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Making Your Herbal Remedies

There are different ways to use your dried or fresh herbs in healing. Tea is the most common way of turning herbs into medicine. Medicinal teas taste much stronger than normal herbal teas — commercial herbal teas contain about a seventh of the amount of herbs in a medicinal tea. Steep one ounce of dried leaves, flowers, and/or stems in one pint of boiling water. If you’ll be using fresh herbs to make tea, use twice as much — two ounces of fresh herbs in one pint of boiling water. Always use pure water in your tea! An infusion is … Continue reading →

Plants To Try In Your Herbal Tea

There are a lot of good reasons to drink herbal tea. They usually lack the caffeine of black tea, and lots of herbs come with other health benefits! If you’ve got a green thumb, there are a ton of flowers, herbs, greens, and even weeds that you can dry out and steep in boiling water for a delicious and unusual tea experience. Edible (and drinkable) flowers alliums (flowers and young shoots) bee balm carnations hibiscus blossoms hollyhock honeysuckle flowers (avoid the berries; they are highly poisonous) Johnny-jump-ups (flowers and leaves) lavender (blossoms and leaves) nasturtiums (flowers, buds, leaves, seedpods) pansies … Continue reading →

Red Raspberry Leaf

I was complaining to a friend last night about my monthly cramps. She suggested raspberry leaf tea, explaining that it helped ease her PMS symptoms. So I thought I’d do a little research and learn more about this herbal remedy. Red raspberry (known to the science types as rubus idaeus) is most often used medicinally as a tea. Both the leaves and the fruit can be used in making a tea; just pour a cup of boiling water over a quarter cup of fresh plant material or two teaspoons of dried plant material. Let it steep for five minutes, then … Continue reading →

The Right Tea for the Job

Tea is good for you in many ways! But there are lots of teas out there… so how do you choose the one that’s best for what’s ailing you? Alas, some teas make big claims and have small (if any) benefits. The coffee and tea aisle at the food store is full of all kinds of health remedies. And for some things, like stress, anxiety, PMS, and an upset stomach, tea can be the perfect cure. You usually don’t need to drink much — just one or two cups can relieve the problem. If you are feeling nauseated, bloated, or … Continue reading →

Comfrey

Comfrey has long been used as a healing herb — the Greeks used the herb to stop bleeding, knit bones, and treat breathing problems as far back as 400 BC. In more recent years, there has been some concern about the safety of comfrey. Greek and Roman physicians believed that comfrey roots had the ability to stick things together, whether food in a cooking pot or bones in the body. Poultices made with comfrey were applied to external wounds; comfrey tea was used for stomach problems, digestive issues, bleeding, and more. The herb was also used in soups, stews, and … Continue reading →

Let’s Talk About Safe Herb Usage in Pregnancy

Many women use herbs during pregnancy in a supplemental way, as well as to prevent mild complications such as edema (swelling due to fluid retention). It is important to understand that the quality of your herbs depends on two things: Freshness and Source. The source of your herbs should be reliable, which involves doing research not only on the herb itself, but the manufacturer as well. Freshness is obvious: the fresher the herb, the better the quality. Which is why growing your own herbs is always the freshest option (and then you will also know the source). Here I would … Continue reading →