Step-by-Step Guide to Making Evening Primrose Honey

It is harvest time here in the Pacific Northwest for Evening Primrose! I have it blooming all over my garden this year.

I like to harvest various parts of Evening Primrose for the medicinal effects. The flowers, leaves and roots can all be used for medicine making. To add to the variety, different medicine making mediums can be used, depending on the results you are seeking.

I’ve written about the various health benefits of evening primrose here. You can also find out about the different mediums for making herbal medicine here.

My favorite way to make a remedy from Evening Primrose is to make a flower honey. It’s simple, quick and TASTY! Here’s an easy to follow tutorial:

Ingredients:

clean glass jar
raw local honey
freshly picked and wilted Evening Primrose blossoms

Harvest the blossoms of Evening Primrose and let them wilt for 6-24 hours. This allows some of the moisture to evaporate as well as any critters hiding in the petals to leave…

Place in a clean glass jar leaving some headspace.

Pour honey over the petals until the honey covers the herb by about an inch.

Using a chopstick, or similar, make sure the honey covers the flowers completely and there are no air pockets.

Place the lid tightly on the jar and let sit in a dark, col place for a couple of weeks. The flowers may float to the top. If that happens, don’t worry. I like to turn the jar upside down every so often to help make sure all the blossoms are fully coated with honey.

After a couple of weeks, you can start using your Evening Primrose infused honey! I love to use a bit in my tea, or just take it right off the spoon whenever I feel like I may be coming down with a respiratory issue. It’s a great way to soothe yourself to sleep if you’re having trouble dropping off too!

Have you ever made an infused honey? What is your favorite way to use it?

August 17, 2015

5 Benefits of Evening Primrose

1. As well as the seed oil, other parts of Evening Primrose are also used medicinally – namely, the leaves, flowers and roots.

2. Evening Primrose is anti-inflammatory, astringent, sedative and anti-spasmodic.

3. Poultices of this herb can be used topically for eczema and other itchy skin disorders.

4. Evening Primrose has been traditionally used for respiratory issues such as whooping cough and asthma as well as digestive disorders.

5. The flowers of Evening Primrose have been used for the treatment of insomnia, in treating anxiety and sleeplessness.

Have you used Evening Primrose herb?

July 21, 2015

5 Benefits of Yarrow

1. Yarrow is an excellent diaphoretic, so it helps the body to deal with feverish states in a natural way. The tea is especially useful for children’s fevers.

2. Yarrow is also a styptic herb, helping to staunch excessive blood flow – whether it be from a wound, a bloody nose or an excessive menstrual period.

3. Yarrow also possesses anti-microbial activity against a wide range of bacteria, making it suitable for first aid topical applications as well as internal infections.

4. As an anti-inflammatory, yarrow can be used both externally as well as internally to address a range of symptoms, from high blood pressure to digestion to joint pain.

5. Studies have shown yarrow to protect the liver from toxic chemical damage as well as to help in treating hepatitis.

July 14, 2015

How to Make St John’s Wort Oil

St John’s Wort is blooming all over the Cascade Range valleys right now and it’s the perfect time to harvest some of this medicinal powerhouse herb!

I harvest fresh St John’s Wort blossoms every year and make infused oil and tincture for use throughout the next year. My last post described a few of the medicinal uses of St John’s Wort.

Making infused medicinal oils is deceptively simple and amazingly useful. Here is a short and sweet tutorial of how to make St John’s Wort infused oil:

Ingredients:

clean glass jar
organic olive oil
freshly picked and wilted St John’s Wort blossoms

Harvest the blossoms (or flowering tops) of St John’s Wort and let them wilt for 6-24 hours. This allows some of the moisture to evaporate as well as any critters hiding in the petals to leave…

Place in a clean glass jar leaving some headspace. Pour olive oil over the petals until the oil covers the herb about an inch.

Place the lid on the jar tightly and set in a protected area in the sun, or a sunny windowsill for about 4 weeks. Open the lid every day or two and wipe out any condensation that forms.

Your oil will quickly turn blood red from the medicinal constituents of the herb infusing into the oil. After a month, you can strain out the herb and use the medicinal oil that is the result!

I love using St John’s Wort infused oil straight as a massage oil, or sunburn remedy. But I also like to use it in blends to make healing salves of all kinds, as well as in lotion and moisturizer recipes.

Have you ever infused St John’s Wort in oil? What is your favorite way to use it?

June 29, 2015

5 Benefits of St John’s Wort

1. St John’s Wort is anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory and especially anti-viral. In fact, it has been used successfully for shingles, cold sores and other herpes manifestations.

2. St John’s Wort is a powerful nerve regenerator and can be used for healing injuries, especially in nerve-rich areas like fingers, toes and spinal areas.

3. St John’s Wort is sometimes called “Sunshine in a bottle” for it’s ability to ease symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

4. The herbal infused oil of St John’s Wort is useful for the prevention and healing of sunburn.

5. St. John’s Wort has a sedative and pain reducing effect, which makes it useful for neuralgia, especially facial neuralgia after dental extractions and toothache, anxiety and tension, as well as traumatic shock.

