The juice from Goats Beard is good for constipation. It also helps with gall bladder function.

You can take two handfulls of the leaves, stalks, flowers and roots and clean them with cold water. Boil this in water for about 10 minutes and strain. Drink this with a little honey and it is good for bladder and kidney infections. 

You can also use this tea for cuts, scrapes, wounds to relieve pain.

Do only the roots as stated above and make a tea to drink for heartburn. This tea can also be used for kidney stones.

 Peel the roots, boil them and saute with onions. This is good for colds. 

Here are several recipes for Poke Salad. It is best to get the tender leaves and shoots. Do not cut below the ground as it is poisonous. The mature leaves, berries and roots are the poisonous parts of the plant. It is said that eating three messes of poke salad in the Spring will keep you from getting those late Spring colds. It is also said that you should go out to get your first harvest of Poke Salad when the frogs start croaking in the Spring.

Boil the leaves and shoots in two changes of water if using older leaves. If very young leaves you will be OK to just boil them. If in doubt, do as follows: Poke Salad is poison if not cooked correctly. Let boil a few minutes, drain the water off and boil again. After a few minutes, drain and add more water. After adding water the third time, cook until tender. Drain well and squeeze out the juice with a fork. Now try one of the following recipes:

*Place poke salad hot in a bowl and top with boiled eggs.

*Add some olive oil to a pan and saute’ poke salad with leeks or onions.

*Add oil to a pan and put the poke salad in, when good and hot, break an egg into the pan and stir with a fork. Continue to fry until the egg is done.

*Cut the whole plant when it is about 8 inches high. Cut this up like okra and parboil once if desired. Roll in flour or cornmeal, salt and pepper and fry.

This is often eaten with some fried streak meat.

(this is sometimes spelled Polk Salad)

Wood Sorrel:

This is one of my favorite herbs. Use the leaves to make a mild tea and cool this. Sip it for heartburn and it works pretty good.

New Jersey Tea:

Another one that requires one to know exactly what part of the plant to use…

Take the bark from the root of this flower and dry it. A mall handful of dried bark STEEPED in hot water for 1 1/2 hours makes a wonderful medicine for sinus issues. Drink 2 cups a day and it works as a sedative AND antihistamine.

Gargle it for sore throats and toothaches. It is also good for cold sores.

Mullein:

The best use I have found for this herb, and there are many….
If you have a stomach virus….

Get a handful of flowers from mullein and STEEP them in 2 cups of hot water, strain this and drink one entire cup. This will almost immediately ease stomach cramps.

These flowers make a good sedative for the nervous system and also will ease pain.

Breathe in the vapors of tea made with fresh leaves for congestion.

Bone and Joint pain: Make a mild tea by steeping the fresh (or dried) JOINED leaves of Boneset for about 30 minutes. A handful of leaves to two cups of water is sufficient.

Laxative: Make a cold tea from steeping a palmful of leaves of Boneset for 20 minutes and drink as a laxative.

Flu: Steep the Boneset leaves for 30 minutes and drink for colds, flu and fever.
You can add mint to this as well.

*use the upper, unjoined leaves for cold, flu and fever remedies. It is important to know when studying herbalism that one cannot just know this plant is good for that. One must know what part of the plant, when to remove it from the plant and how to remove it, how to prepare it and what route to present it to the body. One herb, like boneset, has many uses, making it the same way, but steeping it for different amounts of time. You don’t want to drink it for the flu and end up on the toilet because you mistakenly made the tea as a laxative!

Partridgeberry:

One of my favorite. I use to eat these in my oatmeal when on lengthy backpacking trips. They kind of taste like apples…..tiny apples.
*Dried or fresh leaf or even tea made from the berries is good for late, irregular or painful periods.

Passion Flower root extracts help reduce blood pressure

Rattlesnake Plantain:

Make a tea with the leaves and mix with whiskey for colds and toothaches
*If you have a burn type accident when hiking, chew some of the leaves and place it on the burn, it eases the pain

Wild Potato Vine:

Poulticed root is good for rheumatism
*root tea good for coughs and asthma
*dry the plant and pound it into a powder, make a tea for this for headaches