Author: Amelia
-
Black Walnuts!
If you live anywhere in the Eastern or Central United States, you have probably seen a black walnut tree. Black walnuts (juglans nigra) grow from New England through Wyoming and are wildly prolific. Just try digging up a sapling somewhere… they root in like a badass and if you don’t want that tree to grow…
-
Summer Mushroom Foraging
I don’t usually have enough time to create a blog post over the summer and early autumn months, for what should be obvious reasons. The gardens look atrocious right now, as I have neglected clean up in favor of harvesting and preserving before it’s too late. I wanted to share a brief glimpse of some…
-
Herbal Smoke and Smudging
Cleansing your body and your space with herbal smoke has been practiced by many cultures all over the globe for centuries. There is quite a lot of controversy over the word “Smudging,” as it originates from the Native Indian tribes of the Southwestern United States, where white sage (salvia apiana) grows wild. I personally use…
-
Maintaining a Healthy Urinary Tract
This is one of the articles I wrote during my Herbalist Certification course. It’s chock full of good information about urinary tract health, so if you have bladder issues, pay attention! References are cited at the bottom of the page. Just like the book with the title referring to the opposite end of the digestive…
-
Forest Bathing for Health
Go ahead, call me a Woo Woo dirty hippie; I believe the forest heals you. When your mind is in turmoil, you can’t get good sleep, you find yourself in and out of depression, you can’t focus on life, or you just generally feel like crap, go into the woods. Find the biggest tree you…
-
Cleavers is Galium, but not all Galium is Cleavers
That title statement may not mean much to you unless you’re into herbs or foraging, but Cleavers are a common herbal remedy in much of North America and the UK. For the past two years, I have been operating under the exciting assumption that cleavers had graced me with their presence in my back yard…
-
Quick Guide: Raising Ducks
You should know based on my farm website that we raise chickens and ducks on our small farm. We have two geese, but they’re more like pets so I can’t really say we “raise geese,” but goose needs are basically the same as ducks so you can probably take my advice on their account as…
-
Food IS Medicine!
Before herbs, before drugs/pharmaceutical medicine, before therapy, what is there in this world that you put into your body EVERY SINGLE DAY to run you, heal you, activate you, motivate you, energize you, or even just to survive on? FOOD. It is really difficult to get this message through to people for some reason. I…
-
Incense Crafting: Messy Experimentation
Hopefully you’ve figured out by now that I’m into incense… it’s a pretty big deal for me. I’m not an aromatherapist; I just know how certain scents can make me feel and I want to share that joy with the world around me. I used to buy stick incense at head shops, and burn them…