My grandma lived to the ripe old age of 93 so I remember most of the advice she gave me.
She was always a glass-half-full type, and if there were lemons, we made lemonade for sure. Here are 7 of her tips straight from the horse’s mouth.
Sweet As Honey
Most of you know that honey is used in cold remedies. However, my grandma taught me that honey is the cure for embarrassment too because when dandruff dusted my shoulders as a teenager, she made a potion with a jar of honey that I will never forget.
She mixed 3 teaspoons of honey in a bowl with 3 teaspoons of vegetable oil, which she stirred into a paste, and then covered my hair with it. Nowadays I guess we call this conditioner.
She left it on there for about 20 minutes and rinsed it off to reveal shiny hair with no white flakes on my black sweater. Use it weekly to prevent dandruff.
Wart Removal
All parts of the dandelion are edible except the stem.
Although the sap in the stem is an irritant and can cause upset stomachs if consumed, it also has an ancient use. My grandma showed me how to pick a stem and examine the sap that oozes out.
You can place this directly on a wart without touching it, and the sap works on that! If you reapply the sap every week for about 5-6 weeks, the warts seem to turn black and eventually just drop off.
Emergency First Aid Grandma Style
Many of you know if you get stung by nettles, reach for a dock leaf and rub the sting vigorously to help
Mullein
To stop a bleeding cut, Grandma used to look around for a rosette of light green, furry leaves with a central flower stalk. This is Mullein. Try wrapping a whole soft leaf around the area after cleaning the wound with a little water.
Related: 15 Survival Plants You Should Hide From Your Neighbours
Cattails
If you walk near a pond, you may see Cattails growing, which were used by Native Americans as food but also as wound healers.
Dig out a piece of the root, cut it through the center, and wrap it around the affected area. Use grass or a leaf to tie it in position, if you don’t have plasters or bandages. It stops bleeding and helps to heal wounds.
Aloe Vera
At home, if you have a cut or a sting, my Grandma’s traditional way was magic. “This is magical stuff,” she used to say while cutting a piece from an Aloe Vera leaf.
She cut off the spiky edges to reveal clear gel inside, and watching her stopped my tears instantly.
Modern science shows that Aloe Vera does indeed help wounds. Just wipe any wound with it. You can freeze tiny strips of leftover leaf to use to soothe burns in the future, straight from the freezer.
Mosquito Repellent
If you dread getting bitten outdoors at dusk, Grandma grew lavender close to the seating area and told us to sit next to it on a terrace. Another idea is to pick fresh lavender and place it on the table to keep mosquitoes at bay.
⇒ Buy Here Lavender Seeds And Other Seeds You Need To Start Your Medicinal Herb Garden
Other plants mosquitoes loathe include strong-smelling herbs like basil, elderflower, rosemary, or mint so put a few decorative sprigs of herbs and lavender with elderflower leaves and twigs to turn those mozzies around.
Elder – One Tree For Sore Eyes Or Flu Remedies
Elderflowers have a sweet delicate taste that Grandma used to make lemonade in May, and she explained that elderflowers are also an antihistamine if you take them before the worst of the pollen is airborne.
The flower infusion can be tried as an eyewash for sore eyes affected by pollen.
Cut several bunches of flowers, remove the stems, and place them in a bowl of water and leave it covered for 3-4 hours. Then fill a glass to wash each eye out carefully to soothe the soreness.
Grandma always advised leaving some flowers or there would be no berries. These berries make a fantastic cough mixture so pick them when they are all black from September onward.
Elderberries contain Sambucol, which in recent tests cured flu in less time than conventional over-the-counter medication, so my grandma knew what she was talking about.
To make the cough mixture, remove any stem or green berries, use 2 cups of berries to 1 cup of sugar, add a little water to cover the berries, and bring it to a boil. You can add spices like cloves, cinnamon, or whatever you like.
I can still hear Grandma saying as it comes to a boil, “Don’t boil away all the goodness!” so turn down that heat, add the juice of a lemon, and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
Then strain the mixture into clean bottles to remove the seeds. Take a spoonful a day as a preventative.
When you feel a cold or flu coming on, take two spoonfuls a day. It is best to make it fresh when needed, as the mixture will only last a month in the fridge.
Nothing Is Wasted
My grandma believed in no waste, so almost everything was reused or composted before it ever ended up in the trash. All glass jars with lids were carefully washed and stored for making preserves and canning.
Old newspapers were wrapped around presents which were then decorated with colored pens. Nettle soup was a favorite in her house. Stale bread was saved for Sunday roast stuffing, or she made bread and butter pudding.
