Results for Category: DIY
Herbal Bath Tea with Chamomile & Rose
Herbal bath tea makes a wonderful homemade gift, especially if that gift recipient is you! By blending together botanicals known for their nervine effects, this recipe includes chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) flowers and rose (Rosa spp.) petals to combine relaxation with aromatics. Chamomile contains a flavonoid, apigenin, thought to be the source of the plant’s sedative […]
2 Herbal Desserts Featuring Pumpkin: Brownies & Pie
Get ready for tasty, seasonal, and surprising combinations of herbal desserts! You may have heard of mint brownies or even lavende...
Stress-be-Gone Herbal Bath for New Moms
This relaxing herbal bath blend for the new mother is composed of three well-known aromatic nervines: chamomile (Matricaria recuti...
Mom’s Chamomile Tea Recipe with Lemon Balm and Linden Flower
Chamomile tea made from chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) flower with lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) leaf and linden (Tilia cordata) flower and bract is a relaxing blend for any new mother. Gentle herbs known for their stress-relieving tendencies and nerve-soothing effects are the perfect ingredients for this hand-blended chamomile tea recipe, which can be enjoyed daily. Chamomile […]
Best Herbal Oils for Homemade Soaps
In my five years of professional soapmaking, I’ve discovered herbal oils are a true luxury that adds vitality to homemade soap. Our skin is alive, but lifeless chemicals cannot give back life to the skin. To be “alive,” beauty products and topical formulas should be made purely of plant-based and natural ingredients (Raichur,1997). As the […]
Mom’s Raspberry Leaf Tea with Lady’s Mantle and Mint
Raspberry (Rubus spp.) leaf mixed with members of the rose and mint families come together in this new mother’s tea recipe, maki...
Herbal Sugars for Baking
Winter means spending more time indoors, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the abundance from our herb garden long after th...
Overnight Hawthorn Infusion
Creating your own hawthorn herbal infusion is a great way to pack a powerful nutritious punch from this member of the rose family. By using the hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) leaf, flower, and berry in a simple but refreshing herbal infusion, you can help prepare your body for the challenges of the winter season. Late fall […]
Soothing Herbal Sitz Bath for New Mothers
You can blend together botanicals celebrated for their relaxing aromas and cooling astringent properties to create a soothing herbal sitz bath. Both yarrow (Achillea millefolium) aerial parts and St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) flowers have been found to aid mothers recovery from the birthing process. Their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties soothe the skin and stimulate […]
Herb Stuffing Recipe with Sage and Thyme
A lot of folks wonder how to make stuffing with sage (Salvia officinalis) and thyme (Thymus vulgaris) in a way that maximizes the ...
Spiced Pumpkin Bread with Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Cloves
Spiced pumpkin bread offers an elevated flavor to a classic fall treat that contains nutrient-filled spices to warm the body and s...
Apple Cinnamon Stovetop Potpourri Blend
If you love the smell of freshly baked apple pie (honestly, who doesn’t?), then this Apple Cinnamon Stovetop Potpourri Blend is for you. With this delightful recipe simmering on the stovetop, your whole home will smell like a freshly baked apple pie—with only a fraction of the work! This dried blend also makes a wonderfully […]
3 Stovetop Potpourri Recipes for Winter
Don’t you just love the smell of the holidays? Fresh evergreen trees, cinnamon-covered desserts, and spiced cider all mingle together during this exciting and hope-filled time of year. Unfortunately, these delightful scents are often overpowered by well-intentioned candles and cleaning supplies that are stuffed with synthetic scents. These artificial smells can be nice at first […]
Woodland Winter Stovetop Potpourri Recipe
A long walk in the woods is good for the body and the soul. If you’ve ever walked through a dense evergreen forest, then you kno...
Easy Cinnamon Homemade Applesauce
A perennial favorite among children, homemade applesauce is simple to make. Adding cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) provides a nutrient...
