Entries Tagged as 'Herbs'
Be Your Own Herbal Expert - Part 4
Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used — and our neighbors around the world still use — plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too.
In your first lessons, you learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes, how to make effective water-based herbal remedies, and how to distinguish safe nourishing and tonifying herbs from the more dangerous stimulating and sedating herbs.
In this lesson, you will learn how to make herbal tinctures. You will make tinctures from fresh and dried roots as well as from fresh flowers and leaves.
Then you will collect your tinctures into an Herbal Medicine Chest and begin to use them. Shall we begin?
Tinctures Act Fast
Tinctures are alcohol-based plant medicines. Alcohol extracts and concentrates many properties from plants, including their poisons. Alcohol does not extract significant amounts of nutrients, so tinctures are used when we want to stimulate, sedate, or make use of a poison. (Remember that nourishing herbs are best used in water bases such as infusions and vinegars.)
The concentrated nature of tinctures allows them to act quickly. It also makes them perfect for a first-aid kit or herbal medicine chest: a little goes a long way.
I have dozens of tinctures in my cabinet. But these are the ones I carry with me when I travel; they are the ones I don’t leave home without. This is my traveling herbal medicine chest.
Echinacea tincture
Motherwort tincture
Skullcap tincture
Ginseng tincture
Dandelion root tincture
Wormwood tincture
St Joan’s Wort tincture
Poke root tincture(danger)
Yarrow tincture
Making Dried Root Tinctures
I strongly prefer to make tinctures from fresh plants. But many people have a hard time getting fresh plants. Most books therefore ignore fresh plant tinctures and focus on making tinctures only from dried plants. The only dried plant parts I use to make tinctures are roots and seeds. All other plant parts I use fresh when making a tincture. And I actually prefer to use fresh roots too.
To make a tincture from dried roots:
Buy an ounce of dried Echinacea augustifolia or Panax ginseng root.
Put the whole ounce in a pint jar.
The dried root should fill the jar about a third full. If not, use a smaller jar.
Fill the jar to the top with the alcohol. Cap tightly and label.
Almost any alcohol can be used to make a tincture. My preference is 100 proof vodka. A lower proof, such as 80 proof, does not work nearly as well. Higher proofs, such as 198 proof or Everclear, can damage the liver and kidneys, so I don’t use them to make medicine.
The tincture is ready in six weeks, but gets stronger the longer it sits. I like to wait about six months before using my ginseng tincture and a year before using my echinacea tincture.
Making Fresh Root Tinctures
Roots generally hold their properties even when dried. But two of my favorite root tinctures must be made from fresh roots are the dried ones have lost much of their effect.
Making a tincture with a fresh root is similar to making one with a dried root.
With great respect for the plant, dig up its root.
Gently rinse mud away. (For more about digging dandelion root, see Healing Wise.)
Chop root into small pieces and fill a jar to the top with the chopped root.
Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.
Fresh root tinctures are ready to use in six weeks.
Making Fresh Leaf and Flower Tinctures
I use only fresh flowers and leaves in my tinctures. These delicate plant part lose aroma and medicinal qualities when dried.
Tinctures can be made from dried herbs, but I find them inferior in in both effect (how well they work) and energetics (how many fairies are in it), not to mention taste (how many volatile substances remain) and somatics (how something makes you “feel”).
What if the plants you need to make all the tinctures in your medicine chest don’t grow where you live or you can’t find them? Try one or more of these solutions.
Take a vacation to a place where the plant you need does grow. And make sure to go at the best time to gather it.
Find an herbal pen-pal who lives in the area where the plant you want to tincture grows. Have your pen-pal make a tincture of the fresh plant for you. You could make a tincture of something you have lots of to give to her, too.
Even if the plants do grow where you live, it may take a year or longer for you to find them, harvest them and make tinctures. While you are “in limbo,” it’s fine to buy tinctures to use in your herbal medicine chest.
When you finally find the plants you want, don’t be afraid to make several quarts of tincture. Tinctures last for hundreds of years if protected from heat and light.
St. Joan’s wort tincture: Eases muscles spasms, anti-viral, pain-relieving.
Pick yellow Hypericum perforatum flowers in the summer’s heat.
Fill, don’t stuff, a jar with the blossoms and leaves.
Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label. (It will turn bright red.)
Your fresh St. Joan’s wort tincture is ready to use in six weeks.
Motherwort tincture: Eases menstrual cramps, mood swings, stress.
Pick Leonurus cardiaca flowering tops (leaves and flowers) in early fall or late summer.
Fill, don’t stuff, a jar with coarsely chopped blossoms and leaves.
Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.
Your fresh motherwort tincture is ready to use in six weeks.
Skullcap tincture: Pain-relief, headache remedy
Pick Scutellaria lateriflora flowering tops when there are seeds as well as flowers. Fill, don’t stuff, a jar with the blossoms and leaves. Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.
Your fresh skullcap tincture is ready to use in six weeks.
Wormwood tincture: Counters food-poisoning and parasites.
Pick Artemisia absinthemum leaves in the late summer or early fall, when mature.
Fill, don’t stuff, a jar, with the coarsely chopped leaves.
Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.
Your fresh wormwood tincture is ready to use in six weeks.
Yarrow tincture: Counters all bacteria internally and externally, repels insects.
Pick Achillea millefolium flowing tops, white ones only, when in bloom.
Fill, don’t stuff, a jar, with the coarsely chopped herb.
Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.
Your fresh yarrow tincture is ready to use in six weeks.
Double and Triple Tinctures
An herbalist in Austin Texas shared her special way of preparing a tincture that helps her keep her cool in stressful situations. She tinctures fresh lemon balm, gathered before it flowers, for six weeks, in 100 proof vodka. She pours that tincture over a new jar of fresh lemon balm leaves.
After that sits for six more weeks, it’s a double tincture. She then pours the double tincture over another new jarful of fresh lemon balm amd lets that sit for six weeks.
After which she has a triple tincture. She uses: “A dropperful sublingually works absolute wonders for me when I’m stressed out and ready to scream.”
