Famous Rocky Mountain Peaks – The Tetons
We live in a potent place, and the wild apothecary that we have access to is vast, the high mountains and valleys, rivers running through, tributaries and hot pools all the way to the beings that thrive here, and do so for a reason. Resiliency is key to longevity, being able to shift with the seasons, the days into nights are essential for a healthy existence up here and really, everywhere. In the Rockies, we know how to layer our clothes and travel higher when days are hot. Each of these aspects are components of wellness in Rocky Mountain life, and those of you elsewhere, follow patterns of nature to maintain health too. Each of these practices are nourishing your resilience and here are the best herbs for immune system support to add to your vitality!
I came here as a budding herbalist. Yearning to know the high mountain plants of the Rockies. They were concentrated, essential for life in the old ways, and called to my green heart like nothing else. Osha root; Ligusticum filicinum, Pulsatilla; Anemone patens, and Coneflower; Rudbeckia laciniata, are ones specific to our region, and plants that I needed to know in person. I wanted to learn from Osha how to make the best osha root tincture, why rudbeckia species of cone flowers were the best herbs for the immune system and detox responses, and how I could get to be growing these plants in my own farmacy garden.
The plant world blew my mind up here in the high country. Not only are the specific species who thrive here densely populated, they are rich in medicinal compounds, and nutrients. They grow rapidly, and seeds are thrown into the gusts of winds to be spread efficiently. The famous roots, like Osha, Angelica and Cone Flower species, are deep in the top soiled places and even rocky hillsides, the resilience of these plant medicines is profound. Walking in any wild area of the mid to high country will be dazzled with wildflowers of brilliant colors, in fields that seem to never end, diversity in a place coined the ‘high desert’ makes the barren feel of a desert completely null and void. This place, is my heaven on earth.
Bioregional Herbalism
This is a concept of working with plants, medicinal and food species, that grow within the region that one lives. This is for sustainability but mostly because the human body, animal body and plant or fungi, even trees, are exposed to the same regional forces. Thus the nourishment that a body consumes from this specific place, the land that it resides, is already perfect for the thrive of that particular body. Nature, and that which you are, as a human, fundamentally.
We have lots of plants that grow all over the country, and the world! Dandelions, Stinging Nettles, Yarrow, and Mint, and THEN we have species that are perfectly specific to here.There are species of Osha root that grow on the Coast, but it is tiny in comparison to the one you will find in the forests of the rockies. Pulsatilla grows in the southern regions of the country, but the Medicinally rich species thrives in the Rocky Mountains. This is bioregional herbalism, bioregional food, and life. We have all that we need right in our backyards, or just a short drive up a mountain.
Bioregional Immunity
Because of the bioregion of the rocky mountains, living here means that the human body, and the animals for that matter (did you know that grizzly bears go STRAIGHT for the osha root in the spring? That’s how I have found most of my osha patches ;)) your body is stressed during the darker months of the year, especially, therefore you need extra help when it comes to staying vitally well.
The farmers are extra stressed during harvest season, and hunters head to the hills for meat, sitting in the cold damp. At home, I am SWAMPED harvesting roots, pumpkins and storage food, along with loads of other homestead-farm wives putting food up for the winter, it’s all work and it is rather frantic. I need a boost at this time of the year, you do too, no matter where you are preparing for the darker months. And the high mountain plants are here to serve a wary body!
I created a blend of the best herbs for the immune system and supporting plants for nourishing and infusing vitality for your Rocky Mountain Immune system. Loads of you have tried it, and love it. It is perfect for addressing not only your bioregional body, but the seasonal fluctuations when each of you when you really need the extra support from the high mountain plants. Think traveling during the holidays, and when the kids go in and out of school, holiday eating and drinking, and of course seasonal shifts in the sun and the light, even when your time outside is lower, can all stress the body out, leading to detox responses; cold & flu season.
The Rocky Mountain Immune blend is here for you and yours! It is simple and effective, just the way I like it, blended with double extracted roots preparations and some honey to sweeten the deal. Focusing on the bioregional plants, Coneflower, a cousin to Echinacea, Catnip and Nettles with their surprising abilities to support immune responses, and Red Reishi mushroom. This fungus is a prize component of the centuries that Traditional Chinese Medicine has been thriving. The four of these plants are blended to create a natrual immune booster extract that will have you thriving like the ecosystem of the high mountains.
The plants
Coneflower, Rudbeckia laciniata is the number one component. Known as an immune tonic, this plant has been used for decades as a wild substitute for the propagated versions of echinacea. I find it to be the best herbs for the immune system, and here at the farmacy gardens I am cultivating this original echinacea, known as ‘black root’ to the Plains Indians, as it once, in not so distant history, covered the wild prairies of Wyoming, Montana and into the Dakotas. It can still be found in far off pastures of northern Montana, where I have harvested seed and brought it back to the farmacy gardens. It is now thriving, and my heart is overflowing!
Coneflower and Echinacea are very similar in action. Though with the tonic action of the less well known rudbeckia species, the immune and detox responses are supported while the entire mechanism of nourishing the body is encouraged and strengthened.
I have worked with the fresh root for years and feel that it is a perfect substitute for Echinacea. It is warming to the skin and kidneys, encouraging both topical and internal detoxification. Creating an all around wellness action, compared to Echinacea, that does focus on the lymphatic system, the rudbeckia species a detoxification of all of your internal waters, leading to absolute health and vitality. is very specific to the lymphatic system.
Stinging Nettle
Urticia diocica, another famous plant for backyard burns, and bites that seem to come from nowhere. Most of you probably have memories of this plant from childhood when you may have accidentally fallen into a patch… I loathed Nettles back then and would watch for it in the forests of my childhood. I guess that makes it my first positive ID! Probably similar for many of you! And now, this plant is an absolute staple in my home apothecary, the farmacy gardens, and almost all of Enchantment Creek’s remedies you will find Nettles.
