Results for Category: Botanical
8 Everyday Herbs of the Caribbean
Three months ago, my son and I came to live in Manzanillo, Costa Rica, a small beach town on the southern Caribbean coast. As a Western-trained herbalist, this for me has meant a daily education on an entirely new materia medica featuring herbs of the Caribbean—virtually none of my familiar temperate-climate plants thrive here! Fortunately, there…
Creating a Local Materia Medica With Motherwort
Motherwort is the gift that keeps on giving in my garden. A member of the tenacious mint family (Lamiaceae), she self-seeds hersel...
Is Red Clover Safe During Pregnancy And Breastfeeding?
Sure, it’s a valuable herb for women (and men too), but is using red clover safe during pregnancy and breastfeeding? Genera...
Creating a Local Materia Medica With Plantain (+ Plantain Salve Recipe)
Part of the beauty of a local materia medica is its humility, and you can’t get much more humble than plantain (Plantago spp.). Considered a weed the world over, this tenacious and resilient plant steadfastly grows in lawns, fields, roadsides, disturbed land, sidewalk cracks—you name it. And while plantain is often overlooked today (saved by…
Unlock the Power of Mint: A Family-Friendly Herb
Beautifully fragrant with a delightful taste, amazing mint (Mentha genus) is a helpful and welcome herb for everyone in the family. Right at home in a yummy cup of tea or in an herbal extract, the uses are simple to enjoy! There is a vast variety of mints to savor. Peppermint, spearmint, chocolate mint, apple…
Creating a Local Materia Medica with Yellow Dock
I had originally intended to write this month’s local materia medica about another herb entirely, but then I replaced the fe...
How To Stay Cool Using Herbs
Summer is just around the corner, and many of us are looking forward to the seasonal activities that come along with it—grilling...
A Family Herb: Gentle Linden Flower and Leaf
Deliciously fragrant linden trees perfume the air in early summer, beckoning us to come and enjoy their beneficial properties for body, mind, and spirit. This stately tree, a time-tested favorite herbal remedy in Europe, is often found lining city streets and growing in parks. And it may surprise you to know that linden flower and…
Reflections of an Herb Gardener
To those who are afraid of starting an herb garden, don’t be. The rewards of having your own fresh herbs to use and dry, the therapy of working in the dirt, the ability to sit quietly and meditate in your own special place far outweigh the “errors in judgment” one can make. Looking back at…
Creating a Local Materia Medica with Violet
Modern herbalists are fortunate to have access to a vast array of herbs from far corners of the globe. Herbs and spices have long ...
A Family Herb: Helpful Calendula Blossoms
Vivacious, happy Calendula blossoms are a delight to grow and use in herbal remedies for everyone in the family. As a member of ...
Feast on Spring Nettle! Wild Greens with Beans Soup Recipe
Spring is that wonderful time of year when we emerge from our winter hibernation into a fresh, green world. And, as we being to explore the newly grown and fresh plants, there are many that we can harvest and eat. These plants have a delicious flavor and many nutritional benefits to enjoy. One popular green…
How To Use Schisandra For The Liver
One of my favorite herbs is Schisandra chinensis (Wu Wei Zi). I don’t think there is anything that schisandra can’t do, and there is no other herb like it. The Chinese name means five taste fruit (sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty). Having all these tastes in one herb provide a variety of actions making it a superior…
3 Ways to Use Cleavers for Spring Cleansing
Herbal greens like plantain and chickweed that begin to emerge as soon as the snows melt are fairly well known, but there is anoth...
A Family Herb: Stinging Nettle Leaf Uses
The first plants to rise up in the spring, gracing the world with green, often include the very herbs we can most successfully use...
A Family Herb: Dandelion
Hillsides and fields awash with vibrant greens and yellow blooms beckon us outside to enjoy warming springtime weather. It’s here, right under our feet, that we may find one of the most treasured plants in the world of herbalism. Well-known by children and often the bane of gardeners, the humble dandelion (Taraxcum officinale) is a…
Purslane: A Nutritional Herb
By Nina Katz – Herbalist Purslane is a land-based vegetable that is extremely high in nutrients and makes a great addition to many food recipes. Today I want to briefly speak to you about the nutrients purslane can offer you when eaten as a food as well as share some great recipes from fellow wild-food…
4 Ways To Fertilize Your Garden With Herbs
We use herbs for nutrition and health but don’t often consider that these same benefits can also extend to our gardens. Fertiliz...
How To Have A Sensational Experience With Oatstraw
by Rebecca Swartwood Salty, sweet, milky, feminine, watery, strengthening, silky, easy… These were my initial impressions after ...
4 Reasons Thyme Is An Herb For Winter Health
There are many herbal allies that you may enjoy working with during the long, cold winter months. Elderberry and elecampane are a couple that come to mind, or perhaps astragalus or angelica are a better fit for you. However, it might surprise you that an herb tucked away into your kitchen cabinet, thyme, is the…
3 Raspberry Leaf Benefits For Women
When thinking of raspberry, visions of tart, delicious little berries come to mind, yet the familiar raspberry offers us much more than a wholesome snack. When we look beyond the tasty fruits of this hardy plant, we find that the raspberry leaf benefits for women are numerous, including being used as a helpful ally during…
Heart Happy Herbs for Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is upon us and love is in the air! This holiday is a great reminder to enjoy special relationships with loved on...
History and Uses of Common Ivy
Helix hedera, or common ivy, is a familiar garden and houseplant to many people. Sometimes, ivy is used as a greenery decoration d...
Learn About the Mistletoe
Mistletoe, Viscum Album The familiar, white-berried token of the winter holiday season, mistletoe, is a parasitic plant that grows on the branches of several species of trees. Mistletoe burrows roots into the inner wood of trees and feeds from their sap, and a heavy infestation with mistletoe can kill branches of the host plant or even…
Autumn Wildharvesting Guide: Herbal Roots
Fall is the best time to harvest the roots, some berries, flowers, and cold weather herbs that we miss once the heat of summer comes in. This article will act as your fall wildharvesting guide, featuring herbal roots that are available during the season. Get the full Autumn Wildharvesting Guide, featuring fruits, berries, flowers, herbs, seeds, and…
10 Helpful Tips for Wildcrafting Herbs
Wildcrafting is the practice of foraging for useful plants from their natural, wild habitat for edible or herbal purposes. Wildcra...
Finding the Roots of Our Herbal Traditions
Fall is all about root medicine. As our plants ready themselves for winter, many of them draw their energy down into the roots to ...
Plantain, A Story
We have plantain growing all over our yard. I’m a new, not yet budding herbalist, and I have yet to use it. I have been lying in wait for someone in my household to get a bug bite so that I could try crunching up a leaf and making a spit poultice. I have been…
An Introduction Into Canine Herbalism
If you have dogs, you probably cannot count the times you’ve seen them run to a patch of something green and begin to consume it ravenously. You might wonder when, and more importantly, where the consumed forage will represent itself again, which always seems to be in the middle of your dinner party on your…
A Family Herb: Chamomile Flower
The lovely little chamomile flower is reminiscent of peaceful sunshine filled days, which speaks to the gentle power of this plant...