Plant Poisons
You remember that there are four types of poisons in plants: alkaloids, glycosides, essential oils, and resins. The first three are fairly easy to move from plants to a tincture.
Resins, because they “fear” water (hydrophobic) are difficult to tincture. When I want to tincture a resin I do use high proof alcohol. Some examples would be: pine resin tincture, balsam bud tincture, calendula flower tincture.
Taking Tinctures
I see many people put herbal tinctures under their tongues. I prefer to protect my oral tissues from the harsh, possibly cancer-causing, effects of the alcohol.
I dilute my tinctures in a little water or juice or even herbal infusion and drink them.
Using Your Tinctures
Here are a few of the ways I use the tinctures in my herbal medicine chest. For more information on using these tincture, see my books and my website.
Acid indigestion: 5-10 drops of Dandelion root or Wormwood tincture every ten minutes until relieved. I use a dose of Dandelion before meals to prevent heartburn.
Bacterial Infections (including boils, carbuncles, insect bites, snake bite, spider bite, staph): 30-50 drops Echinacea or Yarrow tincture up to 5 times daily. For severe infections, add one drop of Poke tincture to each dose.
Colds: to prevent them I use Yarrow tincture 5-10 drops daily; to treat them, I rely on Yarrow, but in larger quantity, say a dropperful every 3-4 hours at the worst of the cold and tapering off.
Cramps during menstruation: 10 drops Motherwort every 20 minutes or as needed. Used also as a tonic, 10 drops daily, for the week before.
Cramps in muscle: 25 drops St Joan’s every 25-30 minutes for as long as needed.
Cramps in gut: 5-10 drops Wormwood, once.
Diarrhea: 3 drops Wormwood hourly for up to four hours.
Energy lack: 10 drops of Dandelion or Ginseng tincture in the morning.
Fever: 1 drop Echinacea for every 2 pounds of body weight; taken every two hours to begin, decreasing as symptoms remiss. Or a dropperful of Yarrow tincture every four hours.
Headache: 25 drops St Joan’s plus 3-5 drops Skullcap every 10-15 minutes for up to two hours. 5 drops of Skullcap may prevent some headaches.
High blood pressure: 25 drops of Motherwort or Ginseng tincture 2-4 times a day.
Hot Flashes: 20-30 drops Motherwort as flash begins and/or 10-20 drops once or twice daily.
Insect: prevent bites from black flies, mosquitoes, and ticks with a spray of Yarrow tincture; treat bites you do get with Yarrow tincture to prevent infection.
Nervousness, hysteria, hyper behavior: 15 drops Motherwort every 15-20 minutes.
Premenstrual distress: 10 drops Motherwort twice a day for 7-10 days preceding menstruation or 10 drops daily all month.
Sore throat: Gargle with Yarrow tincture.
Swollen glands: 1 drop Poke root tincture each 12 hours for 2-5 days.
Viral infections (including colds and the flu): 25 drops of St. Joan’s wort tincture every two hours. Add one drop of poke root tincture 2-4 times a day for severe cases.
Wounds: I wash with Yarrow tincture, then wet the dressing with Yarrow tincture, too.
In the next installment of Be Your Own Herbalist, you will learn about herbal oils, inlcuding infused and essential oils. Future lessons will explore the difference between fixing disease and promoting health, applications of the three traditions of healing, and using the six steps of healing to take charge of your own health and make sense of medicine.
Experiment Number One
Choose one plant and make several small tinctures of it using different types of alcohol. Taste and smell each tincture every week or so for 6-8 weeks.
Experiment Number Two
Buy or make different tinctures of the same plant: dried herb, fresh herb, timed with the moon, in different menstrums, made by different people, harvested in different places. Can you taste differences? Are the effects different? What else do you notice?
Experiment Number Three
Make a double or triple tincture of motherwort, skullcap, or lemon balm. See if it relieves anxiety , hyperactivity, emotional distress, headaches. I use a dose of 5-30 drops. Remember skullcap can induce sleepiness.
Experiment Number Four
Tincture four plants that are common to your area. Learn at least three things they can each be used for and if at all possible, use them.
Further study
1. What is osmosis? Why is 100 proof vodka make stronger tinctures than 80 proof?
2. What is a menstrum? What other menstrums are used to make tinctures?
3. Of the four plant poisons, which are present in each of plants used in the medicine chest?
4. Why don’t I consider vinegars tinctures?
5. How is a glyceride different from a tincture?
Advanced work
* Make a tincture from a resinous plant.
* Make a glyceride.
* How is a standardized tincture made?
————–
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081
Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com
Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international
reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on
health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with
humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine.
Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging
and often profoundly provocative.
Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and
natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are
recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and
cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at
www.susunweed.com
Tags: Herbs
Be Your Own Herbal Expert - Part 5
Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used — and our neighbors around the world still use — plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too, and you don’t need a degree or any special training. Ancient memories arise in you when you begin to use herbal medicine — memories which keep you safe and fill you with delight. These lessons are designed to nourish and activate your inner herbalist so you can be your own herbal expert.
In our first session, we learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes. In session two, we learned about simples and how to make effective water-based herbal remedies. The third session helped us distinguish safe nourishing and tonifying herbs from the more dangerous stimulating and sedating herbs. Our fourth session focused on poisons in herbs and herbal tinctures, which we made and then collected into an Herbal Medicine Chest.
In this, our fifth session, we will find out how to help ourselves and our families with herbal vinegars, one of the green blessings of the Wise Woman Way.
Why Use Herbal Vinegars?
Herbal vinegars are an unstoppable combination: they marry the healing and nutritional properties of apple cider vinegar with the mineral- and antioxidant- richness of health-protective green herbs and wild roots. Herbal vinegars are tasty medicine, enriching and enlivening our food, while building health from the inside out.
Herbal vinegars are far better for the bones and the heart than soy beverages. They have a reputation for banishing grey hair and wrinkles. Sprayed in the armpits, herbal vinegars are highly effective deodorants. As a hair rinse (try rosemary or lavender vinegar) they add luster and eliminate split ends.
