Skin Care Tips and Simple Recipes for Spring
Although you might feel energized by the warmer weather when spring comes around, your skin could be suffering. Here are some springtime skin care tips to help you prettify your skin. Get Rid of Winter in Your Spring Beauty Regimen Before you can focus on gorgeous spring beauty, you first need to get rid…
Basic Essential Oils for Daily Living
This post is the first in a weekly, multi-part series on using essential oils. Here we will start with some basic essential oils. What are essential oils? How can you use essential oils? Which essential oils could you start with? We invite you to learn some basics here and then join us weekly for additional articles on…
Herbal Remedies for Dry Skin: 3 Simple Recipes
Most of us have dealt with dry skin at some point in our lives, and for many of us, this concern intensifies during winter. Even though spring is just around the corner, if you are still dealing with the drying effects of cold air and indoor heat on your skin, here are some natural options…
Herbs Work For Our Highest Good: Tonics, Adaptogens, and Alteratives
One of the views that sets herbalism apart as a philosophy of the human body is the way herbs teach us to see our relationship with wellness. Rather than seeing the body as irreparably broken when chronic illness unfolds, herbs teach us to see the body as having come out of balance within itself. Balance…
Introduction To Herbs For Kids: A Kid’s Herbal Pharmacy
An Overview of Simple Herbal Preparations Using our gentle herbal friends is simply a lovely part of life. Herbs can be used to keep you healthy and make you strong. They can also be used to help you feel better when you are sick. Creating herbal remedies is a way to show gratitude for the herbs…
Herbs Work With Us
Herbs work with us, not against us. They can be subtle as they build us up over time, but they stand with us as we move forward. They support our health rather than mask our symptoms, and require that we are honest with ourselves as they give us the support we need. Herbs like elderberry…
10 Reasons Why Witch Hazel Rocks!
I have been known to buy witch hazel extract by the gallon. I always keep it on hand and substitute it for water in almost all of my homemade beauty products. I got to thinking the other day about the many ways that it can be used, and as my list grew longer, I realized…
Spring Reads for Children
Reading with children is a wonderful way to feed their imaginations and open their eyes to new ideas. Reading about the natural world with children — well, that’s just magical. There is something about the way their eyes light up and their natural curiosity is piqued that makes exploring nature with children through books especially…
Making Herb Paste: An Easy Way to Preserve Fresh Herbs
Have you noticed tubes of herb paste in the fresh produce department of your grocery store and wondered if there was an advantage to using an herbal paste over fresh or dried herbs? The truth is it’s not really a matter of better or best. Herbal pastes complement the more traditional fresh-or-dried approach. Even though dried…
How to Make Your Own Soap + Herbal Recipes
One of my favorite ways to utilize herbs and essential oils is by adding them to my handmade soap. Soapmaking is a great skill to learn on your journey to a healthier life, as you control what goes into it so you know exactly what you’re putting on your skin. It can also be a…
Introduction to Herbs for Kids: Meet My Friend, Herb! Part 2
Meet My Friend, Herb! Part Two Welcome! Thank you for joining us on our herbal adventure! In our last Introduction to Herbs for Kids lesson, we started learning about herbalism by answering questions such as “What is an herb?” and “How can I use herbs?” This week we are going to talk about a very…
Soothing Oatmeal Bath Recipe
My son and I suffer from eczema, and during the coldest parts of winter our eczema tends to flare up more often than usual. It can get pretty itchy and all I want is some relief! During these times, I love to make us a soothing oatmeal bath. It’s super simple to make, and you’re…
Can You Be Green and Glamorous? Part II
Editorial Note: This is the second part of a two-part post focusing on the use of cosmetics and personal care products. This post examines natural products and environmental impacts; the first part explored the subject of animal testing and cruelty-free alternatives. For many people, the idea of natural health and beauty products conjures up images of hippies…
Support Herbs and United Plant Savers with Your Herbal Studies
The Herbal Academy of New England is a proud supporter of United Plant Savers, which is why we have joined with them in their Partners in Education (PIE) program. Formed in the spirit of hope, UpS is a group of plant enthusiasts committed to raising public awareness of the plight of wild medicinal plants and…
Introduction to Herbs for Kids: Meet My Friend, Herb!
Meet My Friend, Herb! Part One Hi Kids! I am so glad you are joining us! We are about to go on an adventure. An adventure into the green world of plants where we will find a magical world of healing and friendship. Here we will start with some basics. What is an herb? How can…
What is Bouquet Garni?
Bouquet garni is a fancy word for a simple, useful concept. It refers to a seasoning bundle of herbs tied together with string or placed inside a square of cheesecloth, with origins in French cuisine as a way to flavor sauces, soups, stews, and other simmering pots. Tying the herbs together is a clever way to…
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…
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…
