For kids, spring tonic usually meant stomaching a mixture of equal parts sulfur and molasses, thought to thin or purify the blood and “get rid of that lazy feeling.”
Sassafras was another common remedy and good “sweater-outer” of fevers. Old timers believed if you drank sassafras in March you wouldn’t need a doctor the rest of the year.
Other popular preventatives included:
* a tea made from yellowroot, wild cherry, tuliptree bark, and “white lightnin’”
* eating rhubarb weekly during spring
* taking anvil dust mixed with cream
* drinking a concoction of rusty nails soaked in water
One Comment
You left out ramps, straight from the ground, or cut up in your Ramen noodles. After a few they are quite the spring purgitive. Although not a spring tonic, sumac berry tea was a Cherokee drink. It is very nice iced on a hot late summer’s day. Tastes a bit like lemonade.