Join Us For A Yellow Dock Plant Walk!
We’re in the midst of growing and foraging season here in the Northern Hemisphere. If you’re feeling the tug to get outside and enjoy the plants as they flourish, we hope you’ll join us today for a plant walk video with herbalist and Herbal Academy Assistant Director, Jane Metzger. Jane will be showing us how to…
The Top 5 Ayurvedic Kitchen Spices to Keep In Stock
If you love spicy food, then perhaps you instinctually appreciate the aromatic, colorful allure of well-spiced cuisine. For some, the draw is innate; there is something so enticing about the crimson kick of cayenne (Capsicum annuum) and the warming brown of cinnamon, not to mention that lovely golden hue that turmeric brings to a curry….
How To Make DIY Herbal Culinary Salts
So many recipes instruct you to “add salt and pepper to taste” or “finish with a sprinkle of sea salt.” But what if we could add herbs with every finishing touch? And what if this practice made the flavor of our dishes all the more complex and delightful? Herbal culinary salts are incredibly easy to…
5 Herbal Cookbooks For Your Kitchen
Cooking with herbs can be one of the more delicious and rewarding ways to integrate herbs into our daily life. In fact, herbs have held a place in the kitchen through the centuries, and are integral to cultural culinary traditions. Many of our first interactions with herbs may have been a garnish of parsley, meats…
Inside The Herbarium Membership!
Welcome to The Herbarium — a membership site for herbalists! Inside this space, you will find a collection of herbal monographs, photographs, articles, videos, tutorials, teaching charts, and more. These resources are available here in an effort to share herbal wisdom, discoveries, lessons, and beauty that will enrich this life-long journey into herbalism. Inside The…
How To Stay Calm and Cool with Lemon Balm Lemonade
Are you ready for the summer heat? In this post, I’ll show you how to make lemon balm lemonade. Stay calm, cool, and hydrated all summer long with this herbal twist on an old favorite. Summer Days While summer is a time of lazy days and longer nights, it can also be busy and full…
How To Use Morphology to Describe Plants
With an awareness of the many forms that plants, flowers, and leaves come in, a hike in the woods or a stroll through a garden can transform from a blur of green to a diverse exhibit of morphology. With attention to morphology, along with an understanding of binomial nomenclature and the evolutionary relationships that plant…
How To Use Flower Essences for Emotional Support
How do you feel when you notice spring and summer flowers in bloom or the trees budding and bursting with life? Do you feel energized, hopeful, or at peace? Flower essences capture this subtle seasonal energy, and they are used to support the emotional side of wellness. Flower essences are created by infusing newly opened…
The Spring Cleanse: How To Use Herbs to Support The Body’s Detoxification Process
With the warm weather upon us, we all want to feel our best. Spring is a season of growth and rebirth, and for many, it brings with it the idea of “doing a cleanse” to shake off the — literal and figurative — weight of a long, cold winter. A quick online search for “spring…
How To Make Vegan Herbal Syrups
Herbal syrups are a common herbal preparation. Not only are they easy to make and tasty to use, but they require minimal ingredients that can be found in most homes. Other than herbs, all that’s needed to make herbal syrups are water and some form of sweetener. Many herbalists prefer to use raw honey to…
How To Build A Nutritive Tea
While many of us search the supplement aisles to round out our nutritional needs, we often forget about the many herbs out there that are not only rich in vitamins and minerals but also aid in our absorption of certain nutrients. Now I’m not telling you to throw all your supplements in the trash! However,…
Ayurvedic Tips For Spring Wellness
Ayurveda recognizes the cyclic nature of life. In order to achieve wellness, it is important to be tuned in to our environment as well as to be cognizant of our inherent constitution, called prakruti in Ayurveda. This article will elucidate Ayurvedic tips for spring wellness. Though our prakruti (inherent constitution) is fixed, our present nature,…
The Most Inconspicuous Plant You Can Forage Now!
Our new Botany & Wildcrafting Course is here, and we’re so excited about this course! Not only will it provide you with an introduction to plant biology and ecology, but it will help you strengthen your plant identification skills and help you understand and practice sound wildcrafting ethics and techniques as well. In this course,…
