Drying Out Cold Relief

I just spent the evening processing eucalyptus leaves to dry with the rest of my dried herb collection - wildcrafted, or gifts from other gardeners. Some of them are ready to be put to use. Rosemary, two kinds of mint, spearmint, oregano, alder bark, pineapple sage, calendula, and savory.

Not too sure what I'm going to do with each of them. I previously made a tea of rosemary and nettle to settle allergies. That combined with mint could make a great tea. The rosemary (there's a ton of it), oregano and sage will be great for culinary purposes of course. Also oregano, an antioxidant and antimicrobial is said to make a good cold remedy, so will have to be added to that tea.

I'm excited about the alder bark. I harvested it from Enchanted Valley recently. The tree can be found all over Seattle - a sweet native tree. Indigenous use treated poison oak, insect bites, and skin irritations. I've also read it's good for treating colds (and here we are in cold season). Alder contains lupeol, a compound that is antimicrobial, antinflammatory and, apparently, antitumor. I could use the bark to make a tincture. Or a salve.

I've never used savory before, but looking it up now I see it's in the mint family and is typically used as a digestive aid - like mint. A friend recently requested a digestive tea. So perhaps I will combine all the lamiaceae's into a tea (rosemary, oregano, mint, spearmint, pineapple sage, savory). That could be fun. An antimicrobial, cold relief digestive tea. Just perfect to last the winter.