Your Practical Guide To Self Reliant Living
When we think of medicinal herbs, most people’s minds go right to small weeds and flowers growing at the edge of your lawn or on a roadside. It’s not common that we think of trees as a source of medicine, but historically, much of the country was forested and the people had to find medicinal uses for the forest trees to stay healthy.
…
Chickweed is only around in the springtime before temperatures warm up and it dies back for the year. If you want to use it medicinally, chickweed needs to be preserved. There’s no better way to preserve it than in a simple chickweed tincture.
…
So you think you know what mint tastes like? What if I told you that there are literally dozens of different types of mint, each with its own unique flavor and growth habit?
Apple mint, in particular, is one of my favorites. Why?
…
Chickweed (Stellaria media) is one of the very first plants of spring. It sprouts up while temperatures are still quite cold and snow is still on the ground in patches.
It’s also called chickenwort because it’s a free source of tasty early spring chicken food, and winterweed because it grows year-round in milder climates. Though “winterweed” is cold hardy, the plant is actually quite delicate. You can break off individual stalks and leaves easily, and it makes a tender addition to salads.
Beyond being a tasty spring edible, it’s also a medicinal plant.
…
Linden flowers are only up in the trees for about 2 weeks a year, but that’s just long enough to harvest a few handfuls for a wild foraged linden mead. The linden blossoms are used for stress, anxiety and insomnia which makes this brew especially helpful in a tiny cordial glass right before bed. Though it’s traditionally consumed as a linden tea, there’s no reason you cant preserve your medicine in a tasty herbal mead.
Long ago, mead and ale were more than just a way get a buzz. Traditional herbalists made medicinal ferments as a way to preserve the medicinal properties of wild plants for use all year long. Think of a mead as a combination of a herbal tea and a herbal tincture. A hot water decoction is used to pull out the water-soluble medicines, and then the alcohol later in the ferment pulls out the alcohol-soluble portions of the plant and preserves the whole batch.
I was inspired to make this herbal ferment after taking the Herbal Academy Craft of Herbal Fermentation Course this past year. I’m now signed up for their new Botany and Wildcrafting course starting in May 2018, so soon I’ll be identifying and wildcrafting new and exciting herbs for homemade mead!
Linden flowers wildcrafted for a small batch linden mead.
…
Few houseplants can match Tulsi for both beauty and fragrance. Tulsi, also known as holy basil or sacred basil, is a perennial in tropical and subtropical regions, but it can be grown indoors year round regardless of your climate.
Each year we plant a large patch in our vegetable garden and harvest well before harvest first frost to dry for winter teas. Unlike other annual basils which bloom and then become bitter, tulsi is known to bloom and keep blooming, providing forage for the bees and fragrance for your garden.
If brought indoors for the winter, tulsi will keep right on blooming and liven up any room with its sweet fragrance.
Tulsi beginning to flower mid-summer in our Vermont garden.
…
Tinctures are a convenient way to take your herbal medicines. They’re ready to use, just pop a few drops into your mouth or a glass of water and you’re done. The problem is…tinctures are expensive.
A simple echinacea tincture sells for $8 to $12 an ounce. If you plan ahead a few months before for flu season, you can make your own echinacea tincture for as little as $1 an ounce.
…
The term “medicinal mushroom” used to draw snickers and knowing glances, but these days science is recognizing legitimate medicinal uses for mushrooms. Reishi mushrooms have been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine, and western science is just beginning to explore their many uses.
Medicinal mushrooms such as reishi, chaga, maitake, turkey tail and shiitake contain both water-soluble components, known as polysaccharides, and alcohol-soluble components known as triterpenes. For this reason, medicines made from reishi mushrooms often include a double extraction. This two-step process combines alcohol and water extracts to maximize the medicinal benefits.
Reishi Mushroom Tincture infusing in a mason jar.
…
Let’s face it, the bees need all the help they can get these days. Organic beekeeping methods often involve using herbs to help repel mites and pests within bee hives. What if the bees could gather their own medicine? Could that lead to more resilient hives?
There is some evidence that anti-microbial and anti-fungal herbs can help prevent disease within hives. Specifically, the essential oils of thyme and mint are commonly used (and effective!) treatments for varroa mites.
By planting a medicinal herb garden, you have the opportunity to not only strengthen your health, while at the same time improving the health of your local pollinator population.
Help the bees, heal yourself.
A honey bee visiting thyme in bloom.
…
Elderberries are an important part of how I keep my family healthy all winter long. Elderberry oxymel, syrup, jelly, vinegar, mead…the list goes on. They’re easy to pick off the bushes in large clusters, and yields can be heavy in an established home patch or in your favorite backwoods foraging spot.
The trick is, once you’ve picked them, how do you process them into tasty food and medicine?
…