7 Essential Tools For Botany (And A Few More For Good Measure!)
Whether you are setting out to become a professional botanist or are just interested in getting to know your local plants a little better, you’ve got to have the right tools on hand to get started. Once you start using different tools and simple botanical equipment to identify and observe plants, a whole new world…
6 Basil Varieties & What You Should Know About Them
Few things compare to the fresh smell and flavor of basil pesto. Throw some basil leaves and pine nuts (or even less expensive almonds) in a blender with some olive oil, lemon, and salt, and you create a fragrant, herbaceous spread you can put on most anything. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water!…
12 Permaculture Principles to Use When Planning Your Herb Garden
Permaculture is not just a way of growing things. It is a movement — a way of life. Permaculture has its origins across many cultures, spanning the history of humanity. In the 1970s Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren defined and organized it into what we now know by the term “permaculture,” which means “permanent…
Thoughts On Celebrating Earth Day As An Herbalist
April is one of our most exciting months of the year as two of our favorite holidays occur this month — Herbalist Day on the 17th, and Earth Day on the 22nd. The month of April is a fantastic time for an Earth Day celebration as it marks the beginning of the growing seasons (here…
How To Harvest Bark From Trees and Shrubs Correctly
If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to harvest bark from trees or shrubs, you’re not alone. Bark is commonly used in herbal preparations, but the idea of harvesting barks can be rather confusing. How exactly does one go about harvesting barks from trees or shrubs in an ethical and sustainable manner? In the article…
How To Identify & Wildcraft Plants Outside Your Front Door
As the sun spends more time in the sky and the weather begins to warm, fresh green shoots emerge from the earth, buds form on tree branches, and blossoms burst forth in an array of vivid color. Spring has arrived, and with it, an abundance of nourishing plants that are useful to the earth as…
Herbalism: A History – How Herbalists Of The Past Paved The Way For Today
Have you ever wondered how modern-day herbalism came to be? Before the dawn of Instagram herbalism or online herbal education (like the Herbal Academy!), the roots of herbalism run quite deep. Tracing these roots all the way back to prehistory (the time before writing systems were developed), we find that different cultures around the world…
Herbal Aphrodisiacs: What They Are & How to Use Them
Have you ever heard of eating oysters, birds nest soup, iguana, or the many other bizarre foods that people believe to be arousing? Aphrodisiacs have been long sought after, admired, and rumored for their effects on libido — but do they actually work? An aphrodisiac, named after the Goddess Aphrodite, is a substance that, when…
Free Botanical Thank You Card Downloads!
Happy Herbalist Day, friends and community! Today we are putting together a complete list of free botanical thank you cards, herbalist day cards, botanical banners, herbal gift cards, plant-illustrated wrapping paper, and more to equip you with all the intentional gift giving resources you need to celebrate the friends, mentors, and loved ones in your…
6 Steps To Revitalize Your Health With Herbs This Spring
With new plant life beginning to stir in the ground from their winter slumber, poking their heads up from the earth, so it is with our energy and inner vitality. As the earth’s energy is rising, naturally, so does our own. Or so it should. For some of us, emerging from our winter hibernation and…
Nourishing the Blood: TCM and Ayurvedic Perspectives
Blood isn’t just platelets and plasma; it is our vitality. Blood carries the story of our ancestry. It is essential, and it is everywhere! Both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda share a recognition that blood operates within the larger and deeper context of our being. Both these ancient systems know that blood is vital and…
The Ultimate Essential Oils Guide
Here at the Herbal Academy, essential oils are an important and beloved component of our herbal toolkits. You’ll find essential oils peppered amongst the tinctures, infused oils, salves, and jars of dried herbs that line our shelves, and we turn to them often to support our health and wellbeing. Just like any remedy, essential oils…
How To Incorporate Hemp In Your Materia Medica
With hemp (Cannabis sativa) only just beginning to emerge on the forefront of herbal practice and scientific research, there is much curiosity and confusion in the herbal community surrounding the general use of hemp and what distinguishes it from marijuana or weed. In this article, I will guide you through a basic introduction to hemp,…
5 Herb Gardening Books To Inspire Your Next Botanical Garden
This is the time of year when a day with slightly above average temperatures and sunshine leads to a longing for spring. Seasonal changes, such as the snow beginning to melt or the days growing longer, tempt us outside for just a bit longer each time. Once quick, dreaded trips to the mailbox evolve into…
The Lure and Lore of HOPS: The 2018 Herb of the Year
Each year since 1995, the International Herb Association picks an Herb of the Year. This year that herb is hops (Humulus spp.). Below you’ll find information about cultivating and harvesting hops as well as some interesting lure and lore about this year’s Herb of the Year. All About Hops Hops is a member of the…
What The Spring Equinox Means To The Herbalist
Have you ever wondered how our ancient ancestors kept track of time? I suppose the further back in time you go, people were more focused on survival than keeping track of the minutes. However, as people learned about the world around them and cultures began to form and progress, time became an important concept. My…
DIY Herbal Hair Serum For Silky Soft Hair
There is nothing quite so luxurious as running your hands through silky soft hair. Although you might think you can only achieve this by visiting the salon, you can actually make it happen in your very own home! Making your own herbal-based hair serum is easy, fun, and effective—not to mention free from all of…