June 23, 2015

DIY Facial Spa ~ Steam, Cleanse and Moisturize Your Face all in One Step

As a tried and true do-it-yourselfer, I am always looking for exceptional skin care treatments that provide excellent results, are inexpensive, and simple enough to do at home.

When my company, Herbs of Grace, was manufacturing skin care products, I spent years researching and developing various facial creams, lotions, elixirs and serums, that provided great results and customer satisfaction. But the treatment that stands out ahead of all the rest, as far as quality of results and simplicity, is The Oil Cleansing Method. It’s fast. It’s easy. And, it makes my skin glow! As a busy work at home Mom of 3 children (2 of whom homeschool) the Oil Cleansing Method fits the bill!

Learn all about the Oil Cleansing Method and how to create your own oil blends in my guest post at Hybrid Rasta Mama today.

Head over to read the rest of this post on Hybrid Rasta Mama.

Craft a Natural Home Medicine Kit

Homeopathic Emergency Kit

Blueberry Elixir

5 Medicine Making Mediums

June 10, 2015

5 Benefits of Red Clover

1. Red Clover is a good source of vitamins and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and Vitamins E, B and C.

2. Red Clover is one of the most useful remedies for children with skin problems such as eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis.

3. Because of it’s expectorant and anti-spasmodic action, Red Clover can be extremely useful for coughs, bronchitis and especially Whooping Cough.

4. There is some scientific evidence suggesting Red Clover has the ability to prevent and/or destroy tumor cells

5. Red Clover has been said to promote fertility in both women and men.

May 26, 2015

5 Benefits of Hawthorn

1. Hawthorn is one of the most well known, and possibly most valuable, tonic remedy for the cardiovascular system in herbal medicine.

2. Hawthorn is rich in vitamins and minerals. It contains flavinoids, (quercetin, rutin), zinc, Vitamins B and C, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus.

3. It is not only the berries of the Hawthorn tree that are useful. You can also use the flowers and leaves.

4. Hawthorn is considered to be adaptogenic and especially helpful in keeping coronary vessels dilated.

5. The German Federal Ministry of Health Monograph (after a four year study) concluded that Hawthorn gently increases the strength and normalizes the rhythm of the heart beat, as well as increasing coronary and myocardial circulation, through a dilation of the coronary arteries.

May 6, 2015

Heal Your Family with Nature’s Remedies: Craft a Natural Home Medicine Kit

~Heal Your Family with Nature’s Remedies~

Craft a Natural Home Medicine Kit

It wasn’t that long ago when every home had an herbal or homeopathic medicine kit filled with natural remedies to treat injuries or illnesses that family members might encounter.

Learn how to craft your own natural home medicine kit and what to stock it with in my guest post at Hybrid Rasta Mama today.

Head over to read the rest of this post on Hybrid Rasta Mama.

Herbal Allies Found the World Over

Having recently moved to India, I have been excited to learn about a whole new batch of herbs to use as food and medicine. In the meantime however, I have been struck by the pervasiveness of a few old herbal friends from home:

Dandelion: Where would we be without dear old Dandelion? It was one of the first plants I recognized when I arrived here in India. A Euro-Asian native now naturalized throughout the world as a common weed in disturbed soils, there are not many places it won’t grow!

The leaves of Dandelion make an extremely nutritious spring potherb and salad green. They are also a dependable diuretic without depleting potassium. The roots are an excellent bitter, stimulating digestion, with a particular affinity to the kidneys and liver. One of the best liver herbs there is! And the flowers make a wonderful infused oil that is used for inflammation and sore muscles. They also make delicious pancakes and fritters!

Yellow Dock: I was so happy to see Yellow Dock here in India! An Old World native, Yellow Dock is now naturalized throughout the world as a common weed in disturbed, poor soils. And how fortunate we are that it is!

Externally, Yellow dock is used as an antiseptic. In fact, The Academy of Minsk recommends it to be used in a poultice against burns, ulcers and infected wounds that are slow to heal. It is also one of the best topical remedies for nettle stings. Internally, it is used extensively in western herbalism for the treatment of chronic skin conditions. Yellow Dock is another one of those herbs described through the ages as a “blood cleanser”, with an affinity for the liver and gallbladder. It also aids in the digestion of fatty foods.

Plantain: My old friend Plaintain! The variety here in India is ever so slightly different in appearance than what we have back in the Pacific Northwest. I think it may be Plantago erosa….. Can you see it nestled in next to Dandelion below?

Plantain is also one of those Old World natives that has now made it’s home all over the world and seen mainly as a “weed”. One of Plantain’s most stellar topical uses is as a drawing agent to pull out splinters, dirt, pus and infection from wounds. Internally, it is a gentle expectorant and simultaneously a demulcent to soothe inflamed membranes while helping to expel phlegm, making it useful for coughs and bronchitis. It’s astringency makes it ideal for mouth ulcers and gum disease as well.

Recognizing these familiar plants so far from home makes me realize that wherever you are in the world, you have a medicine chest at your doorstep!

What herbs can you see as you step out your front door?