Winter Herbal Remedies: Soothe Your Soul After the Holidays

Key Takeaways

• Learn how to craft five herbal remedies to soothe winter ailments like dry skin, sore throats, and seasonal stress.

• Discover essential techniques for infusions, decoctions, and crafting salves, teas, and syrups.

• Explore the therapeutic benefits of herbs like calendula, elderberries, and ginger.

• Join our Winter Remedies Workshop for hands-on learning and connection with a supportive community.

Introduction

The holiday season is full of joy, family, and festivities—but let’s face it, it can also leave us feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and in need of a vacation from our "vacation." As we settle into winter, this is the perfect time to embrace the soothing and supportive benefits of herbal remedies. Crafted from nature’s bounty, these remedies can help us unwind, restore balance, and nurture our well-being during the colder months.

Our Winter Remedies Workshop will teach you to craft these herbal pick-me-ups to help soothe winter ailments like dry skin, congestion, sore throats, low energy, and seasonal stress. 

Let’s dive into five winter herbal remedies that you can easily make at home—and discover the therapeutic power of nature’s medicine cabinet.

1. Calendula Salve

Why You’ll Love It: Calendula is known for its soothing and healing properties, making it a must-have for dry, irritated winter skin. This simple salve is perfect for anyone who needs a little TLC during the colder months.

Essential Technique: Infused Oils

Infusing oil with herbs is the core of creating salves along with other skincare and culinary products. During the infusion process, the herb's beneficial compounds are extracted into the oil.  To start, decide how much time you have - a warm infusion takes a few hours, and a cool infusion takes a few weeks.  Then choose your carrier oil (olive, almond, jojoba, etc.) If you will be eating your infused oil, be sure to you a food grade culinary oil

For a cool infusion, fill a jar a third to a half full with dried herbs, cover with oil.  Place in a sunny window and shake it daily.  After 4-6 weeks, strain the plant material. 

For a warm infusion, add dried herbs and oil to a slow cooker.  After a few hours, strain your plant material. 

Essential Technique: Salves

Salves are infused oil plus some beeswax.  The more beeswax you add, the firmer your salve will be.  In winter when my house is colder, I opt for less beeswax to maintain a soft salve texture in cool house temps.  But in summer, I add more beeswax to keep the salve from melting in the warmer house temperatures.

How to Make It:

1. Infuse the oil with calendula (I use a mixture of olive and coconut.)

2. Strain the dried plant material (calendula is a go to for me.)

3. Add beeswax to the oil and heat over a double boiler until it's melted.  Add about 1 oz (more or less) beeswax to every cup of infused oil.

4. Pour it into tins or small jars.

Take It Further: Once you master salves, you can grab some butter (cocoa, mango, shea) and expand your skin care repertoire to include body butters, lotion bars, and lip balms.  These products all have the same base ingredients in differing ratios to create different textures.  For a body butter whip the ingredients in a kitchen mixer. For a lotion bar, use a mold rather than a tin. 

If you are experimenting and your creation comes out too hard or soft for it's intended purpose, that's ok! just whip too soft mixtures into body butters and use too hard mixtures like lotion bars!

Don't like experimenting?  Here's a recipe to try: Calendula Salve Recipe by Herbal Academy

2. Immune-Boosting Tea

Why You’ll Love It: A cozy cup of tea is the ultimate comfort on a chilly day, and herbal blends are as functional as they are delicious. Packed with immune-supporting herbs like elderberries and cinnamon, herbal tea is perfect winter ritual to keep you feeling your best.

Essential Technique: Infusions in water aka tea.

Hot infusion: add about 1 tablespoon dried (or 3 T fresh) herbs per cup of water.  Cover with simmering water and steep for 3-10 minutes.  Taste during steeping. Strain when the desired flavor is reached.

Cold Infusion: add about 3 tablespoons dried (or 9 T fresh) to a cup of water.  Cover with cold water and steep 8-12 hours. Strain when the desired flavor is reached.

How to Make It:

1. Combine dried elderberries, rosehips, ginger root and cinnamon chips for warmth and flavor.

2. Mix well and store in an airtight jar.

Take It Further: ☀️Steep in the sun for sun tea☀️✨For some moon magic, steep in the light of a full moon.✨

If you've noticed the difference in flavor between sun tea and chilled hot brewed tea (or iced coffee vs cold brew), you've witnessed that different plant compounds extract at different temperatures!  Happy experimenting!

Looking for exact amounts? Try this recipe: Immune Boosting Tea by Herbal Academy

3. Switchel (Herbal Tonic)

Why You’ll Love It: Switchel is a refreshing and hydrating drink that combines apple cider vinegar, honey, and ginger for a zesty winter pick-me-up. If you've tried wellness shots but found them to be too concentrated, try switchel!  It's a lot of the same beneficial ingredients in an easy-to-gulp-down form.  Perfect for soothing digestion or as a unique addition to your winter (and year round) beverage menu. 

Essential Technique: Decoction (optional)

Some herbal compounds are best extracted by vigorously boiling the plant material and then letting them cool.  For a stronger ginger flavor, decoct (boil ginger with a little water) for up to 5 minutes before adding the ginger water to your switchel jar.  Many roots and other tough plant parts benefit from decocting (boiling) for up to an hour and then letting the mixture cool and infuse for 24 hours before using.

Essential Technique: Infusion

We're essentially making an infusion with an optional ginger decoction.  For a stronger flavor, infuse for longer before straining out the plant material.  Tasting along the way is essential to getting the hang of infusions!

How to Make It:

1. Combine 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup honey, 1 tbsp grated ginger, half a lemon, and 3-4 cups water in a pitcher.

