Your garden not only provides the cultivated plants you tuck into the soil but also wild greens and herbs that spring up of their own accord.
With this online herbal medicine making course, you'll learn all about herbal medicine while saving money, creating a medicine chest full of high-quality herbal remedies!
For those of us fortunate enough to live near forests, the woodland—with its watery seeps, shady hollows, and part-sun edges—presents us with a fertile opportunity to grow a bounty of food and medicine.
Learn how to start your herbal career with this free 100-page guide for beginning herbalists by Juliet Blankespoor.
This cooling and moistening poultice is helpful for dry, irritated skin conditions such as psoriasis, rashes, chicken pox, and chafed skin. It can also be used to soothe insect bites, mild abrasions, cuts, and scrapes. The combination of herbs provides a soothing blend of healing properties that are demulcent, anti-inflammatory, and vulnerary (wound-healing).
Learn how to identify, harvest, and prepare the most delicious, abundant, and nourishing plants around—edible wild weeds and invasives. These wild herbs pack a medicinal punch and make for tasty, sustainable nutrient-dense dishes.
This is my household’s go-to fire cider recipe. Milder and sweeter than other fire cider recipes, hibiscus pomegranate fire cider makes a great gift for the herbally uninitiated. I promise, I won’t tell if your fire cider finds its way into the loving embrace of bubbles and gin. However, I most certainly wouldn’t condone, under any circumstances, the mixing of fire cider with tequila and pomegranate juice, served in a martini glass with a salted rim.
I love herbal medicine but I’ve never grown herbs—how do I begin an herb garden? Have you or someone you know been asking this question lately? Then read on for inspirational and empowering steps for growing medicinal herbs at home—we give even the brownest thumb enough fertilizer to succeed in medicinal herb gardening!
Everything you need to know about calendula’s healing benefits, plus our recipes for making calendula oils, salves, and teas.
What is sustainable herbalism? This is your source for learning about local herbs, DIY herbalism, and botanical stewardship.
Winter is rife with viral booby-traps—there’s a head cold and cough waiting at every gas station pump and pin pad across the land. A strong immune system is adept at navigating pathogenic obstacles, but some scenarios call for a boost, herbal-style. When I know I’ve been exposed to a cold or the flu, I don’t waste a moment in reaching for my tried-and-true immune stimulating herbs.
In our kitchen, we almost always have a batch of this sauce on hand. We store it in the refrigerator and pull it out as needed. It is delicious spread onto toast or bagels and topped with fresh tomatoes and chickweed. This sauce is a convenient way to add fresh garlic to dishes just before serving. Baked fish, home fries, and roasted roots are all enhanced by this tasty sauce.
Forsythia flowers are edible and can be used to make food and DIY beauty care recipes. Here are a dozen fun, pretty and practical ways to use forsythia flowers.
The homegrown benefits of witch hazel are easy to overlook as an herbalist, as witch hazel is not traditionally something you think of planting in the garden or making medicine with for your apothecary—drugstore brands are what most people associate with witch hazel. But imagine growing your own witch hazel plant (Hamamelis virginiana, Hamamelidaceae) in your medicine garden, and then creating clever concoctions to lovingly administer to your teenager for acne, postpartum friend for hemorrhoids, or to soothe someone’s discomfort with eczema.
The freshest medicine on the planet comes right from our own backyards and gardens. When we grow a personal apothecary of herbs, we have an immense and intimate relationship with their quality and integrity. For this reason, starting with healthy seeds and organically-nurtured living plants is paramount! Here are some key terms used to describe different types of seeds and plants, and how they relate to herbs in particular.
Calendula’s sunny blooms are an external remedy for practically every manner of skin complaint. Learn how to prepare calendula oil and salve for wound healing, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory herb.
All crafters have a cache of special tools—and foragers are no exception. I’ve been gathering food and medicine from wild places for nearly three decades and these are my tried-and-true tools of choice. As a bonus, every single one pulls double duty in the garden and around the yard.
Passionflower is a short-lived perennial native vine to the southeastern US, with gorgeous flowers and interesting foliage. It is weedy in much of its native range; and fairly easy to grow elsewhere, especially if it’s given a wall or trellis to climb up.
Do you want to learn how to grow herbs without a garden? Here are the best tips for container gardening. Start your own potted herb garden!
Herbal Tea Ceremonies are a delightful way to find beauty in the everyday. By slowing down and getting to better know our plant allies, we can simultaneously open up to heartfelt connection with ourselves and/or others. Making the time and space to hold your own personal herbal tea ceremony—or with a friend, your family, or a group—is a low-impact, simple act of pleasure that can lift the vibe of any day!
Before we dive into herbs for the immune system, we’re going to start with lifestyles for the immune system. Because herbs are really and truly the icing on the cake, whereas the day-to-day choices we make for how we want to live are the cake, so to say.
In this article, we have a fun spin on the traditional fire cider with a Cranberries and Cardamom Fire Cider recipe we are sharing below!
The fresh needles and buds of Pine, picked in the springtime, are called “pine tops.” These are boiled in water, and the tea is consumed for fevers, coughs, and colds. The needles are also diuretic, helping to increase urination. This recipe combines pine tops with dried peppermint and catnip for relief from sinus and lung congestion.
Before we dive into herbs for the immune system, we’re going to start with lifestyles for the immune system. Because herbs are really and truly the icing on the cake, whereas the day-to-day choices we make for how we want to live are the cake, so to say.
This is my household’s go-to fire cider recipe. Milder and sweeter than other fire cider recipes, hibiscus pomegranate fire cider makes a great gift for the herbally uninitiated. I promise, I won’t tell if your fire cider finds its way into the loving embrace of bubbles and gin. However, I most certainly wouldn’t condone, under any circumstances, the mixing of fire cider with tequila and pomegranate juice, served in a martini glass with a salted rim.
There are many medicinal benefits of hibiscus and it is easy to grow and harvest if you have the right variety.
Women today live in a very different world than our foremothers. Our female predecessors began menstruating later in life, had more children, breastfed longer, underwent menopause earlier, ate whole foods, and lived in a cleaner environment.
This is my household’s go-to fire cider recipe. Milder and sweeter than other fire cider recipes, hibiscus pomegranate fire cider makes a great gift for the herbally uninitiated. I promise, I won’t tell if your fire cider finds its way into the loving embrace of bubbles and gin. However, I most certainly wouldn’t condone, under any circumstances, the mixing of fire cider with tequila and pomegranate juice, served in a martini glass with a salted rim.
As you peer into the future, imagine how you might interact with your dream garden. Take a moment to write down all the reasons you wish to grow herbs, and how you might incorporate their medicine and beauty into your life.
Tart and spicy, this crimson condiment is a lovely accompaniment to Indian dishes and curries. It makes a bold impression on a cheese plate, pairing well with aged cheeses and crisp apples. Hibiscus chutney balances out the savory and starchy flavors of stuffing and can serve as an innovative twist on cranberry sauce.
Delicious when sipped on its own, or added to warmed apple cider and served with a cinnamon stick and thin slices of pear. I highly recommend accompanying the brandy with a nibbling plate of pomegranate seeds and cacao nibs.
