Healing Wise

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:
www.wisewomanmentor.com/healing-wise

*

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

 

*

Pain-relief Alternatives

Pain-relief Alternatives

excerpt from: Abundantly Well: Seven Medicines

Generally best not to combine these with drugs.

Serenity Medicine: Meditation alters brain regions that process pain.

Mind Medicine: Acupuncture releases endorphins.
* Alexander Technique is more effective than massage or exercise in relieving low-back pain.

Lifestyle Medicine: Regular exercise counters chronic pain.

Alternative Medicine: Reflexology releases endorphins.
* A cold plunge alters pain perceptions, counters chronic pain.

Herbal Medicine (safest first):

* High CBD (Cannabis) - up to five drops of tincture of the fresh flowering plant, taken as often as every fifteen minutes - is my favorite non-addictive pain reliever. Often, a single dose will do. There will be some THC in the tincture, as all plants contain a mix of cannabinols, but this does not, in my experience and the experience of many students and friends, make you “high.” First choice as an ally for transitioning off opiates/opioids.

* Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) - 5 drops of tincture of the fresh flowering plant, taken as often as needed - is my favorite pain relief, especially when I need to sleep.

* Kava kava (Piper methysticum) - sips of the lightly-fermented infusion or dropperful doses of root tincture - offer fast, effective relief of musculo-skeletal pain, traumatic pain, chronic pain from injuries, heartache. Less likely to put you to sleep, too.

* Willow (Salix alba) - 1-2 dropperfuls of tincture as needed - is as effective as aspirin and contains the same active ingredient.
So does meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria).

* Wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa) - tincture of the fresh sap taken by the spoonful - may be as pain-relieving as poppy juice.

* Valerian - up to a teaspoonful of root tincture - counters chronic pain, puts you out, leaves you hung-over and groggy.

* Poppy (Papavera somniflora) is the source of opium, heroin, opiates, and poppy seeds. Opiates are addictive; poppy seeds aren’t.
A tea of the fresh poppy seed heads entices the brain to make natural opiates (endorphins). Do not combine with drugs or alcohol.

excerpt from: Abundantly Well: Seven Medicines

Strengthen your immune system

Strengthen your immune system with a good diet, adequate sleep, regular physical activity, emotional well-being, and a few of the recommended herbal allies of your choice. Always remember to use herbs and herbal preparations simply and safely. Avoid immune compromising substances such as coffee, tobacco and medications.

With a strengthened immune system you will not only enjoy better health, but you will be less likely to be susceptible to infection and possible death from bacterial and/or viral invasions. Faith in your body's ability to protect itself will continue to bolster and reinforce the immune system as your mental well-being improves. Enjoy the upward spiral of health as you follow the path of the Wise Woman Way.

Read all of the recommendations for Strengthening your immune system in this article:

 * Click here to read *

*

Nettle Infusion

Nettle Infusion

*Nettle* is amazingly rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals, especially the critical trace minerals: anti-cancer selenium, immune-enhancing sulphur, memory-enhancing zinc, diabetes-chasing chromium, and bone-building boron. A quart of nettle infusion contains more than 1000 milligrams of calcium, 15000 IU of vitamin A, 760 milligrams of vitamin K, 10% protein, and lavish amounts of most B vitamins.

To make a nettle infusion: Measure out one ounce of the dried herb. Boil a quart of water. Put the dried herb into a quart jar and fill to the top with the boiling water. Stir with a wooden spoon and add water until the jar is full to the top. Lid tightly and set aside to brew for at least four hours, or overnight, whichever is easier for you.

To use: Strain and squeeze the liquid out of the herb. Be sure to refrigerate your infusion, as it will go bad at room temperature once it is done brewing. (If that happens, I use it as plant food. And you should see how my roses adore it!)

Nettle infusion is delicious over ice. Its rich green taste is not at its best when served hot. Adding honey can make it taste quite strange. Some folks like to add a little apple juice to sweeten it. Or stir in some miso, for a salty drink. However you consume it, do drink it up within a few days, as nettle infusion doesn't last.

Green blessings surround us, even in the middle of winter.

*

Learn more in Susuns Online course:
Nourishing Herbal Infusions - Drink Your Way to Health
Protect your family simply and safely the Wise Woman Way with natural health remedies that are inexpensive and easy to make.
www.wisewomanschool.com/p/nourishing-herbal-infusions

Joyous New Year to all!

Joyous New Year to all!

How to Lead a Joyous Life:
I aspire to be a joyous human being. As with most aspirations: It is easier said than done. Easier imagined than put into practice. Easier to search for than to have.

