12 Ways to Preserve Apples: Canning, Freezing, Drying + More! Thyme is a tasty herb with therapeutic properties that has many health benefits. While most of us are familiar with mint and cilantro, thyme is more popular in Europe, particularly in the Mediterranean region. You can use thyme oil externally or as an aromatherapeutic agent. It is a great herb to use for winter health, and this sweet lemon, honey, and thyme cough syrup would make a nice addition to your medicine cabinet. And that’s just the beginning! Thyme is most commonly used in savory dishes, but it can be used in sweet ones as well. Thyme is antiseptic, disinfectent, astringent, decongestant, and aids with digestion. I just bought some lemon thyme and need to plant it. I promise you won’t regret it. Advertisement . Please see my, « How to Make a Tincture: Elderberry & Echinacea. It helps treat conditions of the respiratory tract, kills bacteria and infections, clears skin conditions and more. Companion planting thyme next to many plants keeps pests away with zero chemicals. Originally published on November 17, 2016. It helps with erosion, and can easily handle drought and below freezing temperatures. Similarly, negative influences in your home, in your workplace or your own body may disappear with spells that include this plant. Like other water-wise herbs, lemon thyme requires minimal irrigation and very well-drained soil. I was planning on using it for a tea – not really sure how else to use it. It is also used as tea and oil. First off, it’s drought-tolerant, so you don’t have to use more water than necessary for growing the herb. One of my personal favorites is this recipe for calendula and thyme shortbread cookies. Thyme is a hardy, perennial, evergreen herb that is perfect for those winter stews and soups. Not all essential oils are food grade, but thyme essential oils can be used in a diffuser or applied topically. You can also take thyme therapeutically to reap its many health benefits. The gather + root online foraging course will help you to safely identify, harvest, and use common edible and medicinal plants with confidence. Thyme is on your side, yes it is! Last updated on June 20, 2019. If you are making a big pot of soup or stew, you can tie the thyme in a little bundle so it’s easier to remove later. If you have thyme in your garden, we recommend that you be prepared for bees that will surround your garden. So companion planting them with potatoes, corn, … Thyme has tiny leaves that can be a pain to pick off. There are many different varieties of thyme, such as common thyme, lemon thyme, lime thyme, and silver thyme. With lemon thyme, you can have it! Fancy a herb garden all year round? I share information on foraging and wildcrafting, fermenting and preserving, cooking whole foods from scratch, permaculture gardening, and making herbal products. I have never heard of woolly thyme before. If you don’t have a garden, keep a small pot on the kitchen windowsill so you always have fresh thyme handy. This flowering herb attracts a wide variety of pollinators and is especially favored by lacewings, a beneficial insect, for egg-laying habitat. Really though, thyme is a wonderful plant, and an herb that everyone should have in their garden. Thyme benefits and uses don’t stop at essential oil, thyme is also one powerful herb can in your garden! This herb has traditionally been associated with courage, with medieval women giving sprigs of thyme to knights going into battle; it has also been used as an herbal remedy for a host of ailments. Lemon thyme plants do well in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 through 9 remaining evergreen in zones 8 and 9. Unfortunately, woolly thyme is just for landscaping purposes, as it doesn’t have much of a flavor at all! It’s that time of year when I thank myself once again for planting thyme. Outside of the kitchen, growing thyme as a landscaping plant in rock gardens and alongside patios is hugely popular, thanks to its tolerance for dry, hot conditions. If you are picking new growth in the springtime, the stems will be tender enough to just cut up and use along with the leaves. In this way, as with other magical herbs such as rosemary, burning thyme offers many more benefits than just flavoring the food. Learn more. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. The leaves are small but incredibly flavorful. Thyme is great at keeping many types of worms away. It is very common to use thyme in the form of spices. It will often thrive in places where other plants won’t, such as dry and rocky areas. Please see my Privacy Policy. What varieties do you have? Traditional Chinese Medicine uses thyme to aid colds, skin infections, and parasites to help support immunity against infections. I have common thyme and lemon thyme in my garden, and like you I used it all the time. Vitamin C boosts your immunity, and so thyme is useful in fighting cold and mild infections. Besides these, headache, bronchitis, indigestion, gas, stomach and rheumatism pain is good, women’s menstrual cycle regulates, cholesterol reduces, strengthens the immune system. Thyme is very useful for our health. But in the fall and winter, the stems become more woody. I love grow thyme of all scents. It will often thrive in places where other plants won’t, such as dry and rocky areas. I guess that’s the one you have on the last picture in the post? Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *. My favorite creeping thyme variety is woolly thyme. Cabbage worms, corn earworms, and tomato worms, as … Powered by WordPress, my favorite herbs to grow in the medicine garden. I found it was the missing herb in my bread sticks. Fun post, Colleen! What to Forage in Fall: 30+ Edible and Medicinal Plants and Mushrooms, How to Make Soap For Beginners + Calendula Soap Recipe, Homemade Deodorant Recipe with Lavender and Sage, How to Make a Gallon of Mead: A Simple Mead Recipe. This is especially true in the fall, when the annual garden herbs like basil, parsley, and dill have died off. There are also creeping thyme varieties that are great as a ground cover, in between stepping stones, or in rock gardens. The flowers in the spring and early summer attract beneficial insects and bees (and are also tasty to eat!). Along with rosemary and sage, this trio of herbs are used all the time in my kitchen. They resist temperatures below freezing and are tolerant to dry conditions. Makes me want to make soup! Thyme tea can help to lower blood pressure, clear up respiratory infections, soothe a hacky cough, and lower … It is such a lovely herb to have on hand for so many reasons. By Jenny Hills, Nutritionist and Medical Writer Food & Nutrition. It’s a hardy herb that can survive the winter. 28 grams of fresh thyme; 1.6 grams of protein. The main constituent of thyme oil, thymol, lends most of its benefits to the plant. Since thyme contains both vitamin A and vitamin C, adding it to your diet can make up for the deficiency of these vitamins. Thyme in the Garden. Your email address will not be published. Thyme is a wonderful low maintenance plant to have in your garden (read: 6 Reasons to Grow Thyme). Growing thyme for its health benefits. There are definitely many benefits of thyme! Is there a easy way to dry it and do u have a good recipe for a tea? 6.8 grams of carbohydrate. Thyme loves well drained garden boxes that are filled with one part sand and one part soil mix. A few years ago a good garden friend gave me some Thymus vulgaris seeds, which I promptly planted in a deep-root seed-starter tray. I’m sure that you already knew that thyme could be used in cooking, but did you know that it is also good medicine? Thyme essential oils are also a great way to access the benefits of thyme quickly and easily. Cabbage worms, corn earworms, and tomato worms, as well as potato beetles. The easiest way I’ve found to use thyme with woody stems is to just toss in several whole sprigs into whatever you are cooking, then fish out the stems at the end. The thymol in thyme has many benefits as it is an antioxidant and has antibacterial, antimicrobial, antifungal, and wound healing properties. Thyme is a hardy perennial that doesn’t take a whole lot of work to keep around once established. It’s worth growing thyme for its fresh, delightful taste in … Feel free to grow it together with rosemary and wild thyme. And as you know, preserving water sources is essential for earth-conscious gardeners. I have to admit, fresh thyme is one of my favorite herbs to use when cooking. You can unsubscribe at any time. I want to inspire you to live seasonally, become more self sufficient, and protect your health. A delicate-looking herb with a strong fragrance, thyme can be a wonderful addition to a variety of dishes. Enjoyed very much your post on thyme! 4: Thyme attracts beneficial insects and pollinators. It also has substantial healing, purifying, and liberating power.