Results for Category: Botanical
Oats Benefits: Getting To Know Avena Sativa
Such a beautiful name, Avena sativa, known by most as the common oat. It’s interesting how knowledge of a plant can become lost even as it is daily right under our noses. Humankind has focused so much on the calorie-dense oat grain as a food source, we’ve neglected its medicinal uses, not to mention those…
Harvesting and Cooking Nettles (Plus, Nettle and White Bean Recipe!)
Spring nettles are at their best right now in New England – new, spring-green, and tender – so last weekend I was deli...
5 Herbs That Grow In Shade
With the coming of summer, you’re all ready to take in the majesty of the large, sweeping landscape that is your forty-acre prop...
The Virtues of Violets – Health Benefits of Violets
A few weeks ago, I looked around our 5 acres to see what may be sprouting after a long, cold winter. Soon I saw that my first little escaped and self-sown flowering plant had emerged. Guess which one. Violet! Perhaps cultivated for hardiness as well as beauty, the little johnny jump-up violets (Viola tricolor) had popped up after…
3 Easy Tips for Late Gardening
It seems like everyone in your life is gardener extraordinaire…except for you. Your neighbor, your best friend, and your perfect sister-in-law have all found the time to plant a whole garden amidst schedules that are as crazy as yours. And since you haven’t even gotten started, is it possible to do some late gardening? What…
What is Compost Tea? Plants Drink Tea, Too!
At the Herbal Academy, we believe in cultivating awareness of our interconnectedness with the living communities all around us. Wh...
How to Compost: Getting Started Guide
Spring is finally starting to show its face in our corner of the world, and Earth Day is just around the corner. What better time ...
How to Make an Easy Red Clover Tea: Red Clover, Red Clover, Bring Good Health on Over
Red clover (Trifolium pratense) is a well-known “weed” introduced to North America by European colonists and is now commonly found in fields, roadsides, and in yards from May until September. This herbal perennial in the pea family (Fabaceae, also known as Leguminosae) roots itself with a long taproot and rises up with a slender, hollow,…
Dandelion Root Oxymel Recipe
Dandelion can do all sorts of dandy things. This winter has seemed to hang on for dear life, despite the fact that we are now officially in spring. Particularly long winters can leave us all feeling a bit heavy. Whether it’s heavy eyes, sluggish movement, or heavy feelings, now is the time to wring it all…
Easy Seed Starting Guide
Gardeners around the nation are chomping at the bit to get some dirt under their fingernails. Gardening is one of the top hobbies ...