Save any stale bread in a bag and then butter it in a baking dish, add layers of fresh raspberries and strawberry or homemade jelly, top it with milk, and then bake it for 20 minutes until soft.
Broken cup handles were glued together again, and eggshells were crumbled around new seedlings, while bones from dinner made soup the following day.
Winter pudding used blackberries, leftover apples, dried raisins, or canned fruit. To see more about canning, see the next tip.
A Full Root Cellar
My grandma always worried that a thick snowfall would cut us off from transport and the local store. That’s why she had a root cellar and she taught me the skill of canning and making preserves.
She accepted donations from neighbors and rewarded them with a jar of jelly. If you don’t have an orchard, then visit a fruit farm and pick strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, apricots, and plums in summer.
Pears and apples come a bit later in the fall. Eat everything you can fresh but the rest can be made into jelly, canned, made into juice or wine, or dehydrated.
If you don’t have a root cellar, learn here how to build your own root cellar for cheap and keep all the jars and supplies organized.
Wild fruit depends on your state but can include blackberries, rosehips, passionfruit, sloes, and many fruits picked by Native Americans including cranberries, chokecherries, huckleberries, and prickly pears.
“Wear gloves!” was grandma’s advice as some of this fruit also has thorns. Learn how to collect fruit, add sugar, and boil it so that it will set, and then make a cool storage area in your cupboard for sweet treats in winter.
You already have a stash of jars from tip 6, so sterilize them and then fill them with fruit jelly.
No matter what happened during the day grandma always said “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger”.
I still say this to my child because her philosophy means I am at peace at bedtime and it does not fester inside. I prefer to only hold onto the advice that makes me smile or is still useful.
So now my 7 tips are safely passed on to you. Here’s hoping my Grandma’s tips help you!
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I was young kid learning about life through people than from books back then. One grandma lived in the small town, grandpa worked on the railroad. The other grandma lived on the farm, grandpa was a farmer of course.
Got to see the changes of both sets as they worked to retirement. This gave clues to what growing up would be like.
It’s not all about prepping for food and bugout skills. It also includes living life not totally wrapped up in the insane world we have presently.
We need to stop an smell the roses or that first cup of coffee, enjoy that moment of solitude and joy.
We need to have a balance in life. There will always be rich, poor, happy, sad. Insane and criminally insane people. Religious or not that make up our world.
To present we have the greedy, mentally incompetent ruling our country and other world governments. We Americans have a fighting spirit that has been attacked in various ways more or less. In the last part of the 20th century to our present 21st century life.
We are better than most people to take back our God given country along with our indigenous Native American Brothers and Sisters.
What are we waiting for?
It’s our land, our country, born, raised here. It’s not the present company we see in the East leading us down the path to doom and gloom.
It’s our country not their ultimate communism goal they want.
What do we want as native born, naturalized, legal citizens of America?
We see the physically fit lifestyle people we grew up in a high school setting. Are now fat obese ninnies, couch potatoes jammy on crappy feminized music.
What is needed is more testosterone guys with balls to do things. Not necessary the Macho Man stuff, but real guys not the tranny tyranny soft gut guys today.
Will we survive the next election or gone down in flames by weak men and women?
Ever see those fat obese females dancing around commercial. Saying I got diabetes, that is pathetic, should be ashamed you got that way. Yes there are natural overweight people due to medical problems.
We are seeing people who should quit stuffing their faces full of food.
It is like the we are being made to celebrate fatness. Weak people, weak military for our home land security.
Look what we got in the White House in charge, weak women too.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
Walk in Beauty
BRETT: We live in the East, and we are NOTHING LIKE THE BLUE FREAKS OF ALBANY NOR NEW YORK CITY REGIONS! As a matter of fact, we resent them deeply, for the garbage they foist on us, just for living within 6 hours of our part of the State. I know PLENTY of New York Residents who have BEGGED to have NYC area become a different state for decades!! We, here locally, are mostly patriots, more or less self-sufficient as much as possible, and believe in small government. Please don’t blame ALL people from the East for what the big city people try to force upon us! I, LIKE MANY IN OUR REGION, grew up on a farm and in a tiny church…..
And please don’t even get me started on the liberals of New Jersey, PA, Delaware and the D.C. Swamp people!! But even amongst them, there are some good people…a few at least!
Correctamundo!
Now you see what I’m getting at. We need your fire in the soul and others, to take back our country, our America!
The major cities are typically full of liberals who like big gov’t, free stuff.
Otherwise if not true, these big cities would be balanced in peace.
So far they have too much chaos.