Anything vinegar can do, including clean the kitchen, herbal vinegars can do better.
Vinegars Seek Minerals
Minerals are important for the health and proper functioning of our bones, our heart and blood vessels, our nerves, our brain (especially memory), our immune system, and our hormonal glands. No wonder lack of minerals can lead to chronic problems and getting more can make a big different in health in a few weeks. One of the best way to get more minerals — besides drinking nourishing herbal infusions and eating well-cooked leafy greens — is to use herbal vinegars.
Vinegar and Your Bones
It is not true that ingesting vinegar will erode your bones. Adding vinegar to your food actually helps build bones because it frees up minerals from the vegetables you eat and increases the ability of the stomach to digest minerals. Adding a splash of vinegar to cooked greens is a classic trick of old ladies who want to be spry and flexible when they’re ancient old ladies. (Maybe your granny already taught you this?) In fact, a spoonful of vinegar on your broccoli or kale or dandelion greens increases the calcium you get by one-third. All by itself, apple cider vinegar is said to help build bones; when enriched with minerals from herbs, I think of it as better than calcium pills.
Vinegar and Candida
Some people worry that eating vinegar will upset the balance of gut flora and contribute to an overgrowth of candida yeast in the intestines. Some people have been told to avoid vinegar altogether. My experience has led me to believe that herbal vinegars help health those with candida overgrowth, perhaps because they’re so mineral rich. I’ve worked with women who have suffered for years and kept to a strict “anti-candida” diet with little improvement and seen them get better fast when they add nourishing herbal vinegars (and fermented foods such as sauerkraut, miso, and yogurt) to their diets.
Making Herbal Vinegars
Fill any size jar with fresh-cut aromatic herbs: leaves, stalks, flowers, fruits, roots, and even nuts can be used. For best results and highest mineral content, be sure the jar is well filled and chop the herb finely.
Pour room-temperature vinegar into the jar until it is full. Cover jar: A plastic screw-on lid, several layers of plastic or wax paper held on with a rubber band, or a cork are the best covers. Avoid metal lids — or protect them well with plastic — as vinegar will corrode them.
Label the jar with the name of the herb and the date. Put it some place away from direct sunlight, though it doesn’t have to be in the dark, and someplace that isn’t too hot, but not too cold either. A kitchen cupboard is fine, but choose one that you open a lot so you remember to use your vinegar, which will be ready in six weeks.
You can decant your vinegar into a beautiful serving container, or use it right from the jar you made it in.
Which Vinegar?
I use regular pasteurized apple cider vinegar from the supermarket as the menstrum for my herbal vinegars. I avoid white vinegar. Malt vinegar, rice vinegar, and wine vinegar can be used but they are more expensive and may overpower the flavor of the herbs.
Apple cider vinegar has been used as a health-giving agent for centuries. Hippocrates, father of medicine, is said to have used only two remedies: honey and apple cider vinegar. Some of the many benefits of apple cider vinegar include: better digestion, reduction of cholesterol, improvements in blood pressure, prevention/care of osteoporosis, normalization of thyroid/metabolic functioning, possible reduction of cancer risk, and lessening of wrinkles and grey hair.
Notes for Herbal Vinegar Makers
* Collect jars of different sizes for your vinegars. I especially like babyfood jars, mustard jars, olive jars, peanut butter jars and individual juice jars. Look for plastic lids.
* The wider the mouth of the jar, the easier it will be to remove the plant material when you’re done.
* Always fill jar to the top with plant material and vinegar; never fill a jar only part way.
*Really fill the jar. This will take far more herb or root than you would think. How much? With leaves and stems, make a comfortable mattress for a fairy: not too tight; and not too loose. With roots, fill your jar to within a thumb’s width of the top.
* After decanting your vinegar into a beautiful jar, add a spring of whole herb. Pretty.
My Favorite Herbal Vinegar
Pick the needles of white pine on a sunny day. Make herbal vinegar with them. Inhale deeply the scent of the forest. I call this my “homemade balsamic vinegar.”
Using Your Vinegars
Herbal vinegars taste so good, you’ll want to use them frequently. Regular use boosts the nutrient level of your diet with very little effort and virtually no expense.
* Pour a spoonful or more on beans and grains as a condiment.
* Use them in salad dressings.
* Add them to cooked greens.
* Season stir-frys with them.
* Look for soups that are vinegar friendly, like borscht.
* Substitute herbal vinegar for plain vinegar in any recipe.
* Put a big spoonful in a glass of water and drink it. Try it sweetened with blackstrap molasses for a real mineral jolt. Many older women swear this “coffee substitute” prevents and eases their arthritic pains.
Coming up
In our next sessions we will learn more about herbal medicine making, with a focus on oils, explore the difference between fixing disease and promoting health, learn how to apply the three traditions of healing, and how to take charge of our own health care with the six steps of healing.
Experiment Number One
Test vinegar’s ability to absorb minerals. Put a fresh bone in a jar and completely cover it with vinegar. What happens? Does the bone becomes pliable and rubbery? How long does it take? Will eating vinegar dissolve your bones? Only if you take off your skin and sit in it for weeks!
Experiment Number Two
Make egg shell vinegar. Fill a jar one-quarter full of vinegar. Drop crushed egg shell into it. What happens? Does the vinegar foam? How long does it take? Egg shells are exceptionally rich in bone-building minerals. Can you taste the calcium in this vinegar? Add some egg shell to your other vinegars if you wish to increase their ability to keep your bones strong.
Experiment Number Three
Make four or more vinegars with the same plant, using different types of vinegar, including both pasteurized and unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. (For the others, use rice vinegar, malt vinegar, wine vinegar, or even white vinegar, but not umeboshi vinegar.)
Taste your vinegars daily for a week, then weekly for five more weeks. You may, if you wish, decant some of your vinegars for use after six weeks. But you may also wish to keep observing them as they age (for years, if you wish). I have some vinegars which are more than thirty years old and still in good shape. Note which stay edible the longest, and what happens to those that become inedible.
