Healing Wise

Linden Infusion

Linden Infusion

Linden is the world’s leading anti-cold and anti-flu herb.
It prevents and heals all respiratory distresses (but is not an anti-infective). It is a cooling and strengthening herb. Linden is considered safe for children and elders.

Linden is primarily used as a tea, though I prefer the curative powers of a strong infusion.

* One-half ounce of linden blossoms
* One quart of water

Steep for four hours. I strain off the first brew and refrigerate it, then rebrew the wet linden flowers by adding two cups of cold water to them in a saucepan. I bring this rebrew to a boil, cover, and let sit for four hours to extract the healing mucilage that is triggered by the cold water.

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Winter edible weed: Cronewort

Winter edible weed:  Cronewort (Artemisia vulgaris)

The little leaves of my friend cronewort (AKA mugwort), minced, will add a savory, slightly bitter bite to our salad. Just a few will do the trick. Yes, you can still make a cronewort vinegar, with leaves or roots and leaves, if you can find young growth, which is generally easy.

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Elder Remedies

Elder Remedies

Cold and flu season is approaching. Here's some Elder remedies to help keep you healthy.

* Dried Elder Berry Tincture
Fill any size jar no more than half full of dried elder berries. Fill jar to the top with 100 proof vodka. Cap, label, wait for six weeks, and use.

* Dried Elder Berry Infusion
Put 1-2 ounces of dried berries in a quart jar and fill to the top with boiling water. Steep overnight. Drink it, a half cup at a time, or turn it into a decoction.

* Dried Elder Berry Decoction
Pour a quart of infusion, berries and all, into a saucepan and gently simmer until the liquid is reduced by one-half or more. In other words, you want to wind up with 1-2 cups of decoction. The decoction may be taken by the teaspoonful. It keeps best if refrigerated. Or make a syrup with your decoction.

* Dried Elder Berry Syrup
When you have reduced it as much as you wish, add sweetener. A classic syrup contains as much sweetener as herbal liquid. So you could add a cup of honey or maple syrup or white sugar to one cup of elder berry decoction. Syrups need to be refrigerated.

* Dried Elder Berry Glycerite
Buy glycerin at the drugstore or health food store. Dilute it by at least half with sterile water. Dilutions as low as one part glycerin to four parts water will work. Fill a jar no more than half full of dried elder berries. Fill the jar to the top with the diluted glycerin. The resulting glycerite is ready to use, by the dropperful, in 6 weeks.

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Goldenrod (Solidago species)

Goldenrod (Solidago species)

I like to make a jar or two of goldenrod vinegar as a fall tonic. The taste is earth-y and pollen-y and sunshine-y.

The goldenrod is a late fall favorite of so many insects, I figure it must offer something special to help us all through the winter that’s ahead.

While goldenrod flowers do sometimes find their way into my salads, I find their texture less than friendly.

Malva leaves

Malva leaves, flowers, and seed pods (Malva neglecta)

This mallow is prostrate and so often overlooked. All parts of it are delicious in salads: leaves, flowers, and seeds. The seeds look like a little gouda cheese, thus giving the plant its common name: cheeses. All members of malva family are edible, including hibiscus, rose of Sharon (Northern hibiscus), hollyhocks, and the numerous cultivars that are available.

Weed walk: Garlic mustard

Weed walk:
Garlic mustard - Alliaria officinalis

Eat it up before it flowers. Yummy in salads or cooked

More Weed walks at Personal Mentorship:
www.wisewomanmentor.com/healing-wise

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Comfrey Conference

The Comfrey Conference was amazing!

We hope you enjoyed all of the presentations, Comfrey shorts, and Live Zooms by our 16 amazing Presenters and multiple contributors of shorts.

If you didn't finish all of the content, or didn't sign up in time, Don't worry! The whole conference, including all of the Live zoom recordings, is available for you to watch at your leisure.

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www.wisewomanschool.com/p/the-comfrey-conference
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We're already looking forward to a new conference next year!
(psst check the wrap up section for a hint ..)

Green Blessings are everywhere.
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Motherwort

Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)

* Ease stressed nerves, relieve anxiety
Motherwort calms, supports, and strengthens you the way the smell of your mother did when you were very young. Used regularly, motherwort feeds your nerves and your good common sense, relaxing and unclenching any held tension. Motherwort is not sedating, but calming, leaving you ready for action, not flying off the handle or bouncing off the walls. Ask motherwort to be your ally in tough times, in shaky times, in grief-filled times.

Try 10-20 drops (tincture from fresh flowering plant) as soon you feel your nerves starting to fray or just before a stressful event. Repeat every five minutes if needed.

 

 

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Herbal medicine is people’s medicine.

Herbal medicine is people’s medicine.

