All About Dandelion (For Your Materia Medica)
Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is most assuredly a treasured plant in my local materia medica and is appreciated by herbalists throughout temperate regions of the world. Sadly, dandelion is not celebrated by all—due to its penchant to grow and blossom wherever it darn well pleases, it is loathed and poisoned by those who value a pristine…
Little-Known Ways To Use Lovage
If we were to walk back in time and enter a medieval medicinal or kitchen garden, in the back we would surely find a relatively unknown plant today—lovage. Unlike many herbs, lovage may have begun its journey with humans as a therapeutic plant and evolved into the culinary plant too few of us enjoy today….
Herbal Citrus Eucalyptus Hand Salve: A Gardener’s Best Friend
Do you itch to get outdoors and dig into the garden when spring finally arrives? Does your pent up motivation from a long winter cause you to dig in a little too far, leaving you with rough calloused hands? Or, inflamed blisters and insect bites? I can account for all three! Maybe it’s my motivation…
28 Skin-Friendly Essential Oils for Your Next Salve
Essential oils are often included in herbal and cosmetic preparations for aromas, their anti-inflammatory or antimicrobial actions, or their effects on our psyches. The problem with using essential oils topically is that many of them are drying or irritating to the skin and can even cause allergic reactions in some people. Which essential oils are…
5 Child-Friendly Herbs For Topical Use
If you have children (or if you’ve ever been a child, for that matter), you’re familiar with all of the common childhood ailments, from colds and flu to basic boo-boos (like cuts, scrapes, and bruises). As a mother of two, there are a handful of herbs and very simple-to-make topical remedies that I like to…
Summer: The Perfect Time To Work On Your Herbal Studies
We have been overwhelmed with the positive response of the relaunch of our Herbal Materia Medica Course. The connection we have with plants is also what connects us to each other and we are overjoyed to welcome so many new bright minds to the Herbal Academy. When we released this course, we quickly realized that…
Homemade Honeysuckle Syrup & 6 Ways To Use It
Honeysuckle. Nothing signifies summer to me like seeing thousands of honeysuckle blossoms along the creek bank here in the South. Honeysuckle not only smells and tastes great, but it can be used to create herbal remedies that are good for your body, too. Honeysuckle flowers are the most commonly used part of the plant. They…
11 DIY Herbal Wedding Favors To Gift To Guests
Looking for the perfect favors for your wedding? Nothing says “thank you” to your wedding guests like making something homemade. Spread the herbal love with one of these DIY herbal wedding favors to show your guests how much you appreciate them sharing your special day! While some favors take a few months of planning ahead,…
9 Edible Flowers And How To Use Them
The use of edible flowers in cooking is an act of pure earthly delight! Fragrance and sheer beauty combine to create a truly sensually scrumptious experience right on your plate. You may be surprised to learn that there are a wide variety of flowers to enjoy. Discover how to enjoy using edible flowers and take…
5 Herbal Books for the Complete Beginner
As a newcomer to this field, it is easy to dive in enthusiastically, only to feel a little lost once knee-deep into one concept or another. Having just a few herbal books that go over a little bit of everything and are geared toward the complete beginner can provide some stable footing and help inspire…
The Week You’ve Been Waiting For! 5 Days of Giveaways by the Herbal Academy
The Herbal Academy is bringing back one of our most anticipated events of the year – 5 Days of Giveaways – and this year we’ve got some extra special surprises in store for you along the way. As part of this year’s 5 Days of Giveaways, we are offering up to $1000+ in awesome prizes…
4 Ways To Use Leftover Orange Peels
If you’re a fan of oranges, you may find yourself with an overabundance of leftover orange peels in your home, especially when oranges are in season. If you find yourself wondering what to do with all these peels rather than throwing them in the trash, let me offer some suggestions to help you put your…
Motherwort Through History
Here at the Academy, we often talk about historical knowledge and folk tradition comprising one of the legs of the three-legged stool that informs our understanding of a plant’s therapeutic uses. Scientific studies and the first-hand experience of modern herbalists are the other legs that complete the stool, balancing and reinforcing one another to give…
DIY Rosemary Memory Elixir
“You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realize that memory is what makes our lives. Life without memory is no life at all, just as an intelligence without the possibility of expression is not really an intelligence. Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even…
7 Things to Keep in Mind When Planning Your Herb Garden
Growing an herb garden is a wonderful way to have fresh herbs on hand for cooking, making home remedies, and enjoying nature for its bounty. If you have a large or small yard, or no yard at all, herbs are easy to grow indoors and outdoors with the right amount soil, sunshine, drainage, and attention….
Our Materia Medica Short Course Is Back!
