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In my early days as an herbalist, I fell in love with nettle for its incredible nutritive properties. At the time, I lived near wooded walking trails and was excited to find nettle growing along the paths. Often, when I was out foraging in the spring, people would stop and ask, “Why are you collecting that?!” To them, nettle was just a nuisance. But what they didn’t realize is that this plant has tons of beneficial properties.
Though nettle’s sting might make some people wary, the plant has been used in folk medicine for centuries. Herbalists cherish nettle for its many different uses as both food and medicine. One way to work with nettle is as a concentrated herbal extract, or tincture. While alcohol tinctures don’t extract nettle’s minerals and nutritive compounds, they do capture many of nettle’s other beneficial constituents, making this preparation a valuable addition to your apothecary.
Goldenrod (Solidago spp.) salve is an effective multipurpose balm that is great to have in your medicine cabinet. In Latin it’s name, solidago, means “to make whole” which alludes to it’s numerous healing properties.
Goldenrod has anti-inflammatory effects and is utilized topically on sore muscles, achy joints, and injuries to help reduce pain & swelling.
It’s also wonderfully healing and soothing to the skin, and has long been used for wounds and burns. It makes a great “boo boo balm” for children’s various cuts & scrapes. And I find it soothes chapped lips particularly well.
Witch hazel extract infused with spring plants makes for a lovely skin tonic. Crafted with herbs that are wonderfully nourishing and soothing to the skin, it can be used as a daily facial toner or utilized to ease a number of skin woes.
Dab on to spot treat acne or pour into a spray bottle and spritz on insect bites & stings, sun burns, rashes, and other inflamed, itchy skin conditions. It’s a wonderful herbal remedy to have on hand as the weather warms and you’re spending more time outside and are thus, more likely to experience some of these skin issues.