The patch that is established, and spreading beautifully in the farmacy gardens, is harvested up to 3 times each year. This harvesting still allows the plant to flower and go to seed, and unlike most of the stories you will hear, the patch is super easy to control and doesn’t encroach (unless I find one in the greenhouses that volounteered, speaking from experience) Sustainability dream land in the farmacy gardens and the wild spaces.
Famous not only for its sting, but it’s ability to sustain your wellness. If you needed to, you could LIVE off this plant, check out the materia medica blog dedicated to stinging nettles and it’s bountiful benefits. Nutrient density at it’s finest, from all the water soluble vitamins and minerals, right down to proteins and fats. Creating a perfect wild food for someone who may be lost or in a survival situation, even just bringing a wild and weedy plant into the homestead kitchen.
Traditionally nettles are used as a springtime tonic, and isn’t talked about much after summer gets rolling, but I love to work with it throughout the growing season. Spring leaves are much more tender and easier to work with, but adding the flowers and even seed heads into pesto later in the summer only adds to the intensity of the nourishment and medicinal properties that nettles have to offer.
Waking up a slumbering digestive tract, increasing immune and detoxification systems through the body, and enhancing your circulatory system through the transitional seasons, and fluctuation in stress responses, nettles will be there for you. Nettles are diuretic and astringent too, which helps to flush the body while tightening tissues that may be overflowing with fluids, think runny noses, dripping eyes, and other suffering orifices.
Red Reishi
I love bringing the fungi realm into the apothecary… so much nourishment and vitality from those magical bodies and they love being in the farmacy. Red Reishi mushroom is stunning to find in the forest, and I have been working with some wild harvesters from the east coast who find it in abundance, sustainability and me go hand in hand. Reishi are brilliant reds and oranges, truly stunning in the wild and cultivated too, for me, they are breathtaking.
I work with Reishi because of it’s deep and vast history of use and that the more you harvest fungi (maintaining mindfulness of course) the more they tend to grow. The extract that is put into Rocky Mountain Immunity is double done, so I run it through the menstruum for 8 weeks, and then boil it for 7 more days, this is the best way to get all of the medicinal components of any fungi, root, bark or resin.
It is also the traditional way in Chinese Medicine to capture the most bountiful of chemical components of any medicinal herb or fungi, and this tradition (TCM) is thousands of years old, there are mother tinctures in China that are 500 years old, still completely viable and powerful medicine…
In TCM Red Reishi is known as the elixir of life, there are OVER 400 bioactive chemical compounds in this powerful little fungi. The body is strengthened in many capacities, adding vitality to the human body, and bringing it’s lifeforce right into your being, a general and potent whole body tonic. There are thousands of clinical studies involving reishi from cancer treatment, digestive support, lymphatic and detoxification enhancement, memory velocity, and all organ functioning being enhanced when working with the doubly extracted Reishi Mushroom.
The list goes on and on as to why this mushroom landed in the apothecary, just like the Golden Milk blend I make (a traditional ayurvedic beverage) it is because of the powerful healing and nourishment that I love to see infused into each of you!
Cat Nip
More well known for its sedative effects and making our kitties CRAZY. Catnip is less well known as a fever reducer and cold remedy, it is also somewhat pain relieving especially to the uterus (blend incoming!). The Cherokee people would use it for infants who were struggling with colic, indigestion, colds, and coughs. Syrups were made of this skunky mint family plant to calm phlegmy and dry coughs. I’d like to say that Catnip is a dynamic mint.
We grow this plant in the farmacy gardens here at the farm, and it gets to be 3 feet high in the shade. It self-seeds prolifically, and I love it. The bees love its flowers, and rabbits hate the smell. SO garden borders GALORE, plus the kitties love to play in it, and I love watching their silliness while weeding or harvesting.
This is a sweet plant to add to many remedies, as most mints are super versatile. Catnip is a perfect addition to this natural Immune booster blend of the rocky mountains, vitality to your detoxification, support to pain relief and because it is lower on the ingredient list, slightly calming to your human body to handle the fluctuation and detoxification you may be experiencing.
Rose Hips
Wild and cultivated alike, these little berries are absolutely PACKED with Vitamin C amongst other powerful antioxidants. ALL of the plant nutrients are perfectly available to your digestive system and thus are brought into the body to nourish our very being. This herb adds a balancing nutrient component to the immune blend. Vitamin C is known to assist the immune system in many fascinating ways. It is a perfect addition to cold and flu tinctures, teas, or baths, and it coming from a plant source, you are ingesting TRUE vitamin C.
When it comes to products that concentrate herbal vitamin C, knowing that this product is food made will ensure the source is true Vitamin C. This is why it is also key to know your herb farmacy!
I love rose hips for this exact reason. They house massive amounts of vitamin c in a tiny little package.
Rose hips contain 550 mg of vitamin c in one cup, and when they are wild sourced, that dosage can go up 10x. Wild growing conditions stress the plants in the perfect way so that their compounds are concentrated more than cultivated settings. More stress creates much more nutrients! I have a full post on TRUE vitamin C that I would love to direct you to. It is rather telling to what it means to focus on food and herbs as medicine instead of the capsules and tablets that claim to nourish in the same manner… spoiler alert.. They don’t. (head over to this post to read more…. Are you TRULY taking Vitamin C?).
I would love to see Rocky Mountain Immunity in YOUR home apothecary. You can find it at our Online Farmacy Shop through the link below. Thank you for being here and reading my plant friend! Let’s get healthy and stay that way TOGETHER!
