't dye your shirt hot pink when they spit it all out, like the NSAIDs can). 

Fever is one of the body's tools in fighting pathogens and can thus be quite helpful in deterring a virus from rapidly reproducing. I prefer to use herbs internally, like yarrow, and a cool wash externally, like lavender water, for reducing fever. The fever comes and goes, the body fights the pathogen, and is then given some relief in a cycle if you are able to keep up the treatment. NSAIDs, on the other hand, can suppress a fever for hours, thus allowing that little pathogen to reproduce like wild fire during that time. How one treats a fever is dependent on what is causing the fever and the patient's other underlying medical conditions. It is true that high fever can be fatal, so one must always respond to fever with caution. This is one of my favorite controversial topics to discuss with my husband at 3 in the morning with a screaming baby... 

WOUND TREATMENT

Yarrow is my go-to herb for wounds and bruises. For scratches and shallow cuts, I use the olive oil based salve (see recipe). For a deeper wound, I use the fresh plant as a poultice, changed often, or in the winter I wash the wound with yarrow tincture or tea and then apply yarrow infused honey with a loose homemade cotton bandage over the top. Once the wound begins to heal, you can use the salve for the final healing process. 

Yarrow is also known for its ability to staunch bleeding. For this, I have only used the fresh flowers and leaves. My midwife dries the flowers and makes them into a fine powder for after birth bleeding. 

INTERNAL INFECTION

I often use yarrow tincture following injury that involves bleeding - either an external wound or internal bruising - and also following surgeries that involve bleeding. I feel that the yarrow helps to fight infection and clean up the wounded blood. 

COLDS, COUGHS, FLU, & ALLERGIES

When I sit with yarrow, I usually feel its ability to clear congestion due to colds and flu.

Yarrow tincture and tea are both helpful for sinus congestion - my husband has been finding some allergy relief with yarrow combined with goldenrod and elder flower (tincture). For those with autoimmune issues, I omit the elder. Along these lines, I find yarrow very helpful during cold & flu season because it has similar actions to boneset, yet it doesn't ramp up my immune system like boneset does. 

When we were traveling in County Clare, Ireland a few years ago, I found the most beautiful, delicate, slightly pink yarrow flowers in the heather. I had a cold coming on and made a small cup of hot tea sipped with some yarrow honey. I do believe it stopped that cold from going full blown, though certainly I had some help from the fairies of the heather. 

MENSTRUATION

A couple of cups of warm yarrow tea are said to be helpful in bringing on menstruation. And yet, it is also used in very heavy bleeding. Again, see Matthew Wood for more on this as I'm only beginning to use yarrow for this. 

FIRST AID & INSECT REPELLANT SPRAY

Herbalist Susun Weed writes of carrying yarrow in a small spray bottle in her travel first aid kit and using it as an insect repellant, that when applied often, is more powerful than the DEET repellants. Susun likes to use the spray as its also handy for sore throats, cuts, and bruises. 

DIGESTIVE BITTER

Some recommend taking yarrow in very small amounts as a digestive bitter. Our illustrator makes a lovely Summer Solstice bitters mix that includes yarrow.

AND I HESITATE TO TELL YOU ABOUT THIS... YARROW ELIXIR.... 

This year I made my husband a yarrow flower elixir for his birthday. Oh. That was a mistake. It is the most incredible, floral elixir we have ever tasted. I'm still figuring out how I feel about having a yarrow elixir now and then, as yarrow is such a potent medicine and not really for "tea party" beverage. I'll get back to you on this. In the meantime, the elixir is certainly a good way to cut the bitterness of the herb. Cover the fresh flowers and a bit of the upper leaves with half bourbon and half honey... and then try, try not to consume it all within the first three days of brewing!

CONTRAINDICATIONS

Yarrow should be avoided in large amounts during pregnancy because it has stimulating uterine effects. It should be avoided by people with allergies to the Asteraceae family.

I do not know if there are any long term negative effects of taking yarrow and I wonder about its potential drying effect on the tissues.

WHERE TO FORAGE & WHEN TO HARVEST

I find yarrow in fields where goldenrod grows in late summer and St. John’s Wort grows in earlier summer… Yarrow seems to adapt to many conditions, both dry and wet.

This year our yarrow began to blossom in early June, earlier than usual. I recommend making your harvests when she first begins to bloom because there is a feeling at the beginning of summer that you have all the time in the world, and you do not! One day you go out only to find that all of the yarrow is past its prime and what few little fresh flowers are there must be left for the bees!

I don’t have a good source for buying dried yarrow flowers, but could certainly use one. If you have a recommendation, please drop me a line.

CULTIVATION

As mentioned, yarrow grows wild in our meadow, so I have never tried to cultivate her. That said, many grow yarrow in their gardens. If I were to cultivate yarrow, I would find some wild yarrow growing abundantly and transplant. The wilds always make more potent medicine.

For those wondering if yarrow, Achillea millefolium, is named after Achilles, you might see Pliny… good bedtime reading.

Yarrow is featured in Chapter 14: The Portal.

*Disclaimer*

This material is intended for educational purposes only. This recipe does not provide specific dosage information, format recommendations, toxicity levels, or possible interactions with prescription drugs. Accordingly, this information should be used only under the direct supervision of a qualified health practitioner.