Experiment Number Four
Buy a quart or more of unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. Use two cups to make several small herbal vinegars: one with roots, one with leaves, and one with flowers. Boil the other two cups. Make one herbal vinegar with the boiling hot vinegar. Make another with the boiled vinegar after it has cooled. Continue as in experiment number three.
Further study
* Redo experiment number two using different kinds of egg shells — white ones and brown ones, store-bought and farm-bought, from caged birds and free-range birds. Can you see any differences? Taste or smell any differences?
* Make vinegars at different times of the year and compare them.
Advanced work
* Unpasteurized vinegar can form a “mother.” In a jar filled with herb and vinegar, the vinegar mother usually grows across the top of the herb, and looking rather like a damp, thin pancake. Kombucha is a vinegar mother. Does your local health food store sell mothers? kombucha? What is a vinegar mother? Is it harmful?
* What is an ionic form of a mineral?
* What is a mineral salt?
* How do our bodies uptake and utilize minerals?
Plants That Make Exceptionally Good-Tasting Herbal Vinegars
Apple mint (Mentha sp.) leaves, stalks
Bee balm (Monarda didyma) flowers, leaves, stalks
Bergamot (Monarda sp.) flowers, leaves, stalks
Burdock (Arctium lappa) roots
Catnip (Nepeta cataria) leaves, stalks
Chicory (Cichorium intybus) leaves, roots
Chives and especially chive blossoms
Dandelion (Taraxacum off.) flower buds, leaves, roots
Dill (Anethum graveolens) herb, seeds
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) herb, seeds
Garlic (Allium sativum) bulbs, greens, flowers
Garlic mustard (Alliaria officinalis) leaves and roots
Goldenrod (Solidago sp.) flowers
Ginger (Zingiber off.) and Wild ginger (Asarum canadensis) roots
Lavender (Lavendula sp.) flowers, leaves
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) new growth leaves and roots
Orange mint (Mentha sp.) leaves, stalks
Orange peel, organic only
Peppermint (Mentha piperata and etc.) leaves, stalks
Perilla (Shiso) (Agastache) leaves, stalks
Rosemary (Rosmarinus off.) leaves, stalks
Spearmint (Mentha spicata) leaves, stalks
Thyme (Thymus sp.) leaves, stalks
White pine (Pinus strobus) needles
Yarrow (Achilllea millifolium) flowers and leaves
Weedy Herbal Calcium Supplement
Use one or more of the following plants to make an herbal vinegar that can reverse and counter osteoporosis. Dose is 2-4 tablespoons daily.
Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus) leaves
Cabbage leaves
Chickweed (Stellaria media) whole herb
Comfrey (Symphytum officinalis) leaves
Cronewort/Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) young leaves
Dandelion (Taraxacum off.) leaves and root
Kale leaves
Lambsquarter (Chenopodium album) leaves
Mallow (Malva neglecta) leaves
Mint leaves of all sorts, especially sage, motherwort, lemon balm, lavender, peppermint
Nettle (Urtica dioica) leaves
Parsley (Petroselinum sativum) leaves
Plantain (Plantago majus) leaves
Raspberry (Rubus species) leaves
Red clover (Trifolium pratense) blossoms
Violet (Viola odorata) leaves
Yellow dock (Rumex crispus and other species) roots
Herbal Vinegars Where You Eat the Pickled Plants, too
Burdock
Chicory
Dandelion
Purslane
Yellow Dock
Rosehips
Raspberries/blackberries
—————
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081
Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com
Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international
reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on
health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with
humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine.
Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging
and often profoundly provocative.
Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and
natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are
recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and
cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at
www.susunweed.com
Tags: Herbs
Be Your Own Herbal Expert - Part 6
Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used - and our neighbors around the world still use - plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too, and you don’t need a degree or any special training. Ancient memories arise in you when you begin to use herbal medicine - memories which keep you safe and fill you with delight. These lessons are designed to nourish and activate your inner herbalist so you can be your own herbal expert.
In our first session we learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes. In session two we learned about simples and how to make effective water-based herbal remedies. The third session helped us distinguish safe nourishing and tonifying herbs from the more dangerous stimulating and sedating herbs. Our fourth session focused on poisons in herbs and entered the herbal pharmacy to herbal tinctures, which we collected into an Herbal Medicine Chest. Our fifth session found us still in the pharmacy, learning how to make and use herbal vinegars for strong bones and healthy hearts.
In this, our sixth session, we remain in the herbal pharmacy and turn our attention to herbs in fat bases. We’ll explore fresh infused oils, ointments, salves, and lip balms, essential oils, and even herbal pestos.
HERBAL OILS: INFUSED VS. ESSENTIAL
Lu Lu Design - Kathy Crabbe paints primarily from her imagination using silk dyes on silk, watercolors and acrylics.I make and use many infused herbal oils. I use little or no essential oils. Why?
Infused herbal oils use a small amount of plant material; essential oils require tons of plant material. Infused herbal oils are safe to use internally or externally; essential oils are poisonous internally and problematic externally. Infused herbal oils are good for the skin; essential oils can cause rashes, burns, and other skin reactions. Infused oils are used full strength; essential oils are diluted before use. Infused herbal oils have subtle scents; essential oils have powerful scents.
The scent of an essential oil can kill gut flora just like antibiotics do, according to Paul Bergner, director of the clinical studies program at the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies. He told me that breathing the oils puts them into the blood stream very quickly and can be a major disturber of intestinal health and contributor to poor immune functioning.
Massage therapists are embracing Natural Scent Therapies such as growing live aromatic plants in their treatment rooms and using pillows of dried aromatic herbs instead of essential oils. Their skin and their immune systems are thanking them for the switch.
MAKING INFUSED HERBAL OILS
To make an infused herbal oil you will need the following supplies:
• Fresh plant material
• Scissors or a knife
• A clean dry jar with a tight lid
• Some olive oil
• A label and pen; a small bowl
Harvest your plant material in the heat of the day, after the sun has dried the dew. It is best to wait at least 36 hours after the last rain before harvesting plants for infused oils. Wet plant materials will make moldy oils. To prevent this, some people dry their herbs and then put them in oil. I find this gives an inferior quality product in most cases.
