Looking for Natural Flu Remedies? Woad Works!
Worries about influenza, Ebola, and measles are making headlines. As herbalists, we have many natural flu remedies in our toolkits, including a repertoire of immune boosters, cold remedies, and digestive aids to help with viral symptoms. Wouldn’t it be helpful if there were other plants, like elderberry, that work at the cellular level to prevent…
6 Health Benefits of Quinoa
Quinoa is a seed that has been cultivated in the Andes mountains of South America for over 5,000 years. One of the benefits of quinoa is unique in that it contains more high quality protein than any other seed or grain. In fact, quinoa is the only vegetable source recognized by the UN Food Association…
9 Herbal Remedies for a Toothache
If you’ve been plagued with a sore tooth or swollen gums, you know that the pain it can cause is often completely unbearable. Toothache or not, life goes on, making pain relief a necessity. While over-the-counter painkillers are the most popular form of pain relief for many, there are a variety of herbal remedies for…
Treating Fevers Naturally
Because there is such a huge interest in natural wellness for family health, specifically children’s issues, we just have to share with you one of our favorite new ebooks! This is a must-read for new mommas. Meagan Visser’s book Treating Fevers Naturally reads like a good friend who came in through the back door and put the tea kettle…
Natural Homemade Lip Balm for Kids
Do you remember Lip Smackers? I can remember a time in my life as a kid that I had a necklace full of lip balms of every different flavor and color of the rainbow. It was the cool thing to have all your favorites on hand and my mom, always wanting to substitute real gifts…
Comfrey Uses + Soothing Comfrey Cream Recipe
I started growing comfrey a couple of years ago, but my reasons were NOT strictly altruistic. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of my herbs, but I particularly love perennial herbs like comfrey that are well suited to a pot and can be brought indoors during our cold Kansas winter. There is Comfort in…
Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Cashew Queso
Superbowl munchies might be over now that the Pats are officially champs, but fun, game-day food should be enjoyed all year long! Perfect for any sporting event, Sunday fun day, or just a creative, beautiful appetizer to serve when you’re hosting a party, these Southwestern stuffed sweet potatoes are easy to make and a healthy…
Love It Up With Herbal Aphrodisiacs
In herbalism, aphrodisiac herbs aren’t just a means to an end! Aphrodisiac herbs nourish the nervous, heart, and reproductive systems on both physical and energetic levels. Physically, they tonify the body and support balanced function, enhance physical desire (libido), and improve performance. Energetically, they balance and love up the heart and sacral chakras and increase…
Can You Be Green and Glamorous?
Editorial Note: This is the first part of a two-part post exploring the realities of the cosmetics and personal care product industry. The first part focuses on animal testing and cruelty-free alternatives. The second post will delve deeper into natural products and environmental impacts. As human beings, we are multi-faceted creatures. But what happened when…
Homemade Chocolate Recipes for Decadent Herbal Chocolates
Let’s be honest here. Chocolate is awesome. I could sit and eat chocolates until every last one is gone and everyone is wondering who ate all the chocolates. I never realized how easy it could be to make my own chocolates until I found a simple recipe in one of my mom’s chocolate cook books….
A Simple Cold and Flu Recipe with Ginger, Lemon, and Garlic
Like many families, each winter we struggle through cold and flu season; fortunately, it’s usually just a cold. I have a pretty basic natural protocol I follow at the first sign of illness. Therapies like elderberry tincture or syrup, salt baths, lots of warm soothing liquids, and rest can really help support your body to…
3 Herbal Recipes To Boost Your Energy
After a tough day at work, your only wish is to slip into your comfy pajamas and curl up in a snug blanket. When the brutal alarm clock snaps you out of a happy dream the next morning, you grumble about what a disturbed night you’ve had courtesy of the mosquitoes and the blaring music playing…
Make Your Night Memorable With a Rose-Vanilla Massage Oil
Valentine’s Day is looming, tantalizing us with its impending possibilities. With a five year old son who loves to come to our bed every night around midnight, and both my husband and I busy with work, it can be hard to find time for quality romantic time together. Since we are parents, we spend most…
Every Herbalist Should Set Goals
We look out our windows at the bare trees and snow-covered ground, and it is evident that winter is upon us. We’re only a little over a week into the New Year, which can be both an exciting and intimidating season of life. As we map out our calendar year and set our short and…
How to Make Bone Broth
Post by Ellen Demotses, aromatherapist, TCM and Western herbalist. She is a member of the American Botanical Council and the American Herbalists Guild and is developing a natural skincare line. Everything that’s old is new, and everything that’s new is old. – Stephanie Mills Bone broth is everywhere. Recipes, articles and “brothals” have emerged across…
5 Herbs that Attract Beneficial Insects to the Garden
If you’ve been interested in organic gardening but are wondering what to do about pests, consider planting herbs! Many herbs encourage biodiversity and attract the beneficial insects that keep pest populations down. Herbs reduce pests by encouraging biodiversity In nature, herbs perform a wide range of functions. They provide nectar for pollinators, repel pests with…
Spring’s Bitter Tonic Tea with Dandelion Root, Motherwort, and Lemon
The holidays have passed and the new year is upon us. Many of us have given ourselves license over the winter festival season to indulge in drinks, rich foods, and way more sugar than makes sense for a person to have. And all of those people! Friends, family, coworkers, parties… it is easy to feel…
How To Grow Pea Shoots Indoors: Fresh Greens Year-Round
With the garden tucked in for the winter and the farmer’s markets closing up shop until spring, we’re back to listless strolls through the produce aisles of the local grocery store, seeing the stacks of vegetables but just not feeling them. They are beautiful, yes, and abundant — we are grateful for that. Some of…
Detoxifying Face Mask: Ring in the New Year with a Fresh Face!
