Lavender and Other Folk Remedies

The informant listed off several folk remedies she learned from her parents and grandparents:

For colds, she said her mother and grandmother would always give her echinacea, and for nausea they would use ginger to calm her stomach.

Her father always uses peppermint for nausea. She says you’re supposed to inhale the peppermint because the aroma is good to settle the stomach and aid digestion.

Lastly, her father uses lavender for earaches. As a child, the informant always used to get earaches. She had developed an immunity to most mainstream antibiotics because of multiple illnesses earlier on in life. Because of this, the bacteria in her ears couldn’t be treated with antibiotics. Her dad would boil lavender, let it cool to a slightly warm temperature, and then pour it in her ears to flush out the bacteria. She says the treatment worked wonders, and got rid of the infections when antibiotics couldn’t. Her father learned this remedy from his own father, who used to get earaches often as well.