Make Your Own Apple and Pumpkin Pie Spice Blends
Creating the best apple or pumpkin pie spice blend for your fall desserts is a simple matter of blending together spices many of us already have in the pantry. Blended and placed in decorative jars, pie spice blends also make fabulous hostess and Secret Santa gifts. Whether you blend to share or blend to bake, […]
Craft Your Own Delicious Hawthorn Berry Cordial
Harvesting hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) berries in late fall can produce a basket of sweet red berries ideal for a vitamin-rich homemade cordial (Harford,2020). Blended with seasonal favorites, including apple, rosehip (Rosa spp.), and cinnamon (Cinnamomum spp.), this hawthorn berry homemade cordial is sure to delight and soothe. The hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) tree offers many gifts: […]
Herbal Spiced Apple Cider Recipe with Cinnamon, Chamomile, and Astragalus
There’s something comforting about a warm drink on a cold night, making spiced apple cider the perfect beverage for a cool fall ...
French Apple Cinnamon Tea
This French Apple Cinnamon Tea recipe calls for cinnamon, apples, and honey, providing a little crispness with a dash of sweetness...
Shelf-Stable Calendula Cream Recipe
As herbalists, we turn to our trusty herbal allies to create simple and safe skincare products. We love our calendula-infused oil, our lavender hydrosol, our rose petals. But how can we bring these beautiful herbal ingredients together into a calendula cream recipe or another botanical skincare creation that is shelf-stable? After all, any time we […]
Herbal Tea Blends for Morning, Midday, and Night
Timing is everything. This well-worn saying couldn’t be more true when it comes to herbal tea blends. The Sanskrit word kala refers to time or timing, and desa to place. According to Ayurveda, harmonious living isn’t just about what; it is also about when, how, and where. When it comes to what we put into […]
Citrus and Spice: DIY All-Purpose Cleaner
Crisp cool air and tree colors turning to auburn and golden hues welcome the arrival of autumn and winter months. Tis the season t...
Floral Mist: DIY Room Spray
A few spritzes of our DIY Room Spray will transport your mind and spirit to bright and colorful gardens bursting with flowers and ...
Once in a Blue Moon Milk Recipe with Ashwagandha and Chamomile
This year has been full of surprises, and it would only be natural for the world to give us yet another surprise during the spookiest month of the year. In a typical year, we can expect to witness twelve full moons, one for every month of the year. This year is a rare exception. In […]
What is Enfleurage? Historic Perfumery Technique with Instructions
“Enfleurage” is a French word that you may have seen associated with historic perfumery techniques. If you’ve seen this mysterious word mentioned in old texts or publications, you probably found yourself wondering, “what is enfleurage?” We dug into our Natural Perfumery Course to answer that question and to share a special sneak peek into our […]
Health Benefits of Cinnamon + 2 Warming Recipes
(Excerpted from Spice Apothecary by Bevin Clare. Used with permission from Storey Publishing.) Cinnamon is one of the oldest and m...
Using Goldenrod: A Late Summer Cordial Recipe
Goldenrod (Solidago spp.) flourishes abundantly on roadsides and meadows in late summer and fall. In the plant family, Asteraceae,...
Ginger and Pineapple Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie
The following excerpt is from Jill Stansbury’s new book Herbal Formularies for Health Professionals, Volume 4 (Chelsea Green Publishing, July 2020) and is reprinted with permission from the publisher. This all-purpose anti-inflammatory smoothie is both tasty and beneficial. It can be used after trauma, to help recover from surgery, or to accompany a tea or tincture […]
Herbal Arnold Palmer Recipe: Just What You Need!
In the late 1960s, Arnold Palmer, a famous American golfer and humanitarian, was known to request a drink mixture of mostly tea with a splash of lemonade, which was later named after him. The beverage is readily available as a non-alcoholic staple due to the perfect balance of bold black tea and citrus-sweet lemonade. The […]
Vata Massage Oil Recipe (Fall and Early Winter)
Massage oil, especially when infused with herbs, can be more than just a feel-good skin moisturizer. Ayurveda teaches that fat is ...
