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My paternal grandfather migrated to Philadelphia, Pa in 1910. I
found him in the 1910 census working in Kinston Lenoir Co NC
not far from his place of birth, Ayden, Pitt Co, NC.Which means he
migrated soon after.
Growing up in Phila, my grandfather always made sure we had
Sassafrass and Oil of Camphor. The Sass. was used by my grand
mother, who made hot tea in the winter and as a cold drink in the
summer for us. The Oil of Camphor was mainly used by my gfather
who used it daily to rub on his body. He did this well into 80’s.
In the early 70’s, I was invited to meet and hear Russell Means,
from AIM who had gone underground but was speaking at a church in Phila. He came with a contingent of about 30 Lakota Braves.
When I entered there was a faint familar aroma, Upon opening
the door to the room where he was speaking, Iwas blasted in the
nostrils by the smell of Camphor. My gfather had passed a year
before this event, and Iwould always complain to him about the
smell. The odor was so strong, it was as if everyone there had
rubbed down.
It was a welcome smell because it brought my gfather back for a brief period.
I also hated Sass, and would throw it away, but more roots would
appear within a day or two. I dont know if my gparents were on to me.
My grandparents and parents grew sassafras, but I like the taste of it. We also had spearment growing, and had tea of spearment. Wasnt there a root to make root beer or sasspirilo? (sp).
As a kid growing up we had honeysuckle growing, and I use to eat the sweet taste out of the middle of the flower. I cant rmember if it was sweet. We ate dandlion greens and salad. Have any of you ate wild potatoes or onions?
I grew up with sassafras too. My mother brewed it occassionally. As an adult I read about the possible links it has to cancer. Supposedly that is why the FDA has banned its production. Although I was able to find some at an herbalists shop. It was hard to come by. I brewed it for the aroma, but did not drink it. i wondered how my ancesotrs used it. In what amounts and for what reasons. Often times things can be good for us for specific reasons, but harmful if used improperly. Anyway, the aroma brought back a lot of good memories.
Deirdre
I remembered something about the medicinal purposes of sassafrase, after I put in the query. I was told that it also was a blood thinner.
We have sassafrass growing on the “homeplace” where I now live. I’ve heard it can be brewed but never have. I do grow several kinds of mints that I use in teas. My grandmother grew peppermint when I was young and put the crushed leaves in her tea. I do this today.
Jim
Honeysuckle grows wild around my place and as a kid I also picked the flowers and pulled the little stem from the flower to get to the sweet honey inside. I also taught my girls to do this and will teach my grandson soon. He’s 6 months old now. He loves the outdoors and we take walks whenever he’s over. I’m teaching to respect life in all it’s aspects and the names and uses of the plants that grow locally here in Indiana and the Ohio Valley. I grow most of my own herbs.
Sincerely,
Jim
I was born in Sassafras Fork Township in northern Granville County, NC. Righe on the Virginia line where Mecklenburg and Halifax come together. We had plenty of Sassafras and although we did not make the tea that often we had it growing everywhere. I love the smell of it and I love it as a hot drink sweetened with honey. My grandfather had the house I was born and grew up in built around 1905. There were honey bees in both second floor front eves and my father and uncle would remove honey each year. In July and August it would get so hot the honey would sour and melt and run down the framing then out the baseboards of the downstairs rooms and make a puddle in the floor. I also remember getting up in the morning (summer time) running down the stairs and stepping on a honeybee and getting stung. I hobbled around for days with a foot almost twice the size as normal. My mama remembered a remedy my grandmama used (native american) she would go out to packhouse or wherever she could find dirt dauber nest. Knock one down, clean out the dead bugs , grind or mash it up and mix it with vinegar –applying the poultice and wrapping the area of the sting. You wore it until it dried. It worked ! At least on me it did so no more swelling from stings. Sassafras is a natural bloodthinner. I had a pastor friend who was put on cumanan but had problems and chose to drink Sassafras tea. It worked for him. I would be careful using it and there is a concentrate called Pappy’s that is available commercialy with the safrole removed so it is allowable on the market. Ed
Isn’t sassafras used as a refreshing, rejuvinating drink? We used to have them growing on our front bank by the road when I was young and remember smelling them when I dug around them.
For bee stings I always use tobacco. I open a cigarette and place the tobacco in the palm of my hand and spit to moisten and make a poultice and apply it directly to the site. A bandaid is best to hold it in place for 20 to 30 minutes. The tobacco draws the poison out.
For poison ivy I use jewel weed which generally grows near the poison ivy, or at least it does in Indiana on my place. Crush the leaves and stems (which are tuberous and watery) and apply to the exposed area. The best commercial wash for poison ivy that I’ve found is Tecnu. It can be found at Walmart or Meijers in the pharmacy section over the counter. It removes the oils and I even use it before I think I’m going to be exposed to the ivy and again after exposure.
I know this is a little “off-topic” for this thread but it’s useful info.
Jim
More off-topic home remedies. My grandmother used Castor Oil on warts. Once I had a big wart on the bottom of my foot. She would rub castor oil on the wart and have me put my foot close to the fireplace to “bake it in”. After a couple of weeks, the wart just fell off and healed. She would use bacon fat on boils to draw out the poison. She used black walnut tincture on fungal infections that get under finger and toenails. Once I smashed my finger while working on her car. She soaked my finger in fuel oil (kerosene works also) and within 20 minutes, all pain was gone and the place healed many times faster than I ever expected. She used a form of clay that her brother mined on his property in Virginia for blemishes. She told me that Palmolive had analyzed that clay and wanted the patent for it but he never sold it. But she always kept a jar of the stuff on her bathroom sink and used it regularly.
Jim
Jim, I think “Shoot the Breeze” is a perfectly good place to discuss these old remedies.
