Results for Category: DIY
Homemade Bug Bite Salve for Itchy Spots
The summertime invites us outdoors to bask in the warmth of the sun and enjoy more physical activity. All of this time outdoors leaves us sunkissed, grounded, and also, in many cases, bug-bitten. Like all the best things in life, there’s always a little bitter with the sweet. A homemade bug bite salve is the…
Motherwort Benefits + Recipe
Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) is a striking plant. Growing as tall as 5 feet, it bears the signature square stem and opposite lea...
Holy Basil-Peach Drink to Beat the Heat
There are so many reasons to love summertime, but juicy peaches and fresh herbs are near the top of the list! By combining cooling...
Homemade Probiotic Rose Milk Cleanser
When I was writing and creating natural DIY beauty recipes for Hello Gorgeous: 100 Fabulous DIY Facials You Can Do at Home, I focused on the simple idea that most skincare problems can be resolved the natural way: by putting nourishing food on your face. If it’s good enough to eat, it’s good enough to…
How to Harvest and Prepare Prickly Pear Cactus
The prickly pear (Opuntia spp.) cactus is synonymous with the American West, and what a gift she is to desert dwellers. The name prickly pear refers to a group of around one dozen species in the Opuntia genus (Desert USA, n.d.). Every part of this plant is useful, and prickly pear serves a wide range…
Pain-be-Gone Valerian Cordial with Willow
This Pain-be-Gone Valerian Cordial is the answer to what to do with valerian root. Valerian officinalis is known for soothing, rel...
Stay Cool With A Mint Spritz: A Stovetop Hydrosol Recipe
The sun rises with such force in the summer, sometimes giving off sweltering heat—the kind where beads of sweat drip down your n...
How to Use Dye Plants: Plant Projects for the Home
This book excerpt is taken from A Woman’s Garden: Grow Beautiful Plants and Make Useful Things – Plants and Projects for Home, Health, Beauty, Healing, and More by Tanya Anderson, and is reprinted with permission from Cool Springs Press, an imprint of The Quarto Group. Using Dye Plants From archaeological evidence, we know that people have…
Nettle Infused Ice Cubes + How to Make a Super Soda
The familiar sound when you crack open a soda, the release of those tiny little bubbles that pop and dance on the can’s lid. It is such a nostalgic memory. Can’t you just hear it now if you close your eyes? What if I told you there was a way to enjoy that same feeling,…
3 Fun Summer Herbal Popsicles
What is better than having a cold, delicious, and healthy treat ready in the freezer, waiting for you when the weather is hot? Her...
Botanical Vegan Tamales Recipe
This vegan tamales recipe is a fun twist on traditional tamales. I love how the edible flower colors and shapes appear to be paint...
Tissue-Soothing Mouthwash for Cancer Care Support
Many of us associate cancer care treatment with some truly debilitating side effects, and it can be overwhelming and frightening to look down the long road of treatment. While we don’t want to downplay the enormous impact that chemotherapy, radiation, and other treatments can have on daily life, there have truly been some big leaps…
Green Tea Herbal Soap Recipe
The following green tea soap excerpt is used with permission and taken from Easy Soapmaking by Kelly Cable. A beautiful, bright scented herbal bar. This recipe is easy to make using a green tea bag to add the anti-inflammatory properties of green tea and gentle exfoliation to your soap. 10% Superfat, 2 pounds or eight…
Lavender-Lemon Balm Lemonade
Summer is here and so is the time for long hours of gardening, hiking, picnics, and other outdoor activities and events! So what b...
Garlic and Thyme Oxymel
Some of the best herbal preparations are the simplest—made with the ingredients you likely have sitting in your kitchen right now. This Garlic and Thyme Oxymel is one such preparation: easy to make, delicious, and perfect to tuck in the cupboard for just those times you need a little extra respiratory or immune support. What’s…
Summer Solstice Sun Tea Recipes
The clouds make way, the night lessens, and the sun shines brightly as ever. It is the summer solstice—the longest day of the year! On this day, the sunbeams high in the sky, proudly providing warmth and light. A new season is ushered in, with the hope of a successful harvest to follow. The summer…
Rose and Vanilla Honey Recipe
Rose and vanilla honey is a wonderful gift idea for someone you love. Containing ingredients known for their association with roma...
How to Make a Succus
A succus is the freshly expressed juice of a plant or its fruit. If you aren’t familiar with this kind of herbal preparation...
DIY Spring Herb Salve With Lavender, Calendula, and Rose
Fresh slow-infused calendula drips through a strainer sending drops of gold liquid splashing to the bottom of the glass. Next to it a jar filled with sweet lavender oil fills the room with a soothing aroma. A glittering of copper paints the wall as the sun hits the lid to my rose-infused oil. This right…
Moon Cycle Tea for Painful Period Cramps
Many people have experienced painful period cramps at some point. Period cramps may be anywhere from mild to debilitating, making someone want to stay in bed all day long. Severe period pain is not normal and warrants a professional assessment as it can be a sign of conditions such as endometriosis. Mild to moderate pain…
Love Your Liver Herbal Tincture
Urban dwellers should consider an herbal liver tincture as part of their daily routine. When living in an environment where air qu...
Moon-Inspired Herbal Pancakes and Cookies
It was a full moon day, so I decided to create herbal pancakes and cookies inspired by the moon. This is how I often start my kitc...
Bedtime Herbal Bitters Recipe
Making your own herbal remedies feels empowering in a cultural climate that seems increasingly disconnected from nature. There’s a beauty to the process, and a sense of simplicity, too. One of the most accessible remedies for new herbalists is a tincture of bitter herbs. It’s easy to make, and it gives you a little freedom…
California Poppy Benefits + Recipe
California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), the state flower of California, is a beautiful wildflower that has been an ally to western-dwelling Indigenous peoples for long before there was a United States, let alone a United States Pharmacopeia. In this post, I will share with you a materia medica on the beneficial California poppy benefits, which should…
Herbal Soap Recipe for Eczema
If you’re living with eczema, bathing may cause more pain than pleasure. However, there is hope! Switching from commercial soaps...
A Floral Craft Project to Celebrate Herbalist Day
Herbalist Day is right around the corner (April 17!), and it’s the perfect opportunity to thank the herbalists in your life for ...
Herbal Cough Syrup Recipe for a Dry Cough
A dry unproductive cough can be caused by irritation such as dry air, smoke, allergens, and pollution, or develop during a respiratory infection. Worst of all it can be really uncomfortable, disrupting sleep, work, school, travel, and other activities, and can cause a headache or a sore throat that lasts. A dry cough and sore…
Pain-Be-Gone: Try This Meadowsweet Tea with Rose
This meadowsweet tea recipe offers a chance to calm the mind and gently soothe aches and pains while hydrating the body. A great way to practice self-care, this cup of herbal tea contains ingredients known to quiet a busy mind. Also known as Queen of the Meadow, meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) flower appears to have analgesic…
Teenage Skin Care: Herbal Recipes & Simple Routines
When it comes to teenage skin care less is more, despite parental urges to fix, research, and monitor. This is especially true whe...
