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it’s available, then apply ice or a cold compress. If no ice is available, submerge the bite in cold water. Taking an antihistamine will also help minimize itching and swelling. It may not be homemade, but it is sensible. Plantain will help too. See “Bug Bites and Local Irritations,” below.
    BLEEDING, SUCH AS FROM SHAVING CUTS OR KITCHEN ACCIDENTS
    Apply a yarrow leaf (Achillea millefolium) directly to the wound. Bruise the leaf a little first to bring out the oils. Yarrow not only inhibits bleeding, it is antiseptic as well. Try it—you’ll be amazed at how fast it works. To stop a nosebleed, bruise a yarrow leaf, roll it up, and put it up the nose. Yarrow is easy to grow in the garden, but it grows wild, too. Make a yarrow salve to use on cuts when the plant is unavailable.
    BUG BITES AND LOCAL IRRITATIONS
    Common plantain (Plantago major) is an ubiquitous and useful weed found in lawns and sidewalk cracks just about everywhere in the city or countryside of North America. (See Project 34, Foraging Feral Greens, to learn how to identify this plant.) Chew fresh leaves and smear the pulp juice directly on the bite. You’ll find the taste bitter, but it’s not poisonous. In fact, we add young plantain leaves to salads sometimes. In the winter, soak dried leaves in hot water to rehydrate them and then apply to the irritation. For more serious situations, apply wet, pulverized leaves as a poultice; put a whole leaf over the poultice to hold it in place; and put a bandage over that. Plantain salve is good for all sorts of skin eruptions and irritations.

    BURNS
    The juice from a fresh-cut Aloe vera leaf works well, as does honey. Aloe has cooling properties that feel good immediately after a burn, while raw honey can help prevent infection and scarring. You can combine the two of them to make a burn gel. To treat sunburn, try soaking washcloths in cold, strong black tea and laying them over the burnt skin. When the cloths get warm, refresh them with more cold tea.
    COLDS
    At the first suspicion that she may be getting a cold, Kelly starts eating raw garlic, at which time Erik reminds her that there’s no scientific basis for any sort of cold cure, to which Kelly replies that since she started eating garlic, her colds are never as bad as his and they last half as long. If you’d like to give her method a try, eat a clove of raw garlic the first moment you suspect you have a cold. The most palatable way to do this is to butter a cracker or slice of bread and spread crushed garlic over the butter. Butter cuts some of the sting. Sprinkle some salt over it all, and it almost tastes good. Eat at least two cloves a day, one in the morning and one at night, and keep doing this for 3 to 5 days, until you’re well out of danger. Don’t use roasted or canned garlic, because heat kills garlic’s natural antibiotic qualities.
    COUGHS
    A spoonful of honey will go a long way toward quieting any cough. For dry, tickling coughs, drink tea made of fresh or dried mullein leaf (Verbascum thapsus), but be sure to strain the tea after brewing to remove the tiny hairs on the leaves. Several other herbs that may be growing in your yard are good for coughs. The following herbs have expectorant qualities: common plantain (Plantago major), red clover flowers (Trifolium pratense), and fresh thyme (Thymus vulgaris). Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) is probably not growing in your yard, but if you have licorice root on hand (perhaps because you use the roots for toothbrushing), it makes a tea with wonderful soothing qualities and good flavor. It could be combined with any other of the herbs already mentioned. To make a tea, use 1 teaspoon crushed licorice root to 1 cup water, and simmer for 10 minutes.
    CUTS AND SCRAPES
    Honey is a potent antibacterial ointment. The best sort to use is raw, because pasteurization (heating) degrades the healing properties, but any honey will do in a pinch. We always keep a small jar of raw honey in the medicine