Using Herbs From Your Own Backyard

A great article about using the herbs in your yard by Tina Sams – owner and editor of The Essential Herbal Magazine.

 

Wildcrafting in Your Backyard: Using the Herbs and Medicines Under Your Feet

By Tina Sams for elephantjournal.com 

There have always been the mountain herbalists, the grannies and the people who have used weeds and plants as medicine.

For a couple of decades, we were encouraged to look to exotic plants from far-off lands to use as medicines, ignoring those that grow all around us.  Perhaps, because of the locavore movement, we are now looking to the medicinal weeds and herbs that grow right outside our doors.

It is not uncommon for people to tell me that they’ve sent off for seeds for plants like chickweed, dandelion and burdock—it can be difficult to convince people that the dandelions in their yard are the exact same thing that they are wishing to grow.

This is not unlike our tendency to drive past vast wild raspberry patches in order to plunk down $3 for a pint of cultivated berries at the store; we have become so distanced from our food sources that we’ve learned not to trust ourselves when it comes to things like foods or first aid.

Sometimes, people are completely overwhelmed at the thought of learning all about medicinal herbs—that’s easy to understand.  There are thousands of plants with properties that we can use; there are very few that we cannot, as a matter of fact and it is a lot of information to learn.

Read More

Writing A Book

Sorry I have not posted for awhile.  I have been finishing an herb book which is now available for Kindle and hopefully soon for Nook.

Check out What About Herbs? and let me know what you think.

Please pass the link for the book for those you know who may be interested. Thanks!

My Herbal First Aid Kit

Things that I like to have in my herbal first aid kit:

Activated charcoal capsules – neutralize poisons, bites

Aloe gel – burns, sunburn, radiation burns

Arnica cream – bruises, sore muscles – don’t use on brokenskin

Arnica homeopathic – bruises, sore muscles – when you can’t use the cream

Bentonite clay – bites, diarrhea, colon cleansing, skin mask, itching, infections, detoxifier

Burts Bees Res-Q – healing, anti-inflammatory

Catnip – bring down fever, colic, stomach ache

Cayenne – warming, stop bleeding, heart attack, frostbite,hypothermia, shock, trauma

Chamomile – headache, stomach ache, spasms, morning sickness,calming, anti-histamine

Echinacea – viral and bacterial infections, snake bite, spider bite, immune system booster

Fennel seed – stomach ache, colic

Garlic oil caps – viral, bacterial, and fungal infections, earache, parasites, repel mosquitos, mosquito bites

Ginger – nausea, morning sickness, motion sickness

Nutribiotic – liquid and tablets – parasites, infections,wounds, disinfectant, sore throats, boosts immune system

Peppermint – stomach ache, sinuses

Raw honey – sore throat, burns, healing

Rescue Remedy – cream, spray, and/or drops – calming, trauma

Respiration – herb blend for strengthening the lungs

Salt – sore throat gargle

Sunbreeze oil – sore muscles, headache, sinuses

Essential oils (Therapeutic grade) including:

Tea tree – antiseptic, antifungal
Lavender – calming, burns, skin irritations, soothing, cuts
Peppermint – digestion, fatigue, respiration
Rosemary – muscle soreness
Thieves – anti bacterial

I am not trained as an herbalist. It is recommended that you checkwith an herbalist or with reputable books or websites before usingherbs medicinally.

What herbs and herbal formulas do you have in your first aid kit?

http://www.herb-arium.com