We need that fire in the belly, like those Antifa and BLM protesters did to our America. Grassroots American patriotic enthusiasm is the way so far. Those Marxist activist and politicians are ruining our America.
Stand up and fight the right way. The left don’t play by America’s rules as we have seen, since Biden took tyrannical power to new limits.
People thought Jimmie Carter was a bad president. This clown is the worst. And liberal people will vote him into office again. Or try CA governor Newsom, M. Obama. Even revive H.Clit-on, who started the fake Soviet monkey court dossier prosecution of a political competitor.
I too lived in a small town , unaware of the reality of people and evil that lerks in the citys
woke up one day and found i had to start life , went out to see what was there , got in trouble , learned people were , selfish, narcisistic and wanted desparately to satisfy themselves by distructuction with alcholhol and drugs , medicated to the max
My Grandmother prayed , read the bible , loved Jesus , went to church and regularly read the scriptures to learn truth
My parent s Drank , Smoked , had nine kids and Did NOT have a clue
The Moral of the Story is : God saves, People Destroy lives of selves and others who get in way
Good , Common Sense Values are learned, taught , trained and practiced
when you live to excess there is alway s a cost , later on in life
I found salvation as a 21 year old who was on my way following every fool out there who taught self distruction , learned not to trust people and how they really acted in selfish greed and lust to satisfy themselves
Good Food , Good living , Moderation and Education ( not propaganda from the TV ) The Answer
Truth is there if you really want it .
The ways of a person, Man, Woman is Death and Distruction
But the Gift of God is a way of Escape thru Jesus Christ who came to forgive, and love mankind to save them from thier self distruction .
John 14:6 , John 3:all chapter , James 1: all , Hebrews 11: all way of life , peace , forgiveness
ONE thing all must learn :
NOT to take things, others, people for granted
appreciation
Thankfulness
paying for what you get and giving value to others for thier labor
learn not to waste , and manage what you have for other uses
be smart about what you throw out and how to reuse
I knew my grandparents, was too young to learn from them the traditional ways.
During my learning grade school years my Mom past on some old cookbooks grandma had. I learned to cook and bake from those notes and my Mom’s guiding help.
In high school we had home economics and shop classes for the boy’s and girl’s. Sometimes we all could take both to be better in life.
Presently we don’t see that type of education in public schools. We got kids on smartphones manipulated by social media and playing games.
Coach potato’s, we need kids playing physical sports and competition activities outdoor stuff.
My grandparents taught me how to love, how to plant a garden, how to make butter, how to wash clothes on a washboard and how to persevere and be strong. It makes me sad to see the young people now without any survival skills or even the desire to learn them. I feel they will be needed someday.
Truly works –I cut my thumb with a slicer and it was running blood, not just dripping.
I used cayenne to cover the slit and it stopped the bleeding so I could bandage it.
James Stone,
Your another liberal exposed for wearing your religious beliefs on your shirt sleeve.
Who gives you the right to be an obnoxious Bible thumper. God did not say go forth an blather Bible verses all daylong. Jesus was a man of action, doing, leading by example.
Too many Jesus freaks think memorizing Bible verses is the way to change men and women to God . It’s not what God or Jesus intended, anymore than personal misrepresentation of cherry picked verses to demean the general public. Religion is the opiate of the masses so religious leaders can control. Freethinking can see who God really is, not by what the organized religions want us to believe in.
We can agree to disagree in religious dogma.
Amen
Both my grand parents taught me a lot, they were old school. They spoke their mind didn’t worry about offering anyone. They taught us from early childhood that we all came in this world the same way. We are not any better that ANYONE else and that works both ways, others are no better than us. Grandpa taught us if you shoot something you eat it! While Grandma taught us how to prepare about anything to where it was good no matter what it was. She was the best cook around, and when you came into the house, be prepared because she was going to see that you had something to eat, no matter who you were. He taught us how to hunt and trap and fish! She taught us there was always a way of preparing about anything to where you could eat it. They both believed in a hard days work and you would never want for anything! They both lived well into their 90s!
See that is a good conversation we need on this website. Thanks!
Depending on how we grew up, unless they had a preacher for a parent. We were taught to be kind, the golden rule stuff. Don’t talk to strangers.
Keep religion on a personal level. Then there was the Watch Tower people who were the original Bible thumpers knocking on doors. Preaching end times to the supposed unbelievers in their life bubbles.
That was what I refer to, it’s good to be religious, but not fanatical about God.
Free speech in this country plus freedom of religion. You are trying to deny both. If you don’t like those constitutional rights go somewhere else. You are an obnoxious know it all that knows nothing.
CD Jones
The constitution also protected people FROM religion. It’s called the separation of church and state.
