Natural Medicine Kit Essential: People's Paste

Awhile ago, I promised to occasionally describe elements of our family's natural medicine kit. Well, here is another one, with a guest post from my Beloved!

Calvin shared this remedy from his childhood with me, and I'm so thankful he did. (He's usually the one that needs it, but with two little ones, it's great to have on hand!) Here is what he says...

People’s paste was often reached for by my parents as a natural antibacterial ointment. Many, many scrapes and bike injuries were quickly covered with the green goo. In every instance, infection was avoided and the wound was allowed to heal without synthetic antibiotics and petroleum-based products.

People’s paste is a mixture of equal parts myrrh powder, slippery elm bark powder, and goldenseal powder. The powders are thoroughly mixed, and brought to a paste form by stirring in raw honey. The paste is spread over cuts and punctures and let to dry to form a “scab” (the slippery elm bark can create its own "bandage"). Apply a band-aid or gauze over the injury, if desired, to prevent the dried the dried paste from falling off, or from getting wet & turning back into goo!

The dried people’s paste on your wound should be carefully reconstituted and dabbed off with a small amount of warm water and replaced with a clean application of paste at least once a day. Because people’s paste is so effective at drawing infection out of a wound, it’s important to remove the old “contaminated” paste regularly.

All of the components of people’s paste contain potent antimicrobial properties, while the raw honey also aids in tissue repair.

People’s paste may be made as needed, or a larger batch may be stored for future emergencies. People’s paste may become hard if stored for any length of time. This can be remedied by either mixing in more raw honey, or filtered water.