​The enduring power of chamomile

By Michael M. Miller

michael.miller@ndsu.edu

The Northwest Blade, from Eureka, South Dakota, published a wonderful story in August 2020. It’s called “Granddaughter keeps Grandmother’s precious chamomile seeds,” by Cindy Schumacher. Cindy wrote about the experiences of Judy Hooff. Judy grew up in Eureka, founded in 1887, once called the “Breadbasket of the World” for its many wheat elevators and the trains that transported the grain to the rest of the country.

When she was a first grader, Judy Hooff lived with her grandparents, Christian and Christina (Neuharth) Opp and Gottfried and Eva Helfenstein. She recalled her Grandma Opp introduced her to chamomile tea, which she grew in her garden. She picked the flowers, dried them in newspapers and stored the chamomile in mason jars.

“Grandma thought that chamomile tea was the cure-all for just about anything that ailed me,” said Hooff, “Tea compresses were applied to my eyes if I had pinkeye, or she used a tea if I had a tummy ache. I’ve been told women had sewn chamomile and vermouth seeds into the hems of their dresses before their departure. I’m fairly certain the seeds would have been confiscated upon their arrival to America.”

“Hooff said she felt strongly about preserving her grandmother’s tea, which was the same strain of chamomile her ancestors brought with them from Germany and Russia when they immigrated to America,” Cindy Schumacher continued to write in her story. “On a visit to Eureka 40 years after moving away, Hooff found chamomile flowers growing where her grandparents’ house had been. Even though most of the farms she remembered as a child are gone, she found chamomile still thriving around the foundation.”

“Chamomile was everywhere, and these seeds were from my grandmother’s garden,” Hooff remarked. “I was determined to bring chamomile back to Portland. I tried planting it in my garden but was unsuccessful due to the moist northwestern climate.”

In 1998, Russia made chamomile the official flower. The flower is an adorable little bloom with snow white petals and bright yellow center. It is cultivated in Russia and some parts of Asia. Found almost everywhere in the vast country, even in Siberia, the flower is deeply rooted in Russian culture.

Chamomile originated in Europe and west Asia. Since ancient times, it has been highly valued by the Egyptians, Romans and Greeks for its medicinal properties. Chamomile is a common name for several daisy-like plants. Two of the species are commonly used to make herbal infusions for traditional medicine, and there is some evidence that chamomile has an impact on health. The name chamomile comes from Greek and means “earth apple.”

Today, the more popular application for chamomile is herbal tea. Around the world, people consume more than one million cups a day.

I have fond childhood memories in the 1950s of my grandmother Odellia (Wolf) Baumgartner growing chamomile in her large garden at Strasburg, North Dakota. Visiting the Welk Homestead State Historic Site, much chamomile was growing near the summer kitchen like when Ludwig and Christina (Schwahn) Welk homesteaded in 1893.

“I can say that we always used chamomile tea in Kazakhstan,” wrote Lena Wolf, of London, England, who emigrated from Kazakhstan to Germany in the 1990s. “I will drink it every day in London.”

“In my childhood, (in) Hutchinson County, South Dakota, chamomile grew wild in the farmyards,” said Allyn Brosz, a Washington, D.C. resident and native of Tripp, South Dakota. “Our neighbors picked the plants and laid them out on the enclosed porch on old sheets to dry. The dried flowers and leaves were then crushed and placed in a glass jar to provide tea throughout the winter. The smell of the drying chamomile was wonderful.”

“I grew up at Eureka in the 1940s and 50s,” added Ted Hovland of Lincoln, Nebraska on the GRHC Facebook page. “My grandmother, Elisabeth Lidele, came from Russia in 1885. She was part of our family the first 18 years of my life, in the same house she had lived in since it was built in 1914. Wild chamomile grew in the back yard. She would pick the blossoms and dry them on a dish towel in the guest bedroom, then store them in an oatmeal box. She called it ‘camilia’ tea. Sometimes that sweetened tea and a plate-sized piece of fried bread would be our supper. Whenever I was sick as a child, I would be on the road to recovery when my mother, Adina Liedle Egeland, would bring me a cup of ‘camilia’ tea sweetened with honey to drink. I still keep a box of chamomile tea in my kitchen.”

“I grew up in 1948 with chamomile tea,” wrote JoAnne Iszler, a Three Forks, Montana resident and native of Ashley, North Dakota. “We got this for colds, tummy aches, and other things that were wrong. We had tons of it growing behind the house. When I was little, I’d sit down in it and pick the little yellow flowers and mom could dry them. We always had it on hand. Sometimes relatives would come for visits and I’d pick it and they’d pay me 50 cents for a sack paper bag. I thought I’d made a ton of money. The chamomile tea you buy in little bags have nowhere near the wonderful taste as brewing the flowers. I’d love to find a way to get some started in a little patch. Even the smell was comforting.”

“My mother also grew chamomile and anytime I was ill, it was brewed,” said Linda Brook, of Eureka. “Still love it to this day.”

“We had a great aunt who had no lawn in her lot, all chamomile,” shared Don Sayler. “We picked every year. Great stuff. Just add some sugar.”

Jennifer Sik, of Farmington, Minnesota added, “When we visited my grandmother in Eureka, she would make that tea for us grandkids when we weren’t feeling well.”

“As luck would have it, I still have a canister full of Grandma’s hand-picked chamomile,” said Judy Graham Thornton Barnes of Rupert, Idaho. “I plan to tie a photocopy of the Northwest Blade article onto that canister so family can understand its importance after I’m gone.”

GRHC published the book, “Tender Hands: Ruth’s Story of Healing,” by Ruth Weil Kusler, of Beulah, North Dakota, born in 1908. Ruth’s mother, Katharina Fischer, taught her tender hands and healing prayers of Brauche. Katharina was born in Neu Glückstal, South Russia, where she learned Brauche from her mother, Christina (Kirschenmann) Fischer. The book documents medicinal remedies, including the use of chamomile for bleeding, constipations, shingles and sore eyes. This book is available at the GRHC website: https://grhc-northdakotastate-ndus.nbsstore.net/tender-hands.

For more information about donating family histories and photographs, or how to financially support the GRHC, contact Jeremy Kopp, at jeremy.kopp@ndsu.edu or 701-231-6596; mail to: NDSU Libraries, Dept. 2080, PO Box 6050, Fargo, N.D. 58108-6050; or go to www.ndsu.edu/grhc. You may also contact me directly at michael.miller@ndsu.edu or 701-231-8416.