Growing up in the 50’s & 60’s we spent a lot of time with family and grandparents. You learned from the knowledge passed down from your grandparents and you learned to respect your elders and those of authority. There’s not much of that from the younger generations today. If you wanted to make a phone call you were sure to carry a pocket full of change for the pay phone. It only cost a dime to make a call, but you collected pop bottles for the deposit to get the money. Cell phones didn’t exist and when you wanted to talk to someone, you called them. Texting wasn’t even a word in the dictionary. An allowance was a luxury that you seldom saw. You made money washing neighbors cars and mowing lawns. The TV had only 2 or 3 channels and they weren’t a standard household item. We spent a lot of Friday night’s listening to the radio comedies and dramas. It was family time. I spent my summers with my grandparents in North Dakota. Gramps worked for NP/RR as a machinist in the round house and Gram ran the home. If I wasn’t out fishing at the river, which I did almost daily, I walked to town with my grandfather on the occasional Saturday morning to get a haircut. Along the way we’d pause to talk to merchants that he knew. Mid-summer we would drive up to the family farm/homestead and get a couple of gunny sacks full of chickens (25-30) for 50 cents each, to butcher and freeze for the winter. It was up to me to chase down the headless chickens that jumped out of the barrel when gramps cut off their heads. Unfortunately, all that’s left of those simpler times is the memories of when one income could support a family. Fast forward to today! You need at least two jobs to just buy a home or pay the rent. We have runaway inflation, food shortages, highest cost of living in decades, open unabated looting and crime and a failed justice system due to lack of prosecution. No respect for the law or an individuals’ rights. Technology, good and bad is running our lives. Obviously, there are those that are above the law. No one is held accountable for their actions, especially if you have political clout. Now days we have a double standard legal system. One for the common man and one for the elitist’s in power. If we manage to stay out of war, the next big impact or downfall to our way of life will be the Artificial Intelligence. “Rise of the Machines” sound familiar? As preppers or survivalist, all we can do is to do what we do best. Stay alert, continue to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Stay vigilant and keep the faith.
Grandparents are our key to our living history to learn from.
Amen to what you say Chuck. Believe the smartphone and social media has made younger generations narcissistic of America.
Which is probably why people voted for Biden the liar.
Biden was in Maui telling fibs, about his kitchen fire, cat and corvette almost catching on fire.
One time $700USD to Maui families. Ongoing to Ukraine get about 1500, while illegals in America get around $2000USD. Never cared about politics until we are being squeezed of our hard earned money given to the undeserved here.
We need an American reset back to our roots of being independent. Back to common decency than the pendulum swings we see everyday here.
Amen!? Amen!? Seriously how dare you imply a religious prayer in your comment? Hypocrite.
CD Jones; is one of the sensitive types, easily offended by the Gentiles, who have a different perspective outlook. Why do you get your panties in a bunch of different opinions? Narrow minded religious bigotry as mentioned by Arse p. in his rant.
Yes AMEN to what Chuck and others say.
The free speech and the Constitution protects us from commingling of Church and State progressiveness.
There are many levels and layers of religions practiced. Likewise the same for prepping too.
There are Christian, non-Christians, Eastern religious people who are also preppers. Bible thumpers don’t have exclusive rights to prepping only. So there you are!
My grandma lived across the street from me and my mom and dad up until I was 10. Since my parents couldn’t afford any treats, I would go over to my grandma’s when I was desperate. She would break apart a piece of white bread into a bowl, add a couple teaspoons of sugar, and top with about a half to a cup of milk. Boy, that was good — back then!
Oh, gosh….You are the first I have ever heard relate this…ours was a biscuit if any left over and then it was white bread….a sugar sandwich.
My late husband said he had mayo sandwiches after school.
One of my favorite treats at my grandma’s house. I even give it to my kids once in a while.
My Italian grandmother always said: “courtesy doesn’t cost anything.” It was her way of making communications easy and valuable. And it helped me tame my bad temper. It still does.
My mothers mother,1876-1970 died when I was 23. I loved going to visit her as often as possible. She and both of my parents, 1904-2000 and 1907-1981, all saw the Spanish Flu, WW1, The Great Depression, WW2, the Korean War, and stamps in a book that controlled what and how much of any item you were able to buy. It covered more than just food. Vehicle tires and other things were also covered. The saw commodity giveaways and the early free medical care and food for the poor. They never applied for those things. They worked harder, grew more, canned more, and shared with neighbors when hard times and losses came to others around them.
