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Natural & Herbal Remedies
Mention Celtic and for many of us images wild and romantic emerge - spiritual, artistic, and ancient. What deep longings, what tugs from long-buried folk memories fuel the modern resurgence of Celtic traditions that we see now?
Although everyday life for the Celts must have been hard, sometimes brutal, they have left us an enduring legacy of myth, lore, reverence for nature, and knowledge. Modern seekers are finding in things Celtic an element that "connects" with them. What part do herbs play in this and what parallels do we see in the "Herbal Renaissance" and the Celtic resurgence?
Creating beautiful herb gardens with a few tricks of the trade!
Herb gardening is all about the gardener's own personality and taste. Herb gardens can be as wild as the deepest jungles of Africa to the most formal designs of precision and form. Herbs lend themselves to many garden designs and no two herb gardens are alike. Just as the stately wild mullein is at home in a naturalized garden, so too is the garden variety found strategically placed, dominating the English castle wall.
Herbal remedies have surged in popularity and are flying off store shelves. For those consumers who are also parents, natural herbal remedies for children are also of interest. As parents, we all want what is best for our kids, many of us desire to give our kids healthy, safe and naturally derived medicines.
Aromatic Delights From Your Garden Capture Their Nourishing Goodness!
A pantry full of herbal vinegars is a constant delight. Preserving fresh herbs and roots in vinegar is an easy way to capture their nourishing goodness. It's easy, too. You don't even have to have an herb garden.
Basic Herbal Vinegar
Takes 5 minutes plus 6 weeks to prepare.
You will need:
glass or plastic jar of any size up to one quart/liter
plastic lid for jar or
waxed paper and a rubber band
Rose, a Culinary Delicacy by Maureen Rogers
May the queen of flowers, reign too in the kitchen!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
Would by any other name smell as sweet.
Herbal vinegars are flavourful and add zip to many recipes. But wouldn't it be great to add more iron to your meals at the same time? HERBSatHOME readers will be glad to hear about this latest report, just in time for All Hallow's Eve, as you are dusting off the cauldron! Herbal vinegars are used in stir fries, sauces, soups and much more and you will be reaching for the iron skillet when you read the following report from ARS Research News.
Undoubtedly, mints are the coolest of the herb world and often overlooked as a refreshing addition to the indoor herb garden. Until now that is!
Today the practice of soapmaking is more closely associated with the "herbally-attuned" crafter than with the home-making pioneer woman of the past. But handcrafted soaps have an old-fashioned appeal that reflects a simpler time and perhaps this is the secret which makes them a modern-day pleasure and luxury.
Good ideas are worth money. So why are hard headed operators giving them away for free? Read on and learn how the herbs in this secret cola recipe symbolize a growing resistance to corporate power.
IF YOU'VE BEEN to a computer show in recent months you might have seen it: a shiny silver drinks can with a ring-pull logo and the words "opencola" on the side. Inside is a fizzy drink that tastes very much like Coca-Cola. Or is it Pepsi?
Herbs comprise a group of several thousand plants with widely varying actions. Some are nourishers, some tonifiers, some stimulants and sedatives, and some are potential poisons. To use them wisely and well, we need to understand each category, its uses, best manner of preparation, and usual dosage range.
If you are lucky to live near a wood, a walk in the early spring may reward you with a glimpse of emerging red shoots, curled under like fiddleheads. This is the black cohosh. These delicate shoots gradually turn green as the leaflets unfurl and, by early summer, the leaves will have turned a dark green. From this leafy base, flowering wands with few leaves shoot 1-2 metres high and, by late June, feathery plumes of small white blossoms droop gracefully on the tall stalks. This dramatic display lasts 2-3 weeks as the flowers open from the bottom to the top.
Buying herbal medicines can be a very confusing endeavour, many choices line the store shelves, but often we cannot be sure about their freshness and the exact ingredients that they contain. Many people turn to making their own medicines because they know what is in the pot-exactly. Making your own medicine is like cooking: very rewarding in many ways, but there is a time-consuming prerequisite-learning and preparation. After all, we are calling it a medicine!
Identifying quality herbal products is not as easy as it sounds. An astounding number of products are on the North American market today, and not all of them measure up to the standards we expect. Surprisingly, no assurance of quality control exists in this rapidly expanding business beyond that of the manufacturers'. Our best defense against a less than potent herbal product is to arm ourselves with a few criteria when shopping for herbal tinctures and extracts.
Care for your skin should not be limited just to cleaning the makeup off your face and a quick shower in the morning. Your skin is a powerful and vital organ - your second lung. Through the skin a large amount of waste material is eliminated from your body 24 hours of every day. Produced by your body's normal function, the metabolic waste is carried by the circulatory system to the capillaries of the skin, and there it passes out through the pores.
As I write, the autumnal Vancouver monsoons rain down upon us. It is a good time to reflect on a healthy diet through enjoying your home-grown herbs, whether they be fresh or preserved by you in your kitchen.
Humankind has used herbs from time immemorial as preservatives for embalming bodies as well as for preserving food. We are familiar with the deliciously calming perfumes from lavender, anise, santolina and, indeed, the culinary herbs too, the thymes, mints, and marjorams to mention only a few. Then there are the spices from warmer climates.
