
Student Feature Series: Caitlin Frazier @TheLocustsandHoney
For the ninth installment of our Student Feature Series, we spoke with herbalist Caitlin Frazier (@TheLocustsandHoney). She completed the Herbal Academy’s Clinical Herbalist Path, as well as the Materia Medica, and Botany & Wildcrafting courses. You can find her at Locusts & Honey where she blogs on topics from herbalism to travel as well as…

4 Options for Herbal Ground Cover
An herbal ground cover is a great option for gardeners looking to fill empty space in their garden beds or fill patches in the yard where grass has a difficult time growing. Some people even grow ground covers as an alternative to traditional grass lawns, which require heavy watering and feeding to maintain. Ground covers…

Pain-Be-Gone: Try This Meadowsweet Tea with Rose
This meadowsweet tea recipe offers a chance to calm the mind and gently soothe aches and pains while hydrating the body. A great way to practice self-care, this cup of herbal tea contains ingredients known to quiet a busy mind. Also known as Queen of the Meadow, meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) flower appears to have analgesic…

Teenage Skin Care: Herbal Recipes & Simple Routines
When it comes to teenage skin care less is more, despite parental urges to fix, research, and monitor. This is especially true when working with oily skin, which is usually part of the picture for teen skin troubles. The less is more approach has even more merit in hot or humid weather, and when stress…

Homemade Vanilla Extract
Homemade vanilla extract is worlds apart from the generic imitation vanilla typically found at big box stores. Mmm…vanilla. Its sweet, perfumed aroma and flavor are known and loved around the world. No wonder it has been celebrated and used for hundreds of years, first cultivated by the Totonac Indians in eastern Mexico. While vanilla gained…

How to Grow Echinacea
Echinacea (Echinacea spp.) is an herbaceous, flowering perennial native to North America. This plant has a long history of use and is still a popular herbal supplement today. Unfortunately, over-harvesting and the destruction of its native habitat have affected wild echinacea populations, and it’s now included on United Plant Savers’ list of “at-risk” plants. Learning…

Traditional Mediterranean Recipes: Ancient Favorites from Greece, Rome, and Egypt
Cuisine can tell us so much about a civilization—both past and present. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, who lived more than two thousand years ago, bequeathed to us traditional Mediterranean recipes and remnants of their favored meals. By studying the eating habits of these wondrous civilizations through surviving texts, artworks, and archaeological remains, we…

Homemade Cough Syrup for a Wet Cough
Late winter is the time of year in which heavy, wet conditions can start to really settle in our lungs. Luckily, nature’s apothecary has many beneficial plant allies for coughs and colds that can support you in the form of an herbal homemade cough syrup when you most need it! This herbal cough syrup isn’t…

Nourishing Herbs for Optimal Wellness
As mentioned in my previous article, How to Boost Immunity from the Inside Out, one of the best ways to take care of your vitality, longevity, and immunity is with nourishing herbs. These herbs for deep nourishment are not a quick fix, but rather are most effective if taken over long periods of time. The…

Seed Soaking: Herb Gardening 101
Seed soaking is a method of preparing seeds, specifically those with hard outer shells, for planting. Seeds that need to be soaked are usually wrinkled on the outside, such as peas, fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), and fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). That wrinkling happens as the seeds dehydrate, which keeps them free from rot and safe for storage….