Real Herbal Healthcare
How to Make a Wild Herbal Succus: Cleavers
A succus is essentially a fancy word for a beneficial, concentrated herbal juice, typically preserved with some kind of alcohol. I’m going to make a cleavers succus for acute gentle lymph support, especially when this is so needed during recuperation from a bout with a bug or a time when the body is under prolonged stress.
Pine Needle Respiratory Ease Syrup
Making pine needle respiratory syrup is super easy and essentially no more work than making a very strong pine tea and then 'holding' it with good quality, preferably raw, local honey. Pine is an expectorant for thinning and moving mucous in the lungs. It's warming, somewhat drying, and has a sweet and sour flavor blend that can only be described as piney.
Herbs for a Healthy Pregnancy and Birth Part 4: Nursing and Lactation
I can't imagine going through this nursing journey without the help of botanicals. Let's delve into the areas of lactation where herbs can offer their benefits the most: increasing and decreasing milk supply and in specific breastfeeding complications. Since tiny amounts of some herbs taken internally can wind up in your milk supply, it’s critical to be aware of what you’re ingesting and in what form and what amount, whether it’s chamomile or catnip.
Herbs for Toddlers and Young Children
If bouts of bugs are the great teacher, they certainly don’t spare the littles. But as parents, we have such a diverse arsenal of herbal preparations available to us that using them one way that we can best show our babes to appreciate the natural world. Let's walk through some basic information about efficiently and practically incorporating herbs into our everyday routines with our kids, using herbs for immune system regulation, digestive health, the nervous system, and skin health.
Herbs for a Healthy Pregnancy and Birth Part 3: Labor and Birth
While there are a few things they can’t do, there are many more situations during labor and birth during which herbs can play a major role in supporting a healthy mama and healthy baby. Here, I'll share with you a few of my favorite herbs to have on hand to support a smooth labor and delivery, whether medicated or not, at home or in a hospital.
Herbs for a Healthy Pregnancy and Birth Part 2: Improving Well-Being
If you’re like me, you rely on herbs and nutrition in regular, non-gestating life to not only keep you well but to improve your immune response when you do come down with an illness. But during pregnancy, the world is turned topsy-turvy. It’s hard to know what herbs and other natural solutions are good to continue using during pregnancy. Let's explore pregnancy herbs which affect the immune system, nervous system, uterus, and digestive system.
Czech Apple Spicebush Strudel
For the holidays this year, Michael made his favorite Christmas apple strudel with a few local spicebush berries thrown in for a wildcrafted Appalachian twist in a dish in which the new world meets the old...via strudel!
Clogged Milk Ducts and Breast Health: Poke Root to the Rescue
Issues like tenderness or discomfort in the breasts and clogged or plugged milk ducts can pop up when least expected - and least wanted - especially during times of stress and depressed immunity. Poke root oil or poke root salve is a wonderful herbal preparation for nursing mamas who are looking for a traditional strategy that really kicks it up a notch.
Long Life Reishi Lemonade
If I told you that I'd found a delightful summer sipping beverage that could make you live forever, would you believe me? Reishi: The Immune-Enhancing Mushroom of Longevity Perhaps immortality...
Dippy Dandy Dandelion Dip Recipe
Dandelion is no doubt one of the most giving and present plants, for any part of her is harvestable at virtually any time of the year that the plant graces you...
Herbs for a Healthy Pregnancy and Birth Part 1: Nourishment
Real, whole food, whole herb nourishment during pregnancy is not hard to come by once you familiarize yourself with herbs like nettle and oatstraw herbal infusions, which represent some of the highest sources on earth of trace minerals and nutrients and are even pumped with protein. The benefits of herbal vinegars include their ability to balance out the pH of the body, their helpfulness with digestive difficulties, and their friendliness to the health of the gut.
Benefits of Juicy Jewelweed
Jewelweed, Impatiens capensis, is a flowering plant with beautiful orange horn shaped blossoms that bloom from early summer and into the fall. It is also known as spotted touch-me-not, because of how the mature seeds spring out from the pod when touched.
