Results for Category: Preparation How-To
How to Make a Simple Chai Syrup
I love any opportunity to share the richness of relationships with plants and have always felt that handmade gifts are the most precious. There’s nothing like gifting friends and family your time and energy, packaged up, with handwritten labels, just brimming with love. This is why for Christmas this year I am offering a little […]
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,...
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, a fragile skin barrier, and it is no wonder so many stores line their end caps with lip balm during December. Tis’ the season for piling on extra layers! Not just for the body, […]
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 s...
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 well with preservation and delivery by syrup. Let’s look at what makes rose hips the perfect ally for syrup making, and some of the reasons we might make an herbal syrup. […]
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...
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 neck, making you uncomfortable and hot. During such hot summer days, the shade is your ally. Much like the trees and their leaves that drape over you help block the sun, herbs are […]
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 t...
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 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 […]
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 i...
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 the last bloom and the first frost. Many of us feel the need to surround ourselves with comfort when snow blankets the ground and the weather turns cold. Baking in the kitchen is one […]
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 herb...
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 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 […]
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 h...
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 the backyard pool at once evoke a mindful appreciation for the present and tug at childhood nostalgia. Spending all day in the sun at the beach or in the garden helps increase vitamin D intake […]
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 d...
