October 1, 2026: Fall Harvest Week — Three Herbs for Your Heart, Your Gut, and Your Circulation

October is here, and around here the season has tipped. The mornings have a bite, the leaves are turning, and along hedgerows and field edges the hawthorns are hung with small red fruit that were pink-white blossoms back in May. The first frost usually holds off until the second half of the month, and that's the clock this week's plants are running on: some sweeten or ripen up with the cold, some are ready to dig now that the plant has pulled its energy underground.

Two of this week's herbs grow on opposite sides of the continent, and the third comes from the mountains of Eurasia. Each comes with a caveat worth knowing, so we'll start with the plant you may already have nearby.

Hawthorn is a thorny shrub or small tree in the rose family, with toothed, lobed leaves, pinkish-white flowers in May and June, and red fruit that ripens September through November. C. monogyna has one seed per berry, but there are more than 280 Crataegus species and herbalists use them similarly. This is the same tree we covered in May, when the issue was about its leaf and flower. This week is its fall fruit, and because the big studies tested the leaf and flower, we'll cover that part too. One note: C. monogyna is introduced and sometimes invasive in the US, so a native species is a better choice where you can find one.

Self-Harvest: Hawthorn grows in hedgerows, woodland edges, and old fields across much of the country, and it's easy to spot right now by the red fruit. Make sure you have a confident ID of the tree before you eat anything, and wear thick gloves, because the thorns are sharp.
Buy It: Starwest Botanicals sells organic whole hawthorn berries from Bulgaria and Croatia in 4 oz and 1 lb sizes, and Mountain Rose Herbs carries organic whole dried C. monogyna berries in retail and bulk sizes, which helps if you plan to make a big batch of cordial.

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Gather haws in September into October, when they're fully red and ripe. Sort out anything rotten or moldy first.

Leaf and flower (not in season now): the parts the big trials tested come in spring. Elise Krohn says they're usually ready in early May, when the flowers are just opening, and she gathers them by pruning small, healthy branches. Bloom time shifts with your weather and region, so go by the tree, but put May on your calendar. To dry them, hang the branches or lay them in baskets or paper bags until the leaves and flowers come off easily. Mountain Rose Herbs suggests discarding the stems and spines when drying.

Tea (decoction): a decoction is a tea simmered rather than steeped, which works better for tough berries. One source gives 2 g of dried berries per day for a sore throat, while herbalist Rosalee de la Forêt lists up to 30 g per day, since hawthorn is a foodlike herb. Starwest's package directions are simpler: 1–2 tsp in 8 oz boiling water, covered, 3–4 minutes.
Tincture: de la Forêt uses fresh berries 1:1 in 40–60% alcohol. For dried berries, one herbal reference gives 1:5. Don't compare tincture amounts with dried-herb amounts; they aren't the same thing.
Cordial: per de la Forêt's Alchemy of Herbs, fill a quart jar with 1 cup (80 g) dried berries, apple, lemon zest, ginger, cardamom, vanilla, cinnamon, dried hibiscus, pomegranate juice and honey, top with brandy, and shake often for 4 weeks.
Drying: a dehydrator at 125–135°F works, or an oven around 140°F with the berries stirred now and then. After about 20 hours, squeeze one; a dry palm means done.
Leaf and flower tea (spring harvest): Krohn steeps it in boiled water for 15 minutes and drinks up to three cups a day. Rosalee de la Forêt lists up to 30 g of leaf and flower per day.
Leaf and flower tincture (spring harvest): de la Forêt gives dried leaf and flower at 1:5 in 30% alcohol, 5 mL three times a day. Krohn covers fresh or dried material with brandy or vodka for at least 2 weeks and takes 30–40 drops three to four times a day. Those doses differ a lot, so don't treat either one as a standard. De la Forêt notes that large amounts of leaf and flower may upset the stomach.

Heart and circulatory support: hawthorn is traditionally used for the cardiovascular system, and it works slowly, so expect to take it daily for at least 4–6 weeks before judging it.
Sluggish digestion: used in Chinese practice for food that seems to sit, usually as tea or cordial.
Seeds: like apple seeds, they can release cyanide in excess, so don't eat them by the handful.

