Discover Herbs That Grow in City Spaces and Learn Whether You Can Harvest Them
I love the feeling of emerging from my home for a walk around my neighborhood to find urban herbs emerging in city spaces, greeting the sun right alongside me. Chickweed (Stellaria media), plantain (Plantago spp.), and yarrow (Achillea millefolium) all spring up from the earth along the sidewalks, while violets (Viola spp.) and dandelions (Taraxacum…
Deep Breath Osha and Echinacea Syrup Recipe
A go-to urban herbalism recipe is the Deep Breath Osha and Echinacea Syrup Recipe below. This formula can be used for acute lung support or as a daily preventative and immune-booster. Although cities are full of exciting opportunities, culture, and entertainment, their industrial nature creates a polluted environment with compromised air quality. While the exact…
Homemade Bug Bite Salve for Itchy Spots
The summertime invites us outdoors to bask in the warmth of the sun and enjoy more physical activity. All of this time outdoors leaves us sunkissed, grounded, and also, in many cases, bug-bitten. Like all the best things in life, there’s always a little bitter with the sweet. A homemade bug bite salve is the…
How to Make a Succus
A succus is the freshly expressed juice of a plant or its fruit. If you aren’t familiar with this kind of herbal preparation, that is probably because it hasn’t been as widely offered by producers in the herbal industry. Home herbalists tend to reserve this type of preparation for fewer plants, or those that will…
Herbal Cough Syrup Recipe for a Dry Cough
A dry unproductive cough can be caused by irritation such as dry air, smoke, allergens, and pollution, or develop during a respiratory infection. Worst of all it can be really uncomfortable, disrupting sleep, work, school, travel, and other activities, and can cause a headache or a sore throat that lasts. A dry cough and sore…
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…
Plantain Leaf Benefits and Recipes
Since the launch of The Foraging Course, we’ve had a renewed interest in the humble, helpful herbs that grow right outside our doors. Plantain leaf (Plantago spp.) is one such wonder “weed” that’s found all over the globe. Two of the most common species, broadleaf plantain (P. major) and ribwort plantain (P. lanceolata), have followed…
Easy DIY Bee Sting Poultice
Let’s face it: as beautiful and amazing as it is to be outdoors in nature with the birds and the bees—sometimes you get stung! Whether you are hard at work gardening, on a hike, or even just wandering around your city, bee stings can happen anywhere. Luckily for us, once you learn how to prepare…
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…
Creating a Local Materia Medica With Plantain (+ Plantain Salve Recipe)
Part of the beauty of a local materia medica is its humility, and you can’t get much more humble than plantain (Plantago spp.). Considered a weed the world over, this tenacious and resilient plant steadfastly grows in lawns, fields, roadsides, disturbed land, sidewalk cracks—you name it. And while plantain is often overlooked today (saved by…
Plantain, A Story
We have plantain growing all over our yard. I’m a new, not yet budding herbalist, and I have yet to use it. I have been lying in wait for someone in my household to get a bug bite so that I could try crunching up a leaf and making a spit poultice. I have been…
6 Natural Ways to Ease Poison Ivy Rashes
Sooner or later, many of us will encounter poison ivy, oak, or sumac. Whether you are foraging, gardening, hiking, or just enjoying the warm sunny days, there is a good chance you will see one of these plants. Fortunately, there are several natural wellness options that can help offer you some support in case you…
Foraged Skin Care Remedies
Early spring is a wonderful time for foraging. After winter, it is refreshing to finally get outside and gather some healing herbs. Foraging for plants is an easy way to enjoy the benefits of herbs, and to learn more about the gifts that nature offers us. Gathering free wild plants to add to our creations…
Herbal Burn Salve Recipe with Comfrey, Calendula, and More
This past month, my four-year-old landed a second-degree burn on his leg, thanks to a cup of accidentally spilled hot cocoa. Thankfully, I had an herbal burn salve in our medicine cabinet that was a perfect remedy for this painful situation. The Story Now isn’t that just the way things tend to happen? Kids always…
Plantain: Herbs We Love For Summer
When I was a little girl, my parents, unlike our neighbors with their perfectly smooth “chem lawns,” never applied pesticides or weed killer out of concern for their children’s health and to minimize our exposure to toxins. Our yard was viewed not as a status symbol but a place to romp and play, and so play…