Coarsely chop the roots, leaves, or flowers of your chosen plant. Fill your jar completely full of the chopped plant material. Add olive oil until the jar is completely full. (Patience and a chopstick are useful tools at this point.)
Tightly lid the jar. Label it. Put it in a small bowl (to collect seepage and over-runs). Your infused oil is ready to use in six weeks.
Fresh Plants That I Use to Make Infused Oils
Arnica flowers (Arnica montana)
Burdock seeds (Arctium lappa)
Calendula flowers (Calendula off.)
Comfrey leaves or roots (Symphytum uplandica)
Dandelion flowers (Taraxacum off.)
Plantain leaves (Plantago majus)
Poke roots (Phytolacca americana)
Spruce needles
St. Joan’s wort flowers (Hypericum perforatum)
Yarrow blossoms (Achillea millefolium)
Yellow dock roots (Rumex crispus)
USING YOUR INFUSED HERBAL OILS
I use my infused herbal oils to heal and ease the pain of wounds, bruises, scrapes, sprains, burns, rashes, sore muscles, insect bites, and aching joints. I make my infused oils into ointments, salves, and lip balms. I use my infused oils in rituals, to anoint. I use my infused oils after bathing, to moisturize. I use my infused oils as stunning salad dressings. I use my infused oils as sexual lubricants. I use my infused oils to nourish my scalp and hair.
I apply my infused herbal oils directly to the body. I rarely take infused herbal oils as internal medicines although it would be safe to do so. I use my infused oils to make salves, ointments, and lip balms.
MAKING SALVES, OINTMENTS AND LIP BALMS
When herbs are infused into animal fat, they form a natural salve, without need of thickening. But herbs infused into oils are drippy and leaky and messy. They need a little beeswax melted into them to make them solid. The more beeswax added, the firmer the oil will be. A little beeswax will make a soft salve. A medium amount will make a firm ointment. And a lot will make a stiff lip balm.
• Pour one or more ounces of infused herbal oil into a saucepan or double boiler.
• Grate several ounces of beeswax.
• Put a small fire under your oil.
• When it is slightly warm, add one tablespoon (more or less) of grated beeswax.
• Stir, preferably with your finger, until the beeswax melts.
• Test the firmness by dropping a drop on a china plate. It will solidify instantly.
- Too soft? Add more beeswax, a little at a time.
- Too hard? Add more infused oil (if possible) or plain oil.
• Pour your finished salve or ointment into wide-mouthed jar.
• Pour lip balms into little pots or twist tubes.
PESTOS
The simplest pesto is green leaves pounded with salt and garlic. I don’t put cheese or nuts into my pestos when I make them, as these ingredients spoil rapidly.
I use a mini-size food prep machine for the “pounding”. A blender will work too, but watch that you don’t burn out the motor.
The oil in a pesto both preserves the antioxidant vitamins in the fresh green herbs and also softens the cell walls so minerals become more available. With the added health-benefits of garlic, herbal pestos are great medicine as well as superb eating.
Lu Lu Design - Kathy Crabbe paints primarily from her imagination using silk dyes on silk, watercolors and acrylics.Basic Herbal Pesto
Stays good for up to two years in a cool refrigerator; up to five years in the freezer.
• Start with half a cup of extra virgin olive oil.
• Add 2-4 coarsely chopped cloves of garlic.
• Add a good sprinkle of sea salt.
• Add a large handful of prepared herb leaves and blend.
• Continue adding leaves and oil as needed. Perhaps more garlic and salt? Blend.
• When all is blended to a fare thee well, pack your pesto into a skinny jar.
• Leave some space between the pesto and the top of the jar and fill this with olive oil.
• Cap, label, and refrigerate.
Green Herbs for Pesto
Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
Garlic mustard (Alliaria officinalis)
Sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella)
Violet (Viola species)
Yellow dock (Rumex crispus)
COMING UP
In our next sessions we will learn how to make herbal honeys and syrups, how to apply the three traditions of healing, and how to take charge of our own health care with the six steps of healing.
EXPERIMENT NUMBER ONE
Make three or more infused herbal oils from different plant parts, such as leaves, roots, and flowering tops. (See list for suggestions of plants to use.)
EXPERIMENT NUMBER TWO
Make several infused oils from the same plant at the same time using at least three different kinds of oils and animal fats, including ghee. Label carefully. After six weeks, decant and compare.
EXPERIMENT NUMBER THREE
Make a salve, ointment, or lip balm. Beeswax is sold at farmer’s markets, health food stores, and craft shops.
EXPERIMENT NUMBER FOUR
Treat at least three injuries with an herbal oil or ointment that you have made. Record your observations. Plantain, yarrow, calendula, or comfrey are good choices for this experiment.
Experiment Number Five
Make an herbal pesto. (See list for suggestions.)
FURTHER STUDY
1. Buy a small bottle of essential oil. Also buy the plant the oil is made from. Lavender and mint are good choices for this experiment. Smell the plant, then smell the essential oil. How do you feel afterwards? Taste the plant, then taste a drop of the essential oil? What do you perceive? Put a drop of the essential oil on your skin; rub the plant vigorously on your skin. Are there differences?
Extra credit: Make an infused oil of the same plant and repeat this experiment using your infused oil in addition to the essential oil and the plant.
2. Use organic animal fat to make an herbal preparation. Keep the fat barely warm - in the sun or by a pilot light - until it is infused. No need to add beeswax. The fat will solidify at room temperature.
ADVANCED WORK
• Read about the production of essential oils.
• How is a hydrosol different from an essential oil?
• Can you make a hydrosol? (Jeanne Rose is a good resource on this.)
—————————
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081
Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com
Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international
reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on
health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with
humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine.
Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging
and often profoundly provocative.
Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and
natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are
recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and
cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at
www.susunweed.com
Tags: Herbs
Be Your Own Herbal Expert - Part 7
Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used — and our neighbors around the world still use — plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too, and you don’t need a degree or any special training.
