MyHerbCorner

Posts Tagged ‘mullein’

Last full moon day I was straining my ‘mullein oil‘ which I had infused for 3 weeks.
We had so much sun it was already nice and intense due the sun infusion.
The blossoms turned dark brown and the oil has a beautiful clear yellow colour.

I will use it if some one will need a chest rub for cough and together with garlic infused I will use it as ear drops for ear ache. Therefore you just grate one fresh garlic into a small jar, cover it with mullein oil, lid it and let infuse for at least a hour at a warm place. Then strain and carry a small bottle of it in your trouser pocket so it has body temperature. Drop into both ears and keep them warm. Important is that the oil has body temperature.

Mullein oil is also nice on sore muscles when you need some warm and ‘sunny’ remedy.

While my oil was doing fine I had troubles with the mullein stalks I was drying for a long time now.
Normally I was always picking the leaves from the first year mullein’s and dried them but this year I was harvesting the whole plant like Susun Weed.

While my normal harvest of leaves keeps it’s beautiful colour by drying, this mullein on the stalks start to get brown spots or veins…

… and some even change colour to yellow. For me they don’t look that vibrant and full of medicine.
I picked all good leaves from the stalks and will dry them for a few days (even when I have the feeling they are poor in energy, but as simple beverage or ‘body acid balancing tea’ they are fine enough)

I learned my lesson and go back to my roots where I harvested the leaves or flowers only and dry them properly.

The stick for drying will be the one for yarrow, peppermint and others who are doing well

Koenigsoel means mullein oil

In my language mullein (Verbascum thapsus) is called Koenigskerze (this is German and means Koenig = king, Kerze = candle)

Today we went to the end of the road again to collect some Verbascum blossoms fresh from their spikes.

At home I spread them onto a clean fabric to check for insects. Then I gave them back into the jar.

I filled the jar with extra virgin olive oil from Crete (this oil contains a lot of sun…) to make an oil infusion which is a helpful antibacterial for earache also great as a chest rub when it hurts from a cough.

In Austria this oil is called Koenigsoel (Kings oil)

As I learned as child you have to infuse Kingsoil in the sun (like St. John’s wort) so it can bring back the healing and warming sun-rays when you suffer from winter colds.

Place it in the garden on a sunny spot for 4 weeks and shake it well every day.

A windowsill is also fine (ha! finally a picture where I can leave the jar :- )

After 4 weeks strain the oil into dark bottles and keep in a cupboard or other dark and cool place.

This is my first big jar of Koenigsoel I make in New Zealand and I am already excited to discover if it really needs 4 weeks to infuse or if it is already ready in 3 weeks since we have a special intense sun here.

When we went to the end of the road to pick our Verbascum…

… we saw this cute cattles.

One particular draw my attention since it looked like a buffalo child wouldn’t be this enormous big ear marks.

In the high grass here and there bloomed beautiful thistles looking like little artichokes.

Where the Verbascum grows is also a…

… Tree Tutu. All parts of this plant are poisonous (except the blossom petals, but anyway don’t try it out…)

Please teach your children not to touch it, and of course not to eat the poisonous berries!

Early European settlers learned it by the hard way with dead cattle and people.

So now to one of my favorite herbs… yarrow (Achille millefolium)
When we harvested the mullein I also found some yarrow and red clover (Trifolium pratense)

At home I gave flower and leaves of the yarrow into a clean jar.

Then I filled up the jar with olive oil (this is a nourishing oil for the skin)

With a yarrow stalk I released hidden air bubbles.

I let this infuse for 6 weeks or so, before I strain it. Some people infuse it 4 weeks (a moon cycle) long.

You can use the oil on bumps, sprains, burns, insect bites or stings and as well on dry or cracked lips (may be a tip for my friends in the Northern Hemisphere ;- )

I also found it helpful by massage it into the skin as repellent against our nasty sandflies. (Yep, this tip is for you in the Southern Hemisphere ;- )

If you think oil is too messy just pop in some bees wax to make an ointment (click here for a link) or a cream (click here for a recipe)

To learn more about yarrow and it’s uses click here.

So, now I gonna have a cuppa of mullein infusion… and remember, when ever you make mullein infusion or tea, strain it through a cloth to hold back its tiny hairs which can irritate your throat

Cheers!

On the first January we went the long drive over gravel to the end of our road. There is the wonderful patch of mullein I posted earlier (please click here to see it)

Now the mulleins are very high and are starting to bloom.

Thess buds are just ready to open.

I had two pairs of helping hands

Some people react allergic when touching the fluffy leaves. The tiny hairs can produce a skin irritation.

I have no problems but my husband has and that’s why he wears gloves for protection. I heard that once girls rubbed their cheeks with the fluffy mullein leaves to get lovely red cheeks (that’s why it is also called Quakers Rouge in America)

Mullein is biennial which means that it has a live cycle of two years. In the first year it grows a rosette of beautiful big leaves. That is normally when I collect the leaves for medicine or acid/alkaline balancing tea. This year I try something different and collect the second year stalks like Susun Weed

In the second year the leaves grow smaller and the flower spike grows sometimes over two meters high.

That’s the time when you can collect the flowers. The flowers open in the morning and close in the evening. They don’t bloom at the same time so that’s why I harvested some plants with roots.

If you give them into a vase or bucket with water you can collect the blossoms every day for a week or two.

As you can see in the picture above there really grows a lot of mullein on this spot. If you harvest mullein never collect when there are only a few plants. Leave them to seed and come the next year for a leaf harvest.

At home I made a fresh leaf tincture which I will use as pain relief. Mullein is a herb you need only a small dose when taken internally (just 3-5 drops or so). I actually rub the mullein tincture on aching joints and also my neck. You have the same relaxing effect with St. John’s wort but since I have non for medicine this year I long for mullein.

As you see I couldn’t resist to make a root tincture even it would be more potential with an autumn harvest of the first year mulleins…

On the other side, the herbs have medical effect the whole year round. Our fore-mothers did collect them when needed, even in the middle of winter you can harvest plant medicine.

The root has a soft outer part and a very hard inner part. We used our garden scissors to cut it small.

Now  I will shake the tinctures once a day for a week. After that  I let them infuse for 5 more weeks before using.

The rest of the mullein I prepared for drying. Some of the stalks reviled a black juice at the base.

I hung them over a stick (yes you can see it was already night and the poor mulleins with roots still have no foot in a water… but that is no problem cause this plant is very rough and strong and can stay so for quite a time. Mullein likes it dry

It will take quite a time to dry this herb with stalks…

… so hang them up in a dry room best would be a dark room so… close the blinds

If you like to read a little bit more about mulleins healing effect, please click here.