Hawthorn can enhance the effects of heart, blood pressure, and lipid-lowering medications, so talk to a practitioner if you take any. That includes digitalis and beta blockers, and it shouldn't be used in diastolic congestive heart failure. It's not recommended in pregnancy, while nursing, or for children. Mild side effects reported include headache, nausea, and palpitations. Other safety measures may be appropriate for you. Always consult a physician.

The big hawthorn trials didn't test berries. SPICE (Holubarsch et al., European Journal of Heart Failure, 2008) followed 2,681 adults with heart failure who were already on standard therapy and gave them either a standardized leaf-and-flower extract (WS 1442, 900 mg a day) or a placebo for 24 months. Overall cardiac death wasn't significantly reduced, but in a prespecified subgroup with more reduced pumping function (LVEF, or left ventricular ejection fraction, of 25–35%), it dropped by about 39%. A Cochrane review (Guo, Pittler and Ernst, 2008) pooled double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of hawthorn extract and concluded it may be a useful add-on to conventional treatment. That's evidence for hawthorn, and for the leaf and flower in particular, which is why the spring harvest and preparation are covered above. The one fruit trial I found is smaller and didn't show a benefit. In a 2024 crossover study in Dose-Response (Zeng et al.), 61 Chinese adults with mild high blood pressure and/or high cholesterol drank either a Chinese hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida) fruit extract drink or a placebo drink for 8 weeks each, three 250 mL cans a day, each made from 8 g of fresh fruit and sweetened with sugar. Blood pressure and cholesterol didn't differ significantly from placebo. The authors say the added sugar may have masked any benefit and suggest testing an unsweetened version. So the picture is solid research on leaf-and-flower extracts, one small negative trial on a sweetened fruit drink from a different species, and no study of a cup of haw tea. Treat it as a reason to take the plant seriously, not as proof that haws do the same thing or as a dosing guide. SPICE trial · Cochrane review · Hawthorn fruit drink trial

Oregon grape is an evergreen understory shrub of western North America with spiny, holly-like leaves, yellow flower clusters in early spring, and dusty blue-black berries. The medicine is the yellow inner bark of the root and stem. Here's the confusing part: two different species share the name. Tall Oregon grape is Mahonia aquifolium, while Mountain Rose Herbs says it largely works with dwarf Oregon grape (Berberis nervosa), and the genus name itself, Mahonia or Berberis, depends on who you ask. When you buy, check which species is in the jar.

Self-Harvest: Oregon grape is native to the West, so it's a plant readers in that region can find wild. Digging the root usually kills the plant. Elise Krohn reports that stem bark of tall Oregon grape tested slightly higher in berberine than dwarf Oregon grape root, and stems can be stripped without pulling up the whole shrub. Treat that as a practitioner's account, not a study.
Buy It: Starwest Botanicals offers wildcrafted cut and sifted root from the United States, and it's Mahonia aquifolium, the tall species. Mountain Rose Herbs sells organic, certified wildharvested cut and sifted root, which by their own account is largely dwarf Oregon grape, so it's a different plant under the same name.

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Roots can be harvested any time of year, but fall and early spring are the traditional windows. Sources disagree on exact timing, so call fall a traditional time, not a peak. Herbalist Sharol Tilgner, ND, says to cut or pound the bark off while the root is still fresh, because it's hard to separate once dried, and to focus on the yellow part.

Decoction: 1–3 tsp (5–15 g) chopped root in 2 cups (500 ml) water, boiled 15 minutes, up to 3 cups a day.
Tincture: a 1:5 tincture in 60% alcohol, taken at 1–2 ml three times a day per practitioner references. Use only the yellow bark so the alcohol isn't soaking into the inner core.
Drying and storage: clean the roots gently, chop them small, dry on racks or in a dehydrator, and store airtight.

Digestive bitter: a bitter is a plant taken for its taste, which stimulates digestive secretions, and Oregon grape is a classic one.
Traditional antimicrobial support: the yellow alkaloid berberine (a plant compound also found in barberry and goldenseal) is behind this reputation.
Skin (mild to moderate psoriasis): the research is on a topical cream, described below, not on tea or tincture.

Avoid in pregnancy, since its alkaloids (berberine, palmatine, jatorrhizine, columbamine) may stimulate the uterus. Use caution or avoid while nursing, because berberine may interfere with bilirubin metabolism in infants. Check with a practitioner if you take medications. Other safety measures may be appropriate for you. Always consult a physician.

