This tea blend was crafted for my dad. When I visited my parents recently, he let me try his favorite tulsi + turmeric tea. He mentioned that the local store wasn’t carrying it any longer, so I jumped at the chance to blend up something similar for him. The result is warming, gently uplifting, and dad approved.
This tea tastes great and can certainly be enjoyed for flavor alone, but it also has an array of health benefits.
“Herb teas, properly prepared, are warming and soothing to the soul. They provide essential medicinal qualities and healing energy. Preparing and drinking herb teas involves us in the personal process of healing and teaches us to be conscious of the role we each play in our well-being,” says herbalist, Rosemary Gladstar.
Certainly, herbal teas are an important part of boosting and maintaining health. If you’re new to herbalism, they are a great way to get started. Making tea is one of the simplest and most inexpensive ways to prepare herbs medicinally. There is no complicated equipment or processing required. In fact, you probably already have all the tools you need in your kitchen.
This tasty and uplifting tea blend will give your body & soul a boost. It’s formulated with new moms in mind, but is beneficial as a relaxing, digestive boosting tea for men and women of all ages.
In our modern culture, motherhood can be an isolated and stressful experience. Simple rituals, like a soothing cup of tea at the end of a long day can help to ground us, and ease the worries of the day. While you sip, take a moment to breathe & quietly reflect or write in a journal.
Herbs are a natural, gentle way to support and nourish a breastfeeding mom and baby. Certain herbs, called galactagogues, actually help to encourage and increase breast milk. Many of these plants also provide essential vitamins and minerals to help keep mom healthy and relaxed through the stresses of breastfeeding and infant care.
Fire ciders are a well loved folk preparation that have been used traditionally to boost digestion, aid healthy body processes, warm one up on cold days, and help to ward off illness. Autumn is the perfect time to make a big batch of fire cider so that it can be used to promote health throughout the winter months.
Fire cider is simple to prepare, but it does need to infuse for some time before it’s ready. Depending on who you ask, the exact recipe varies, but the basic formula remains the same: vinegar + health boosting herbs + honey.
If you notice a frequent need to urinate, pain or burning during urination, and/or a feeling of incomplete urination these are good signs that you have an infection of the bladder and/or urinary tract. The usual allopathic method for treating urinary tract & bladder infections is antibiotics.
However, most bladder infections can be easily resolved with natural remedies when treatment is started early. If you have any of the above symptoms starting the following program as soon as possible can keep the infection at bay.
Continue reading “A Holistic Treatment Plan for Bladder & Urinary Tract Infections”
Herbs are a safe, natural way to support new moms emotionally and physically during labor. If you plan on having a natural childbirth, or just want to reduce the medications that your infant is exposed to during the birthing process, herbs are a great, effective alternative to pharmaceuticals.
The last few weeks of pregnancy are a great time to start putting together your herbal birthing kit. Having everything in order can help set your mind at ease as your due date approaches. The following preparations are helpful to have on hand for a smooth, natural child birth.
Herbs are a lovely, natural way to support mom and baby during pregnancy. They can help provide important vitamins and minerals, ease morning sickness, relieve stress, and help to level out mood swings.
One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is making gifts for my friends and family. Homemade gifts are easily customized to fit the tastes of the recipient and are a truly unique and special way to celebrate Christmas.
This DIY gift round up is sure to give you plenty of ideas for everyone on your list this year.
Throughout history, dreams have had a special significance in many cultures. There are written records of dream interpretations dating back to over 5,000 years old. The ancient Egyptians highly valued dreams, especially vivid ones, as they believed they were communicated from the gods. The Greeks also felt that dreams were divine messages and used interpretations of their dreams to help them make decisions, predict the future, and solve problems.
Today, dreams are still a bit of a mystery to us. Some researchers claim that they help to store memories, while others feel that they are important for resolving conflicts and regulating mood.
Poor sleep and difficulty with recall can make it hard to benefit from our dreams. Herbal dream pillows and teas can help promote peaceful sleep, vivid dreams & recall.
