Monday, January 14, 2013

MOUNTAIN HOME REMEDIES



Each time I turn on the TV, I'm alarmed at the flu raging across America.  I hope my blogger friends are well.

I'm posting some home remedies mountain folks used for colds and other ailments.  I would not recommend these.  This is just for entertainment, but I recall my grandparents used some of these.

BLACKBERRIES:  Drink the juice of blackberries to settle your stomach.  (My mother gave us blackberry juice for nausea).

ONIONS:  Eat onions to keep from getting the cold and to clear chest congestion.  Grandma used to eat onions almost everyday.

CHEST CONGESTION:  Wear a flannel shirt with turpentine and lard on it all winter.

COLDS:  Boil pine needles to make a strong tea.

PINE RESIN:  Put this on sores and wounds.

RABBIT FOOT:  Wear around your neck for good luck.

CROUP:  Put some groundhog oil on some hot flannel rags and place on your chest.

EARACHE:  Tie a flour sack around your head.

SORE THROAT:  Bake onions in an open  fireplace, then tie them around your neck.  Also, take a sock you have worn inside a boot and worked in for a week so it has a bad odor.  Tie it around your neck.

TOOTHACHE:  Put drops of vanilla straight from the bottle on the tooth.

WARTS:  Stick the hand which has warts on it into a brown paper poke and tie it up.  The first person who opens the bag will get your warts.

These are little tricks the old folks used before we had modern medicine in the Blue Ridge Mountains.