The one solid human trial is on a proprietary topical extract, not a root tea. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study (Bernstein et al., American Journal of Therapeutics, 2006), 200 people with mild to moderate psoriasis used a Mahonia aquifolium cream or a placebo twice daily for 12 weeks. The cream group improved significantly on the PASI (Psoriasis Area and Severity Index, a standard skin scoring tool) and on a quality-of-life measure, with minor side effects in under 1%, including rash, burning, and staining. That's promising for the extract; it says little about a decoction. Bernstein et al. 2006

Sea buckthorn is a spiny deciduous shrub native to the Himalaya, China, Mongolia, Russia, and parts of Europe. Female plants carry masses of bright orange berries that hug the thorny stems. It appears in the 8th-century Tibetan medical text rGyud Bzi, where the berries were used for cough, wound healing and burns, circulation, and digestion. Some recent literature files it as Elaeagnus rhamnoides, but product labels use Hippophae.

Self-Harvest: Sea buckthorn is hardy in zones 3–7, so some readers grow it or know someone who does. Berries cling in dense clusters against thorny branches, which makes hand-picking slow.
Buy It: Starwest Botanicals sells organic dried berries from China. Drying reduces vitamin C substantially compared with fresh or frozen, so think of these as a tea ingredient, not a fresh-berry equivalent. Mountain Rose Herbs offers organic milled fruit powder (not whole berries), which is also a dried product.

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Berries ripen from late summer into autumn, and in many places you can still pick them after the first hard frost or into winter. Two practical methods: wait for a hard frost and shake the branches over sheets, or snip branches, freeze them overnight, and strip the berries indoors over a tray. Berries don't keep long once picked, so process or freeze them quickly.

Freeze: wash and freeze whole, or blend to a puree and freeze airtight. Freezing keeps nearly all the vitamin C.
Juice: blend washed berries and strain, without cooking, to preserve vitamins. Freezing for a few hours first softens the skins.
Syrup: bring 500 g frozen berries to a gentle boil and strain through a tea towel, which gives about 400 ml juice. Per 200 ml of juice, add 100 g sugar and stir over low heat for about 10 minutes.
Tea from dried berries: steep 5–10 minutes in hot, not violently boiling, water. Starwest's package directions are 1–2 tsp per 8 oz, covered, 3–4 minutes.
Drying: heat destroys much of the vitamin C, with losses of about 45% (vacuum freeze-drying) to about 80% (hot-air drying) in one study. Fresh or frozen is best.

Cough, burns and wounds, circulation, digestion: these are the traditional uses in Tibetan and Mongolian medicine.
Food use: juice, syrup, jam, sauces, and smoothies.

Sea buckthorn has mild antiplatelet activity (it makes blood platelets less sticky), so it may add to bleeding risk with warfarin, apixaban, rivaroxaban, or clopidogrel. It might lower blood pressure and add to blood-pressure drugs. There isn't enough reliable safety information for pregnancy or breastfeeding, so avoid it. Other safety measures may be appropriate for you. Always consult a physician.

Most of the good human data is on the oil, not the berry. In a double-blind randomized trial (Larmo et al., 2010), adults with dry eye took 2 g of sea buckthorn oil or a placebo daily for 3 months; symptoms and tear film osmolarity (a measure of how salty the tear film is) improved with sea buckthorn. That says nothing about berry tea or juice. A lab study on isorhamnetin, a flavonoid (a plant compound with antioxidant properties) from the berries, found antiplatelet and anticoagulant activity, which is the reason for the blood-thinner caution above. Dry eye trial · Antiplatelet lab study

If you're saving seed from anything this week, harvest and label it now. Once the first frost hits, garden labels tend to fade and get lost in the mess.

Before that first frost, bring in tender herbs you want to overwinter, and harvest what you'll dry while the weather is still dry and mild.

If you gather or buy one thing this week, make it whichever of these three you can get your hands on safely. Read the species on the label, and see how one small cup fits into your week. I'd love to hear what you're making in the group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1Fsj7TcsFN/

See you in the group!

—Dana

About the editor: Dana is an herbalist, forager and grower who puts plants first for her family's health. She enjoys teaching and learning — and is always up for a conversation about plants of all kinds. Dana also owns the Facebook community: Growing and Harvesting Medicinal Herbs & Teas.