Echinacea! Provider Style!

Where are our echinacea tea lovers at?
By: Provider Staffer- Jen Cordaro

Today I harvested the very first echinacea (E. angustifolia, E. purpurea, E. pallida.) or “coneflower” blooms of the year. They’ll continue to push up and by the end of the season we’ll have enough homegrown echinacea for tea, tinctures and edible goodies. The entire plant is useable for different applications. The flowers and leaves are edible and most commonly used for tea, the roots and stems for other medicinal uses, like tinctures. Echinacea can be found in the wild in central and eastern US. I live in California so I grow it in my medicinal garden. It’s an awesome pollinator plant to ensure a healthy garden and it’s beautiful to look at. The harvest is a bonus.

Echinacea is thought to reduce inflammation and strengthen the immune system. It’s typically used to help fight colds, flus and other viruses and is typically safe for most people to take medicinally for up to ten days.

*echinacea is related to ragweed and sunflower. If you have an allergy to ragweed (or sunflower, less common), you should avoid echinacea.