There have been a lot of requests for the Materia Medica Short Course from folks who missed the 2017 Herb & Essential Oil Super Bundle so we’ve decided, as a special summer offering, to release the course for a limited time. Class will be offered through June 20th, and you can get access now by…
A Beginner’s Guide to Using Essential Oils with Confidence
How many of these phrases have you read or heard? “Essential oils are natural.” “Essential oils are safe.” “Essential oils are powerful, and you need to be very careful when you use them.” “Don’t ever use essential oils internally.” “Using essential oils internally is perfectly safe.” “Don’t use essential oils if you are pregnant.” “Essential…
Herbal Myths, Lore, and Legends: Lady’s Mantle, Mint, Fennel, Mandrake, Elder, Thistle, and Belladonna
Every culture offers myths, legends, and folklore to justify some event, instruct us on proper behavior, or issue horrible warnings if a person breaks the rules of proper behavior. Myths are generally about the gods, e.g., Zeus, and are usually a symbolic account of what happened rather than factual. Folklore sometimes has mythical creatures like…
An Herb And Essential Oil Resource You Won’t Want To Miss Out On!
We’re always learning here at the Herbal Academy, whether from the informative posts written by our blog contributors, the in-depth articles shared on The Herbarium, or through the herbal teachers who share their wisdom and insight with us in our popular herbal courses. We also learn important lessons from the herbal community that surrounds us,…
St. John’s Wort: Not Just For Depression
Stumbling upon a field of wildly growing St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) is like discovering a ray of Earth-bound sunshine. Profuse bright, happy yellow flowers hint at this plant’s well-known use for soothing those suffering from depression. Yet, those cheery flowers hold many more herbal actions and uses within than most of us are familiar…
How To Strengthen Bones With Herbal Infusions
Six months ago, my then six-year-old son fell off a set of monkey bars at the park and broke his elbow. As soon as I saw it, my nursing instinct said to get him to the emergency room fast as his arm was either dislocated or broken, and we’d need X-rays to tell. It was,…
DIY Herbal Skin Steam and Aloe-Calendula Cleanser
We all want great-looking skin. A quick skim through any fashion and style magazine gives plenty of evidence that healthy, clear, youthful-looking skin is a hot commodity—you’ll see ads for anti-wrinkle serums and collagen creams, moisturizers, acne-fighting gels, lotions to minimize the appearance of pores. Some products are excellent (and often expensive), while others are…
DIY Mother’s Day Tea Bags
Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and what says “I love you” better than a handmade gift of herbal goodness? Maybe the mom in your life is a tea lover, enjoying a cup in the morning to start her day or snuggled up with a good book in the evening. Or, maybe she has…
How To Make Fresh Dandelion Blossom Oil
I have many favorite things about spring—one of them being the fresh, sunny faces of dandelion blossoms popping up everywhere. Dandelions are one of my favorite herbs. Not only are they readily available, but they have so many uses such as dandelion fritters, roasted dandelion root coffee, dandelion kombucha, dandelion syrup, floral crowns… even freshly…
How To Make Pine Resin Salve
One of the thrills of exploring the plants in my local materia medica is stocking my first aid kit with locally sourced herbal preparations. Here in New England we are blessed with more than our fair share of evergreen trees, and in particular an abundant helping of white pine (Pinus strobus). The bark, leaves, and…
4 Herbal Recipes For Everyday Skin Care
With farm season and warm weather coming our way and the brisk cold winter air at our backs, stocking the bathroom cabinets with concoctions from the kitchen is one way to be proactive about caring for your exposed outer layer. Skin care is not only a method of self-care and body-love, it also offers preventative…
How To Roast Herbs For An Herbal Coffee Substitute
If you’re anything like the majority of people in the U.S., you drink coffee on a regular basis—maybe even every day. This isn’t always a bad thing, especially when coffee is consumed in moderation, as it is known to have some health benefits (Liang & Kitts, 2015). But according to the Harvard University Chan School…
A DIY Herbal Grief Tea For Loss
I can honestly say that I have never experienced raw, breath-taking, life-halting grief as some people have. Yes, I’ve lost friends and family, and while some of these losses have taken time to heal, they have healed. Sure, the memories and the feelings of loss are still there, but the grief itself is not. Over…
What Everybody Ought To Know About Flower Water
Is it a “flower water,” “floral water,” or a “hydrosol/hydrolat”? Although many herbal and cosmetic retailers and websites use the terms “flower water,” “floral water,” and “hydrosol or hydrolat” as synonyms, they are not always the same thing. While there is overlap in these categories, there are flower or floral waters that are not hydrosols…
How To Grind Herbs In A Coffee Grinder
As a beginner to herbalism, you will most likely start by learning about common herbs, making basic herbal preparations, and learning how herbs can be used to support or bring balance to the body. However, as you continue on in your herbal journey, you will come across pieces of information that will change how you…
