It’s spring. And one of my favorite cues to this wonderful fact is the sweet sticky musky smell of cottonwood buds right before they burst open.

When I was living in Bozeman, Montana almost twenty years ago, a busy massage therapist friend sent me out to the Missouri River to collect a jar full of cottonwood buds. She was urgent. It must happen NOW, and I don’t have time! was her message, if not her exact words. And so, with no idea what I was doing or why, but happy for any excuse to wander around outside amongst trees and water carving through mountains, I went. No questions asked.

Now I know why she sent me. Cottonwood buds are major magic. They’re full of the salicylates that make aspirin do its pain-relieving/anti-inflammatory thing, so they’re a good place to turn when you feel achy and sore. Letting them soak and ooze their goodness into oil over the course of a few weeks or months, you end up with a cottonwood balm that’s perfect for massaging into sore muscles, aching joints, or a menstrual-crampy low belly and back. It’s also just a good-smelling moisturizer.

But that’s not all!

You can turn the oil into a salve by adding some melted beeswax and, wallah! You have a first-aid salve that helps skin cells regenerate quickly, reduces swelling, prevents infection, and helps with cold sores. It’s great for burns and chapped lips. You can also rub the salve or oil all over you before getting into the sauna or bathtub… the heat will drive its healing properties deeper into your skin AND immediately transport you to a creek bottom in Spring, ANY time of year!

And that’s STILL not all!

Cover those beautiful sticky buds with honey and you’ve got a tasty treat to stir into hot water any time you have a sore throat, a non-viral lung infection, or a cough asking for mucus to be expelled. Or you could just sweeten your tea with it because it’s like drinking Spring.

Ditto with alcohol. Make a tincture and dissolve a dropper-full in hot water for sore throats and as an expectorant.

SO yes. Riparian Zone Nymph that I am, I have become pretty darn attached to collecting cottonwood buds every Spring in the years since my first mysterious assignment. We were so busy with moving and hemp farming at this time last year that we didn’t get a chance to collect ANY! And that was sad.

But yesterday, the Woodsman and I went over the creek and through the woods to a friends’ property on Carberry Creek and collected over six pounds of buds in a couple hours!

And I remembered once again that the medicinal qualities of the things we wildcraft are contained in so much more than the chemical compounds we can name but hardly say—like salycilate.

The healing lies, as well, in the things we can feel, smell, hear, see, and pronounce:

The golden hearts cottonwoods scatter on forest floors come autumn.

The rustling sound and dancing shade the leaves make midsummer.

The rushing water we find them near.

The experience of seeking them out, of getting sun-kissed and covered in sticky resin in the cool spring air, of working silently with friends.

This, this is the medicine, too.

Find some Cottonwood magic in our shop, with some Cottonwood Bud Oil, Meadow Magic Salve, and more:)