Ancient memories arise in you when you begin to use herbal medicine. These lessons are designed to nourish and activate those memories and your inner herbalist so you can be your own herbal expert.
In our first session, we learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes. In session two, about simples and water-based herbal remedies. In the third, I distinguished safe (nourishing and tonifying) herbs from more dangerous (stimulating and sedating) herbs. Our fourth session focused on poisons; we made tinctures and an Herbal Medicine Chest. Our fifth dealt with herbal vinegars, and the sixth with herbal oils.
In this, our seventh session, we will think about how we think about healing.
The Three Traditions of Healing
There are many ways to use herbs to improve and maintain health. Modern medicine uses highly refined herbal products known as drugs. Many alternative or holistic practitioners recommend herbs, usually in less-refined (and less dangerous) forms such as tinctures or homeopathic remedies. And then there are the yarb women, the wise women, such as myself, who integrate herbs into their daily diet and claim far-reaching results for simple remedies.
I call these three different approaches the Scientific, Heroic, and Wise Woman traditions.
These three traditions are ways of thinking, not ways of acting. And they are not limited to herbs. Any technique, any substance can be used by a healer in the Scientific, Heroic, and Wise Woman traditions. There are, for instance, naturopaths, midwives, and MDs in each tradition, as well as herbalists, educators, therapists, even politicians.
Each of these traditions lives within you, too.
As I define the characteristics of each tradition, identify the part of yourself that thinks that way.
Scientific Tradition
Modern, western medicine is an excellent example of the Scientific tradition, where healing is fixing. The line is its symbol: linear thought, linear time. Truth is fixed and measurable. Truth is that which repeats. Good and bad, health and sickness are put at opposite ends of the line, where they do battle with each other. Food and medicine are quite different.
Newton’s universal laws and the mechanization of nature are the foundation of the Scientific tradition. Bodies are understood to be like machines. When machines run well (stay healthy) they don’t deviate. Anything that deviates from normal needs to be fixed or repaired. The Scientific tradition is excellent for fixing broken things. Measurements must be taken to determine
deviation and insure normalcy. Regular diagnostic tests are critical to maintaining proper functioning and ensuring utmost longevity in the body/machine.
In the Scientific tradition, plants are valued as repositories of poisons/alkaloids. They are seen as potential drugs, and capable of killing you in their unpredictable crude states. They are helpful and safe only when refined into drugs and used by highly-trained experts.
In the Scientific tradition the whole is the same as its most active part, and machines are more trustworthy than people.
Heroic Tradition
There is not one unified Heroic tradition, but many similar traditions collectively called the Heroic tradition. Alternative health care practitioners generally represent the Heroic thought pattern, symbolized by a circle.
This circle defines the rules, which, we are told, must be followed in order to save ourselves from disease and death. Healing in the Heroic tradition focuses on cleansing. According to this tradition, disease arises when toxins (dirt, filth, anger, negativity) accumulate. When we are bad, when we eat the wrong food, think the wrong thought, commit a sin, we sicken and the healer is the savior, offering purification, punishment, and redemption.
In the Heroic traditions, the whole is the sum of its parts. We are body, mind, and spirit. The spirit is high and worthy; the body is low and gross; the mind is in between. In the Heroic traditions, we are personally responsible for everything that happens to us.
Religious beliefs frequently accompany herb use in the Heroic tradition. The Heroic healer uses rare substances, exotic herbs, and complicated formulae. Drug-like herbs in capsules are the favored in this tradition. Most books on herbal medicine are written by men whose thought patterns are those of the Heroic tradition.
Wise Woman Tradition
The Wise Woman tradition is the world’s oldest healing tradition. It envisions good health as openness to change, flexibility, availability to transformation, and groundedness. Its symbol is the spiral. In the Wise Woman tradition we do not seek to cure, but focus instead on integrating and nourishing the unique individual’s wholeness/holiness. The Wise Woman tradition relies on compassion, simple ritual, and common dooryard herbs and garden weeds as primary nourishers, but appreciates (and uses) any treatment appropriate to the specific self-healing in process.
The Wise Woman tradition sees each life as a spiraling, ever-changing completeness. Disease and injury are seen as doorways of transformation, and each person is recognized as a self healer, earth healer: inherently whole, resonant to the whole, and vital to the whole. Substance, thought, feeling, and spirit are inseparable in the Wise Woman tradition. The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Spiralic and amazing, the Wise Woman tradition offers self-healing options as diverse as the human imagination and as complex as the human psyche. The Wise Woman tradition has no rules, no texts, no rites; it is constantly changing, constantly being re-invented. It is mostly invisible, hard to see, but easier and easier to find. It is a give-away dance of nourishment, change, and self love. An invitation to honor yourself and the earth. An admonishment to trust yourself.
Coming up
In our next sessions we will learn how to make herbal honeys and syrups, and how to take charge of our own health care with the six steps of healing.
—————–
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081
Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com
Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international
reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on
health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with
humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine.
Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging
and often profoundly provocative.
Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and
natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are
recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and
cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at
www.susunweed.com
Tags: Herbs
Be Your Own Herbal Expert - Part 8
Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used - and our neighbors around the world still use - plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too, and you don’t need a degree or any special training.
Ancient memories arise in you when you begin to use herbal medicine. These lessons are designed to nourish and activate those memories and your inner herbalist so you can be your own herbal expert.
In our first lesson, we learned how to “listen” to the plants by focusing on how they taste. In lesson two, we explored simples and water-based herbal remedies. In the third lesson, we learned how to tell safe (nourishing and tonifying) herbs from more dangerous (stimulating and sedating) herbs. Our fourth lesson dealt with poisons; we learned how to make a tincture and we put together our Herbal Medicine Chest. The fifth lesson found us making herbal vinegars, and the sixth, making herbal oils.
In our last lesson together, we looked at our thoughts about healing; we discussed the Scientific goal of fixing the broken machine, the Heroic intention to cleanse the toxins from our polluted bodies, and the Wise Woman desire to nourish the wholeness of the unique individual.
In this, the eighth lesson, we return to the herbal pharmacy, to make healing sweets: herbal honeys, syrups, and cough drops.
