Women's Herbal Healthcare
Nutritive Stinging Nettle Soup Recipe
Ready for a family-friendly main course concocted from the plant thought to be the most nutritive on the planet? Get your harvesting gloves out, grab your scissors and a bag or colander, and let's get snipping. The recipe is super adaptable to whatever you have in your cupboard + nettles (or even other spring greens).
Weeds at Our Feet: What Do They Mean?
Living in the Wise Woman Way In my heart, the practice of the Wise Woman Tradition is an ancestral health-affirming belief that passes down from generation to generation even in...
The Role of Invasive Herbal Preparations: Kudzu, Mimosa, Wild Rose...Plantain? Dandelion?
Within our materia medica of common 'weedy' beneficial plants native to the Appalachian mountains where we are based, you will also find a sprinkling of so-called invasive plants which are not native...
DIY Herbal Eyewashes and Herbs for Eye Health and Optimal Vision
How to Make an Herbal Eyewash Try making an herbal eyewash next time you have an eye irritation. I purchased this little vintage ceramic eyecup a few months ago for doing...
The Wise Woman Tradition of Nutrition
The biochemical and energetic nutrients which we digest, absorb, and metabolize from foodstuffs are the foundation of all cellular activity in the body. Food gathering and consumption are intertwined with sacred traditions and women's harvesting rituals in many cultures.
One Herb at a Time: Simpling Herbs vs. Herbal Formulas
Using simples in appropriate situations is a fun and effective way to create herbal preparations that you have a deep, intimate, and powerful relationship with. Using a single herb at a time allows for a deeper understanding of the individual characteristics and actions of each herb. The more you use a particular herb, the more you become familiar with its unique qualities and how it works. This approach also simplifies the process of matching bodily signals to specific herbs.
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.
Forsythia Flower Syrup
Chinese health care traditionally uses the steamed and de-seeded fruit of the forsythia bush or 'golden bell' for clearing heat and expelling wind. It has an affinity for the heart, lung, and galbladder meridians. Make a honey based syrup from its spring flowers to keep in your kitchen or bathroom cabinet for wellness all year long.
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.