I want joy to roll like thunder across the hills and valleys of my life; I want surging winds of joy to carry me through loss and disappointment; I want joy to be an electrical rush that lights up my entire body when I succeed. What does it take to create a joyous existence? Is it possible to experience joy daily, not just in special circumstances?

Joy, I was taught by my mentor Elizabeth Kubler Ross, is one of five primary emotions. (The others are fear, anger, grief, and love.) Joy is not the absence of pain, just as yellow is not the absence of blue. Joy may bubble up out of grief. (“What wonderful times we had together.”) Joy may underpin true anger. (“I am so thrilled to be able to stick up for myself.”) Joy may sneak into fear, at least I presume so, otherwise what are people watching scary movies? Or is fear’s joy the relief of discovering fear was unjustified? To lead a joyous life, one must be willing to see joy in every emotion and every situation.

Joy is sisters with happiness, gladness, and cheer, the niece of ecstasy, rapture, and bliss, and the mother of satisfaction and delight. Joy is lovers with beauty and order, abundance and harmony, safety and security. Joy adores spontaneity. Joy is gay. Joy dances. Joy sings a lively song in a major key. Joy rises up; it is elation. Joy spreads out; it is inspiring. Joy is hard to contain, and difficult to suppress. Delight is a bubbling spring that tickles the funny bone. But we must go to the spring; it will not come down off the mountain for us. One must court the joyous life; one must conspire with joy, entice joy, set a place at the table for joy, commit to joy.

Gratitude precedes and follows joy. When I am grateful for the gifts of life and a precious human body – even if it hurts – joy finds me more easily. When I am grateful for the presence of others in my life – even when they annoy me – joy considers staying for a spell. When I am grateful for my problems and recognize the blessing in adversity, joy signs the lease. Then it is up to me to see to it that joy wants to stay.

Read the rest of this article:
http://susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/August10/body-soul.htm

Elder and Saint Joan's Wort

Elder and Saint Joan's Wort

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

 

White pine

White pine

Susun shows us White pine, and talks about how to identify it. It is one of the most medicinal pines. Anti cough remedy, wound healer, great source of vitamin c.



Join Susun for a weekly virtual weed walk. 'Easy Herbal Medicine & Natural Remedies in under 30 minutes per week!', gives students new short videos and audios each week, for a fast, easy way to incorporate herbal medicine into your life.
Learn more: https://www.wisewomanschool.com/p/easy-herbal-medicine

*

Addictions & Anxiety

Addictions & Anxiety

Caller on blogtalkradio says she has issues with addictions and balancing herself. She asks what can help.
Susun mentions nourishing herbal infusions. She talks about ways of managing anxiety. She mentions that balance is not possible but flexibility is and that we should find what works for us to gain our own acceptance. They also talk about schisandra.

---

Join Susun Weed on blogtalkradio, Tuesday nights 7:30-9:30 pm EST. Call or Skype in: 1-646-929-2463, with your questions or email ahead of time to [email protected]. 

Visit the link for more info:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/susunweed

Herbal Pharmacy Picking and Drying Herbs

Herbal Pharmacy Picking and Drying Herbs
© Susun Weed

 

In your herbal pharmacy you transform fresh and dried plants into herbal medicines. Learning to identify and use the common plants around you is easy and exciting, beneficial and safe.Making your own medicines saves you money if you follow the Wise Woman tradition of using local herbs, free for the taking.

Even one day's work in field, forest, and kitchen can provide you with many years' worth of medicines.When you make your own, you know for sure what's in it, where it came from, when and how it was harvested, and how fresh and potent it is.

Dried herbs are best for the infusions recommended in this book. Stock your herbal pharmacy with your own foraged or cultivated dried herbs; expand your resources and experiment with new herbs by buying dried herbs from reputable sources.

Fresh herbs are best for the tinctures and oils recommended in this book. If you can't make your own, buy from sources who wildcraft or grow their own herbs to use fresh in preparations.

Whether you buy or make your own medicines, remember, herbal remedies may not work or may work incorrectly if they aren't prepared correctly. Read this chapter carefully; it contains easy to follow instructions for every remedy and preparation mentioned in this book [Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year].

 

Picking Herbs

When you have positively identified the plant you wish to use, center yourself by sitting next to the herb in silence. Take several deep breaths. Feel the earth under you, connecting you to all the plants. Listen to the sounds and songs all around you. Can you hear the song of your herb?

If you are picking only one plant, ask that plant to give you its power. Tell it how you intend to use it. If you are harvesting many plants, look for a grandmother plant. Ask her permission to use her grandchildren. Visualize clearly how you intend to use the plants.