In our next lesson, the ninth and last of this series, we will continue our exploration of the ideas behind healing with a tour of the Seven Medicines.
HONEY
Honey has been regarded as a healing substance for thousands of years. Greek healers relied on honey water, vinegar water, and honey/vinegar water as their primary cures. An Egyptian medical text dated to about 2600 BCE mentions honey 500 times in 900 remedies. What makes honey so special?
First, honey is antibacterial. It counters infections on the skin, in the intestines, in the respiratory system, or throughout the body.
Second, honey is hydroscopic, a long word meaning “water loving”. Honey holds moisture in the place where it is put; it can even draw moisture out of the air. A honey facial leaves skin smooth and deliciously moist. These two qualities - anti-infective and hydroscopic - make honey an ideal healer of wounds of all kinds, including burns, bruises and decubita (skin ulcers), an amazing soother for sore throats, a powerful ally against bacterial diarrhea, and a counter to asthma.
Third, honey may be as high as 35 percent protein. This, along with the readily-available carbohydrate (sugar) content, provides a substantial surge of energy and a counter to depression. Some sources claim that honey is equal, or superior, to ginseng in restoring vitality. Honey’s proteins also promote healing, both internally and externally.
And honey is a source of vitamins B, C, D and E, as well as some minerals. It appears to strengthen the immune system and help prevent (some authors claim to cure) cancer.
Honey is gathered from flowers, and individual honeys from specific flowers may be more beneficial than a blended honey. Tupelo honey, from tupelo tree blossoms, is high in levulose, which slows the digestion of the honey making it more appropriate for diabetics. Manuka honey, from New Zealand, is certified as antibacterial. My “house brand” is a rich, black, locally-produced autumn honey gathered by the bees from golden rod, buckwheat, chicory, and other wild flowers.
Raw honey also contains pollen and propolis, bee and flower products that have special healing powers.
Bee pollen, like honey, is a concentrated source of protein and vitamins; unlike honey, it is a good source of minerals, hormonal precursors, and fatty acids. Bee pollen has a reputation for relieving, and with consistent use, curing allergies and asthma. The pollens that cause allergic reactions are from plants that are wind-pollinated, not bee-pollinated, so any bee pollen, or any honey containing pollen, ought to be helpful. One researcher found an 84 percent reduction in symptoms among allergy sufferers who consumed a spoonful of honey a day during the spring, summer, and fall plus three times a week in the winter.
Propolis is made by the bees from resinous tree saps and is a powerful antimicrobial substance. Propolis can be tinctured in pure grain alcohol (resins do not dissolve well in 100 proof vodka, my first choice for tinctures) and used to counter infections such as bronchitis, sinusitis, colds, flus, gum disease, and tooth decay.
WARNING: All honey, but especially raw honey, contains the spores of botulinus. While this is not a problem for adults, children under the age of one year may not have enough stomach acid to prevent these spores from developing into botulism, a deadly poison.
HERBAL HONEYS
Herbal honeys are made by pouring honey over fresh herbs and allowing them to merge over a period of several days to several months. When herbs are infused into honey, the water-loving honey absorbs all the water-soluble components of the herb, and all the volatile oils too, most of which are anti-infective. Herbal honeys are medicinal and they taste great. When I look at my shelf of herbal honeys I feel like the richest person in the world.
USING YOUR HERBAL HONEYS
Place a tablespoonful of your herbal honey (include herb as well as honey) into a mug; add boiling water; stir and drink. Or, eat herbal honeys by the spoonful right from the jar to soothe and heal sore, infected throats and tonsils. Smear the honey (no herb please) onto wounds and burns.
MAKE AN HERBAL HONEY
Coarsely chop the fresh herb of your choice (leave garlic whole).
Put chopped herb into a wide-mouthed jar, filling almost to the top.
Pour honey into the jar, working it into the herb with a chopstick if needed.
Add a little more honey to fill the jar to the very top.
Cover tightly. Label.
Your herbal honey is ready to use in as little as a day or two, but will be more medicinal if allowed to sit for six weeks.
Herbal honeys made from aromatic herbs make wonderful gifts.
MAKE A RUSSIAN COLD REMEDY
Fill a small jar with unpeeled cloves of garlic.
If desired, add one very small onion, cut in quarters, but not peeled.
Fill the jar with honey.
Label and cover.
This remedy is ready to use the next day. It is taken by the spoonful to ward off both colds and flus. It is sovereign against sore throats, too. And it tastes yummy!
(Garlic may also carry botulinus spores, but no adult has ever gotten botulism from this remedy. A local restaurant poisoned patrons by keeping garlic in olive oil near a hot stove for months before using it, though.)
MAKE AN EGYPTIAN WOUND SALVE
“I thought at first this would be dreadful stuff to put on an open wound . . . Instead, the bacteria in the fat disappeared and when pathogenic bacteria were added . . . they were killed just as fast,” commented scientists who tested this formula found in the ancient Smith Papyrus.
Mix one tablespoonful of honey with two tablespoonsful of organic animal fat.
Put in a small jar and label.
Increase the wound-healing ability of this salve by using an herbally-infused fat.
MAKE A REMEDY TO COUNTER DIARRHEA
Fill one glass with eight ounces of orange juice.
Add a pinch of salt and a teaspoonful of honey.
Fill another glass with eight ounces of distilled water.
Add ¼ teaspoonful of baking soda.
Drink alternately from both glasses until empty.
MAKE DR. CHRISTOPHER’S BURN HEALER
He recommends this for burns covering large areas. Keep the burn constantly wet with this healer for best results.
Place chopped fresh comfrey leaves in a blender.
Add aloe vera gel to half cover.
Add honey to cover.
Blend and apply.
Best to make only as much as you can use in a day; store extra in refrigerator.
FRESH PLANTS THAT I USE TO MAKE HERBAL HONEYS
Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)
Comfrey leaf (Symphytum off.)
Cronewort/mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)
Fennel seeds (Foeniculum vulgare)
Garlic (Allium sativum)
Ginger root (Zingiber officinalis)
Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana)
Lavender (Lavendula off.)