The new year is upon us and it has me looking at all of the ways I need to detox in my life. After a holiday season of sugary treats and candy, my face is telling me that it needs to detox from all of the holiday cheer I forced upon it. What better than…
Best of 2014
Ready or not! Another year comes to an end and we’re thrown into 2015… We reflect on this past year – the new additions to our team, the launch of the Online Introductory Herbal Course, the summer website redesign, the release of The Herbarium membership site, and the handful of workshops we hosted here in Bedford,…
Wintertime Herbal Infused Whipped Body Butter Recipe
‘Tis the season for cold and dry winter weather, which also is synonymous, in our world, with dry cracked hands and feet. My husband has worked for a prominent coffee company for as long as we have been married, and every winter his hands take a huge beating because of all of the numerous hand-washings…
Find It and Grind It: The Power of Common Kitchen Spices
‘Tis the season for heavier eating in New England. Roasts, root veggies, soups, and stews take center stage in keeping us warm for the cold months ahead. But it’s during the holiday months in particular our natural instinct to “pack it on” can go array and leave us feeling bloated, constipated, and foggy in head….
5 Natural Ways to Relieve Stress During the Holiday Season
Thanksgiving is over and we are now officially in the middle of the holiday season. With the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, work, family, and keeping the whole family healthy through the cold and flu season, stress can really take a toll on our bodies. Without proper relief, stress can build up until it…
The Wild Wisdom of Weeds Review + Giveaway
One of the reasons folks are drawn down the path of herbalism is the powerfully moving experience of reconnecting with wild plants. Humans have co-evolved with plants for millennia and we clearly could not survive without them. But our need for plants goes well beyond oxygen, breakfast, lunch, and dinner — our relationship with plants…
Vegan, Gluten Free, No Bake Pumpkin Pie
Thanksgiving marks the beginning of pumpkin pie season for many folks. This vegan, gluten free, no bake pumpkin pie recipe is absolutely delicious, and a perfectly healthy addition to your holiday dessert table. It’s a cinch to throw together, and requires almost no settling time either. A yummy, easy, good-for-you pie? This one will be…
Indulge Your Sweet Tooth With Real Peppermint Hot Cacao
When the temperature drops and the scarves, hats, and gloves come out of storage, hot cacao is a staple beverage in my home. I don’t like to do just plain chocolate, though – I have a flair for changing things up by making something tasty that is also super healthy (I like to make tasty…
Bee Warm: Wintering Honey Bees
This time of year, I get a lot of questions about wintering honey bees. Most people are under the misconception that bees hibernate, which is simply not true. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are eusocial insects. Eusocial insects share three characteristics: A. Cooperative care of their young B. Overlapping generations C. Reproductive division of labor For…
Breathe Easier With a Decongesting Herbal Steam
When I get a cold, my least favorite thing is not being able to breathe well. I even get dreams when I am congested that I am drowning, it bothers me that much. I will do just about anything to breathe better again! Before I began learning about herbalism, I used to turn to more…
A Child’s Winter Herb Garden
One of the things we all miss most once the snows fall in our home town is the bounty of the herb garden. The herbs grow sort of grow thither and yon at our place and the children are very used to munching mint and having sword fights with lavender whenever they please. Well, this…
Vanilla Recipes: Three Ways To Bliss
Mmm…vanilla. Its sweet, perfumed aroma and flavor are known and loved around the world. The rich but subtle complexity of vanilla’s flavor is exotic and luxurious, yet at the same time comforting and gentle. No wonder it has been celebrated and used for hundreds of years, first cultivated by the Totonac Indians in eastern Mexico,…