2. Stir well until honey is dissolved.  Store in the fridge and strain when the desired flavor is reached.

Take It Further: Experiment with adding herbs like mint or basil or cinnamon sticks for extra flavor.  Create a switchel concentrate (by adding less water to the initial mixture) and then when serving, top your switchel off with sparkling water.  Add additional lemon or substitute other citrus like limes, oranges, or grapefruit.  Switch(el😉) the sweetener to molasses for additional minerals.  Add or decrease the sweetener amount to make the drink suit your tastes.

Want a more detailed recipe, try this: Switchel Recipe by The Spruce Eats

4. Herbal Bath Soak

Why You’ll Love It: A warm herbal bath is the perfect way to relax, ease muscle tension, and moisturize winter-dry skin. Infused with oatmeal, milk, salts, or herbs they help clear sinuses, boost energy, or calm your mind depending on the blend.

Essential Technique: Bathing(?!)

Is taking a bath really an essential herbal technique? You decide.  In any case, here are some tips for using herbal bath salts/soaks.  Consider putting your bath salt/soak materials in a sock or muslin bag, especially if it contains oatmeal, petals, or other messy bits that you don't want going down the drain or making your tub a pain to clean afterwards.  Then your bath essentially becomes a gigantic batch of tea brewed with a tea bag vs the mess of looseleaf.  Just like tea, make the water as hot as you can and add the soaking materials at the beginning.  Allow the water to cool to bathing temperature and hop in.  You can even use your bath sock as a scrubby to get all of that lovely oatmeal goodness on your skin.

How to Make It:

1. Mix 1-2 cups of the following ingredients:

   1. Some kind of base: Epson salt, "salt" salt, powdered milk, oatmeal, baking soda.

   2. Some herbs like rose, chamomile, lavender, cinnamon, ginger, peppermint, spearmint, eucalyptus, thyme, rosemary, catnip, hyssop, lemon balm, linden, citrus peel, etc.

   3. Make a big batch in a jar or add a single batch to a sock/cotton bag

2. Take It Further: From bath bombs to shower melts to just hanging eucalyptus in from the shower head, you can make yourself a spa at home using herbs.  After you're squeaky clean, use some of your herbal salves or body butters.

For the recipe people, try this: https://theherbalacademy.com/blog/floral-bath-tea-sachets/

5. Elderberry Syrup

Why You’ll Love It: Elderberry syrup is a classic winter remedy, celebrated for its immune-boosting properties. It’s easy to make and tastes so good, even kids will love it!

Essential Technique: Decoction

Tough dried elderberries, cloves, and cinnamon sticks release their beneficial compounds after an extended boil.  We then add raw honey (which loses some of its goodness when boiled) after the mixture has cooled a bit.

Essential Technique: Syrups

Syrups are a delicious way to boost your intake of herbs.  Simply mix some type sugar, honey, or molasses (or a combination) with water and herbs.  Start with a "simple syrup" which is 1:1 ration of sugar to water.  I often infuse or decoct the herbs into the water, strain the plant material and then add the sugar.  This order lets me skip the sticky mess of straining syrup.

How to Make It:

1. Simmer 1 cup of dried elderberries, 1 cinnamon stick, 3 cloves, and 4 cups of water for 45 minutes.

2. Strain the mixture and stir in 1 cup of honey while it’s still warm.

3. Store the syrup in an airtight jar in the refrigerator.

Take It Further: Make herbal syrups using different ingredients like rosehips or hibiscus for flavor variety and unique benefits.  Wondering how to use your syrups? Take it by the spoonful -1 (kids)-3 (adults) tsp elderberry syrup daily all winter - , dilute with warm water for a tea, add to seltzer with or without some lemon/lime juice for a refreshing drink, add vinegar to make it into a shrub (which you can then dilute into tea, mix up into a salad dressing/marinade, or add seltzer for soda), add gelatin to make your own gummies, or of course do regular syrup things like drizzle onto pancakes, ice cream, or other treats.

You know the drill, here's a recipe for people who prefer them: Elderberry Syrup by Herbal Academy

Wrap up and next steps

What about all the "strained plant material" left over after infusing, decocting, or tincturing?  My opinion is to use it again!  If you've ever brewed a second batch of tea with some use tea leaves, you know there's still a bunch of goodness left in the "strained plant material."  Yes, it's a little less potent and more dilute, but so often we're told that we need to extract or concentrate all that plant goodness to our benefit (ahem, looking at you essential oils, plant based supplements, and wellness shots).

I'm not a trained herbal practitioner making specific medicines for which concentrations and dosages matter.  I'm just a gardener and nature lover who wants to fully appreciate all the gifts that garden-grown and foraged plants are freely giving me!  So, yep, I'll throw more water on those switchel fruits for another batch, top off tinctures with another round of vodka, or decoct another round of elderberry syrup, trying to eek out every last bit of the plant-y goodness before passing the "strained plant material" over to the compost microbes to get the rest of it out.  If a down to earth approach to herbal and garden crafts sounds right up your alley, you'll love our Gifts from the Garden Workshop Series!

This series of hands on workshops focus on teaching plant appreciators how to make the most from our botanical buddies' gifts. 

Our next workshop is Herbal Winter Remedies where we'll make the crafts detailed in this blog post. Beyond learning to create these soothing remedies, you’ll experience the joy of connecting with fellow plant lovers in a welcoming, supportive environment. You’ll leave not only with a beautifully packaged gift basket and hands-on experience, but also with the inspiration and camaraderie that come from shared learning.

[Sign Up for the Winter Remedies Workshop Today!]