Make an offering of corn or tobacco, a coin or love to the plants. Sing with them. Talk with them if you feel moved to do so. Thank the earth and begin your gathering.

Take care to preserve and contribute to the well-being of the plant community. Take no more than half of the annuals or biennials, no more than a third of the perennials. Walk gently and with balance.

Harvest plants when the energy you want is most concentrated. Roots store energy in the form of sugar, starch, and medicinal alkaloids throughout the cold or dormant season; pick them when above ground growth of the plant has died back. Leaves process energy to nourish roots and flowers; pick them at their most lush, before flowers have formed, after all dew has dried, and before the day's heat wilts them. Flowers are fragile, pollen-filled, joyous; harvest them in full bloom, before seeds form, and before bees visit them. Seeds are durable, but likely to shatter and disperse if left on the plant too long; harvest seeds when still green and before insects invade. Barks (inner barks and root barks) may be harvested at any time but are thought to be most potent in spring and fall. Look carefully at the plant you wish to pick and you will see where the energy is highest; let this guide your harvesting.

Deal with your harvest immediately. Allowing the cut plants to lie about dissipates their vital energies, encourages mold and fermentation, and results in poor quality preparations. If you intend to eat your harvest, refrigerate the plants, or wash and cook them and sit down and eat. If you intend to make a tincture or oil, cover the herbs with alcohol or oil as soon as possible; don't refrigerate them. If you intend to dry the herbs, it is vital to lay them out or tie them up as soon after harvest as possible.

 

Drying Herbs

To dry herbs and maintain their color, fragrance, taste, energy, and medicinal potency, you need only:

° Pick when there is no moisture on the plant and do not wash the plant (roots are the exception).

° Dry the herbs immediately after picking, in small bunches or spread out so parts don't touch.

° Dry them in a dark and well ventilated area.

° Take down the herbs and store in paper bags as soon as they are crisply dried. If insect invasions force you to store dried herbs in glass or plastic, air-dry them, then dry in paper bags for another two weeks before sealing in tight containers.

° Keep the herbs as whole, cool, and dark as possible during storage. Under optimum storage conditions, well-dried volatile, delicate herbs last about six months; roots and barks maintain potency for six or more years.

Green Blessings.
Susun Weed

this excerpt is from:

Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year by Susun Weed

 

---

Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year 
by Susun S. Weed

Foreword by Jeannine Parvati Baker.
192 pages, index, lovely illustrations. 
Now in its 24th printing. A confirmed favorite with pregnant women, midwives, childbirth educators, and new parents. Packed with clear, comforting, and superbly helpful information.

Retails for $14.95

Read a review 

Order WISE WOMAN HERBAL for the CHILDBEARING YEAR in our Bookshop

 

Scullcap tincture

Skullcap tincture

Susun talks to a caller on blogtalkradio about skullcap. She explains how to make the tincture and talks about the plants properties and it's use as an anti-viral for Lyme.
This audio is just under 4:00 minutes long.

 

---

Join Susun Weed on blogtalkradio, Tuesday nights 7:30-9:30 pm EST. Call in with your questions or email ahead of time to [email protected]. 

Visit the link for more info:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/susunweed

Fresh Yarrow tincture

Fresh Yarrow tincture

Look for yarrow growing in fields and meadows. Harvest only the wild white yarrow. And harvest on a sunny day, in the middle of the day if possible, so the yarrow is strongly scented. For tincture, the flowering tops are the best. (For salves, the larger, lower, basal leaves are preferred.)

I usually cut the top three or four inches of each yarrow plant, doing my best to allow the stalk to reflower by cutting just above a leaf node. I use the stalk, leaves, and flowers in my tincture.

Using scissors, I cut the yarrow stalks and flowers into pieces and fill a jar with them. Then I add 100 proof vodka right up to the top. Lid it tightly. Stick on a pretty label with at least the name of the plant and the date. And wait. The tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

I spray yarrow tincture on my ankles to repel ticks.
I spray it all over myself to repel mosquitoes.
I spray yarrow tincture on wounds and bug bites.
I spray it on my toothbrush and use it as a deodorant.
Yarrow tincture has many more uses. How will you use yours?

 

---

Easy Online Courses!
Join Susun Weed with her new easy video based courses.
Learn how to be happy, healthy, and empowered.
No testing, no effort, just watch, listen and learn.

Click for more information.

Jewelweed broth

Jewelweed broth 

Not only is this a tasty cold soup for summertime, it is a superior remedy for poison ivy rash.
Sipping 2-4 cups of jewelweed broth, hot or cold, will quell both skin and joint inflammation.