Lemon Balm (Melissa off.)
Lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla)
Marjoram (Origanum majorana)
Oregano (Origanum vulgare)
Osha root (Ligusticum porterii)
Peppermint (Mentha pipperata)
Rose petals (Rosa canina and others)
Rose hips (Rosa)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus off.)
Sage (Salvia off.)
Shiso (Perilla frutescens)
Spearmint (Mentha spicata)
Thyme (Thymus species)
Yarrow blossoms (Achillea millefolium)
HERBAL SYRUPS
Herbal syrups are sweetened, condensed herbal infusions. Cough drops are concentrated syrups. Alcohol is frequently added to syrups to help prevent fermentation and stabilize the remedy. Cough drops and lozenges, having less water, keep well without the addition of alcohol.
Bitter herbs, especially when effective in a fairly small dose, are often made into syrups: horehound, yellow dock, dandelion, chicory, and motherwort spring to mind in this regard.
Herbs that are especially effective in relieving throat infections and breathing problems are also frequently made into syrups, especially when honey is used as the sweetener: coltsfoot flowers (not leaves), comfrey leaves (not roots), horehound, elder berries, mullein, osha root, pine, sage, and wild cherry bark are favorites for “cough” syrups.
USING HERBAL SYRUPS
A dose of most herbal syrup is 1-3 teaspoonfuls, taken as needed. Take a spoonful of bitter syrup just before meals for best results. Take cough syrups as often as every hour.
MAKE AN HERBAL SYRUP
To make an herbal syrup you will need the following supplies:
One ounce of dried herb (weight, not volume)
A clean dry quart/liter jar with a tight lid
Boiling water
Measuring cup
A heavy-bottomed medium-sized saucepan
2 cups sugar or 1½ cups honey
A sterilized jar with a small neck and a good lid (a cork stopper is ideal)
A little vodka (optional)
A label and pen
Place the full ounce of dried herb into the quart jar and fill it to the top with boiling water. Cap tightly. After 4-10 hours, decant your infusion, saving the liquid and squeezing the herb to get the last of the goodness out of it.
Measure the amount of liquid you have (usually about 3½ cups). Pour this into the saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat until the infusion is just barely simmering. Continue to simmer until the liquid is reduced by half (pour it out of the pan and into the measuring cup now and then to check). This step can take several hours; the decoction is not spoiled if it is reduced to less than half, but it is ruined if it boils hard or if it burns. Keep a close eye on it.
When you have reduced the infusion to less then two cups, add the sugar or honey (or sweetener of your choice) and bring to a rolling boil. Pour, boiling hot, into your jar. (Sterilize the jar by boiling it in plain water for a few minutes just before filling it.) If desired, add some vodka to preserve the syrup.
Allow the bottle of syrup to come to room temperature. Label it. Store it in the refrigerator or keep it in a cool place.
MAKE HERBAL COUGH DROPS
You must make a syrup with sugar, not honey to make cough drops, but you can use raw sugar or brown sugar instead of white sugar and it will work just as well.
Instead of pouring your boiling hot syrup into a bottle, keep boiling it. Every minute or so, drop a bit into cold water. When it forms a hard ball in the cold water, immediately turn off the fire. Pour your very thick syrup into a buttered flat dish. Cool, then cut into small squares.
A dusting of powdered sugar will keep them from sticking. Store airtight in a cool place.
MAKE THROAT-SOOTHING LOZENGES
Put an ounce of marshmallow root powder or slippery elm bark powder in a bowl.
Slowly add honey, stirring constantly, until you have a thick paste
Roll your slippery elm paste into small balls
Roll the balls in more slippery elm powder
Store in a tightly-closed tin. These will keep for up to ten years.
PLANTS THAT I USE TO MAKE HERBAL SYRUPS
Comfrey leaves (Symphytum uplandica x)
Chicory roots (Cichorium intybus)
Dandelion flowers or roots (Taraxacum off.)
Elder berries (Sambucus canadensis)
Horehound leaves and stems (Marrubium vulgare)
Motherwort leaves (Leonurus cardiaca) pick before flowering
Plantain leaves or roots (Plantago majus)
Osha root (Ligusticum porterii)
Pine needles or inner bark (Pinus)
Sage (Salvia off.)
Wild cherry bark (Prunus serotina)
Yellow dock roots (Rumex crispus)
COMING UP
In our last lesson of this series, we will examine the Seven Medicines: Serenity Medicine, Story Medicine, Energy Medicine, LifeStyle Medicine, Herbal and Alternative Medicine, Pharmaceutical Medicine, and Hi-Tech Medicine.
EXPERIMENT NUMBER ONE
Make a simple syrup, using only one plant. Make it once with honey, once with white sugar, and once with a sweetener of your choice, such as barley malt, agave syrup, molasses, sorghum syrup, or maple syrup. (See list for suggestions of plants to use.)
EXPERIMENT NUMBER TWO
Make a syrup with three or more plants. Choose plants that are local to your area, or ones that you can most easily buy.
EXPERIMENT NUMBER THREE
Make three or more simple herbal honeys using different parts of plants, such as flowers, leaves, roots, or seeds. (See list for suggestions of plants to use.)
EXPERIMENT NUMBER FOUR
Make an herbal honey with a plant rich in essential oils (such as sage, rosemary, lavender, or mint). Try it as a wound treatment. Try it on minor burns. Try it as a facial masque. Record your observations.
EXPERIMENT NUMBER FIVE
Make one or more of the recipes in this lesson.
FURTHER STUDY
1. Make a yellow dock iron tonic syrup following the recipe in my book Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year.
2. Make “Peel Power” following the recipe in my book New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way.
ADVANCED WORK
• Compare the effects of honey from the supermarket, organic honey, raw honey, and herbal honey by using each one to treat the same problems and carefully recording your observations.
——————-
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081
Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com
Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international
reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on
health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with
humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine.
Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging
and often profoundly provocative.
Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and
natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are
recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and
cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at
www.susunweed.com
Tags: Herbs
