Everyday Herbalist

Starting the first week in February, I will be doing a monthly post about herbs that can be grown or found in our gardens or yards (or neighbor’s yards) and that can be easily used in our everyday lives.This blog series will look at how to correctly identify the plant, how to collect it for use, how to grow it in your own garden, how to prepare it for use, and what it can be used for.

I will be introducing a new herb the first week of every month and will continue to post about it throughout the month. If you have questions about the herb we are talking about please feel free to post a comment and I will provide an answer and further discussion. If there are any herbs that you want to know more about please comment on those as well so that I can either provide what I know about it or find out that info for you.

As a little bonus, here is a sneak-peek about preparation and uses of some of the herbs we will be talking about! This past holiday season, we made an herbal salve that we put into lip balm tubes to give out with our Yule presents. The herbal salve was made from dried herbs that were heated in olive oil and then combined with melted beeswax. The herbs used in our salve were Chickweed, Plantain, and Comfrey root. Chickweed will help with cuts, burns (minor), rashes, and eczema. Plantain will help with sunburns, stings, insect bites, snakebites, poison ivy breakouts, rashes, burns, blisters, and cuts. Finally, Comfrey root, because of it's high allantoin content, makes cells grow faster and speeds the whole healing process along. The three plants individually would work well enough (especially the Comfrey) but together they make a well rounded salve for most cuts, burns, bug bites, and stings all in an easy to carry tube. I have already heard a few success stories from the friends that we have given them to who were quite surprised at how quickly their cuts have healed up after using our salve! (Most have reported a huge success using the salve for the dry winter cracks around fingernails and knuckles).

So, keep a lookout for the new blog series that will be coming out in the beginning of February! I hope that you will all find this information useful and engaging, and I hope that it will inspire you to get out in your yard and garden to see what you can do to help yourself in making a healthier you.