Herbal medicine is the primary medicine of most people on this planet, right now. It’s not something old and dusty. It's not a bunch of doctors and chemists figuring out how to use herbs like drugs. Herbal medicine is a 3-year-old picking plantain and putting it on a skinned knee or an insect bite. Herbal medicine is the medicine of women and children. It is the medicine of the earth. It’s medicine that’s free. It’s not something that must be studied before it can help you. Start with one plant. Approach herbal medicine directly, hands on, in the back yard with your children.
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No testing, no effort, just watch, listen and learn.

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External Uses of Infusions

External Uses of Infusions

What to do when your infusions are past safe for drinking.

A soak consists of an infusion that has been rewarmed after the plant material has been strained out. The affected body part is then soaked in the warm infusion.

If you soak your feet in an herbal infusion, it's a foot bath, an excellent way to soothe and heal the entire body, and absorb herbal benefits.

A sitz bath is a big soak! Two or more quarts of infusion are usually needed to fill a shallow bowl or pan big enough for you to "sitz" in.

A bath is an enormous soak, like steeping your body in an infusion. You can prepare an herbal bath by putting the herbs directly in the tub, but my plumber made it clear to me that herbs and drains are incompatible. Some herbals say to put the herbs in a cloth and allow the bath water to run over them but I find the resulting bath too weak. If you want a strong herbal bath, try it this way: Infuse two quarts of your favorite bath herb, strain, and add the liquid to your hot bath. Ahhhhh!

Read the rest of this article here:
www.wisewomanmentor.com/recipe-archive/external-uses-of-infusions

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Elder and St Joans

Elder and Saint Joan's Wort

Susun  talks about Elder Berries and Saint Joans Wort herbs. Two of the best anti-viral herbs.

 

 

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Horseradish tincture

Horseradish tincture

Makes your eyes water and clears your sinuses. Intense!

Slice horseradish root into thin even disks. Cut disks into thin even strips. Chop strips into a small dice.

Fill jar to the top with diced horseradish.

Add 100 proof vodka and label.

While it is typical to wait six weeks before using a tincture, if the horseradish is finely chopped, this tincture can be used within 24 hours after
preparation.

The longer it sits, the stronger it gets.

Start with 5-10 drops doses (orally) and increase as needed to clear nasal and sinus congestion.
(do not use in nasal passage)
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Herbal Syrups

Herbal Syrups

Herbal syrups are sweetened, condensed herbal infusions. Cough drops are concentrated syrups. Alcohol is frequently added to syrups to help prevent fermentation and stabilize the remedy. Cough drops and lozenges, having less water, keep well without the addition of alcohol.

Bitter herbs, especially when effective in a fairly small dose, are often made into syrups: horehound, yellow dock, dandelion, chicory, and motherwort spring to mind in this regard.

Herbs that are especially effective in relieving throat infections and breathing problems are also frequently made into syrups, especially when honey is used as the sweetener: coltsfoot flowers (not leaves), comfrey leaves (not roots), horehound, elder berries (pictured), mullein, osha root, pine, sage, and wild cherry bark are favorites for "cough" syrups.

Read more on Susuns Mentorship website:
www.wisewomanmentor.com/healing-archive/healing-sweets%3A-part-two

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Goldenrod

Goldenrod (Solidago juncea)

This photo shows a lovely example of early goldenrod, the first of the goldenrods come into bloom as the days shorten. Many others will follow it, for there are more than 60 species of goldenrod in my area, all used in the same ways. I think of goldenrods as fall tonics; they improve the functioning of the immune system and help protect us from colds and the flu.

I harvest the flowering tops and use them fresh to make vinegar or tincture; I dry some and use them for tea, too. Goldenrods are unjustly accused of causing pollen allergies. Sit with a patch of goldenrod if you can, and watch. See all those flying, creeping, crawling creatures? Goldenrod is a great source of nectar for many insects.

Since only plants that produce windblown pollen can cause allergic reactions, we can see that goldenrod is blameless. The culprit is a short plant with green flowers: ragweed.

See more weed walks:
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Make An Infused Oil/Fresh Herb

Make An Infused Oil/Fresh Herb

Oil and animal fat coax a variety of healing compounds out of fresh plants. Dried plants, with a few exceptions, will never make a great oil.

* Calendula oil calms inflammation and irritation.
* Chickweed oil softens and dissolves cysts and scars.
* Comfrey oil is tricky from fresh; heals tears and breaks.
* Plantain oil stops itching, hastens deep wound recovery.
* St. Joan’s wort oil eases burns, muscle soreness, nerve pain.

Fill a dry jar almost full with finely-chopped fresh herb, then fill with any edible oil/fat.
Cap tightly. Label (on lid). Put in a small bowl to catch ooze.
Steep, out of direct sunlight, for six weeks.
Sieve plant material from oil, squeeze well.

excerpt from: Abundantly Well: Seven Medicines

 

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