Results for Category: Preparation How-To
Essential Oil Perfume: A DIY Gift Idea
The holidays are a wonderful time to give something that the receiver wouldn’t normally indulge themselves in. Something pretty, or something sentimental, or something handmade. An essential oil perfume recipe checks all those boxes! Crafting a unique scent is a fun way to show care to the receiver, and to pull in special memories through…
3 DIY Herbal Skincare Gifts for the Holiday Season
As this year is coming to an end, we are busy getting ready for the holidays. To show appreciation for our loved ones in a more me...
Herbal Lip Balm Recipe for Dry Winter Lips
Whipping winds, cold air, and a dry climate make for a common annoyance—chapped lips. Winter is particularly harsh on the lips, ...
Homemade Hot Toddy for Cold and Flu
My first memories of a hot toddy are from childhood. One of my family’s home remedies for cold and flu, hot toddies were something my mother prepared for me and my sister when the seasonal sniffles got the better of us, and something her grandmother, my mamaw, had made for her family in similar situations….
How to Make Apple Spiced Liqueur
It is November. A cold chill has settled, blanketing the days with lower temperatures. It is time for cozy fires, warm food, and spiced drinks. This homemade apple spiced liqueur recipe gives your taste buds a welcome dose of sweet and spice, with a little bit of heat. The sweet taste of apples with cinnamon…
DIY Pregnancy Belly Cream: Help Prevent Stretch Marks With This Natural Blend
During pregnancy, the body experiences great changes. The belly grows, the breasts are already preparing for breastfeeding, and ov...
How to Make Rosehip Syrup
Rose hips are my favorite herbal ally to call on when making a syrup. The constituency profile and energetics of rose hips mesh so...
DIY Herbal Halloween Lollipop Recipe
It’s officially time to break out those cauldrons and brew up something sweet for a Halloween treat! This homemade herbal lollipop recipe is a delicious candy filled with rich flavor and simple ingredients. Watch the Golden Liquid Rise As the concoction bubbled and boiled, I felt like a Sanderson sister stirring up something on a…
Naturally Tinted Homemade Lip Balm Recipe
Autumn is here, showing its beauty again with warm and earthy colors and accents of red, yellow, and orange—which means time for cozy sweaters, colorful leaves, and final harvests from our gardens. The characteristic colors and flavors associated with this season are what makes it so wonderful. In addition to pumpkin pie, warming spices, and…
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 le...
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…
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 sc...
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 no...
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, that is probably because it hasn’t been as widely offered by producers in the herbal industry. Home herbalists tend to reserve this type of preparation for fewer plants, or those that will…
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…
Bedtime Herbal Bitters Recipe
Making your own herbal remedies feels empowering in a cultural climate that seems increasingly disconnected from nature. ThereR...
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…
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,...
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 myst...
Homemade Sunburn Spray for After-Sun Care (With Video!)
Many a fun summer day has ended with the sting of a sunburn. Maybe you could have seen it coming, but now what can you do? The tight, hot, burning feeling is not only uncomfortable, it can prevent us from savoring long summer days and enjoying further outdoor activities. Thankfully, our herbal allies can help…
Handmade Floral Paper: A Family-Friendly Project
Herbal craft projects help fuel our creativity and reinvigorate our connection with the natural word. Like all plant lovers, our hearts skip a beat whenever we’re presented with just-for-fun herbal creations, like homemade floral cookies and pressed flower arrangements. As such, you can imagine our excitement when a few of our resident herbalists presented the…
Comfrey Cream Recipe for Achy Joints and Muscles
Can a comfrey (Symphytum officianale) root extraction help ease aching joints and muscles? Many of those following the folk use of...
Try A Cooling Herbal Compress for Hot Summer Days
Summertime arrives and life feels easier. Crisp iced lemonade, smells of freshly mowed grass, and sounds of children splashing in ...
How to Make Alcohol Intermediary Herb-Infused Oils
Have you heard the phrase, there’s more than one way to garble an herb? If so, you can certainly apply that to herbalism when it comes to making various herbal preparations. There are many variations and methods of making herbal infusions, tinctures, syrups, and yes, even herb-infused oils—there’s something for everyone’s skill level and preference. …
Plantain Leaf Benefits and Recipes
Since the launch of The Foraging Course, we’ve had a renewed interest in the humble, helpful herbs that grow right outside our doors. Plantain leaf (Plantago spp.) is one such wonder “weed” that’s found all over the globe. Two of the most common species, broadleaf plantain (P. major) and ribwort plantain (P. lanceolata), have followed…
Calming Tea Recipe & Natural Stress Management (With Video!)
Sometimes it seems as if stress is all around us. From big traumatic events to small irritations, stress is an inevitable part of ...