I’m great full for that example and the knowledge they passed on to me and to my children. I’m not young; born in 1947, but I still garden, pressure can, sun dry, and plant more and more perennials that will produce for years to come. In my climate artichokes aren’t perennials but strawberries, rhubarb, and asparagus, fruit trees, bushes and berry or grape vines will live and produce food for decades. So this year I’ve concentrated on planting those things while reclaiming a decades long fallow garden area. I’m loving the hard work and seeing things growing where only rabbit bushes have survived for years, growing higher than my head.
Last year I taught my younger son to pressure can. He loved it and took my mothers pressure canner I’d offered and found another used one to put with it. I’ve now found several women from 30s to 50 who want to learn to pressure can. I’ll be sharing what I do and pointing them in the direction of new canning books and supplies. I keep gathering jars and lids. I have 2 pressure canners and 5 water bath canners.
I’ll say thanks again to a lady from this site that sent me 8 dz new canning jars a few years ago when my jars were all destroyed and I couldn’t buy more. I’m still passing on that blessing in whatever way I can.
I was taught to sew, embroidery, knitting, tanning, tooling leather, crochet, shade tree auto mechanics, construction from stem wall to roof including wiring and plumbing, how to set up camp, fishing, trapping crawdads, camp craft, cooking on a fire, cooking and baking for the family, and how to make and stick to a budget and more. I went foraging with Mom to get dinner for the two of us when Dad worked nights and was in college full time. They made learning and hard work a fun learning experience. I started earning my own money from age 5 on. I paid tithes, budgeted for things I wanted. I’m learned to save to buy things I’d set a goal to get. Example at 9 I bought imported German binoculars so Mom and I could go birdwatching. When I set that goal she bought bird books so we could identify the birds we saw. She also bought “goldfinch”, a card game played with many kinds of birds to be matched. I still love learning and reading.
My parents and grandparents had found hard work and learning were always available even when money wasn’t available.
Knowledge, prayer, and hard work saved my life during some really bad times I’ve lived through.
My grandfather taught me to read the labels on packaged and canned foods to avoid chemical additives/preservatives. He taught me how to identify the markings on the bottoms of Asian pottery and ceramics. My grandmother taught me how to recognize the constellations and major stars. She taught me how to appreciate God’s creations in nature. They taught me how to forage, pick, and prepare huckleberries.
Most of the white Texans of my parent’s and grandparent’s generation were intolerant, narrow minded, small town bigots. Didn’t like my grandparents, but Grandpa taught me a real man keeps a garden and, after a hard day, sits in the shade and drinks beer. Grandma taught me food prep and preserving. Their prejudice made them miserable, happily my Dad was an agnostic egalitarian combat vet who hated war and the government and was skeptical of everything he was told. So that’s who I learned from.
I knew you are one of us, welcome to the troll’s club, love you sweetie!
I just want to say, good article. I’m trying every day to be more like my grandparents.
Thanks, All for stirring up memories! Those of us born in the FORTYS learned so much from grandparents, parents and other family members, neighbors, friends! Hopefully we have been able to pass on what we learned in those early years, to our grandchildren, nieces, nephews, children in your neighborhoods! Thanks for sharing!
Hi CD Jones and other religious zealots here,
We trolls have been watching you and believe you are a closet religious trolls.
It’s the religious one’s who have no humor. Your too wrapped up in religion and get easily offended. If people don’t toe your line of religious fascism.
You are the Oppressive, dictatorial control freaks.
Religion is personal to most of us. A lot of wars are started from religious differences. Are you guys trying that here too?
The Bible Thumpers will have some advantages when SHTF. 1) They likely will be surrounded by others, of like mind, to provide mutual assistance. 2) They will have an “overcomer” mindset, unaffected by the panic of non-believers or lukewarm believers. Thumping in today’s society requires a lot of courage and devotion, both of which is needed when things become chaotic. Dislike for the thumpers isn’t new, but it’s always been the thumpers who emerge on the other side. Keep on Thumping.
My love was from near Albany. Her family practiced home, family, farm to their end. I grew up in Wisconsin. With the same values. That is why for 18 years we never disagreed. Work together, prepare for the difficult times, AND Love your family!
Well grandma taught me how to hunt and to whittle, taught me how to work and play a tune on the fiddle. Taught me how to…. wait that was grandpa not grandma.
I appreciate the comments from the posters born before the 60’s because it seems they were taught by their parents and / or grandparents how to survive without depending on government hand-outs
Please keep sharing your knowledge with us (me)
Thank you for sharing
May Great Spirit make sunrise in your heart .
This is outside the box but my grandma tought me that if you fight for the Wright reasons you will never truly ever loose a fight. I love my grandma she was my best friend she passed away ? ?. I miss her still every single day.