Sassafras: a spring tonic drink to many as it thins the blood. It has been noted to possibly contribute to cancer from the safroil in the oil of the plant. I wonder if safroil and safron is related, I love rice with safron in it. There is a commercial extract for sassafras tea under the name Pappy’s which says the safroil has been removed , look it up under search for sassafras tea.
Poke salad: young tender shoots about 4-5 inch tall just coming out of the ground cooked in spring as another spring treatment. Really flavored with spring onions. Considered poison any larger in size as is the whole plant including the berries. The birds seem to do fine with them as they love to deposit the finished product on your vehecle or clothes line. Berries also used as an early ink in the colonies. Our chickens used to come down with limber neck and die. An old lady told us to boil poke roots, stop up the chickens and make sure that was the only water they had. We did not loose another chicken including the ones that were ailing.
Dirt Dauber nest: crushed , mixed with vinegar as poultice for stings and sprains. I wondered if the processing of the mud by the dirtdauber did something to the mud.
Clay: I remember Grandma telling about those when someone had a really bad sprin who knew where special clay deposits were and took them and dug a hole in the ground there and burried the injured foot or leg in the ground for whatever length of time and when taken out no swelling or inflamation or fever in it.
Kerosene Oil: used to take out soreness and inflamation. Had a real bad nail puncture in my foot. It was soaked in strong and hot epson salt water after cleaned. Then the hole was forced open and kerosene oil was poured in it. Got well faster and not as sore. I could walk on the foot the next day.
Jimsonweed: This one not to be played with but old man on our place had ashma really bad. He would get where he could not breathe. His children would come over and I would help them pick leaves off this plant from behind our corn crib. They parched them on a pan in their oven then crumbled the dried leaves like tobacco and he rolled a cigarette using brown paper bag for wrapper. He smoked this and it opened up his air passages. Ed
Ed,
Hopefully others will “chime in” and we can create a database of healing remedies. On the way into work tonight I remembered poke. My cousin’s wife in Corbin, KY makes poke greens in the spring. Last spring when I was visiting she took me out to collect poke leaves (just the young small shoots) along their fence line. My cousin’s dad stopped by for a visit and she asked him if he wanted to take some poke greens home with him. He asked, “Why, do ya think I need my ‘spring cleanin’?” and laughed. I didn’t make the connection at the time till the day after eating the poke greens. They DO clean you out! It’s best to stay close to a bathroom after eating poke, cause “when you gotta go, you GOTTA go”! If I remember correctly, she boiled the leaves or at least soaked them before cooking. then served them with vinegar. Very tasty!
Thanks for sharing those remedies. In the days before doctors and hospitals, people only had home remedies and they worked remarkable well. Today doctors don’t like to admit that fact because it cuts into their pocketbook. I’ve heard that 25% of all modern pharmaceutical drugs are derived from natural herbs. But the drug companies don’t like to admit to that one either becaue it cuts into their billion dollar profit margins. But don’t get me started on that subject! I have strong beliefs against the drug companies and their allies, the doctors and insurance companies! I call them the “medical mafia”! Thanks again Ed.
Sincerely,
Jim
Jim, You got it on the Poke Greens ! I was in a Super K-Mart in Raleigh and out of pure accident discovered they had canned poke greens on the shelf. I don’t remember the brand name but they were processed in Arkansas. I thought they had little taste until we put chopped up spring onions or scallions on them. My family eats greens with vinegar, I have to be different I put sweet pickle juice on mine. I like the sweet-bitter combination.
Vinegar is another much used item for local remedy. If your head was burning up with fever and hurting part of her treatment was to take a brown paper bag, fold it and soak it in vinegar and lay and press it over your forhead. You could literally feel the heat drawing through the bag and your head would cool and stop hurting.
We spoke of clay earlier and I remember people eating clay. Not just the red clay and dirt we worked in but special deposits they would dig at times and eat. I am told this compensated for mineral deficiencies in the body. I know our Father has made a wonderful earth and although much perverted and twisted by sin it still produces much of what we need for life. Those before us have forgotten more than we will ever know and what a tragedy. I go in this coming Tuesday to try and get more blood flow to my heart. This is the third time in 6 years beginning with bypasses then stents in them and now whatever this will involve. I have had about 2 years between each procedure. Even with much medication and perfect cholesterol readings it continues on, 100% in my father’s family for at least 3 generations. You guys keep up the good work and from Monday on through a few days I will have to catch up on all the good stuff. Ed
My Granny made us drink Sassafras tea every Spring, also Horehound tea and candy. The Sassafras was to thin our blood, I don’t remember what the horehound was susposed to do. I loved to go with her every spring to gather greens and wild onions. We gathered poke, sourdock, wild mustard, violet leaves, pigeon wing, sheeps quarter and many others. I hate cooked greens, but loved to gather them with her.
All,
My friend and I went herb hunting this morning and we found sassafras, among other things. He verified that it’s used as a tonic. We also discovered burdock, motherwort, wild strawberries, may apples (mandrake), jewelweed (impatiens, Touch-Me-Not), ginger, and wild yam which my friend says is an excellent cancer herb. It was a very interesting and fun walk in the woods, and the weather today was awesome with sunny skies and a high of 68 degs. I use jewelweed (as did the NA’s) for treatment and prevention of poison ivy breakouts. Take the leaves and stalk and crush them in your hands to release the juice and rub it on any exposed area, both prior to and after exposure to poison ivy. It generally grows in close proximity to the poison ivy and likes shade. It has a small orange flower when it blooms (I think it blooms in June if not mistaken). And poke was everywhere. Just be careful to only pick the young fresh tops and still boil them twice before eating. Serve them like any other “greens” with vinegar and onions.
Jim
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