Real Herbal Healthcare
Linden Blossom Gin & Tonic Recipe
Make any sunny summer day special with an herbal cocktail like this bright and beautiful Linden Blossom Gin & Tonic (recipe open to adaptation and substitution!). Herbal Cocktails (and Mocktails!): Linden Gin...
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...
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.
Vibrant Violet Soup
Looking for something to do with all those violet greens you just weeded out of your garden bed? Try this creamy summer soup, equally good hot as it is cold....
Cordially Yours: Elderflower Cordial
In early summer, when the roadsides are covered in masses of this plumy whiteness…oh, what’s an herbalist to do? Make elderflower cordial, of course! This sweet, citrusy, and very floral...
Summer Solstice Rituals and Scratching the Poison Ivy Itch
For many, the summer solstice is about celebrating the sun and everything that it so graciously beams upon us: fully ripe strawberries, darkening freckles, St. John's wort oil (which is best to make right around the summer solstice when the plant is in bud and at its peak).
How to Make a Plantain Spit Poultice for Stings, Bites, and More
by Anne Knoflicek Plantain contains beneficial properties that can be easily accessed through a simple “spit” poultice for bites, stings, and rashes. The sooner you apply it, the faster you will...
Why Pay Attention to Poison Ivy?
by Corinna Wood For those of us who love green, growing things, it pays to know your neighbors. And in our area, one of the most important wild plants to...
Bottled Sunshine With St. John's Wort
There is no other beneficial herb that bespeaks more of sunshine than St. John's Wort, or St. J’s, as we fondly call it. It loves sunny open places, blooms at the height of summer solstice, soothes the skin after sunburn, and even brings sunshine into our lives through its mood elevating properties.
The Beneficial Powers of Honey
The bee is a symbol of the potency of nature. Like its human counterpart, it is attracted to a plant by its fragrant, colorful flower. The more beautiful the flower, the better chance it has of getting pollinated. In this symbiotic relationship, the plants grow, the world is beautified, and the bee gathers nectar from which it creates the sweet elixir of life – honey!