Harvest jewelweed (Impatiens pallida or canadensis) by pulling every 4th or 5th plant up by the roots.

We are using the entire plant. The redder the root, the more effective this remedy.
At home, rinse your jewelweed and place it, roots and all, in a pan, pressing it down very well.

Add just enough cold water to barely cover the jewelweed and bring to a boil.
Simmer, covered, until the water is orange.
Cool, then refrigerate or pour into ice cube trays and freeze.

 

---

Easy Online Courses!
Join Susun Weed with her new easy video based courses.
Learn how to be happy, healthy, and empowered.
No testing, no effort, just watch, listen and learn.

Click for more information.

Make A Tincture/Fresh Herb

Make A Tincture/Fresh Herb

I use tinctures in varied doses, from several dropperfuls at a time, to only a few drops at a time. I take tonic tinctures daily. Others as needed.

Alcohol pulls out more poisonous constituents than water.
Tinctures are superior when made from fresh plants.

These tinctures require fresh plants, no exceptions.
* St. Joan’s wort flower means trouble for viruses and frowns.
* Poke root stirs up the lymphatic and immune systems.
* Bloodroot in tiny amounts counter periodontal disease.
* Motherwort calms anxiety, eases the heart.
* Skullcap eases pain and brings deep sleep.

Fill any size jar to the top with cut-up pieces of fresh, just harvested herb, then add 100-proof vodka, right to the top of the jar.
Lid well, label. Ready to use in six weeks.

excerpt from: Abundantly Well: Seven Medicines
www.wisewomanbookshop.com/product-page/abundantly-well-seven-medicines

Herbal Flower Wine

Herbal Flower Wine

Equipment you will need:

6 or more 750ml wine bottles (reused is fine, no need to buy)

8 or more real corks of a size to fit your bottles (reused is fine, no need to buy)

1 or 2 wire-porcelain-closure beer bottles (reused is fine, no need to buy)

1 food thermometer

1 two-gallon crock or large, non-metallic container

1 thin cotton or linen kitchen towel capable of covering the opening of the container

1 rubber band adequate to the circumference of the container

3-6 filters of some sort, coffee filters will do, as will thin, clean, natural-fiber material

12 balloons

12 sticky-back labels and a water-proof marker (such as a Sharpie)

A cool, still place away from light and heat to age your wine

Instructions:

Pick 3-5 quarts/liters of blossoms and green part appending to them of any edible flower (I have used dandelion, wild carrot, red clover, violet, even yarrow).

As soon as you return with your harvest of flowers, place them in your 2 gallon/8 liter crock and immediately put 5 quarts/liters of water up to boil. Pour the boiling water over the blossoms and cover, holding the cloth in place with the rubber band. Stir daily for three days.

On the fourth day, strain the liquid into a saucepan and put the blossoms in the compost. Add 3 pounds/1.5 kg white sugar and the peel of one organic lemon and one organic orange to the liquid and heat to boiling. (Because organic citrus is often unavailable or very expensive during the summer when I am making wine, I dehydrate the peels of organic citrus and use them in my wine making.)

Simmer for 30-60 minutes. Pour everything into crock. Add the juice of 1 orange and 1 lemon. (I use bottled organic lemon juice. If you can't get organic citrus, omit the peel in the previous step and use whatever citrus juice you have in this step.)

Cool to blood temperature. (Use a thermometer; cool to 98-100 degrees Fahrenheit.) (It will take hours.)

Then, soften 1 package/8 grams or one block of live yeast in a little bit of barely warm water, toast 1 piece of whole wheat bread, spread the softened yeast onto the toast, and float the toast on the liquid in the crock. Cover and rubber band.

Every few hours, put your ear against the crock and listen. After a while, you will hear the yeast making magic, you will hear it working. Let this go on for about two days from the time you first hear it. This is the primary fermentation.

Strain the liquid and return it to the crock. Cover and let it work for one more day.

Filter again and fill your bottles to the bottom of their necks. Put a balloon over the top of the neck of each, even the ones with wire closures. Secondary fermentation will take place in the bottles and can become so intense that it can break the glass of tightly closed bottles.

When the balloons seem limp, anywhere from 1-3 months later, remove them and close the bottles with corks (soak them overnight in water to soften them) or their wire/ceramic stoppers.

Label and store in a cool, dark place for at least six months, better a year or more. I was given some 25 year old dandelion wine ten years ago. As they age, the flower wines become more like sherry.

Enjoy!