Home remedies are always fun to read. I do believe in the wisdom accumulated over generations before the dawn of modern medicine. Of course, I also believe in modern medicine. But sometimes there is at least a kernel of something to these home remedies. The Amish, who historically lived in insular isolation in the USA, had to be self-sufficient and that often meant doctoring to one's own. These are some home remedies from the Wickey sisters in Switzerland County, Indiana's Amish community. Read and try at your own risk, no liability is assumed from Amish365.com or Kevin Williams if you try one of these with bad results, I am just sharing them for cultural insight.
🤒 How Do The Amish Prevent The Flu?
One of the most tantalizing treatments for the flu that I have heard of, came from an elderly Amish woman. She reported that during the 1950s at the height of the "Asian Flu" epidemic an Amish healer came to her and gave her a tobacco salve to put on her chest. And within hours the flu was gone. I've never been able to learn more about that tobacco salve. Here are the Amish woman's exact words as I recorded them:
A friend brought grandmother a salve she had made, which they called "tobacco salve" and it was to be rubbed on the chest only. After using the salve, grandmother got over the flu right away.
Was it just luck and timing that the flu happened to run its course at about the same time the salve was applied? Or did that old Amish healer know something the rest of us didn't? We'll probably never know.
Flu prevention: put a few red coals on a little tin container. Put 1 teaspoon sulphur on hot coal. This will create fumes. Make a round through the house very evening for one week. Don't get burned with this.
Flu in stomach and bowels: 1 quart water, 2 tablespoons vinegar,½ teaspoon salt. Drink as much of this as you can in one day.
Flu in stomach: Mix equal parts elderberry blossoms and peppermint leaves (crushed). Mix well 1 heaping teaspoon to a cup of boiling water. Cover. Drink when cool. 1 cup every hour till relieved.
Fever: For any kind of fever rub apple cider vinegar on temples and soles of feet. When fever is back to normal wash off temple and feet as temperature will keep going down.
Fever: Make a tea with powdered thyme, 1 /2 teaspoon to a cup of boiling water. Give it in teaspoon doses until relieved. For older people, make the tea stronger. Drink 4 or 5 cups until relieved.
Frost bite: 1 ounce olive oil, 1 ounce turpentine, 1 ounce ammonia. Mix well and bottle. Rub a small amount into frostbitten skin.
🤒FAQ Amish Home Remedy Questions
PAINKILLER: Take powdered poke root and roast 1 /4 cup. Add enough water to make a poultice and apply on the bottom of the feet. It will draw out pain anywhere in the body.
INSOMNIA: Mix 1 teaspoon gelatin in a cold cup of water for 5 minutes, then add 1 cup hot water. Stir until dissolved. Of this, put 2 teaspoons in a glass of water or milk. Drink after supper, this will help induce sleep.
Pin a piece of brown paper (heavy) inside of shirt of underneath dress before going on a journey in a car. (Editor's Note - Have no idea what the science behind this would be, if anyone tries it let us know if it works!)
Equal parts of anise seed, caraway seed and fennel seed combined or can use separate or alternate. Will increase milk flow. Crush seeds or powder them. Use 1 heaping teaspoon to a cup of boiling water. Cover. When cool drink 1 to 2 cups daily as long as you like.
apply Clorox. This will take out the pain and swelling. Then apply baking soda, vinegar, alum powder or ammonia. Any of these will neutralize the poison.
a teaspoon of pure apple cider vinegar. If that doesn't work, close your eyes, finger and press gently on your eyeball for 10 minutes. Release. Repeat if necessary. Other hiccup remedies:
take a deep breath.
Smell dill seed
Try eating a little peanut butter.
"To relieve a toothache, wet a small piece of cotton with vanilla and put it on the aching tooth." Enos Byler
"To enable yourself to think more clearly, eat three pecan halves daily." - Andy Byler
"Take three ginseng capsules before you leave for church. This will help you listen to the sermon with your eyes open. This should not be done right before bedtime." - Mrs. Levi Miller
🧠 How Do The Amish Improve Memory?
MEMORY STRENGTHENER: Eat hazelnuts for 9 days beginning with 6 and adding more each day. Eat green pepper seeds for 9 days beginning with 1 seed and doubling the dose until it eaches 256 seeds on the ninth day. Grind cloves, thin long peppers, dates, equal quantities. Bet them with olive oil into a paste. Eat a little every morning before breakfast.
I think it probably helps memory because if you can remember all the instructions and remember to count out 256 seeds, if that doesn't strengthen your memory, nothing will!
🩸 How to Treat Blood Sugar Levels
To lower high blood sugar: a tea made of huckleberry leaves..one heaping teaspoon of crushed or powdered leaves to one cup of boiling water. When cool drink only one cup a day as this will lower sugar fast.
To raise low blood sugar: Make a tea of grape leaves, tame or wild. Tame leaves use 4 big leaves. Wild use 6 to 8 leaves to a quart of boiling water. When cool drink 1 or 2 quarts a day until relieved.
HOMEMADE TEAS TO CALM NERVOUSNESS:
Celery Tea: 1 teaspoon celery seed in a cup of boiling water. Drink as hot as you can, seeds and all.
Willow Bark Tea: Make a tea of willow bark. Peel the outside bark off the outer smaller branches: 1 teaspoon to a pint of boiling water. Boil slowly for 10 minutes. Drink 1 to 3 cups a day till relieved.
Squawvine Tea: soothing to the nerves. 1 heaping teaspoon crushed; add to a cup of boiling water. Let stand 20 minutes. Drink to 2 to 4 cups a day till nerves relax.
🔪 Amish Kitchen Tips
CUTTING BOARD CLEANING: To rid your cutting board of onions, garlic or fish smell, cut a lime in two and rub the smelly surface with the cut side of the lime, squeezing it as you rub. Even a vegetable brush or sponge that has been used in the kitchen perks up and loses any odor when dipped in lime juice. It works like a charm, even on your hands and nails and keeps them quite soft. Rinse with tap afterwards and that is all there is to it.
SMELLY COOKING: Place a heel of bread on top of cabbage before putting the lid on the pot and cooking. There will be no odor. The bread has no effect on the cabbage and should be removed after cooking. Good for broccoli and brussels sprouts also.
SKILLET CARE: A little salt sprinkled int he frying pan will keep fat or lard from splattering. This also makes cleaning up the range easier.'
TEA KETTLE CARE: To clean a tea kettle use ¼ cup vinegar and 3 teaspoons salt. Boil for 15 minutes, saves a lot of scrubbing!
Trevor Morris
Ive worked around horses soon after i turned 19 years of age. I am now 41 and along my journey i was/am blessed to make many Amish friends. I MUST SAY...AMISH REMEDIES have helped many tooth aches and pains, colds and flus, but amazingly nearly all and i mean all ingredients in the remedies are natural. Dont believe me...chech bsck of any box. Worth it!!!