Bitter foods and herbs play a very important role in digestion and the health of the organs that facilitate it. Bitters stimulate the production of digestive fluids that help to break down food to ensure that the body can absorb the nutrients from it. They also help to tone and heal the digestive tissues.
When you first taste bitter foods, bitter taste receptors on the tongue trigger reactions throughout the digestive tract. In the mouth, bitters promote salivation, which breaks down starches and begins to digest fats.
In the stomach, bitters promote the production of gastrin, a hormone that regulates how much gastric acid is produced. This is especially important because an adequate amount of stomach acid is necessary for the body to be able to uptake minerals from food.
Bitters also aid in the production of pepsin, an enzyme that helps break down proteins and is key to the proper absorption of vitamin B12.
Purple Dead Nettle (Lamium Purpureum) is a lovely and useful herbaceous plant. It grows abundantly around our site in Southwest, Michigan and I see it popping up all over this area. It can be found throughout the US, Canada, and many other parts of the world. This hardy weed thrives in lawns, roadsides, and can grow in a variety of conditions. It is also frost tolerant. It is most commonly found growing in loamy or sandy soils, but will also do well in clay soils. It is an self-seeding annual. Each plant produces lots of seeds (it’s estimated to be several hundred to several thousand) and those seeds can germinate year round.
Purple dead nettle is considered to be an “invasive species” due to its ability to thrive and reproduce in many environments. In fact, much of the literature available on this plant is geared towards methods of eradication, including pulling up the herb to control its population. It is interesting to note that purple dead nettle seeds germinate better when the soil is disturbed. “Invasive” plants like purple dead nettle often grow in places where humans have disrupted the natural balance. These plants are simply trying to restore equilibrium to their environment. When we pull and spray these plants we are further disturbing the areas where they grow and actually increasing their ability to return and spread.
Continue reading “Purple Dead Nettle: More than an Invasive Plant”
These calming herbal treats are perfect for toning a goat’s nervous system and will help them better cope with situations that normally cause them stress. I like to feed these to my girls before trimming their hooves, doing any other type of grooming, or while they are in heat. They would also be helpful for goats during transport as this can often make them anxious.
Making treats is simple and my goats absolutely love these. I feed them each two daily when I know I will be trimming their hooves, or when they are going into heat. I’ve also used these treats to help calm them during a tick removal. My goats are very resistant to topical methods of treatment, but they will happily take medicine in a food form. Putting healing plants into food is a great way to treat a stubborn or skittish goat!
While many of us love the warmer weather that spring and summer bring, those of us who own pets know that pests like fleas also enjoy these seasons’ milder temperatures. Aside from being highly annoying to your pet, flea infestations can also cause more serious health issues, such as excessive itching (some animals are more sensitive to flea bites than others), hair loss, secondary skin infections, and anemia.
Unfortunately, many commercial flea preventatives and treatments contain highly toxic chemicals. Though these collars, shampoos, pills, and sprays are certainly effective at killing fleas, they are highly unsafe for pets and their owners. Many of the chemicals in these treatments are also highly irritating to dogs and cats so they will lick and bite at them, which increases the amount of toxins that they take in. Herbalist, Juliette de Baïracli Levy, even states, “The modern flea collars, because they work on a chemical principle and carry health-precaution warnings, I suspect are more hazardous to health than the presence of fleas.”
Continue reading “Natural Pet Care: Preventing Flea Infestations”
This past winter was long and cold — as Midwest winters often are. To cope, I cooked a lot of soup for about five months straight. Now that the weather has been warmer, I have been taking a break from this comforting dish. But, some chillier temps and cool spring rains have had me craving a warm bowl of soup again.
This light, spicy soup utilizes one of my favorite foraged springtime greens, nettle. Fresh nettle greens are quite delicious and extremely nutritious. But, if you don’t have any or don’t know where to get them, you can substitute any other spring greens you have on hand, like spinach, chard, collards or kale.
mama libélula 